Chapter 11

MJ pulled the car into a roadside motel. Unfortunately traffic had been terrible on their way through New Jersey because of construction. They had made it just passed Wilmington, but MJ's cousin was in Seaford. It was late and MJ decided that Peter needed to spend the night in a proper bed. Even a crummy motel bed would be better than the back seat of a car.

After MJ had gotten a room, she helped Peter inside and onto the bed.

"Wait here," MJ ordered him. "I'm going to go get food for us, I saw a Diner not that far back. Do you want anything in particular."

Peter shook his head. After MJ left he was staring at the stained ceiling and he could hear the sound of a couple very enthusiastically going at it a few rooms away. However his mind kept wandering back to that report on the radio, that Tony Stark was dead. Needing to know more Peter looked to the bedside stand for the remote to the TV but it wasn't there, he looked around as best as he could without moving. He spotted the remove on top of the TV. Peter tried to get up but he was still in too much pain.

Silently praying that Mary Jane also brought back some painkillers he rolled up his sleeve to look at his web shooters and check how much fluid he had. With practiced ease he pointed his wrist, shot a web at the remote and yanked it back to him.

Turning the TV on he changed the channel to the News.

"and once more, Police are now investigating the death of billionaire Tony Stark after reports stated that there was no medical reason for him to have a heart attack. Labs are still pending on a toxic screen, and many are wondering if perhaps Mr. Stark was poisoned."

"Poisoned?" Peter muttered to himself. "Kraven's the only one who would use poison, but what did he have against Stark?"

Peter was running through these questions when he heard keys at the door. He quickly shut the TV off and hid the remote under the bed. A split second later MJ came in carrying a brown paper bag and a large Styrofoam container.

"You didn't happen to pick up some painkillers?" Peter asked.

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"We've got a security breach in the laboratories!" an armed S.H.I.E.L.D officer stated. "We've got to get the intruder contained!'

Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, and also the only member of the Fantastic Four currently at the Baxter Building stepped past him.

"Do we have any idea who the intruder is?" She asked.

"Negative," the agent replied. "All surveillance equipment is currently off-line."

"Well it doesn't really matter," Sue said. "I'll go up there and contain them."

As Sue stepped out of the elevator along with a half dozen armed guards things seemed, off. It was quiet in the hallways and although Sue had sort of been expecting that, whoever had snuck in obviously didn't want to be seen so they were probably hiding. However the door all seemed locked and Sue didn't notice any disturbances. Slowly she led the way down the hallway. Reed's lab was near the end and Sue guessed that the thief probably was most interested in something Reed had been working on. As they walked past the various doors nobody noticed the black liquid that started seeping out from underneath all of the door and following them. Finally they reached the laboratory and cautiously the door was pushed open.

As Sue stepped into the room the black liquid rose up like a tidal wave. Before Sue or any of the S.H.I.E.L.D. members with her could react, they were swamped. All of them struggled against the sticky substance but within seconds it had forced them all to the ground. Sue tried to erect a force field around herself to force whatever it was off, but she could feel something invading her mind. Her concentration was broken and she failed to raise a force field. She struggled against it trying to pull it off with her hands, but to no avail.

At that point a figure walked into the room. Sue couldn't see well as her eyes were getting bits of the black goo in it. She wiped at them with her hand and blinked a lot to try and get rid of it. The figure bent down next to Sue and despite her blurry vision the invisible woman could easily make out the face of the figure leaning next to her.

"Venom?" Sue choked out, her voice raspy as though something was caught in her throat, which it currently felt like something was caught there.

"Not quite," the figure said in a female voice surprising Sue.

Sue then remember the recent news, however she hadn't really been paying too much attention since Reed had been worrying about something going on in the Negative Zone that could have ended the world. Reed had taken Ben and the two of them had gone off to the Negative Zone while Sue and Johnny stayed behind. But now Sue remembered hearing the news reports about a female Venom.

"What... are..." Sue tried to say.

"Shhh," She-Venom interrupted. "Don't fight it, embrace the power that the symbiote grants you."

Sue continued to struggled.

"Alright if you want to do it the hard way," She-Venom said.

