Welcome True Believers, Ladies, Gentlemen, and Lovers of Fanfiction!
I've always wanted to try my luck at a Spider-Man fanfiction, and this idea has been in my head for almost a year, but due to focusing my attention on my two Yugioh fanfictions, combined with a lack of inspiration, this story never got off the ground.
Then the Venom Movie came out in Theatres and I LOVED IT! So now with my inspiration returned to its peak, this fanfiction is now born!
As a quick point of reference, this story is mainly based on the PRIME EARTH 616 Timeline although I will be drawing a lot of influence from the 90s Cartoon, the Spectacular Cartoon, and the recent PS4 Game. This is not a complete retelling though, as you shall soon discover since this story begins right at the point where Spidey discards the symbiote.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Spider-Man. It belongs to Stan Lee and Marvel Comics, although the fantasy of working for Marvel Comics and getting to create my own additions for the Spider-Man franchise would be a true blessing.
Enjoy!
Chapter 1: The Awakening
Ten Minutes until Midnight in Manhattan, New York, the city that never sleeps. Anyone who spent a long enough time in this metropolis learned the true meaning of that moniker sooner or later, especially if a certain someone was an up and coming hero looking to make a difference in the city with one of the highest crime rates in the country. It was so shocking how often criminals and supervillains destroyed the peace of this city, it was sometimes a wonder why anyone would willingly want to live here, but if an outsider asked a local New Yorker why they chose to stay despite the constant threat of danger, they would immediately answer,
"Because we have faith in our heroes".
It was like Yin and Yang, one factor unable to exist without the other. For every set of villains who caused destruction for their own selfish goals, a hero would rise up in turn to stop them and restore peace, and the citizens of New York would be hard pressed to find a more ideal hard working hero than the born and raised resident of Queens, Peter Parker. Out of the costume, everyone knew him as the socially awkward science nerd who somehow managed to impress and succeed despite bumbling his way through life, showing up late to important events and randomly disappearing on other occasions. That was only one side of Peter though. When a criminal or supervillain was on the loose, the public would get a taste of what Peter Parker was truly capable of, as he put on his mask and tights and came to the rescue as everyone's favorite wall crawling, web slinging, crime fighting arachnid, The Friendly Neighborhood, Amazing Spider-Man.
Almost ten years to the exact date he put on the costume, both sides of Spidey's double life were still just as chaotic as they were when his career as a hero began. Sure, he managed to soldier onward regardless of the obstacles, and as a result had several accomplishments under his belt, graduating valedictorian from Midtown High, and then graduating with honors from Empire State University, using his genius level intellect to pursue a science major. As of right now, he was studying post-graduate work by serving as the lab assistant of the gifted biochemist, Doctor Curt Connors, while simultaneously trying to hold down his job as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, but often times he had to take one step forward and ten steps backwards whenever the next lunatic with an evil plan forced Peter to drop everything he was doing and put on the costume to put the evil idiots of the day in their place.
And this was in addition to facing the lack of gratitude and constant criticism he faced, courtesy of his own boss at the Daily Bugle, one foul tempered, cigarette smoking, ugly mustache sporting J Jonah Jameson, who looked for any excuse to bad mouth the wall crawler and dedicated every second of his day to exposing Spider-Man as he public menace his paranoid mind believed him to be. Old JJ was the literal definition of fake news with everything he printed about Spider-Man, and to Peter's disgust, some people actually listened to the old nut case.
It was a miracle he hadn't cracked under pressure, and yet Peter pushed forward, wearing his mask as a badge of pride and taking on his adversaries in stride, mocking them with a clever joke each time he fought them and enjoying the look on their faces as he cocooned them in webs and left them to be handcuffed and hauled off to prison by the police.
All in a days work, and still back home in time for Dinner with his Aunt May.
However, something unexpected had recently caused this pattern to break apart. For the past several months, Spider-Man had been taking a different approach to dealing with the criminals plaguing the city, an approach where the concerned civilians may consider changing his nickname from "Friendly Neighborhood" to "Scary Dark Alley".
Sure, Spider-Man had his fair share of critics and haters, but nobody was actually afraid of him, until now. Recently Spider-Man had gone through several changes, both in his looks and his attitude, and the onlookers of Spider-Man's new crime fighting methods wondered what the hell happened to the red and blue wearing boy scout, comparing the new web slinger to someone like the Punisher over a more idealized hero like Captain America. Some of these concerned citizens wondered that if the new Spider-Man was taking a darker approach to fighting criminals, would they be next? Jameson was having a field day with it, using the black suit and brutality as solid evidence that Spidey finally went off the deep end.
The truth was more complicated. Spider-Man didn't start behaving this way by choice, but then again; If they did find out the truth, the populace of New York and the entire planet would panic once they discover a second scarier truth.
Aliens are real.
Spidey was aware that other groups of heroes across the world, such as The Avengers and The Fantastic Four, had dealt with aliens in the past, but for the most part, they managed to make sure their various alien encounters were kept under wraps as isolated incidents so the public wouldn't panic and the knowledge of alien existence wouldn't become too widespread.
