Maximum Carnage
Issue 7 - "Carnage is back...."

by Justin Anderson


 

Saturday, February 17th. 10:02 AM

 Jack walked in the front door of the large library. Normally, he didn't
frequent places like this. He was more accustomed to a magazine rack
for reading material. But fiction wasn't his purpose for coming here today.
He wanted to check up on those unknown pill bottles he had taken with him.
He figured this would be the best place to look. 

 He walked up to the front desk and handed the woman a small piece of paper.

"I need a reference book to check on what these drugs are......school
project"

She typed a few words into her computer. Jack couldn't see what she had
entered. A few seconds later, she had found something.

"Nonfiction. 476.54. 'Dictionary of Medicines' "

Jack headed off towards the shelved near the back. Finding the book, he
took it from it's spot and carried it over to an unoccupied table. He
thumbed through the book, checking drug names to what he had written down
in his scribbled handwriting. Most were just vitamin supplements and
pain relievers. But one in particular interested him.

'TRIAZOMINE: A synthetic drug given to known rapists and sexual offenders
to try and correct the chemical imbalance which forces them to commit such 
acts. In a person unaffected by such desires, the drug will prevent a person
from feeling any sexual desires, but has been known to have severe side effects,
including sterility and insanity'

 Jack understood that much. 

'Hmm.....I'm not a normal person though. Besides, if I'm going to be a full
time hero, a girlfriend is the last thing I need'

Jack got up and replaced the book. He immediately left the building. Stopping
in a nearby alley, he pulled the small bottle from his coat. It was labeled
'TRIAZOMINE'. Jack opened the bottle, which was almost full. The pills inside
matched the pictures in the book. Looking the bottle over, he pulled one of the 
small blue pills out and swallowed it.

"Headache?"

Jack looked up. It was Spider-Man, hanging from a nearby wall. 

"Yeah....just a headache. Anyway, you wanted to hear about the explosion
at the labs. Let's take the back alleys. I'll explain on the way to my 
apartment"


Jack's apartment, 4th floor. 10:13 AM

 Cletus placed a few slices of ham on some bread. Opening the mayonnaise,
he stuck a knife in, and with a generous portion, slapped it on the sandwich.
He wanted to avoid meat as much as possible, with his experiences in the past
of eating people's brains, but decided a few slices of ham wouldn't hurt.
Besides, he was happy to be eating normal food.

'What is this? You expect me to eat junk food?'

Cletus heard the question, but the apartment was empty. No one around. He
shrugged it off and picked up the sandwich. Before he could take a bite,
tendrils erupted from his chest. They poured out and formed together in front
of his face. They formed into a face familiar to him- the face of Carnage.

"I asked you a question!"

The demonic voice he had once spoken in himself nearly gave him a heart
attack.


10:18 AM

 Jack opened the back alley door to his apartment building. Both men walked
in.

"I don't think anyone will see you this way. We should be able to get upstairs
without too many people noticing, anyway"

They headed up the stairs.

"All right, you said Jacobs had developed the final immortality formula. What
happened to it?"

Jack slowed down his steps.

"That.....destroyed with everything else. We decided it was best not to let
the world have it"

They continued up the flights of stairs. Outside the small apartment door,
some noises could be heard. Jack stuck his key in the knob and unlocked
the door, which he slowly opened. Inside, Carnage could be seen standing....
above Cletus.

"Spider-Man! How nice of you to join us! You're both just in time to see me 
waste this useless piece of baggage who I used to call home! Watch closely,
because you two are next!"

As Carnage raised his arms, ready to drive a series of spikes into Kasady,
Jack pulled a pistol out of his coat and opened fire. Carnage lowered his
arms, but didn't react to any pain. In fact, the bullets passed right through 
and out the window.

"Spider-Man! Get the shotgun!"

 Parker saw the shotgun sitting in the living room chair. The distance from here to
the kitchem was fairly good, and even a dive to the chair wasn't going to be fast.
He shot a web line out to the gun. Securing it, he pulled back on the webbing,
Jack catching the gun in midair. Carnage sent out a sharp spike towards Parker's
head, but Jack fired in time to throw off the symbiote's aim. The spike caught
the top of Parker's mask. Jack pumped and fired again, the force enough to knock
Carnage through the nearby kitchen window. Cletus got up and looked out the window
in time to see Carnage straining through a manhole cover.

"Cletus.....what the hall just happened? I leave you alone in my apartment
for half an hour and this is what happens!"

Cletus turned around.

"Jack, we have a-  ......oh, dear...."

Cletus had been cut short by what he saw. Jack turned around to see what it
was, hoping Carnage hadn't just stepped back in through the door. Instead
he saw soemthing much more compromising. Spider-Man's mask had been pulled off
by the spike line. Jack could barely give out a warning, but he managed one.

