(A/N: I do not own Spiderman. That right belongs to Sony.
Schoolwork is over for now. I'll try to go back to the schedule before on how chapters were regularly put out).
Harry could only breathe in and out as who he recognized as Venom leered on top of his room's ceiling.
"Wh…wh…what are you doing here?" Was all Harry could put out.
"Ah, don't be afraid, Harry. We actually know each other quite well" Venom said as he began to crawl down the walls of Harry's room. The sight was one Harry could've gone his whole life without seeing.
As Venom's feet hit the floor, he began to leer over his bed.
"Wh…what do you mean? We…we never…" Harry stammered, still recovering from his near heart attack.
Venom just sighed and shook his head. He knew Harry wasn't exactly a stellar student but this was something else. The symbiote oozed away from their host's face to reveal one Eddie Brock's grinning face.
Harry just gaped. He had no idea what to say on this. He had heard Eddie was raving about being Venom after being shifted off to Ravencroft after sneaking into Midtown one time but he didn't actually believe he could be Venom. He had just thought Venom had just disappeared, never to be seen again (Or at least for a long time, at least).
"Ah, come on, Harr. I know it's been a while but we were always buds when we hung out together with Pete. You could at least tell me hi" Eddie said with a grin.
"E…Eddie? How…what…what happened to you?" Harry asked, looking at Venom up and down at this point.
"No need to be worried, Harr. I just got an…upgrade. You were in Europe at the time but I assume you heard about the black ooze they found on John Jameson's rocket?" Eddie asked.
Harry just nodded, remembering hearing about it when he was in rehab. Then he added 2 and 2 together and his eyes widened.
"Wait…so…you mean…that suit…it's just…?" He began to ask before Eddie interrupted.
"Yes. Apparently the ooze was conscious and sentient. We…bonded…we became extremely close, Harry" Eddie stated, carefully caressing the ooze surrounding his body. The sight caused Harry to become extremely uncomfortable and not in the way he was before where he was completely terrified.
"I….see" Harry said with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey, it's a more successful relationship than you and Gwen, isn't it?" Eddie said with a callous smirk.
As if Harry's self-esteem needed any more of a beating.
"Ah, don't worry about it, bro" Eddie said, noticing Harry's face. "We all run into relationship problems. I just happened to run into the jackpot. My love…told me a lot of things, Harry. Really interesting things that really put things into a new perspective for me. About our 'friend'...Peter Parker"
Harry just raised an eyebrow. "Peter? What does he have to do with this?"
Eddie's smirk turned into a slight frown and moved slowly around the bed. Harry's heart beat slightly moved in a faster pace as he got closer.
The ooze moved back in front of Eddie's face, turning him back into Venom. The creature finally made its way to the side of Harry's bed.
"Why don't we give you a full view of what I mean?" Venom asked. Suddenly and without warning, the alien infused with Eddie's body moved both of it's hands to both sides of Harry's head.
Harry was about to finally break and let out a yell. However, the ooze expanded to cover his mouth so that he wouldn't be able to let out a sound. The redhead boy tried to struggle but even with the remaining effects of the globulin green (He hadn't taken a vial since his meeting with Tombstone) had on his body.
Soon, Harry stopped struggling as his vision shifted. The effects of the symbiote had taken ahold of his body.
Harry soon found himself surrounded by darkness even though his eyes were wide open. He also found himself standing up even though he was just laying down on his bed moments ago. After a while of looking, he began walking forward, trying to look around and find anything that could help him get back control of his body.
"You're a very interesting boy, Harry Osborn. You've lived a very hard childhood. A father that had very little time for you and was always cold because you had never quite lived up to his expectations and a mother that couldn't have been bothered most of the time with trying to defend you from him" He could hear Venom's voice say.
Harry froze in his tracks. How…how had he known that? Did…did this thing have access to all his memories? This was getting extremely nerve wracking.
"As a matter of fact, the only good thing you had going for you was your friends. You met Peter Parker in 2nd grade and he had become your best friend. We see that you taking Peter home for dinner one night for the first time had been the greatest moment of your life. Your dad seemed to be extremely impressed with your choice in friends. Not surprising as your dad had always respected scientists and Peter was already well versed in basic biology and chemistry at such a young age" Venom explained.
Harry nodded. Peter had been the first friend he ever had. For a short time, aside from their legal guardians, Harry and Peter were all each other had. Well…at least all Harry had. Peter also had Eddie Brock, his self proclaimed 'bro'. Harry and Eddie had interacted from time to time but they weren't really friends. They were just really acquaintances through Peter.
