"Someone looks super excited tonight," Andi teased, watching as Himawari practically skipped around their room in excitement. She'd been way more upbeat this week- a definite improvement from her mood just a few days before.

"Oh? Yeah, I've got a date," she explained, rummaging through her backpack as she spoke.

"A date! Himawari, I can't believe you're cheating on me! I thought we had something special," Gwen whined dramatically, throwing herself onto Andi's bed so hard she made the bunk bounce.

"Hey! That's not fair! You know I would've said yes if you'd actually been serious," Himawari said defensively, flushed cheeks betraying just how much truth was behind her words.

"Trust me, you're way better off with anyone besides her," Andi said with a smirk before effortlessly catching a pillow Gwen had tossed down at her.

"Well, when do I get to see the evil villain who's taken you from me," Gwen asked with a pout.

"Oh, um… eventually? It's only our first date, I don't wanna, you know… get her involved or anything if it doesn't work out," she fumbled over her words as she spoke.

"Boooo. Is she actually ugly? Is that why you don't want me to meet her," Gwen pressed, weirdly invested in the conversation in a way that made Andi nervous.

"You really don't have to listen to Gwen at all, I promise," Andi sighed.

"Haha. It's fine, if I wasn't used to her by now I would've asked for a room change. She's like the little sister I've always wanted," Himawari chuckled, sitting in between her two roommates.

"Did I just get Little Sibling Zoned! Ouch, that actually hurts," Gwen placed a hand over her chest as she feigned her heartbreak. Andi rolled her eyes and got ready to change the subject before Gwen quickly interjected. "Hey, serious question!"

"Mhmm," Himawari asked curiously.

"Would you date a superhero?" It was such an odd question that'd seemingly come out of nowhere even Andi was lost for words.

"Huh?"

"Like, Valkyrie or Hulk. Would you date them," Gwen pressed, playfully nudging her smaller roommate with her elbow.

"Um… maybe? Definitely not Hulk. I like muscles but he's… well, there's a limit," Himawari admitted, not looking Gwen in the eyes as she spoke.

"What about Nightcrawler," Gwen teased, wrapping an arm around Himawari's shoulders.

"He's cute, I guess," Himawari mumbled, fidgeting with her hands as she tried to distract herself.

"Agent Venom," she asked, eyes flicking towards Andi as she spoke before turning back towards her victim.

"Isn't he Agent Anti-Venom now," Himawari asked confusedly.

"That's still a dumb name! But yes! That guy!"

"Um, isn't he like, forty?"

"I'm going to die," Andi sighed, covering her head with her pillow and trying to block out the ridiculous conversation going on around her.

"If he wasn't?"

"I wouldn't be against it, I guess," she admitted.

"What about those cute new heroes here in Philadelphia?" Gwen made sure to ask as if she didn't really know them, absolutely refusing to so much as put the idea in Himawari's head that those heroes might be her own roommates just as much as Andi did.

"Um… Mania, no. Maybe Gwenpool? She's kinda cute I guess? It's probably mostly the costume."

"What about weird heroes? What about the Lizard," Gwen pressed, already chuckling as she asked.

"He's not a hero," Himawari said quickly, cheeks, neck and ears absolutely flushed as she squirmed in embarrassment.

"Details! Would you do the Lizard?"

"Gwen why are you asking me this," Himawari asked, cheeks burning red as she squirmed on the mattress, clearly confused and uncomfortable with the conversation they were having.

"Well, Andi and I were talking-"

"We were?" Andi finally lifted the pillow off her face, curious as to why Gwen had been asking their roommate so many questions, herself.

"Anyway, I was saying that it'd be kinda mean and rude to say you wouldn't date a hero based on their appearance, you know? Like, if you looked like a giant lizard but you're still a person, it would be rude to say no just because you looked like a lizard. Like Mutants or Inhumans. Some of them look way different than regular humans but they're still people," she explained, the hypothetical question not sounding very hypothetical to Andi's ears.

"Would you date a lizard person," Himawari asked pointedly.

"Yeah, sure. It'd probably be fun. Would you?"

"Um… yeah, I guess? I wouldn't say no," Himawari covered her face, sinking into the sheets. Gwen turned to Andi and winked. Andi had no idea what it had meant, but she knew Gwen was most likely thinking something she wouldn't like.

