Betad by Carlomagno-2

XxX

Mania 1.1

Brockton Bay is place like few others. Wasn't a big settlement when the thirteen original colonies popped up and had been a pirate port for years before Nassau became the go to place for smugglers and the like. It grew faster than Boston but never became as big of a metropolis. Boston had a better port and less unsavory characters populated it. It was, much like Providence considered a town famous for its old school gangsters and famous for its ports… but then Parahumans made an appearance and Brockton Bay went to shit.

Allfather was the first Parahuman gang leader to settle in Brockton, the Teeth soon followed and other nameless gangs sprung from the earth and tried to make names for themselves expanded by challenging them for territory. Interestingly enough, they were cut down soon after they emerged. War spread like a wildfire until eventually a Villain going by the name Marquis managed to force a tentative peace between the gangs. He was a legend amongst us Brocktonites who at the time viewed him as the only sane Parahuman in this city. He was the only Parahuman in his entire gang but the number of regulars that joined him helped him drive the other gangs away if they ever became too rowdy. He used his mafia to effectively control the E88, to drive out the Teeth, and even repel the Slaughter House Nine… but like all good things it didn't last.

With the advent of the gangs came heroes to stop them. The Brockton Bay Brigade, this city's first homegrown team, took down Marquis in his own home and became New Wave. They were for a time the largest alliance of heroes to ever grace this city. They believed in Parahuman accountability and decried the Protectorate as a shield for some of the more shady Villains turned heroes. For their troubles an Allfather fanatic decided that was a good idea to kill one of them to send a message. Asshole gets crucified by Kaiser but let's just say Brockton Bay doesn't have as many colorful heroes as we used to. Sure, we've got the Protectorate but most of them aren't from Brockton Bay.

New Wave still has a lot of support around theese parts, but controversy still surrounds their role in Brockton Bay and the fall of Marquis. Few openly defend Marquis, but he was the lesser out of all the evils that plagued Brockton Bay, and people still remember the relative peace he brought. The fact that New Wave and the Protectorate are not able to even guarantee the same stability Marquis brought only further harms their support. However, as of now they are the lesser of all the evils by a wide margin.

Me? I couldn't care less about the whole situation. None of it seemed to matter in the long run. New Wave had lost its teeth once Fleur died and the gangs were worse than ever. Brockton Bay has been going down the drain since before the Parahumans made their claim. They were just nails in the coffin, and Leviathan was the dirt atop the casket… well that's not exactly true

Brockton Bay is a city like few others because no matter what happened its people will never give up on it. No matter how hard us natives try to distance ourselves from the turmoil, the pain, and the general apathy we cant just look away… this is our city, our home, its in our blood. It's funny because no matter how much we complain about the state of Brockton none of us really ever leave, not those of us that were born here. We're the ones who don't leave. We can't, we feel like the city's a part of us.

But no one is perfect.

Everyone's got their thing.

We are no exception.

We understand how some of us can become monsters.

Maybe it's a break-up; a death; an accident… an attack, or an amalgamation of all that in a relatively short span of time. Whatever it is, you used to be one thing. Now, you're something else. We all have our own problems and when I look at myself in the mirror that becomes abundantly clear. Gone was the lanky, beanpole frame that had I inherited from my father and in its place was an athletic build with tightly packed muscles and a flexibility I had never known. Slowly but surely our personality began to change too… we couldn't risk allowing ourself to be put in the position that caused my apparent trigger.

Half eaten by insects, blood poisoned, and hysterical.

Three weeks in and out of hospital cause the doctors wanted to be sure there was nothing wrong with while taking as much money from our Dad as they legally could. Two weeks at Winslow had pushed our restraint to the absolute edge. It was just so tempting to give in… No.

We literarily couldn't afford it.

Wait-No.

We meant to say I.

I meant. I meant. I meant.

Fuck.

It has me doing it again.

My name is Taylor Hebert and we are Venom.

