Chapter 72: Arc Three. Chapter Seventy-Two. Bad Dog
His limbs thickened and lengthened, sprouting black fur over his body. His face cracked and reformed as a snout, and beady red eyes glowed eerily in the dark and he stared at them. His fingers cracked and lengthened as they grew into talons and his legs became double-jointed and as the transformation was complete, the new Prowler howled at the night sky.
Venom stared at the giant wolfman Prowler had become, "uh, shit, could that happen to us? I mean, I don't really want to be a giant spider. Huntress? I mean, look at his guy"
Venom was distracted and Prowler took the opportunity and swung for him, Venom dodged backwards, "wow, what about leaving? see stupid bad guys," and Venom swung back, and this time he was surprised as Prowler ducked underneath and returned the favour by punching his forearm.
The blow wasn't strong enough to snap the bone, but it was hard enough that it hurt, and as Venom shook his arm free, Prowler growled and laughed at him.
"Now who's got powers, bitch," and he flexed his fingers, "good, good, come on, let's dance," and he beckoned at Venom.
Venom shrugged, "Your funeral," and he shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands and got into his stance.
"Wait." Huntress yelled, and the pair stopped, "We want your boss, if we win, you take him to us, or you die. No running, no hiding, that's the deal or I force feed you to the pavement right now."
"Fine, you win I'll take you to him, I win, and you leave Hell's Kitchen alone, no shakedowns, no more busts, you leave nobody sees you two again, deal?"
Venom looked over at Huntress who nodded. "Deal, but you won't be fighting him, I remember you, Aaron." and Felicia slipped out of Huntress and stood before him, "remember me?"
"Shit, it's uh Toms little girl, F something, you got one of those hard to remember names. Felicia, yeah now I remember, Tom had you train with us for a while. So still in the life huh?" Aaron stared at her, "but it doesn't matter, we fighting or what?" and Felicia nodded and Huntress spilled back out.
"We are. Venom, this guy is mine, I owe him from before" and Venom moved away.
"As the lady says, if you beat her then we'll leave," and Prowler shook his head.
"A girl? you want me to fight a girl?" He remembered the small skinny kid shadowing them, who would turn away at the blood and violence, but now she wanted to fight him. Furious at his words, Huntress leapt, and he ducked and slammed a fist into her waist. She tumbled over, rolled and then leapt again, but as he dodged she brought her knee round and smashed it into his face.
"Just a girl who's going to kick your ass," and he snarled as he wiped the blood from his muzzle.
Prowler ducked under her fist as Huntress swung a left at him, but followed it up with a right, slamming it on his jaw, reeling back he swung out a claw and caught her on the side, spinning her round but she backhanded him on the other side of his face.
He growled and kept himself low as she walked around him, Venom watching the whole time. He kept low, and as she jumped up he spun and lifted a leg, catching her in the side and sending her spinning. Capitalising on it he lept on her and began to pummel her face. Venom shook his head, he tried that and right enough she bucked lifting him up and brought both her knees together into his groin. Prowler howled as the incredible pain wracked his body and Venom winced as she'd done the same to him. With him, however, she'd apologised profusely and spent a good hour kissing the sore parts, but he knew Prowler wouldn't get such kind treatment.
He was right as she backflipped to her feet and laid a kick to Prowler's stomach, sending him tumbling across the rooftop. He reached behind one of the air vents and grabbed at a rifle and fired. Venom watched as the RPG streaked towards Huntress, but he sent out a web line and grabbed it mid-air. Whipping the line it was sent shooting up to the sky, where it exploded.
"Fucking seriously? A missile? Do that again and I'll kill you myself. People live in this building, shit for brains." Venom yelled at Prowler who tossed the launcher to one side and snarled at him.
He had more tricks hidden on the roofs but it seemed that Venom wasn't about to let him use them, in case of civilian casualties. Fucking heroes, he snarled in his mind, always the fucking same, now wishing he'd wired more than one building to use as leverage.
He leapt at her again, swiping at her as she ducked under his fists, landed on his hands, and sent a newly clawed foot arcing towards her. Even as he absorbed the blow with crossed arms her symbskin was sliced evenly in four lines, some blood dripping from between them. He watched it heal, cheating bitch, he thought and crouching, pounced again. As he swept out his claws, Felicia ducked backwards and as he sailed over her two tendrils from her waist struck out, knocking him upwards, and as he straightened she grabbed his feet and swung him into the rooftop.
Venom sighed, great, another power I don't have, as he watched Huntress create tendrils of symbskin to deflect and attack Prowler with. Remembering the discussion with Liv, it wasn't that he didn't have the power, he just didn't know how to use it, whereas Felicia apparently did. Maybe having good communication with your symbiote helped?
"Give it up Prowler, you can't win," Huntress said and he snarled at her, wiping drool and blood from his snout. While he knew she was faster, he was slowly gaining strength and a feel for his new form.
