"Ok," the dentist thought to himself, "so there's a known supervillain in my office. So what? I've dealt with, well, minor baddies before, right? Same principle, only ….." He made the mistake of glancing at Venom as he sat down in the chair, which groaned in massive protest. "Only this time I'm gonna DIE! Oh, why did I have to be a dentist! I should have chosen something really boring, like a librarian, or an accountant! But NOOOO, I had to be a DENTIST!"

Venom watched the doctor mumbling and slamming his fist on the counter, then said, "What a weirdo," which was followed by his yelling, "OW! HURRY UP!"

"Ok, ok!" Andy replied through his mask while putting on his gloves, "Now, I need you to tell me the symptoms; where does it hurt, and how badly?"

"Everywhere, and a lot."

" …. Uhh …. that doesn't really …… Can you be more specific, please?"

Venom glared at Ricochet, who couldn't tell. "It hurts in a lot of places, and it's a lot of different pains ….. sometimes throbbing, sometimes stinging, like that."

"Hmmm." the doctor said, looking away and trying to focus on the problem and not his eminent doom as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Sounds like a periapical abscess. Do you remember chipping or otherwise damaging your teeth?"

Venom glared some more.

"That many times, huh?"

Glaaaaaaare.

The doctor coughed nervously, then sat in his chair and slowly scooted closer. He picked up his tools, trying to steady his hands, and said, "All right, say 'ah.'"

Venom obliged. Ricochet made the error of forgetting not to inhale and threw up in the sink. Venom found this great entertainment.

"Hahaha! We wonder how often our foes have done that in their masks!"

"Guh …." replied Andy after washing out his mouth, "I almost did. There's some mint gum next to you …. would you mind?"

Venom imagined himself blowing a bubble and concluded it was not the image he was going for. "Request denied, human. Besides, chewing hurts. Figure something else out."

"Fine," he said, looking around. After a few moments of shuffling through drawers, he took out a flower-shaped car air freshener and handed it to his "client," who, after intensely glaring at both him and the pink, scented object, made a grunting noise and put it around his neck. This allowed Ricochet to scoot his chair to its original position.

"Let's try this again. Say 'ah' ……" said Ricochet, telling himself this was all a bad dream, that he was really with Claire in the Bahamas drinking lemonade instead of gazing into the jaws of death and pulling out …… "Is that …… some BONE between your teeth!"

"Ay-gee," replied Venom, which Andy could translate into "maybe."

"Argh, it's human! What's WRONG with you?"

"Dey tashe goog."

"TASTE good? There's a million restaurants in this city and you eat PEOPLE!" the doctor shouted, finally yanking out the piece of bone lodged in Venom's gums. He didn't want to, but he examined it anyway, discovering that it was a fragment of a skull…… with a bit of brain still attached.

Andy fainted.

Dr. Ricochet was having a wonderful dream. He was flying, flying above the city without a care in the world. The sky was blue, the ocean was gorgeous, and the breeze felt wonderful.

But then, out of nowhere, he started falling. He screamed and tried to gain altitude, but to no avail. The pavement below was approaching at a deadly speed, when suddenly he stopped and hung there, suspended over an alley.

"Whu….. huh?" he said, wondering why he hadn't died, and why all the blood was rushing to his head. He looked around, and then realized he was hanging by his feet over twenty stories from the ground by a strand of webbing no thicker than a pencil.

Therefore, he did the only logical thing anyone could do under the circumstances.

"AAAAAAAAHHH! SOMEONE, ANYONE, HELP MEEEEEEEE!"

Unfortunately the only response to this was the resident of the adjacent apartment building throwing an old boot at him and telling him to shut up. Andy made a rude gesture with his hands toward the resident right before he was pulled swiftly skyward by the webbing.

Venom was perched on the wall by his feet like a sticky gargoyle. "Feeling better?" he asked Ricochet, holding him with one claw over the street.

