Snuggles The Symbiote

So, Weaver was holding Riley Davis up by the back of the neck. Someone I recognized from the Poison Bonesaw's memories as Jack Slash had a knife to Present-Tattletale's head and...

"Is she holding a piece of you?"

"This seems to be the case."

Well, that was something to ask about later.

That was Shatterbird, that was Burnscar, I didn't recognize the guy with the grey face paint but he was holding a pumpkin bomb, so he's probably a Goblin... Was there a Grey Goblin?

Okay, first thing's first, gotta get Tattletale free from Jack. "Mister Snuggles, are our powers the same as before, or did the whole cocoon thing give us a boost."

"This one assimilated additional symbiote codices from some of the heroes who rescued you this morning. In addition to enhancing this one's powers and abilities, Ms. Marvel's codex greatly enhanced this one's ability to adapt and solve the problem of incompatibility between her DNA and that of the various mutants this one was trying to adapt to. The damage that was done is done and will take more effort to fully heal, but this one was able to adapt considerably faster for a brief time and this one suspects that the process of Terrigenisis enhanced those abilities further. We possess nowhere near the full power of most of our genetic donors, but we have the full extent of Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man and can form a reasonable facsimile of the others. This is in addition to absorbed skills from those codices."

"Did you ask before you took the codices?"

Mister Snuggles didn't answer. We'd have to apologize for that. Okay, so if we have those powers than...

"Also, this one was able to acquire a genetic sample from the medicine you were given. It seems highly adaptive. It's already enhanced and partly corrected your native abilities, and analysis indicates that it possesses a wide variety of potent abilities and techno-organic molecules containing highly advanced technological information. Its X-Gene complex is structurally similar to yours, possibly hinting at a common ancestor."

"Mister Snuggles," I cut him off, "that is the common ancestor. Apocalypse made medicine out of his blood once. So how about we not mess with that DNA any more than we need to for now." I mean, I was gonna own my ancestry, but I don't think I was quite ready to assume his full power set.

"With this DNA you wouldn't have to eat, sleep, breathe, or age anymore. It'd also serve as a buffer to combine and enhance our other abilities. And you'd be able to turn your arms into guns and legs into rockets. My knowledge of your memories indicates that this is something you think is cool."

"We'll talk about it later. But for right now, no Apocalypse powers."

"This one has also been considering since this morning the value of using it's bio-lattice to reinforce your bones and organs with bio-constructs modeled on the cybernetic implants that Riley Davis augments herself and others with. Without her passenger, they wouldn't be as sophisticated, but every little bit will help."

"If you could have done that this whole time, that's really something we should have talked about before now. Defense augmentations only, but go ahead."

"This one simply didn't want to upset you by reminding you of the traumatic experience of the codex harvest." I could feel my insides shifting around a bit but nothing too bad. It only took me a few seconds to get used to it.

I took a second to crack my knuckles, flex my fingers and all that stuff. Then with my right hand, I focused on forming claws and—

Snikt! I didn't have to make the sound with my mouth this time. Four stretchy fingers with nice, long, sharp claws at each fingertip, two blades popping out of my knuckles, and one smaller claw at my thumb. All nice, sharp, and serrated. Mister snuggles filled me in, on how he'd combined Sabretooth's claw genes that we had all along with the adaptions from a piece of Venom that was in Best Wolverine and the blade-making specialization of a symbiote named Phage who had a piece in Deadpool. It also reminded me that I needed to make him apologize to Best Wolverine and Deadpool.

My Spider-Sense went off, so I raised my free hand and caught the grey-faced Goblin's pumpkin bomb. Which exploded in my hand. You'd think that with the whole "symbiotes are weak to fire and loud noises thing" that a powerful bomb going off in my hand would hurt. Nope!

Not even my hand hurt, though the fact that there'd been a burst of fire right where I was meant that now Burnscar was up in front of me. She threw her hands down and caused another explosion. This one didn't hurt either but it was enough to throw me off my feet and hack a little bit into a storm of vibrating glass shards that spun around me and dragged across my outer costume.

