Venom belongs to Marvel, and Justice League belongs to DC. Any original characters that show up in this story are created and owned by me.

"Eddie talking"

'Eddie's thoughts'

'Venom speaking in Eddie's head'

"Venom speaking"

Enjoy!

Gotham City

Eddie slowly chewed on his hot fudge-covered mint ice cream, cringing as he felt the chill on his teeth as he walked through the busy streets of Gotham.

'It ain't chocolate, but it's a refresher for once.' Venom complimented.

"I thought fudge and chocolate were the same thing?" Eddie asked between bites. It was like telling the difference between limes and lemons just by their color, and then telling the real difference by the level of sourness.

'There's moldy and then there's crunchy. Like brains.' Venom said, almost causing Eddie to quickly lose interest in their half-finished lunch.

After Eddie's interview with two of Gotham's best, he decided to fulfill his promise to find a change of wardrobe and a new ride before his next interview with the Rivers family. He already transferred several thousands into his bank account back home, so now was a good time to burn some cash.

How was Eddie Brock able to earn such money, you ask? Well, three weeks into their stint as the Lethal Protector, he and Venom came across a sex trafficking ring that exported girls from different countries and different ages at the docks, sickening even Venom enough to barge in and eat the dealers, only leaving a few alive for questioning and to spend the rest of their lives in San Quentin and allowing the girls to be treated and taken home, while taking the case full of millions meant for the trade.

Hey, they weren't greedy. They at least gave half of it to the people they saved. Besides, it wasn't like the scum they took it from were gonna miss it anyways. There was so much they could've done with that cash and they squandered it by selling or buying drugs, guns, girls, even their fellow man.

Their loss was their gain.

'Maybe that's why Diana's into us all of a sudden.' Venom said with interest. 'Hot girls are into rich guys, right? Especially if they steal money from sleazes who sell girls to other sleazes.'

"True. But as much as I like to believe that, I'm still not sure if we can trust her yet, especially with you-know-who trying to weed us both out." Eddie stated as he drank the last bits of his melted ice cream and then tossed the cup into a nearby trash bin. "Plus, she's a princess. She's probably rich as she already is."

'And we can make her richer by getting us some Gotham threads. Let's burn some cash already.'

"Damn. One minute you act like a starving animal, then the next you start acting like a spoiled brat." Eddie muttered as he walked into an Old Navy.

'I heard that.'

"You hear everything."

Later

With their choice of wardrobe complete, followed by a quick change back at their temporary apartment, they headed out for that new ride Eddie promised at the motorcycle lot, the journalist now dressed in a catchy brown leather jacket with pockets in the front, a pair of blue jeans, and a tacky pair of Nikes.

'You could've ditched the shirt, too, y'know. Now that we're out of our turf.' Venom pointed out. Of course, the only thing his host didn't ditch was his trusty San Francisco shirt, revealed by the open jacket. True, most of the time Eddie decided to go for something more casual, but he could never go anywhere without this shirt.

"Yeah, but you remember it's sorta my lucky charm… like you." Eddie said, taking a moment to compliment his other. Sure they traded insults most of the time, but it was also rather hard to compliment the other over their… achievements. Sometimes sincere, sarcastic, or perhaps both. Neither of them could tell.

'Or like that baby?'

Eddie looked at the direction his other indicated, and whistled at the sight of a Harley-Davidson Street Bob, with an appropriate black color and fully functional engines begging to be taken for a test drive.

'And we thought Diana was the only hottie!' Venom muttered, equally entranced by the bike's beauty. So entranced that the dealer's attention was caught after hearing Eddie's whistle.

"A sight for sore eyes?" the guy asked with amusement.

"Since the day she was born." Eddie replied without taking his eyes off of the bike.

"What a coincidence, we just got her fresh from the shop. And she'll be yours for some K's." the dealer rubbed his fingers expectantly in a playfully devious manner.

Without saying another word, Eddie whipped out his credit card.

"WHOO!"

And in no time at all did he get the hang of his new ride, speeding through the streets as Venom's hands engulfed his own to accelerate the engines. Thankfully, they kept their speed at an average whenever they passed a green light. The last thing they wanted was another high speed chase.

