Son of Iron Man

Before we get into the story, I'd like to thank xxx-benedictbrothersfan-xxx for your regular reviews. You're one of the people who keep me writing.

Another of those people is Johnwolf234, and if any of you guys out there happen to like stories about wolves then he's one of the best at writing them. Go check out some of his stories, but be sure to pay attention to any warnings he may give at any point.

Also, if any of you happen to notice any mistakes in my writing I'd be grateful to hear them. Don't worry, I won't think you're being nitpicky.

Anyway, mushy thanks aside, this chapter actually takes place in the past, at first, but it crawls forward to the present as it goes on. I'll leave you guys to guess where each stage in time begins. Now we begin!


Chapter Nine: A Girl in the City

The wooden chair was hard underneath the girl, but she didn't care. She was with her beloved boyfriend, sipping on a hot cup of coffee. Her legs were crossed as she stared into his deep blue eyes – a gesture which was lovingly returned by the boy.

"This coffee is perfect," she commented.

"As are you, my sweet Katie," replied Leo, her boyfriend. Katie Forde took a moment to examine her life, and concluded that it was perfect. She had a happy family, a loving boyfriend and she was doing well in school. It really couldn't be any better.

When the date was over, Leo and Katie went their separate ways with a quick kiss and a goodbye. Katie began navigating the crowds of New York on her way home. Today had been a good day.

What Katie didn't notice was that the shadows themselves were following her. In the shadow of the crowds lurked a creature that blended in perfectly. It slithered in the darkness, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

And strike it did.

Katie had a habit of ducking into alleyways on her way home, taking the opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. As yet her luck had held out, but even if someone did decide to pick on the helpless little girl she had an ace up her sleeve: karate lessons.

But nothing could prepare her for the attacker in the shadows. It was waiting to strike.

And strike it did.

But not today.

The attacker in the shadows followed her for the next few days; always waiting, always watching. Katie didn't know anything about it until it was too late. It happened on a Tuesday, when Katie was walking home from school.

A shadow suddenly leapt up in front of her from the dark alley floor. It was small, and shone in the slight ray of sun that made it to the ground.

"What the-?" she gasped. But it was too late even for surprise. The creature of the shadows sent out tendrils which wrapped around Katie. She felt a terrible pain her head as the smooth black creature ran itself all across her body, coating her in a skin-tight layer of the ooze it was made from. Before long, it had entirely covered her from head to toe, with two large white shapes either side of the head that served as eyes. Katie could see a darkened version of the alley from within her living prison, but all she could hear were the thoughts of someone other than herself. They spoke in a cold, hissing voice, filling her mind – overpowering it. She clawed at her head, trying to pull the ooze off – but to no avail. It was stuck. Before long, Katie realised she didn't even want to remove the ooze, and subsequently she stopped trying. Under the instruction of the voices in her head, she leapt from one wall of the alley to the opposite, repeating the action and climbing higher and higher until eventually she was on the roof of a three-storey row of houses.

"Go to the bank," hissed the voice, and Katie happily agreed. She ran across the rooftops, jumping when the situation demanded it and landing with steady feet. She felt blood pumping through her already athletic body as the black slime added yet more power to her. After a ten-minute journey that should have lasted thirty, she found herself standing in front of the bank nearest to her previous position.

"Enter," the creature commanded her. Katie looked at the impenetrably locked door of the bank and did the unthinkable.

She asked a question of the creature.

"How?" she asked.

"The window," was the simple response. Katie's hand instinctively went to the wall, and she found it stuck. Curious, she placed another hand above the first, then moved the first above the second. She couldn't believe it: she was climbing the wall. Shortly, she found a window that had foolishly been left open and climbed inside. The bank was cold and draughty, presumable because of the open window. But she daren't shut it: it was her escape route.

"Humansss!" the voice in her head hissed. She immediately stopped moving, the black coating on her body enabling her to hide in the shadows. Sure enough, a couple of security guards were down below, swinging their torches about randomly. Once or twice the roving beams of light almost caught her, but in that time where they didn't spot her she hatched a plan. Her instincts told her to stretch an arm out toward the ceiling and flex her two central fingers, and when she did a stretch of organic webbing flew out toward where she was pointing. She pulled herself across with newfound strength and hung upside down on the ceiling, watching the two guards; observing their route of patrol. When both guards were next to each other, she descended on a web line and silently grabbed them both by the scruff of the neck before zipping back up to the roof and webbing them upside down, being sure to web up their mouths so they wouldn't scream. Certain that there were no more guards, Katie dropped to the floor. Under instruction from the voice, Katie crossed toward the door which led to the vaults. Finding it locked, she used her new strength to kick it down.

"Let's see," she said to herself as she looked at all the vaults in the walls either side of her.

"Hey! You!" called out a voice. Katie turned around and saw the single guard at the end of the corridor. "Get away from there!"

"Kill!" the voice screamed. But some of Katie's kindness shone through, and she only webbed the man to the wall. He could only watch as she started to crack open vaults and take the money from inside before beating a hasty retreat.


After the robbery, the shadow creature had left Katie with very little memory of the encounter. She read a newspaper the next day about a bank robbery and reacted as anyone would – with shock – but little did she know that she was the perpetrator. The night before was a blur to her, but she assumed it was a weird dream. The dream had ended with her handing lots of money to a man in a metal suit. She questioned why she would have had such a dream, but she realised it was probably her brain trying to break the pressure of being so kind all the time. More than understandable, really.

The next time the creature revealed itself, it took Katie out for another heist. This time, it was a different bank, but she took the money to the same person. After a few more comings and goings, Katie began to notice a correlation between her blackouts and the robberies. Could it be her? Surely not?