"I'm telling you! She's dating MonStar! It's the only thing that makes sense for the plot of the narrative," Gwen shouted, angrily stomping her foot as she explained her reasoning for the fifth time. "Andi, come on! You heard her- she'd totally date a lizard person if she could!"

"That doesn't mean she is dating a lizard person, Gwen," Andi said with a sigh.

"If she's dating MonStar you owe me a new sword."

"What?"

"If she's dating the dragon chick, you owe me a new sword. A big one," Gwen explained, a seriousness in her voice Andi still wasn't used to.

"And if she isn't?" She hardly ever entertained Gwen like this, but this time she couldn't help herself. There was absolutely no way Himawari was dating Star, and she didn't see any harm in getting something out of Gwen's ridiculousness.

"I dunno. What do you want," Gwen asked curiously.

"I'd give the world for you to shut up for like, a day," she replied sarcastically.

"Wow! Rude! But fine, you win, I'll be quiet for a whole day." Gwen crossed her arms and rolled her eyes as she agreed to the terms.

"Oh god, I can't wait," Andi said with a smirk, flipping through one of the books she'd checked out. They'd borrowed about a dozen textbooks on radiation safety and nuclear chemistry from the campus library and were doing their best to find some weakness MonStar might have.

"Did you find anything yet," she asked, tiredly looking over to Gwen.

"Oh, you want me to speak now?"

"Gwen," she hissed exasperatedly.

"No, Andi, I haven't found anything," Gwen sighed, finally closing the book she'd had open in front of her for nearly an hour.

"Gwen, this isn't going to work. There's no way you can fight her without-"

"Andi, do you wanna know why I haven't found anything? Because I'm not looking. S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't let her be an agent if she was bathing everything around her in gamma rays whenever she stepped out of the base," Gwen explained, revealing the house of cards she'd been working on behind a stack of books.

"Gwen, we-"

"Andi. The longer we try to think up a plan, the less likely we are to win. Look at the Guardians of the Galaxy! They never make a plan and they always win!"

"You told me they lost against Thanos," Andi replied angrily.

"Oh now you remember the plot of the movies! You weren't even listening to me when I explained how underwhelming Civil War was because of how few heroes were in it," Gwen rambled. She'd explained the movie plots at least three different times and Andi had seemed disinterested in every movie except for the Venom adaptation.

"Fine, Gwen. Whatever. I'm trying to make sure you don't get fried and you're worried about movies," Andi sighed, Mania's voice in the back of her mind reminding her just how dangerous Gwen's lack of focus could be.

"You've gotta have more faith in me than that. She's only a lizard girl. Spider-Man fights a lizard guy all the time," Gwen explained nonchalantly. "You've gotta trust me."

"Okay… I trust you." Andi wasn't sure how true that was.

"There we go! Now it's showtime." Gwen winked just before her house of cards fell down in a pile on the table. "Aw man."

Mania took a deep, calming breath as she waited for the signal. Gwen had explained the relatively simple plan at least three times, but Mania still felt nervous leaving her friend alone with the dragon for any length of time.

"If you're quick about it you can join me before I win the fight," Gwen had said cockily as she stuffed a rocket launcher into her shark backpack. Andi's mind wandered to the scene, desperately trying to understand how her partner managed to put impossibly large objects into her backpack.

She nearly jumped out of her second skin when her phone went off. The message was a single picture, Gwenpool's tongue playfully sticking out at the camera as MonStar rushed towards her in the background of the photo. Mania rolled her eyes and jumped down from the tree she'd been hiding in, ready to go.

"Mussssst be quick," The symbiote warned, shimmering before making them both completely invisible as they fired a tendril at the roof of the S.H.I.E.L.D. base.

"I know, I don't wanna be here too long either, girl," Andi whispered, pulling herself up to the roof and landing on the balls of her feet without so much as kicking up dust. Gwen had given her a long list of things to watch out for in a S.H.I.E.L.D. base. Several dozen safety measures that were all designed to make breaking in nearly impossible. 'Nearly' being the key word.

