Author's Note: Working through my grief with chapters. Love you guys, your feedback is what keeps me going. I own nothing.
14. Too Late
Piper wasn't thinking straight. Even she knew it but if the Goblin was back there was a chance of saving him. Of getting Harry his dad back. She wasn't going to miss it if she could help it. She smashed through the window of the warehouse and landed in a crouch expecting to be attacked at any moment. But the warehouse was silent, empty. A rat scuttled across the floor but nothing else moved. Piper let her frustration spew forth in a scream as she slammed her fist into one of the supports of the warehouse. It bent and she felt something in her hand shift slightly. That just made her swear louder. Someone landed next to her and she whirled, but it was just Venom. She flexed her fist as he shuffled in place for a minute before speaking.
"So the hulk put a hit out on you?" Piper rolled her eyes.
"No. The hulk loves me. He's gonna be pissed when he finds out." Flash frowned. He knew it only showed in the eyes of the symbiote though so he spoke.
"Who put out the hit then?" Piper sighed rubbing her hand.
"Complicated story honestly. Let's just say we have a history and I'm pretty sure he won't stop until I'm dead. Can't really say more than that. Sorry." Flash shook his head.
"No I get it, at least some of it. The symbiote told me some of what it knows so I get that trust for you takes a while. And that's ok. I mean we've all been burned at some point." Piper grinned derisively under her mask. Then she turned to Venom and circled him once. She had to know.
"That's very big of you. So does that mean you know who I am?" Venom shook his head.
"No. The symbiote says it's your secret, not for it to tell you know." She shook her head slightly.
"No I honestly never expected that from it. I didn't expect the symbiote to evolve like that. Like I said last time I saw it, it was on a murderous rampage. Tried to kill me and a lot of people I care about. Used someone I know to do it too." Flash felt Venom move. It wanted to talk to Spidergirl. He let it. He could almost feel surprise roll off of him and up onto his shoulder where it sat for a moment before the face he'd become so familiar with resolved in the goo. She stared at it.
"Not us. Not the same. Creator took us away from the host. Hid us away in the dark. Starved and alone. Separated." Piper nodded, for the moment ignoring Flash standing in front of her in his letterman jacket looking sheepish.
"Creator, you mean Octavious." Symbiote hissed in agreement and rage.
"Creator experimented on us. Tried to improve us. We fought. He left us in the dark. We escaped, because of you." Piper frowned under her mask.
"Because of me?" The symbiote nodded.
"You fought something we couldn't see, loud and hissing." Piper nodded.
"The Lizard. You were in that case. The one with the broken containers in it." Venom nodded.
"Our spider is clever. We escaped and found our way to the surface. We found Flash." Spidergirl turned to Flash who blushed bright red.
"My turn?" Spidey and Venom nodded in unison. "Well I found Venom stuck to my shoe after you beat the Lizard. But things weren't going well for me at home. My mom… Well she doesn't come home often. I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't know I haven't been home in almost two months." Piper felt herself frown as Flash rubbed the back of his neck. "My dad isn't a good guy. I'm in the process of filing charges against him. I've been staying with a friend. But he… well he's been hitting me for years now. Venom helped me work up the courage to get out of there. He's been helping me figure things out. Helping me with my job, helping me help people in trouble. That's what I wanna do with my life. Before Venom I was gonna join the army after I graduated." There was a very pregnant pause.
"You're the boy that helped me. The one I took the picture with. Who hid me from Octavius." Flash stared at her.
"You remember that?" Piper nodded. She wasn't going to tell him who she was, not yet at least but it seemed to all be making sense as of now so
"Yes, I do. I don't do press. But you seemed like a good guy. You still do. Keep a hold of Venom. But we'll be keeping an eye on you. Both of you." Flash nodded as Venom shrank back into a t shirt. He grinned at her.
"Does that mean I'm a part of your team? The Ultimates?" Piper rolled her eyes under her mask.
"We never approved that name, but you could use some training. Meet us on the Met Life building tomorrow. On the roof. We'll talk more then. You did good today." Spidey leapt out of the building leaving Flash behind to savor her compliments. Venom seemed pleased with itself too. It was practically vibrating. Almost like what it did when Piper was around. He shook his head. It couldn't be the same thing. Venom sighed to itself. There were days he missed how clever his last two hosts had been. But Flash had heart to spare and that was what the symbiote needed right now. It purred to itself as they began to walk home.
Tony got the all clear call from Piper and called off the other Avengers. None of them could be mad though. All of them would do anything to protect their kid. Steve sighed. It had been nearly two years now but it felt like ages since they'd met. To be fair though they hadn't exactly met under the best circumstances.
It had been just after the battle of Manhattan. They had entered Stark Tower at the bottom floor. Thor had been in no shape to fly and Tony's thrusters had been trashed by his flight into space. They entered the building at the bottom of the building and Tony had immediately pulled himself off of Thor. Natasha had come down to meet them and put a hand on his shoulder.
'Fury put three agents on her when you agreed to this.' Tony had nodded then frozen looking over Natasha's shoulder before racing around her and into the next room. Steve had spotted a pair of feet sticking out around the corner. The Avengers had followed the inventor into the next room where they had discovered a grizzly sight. Four Chitauri foot solders had been laying around the room, each with multiple holes in them. Three SHEILD agents were there as well, none left alive. Two had fallen guarding the door to the next room which Tony had been trying to force open. Steve had seen something in the mans eyes then that he hadn't seen before, desperation. So he'd gently moved the injured inventor out of the way and pulled hard on the door. It had crumpled under his superhuman strength and he'd had to duck to avoid a blast of blue white light heading his way. He'd raised his shield to defend himself but Tony had stepped in front of him, pulling off what remained of his helmet and raising his hands in surrender.
'It's ok, it's me.' There had been a brief pause before a blur of motion had raced into Tony's arms. The others had readied weapons but Natasha and Tony remained calm. A second later they had realized what had just happened as they had finally made out the girl in Tony's arms. She had been maybe thirteen with long brown hair pulled up into a messy ponytail and near inch thick glasses. She had been pale and wearing an unfinished arm of the Iron Man armor.
'It's ok Pipes, we made it. We're ok.' It had taken Tony some time to talk the girl down and introduce her as his daughter. That had been a beginning though none of them had known it at the time. Steve sighed as he put his shield back down in his room. The doors to the elevator slid open and Sam, Luke and Danny entered the level. Steve smiled. He had a nagging suspicion that Tony had put them on his level for more than a reason of wanting to keep boys off his daughters level without supervision. He stepped out of his room and found the three of them playing rock paper scissors apparently over who was going to talk to Ava about checking up on Piper.
"You won't find her in the tower." The boys all turned to him. It was still a bit overwhelming to see the looks of admiration that shone from the teens eyes but it was also a wonderful feeling to know that he was helping to guide the next generation of heroes. He continued. "She doesn't come home till late on any of the anniversaries, but especially not her uncles. Besides she's apparently out scouring the city for the Goblin. Whoever that is…" He got no farther though as the teens all ran for their rooms, coming back seconds later in their costumes and racing for the elevator.