Chapter 10

Ben Reilly felt his symbiote partner grow restless. 'Don't worry, I'm leaving now.'

"Finally." Toxin griped. "I wanna see the school."

'You already know what the school looks like from pour time.' Ben thought.

"Precisely." Toxin retorted. "You went there in the future, and I wanna see what it looks like in this time."

'You are weird.' Ben thought not for the first time in the time they had been bonded.

"Then if I'm weird, what does that say about you, my host?" Toxin asked mockingly.

Ben frowned. 'Point taken.' He conceded. He slipped his pack over shoulder and headed out of 'his' warehouse. He actually decided to use the city bus and when he arrived at Midtown high, he looked through all the students for a specific person.

"Allow me." Toxin said and went silent for a moment. "She's near the archway on the school side."

'Got it.' Ben thought and soon found his mom's brown tied back hairstyle. His growing smile dimmed when he noticed she was speaking with her friends, Harry and Gwen. "Hey Perry!" he called walking over to them.

Perenna looked back, surprised, but happy. "Hi Ben! Are you going here?"

Ben smiled again and nodded. "Yup, just starting."

"Great." Perenna said with a wider smile.

"You must be Ben Reilly." Gwen began. "I'm Gwen, Perenna's talked about you a lot."

Ben smirked. "Really? I had no idea."

"Yeah, she talked about you every chance she got." Harry replied, a strange inflection in his voice that Perenna didn't recognize, but Ben did.

Having unfortunately spent enough time around Venom made him instantly recognize that tone of voice. Jealously. Why Toxin's 'gramps' would want to spend any time around him was a mystery. Especially considering the fact the guy said he hated him and his father's guts every chance he got.

Ben shook his head out of his thoughts as the bell rang. "Well, I gotta get to class."

"So, an internship huh?" Ben tried not to sound too knowing as he looked at his mom across the cafeteria table.

Perenna smiled at him. "Yeah, me and Gwen." She said looking at her friend, Ben doing the same.

"You know, I'm pretty smart too. Get it from my mom." He said and Perenna blushed lightly at the indirect praise.

"What about your dad?" she asked and Ben froze slightly, knowing he'd be less obligated to weasel out of this since there were other people around.

"He's a great guy." Ben stated bluntly, not really revealing anything. "And that's all I'm saying."

Perenna pouted. 'So much for that.'

Ben started picking the food on his tray with his fork, a small smirk on his face. He knew where he needed to go after school now.

And indeed, after school was going to head over to ESU, but his stomach demanded more food, so he took a detour to the Silver Spoon and ordered his usual of fries and a drink. This was his 'dinner' of sorts. His anyway, since Toxin didn't really need to eat, but the symbiote wouldn't turn down chocolate if some was offered.

So deciding to humor is partner, Ben bought a chocolate muffin and tossed it into his 'cap' when he was sure no one was looking. The muffin quickly sank in. 'Don't get any crumbs in my hair.' Ben warned.

"Whatever." Toxin replied flippantly, contently breaking down and 'eating' the muffin.

He took the bus again and using Toxin's tracking ability, he found his mom, but also found she was with Gwen and Brock.

'So just casually strolling over to her is out.' Ben thought in dismay.

"What are you Benny, a man or a spider?" Toxin reprimanded.

'Technically I'm both.' Ben thought dryly. 'But you're right. After all, what are spiders better at than sneaking?' he thought, his eyes drifting up to the ceiling.

"Also Benny, I found out that Mommy's 'special friend' is here too." Toxin added.

That made Ben smirk. 'Now that's very interesting.'

After the whole ordeal with the flying wacko and getting a call from Harry about asking where she went, Perenna went into the ESU lab with Gwen and was introduced to the Connors. She had also been pleasantly surprised to see Eddie there; he certainly never mentioned that he was working there to her at any point.

But right now he was doing as instructed and showing them around. And once his hand had landed on Perenna's shoulder, it didn't move. She didn't find this strange or weird since he was her bro. And an overly protective one at that.

"And this is where the supercomputer is." He said. "Though it's currently going through some repairs. Isn't that right, Max?" he called.

The brown-haired man looked up from his spot on the computer's side and Perenna felt a sense of déjà vu. "Yeah, that's right."

Only then did Perenna shrug Eddie's hand off her shoulder as she walked closer to the supercomputer, but in reality she was trying to get another look at Max's face. There was something about it, like the answer was right there in the forefront of her mind, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

She didn't notice the white flimsy muffin cup float down behind her and as she turned around, her sock slipped on it causing her to go falling backwards. The man behind her saw her fall and without really thinking, held his arms out. So Perenna quite literally, fell right into his arms.

She saw with some confusion a flash of red in the vent before her turned her head slightly and froze, looking at the man's face. the resemblance finally clicked in her head, but the close proximity took hold at the moment. "Thanks." She mumbled self-consciously. "For catching me I mean."

"You're welcome." Max replied as he helped her back up.

Gwen came over and asked if she was alright. "Yeah, I'm fine." She said and saw that Eddie looked very angry, but she wasn't sure why.

The only thing she was sure of was that Max looked like Ben.