One weekend Katie was on another date with Leo when the conversation turned to the recent rash of bank robberies in the city.

"Some crazy stuff, huh? I hope they catch whoever did it," Leo said. By this point Katie was vaguely aware of her role, but she didn't yet wish to accept it.

"Yeah," she agreed absently.

"Yeah?" Leo echoed. "That's all you can say?"

"I agreed with you, didn't I?" Katie snapped. Leo seemed to struggle with something internally, something that had been troubling him for a while.

"What's wrong with you?" he blurted.

"What?" Katie demanded.

"You haven't been yourself recently. You've been cold, mean even," Leo replied. "You're not the girl I love any more."

"Don't you dare say that!" Katie hissed.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!" Leo stated. "I'm sorry, I have to go." He stood up and left without another word, leaving Katie to ponder her outburst and its cause.


Things were looking desperate for Katie. She had driven her love away; her family were growing ever more distant. The creature kept visiting her in the night, and the crime spread. The police were baffled and so was Katie. But there was one thing she knew: she would find out what had gotten into her – she just wasn't sure how.

Then one day the answer came to her in a newspaper.

The article she read told her of the debut of Toby Stark as Iron Man, and she figured that if anyone could help her it would be the superhero son of a genius. So she tracked down Toby Stark.

"Hey, Toby!" she called out in the middle of the street the next day. The harassed-looking teen turned toward the sound of her voice and saw that she was behind her.

"Who are you?" he demanded, clearly stressed. "What do you want?"

"I want answers," Katie replied. "And I think you can give them to me."

"Well, I am very clever," Toby said. "But you still haven't answered my first question."

"I'm Katie Forde," she replied. "Now you answer my question."

"And that is?"

"What's happening to me?" Katie demanded. Toby looked at her as if she was mad, and she didn't blame her: she was questioning it herself.

"What do you mean?" he asked slowly.

"Have you been reading the newspaper?" she asked back. A mysterious look came into his eye.

"If this is about the whole Iron Boy thing I assure you it's all rubbish generated by the media," he said, making to walk away.

"It's not," Katie said, stopping him. "I need your help."

"Go on then, what with?" he sighed.

"Could we discuss it somewhere private?" Katie asked.

"Did Sarah put you up to this?" Toby suddenly demanded.

"Sarah? Who's Sarah?" Katie asked, genuine confusion in her voice. Toby studied her for a tense moment.

"Follow me," he said.


Katie was in Toby's room, sat on the bed. The boy was reading the various newspaper clippings she had brought with her at his desk.

"Bank robberies," he thought aloud. "All in a different place; all by the same perpetrator. But no one knows who…"

"I know," Katie interrupted him. "I know who it was."

"You've seen beneath that mask?" Toby asked. Katie was silent for a moment.

"I was beneath that mask," she admitted. Toby looked at her for a moment.

"You?" he asked, a surprised tone in his voice.

"In a way."

"In a way?" Toby demanded. "What do you mean?"

"It's me, but it's not… me. Look at the pictures; look at the costume."

"I'm looking."

"It's not a costume – it's a living creature. It relies on a symbiotic relationship with a host: me. What I want to know is what it is."

"Well then I can't help there. Mysterious biological occurrences aren't my specialty," Toby said.

"You can't help?" Katie asked.

"I'm afraid not. But perhaps given time…"

"You won't help me?" Katie interrupted.

"I would, but I don't know…"

"Clearly," Katie said, standing up and shouldering her bag.

"You're leaving?" Toby asked.

"You can't help me," Katie replied before leaving. Toby Stark, her one hope, had failed her.


With her last hope gone, Katie now felt entirely alone in the world. But somehow she sensed it wasn't over yet. Far from it. So it came as little surprise when a boy around Toby's age came to her about a week later.

"I hear Toby Stark has failed you," said a voice. Katie whirled about and saw the boy. He wore a suit and tie, clearly under the impression he was there on business. "I'm Dustin Hammer," he said with a smile.

"Katie Forde," Katie replied.

"I know who you are," Dustin said. "I hear you're having some trouble with a symbiote?"

"How do you know that?"

"I have my ways. How much do you know of your little friend?"

"Not a lot," Katie admitted. Dustin looked pityingly at her.

"Then it's a good job I'm here," the boy said. Katie shivered as she looked out from the bridge, the cool night air only one of two causes.

"What do you know?" she asked.

"More than you," Dustin replied.

"How can I know that for sure?" she demanded.

"You will, in due time," he said. "For now, I can tell you one piece of information that will act as a promise of what's to come."

"And that is?"

"Its name." Katie observed Dustin for a moment, trying to gauge how trustworthy he was.

"What is it?" she asked before making any decision.

"It's gone by a lot of names in its time," Dustin said. "But it's primarily called Venom."

"How can I learn more about this?" Katie asked after a moment of silent contemplation.

"Come with me," Dustin answered, holding out a hand. Katie examined the boy yet again, weighing up her chances. In the end she realised she had nothing to lose. She took his hand.


The end! Ah, so it was a whole chapter after all! For those of you who didn't pick it up on the way, the beginning of this chapter was in the past. It crept into the first week of Toby being Iron Man at about the time she spoke to him and then the time she met Dustin was after the battle. So now we're right back up to the present. Do you guys feel as sorry for Katie as I do? Because let me tell you, it was difficult to write a whole chapter about pretty much ruining a girl's life. But it's necessary for the story, so that's what I did. Do not think less of me!

In the next chapter we'll be back with Toby and the beginnings of the New Avengers. Possibly a pizza-man-Mothi moment, too, if I get any requests for it before I reach that point in writing.

Until next time, true believers!