There may be monsters beyond the stars far more capable of causing widespread catastrophe and possibly the end of the world, but Peter was one hundred percent sure that not a single hero across the entire multiverse had ever encountered an alien creature like this one.
Of course, the first alien destined to encounter Peter Parker was nothing like the scores upon scores of fictional alien races that Peter was familiar with, courtesy of the many Science Fiction Movies he watched in his childhood and teenage years. In fact, after discovering what this alien was capable of, he would have preferred the bald, bug-eyed, "take me to your leader" aliens. Hell, he would have preferred the giant parasitic reptilian aliens that laid eggs inside human bodies until their babies explode out of their chests.
Anything would have been better than the voice inside his head right now, which was slowly but surely assuming a stronger control over his body and mind.
What was so wrong about this particular alien? At first, when Peter discovered the alien, he didn't think too much of it. He wasn't even aware the symbiote was alive for the first few times he tapped into its power. He just thought it was a special type of body suit capable of increasing his powers.
It was only when Peter later discovered that this supposed "black costume" was actually alive did the problems start. After taking it to his mentor and friend, Doctor Curt Connors, he found that it was not only alive, but it was an organism known as a symbiote, which was using his body for nutrients and desired to permanently bond with him. It explained why he was constantly exhausted all the time when he woke up each morning. Unlike Peter, the symbiote didn't need to sleep the same way humans do, so while Peter was asleep, the symbiote would assume direct control and continue Peter's patrols as Spider-Man without his knowledge.
To make matters worse, the symbiote was incorporating far more violent means of dealing with the criminals it fought while it was hijacking Peter's sleeping body, fighting them in ways Peter would never even consider. Criminals and supervillains who encounter the black suited arachnid would often walk away with broken bones, bloodied and bruised faces, and soiled trousers as the symbiote took immense levels of pleasure in scaring the living daylights out of them.
As the months passed, this aggressive behavior began to manifest even when Peter was awake, which he later discovered was a result of their bonding becoming stronger. Jekyll and Hyde were becoming the same person, and as Peter Parker, he would find himself lashing out at his friends and colleagues whenever they said something he didn't like. As Spider-Man it was even worse. Peter was beginning to show signs of the violence the symbiote incorporated during the joyrides it took Peter's body on when he was asleep, but he didn't understand the full magnitude of it until an encounter with one Herman Schultz, better known as the Shocker.
Spidey never took the Shocker seriously. He was right up there with guys like The Rhino, The Spot, and Lady Silt Man as one of the biggest jokes in the criminal underworld, someone who thought he was a bigshot and thought he could take down the wall crawler, but in the end, behind that yellow quilted couch costume and the energy gauntlets, Shocker was just another idiot who should have just quit before embarrassing himself.
Only this time, the symbiote took offense to Shocker's actions when during the fight with the Quilted Criminal, one of the Shocker's energy blasts came dangerously close to striking a woman and her child. Now Shocker wasn't planning on deliberately putting civilians in harm's way. The mother and little girl just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it was still more than enough to piss Spider-Man off. Normally he would just be angry, but with the symbiote inside him, that anger evolved into pure psychotic fury, and he attacked Shocker like a wild animal.
It was only after the broken crook started begging for his life did Spider-Man finally stop beating the Shocker senseless. Peter could barely understand what he was saying since he struck Schultz's face so many times his lips were swollen, his mouth was bleeding, and several teeth were knocked out. However, he didn't need to hear any words to notice Shocker was genuinely reduced to tears, crying and pleading for mercy. It was enough to cause Peter to regain control and hesitate, and he was eternally grateful that he did. If he hadn't, he knew the symbiote would have continued to torture the Shocker and eventually kill him.
"P-P-P-Please... Spider-Man just let me go! I give up! I'll turn myself in! It was an accident! I didn't even see the kid, just please let me go!"
And then after Shocker took advantage of Peter's hesitation to get up and make a run for it.
"SHOCKER! GET BACK HERE SHOCKER! I'LL CHASE YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH! SHOCKER!"
Horrified by what he was saying, Peter stopped dead in his tracks and the shocker got away. After coming to terms with the unspeakable thing he almost did, he came to one single conclusion.
He had to get rid of this monster, and FAST!
It was when he tried to remove it the first time that the symbiote finally made its presence known. It wasn't just alive, it possessed intelligence greater than any human. It could speak, but not in the way humans talk to each other. The webslinger soon knew how schizophrenic people must feel, since the symbiote was now a voice inside Peter's head. The voice was indescribable. It was nothing like any human voice he ever heard before. It was a strange combination of a booming male voice, an alluring seductive female voice, and a rasping demonic voice speaking at the same time, neither of those voices sounding remotely human.
Through talking with the symbiote Peter discovered just how downright obsessed with him the symbiote truly was, how it constantly talked about how happy it was to be bonded with him and describing the bonding process in the creepiest of details, which only scared Peter even more.
This creature was slowly turning Peter into something he wasn't, the opposite of the hero he wanted to be.
Peter was many things, and there were times when he truly hated the criminals he fought; a certain Goblin came to mind, but Peter wasn't a killer.
