FATR: Woo, long one. Oh, guess what? I was out trick or treating at the time, but evidently a three-year-old fell in our pond on Halloween. For all of you who still trick or treat, think about that next time you are charging across a lawn in the dark. If you are interested, for some odd reason, in other Halloween tidbits, read the intro to "The Temptation of Otto." I do not own Teflon, and Venom has been slightly altered on purpose. As you read on, the reason why will become clear. Carol-Anne is based on the character from the Poltergeist Trilogy, though this is not a crossover, exactly. I do not own her. I own the voice in Venom's head. The owner of the voice will be revealed later. The action scenes are a tiny bit disorganized, but the choppiness makes it a bit more intense, I think. Um... tiny bit of a cheesy moment, but I'm sure you all can make it through. This just has a tiny tidbit of everything, doesn't it? Enjoy the new chip chip.

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Three weeks later, a ten-year-old girl scuttled down the street in her father's wake, towed by the hand. They were running late, again, and if she missed her school bus daddy would have to take her to school himself. Then daddy would be late. And in trouble. She didn't want to get daddy in trouble.

As they forged the crowed streets, she turned to observe the figures towering over her on all sides. One in particular caught her attention. It was a pale, thin faced man with a tattered and dingy trench coat clinging to his chiseled frame. His face was hidden behind a fedora and glossy black lenses, but looking up from her level she could form a pretty clear picture of the face under both. He came up from behind and leveled off with them at the corner. She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the smell coming off of him. Side by side they stood, on the same corner, waiting for the same light. Despite his dilapidated physical appearance, his posture spoke of humble strength. As she studied him his head twitched down and to the side abruptly, her eyes meeting with the black circles. The little girl could see her reflection in them as she smiled brightly and waved. He smiled back, raised his first and second fingers, and gave her a strange half wave, half salute gesture. She giggled and tugged on her father's sleeve. "Daddy-" The window of the building behind her exploded outwards. The man whipped around and she thought she saw something silver flash under the hem of his coat. Whatever it was hissed but there was too much screaming going on for anyone else to hear.

What's going on? Larry tried to peek out from under the coat.

Stay inside! Otto snapped as he stood on tiptoe to see over the crowd. The sound of an alarm was filling the air now and people were surging forwards and sideways in their panicked confusion. He hoped none of them would bump into his companions, but they were all so frightened they probably would not have noticed. There were a couple fools trying to push forwards to see what was going on and the alarm was near deafening. Otto wasn't scared, he knew he could defend himself if it came to that. All he could see were what looked like long black tendrils of slime waving around in the store. He slid his glasses part way down his nose to get a better look. Had a new super villain popped out of the woodwork to pick up the torch he had dropped more than a month ago? How long had it been going on? And who was it? It isn't really my business. Besides, I can't afford the risk of getting into a fight in front of all of these people, and Parker will no doubt be here in no time... As these thoughts raced through his head he turned to slink off. Staying here was putting himself in danger, and-

#Father, the child!#

Otto jerked back to reality and scanned the mob. Apparently the little green-eyed girl he had been 'talking' to had become separated from her father. In their rush for safety, older, larger people had knocked her down and she was curled up in a frightened little ball as feet stampeded around her. The former scientist scanned the sky for that all too familiar streak of red and blue but didn't see anything. He knew the tiny thing was in danger of being trample. Otto sighed, set his jaw, and began shoving through the mass of crazed bodies. He almost just reached out to grab her with a tentacle, from habit, but that would only generate more mass hysteria, and there was quite enough of that for now.

The little girl cried and whimpered. "Daddy! Daddy where are you? I'm scared!" She covered her head and waited for the end. Strong hands clamped on her shoulders, firmly but not roughly, and set her on her feet. A familiar smell filled her nostrils and she opened her eyes to recognize the man from the corner. A thwip thwip sound caught her attention and she turned to see Spider-Man swooping in on his web lines.

Good, Parker's here. He'll get things under control. As soon as I find her father I can get out of here. He thought about picking her up so he wouldn't lose her, but that would attract unnecessary attention. Instead, once he located her father, he stayed close behind her as he assured her through the now thinning crowd.

