Peter tried to draw back at the sight of what his friend had become. The symbiote had formed itself into a suit like what it had looked like once it finally revealed itself to him, only instead of just a mask, the suit granted Eddie a mouth full of long teeth and a gruesome, inhumanly large tongue. He struggled to break free from his grip, but it the symbiote had apparently granted Eddie superhuman strength as well, which he proceeded to flex as he tossed Peter aside like a ragdoll. Only his quick reflexes saved him from flying off the building entirely as he quickly reached out, grabbing the edge and pulling himself back. He'd just steadied himself when Venom lunged at him, tackling him off the building and onto the rooftop of a slightly smaller one nearby.

"To think, this is the power that YOU could have had!" the fusion of man and symbiote sneered at him, snarling as its long tongue stuck out. It had Peter's arms pinned to the ground in a grip he was once again unable to break through even despite his best efforts. Thinking quickly, he tucked is legs up underneath his opponent before kicking him straight up into the air. Peter then fired two webs, intending to yank hard as soon as attached. Instead, Venom grabbed them as they reached him, yanking him upward. Peter tried to recover, but the monster delivered multiple blows before grabbing him by the head and tossing him away. Peter grabbed a short radio tower nearby, swinging around and sticking to it on all fours.

"Eddie, listen to me!" he cried out, hoping his best friend was still in there. "That thing doesn't just want to bond with you, it wants to take you over! You have to get rid of it!"

"Nonsense!" Venom sneered as he landed higher up on the tower. "We belong together! Eddie's pain, his anger and rage made us a perfect fit for each other, far better than you ever were!"

"Eddie, please," Peter continued. "The symbiote doesn't care about you."

"Quite the opposite," Venom replied. "Together, we are stronger than we ever were apart, and think of the knowledge we now possess! Imagine it, Parker: we have been to worlds and have seen places, people and technologies that you cannot even imagine. We know secrets and ways in which the universe works that you could never discover on your own, and now, we are sharing all of this with Eddie Brock. We are perfectly unified; we share the same goals, the same desires."

Suddenly, Venom fired a web of his own, swinging away and disappearing around a building corner. Peter quickly pursued him, catching him just as he crawled in through a window. He followed him inside, but soon found himself at a disadvantage due to the lights being off in the room. Peter's sight was enhanced enough where he could see alright, but the symbiote's black coloring would undoubtedly make things problematic. Still, Peter pressed on; he had to reach Eddie, no matter what it took.

He searched and searched throughout the room, only to find no one around.

"What's the matter, nervous?" came the deep, snarly voice of his opponent. Peter spun around in the direction he believed the sound had come from, but all he found was nothing. He thought that he heard another sound on the other side of the room, only to strike out again when he turned around to face that way. He then felt something suddenly grab his leg, proceeding to use it to slam him back and forth into the floor repeatedly before tossing him back out the window, sending him crashing in a heap on yet another building top. As Peter gathered himself, Venom landed several feet from him.

"Spidey sense on the fritz?" he questioned. "Huh, that's funny, didn't you have a similar incident this morning?"

"That was you?" Peter questioned as he stood up.

"Yes," the symbiote sneered, "and we were the ones who tore through the home of your Aunt May's, and we were the ones who paid your lovely fiancé a visit. You really need to keep a closer eye on those loved ones of yours, Peter."

Peter's fists started to clench in a rage, but he quickly steadied himself. This was clearly what Venom wanted, to get him riled up so that he would challenge him again, and he'd already seen enough to know that, should he go on the aggressive, it likely wouldn't end well for him. He tried again to reach his friend inside.

"Eddie, listen..."

This time, he was not even given a chance to plead his case as Venom suddenly tackled him into a fan shaft, striking two quick, powerful blows into his head with his fist.

"Stop calling us that!" Venom commanded. "We are VENOM now!"

"Yeah, okay," Peter moaned as he slowly rolled off the bent-up metal underneath him, collapsing on the ground. He tried his best to shake off those punches to his head, but it proved easier said than done. His brain felt as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Fighting for time, he tried to continue the conversation.

