I do NOT own Marvel or any of its related material. I only own my OC's.

Chapter 2: Two Symbiotes and A Spider Walk Into A Bar…

Recap

This feeling is so familiar, yet, unfamiliar

We hummed, "Something still is not right, we've been feeling a…" we shivered "a presence, get stronger and stronger through the entirety of us being here…"

Spider-Man, being the facetious joker he was, just laughed, "What's the matter? Is Ghost seeing ghosts?". Clearly, he had difficulty seeing just how seriously we took our 'vibes', so with a growl we spun around with every intention to show him how scary we could really be. But, we stopped.

A tall, very dark, and very muscular figure was scaling the wall behind Spider-Man with the grace of a feline, but the silence of a spider. White eyes and an equally white toothy grin boring into our very soul(s) as the much bigger symbiote closed in on us. Green ooze dripping from his tongue as it lashed through the air.

"You wish we were a ghost, Parker"

As soon as Spider-Man spun to face his arch-nemesis, Venom pounced.

In one fluid movement, we had Spider-Man in our arms and dove to the side just as the massive black symbiote barely clipped us. We did not even have time for a breather before Venom whirled around, his bulky form already on us as he lunged again, Spider-Man breaking from our protective hold as we evaded a flurry of slashes.

Yikes

Yikes indeed!

With a grunt, we deployed our 'wing-claws' in an attempt to grapple and restrain Venom as he charged Spider-Man with every intention of pinning (and perhaps disemboweling) him. The razor-sharp tips of the symbiotic claws dug successfully in, as we then proceeded to reel the robust black symbiote toward us. We didn't need to tell Spider-Man of the wonderful opportunity we just gave him, the acrobatic arachnid-hero wasting no time in web-shooting a few clusters of webbing into Venom's eyes. However, as tempted as we were to congratulate each other, we knew better as Venom simply yanked the adhesives that obstructed his sight with an irritated snarl. We (or rather I) didn't even get to muster an 'eep' before my Other was oh-so kind enough to activate our phasing just in time to not get plowed by the much larger (and scarier) symbiote.

Keep focused girl

Goosebumps rose on every part of our body as we turned around in time to see that Venom had his back to us, but his head was pivoted at just that perfect angle to see his wholesome collection of teeth. I have this nagging feeling we're way in over our heads

Spider-Man's got our back, don't wuss out

So…tempted…, I believe I have mentioned before that avoiding super-villains was a major aspect of our symbiotic vigilante career (up until that night anyway). And to have one such super-villain show up suddenly on what was supposed to be a harmless drug bust…it was an unpleasant surprise, I can tell you. "It warms our heart to see another symbiote, we are so glad to know we're not alone on this planet" it would have been a heart-warming 'confession', but Venom's sneer revealed it was anything but. "It's a shame you seem to be allies with the webbed one-" webbing suddenly whizzed past us, but Venom proved he wasn't as distracted as we initially thought as he back-flipped over it, his tendrils erupting from his back like pressurized jets of water as they made a grab for us and Spidey. We merely phased through, while Spider-Man deftly evaded the assault. Our smart-mouthed arachnid partner just chuckled as he skillfully landed on a neon sign, as if a smack-down with Venom was a laughing matter.

"Wow-" he whistled "congratulations, you just slew your greatest enemy, the air –urk!". Not even we saw the strand of black webbing as it snagged Spider-Man's leg (as we were much too focused on any more potential attacks that may have been directed toward us), the owner of the webbing grinning like a lunatic as he swung our arachnid friend around like a mace before launching him across the street and into a café building.

Hmm, maybe you were right…

Not the time Ghost! We crouched, in sync with Venom as he got in his own little attack stance.

"Ladies first"

We grinned. "If that's the case, then we're waiting-" we didn't bother phase as we tackled Venom's outstretched arms with our wing-claws, the massive appendages gradually increasing in size and strength just to be on par with the symbiote across from us. Damn, he's…strong… but alas, at some point in our little Indian-wrestling, we quickly realized that we were reaching our limit. And that Venom was standing there aloofly, as if we weren't a challenge at all. So realizing that we weren't going to win with brute strength, we decided for a much more psychological approach.

"So…you're Venom huh?" we grunted as said symbiote applied some pressure on our half.