"The symbiote hides your heat signature and can go invisible. You'd be a ghost to them, as long as you're quiet and don't trigger any pressure plates," she'd explained. Mania didn't want to imagine what would happen to her if S.H.I.E.L.D. had designed a new security system since Gwen had last picked up a comic book. Hardly breathing, she waited for dozens of armed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to surge from the base. No one came. A few hesitant steps secured her safety, and she breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Finding the ventilation shaft was easy. Getting inside without making a sound was a little more difficult.

"They're not expecting an infiltration mission like this. Just look at who they're keeping. AIM will just hack their guys out. The Wrecking Crew will rip the front door off its hinges. And no one is coming for that Hand guy, they kill themselves if they're caught. They're not prepared for a symbiote coming in for an assassination mission," Gwen had explained confidently. That had at least made sense.

Mania crawled through the vents, listening for any signs of people that might hear her. Every movement was calculated to ensure it made the least amount of sound possible. She waited until she found an exit that led to a room where the lights were off before deciding on an exit. Mania's tendrils slotted into the screws and loosened them until the panel came free. Two more tendrils lowered her down to the floor while a third fit the panel back into place as if it'd never been moved.

Making her way to the cells was relatively easy. An entire floor was dedicated to them, and neither the AIM grunts nor Bulldozer stirred as she walked past them. She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as the Hand member locked eyes with her and she quickly walked past him, and towards the final cell on the floor.

The door opened easily, clearly Jack was the prisoner who needed the least amount of security. The symbiote dropped their camouflage as she walked up to his bed and looked down on his limp body. She wanted to make him suffer in his final moments, to beat him, to kick him, to break him. But as she placed a hand on his chest, feeling the wound she'd left, he didn't even flinch away. He'd had enough.

She listened to the slow beep from the monitor in the room, watching his feeble heartbeat make patterns on the green screen. This had to be over quick.

"This is for my dad," she whispered, removing his respirator and pushing his pillow down over his face. She looked away, keeping her eyes focused on the monitor as she watched his heartbeat speed up, his body fighting to suck down a breath that would never come. The same tingling feeling pricked at the back of her neck as his eyes opened for the first time in days, searching Mania's expressionless face for an answer she wouldn't give. He wheezed softly, lungs unable to draw enough breath to make a sound as he finally slipped back into unconsciousness, the cracked and burned skin of his hands clutching at her wrists for a moment before sliding back down to the bed. She waited until the monitor finally stopped beeping before taking her weight off the pillow. Her Hell-Mark burned on her chest for a moment before the sting quickly subsided. Jack was finally dead. Again.

Andi was midway through her sigh of relief when the prickling feeling at the back of her neck turned into the sensation of stabbed by dozens of needles. She jumped out of the way as a clawed fist nearly collided with the back of her head.

"What is WRONG with you?!" MonStar lunged at Mania, tackling her with the force of a freight train. Mania struggled to fight back, the symbiote digging deep and strengthening her legs and arms as she pushed back against the lizard woman.

"Where's Gwenpool," she hissed, sharp teeth bared as she pushed the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent back a couple of feet.

"You should be worried about yourself," MonStar growled back, throwing a quick knee to Mania's gut that knocked the wind out of her. Before she could recover, MonStar slammed them both into the wall, cracking the brick and stone under their combined strength. "You killed him! Do you even care," MonStar roared, forced to let go as Mania's tendrils wrapped around her, covering her eyes and tangling around her wrists. She tore the tendrils off herself as Mania vaulted over her, landing a dozen feet away as she tried to get some distance between them.

"Get back here," the dragon jumped after her, her powerful legs nearly keeping pace with Mania in the small room. Andi jumped and landed on the ceiling before leaping towards the far wall, then the door, MonStar growing closer with each jump as she followed behind. In desperation, Andi fired off a barrage of webbing, hitting the dragon's wrists and feet and sticking her to the ceiling. She was granted a few seconds of rest as MonStar fought for leverage to tear from the webbing.

"We've gotta find Gwenpool," Andi whispered as she ran from the room, only managing a few steps before stopping in her tracks.

"Gwen! Gwen, what happened," she hissed. The hero was sat propped against the wall near the door, a small smile on her face as she stared off into the distance. She was bleeding from her nose but otherwise, she seemed fine.

"What are you doing! Let's go," Mania hissed, grabbing her friend by the arm and pulling her into a side room.