"Since this is clearly between us, why did you have to involve them?"

"We wanted to get your attention," Venom explained, "and to remind you of what it means to be truly afraid of everything you love being taken from you. We wanted you to feel the uncertainty, the fear of losing your loved ones all over again."

"Okay, that was a low blow," Peter quipped, the fog finally clearing from his brain, "but so is this!" He then delivered a quick and powerful sweeping kick to his enemy, sending him falling on his back to the ground. He then quickly stood up, firing several webs until the creature seemed sufficiently tied up. However, much to Peter's surprise, his opponent stood up, a twisted smile on his face as he flexed his muscles, snapping the webs clean off himself.

"Oh no," Peter muttered. Venom raised both fists, ready to come down on him. He jumped out of the way in time to avoid the blow, only to suddenly feel something stick to his leg a second later. Suddenly, he was jerked hard, sending him crashing through a section of the roof before being pulled back directly towards Venom. His enemy attempted to strike a blow with his fist, but Peter managed to grab it instead, using it combined with his momentum to wrap around and deliver a powerful kick to his opponent's back, sending him crashing to the ground.

Now feelings as though he had no other options, Peter went on the attack, hoping to catch his clearly more powerful opponent off guard at least while he could, delivering blow after blow to the creature, sending him staggering back.

"LET HIM GO!" he screamed at the symbiote in a fit of rage, determined to break Eddie free from its clutches. Instead, Venom simply refocused, grabbing his fist to stop his most recent blow before returning with one of his own, striking Peter in the chest. Tumbling back several feet, Peter fought through the toll this fight was beginning to take on his body and tried to get up, but Venom rushed him before he was ready, delivering a powerful kick to his midsection. Venom then fired a batch of webbing from his wrists, yanking him back down to the ground.

Peter struggled to get up even to his knees, but his opponent gave him no time, crashing on top of him and sending them both through multiple floors of the building. Venom did not let up from there, unleashing a brutal, powerful assault like nothing he had ever experienced before. Every blow from his fists, every kick, every wall or floor he was slammed through almost felt as though it was pushing more and more of the life out of him. His enemy was so relentless, so quick and precise that he had no time to counter in any way. Soon, Peter started to taste blood in his mouth and lungs, causing him to break into a coughing fit as he desperately tried to keep it from choking him.

Just when he felt he had managed to stave that off, his opponent brought him back up to the roof and proceeded to bind him tightly in his own webbing. By now, Peter had little energy left; he used what he did have to try and struggle free, but he couldn't help but feel it likely would be useless even if he was at full strength.

"Yet another way we're an improvement!" Venom taunted, yanking Peter towards himself, grabbing him by the webbing he was tied to. "Now, how about we go for a swing?" Attaching a longer web as he ran and took off, Peter soon felt himself lifted into the air, now completely at the mercy of wherever his enemy desired to go next.

M.J. could only sit there, staring into nothing. Her mind was swimming in a vast ocean of thoughts and emotions, seemingly struggling to stay afloat. She kept thinking back to being paid a visit by the alien that Peter had talked about, now bonded to a new host. The white, pupil-less eyes, the large teeth and tongue, and that voice... it was like she'd taken part in a horror movie come to life, only this time, she'd had something to be afraid of.

Peter was out there facing that monster right now. Somewhere, he was looking for it, maybe even fighting it. How good could his chances be? The thing had snapped out of the substance he had given her to protect herself with, employing seemingly little effort to do so. How powerful was it? Was Peter okay? Was he in trouble right now?

M.J. suddenly felt a light touch against her shoulder, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin.

"Woah, sorry," Liz said, backing up with her hands up to show she meant no harm.

"It's okay," M.J. said as she steadied herself. Really, that was the farthest thing from true right now, but she couldn't let Liz know that, not without too many questions ensuing.

"Really?" her best friend questioned, "because you don't seem like it." Liz then sat down on the couch across from her.

"M.J, what happened tonight?"

"Nothing happened," M.J. reassured her, holding her hands out and shrugging in the hopes of furthering her point. Unfortunately, her best friend didn't seem to be buying it.