Alright, enough joyriding. Back to work.

Next stop, the Rivers' household.

The Watchtower

The League's headquarters was quiet as Batman looked over the large monitor. Everyone else either stayed behind or left to their respective cities for their daily patrols. Normally he would check for any crime in progress or some other crisis that required his or the League's attention, but with none so far, as well as the criminals in Gotham laying low following the announcement of Venom's arrival, he had all the time necessary. Speaking of Venom, he was currently looking over the number one suspect behind the case.

Eddie Brock.

Looking over the man's profile again, he read that Brock had a knack for being intrusive in his line of work, notably in one case in which an unspecified scandal costed him his job at the Daily Globe in New York, which was what prompted him to move to the Bay Area to begin his show at the MNBN network, resulting in a period of success and fame… which he also managed to screw up after questioning Drake's unethical practices without any proof.

Searching further into that incident, he saw that Brock wasn't the only person who lost his job that day; his fiancée, Anne Weying, who was to prepare a lawsuit defense for the Life Foundation, was kicked out of her firm since those classified documents traced back to her, which led to her breaking off their engagement.

Somehow Bruce could feel himself sympathizing with the man; he couldn't even begin to describe his own fair share of failed relationships.

First was Selina; no matter how many times he tried to change her, she remained in the grey. She had tried many times, and some of those attempts were honest, but circumstances forced her back, or she could not resist the rush of the theft as well. It was a great test of his patience at times and he could only hope that it would soon end, but he wasn't going to hold his breath. Talia still tagged along with her father's plans of destruction to ensure his own warped version of "peace" in the world. Andrea… he didn't even want to think of the circumstances that led to her fleeing Gotham and away from his life. And that's not even getting into the incident when he almost got married to one of Poison Ivy's genetic "mates".

But Diana… He was still trying with her, but his duties in Gotham and his overall stubbornness just wouldn't let him form the right words. Not to mention her recently being defensive towards the implication of Brock being Venom as well as the latter's actions, mostly because of the symbiote's so-called "victims" having a high body count of women… and such crimes of such people might as well earn the ire of her Amazon sisters from what she described. Yet, somehow the Dark Knight couldn't blame her or her family for her upbringing or her mindset.

It took him a few moments to realize he was trailing off and get back to the matter at hand. He already figured that Brock's trail went cold following this "scandal", until six months later, one… bizarre story came up, a few hours before Venom was first sighted, in which Brock was sighted at a bistro displaying… erratic behavior by eating several customers' food, and then jumping into a lobster tank to devour a live lobster like an animal.

Either it was spending six months jobless that drove him to desperate measures, or a certain parasitic life-form had a similar reaction after six months in captivity.

Moving on, he once again checked the sources on the night of Venom's first sighting, notably, the disturbance at the Schueller building, Brock's new residence after being kicked out of Weying's residence. Witnesses claiming to have seen drones and vans chasing after an unidentified motorcyclist throughout the city, and said motorcyclist transforming into some kind of monster and eating one of the men before jumping into the harbor.

Bruce mentally cursed himself; had he and the rest of the League questioned Brock or Weying first about the incident, they wouldn't be on the entire Bay Area's bad side in their destructive pursuit of Venom, nor would they be forbidden by the local law enforcement from reentering the city.

Once again looking into the aftermath, the Life Foundation had faced a large stack of lawsuits following Drake's demise and the exposure of his crimes, including the murder of his own employees. While it landed a major blow to the company, it also benefitted two people who had a lot to lose from it.

For Brock, although keeping in touch with the MNBN network after resigning, he landed a job at the Daily Bugle, one of the more divisive/controversial news sites which also ran a paper, with him being in charge of the West Coast Edition. Recently it started gaining some popularity over Venom's… exploits. Not to mention his stories on the decreasing crime rate, as well as the criminal incarceration/death rate as a result of the Lethal Protector's actions being the topic of popularity in the Bay Area.