"Last time we checked" he replied coolly, as if he wasn't just trying to rip us to shreds earlier.

"You know, you're giving us symbiotes a bad name, ever consider giving up the super-villain gig?"

"A little bad reputation is the price to pay…" he smiled wickedly "to achieve revenge"

At the mention of revenge, Venom grew in mass, effortlessly making us kneel. Right, talking doesn't work! With an 'oomf' and a shove, we threw out our forearm, tiny white needle-projectiles launching from it and right into their intended mark. Such as Venom's gut, and that (ehehe) only served to piss him off as we needed to dodge the caging movement of his humongous arms, our much smaller body bounding backward much like our vigilante namesake. Venom seemed to think so.

"That's right, hop away little bunny"

My Other snarled at the mocking tone of the other 'male' symbiote. Our usual symbiotic 'mask' receding slightly to reveal a row of the signature Klyntar teeth, something we (or more specifically Ghost) did when threatened or angry, whatever the situation we were in called for. And while we typically worked in tandem with one another, Ghost steadily crept into the pilot's seat, ready to tear into Venom at a moment's notice. "You will not address us like that again" the deep rumbling of Ghost's voice soon seized control of my vocal chords (it was usually my own voice with minor distortion), distorting my own greatly. I felt my own mass increase, along with my body temperature as I felt symbiotic layer upon layer overlap, acting as even more of protective insulation as Ghost claimed full control. I watched through the fleshy transparency that was our eyes as Venom tilted his head with a mock grin. Bad move on his part, no one calls us that but...- I immediately dismissed the memory that lovingly accompanied that thought.

"Oh, and what if we do, little bunny" wickedly-shaped white patches of eyes stared right through ours, and right into mine, Venom no doubt achieving his anticipated reaction as Ghost snarled and hurtled right toward him, the large black symbiote crouching menacingly in preparation.

Although it seemed like a rushed move on our part, Ghost retained enough sensibility to activate our phasing at the last possible moment as Venom's tendrils were but merely a centimeter or so from ripping into our symbiotic skin. We went through him, hopping into the air as soon as we went tangible to avoid a vicious right hook. Still in the air, we released a barrage of razor-sharp symbiote 'feathers' from the amorphous masses forming on our back, most of which sunk into Venom's flesh, but did not puncture all the way. However, when one unleashes enough mini-daggers on one specific area-

"rrrRRRAAAGGGHH!" It doesn't matter if the target's flesh is near indestructible, getting punctured in a weak spot -such as an eye- is bound to happen, as Venom had found out the hard way.

"Why, we will do that of course"

Ghost snickered, clearly pleased with himself and almost making me faint. If he wasn't going to kill us slowly and painfully before-

I'm defending your honor, so shush-

We snapped out of our internal bickering just in time to see a black blur lunge at us. However, we didn't have as long to judge speed and distance, let alone act accordingly, so we were quite shocked to feel a good chunk be ripped from us. And fortunately, that's all Venom managed to snag as he was violently pulled back by the legs (and thus eating concrete) by some unseen force. That 'unseen' force not really needing to be seen as we had already figured correctly whom it was.

"Hey Venom, has your mother ever told you it's rude to grab a lady there-?" Spider-Man joked, almost choking as he got a good look at us, surprised by our more masculine appearance. "Uh, Whitey, did you get um…manlier?"

"Ghost is in control"

"Oh, should I be worried?"

We pointed at a livid Venom, whom was standing dangerously close to the group of men we had subdued earlier. "You should be more worried about him"

"I am going to tear out your spine, web-crawler. And then force-feed it to your little concubine!"

"Our point exactly –wait, what did you just call us?!" we were now perfectly balanced, my own anger now evenly matched with my Klyntar's, my anger escalating even more as Venom just smirked.

"We did not stutter, little bunny"

Before we could show our displeasure with being called such an unsavory thing, Venom cast a sideways glance at the bound criminals lying on the floor next to him.

