Somewhere outside of the San Fransisco boundaries...
James Green was busy setting up a business deal. Normally, that would be fine. But this one was taking place for a shipment of illegal drugs from Mexico. He smiles, checking the numbers on the screen. They didn't call him the Birdie for nothing. Leaning back in his hundred-dollar chair, James pops out a bottle of the finest wine. The 'Birdie' pours himself a glass.
That's when everything falls apart.
Something crashes through the skylight in the ceiling. Shocked, James falls backward in his chair, wine spilling everywhere. Luckily, this move is what saves him from being smashed underneath whatever leaped through the window. Broken glass glitters on the floor as the thing picks itself up. "You are going to be in a world of pain, Green." It growls, crawling into the light of a nearby lamp. James Green isn't surprised by much, but this adds even more to his confusion. The light reveals a reddish creature, covered in scales, owning a pair of hand-like claws pulling itself forward. Slavering fanged mouth, raging yellow eyes, flaring nostrils...a prefect picture of a monster. Shards of glass are stuck in its flesh like a porcupine, slowly seeping blood.
The famed Birdie presses a secret button behind a Chinese vase. Alarms go off. The creature puts its head up, looking around in order to find the source of it. While it's distracted, he gets out of there. It notices him trying to run away, after locating the alarm system on the wall. Hissing, it darts forward and...gets its head stuck in a vase? James Green is trickier than he seems, even in an unexpected situation like this. In its attempt to remove the vase, the creature's tail lashes, destroying everything around it.
"Rragh! Get back here, Green!" Snarls, magnified by the vase that is still on its head, echo around the room. The now almost empty room with only the beast inside. Finally, the expensive Chinese vase breaks on the floor. The creature instantly knows its prey has fled. It sniffs around, attempting to find a scent to track by. Luck is on its side. One of the many specks of blood littering the floor by the door is the blood of James Green, not the creature itself. And for the first time, it smiles, jagged teeth showing in a grin that only two other creatures on Earth could share. "Got you now."
James was having problems. One minute, everything is normal, he was just having a glass of wine. The next, something jumps on him and tries to kill him. His first thought was that maybe one of his rivals had hired it to take him out of the game, but he quickly dismissed it. That wasn't their style, being almost as cunning as he was, they would have found a more subtle way to kill him. More likely, this thing had a personal vendetta against him. Problems, problems...he couldn't help it if everyone wasn't happy with him.
Now his pilot was complaining about being pulled in to fly the helicopter. Huh, like he was doing anything better tonight than going to the city bars. "Hurry up, you %&#." James urges the pilot, who is still messing around with the controls. "Fine, fine...what the &$#^$ is going here?" The pilot grumbles, finally starting the helicopter up. They only get a little bit away into the air before a certain red-scaled monster jumps aboard on the windshield.
No way my prey will escape me! James Green, otherwise known as the Birdie of the Blackbird Gang, is going to pay for the evil he's done and has let be done. Now. The helicopter is slippery with dew from the late night. I dig the claws on my back feet in. Can't fall now, when I am so close. My claws barely scratch the windshield of the helicopter when someone tackles me from behind, knocking me off. We fall through the rain that has just started to come.
Rain falls down, coating the already dark night with an extra layer of glistening black. The weight of the creature had dragged the helicopter close enough to the ground, close enough that no one would be hurt if they jumped out of it. Which James Green does, leaving the scene behind once his feet hit the ground.
A writhing pile on the ground is in fact two beings, both trying to gain an advantage in this battle. Tearing into flesh with tooth and claw. Healing from each from wound, only to be cut in the same place again. Fast enough that when the blood is spilled, it doesn't even hit the ground before being adsorbed back in the healing cut. Fang hits bone, grinding. Head snapped back by a solid blow. Claws grapple to get a better grip. Red and black. Plus some white.
Bone white.
Best fight I have had in forever. Even the fight with Carnage doesn't compare. Whoever this is has had either a lot more experience or training. Either is fine with me. This fighter is male, I can smell it. Something about the scent wants me to tear into the flesh even more, though I don't know why. But there is another conflicting feeling of something I can't quite identify...
We separate, to look at each other better. Twisting back my legs to switch to two-legged mode, all the better to see him. I survey him; he does the same back. My teeth are showing in a growl before I even realize it. It's a symbiote! L identifies what stands before me. Similar white eye patches like Carnage's, but more ragged and bigger. That, and the long tongue showing between the familiar toothed grin is all that's the same to the red symbiote back in NY. He's black all over, other than one large white spiderish looking thing on his chest. Sort of like the famous Spiderman's. But he smells almost like Carnage. Is that because he's a symbiote too?
Rain is falling, make my scales slick. I glance back at the now-grounded helicopter, knowing that by now both Green and the pilot are gone into the night. With this stupid rain, I won't be able to track either of their scents. I turn back to the black symbiote in front of me. "Why did you have to go and attack me? I was busy." I hiss.
