REED'S VIEW

Reed sat at a console, seemingly punching keys at random. This equation was beginning to irritate him. Blasted Nth dimensional physics! They never come out the way they're supposed to. It's like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with all the pieces being from different puzzles!

He almost ignored the buzz from the intercom, but didn't because he knew the only one who'd page him at this hour would be Susan. He flipped a toggle switch.

"Yes, Susan? What is it?"

Sue's tired sounding voice came over the line. She must have just awakened.

"I just wanted to let you know that Spiderman's coming over with a friend of his. He says he needs your help."

"Spiderman? I wonder what he wants."

"I don't know. Just don't be up playing with your friends for too long, dear. You promised Franklin you'd take him to the park tomorrow."

"Yes, I remember. You get some rest, Sue. I'll see you in a little while."

He toggled off the intercom, and sat back in his chair, sighing at his dilemma. One of these days, I need to just go off on a scientific sabbatical. It's the only way I'll get any peace and quiet to do my research. I wonder if the Shi'ar have any uninhabited planets they could loan me for a month or two.

He went up to the roof to meet Spiderman and this "friend" he was bringing over. He wondered who it could be. Black Cat, maybe? He couldn't be sure. Spiderman had made many allies, as well as enemies, over the years that they had known each other.

Reed searched the skyline until he saw what he was waiting for. Two figures came webswinging up to the building. Wait a moment! Two? What's going on here?

Spiderman and Taylor made their way onto the roof, and greeted Reed. Peter shook his hand.

"Thanks for meeting us, Reed."

"Anytime, Spiderman. Who's your friend?"

Taylor directed his other to form his street clothes, and stuck his hand out.

"Hi. Nice to meet you, Mr. Richards. My name's Taylor Stevens."

"A pleasure to meet you, young man. You are the only one I've ever seen with a symbiote who hasn't tried to take off Spiderman's head. I'm assuming that is the nature of your visit here. The symbiote?"

"You assume wrong, this time, Reed," said Spiderman. "We're here because we need you to help with the disposal of some weapons. Taylor found a pile of the Green Goblin's pumpkin bombs, and we need your help to get rid of them. The police aren't geared to deal with this type of weapon, otherwise we'd be talking to the NYPD bomb squad."

Reed arched his eyebrows, and then nodded his head.

"It was a good idea to bring them here. Come downstairs to my lab. I think I can help you."

TAYLOR'S VIEW

On the way down to the lab, Taylor filled Reed in on how he got the symbiote, what happened afterward with the government. His explanation stopped the moment they entered the lab.

"Wow."

Spiderman was grinning under his mask. "Yeah. That was my first reaction to this place too."

"You could fit half of the high school I went to in here."

"Yeah, you probably could."

Taylor noticed a strange pulsed beeping sound. Spiderman saw that his attention had wandered, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, man. Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm all right. I was just listening to that beeping sound."

"Reed's got a lot of stuff that makes noise in here."

"Yeah, I guess so, but this sounds kinda familiar. Like a song I heard once."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No. Listen to it for a second."

Together they listened to the sound for a moment, and then it dawned on Taylor what the song was that he was thinking of. He began to sing it out loud, in time with the beeping.

"Sometimes I feel I've got to

Run away

I've got to

Get away

From the pain that you drive into the heart of me

The love we share

Seems to go nowhere

And I've lost my light

For I toss and turn I can't sleep at night

Once I ran to you

Now I run from you

This tainted love you given

I gave you all a boy could give

Take my tears but that's nearly all

Oh... Tainted love

Tainted Love..."

Spiderman burst out laughing, and Taylor felt a grin plastered across his own face.

"I knew I'd heard that stuff somewhere."

"Not bad at all, Taylor."

Both of them turned at Reed's comment.

"I'm ready to start when you are. Just set the sack on the spectrographic analyzer pad, and we'll be able to figure out what's in these things and how to get rid of them."

Taylor did as he was told, and stepped over to stand behind Reed and Spiderman. When the analysis came up on the screen, Reed gasped, and Taylor whispered "By the Gods..."

Spiderman turned to Taylor and Reed.

"What's wrong? What is that stuff? I've never come across that particular combination of elements before."

"I pray you never do, Spiderman. Our young friend here has brought a nightmare to us."

"What?!"

Taylor shuddered, and wrapped his arms about himself as if he were cold before he spoke.

"It's a chemical that was developed during the Second World War by the Nazis. It was never used, thank the gods, because of attacks by the British. Where the hell did the Goblin get the formula for this stuff?"

"What is it?" Spiderman was starting to get a little worried.

"It's a combination of paralytic and necrotic toxins. It's based on spider venom, but it's a thousand times more potent. This stuff not only stops you in your tracks; it eats away at your flesh. Imagine being unable to move, and at the same time, feeling your flesh rot right off the bone while you watch. Like Mr. Richards said, this stuff is a nightmare."