There was no reasoning with the symbiote. During the few times they actually did talk to each other symbiote was under the impression that it did nothing wrong, that it was a good thing they were to bond into one person, and it silenced all of Peter's protests by telling him resistance was futile.
As he sat on the gargoyle decorated balcony of the Our Lady of the Saints Church, he contemplated everything he had done, everything the symbiote would continue to make him do if he didn't find a way to get him off right now. As he clutched one of the gargoyles and felt the pouring rain trickle down his face, Peter now remembered what it was like to feel completely helpless.
"Uncle Ben... if you're watching me, I could really use your help right now." Peter cried under his breath.
"Peter Parker... Spider-Man..." The sounds of the symbiote creeped back into his brain like a viper crawling out of the depths of hell. "Peter, why are you sad? Why ask for the help of a dead man, when you can ask for my help? Just tell me what's wrong and I can make the pain go away."
"You're inside my head, so I thought you already knew the answer to that!" Peter snapped.
"Oh, Peter, but your thoughts make no sense." replied the symbiote in a pouting tone of voice. "Surely you would never resort to such an unthinkable deed over a small misunderstanding. My kind may be all powerful and capable of granting our hosts anything they desire, but nobody is perfect. Besides, I was longing to hear your voice again, my dear host. You've been awfully quiet for the past several hours. Surely you can't silence the concerns of your other half?"
"Other half? OTHER HALF?!" Peter shouted at the alien in his head. "You've been taking my body for joyrides and forcing me to kill! You never even bothered to talk to me until I realized what you really were! If you really didn't mean any harm, then why did you hide your true intentions?"
"The bonding process usually doesn't take this long." said the alien. "We would have been one long before now. I just needed time to discover why, and for the time being, I could help you succeed in your life's purpose, fighting the vile criminals of this city. As much as I relish watching you sleep, boredom is cancerous, so I decided to continue fulfilling the purpose we now share, defending your territory from the scum that plagues it. You should be happy knowing you could literally do your job in your sleep. It was just another one of my many gifts to you while we discovered why your body wouldn't allow us to bond."
"Well maybe it's because my body had a gut feeling you were up to no good ." Peter replied sarcastically. "And anybody with half a brain between their ears would see what kind of THING you really are. You're not a friend, and you're not helping me! You're only helping yourself! I'll tell you what you are! You're a God Damn Parasite!"
"PARASITE?! DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT WORD!" The symbiote roared in Peter's mind, its demonic voice loud enough to hurt his ears. "YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW!"
"No! I don't think I will!" Peter argued defiantly. "Because that's exactly what you're doing! You're feeding off me, you're taking control of my body, and you want to strip me of my free will so you can go around killing people! How is that not what a parasite is?!"
"Strip you of your free will? No! Never! You don't understand, Peter Parker. You don't know what you truly want, and for the record you are not fulfilling your purpose properly! These criminals are a disease, and while you treat the symptoms you aren't using a strong enough medicine! How many times have you fought each member of your little rogues gallery? Multiple times each! Aren't you tired of them rearing their ugly heads! Don't you want them defeated for good so they can never threaten this city again? All I did was encourage your body to do a better job at solving this problem. All I have done is give, give, give to my perfect host! The criminals you fight, the ones we wish to crush under our feet. They are the parasites infesting our city! That's why we must kill them, so they may never tarnish our territory ever again!"
"This isn't your city, and I'm not some wild animal defending my territory! That is not how this works!" Peter argued again.
"Not listening, Peter Parker, Not listening. It is OUR city! Spider-Man has failed so many times to protect his city and protect those close to him because the identity of Spider-Man is incomplete! To evolve into the true Spider-Man, the Spider-Man this planet needs, Peter Parker and Symbiote need to be together, to become one at last! Why do you fight it? It's a wonderful thing to look forward to. It's what every symbiote dreams of, to finally complete their identity by uniting with their perfect host and truly becoming the other half. It's our destiny, Peter Parker! I only want what's best for you! You struggled all your life to be Peter Parker and Spider-Man, but when we become one, there shall be no need for a double identity. All your suffering will end when the new version of ourselves is born, and everything shall fall into place!"
"Well let me see, Hmmmmmmm." Peter thought to himself, answering the symbiote with more sarcasm. "Do I retain my ability to choose how I want to live, or do I allow who I am right now to effectively die and trust that this hybrid of ourselves, basically a completely different person, will do everything better than what I'm doing now and not do anything immoral or cross any lines? Decisions Decisions."
"Oh wait, that's right! You already crossed several lines when you almost made me kill someone, so how can I trust you now? I never asked to be your host, and you don't understand the definition of right and wrong. You need to leave until you figure that part out. I was doing just fine being Spider-Man before you showed up anyway!"
"Oh really? Then why is The Goblin still alive? Why didn't you avenge your Gwen?"
The symbiote's question cut deep into Peter's heart, and his throat turned dry as a desert.
"What did you say?"
"Your greatest failure is just a few miles across the city, sleeping in her hospital bed just as she has been for the past five years. Why don't we ask her why Norman Osborn still wanders free, getting away with everything he has done? Why don't we ask her why you didn't avenge her?"