From the distance, Peter had seen all the hullabaloo unfolding outside the jewelry store. It was clearly Venom, though he couldn't logically reason out why Venom was robbing a jewelry store. He swung onto the scene, arriving before the police. No matter. The police wouldn't be able to deal with the alien themselves anyway. The arachnid's arc carried him gracefully through the decimated front window and he landed in a crouch. "Hey!" Venom turned away from the cases, a bag in one hand. Peter had just enough time to note that there was an oddness to his movements before the symbiot attacked. Peter bounded and flipped neatly around the tendrils until he could get close enough to land a flying kick on Venom's jaw. The symbiot flew backwards into a display case, smashing it to bits.

Pain danced in his vision and his already tipsy head took a sickening dip. Shaking his head to return it to a relatively stable state, he bounded up and launched a full attack on his foe.

Peter had not expected Venom to bounce back so quickly and when he put his arms up to protect his face, he was sent reeling backwards. He felt some glass snag his leg as he sailed through the front window. He knew he had to get Venom away from the crowd before someone got hurt, or worse.

The obsidian creature stepped through the front window and set his stark white eyes on the arachnid hero. His hand morphed into an axe and his arm elongated as he swung for his foe. Spider-Man fired his muscles like a grasshopper and landed on the wall of the store.

"Your aim is as bad as your dental hygiene!" Peter called out, hoping the creature would follow him. This time a large mallet was swung at him. Peter once more back flipped away and scrambled farther up the building, wondering where Venom had learned those new tricks. Though he didn't have a lot of time to wonder about it now. He had to beat Venom first and ask him questions later.

The building vibrated under the impact of the mallet but the obnoxious wall crawler was escaping. Sirens were closing in, but Venom was hardly concerned about the police. He started off after Spider-Man, bag of jewels swung over his shoulder. "This time we will get him," he whispered to himself. "This time we will crush-"

/You will do nothing of the kind./

Venom snarled at the sound of the voice in his head. "You do not own us."

/Yes, in fact, I do. He is trying to trick you into following him. You will return to me at once, no matter what the cost./

"But he flees, you see? He will be ours! He will-"

/You are to return immediately. That is your order./

Venom hissed again, but this time it was out of irritated acquiescence.

Peter watched the alien crouching on the wall, having some kind of animated conversation with himself. He wondered what was going on. Why wasn't he chasing him anymore? He saw police cars pull up and stop. Some leaped out to get control of the crowd while others quickly assessed the scene unfolding on the wall before them. Venom didn't seem to notice the police. He jumped off the wall, still mumbling to himself.

"We will crush him, yes we will, but master beckons, yes he does..."

"Freeze! Put your hands in the air!"

You have to give them credit for being bold. Otto was nervous about hanging around with the police swarming all over, but something made him stay and watch. He supposed he could have left at any time, and the child was safe now, but he felt almost certain Rosie had wanted him to come up and see this. He didn't know why. The creature seemed surprised to see the guns leveled at him, but hardly fazed at all. The axe appeared again and swung for the nearest group of cops. They opened fire, again hardly even mildly upsetting the beast.

Maybe someone should do something. Harry flexed under the coat. Destroying things because they were bad was still destroying things. He couldn't believe he never realized that before. They had all spent all that time fighting with father when that simple, peaceful solution had been waiting all along. But father was frightened by the zeal in Harry's 'voice.' He was also afraid of the police, which was perfectly reasonable, so Harry didn't push the issue.

Besides, Parker has it under control, see? Well, they couldn't see, but it was true. Spider-Man had swung down on a web line, knocking over the shark-toothed beast and upsetting his aim. The creature attacked with more of the glossy tendrils, its tongue lolling out, dripping thick saliva on the pavement.

After seeing her safely back to her father, the man had dissolved into the crowd, leaving the little girl to wonder if he was another one of her apparitions. She had told her father about the stranger but when she turned to point he had been gone. Her and her father were craning their necks trying to catch a glimpse of him in the crowd as the police herded them back.

"Is that him in the hat and glasses?" Her father asked.

She turned her attention to where he was pointing and squinted. "Yep! That's him!" She was relieved that he wasn't one of them. "Come on, I want you to meet him!"

"You know so little about him. What if he's a weirdo? You know how New York can be."

She pouted. "He's not a weirdo. He's my friend."

Her father wondered at her tendency to latch on to people so quickly. She hadn't exactly had a lot of friends, true, but he wasn't sure about this one. Why was he so covered up? He was trying to hide something.

Father, what's going on? Larry couldn't see through all of the people and Otto's trench coat.

Parker and some kind of gooey humanoid are fighting. The humanoid can create weapons that are an extension of itself, and currently it is trying to chop Parker to pieces with an axe.

Aw, man! I wanna see!

(Well you can't, so stop whining.)