"Uhh...Spider-Man, don't you feel a little cooler in the face?"

Parker reached up and felt bare skin.

"Oh no.... I guess you guys know now..."

"Well, I don't. I mean, you're not a celebrity or something. Jack?"

"Yeah....I do recognize him. Cletus, I'll tell you, on one condition. If
either of us blabs, we get thrown in a volcano. Deal?"

Cletus stared at the face. In the past, he had hoped he would have seen
the face of his enemy. But circumstances had changed.

"....sounds reasonable"

Jack walked over and closed the door in case anyone walked by. He looked
at Parker.

"Go ahead"

Jack sat down on his small, worn out couch.

"Cletus....meet Peter Parker.....Daily Bugle reporter"

Cletus sat down at the small kitchen table.

"Reporter? Kind of anti-climactic, ain't it? I mean, I would have expected
some sort of billionaire or athlete. But anyway....nice to meet you, now that
I don't want to kill you"

Jack walked over to the wall and pulled the spike out of the wood. He handed
Parker his mask. He slipped it back on in time. A knock at the door interrupted
the atmosphere. Jack opened it. A black man, mid-sixties, wearing glasses, was
standing there.

"Jack, what's going on? I could hear gunfire and the most awful voice imaginable!"

Jack stepped out into the hall.

"Hey, Roger. Listen....something big just went down. Nasty. Involving...
aliens"

"ALIENS! I knew there were aliens in this building! Why, ever since...."

Roger began to mumble under his breath as he walked off. Jack pitied the old
man. No family, stuck in his apartment all day since he had nowhere to go.

"Roger! hold up a minute"

The old man stopped and slowly turned. They had known each other for the
past two years, and Roger was the only one Jack called a friend. He pulled
one of the stacks of money out of his coat.

"Listen... I know you're going to refuse, but I won't take 'no' for an 
answer. Take this money and buy yourself something nice. Get out of
your apartment once in a while. Don't worry about thanking me for it"

Jack knew he had just handed the old man at least $10,000. His Social
Security wouldn't supply near that much in the time he would receive it.
He also knew he may need it for himself, but Roger was one of the few
who didn't act like he was a complete scumbag. And he owed the old man for
that much, at least.

 But there was a more important concern before him now. The Carnage symbiote
was now an independent being. And it would go out and continue as it had
before Cletus became a hero. He ran back into the apartment.

"Okay, you two. We have to hunt that thing down and kill it before it can do
any more damage! Spider-Man. Go home. You can't be asked to risk it all
to help us"

Parker didn't like what he had heard.

"But-"

"LISTEN TO ME! What I said about the immortality drug..... I lied. It was
used on both of us. It may not be permanent, but for now, we can't die.
We can do a much more effective job on our own"

Parker knew he was right. 

"All right, I'll leave it to you two. But I will have to tell Venom about
this! And I can't stop him when I do"

 Jack nodded his head. He understood Venom would be helping out, regardless.
Jack handed two of the .45 pistols to Cletus. He put one in his own coat and 
checked the shotgun. Six shells left.

"Jack, how are we going to follow the symbiote anyway? I mean, we've got
weapons, but nothing else"

"Well, that's simple, Cletus. We follow the trail of death"

Jack pointed out the window. A path of destruction could be seen from where
Carnage had resurfaced.


12:30 PM, Dr. Kafka's office

 Dr. Kafka sat at her desk, looking over more forms. The reports in yesterdays
news had kept her too preoccupied. Carnage, a hero? She didn't believe it.
Not after the pictures she had seen. The reporters must have made a mistake.
Maybe a new hero in a similar costume? She couldn't worry about it now. She
had papers to review.

 If she hadn't got up and turned to the filing cabinet, she might have seen
the symbiote pour through a hole in the wall. By the time she turned back
to her desk, the creature had formed into its humanoid shape.

"What's up, DOC? Possibly my spirits, cause you're gonna DIE!"

 Carnage slowly stepped up to her. Before he had a chance to do anything
more, the door to her office was kicked in. Cletus stepped in and fired 
several shots. The bullets passed through, but left small marks. Jack ran
in. Stepping in front of Carnage, he took aim and unloaded two shots into
Carnage's face. The symbiote screamed and ran off. Dr. Kafka looked up to
see both standing in the room.

"Cletus....but....Carnage...."

Cletus looked down at the doc, who was still dazed.

"I'll explain later!"

Security officers ran into the room. They had tried to stop the two on their
way up, but failed. Jack decided to take charge.

"Okay. The symbiote is now independent of a host. But it can be hurt. You
have a flamethrower on the premises?"

One of the guards stepped forward.

