Chapter 11

Inhuman

It had been two days since the bombing at the hospital and still no one had recovered Peter's body. Gwen was sobbing on her bed when her father, George Stacy, walked in.

"Gwen, do I have news for you! Peter's body was not in the rubble! There was no human remains whatsoever in the blast area, he had to have escaped!" Gwen looked at him then with hopeful eyes.

"Let's go dad! We have to go find him!" she jumped up and grabbed her coat. George put his hand on her shoulder.

"First, we need to call Ben Parker; he will know what to do. Second, it's raining, so we will wait. We need to go about this in a thinking way. We can't just rush into things." Lightning struck as George finished. Gwen lay down on her bed.

"I just hope he's alright…"

Out in the dark New York Skyline

The creature leaped from building to building, but didn't make a sound as it landed on the roof of each one. The creature was stealthy; it climbed the buildings with its large claws and occasionally shot a web and threw itself up the buildings. Its primal instincts were at peak. It stuck out its long tongue and tasted the air, sensing what was around it. Its goal was to kill. To kill Osborn and get revenge. The hunt was on. It would hunt Osborn to the ends of the earth. It stood up on the top of the building and unleashed an animalistic howl.

On the street below, Mary Jane Watson hurried home in the rain. She had been in a depression since Peter went missing.

"I guess it's true that you don't know what you got until it's gone…" she said allowed as the rain fell upon her. She had always thought of Peter as just a friend, but now she realized that she had had feelings for him this entire time. She had though about going to him about it, but two things had stopped her. First off, he was already with Gwen Stacy, and she wasn't the kind of girl that liked the drama. Also, she did have a stronger crush on someone else: Spiderman. She knew it was just like a little girl to like the superhero, but she couldn't help it. She signed and then she heard a bone chilling howl from above her. She looked up and saw a giant figure leap over a hundred feet above her to another building. She was frightened now, and she ran the rest of the way home…

Ben Parker looked at the T.V. screen as the news went on. He frowned as he heard about the current story.

"Norman Osborn has made several announcements in the last few days that have left the people of New York reeling. Not only is he considered one of the richest men on the planet and in President Bush's good graces, but his recent buyout of the Daily Bugle has propelled him to one of the single most powerful men in New York, if not the world. Many Democrats in Congress are against the amount of power Mr. Osborn is accumulating, here at the studio is Senator Kevin Meyers:

"Thank you Christina. Many of the Senators are with me that no man should have the power Mr. Osborn had without checks and balances. People have said that we are hypocrites for not likening Mr. Osborn's assimilation of power, and that we support the President who has more power than Mr. Osborn. The reason we support the President is because he has checks and balances, unlike Mr. Osborn…" The man continued but Ben stopped paying attention because he heard a sound in the kitchen. He got up and saw May crying over the stove.

Ben walked to her. "May, come here," she walked to him and he held her close. May then started to sob.

"I've lost them both Ben! I was in charge of Peter and Ben and in the course of four months both of them have been killed! Everyone besides you that I loved is dead! Richard, Mary, John, Allie, now Peter and Ben!" Ben patted her back.

"Peter is down for the count yet. I have a feeling he's still alive. They didn't find a body, and in the army we learned that if there's no body, the guy ain't dead." May looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

"You think he's still alive Ben?" She asked with hope in her voice. "You're not just trying to make me feel better?" Ben nodded.

"I'm sure were ever he is he's trying to do what we would have wanted him too."

Osborn Mansion

Harry Osborn was lying on his bed. His best friend was dead. Peter had been his friend for fourteen years and even though they hadn't been talking as much, they still did all there old traditions. Whenever a new superhero movie came out, they went on opening day. They had done that twice this year, with the release of "Batman Begins" and "V for Vendetta". They had had a good time, but now he was gone. His dad had tried to console him, but it had failed. Now that his dad was in all this controversy, he didn't have much time for Harry either. He looked up when he thought he had heard a thump on his roof. He looked out the window and saw nothing, so he went back down to his bed and decided to sleep…

Norman Osborn sat in his chair very pleased with himself. In the last two days he had managed to become one of the most powerful men on the planet. He laughed out loud. How stupid of that fool Parker to think he could stop Osborn. All Norman had needed to do is ware the boy down and then when he was in the hospital, he could just blow him up. He then heard a sound behind him in the show room. Norman stood up slowly. He looked around and saw nothing. He walked into his room of artifacts, ranging from tribal masks to Chinese battle swords. He walked in and saw nothing. He decided to turn back around. He did and decided to sit down.

