Chapter 73: Arc Three. Chapter Seventy-Three. Tactical Defeat

As Venom swung away, he spotted the man lifting another weapon and pointing at him, as the shot fired it cut the line he had a hold of, and as he shot out another one, it was cut again,

“Not this crap again,” Venom thought, knowing it was the favourite practice of those damn Oscorp drones.

Sending out two lines, he was shocked as two shots took out both lines, and as he thudded into a wall, he held and waited, keeping his eyes on the sniper.

Yeah, I see you asshole, he thought, and as he felt the disturbance in the air he dived, shot out a web and swung towards him once more, as the second round impacted against his symbskin Venom shook his head in disbelief, an enhanced? There was no way a normal human could fire off that accurately or that quickly.

The only saving grace he had, as he leapt from building to building, was that the rounds weren’t large enough to penetrate his skin, and as he landed on the final rooftop he finally got a  good look at the man.

Surrounded by crates of ammo, different calibre rifles, most of which Venom didn't recognise the man just stood as if he was waiting,

“You know, I normally never miss, and that last shot, you made me miss.” Venom gave him the once over. Short, barely over 6 foot he was skinny and covered in tactical gear, a vest, with holsters carrying various knives of all sizes, shurikens and small pistols. The man was a gun nut, just a pity he was bulletproof. Venom could smell the chemo coming off him, cancer, he thought, not good. Dying people were desperate people, and he might have nothing to live for.

“It's Bullseye, and you’re Venom right?” and as he stepped back he raised his hands, “hey now, lets not, okay? Aaron might have pussied out but I've got more than enough explosives wired up to bring this building down, so we’re gonna talk, just for a bit, okay?” and as he sat down on a crate, he took out a cigar and lighting it motioned for Venom to sit over on one of the other boxes.

“So, talk,” Venom said, knowing not to go anywhere near anything this man had set up. Bombs, traps, mines, anything could be hidden in that crate, and Venom wasn't about to give him his head on a plate.

“Suit yourself. See, Kingpin isn't the only player in town, and a lot of people really don't like you. Me, I just want to hunt something with superhuman reflexes. I mean come on, dodging a shot fired at supersonic speeds, and moving someone out of the way, that, that was impressive,” Bullseye said while taking a puff on his cigar, “but, you made me miss and that’s a matter of professional pride.”

Venom shrugged, “well, professional pride is great, but I really don't like people who shoot at me,” and Bullseye laughed, 

“John, right?” and he waved a hand, “an amateur, he shouldn’t have been there, and really, unclipping your rifle. It was a stupid rookie move. Don't care about some idiot getting themselves killed.” and he stood and stubbed out the remains of his cigar, “you know, I really don’t want to kill you. I know what it's like, they did things to me, horrible terrible things but at the end of the day. I’m getting a huge fucking paycheck for this.” and as Venom took a stance, Bullseye took a few steps backwards and jumped from the roof, a rappelling rope tied to his waist.

As the man disappeared, the box he had motioned to ignited and Venom found himself flying up into the air, boxes of ammo exploded and filled the air with deadly shrapnel and even curling up into a ball Venom could feel the countless sharp and ragged pieces slicing into his symbskin.

Whoever Bullseye was, he had counted on an armoured target and taken measures to make sure he could hurt Venom. Venom had been stupid and as he sent out a line and pulled himself from the burning rooftop he scanned for where ever Bullseye had gone.

His symbskin reformed and he felt the flesh underneath expel the metal and reform. He would need to make sure he got it all later but for now, he clicked his throat mic, “Liv, get emergency services to my location. A new enhanced set fire to the building to get me, oh and phone in a bomb threat as well, asshole rigged the roof, who knows if he rigged anything else,” and she sighed and agreed then cut the call off. Normally it was rude, but under the circumstances, they knew it might be a distraction.

Wherever that slippery bastard had gone to Venom couldn't see or sense him nearby. He was using the smoke and fire as a distraction, and Venom knew he must be aware of his enhancements. He shook his head, so why didn't Prowler do anything like this?

Conscience. Prowler was protecting a business and had gotten desperate, Bullseye just mentioned the money. He was a hitman, didn’t give a shit about anyone living in the area, and with the smell, probably had a pile of debt. Damn, need to be more careful then, Venom thought as he closed his eyes and let his senses envelop the area.

He could feel the residual heat from the flames and the way it made the air swirl, and as he tilted his head, idiot, he climbed up higher and sprayed the area with sticky but fire-resistant webbing. Clever, he was guessing Bullseye knew how he was able to track the bullets and had lit a fire to disrupt the flow of air.

As a round hit him square in the chest, deforming and knocking him back, his guess was proven right. It stung but hadn’t penetrated his armour. The next one will though, Venom guessed. Bullseye was a hunter, and he was testing each and every one of Venom's defences until he found that sweet spot. Venom knew at that point he would strike for the kill. There would be no talking, and no negotiating. This might be a target that Venom would have to kill, a thought that he was not looking forward to proving correct.

Bullseye could feel the excitement as he watched Venom shrug off that last round like he threw a paper ball at him, the .70 cartridge wasn’t heavy enough and he didn't trust anything that hack loser had used. No, he would fire every calibre he had before he took that final shot. Venom was enhanced as everyone called it, but to him, he was just another target. Fast sure, but dumb, and if John had half of Bullseye’s training he wouldn’t be a smear on the sidewalk.