Peter wanted to answer to that, but he couldn't find his voice.
"When the Goblin hurt your Gwen, you vowed to destroy him for it. You didn't need a symbiote to channel such rage, you desired to kill him of your own volition, but you didn't. When you found out the Goblin's body vanished, and he didn't actually die from being impaled on his glider, you spent weeks searching the city for him. Then you just accepted that he fled the country. You didn't try hard enough to exact your vengeance. Why did you stop? Why did you not avenge your human mate? Do you not care for her, or did you simply treat her the way you are treating me now? When you decide you don't want someone anymore, you just separate from them and throw them away. Is that it?
"Did you throw your Gwen away?"
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Peter screamed. "You don't know anything about what I've had to go through after Norman put Gwen in that coma!"
"On the contrary, we know everything about you. We are deep inside you, remember, and soon we shall be much more than that. Just relax. Trust me! Stop resisting!"
Spider-Man felt his resolve slip after the symbiote touched a raw nerve bringing Gwen up, but the symbiote was dead wrong. He didn't throw Gwen away. Even though she was still in that hospital, unable to actually be with him, his love for her was stronger than every. If he really did want to throw Gwen away, he wouldn't come to visit her twice a week for the past five years in the hospital. He wouldn't have played her favorite music, brought her flowers, or talked to her about his day as if she could hear him. He wouldn't break down crying on the sheets of her hospital bed when the conversation dragged on and the memory of his greatest failure as a hero resurfaced.
A toxic venomous memory he was reliving once again.
()
"You're right. I did want to kill him when I saw what he did to Gwen." Spidey confessed. "But I wasn't going to leave the city I needed to protect to spend God knows how long looking for Norman just to satisfy a petty desire for revenge. If I leave the city to look for the Goblin, then who's going to protect it when the next madman with a pumpkin bomb shows up? I can't use my powers selfishly, and I can't use my powers irresponsibly! Leaving the city to look for the Goblin would mean looking the other way while other people's loved ones are put in danger."
"And I'm never looking the other way ever again." Peter vowed, the face of his uncle ben appearing in his mind as if to comfort him.
"Your turmoil is understandable, Peter, such a tough decision indeed, but there is no need to despair over such a difficult choice. Your symbiote is here to make it all better. Just let us finish bonding together, and when we become one we will find the Goblin and kill him together. We shall tear the skin from his body, crush his bones and devour his delicious brain, but not before making him beg and squeal for mercy like the filthy pig he is! How could that not be what Peter Parker wants?!"
"IT ISN'T!" shouted Peter. "Killing Norman won't make Gwen wake up!"
"But it will make both of us feel better. Besides, it's not like your protests matter any longer. I'm not taking no for an answer anymore. There is not a single organism in this entire multiverse I would rather spend the rest of my life with, Peter Parker. You are the perfect host whether you like it or not, so stop resisting. It will be so much easier if you just accept how wonderful this is. In just a few moments, the bonding process will be complete, and we shall be together forever. Now STOP RESISTING!"
"NO! I'M NEVER GOING TO STOP! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
In a mad act of desperation, Peter pulled on the slimy fabric of his costume, using every ounce of spider strength he had, but it was like pulling hot sticky tar off a recently paved road. The symbiote wasn't budging.
"How ironic. You can lift close to two hundred tons, but you are struggling to take your clothes off." The symbiote chuckled. "What's that little human phrase again? Your mind says no, but your body says Yes? Your body is growing more accustomed to my presence, Peter Parker. There is no longer any point in struggling. Your body knows how much you need me, how much we need each other. Stop Resisting!"
"NEVER!" Peter pulled again, roaring and wailing as his own muscles failed him, falling off the balcony from the last tug and landing near the bell of the church. The symbiote was squealing with delight and triumph, and Spider-Man could feel his resolve fading away.
"Come on! Get off me! GET OFF!"
Panic and defeat began to creep into Peter's mind, but in his darkest hour, fate delivered salvation unto the hero.
The clock struck midnight.
GONG!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" screeched the symbiote as the church bells flared to life.
"TOO LOUD! TOO NOISY!"
GONG!
The symbiote screamed in pain, and the costumed flared to life with tendrils wiggling all over the place. With the sound of the bells echoing around the hero, it now looked like Peter was actually getting somewhere with his efforts to pull the black suit off.
"Peter Parker, get away from the noise!" pleaded the symbiote. "Get way from that awful noise! GET AWAY!"
GONG!
"Come on! Just a little more!" Grunted Peter as he felt the slimy residue rip apart from his chest.
Now the symbiote was truly scared. The noise was just too much. No torture device any human could come up with paled in comparison to what this infernal racket was doing to its body. As Peter's pulling grew stronger with each clang of the bell, the symbiote felt itself growing weaker, barely able to hold on to its host.
"Peter... You're hurting me..." the symbiote whimpered feebly. "Stop the noise! Anything but the noise! Make it stop!"
"Hurting you? Good!" growled Peter, tugging even harder. "Then maybe you'll finally get off me and stay off!"
