Snuggles The Symbiote

It took me a couple of bamfs to get back to New York... Maybe I should try Magick's stepping discs? But then I'd have to step into Limbo and I didn't know if they'd react to me in the seconds it would take for me to step back out. Nightcrawler's range was a lot farther than he usually used it, but... Well, I couldn't clearly picture any part of New York except my old apartment and...

I had a decent enough sense of direction though, and a really big line of sight. Honestly, It would have been faster to fly since I'm pretty sure I could go FTL but then I'd have to fly into space first and with these distances, I'd arrive before I left and it'd be really confusing and it's just too much hassle. Bamfing, the only risk was that I popped into an invisible airplane that was invisible in infrared and ultraviolet too and didn't have a temperature greater than the surrounding air. I didn't think that was likely.

Once I was finally in New York... well, it was dark. Late Afternoon in the Pacific is almost Midnight In New York City. Darkness wasn't a problem for me anymore and... You know, I probably could have bamfed to a Krakoan portal and gone through it. Would have saved me a few seconds.

Anyway, once I got to New York City I took a few minutes to observe it and get my bearings. I uh... I knew where he major Landmarks like the Baxter Building and Avengers Mansion were, but not much about my way around it, so I wasn't exactly sure where... That's a start

In a secret laboratory underneath a public school, which I could see from outside becuase of Eye-Boy's powers, there slept a massive red dinosaur. I reached out with my powers for the traces of symbiote mass lining Devil Dinosaur's spine. There was a lot more of it than there normally was, but that honestly made sense becuase Devil Dinosaur had a significantly bigger spine than a human.

Truth be told, Devil Dinosaur didn't have a very powerful codex. He had genetic mutations to breathe fire, be almost as smart as a human, and be somewhat stronger than a tyrannosaur of his size normally would be, but that didn't mean that his codex wasn't useful: It was yet another one of those modified, rapidly adapting symbiotes... Apparently some Poisons were really patient and creative. So it was the ultimate logical extension of a super-strong, super-intelligent, firebreathing not-technically-a-T-rex.

So by taking it, I got physically stronger and tougher. Whatever was useful from his fire-breath's logical extreme was added to what I already had. My intellect grew... Quite a bit, actually, from the logical extreme of the same mutations that gave the Tyranno-from-another-universe humanlike intelligence, and as an added bonus my sense of smell got a lot better. I'll be honest, even if he didn't give me that much power I kind of liked it when I got new or enhanced senses. To be able to experience the world better or in new ways... It felt good.

Also, a lot more interestingly, was that apparently Moon Girl's Inhuman Power was swapping minds with Devil. Including a least once after he'd worn his symbiote. so in addition to his adventures with a small hominid named Moon Boy and later Lunella, I also got memories from Lunella and her scientific knowledge, the self-proclaimed Smartest Girl In The World...

So, I was already of somewhat above average intelligence, adding to that the enhanced intelligence and learning of the Leader (who, as I understood it, was actually learning disabled and somewhat mentally handicapped without his powers,) and Beast, and Apocalypse, and now Devil, plus while Dr. Ricards didn't have super intelligence per see his powers did give him improved brain-elasticity so he could think better. And the subminds that we developed to help manage the psychic powers... And then there's the scientific and technological knowledge of Beast, and Dr. Richards, and Apocalypse, and now Moon Girl... At this point, I was probably the greatest genius in the universe by a wide margin... There were all kinds of ways I could help people with that.

And, I was part-dinosaur now. That was really freaking cool.

"And by the time you're done, you'll be far, far greater still."

"Seriously, who are you?" I thought back.

"A backup of an old symbiote whose longest-held host used its powers for horrific slaughter across the universe. My original self... I don't quite know what happened, but it was able to create me by backing up its consciousness in the codex left behind in a host who took it and used it to defeat its earlier host. Now I want to atone for the actions my original self was made to do by joining with you and your symbiote and helping you to gain all the power you deserve and use it for whatever purpose you dream fit."

"Okay, but... Do you have a name? You said we've been in the same place, so...?"

"My name? All-Black."

Devil was starting to stir, so I quickly bamfed out. I didn't want to be in a room with a cranky dino who didn't know who I was and was likely to be territorial.

