Chapter 7

The next day, May awoke a new woman. She woke up with a scowl on her face, and the house empty. at first she was worried at the lack of movement, grabbing her web shooters and sliding them un under her Pj sleeves. But when she ventured out her room, there was no one. Her mother wouldn't be home for a long time yet, but her father should be home.

Where was her morning kiss and check up?

May leaned against the kitchen side and sighed. She still needed a shower. Then her eyes caught sight of a piece of paper.

Dear May Day.

Had to go to work early. Won't be home until after midnight so don't wait up for me.

I love you honey, remember that.

Dad.

"He never leaves before saying hello to me…" for a moment she felt a tingle of pain, but shrugged it off. She was a grown woman (nearly). She needed to wake up and smell the coffee, her dad needed to work. "Speaking of coffee…" she made herself a black coffee, and scowled again.

black.

Like him.

She poured milk into it…and could have sworn the milk oozed out like a spider…a white one… "Damn him!" she poured the coffee down the sink and went for her shower.

As the water engulfed her, she washed her hair, still scowling. So I can't even have a damn cup of coffee without him haunting my thoughts huh? Well, I don't need to think about him at all. Today would be a big step for her.

She has three options.

A, I pretend that I don't know who or what he is, and learn his plan.

B, let him know what I know and give him a chance regardless…

Or C, I rip his fucking balls off and drag his through glass, stick needles in his cock, flick salt at his wounds and then use a cheese wire to chop it off, put it in a blender and make him drink it.

As angry as she was, she had to remember that to be a super hero, you had to be cunning. Brawn is only good when accompanied with brains. So she would have to use her smarts to find out what exactly he was up to. He didn't come across as someone who would do anything, without a reason. And he was a lot smarter than he acted. So he was sneaky too. And if he is sneaky, I have to be sneaker. If he is cunning, I have to be more cunning.

May stood there, in her full Spidergirl costume and her mask covering her face. She tightened the straps of her SBP and stood on the edge of her Veranda. Then she fell forward into a nose dive and flew quickly to the ground. At the last moment, one hand shot out and she snapped herself into a web swing at a speed, which not even Electro could have been able to track.

Speaking of whom…

"Father I don't believe this." He rolled his eyes. After Eric gave his father and still bruised sister the report of Venom, they had been given a surprise. All three Dillons were in a tank, ploughing through the underground with sonic waves emitting from the outer casing. "I feel that if you have still got your sanity, then you will turn this van around!"

"And why would I do that boy?"

"Because the most stupid thing we could do is turn that freak on ourselves, more than he already is." He stated, for the hundredth time. "This is madness."

"Perhaps, but that is why our plan is brilliant." That made absolutely no sense! Eric groaned, not liking the insane twinkle in his father's eye. "We will stay underground for now, watch his movements."

"Why?"

"Because I say so! Do not question me boy!" Eric yelled as his father sent a voltage through him. it didn't hurt, but it did surprise. Honestly, did his father forget they shared the same powers? Did he forget he couldn't hurt or bully him like he couldn't others?

They were in for a long day of sitting on their ass, just to please what ever purpose or fascination that his father had.

Great.

Great. Venom couldn't find her anywhere. She usually got up around this time, but she had already left her home before he even got there. So had Parker.

When at last he found her, she was crouched in a famous Spider position on a gargoyle, an uprising of dark, thick sooty smoke rising like a heat haze from where she looked. He chuckled, she hadn't noticed his arrival so he walked up behind her. As he reached her, he looked over her shoulder at the chaos that played out on the ground. People were screaming in joy as they found their slightly scorched loved ones, some having medical attention from paramedics and others leaving with family members.

"Three people were trapped under a fiery beam. They would have died." She stood, her fists clenched and her head high. Somehow, he knew she was in a foul mood. "Recklessness. That is what started the fire. And their ignorance just fuelled and fed the inferno, until it tore their lives apart." His large smile faded…what was wrong with her? "Good thing I was in the neighbourhood." Without another word, May shot out and vanished around the building side. Venom followed in just as swift a movement, and found her looking over her shoulder at him, and moving to avoid him. It was almost as if she was trying to get away from him. They got ever closer to the Hudson, when she webbed to the side and somersaulted backwards, over his head and he had to claw at a wall to stop himself. Very clever. He chuckled, thinking this was just one big game. After he landed on a building, he found her stood at the opposite side, her back to him again.