"Come on, you've been distant and a little on edge all night. Also, you really don't think I saw how you and Peter looked at each other before he left? You hugged him like it might be the last time you ever saw him."

"That's how we always hug," Mary Jane countered.

Liz tilted her head, narrowing her eyes in M.J.'s direction. This really wasn't going well.

"Look," M.J. spoke up, opting for a new strategy, "can we just get back to the bachelorette party planning, please?"

Liz shook her head but didn't say anything further, instead getting up from her seat, likely to go get the list of ideas and possible locations she'd talked about having. As her best friend left the room, M.J. closed her eyes as she leaned her head back, letting out a heavy breath. When her eyes returned to the front of the room, she saw what appeared to be some special news announcement about to be made. The screen then cut to footage of Spider-Man, who was currently wrapped in what appeared to be a webbing like his own. Various shots from different angles then proceeded to show how the symbiote monster she'd seen was using said webbing to drag Peter behind it, slamming into buildings and dragging him through as much debris behind him as possible... all while her fiancé simply remained trapped and at the mercy of his enemy.

"Peter," M.J. muttered softly as she watched on in horror. Her jaw began to drop, her lower lip starting to quiver as she watched the footage, fear gripping her body ten times worse than before. She was literally watching the man she loved being tortured and beaten on live TV, with no indications he was going to make it out this time.

"So, I was thinking that maybe we could rent out that new club for the night," came Liz's voice as she approached from the other room. M.J. quickly shut the TV off before setting the remote on the counter. As soon as her friend entered the room again, going on about her main idea, M.J. cut her off.

"Actually Liz, I'm suddenly not feeling so well. Is there any chance that we could reschedule?"

Liz simply dropped her arms to the side.

"Really, M.J?" she questioned, clearly upset now. "I'm not going to fall for that. Seriously, what's going on?"

"What's going on is that I think I ate some bad pasta earlier," M.J. said, bending over a little as she backed away towards the door. "It's really not settling well. I'm sorry, but I really need to go."

Before her best friend could question her any further, Mary Jane quickly slipped out the door. Once she'd closed it, she broke out into a sprint towards the elevator, repeatedly tapping the elevator's button anxiously. It soon opened, and she went inside, making her way down. Really, she had no clue what she was doing; she just knew that she couldn't stay with Liz when she'd just seen Peter being slung around the city like a toy. No, she had to do something... but what could she do?

The elevator doors opening on the first floor, M.J. stumbled her way out of the building, pondering what to do. She looked up and saw a taxi headed her way and, practically grasping at straws, she flagged the driver down. The yellow car pulled over, and she quickly got in.

"Where to, Miss?" the driver, a man likely in his late fifties, questioned.

"Wherever Spider-Man is."

Coming off his latest collision with a building, Peter practically gasped for air, a move that proved somewhat painful even by itself. By now, he was hurting everywhere; he had no idea how long he'd been dragged through buildings in the city, but he'd smacked his head, back, chest and shoulders a lot. He was confident based on a pain in some areas that there was glass stuck in him in places, but there were also some spots that he'd been beat up so much that he was almost numb to the pain.

Suddenly, Peter went flying again, this time crashing clean in through an office window, tumbling through the room while smacking into several objects, before crashing out the other window again. His arms flailed about as he descended towards wherever he may land, the fact suddenly dawning on him as a result that this collision had finally freed him from his bonds. He tried to fire a web, but he proved physically incapable of turning his wrist and bending his fingers in time before he smacked hard against the roof of a building, the impact pushing out his breath from his lungs.

Moments later, Venom landed as well, walking up to and kneeling beside him, his lips and teeth contorting into a twisted smile.

"So, miss us yet?"

Straining his voice just to get words out, Peter spoke.

"Eddie, please..."

Venom replied by reaching down and grabbing the top of his head, proceeding to drag his body along the roof. At this point, Peter couldn't even muster the strength to resist. His enemy then lifted him up so that he could see a large chunk of Manhattan. A light shined on the two of them as well; Peter glanced up, observing that it was a news chopper.