As for Weying, after the Life Foundation's exposure, she had signed up for the public defenders' office as a freelance lawyer. Checking some cases after these events, he was surprised by what he found.

Most of the cases she was involved in had her acting as a lawyer for criminals whose crimes were relatively minor; those who resorted to petty theft or the like were given several weeks or months of community service, and sometimes she defended people who were framed. Three months ago, one such case included ex-con Scott Lang, whom he recognized as the Ant-Man of the Avengers, and another hero based in San Francisco (how Lang never caught on to Venom's activities, Bruce never knew), who sued his former boss, the CEO of VistaCorp, Geoff Zorick, for stealing money from his company's customers by intentionally overcharging them a few years prior. The man tried to deny the accusations and feign innocence… until the evidence provided the contrary, resulting in his arrest and replacement while forcing VistaCorp to give the money back to the customers, all while clearing Lang of the theft charges brought upon him by the company and the disgraced CEO.

This woman would give Matt Murdock a run for his money.

Still, that didn't mean Brock wasn't any less involved. It later turned out that he was the one who somehow dug up and turned in the evidence of Zorick's shady dealings to the proper authorities and then later publishing a story behind the case, even crediting Lang for giving his side of the story in regards to the theft against his former workplace. In fact, he somehow was able to acquire evidence against otherwise untouchable criminals who avoided charges for many heinous crimes, sometimes before or after Venom eats them, and more rarely tipping the authorities off on the suspects' activities to catch them in the act and finally jail them.

With this information laid out, he and the League might be closer to solving this case sooner than they had expected.

Speaking of the League, he could already hear one of them approaching him.

"Anything yet?" Superman asked.

"I'm still going over Brock's history as well as the incident. I have a feeling we might be a step closer to catching Venom as well." he replied, once again looking over the stories on the Life Foundation's experiments and exposure. Thankfully, the various sources he previously looked over didn't say anything on the symbiotes being aliens or their powers, other than just a failed attempt to create a cure for cancer or a new breed of super soldier. Ones that hopefully no organization will try to recreate with the deaths of the other two life-forms.

"You still think he's on the list?" the Kryptonian asked. As much as he still wanted to believe that theory, even he felt unsure that a fellow reporter would be suspected of being host to a murderous, extraterrestrial vigilante with a habit of eating people, even if said people were violent criminals with sordid pasts.

"Think about it; his outburst at the restaurant right after the symbiote's escape from the Life Foundation, Drake's hired guns at his apartment, those drones, the break-in at the network, the evidence being publicized. His presence was the only constant in these events." the Caped Crusader listed off as he showed the Man of Steel the stories centered around said incidents. "Unless Venom found another host after the incident, there's plenty reason to believe that Brock might still be bonded to the creature."

The World's Finest stared at the monitor for a short while, until Superman broke the silence, "How's the weapon coming along?"

"It's almost ready." Typing on a few more keys, Batman pulled up some blueprints showing some kind of gun-like device. "I've upgraded the Sonic Disrupter to exceed the 4,000 to 6,000 hertz range frequencies, which might be enough to remove the symbiote from the host. I was planning on saving this in case of another Man-Bat attack, but ever since we discovered the symbiotes' weakness, this is something we can't pass up."

Not long after tracking Venom, what once was a civil attempt to get the Lethal Protector to surrender himself peacefully turned into a chase across the more busier streets of San Francisco. And it was a harrowing first confrontation; in spite of their collective abilities and powers, the Lethal Protector dodged everything they had… until a blast from Black Canary's Canary Cry had him writhing on the ground, thrashing wildly while looking ready to violently peel away from his screaming host.

Which would've been successful had the police not fired a warning shot. Thankfully it was a rubber bullet, though that arm had been out of commission for weeks. But since that day, the entire Bay Area made it clear that their Lethal Protector was under their protection, and ever since, it left a few sore spots on several of the Leaguers, while some took their defeat in stride.

This time, however, there might be no interruptions.

"Are you sure this will work? What happens after we catch him?" Superman asked with uncertainty.