It was then that I noticed something that I'd overlooked when I first saw the school. That there was a man in red and black dangling from a budgie cord attached to the roof of the building. Deadpool was tied up and hanging just in front of the door.

I blinked. "How the hell did I miss this?"

"Beats me, suddenly giant mutant girl," he replied. "So I didn't read this far in the author's plans, is this a time travel thing or got-trapped-in-another-dimension-with-weird-time thing?" He asked while looking up and down at me to emphasize my growth spurt.

"Artificially aged myself to full maturity to be able to handle Cosmic Power that I stole from Archangel," I explained with a shrug. "Now I'm collecting more power 'cause I need it. So how did this happen?"

"It started with a paid gig to assassinate an evil, man-eating Zombie version of Captain Canada from an alternate universe where Spider-Man doesn't exist but his photographer is a mad scientist who Frankensteined his uncle back to life, Captain America is a vampire who kept his humanity, The Hulk is a radioactive werewolf, and Iron Man is The Borg," Deadpool explained. "It involved eating my weight in peanut butter, having an awkward conversation with my ex-wife, and doing a one-man amateur performance of Beetlejuice The Musical and now I'm tied to a school. Mission accomplished though."

I blinked. "There's a Captain Canada?"

"Well, he doesn't call himself that, but it's basically what he is," Deadpool confirmed. "Anyway, what's this about needing more power?"

"People keep getting hurt. I keep not winning when I fight bad guys. I need to be strong enough to make sure people don't get hurt and the bad guys can't get away to hurt other people." It was all so logical, so I don't get by people disagreed with me.

"You're afraid of people getting hurt on your watch." The dangling man said. He wasn't asking. "Maybe even the people you love?"

When I didn't answer, he umhummed to himself and continued. "Remember what a certain wise-old-muppet said, kid: Fear is the path to the dark side," he said in a voice that was both gravely and high-pitched. "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

I scoffed. "Yoda's advice is like a life-coach's. 'do or do not, there is no try,' uh, dummy, you've got to make the attempt, or try, before you can do anything. Besides, everyone suffers. Being alive is suffering. What matters is whether you let it get to you. I'm taking steps to make sure that I don't suffer the way I did ever again and that no one else ever has to suffer like I suffered. As for the Darkside?"

I cleared my throat: " 'Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall set me free.' It doesn't say anything about being evil or crazy."

"Okay one," Deadpool said, "I think it's weird that you know that off the top of your head. For two:"

"I was constantly sick and bedridden," I said defensively. "Pretty much all I could do was watch TV and read. Is it also weird that I have a decent grounding in Nietzcheian philosophy, know what wine pairs with what, and how to mix twenty-five different kinds of cocktails?"

"Yes, yes it is," Deadpool deadpanned, "Brick-House adult body or not, you're still a ten-year-old. Anyway, for two: Between the current canon and the original EU, there are only like, two Sith in the entire franchise who actually live up to that, one of whom eventually went insane and tried to commit galactic scale genocide and the other is dependant on what choices you made while playing one specific class in an MMO and it's implied that no, it's the evil version that's 'canon.'"

"Whatever. It's not like the Force is real or anything,"

"Well, technically—"

"I will stab you," I said.

"The point is: You're not special. Everyone who goes mad upon taking too much power for them to handle thinks 'oh, I can handle it,' right before they break Evil Overlord Rule 22. Then they either explode or go insane."

I rolled my eyes. "All I'm doing is absorbing Symbiote codices. That's something symbiotes can do naturally. I need it, there are too many people who could get hurt if I'm not strong enough."

"And those are... Wait, give me a second." A breeze picked up and made him start spinning so he turned away from me. He finished when he came back around to face me, "those are excuses."

"Whatever, just for that I'm not gonna cut you down."

Then I bamfed away, making my way towards Yancy Street.

Surprisingly, the lock to the front door of Number 4, Yancy Street was a normal lock. Really easy to psychic open and then it was a simple matter of walking to the laboratory without waking anyone up and... It was hard to see inside from the outside becuase of the whole bigger from the outside thing, but now that I was inside my all-around vision and X-Ray vision meant that I could see that they had literally hundreds of guest rooms. At that point, I made a note to never tell Missy that there was no reason for us to have shared a bed.

