Carnage Vol 2 9

 There's a storm coming. I can smell it on the wind. It smells like fire. But maybe that's just me. Since West Virginia, everything smells like fire and ashes. Eighteen agents dead. My people. My fault. 

—Claire Dixon

Appearing in "Sea Devil: Part Four"

Featured Characters:

• Claire Dixon (Main story and flashback)

Supporting Characters:

• Jubulile van Scotter
• Symbiote Task Force (Main story and flashback)
  • John Jameson (Only in flashback) (As Man-Wolf in vision)
  • Manny Calderon (Only in flashback)
  • Eddie Brock (Only in flashback)
• Children of the Midnight Sun (Only in flashback)
  • Victoria Montesi (Only in flashback)
  • Singh (Only in flashback)

Antagonists:

• Chthonic Brotherhood (Only in flashback)
  • Brother Gregori (Only in flashback)
  • Unnamed members (Mentioned) (Deceased)
• Carnage (Cletus Kasady) (Only in flashback)
• Symbiote-Human hybrids (Only in flashback)

Other Characters:

• FBI (Vision or hallucination)
• Manuela Calderon's mother (Mentioned) (Deceased) (Only in flashback)
• Daughters of Chthon (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
• Chthon (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
• Horton (First appearance; dies) (Only in flashback)
• God (Yahweh) (Invoked) (Only in flashback)

Races and Species:

• Humans (Main story and flashback)
• Symbiotes (Only in flashback)
• Human-Symbiote Hybrids (Only in flashback)
• Man-Wolves (Only in flashback)

Locations:

• Earth (Main story and flashback)
  • Indian Ocean (Main story and flashback)
    • Timor Sea (First full appearance) (Main story and flashback)
      • Chthonic Island (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
  • United States of America (Vision or hallucination)
    • West Virginia (Vision or hallucination)
      • Grey Ridge Mine (Vision or hallucination)
        • Chthonic Temple (Vision or hallucination)
  • Indonesia (Mentioned)
    • Java (Mentioned)
      • Jakarta (Mentioned)
        • Jakarta Old Town (Kota Tua) (Mentioned)

Items:

• Star Stone (Vision or hallucination)
• Toxin Symbiote (Mentioned)
• Darkhold (Only in flashback)
• Carnage Symbiote (Only in flashback)

Vehicles:

• Anti-Carnage Task Force's yacht (Main story and flashback)
• Cinga (Jubulile van Scotter's sailboat) (Mentioned) (Destroyed)
• Caspian Sea (a freighter) (Only in flashback)

Synopsis for "Sea Devil: Part Four"

Standing on the deck of the Anti-Carnage Taskforce's ship, Jubulile van Scotter chats with Claire Dixon, explaining her encounter with Carnage and her confusion with her situation. Claire dismisses Jubulile's assumption that Victoria Montesi is her boss and apologizes for not meeting her when she arrived, stating she was "indisposed" and introducing herself. As they shake hands, both their eyes turn red and Jubulile has a vision of Claire's memories.

Five days prior, the Anti-Carnage task force sail into an encroaching storm, Claire blaming herself for the eighteen agents who'd died during the botched attempt to capture Carnage at Grey Ridge Mine. She is confronted by Manuela Calderon and John Jameson, who express skepticism that they can trust Victoria Montesi and her organization, the Children of the Midnight Sun. Claire dismisses their doubts, stating that Victoria is their one shot at finding and stopping Carnage. Manuela accuses Claire of only being interested in revenge, but the FBI agent turns the accusation back at her, reminding her that Cletus Kasady murdered her mother.

Eddie Brock interrupts, stating that the radar indicates they're approaching the freighter. John asks how they can be sure it's the ship they're looking for, and Virtoria replies that the page of the Darkhold that Manuela stole speaks of an island in the Timor Sea, guarded by the Daughters of Chthon, and that Carnage needs to reach the alter to Chthon to complete the Prophecy of the Red Slayer. The island's location is only known to the leader of the Chthonic Cult in Jakarta, Brother Gregori, who chartered the Caspian Sea, the freighter they're pursuing.

As they ready to board the Caspian Sea, Claire notes that Victoria tried hailing the ship but didn't get a response, and that there's no running lights or signs of life. Victoria informs them that the sigils etched into their body armor and bullets are Chthonic symbols copied from the weapons of the Chthonic Brotherhood, explaining that the power of the Darkhold may have made Carnage immune to sonics, but he is now weak to Chthonic magic. Eddie Brock dismisses the notion that the sigils will be effective, stating the only effective weapon against a symbiote is another symbiote.

Claire rebukes him, stating that the only reason they brought him was because he'd saved Manuela's life and she vouched for him, stating that as long as she has the symbiote activator her vote is the only one that matters. As Victoria ushers them onboard the Caspian Sea, Claire thinks to herself that while Eddie Brock is a psychopath, he doesn't scare her since he's not inherently evil, unlike Carnage. On the deck, they discover the corpses of several crew members, partially covered in symbiote biomass. John asks what happened, and Eddie replies that Carnage tried to infect them like he did with the cultists in West Virginia, but that it failed. Victoria states that Carnage doesn't understand how the Darkhold works, and his attempts to infect others with his symbiote won't work unless a Chthonic alter is present.

Yuvraj Singh informs them that there are no other bodies, causing Manuela to ask how many people normally crew a freighter. John estimates two-dozen, and Claire snaps at Eddie to shut up when he expresses excitement at the possibility of a battle. Inside the blood-stained corridors of the ship, Claire estimates that they'll find Carnage in the engine room. Along the way they find eight more corpses dangling from the ceiling by tendrils of symbiote biomass. Eddie and Manuela note that these bodies aren't as distorted as the ones on-deck, and they come across a surviving crew member, partially-transformed. The man begs to be killed, but Claire interrogates him, to Manuela's and John's disgust.

The man introduces himself as Horton, explaining he's the ship's captain and that Brother Gregori brought Carnage onboard. Carnage forced them to set the ship on autopilot and then used the Darkhold to perform a ritual that killed some of them. Eddie casually shoots him and remarks that he'd asked to die, and he saved the others the trouble of standing by and feeling bad later. Claire rebukes him, but Manuela remarks that Horton had mentioned there were others who weren't killed by the ritual. The task force is abruptly attacked by symbiote-human hybrids, sparking an intense shootout. Eddie calls out to Claire to unleash Toxin, his voice is drowned out by the gunfire, but she guesses his intent and refuses, not wanting to set another monster loose. Victoria calls a retreat, Claire shooting on autopilot as the storm pitches the freighter.

Losing track of the others, Claire stumbles across the engine room, seeing Brother Gregori bound in chains. Gregori warns her that Carnage is unstoppable, that the Brotherhood tried and failed to bind him, and she retorts that she'll be the one to stop him. Gregori sneers that she may as well already be dead as Carnage - hiding in the shadows the whole time - knocks her out from behind. When she awakens, she's bound upside-down with chains, suspended over the Darkhold. Carnage, dangling from the ceiling beside her, remarks he remembers her from West Virginia and that she tried to kill him, stating that while part of him wants to return the favor, he has something better in mind for her.

Solicit Synopsis

See Also

• 3 image(s) from Carnage Vol 2 9
• 2 reprint(s) of Carnage Vol 2 9

Links and References

References