Uh…

Oh…

"And speaking of tearing out spines…" Venom picked up the unconscious louts, "You three have outlived your usefulness" a massive clawed hand prepped to tear into one of the men, who, much to our horror, was awake enough to start screaming bloody murder. The noise drawing more attention to where we were more so than the actual fighting earlier, doubling the amount of nosy pedestrians which had also added to the cacophony of screams. It was giving us a freaking migraine, and so by default, it seemed to distract Venom well enough to not remove the first man's spine. But damn was it obnoxious and made thinking clearly an arduous task, who knew human beings were capable of such noise –digressing, we needed to fight it, and our own desires to tear into Venom for being pig-headed so we could focus on saving the bundle o' scumbags.

We didn't need to communicate our plans with Spider-Man, as he had already sprung into action by web-shooting cluster upon cluster of adhesive at Venom whilst we sent out both our wing claws…one to retrieve, the other to assist Spidey in distraction. The strategy worked out to the degree to which Venom dropped the bound thugs, but not so much to where we and Spidey were left unscathed. To elaborate; Venom blocked a majority of Spidey's web-balls that had the goal of concealing his eyes, and thus, he saw my 'offensive' wing-claw and bound it in tendrils, swinging us around and right into Spidey just as the poor guy was about to move in for a counter-attack. So while the thugs were safe (or, as safe as being thrown into a populated sidewalk could be), we (and Spidey) didn't share that luxury as we were mercilessly thrown into the side of a passing dump-truck. Which after leaving human-sized dents in it, ungracefully slid off, trying our absolute hardest not to get it by any more vehicles in our dazed state.

uuuUUGHH, why did it have to be a truck? Why not through a pillow-soft glass pane or somethin', we jumped out of the way of an incoming Mac truck, cursing as we did so. Oh no, I don't think so motherf-

SCREEEECH

BEEP BEEP!

"AIIIYYEEE!" alas, the roads of Manhattan were an unforgiving place during brawls between heroes/vigilantes and super-villains. The woman behind the wheel of her PT Cruiser giving us a sheep-eyed, open-mouthed expression before very kindly flooring it and sending us tumbling over her car and hitting the pavement.

I memorized her license plate, should we sue her later?

No, we really shouldn't bother, groaning, but otherwise fine, we shot up to dodge more agitated traffic and the assault of black claws, as Venom was all too happy to take advantage of our distracted state. His attempts not at all successful, because while he was stronger (and perhaps faster, if by just a smidgen), Venom had difficulty landing any actual blows while he had our undivided attention. Ironically, he was easier to evade than that car that hit us while we were in our 'zone'. Because we may have froze upon sight of the Mac truck beforehand…boy, was trauma a bitch.

"Slippery little thing aren't you" Venom sent a flurry of swiping tendrils in our direction, Ghost relinquishing our 'masculine' build in favor of our original feminine one because the (my) build was better suited to evading.

"Quite" we replied acidly and jumped, sending what can only be best described as an aerial round-house kick to Venom's jaw, only for such an effort to be squandered as he caught our foot and proceeded to dangle us like some freshly caught salmon. Growling, we ejected a few needle-projectiles from our forearm, but the path to their intended target (his face) was easily predicted as his own massive forearm blocked our attack. His wicked grin morphing into a scowl as something yanked us from his grip, the big black symbiote pouting like a child that had just had his favorite toy taken from him.

"You okay Whitey?"

"Physically, yes. However, we may need to see a therapist after this, the emotional trauma from looking at Venom's face will surely need to be treated"

Said symbiote scowled.

"…I'll take that as a 'yes'" Spider-Man laughed and his optical lenses narrowed at Venom, whom looked ready to pounce again.

Hmmm…

"Spider-Man" we didn't wait for a reply as we whispered as quietly as we could (just barely audible, even to us) our plan. With a nod, we sprinted ahead, forming two large shield-like masses on our back as we charged Venom while Spider-Man waited in the back for his cue. Venom, thinking perhaps we wanted another go at challenging his strength was all too glad to meet us halfway, chuckling as he did so. That chuckle died as soon as his claws met the road instead our ghostly symbiotic flesh. They just never learn, I smirked under our mask as the beef-cake symbiote whirled around, his black clawed hands meeting in holy matrimony with our 'shields' as they buried themselves in the swirling white masses.

Ready?