As he sat he heard anther, barely detectable sound. He quickly turned his head and still saw nothing. Now Osborn was getting nervous. He was the one in control, there could be no surprises. He pressed down on his chair and a secret compartment opened, revealing a magnum gun. Osborn picked it up and walked into the room…

Harry felt a tap on his window as he saw Gwen Stacy outside. He ran to it and let her in.

"Harry, do I have news for you! Peter's body wasn't part of the wreckage! Some how he escaped!" Harry leaped up in joy.

"Yes! I'll tell my dad and we can get the best search team in the world on him! I knew he wasn't dead, there was no way!"

Gwen smiled at him. She knew that with his and Mr. Osborn's help they would find Peter. She smiled at him as Harry picked up the phone.

"I'll call Mary Jane; this will cheer her up for sure. She is in like a depression, she really missed him. They were neighbors there entire lives, so I guess it makes sense." He started to dial when he heard an inhuman scream from down the hall and a gunshot…

Norman was slowly walking through the show room with the gun held in a firing position. He knew he wasn't alone, but there clearly wasn't anyone else in the room. He then felt something on his shoulder. He looked quickly at it and saw a large amount of saliva on his shoulder he quickly looked up and saw a creature from his nightmares above him on the wall, which then let out a scream. Norman fell backwards and fired the gun.

The bullet missed and the creature leaped in front of him. He looked closer and realized it was a Spiderman. But this was a vastly different Spiderman. He was about six five, but the most muscular thing he'd ever seen. The creature was so large it was sickening. It had long claws on its arms and had evil eyes. It opened its large fanged mouth and a large tongue came out. The creature walked closer until a voice said, "Peter?"

Gwen looked down from the stair case and saw a mutated Peter about to kill Osborn. She called to him and he stopped advancing. Harry ran to her side as she continued.

"Don't do this! You can't kill him, it's not you! If you were to kill him then you would regret it the rest of your life." The creature looked at her and began to scream. It put its large claws to its head and said in an evil voice, "Can't stop it, too strong." He then let out a huge roar. Gwen then realized this wasn't Peter at all. And it couldn't be the symbiote either since they were already permanently bonded. There was a third presence in that body, and evil presence. The creature started to destroy the cases while ranting.

"It's too strong, it's a venom, can't stop it. Keeps spreading, can't hurt Gwen, must kill Osborn, no, can't kill Osborn. ROAR! No, must leave, must fight venom. Help symbiote, symbiote in pain. Team up to fight…" The creature then started to scream as it fell to the ground. The upper part of the creature exploded and Peter and costume appeared to be pushing out of it. The lower part that was once the creatures legs started to swirl and try to consume Peter. Peter then started to scream.

"Don't let it take me no! I will fight you! I am stronger than you! AAHH!" The symbiote that was attached to Peter, his costume, had flung itself from his body and started to push back the invading suit. Gwen looked back to see that Harry had fainted from a piece of debris that had been sent from one of the broken cases. She then saw the two symbiotes absorb back into Peter, leaving him with a red t-shirt and jeans, lying on the floor, next to the also unconscious Norman. Gwen ran towards Peter and held him in her arms. He started to moan and she ran him to the hospital…

Peter was on the dreamscape when the symbiote came to him. Peter looked at him with a frightened look.

"What was that? Was that us?" the symbiote shook his head and sighed. Peter could see the wounds the symbiote had sustained.

"No Peter. Remember when I told you that you should never let your anger get the best of you? That was why. You were in such a rage about Osborn that you unleashed VENOM." Peter looked at him with a dumb look.

"The memory came back to me when we were unconscious. VENOM is a system that activates when there is extreme rage or you are near death. We enter a coma like state while this bloodthirsty monster takes over. And it's not gone Pete. It's still inside us, and there is nothing we can do…"