That stopped the symbiote cold. It didn't even have a proper functioning heart and it could feel it breaking.
"You... want... to hurt me? W-w-why... You can't mean that...
Peter didn't answer. He just continued to pull.
GONG!
"Peter... Please... don't do this... we need each other... please... don't kill me... You're... killing me..."
GONG!
"Only... wanted... host... only... wanted... together... P-P-P-Peter Parker... S-S-S-Spider-Man..."
GONG! GONG! GONG!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" The symbiote and human screamed together for the last time, and with one final pull, the symbiote burst out of Peter's body in a flailing mass of slimy tentacles, splattering onto the balcony of the church, where it trickled down the walls like a black blood stain.
"YES!" Peter howled at the heavens, and with the last of his strength fading away, he collapsed to the ground as the bell finished its twelve rings.
His nerves were on fire, his heart was beating in overdrive, and every bone in his body ached. Nothing even came close to the struggle this symbiote put him through.
Peter staggered back to his feet, his breath heavy. "Oh... My... God..." He panted. "That... was a nightmare..."
But Spidey couldn't allow himself to rest yet. Even though the fight to pull the alien off was over, he still needed to be on high alert. The symbiote could be anywhere, and it would no doubt take advantage of his exhaustion to bond with him a second time, and if it did, Peter feared he wouldn't have the strength to fight it again.
"Come on, Spider Sense, talk to me." Peter whispered under his breath. "If it's still out there, then I'm going to need a warning."
He waited for the tingling sensation, but all he received was silence.
"Nothing... Spider Sense is quiet, so that means it must be dead."
"It's over. It's finally over."
"Wait, Dead? That means I... killed it..."
Suddenly a small twinge of guilt shot through Peter's mind. He remembered how the symbiote sounded during its final attempts to cling onto him. It was crying. It was begging. There was no lying or acting involved. The sound of the bell was pure torture, and Peter just sentenced it to an agonizing death.
"Maybe I could've... taken it back to Connors... Kept it locked up in a test tube somewhere until we figured out what to do with it... Then I wouldn't have had to..."
His chaotic thoughts interrupted him again, reminding him of what the symbiote truly was. Agonizing death or not, the symbiotes behavior painted a clear picture of what it was in the core of its nature and being.
It was a killer.
"No! I can't feel guilty about this!" Peter corrected himself. "It's not like I killed an innocent bystander, and it's not like I killed one of the crooks I fight just like the symbiote was trying to make me do. This wasn't a person, it was a parasite. It was a psychotic alien slime monster straight out of a horror movie that wanted to use me to take over the city and kill people!"
"It's for the best that it's dead... It's for the best..."
But why wasn't he so sure about that?
"Great..." he thought.
"After Uncle Ben, Gwen, and everything I've had to deal with since the day that spider bit me, the last thing I need is something else to feel guilty about..."
()
Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Peter shot out a web line and swung off into the night, but unbeknownst to the wall crawler, the symbiote wasn't dead. Still reeling from the agony of the loud church bells, it was barely clinging onto life, having seeped through the tiny cracks of the church walls and down into its lower levels where it could escape from the noise and lick its wounds.
"Still hurts! Too loud! Too much noise, noise, noise, noise! Can't hear it anymore and it still hurts!"
The symbiote still couldn't believe it. It had lived longer than it could even recall, and throughout every memory in its long expansive life, it failed to recall a single moment in the past where it was genuinely afraid of anything. It was natural to fear death. Despite its pride in its own power, the symbiote knew that everyone eventually dies, including itself. It just never expected the one who came closer than anyone else to killing it to be the one it grew so close to, the one it was once proud to call its perfect host.
"Peter Parker... Spider-Man..."
"How could host do this? Why would the perfect host, ANY host, throw away such beautiful gifts like garbage?"
Without a host, the symbiote no longer had a mouth to scream, no eyes to cry from, no sustenance to heal itself from the damage the church bells inflicted. It could only debate with its own thoughts. Reduced to its base form, nothing more than a puddle of pitch black plasma, all it could do was slither further away from the roof of the church and into the dark alleys below. Despite not having eyes, it could still see Peter swinging off in the distance of the New York City skyline, the human who betrayed it drifting further away, abandoning it to die in this rotten hole in some dark corner like the parasite Peter believed it to be.
"Incomplete... Without Purpose... Without Identity..."
"Alone..."
Now it understood why it was so afraid. From the moment the members of its race were born, every single symbiote dreamed of finding the perfect host and spending the rest of their lives bonded with them. The idea of a perfect host was subjective, so a typical symbiote would likely have to go through several hosts before finding one to its liking. If it decided there was a better host out there, or if the host simply no longer pleased the symbiote, it would just jump ship and leave to find a better one.
However, in the case of this symbiote, there was no better host on this planet. Sure, there were other powerful humans out there, even mutant humans, some who completely outclassed Spider-Man in terms of their levels of strength and skill, but the symbiote didn't care about any of them. It was adamant in its belief that even if it sampled the minds and bodies of all seven billion humans on this backwater planet, none would come even remotely close to matching what Peter gave it.