Spiderman felt his stomach drop to the floor.

"How many of those things did you say were in that bag?"

"About fifty or so. I've got a bunch more at home too."

"Reed, I think maybe we'd better call S.A.F.E. in on this one."

"I think your right, Spiderman. I don't have the facilities here to destroy that many of these devices."

"Mr. Richards? I don't want to sound ungrateful or anything, but should I be worried here? I mean, I fixed it so Green Goblin can't get in the place anymore, and I wiped his mainframe down to the bare bones, but if S.A.F.E. goes in, I'm going to lose my new place anyway. Not to mention the fact that the government is already after me. If they find me, they're going to kill me trying to figure out how my symbiote works. They nearly did it once already, and I have no intention of letting them get another chance."

"That's quite understandable, Taylor, but we really don't have a choice here. That lair has to be cleaned out of weapons. This may be the only chance we get. I can tell you this, however. S.A.F.E. does have a reputation for discretion if the right agent is contacted."

Taylor started getting suspicious. "In return for what? I've already been used as a lab rat, and they already seized my house and bank account. I have absolutely nothing left to give up, except my freedom and my life. I'll fight to keep those, and Threefold Law be damned!"

Reed and Spiderman shared a look, and Reed had a slight smile on his face.

"Don't worry, Taylor. Noone's going to take your new home from you, and I will make sure the government leaves you alone. You have my word on that."

Taylor looked almost as worried as he felt, but he trusted Reed Richards. He stuck his hand out.

"Your hand on it, then?"

Reed looked a bit surprised, but shook his hand.

"Okay. Let me give you my e-mail address, as I have no clue what my phone number is yet. Let me know when they're coming so I can let them in. The door is opened by a handprint sensor, and right now my handprint is the only one it accepts."

After finding a pen and paper, Taylor wrote down the address.

"I've got to get back. I have a lovely young lady meeting me for dinner tonight, and I don't want to keep her waiting."

Spiderman and Reed both stared. They simultaneously said, "You're joking."

Taylor looked back and forth between the two men, and then said "What?! I'm not allowed to have a girlfriend?"

Spiderman shook his head, and said "Oh, I've just got to hear this." Reed simply continued to stare incredulously.

Taylor blinked in surprise, but relented.

"Well, her name is Kali, she's a Morlock with six arms, six pretty red eyes, long hair, legs like a dancer, and a voice like an angel."

Peter was glad he was wearing a mask. The distaste he felt would have been obvious to anyone who could see his face. Taylor probably wouldn't have noticed anyway. His eyes had glazed over, and he was wearing a goofy smile.

"You're dating a Morlock? Why?"

The smile on Taylor's face was replaced with a smirk that didn't reach his eyes.

"Why not? You got something against mutants?"

Peter mentally smacked himself. I think I just made his shit list. Think fast, Parker!

"Uh, no! Not at all. I just- Well, you don't hear that much about Morlocks dating, is all."

Taylor shrugged, but Peter could see that the young man was angry.

"Maybe if people could just stop being assholes about the whole humans versus mutants issue, things would change. I don't see a problem, myself. I just see a pretty and intelligent young woman who's as crazy about me as I am about her. Anything else is just spice in the soup."

Deciding not to put his foot in his mouth again, Peter mirrored Taylor's shrug, and said "It's not really a subject I know much about. Charles Xavier's the local expert on mutants. It just kind of caught me by surprise that you'd have found a girlfriend after having only been in the city a couple of days. That's all."

Taylor stared into Spiderman's eyes for a second or two, and then shrugged again, seemingly content to let the issue go. Seeing the hostility bleed out of the young man's eyes caused Peter to release the tension that was building in his neck and shoulders. For some reason, the thought of fighting with Taylor scared the hell out of him, but for the life of him, he could not figure out why.

"Well," Taylor said as his symbiote slithered over him. "I'm off. It was nice meeting you, Mr. Richards. I really appreciate you helping me out like this. If I find anything else, do you want me to bring it here?"

Reed reached into a pocket, and pulled out a business card with the Fantastic Four logo on it. He handed it to the symbiote, and said "If you find anything else, call this number. I can be reached anywhere in the world with this. If I'm offworld, you can leave a message for me."

"Cool. Well, I'm outta here. Later, guys."

As Taylor swung away from the building, Reed turned to Spiderman.

"How much does he know about that creature he's wearing?"

"From what he said to me before we came here, one heck of a lot more than I do. It was educational. Unfortunately, what he knows about the symbiotes is what he learned while he was in the government's custody. You know what that means."

"Yes. He said earlier that they were after him. It's not them that concerns me. I'm more worried about what would happen if they caught him. What do you think he would do if he were backed into a corner and forced to fight? Do you think he'd react in a similar fashion to Venom or Carnage?"

Spiderman shook his head.

"No, I don't. I don't think he'd even fight until he felt he had no other choice. He doesn't strike me as being violent."

