Following the sounds of the scream, Venom soon came upon the scene, perching themselves on the corner of a rooftop to assess the situation. They found a young woman being assaulted by a man in a toboggin, the former struggling mightily to get free, though her efforts seemed to be proving futile, only serving to annoy her attacker.
"Help!" she cried out.
"No one's going to hear you, sweetheart," the man boasted.
Venom then decided to make their entrance, jumping down and landing right behind them, both turning towards them.
"We did," Venom growled monstrously. The attacker suddenly turned very pale at the sight of them, quickly breaking into a sprint. His efforts of escape proved futile, however, as the fusion of symbiote and man quickly grabbed by his arm, tossing him across the alley like a ragdoll. The assailant crashed hard into a wall before collapsing to the ground, groaning in pain. Venom quickly leapt over to him.
"No," the man groaned, his terror unable to completely mask the pain that he was in. "Please!"
Venom simply reached down, picking the man up by his neck.
"You should have thought of that before you attacked an innocent."
The monster snarled at the criminal, displaying their teeth and long tongue as they began to squeeze the man's neck, slowly suffocating him. The wide-eyed terror slowly turned more and more docile as the air could no longer reach where it needed to. Finally, Venom gave one last hard squeeze, breaking the man's neck and killing him. They then discarded the body, dropping it in front of them before turning to the victim in all of this. They walked up to the girl, who was trembling uncontrollably, eyes wide in horror.
"You're safe now," Venom explained.
The young woman said nothing, instead turning and breaking into a sprint, quickly making her way out of the alley as Venom watched. It wasn't the thank you moment they felt that they deserved, but at the same time, they understood. The form of justice they intended to dispense was brutal, and they were not so oblivious to the terror their appearance would inflict on both victim and criminal alike. It wasn't thanks that they were after though, but instead the satisfaction of knowing that they had saved a life tonight. That was what they had just done, and it felt good.
Venom leapt off into the night, searching for the next innocent in need of their help. Firing webs of their own creation, they swung through the air, feeling the breeze of the New York night against themselves. To think, this was all that they ever wanted: to go off on adventures, to swing blissfully through the city, enjoying the view while dispensing justice to those who deserved it and enjoying the adrenaline rush of it all.
Now, no one could stop them from doing so... especially not Spider-Man.
Almost twenty-four hours later, Peter still hadn't woken up yet. M.J. had remained by his side nearly the entire time, waiting for the moment when her fiancé's eyes would open again, and she would know that he was going to be okay. She and May had worked on him quickly and diligently as soon as they had gotten him to her apartment, removing the shards of glass stuck in him, putting ice packs over the largely swollen areas of his midsection and chest area and bandaging his head and other areas as needed. M.J. recognized that they were limited compared to what could be done for him in a hospital, but still, she would have suspected that Peter would have awoken by now. Every passing hour that he didn't, her worry grew more and more palpable, making her feel almost sick inside.
M.J. saw a small cup of coffee placed in front of her, so she took it, looking to her side to find Peter's aunt.
"Thanks," she said softly before taking a sip. The older woman didn't respond, simply taking a seat on another chair they'd set up beside the bed. After a few moments, Mary Jane decided to break the silence.
"I thought he'd be awake by now."
"Me too," May replied.
M.J. glanced over, her cheeks suddenly flushing with embarrassment.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, "the last thing you need right now is me..."
She paused at the feeling of a hand against her arm. M.J. looked up to see May, who had a gentle and compassionate if still somber expression.
"You don't need to apologize," she reassured her. "We're in this together."
M.J. smiled lightly, looking back at Peter.
"Do you think we made the right decision?" she questioned. "You know, not taking him to a hospital?"
May didn't answer right away, but eventually nodded.
"Yeah," she replied.
M.J. wasn't quite as sure.
"I just wish I knew why it was taking so long," she explained.
"Well," May spoke up, "based on what I've observed over the years and from what Peter's told me, his body is probably shutting down everything but the most important functions, so that its efforts to heal itself can be maximized."
"This has happened before then?" M.J. asked, the faintest glimmer of hope sparking in her mind at the idea that at least there was precedent for how this might go.
"Yes," May replied, "but... it's never taken this long before."
M.J. looked down and away, that faint spark of hope suddenly diminished. She then looked back at Peter, tears burning in her eyes, begging to be released. She'd stifled them well so far, wanting to be strong for May especially. Despite her reassurances, Mary Jane could tell that the older woman had been trying to do the same for her. It was getting a lot harder on her end though; the longer she saw Peter sitting there, unconscious, almost lifeless, the more difficult it was to keep her emotions in check.
Suddenly, her phone rang, and she looked to see that it was Liz. M.J. wanted to ignore her, but she'd already done so a few times prior today, and if she didn't at least attempt to convince her that she was okay, her best friend might come and practically bang the door down knocking, which was the last thing she wanted to deal with right now. She got up, hitting the answer button as she walked out of the room, standing just outside the door.
"Hey Liz," she said.