XxX

"We shouldn't be here." I whisper beneath a mask of black and two large white eyes. Here, being a rundown part of the docks… on the side of a wall overlooking an ongoing crime. Three men in ABB colors had a girl that looked a bit younger than me surrounded. I personally wanted to be hero, which usually meant that I wouldn't be hesitating in this type of situation, but my other half had control issues. Like the time we punched a hole in a ship after Sophia tripped us earlier in the day.

"We can go where we please." Of course it would say that. I couldn't tell you the number of times I'd found myself full Venom in a candy store gorging myself on chocolate. That is how I found out that my other half could take control of my body when I was asleep. A user on PHO named xX_Void_Cowboy_Xx had pretty much brought it to the forefront of the forum… lets just say that when I finally decide to make myself public it needed to be something big or no one would ever take us seriously.

"We can't hurt them too badly."

"They're thieves, Taylor, criminals." The voice whispers in my ear. Soft toxic, notes that should have been reassuring but did nothing to quell my anxiety. It sounded like my mother sometimes but more often than not it sounded completely inhuman. I was sort of miffed at my other half for its hypocrisy. "They won't learn unless we make them." We move slowly, like a leopard stalking its prey, listening and watching the gangbangers threaten the poor girl.

"Come on, girly." A one eyed member taunted, pulling out a dagger from his waistcoat. "Pick one, one eye, the nose, the mouth, or both ears. Mei here thinks she has what it takes to be a member, you'll be doing her a favor, so you choose one of the above, and she goes to town on the part in question, proves her worth. Think of it as giving to the community."

"Fuck you." The girl spat out defiantly. "I ain't picking shit!"

As I moved closer I began to doubt my previous assertion that she was younger than me. She was hot like Emma, except the traitorous bitch didn't have anything on her… well maybe a better sense of fashion. Large breasts, at least two sizes larger than mine and body like a model.

Fuck, she even had high cheekbones… why did genetics have to be so unfair?

"My former host would have agreed." A manifestation of her other half, black as its main body appeared on the girl's exposed shoulder. It looked like the chestbuster from that Aleph movie… Alien or Aliens? I really couldn't remember. Not that it mattered when these ABB assholes are about to permanently scar a girl. "In moments like this he would say: 'Sploosh but with semen'." It was smiling right at me with its rows of sharp fangs.

I shuddered as it used my mother's voice. There are things I never wanted to hear my mother say.

"That comes later." A large heavyset man chuckled with a sinister grin. "The farms will be glad to have you." Oh hell no. We won't be holding back after that. These bastards didn't deserve our mercy when they wanted to mutilate her and now she wasn't inclined to give it..

"Screw letting her pick, just give me the knife Xiao." The heavily made up woman in heels demanded. Xiao handed her the knife but to my surprise the girl isn't looking at her attackers. She's looking at me with wide eyes. "I love the fear in your eyes girl, I love seeing it..." She takes a step forward and the girl takes one back just as I drop with an audible thud.

Normally, I'm in a mostly black suit, white spider covered most of my abdomen, my mask covered all of my face and my hair becoming long black tendrils that could lift things… but when I was angry my other half replace my chin with a maw much like its own with a very long tongue.

"What a coincidence!" We call out with an exaggerated amount of glee. "SO DO WE!" We leap into the air with the singular intent of taking out the big one in the least lethal way my other half would allow.

Translation: Full body cast.

A punch to the ribs cracked them, cost about thirty seven thousand dollars: a kick to the knee shattered it: Knee replacement thirty five thousand or more; grabbing his arms to use him as bat to harm his friends? Now that's priceless.

We follow trough with our plan with inhuman quickness. We feel the ankle snap because of the force of the swing and the other half of the large man's ribs crack.

Xiao and the large man crumple as we slam them against the wall, repeatedly. Mei tries to run but our webs shoot out from our wrists and catch her. She screams as we drag her towards us. She is so desperate to escape that she attempts to cut the web with the serrated part of her knife but it does nothing. We aren't stupid enough to assume that she has given up; we just can't help but enjoy just how stupid people are.