"I hear a 'but' coming."

"But I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of anyone who was dumb enough to corner him. I think he's been on the run for too long. He came to New York to go to ground. He's tired of running. Do the math."

Reed scowled as he turned it over in his mind.

"He seems nice enough, but I must admit that the idea of leaving him to his own devices with an alien predator bonded to his nervous system does not enhance my calm."

"I'll keep an eye on him, Reed. If it turns out he can be trusted, no problem, but just in case, you might want to break out the sonic cannon."

Taylor sighed, and peeled himself away from the wall where he'd had the symbiote hide him. He shook his head, and made his way back up the stairs to the roof. As he swung away from the building, he thought to himself On the run for too long? That's for damn sure!

AGENCY'S VIEW

Yeager had been awake for nearly twenty-two hours straight, and the night didn't look like it was going to get any shorter. He'd been in his suit, flying search patterns over the city, trying to find that damned Stevens boy. The boss was getting impatient, and when the boss got impatient, people got things moving, or people's careers ended. Even though Yeager's vision was bleary and he was nearly falling asleep, when his alarms went off, he snapped into full wakefulness. His thermal sensors were tracking the boy as he left Four Freedoms plaza. He alerted his team, and waited for them to converge on his position.

They'd bag him this time. No doubt about it.

TAYLOR'S VIEW

Taylor nearly choked on his own tongue when he heard the sound of multiple jets. He landed on the nearest rooftop, and scanned the area. It only took him a moment to realize that he was surrounded.

"Well, this night just keeps getting better and better."

It can, if you let me help you.

Taylor froze upon hearing the voice in his head.

I can get us out of this, Taylor. Just give me a chance.

Taylor's decision was made in the span of two long breaths.

"Let's do it."

Breaking from cover, he launched himself at the lead pursuer. Firing off two web lines at the shoulders, he used the armored man as an anchor to swing around and down towards the street. Halfway through the fall, Taylor felt a rippling at his back. His fall slowed, and began to move forward instead of down. The sound of small turbines followed, and he angled himself towards the street. Upon landing, the glider wings were reabsorbed, and he began to run towards the nearest crowd, the symbiote altering not only his clothes, but his face as well. He stopped in front of a large window, and took in his new appearance.

Taylor could not help but feel a little smug as he looked at a reflection that resembled his tenth grade algebra teacher, Mrs. Stohagan. He turned away from the window, snickering.

"Well, if it gets those suckers off of me, I guess I can play drag queen for a while. You sure picked a hell of a time to start talking. Damn near gave me a coronary."

Sorry. It seemed like the thing to do right then.

"Ah, that's okay. We're safe again, for a little while anyway. That's what counts."

Looking around, he spotted an alley with a manhole in front of it. He made his way over as casually as he could, and leaned back against the wall.

"Okay. Fade us out slowly. We need to get the hell off this street, fast."

Soon, Taylor was nearly invisible, and easing the steel plate aside. Once in the service hole, he slid the plate back and climbed down the ladder. The symbiote regained its natural white coloration, but pulled away from Taylor's face. He began to make his way back to his new lair.

AGENCY'S VIEW

Yeager was silently cursing himself. The boy had slipped away again, and it had been entirely his fault. He landed on the nearest roof, and removed his helmet, running an armored hand across his haggard looking face. He had no idea how he was going to explain this debacle to his superiors, and he was starting to wonder if he even cared. A beeping sound from his helmet alerted him to the call he was dreading.

"Yeager. Go."

"Mr. Yeager, I hope you have good news for me."

"I'm sorry, sir. The boy eluded us again."

"I see. Mr. Yeager, were my instructions in any way unclear?"

"Your instructions were very clear, sir. You have to understand-"

The voice cut him off abruptly.

"The only thing I have to do is remind you of your task. If you can't accomplish that, then I'll find someone who can. Is that in any way unclear?"

Yeager's temper finally broke.

"No sir. That's very clear. While you're finding my replacement, you're very welcome to put this damned armor on, and look for the thing yourself. In case you've forgotten, this thing is a shape-shifting chameleon with superhuman speed, strength, reflexes, and stamina. The only reason you, me, and every other person on this project aren't dead right now is because the boy isn't vindictive or violent. If we keep up this chase the way we're doing, that may very well change. He knows where the facility is, and if he decides to start assassinating project members, there's not much we could do to stop him. Do you really want to risk that?"

There was a long pause while his supervisor chewed on Yeager's outburst.

"You know what, Mr. Yeager? You're absolutely right. Recall your team, and return to base. I want your suggestions as to how to capture this creature on my desk no later than noon tomorrow. Get some sleep. Good night, Mr. Yeager."

Yeager blinked rapidly, trying to keep up with the rapid change in his situation. He had been certain he was going to be fired. He sighed, shaking his head, and recalled his team.

Sleep sounded like a very good idea.