So [M]any Snacks So Little Time

[EvilCopepod]

Venom didn't understand why he would be mad about the money, since they'd killed Bullseye, it belonged to them now, What is ours does not belong to him![/i] Since Deadpool couldn't stay dead, the alien had no issue throwing things that could cause the car to crash, as they could pull the mercenary out from the wreckage and he'd be fine in no time.

"I'll try!" Paul took several photos with his phone, when Jude's fire messed with the Venom helmet, trying to get a good image of the man, but he couldn't get an image of his full face. Ringo gave an 'ok; to everything Jude said, too freaked out to ask questions or give any other kind of response, as he wanted to make it out of here alive.

"You can just drop me off here! I do not need to be in a safe house, I feel safe enough all swaddled up in tape."

This wouldn't be happening if you weren't such a fuck up.

You should have broken his legs as soon as he walked in unarmed!

Venom withdrew into Eddie completely when the large amount of fire hit them, having to take a moment to recover, it felt its hunger returning with each assault and repair it had to do on itself. If it wouldn't have destroyed the bike, Venom would have pounced onto the SUV as soon as they closed in, wanting to tear through it now that there weren't any people around that could be harmed by it. Before it could so much as fire a tendril at the car, Jude was flying at them and knocking them off of their bike.

The shark plush had been ripped as they skidded along, but luckily for Eddie, Venom was much more effective at preventing injury than leather, and not only kept him from being shredded, but also from any bruises. The alien was enraged, as the man had taken Deadpool, crashed their bike, and torn their shark, all things that belonged to the two of them.

Venom wanted nothing more than to bite the man's head off, no matter how bad he tasted, but it figured he would turn to dust again, so when it covered up Eddie it tried to grab him instead, none too gently.

[Aries Jordan]

There was a second during the crash in which time slowed down for Eddie and he found himself, while the Harley was sliding out under him with all the sickening finality of a broken patella, almost nose to nose with the gunslinger's savagely determined expression, and he had just enough time to scream, "Are you fucking nuts?"

Then time speeded up again and he was thrown and rolling, encased in a cushion of symbiote.  Despite all his experience with Venom, he was sure he was going to die, so it was quite a shock, once he fetched up against somebody's steel garage door, to find himself completely intact.  If Venom was feeling any pain, he was blocking it from Eddie, but Eddie could sense his need for food.

He was very angry with the gunslinger in his own right, and Venom's rage only made it worse, but his reporter's instincts helped him keep it under control.  A glance showed him the alley was empty; he didn't even know which way the SUV had turned after reaching the corner.  We need him to tell us where they've taken Deadpool, he said, to reinforce Venom's restraint in not biting Jude's head off.

Jude had hoped to be dead, or at least unconscious, by the time the accident was over.  He wasn't even wearing a helmet.  But Eddie and Venom had taken the initial impact of the crash, and his head had been protected by Eddie's chest. 

His right leg had gone under the Harley and been broken in three places, then the bike flipped again and sent him rolling and skidding, breaking his nose and left wrist.  He was only fortunate in that his leather duster on top of tough denim saved him from road burn.   He hung limp in Venom's grip, still in the shock of the accident.  He was unable to feel any pain yet thanks to his adrenaline rush -- but well aware it would be coming soon.

Let's get on top of that building, Eddie suggested.  We're going to attract a lot of attention in a minute.The buildings this far downtown weren't skyscrapers, so it shouldn't tire Venom much to climb.  And, uh, if you're up to it, let's take the bike with us.  I think we can fix it.  Between his technical knowledge and Venom's ability to straighten out bent metal, he thought it could be running again shortly.

[EvilCopepod]

Venom didn't feel any pain from the crash itself or protecting Eddie from it, except for a few stray sparks the bike had hit them with, it was as unscathed as the human. Combined with Eddie's rage, the only thing that was keeping Venom from eating the man was that he tasted disgusting, then it was Eddie's logic about finding Deadpool. When Jude was killed last time, he had disappeared, so it would be easier to just try tracking down Deadpool than having to find him again if they did kill him.