"I'm the distraction," Gwenpool replied airily, half-lidded eyes hardly focusing on Mania as she slurred her words.

"Did you think I'd let you two teleport out of here," MonStar laughed, her razor sharp claws burning white hot as they tore into Mania's back. Her toothy mouth opened wide as she screamed in pain. Still in agony as the symbiote struggled to seal itself over her wounds, she turned to face the dragon, taking a stand to defend Gwenpool.

"Aw, you're not gonna try to run without your girlfriend? Don't make this easy for me, the score's already 2-0 between me and you," she laughed, tearing the last of the webbing off her wrists.

"Stay away," Mania hissed, taking a deep breath and letting the Hell-Mark flare up on her chest. Her white eyes glowed with satanic fire as she let loose, a wall of flame that slammed into the agent and ignited the air around her, boiling the linoleum floor and cracking the concrete behind her. The smoke cleared quickly, revealing the dragon rolling her eyes in disinterest.

"Alright, I guess you're definitely not the brains of the group," she sighed, grabbing Mania by the throat. The hero struggled to pull away from her grasp, but MonStar's grip was tight and her scales protected her against the sharp claws and spikes the symbiote projected along her body to try to defend herself.

"Night night, princess."

Andi woke up to a loud whispering that she didn't seem to hear. It came from inside her, rattling around her brain as she came to.

"…mussssst wake up!"

"I'm up, I'm up," she whispered, the odd, distant ache of a wound the symbiote had long since healed making her skin itch.

"Took you long enough." Dim lights switched on, giving the room she was in a dull glow. Mania was seated in a high-backed chair, not even restrained, facing a wall inlaid with a large window. There was a wooden table in front of her, covered in pictures of her infiltrating the Raft as well as a few dozen pictures of her breaking into the S.H.I.E.L.D. base and killing Jack. She watched as MonStar rested a hand on Gwenpool's shoulder, her friend lazily rambling as the drugs they'd injected her with coursed through her. Mania immediately bristled, her Hell-Mark burning as anger like she'd never felt before coursed through her.

"Ah, ah, ah! We wouldn't want anything happening to your friend here, would we? She's just a regular old human, after all. Anything can happen to someone so fragile," MonStar warned, a hand wrapping around Gwenpool's throat as she emphasized her point. Her friend didn't even struggle, her words simply cut short as she could no longer draw breath.

"Let her go," Mania hissed, mouth full of sharp teeth and whipping tongue.

"Oh, enough. You're caught. It's over. You're both getting shipped off to the Raft as soon as the transports arrive," MonStar said with a smirk, taking a seat on the table in front of Gwenpool. "This is the part where you explain why you did it," she sighed.

"We haven't done anything," Mania hissed, struggling through her breathing exercises to keep her temper down before she exploded.

"Right, right. That wasn't the two of you breaking into the Raft," MonStar asked pointedly, clawed fingers tracing along the seams of Gwenpool's mask.

"You were killing my partner," Mania shouted, slamming her fists down on the table.

"The Mania symbiote isn't 'your partner' it's S.H.I.E.L.D. property that'd been bonded to a known mass murderer at the time. Maybe you should ask it how many people it's helped kill," MonStar reminded her, lazily yawning as Gwenpool rambled about the composition of Captain America's shield.

"Mania's with me now," she shouted, her voice emphasized by Mania's loud hiss.

"Right, and one of the first things you do with it is kill Jack O'Lantern? Stellar record," she said sarcastically.

"Without us he'd still be out there murdering people! It's not like S.H.I.E.L.D.'s done anything to catch him," Mania spat, dropping the breathing exercises she'd been working so hard on altogether.

"We caught him," MonStar growled in response, finally taking her hand off Gwenpool. Mania whispered in Andi's ear at that, forming a plan while her host kept the dragon distracted.

"After we found him. He'd killed almost a hundred people! His gang kidnapped dozens more and we found him! Not S.H.I.E.L.D." Andi wasn't good at getting under people's skin- that was Gwen's forte. But MonStar wore her heart on her sleeve and thankfully made it easy to tell when she was hitting a nerve.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. was tracking him for weeks to get him and his gang at the same time," MonStar hissed angrily, smoke pouring from her nostrils.

