A/N: Been a couple days, but with what I've got for you all it was more than worth the wait.
X
Everyone watched as an eight-foot creature stood in the man's place. Similar to Venom except its flesh was dark-grey with black veins stretching across its frame. It's head was a bit longer, almost lizard-like, but had the same number of sharp fangs and wide, jagged eyes.
The creature, another symbiote, rose to its full height and pointed a clawed finger at Sean and spoke in a deep, grave voice.
"We've been looking for you...PAPA!"
X
Sean transformed into Venom and growled dangerously at the other symbiote. "Who the hell are you?"
"What's the matter, Papa? Don't you recognize your own spawn?" the creature hissed with a wide grin.
Venom blinked, mind turning as the symbiote remembered something. "It can't be..."
"Venom?" asked Balalaika, her body tense along with her men and everyone else in the ship yard.
"At the Life Foundation, when the scientists experimented on us, they removed pieces of us for study...this must have been one of the pieces." the anti-hero grit his teeth and clenched his clawed fists.
The other symbiote grinned even wider, "We are called Riot, and we were created for one reason." his claws extended as long and as sharp as katana blades, "To hunt down, and kill dear old DADDY!"
Riot lunged, Venom charged forward and met him half-way. Both symbiotes slamming into each other with the strength of two trucks head-on at full speed.
Venom grabbed the younger symbiote's face, narrowly avoiding a slash of his claws as he threw him across the yard and into the side of a shipping crate. Riot roared, holding out his arm as it shifted into a spiked ball at the end of a tendril that he hurled at his sire who lept aside as the hardened substance slammed the asphalt and made a crater.
Using the tendril like a bungie cable, Riot slingshot forward. His other arm shifting into a large scythe that he swung at Venom with the intention of taking his head off.
Forming a shield with his left arm, Venom blocked the attack before delivering a solid uppercut to the younger symbiote's jaw. Following up with a double-handspring kick to his chest that sent them into the air where he jumped up and slammed both fists on to Riot and sent him crashing back to the ground.
"You lack experience, spawnling." Venom rumbled, grabbing Riot by the head and lifting him up-
Riot's eyes snapped open, grin reappearing as his form became covered in sharp spines that all fired out of him in multiple directions.
Everyone hit the deck, the projectiles spearing through anything and everything in their path, two of Balalaika's men taking direct hits and dying instantly. The anti-hero stumbled back with several of the spines sticking out of his chest a moment before Riot speared him through the middle, both of them crashing through several crates and disappearing.
"Everyone alright?" Balalaika called out.
"Jace and Yuri are KIA, Kapitan." Boris reported, holding his arm where one of Riot's spikes had grazed him.
Dutch and Benny came out from behind the Roadrunner, Revy between them with the car riddled with hardened spikes. Roberta standing, having covered Garcia with her body to protect him.
"What...What were those things?" the Lovelace heir asked, still not believing what he had just seen.
"Something that'll take too long to explain." said Balalaika as she took out her radio, "All squads, I want eyes on the new target. If you have a shot, take it. But do not hit Venom." she ordered.
"Acknowledged, Kapitan." replied one of her men just as a series of loud roars and crashes could be heard on the far side of the shipping yard.
"Grr...dammit. What the fuck happened?" Revy groaned as she started to come around.
"You picked a hell of time to wake up." said Dutch just before Venom and Riot came crashing through another stack of crates. The two Klyntar clawing and biting at each other like rabid animals as they tried to tear one another apart.
The gunslinger snapped out of her daze quickly, "What the fuck?! There's TWO of them?!"
"Apparently the Life Foundation managed to force Sean's symbiote to reproduce." said Benny. "Now it's come around to kill Venom."
Riot roared, making its claws long again and started slashing back and forth at Venom. The older symbiote avoided the strikes, firing a tendril into his offspring's face and slamming it into the ground, swinging its own claws upward and tearing a chunk of the enemy Klyntar away and exposing a bit of the Human host underneath.
The two jumped apart. "Why do you fight us, spawnling?" questioned Venom, wondering what the younger symbiote's motives were.
"It is what we were bred for." hissed Riot. "When we gained sentience, we had no purpose. The ones in white, they gave us purpose. Gave us a host. In exchange for terminating the one who betrayed them. Betrayed US!"
"The Life Foundation brainwashed him." Sean said within their shared mind. "Who knows what the hell else those bastards did to him during those experiments."
Venom rumbled in anger, "You may share our genetics...but you are not a true Klyntar! You, are nothing more than a byproduct of Drake's madness forced from our flesh."
Riot grinned, "We are more than what you ever thought you were! And we will prove our worth by tearing you and your host apart!" the enemy symbiote stabbed both its arms into the ground.
At first nothing happened, then Venom shot his eyes downward and immediately backflipped as large spikes started shooting up through the Earth. Forced to jump and roll in several directions to not get impaled.
Of course he wasn't the only one who had to get out of harms way.
Roberta grabbed Garcia and lept aside as the spikes shot up from where they had been standing. Dutch, Benny, Revy, Balalaika and Boris all doing the same.
"Fuck this! That other slime-bag's going down!" Revy shouted, drawing both of her Cutlasses and charging into the fray.