Not only did they not hurt, but my Spider-Sense also wasn't even going off. These people were trying hard to kill me and I wasn't in any danger at all. It was almost funny. I used my levitation power to stay in the air instead of falling back to the ground.

Now, I needed a bombastic, flowery, boastful speech... No, I couldn't ham it up. Couldn't think of anything... Wait, I'd just paraphrase someone else's.

"Mister Snuggles? You said that we could do a reasonable facsimile of every power you were loaded with back at the jerks' lab. does that include the Leader's psychic powers?"

"Yes?"

"And Lockheed's—"

"What this one said earlier about how it would tell you if we could resist or manipulate the banes of the Klyntar? This one is telling you now."

I smiled and formed a fanged mouth that I made smile in a scary way before laughing evilly. "Fool! We cannot be harmed by such pathetic weapons. Our armor is like tenfold shields!"

I sprouted my wings. Lockheed's wings scaled to my body. Full-sized dragon wings. I gave them a flap and, with Mister Snuggles' help, used a burst of telekinesis to force all of the shards of glass away. "Our wings are a hurricane!" I didn't need them to fly but on instinct, I knew that I didn't have to choose between wings and a tail anymore, and sent out my long, strong lizard tail as I flew towards Shatterbird. For a bit of extra oomph, I used our Thing powers and the blunt-force specialty of a symbiote named Riot(Deadpool had been Hybrid at somepoint, apprently,) to make a rocky hammer at the end and used it to bat her down into the ground. She was augmented, I know that much, so she wasn't hurt too badly, but it made a point and honestly, it was nice to finally whomp on a bad guy with a hammer the way my religion said to. "The strike of our tail is a thunderbolt!"

Burnscar blasted me with twin streams of white-hot fire. I twisted around and used Ms. Marvel's powers to extend my arm all the way back to her and...

Normally I'd be scared about using my claws on a person, but her organs were protected and I was careful with my aim so she was only a little bit stabbed. Still, it gave us an excuse to use another part of the line. "Our claws are spears."

And the power burning in my body, I focused it into my chest. "And my breath... Is death!" I finished while releasing a burst of dragonfire from behind my teeth directly into her.

It wouldn't hurt her. she couldn't be hurt by fire. But gosh was it cool to do. "In short," I finished while looking from Burnscar to Shatterbird, back to the rest of the Slaughterhouse Nine, "we are a dragon and you are now screwed."

I had to admit. After all the feeling helpless. After all the just barely managing to win or surviving by the skin of my teeth. The failures, like not being able to save Panacea or the man who'd thrown the brick at Bloodbath... This power. Being the strong one in the fight. It felt good.

I turned on my sin-o-vision, mostly for intimidation factor before another line, but I noticed something.

Burnscar wasn't stained by her sins the way that the others were. And Riley Davis... The blood that she'd shed wasn't on her hands. The sins she's committed werren't in her heart. Instead, they formed chains that bound her hands and tied her to Jack Slash. That cemented it. I was going to have words with Jack.

"Burnscar. You aren't so stained as these sinners are," I said. I don't know how or why, but whatever she'd done wasn't really her fault. "Repent, renounce your fellows, and flee and we will not pursue you and—"

"Oh my gosh!" Riley Davis shouted. "I can't believe you're still so boring. You die, come back to life, go ranting about all this apocalyptic boasting stuff, and you're still a pathetic goody-goody. And you stole that last speech from The Hobbit. You even messed parts of it up and left out the part about your teeth being swords."

"Oh, you're one to talk miss Silence of the Lambs!" I shouted. And then I realized that I'd just blurted that out without thinking. "Darn it, you made me break character! Just for that, you can't be one of my Horsemen. Weaver? You wanna be my Pestilence?"

"This is a discussion for later!" Weaver shouted back.

"While we're talking to Weaver," Jack Slash, "I've already crushed two spiders underfoot. I know you're a bug controlling master. Try to poison me a third time and I will poke a hole in this girl's head and let her brains drain out." He shook his knife slightly to gesture to Tattletale.

I responded by using the Leader's telekinesis to rip the knife out of his hand. I figure that if I had more practice I could have flipped it around and used it to stab him, but I settled for bringing it to me and crushing it in my hand.

