"GYYYAAAAAAAAARRRRGHHH!" screamed Venom, his living uniform pulsating and deforming in pain.

"Wh-but I haven't even started yet--" said the dentist (from a good distance away).

"THEEE NOOOOIIIISSSSE! SSSSTTOOOOOP IIIIIIIIIT!" Venom howled, clutching his head in his claws.

Ricochet turned off the drill and waited, his heart pounding furiously. The villain's visage had returned to normal, but Andy could sense he wasn't happy. Venom drove the point home by grabbing a nearby desk and throwing it through the outside wall and smashing about a thousand dollars worth of dental equipment, including all but one window. The dentist figured this was a premonition of his approaching demise (only cleaner).

When he was done, Venom sat in a ceiling corner, growling in an unearthly tone. After several minutes, he said, "……That hurt."

Andy was understandably confused. "What hurt?"

"The machine."

"The…. noise from the machine?" he asked, looking at the tiny drill in his hand.

Venom glared at him again, but more out of annoyance than in an effort to intimidate. Perhaps this human was not as dense as he had appeared. He changed the subject.

"We have reconsidered your offer about the gas."

"Really!" said Andy, inwardly wincing at his failure to keep his excitement in check. At Venom's silence, Ricochet tried to look as small and unthreatening and not-plotting-anything as possible.

The villain uncurled as he left his perch and approached Ricochet, who cowered some more. Venom then put one hand on either armrest of Andy's chair, effectively pinning him down and scaring the snot out of him. Venom was almost tempted to reenact that one scene from Aliens, but that was gross even for him.

"We'd like you to know, human," he started, enjoying the effect his presence had on his captor, "that all those so-called 'heroes' who say they can save you from things like us are mistaken. If you even so much as blink funny, no amount of protection will keep me from beating you to death with your own spine!"

Venom waited for this to sink in. Andy was plenty terrified and got the gist of the threat, but the imagery was weird and kind of comical.

"Ah….understood?" Andy half asked, half said.

"Good," said Venom, standing up and heading for his chair, "but, just to make sure you don't get any ideas…." In an instant Ricochet was strapped to his seat via massive webbing. He could still scoot around and use his arms, but escape was now nonexistent.

Andy's reply was to grip the nozzle of the gas tank an turn it on in an aggravated manner while scowling as hard as he could. Venom just grinned. "Comfy?"

Ricochet was thinking all the curses in all the languages he knew very loudly. "Very," he said through clenched teeth, adjusting the mask's straps to fit the villain's cranium. Out of spite, he released the elastic band so it snapped on harder than it should have. "Whoops. Clumsy me."

Venom responded by swatting the doctor upside his head. Unable to keep his balance because of his confinement to his chair, Andy fell onto the floor with a 'thud.'

Once Venom finished laughing, he waited for the gas to take effect. Then he waited some more. He started tapping his claws on his chair, then turned to Ricochet and asked, "What's taking so long?"

Andy pushed off the ground as hard as he could, but this only resulted in his falling over the other way. Facing the ceiling, he replied, "Forgive me, but I've never worked with a…. whatever-you-are before. If you were a normal human, you'd have been asleep by now."

"Oh come on! You couldn't tell there are TWO of us! Why do you think we keep saying 'we' all the time?"

"I assumed you were 'special,' Venom. You know, in an insane way."

"Cute," replied the villain, lifting Andy up and setting him down upright, "but stop talking or we'll remove your jaw."

Ricochet wondered why he kept spouting cynical remarks, then thought it might be the only way to retain any amount of level-headedness in such a bleak situation. "Maybe that's why superheroes are known for their one-liners," Andy silently reflected, then turned up the gas as far as it would go.

In a matter of minutes the dentist had a snoozing patient, but he left the gas on for a while, just in case. Once it was off he removed the mask and stared at Venom, wondering how he managed to still look so scary while snoring so loudly. Regardless, it was time to put his plan into action.

Many ruined tools later, Andy gave up. "What's this stuff MADE of!" he wondered aloud, throwing away his last hook. He had been trying to free himself from his seat, but everything those scientists said about the proportional strength of a spider's web had sadly proven true. He slumped in his chair, utterly helpless….

Or, perhaps he wasn't. Andy scooted over close to the sleeping villain once again, and thought about everything Claire said about heroes. At this point, that conversation seemed a lifetime away, but he might be able to take her advice.

He picked up his most durable drills, knowing this last act of defiance would definitely end his life….but what kind of life had he been living anyway? He had always let fear rule him, let bullies like Venom push him around. He was a waste of air, nothing like the champions who sacrificed themselves for the people, but maybe—by being a "mere" dentist—he could make a difference and pay those heroes back.

