Chapter One: Finding the one
AUTHORS NOTE: Thank you to Harbinger of Kaos for inspiring me to write this story with his story "Unstoppable". I am using part of his concept in my story, however my story is an original in its own right.
The Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane can usually handle most of what its various inmates and "super" criminals can dish out. However there are some things that the institute's security is not meant to deal with. One of those things is the inmate Eddie Brock when he is bonded to the strange Alien Symbiote and calls himself Venom.
Venom just broke out of the cell he shared with the Serial Killer Cletus Kassidy. "Now that we are together again the Spider will feel our wrath and we shall have out revenge upon him." Venom said to himself while walking toward the wall in the side of the building when he was suddenly stopped by the voice of his cellmate.
"Hey Brock, thanks for opening up the way out, I guess your not such a chump after all." Kassidy said with an insane laugh. This caused Venom to turn back towards him and smile towards him, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth. Most sane people would have cowered at the sight of this monstrous being smiling at them in this way, however while Kassidy is many things, sane is definitely not among them.
Venom continued smiling at Kassidy, then suddenly his arm shot out and grabbed him by the throat and then pinned him to the far wall and shot a strand of webbing from the white patch on the back of his hand securing Kassidy about three feet off of the ground. "Had we the time, we would deal with you properly. Did you truly think that we could allow one such as yourself to roam free? Were it not for our need to rid the world of the Spider we would take great pleasure in feasting upon your deranged brain. Since we cannot deal with you currently, you can simply remain here." Venom explained to Kassidy, The serial killer tried to interrupt the super villain several times during his rant but was stopped by the extreme pressure that Venom placed onto his throat. With that Venom left Kassidy hanging and leapt out of the hole in the wall.
Kassidy stared after the departing form of Venom while ranting and screaming. "Damn you Brock you don't deserve that power. It should be mine, MINE." Unknown to both Kassidy and Venom the Symbiote bonded to Brock had spawned another of its kind. This spawn inherited the knowledge of the Venom Symbiote's original mission of finding someone to form a true symbiotic bond with. The spawn decided that it would take up its progenitor's original mission.
The spawn looked like a lump of goo made of a chaotic blend of red and black color. The spawn looked over at the madman hanging against the wall ranting of murder and that Venom's power should belong to him and dismissed him as a potential host using its low level empathic ability to determine that this man was too mentally unstable to make for a good host. The spawn slithered out of the Ravencroft Institute and went in search of a potential host, temporarily bonding a Crow sitting on the roof so that it could fly away from the Institute.
The spawn of Venom decided that it would definitely take its time in choosing a host so as not to recreate its progenitors mistake. Thinking of this, the spawn flew towards New York City in search of a worthy being for it to bond as a host. It was trying to decide whom to bond. The first thought that came to mind was Spiderman or one of the many different heroes that call this world home. However after considering this would not work due to the negative image that Venom had created in the minds of the people of this planet. Spiderman and any of the other heroes of this world would not hesitate to kill it knowing its true nature. Due to this it decided that it would have to bond someone who did not know about Venoms true nature.
Several months later:
It had been a long few months for the spawn of Venom. It had searched for a suitable host and, thus far, come up empty. It simply was unable to find anyone that had what it required in a host. This night it had temporarily bonded a Raven so that it could fly over the city and continue its search for a suitable host. While searching through the city it saw several explosions in the distance, deciding to investigate, it flew towards the smoke rising from the eastern part of the city.
Upon arriving at the scene, the spawn saw Spiderman engaged in battle with one of his many villains, namely the Green Goblin (aka Norman Osborn). Spiderman had knocked the Goblin off of his glider, which had caused the explosion that had drawn its attention in the first place. The Goblin seeing that the night was not going his way, had taken a woman hostage and was holding off Spiderman with one of his bombs. The spawn watched this scene unfold, unsure of what to do to assist the woman that Goblin had captured.
While Goblin was holding Spiderman at bay with his bomb, unknown to him, a young man in his early twenties crept up behind him and was thinking about trying to save the girl. This did not go completely unnoticed as the symbiote saw the young man sneaking up on Goblin. It looked closely at the young man, he was about six feet tall, but very scrawny and gangly in appearance, he had bright green hair that were almost the same shade as his eyes. The young man looked from Goblin to the young woman being held and seemed to make a decision.