No longer in immediate danger, Tattletale brought the staff she had that was made of a piece of my symbiote down on Jack's foot and used his reaction to escape his grip. She ran off a bit and I lost my line of sight with her. Whatever, we were on a team in the future, I'd be meeting her again eventually.

Spider-Man used his webs to make Jack and the grey face-paint man's heads bash into each other and Burnscar... Burnscar ran off while my attention was drawn away from her.

So, everyone else dealt with, I used the same telekinesis that I was getting a lot of mileage out of right now to pull Riley Davis from Weaver's hands over to where I was. I landed on a roof of one of the storage lockers and sat her down a little bit in front of me, then pulled back my mask so I could talk to her face to face again. I had an idea.

"You killed me," I said. "You did the worst thing you possibly could have done to me, then cut me open and stuffed me with blades so that my organs would get shredded into meat confetti if someone rescued me. You hurt me, Riley."

"And it was fun!" She said with a smile. "And I told you, it's Bonesaw."

"No it isn't, Riley," I said. "I met your family while I was dead. Your Mommy. Your Daddy. Your brother Drew asked me to make Jack pay for what he did to you. They told me everything about the night you got your powers." It was a lie. It was a big lie. But Riley's whole thing was building a family.

Riley scoffed. "Yeah. You totally didn't just read the police report."

"Even Muffles was there," I added. Their pet's name hadn't been in the report. I only knew it becuase of the other Riley's memories. "They know it's not your fault. They know that this isn't you. They love you." Riley puffed out her cheek. "I'm telling you this so that you know that I know exactly what happened to you. Which is why I—"

She spat acid or something like that into my face. It'd probably have hurt if Mister Snuggles hadn't taken a piece of the Agony symbiote from Deadpool. Agony could generate acid and absorb chemicals, so a face full of acid was basically nothing.

"Forgive you," I finished without missing a beat.

Slowly, a look of disgust, confusion, and horror began to dawn on Riley's face. "You... forgive me? After I gave you a horrible, painful disease and tricked your sister into killing you. After everything else I've done, you... forgive me. What the heck is wrong with you?"

"I know that Jack and the others killed your parents, and your brother, and your pet. I know that that's what made you trigger: They were hurt, and you just wanted to help them so they wouldn't be gone forever. It was all so much, and they'd been keeping your prisoner in your own home for so long. Days? Weeks? Months? And then Jack kept you up all night, promising that he'd leave you all alone if you managed to save them. But every time you saved one, they'd hurt them again. Just as soon as you left to save another one. All night. You were so tired by the time you had to let your Mommy die."

"Shut up!" Riley shouted. "Just, just shut up!"

"And then your Mommy told you to be a good girl. And you promised," I continued. "And Jack used that promise. To trick you into being a bad girl. Into doing exactly what he wanted you to do. So he could use you. Jack isn't your Daddy, Riley. He doesn't love you. As far as he's concerned, you're just a pet. And not like a dog or a kitty, more like a goldfish. He wouldn't shed a tear if you died. If you betrayed him, he'd just kill you on the spot."

"You're lying!" She shrieked and stuck out her arm. It tore open and extended like a machine and something and the needles under her fingernails that she probably didn't know I knew about injected flesh-dissolving acid capsules into me. Or they tried. They couldn't quite get past my costume and ended up splashing the acid on me, where it did nothing like before, and on Riley's fingers, where it quickly stripped them to the bone. It looked incredibly painful but she didn't seem to notice it.

"And knowing everything that happened to you," I continued as though she hadn't just attacked me, "knowing that it's not really your fault, that it's Jack's... I can't be mad at you. I can't hate you. I can't speak for anyone else," I finished. "The other people you hurt, the people whose lives you ruined becuase of what Jack made you do? I can't speak for them. But for what you did to me, I forgive you."

Riley's eyes went wide. She leaned away from me and started stepping back. "You're insane. You're crazier than me. That's the only explanation." I didn't like that she was afraid of me.

