63 Chapter 63: Out of the Shadows

Oscorp's faced a litany of allegations and criminal charges with details that sounded like dystopian company overreach on acid. But still, the companies brick and mortar stood tall in Manhattan New York. And their biological advancements spread far and wide. All the way to Wakanda.

Blame capitalism. Or the Avengers absence. Or Spider-Man's boyscout nature. Either work.

Fortunately, Bronte was no boyscout. Unfortunately, he wasn't fighting the Green Goblin. Something less cunning and sadistic. Something more wild— brutish. Over eight feet tall and fit with horns.

"RAGHHHHH!" The green skinned hulking monster smashed a fist into his chest, sending him flying back to the floor.

He hit the ground, breaking through the streets and splashing into the underbelly of Lupine corpses.

Before the Monster could land on him again his suit glimmered. Vibranium charged to the max after only minutes of battle.

A wave of kinetic energy erupted from the suit, vibrating his bones beneath his skin as he watched the beast be sent back into the sky.

He exploded back up onto the road looking for Omega Red. All he could smell was his blood cooking on the pavement ten feet away from him and a fading trail going south.

His mind raced as the things massive footsteps grew closer.

"Oscorp… KGB…. Mutants… Sabertooth…..—"

A black slime burst through the windows of a nearby building, causing the sheltered inhabitants inside to scream.

It wrapped Bronte's arm and spread like ink. If ink had bulging yellow veins and eyes.

"Life Foundation." Bronte recited the last notable organization Romulus had his hand in.

"SUCCESSOR!" Goblin came in running like a Dragon. Flames spilled from his mouth like saliva and steamed his scales. His massive shoulders and arms swatted away cars and street signs.

In his blind charge he bashed into the blast shield beneath an apartment complex and ripped apart the support beams causing the building to tip over like a domino, crashing into another.

The green beast's eyes never left him as it spit a wave of fire.

Brontë brought up his right arm, causing the flames to hit the Symbiote attached to him.

"HSSAGGHHHHHH!"

He could feel the Symbiotes grip fade in the flames before Goblin crashed into him. No time to feel sorry.

The two burst through buildings and stores like they were made of paper. All the while Bronte could smell the fear housed inside. Could feel the plaster and steel break against his Vibranium skin.

People everywhere. Holed up like terrified mice. He used small gusts of wind to move whoever was in the way until they reached open air.

Brontë skidded to a halt at a split in the city landscape. Deep waters circled around him, rumbling from the abject madness. And the distant thunder that wasn't his own.

The light of fire ahead faintly reflected off the waves. He hadn't even noticed.

"Shit!" He manipulated the water into snaking constructs he threw into the buildings they ripped through. The fires died as liquid danced on the skin beneath the suit.

Goblin came in for a punch.

Brontë sidestepped and ran his claws through the creatures elbow, severing steel tendons and muscles.

A throaty scream erupted from inside the monster followed by fire.

He stole it from the beast with a heavy inhale, swallowing the flames.

"Hsssrrrggh!!"

Lupines cloaked in symbiotes came crawling down the walls behind them like geckos from hell. Colored like them too. Fit with shifting stripes, scales and fibrous membranes like fur in an endless twisting texture cyclone. Almost like the Symbiote was reading their hybrid dna and getting lost in it. They snarled, mouths full of endless rows of teeth and barbed prehensile tongues.

Brontë vaulted over Goblin and spit the flames at the slimy monsters. His heart beat so loud in his ears he couldn't even hear the flames sear through their alien skins.

Three down. Three more.

Goblin grabbed him in a bear hug, biting at his flaming dreads. Brontë called a Lightning bolt from the skies.

The impact caused his suit to send out a pulse that knocked Goblin into the ground after the stunning shock.

A Lupine no longer merged to a Symbiote jumped on his back.

Then another.

And another.

Brontë threw them onto Goblin and dove into the crater. Ripping, blasting, burning, tearing, gutting like it was a pile of fish. Letting his anger heat his claws until he moved like a mad surgeon with searing scalpels, digging to find the illness— the object of his rag—

"W—…ait…" Goblin mumbled amidst the gore. There was no special moment. No human glimmer in the eyes or tears falling. Just that voice.

"Wh….ere..?"

Brontë stomped Goblins face in, knocking him out before manipulating the water to cover his body and freeze the beast to the floor.

"Bronte! We've got a building collapse in your area, have you found Romulus?" Shuri's voice came in through the left ear guard of his suit.