"Then came 7th grade. After school, Peter introduced you to a cute blonde girl with glasses and a headband named Gwen Stacy. You instantly fell head over heels for her but noticed she had taken a teeny bit of a liking to your so called best friend but it seemed his mind was elsewhere as he had not noticed a bit. Typical boy, we suppose. As a result, you suppressed your feelings, hoping to make Gwen like you more than Peter one day. However, as the years went on, Gwen's feelings for Peter only grew while she only saw you as a friend. You tried to keep on a happy face but inside, it was killing you, wondering what it was about Peter that made him apparently so desirable" Venom continued on
"What's your point? Where is all this going?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow, growing angry by the second.
"Just bare with us….Ah, you're angry. We like that. We like that a lot" Venom stated.
Harry shivered at that statement.
"Things started to change in Junior year. Peter was becoming more distant, obsessed with his new job as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, blowing you off time after time even when you desperately needed his help and Gwen hardly even acknowledged your existence. Things started to change when you were on a chemical your dad's company created: Globulin Green. With it, you grew in confidence, strength, stamina and agility. As a result, you made the football team, got popular girl Glory Grant to go with you to the Fall Formal and even got yourself a place in the 'In Crowd' at Midtown High. However, it wasn't to be as you were eventually found out and your own dad framed you as the Green Goblin" Venom said with a light chuckle.
"He…had a good reason! If people found out he was sick, we would've lost everything. All he wanted to do was kill Tombstone! If Spiderman just allowed him to do that, none of this would have happened" Harry tried to rationalize.
Venom just chuckled. "That's precious. Truly how you're so willing to defend your dad like that"
"Shut up! You better be going somewhere with this" Harry said.
"Oh we are. Believe us, it'll be worth it…You were sent to Europe where you got rehab for your addiction and then came back and you felt like you were on top of the world. You were welcomed back with open arms by your friends, your love for Gwen amplified because she was the only one who cared when you were on the green and best of all, Peter was with Liz Allan so he couldn't be with Gwen anymore. That day, you asked her on a date to Flash Thompson's birthday party and she accepted and then the very next week, you asked her to be your girlfriend and she accepted. At that point, you couldn't have been happier" Venom continued on.
Harry smiled at first but ultimately, he was confused as to why he was being told stuff he already knew.
"I don't understand this. Why are you just explaining to me what's recently been going on in my life?" Harry asked.
"We're only trying to better understand you. You see, we share more enemies than you think…or…enemy, rather" Venom explained vaguely.
Harry raised an eyebrow at this. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Maybe if you let us finish, you'd understand…so as we were saying, you had gotten together with the girl of your dreams and you couldn't have been happier. She on the other hand…well…you could tell she wasn't as stoked as you but as long as Peter was with Liz, she'd eventually come around to the idea. As time went on, things progressively got better and then Mary Jane gave Gwen a makeover and from then on, she was practically a bombshell, maybe even more so than girls like Liz or Sally Avril and you carefully had her in your grasp….that is…until that night both Peter and Gwen conspired to dump their respective boyfriend and girlfriend for each other. Boy, are we sensing some memories of anger there….looks like we're getting some anger even now" Venom stated.
The symbiote was right. The very thought of it still made Harry slightly boil with rage. It hadn't been fair! Why did Peter suddenly get to decide he wanted a different girlfriend all of a sudden…and to someone who was already taken (Or at least should have been…)?
"And then you guilt tripped her at your dad's funeral with the possibility of you getting back on the green. That's pretty messed up, kid" Venom said.
"I didn't want to lose her! Especially not to Peter, the guy who gets everything! It wasn't fair! The jerk always got what he wanted in the end. He got to hang around beautiful girls like Mary Jane and Liz, got the perfect grades and the attention of my dad. Now he was going to take my girlfriend, the only good thing I had gotten in my life?! No way! Peter could have found another girlfriend much easier than I could! I even heard he had been spending more time around Mary Jane when we weren't speaking over the summer! I was hoping he would get with her and we could forget the whole thing ever happened" Harry yelled, trying to rationalize.
"But that didn't happen, did it? You just thought that if you kept Gwen from Peter, she would eventually forget all about Peter but you knew deep down, she never did. She still longed for him and on the verge of tears whenever she thought about just how close she was to getting with the guy of her dreams and being stuck with you" Venom said, almost mockingly.
At this point, Harry was desensitized to this and just gave a dry stare. "Gee. Thanks"
"And then your dad gave everything to Peter while he had 2 beautiful girlfriends, Gwen broke up with you and you became an outcast dead set on revenge against Spiderman…but what if we were to say that there was more to Spiderman than you know now?" Venom asked.