We fling the web line over an overhead lamp post and begin to tug.

We raise her until she is level with our face and grin. She shrieks loudly and stabs us in the neck. It feels like a prick of a needle, so we can't help the chuckle that escapes us.

Is it wrong that I feel zero remorse for this? Maybe, but we have to admit that this is fun.

"You're despicable." We hiss together, me and my other half, the ABB bitch is crying, calling me a monster even though she was about to mutilate a defenseless girl. The long tongue wraps itself around the hilt of the knife and pulls it out form our throat. "You and all you're kind!" That sounded way less racist in my head… good job, Taylor. "Preying on the defenseless, bringing nothing but misery! We will not HAVE IT!"

We release the line of web and allow her to fall on her head. It won't kill her but it will be enough to give her concussion. A tingle in our hindbrain warns us of an immanent danger coming to us from the broken bodies of Xiao and the large man. We crouch as if to examine Mei just as the bullet wizzes by harmlessly over our head.

Without even looking we shoot a thick line of web into the barrel of the gun and waited for it to explode. It shattered in his hand sending small pieces of metal into to it. He screamed as the scent of blood permeated the air. The police wouldn't show up, this was the Docks and at night only an idiot would patrol through here, especially with Lung skulking about.

There was a rustle from behind us and we turned fully intent on mauling any remaining ABB but came face to face with the object of our rescue. Instantly, the rows of teeth receded into the mask an I gave her our best sorry attempt at a smile. Our large eyes dropped to show just how apologetic we were for forgetting she was there.

"Oh… Forgive us for being rude…" Yeah, this is awkward. How exactly does one go about interacting with people that have possibly gone through a traumatic event? The nurses in the hospital weren't exactly welcoming and the doctors were just as distant as the nurses… You know what? Fuck it; we're the hero in this scenario. So what if we came off as bit sadistic? They were about to mutilate a girl! This was us responding with equal force to the present threat… but then again mom used to say that a good first impression could go a long way. How else did dad manage to woo mom? "Hi! We are Venom." Looking around we spotted a small purple handbag looking thing that went with her trashy outfit. We scooped it as we made to hand it to her. We gently pushed it into her breasts with one hand and patted her on the head with another. "You're safe now."

The girl was frozen in place but slowly she grabbed the bag by its sides. " T-thank you? This isn't-"

"No, please." We interrupt appreciatively. "There is no need to thank us." Which there wasn't, it was heroes job to save the innocent, after all. My other half whispers some words… and feeling confident that they sounded perfectly heroic I recited them. "Your joy is reward enough and sends us leaping happily on my way." We lift our arm towards the nearby roof but freeze halfway… yeah… we should probably call the cops… Maybe an ambulance?

My other half poked its fanged head out of the girl's shoulder; it shot me a disapproving look. 'Why bother? They would just spill the Blood of the Innocent.' Of course it would say that. My other half wasn't very… tolerant of the people it deemed to be unworthy. 'Leave them to their fate!'

"Heroes don't just leave people to die." I murmur under my breath. My other half grew incensed by my statement, both figuratively and literally…

'Not true they left US!'

And then I wasn't in some back alley in the docks anymore. The girl was gone, the gangbangers were gone, and the smell of the sea was gone… we were in a metallic hallway staring down at a man in in a white suit with a black spider, much like our own, its claw was digging into my heart as it lifted us off the ground.

"Give it up, Eddie." The figure mocked as it ripped out our cardio vascular muscle. Black bile spewed out of our maw while we fell to our knees. "Who do you think you're fooling? You couldn't beat Him on your best day. How the hell do you think you're going to beat me?" A kick sends us sprawling down the hallway. "We are so much more than him. So much more than Venom ever was!"

"You okay?" Just like that we're back in the alley and the girl is staring at us questioningly?

No, that wasn't quite right… the outline of a girl was looking at us. She was completely transparent but my other half could see thing that would rather remain hidden.