There was no worded reply in the back of my head, but most of the time, silence was the ideal answer. With a loud sigh, our own symbiotic skin began to cover Venom's, encasing rather than absorbing. Giant white flame-shaped eyes broadened in panic as our shields quickly became snares, trapping Venom's arms and spreading to his broad shoulders. "Now Spider-Man!" the all too familiar 'thwipping' noise of webbing being ejected was a comfort as Venom began to wobble, a clear sign that his legs had been bound. With a mighty grunt, we hauled Venom through the air and down onto a random parked car, which despite all the chaos, was still in one piece.

CRASH/CRUNCH

With emphasis on 'was', the car's condition immediately hit totaled as Venom's bulky frame slammed into it, the horn actuators thankfully being unharmed as they did just what we wanted them too. And that would be blaring like the sound-producing little fiends they were meant to be. Oh, and because the universe really seemed to hate Venom that day, the alarms of the other parked cars began to go off as well.

That…worked a little too well…, we convulsed as the noise only seemed to triple, but the sacrifice was no less necessary. "Whitey, hey Whitey bare with me!" Spider-Man gave our shoulders a light shake, which did some good to comfort us.

"We appreciate your concern, but you have more pressing matters to attend to" we shifted our warped gaze over onto a thrashing Venom, large areas of his host's body being exposed as the symbiote was attempting to flee. Whether or not he really wanted to flee, we didn't know, but from what we could see, it wouldn't take much to rip the black symbiote from whomever he was bonded to as they appeared to not have even been fully bonded. Spider-Man saw this as well, and wasted no time in using whatever web-fluid he probably had left to expend to snag the black symbiote and begin pulling.

We didn't join him for two reasons; one of them being that Spidey appeared to have everything under control, and the other…well, let's just say we felt for the poor little black goop.

"We are sorry it had to be this way…perhaps under different circumstances we could have been friends" Ghost joined me in our little sentimental moment, clearly perturbed by the Venom symbiote's squeals and yowls of pain as Spider-Man was getting closer and closer to yanking him off his host. Said host possessing blonde hair and a square jaw (the black symbiote was trying his damndest to conceal his host's face), and as one would guess, a very muscular body.

As Spidey was getting perilously close to finally detaching the black symbiote, the little guy pulled a wildcard and launched a tendril at our arachnid friend which then wrapped itself around the hero's waist. With what looked like a yank that took a lot of effort, the tendril then launched Spider-Man into the lobby of a nearby hotel. Body on auto-pilot, we rushed forward in a move to restrain the flailing symbiote as it quickly re-assumed it's terrifying form over its host. Sure the alarms were still blaring, but we needed to persist as the black symbiote was doing an excellent job of resisting the noise. Persistence, my dear friends, is a scary thing sometimes. Especially when your current enemy seems to have more of it than you do. A fine example of this would be when our body suddenly went into a spasm, and thus, we were not prepared as a tendril lovingly encircled around our waist and pulled us closer to a smiling, toothy maw.

"Different circumstances you say? Well then, why don't we both grab a drink-!"

We were thrown with such force we easily crashed through a brick wall, earning shouts and screams from unsuspecting citizens as we continued to fly through the building and right into (what sounded like) an assortment of bottles, lots of bottles, from what we heard of the persistent noise of glass falling and shattering. "Ouch" we said dryly, standing on steady feet in time to spot a large black mass advance on us, paying no attention whatsoever to the people (sheep) gawking at him. "A bar…aren't you clever" a bottle, that contained a brand I did not know, fell and shattered upon meeting our head, easily subtracting from any intimidation and dignity that we had left.

"We like to think we have the brains to back up our brawn" as Venom got closer to us, everyone inside the bar then took that as their chance to collect their wits and leave. And not in a chaotic way, the manager of the bar took it upon herself to quietly organize and usher people out through the hole we had created, the width of it easily allowing up to five people at a time to pass through. Once they were done, however, one person –a young guy who looked to be in his early twenties, lingered just long enough to smile and wave, running off as soon as Venom spun around to see if everyone had left. Apparently he was waiting for everyone to leave too, the big baddie clearly not wanting any unnecessary casualties. That was fine by us, even as those big white patches of eyes landed back on our own with an evil grin. "And speaking of brains, I'm sure yours is del-" we bodily threw ourselves to the side as Venom was brutally launched headfirst into the mirror and then through the wall. Vaulting ourselves over the counter, we were then greeted by a bedraggled Spidey.