"Riley, the Slaughterhouse Nine are terrorists. That makes you a brainwashed child soldier. That means it's illegal to treat you like a criminal. You were five or six when you joined the Nine. Nobody with a brain would look at the facts and find you guilty." I kind of had to suppress my rage at the state of justice in this world. The last thing I needed right now was to OD on my own adrenaline again. "I'm not crazy. I'm just the first person who ever looked at the facts of the matter. The first person who understood that you're not a threat to be eliminated, a criminal to be brought to justice, a monster to be put down. You're a victim who deserves justice. A kid who just wants to be a good girl. A child who deserves to be loved."

I opened up my arms to offer her a hug. "You can still be a good girl, Riley. I love you."

For a second. One second, Riley looked like she was gonna step forward. Take my offer. But then she screamed She pulled a big needled full of something green out from one of the pockets in her apron and jabbed it into her neck. she pressed the plunger and immediately the skin on her face tightened, her mouth pulling into an ugly rictus grin.

She started laughing. And crying. Her irises turned red and shrank while the rest of her eyes turned yellow and bloodshot. Four of her teeth, two on the top and two on the bottom grew into sharp fangs and the flesh started growing back over her fingers. "You are so... freaking stupid!" She shouted. "Even if I wanted to just come over to you, to join the good guys... Which I don't!" She didn't sound very convincing, "they'd never let me. I have a kill order. It doesn't matter what the law says, everyone who matters wants me dead."

She stepped forward. "I just gave myself the powers of a ninja with mega-cancer, a lizard woman, a dinosaur man, Gabriel down there, another guy with similar powers to Gabriel, and that vampire guy you had running around here." Her muscles actually started to bulge a little bit. "Since you don't get it, that this isn't a story where you can just hug it out, and have everything be okay, I'll have to beat it into you."

She threw a punch. My Spider-Sense went off. I caught her fist. I actually felt my bone crack, even with how tough I've gotten and with the reinforcements to my bones.

And then I heard a loud snap. And the sound of metal tearing through flesh. My eyes were drawn to Riley's arm at the same time hers were. To the bit of machinery poking out of a hole formed by the already healed tear in her skin. And how it was slowly cutting through her only for the wound to heal behind it as it moved.

Riley's eyes went wide again. "Oh... Fudge."

And then Riley exploded in a shower of blood and gore. I had to jump back to avoid getting covered in it. When the bloody mist cleaned, there was a pile of blood, organs, and cybernetics... And a kneeling, crying, mewling scale-covered girl with a long, spaded tail and twitchy, batlike ears.

I stepped forward, but Riley heard me. She looked at me with an expression of pain and fear and she bolted. I lost track of her before I could follow, she was so fast now...

I had her scent. I'd find her. I'd get her help.

I looked down to the fight. I figured that the grey-faced man was Gabriel. Spider-Man had webbed him up to a wall. Tattletale had come back and was fighting Shatterbird, blasting at her with her staff.

And Weaver had a bunch of bugs out and around the area, but instead of attacking with them, she had them forming a permit around the area. It was almost like she was sword fighting with Jack Slash. He must have been good, considering she was faster and more agile than he was.

I noticed that back-up had arrived before anyone else did. Miss Militia with Mania and Agent Anti-Venom following behind her. She must have stashed her motorcycle somewhere and continued on foot to avoid tipping off the bag guys, becuase I couldn't see it.

Why did looking at Mania give me heartburn?

In the time it took me to blink, Miss Militia turned her glowy green gun into what looked like an anti-tank rifle and shot a hole clean through Shatterbird with an earsplitting BANG! I know that Shaterbird was evil, but I was so sick of seeing people get shot.

Jack, it seemed, had decided that now would be a good time to run for it, but he was surrounded on all sides. Something he became aware of as he looked around. Miss Militia aimed at him...

And I decided to do what needed to be done to make sure that Riley Davis and all the other people that Jack hurt got real justice.

Nobody had been expecting me to tackle Jack. And nobody, least of all Jack, had expected me to pull a pair of cuffs out from my extradimensional pocket and clap him in irons.