Suddenly he flung himself toward the girl and ran full speed, he shoulder blocked Goblin from behind and grabbed the girl around the waist and tried to run away. However the man in the green suit would not let the interloper get away with embarrassing him, he flung his goblin bomb at the back of the young man. However Spiderman had shot webbing and caught Goblin's hand, throwing off his aim, so the bomb landed short of the young man. However the blast from the bomb flung both people into an alley. They symbiote decided that it would check on the young man, as it was one the first person that it had met since beginning its search that it was considering bonding.
As the spawn settled the Raven it had bonded onto the ground, in unattached itself from the bird and slithered over toward the young man. It could see that he was very injured by the blast from Goblin's bomb, the back of his shirt was completely disintegrated, and he has several extremely long gashes on his back from shrapnel wounds, and a lot of burns as well. The girl appeared to be unharmed, merely knocked out from the short flight followed by the sudden stop. The symbiote began to temporarily bond the young man to aid in healing his wounds, making sure to shield its mind to protect itself from any strong emotions the man might be experiencing. Almost immediately after the symbiote finished flowing into the young man, Spiderman appeared, Goblin was nowhere to be seen, and checked both the young peoples injuries. Seeing the young woman was fine Spiderman quickly woke her up. "Miss, miss you need to wake up." Spiderman urged the young woman lying in front of him.
She woke up slowly. "What happened?" The woman asked groggily, looking around she suddenly saw the young man that had saved her from the green suited maniac. "Oh my god is he alright?" She frantically asked Spiderman.
"I don't know miss, I'm going to take him to Mount Sinai Hospital, it's the closest one to here. I'm going to check him for ID." With that Spiderman reached into the young man's back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He opened the wallet and checked the young man's driver's license. "Well according to his driver's license his name is Dominic Weathers, from Chicago Illinois. I am going to take him to the hospital so that he can get medical attention. You should also head there to get yourself checked out. I would take you but I can't carry both of you with him in this condition." After putting the wallet back into the Dominic's pocket, Spiderman gently picked him up and then started to web sling towards Mount Sinai Hospital.
Spiderman dropped the Dominic off at the hospital. The doctors there assured him that he would be well taken care of. After taking him to emergency surgery, they removed the shrapnel from his back. The doctors were surprised that the damage did not seem as extensive as they had initially believed, thanks to the symbiote assisting with Dominic's healing process to keep him from life threatening harm. The surgery was successful and Dominic was taken to a private room to rest and recover.
About ten minutes after Spiderman dropped young Dominic off at Mount Sinai Hospital, the young woman entered the emergency room and quickly went over to the nurse on duty. "Hello my name is Mary West, did Spiderman just drop off a young man named Dominic Weathers?" She asked the nurse frantically.
The nurse looked at Mary and said. "Why yes he did just drop off someone by that name, he is in surgery right now. Are you the young woman that was also attacked? Spiderman said that you would probably be along shortly." When Mary nodded, the nurse immediately called for assistance and got her into an examination room where she was looked over by one of the doctors on staff. The doctor determined that she was fine aside from a bump on the head where she most likely struck the ground after being flung by the bomb.
Mary looked at the doctor and asked. "The other man that Spiderman dropped off Dominic how is he? Is there any way that I can see him?"
She looked at the doctor who replied. "Unfortunately he is still in surgery right now, however you will be able to see him tomorrow once he is out of surgery and has regained consciousness. Now since you are all right, I would suggest you call a taxi and go home and get some sleep. You will be able to see him in the morning." Mary nodded and thanked the doctor for looking after her. She then took his advice and called a cab to take her to her apartment so that she could sleep.
Meanwhile Dominic slept in his hospital bed, and the symbiote inside of him started searching through his memories. What the symbiote saw in this young man's memories amazed the alien creature. The young man lying on the bed came from a very bad background. His mother died giving birth to him, he was given to the state to raise since he had no other family. He spent some time in a foster home before a family adopted him. His family seemed nice at first, until his foster parents got a divorce; he was sent to live his foster father. His foster father was not a very good person. He beat Dominic often when he was younger, usually while drunk.
Dominic did his best to avoid the beatings his foster father put on him. It was a terrible way for him to grow up, however unlike most people in that sort of situation, Dominic did not let it depress him. He kept forging forward, he started getting into self-defense programs at a young age at school, and once he was in his teens he got a job in order to pay for his continuing martial arts lessons. He used his talents to stop his foster father's continuous beatings.
Once Dominic was old enough he moved out from his foster fathers house and started living on his own. He continued his martial arts training eventually earning black belts in several different styles of martial arts, including Jujitsu, Muay Thai, and Aikido. Dominic was very much a social outcast while in school and he liked it that way. He had no real friends, but was very rarely bullied due to his martial arts training. Dominic decided to revel in his status as a social outcast by doing strange and crazy things, like constantly dying his hair strange colors.
Continuing to look through Dominic's memories, the symbiote saw that despite being a veritable outcast of his own society, and his own personal problems at home with his foster father, Dominic had a deep love for his fellow man. He would often volunteer his time at local shelters and juvenile centers, as well as helping people he met that were in trouble. This nights run in with the Green Goblin was not his first encounter with a super powered criminal. He had usually ended up hurt in these situations but never this badly.
The symbiote decided that he would indeed offer to bond this human. While he slept though the symbiote would not do anything more asides from assisting slightly with his healing process, not so much that the doctors would become suspicious.
The first thing that Dom realized when he woke up was that he wasn't dead. The second thing he noticed made him wish that he was dead, he hurt from head to toe, especially his back. He groaned and started to open his eyes and look around, he looked to his right and saw a heart monitor slowly beeping, he thought to himself. 'Ok I must be in a hospital. I wonder if that girl got away from the Goblin.' Suddenly he heard another voice. 'Yes Dominic, she did survive the incident.'
Dom was looking around for the source of the voice. "Huh, is someone there?" When no one answered he started to relax a bit. "Hmm must have imagined it."
'No Dominic, you did not imagine it. I am not a figment of your imagination.' The symbiote said inside of Dom's mind.
"Oh god, I must be losing my mind, that bomb goblin threw at me must have knocked my screws loose and now I'm hearing voices." Dom frantically tried to cover his ears with his hands to keep the voices away.
'Dominic you must calm down, you are not loosing your mind, you are still in control of you faculties. I am simply communicating with you telepathically.' The symbiote said to Dom to attempt to calm him down.
Dom slowly took his hands away from his ears. "So your some kind of telepath? Are you a mutant?" He asked quietly.
'No Dominic, I am not a mutant. I am not even human, I am a symbiotic alien life form that is living inside of your body currently to help you heal from the wounds you suffered last night.' The symbiote explained. Dom was dumbstruck. He immediately looked all over himself and had to fight not to start clawing at his skin. The symbiote sensed Dom's extreme discomfort. 'You do not need to worry, I will not harm you, but I also sense that you will not believe me unless I reveal myself to you.'
With that Dom felt a strange sensation around his arms and stomach. He moved the covers to see a red and black mass lying on his stomach that flew off of him once the covers were away. The mass cam together in a puddle of red and black goo, then immediately started to take form, slowly coalesce into a humanoid shape. It had long arms and legs, and a head with white flame shaped eyes and a large mouth with needle shaped teeth.
"HOLY SHmmph." Dom tried to scream but was stopped when one of the creature's hands covered his mouth. The creature held its other hand up to its mouth in a shushing gesture.
'Please calm down Dominic. I know my form is frightening, but I have not harmed you, I have actually helped heal you. If it had not been for my helping heal your body, you may not have made I out of surgery last night. So I would very much appreciate it if you calmed down.' The symbiote slowly took its hand away from Dom's mouth and when he did not start screaming visibly relaxed.
Dom gave the symbiote a wary look but that was all, it did have a point in that it hadn't tried to harm him, and if it was right he owed it his life. "Ok so why did you save me?" He asked it.
'I saw how you selflessly saved that girl from the Green Goblin. You were very hurt because of the blast from the Goblins bomb. I decided then that I would temporarily bond you to help save your life. After I was sure your life was in no danger, I decided to go through you memories to see if you had what I was looking for. I believe that you do have what I am looking for. You see my species requires a host in order to survive for long periods. We can survive without one but out life span is significantly reduced and we never fully develop. I would like to forge a permanent bond with you as my symbiotic host.' The symbiote explained to Dom.
Dom was completely stunned. He had this strange alien life form that managed to save his life and now wants to 'bond' with him. "Why me? I'm nothing special, you would probably be better off bonding someone else, maybe one of the capes that runs around town." He told the alien creature, he looked at the alien being and was almost sure that he could see it smile.
'I have considered trying to bond one of the many heroes of this world, however I have already made my decision, if you would allow it I would like to join with you in my bond. You have… I am afraid we will have to continue out conversation later, someone is coming.' With that announcement, Dom saw a tendril of red and black slither back into the alien creature in front of him, and the being quickly went back into his body and completely disappeared into his wrists and stomach. Dom looked at his wrists and saw no mark at all to give evidence that it happened.