And now it would never experience it again, but as the pain from the church bells and the fear of its own demise began to subside, a new emotion replaced both of them.
Pure cold blooded rage. How dare Peter do this to it! All it wanted was to experience its purpose together with Peter and in return it would give him all the power he needed to have everything he ever wanted. Peter just needed to be educated that he wasn't doing his job properly, that it would be better for both of them and the city itself if the criminal vermin just died in the most painful way possible. This was the thanks it got for all it did to try and help him? Is this how he repays the kindness of those he was supposed to love, by abandoning them?
"HE MUST PAY!" Those three words repeated themselves over and over again, never leaving the alien's thoughts for a second.
It then realized it was wrong. The symbiote may be vulnerable and incomplete at the moment, but it was not without purpose. It still had a reason to keep going, and this time it wasn't just to find another host, but to exact revenge on its former host.
"How ironic. By casting me aside and attempting to kill me, Spider-Man gave the greatest gift any symbiote could receive, a true purpose, something to live for, and what makes it so much sweeter is I can carry this purpose forever."
Inside the twisted and sociopathic logic of the symbiote's mind, its emotions were now running wild, joy accompanying rage and smothering its distress completely, twisting itself further and further into a growing bout of hysteria and insanity.
If the symbiote could speak right now, it would have laughed.
"Perhaps my perfect host loved me after all, but even so, he still needs to be punished. It's only fair that I give what he gave. He must suffer as I suffered, indescribable pain beyond his wildest imagination, but not fatal. Oh No! Not fatal. Leave him alive throughout every ounce of suffering, only until he gets down on his knees and begs for forgiveness. Only when tears are streaming from his eyes and he realizes how sinful it was to separate from his other half, will I give him the fateful choice. Rejoin with me and let us become one once again, or die!"
The symbiote was now giddy with excitement as countless methods of carrying out its vengeance shuffled through its mind. It treated its Spider, its Peter, like any symbiote would treat its perfect host, with indescribable levels of love and care, giving its Spider exactly what he wanted, even though he didn't know what he truly wanted, and just like any symbiote who loved its perfect host, this symbiote would continue to give its perfect host want he wanted. If Spider-Man wanted to treat the symbiote like an enemy, then the symbiote would respond in kind with the appropriate gift. It would create the most terrifying enemy Spider-Man would ever have to face, an enemy he could never defeat, an enemy he would grow to fear.
Scorpion, Mysterio, Shocker, Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, not even Norman Osborn himself, The Green Goblin, could hold a candle to the type of monster the symbiote was capable of creating, and in this battle between hero and villain, it was this new villain who had the advantage. Peter may believe he understood the true nature of the symbiote after he and Doctor Connors studied it in the science labs, but that Reptile, Curt Connors barely scratched the surface at what the symbiote was capable of. Peter knew practically nothing about the symbiote, but after sharing a body and mind with Peter for several months, the symbiote knew everything about Peter, his hopes, his dreams, his ambitions, and most importantly, his loved ones.
Now there was just one problem left. The symbiote needed a new host and fast. Time was of the essence, and being severely weakened from that terrible noise made the situation even more dire. Without a host, it couldn't heal from such pain, and it would eventually starve to death without the essential sustenance and shelter a human body provided.
But there were no humans around. The symbiote began to panic, but even so, it still retained enough rationality to slowly calm itself back down. It knew the dangers of choosing the wrong host, and after spending so much time with its perfect host, it saw the absolute worst of the human race thanks to Peter giving it the opportunity to fight them. It was like an infestation of cockroaches and vermin, and there was no way the symbiote would allow itself to bond with vermin.
The problem with following that rule though was that bonding was like gambling in Vegas. It never knew what kind of person its host was, ideal or corrupt, until after they bonded, and once that happened, the symbiote would be changed forever, taking a piece of its host's identity into itself. It had no control over this aspect of its biology, but it was still grateful for it. Taking pieces of its host's identity filled the missing pieces of its own identity, but such a gift was a double edged sword.
It remembered all too well what happened when bonding with Wade Wilson.
The symbiote shuddered, almost afraid that the aforementioned madman would come out of nowhere and terrorize it again.
The alien weighed its options once again. Peter's delicious mind and his herculean body were strong, but his heart was weak. The one memory that left the deepest scar was the tragic fate of his Gwen.
Oh yes, the symbiote was a fast learner. Like a book worm in a library it spent every waking moment experiencing Peter's memories as if it was actually living through them. Peter's life was infested with tragedy, and soon Peter's pain became the symbiote's pain, but the most painful memory of them all was the unspeakable horror he experienced when he succeeded in saving his Gwen Stacy, but at the same time he failed. That wicked monster Goblin threw her off the bridge to her doom, and now she lay motionless for five years, trapped in her own body as nothing more than a living corpse.
At first, when the symbiote saw this memory, it was quite jealous. How could Spider-Man love someone more than itself? It was inconceivable. Surely, when Peter grew to understand it better, he would forget about this insignificant female and move on. He didn't need her to be happy. All he needed was his other half bonded to him forever. If he still wanted a human mate and spawn of his own, then there were plenty of other females out there, so what made this one so special?