"We contain the creature and seal it away. Perhaps send it back to its home planet, wherever it may be." the Caped Crusader simply answered. "As for the host… I'm not sure if they can be tried for bonding to a parasitic life-form, but we'll have to decide once we separate them. First, finding and questioning Brock is our priority."

If the other Leaguers had stayed behind, they would've been impressed with the plan, while others wouldn't be on board.

Wonder Woman watched and listened with narrowed eyes outside of the room. She didn't care whether Superman's super hearing could give away her location, she was more upset that the rest of her teammates still had the conviction to think Eddie was still host to a murderous parasitic life-form.

As far as she was concerned, despite Eddie's disparaging remarks on the Justice League, he still seemed to be a good man with a realistic view of the world that he wanted people to take seriously, one which unfortunately the rest of the League did not share. Perhaps if she saw him again, she might get more out of his supposed friendship with the Lethal Protector before her teammates do, and to hopefully disprove their theory of him being Venom, and perhaps get him out of the city should their patience run out.

Speaking of Eddie, with last night's incident, she wondered how he was going with his new story so far.

Rivers' Residence, Burnside

"What brings you all the way from San Francisco? Another Venom story?" Nicole Rivers asked as her guest sat at her kitchen table munching on some Oreos.

A couple of minutes ago, she was going about her daily routine, having been given the day off from work following last night's… altercation. Plus trying to avoid the media actively searching for her and her son in order to get a scoop on last night's events. Don't those buzzards know no sense of privacy? That was until David answered a knock at the door, letting in Eddie Brock.

She wasn't expecting San Francisco's top journalist to be here in the most dangerous city in America. She had seen and heard about his work, especially the Life Foundation fiasco that pretty much destroyed his career until he somehow picked himself up after exposing it. In fact, she figured it had something to do with San Francisco's Lethal Protector deciding to take a bite out of Gotham's criminal underworld after Bay Area crime took a dive in these past months.

Had it been any other reporter, she would've kicked them out. But this was one that she found tolerable and comfortable to be around and talk to.

"That, and a little bit about you." Eddie confirmed as he took out his notepad. "Have any other family? Husband? Parents? Siblings?" he looked over to the living room where the boy was currently watching an episode of the classic Tom and Jerry show (Eddie only hoped they didn't have the racist bits, or that episode where the titular cat and mouse sit on that railroad awaiting certain death. Whose idea was that?!).

In fact, he and Venom were surprised by the kid's level of innocence, even after what happened last night. The sight of blood and bodies would've scarred a kid his age for life. This was Gotham, after all. Then again, they figured that if the kid knew that if the bad men were dead, they wouldn't hurt him, his mom, or anybody else.

"My husband died a few years ago. I'm the only child, and my mother is living in New York. Said it was much safer with the Avengers keeping watch, especially with the Punisher running around." Nicole began.

"You know the Punisher isn't an Avenger, right?" Eddie pointed out. Sure, the Avengers weren't squeaky clean when it came to dealing with their bad guys, but having a gun-toting vigilante in their ranks was too much even for them.

"You get the point." Nicole added.

Nodding, Eddie continued, "Anyway, what do you do for a living? How do you get your money to get a place like this?"

'Better than the man cave we live in.' Venom mocked, and his host's response was to keep his face neutral.

On a side note, this had become a routine ever since Venom took up residence in Eddie's body; whenever Eddie interviewed someone for his next story, Venom begrudgingly took his host's request to be silent. A "me" thing, as he put it. Though Venom did throw in his own comment, almost giving them away whenever Eddie wanted to make a witty remark. A somewhat boring experience.

"I'm a doctor at Gotham General. The pay's decent, plus the staff's chatty when they're off their shift." Nicole continued.

"What a coincidence. One of my friends in San Francisco is a doctor. A surgeon, actually. And my ex-girlfriend happens to be dating him, and she happens to be a lawyer." Eddie chuckled, with Nicole joining in, until they got back to the topic. "No, wait. This ain't about me, it's about you. How long have you been a doctor? What got you to work in Gotham of all places?"

To get a job in Gotham was a death wish for anyone dumb enough to try and move here. Whether you come to be a cop (of the clean, honest variety), a doctor, performer, or hooker, you wouldn't survive a minute.