"Jack Slash," I announced loudly and clearly, "for the charges of kidnapping, corruption of a minor, and I don't even know how many counts each of murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, assault, battery, intimidation, coercion, accessory to all of the above, and conspiracy to commit all of the above, I, by the rights and authority are given to me as a member of Wards Division East-North-East in association with Parahuman Response Team Department East-North-East, am placing you under arrest. While awaiting trial, you may be questioned. If questioned, you have the right to remain silent. Should you choose to give up this right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand your rights as I have read them to you?"

"...What are you doing?" Jack honestly seemed lost.

"You're a sad, pathetic little man who's so dead and empty inside that the only way you can feel good is by tearing other people down to your level," I explained. "I also suspect that you've read on Nietzche and completely misunderstood what he meant. Ignoring the fact that the whole kill-order thing is a gross violation of the United States constitution and shame on any judge who goes along with them, the simple fact of the matter is if a hero kills you, then you win. You've turned a hero into a killer. So, really, the only way to bring justice to your many crimes against man and society is to actually bring you to justice."

"I've got an iron-clad contract that is horribly biased in my favor, a contractually enforced monopoly on certain valuable information, I make more money in a week that Miss Militia does in a month, and if I quit the PRT is out of eight years of Trustfund Payments in one lump sum. It is entirely within my power to make sure you get a proper trial. You're not getting free." I laughed at him. Mockingly. "You're not getting a vigilante execution. If you die, it'll be becuase you were found guilty by a jury of your peers and sentenced to death. But personally," I continued, "I hope that you get sentenced to life. Maybe a real prison, maybe that international Hellhole they've got up in Canada, either way, I hope that you spend the rest of your life in a tiny little cell, watching the world heal from the damage you caused and forget about you."

I leaned down so my mouth was next to his ear. "You lose, Jack. Now, do you understand your rights as I have read them to you, or do I need to explain them again?"

Someone behind me cocked a gun. "Cuddlebug, while it is rather admirable of you to want to ensure that everyone gets due process," Miss Militia said, "that simply isn't how things are done. Please stand aside."

I stood up and let my armor melt back into my normal costume. I turned back around to face Miss Militia. "No. My collar, we do it my way."

"I am giving you a direct order," she replied.

"And we both know that my contract lets me ignore those for any reason." Honestly, that shouldn't even have to be part of my contract, that should just be assumed. We're not supposed to be child soldiers. "You see this emblem on my chest?" I asked. "It's a spider. It's stylized, but it's a spider."

"Yes."

"Not a skull."

"No."

"That's because this symbol doesn't stand for the Gosh-Darned Punisher!" I shouted. "The greatest hero in the world from back home says that with Great Power comes Great Responsibility. That doesn't just mean helping people or stopping the bad guy. The responsibility is to everyone! That includes Jack's victims. They all deserve to see Jack tried, sentenced, and pay for his crimes after due process. Didn't you listen to a word of what I said to him? If we kill him here, they don't get justice and he wins."

"Move. Aside." Miss Militia seemed to be getting angry.

I lifted off of the ground with my new, stronger flight/levitation powers. So I could get up to her level. To look her in the eyes. "No. You move."

She glared at me, but when she saw that I wasn't going to back down... "Fine. We'll do it your way. But if he escapes custody, everyone he kills from then on is your fault."

"No. They'll be his fault," I replied back.

Miss Militia called a transport van to bring Jack in while the rest of us sort of just mingled. The slow realization that he'd lost coming over Jack was actually kind of funny. He'd tried to talk, but Spider-Man had webbed his mouth shut.

Tattletale got a text from someone. After reading it, she frowned. "Uh... Major bad timing, but how does a minor criminal go about applying to be a probationary Ward?"

"Later," Miss Militia growled.

I leaned up against a wall, let out a relaxed sigh, and let everything that had happened since I died catch up with me. I was gonna need to rest for a bit before I went out to find Riley because I was realizing that I'd kind of been running on adrenaline since I hatched. If not longer. I hadn't eaten anything since dinner last night and the sun was already setting.

My last thoughts as I fell asleep where I stood was to wonder if they'd let me keep the cocoon.