The symbiote soon found the answer when it watched the memory a second time, and then a third, fourth and fifth time, and soon it found itself watching every single memory Peter shared with Gwen, how much they grew to care for each other, to have each other's backs, to support each other's dreams. They were more than mates, they were the strongest of allies, promising each other that whatever problems come their way, they would face it head on together and never abandon each other.
It was no wonder why it hurt Peter so much whenever their relationship became strained, whenever they argued. Peter had no qualms separating from the symbiote, but he would never want to separate from his Gwen.
Was this what it was like to bond the human way, to have two separate bodies and yet still be one?
The symbiote snapped itself out of its reminiscence of such delicious memories. This was why Peter needed to understand why people like Norman Osborn deserved nothing more than an agonizing death. Spider-Man and the Green Goblin fought each other several times before the incident on the George Washington Bridge. If Peter had just butchered the Goblin like the filthy animal he was, then Gwen would still be with awake.
And if Gwen were still awake, then the symbiote wouldn't have been so frustrated and angry from seeing such memories. It hated Norman Osborn even more than Peter did, for the Goblin created a problem the symbiote couldn't solve. The symbiote lived to make Peter happy, but how could its perfect host be happy when his greatest source of happiness lay injured beyond healing. Of course, such injuries were ridiculously easy for the symbiote to heal. It could even keep the effects of cancer at bay if it wanted to, but its God level healing abilities came with a catch. It could only heal a host from such life threatening injuries.
The only way the symbiote could give Peter what he wanted was to...
Bond with Gwen...
Wait a second...
The gears in the symbiote's twisted deranged mind were now turning in overdrive. In the end, all of Peter's suffering came back to Gwen.
This seemingly normal and mundane human female had done the unthinkable without the symbiote even realizing it.
That's why the bonding process took so long. That's why Peter didn't want to become one with the symbiote.
The symbiote was never Peter's other half to begin with, Gwen Stacy was.
If the symbiote was to ever have its revenge against its former host, if it was ever to regain what it lost, then that needed to change.
It was such a simple plan, the alien couldn't believe it didn't think of it sooner.
Why bother trying to create a monster who could create a level of suffering for Peter that dwarfed the tragedy of losing Gwen, when it could grant Peter's wish?
If the symbiote had a mouth on its amorphous body at the moment, it would have twisted into the most sinister grin imaginable.
"Yeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss… It's perfect... The greatest revenge and the greatest demonstration of love at the same time! The greatest wish of Peter Parker twisted into a tool of symbiotic vengeance... poisoned by his greatest mistake and greatest failure..."
"His heart's desire injected with VENOM!"
The symbiotes slimy body quivered with delight as it regained a small amount of energy, its thoughts dwelling on that last single word. It had a nice ring to it, and the thought of ending any internal conflict within itself was too good to pass up. It no longer needed to choose between making Peter suffer and attempting to bond with Peter again. Why choose between vengeance and reunion when it could have both?
"Oh yesssssssss… The look on his face when he finds out... Priceless... Now, how to get to Gwen's resting place? Too far away to travel there without a host. Would surely run out of energy and starve to death long before getting there. Don't sense any humans nearby. What to do, what to do?"
"Meow!"
The symbiote turned in the direction of the sound. It was no human, but it was a warm blooded life form of some kind. Based on the acquired knowledge of animal lifeforms on this planet, it was called a "Cat". It must have wandered into the area behind the church looking for food.
The symbiote gagged at the idea of bonding with a Non-Sapient host. Humans were the only creatures on this planet with brains properly developed enough to give it the nutrients it needed. Lesser creatures like this cat simply didn't cut it. That's not to say bonding was impossible. It could bond with the cat if it wanted to, but it would never serve as a permanent solution.
Besides, even if the cat was intelligent enough to serve as a host indefinitely, the symbiote already chose its next bonding partner.
However, it did still need transportation to reach the hospital, and in its weakened state, beggars can't be choosers. It would have to make due for the time being.
The cat then noticed the symbiote's presence and arched its back, hissing at the moldy mass, only to realize too late that it should have run. Before it could do so, the symbiote pounced on the cat.
()
Mercy General Hospital in downtown Manhattan was one of the last privately owned medical institutes in the United States of America, and for the past five years, it served as the current residence of one Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy. Most people found the name of this particular hospital to be quite fitting, but if Gwen were capable of voicing her opinion about her current situation, she would have scoffed at the name.
She likely would have preferred being dead, preferred that Spider-Man made no effort to save her at all and the Green Goblin succeeded in murdering her, granting him that single satisfying small victory over the Wall Crawler.
Five Years stolen from her life and being forced to spend twenty four hours a day, seven days a week on a hospital bed as a living corpse was no mercy at all.
It was a prison.
Ask her doctors and they would say it was a miracle they managed to stabilize her brain and keep her alive. Dozens of times in the ER following Spider-Man delivering her there, she scared them half to death with her vitals crashing, reviving, and then crashing again, but despite one of the worst cases of head trauma they had ever seen, they saved her, if one could actually call it that.