Harry raised another eyebrow. "What are you saying?...Wait a minute, you're not trying to get me to believe that Peter is Spiderman, are you? It can't be. I've known the guy since we were practically in diapers and I'm telling you: Peter is not him"
"You forget we've known him since he was actually in diapers, Harr" Eddie's voice said, breaking away from Venom's for a second. "We didn't believe he could be Spiderman either…but we were dead wrong…however, just in case you don't yet believe us…let's show you first hand"
At that moment, a swarm of memories that had belonged to Peter went through Harry's head. Harry stood motionless, unable to move as his brain was given so much information at once.
Harry could see Peter getting bit by the Spider. That was nothing new. He had heard first hand from him about the bite but then the memories progressed. They started to show Peter no longer needing his glasses. His fingers sticking to walls, him climbing buildings.
At that moment, Harry was dumbfounded. It…It couldn't be…it just couldn't.
However,the more he tried to deny it, the more the memories kept going. Harry saw Peter designing and trying on the Spiderman costume, him swinging from building to building, him fighting numerous villains like Sandman, Rhino, Shocker, Doc Ock, Electro, the Lizard, et cetera until the last memory shown to him was from Spiderman's point of view when he stuck a pumpkin bomb into the Green Goblin's glider and caused it to explode, sending the glider tumbling down towards a vat full of pumpkin bombs and ultimately killing him from the explosion.
Harry finally closed his eyes and shook his head. He couldn't watch any more of this.
"No…no…Peter…why? Just…why?" Harry asked himself, sincerely. His best friend…one of the only friends he had ever had in his life…not only stole his girl but also was responsible for the death of his father.
It was too much to bear. Harry collapsed to his knees and remained motionless. He couldn't do anything. His mind was a vast array of emotions that he didn't really know whether to feel angry, confused or sad.
"Some hero, isn't he? He likes to parade around in that suit of his and get front page headliners but he never stops to think about how it affects the people around him, not even from the people he calls his friends" Venom said. His form finally appeared next to Harry and patted him on the shoulder.
"I…I…can't believe it…I didn't want to believe it…but it's true. Peter…he killed my dad" Harry stated, tears falling from his eyes.
"He did indeed, Harry. He doesn't care about you, he doesn't care about anyone, not even his little girlfriends that he's been swinging around the city every night with. All he cares about is getting himself ahead…but we can fix that. We can bring him down to Earth…you and us" Venom stated.
Harry, finally able to move his body, stood up and looked up at the alien symbiote/human cross.
"What?" He simply asked.
"You need a partner, don't you? Like Tombstone said? With your dad's tech and our strength, we can finally beat the web slinger once and for all" Venom stated.
"I…I don't…Peter…he's…he's my-" Harry tried to say before he was interrupted.
"He's your worst enemy. You know he is. When's the last time he's ever done anything for you? At every turn, he's abandoned you for himself. He didn't tutor you because he was so busy getting his pictures for his precious Bugle job, he didn't care when you were on the green so he could make googly eyes at Liz Allan, he didn't bother once to write you while you were in London for rehab, he stole your girlfriend from right under your nose and got one of the only family you have left blown up…does that sound like a friend to you?" Venom asked.
Venom could feel the anger rising within Harry but could sense a bit of uneasiness in going through with this. However, there was nothing a little…influence couldn't solve with an issue like that.
Suddenly, Harry felt a surge of anger within his body. He was getting so mad, it seemed to be beyond his control. It seemed…pretty artificial.
"What…what are you doing to me?" Harry said as he held his body tight and started fidgeting around.
"Nothing you don't really want us to do. Think about it, Harry. This guy stole everything from you. You company, your money, your girl…and even your own father. Are you honestly saying you want him to live?" Venom asked, still allowing himself to influence Harry.
"I…I…I don't know! It's just…Gah! I hate Spiderman so much but…Peter…he…he's…" Harry tried to say before he was interrupted.
"He's your enemy. He's always been your enemy. He always used you to get ahead, always sucking up to your dad like that. He never cared about your friendship. Stop lying to yourself and just give into your anger. It will lead you on the right path" Venom said.
Harry had gone silent, mentally unable to say anything. How he wished he could've said that Peter was his best friend and that he wouldn't dream of doing such a thing…but it seemed those days were done. He had seen what kind of person Peter was now. Uncaring, selfish and greedy with no regards to how Spiderman affected the people he was supposed to care for most.
After several moments of contemplating and trying to figure out what to do, it all became clear. He gave a slight nod.
"...Alright….I'll let you help me" Harry said.
Venom smiled, seeing how the influence they had placed on the young Osborn had worked. He let out his slimy hand and Harry grabbed it, shaking it up and down. Their deal had been sealed and their goal had been set and that particular goal focused on squashing a certain arachnid.