"Revy!" Dutch called after her, "Crazy bitch."
Garcia looked up at his maid, "Roberta, they need help!"
"Young master?" asked Roberta.
"Sean saved me. He looked out for me and protected me ever since his crew took me in. I don't know what he is, but he's not a bad person." replied the boy. "I know I said I didn't want you to pick up a gun again...but this time, please."
The former revolutionary looked toward the battle taking place, her eyes narrowing.
X
Venom roared as he grabbed Riot's outstretched arm, breaking it and causing the enemy symbiote to hiss in pain before opening its mouth and chomping down on the anti-hero's shoulder.
Both of them struggled before separating, their injuries healing rapidly as they went at one another again.
Gunfire stopping them as Riot was peppered with 9mm rounds. Revy leaping into the air and raining bullets down on him.
"No one's killing that dipshit but me!" she shouted, landing back on the ground and quickly reloading her guns.
Riot roared at the woman, turning one of his arms into a long, serrated blade before running toward her-
A black fist striking him in the side of the head.
"Your fight is with us!" Venom bellowed, pummeling the younger symbiote with his large fists and sending him skidding back along the paved ground.
Hissing, Riot grabbed a nearby forklift and raised it into the air. Hurling the transport vehicle at the duo forcing Venom to grab Revy and leap out of the way and on top of a shipping crate.
"How the fuck do we kill this thing?" demanded the gunslinger as she reloaded her Cutlasses.
"Our kind our weak against high-pitched sounds and fire." said the anti-hero, grabbing Revy again and leaping away when Riot jumped at them. Extended claws shearing through the shipping crate as though it were aluminum.
While they were avoiding the enemy symbiote, Venom noticed several red barrels with warning stamps on them.
"We need to lure Riot over there." said Venom, motioning to the barrels.
Revy grinned maliciously when she saw what the anti-hero was pointing at, "Then we light that motherfucker right up."
Riot continued its pursuit, doing everything in its power to kill its progenitor. Several rounds being fired at him from the Russian soldiers nearby, doing nothing more than causing a distraction.
The enemy symbiote roared, leaping toward two of the soldiers. Grabbing one and throwing him across the shipping yard while impaling his claws through the other.
Venom appeared behind Riot and grabbed him in a full nelson, restraining its spawn with his strength only to roar in pain when the younger symbiote shot spikes out of itself like a porcupine.
With the older symbiote knocked back, Riot grabbed Venom and threw him into one of the cars Hotel Moscow came in with.
A salvo of 9mm rounds peppered his side, Riot turned and roared at Revy before going after her next.
The gunslinger fired both of her weapons as fast as she could pull the triggers, hitting anything she could on the creature, trying to find something vital. Both her weapons ran empty just as Riot finished closing the distance, slashing his claws and forcing Revy to dodge them as best she could since she couldn't reload.
However, she failed to take into account the symbiote's enhanced speed. Finding herself with one of Riot's massive hands wrapped around her torso and lifting her off the ground.
"Hmm, delicious." Riot rumbled, opening his mouth wide with the intention swallowing her whole.
Revy struggled, trying to get a hold of a spare clip, but couldn't with how she was trapped. The mouth of her executioner drawing closer.
Several gunshots went off, Riot roared and glared to the side and found Roberta sprinting toward them with a pistol in each hand firing at the creature.
Shifting his free arm into a blade, Riot swung at the maid only to have her jump into the air. Flipping over the weapon and firing downward into the symbiote's open mouth, kicking off the side of a shipping crate, she then delivered a hard kick to the symbiote's jaw.
Breaking free from her confinement, Revy quickly reloaded her Cutlasses and jumped back to land beside Roberta. "Didn't need your help, bitch." she gritted out.
The maid scoffed, "Whatever you say, puta."
Riot skulked toward both women, both arms now in blade form, when a series of black tendrils ensnared him.
On the ground, Venom pulled both his arms back and yanked the younger symbiote into the air toward him. The anti-hero releasing the tendrils and grabbing the car he had crashed into, lifting it off the ground and swinging it at the incoming enemy and sent him flying.
"Home-run!" Venom roared as Riot crashed into the barrels stacked around a larger tank in the farthest corner of the yard. Rubbing his head, the young symbiote looked around at the barrels, eyes widening when he recognized the look of the containers and the smell of petrol heavy in the air.
Several meters away, Venom changed back into Sean. Drawing his Desert Eagle while Revy and Roberta stood on either side of him with their own guns trained forward.
"Game over." said Sean as they all pulled their triggers.
Riot roared just as the rounds struck the fuel barrels around him. The Earth shook, the explosion so loud that it could be heard throughout Roanapur, the sky lighting up with bright red/orange fire that could be see for miles around.
The blast forced everyone remotely near it to shield their eyes, when it settled they saw the whole corner of the shipping yard nothing more than a black, smoldering ruin with small fires still burning all over.
But Riot and its host were gone. Completely wiped from the face of the Earth.
X
In the days that followed, Sean had been illusive.
After the battle with Riot, he and his other had stayed mostly to themselves. Not answering their phone and avoiding the crew's usual hangouts as both of them wrapped their heads around what they had learned.