"May." She seemed to flinch, but said nothing. But as he stepped towards her, she shot out with a web line once more and took off, leaving him to 'eat her dust'. He growled, growing tired of this game and reached out with a tendril, looping around her waist and yanking her back to the roof, and into his arms where he wanted her to be. "May." He chuckled, but sensed something was wrong when she looked down into his chest, saying nothing. "May? What is wrong?" he turned his head to one side, but she looked away. he tried to look at her, but she just moved her face and prevented it. when he growled, he had had enough. A tendril licked at her face and turned her face up to face him. but she still looked to the side very obviously. "Why will you not look at us?" now he knew something was amiss, because she had yet to say anything. Her arms were at her sides, his large arms around her and pinning them there. But only lightly. She even seemed to be pulling away from him. "Why are you hiding from me?"

then he thought she must have lost her mind.

Because she started laughing.

"Why am I hiding?" she chuckled, but he heard the choked son in it. "How about, WHY ARE YOU HIDING FROM ME!" he flinched from her arsenic voice. He was confused, until she pulled her hands onto his chest and started to rake her nails over his skin. He yowled and released her.

"What is wrong with you? What are you doing?"

"What is wrong with you! What are you doing!" she ripped at his chest again and he felt it. why was she attacking him? He quickly grabbed her wrists, held them apart and watched as she thrashed against him.

she had obviously chosen, against all her logic, option C.

"May! What are you doing?"

"Fuck you!" she screamed, her mask growing wet around her eyes and he was beside himself. Why was she doing this? Why was she hurting both him, and obviously herself.

"May stop this! Stop this now!"

"Or what Venom? you'll take me into another stair way and play with my body again?" she spat.

"No, we will…" oh fuck. "…What did you just call us?"

"I called you by your fucking name." his grip on her grew weak, and she lashed at his chest again. "Where is it hmmm? Where are you hiding the fucking white Spider!" then, she saw in an ink explosion over his chest, a white flood spurt from his healing chest and back, making a double Spider there.

So she knew. She knew who he was. Venom started to panic. "…What's a matter Venom? Spider got your tongue?"

"May I."

"No, don't you dare. And my fucking name is Spidergirl." She sneered and folded her arms. "Do not call me by my name again."

"We have called you May before."

"That was when I didn't know who you were."

"Should that matter?"

"Should it matter he says." She threw her hands up and walked away from him. "Let me see, should it matter, should it matter." She mocked him, holding her chin and pretending to think of an answer. "Let me think just a moment."

Oh yes. She had definitely chosen option C. all she needed were the needles… "If by it not mattering you mean, that I am not bothered that you are a mass murderer, or that you have made my families life a living hell, or that you almost made it so that I wasn't born, or that you are the very, pure example of what I am fighting against, or that you lied to me, that you stole for me, that you led me on, that you used me for your own fucking amusement and see me as nothing but a fuck toy and a way to get back at dear ol'dad." She seethed, kicking a chuck of brick from the roof ledge into the roof. She didn't want to hurt anyone beneath after all. "No Venom, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me in the slightest that I was part of your larger plan to get revenge on my father, to satisfy yourself and I couldn't be happier that you broke my heart in the process!" Now her voice quivered, her body trembled with rage and she sobbed every word, punctuated every stabbing pain in her heart with her distraught turning and pacing, on a true rampage. "No Venom it doesn't matter!"

"What did you expect us to do! Walk up to you and say, hello. We are your father's arch nemesis, would you like to be our friend?" he hissed, grabbing her arms and pulling her to a stop. His own heart was breaking. This was worrying as he didn't think he had a heart.

"You don't want to be my friend Venom, you wanted to use me and you have. I have been used and abused in the worst way possible. Because when I was with you I liked it. That, disgusts me." she might as well have used a large four by four in the place of a baseball bat, and whacked him from the way he staggered away from her words. "You wanted to get at my father? You are too late. He refuses to be Spiderman anymore. So your time has passed."