"We found the victims! On our first try! Believe it or not, heroes aren't as incompetent as S.H.I.E.L.D. is!"

"What did you just say?" MonStar jumped off her seat on the table and walked towards the window, smoke pouring from her nostrils with every breath.

"I said you're incompetent! All of you! Go ahead, lock us up. I just killed Jack and every gang in the city is going to try and fill in that power vacuum. You'll be begging for our help in a week." Mania kicked her feet up on the table, relaxed and poised, completely in control despite her Hell-Mark burning on her chest.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't need your help. We'd have super crime under control if all you heroes weren't so afraid of paperwork," MonStar shouted back, fists clenched as she was pushed to the edge of her patience. Mania laughed, loud and jarring as it echoed in the small room. She closed her eyes, throwing her head back as she laughed even harder.

"I don't know what's more sad! The fact that you actually believe that, or the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. needs you to believe that to keep a leash on their-" MonStar's reaction was swift, she turned her attention away from Mania for just a moment to move towards the door of the interrogation room.

"Don't… ressssissssst." The voice was calm and quiet in her mind. Less than a suggestion. Andi closed her eyes and let Mania take over. Suddenly she was underwater, her body moving on its own as the symbiote thrust its mass forward, slamming through the window and into the dragon behind it. Andi's body followed suit, leaping from her seated position into a frontflip that landed her square on MonStar's chest. The symbiote quickly fired off a thick shot of webbing, catching the dragon right in her open maw as she breathed in to ready her fire breath. The rest of Mania's mass quickly congealed back around Andi's body, firing off two strong tendrils that connected with MonStar's shoulders. In one effortless motion, she kicked off the dragon's chest into a second flip and used her strength and momentum to pick the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent up off her feet and slam her down on her head, cracking the linoleum floor below them and knocking the wind out of her opponent before the glass of the shattered window had even fallen to the ground.

MonStar roared in unbridled anger, stumbling to her feet, but a quick leg sweep slammed her back on the ground. Mania fired off several more shots of webbing, sticking clawed hands and scaled elbows to the broken floor.

"Won't hhhhhold. Mussssst ruuuuun!" A long tendril wrapped itself around Gwenpool's waist and yanked her limp body out of her chair before forming itself around her. No comment about tentacles or privacy invasion from her made it clear her partner was still under the effects of the sedative.

"We need her awake," Andi begged, head on a swivel as two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents kicked open the door, firing without hesitation at her. The bullets stung more than usual, but two quick shots of webbing clogged the barrels of the guns and she shoved passed the agents, knocking them on their asses as if they were children. A dozen more agents had followed the first pair, but Mania paid them no mind as she raced past them, turning down unfamiliar hallways as she searched for an exit. She'd ripped open the door to the stairwell when she'd heard it, a loud, rumbling roar that seemed to shake the building from its foundations. The dragon had shaken her bindings and was out for blood.

"Twooooo minutessss," Mania whispered, a thin tendril fired from her wrist, sticking itself to the ceiling as she rappelled down. Fifteen feet from the ground she was pulled back up, as if the line were shrinking as she used it. Clawed hands were pulling the line back up faster than she was drawing it, and when their eyes met, a torrent of flame spouted from the dragon's maw.

"Second floor," Mania shouted, the symbiote hissing in pain as the heat from the fire missed them by inches, cracking concrete and melting metal. Powerful backhands and thick webbing put down the few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who'd managed to mobilize, while the sharp ringing in her ears that usually came with danger just barely cleared them of an agent who'd grabbed a flamethrower.

"We need to leave," Mania hissed, spotting an entrance to the ventilation system and jumping into it, no time to remove the protective panel. Crawling through the vent was slow going, Gwenpool's limp body like deadweight pulling her back as she used her tendrils to pull herself through the tight squeeze.

"The vents," MonStar's raspy roar could easily be heard as she climbed to the third floor, and suddenly the shaft began to heat up like an oven as fire came pouring through. A branching path saved their lives, heated air pushing her forward into safety as the flames rushed past a moment later. A loud thump signaled that the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had entered the vent herself, scrabbling claws pulling her forward faster than Mania could with Gwenpool's added weight.