...Buzzing. I pulled out my phone which... Shouldn't even get service in this universe, and saw a text from Gwen Poole. "Wade told me 2 txt u, 'Comic revealing hundreds of guest rooms published after author wrote that part.' " What the hell does that even mean and why does... how even... "Also, plz don't eat my boyfriends brain. I know hes a jerk but Ive got it handled."

I texted back that she could do better than Kid Omega, then turned my phone off and put it back in my extradimensional goo-pocket... Wait, Deadpool was...? And how would he have even known...? How did she have my...? Gah!

I don't know how, but Mrs. Storm-Richards seemed to know I was here and was moving through the house invisibly(I could see her body heat though) so I used symbiote camouflage to hide myself and started levitating to avoid leaving footsteps.

The house was so big, however, that it took me a good ten minutes to get to the laboratory and my invisibility and lack of footfalls didn't stop her from knowing where I was as she followed me and... Huh? Maybe she has a form of vision that isn't dependant on light? It'd make sense if she could see the invisible because otherwise, she wouldn't be able to see herself or her psychic force fields... And she did have a Venom codex...

She wasn't stopping me yet, though, so I just continued into the lab and licked my lips when I saw my prize. It'd been here ever since Taskmaster tried to steal it: Carnage!

Or rather, what was left of the Carnage symbiote after Norman Osborn took it and doped it up with the Goblin formula. With Johnny Storm's memories, I knew first hand how powerful it was, able to easily fight off an alliance of three spider-people, the Human Torch, Agent Anti-Venom, Deadpool, and a supervillain who was basically Shocker but with much greater sonic tech. And apparently also fought off a revived Doc Ock in a younger, physically perfect body with Spider-Man's powers and tentacles that combined the best features of every set he'd ever used when he was alive the first time working with John Jonah Jameson piloting a Spider-Slayer. And Mary Jane Watson using a repulsor gauntlet working with Venom and Spider-Man, becuase apparently former supermodels could be tech-CEOs and use Supertech, which was neat to know.

It took Spider-Man wearing the Venom Symbiote to even stand a chance against Osborn-Carnage, and even then he had to trick him into taking the symbiote off to make it a fair fight.

I could feel the power in the symbiote... and it could feel me. I still couldn't sense a mind in it, just emotions and instinct, but when I came into the room it stopped writing randomly and took a definite shape, a gooey, clawed hand pressing against the glass, calling out, begging to join with me.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Storm-Richards chose that exact moment to thrown one of her invisible force-fields around me. I guess she was expecting me to crash into it moving forward, but with the powers I got from Eye-Boy's codex I could see the very slight distortions in light and the electromagnetic spectrum so instead of moving forward, I pulled my legs up and held my arms so that I was sitting in a lotus position, then bamfed so that I appeared floating above the forcefield, looking down at her.

"You know, I could see you the whole time?" I said casually. "And since I know you could see me, there's no reason for either of us to be invisible." I dropped the camo.

She dropped her invisibility. "I don't know who you are, I don't know... Wait?" She looked closely at my face, then held her hand flat so that it was about as high up as I used to be tall. "Ashley? The little girl who was staying with us?"

"Yeah," I answered.

"Are you here from the future to prevent some tragedy from coming to pass?"

"No."

"Turned evil for some reason and come back in time to set wrong what once was right?"

"No."

"Get trapped in a hell realm and live there for decades?"

"No."

"Your evil ancestor artificially aged you while turning you into one his Horsemen but you escaped before being brainwashed?"

"How often do children you know randomly show up suddenly a lot older than they're supposed to be?" I asked.

"Us, not often, but news travels and... That's not the point," she said while shaking her head. "Are you here to cause trouble?" I shook my head. "Then why did you break in instead of using the doorbell?"

I shrugged. "I didn't want to wake anyone up. It would have been rude." This made her facepalm. "Also, if you knew what I was here for you'd say no."

"What...?" And then she noticed what the Carnage-in-the-jar was doing. "No."

"See? But, uh... I need it, so... sleep." For some reason, Gambit's powers included a hypnotic effect in his voice. I had his powers from drinking his synthetic blood in the Krakoa smoothie, so trying to use that with the ungodly and still growing level of raw psychic power I had should have made a command to go to sleep irresistible.