There was no such thing as perfect armour. Stop the kinetic damage and there was always bleed through, simple physics one-o-one. Energy can never be destroyed, only converted, and that kinetic energy had to go somewhere. As Bullseye watched the symbskin reform over not just the bullet wound but the fire touched back of Venom he knew two things. One, a round big enough should penetrate the armour and two, that it needed time to reform.

Plan number three then, he thought to himself and prepared to lead Venom over to another building rooftop. He had placed sensors over the buildings and as he glanced down at the small display strapped to his wrist he saw that he was getting pings of movement from the southeast corner of his arena. Nodding to himself, he picked up a small SMG from the drop points he had left himself and shot out a grapple line, climbing back up onto the roof.

Right on schedule, he saw Venom coming back over the lip of the building across from him and giving him a smile and a wave, he started to run towards the north side. A rope and a small present for Venom were waiting there but even he had underestimated Venom's speed.

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As he grabbed the rope and swung he felt the rush of air behind him as a clawed hand swiped at his back, Turning he lifted the small calibre SMG and emptied its clip, hitting but doing very little damage, as he tossed it away he hit the detonator and the lip of the roof exploded, showering them both in debris. Venom took most of the blast and as the pressure wave pushed them to the next building the pair rolled across the rooftop together.

“That doesn't work,” Venom said to him as he stood and stretched the ache away but Bullseye shrugged, no talking while fighting, what idiot had a conversation at a time like this? He thought and rolled, picking up a rifle and firing at Venom.

Shaking his head, a giant scary looking maw split and Venom roared at him, fuck, never mentioned that, but it would take more than sharp teeth to faze Bullseye, knives and bombs were worse than a rip off shark. He snorted to himself as he emptied the clip and threw the rifle away, fighting a shark would be harder.

Bullseye had been paying attention to Venom and so far had been unimpressed. He had spent most of his adult life in the military, only moving to the private sector when certain war crimes came to light. He’d trained and been trained by the best, and this guy, whoever was under that armour was a chump. A badly trained mess of some middle eastern generic martial art plus a few of his own moves thrown in. He was fast, strong, and that was it. Without those powers, Bullseye would have taken less than a second to kill him and walked away without a care.

But there was no use in complaining about things that couldn't be changed, he had those powers, and Bullseye had thought of counters to them all. As he rolled away from another swipe of those wicked claws, he moved over and rolled a grenade into the centre of the rooftop. He had chosen this one as it was mainly free of piping, with only the roof's access shack and a single air conditioning vent on the other side. Open space with nowhere to hide.

As smoke filled the roof, he switched on a pair of infrared goggles, Venom might have enhanced senses but as he flicked on another device the area filled with a high pitched whine, removing two of them was good enough for now.

As he crept as quietly as he could over to the shack he lifted a pair of tonfas. Swinging them around and letting them rest along his forearms. Venom hadn’t moved, and Bullseye figured he was adjusting to the smoke and noise, no matter, this was over, and half crouching he silently made his way over.

As he approached and swung, Venom ducked and Bullseye figured correctly he was reading the air currents and pressed another switch on his wrist. On the top of the shack, a cannon raised itself up on a mechanical lift. Preset, it would fire off in a specific pattern at six-second intervals. With a whoomph, it blasted air into the smoke.

As Venom turned towards the blast of air Bullseye struck out with the solid core tonfa, striking him on the back of the calf, testing how thick and protective the armour was and was Venom went down on one knee, he figured that small bullets were fine but larger and harder impact points still bled through to the man underneath.

As Venom dodged away from him he waited patiently, following a faster opponent was suicide and as he moved and waited the cannon fired once more and he struck out, striking Venom on the knee this time. As Venom roared in pain he struck out once more, catching him on the shoulder before moving away.

Venom roared in pain and swung out again, but Bullseye had already moved, amateur, he thought and after moving into the safe zone, waited once more as the blinded Venom paced the roof.

As the last cannon fired Bullseye moved once more and as he struck out, Venom twisted, shot out some kind of sticky fluid and Bullseye was held fast,

“We found you and now you will surrender.” he hissed but Bullseye laughed,

“Nope, gotcha,” and twisting the second tonfa in his hand, he pressed it into the centre of Venom's chest and pressed the top of its handle.

As the small button on the top clicked a single large calibre round fired from the chamber, and as Bulleye had no need to worry about range this round was armour piercing. As it penetrated through the centre of Venom’s armour and chest he was thrown backwards and against a wall. He coughed once and bright red blood trickled from that impressive but useless maw of his.

Throwing the now useless weapon away, Bullseye walked over to the crate he had motioned to earlier. As he flipped open the top, “You think I'm going to come over there and attack you, at close range?” and he shook his head, “See, I bet that's what you want, maybe got a nice sword or some big fucking claws. I saw the body cam footage, all rawr and spiky. Shit, I wish I had your powers, man I would earn so much fucking money it’d be sick. But, well, I don't and I'm not coming over there for anything.” 

As he leant over and pulled out a huge bore rifle, he slung it under his arm, “I might not use a rocket launcher but at this range, it doesn't matter.“ And as he lined up the rifle Venom stared into the huge gaping end of the barrel.

“I’ll never miss.”

~

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