"'An' he keeps the Hulk on a big red leash, 'ike a lil' puppy," Gwenpool slurred, her tongue hanging out of her mouth as she spoke.

"Gwen! Gwen! I need some magic right now," Mania hissed, pulling herself along the ventilation shaft, desperately searching for an exit to put some distance between herself and the rapidly approaching dragon.

"Bippity boppity boo," Gwenpool chuckled, finally picking her head up as the drug was flushed from her system. She looked around, the world spinning through her eyes as she tried to make sense of what was going on around her.

"Wha… wha's happ'n," she asked sleepily, her eyes unable to focus on MonStar as she found the branched exit they were in and flung herself after them, sharp claws shredding the thin sheet metal as she bounded towards them.

"Gwenpool, come on, I need an exit," Mania hissed, slamming a fist into a panel and sliding out of the ventilation shaft. They fell out into a large auditorium filled with training equipment, most of which read weights that just weren't physically possible for humans.

"One… one sec… this headache is killing me," Gwenpool groaned, holding her head in her hands as the symbiote set her down.

"We don't have one sec, Gwenpool, she's-"

"Just give up already," MonStar roared, tearing out of the ventilation shaft after them. She landed on all fours, long tongue tasting the air as she locked eyes with Mania. She leapt at her, but this time both the symbiote and its host were ready.

Aiming a sharp left hook, Mania caught the beast mid-leap, slamming her fist into its cheek. Stunned, MonStar was quickly thrown over Mania's shoulder, landing flat on her back on top of a rack of 500 pound dumbbells. Without skipping a beat, Mania landed on her chest, knocking the wind out of her opponent. A quick barrage of webbing stuck her wrists and forearms to the ground, and a kick to the face stunned her again as she tried to breathe in for another walk of flames.

"Gwenpool," Mania shouted, knowing the webbing wouldn't hold for long a third time.

"I'm trying, how about you get drugged next time," Gwen groaned, shakily climbing to her feet as she leaned her weight against the wall.

"No," MonStar hissed, her scales glowing green as her body heated up. Mania quickly hopped off the woman, the symbiote sizzling from the heat. The webbing burned and boiled before finally melting away, liquid tar sliding off her scales onto the floor. Mania stood between her friend and the woman, knowing that there'd be no way out without Gwen's reality jumping.

"I need a new page," Gwenpool shouted desperately, unable to reach the Gutter without a proper segue. MonStar leaped towards the pair without hesitation, all claws and smoke and sharp teeth ready to tear into them both. She immediately slammed into the border of the panel, a thin but unbreakable wall in between her and the two heroes.

"Oh wow, it worked? Normally hat tricks don't- oh!" Gwenpool fumbled as MonStar ripped a hole through the border, tearing the panel open and spilling out into the one they were in.

"Gwenpool," Mania shouted, the symbiote forming sharp claws and spikes, ready for another clash with MonStar.

"All aboard the Gutter express," Gwenpool shouted, grabbing her friend by the shoulder and pulling her through reality.

"No!" The loud, raspy roar was cut short as they left the S.H.I.E.L.D. base behind, just barely evading their pursuer.

"Man, my head hurts," Gwen groaned, fumbling for a few moments as she searched for their exit. There weren't too many panels ready for their escape, but she managed to find one a few hours in the future. She pulled them through and into their dorm, landing on Gwen's top bunk with a loud thump. They barely had time to sit up before their doorknob rumbled and turned, Himawari walking into the room, body flushed from a workout. She stopped in her tracks, eyes wide as she met those of the two heroes. Chewing at her lip, she clenched her fists as she weighed her options.

"Himawari! It's us! These are our Halloween costumes," Andi explained, peeling Mania off her head as the symbiote took the texture of fabric, falling off her head like a hoodie. Gwen narrowed her eyes at her partner, ready to berate her for revealing their identities to their roommate.

"You two scared the crap out of me," Himawari said angrily, stomping her feet as she let the door close behind her. "I can't believe you two got costumes without me," she whined, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked at the two from head to toe.

"Is that why you've been working out more, Gwen? Wanted your legs to look close to Gwenpool's," she teased, playfully squeezing her friend's calves.

"I… I guess," Gwen said with a sigh, laying back down on her bed with a grumpy pout.