"YOU'RE INSANE, YOU-YOU MONSTER!"

"No duh. Now, can we please finish our appointment? We're getting hungry."

Andy's eyes went huge in surprise and then started rolling back into his head. He looked about like he was going to start dreaming again when Venom hoisted him over his shoulder and started climbing down the building. It was right then that Ricochet determined that forgetting this part as soon as possible was a good idea. It wasn't a bumpy ride, but knowing how easily this creature could drop him or tear him in half made it exceedingly unpleasant. Plus he was afraid of heights.

Venom climbed through the office window and onto the ceiling. He aimed to drop Andy into his seat, but missed by about a foot. "Whoops, clumsy me," he said, crouching on his own chair with a grin that showed how sorry he obviously wasn't.

"I'm in my happy place, I'm in my happy place, I'm in my happy place …." Ricochet chanted to himself while rocking back and forth and shaking on the floor.

"Mmmmm, dentiiiiist…." which was all Venom needed to say to get the doctor animated again.

Andy tried to get back onto his chair, but found it difficult because his feet were still webbed together. Pointing at this, Ricochet asked, "Can you cut me free, please?"

"No, that would give you the ability (however small) to escape! We don't want that, now, do we?"

Andy sighed, all hope gone. When this was over, he wouldn't be able to put up even the slightest struggle beyond hopping away idiotically. All he could do was use his trade and stall for time.

He pulled himself into his seat and regained his composure as much as he could, then said, "From what I saw, there's a massive infection in your pulp--"

"Our what?"

"Oh, that is, the 'roots' of your teeth (assuming you have those). It looks like you need a ….." he hesitated, scooting away a little and hoping his next sentence wouldn't be his last, "A…. a root canal."

At this, the supervillain leaned forward and loomed over Ricochet. "You understand, human, that if you are lying we'll just kill you a lot slower…." He hissed, extending a claw menacingly beneath Andy's throat and pulling his chin up in typical badguy fashion.

"I'm-I'm sorry!" the doctor yelped, "and I swear, I would never do anything like that! Please don't hurt me!"

Venom pondered for a moment, then settled back in the chair. "That, at least, is true. We've been watching your mannerisms for some time, and we know you are neither that brave nor that stupid. You behave as humans should towards their betters. We trust you …. enough."

"Er ….. thank you ….. I guess." Andy couldn't help but observe the similarity between what this monster just said and what Claire had been telling him for years now. He felt a great wave of embarrassment and shame that not only had she been all too correct in her analysis, but that his cowardice was noticeable enough for him to be singled out by Venom himself!

Tonight, it appeared, would be his last …… unless—

"What? What's taking so long?" asked said villain, jolting the dentist back to the current situation.

"I, well, was just thinking," Ricochet said, scrambling for an answer, "How it is that ….. you can talk with teeth that huge? It doesn't look like your lips reach far enough to form words ….."

"………………………….."

"………………………….."

"……..Like……this?"

"Oh, I see! …... Huh," said Andy, knowing he had gained knowledge that defied both physics and description. "Um, also, we don't have ….. any….. pain killers," he went on, hoping Venom couldn't tell the difference between "lying" nervous and "about to die" nervous. "I could put you to sleep, though—"

"Shut up and get started. We are used to pain."

Ricochet attempted his plan again. "Are you sure you don't want to take a nap?"

"Yes."

"You're absolutely sure? It's gonna hurt a whoooooole lot!"

"…..Yes."

"Totally positive? You won't have nightmares or anything--"

"YES, WE'RE SURE! And for the record, Ricochet," Venom growled, grabbing the dentist's collar and bringing him to eye-level, "we don't appreciate smart-assed remarks very much. We get enough of THAT from our enemies."

He let Andy go, who readjusted his uniform and frantically tried to think of some other way out of this mess. In the meantime, however, he could get a little revenge.

"Suit yourself. Hold still ……" he said, starting the drill.