-----
-----
The night sea stretched endlessly beneath the bright moon, starlight glittering across the waves.
Out of nowhere, a massive shadow streaked past the moon and skimmed low over the ocean, moving fast.
From afar, it looked like a giant eagle flying just above the water. But up close, it was something else entirely—its body jet black, marked with a gray spider emblem, its wingspan wide as a car.
It was Venom, transformed into a monstrous eagle.
He flew swiftly over the Pacific, the coastline soon coming into view. Without hesitation, he crossed over into enemy territory.
Once inside, Venom consulted the data he'd stored in his mind, fixed a direction, and accelerated to full speed.
Deep inside that country's borders stood a heavily fortified munitions depot. Tanks and armored vehicles guarded the grounds, soldiers posted at every corner. Not even a fly could slip past unnoticed.
Floodlights swept constantly across the skies, making infiltration nearly impossible.
Yet under the moonlight, a dark shadow glided silently across the base.
A low, eerie rumble followed in its wake.
"Vrrrmmmmm..."
The alarm blared through the armory.
Inside, rows upon rows of soldiers scrambled into formation, snapping into combat readiness with practiced precision.
"So this is the place."
Venom hovered in the air, wings beating slowly as he looked down at the fortified armory below. He gave a small nod.
At that moment, the floodlights switched on, their beams locking onto his body.
"What the hell is that thing?"
"Doesn't matter. Shoot it down."
"Open fire!"
The two commanders on site had never seen anything like him, but that didn't stop them from giving the order.
Tanks roared to life all around the compound, their turrets groaning as they swiveled upward, barrels trained on the sky.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom…
Shell after shell slammed into Venom.
KA-BOOM!
A huge explosion lit up the night. His body plummeted, smashing into the ground and carving a massive crater into the earth.
The shelling stopped. Soldiers cautiously moved forward, peering into the smoke-filled pit.
Suddenly, a shadow shot out of the crater.
The troops instantly fell back.
THUD!
Venom landed hard, the ground shuddering beneath him. Slowly, he rose to his full height. From the looks of it, the barrage of tank fire hadn't done much more than annoy him.
Ratatatatatatata!
Panicked soldiers raised their rifles and opened fire, but the bullets sparked harmlessly off his body, doing little more than scratch the surface.
Venom barely acknowledged them. He strode straight toward the armory.
The troops doubled down, firing desperately, determined not to let him through.
One soldier whipped a rocket launcher onto his shoulder, aimed at Venom's back, and pulled the trigger.
The missile streaked forward—only for Venom to snatch it out of the air with one hand. Without a pause, he flung it aside.
KA-BOOM!!
A fireball erupted in the distance, flames roaring into the night.
Venom kept walking, the inferno blazing behind him like his own personal backdrop.
A tank shell slammed into his chest, staggering him a step back. He turned, eyes narrowing at the culprit—a tank adjusting its barrel toward him. Venom dug his claws into the earth, wrenched out a massive chunk of rock, and hurled it with all his strength.
The boulder ripped through the air with a sonic crack, slamming straight through the tank and leaving behind a smoking crater.
Above, the rumble of rotor blades filled the air. Several helicopters swooped in, their heavy machine guns blazing.
Venom instinctively shielded his head with one arm. With the other, he tore another slab of rock from the ground and whipped it skyward.
The stone punched clean through a helicopter's fuselage.
BOOM!
The chopper erupted into flames, blossoming into a fireball that scattered burning debris across the night sky.
Venom marched up to a tank, grabbed it by both sides, and—grunting with effort—heaved it into the air. He spun once and hurled the armored beast straight into another helicopter.
BOOM!
The impact lit up the sky in another fiery explosion.
Not finished, Venom ripped the turret off another tank, strapping it onto his body. Black symbiote tendrils slithered over the metal, forming makeshift attachments to hold it steady. He leveled the barrel skyward.
BOOM!
The shell tore through another helicopter, which spun helplessly out of control before crashing and detonating in a wall of fire.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Venom kept firing, each shot knocking another aircraft from the sky.
All around, soldiers stood frozen, staring in shock. They weren't fighting a man—they were fighting a monster.
When the last helicopter dropped in flames, Venom tossed the tank parts aside and turned back toward the armory.
No one tried to stop him. After what they'd seen, the very thought of resistance was laughable.
Venom reached the massive steel gate at the armory's entrance, the thing easily weighing several hundred tons. He placed his hands on it.
With a guttural growl, he pulled.
Metal screamed as the gate slowly wrenched open, inch by inch, until there was enough space for him to step through.
Inside, the armory was packed wall-to-wall with weapons and ammunition—enough to arm a small country.
Venom lifted a hand, and in an instant, the weapons vanished, sucked into the dimensional space of his system. Guns, shells, missiles—everything went. The only things he couldn't store were living beings.
In seconds, the entire armory was stripped bare. Not even a bullet casing remained.
Every soldier in the area watched in stunned silence as Venom's body morphed, reshaping into the form of a massive eagle. With a powerful beat of his wings, he soared into the night sky.
He raided several more hidden armories the same way before finally flying back toward the island nation.
"....."