Contest of Champions

44

Well, it's not like I don't want to kill Carnage. I want him dead, very much so. So I agree with Cassie's idea, and so does Pietro.

We spend a long time going over our plan. While going over the details, we eat. Pietro and Cassie have some food but not enough, so I chip in with some dried fruit from my pack. With water, it makes a pretty good meal and the three of us all feel refreshed and eager to kill Carnage.

After our meal, Pietro, Cassie, and I leave our safe basement and head out of the desolate skyscraper. The road is covered in rubble, an overhead pass ahead of us having partially collapsed and blocked the way, and fine dust mingled with the glass shards from nearby windows coat the cracked pavement. It's a desolate wasteland out here, and I love it.

There's something thrilling about seeing the city in ruins. A cold thrill, one that almost frightens me as I stand there with Cassie and Pietro, seeing the destruction all around. I shake it off as Cassie takes a deep breath.

"Okay, so we know Carnage hates fire," she says. "And we have the fire bombs." She holds up a glass jar in her hand, filled with gasoline. Pietro was able to find enough of various accelerants in order to provide fuel for seven fire bombs, as well as extra for the torches we've created out of the remains of the few trees in the city. Each of us has several matches from Cassie's box. Hank Pym had sent a big box of matches to her early on in the Contest, which we all bet was for this exact moment: to kill Carnage.

"And the torches," Pietro reminds her, waving his stick in the air.

"And Loki's magic," Cassie adds, giving us a wry grin. She may only be fifteen, but she's already got a mischievous grin to beat mine. I know her stylist played up the little girl angle in the pre-Contest appearances, but Cassie is no ordinary girl, and she's certainly not little. Perhaps in size she's smaller than either I or Pietro, but she makes up for it in heart and sheer willpower. Her moniker of Stature was well chosen.

"Let's do this," I say. "Let's kill him and end this."

The three of us nod and turn. Quickly, we scatter the fire bombs across the space we've outlined to fight Carnage in, leaving three out for us to start the attack off with. Some of the leftover accelerant is stashed as well, along with the extra torches. We're prepared.

"Ready?" Pietro asks us.

"Yep," Cassie says. "Remember the plan."

"Of course we remember," I reply. "I'll always remember the plan." Indeed, we went over it so many times I believe I always will remember the plan, until the day I die.

Cassie and I retreat into our hiding places as Pietro zips off to find out where Carnage is and draw him out. The seconds tick by as we wait anxiously for his report, adrenaline surging through my veins. I almost can't sit still but I do, through sheer force of will. This plan has to work. It has to.

Pietro returns, a smug grin on his face. "I ran some circles around him, made him angry. He'll be stopping by any time now," he says, then races off to antagonize the symbiote some more.

"Ready?" Cassie whispers to me.

"Of course," I respond. I had made the mental image of the illusion perfect; Carnage will most certainly be fooled by it.

"He's coming," Pietro says on his next pass by. "Loki, prepare the runner." And then he's gone.

I can hear Carnage's roars of frustration at the Quicksilver as he can't catch the speedster. Any second now. Any second now.

And then the symbiote bursts into view, the redness of his slimy covering instantly drawing the eye. I cast the mental image into magic and throw it up on the street like it is emerging from my hiding place.