"You are unfit to be food." Venom said to Jude as if that were an insult. When Eddie felt and voiced concern for the alien's well being, a feeling of love went through their bond, followed by what could only be described as an emotional puffing up of its chest. "I am up to anything. He did not harm us too badly, but he did make us cranky." Venom wanted to throw away the weapons that had hurt them, destroying them seemed unsafe if they were explosive like grenades, but Eddie showed it was a bad idea to leave weapons lying around in New York alleys.

It grabbed the motorbike with several tendrils from its back before running up the side of the building, dragging Jude behind them. It threw the weapons across the roof, placing the bike and their supplies down gently. It then held Jude up again in front of them, giving him a rough shake as it snarled at him.

"Tell us where Deadpool is!"

[Aries Jordan]

"I hear that a lot," Jude replied, in a voice that was scraped-rawhide tough even while coming from a man who had just found out that he had a dislocated shoulder on top of everything else.

"We'll find something to eat on the way to Deadpool," Eddie promised.  Rats or fish, depending on what turned out to be the best route. 

He approved of Venom tossing the guns onto the roof out of the gunslinger's reach.  While Venom was dragging Jude up behind them, cautioning him to keep the gunslinger at a safe distance, he picked one up and examined it.  For all he could tell, it was  an ordinary, well-maintained .45 such as Samuel Colt made all through the mid-1800s.  The only apparent weird thing about it was that it was still loaded after the man had fired well over a dozen rounds at them.

Jude gritted his teeth against the pain of being shaken with several freshly broken bones.  It wasn't near as bad as it was going to be.  He weighed his only two options and decided to go on living for a bit.  He might learn something about the demon and the man while being interrogated by them.  "Ain't got nothin' to say to you, demon."

Eddie aimed the gun at the gunslinger's kneecap, making sure to move any tendrils of Venom's out of the way,  He thumbed back the hammer, marveling at how much strength it took compared with a modern gun.   "You sure?" he said, and pulled the trigger. 

Nothing happened.

"You ain't connected," Jude said.

Eddie used some of Venom's strength to hit him in the kneecap instead.

[EvilCopepod]

"You have already said something to us! What the fuck is a demon?" He'd tried looking in Eddie's mind, but it seemed to be a very broad definition given all the images and examples. Venom was going to start munching on Eddie's organs, but the offer to eat made it hesitate, thinking that if they were to eat soon then it could forgo healing the man. It curled back a bit itself when he messed with the gun, surprised when nothing came out, it glowered at Jude when he spoke again.

"This guy is an asshole." Venom growled after he smashed his kneecap. "Tell us where Deadpool is, and we will give you money." It offered, as that is what it thought his reason for stealing Deadpool was.

[Aries Jordan]

Jude was interested to hear that Venom did not know what a demon was, and his interest would have shown on his face except that he was too busy grimacing with pain. 

Eddie thought it was perfectly natural that a guy dressed like it was 1875 would think that Venom was a demon, so he didn't comment on it except to help Venom with the multiplicity of definitions the symbiote was finding in his memory.  It means a supernatural evil creature from the place where bad people go when they die, assuming that there is any such place.  Eddie's mind showed that he did not believe there was, and that he thought demons did not exist.

"Nnnnnaaaauuggh," Jude said in response to being punched.  Beside the kneecap being a painful place, it was his broken leg.  He gasped for a few seconds before responding to Venom's offer.  "Don't need money.  Gimme morphine.  Then I'll tell you what I know."

"Do you think I fucking carry morphine in my back pocket?" Eddie demanded.  Can you stop him from feeling pain? he wondered at Venom. 

[EvilCopepod]

Venom didn't like the idea of hell, even if he didn't believe in it, there were thoughts of a fiery place in Eddie's mind. Even if such a place did exist, he was sure that his host would never have to go there.

"You can buy morphine with money." Venom didn't know this for a fact, but he figured that nearly anything was for sale. It wasn't until Eddie asked about stopping his pain that it was obvious he wanted it now.

"Deadpool had some in his back pocket." Venom said, wondering if Eddie should make a habit of it. Yes, we can. Eddie can watch, then control it. Venom moved some of its body down Eddie's arm and onto Jude, attaching itself to the back of his neck so that it could get into his nervous system to stop the sensation of pain, it couldn't be specific as it was able to while fully bonded, so it aimed to numb him all over.