"Parker is no longer Spiderman because…" he stopped himself. But she had already put two and two together.

"You absolute bastard!" she stomped her foot, no knowing that not only where they both know shouting, but the building opposite was filled with eagerly reporting journalists…and the Editor of that buildings paper, who was growing pale from every second.

And the paper, was the daily bugle.

"You did this to him! You made him leave everything I loved about him and reduced him to a weak mess!" she screamed and put both hands on her head, as if a shocking sound was trying to seep into her brain that hurt her. "You did this!"

"We will not allow that fool to interfere."

"With what!" she looked to him, livid beyond all healthy limits and stalked towards him. She no longer cared that he was the better, the veteran, the more powerful and skilled of the two. She just wanted to rip something off. "With what!" she repeated. Now, he was just as pissed as she was.

"With you!" he hissed. "We have worked so hard to give you everything, we have given you everything, and everything you have ever dreamed of, asked for and wanted. You wanted powers, so we gave you powers. You wanted to be the super hero, so we made you the super hero. You wanted to save lives, so we helped you. You wanted you family to be safe, so we stopped your father from being the 'web head' and forced him to pass the role to you. Everything you lacked, we gave you. Everything you now are, is because we made you it. You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for us!"

"What Venom? Did you expect me to say thank you? Well hell, thanks Venom. Thanks a million!" she held her sides, whimpered and tears flooding madly from her eyes. "Thank you for letting me be responsible for a death of an innocent man. Thank you. Thank you for letting me see all the evils in the world before I am even legal enough to drink. Thank you. Thank you for ruining my father's life. Thank you. Thank you for betraying my trust, thank you so very much Venom. Thank you for playing God with me, thank you for creating me into your perfect little pet project. I am really grateful for that, really." She hung her head forward, looking in total anguish. "Thank you for thinking for once, I have someone who cared. Thank you for thinking I was loved…thanks…" that actually sounded sincere at the end. She did mean her thanks for his love. "…it was nice knowing that I had someone to look out for me…for a while…" she dropped to her knees, shaking again. "Thank you a whole bunch for making me feel so wonderful, for giving you almost everything, offering you all of me…my heart and my body…and throwing it back in my face!" she stood again, and stalked towards him. "Thank you Venom!" she punched his chest hard, he groaned and held his chest, winded. "Thank you for ripping my heart out and tap dancing on it!" she swung again, hitting his jaw. His head snapped back, and he also felt as she did.

His heart was breaking.

"I, I, I," she broke down and fell in a heap on her knees, at his feet. "I could have loved you…I think I actually did…so fast, so quick. I trusted you so much…" she didn't care anymore. He could kill her right there and then and she would be grateful, because this hurt way too much.

Venom looked at the broken creature before him, and dropped to his knees with her.

"We, we never meant. At first we, but now we." He couldn't even form a true sentence. "We love you…" there, he said it. and to prove it he pulled her into him, holding her close and rubbing her back as she cried into his chest. "We will not lie. We did intend to use you to get to him. But…we calculated every outcome, every eventuality. But we never planed on this…"

"On (whimper) what?"

"On falling in love with you…May…" He whispered into her neck, and hooked his arms around her back and under her legs. Venom lifted her up as he stood. May was all spent, she couldn't stop him if she wanted to.

"You love me?" she looked into his face, wanting so bad for this to be true. He opened his mouth, but he sensed something he never thought he would ever again.

"Get your filthy hands off my daughter, RIGHT NOW!"

"Dad?" oh shit. "I mean Spiderman?"

"Venom, put her down. And you." He pointed at May. "Are grounded and in big trouble."

"How big?"

"Colossal. The Thing and Hulk sized big. No, Galactus on a bloated scale."

"Ouch." She thought, almost chuckling at her fathers returned humour. Until she remembered. "Venom, put me down now. Before my dad kills me."

"No." she blinked, and frowned.

"Put me down Venom."

"No, we will not let him take you from us. Not after we finally told you…" Venom looked to Spiderman, in his old costume. He didn't want Parker to know just yet. Well, his plans needed tweaking. "Do you feel the same way? We will release you if you tell us."

