Chapter 2

*Disclaimer – not my characters, but Marvel's*

*Author's Note – this chapter is my design because I feel it is necessary regardless of what else will happen. Please note that ideas must follow The Other Host's time line.*

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          Peter Parker was feeling great. He had been getting more sleep lately because the crime rate in New York was down and he hadn't fought a tough villain in over a month, which was how he liked it. He decided to watch the news before he got down to studying for the evening. He turned the TV on to CNN where a black female reporter named Lila Brown was reporting from a prison. Peter was curious; he thought maybe there was a riot because all the criminals were in prison and off the streets.

          "There scene here at the New York Penitentiary for Criminally Insane Women is complete madness," Lila Brown said, "Apparently there has been a break out in Ward E, the highest security ward in the entire prison. Five guards are already known to be dead and there may be more. S.W.A.T. officers are being called in as I speak."

          Just then Peter saw a frighteningly familiar figure on the other side of the barbed wire fence separating the reporter from the prison. The camera man must have noticed too because Lila turned around and screamed at the top of her lungs. Carnage easily ripped the fence apart with her bare hands and advanced quickly on the reporter and the camera man. The two of them turned and started to run away. However they never got very far. Carnage shot a pair of tentacles from her wrists after them and yanked them back towards her. She pulled the microphone Lila was holding out of her hand and then threw Lila by the head off screen. Peter heard a sickening thud and assumed that Lila had met a solid object head on. Carnage forced the cameraman to focus the camera on her, "If you're watching this Spiderman," she said, "We've gotta a message for ya! We're coming to getcha!"

          The camera suddenly went offline. Peter turned off the TV. He didn't have the time to watch now. He had to act. Innocent lives were at risk.

          But there's no way I can take her on by myself, Peter thought to himself, but I can't get Mary Jane, she's in California. She can't come back to help. Maybe I can enlist the help of the Black Cat, and perhaps Dare Devil will be willing to help. But what I really want to know is how she has bonded with a new symbiot. I know I destroyed the last one.

          Peter recalled how he had unceremoniously killed the previous Carnage symbiot. After getting it back from Doc Conners who had been studying it he had dumped the ooze into a barrel filled half-way with gasoline. He had then dropped a lit match in to the barrel. The force had thrown him off his feet but when the fire had almost gone out he took a look inside to see what looked like a flaming piece of slag moving pitifully about in the bottom of the barrel. When it had stopped moving and burning he had taken it out and had Doc Conners confirm that it was indeed dead.

          I let Doc Conners keep the dead symbiot, Peter thought, If he still has it then it's another one. I've got to go see Conners.

          He quickly ran upstairs and donned his Spiderman costume.

          I know this relaxation couldn't last long, Peter thought grimly to himself as he swung through the city towards Doc Conners lab.

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*Please give your feedback and ideas. Should Spiderman get sidetracked? Should Mary Jane/Venom come back? Should Carnage enlist the help of other super-villains? I have my own ideas but I want to get yours so please review and give me your thoughts. E-mail me at anime_nut@mail.com*