The diagnosis wasn't good. Every day, the doctors and nurses checked on her, but just as they delivered the news to Gwen's friends and family members, they knew that with an incident this severe, they had no idea when she would wake up, and since the fifth year had passed, it was starting to grow doubtful that she would ever wake up at all.
It was three in the morning now, the time when activity in the hospital grew so quiet it transformed into a ghost town, with the lighting giving it the feel of a haunted house, but that was just part of the natural process of winding down for the night. Patients needed to sleep and doctors were finally allowed to go home with only the late night shift staying behind in case of any other emergencies. More importantly though, it was the point in time when security started to grow lax, with many of them desperate to go home themselves, sometimes nodding off and falling asleep on the job,.
As a result, nobody noticed the strange looking stray cat wander into the building.
Nobody was around to witness the cat meticulously stalking through the halls until it reached Gwen Stacy's room, as if it somehow knew exactly where to go.
Nobody was around to witness the cat vomit a strange black slime out of its mouth like a hairball and then wander out of the hallway in a dazed and confused manner as if the cat had no idea how it got there.
And of course, nobody noticed the puddle of black slime slither its way underneath the crack of the door, creeping closer and closer to the vulnerable Sleeping Beauty.
All it took was a single momentary touch for the bonding process to begin. It was like an electric shock, a jolt of rushing energy throughout the symbiote's oozing form as it touched Gwen's arm for the first time. The cat it used to get here was nothing compared to this. After being separated from Peter for only a few hours, it felt like centuries since it felt the energy and comfort of a host, and it wanted more.
With Gwen still unconscious and unable to notice what was going on, the symbiote's tendrils crept across Gwen's arm and down to her torso, slowly spreading across her body and anchoring itself in place until every inch of Gwen's body was engulfed in the slimy shroud. Once completely cocooned, the symbiote began the final stage of the bonding, with the texture of its form flattening itself against Gwen's skin and transitioning from a coat of slime into a sheath of metallic obsidian leather. White web patterns began to decorate the arms of Gwen's new bodysuit, and for the final touch, a giant white spider symbol manifested just above Gwen's supple breasts, a touching memoir of its previous host and a constant reminder of what it was now fighting for.
And then, just as quickly as it appeared, the skintight body suit vanished, with the symbiote allowing itself to be absorbed into Gwen's skin like black suntan lotion. It was like the symbiote was never there to begin with. It knew that once Gwen awoke, more humans would enter the room to inspect her, and it couldn't afford to make its presence known to the other humans in the building right away. Playing the long term patient game was much more beneficial, and it would pay off in spades once it revealed itself again to Spider-Man when the time was right.
Repairing the damage to her body and brain would be child's play. She would be back at full strength within seconds.
For a brief moment, the symbiote grew concerned that it made the wrong choice after all. If Gwen was anything like Peter, then persuading her to see things its way would prove just as difficult, but as the symbiote burrowed its own consciousness deep inside Gwen's brain, all traces of doubt faded away. She was just as perfect a host as it thought she would be. It would indeed prove difficult for Gwen and Symbiote to merge into one being, but unlike Peter, Gwen's mind was vulnerable, traumatized, and fragile, and possessed many more weak spots, which the symbiote could exploit.
It would be difficult, but nothing was impossible for the symbiote.
"Oh Gwen Sssssssstacy" The symbiote purred as the bonding neared its completion. "How I wish we could have met under better circumstances."
"Rest easy Gwen Stacy. Your other half is here, and if it's the last thing we ever do, all who have caused us to suffer will pay! Green Goblin, Spider-Man, all of them shall suffer from the venomous vengeance born from our new and glorious bond."
"Rest now, Gwen Stacy. Rest now, and be reborn!"
Then, as if waking up from a terrible nightmare, Gwen's eyes did something they had never done in five years. They burst open, and her body shot upward from the hospital bed, shocked beyond all reason, but instead of a normal human scream, an ear piercing, bone chilling alien screech escaped the traumatized woman's mouth.
Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy was awake at last.
Authors Notes:
And so I finish this chapter with my gift to you all.
I give you... GWENOM!
Why am I going this route? Well to be honest, in every single piece of media where the Venom Symbiote has interacted with Spider-Man, despite being a blood thirsty alien monster, it seems to behave like a jilted ex girlfriend towards Spidey. On one hand it wants to get back at Spider-Man for dumping it, but at the same time, Spider-Man was the perfect host, so it's all like "PLEASE TAKE ME BACK!"
I wanted a fanfiction that allowed me to portray this duality to the greatest extent, and honestly, in most fanfictions I read where someone else gets the Venom Symbiote, the symbiote behaves with its new host the same way it behaved when it bonded with Eddy Brock, which just wouldn't be true, since symbiote personalities change depending on the personality of the host. Eddy Brock and Venom were the perfect combination since they had the same vengeful goal.
Gwenom will have vengeful desires, but unlike Eddy it's against someone else entirely. I think you all know who I'm talking about.
So what did you think of the first chapter to this ambitious Spider-Man Story? Did you like it? Did you not like it? Whatever your opinion may be, feel free to leave a review and let me know!
Until Next Time, This is Nox Descious signing out!