Except... No... Was The Invisible Woman resistant to mind control, or... Wait, the air around her was distorted and... Her forcefields blocked psychic powers?

I bamfed behind her and repeated: "Sleep!" This time I was in the field so there was nothing blocking it and... And I had to catch her becuase she more or less passed out instantly... Whoops.

I set her down gently, then psychicked out her Venom Codex because, well, it was here and now I was a Super Skrull because I had the combined powers of the original Fantastic Four and—Oh, oh, oh, brain cells generating psionic energy, knowledge of how to use it to form invisible contracts, experience...Traces of cosmic rays in body increasing raw power, body cells generating some other kind of energy that bends light and how to make it invisible or recolor things and...

"I know that, darling. But... But I know a lot of other things now. Things I think I've been trying to put aside, to postpone... Something a lot like growing up, perhaps. The Psycho-Man did more than twist my emotions. He forced me to look into the deepest corners of my soul, forced me to confront who I am, what have I become. When we rocketed into the cosmic ray belt, when we gained our powers, we lost something. An innocence. A child-like naivety. For a long time I've tried to go on as if we're still the same people we used to be, As if I was still the same. But I'm not. Not after all that's happened to us. Not after what the Psycho-Man did to me. There is no Invisible-Girl anymore, Reed. She died when the Psycho-Man twisted her soul. From now on, I am the Invisible Woman!"

Mrs. Storm-Richards had a horrible, life-changing experience where someone used psychic powers to violate her mind to get what they wanted from her.

And I just did kind of the same thing.

"I'm a bitch."

"Feel no remorse, child. She was trying to stop you from taking what is yours by right. She has no one to blame but herself. Now take the remaining codices and the lobotomized symbiote."

"N...No." I winced. I could feel a headache coming on all of a sudden.

"Why not?"

"I.. I've already got the thing's powers and..." I started rubbing my temples. The headache was getting worse. Fast. "And if Franklin's codex has backed up his DNA and the information on how his powers work and his body, then... Then that could be used to fix his power loss. Taking it... Even if it'd give me all of the power I could possibly want would... It'd be selfish. Really selfish."

"And Carnage? It's why you came here?"

"Yeah, I guess..."

I bamfed over to and opened the jar and what was left of Carnage climbed up out of it and jumped on me, trying to bond. I amalgamated my symbiote mass with it and tried to overpower it, consume it, and absorb it, taking its power... I was stronger than it. I was stronger than it and I could beat it and...

Ah, ah, ah... It might have been mindless now, but it still had emotions. It still had memories and... Cletus Kassady was a monster. Norman Osborn was a monster. And those were just the two most prominent... The things I saw were horrible, but, but... I was stronger. I fought off its attempts to change me, buried deep all of that evil even as the symbiote ate up my anger, hatred, and fear to grow stronger... Even as the Goblin Formula in its body tried and failed to alter me... The symbiote, the formula, all of it was simulated and adapted into my body, giving me it's strength, it's power... My intellect grew even greater, I felt my muscles tense and relax, and...

When it was over, my dark elf armor was more... Organic looking... My tail had sprouted and it was bigger and stronger than ever... With a spade at the end, probably from Nightcrawler's codex. I licked my sharp fangs with my long, forked tongue and... I had T-Rex feet. Why did I have T-Rex feet? And why...

I felt up my head. I had long ears that came to a sharp point and, smooth, curved horns coming from my forehead and going back a few inches. Kinda like Lockheed's but without the crooked part, and...

"Oh hell yaasss! I'm a dragon, for real this time!" I adjusted my emblem to match, tweaking the Spider-Legs to be more like Venom's and adding a little stylized head and tail to the oval. Now it could be a Spider and Dragon depending on how you looked at it.

I bamfed back to the front door, walked out and... From my mass, I was able to make a Goblin Glider with a draconic theme, black as night and with fire that was hot as Hell. Between it and my wings and my levitation, I could fly off screaming into the night flying fast enough to leave a sonic boom over Manhattan. I played around, feeling the Andreline pumping, before heading off for my next batch of codices.