The reply itself is strange. "We don't appreciate you being in our city, harming the humans there." A strange hissing voice, much at contrast to Carnage's. "I only hurt a few of 'em and they were going to attack first. Like you attacked me first, symbiote." A little movement, but not enough for me to tell his reaction. Surprised or not, I can't tell. "Like these ones?" He says, gesturing to the helicopter. I scowl, twining my tail behind me. "He had it coming. That man needs to die for what's he's done."
One question. "What has he done? This man." This black symbiote doesn't question me, ask me why I'm doing it. He seems to understand revenge and need to protect, unlike L, who doesn't. "He is a killer. If not killed himself, he's ordered deaths. Even his other 'work' brings sorrow and death to those who come in contact with it. Drugs is what it is!" I spit out, the hot anger from the first time I learned about this man, this James Green, renewed, rushing in my veins. "It's better for the world if he's dead. Having something against him as well helps my reasoning." Without me really realizing it, my claws are up and the wings on my back are rustling. Rustling in old yet brand-new rage.
Something strange was going on here. Venom knew it from the moment they found what trespassed in their city. When they found some red creature trying to tear apart a helicopter, the trespasser itself.
For a moment, they had thought it was Carnage, their wretched offspring.
But other details came forward. Wings, different body shape, scales, tail, and more differences. The only thing that was the same was the similar red coloring its scales. Tackling the thing was a simple solution that both symbiote and host agreed on. The one factor they learned in the process was the creature could fight. Pretty good too, for its much smaller size.
After the fighting, the watching, when it spoke. The voice was in pitch of a female, weirdly enough. So they decided it must be a she. She wanted one of the men in the copter to die by her claws. Which was why she had been ripping at it. For a mixture of revenge and some feeling of rightness. Just like their feelings against the Spider, but less deep in some ways, deeper in others. They knew better than to offer to kill the man for her; the reaction would just as if someone had offered to kill the Spider for them. She knew that one part of them was a symbiote and she had attached a certain amount of hatred to the word as she said it.
Her yellow eyes were staring at them this very moment, daring them to answer. The wings on her back moving, shifting. Determining whether to fight again or flee. "We know what you mean by that. We know that even if we run you out of our city, you will come back to kill him. So we will think about if you can stay. But first, tell us your name." She backs down, claws down again by her sides, but her wings are still shifting. "Only if you tell me yours." She shoots back. They smile. "We are Venom."
Venom? This was him? Hmm. I had heard about this Venom guy all over Frisco. 'Lethal Protector' or something like that he was called. His fanged smile reminds of Carnage's, but with less malice. Less, not none. I didn't really want to give him my name but a deal was a deal. "Name's Slash." I also didn't want to get his 'permission' to stay in this city. I go where I like. No one stops me from getting my prey. Not even symbiotes. Symbiotes such as this Venom and Carnage. Grrr...
"So you gonna beat me outta of here? Because I don't go without a fight. And you know that already." The symbiote seems to struggle with himself before answering. Similar to me and L's own inner arguments. "We will allow you to stay if you do not interfere with the city. But do not cross us, we don't forget." With that helpful piece of advice, he melts into the stormy night.
With him gone, I can finally name the other feeling I had: admiration. Part of of it was his fighting skills but there was something more to it; I admired his control. The oneness Venom had shown. If only L and I shared the same ability to work together. Part of it was her and part of it was me. How to fix our relationship, neither of us knew. It would be fixed, if you stopped trying to butt in, Slash. I disagree with her, but am too weary to argue tonight. All I want to do is go somewhere to sleep this wet night. Going back on all fours to move faster, as is what I usually do. Four legs to fight and run, two just to talk. I make my way back to city of the San Francisco from this place to find shelter.
Rain. I hate rain. Rain ruins everything, smell and dirt into mud. I sludge to a barely dry alley to spend the night, already knowing that in the morning I'll be soaked. Rain falls more and more, and the thunder starts. Nighttime. Sleep time. Darkness falls. I curl up, knowing I am in for a long night.
Venom webslings over to the apartment where they were staying. The window is easily opened, so they climb through it into the black room. They don't bother to turn on the lights since they can see perfectly well in the dark.
The black shrinks back to reveal Eddie Brock, the host of the symbiote and one of the two that make the being known as Venom. He goes over and turns on the one lamp in the place before deciding to turn it off again. Sitting down in a chair, he watches outside where the rain falls. Thunder crashes and lighting lights up the sky, illuminating everything for a moment under a stark white glow.
A couple more flashes and Eddie suits up again, going forth into the night. The open window is still swinging back and forth when they leave, rain falling through it. The floor gets covered in wet puddles that get bigger and bigger with each raindrop. Wet night. Dark night. A new night, ready to lead to tomorrow, where blood and shadow run together.