Author's Note: So much foreshadowing in this one. I own nothing.
11. What We Know
Piper was quite glad she'd driven to school that day in a car instead of taking her bike. It would have been nearly impossible to get Ben home safely without it. She gave Glen a lift too since he was heading to Stark Tower anyway. He still had a few hours before he would be looked for on the Bio Chem floor. Abe had chosen to move to a different department after what had happened, but Glen stuck to his guns and was now the personal intern for Bruce, who had been very impressed with what he'd managed to create on the fly as a cure for the Lizard. Piper knew Bruce wouldn't mind her stealing his intern for a little while so she dragged him up to her personal lab where the team was waiting. They had all been warned that he knew about both her and Ava. All of them had agreed that they needed an outside perspective of yesterdays events.
The doors to Piper's Lab slid open and she slipped past the team to the brand new terrarium set up in the corner. She gently extricated Ben from her hood and set him in the terrarium. He began exploring his new home as Piper pulled out the small tin of crickets Natasha had set in the drawer. They were all fat and she snagged one easily before setting it into the terrarium and watching Ben chase it around before turning back to the team.
"Alright, introductions. Glen this is the team. You already know Ava, White Tiger." Ava waved, claws visible on the end of her hands. She still wasn't quite sure that she trusted him but if Piper thought it was a good idea she'd live with it for now.
"Danny, Iron Fist, he's in our English lit class." Danny bowed slightly. He had yet to actually speak to Glen but he seemed like a good person, he was definitely brave, sticking around after everything that had happened with the Lizard. Danny respected that.
"Luke, Powerman." Luke waved from his seat.
"And Sam, Nova." At that comprehension lit Glen's face for a fleeting moment. He finally understood why Nova had snubbed him when he'd been helping them by dropping off the mutated mouse Dr. Connors had tested his serum on. The whole school had talked about the sudden break up of Sam and Piper for a while. They had been doing so well for a while but suddenly they had broken it off without a word of gossip as to why. But now it made sense to him. It had to have something to do with the fall of SHEILD. He filed that away for now.
"And of course you already know I'm Spidey. So. We have some things to talk about." Piper grabbed a seat near the terrarium. The others sat down around the cleared off table and Glen tentatively took a seat next to Danny. He and Luke seemed more relaxed with him being here. Danny spoke first.
"I don't think Flash has the symbiote. Not the one we first dealt with anyway." Piper nodded and motioned for him to continue. "We know that one was destroyed, or at least most of it." Piper nodded again.
"Except for the tiny bit Harry found in his living room, which infected him." Danny nodded.
"That one was even more violent. Rejection didn't sit well with it." Piper nodded remembering Harry as Venom chasing her through the sky on the jet boots her father had made for her. "After that it went dormant in Harry." Glen raised a hand and Sam let out a snort. Piper kicked him under the table.
"You don't have to raise your hand Glen." He nodded blushing slightly.
"I'm not sure why I'm here, honestly. But Harry was Venom? Harry Osborn?" Piper nodded.
"Yeah long story. We're getting to why you're here. So dormant Venom woke up, went after Norman. But only attacked me after I attacked it as Spidey. We cured that Venom. But Doc Oc had already gotten ahold of a sample of Harry's blood presumably from Norman, cause he's horrible." The others nodded in agreement. This time though Piper didn't give Glen time to ask about that one. "He turned that into the Goblin formula, with my blood and spinal fluid. But we haven't seen Venom since. We did find something though." Piper hopped off her chair and walked over to a small door and it whirred open. Piper pulled out a box that looked far to heavy for a girl of her stature. But she lifted it one handed and spilled it out onto the table. It was full of empty and shattered vials. Sam frowned.
"What do we think were in those?" Piper sighed.
"Exactly what you think. Oc had more samples of Venom-Harry than we thought. From the looks of it, it escaped while Oc and I were trying to trap the Lizard. So what do we know about the symbiote.
Sam shuddered. "We know it's freaking insane." Piper shook her head at him.