"We will take your pain away and you will tell us where Deadpool is."

((I just saw the new Spider-Man movie today!

[Aries Jordan]

"I'd have to be able to walk to where somebody is selling it," Jude pointed out.

He was a bit confused at first by what Venom did to the back of his neck, but seemed unusually comfortable with it -- at least he didn't scream or struggle the way most people would.  As soon as his body went numb, he relaxed in Venom's grip, breathing much more easily.   Eddie was more taken aback, in fact.  Whoa, you can do that to anyone?  That's amazing!  Suddenly weird ideas were drifting through his mind, most of them related to Deadpool.

Jude savored the feeling of being pain-free for a few seconds because he suspected it wouldn't last long.  "Right.  Said I'd tell you what I know.  I don't know where they took Wilson.  I had just suggested we go to a safe house when you caught up with us.  I assumed they had one.  I didn't find out where it was."

Eddie wordlessly asked Venom not to turn off the spinal tap just yet.  "Well, then tell us everything else you know.  Who are you and why did you grab Deadpool?"

Jude breathed free a couple more times and said, "Name's Jude Delaney.  I'm after you, not Wilson.  He was just for questioning."  Assuming the next question would be "why," he added, "Ain't me that wants you, so don't ask.  I'm being extorted to bring you in alive.  They got my family hostage."

[EvilCopepod]

Most anyone.[/i] Venom responded, it would have been much more difficult if Jude had fought against it, the alien was interested in Eddie's weird ideas, mainly because it enjoyed when Eddie was impressed with and wanted to use their abilities. Would be very easy to do things to him. He is more compatible.

When he said that he would tell them what he knew, it never occurred to Venom that he wouldn't actually know where Deadpool was, and it wondered if he was lying. Before Venom could pull away the numbing effect and attack him again for tricking them, Eddie said to keep it going, so the alien only grumbled and let Eddie talk to the man.

"He is a dick." Venom answered for Jude as he regained his breath a bit. Confusion went through their bond as well as anger when he started to explain, but then it was mostly replaced with confusion. Venom hadn't considered that Jude would be doing this for something besides money, and didn't know if trying to help his family made him a bad person or not. It was quiet, mentally urging Eddie to give it the answers to this moral problem as it looked between the two men.

[Aries Jordan]

Eddie was a bit confused too, but he was mostly able to sort out Venom's confusion.  Protecting your family is a good thing, or at least an understandable thing.  It's like you and me protecting each other.  So if he's telling the truth, he's probably not a bad guy.  But I am not ready to believe he's telling the truth.  It's too fuckin' obvious a thing to say. 

He was half staring, half glaring at Jude -- literally, as Venom happened to be covering half of his face right then.  "So who's 'they'?"

Jude paused for a second with his head cocked, as if he was listening for something nobody else could hear.  He was consulting his doom meter, as some of his descendants had taken to calling it.  Jude was prescient about death in his family line.  If any of his descendants were likely to die in the next 24 hours, he would know, and he'd get a very good idea where and when it would happen, and he would be drawn to it.  He was planning to answer Eddie's question, but first he had to check to see if Jamie's death felt any more likely as a result.  It didn't, so he answered.   "Kingpin."

"Oh, shit!"  Eddie said, the visible half of his face turning white.

[EvilCopepod]

Venom was going to take Jude's word for it, not thinking that he might lie to them to try and get their sympathy, so it was thankful for Eddie knowing that it could very well be a trick. He was also taking a long time to answer the other question, which made Eddie and therefore Venom more suspicious as it was possible that he was trying to think of a fake answer for this too.

The answer caused dread to go through Venom as well, as the alien had been warned about how dangerous this man was, and Eddie being terrified of this as well didn't help. Despite this, Venom tried to soothe its host by assuring him that they could figure a way out of this, it was hopeful given Eddie's brains and their combined brawn. What the alien didn't understand was how the Kingpin had heard of them and how, before Jude and the rest of Kingpin's men had been looking for Bullseye, not Venom.

"You!" the alien snarled at Jude, "You told him about us! And now he has taken Deadpool to use against us!"

[Aries Jordan]

Eddie was scared enough that he was unable to think clearly for the first few minutes.  The first thing that crossed his mind was Anne.  If the Kingpin knew the name Eddie Brock, then he'd very quickly find out who Eddie Brock cared about.  Anne having broken up with him six months prior wouldn't be enough to save her, since she was the most recent and pretty much the only human being Eddie was still connected to.  And the Kingpin probably did know the name Eddie Brock, because it was all over at least the local San Francisco news in connection with a huge immortal black demon-monster, and easily found via Google. 

"That's about the size of it," the gunslinger said to Venom meanwhile. 

 Eddie stared at him, feeling sick and appalled and reaching a conclusion that he really wanted to avoid.  Jude could see it in his face.  He grinned, showing off all the blood from his broken nose that had soaked his teeth.  "You know sometimes the only defense is goin' on offense, don't ya?"

"You prick!" Eddie exploded.  "You set this up!"  He started squeezing the gunslinger using Venom's muscle.

But the man didn't stop grinning.  "Can't get out of it by killin' me.  We both -- agggggh -- got a beef with Fisk.  We gotta work tog -- ahhh don't be a dumaaaahh....."  He ran out of breath to talk with at this point, Eddie having squeezed all the air out of his lungs.

[EvilCopepod]

Venom's half of their face continued to snarl and growl, Eddie's fear making it fearful itself, but mostly angry that Jude would put their host in so much danger. Venom knew that Eddie said defending one's family was noble, but it didn't justify causing so much distress to Eddie, who was thinking of how he would need to defend Anne.

So the alien didn't do anything to stop Eddie from strangling the man at first. Venom wanted to tear through Jude's neck as well, but this thought reminded the alien of what would happen.

Eddie. Venom said in his thoughts, loosening the man's grip on the one they were holding down. If we kill him, he will go away, and we do not have time to waste. He has put Anne in danger.[/b] The alien was far less worried about Deadpool now, even though it had actually met the mercenary in person, Anne wasn't able to heal like he could. We need his instructions.

[Aries Jordan]

It was surreal to have Venom be the rational one, but he was right.  Eddie grimaced and sat back as Venom eased their grip on the gunslinger, who dragged air into his lungs and coughed painfully.  He wants to throw us against Kingpin because he can't take him out himself.  Eddie was gritting his teeth and twitching with rage.

"Okay, talk, you prick."

"When we're done talkin', you kill me," Jude said, his voice considerably harsher now. 

Eddie was about to agree, but reconsidered: it would be a lot worse for the gunslinger to be left alive, so he just said, "Go on."

"That way I get back to my boys and your friend.  First we arrange a way me and my boys can track you down.  Something plausible.  We grab you, but you're looking just like..." he gestured to Eddie's half of the bonded pair.  "Looking harmless.  We hand you over to Fisk.  You let the demon show enough to keep him interested, but not enough to keep him away from you.  You'll get a chance to kill him."

"What if we don't get a chance to kill him," Eddie grated, "and spend the rest of a short life in a laboratory cage?"  He was not as negative about the idea as he was pretending to be; in fact he was seriously considering it.  He and Venom had escaped from the Fantastic Four -- Kingpin's security could hardly be more formidable than that.

"Well, I'll prob'ly rise a bit in Fisk's world after catching you," Jude said.  "I'll get more on the inside and could spring you and we'll pull off the job together."

[EvilCopepod]

Venom didn't agree to kill Jude either, as it was irritated that it had gone through all the trouble of not only using self-restraint not to kill him but also getting Eddie to agree not to just to have the man ask them to do it anyways. The alien was unsure about the plan, but as soon as Eddie spoke up, Venom was against the idea. It could tell that Eddie was confident that they could escape if they were captured, but that didn't matter to Venom.

Can we kill him, Eddie? We are only doing this if we can kill him. It asked him, not wanting them to be separated for even a moment, even if that meant the plan would work. Venom had been anxious that the Fantastic Four were harming Eddie, even though they gave every sign that they just wanted to help him, but Venom knew it was very likely that the Kingpin would hurt, or possibly even kill its host.

I do not want to separate from Eddie again. Although it didn't cover up his face completely, it spread more over Eddie, clutching him as anxiety and fear flowed through their bond.