"No. He's testing me. He's still hiding but he's watching. I'll get to the building." Brontë was off in a flash, cutting down stray Lupines and burning Symbiote residue as he headed back to where Goblin destroyed the base of a building.

He could hear the screams long before he arrived. It almost made him miss the tendrils.

Almost.

He spun as he flew down an alley made from the building leaning onto the other. The metal tendrils nicked his suit as he dove up into the building through a window.

A family of five leaned against their kitchen cabinet with wild eyes.

The father stood. "We d—"

"Watch out!" Bronte leg swept him just as a tendril burst through the window behind him.

He bobbed and weaved the slashes and jabs until it returned and a pack of Lupines filled in the space as they climbed the walls.

"What is this?!" Bronte hadn't felt tired in a long time. But he was remembering it. The overwhelming sense. The scattering mental. The panic.

He took in a deep breath, "Shut up and work." He remembered his trainings against his siblings. The activity level wasn't much different unless he let it be.

Finally. He could hear the music playing through the ear guards.

The kids were out of the building first.

He flew them to the next complex over, diving and dashing through the area to save more stragglers, twist up Omega's tendrils and spread his scent to confuse the Lupines.

It only did so much. When he came back for the parents at the top floor, they were swatting at Lupines crawling in through the windows.

He blew them aside and ran his claws through the Lupines heads.

"Alright let's go." Bronte huffed.

The parents hesitantly stared at him, "A-are you alright?"

"I'm good. I'm good…"

A Tendril ripped through his jaw from the floor below and punctured his brain. He was out immediately.

He hadn't been in darkness so still in a long time. He would've stayed if the scent of blood and death didn't get his heart back to its heavy pound.

Smells always came first.

Then the sound. A trickle— like a faucet. Only the splash was too thick. Almost a liquid thud. Sparks from destroyed electrical units. Someone making a condescending series of teeth clicks in the distance. Sabertooth…. Sabertooth… Romulus…. Romulus ….. Laura in ice.

"Little Wolf…. You bit off more than you can chew, no? Does that make you angry? I don't see the Wolverine in your face yet. Bring it or I keep killing with the big wolves." Omega Red's voice sounded like a distant echo as Bronte opened his eyes.

The mother and father he came back for hovered above ground over him, skewered and held up by the metal tendrils. Skin covered in aggressive lesions and ulcers that leaked and popped, mixing with the blood running down their torn clothing.

They were all the same. Sadistic, soulless tyrannical man-children.

And their leader was just out there…. Playing. Playing a stupid gladiatorial metaphor with human lives as props. Why were they alive?

They didn't have to be. They shouldn't. But they were for all this time. Why….. why…. Why…. Why…. Why—

"WHAAAA—" His words got lost in the fiery explosion that took out the top floor.

"Here we go." Omega Red said as Bronte roared at him through one of the blown out windows. Dreads ablaze and Vibranium suit searing hot.

He backed away, seemingly looking around waiting for something.

Brontë busted through the wall to pursue him in the street.

He didn't seem ready. The punch he threw was slow.

Brontë ripped open his forearm as he dipped beneath the blow and ripped out his tendril.

"ROMULUS! Now!!" Omega Red yelled as Bronte ran around him.

He swung his last tendril and frantically spread his death-spores only to find them circle him as the winds grew.

He could no longer physically see Bronte circling him.

Still Bronte went faster. Causing Omega Red to stumble and jump as the sound barrier tasted Mutant assault five times before the tornado fully formed.

Omega Red ran towards the winds to attempted escape only for a claw to cut into his throat.

Another at the back of his leg.

His next tendril was ripped out.

His neck was cut.

Deeper.

Deeper.

His pale skin seemed paler as he continued to lose his breath. Finally, he dropped to one knee. Red eyes tearing from the debris and blood mist in the air.

Brontë went off course and ran his knee into the side of the Mutant mercenaries head, knocking six teeth out and leaving his head hanging by very little.

He cut back with a sidekick and knocked Omega Red's head off.

The body released a crucial amount of death spores. He kept them away from him as he lifted the body, growling as he held it in front of himself.

Finally it was silent. Not a good silent. That silent that comes from all the prey in the area leaving.

There was no prey for miles. Only predators.

Brontë threw the body into the foot of an alley way in front of him.

The corpse landed at two feet sticking out of the shadows.

Bare and tipped with metal claws. Adamantium.

Finally, Romulus stepped out of the shadows and into the light.