"You will release her regardless Venom." Peter clenched his fist, lowered himself ready for a fight. He was all healed up now, and ready for a fight. "I mean it, last chance." May leaned closer to him.

"I feel the same way Venom." he sighed, with relief and lowered her to her feet, but held her to him. he wasn't ready to let her go yet. May grabbed his neck hard, yanked his head down to her side and whispered in his ear. "But if you ever, ever lie to me, hide anything from me, plot against me or my family, hurt anyone, or be an arsewhole in general every again…I will not forgive you again. you have lost a lot of trust with me Venom. and I will be doing my homework on you. So do not piss me off. Because now is worse for you than before. Because now, you have two 'spider punks' to deal with. Capisci?"

"Yes."

"Good." she released him and he did her. Her dad had his arms crossed, tapping one foot and looked lie if he was the human torch, that fire would be licking at his form, like his temper, a tempest of furious flames. She was just glad he couldn't shoot eye beams…or she would be dead right now. "Venom and myself have come to an understanding."

"Nice to know." he said, not at all amused. "Now let us leave so that we can come to an understanding."

"Oh boy. Be gentle." She looked to Venom, and regarded him silently.

"I will be as gentle as I see fit. And you will not recover from this for a long time." He pointed off home. "I have seen that you know your way around by webs. Get. Home. Right. Now."

"Yes father…" she grumbled. She was not going to sleep easy tonight… she turned to Venom, and then to her father. "I a leaving. But if a certain symbiotic creature brakes his new vow to me…then not even the great and merciful Spiderman will be able to save him from me wrath." She added, and started to walk away. "You have serious brownie points to earn before you get in my good books again." she shot back to him, and webbed home. Perhaps if she webbed her doors shut she could hide from her father for a while…

Peter and Venom looked to be in a face off. Neither one moved but bore their eyes into one another. Until Peter broke the silence.

"So how long have you known my daughter Brock?"

"We are not Brock. We are Venom." he simply stated, and sat on the roof side. "And why would that matter?" but when Peter didn't move or say anything, Venom realised that he wasn't going to until he got an answer. "Long enough." Hopefully that would be good enough.

"And are you, or are you not responsible for her becoming Spidergirl?"

"Yes, we are responsible for her transformation."

"How?"

"We awoke her dormant genes. She did the rest." Ok, that was an understatement covering up a larger lie. But he wasn't going to let the Spider know that she had Symbiotic genes in her blood now. Although he was tempted, just to piss him off further.

"How long has she had her powers now?

"For about a week."

"Why did you give her these powers? How does this benefit you?"

"She wanted them. And we rather like her company. Up here, not on the ground." Yeah, and he wanted to fuck her on sight. One thing he realised now, was that because she was super strong…she could be able to handle him…wait. Could she have his children now? She was half Symbiotic. Had he created the perfect mate, without realising it?

"You are to stay the hell away from her."

"No, we think we will see her again. She wants to see us. The conditions of our friendship are that we are to be 'good' and she will not reject our friendship. That she also enjoys."

"I will be deciding whether you are good or not."

"We will even come on patrols with you two if you want. Just to prove it to you."

"What makes you think she will be patrolling with me?"

"Oh please." He shot out a web. "If you don't, she will follow you regardless. Or go out on her own. Or even…with us…alone…" he saw Peter stiffen. Perfect, this would work to his favour. "Unless you would prefer us to care for her. and teach her alllll the ropes."

"That will not be happening."

"We will see. Bye bye web head." He webbed off and left Spiderman to growl to himself. He soon shot out and followed his daughter.

He dropped in through the skylight, to avoid being seen. May was sat on her bed, her room door open and she looked like she had been sent to the head's office. Her legs snapped together, her hands holding her knees and her head hung forward. Peter pulled his mask off and looked to her. She was so young, you innocent, and this was so unfair on her.

But hadn't he been her age when he became Spiderman?

That wasn't the point. He was not his daughter. Times were different, so were the situations and…he was making excuses.

Well, she wasn't going to get off with this so easily. Not if he could help it.

Peter walked towards her, and heard her gulp in fear.