He cracked his neck, "not a chance little girl. I'm stronger than you, you ain't shit against me"
Venom shook his head, while Prowlers files had been good, armour piercing rounds, fire, and snipers, they did not contain the full story, they were not just enhanced, they also had the symbiotes.
Felicia let her claws grow long, "But I'm better than you. So let's end this furface" and she leapt at him once more. He ducked, but as she sailed over him, she webbed herself to him and yanked him over her, slamming him into the ground.
As he tried to stand, she webbed his legs, and then kicked them out from under him. Wrapping the webbing around her fist, she webbed the other end to one of his arms and swung him back, landed a solid fist to his face, swung him again and batted him back and forth like a toy until blood and snot spewed from his toughened face.
Attaching another web to his body, she whipped him up and when he slammed into the roof she followed by leaping and driving both feet into his back at the waist, he groaned and tried to stand, his claws slicing into the webs holding him
"I," he panted, "I can still fight," but he was spent, falling to one knee he shrank back down into his human form and shook his head. "No no I can't" and he spat blood onto the rooftop. She had been a lot tougher than the files made out, the only thing he never got a chance to use was the sonic weaponry, but if blowing up a building didn't stop them, what chance did a loud noise.
"A deal's a deal Prowler, take us to your boss." But Felicia threw something at him from her belt, a small packet of tissues and as Aaron sat on the roof he wiped away the blood and drool from his face shaking his head.
"Fine, fine but if he tries to kill you that's on you, what he does is his business." Aaron dabbed at a burst lip, motherfuckers were tough, I need to get back to Fisk to warn him, he thought.
As Huntress moved to pick up the bleeding Prowler, Venom tilted his head and pulled her back. A round exploded a chunk of brick on the roof's edge and as he looked around he saw a sniper still alive, but much further away. "Asshole," he spat at Aaron but the man raised his hands,
"Hey I had no idea, my crew was all here. I swear it," but before he could complain Huntress sprang forwards and a swift punch to the jaw rendered him unconscious.
"We need him alive, go find that asshole while I take him somewhere safe." Venom nodded.
Sending out a web line he swung off while Huntress covered Aaron in webbing and hoisting him over her shoulder carried him down the fire escape. As he groaned she dumped him down on the ground,
"Hey asshole, where's your car?" and he shook his head, blinking a few times,
"You hit me!" he complained,
"Yeah, and one of your asshole friends shot at us, quit bitching. Where is your car?" and as he struggled, "I'll free you but any more of this stupid bullshit and it's over, okay?" and he slumped down and nodded.
As she cut through the webbing with a symbsword she could see the hate in the man's eyes. The cost of betraying his boss would be high but right now she didn't care. This was a war now, and she intended to win it. His loyalty, while commendable, was nothing to her, but she still remembered the lessons her father taught her. He hadn't been too bad in the past, more than just a thug and in a moment of nostalgia decided to give him some advice.
Huntress stepped back, "No joke though, watch that formula, files don't mention but it can cause mental instability. Why'd you think Norman went nuts huh, he had all the files redacted, just the good stuff was left."
"You shitting me?" Prowler said, looking at his hands, "I might go crazy?" and Huntress nodded.
"You should be okay though. One dose isn't the end of the world, just, you know, 'cause of my dad. You get that much, but now though, boss or I won't play nice a second time." Huntress lifted a hand and her claws extended, moulding themselves into a long thin blade and as it slid into her palm she gripped it and pointed it at Prowler, "next time is your head."
Aaron sighed and nodded, the formula gave them more than the reports had said, even when they fought they'd held back. He had multiple locations set up throughout the city but each one would fall to this pair, even the modified Mark Two was nothing compared to them, now, now he needed to face the music.
Wilson Fisk was not the forgiving kind and Aaron knew that after this he would need to run, he had a sister in San Francisco, maybe he could hide out there for a while. He considered using one of the other RPGs hidden on the roof, taking himself and the building out, but he shook his head, he wasn't suicidal. Loyalty didn't buy his life.
"Yeah, we paid off the cops, you're supposed to be a smear on the sidewalk right now, guess life's like that huh?" Prowler said as he fumbled for the keys to his car. "Come on, We're heading to the Projects in Manhattan."
As she watched him limp towards his car Huntress lifted her head and she could hear the sirens in the distance. The fight could have gone a lot worse than she liked and he admitted to himself that Venom was right.
The asshole had used a missile in a residential area to get them. She'd been lax and stupid, lives could have been lost today, not just hers or his but people just trying to live their lives without super-powered morons fighting in the streets.
Venom had been right, now wasn't the time for kid gloves. Now was the time to send the final message. His message in the last brothel they trashed was close, but not enough,
Now Huntress needed to make sure they got her message,
Play nice or I will remove you from the board.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone