Disclaimer: I do own all original characters that make their premiere here. I do not own the character concept of Symbiotes or any other Marvel Comics character that appears in this story.
Mature audience is recommended to keep my butt out of trouble.
………………………………………………………………………………...
"God bless us, every one."
That's how most people think of sickly children. And they're right.
I remember one Christmas at the doctor's office.
All the other sickly children were thrilled and couldn't wait to see one of the volunteers who had dressed up as Santa Clause. Their pale faces lit up as each new present was given and each carefully prepared allergen-free cookie was set on their plate. The small Christmas tree in the waiting room was brightly decorated with hand-made ornaments that the children had made themselves, each with a child's signature and was revered like a work of art.
I sat in the back of the room, sipping on my juice and sucking on my inhaler as I watched the other children.
They were so happy. So easily elated by such simple gestures of kindness. Despite the fact that the cookies tasted lousy; despite the fact that Santa sounded like a New York construction worker; and despite the fact that our ornaments were nothing more then folded and cut construction paper.
The children were so easily made happy, made expressive and lively again.
But me? I just wanted my body to work like it was supposed to; just like every other child there wanted their bodies to work as well.
But I didn't want to play baseball with my body. I wanted to be able to run, and jump. I wanted to be the action hero in the movie, the superhero on TV. I wanted to not be scared when I was away from this damnable medicine. I wanted my medical file at the doctor's office not to have a volume two. I wanted not to know my doctors on a first name basis. I wanted to be strong.
I wanted to actually do something useful with my miserable broken body.
And years later…
…
…I got my wish.
-Symbiosis-
Newark, New Jersey. The beginning of summer. 10:36 PM. Riverside.
Through the waters it moved. Through the cold, dark, lonely waters it swam under it's own power. Fish darted away from it, as if sensing the dangers it presented.
Meanwhile… Joey C. Kurtz wiped more sweat from his brow with a napkin, before stuffing the napkin back inside his pants pocket. He was a young Caucasian boy with a big nose, and pushing around a 50 gallon drum full of the most vile stuff he'd ever seen wasn't exactly what he had in mind for a moonlighting job. "I don't get it.", Joey said. "Why's he get us to haul this crap for him?"
"He doesn't.", said Bobby "Redwood" Goode. "He gets a rookie like you to do it. I'm just here to baby sit." Bobby was a huge African American "brother" who easily towered over Joey when they stood side by side. Bobby wasn't a typical "gangsta", he pronounced most of his words correctly and didn't dress gaudy to gather attention. Bobby was smart. And it was those same smarts that put him high up in the local Bloodhound gang. "That's the way it works.", he said as he sat comfortably on the tailgate of his truck while Joey did all the work.
Joey grunted again as he rolled the 50 gallon drum toward the edge of the sidewalk that ran parallel to the saltwater sea-fed river. "Yeah, well that sucks!", he complained.
"We all had to take out the trash too, Kid. Don't screw up and you'll get a better job next time.", Bobby said.
"I wanted to cook this stuff. Not dump it!" Joey straitened the barrel on it's end to stand up. "Or at least run it…"
Bobby chuckled. "Medicine Man likes to cook it himself. Too much can go wrong in the kitchen if you're stupid."
Joey leaned on the drum. "Well maybe I can help cook too. More cooks mean more stuff for you and your boys to run."
Bobby smiled. "First ya gotta do the little things right. Take out the garbage first. Then ya clean the dishes. Maybe take a few orders. Then, if you're lucky, do ya get to help with cooking." He gestured to the drum. "Now quit whining like a # and get rid of that stuff already."
Joey turned his attention back to the drum, and with a little effort managed to pry the lid off. "Ugh… What exactly is in this junk anyway?", he said looking into the drum.
"Trust me, you don't wanna know. Some real nasty stuff in there: chemicals of all kinds. Don't breath in too much of that if you can help it. I wouldn't try to touch it either if I were you."
Inside the 50 gallon drum sat the byproducts of the largest Methamphetamine Lab in the immediate area. The most vile, flammable, toxic, and lethal chemicals all mixed into one noxious cocktail. Even leftovers from bad batches and failed recipes were carelessly tossed into the fuming quagmire inside the drum.
A more sickening and cringe-invoking concoction could not be made, short of adding in a few pints of an orphan's blood or tears. And for all they knew, that could be in the next batch too.
Down below in the river, an entirely different ooze continued to swim it's way through the cold salty water in search for one thing in particular. A host.
It drifted through the water until it clung to the rocks and barnacles that had gathered at the concrete walled bank. Just above it, on the sidewalk, stood two oblivious humans that might make decent hosts.
Joey scooted the drum closer to the edge, next to the guard railing. "Can ya at least give me a hand pouring it over the railing? This 's heavy."
"Alright, alright…", Bobby hopped off his tailgate and walked over to Joey.
The blackish ooze below shot-forth small tendrils of it self and climbed up along the rocks, completely oblivious and ignorant to what was happening just above.
Bobby squatted down to grab the bottom of the drum, and with a loud grunt he heaved it up with all his mighty bulk while Joey held the top of the drum and controlled the pouring.
The black ooze crawled higher out of the water, latching onto the concrete and barnacles. And then it was hit head-on with a stream of the vilest substances it had ever felt.
Bobby lifted the end of the drum up higher as more and more poured out of the drum.
The ooze was pushed off the rock and back into the water as the Meth byproducts and waste poured directly onto it. The strange living ooze shot out tendrils of its mass in all directions and it visibly shacked and shivered, as if it was wrenching from pain and agony. If it had a mouth, it might be screaming.
Joey shook the end of the drum as the last drops fell into the water below, the agony of the black liquid below them completely unknown to both him and Bobby.
Joey chuckled. "Hey, think the fish are getting high right now?"
"If they were, we'd be selling this stuff instead of dumping it!", Bobby joked back.
They both chuckled and laughed as they carried the much lighter empty drum back to the bed of Bobby's truck.
"Go get the lid while I strap this thing in.", Bobby said as he secured the drum with straps and belts.
The living liquid below in the river wretched back and forth, the horrible contents of the drum mixing with it's own mass. The creature darted away from the pour site, desperate to dilute or wash out the pollution in its body.
With the drum secured, the lid attached, and the job done, Joey and Bobby got into the truck.
"Alright, let's get out of here already.", Bobby said.
"What're you in a hurry for? No one's around."
"I know, but my sister taped American Idol for me.", he said as he started the motor. "I wanna see who got kicked off this time."
The truck rolled off and on its way.
Used phosphorus, over-the-counter medications, alkali metal, anhydrous ammonia, lithium, sodium, or possibly even hydroiodic acid were just some of the ingredients that could have been used in making this town's Crystal Meth. Those were just a few of the horrible things that could have been inside the drum. There was more then one way to make the noxious stuff.
The living liquid thrashed about wildly underwater; desperately trying to separate it's own mass from that of the Meth waste. It refused to absorb, accept, digest, or even touch the stuff. Removing the amount that had already burned its way into its body was even harder.
Small waves shot around the water's surface, easily confused with some larger fish attacking some smaller fish. But truthfully, the black living liquid was in pain.
Make it stop…
It thrashed about, swimming away into cleaner waters as quickly as it could.
Pain.
Make it stop!
Faster, into cleaner waters. Damage already done.
The pain!
Make it stop.
The black liquid slowed to a stop and floated in the water, slipping into it's equivalent of unconsciousness.
Make it stop…
It floated away, at the mercy of the river's current.
Please… Make it stop… Save me…
-Symbiosis-
One week later.
To say it was a dark and stormy night would not only be cliché, it would be an exaggeration too. A light sprinkle was falling over Newark, New Jersey; nothing more then a summer rain misting over the city in the early night hours when the crickets were just beginning to chirp.
Madison "Maddy" White, a sixteen and one half year old Caucasian girl with blonde short length hair curled up into a pathetic ball of angst against the cold moist concrete just outside of a mall. The mall had closed hours ago, and Maddy had known this, but she had still wondered her way here as it started to sprinkle. Now, she found herself collapsed in a corner near the locked entrance, near some bushes but past the bench and a trash can with an ashtray. Somehow, she assumed she managed to slip past security camera to lie down like some homeless junkie, either that or Mall Security was too busy surfing with shopping carts.
Maddy was a good girl trying her best to act like a bad girl. More for practical reasons then for being a poser; bad people were scarier then good people. And that was the balance she preferred. To this day, Maddy White had never done drugs, rarely given her father a problem, and had managed to come no where near getting knocked up like the statistical 800,000 women per year under the age of sixteen. But by first glance, you'd first pick out her darker clothes, the pocketknife she wore proudly on her belt everywhere but school, and a cautious glare to anyone she hadn't considered a friend yet.
Maddy was a good girl disguised as a bad girl. A sheep in wolf's clothing. The pearl handle of a sheathed knife.
And currently… She was sobbing in the rain next to a trashcan outside of the mall.
"Maddie?", a voice called out.
Maddie looked up and past damp short locks of blonde hair she eyed a thin and frail looking teen, roughly seventeen years of age, with light blonde hair. He wore black pants, and a white shirt covered by a simple black jacket.
"Who are you?", Maddie asked with slight bitterness, stifling a sniffle.
"Clay.", the boy answered. "Clay Moore?", he repeated.
"Oh yeah… The kid who was sick all the time. I brought your homework home a few times.", Maddie recalled and slightly uncurled.
"That'd be me.", Clay said matter-of-factly. "What are you doing here?"
"Nothing…", Maddie said as she looked away and began to pull herself up into a sort of slumped over sitting position, leaning against the wall. "Get out of here, you'll catch another cold." She masked her anger and desire to be left alone with a sort of concern.
"No, no can do.", Clay said, attempting to push forward a charming or maybe even comforting tone. "I came here looking for you."
Maddie looked up to him. "My folks sent you?"
Clay raised an eyebrow.
Maddie looked aside awkwardly. "Sorry. It's just… Why you?"
"They're sending everyone they can find. I just found you first.", Clay explained.
"Pffft. Probably just my dad who's concerned.", she said, pulling her legs closer and hugging her knees.
"Yeah…", Clay began, looking off to the side as well now. "You're mom was…"
"Still yelling at my dad?"
"Basically."
"Figures."
They were quiet for a moment. But Clay didn't let that silence exist long.
"Come on. Let's get you back.", he said.
"Not going home yet.", she said, glaring off to the side as she tried to hide her face behind her knees and hug her legs tight.
Clay paused. "Alrighty, then… I can get why."
"Why does everyone say that?", Maddie looked up at Clay with a mixture of anger and curiosity. "I mean it, why?"
"Because you're mom's a bi-polar b# who demands attention from a doctor with a deep-seeded need to be needed.", he stated bluntly.
…
Maddie closed her eyes and chuckled, and that chuckle soon grew to a short but sweet deep-belly laugh.
Clay smirked to himself proudly and withdrew a cell phone from his pocket.
"What are… Who are you calling?", she asked while stifling the last of her laugh.
"Texting my mom back at your house to let everyone know I found you and you're safe.", he replied as he typed away on what looked like a Samsung Blackjack.
"Great…", she said unamused suddenly.
"And then I'm turning off my phone.", Clay said with a smile again as he deactivate the device, resulting in a pleasant little ring-tone to sound as it powered off. "So they can't ask me where I am."
Maddie was quiet. She smiled slightly and closed her eyes again, resting her forehead on her knees. "Everyone probably thinks I'm some stupid emo kid for running away in the rain, huh?"
"Eh…", Clay replied with a slight wave of his hand as he pocketed his phone with his other hand. "Not really. You just needed some air." He extended his free hand to her to help her up.
"Yeah…", she agreed while taking his hand and being heaved up onto her feet. "How'd you find me anyway?"
"Eh…", Clay started to admit awkwardly. "I kinda looked at your room a little…"
"What?", she asked quite sharply.
"Don't worry!", he said, holding up his hands in defense. "No one found the old safety deposit box you keep between your mattresses, but I'd recommend hiding it at the top of your closet instead.", he said.
Maddie's eyes grew wide in surprise. "But-"
"And no one could crack your computer's password, including me.", he pointed out quickly. "I tracked you here from all the damn receipts in your trash can; they were all from stores in this mall. And your friend Sara said you were a mall rat." Clay paused to point to a hidden camera protected in a black dome above the locked doors at the mall's entrance. "I figured you'd pick a safe and secluded spot where cameras were blind too because you've had plenty of time to find all the holes in security. I found nicks on the inside of your closet door, which I think are from you practicing throwing your favorite pocketknife at. Target practice." He turned back to her. "Right? You're always ready for a worst-case scenario, aren't you? It's like a sense of security for you, right?"
"I-", a dumbfounded Maddie tried to start. "You…" She paused and pointed a finger at him. "You figured out where I was, by receipts in my trash and knife-marks on my closet door?"
"And all the security you placed around your secret box and computer.", he said. "Which nobody found or disturbed.", he quickly added.
"And… You found me just… by all that?", she said, still slowly putting the pieces together in her head, only to find that… It was like trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle underwater with half the pieces missing.
"Hey, when you're sick as often I am, you get to reading a lot of detective novels.", he explained while taking one step away from her. "Profiling is my specialty. Now… How about we get out of the rain, and find a fast food joint open this late. My treat?", he offered while crooking his thumb backwards and pointing into the night with it.
"No…", she said with a sigh. "I just want…"
"It'll be good to get it off your chest.", Clay defended.
"Alright…", she conceded with something of a smile. "But only because it's free food.", she said as she took a few steps away from the corner where she had been sulking.
"Fine…", Clay agreed as they started to walk off together.
-Symbiosis-
Clay and Maddie had found their way to a fast food joint that was open late, ate some cheap food, and talked. Mostly, Clay Moore just let Maddie vent and tell her story, her frustrations, her grievances, and most importantly her feelings. Clay shared a few stories and anecdotes of others and a few jokes delivered with a dry sort of sarcastic wit about him. The hour had passed by and the rain had subsided, leaving the world outside damp but the air had a fresh sort of smell to it.
Eventually Clay and Maddie ventured outside the restaurant with full stomachs and began walking home. Maddie wasn't terribly excited about going home to whatever drama and hysteria awaited her, but Clay offered his home's couch to Maddie for the night if she needed. He was confident his mother might not mind so much, and that she wouldn't be too unconfident or untrusting in her son's integrity.
"Thanks…", Maddie reluctantly agreed to at least consider the offer. She thanked him with something a sigh, frustrated at her troubles yet the idea of getting away from her mother for a night did sound nice. "Hey, Clay? I know I said this already but… Thanks.", she said while looking down at the sidewalk while stepping over it. "For, ya know, coming after me."
"No problem.", was Clay Moore's short but sincere response.
They continued on with their small talk and quiet chit-chat.
But soon enough, a police officer's car slowly pulled up along the side of the road and the driver eyed them.
Clay gave a casual wave to the officer in acknowledgement.
The car came to a stop, and after a moment the officer stepped out. He was a huge, bulking man who could have easily been a body builder on the weekends. "Hey! Hey, kids.", he called out to them.
Clay and Maddie, who had traveled a bit ahead, stopped and looked back.
"What are you two doing out so late?", he asked as he casually walked up.
"Going home.", Clay said, turning directly to face the officer without any obvious signs of being nervous.
"What are your names?", the police officer asked as he approached and stopped.
"I'm Maddie White. He's Clay Moore."
A short pause. "Oh…", the officer said with sudden understanding. "I've been looking for you two.", he said firmly.
"You have?", Clay asked, with a cynically raised eyebrow.
"Oh jeez…", Maddie held up her hand to her brow and rubbed her sinuses in frustration. "My dad probably called me in missing, or something. Lord only knows my mom wouldn't give a # too."
"Mhmm.", the officer said. Then he leaned over to the mic on his shoulder and said "Officer Richards, tango 4-11, found missing person Maddie White. I'll escort her home." No reply came from the radio.
Clay's eyes narrowed slightly, into a subtle and somewhat accusing glare.
"Does that mean we get to ride in the fancy squad car?", she asked the officer with a chuckle.
"Yeah, alright…", the officer said, as if giving in to his softer side and pointing back at his car. "Hop on in, you two."
Maddie took a step forward, but Clay's hand quickly shot forward and attached a strong death grip around her arm.
"Wait.", he said.
Maddie, suddenly halted, looked back with a confused looked on her face.
"He's not a cop.", Clay said, while staring right at the police officer with a somewhat heavy brow.
"Excuse me?", the officer demanded.
"What?", Maddie questioned.
Clay released his grip on Maddie's arm. "You can't report someone missing until they've been gone for at least 24 hours.", he pointed out. "There's no such police code as a Tango 4-11.", he said. "And no Jersey cop is that nice."
Most people might be smirking now, but not Clay. He continued to hold his fixated stare on the fake cop. No one imitates a cop for kicks and giggles and then goes home. Clay wasn't taking his eye off this threat for a second. Even a blink would be too long.
The cop's neck stiffened a bit upon Clay's scrutiny. And he returned Clay's intense and examining stare.
Maddie's gaze darted back and forth between the cop and Clay a few times. Then she looked over at the cop slowly, and removed her cell phone. "Let me call in your badge number.", she said slowly and firmly, having made her decision.
The cop did nothing, except keep his examining glare on Clay Moore, with an air of self-affirmation.
At the same time, Clay continued an examineing glare of his own at the officer, with a touch of an accusatory nature.
The cop eventually said… "Runt." Then he whipped out his arm, and a thick grayish white tentacle shot out of the officer's sleeve.
The tentacle whipped and curled about Clay's throat, and Clay instantly was clawing at it to pry it's tightening grip around his throat.
In a flash, the officer yanked his arm, and Clay was pulled off the ground.
"CLAY!"
"Maddie! Run!", Clay barked out as the tentacle hurled him through the air and whipped the frail teen into the window of a near by building.
The tentacle, minus Clay, soon slithered out of the window and retracted quickly back into the officer's sleeve.
Maddie spared one quick surprised and frightened glance at the officer before putting her feet to good use and ran off in the other direction.
The officer soon followed, angry and with a heavy stomp to his steps.
Maddie didn't look back, just kept her head forward and told her legs to move faster, her arms to swing back and forth faster, her hand to grip her cell phone tighter.
She turned a corner, and on the other side were two other African American boys leaning against the wall of a building.
"Hey, wuz da rush?", one asked.
Maddie didn't spare them a word, only ran past at full speed and then some.
The two boys watched her pass with strange curiosity, and then turned to see the cop.
"Yo, po po, what you chasing the white ch-?", one began to ask as he stepped forward.
The cop grabbed the boys face and slammed it into the wall, leaving nothing more then a bloody splat and a blood-soggy object resembling a hairy coconut where the boys head used to be. The officer didn't even stop running to crush his skull, and was running off again before the body hit the ground, much to the horror of his surviving friend.
Maddie grimaced at the cracking splat sound she had heard behind her, which only motivated her to run faster. The adrenaline continued to rush into her veins at the utter belief that her life was in danger.
"DANNY!", the surviving friend screamed in horror as he stared down at what was left of his friend's skull with shaking hands and weak knees.
Then someone else, dressed in black and dark shades of blue, rushed past.
By the time the surviving friend looked up, the someone else had already run off away to far to make out details.
He shuttered and reached into his pocket to call 9-11 on his cell.
Meanwhile, Maddie turned another corner into an alleyway. Of course she knew alleys had their dangers, but they'd be certainly safer then this! And she'd never loose the cop on open streets; she needed to hide.
Oh God… Clay's dead., she thought in passing as she continued to run, looking for a place to hide.
And then the worst thing happened.
She turned a corner into a dead end. This alley way was blocked off by a chain fence, which she knew about. But what was unexpected and horrible was that someone had added a barbed wire top to the fence, making it an excruciating ordeal to jump.
Maddie skidded to a stop in front of the fence. "What?", she said to herself between heavy breathes of air. "When'd they put that there?!", she demanded.
"You're not running fast…"
She turned, and there was the cop.
His head was hunched low, and his uniform seemed to wiggle and shift with each breath as he slowly stepped forward. He wasn't even breathing hard.
"Not…", she heaved. "Not running fast…?", she backed up a bit, and quickly dived at a heavy set metal back door against the alley wall. She yanked and twisted but the door was locked tight. "S#!"
"You should've run faster…", the cop said with genuine confusion. "Unless…", he said, finally stopping in his tracks. "You're not the host…", he said, almost surprised.
And then… A shadow quickly grew over the officer, and a car landed on him.
CRUNCH!!
Maddie was knocked off her feet, and stared up with several blinks.
A near by car had landed nose-first on top of the officer, and his arm protruded from the crunched and twisted wreckage, still twitching like an insect.
"…what…?", was her humbled reaction, like a tiny little girl.
"Maddie!", Clay's voice called out. And then Clay appeared over the trunk of the car, which pointed strait up in the air, and the thin frail boy slid down the car's length and landed next to Maddie.
"C-Clay!", she stuttered as he swiftly took her hands and yanked her up to her feet again.
"No time! Gotta get outta here.!", he said as he let go of her wrists after she was on her own two feet, and yanked at the handle to the door Maddie had just tried.
"I tried that! It's locked.", she said.
BAM!
The door flew inside the dark building, buckled in half and with a shoe-print clearly visible in the center of the buckling.
At this point, Maddie might be developing a confused nervous twitch, if not for Clay yanking her by her wrist into the dark building immediately after. "Slow down! Whoa, hey!" She nearly was yanked off her own two feet trying to keep up with Clay as they sprinted together through the dark building, apparently some sort of department store that had closed for the night.
Clay had a billion other things on his mind right now. The newest of which was the silent alarm that was likely tripped by his kicking in the door. Good, at least now maybe real cops would be on the way.
Clay and Maddie continued to run at full steam, Maddie barely keeping up with Clay's pull on her wrist.
"Clay!", she huffed. "Hey, what's going-"
"Shut up, I'll explain later!", he quickly ordered as they exited the department store, via Clay kicking the front door open as well.
After that, it was a brisk jog down the sidewalk by moonlight and then running for dear life down the next alley, and then down another, a hop over a trashcan, and then into a larger alley behind an apartment complex. The newest alley was filled with trash and debris and even a junked up car.
Then Clay suddenly pulled Maddie to him and covered her mouth with his hand, pressing her back against the dirty brick wall of the alley.
Maddie looked at him surprised and somewhat angry, her hand holding his arm lightly, not quite pulling it away yet…
In a strange and tense, silent moment, the only sound to be heard was their breathing.
"I'll explain everything… I promise.", Clay said while his breathing returned to normal rather quickly. "But first we just gotta get out of here, okay? Trust me? We get out of here, get safe, and then I'll explain. Okay?"
Maddie continued to stare at him with wide eyes and hold his arm, which held her mouth. Slowly she began to nod despite her captivity.
"Okay…", Clay sighed in relief. "Okay.", he said.
Suddenly Maddie's eyes went wide and she tried to scream through his hand.
And a piece of rusted rebar impaled Clay through his chest, the iron rod stabbing out of his chest.
A thin mist of blood spattered of Maddie's horrified face.
And then Clay was thrown aside quickly like a discarded moldy ragdoll through the air.
The police officer was there again, with thick white tentacles and masses of liquid flesh seemingly melting in and out of his uniform.
Clay's body landed in a pile of garbage, complete with the rebar rod still stabbing through his body.
At the same time the police officer's clothes all exploded into bursts of pasty white liquid tentacles, which wrapped themselves around his entire body from head to toe before melting together again into one smooth surface. A mouth and two dark eyes formed on the muscular monster's face.
And poor Maddie was beside herself… She didn't have time or even the peace of mind to wonder "WHAT THE F#K?!" All she knew was a giant monster that didn't make sense just killed her friend for the second time in five minutes and she too was about to get chomped to pieces.
"You…", the white monster growled before pointing a pointed finger at her. "Don't move. Don't scream. Or I eat your brains.", it commanded firmly of her.
"Hey!", Clay yelled.
Maddie and the monster both turned to see Clay standing on an uneven footing of garbage bags.
He grabbed the rebar stabbing out of his stomach and began to pull it out with only so much as a wince of pain across his face. His white shirt became black just around the stab wound and almost seemed to push the rod out as Clay pulled it out of his thin invalid body.
"Wha… What?", Maddie asked with the early phases of a twitch across her thinly blood-misted face.
"Oh, like you couldn't see this plot twist coming a mile away.", he said as he yanked out the last of the rebar from his body without so much as another drop of blood on it. "Step back from the girl. It's us you want.", Clay said as he clothes began to wriggle and a few inexplicable tentacles slithered from his jacket.
"Why?", the monster asked as it turned from Maddie to face Clay. "Why a runt host like that?"
Where as other more jolly heroes might quip a joke like that, Clay Moore's only response was to jump into the air. …very very far up into the air. Two or three stories up, he kicked out and rebounded against the building's brick wall to gain more altitude.
The monster reached out and grabbed Maddie with it's huge hand, which grasped her entire throat and part of her shoulders between it's spread white fingers.
Clay's clothing exploded away from him as a thick black liquid, a mess of black tentacles and tendrils and masses of goop. The black matter around him contract around him, slapping and wrapping around his chest, arms, head… Big white eyes shot open with an instant clarity.
The black something that once was Clay Moore crashed into the monster in a blur of white and black that tore the monster's hand form her. Maddie closed her eyes in a flinch. And then she felt something wrapped itself around her stomach and yank her body upwards while her limbs flailed below her like wet noodles.
Maddie opened her eyes.
A thin but very well toned person held her under his arm safely. He had a almost liquid skin, like that of the monster but with slick black oil-like color. A tentacle led from his hand all the way up to the rooftop of the building and both Maddie and this black something of a person seemed to fly upwards as the tentacle contracted on itself and retracted into the something's arm.
The monster down below, had a piece of a rebar stabbing through his arm and into the pavement below.
Maddie and her companion reached the rooftop and the agile black figure quickly landed on his feet after flipping over the edge with her. He then gently set her onto her feet while the black tentacle whipped and slithered back into his wrist.
The figure was about Clay's same height, maybe an inch taller somehow. His entire body was black and of the same slick texture as the monster below. The only mark or extinguishment was two large white membrane-like lenses over where the eyes of a normal person might be.
"Wha… What?!", she said panicking a tad as her brain caught up to her, batting away the stranger's hands.
"Stay here. Don't say anything to anyone, stay out of it.", he said firmly with Clay Moore's voice. "I'll explain everything later." He let go of her and then with a single bound flipped over the rooftop and back down into the alley.
…
…
"…Clay?", Maddie asked him even though he had left. "Will someone tell me what's going on?!", she shouted while her senses caught up with her.
Meanwhile…
Mid fall, a thick gloppy white tentacle wrapped itself around Clay's black ankle, a tentacle belonging to the white monster, and the monster whipped Clay into the ground with a mighty crash. Pavement cracked and formed a crater around the impact. The monster removed withdrew it's tentacle while it yanked the rebar rod from it's arm and tossed it aside.
A black tendril shot forth from the crater before the dust could completely even clear, it screamed past the white monster in an instant and the end anchored against the wall with a splat.
The white monster turned to see the tendril anchor, then turned back just in time to see Clay flying at him on the retracting tendril. Clay pulled and brought his knees forward for a knee strike. The monster could barely put up its bulky arms in time to block.
Clay's knees impacted the monster while the tendril continued to pull, slamming the monster through the wall adjacent to the tendril's anchor with Clay's knees still buried into the monster's clenched body.
Beyond the other side of the wall was a cleared out department store unit, that had been yet to be furnished with carpet or paint or even all of it's lights.
CrackCrackCrack!
Clay threw three hooking punches in very rapid succession and very quickly, slamming into the monster's jaw like fist-sized bullets.
The monster replied by slamming its fist into Clay's torso hard enough to fling Clay aside and into a support beam.
The much buckler an muscled monster stood it's ground and stretched it's jaw a few times as it healed from the recent attack. "Why pick the runt?", it asked.
Clay slumped to the floor, leaving behind a large dent in the support beam. "What?", he groaned as he too began healing.
"I'm not talking to you, mammal.", the monster replied. "I'm talking to your Other. Why would you pick a runt like this for a host?"
"Because…", Clay groaned as he rose to his feet. "Because I have three seasons of Law & Order on DVD?", he answered.
"You disgust me…"
"Frankly… We have no idea exactly what you're talking about.", Clay replied. "What are you?" His membrane-covered eyes narrowed into tiny slivers.
"The same as you… Only better. Don't you remember what you are?!", the monster demanded while roaring slightly at the end of the last sentence.
"A Symbiote.", he answered. "We know that much at least. An alien creature that bonds to a host in order to survive and it serves to both their neutral benefit. You're one too.", he explained. "What we don't know is… Why do you give a damn?"
The monster seemed to take offence. "We're not supposed to be 'symbiotes'… It's not our way. We jump from one host to another, taking much more from our hosts then you are from your's. We're parasites…" The monster held up it's finger in an accusatory manor towards Clay. "You are just a mutation of what's otherwise been a very nice gene pool. You're a retarded specimen that can't be allowed to survive or procreate. You have to die…", it hissed. "Why don't you know any of this?"
"Must'a slipped our minds…"
"And why did you pick such a runt as a host?!", it demanded yet again. "I could smell runt all over him from a mile away!"
"But you couldn't smell me…", Clay said, almost directly speaking for his Symbiote.
Clay threw out his arm and his Symbiote shot out a tendril.
The monster dodged the tendril.
Clay yanked back while the Symbiote contracted the tendril.
And a large toolbox slammed into the back of the monster's skull, pulled by the tendril. It broke upon under the force of the impact and heavy metal tools spilled out like shrapnel.
The monster roared and charged forward as tools clanked and chipped into the ground around it.
Clay jumped aside as the monster's striking hand slammed into the support beam.
The monster roared and opened it's mouth wide.
The Symbiote raised Clay's hand and a thick white tangled stream fired from the back of Clay's Symbiote-covered fist.
The white stream fired into the monster's mouth, and the monster found its mouth glued together by a very thick cobweb of strong white fibers.
Clay looked down and examined his hand in time to see a small opening backfist close up. "Oh…", he said as the Symbiote covering his entire body spoke to him. "Like Spider-Man's webbing, huh?"
The monster's mouth opened wide, tearing most of the webbing's fabric eventually after sustained pressure. Tendrils shot out of its jaw and began absorbing the webbing and dissolving it away before it all melted back and his mouth re-formed.
"Note to self… Eat more protein.", Clay said.
The monster charged forward and tackled Clay.
Outside of the empty department store unit, next door was a small gas station complete with a crappy, small, and overly crowded mini-mart. Beyond an African American young woman manning the counter top inside the mini-mart, about to fall asleep at her counter, the gas station was otherwise completely abandoned and empty.
The large white monster and the small black Clay Moore slammed through the wall of the department store and near the gas station. They rolled across the ground in a struggle.
They struggled their feet, and Clay lowered himself to scoop the monster up above him until the monster's feet no longer touched the ground. Then Clay charged forward towards a gas pump, tackling the monster first into it.
Clay did his best to hold the monster there as gasoline sprayed up from the wreckage and onto the monster mostly.
But the monster managed to strike Clay with his large arm again, throwing Clay across the pavement and skidding to a stop.
The monster was soon on top of them again, attempting to pin Clay down with his huge bulk and strong arms.
"Die!!", the monster screamed as it opened it's mouth and bit into Clay's shoulder.
Clay yelled in agony as the monster's teeth managed to pierce his Symbiote and bit into his tender human flesh.
The woman inside the mini-mart was already panicking and dialing 9-11, chanting that she needed the Avengers or something.
Then something awkward happened. …Well, awkward by the standards of the Symbiotes involved tonight.
As the monster bit into Clay's flesh, it's mouth started to burn… The monster pulled away with a snarl, unpinning Clay in the recoil.
Clay grimaced to himself and held his shoulder while his Symbiote began to cover the wounds and close them up.
"That… Hurt…", the monster noted. "Why did it burn? Why did it hurt to reabsorb you?", it asked, of course noting it's question to Clay's Symbiote and not address Clay himself.
Clay didn't answer; instead he punched the monster's jaw with all the force he could muster from his bad leverage. The monster's skull whipped with the recoil.
The monster grabbed Clay, stood up, and slammed him up and into the ground again, causing the pavement below to crack and creator below at his impact.
Clay impacted the ground somewhat stunned.
Then the monster quickly yanked his thin body against its chest and wrapped those strong arms around Clay. It began squeezing and applying several tons of pressure. "If I can't absorb you, I'll break your host into pieces! Kill you by the shock!"
It was true. If Clay Moore was killed while this bonded to his Symbiote the feedback would likely kill or seriously injure the Symbiote as well.
Clay grimaced with discomfort and pain as his body was compressed. He managed to slip out a single arm free from the monster's death hug, but his other arm and chest were left to be crushed.
"Clay!", Maddie called out.
Clay glanced to the side through the membrane lenses of his Symbiote's "eyes" and saw Maddie crawling down a ladder from the back of the building who's rooftop he had left her on. She jumped the rest of the way down and landed on the ground with a thud, falling over but quickly recovering on to her feet. "Clay!"
"Fire! Fire hurts us!", the Symbiote said inside Clay's mind.
"Maddie!", Clay called back. "Give me a lighter!" His free arm stretched out to her.
Maddie rushed into the mini-mart, having long since gathered at least enough of her wit to gather her dignity. Slamming the door open, she immediately ran to the counter top near the girl on the phone.
Maddie grabbed a handful of Bic lighters from the counter top display while the girl behind the counter muttered some kind of protest or explanation.
Meanwhile, the monster grimaced as it began to burn and sting just to touch Clay's Symbiote. Clay himself was in much more pain, and he wondered if that pain he felt was his ribs about to collapse.
"Clay!", Maddie called out again, running towards him and the monster while holding up several lighters in her hand.
A tendril shot from Clay's free hand and towards Maddie's hand. The tendril stole a single lighter from her hand before quickly retracting back towards Clay.
With the lighter in Clay's free hand, the Symbiote slid itself away from his fingers while Clay gripped the lighter properly.
Clay's Symbiote shot out another tendril from his shoulder that anchored to the ground near Maddie, who halted.
Clay pulled it back and over his shoulders towards the monster's gasoline-soaked face.
Chich. Chich. Chich. FLUME!
"AGH!!", the monster screamed.
Clay had set fire to the monster's face, and the blaze quickly spreading down it's gasoline-covered body while Clay was safely yanked by the tendril out of the monster's loosening grip.
Another tendril shout out from Clay's now free hand. That newest tendril shot past Maddie's head and to a rooftop behind her.
The monster staggered in agony as it's body was engulfed in a flame. Tendrils and tentacles waved uselessly in a desperate panicked attempt to do something to stop its pain. "AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!", it screamed.
Clay quickly tackled Maddie and threw her over his shoulder while he ran away at full superhuman speed. The tendril began retracting and pulling them into the air.
"UMPH!", said Maddie White as the air escaped her lungs.
Then Clay ran sideways up the wall of the next building with Maddie over his arms and the retracting tendril only adding to the speed. Poor Maddie was wide eyed as the world just moved too fast for her to keep up.
The monster stumbled closer to the gas pump they had knocked over, which still sprayed gasoline of all octanes like a fountain.
Clay and Maddie reached the rooftop and flipped over the edge. Clay and his Symbiote immediately cradled Maddie with their back to the gas station below. Some of the Symbiotes mass scooted around Clay's body to both protect Maddie and to get away from the gas station.
KABLAM!!
A massive explosion tore the pump to shreds and flung the monster across the street in a fiery rage. The explosion spread a fire to the rest of the pumps.
Inside the mini-mart, the girl behind the counter ducked under the counter as shards from the windows were blown in and rained on her. She punched the emergency shut-off button for the gas pumps, which was a move she should have done much earlier. Then she turned and ran quickly to the back door to exit and run away. Which was also something she should have done much earlier.
The monster impacted the sidewalk across the street and rolled around in a giant fireball, as it burned alive. When it noticed a storm drain where the road met the sidewalk the flaming white Symbiote burst away from it's host, who was a well-muscled unconscious man wearing a shirt that read "MUSCLE CITY GYM".
The engulfed albino Symbiote dove towards the storm drain and slithered between the protective grill over it. Its agony was finally extinguished when it fell into a reservoir of dirty water at the bottom of the drainage structure below. It almost seemed to his as it splashed around inside to extinguish the fire.
And then after… A great deal of it's previous mass having been burnt away in the fire… The Albino Symbiote slithered into a hole in the drainage structure and into a large pipe. It retreated into the sewers.
Meanwhile, up on the rooftop, Clay and Maddie slowly stood up. Clay's Symbiote slithered away from Maddie and returned to a normal distribution of Clay's thin body.
"Note to self… Follow up on that.", Clay said as he watched the Albino Symbiote abandon it's host and slither away into a storm drain.
The three of them, Clay, his Symbiote, and Maddie, watched the fire burn and engulf the gas station while fire fighting and police crews soon arrived.
After a long moment or two of quiet observation while mostly hidden on the rooftop, Clay turned to Maddie.
Maddie glanced back, obviously having a lot of digest and comprehend.
The Symbiote exploded away from Clay's face and body again before whipping back over his body and forming his clothing once again.
Maddie stared at Clay, words somewhat escaping her.
"Guess we have a lot of explaining to do…", Clay said.
-Symbiosis-
Later that same night.
Joey C. Kurtz wiped his brow again with a very subtle glare fixated on Redwood before awkwardly stuffing the damp napkin into his pants pocket.
He and Redwood had come to this corner of a Wendy's parking lot, boarding over a retention pond directly adjacent, so Redwood could make a deal with another man, form the same gang, named Lopez "Baby Shoes."
And by that, of course, it meant that Joey waited with the car while Lopez and Redwood did the real negotiations. Thus was the way of things in a street gang.
Hell, Joey hadn't even passed his initiation yet, so why should he be let into the details? Until everyone stomped on Joey, or until he killed a man who tried to signal that he wasn't driving with his headlines on… He was just the runt to tag along.
But that didn't suit Joey just one bit. The perpetual loser that he was… Yet another sniveling white wigger in a primarily black town followed closely behind by twenty different kinds of Hispanics… A clumsy and awkward boy determined to have real power and respect but without even two organized brain cells between him.
Joey waited until Lopez "Baby Shoes" and Redwood shook hands casually and Lopez got back into his car and sped off. Redwood didn't even have the nerve to come back to the car right away; instead he removed a cigarette and light up while staring over the retention pond. And Joey reached into his pocket again and stood up, no longer leaning against the hood of the car, and walked over behind Redwood with painfully obvious footsteps.
"What's the word?", Redwood calmly asked while glancing back to Joey.
"Bored out of mind.", Joey replied as he walked closer up to Redwood.
Redwood offered no apology but did shift to the side for Joey to stand next to him.
But instead, suddenly Joey jumped onto Redwood's back while removing his sweat-dampened napkin. He pushed the napkin to Redwood's face, knocking his cigarette away onto the ground, and awkwardly smothered Redwood's face.
Redwood grabbed at Joey's arms and tried to pull them away, his legs suddenly becoming wobbly.
Joey cracked a grin. "Never told ya I was a mutant, did I? Noooo, you couldn't give me a chance!", he said as he smothered the napkin harder into Redwood's face.
Redwood's knees buckled under him and he slumped down Joey's body and thumped onto the ground.
"Poisonous sweat…", Joey explained to ears that wouldn't listen. He breathed heavily, the excitement filling his senses and the adrenaline making his other hand shake slightly.
And then… Joey looked down and saw the worse thing.
The dry side of the napkin.
He had pressed the wrong side of the napkin to Redwood!
"…that's the lamest power I've heard of.", Redwood calmly said.
Joey looked down in a mix of surprise and horror just as Redwood, while on the ground, kicked Joey's knee like an angry mule.
Joey's leg buckled strait away with a yelp of pain, and Joey fell onto his hands on his side. Before he could blink Redwood tackled him, mounting him. Somehow Joey was suddenly on his back, arms pinned against his own chest as Redwood sat on his stomach and proceeded to beat Joey's head with experienced fists.
"Did'ja think it'd be that easy, nigger?!", Redwood asked while his fists slammed into Joey's face with satisfying wet thumps.
No, it wouldn't have been that easy…
Redwood had played possum, quickly feinting having been effected by what he had at first presumed to be chloroform on the napkin. Redwood had not become so high up in the Bloodhound gang by luck; he had been a smart, cunning, and vicious fellow.
Redwood, now with the upper hand once again, soundly beat Joey's face to a pulp in the corner of the dark parking lot. Redwood knew he couldn't take too much time to pumble Joey. The parking lot was secluded enough for a meeting to discuss drug running but certainly not for a beating or execution. Especially with Wendy's open till 1 AM or later; someone might see. …and a cheeseburger did sound great right about now.
He stood up, leaving Joey as a moaning and whining heap on the ground. And Redwood spared enough after thought to spit on Joey's face. "Get out of here.", he glared, all but firing his one-time apprentice. The idiot that he was.
Redwood had begun to walk away, but Joey rose to his feet with a groan and tried to tackle Redwood.
Redwood easily beat Joey off with a wave of his strong arm, but felt a yank at his pant's beltline that immediately alerted him to further danger.
Joey had stolen Redwood's pistol during the short-lived tackle. And while falling back onto his butt on the pavement, Joey fumbled to get a good working grip on the gun.
Redwood tackled again, diving for control of the gun.
Joey fought back, clawing to his stolen trump card with all his small finger's might.
The struggle continued.
BLAM!
A short silence.
BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!
Redwood stood up, breathing heavily with sweat across his brow.
Joey was dead on the ground, with five giant craters in his chest and stomach. Blood seemed to pool out of each wound.
Without further word, Redwood snatched up his gun again. He knew a guy who could get rid of it and that's exactly what needed to happen. But first, Joey.
Redwood looked over to the Wendy's. He wasn't in plain view of the windows or the drive through windows, and no one was on their way outside to check but that didn't mean they wouldn't.
As quickly as he could, he dragged Joey's body near his truck and started up the engine. And then he made a big to-do about cheering for the engine starting. With luck, any witnesses would think it was a car backfiring before finally starting. Redwood looked back and found that no one had come out of the restaurant. Even better.
Redwood kept the engine running, it would only muffle the sounds of his struggles.
With all his might and bulk, Redwood took Joey's limp and tiny body and hurled it over the edge of the fence around the retention pond. Joey's body fell into the green and thick water with a violent splash.
With luck, Redwood thought, the bacteria and muck in the pond would eat away any fingerprints left behind. He'd get rid of the gun, the police would never find it to link him to the murder. In the morning, he'd report that Joey had never showed up to have dinner with him and Lopez that night; he knew Lopez would go along with it.
Maybe Redwood, if he was smart and careful, could even imply that Joey was murdered by a rival gang; as part of a new member's initiation. Maybe those stupid 49 Runners could be blamed.
Redwood smiled at the thought of pinning his attacker's murder on an enemy, killing two birds with one stone, and getting away clean. But there was still a lot of work to do yet to make it look like that…
After a moment of watching Joey's body float among green algae and only God knew what else, Redwood took another look around and got in his car and promptly but calmly drove off.
Poor Joey… Your stupidity had gotten you killed.
And now Joey floated along with so much green filth in the pond. Mosquito larva eventually swam up to him, swimming along side his poison-soaked and ever chilling skin.
Something growled.
From the pipe that let drainage water from storm drains flow into the pond, there was some sort of low wet growl.
A grey tentacle lashed out suddenly from the pipe and wrapped around Joey's ankle. The tentacle pulled his body closer to the pipe's mouth before several more tentacles and tendrils shot forth and wrapped around Joey's corpse.
…Corpse. That was a nice word.
The grey tentacles and tendrils heaved Joey's body out of the water gently like a rescuer, and pulled him head first into the deep dark pipe. Soon Joey's feet were pulled into the pipe's mouth as well, as the tendrils wrapped and spread around his body even more while his body was dragged deeper into the dark.
Joey disappeared down the pipe's dark length.
To say that he would never be seen again would not only be cliché, it would be an exaggeration too.
………………………………………………………………………………...
Author's Note: Yes, this is my first stint at an Original Character. Well, Semi-Original character. Writing up OC's and giving them the same amount of scrutiny and detail that you would to an official character has been a large challenge to me. I've given all the characters here, especially Clay Moore, a great deal of detail, depth, and thought. I hope you enjoy.
Also of note… I do not write this story intending to offend anyone, however, I do want to be realistic. The N-Word will be used in context to how it is used today, as well as other adult themes including drug use. If you don't think it's realistic, turn on the news.
Oh, and you get extra bonus points if you can tell me who Clay Moore is named in honor of. You get no points though if you look him up on Google though. I'll reveal the answer at the end of the next chapter.