"I've been working here for almost three years now. My mother tried to warn me about going to Gotham, but I thought the money there was worth it. Don't tell anyone I said this, but it's an absolute Hell everyday I walk in. So many people brought in from accidents, fights, or worse."

'Welcome to Gotham.' Venom muttered, while also sensing his host's lack of surprise by such incidents in a city like this.

"Did you know the guys who attacked you and your kid last night are in the hospital where you work at?" Eddie asked, making the woman perk her head up at the mention of her and her son's attackers. "Two of their pals are probably attending a bonfire, if you know what I'm talking about, and the rest of them are crying in their beds begging for a life sentence just to get away from the guy who put them there."

He and his other could see the look of relief and satisfaction in her eyes, a look they were all too familiar with throughout these last few months as the Lethal Protector. After dealing with a fair number of rapists who preferred to keep their victims alive to be "savored", they memorized the hateful looks on the victims and their families' faces anytime Eddie interviewed and told them about the bastards' heads going missing so as to erase the smug, dominant looks from their memories. Didn't remove much of the damage done, but it brought so much comfort for them to know that the monsters wouldn't come back to hurt them or anyone else.

"Ironic, don't you think?" Nicole finally said, breaking Eddie out of his thoughts and making him raise an eyebrow. "They've been threatening the hospital for months. Said their boss wanted the… rent, if we worked on his turf. When we missed the payment, a few of the friends I made at work ended up dead… or worse. All to send a message. Whoever they worked for must be very powerful enough to buy the dirtiest lawyers and judges to put them back on the streets to make money from the blood of the people they hurt or killed. I guess now they'll need money to pay for their blood with the conditions they're in."

Eddie could feel his grip on his notepad tightening, while hearing Venom growling in the back of his head. Who the fuck would want to send a band of psychos to terrorize a hospital for protection money? It got him thinking about Mrs. Chen. Sure, they bickered from time to time, even after Venom ate the thug that terrorized her in front of her, but they still worried for the other's safety. Before Venom came along, Eddie knew what it was like to stand by with no means of protection. Thankfully, Eddie's subscription to X-Con had given Mrs. Chen the protection she needed in case he and Venom left their turf.

Sadly, security in Gotham was faulty; aside from Arkham, so many robberies and break-ins in quiet homes, stores, or any other places of value were still bound to happen any day at any time, probably so the so-called dealers could make off with their spoils.

'Now ask her about my good side. She doesn't want to see my bad one right now.' Venom insisted, looking for a way to subside his fury, and for once, Eddie decided to take his other's advice.

"Well, what do you think of Venom's actions against most criminals in San Francisco? Some people say he's too… vicious to be called a hero. That he's not being fair towards the crooks he beats or eats." "Some" being the key word. Venom did have a fair share of detractors who think of him as nothing but a man-eating brute with no respect for the law or general authority, which pissed him off to no end, although the large number of "fans" overruled any criticism, which brought him as well as his host some comfort over being reminded of their… good deeds.

That question caused Nicole to laugh humorlessly. "Most people only look at the face value of something and never look any deeper. It's true that Venom has eaten several criminals but they are just people whom he has managed to catch in the act of doing something truly reprehensible. He eats the heads of rapists, serial killers, and pedophiles amongst other psychos who'll never even try to change. Sometimes he even eats them whole just to wipe their existence off the face of the Earth. I doubt that many people are going to complain when they look deeper and find out that last bit."

"Speaking of fair, you know what isn't fair? The fact that the Justice League think that if you kill a criminal, even if they're unrepentant psychopaths and that it's in self-defense, you're a criminal yourself. Murder is murder, as they all say. Green Arrow tried it back when he was the Hood, and so did Huntress, yet the League decided to sign them up just to keep them on a tighter leash. Who's to say they won't do the same to the cops or the military? You don't see the Avengers doing that to their own or everyone else."

