Bullets came straight at his chest. Venom curled up in midair, pulled sideways on a web, and skimmed past the first row of crates, landing behind the gunman.
The man twisted around. Before he could finish swinging his rifle butt, his head was seized and slammed into a wooden crate beside him.
The boards burst apart, spraying nails and splinters into the faces of the men behind him.
Venom grabbed him by the back of his collar and turned, swinging his body into two gunmen and knocking them down. Roman fired from farther inside. A bullet passed through his subordinate's shoulder and buried itself in the black chest.
"No running! Get in there!"
He braced himself against a crate and edged backward, urging men to fill the gap.
Jonathan Crane had already raised his spray nozzle.
Thick mist poured out between the crates and washed over Venom's face. Tiny strands of black tissue twitched incessantly along his eye patches. He was about to climb higher when his outstretched hand suddenly caught nothing. He crashed into a rack, bringing down an entire row of boxes.
Water sounded.
The falling boxes turned into rocks. Firelight spread across the water, and a hand reached out from beneath red hair.
Venom lunged toward that hand.
Pain suddenly tore through his shoulder, and Spider-Sense yanked his body aside.
He smashed through a crate's boards and ducked beneath a rack. Bullets chased him, striking the spot where he had just crouched.
"It's working!"
Overjoyed, Roman raised a hand and gestured at Scarecrow.
"Spray him again! Don't let him get up!"
Jonathan Crane opened the valve wider and stepped half a pace back, a slight smile showing inside his mask.
"What did you see, Spider-Man?"
The gunmen moved around both sides of the rack, lowered their muzzles,