Venom couldn't get the arachnid off his back. Every time he turned to climb away, the web head would assault him again, with flying kicks and punches. Venom lashed out over and over again but couldn't land a deadly enough blow to take down his enemy.

/Venom! What is taking you so long?/

"The spider won't let us leave."

Spider-Man dodged the axe for the umpteenth time and spotted an opening. He didn't know what Venom kept mumbling to himself about, but he wasn't focused as hard on the attack anymore. Taking careful aim he shot two web lines directly at the symbiot's eyes. It shrieked horribly as the white goo plastered itself all over his face. Peter was about to turn him into a neat package for the authorities when something entirely unexpected happened. The web was sliding off of Venom as though he were coated with Teflon.

As the eye-stinging webs cleared from his vision the alien set his sights on his adversary. Rage filled him and overflowed into every limb. Ignoring his master's orders for him to leave while the bug was stunned, he morphed both hands into a mallet and an axe. This was it. He would take him down now.

He tried to blind the humanoid with his webs, but they would not stick. Otto continued giving his children the play-by-play. Their eagerness was quite apparent, and they hung on his every word. He is attacking with both the axe and a mallet at once. Hmph. Parker will not fall for that. There, he's dodging the axe and...

And what?

How did he dodge?

#Is he winning?#

(Tell us, father!)

Peter saw the deadly weapons coming for him, the axe fixing to slice him in two against the mallet. His spider sense screamed in his head as he leaped and tucked his knees to his chest. His spider sense continued to blare, even as the axe whistled by close enough for the wind to tickle his toes. The mallet, on the other hand, had suddenly switched angles and was still coming for him. There was little he could do while suspended in the air like that. It crashed into his ribs and smashed him into the cement.

"Yessss. We have him now." Venom drooled gleefully as he began cocooningthe red and blue hero in the smothering black slime. The bug struggled but resistance was futile. The alien raised him into the air and turned him upside down.

Parker... he can get out of it. He can... Otto almost pleaded. His children were jabbering at him insistently but he found he couldn't really focus on what was being said. The world slowed down as he watched Parker plummeting head first towards the sidewalk, propelled by the hideous creature. I can't fight... the people, and the cops... Parker will escape. This thing isn't going to dash his brains out. That's not how it works. He always stopped me, he... The impact made Otto wince. The entire crowd fell silent.

The police regrouped quickly and began firing at Venom again. The symbiot felt a bullet graze his shoulder and knew he had to escape, even without the enraged voice hollering in his head. There, a child in her father's arms.

/Yes, take her. Take the hostage./

Venom did not question, only acted. He was stretching himself thin, but no one would dare approach him with the girl's life at stake.

FATHER!

Otto jerked out of his daze. It has knocked Peter unconscious, and now it is... no, not her! Let her go! It took the child hostage!

#Then do something!#

Like what? I don't even really like fighting all that much.

"If you follow us, she dies." Venom backed towards the store front, using his hostages as shields.

The police chief held up his hands. "Hold your fire!"

"No! Carol-Anne!" The little girl's father began shoving through the crowd as Venom ascended the building. She was all he had left now. He couldn't let her go. At the police line they stopped him.

"I'll have to ask you to stay back, sir."

"That's my daughter up there!"

The cop was genuinely apologetic, he really was, but it was his job. "Listen, if you go after him you'll be putting her in more danger. Let the professionals handle this."

Otto overheard this. He looked from the father to the little girl. For a moment he made direct eye contact with her, right before she disappeared over the roof. The terror in her eyes stirred him deeply. It made him recall the old woman he had grabbed at the bank. It was cowardly, really, snatching up innocent, defenseless people to use as human shields. He glanced around at the cops. How important was self preservation? Was it worth the life of a child?

(You are no longer a regular human being.)

#You are not a super villain.#

You have given up life as a scientist.

What do you have left?

I'm no hero... but I won't let my selfishness harm anyone else. His children burst through the back of his coat and stretched. The sun light glinted off each carefully crafted segment and their heads blossomed. This is what Rosie wanted. I'll do it for her. If I don't do it for anyone else, I'll do it for her.

"Doc ock?" Carol-Anne's father mouthed. "I knew he was hiding something."

"Oh my god, look!"

"It's him!"

"I thought he died!"

Otto ignored the screams that erupted around him as he shot off up the building. Let them scream. They didn't know him, and their hatred didn't matter. Not now. All that mattered now was bringing that girl–Carol-Anne was it?–home safe.