"We do"

"Okay. Get it. We'll try to force Carnage up to the roof. I only have a few shells
left, and we're probably low on bullets"

The guards left the room. Jack ran out, and saw a few tendrils heading up
some nearby stairs. 

"How many more floors to this place"

Cletus looked over at Jack.

"Two, I think. I've never been to the roof, myself"

Both men ran up the stairs. Jack fired again, hitting Carnage in the side.
The symbiote slowly kept moving. Cletus fired a few more times, in an attempt
to keep the creature moving. Reaching the top floor, Jack ran and slammed 
into Carnage, forcing him further along. As they moved on, Jack saw the roof 
exit.

"You! Open that door"

The guards near the exit heard him and opened the small door. Carnage saw the 
door open and ran towards it, in the hopes he may escape his attackers. As
he reached the top exit, he received another shotgun blast as he wrenched the
door open. Jack and Cletus ran up the stairs, Cletus taking a few more shots
until the gun was empty.

"Cletus....old pal.... you don't wanna do this. We can do so much...."

Behind them, a guard ran up carrying a flame thrower, a basic cylinder
backpack with a hand held firing wand. Cletus took it and turned on the
pilot flame. Jack fired again, forcing Carnage to the edge of the 15 
story building.

"Sorry, 'old pal', but those days are over, and you're obsolete!"

 Kasady pressed the palm trigger and the flames shot out. Carnage was
immediately engulfed, his screams barely audible against the crackling of
the flames. Jack fired his last shell, which served enough to send Carnage 
over the edge of the building, into the street below. The force cracked the
pavement. Carnage was left as a burning pile in the road, the traffic
coming to a stop to avoid the creature.

 Both looked down at the street. They watched as the remaining bits of
the creature sunk into the cracks, into the sewers below.

"Is it dead?"

"I don't know. But without a human host, even with the ability to hold
a humanoid shape, and with the damage it took..... I don't expect to
see any more of Carnage. And it's a nightmare I'm glad is over with"


1:03 PM, Dr. Kafka's office

 Cletus sat in one of the small chairs. He had just sat through a long talk,
explaining the past few days to the doctor. He didn't know what she found
harder to believe, his story or the fact he was rehabilitated by pure
coincidence. The only believable theory they could come up with was that
the immunity booster had corrected an imbalance in his brain. The symbiote
had then rejected him for no longer being a maniac. His thoughts were
interrupted by a lab tech running into the room.

"Tests on the blood are complete. Signs of symbiotic material in the blood
are......negative"

Dr. Kafka looked up from her desk.

"Now that I have the final lab reports, I'm ready to make my final determination.
Talking with the patient has convinced me that he no longer has any feelings
of intense anger, or desires to kill people. Blood tests also show that the 
symbiote which fueled his desires is no longer present. Therefore, while I
am hesitant to do so, I am signing your release papers. You are free to
go"

She signed the papers and handed them across the desk.

"But doc....we don't know if this is permanent"

"Cletus, do me a favor. I've hoped that one day you might be a normal
part of society. Now that you're no longer a killer, enjoy your new life.
Plus it seems to me your crimes were driven by an unnatural desire, which
has been cured. Whether or not you have paid your debt to society, we
may not know. I'll worry about that later. In the meantime, my decision is
final"

Cletus took the papers, looked them over, and handed them back to be filed
away. He got up and Jack followed. At the door, Jack stopped and turned.

"Hey, what is this place, anyway?"

Dr. Kafka stood up from behind her desk. She filed Kasady's release papers
in her filing cabinet. 

"A high security facility for holding dangerous criminals with either
deadly abilities or origins of incredibly evil. Beings that normal
prisons and institutions can't hold. It used to be the same at Ravencroft,
until it was closed down. Our previous facility served the same purpose,
but downsizing in our budget has forced us into another building with
less room"

"Oh...."

Both men left. Carnage was gone, and Cletus Kasady had been reborn.


THE END

Author's Notes: This will be the final appearance of Spider-Man and Venom
in the series, as well as ties to the Marvel universe as a major
player. From now on, expect A-Team meets X-Files. 

 
 

Notes: Basically set in the Marvel Universe, I will be using a lot of my
own continuity for this series, and generally focus on the main characters.
Appearances by Marvel's universe will be special occurences. Crossovers with
characters/titles from other companies will be treated as "single universe",
not as "2 universes crossing temporarily". I will also try to ignore major
Marvel comic story arcs. Cletus Kasady, Carnage, and other Marvel characters
are copyright Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. Other characters are either
my creation(copyright myself), or copyright their specific owners if non-
Marvel licensed characters. Characters used without permission/not for
profit. These are strictly fan stories. Permission to reprint extends to
placing this text, unaltered, elsewhere online. It may not be altered,
and especially NOT TO BE SOLD, unless Marvel wishes to license this series
from me.