She smacked Sue across the face with a powerful backhand knocking her out. The symbiote quickly spread across Sue's body wrapping her in inky blackness. She-Venom stroked he clawed hand across Sue's symbiote covered face like a mother soothing their child.

"Soon your powers will be adopted in our being, and when you awaken you will find yourself more powerful than you ever thought possible Sue Storm."

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Peter was incredibly restless, he knew that he needed rest, that he should feel tired, but he did not. He lay awake in bed, Mary Jane sleeping soundly beside him, a small smile upon her lips, wearing nothing but her underwear. However despite how peaceful and appealing his wife looked Peter's mind was much too worried about She-Venom and what was going on back in New York.

As Peter lay awake staring once more at the stained ceiling tiles, wondering if perhaps he was going crazy because the stain patterns were starting to look like various animal, he heard a low buzzing noise from the bedside table. Seeing the vibrating cell-phone he reached over, grabbed it, and flipped it open in a single motion.

"Hello?" Peter whispered.

"Peter, are you okay?" a worried female voice said on the other end.

"I'm fine, but who is this?" Peter asked.

"Peter it's me Felicia." The voice replied.

Peter sighed with relief. Felicia Harding, the Black cat, was someone he figured he could trust, and also someone he felt he could rely on to keep him informed on what was happening in New York.

"Look I gotta keep it quiet Felicia because MJ is sleeping right beside me," Peter whispered.

Peter could a short snort on the other line. Peter knew that Cat was jealous of MJ.

"Why can't you go into another room?" Cat asked.

"I can't really move much right now. I recently had some surgery to re-inflate my lungs." Peter replied.

"Surgery? Where are you Peter, I'm coming to see you right now," Felicia said her voice filled with worry.

"Felicia we both know that you shouldn't do that. Besides I'm in a motel room somewhere in Delaware." Peter replied.

"Delaware?!"

"Yeah, that was my reaction." Peter chuckled softly. "MJ decided I needed to be taken away from New York so I could recover. And it's not like she's wrong but I'd rather be back in New York."

"What exactly happened Peter?" Felicia asked. "I'd like to help but I need to know what happened."

"Well as I'm sure you have been aware Venom had been running around with a female counterpart, who is his ex-wife Ann Weying."

"How... creepy," Felicia commented.

"It gets more interesting." Peter said. "I ran into Ann while out last evening and she made me a deal, it seemed like she was looking to take Eddie down as well, she said she had no desire to kill me."

"It was a setup?"

"Not quite, she was looking to take Eddie out so she could make her own symbiote more powerful, but once I had inadvertently helped her accomplish that, well let's just say I wasn't worth keeping alive after that. I was already in bad shape after my scrap with Venom so I was basically a punch bag, until MJ came and saved me."

"MJ saved you?" Felicia asked doubtful.

"That symbiote Scream? That was MJ," Peter explained. "It was some ploy by Venom to spawn a symbiote to take over MJ and have her attack me, but it backfired and MJ was able to control it. But She-Venom soon literally ripped the symbiote off of her. That's when I jumped in and took her out. But I ended up hurting myself. MJ took me to see Curt Connors and the two of them patched me up, and now I'm recuperating in a motel room in Delaware."

"That's quite a story," Felicia said. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Peter thought for a moment.

"I don't know exactly why, but I've got this odd feeling that something very bad is going to happen and She-Venom is going to be behind it. I want you to keep me informed of what is going on in New York." Peter said.

"Keep you informed?" Felicia asked indignantly. "That's it? Peter I'm a big girl. I think I can beat She-Venom if we have a little cat-fight."

"While I appreciate the pun, I don't think you know how dangerous she is," Peter said. "Look I'm not arguing with you. I don't want to wake MJ up. But I want to know what's going on. If anything bad happens I'm coming back to New York."

"Peter, if you just had you chest cut open you should stay in Delaware." Felicia said. "Don't worry I'll handle She-Venom while you're gone."

"Felicia I..." Peter started to say, but the line went dead.

Peter snapped the phone shut and then stuck it back on the nightstand.

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Yep another update. Next one might be a week or two in coming as I'm going to be a little busy coming up. But I might get one sooner than that. As always comments and questions are welcomed. I do my best to reply to all of you.