Everyone was seeing this.

"Look at this place," Venom growled. "This beautiful city, a place that you were supposed to keep safe. But you failed, Spider-Man. Tonight proved once and for all that you don't have what it takes, that you don't deserve the mantle of this city's savior... but we do!"

Peter then felt himself slowly rotate over so that he was facing Venom. His eyes were growing heavy within his mask; he could lose consciousness at any moment. As he looked into the mask of his enemy, it peeled back just enough for him to see Eddie's face. The man he thought of as a friend, as a brother.

"Before you go though, we want to make you a promise," he spoke up. "We will watch over your loved ones too. We never intended to really hurt M.J or May, because they're innocent. Like we said, we just wanted you to feel the helplessness that we felt of knowing that someone was after them, but once you're gone, we'll look out for them. You have our word."

The symbiote then slithered back over Eddie's face, its monstrous look restored. As Peter began to lose consciousness, he heard just two more words.

"Goodbye, Spider-Man."

"Stop the cab!" M.J. shouted. Before it had even properly done so, she opened the door, quickly stepping out of the vehicle. She looked up at the view of Peter being dangled nearly twenty stories up. She'd been lucky that she'd recognized the building from the news broadcast she'd followed on her phone, as well as the fact that it was nearby. Now that she was here though, she could only watch in terror as the situation unfolded, her heart dreading what could happen next. Then, it happened: the creature dropped Peter, who began a long free fall. M.J. followed his descent with her gaze, the world around her seemingly nonexistent. Her breath caught in her chest as he began to pick up speed, before finally, he crashed hard and loudly against the top of a parked vehicle, M.J.'s heart nearly stopping at the sound of it.

"No..."

She then began to move towards his body, soon finding herself having to fight through a rapidly growing gathering of curious bystanders. She pushed and squeezed her way through the crowd, eventually getting to where she could get to him.

"Were any of you going to help him!?" she screamed as she grabbed Peter's unconscious form by his legs, trying to get him off the crumpled vehicle he currently rested on. When that didn't work, she moved over to midsection, lifting with all she had until he was essentially slumped over her back. As she hauled him away, she heard some say that there was no way he could have survived, and others seem to object to her actions in general. The crowd soon broke into a ruckus, but luckily for her, her cab driver soon rushed to her aid, helping her get Peter's body into the cab and fend off the crowd before they drove off.

"Thank you," M.J. said once they were inside.

"No need to thank me," the man replied. "I owe him; he may not remember it, but he talked me down from a suicide attempt several years ago. I would never have met my wife if not for him."

Even amidst the dire situation, M.J. couldn't help but find herself smiling a bit. That was somehow just so perfectly Peter Parker.

"Don't worry, we'll be at the hospital soon."

"No, we can't take him to a hospital," M.J. explained.

"Ma'am, I don't know if you saw what I did, but he clearly needs a doctor, maybe several," the man explained.

"I know someone who can look after him," M.J. argued, really hoping that what she had in mind was the best idea. "I know it sounds crazy, but I need you to trust me."

Ultimately, the driver conceded and agreed to drive them back to her and Peter's apartment building, doing a little creative driving to lose any followers along the way. M.J. checked Peter's pulse and was greatly relieved when she picked up a heartbeat. She called May on the way, and Peter's aunt met them there. They covered most of his body with a blanket May had brought and they removed his mask, the driver respecting his privacy enough to not watch as they did so. The two ladies eventually managed to get him to M.J.'s apartment, laying him on her bed. May checked his pulse again to see if there was any change.

"Well?" M.J. asked.

May got up.

"We have to hurry."

Venom landed on the edge of a rooftop, taking a moment to survey the city. It was theirs now, theirs to roam and swing across as they saw fit. It was their playground, one that was now free from the one they hated the most. A scream could be heard out in the distance, Venom turning their head towards the sound, grinning a wide grin.

Time to play.

Thanks once more for all the support, for sticking with this story. Looking forward to sharing more soon!

Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!

"Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs." Proverbs 10:12