He started up his tools and got to work.

Hours later Ricochet was finished. He took off his mask and checked his watch. 4:00am. No one would even be in the building for another three hours. Plenty of time for him to wind up another victim of Venom's wrath (which was fast approaching).

He rolled over to the broken windows, wondering if the fall would be faster than what the villain had in mind. He quickly decided "oh yeah," then rolled back to get a fast enough speed to topple over the edge. He was just about to go when a heavy hand landed on his shoulder and prevented any movement.

"So dentists really are suicidal?" asked Venom through a yawn. Andy had come up with all kinds of nasty annotations and comebacks those short hours Venom was asleep, but at the moment they counted his words failed him.

"Gulp," said Ricochet.

Venom recuperated so fast it appeared that he had only been drowsing. He touched his jaw, still pinning down the doctor, and somehow managed too look angrier than usual.

"You have disappointed us, human… we are not pleased."

This was it. Andy tensed, waiting for whatever tortures the villain had in mind.

"We were truly hoping you would try something sneaky that we might have had an excuse to kill you! However," Venom continued, rising and walking towards one of the many shattered windows, "it appears since you have effectively freed us from pain that it is only fair you are allowed the 'pleasure' of existing some more."

Andy couldn't believe it. "You're….you're seriously letting me go?"

For a second, Venom stood motionless. He willed his suit to reveal his face to the doctor, allowing him to see that his expression was showing a touch of…. sadness?

"Contrary to popular belief, Ricochet, sometimes we're a goodguy too," and in an instant he was Venom again. "Humans respond easily to fear—scaring them is all we know how to do (and, you know, eating their brains). But don't tell anyone, or we'll have to implement all our previous threats."

For all the things to happen in those few moments that Venom had actually shown a slight glimmer of humanity and mercy, he HAD to be standing next to the only intact window left in the office. Everything went into slow motion when Andy realized that as soon as Venom saw his reflection and what had been done to him, Andy's life would end. Ironically, it would all be because he had tried to be a hero that he so obviously wasn't.

Venom started turning back to the window, ready to leave Andy's office, and his life, forever. "Don't let him see his reflection, don't let him see his reflection, oh PLEASE don't let him see his reflection!" Ricochet screamed in his head, begging to any deity who would listen.

But they must have been on vacation, because Venom halted, staring at the window and his image in it. The alien growling reverberating from his chest was all the indication Andy needed to know he was doomed.

All of Venom's teeth had been filed down to normal human proportions; not sharp, not scary, and very not deadly. Venom slowly faced Ricochet with a low hiss, all his muscles tensing and ready to spring.

"I…..I'm sorry?"

Venom leapt at Andy, who tipped his chair over just in time. The villain's momentum carried him well through the wall, while Andy was helpless on the floor—however, his drill was nearby. Ricochet hoisted himself onto his elbows, inching towards the drill, but Venom was too fast. He clasped his claws around his throat and started squeezing.

"YOU PIECE OF FILTH! WE WERE GOING TO LET YOU GO, BUT NOW WE CAN'T EVEN EAT YOU! GAAAARGGGH!" In his frustration, Venom started hitting the dentist's head repeatedly against the floor, causing Andy to see double. Luckily, it also caused his nearby tools to bounce, so Ricochet reached out and caught his drill. He turned it on and pointed it at his aggressor, who released him, screeching in pain. Venom had no other choice than to leap out the only intact window to escape the infernal noise.

"Ha HA!" yelled Andy in triumph (as soon as he could uncross his eyes), doing a victory dance though still on the floor. "Yeah, you better run! Who da man? Who da—" he stopped, wondering why the drill had suddenly gone silent. He looked at it, realizing that he had accidentally yanked the cord out from the machine and rendering it useless. "Uhhhh….maybe he won't be back."

A resounding thud several stories higher and Venom screaming "RICOCHEEEEEET!" proved him all too wrong.

"Toothpaste," Andy inwardly cursed, thinking fast. "His weakness is sound, so what's noisy! Uhh, uhh, oh! I have an air horn! I have an air horn, where'd I put it, where, where, where—in my CAR! I'll never make it, but I have to try…."

Ricochet elbow-scooted over to a desk then hoisted himself (and that stupid chair) into the upright position. He grabbed the keys, which had bee inadvertently cut down in Venom's fit, and knew that in order to survive he had to find some way out of the building before he was caught.

"I am sooooo dead."