Traveling with Venom was a hassle and a half, Percy discovered ten minutes into their walk. The symbiote, for whatever reason, felt the need to comment on everything they passed, even if he had already seen it before. He kept derailing their walk, tugging the demigod left and right, and Percy contemplated sticking the alien in a pickle jar and lugging him around that way.

"Stop pulling me everywhere," Percy spoke through gritted teeth as he stomped out of the third secondhand store. "We're trying to find Eddie. I'm not going on a shopping spree with you. People already tried to shoot at us before. I'm almost tempted to let them try again."

Venom grinned sheepishly in the face of his new friend's annoyance and went back to wrapping around the man's bicep, resting his head on his shoulder like a domesticated alien cat. "How long have we been walking?"

"'Bout forty-five minutes," The demigod answered, weaving past a couple arguing in the middle of the sidewalk about what sounded like a cheating scandal. "We would've been there sooner had we not looked at those wall clocks. Or the porcelain dolls the man swore was from Poland but said 'made in China.' Or the wedding dresses that all came from Margaret 'cause she finally divorced her fifth husband. Or-"

"I get it." Venom was full-on smiling now, idly watching New Yorkers push past each other as they hurried off to who knows where. "I just get curious."

Percy nodded. "I get it and that's valid but can you do that after we find Eddie? I'm starting to get exhausted and if we don't find him by the end of today, I will scream and I used to be in choir. For like a day."

"He goes into a convenience store sometimes around this time of day," The symbiote explained in a sort of desperate attempt to avoid hearing the demigod's falsetto. "He usually gets us-"

The demigod flinched in surprise when his new friend stretched to cover him, effectively taking control, and he had to focus on calming his frantic heartbeat when he heard gunshots and screams. "Wow, okay. Thank." His voice sounded a bit distorted now that Venom was in the drivers seat.

"There seems to be more of them coming down the road." Venom peered behind them past the scrambling crowd, spotting about five to seven people adorned with weapons heading in their direction. "I can't keep taking control like this, though. It's not good for you."

"We need to move fast then. Take a left up ahead at that boutique. There should be an apartment complex near it with some fire escapes we can use to try and lose them."

Venom followed his directions, stretching his limbs to latch onto the tallest fire escape when it was in sight. More gunshots rang out, though, luckily, they were aimed towards the sky where he was and not at the crowd. He wasn't sure how he or Percy would feel if innocent people were injured or killed because of them.

Though the pair didn't quite lose the men and women chasing them, they did put enough distance between them that they had stopped shooting. Venom was focusing on the demigod's instructions on where to go, not wanting to let his friend have control just yet when they were still being followed.

"Eddie's apartment complex should be- Look out!"

Without Venom's control, his arm suddenly morphed into a bronze sword, swinging behind him to slice a small drone before it could fire at them. The symbiote nearly stopped running in his surprise as the limb turned back to normal but instead picked up the speed. "How did you take over like that?"

"I don't know, I panicked! It- Hey, is that a cyclops in front of us?" There was a pause. "Holy shit, there's a cyclops in front of us! Venom, jump down!"

"Shouldn't we fight it?" Even as he asked, the symbiote still went down to street level, weaving through a crowd of startled and vaguely pissed off civilians.

Percy scoffed. "Normally, I'd love to but I don't think I'd last between the cyclops and those psychopaths. Not gonna lie, it's getting hard to breathe."

Venom's eyes widened. "Why didn't you say something sooner?!"

"We were getting shot at! I didn't think it- EDDIE!"

The symbiote actually stumbled at the demigod's screech but turned sharply to look across the street for his first human friend. The people chasing them were closing in but Venom was running on a different countdown as he felt Percy's health begin to go downhill a bit more, the human's heart beating rapidly and his breathing becoming labored.

Eddie, to his credit, was already staring at Venom with wide eyes as he tried to push through the crowd of New Yorkers, only to have them shove him back while swearing. "Venom! What the Hell, man?" At the symbiotes wild gestures, he turned his head to look at the group of people carrying the weapons. "Aw, come on, man, I just bought groceries..." He shook his head, stepping back to place his plastic bags in front of a doorway out of the way of people. "Can you come over here?"

Venom hesitated, thinking of Percy's health, but was kept from making a decision when the demigod seemed to take over again, forcing him to take a few steps back himself. "Wait, Percy, what are you doing? If we do this-"

"Shut up," Percy ordered, narrowing his eyes as he scanned the crowd in front of him. He glanced at the soldiers(?), noting how half seemed to now be focusing on Eddie now that he was in their sights. "Let me show you what a demigod can do. When we get close to him, grab him and cover us."

With that, Venom suddenly found himself running towards the street and jumping up, diving over the crowd of people. It was quick and he almost missed but the symbiote was able to detach from the demigod and merge with Eddie, using the same moment to grab Percy and shield him when the soldiers began shooting once more. "You are insane! What is wrong with you? You could have-"

"Are we really having this conversation right now?" Percy demanded even as his chest heaved and he struggled a bit to stand up. "I think you and Eddie have other things to worry about!" He ducked under the doorway where Eddie's groceries were as another spray of gunshots rang out, shoving the symbiote towards them. "Where's the fucking Avengers when you need them? Or Spider-Man? He's cool! Why'd it have to be an alien with the attention span of a goldfish?"

"I can hear you!" Venom called even as he incapacitated four of the seven people.

Percy stuck his tongue out at him. "That's the point!"

After about ten minutes, the fight was finally over and the authorities were able to apprehend the soldiers that decided to shoot at them. Unfortunately, Venom and Eddie had to make a break for it when the police tried to bring them in as well since they were a giant muscular alien that drooled everywhere. Since Percy was a nice guy, he scooped up Eddie's groceries, walking away down the street like he wasn't part of the whole situation. He did take the container of blueberries though as compensation for all the trauma and detours into thrift shops.

"Oh, thank God you have my stuff," Was what Eddie greeted him when he saw the demigod which was fair. Percy had his fair share of losing his things because of unexpected battles and it was always heartbreaking when he had to say goodbye to his Goldfish crackers. "Thank you so much."

"Hey, no problem, man. I'm taking your blueberries, though, and I'm not really sorry."

Eddie shook his head. "No, go ahead. I feel like I should be the one apologizing. I can't even imagine what you've had to go through this entire time. How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

Percy shrugged. "Physically? Yes. Mentally? That's to be determined. Venom would not stop taking me into secondhand stores. I think he has an obsession." Even though him and the symbiote were not connected anymore, he could still envision the alien's retorts and it made him grin slightly.

"Just be glad he wasn't forcing you to buy him chocolate and tater tots all the time. I had to buy him probably thirty dollars worth of Hershey's bars before he stopped whining." He hefted his bags up a bit, ignoring how the symbiote immediately stuck his head inside in search of tater tots or chocolate. "Hey, it was nice meeting you. If there's anything I can do to pay you back, let me know."

"No, there's noth-" Percy paused. "Well, my step-dad Paul is a fan of yours. Any chance you'd be willing to pop by and say hello?"

Eddie smiled. "Sure, I don't see why not?"

"Sweet, thanks." After exchanging contact information, they were planning on going their separate ways when a question tugged at him. "Hey, you know, I've been wondering... How did you and Venom get separated in the first place?"

The human heaved a great sigh that Percy felt in his own bones. "It's all because I called him a parasite."

"...Are you fucking kidding me?"

[FIN]