"Two Symbiotes and A Spider walk into a bar…" bedraggled, but spirit as high as ever.

"And completely trash the place" we indulged with a murmur, deflating a little as Venom pulled his head out from the wall, absolutely infuriated.

Feeling a pattern, we got into our battle stances, prepared to fight Venom through the night and right onto dawn if we had to. Thankfully, or not thankfully, a high-pitched frequency assaulted the premises, making both Ghost (and by default, myself) and Venom shriek in agony as the air around us rippled with visible sound waves. My symbiote clung on for dear life as we fell to our knees, our full-bond fighting the wretched noise with all its strength…though, that strength proved to be a weakness as we fought it to the point of unconsciousness.

As we faded, we looked over shoulder to see who the offender was, only catching a hint of red and gold as everything went black.

When we came to, we were in a sterile white room. Not unlike a standard hospital one, but it had its differences, such as that the equipment was nicer, and the only other person in the room was a scientist…not a nurse, or a doctor. Oh, and she was very familiar. And pissed, pissed with a capital 'P'.

"Claire" the woman with silver-streaked jet-black hair said monotonously with what sounded like the readiness to scold, her piercing hazel eyes making me (us) shudder. "Still taking clear advantage of your freedom I see"

I nodded sheepishly, my symbiote hesitantly snaking out from around my shoulders, she knows -or has known. "I don't wish to sound impertinent, ma'am, but we were defending ourselves and one other" he defended, realizing that my mouth seemed glued shut in that moment.

"Spider-Man? I am well aware of this…" she sighed, adjusting with a grimace "and if it were any other day, you two would be in for a scolding from myself and Fury"

We both gulped.

"However, Fury did not wish to try and rationalize with two beings that are supposedly rebels and have a nagging obligation to protect a city that's already well-protected. So he and my idiotic superiors thought they'd send me down, have mommy-dearest encourage you to back out while you two still have your heads…" she rubbed the bridge of her nose "Honestly, we should have just immediately enlisted you as an Agent once you were done with high-school, would have saved us a lot of embarrassment"

I don't know what made me more agitated, the snobbish woman in front of me, or the division she worked for that apparently knew of the 'White Rabbit' and disapproved of it…but, did NOT intervene up until that day. "Fury made it clear he didn't want us just sitting around, he said we were on our own. God forbid we use our freedom to protect the freedom of innocents…"

"And so you two take up a vigilante persona and make complete asses of yourselves"

God, this woman hasn't changed

Ghost frowned. "From what I gathered, SHIELD has already been aware that we've been protecting these streets for years, hardly drawing any attention to ourselves. So now, pray tell, after we had risked our lives helping Spider-Man with a notorious menace, something we were probably made to do, why do you and SHIELD have such a problem with it?! Why intervene now?!"

Hazel eyes narrowed. "Because after your little 'play-date' with Venom, SHIELD has finally been made aware of the dangers of the bone-headed occupation you chose for yourselves. And they would love for you to stop while your real identity -or should I say identities- are still not known to the public…" she stood, standing at an average height of 5'7''. Though the way she spoke, one would think she'd be taller. "I'm here, because you two made an 'oopsie' and I need to persuade you to find a more suitable occupation before you make anymore 'oopsies'…" she condescended as she walked over onto the right side of the bed, looming over my prone figure. And while she may not have had violent intent, Ghost wrapped around me protectively, hissing softly as the older woman scowled down at us. "I'm here to reinstate you back into SHIELD's ranks"

"And if we refuse?"

The hazel-eyed harpy scoffed. "What makes you think you have that choice?" and with a parting sneer, she then left. Both me and Ghost sighed in pure relief as the door clicked shut, the symbiote massaging my temples as I twirled a few locks worth of hair between my index and middle fingers, all too happy that I had auburn hair and brown eyes, both of which were not from that horrid woman.

All too happy that absolutely nothing of my genetic make-up was from her.

"Whatever you say, 'Mother'"

Feel the love XD

Anyway, did you all enjoy Chapter 2? What do you think happened to Venom? Will Claire and Ghost really rejoin SHIELD?! *takes a breather* find out next chapter :)

Also, I'm not the greatest with fight scenes, but I try. If anyone has any tips, please share :)