"More importantly, where was Batman when those men tried to kill me or my son? It's true that he and the other heroes can't be everywhere at once, but he made a promise to clean up this city, and he hasn't made good on that yet for ten years." Nicole continued, the agitation in her voice slowly rising. "He puts his faith in a system that's been tainted by crime lords and psychopaths disguised as politicians who only live to see Gotham crumble while they get richer from the people who suffer everyday. Guess he's blind as a bat after all if he can't see justice for what it is."

Eddie had already gotten a goldmine of a story, but he decided to ask one last question. "One more thing. Do you think that Venom is the kind of hero that most people in San Francisco, or even Gotham, really need right now?"

'Say yes. Say yes.' Venom eagerly prodded. Approval was one of the things he craved ever since he was brought to this planet, probably as a way to prove to his kind that he's not a useless loser like they thought he was.

Nicole looked at Eddie dead in the eye with a humorless expression, which unnerved even Venom, and said, "He's the kind of hero the world needs."

Black Mask's Office

Roman Sionis was not happy. And when Roman Sionis was not happy, then no one was happy.

It started as another gig for his boys; get the money, send a warning to whoever misses the "rent" while operating on his turf.

Then this so-called Lethal Protector decided to send his own warning; four of his guys in critical condition, and two of them dead, one having his entire skull caved in and another with his head and arm missing. Six of his most "skilled" men, taken down by this gooey freak with the help of the Wonder Whore. No doubt the survivors will try to snitch on him by the time they make it to the stand. Even if he somehow manages to buy off the judge or available lawyer, the remaining gangbangers will try to spill their guts anyways before he does.

Literally.

He glowered at the print outs showing the freak in action in San Francisco, and then looking at his recent visit in Metropolis. In a quick motion he stabbed down on the picture with a knife. This slimy fuck figuratively and literally took a bite out of his business. Man, cape, or monster, nobody fucks with Black Mask.

He already had the Red Hood trying to muscle in on his turf since the day he made himself known, but now this new freak is trying to join in on the mayhem.

Well, if it's mayhem that he wants, then it's mayhem he's gonna get.

"I want a bounty on this freak. Ten million to bring him alive, double to bring his head. Put some irony on that part." He snarled.

"Sir, we don't even know where or what this thing's-"

BANG!

Roman didn't waste a second pulling his pistol out and shooting his mouthy subordinate in the head. Blood and brain matter splattered against the white of his office walls. He set the gun down on his desk and readjusted his cufflinks.

"Did I ask for excuses?" He asked the corpse, before turning his gaze on the rest of his subordinates lined up awaiting his orders. They hadn't so much as flinched standing tall and stoic in their pristine suits.

"Still, we need to know how this bastard moves. What he wants other than heads. Who's tipping him off." For whatever reason, he took his deceased subordinate's words into consideration as he looked to the rest of his goons. "Any ideas?"

For a good while, none said anything, for fear of ending up like their dead comrade, or literally having no idea how to solve this problem, until one burly goon walked up, gaining Roman's full attention.

"This was from the hospital this morning. Thought it might help." the man spoke up, his voice calm yet shaky from witnessing his boss's outburst as he took out a picture from his pocket.

Snatching the photo, Roman took a moment to examine it. Checking the background first, he could see the hospital where his guys were being kept like his henchman told him, but looking closer, his eyes landed on one figure among the ignorant crowd of passersby.

Eddie Brock.

Being mostly focused on expanding his empire, eliminating his rivals, and trying to kill the Bat, he had little time to check into affairs outside of Gotham. However, now he remembered hearing that this guy wrecked his career after trying to take a shot at some big space company testing out some fancy rockets, and then somehow getting his job back around the same time Venom shows up.

And it seemed everywhere that freak goes, he follows, and sometimes the other way around when he tried to take a shot at some amateur crime lords. Which explains all those stories painting the Lethal Protector in a positive light, and why all the sniveling lowlives in the Bay Area began laying low or even throwing themselves in jail to avoid death at the jaws of Venom.

Brock clearly had no idea what shit he's getting himself into this time… and Black Mask was gonna show him.