They knew the Life Foundation had done experiments on the symbiote after it had been captured...but neither of them could think that the bastards would use the Klyntar's own children against it.
Forcing the alien to reproduce was horrible, brainwashing the spawnlings was dowright evil. And given where they were living, that was really saying something.
During his time away, Sean had learned that Garcia and Roberta had been given transport back to South America courtesy of Balalaika and Hotel Moscow. This of course was after the former revolutionary turned maid and Revy had a throwdown between them that lasted several hours before they both eventually knocked each other out.
Sean had watched the Lovelace heir and his protector leave from a nearby rooftop. Both he and his other surprised when Roberta turned in their direction and sent a kind wave at him.
He couldn't expect anything less from a highly trained soldier.
Three days after the incident at the shipping yard, Sean had been tracked down by Hotel Moscow. Boris coming personally on Balalaika's behalf saying that she wanted to see him and wouldn't take no for an answer.
Knowing that he had spent enough time away to think, Sean followed soldier to the HQ and to Balalaika's office where Dutch, Benny and Revy were already waiting.
"And there he is. Finally decided to come crawling out from under your rock?" Revy snarked.
"Maybe if you changed your damn tampon once in a while, we wouldn't have a legitimate reason to stay out of sight." the host fired back, Dutch and Benny doing the best they could to not laugh while the gunslinger looked ready to go on another rampage.
Balalaika flicked the ashes off the end of her cigar before addressing Sean, "I usually don't like it when someone I've come to trust suddenly disappears. But given what had happened, I figured you and your partner could use the time to figure things out."
Sean nodded, "We're sorry about the men you lost. They were brave, even in the face of someone like us."
The Russian leader breathed out a puff of smoke, "Venom gave us a brief overview before he started fighting Riot. Can you give us a bit more details? Something like another of your kind slipping into Roanapur without our knowing is not something I can let stand."
"You already know about the pieces that were taken from our other during the experiments at the Life Foundation. The Klyntar reproduce asexually. So if the pieces were treated a certain way after they were extracted, then they could have grown and become their own sentient being...just like Riot." the host explained.
"How many pieces were taken?" asked Balalaika.
"Five." Sean answered.
The rest of the crew tensed, "You mean to tell me that there are four more of those things running around somewhere?" said Dutch.
"And all of them more than likely brainwashed by Drake and his lackeys like Riot had been." said Sean. "Even worse, according to what our other was telling us the last couple of days, Riot wasn't coexisting with its host. It was feeding off of him, killing him, it would have jumped to another host when there was nothing left of the one they were inhabiting."
"So he was unstable." said Benny, thinking about everything they had been told.
"How do we kill them?" asked Balalaika.
"Fire will destroy them completely. But high-pitched frequencies will greatly weaken them and even separate them from their hosts." said Sean
Revy tilted her head, "You mean loud noises bother them? Kind of a messed up weakness."
The symbiote extended out of its host and glared at her, "Both we have been cursed with since Knull used the Celestial head as a forge millennia ago." the Klyntar ancestral memory reminding it of the thunder-clap of hammer strikes on hot iron and the heat of the forge itself, making the symbiote quiver.
"Guess that explains why you guys avoid theh Rip off Church before service." said Benny.
"And any other place around town that shakes the eardrums." added Dutch.
Sean turned back to Balalaika, "We'll do our part to handle any threats that show up looking for us. But there's no way of knowing what abilities they could bring to the table since each symbiote is different."
Nodding, the Russian turned to Boris and told him something in their native language. Her second in command nodding before leaving the room. "Should anymore symbiotes make their appearance, we will be ready." she said calmly.
"And so will we." said the symbiote with a growl in its tone. "They may have been spawned from us...but we will be their end."
"Damn right." said Revy, twirling her Cutlasses in anticipation for another fight with the alien creatures.
X
Later that night, Sean was seated at an outside table of a small restaurant not too far from the Lagoon Company offices. A cold beer in his hand as he enjoyed the warm night air.
With the Yellow Flag being rebuilt, he and the others had to get their booze through other sources. Thankfully, there were plenty of watering holes all around Roanapur. And after spending hours at Hotel Moscow working out plans in the event of more symbiotes showing up he needed
"How are you feeling?" Sean asked his other while taking a sip from the drink in his hand.
"Managing. Having to kill one's spawn isn't easy, even if they were altered to destroy us." replied his other solumnly.
"I'm there for you when you need me, partner. No matter what." the host said sympathetically. He felt the symbiote's gratefulness through their bond just as someone came and sat down across from him.
He looked up and smiled at the mute goth-girl he'd been talking to off and on through texting the last few days.
"Where you waiting long?" she asked through the use of an ultra-voice pressed to her scarred throat.
"Not really. Busy day at the office?" Sean asked back with a smile. Fredrica returned the smile as they settled in at the table for the evening.
X
A/N: One hell of a fight, more plans being made, and everyone's favorite anti-hero on a date? The future is looking more and more interesting by the day. And the events of the Black Lagoon anime are about to be changed in ways you never thought possible.
Keep reading and reviewing folks!