"I don't think that's right though." Danny nodded. Glen was following the conversation like one followed a tennis match when one knew nothing about tennis.
"I think Spider is right. When we first encountered the symbiote it had to have been newly made. Shoved into a world it had no idea how to interact with. As far as we can tell Octavius somehow combined the worst aspects of not just your dna but your personality." Piper pulled a face.
"I don't know what you're talking about I'm delightful." Everyone around the table laughed. Danny smiled and kept going.
"I'm not saying you're not delightful and intelligent, you are. But you, like everyone else, have a dark side. Though not many people get to see it. I think what Venom was is a compilation of every dark thought you've ever had." Piper nodded, running a finger over the edge of an opened glass tube in the case.
"Makes sense. Wait was?" Danny nodded.
"I think Venom may have evolved." Piper raised an eyebrow. It didn't sound like a pleasant outcome, all of her fears and darkness evolving on its own. But she kept her mouth shut so Danny could finish. "I think that Octavius didn't stop experimenting with it. I think it gained a sense of what pain is from that, gained a consciousness it didn't have without a host before." Piper nodded slightly.
"I mean that kind of makes sense. But why Flash?" Glen cleared his throat.
"I haven't known Flash for long but I do know something I don't think you do." Piper nodded at him. "Flash is filing charges against his father. Assault charges." Piper stared at Glen. Sam frowned.
"How do you know that?" Glen shrugged.
"I hang out in my dad's office a lot. He's not great at putting his paperwork away." Ava nodded.
"So you snooped?" Glen blushed. Ava turned to Piper. "I see it, he's adorable." Piper blushed almost the same color as her costume.
"Ok but that still doesn't explain why Venom would have picked Flash." Danny shook his head.
"No it kind of does. If we continue with the assumption that Venom is a piece of you given a mind of its own then we can assume it's like you."
"Except I don't want to rip off people's faces." Sam shook his head.
"I saw some of your fight with the Goblin, you were seconds away from ripping his off." Piper nodded slightly conceding the point. Danny nodded and continued.
"So we can assume that it gained some of what drives you." Piper was silent so Danny pushed the point. "The need to help people. No matter what."
"You guys keep going on about that, it's like you think I'm some perfect hero. I'm not." Again there were laughs around the table, from everyone but Glen.
"Oh you're far from perfect Web for Brains. You're a dork, I don't think they have a name for the complex you have that makes you need to take on all the really big shit on your own." Sam said beginning to tick things off on his fingers. Ava joined in.
"You're a show off. And an adrenaline junkie." Luke spoke up from his chair.
"A workaholic. An insomniac."
"Honestly Webs we could keep going for days." Sam grinned and ducked as Piper shot a web at him. Glen let out a snort of laughter.
"Is this what it's always like?" Luke shrugged.
"For the most part. The food fights are amazing." Glen laughed as Sam and Piper shot good natured insults at each other from across the table.
Somewhere across town a hulking figure sat in the shadows. A door near him opened and a metal clad figure stepped into the room. A metallic voice spoke as large yellow unblinking eyes surveyed the room.
"I'm here about the job offer." The hulking figure smiled and pulled a duffle bag out from under the desk.
"Excellent. Half upfront is customary in these situations yes?" The man in the suit nodded. His suit was purple and silver, deadly weapons hidden in every nook and crevice. The larger figure smiled and tossed the duffle bag to the man who unzipped it. It was full of cash. "That should be enough for you to take care of my little pest problem."
"It is. What I don't get is why a guy like you doesn't squash the bug himself. Not complaining just wondering if there's more to this job than it says on the tin." A sharp smile full of pointed yellowing teeth flashed in the dark. The Green Goblin stood from his chair.
"Because I have more important work to do, but to finish it I need the bug out of the way. While my experiment is in progress I don't have time to squash her myself." The Beetle nodded.
"Don't worry. I haven't missed a target yet. I don't intend to start now." The Goblin smiled wide and let out a cackling laugh.