"Why don't we start with Venom's number one fan?" he muttered with interest before showing the photo of the target to the rest of his men. "Think about it. Anytime a head goes missing, he's the first to spread his little campfire stories on the paper. He knows something about this walking pile of tar, and I can feel it."

"You wanna add him to the hit?" the lead goon asked.

"No. The cops are gonna raise some heads as to why some hired guns and knives are after some washed-up reporter trying to get a scoop on my business. Make it… discreet." he turned to the person sitting on the comfy, decorative couch across his office, and the rest of the men felt their blood run cold at the sight of him, even when the guy was doing something so mundane, yet disturbing, like stroking the blade of his hunting knife with his finger. To those unfortunate enough to work for Sionis, this was his number one guy. "Are you up for it, Mr. Zsasz?"

This was one whom he had pulled out of the gutter years ago after he had lost everything in one seemingly harmless gamble. Venting his rage by carving up random passersby, and then carving himself after each kill. "Freeing" everybody from this hellhole called Earth, as he liked to put it, rather than for money, or fame, or any personal agenda. His cunning, viciousness, and brains landed him a position as Roman's top executioner. In fact, this was one lackey he had most respect for than any of his other slow-witted goons.

Sure, there was the occasional trip to Arkham after going on another killing spree and enduring another beatdown from the Bat, but Roman's… inside help were always prepared to give the diagnostics to convince the naïve Arkham staff give him a "clean" bill of health. That last breakout proved this little method unnecessary; the minute Zsasz walked into Black Mask's office, he was under 24/7 protection.

The bald, scarred serial killer looked up from examining the blade of his prized hunting knife to see the target in the photo handed to him by one of the shaking goons, a smirk of interest forming on his lips. "Yes, this guy. Started at the top, only to tumble down, and is trying to climb back up. Best I put this washout out of his misery, and yours." he muttered as he adjusted his striped shirt beneath his dark coat.

Having spent his career shirtless so as to see his beloved tally marks across his torso, he seemed rather uncomfortable within the confines of his new threads, but it beats having to be easily spotted "streaking" in nothing but his pants. Even then, he'll at least try to grin and bear it like always whenever he carved himself.

"Whatever, just find him. And when you do, tell him I have a message for his slimy pal. Use words… or knives… or both." With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the rest of the men and they scrambled to get out of the room. Zsasz on the other hand simply strode out of the office while hiding his knife behind his shirt, leaving Gotham's biggest crime lord to mull over his options.

As soon as he gets those answers from Brock, he'll show this Lethal Protector who runs this town.

A/N: I am so, so, so, SO sorry for the delay. I was planning on posting this after watching Venom: Let There Be Carnage the day it premiered, but my online classes held me back. I stayed after the movie… and they weren't lying when they said the universe was expanding. I already have it on my Apple TV so I can be ready to make the Carnage arc after this one. Then, I went to the premiere of the last Marvel flick of 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and I was as equally blown away by that movie as everyone else. Maybe I'll watch Morbius later, which has now been pushed to April 1. The bastards better not be fooling us on that day.

Since I started my semester a few weeks ago, it'll take quite another while for the next chapter to be released, but I promise it'll be sooner than expected. Adding to my frustration is the damn Cloudflare that's been on the site for a few months now. I just hope the guys running this site will fix this soon. That, and I have been having issues with those damn Keychain login popups on my MacBook Air for months, and I'm still looking for a solution.

Anyway, Eddie scored another interview of a lifetime, but now he and Venom have to contend with the wrath of Black Mask and the bounty he has placed on the latter. As if their troubles in evading the Justice League and dealing with Gotham's heavy hitters couldn't get any worse. And yes, Zsasz working for Black Mask is a reference to the Birds of Prey movie. Better hope the guy isn't prepared for the surprise waiting for him when he tracks down Eddie.

To make matters worse, the JL had begun investigating Eddie for his connection to the Life Foundation incident, with Batman developing an ultrasonic weapon that could separate Venom from his host, having discovered his weakness during their attempt to arrest him in SF. I know I said I wouldn't give away anything too soon, but we'll get the full scene of the flashback to the first confrontation between Venom and the Justice League later.

Have a safe day!