The New Kid
By Scott Tettamble
Taylor swung through the tall skyscrapers of New York City, swearing at those who chased him. Why couldn't those jerks bug someone else? It wasn't like he was Cletus Kassady, or anything. He just had one of the damned suits! He wasn't killing anyone, or even doing any crime fighting like Spiderman or Venom. He was just trying to survive. I even tried to cooperate with those government guys when they showed up on my doorstep!
He was so into his reverie that he almost didn't hear the guy in the green battle suit flying toward him. He felt his second skin's irritation, and the picture of a high school teacher griping at him to pay attention appeared in his mind.
"Yeah, yeah... "
Taylor fired a tendril over to the underside of a ledge across the street. Once he was hanging underneath it, he allowed himself a breather. I've been in this town two days, and I hate it already.People are nuts here! No wonder they have so many superheroes based here. They need 'em just to keep this city from going completely belly-up!
Once again, his other gave him a reminder to keep his mind on the here and now.
Give me a break, will ya? They ain't gonna find us under here.
The other reminded him about the amount of heat he was giving off. That reminded him of how they were tracking him to begin with.
All right! I'm going! Maybe if we head down, we can lose 'em in the crowd. Gimme some cover from the visual scanning.
The suit complied by blending in with its surroundings with amazing attention to detail. It made the symbiote virtually invisible. Taylor began crawling down the wall, praying that they didn't find him before they got to the ground. It was dark, being nearly midnight, and once in the crowd, he could hide his heat signature among the other people. Best of all, they wouldn't be able to spot him out of all the other people visually.
Luck was with him. The guy in the suit hadn't come around for another pass yet by the time Taylor got down into the alley, and once he was on the ground, his suit became another set of clothes entirely.
First, Taylor became visible again, which revealed him to be of about medium height and slightly trim build. Taylor spent a lot of time at the pool and practiced Tai Chi, which helped him keep in shape. As the suit slithered away from his head, it revealed his dark red hair, and hazel eyes. His square jaw gave him a somewhat angry look, and he had a two-day growth of beard.
Next, the suit became a blue jeans shirt, a pair of black jeans, a black duster, and a pair of black sneakers. Taylor flipped the collar up, and strode out into the street. As he walked, he remembered what brought him to this city in the first place.
FLASHBACK
Taylor was standing over the graves of his parents. He didn't come here often. It didn't hurt so much anymore, but he still didn't like to be reminded. Drake and Diana Stevens were both good people. His father was ex-military, which made him hard to live with sometimes, especially considering Taylor's chosen religion, but Drake was pretty understanding. If his boy said he didn't want to hurt anyone, that was just fine by him. Drake had spent most of his adult life hurting people, and was really quite sick of it.
Diana was also very understanding about it. She was the first one Taylor told when he decided that he was going to be a Wiccan instead of a Methodist. She was perfectly happy with his dislike of causing pain. She was also adamant about teaching him Tai Chi, which she taught to others at a dojo in town. She was very good at it, and she made sure that Taylor was also very good at it. He'd been learning it since he was able to walk. Diana convinced him to continue his training because it made for good meditation. Taylor couldn't disagree with that, so he kept at it. What she didn't tell him was that if someone was going to try to hurt Taylor, she wanted him to be able to hurt them back. She knew her son got picked on constantly in school, and he had come home repeatedly with a bloody nose, or a black eye. She acted disappointed, but was very open later with her husband about how proud she was when, one day in eighth grade, Taylor stood up to a group of bullies who were bothering someone else. Taylor had taken the entire group down, and didn't have a mark to show for it.
From then on, Taylor never came home injured from a fight. Those fights became fewer and fewer when the bullies realized that, while they weren't going to get badly hurt themselves, they weren't going to even land a shot on Taylor. They eventually lost interest.
Taylor was about to turn away from the graves when he heard a whistling sound. It reminded him of the sound of missiles that you always heard on television. He looked up a saw a little speck that came closer and closer to the ground, and finally burrowed into it with a ground-shaking thud.
"What the heck is this?"
He went over to inspect this thing which turned out to be not a missile, but a meteorite. It was about the size of a baseball, and as he watched, it cracked open down the center. He peered into the now opened meteorite, and saw a white fluid oozing out of it. Remembering a movie he had seen about a similar incident, and what had happened to the farmer who had wound up being eaten by the entitled creature, Taylor took a step back. Running for the police seemed like a pretty good idea right then, but Taylor never got the chance. His sudden burst of fear attracted the attention of the thing, and it snapped out a tentacle of some kind, gripping Taylor around his neck. It used him as an anchor to pull the rest of itself out of the meteorite, and wrapped itself around Taylor's head. Taylor wanted to shriek, and in the attempt, the creature began to force itself down his throat, up his nostrils, and into every entry into his body it could locate. The combination of fear, and sudden inability to breathe caused Taylor to do the most merciful thing in the world right then and there.
In other words, Taylor Stevens, son of Drake and Diana Stevens, fainted dead away.
PRESENT
Taylor looked up just in time to see the guy in the green battle suit fly by overhead. The lights from the street didn't show him all that well, but the sound of those jets in his boots was very distinctive, and the flames from the jets were easy to see in the darkness. The other filled his head with a sense of irritation, but this time directed at the hunters. Tell me about it, he thought bitterly. If I'd have just left, and not told anyone where I went, we wouldn't be in this fix. No, I had to be the proud American, and do what my government wanted me to do. I went with those rejects from a bad UFO movie, and what happens? I get put in a little box made entirely of fire and noise, and told I'm going to die for my country, whether I like it or not. And I don't.
He walked for about an hour, listening for the sound of boot jets. When he hadn't heard them for a while, he figured it might be safe enough to take to the high ground again, and maybe find an out of the way place to crash for the night. He turned to his left, going into the darkened alley, looking for all the world like someone who was begging to get mugged. A smile slipped across his lips as he thought about that. It might actually be kinda funny to see someone try. Especially considering the fact that all bullets seem to do any more is knock me down. My second skin's pretty good at catching the things.
Taylor's other went through it's metamorphosis again, but this time in reverse. His sneakers, pants, shirt, and coat flowed into one another, and turned white. A toothy grin appeared where Taylor's mouth was, and two black eyespots appeared over his own. Taylor knew he could do the seven-foot tongue, as well, just like Venom and Carnage, but didn't see the point. The grin was scary enough. The other grew tendrils, and pulled him up the wall. Once he got to the top, he began to run across the rooftops, leaping across the gaps, some of them at least thirty feet wide. It felt good to be able to move like this.
Taylor realized how little attention he was paying to his surroundings when something barreled into him, knocking him to the gravel. He slid a few feet, and looked up at his attacker.
Spiderman?!
"How did you get loose, Carnage?" the avenging arachnid asked, his voice full of anger and contempt.
Oh, great...
"Get your eyes checked, pal. I ain't Carnage. He's red and black, with white eyes. I'm white, with black eyes."
Taylor picked himself up off the gravel, and dusted himself off. Neither he, nor his other were very much in the mood for this.
Spiderman tilted his head to the side, and gave Taylor another look. He sounded very confused when he next spoke.
"Venom?"
Okay. This is starting to get on my nerves.
"Is your hearing defective too, Spiderjerk? I said 'white, with black eyes,' not black, with white eyes and a white spider on my chest. Jeez, man!"
The anger returned to Spiderman's voice. "Then who are you, and where did you get a symbiote?"
"None of your damn business!"
"What did you say?"
"Boy! You really are going deaf. I said 'None of your damn business.' Now, if you'll excuse me, I have things to do."
"What? Like eating people's brains? I don't think so."
"I don't either. Get out of my way."
"What do you mean you don't either?"
Taylor took a deep breath, which caused Spiderman to tense up, like he expected an attack. He then silently counted to ten
"Spiderman, I am being chased by people who know a whole hell of a lot more about the symbiotes than you do. While I was in their care, I learned a lot about them myself. I know what the symbiotes feed on. I also know that eating chocolate causes the body to produce large amounts of phenalethylamine. I eat a lot of chocolate, so I don't get sudden cravings for the internal organs of other living creatures. I don't intend to get caught by those wack-jobs again, so if you'll just get out of my way, I'll see about becoming the most unnoticeable person in the city. Okay?"
"Gee. I guess I owe you an apology then. Maybe I can help. Who's chasing you?"
"Spiderman, I really don't have the time to chat with you. You just go back to whatever it was you were doing before you jumped me, and I'll make like an amoeba. Deal?"
Taylor didn't wait for Spiderman's reply, but promptly leapt over the side of the building, and began swinging away. Spiderman caught up to him, and swinging beside him said "You just keep your nose clean, kid, because I'll be watching you."
"Oh, gee. Assault and battery and now peeping tom charges. You're just rackin' 'em up tonight, aren't you?"
With that, Taylor swung down to street level, and quickly shifted into his duster, denim, and sneakers.
What a creep, he thought. Well, looks like the rooftops are out. Wanna try the subway tunnels?The other didn't feel very enthusiastic about this choice, but it seemed to be the only alternative. It formed a picture of his high school librarian, Mrs. Waters, shushing a group of teens that were being rowdy. Taylor got the message.
Yes, I'll be looking for somewhere quiet. I need sleep too, you know.
Taylor got down into the subways, which were not very busy at the moment. Taylor hoped noone was watching him as he directed his other to cover and cloak him once again. Gettin' a workout tonight, aren't we, pal?His other voiced one of his own phrases back at him.
Oh, brother...
Taylor smirked, and thought back, Smart aleck.