I pushed back the feeling of regret that my other half sent my way and filed whatever the hell I had just seen under the file of shit that could wait until later, I think I just witnessed the birth of another Parahuman. We tilted our head slightly our curiosity helping to distract me from the man in white.

"You spaced out for a minute, don't tell me that bitch caught you with her knife, cause that would be so lame… my names Aisha by the by... why are you staring at me?"

"You're invisible." We pointed out kindly. "Why didn't you use that before? You could have used it to escape." I mean everything I had read on PHO while I was in the hospital pretty much warned that Parahumans fainted when another Parahuman triggered. Was that why I saw the man in the white suit?

The girl looked at her hands appreciatively but we could detect the micro expressions detailing her rapidly shifting emotions. Distress, excitement, confusion, contentment… "Sorry, it was rude of us to assume that you had this ability before hand." There is a smile on my exposed face but I'm not sure it's comforting. We aren't good at this. Well, my other half is but only to me. The only person to ever really comfort me was Emma after mom died... and that only till before I went off to camp… then she turned into our worst bully.

"What the fuck? What the fuck? What the actual fuck?!"

Yeah… I pretty much had the same reaction when I woke up in the hospital not being able to breath. It felt like I was drowning but then my other half began to talk and… well I wouldn't say that I calmed down but at least I wasn't panicking.

Not like her.

Then it hits me.

I hadn't been alone when I awoke; my other half was there to talk me through the changes.

"Do you have a phone?" We ask her gently. She doesn't seem to hear us, so we take her bag and rummage through it until I find a small flip phone. "Is there anyone I can call?" When she doesn't react once more we press the first number and wait for it to ring. Thank you, speed dial. She's almost fully freaking out at this point and if we weren't s strong I might have slapped her.

"This better be an emergency, Aisha, I told you not to use this line unless-" His voice was deep and muffled

"Greetings." We say into the phone cutting him off. "We are Venom and Aisha is kind of having a panic attack. Identify yourself so I can tell you where you can find her." I wasn't about to give Aisha to a pimp… wait, holy shit she might be a prostitute! But why would she be in ABB turf? Usually people were smarter than to mess with Lung's operation.

"I'm her brother." His voice deepens… we think he's tying to intimidate us through the phone but I can't be sure. "Where is my sister!?" He's demanding, angry too, it feels real enough that I don't doubt he's telling the truth.

"We are in an alleyway near the exit that leads to Downtown…" We try to give him the best directions we can but even I'm not sure how I got here. "You know what? Meet us at Fugly Bob's. It's near the Market and I'm pretty sure Aisha could use a soda."

We don't wait for his reply, the phone close with a click and I stuff it in the bag. A tendril of my wraps around Aisha's slim waist just before I shoot into the air.

This is my favorite part. It feels like we're flying like Alexandria. Unstoppable and unbeatable we zoomed across the night sky with the help of our webs.

XxX

I am sad.

Do not know why.

Miss Eddie and Flash but Taylor is nice.

She doesn't hurt us like Eddie did but she trusts us more than Flash ever could… so why am I sad?

To Eddie, I was his everything.

To Flash, I was his partner.

To Taylor I am another part of her… she cares about us like family… so I treat her like she deserves to be treated but she is young. She doesn't know how cruel Humans can be.

Not Yet.

Not Ever.

Because she will be a part of me like I am a part of her. She doesn't need to know what we are…

Not yet.

Maybe not Ever.

…

…

…

…

Still sad but I cant dwell on that now.

Taylor needs me.

Needs us.

XxX

A/N: Puns are the best!

Welcome to my first attempt at first person perspective! Brought you by my over exposure the new Venom trailer and my own love for the Lethal Protector. You may have notice the few I's and Me's floating around in Taylors seech, this is her pushing at its influence to refer to herself as an individual while the collective nouns are darkened because it's Venom trying to correct her.

I'm starting a bit before Worm start because I doubt that anyone could keep our beloved Dark Avenger contained for long when exposed to the trio and when he reacts its not going to be pretty for anyone