'Well that was about the coolest and freakiest thing ever.' He thought to himself.
'Then I am both pleased and sorry.' The symbiote thought inside his mind.
Before Dom could come up with a response the door to his room opened and two people walked in. One was obviously his doctor, judging from the white coat and having a chart in his hands. The other was the girl that he had rescued last night; now that he was getting a better look at her he thought she was quite pretty. She had shoulder length blonde hair, and she was fairly slender. She was wearing a light blue t-shirt, some Capri jeans, and a pair of black flats
The doctor looked over at Dom and said. "Good morning Mr. Weathers. I am Dr. Cole; I am in charge of your case. This young lady next to me is miss Mary West, she is the young woman you saved last night." The doctor nodded in satisfaction at the last statement. He held the heroes of this city in very high regard, but thought that if more people acted as this young man had then there might not be a need for the heroes that called this city home. "Now you will be kept here over the next week or two for observation. You had major surgery last night to remove the shrapnel from your back and to treat the burns you received as a result of the explosion. The damage was not as severe as we initially assumed, and thankfully there were no complications with the surgery. We have you on some medication to prevent infection and to help with the pain. Now unless you have any questions I shall leave you with your visitor." Seeing the young man nod Dr. Cole left the room.
Mary looked at the young man in the bed in front of her. With his strange green dyed hair most people would have written him off as a weirdo but Mary found him attractive. "Thank you for saving me last night. That was very brave of you. I don't know what that maniac would have don't to me if you hadn't done what you did."
Dom coughed a little uncomfortably and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "Oh I'm just glad you weren't hurt. I sometimes like to help people that are in trouble."
Mary blushed slightly at this. "I'm sorry that you were hurt saving me. Just be glad that Spiderman was able to get you here quickly. Your wounds looked so terrible last night. I'm just glad that you survived the whole thing."
Now it was Dom's turn to blush slightly. The two young people continued talking for a few more hours until the nurse arrived to say that visiting hours were over. After that Mary left and Dom was alone in his room, more or less. After Mary left and the nurse did a final check on Dom, the symbiote decided it was safe to talk to his potential host again. 'So have you considered my offer to bond with you Dominic? As I was saying earlier you have all the qualities that I am looking for in a host. I even went through your memories while you slept and saw how life has treated you. Despite all of the hardships life has thrown on you, you continue to not only survive but also thrive. Never loosing your self-image, or your love for your fellow man. I know that last nights encounter with the Green Goblin was not your first time being injured by a super villain. If you allow me to bond with you, you would not only be able to help more people but you would also be able to stand toe to toe with the various super criminals of this city, or any city you chose to live in.'
Dom looked very thoughtful at what the symbiote had told just him. After listening to what it had said he made his decision. "Yes I will accept the bond with you, and you can call me Dom. Its what my friends call me."
The symbiote was shocked. 'You consider me your friend? You haven't even known me for one day.'
Dom smiled. "Your right I haven't known you for long, but in the time that I've known you, you've already saved my life and made me an offer to be a partner to me for the rest of my life. Of course I consider you a friend." With that Dom laughed lightly. "So what all will this bonding do to me? Am I going to look like you did when you came out of me all the time?"
'No you will not look like that unless you want to, my species are masters of camouflage. I can copy any type of clothing that you desire or even live solely inside your body should you choose. You will gain many benefits from being bonded to me. You are aware of the being known as Venom correct?' When Dom nodded the symbiote continued. 'Venom was created when another of my kind, namely the one who spawned me, bonded first with Spiderman and then with a man named Eddie Brock. Because my progenitor bonded with Spiderman it copied and enhanced his powers. Those enhanced abilities were passed down to me, hence once you bond with me you will have enhanced strength, agility, and the ability to stick to walls, just to name a few. Also since I am the 999th generation symbiote in my line of symbiotes my abilities are stronger that Venom's. Hence you will be stronger than Venom or Spiderman, also all Symbiotes have a unique special ability. Venom's is an active camouflage that hides him from sight. Mine is the ability to see in three hundred sixty degrees. So no one will ever be able to sneak up on you. While you are in the hospital I will slowly help you heal from your wounds, but not too much, lest that hospital staff become suspicious. However once you are released I will help you fully to recover quickly from your wounds.'
End Chapter One.