"Oh my goodness, where have you been?" her best friend questioned frantically, concern evident in her tone. "I heard that someone had to fill in for you at the store today?"
"Yeah," Mary Jane affirmed. "I'm sorry, I'm still not feeling very well today."
"I'm coming over," Liz said.
"No!" M.J. exclaimed, grimacing as she reigned herself back in. "I mean, I really don't think that's a good idea. I wouldn't want you to catch whatever I have; trust me, I wouldn't wish this on anyone, even our competitors."
"You don't sound sick," Liz said pointedly. "Plus, I saw on the news that you were at the scene where Spider-Man was in a fight the other night. I don't know how well most people could pick you out of the crowd, but I know that it was you, Mary Jane."
M.J. sighed in frustration.
"Look Liz, I'll call you when I'm doing better," she explained. "But right now, what I need to be is alone, so please, don't come over. I'll be fine."
She then hung up before her best friend could get another word in. M.J. then leaned the top of the phone against her forehead, shutting her eyes. She hated the fact that she couldn't tell Liz what was going on, and she completely understood why her best friend would be pressing her right now. She hadn't even considered that one of the news cameras might have caught an overhead shot of her. Really, she was lucky that she didn't have the press banging down her door now to get out of her what she did with Spider-Man. She probably had her skilled and experienced cab driver to thank for that.
Stuffing her phone back in her pocket, Mary Jane walked back into her room, taking her seat once again.
"Who was that?" May asked.
"Just work," M.J. answered, shaking her head dismissively.
"No offense dear, but you were just right outside the door," May explained. "I obviously only heard one half of the conversation, but it sounded like a little more than that."
"It was my best friend," Mary Jane conceded, "and my business partner too. She wanted to know why I didn't come in today. Really, she's known that something's been off ever since last night. I think that I convinced her to stay away for now, but we'll see how long that lasts."
"I'm sorry," May apologized. "It must be hard; I'm lucky that I don't have a lot of other people that I'm especially close to that I feel bad about keeping Peter's secret from, so I can't imagine what it must be like."
"It's definitely hard," Mary Jane said. "Liz has been my best friend for a long time; we've never really kept anything from each other before. But I understand Peter's reasons for wanting to keep the circle as small as possible. He's trying to protect not only himself, but anyone else from getting too close, and I will always respect that."
There was a brief pause before May spoke up again.
"Peter's very lucky to have you," she said, a smile on her face for the first time in the last day. "He talks all the time about how supportive you are. As the woman who raised him, it does my heart a lot of good to know that he's marrying someone who cares about him so much."
M.J. looked back at Peter yet again, letting out a breath.
"I just wish that there was something that I can do," she said, the tears threatening to burst forth like a river through a dam. "I mean, it's hard, every time I see a news report about him fighting some supervillain out in the city or trying to stop a bridge from falling apart. It's scary, and sometimes he comes back a little bruised and battered, but for the most part, he's okay. After several times like that, I thought that I had learned to live with it; I knew the worry would never go away, but I think that I had allowed myself to believe that would be the worst of it. Seeing him like this though... I just want him to wake up. I just want to know that he's going to be okay."
Her voice breaking at those last words, M.J. finally began to let it out as May wrapped her in a hug, a gesture she quickly reciprocated. Tears streamed down her cheek, the occasional sob coming out as well. She hated that she'd broken like this, but she just couldn't hold it in anymore. Through the cascade of emotions, Peter's aunt remained with her though, holding her close. It took a while, but eventually the worst of it finally subsided, the two ladies separated, and M.J. could see that tears had come down May's face as well.
"Feel better?" the older woman asked.
"A little," M.J. replied, nodding. "I'm guessing you know from experience."
"Yeah, just a little," May said, prompting a light laugh from both ladies. There was a brief pause before May spoke up again.
"Okay, well, how about I go back and get us some more ice cream out of your freezer or something?" she suggested.
"Sounds good," M.J. affirmed. "Thanks."
The older woman then got up and quietly walked out of the room, leaving M.J. alone with Peter. She drew in and let out a breath, coming up and taking a seat along the bed. She reached down, placing her hand along the right side of his face. It was a little smoother than it had been before but was still clearly swollen in some places.
"Come on, Peter," she whispered. "Wake up. Wake up and come back to me."
Over the next several days, Venom continued to terrorize the underworld throughout the nights. They were relentless, spending every hour of darkness scouring the city, pursuing all the criminals they could. They frequently stopped assaults, drug deals, thefts, and even rape attempts. They never even once withheld justice from those who needed it, brutally taking out those who would do harm to others. They also took great efforts to avoid the police in all this, not because they couldn't handle them, but because they did not wish to harm them. They were on the same side, but the creature knew that those in law enforcement would likely never understand this.
Of course, that left the daytime hours, in which Venom was less active in their symbiote covered form. They would spend a fair amount of that time sleeping and resting, but also investigating things as Eddie Brock. After all, not only did they still have a job they needed to maintain out of necessity, but also, they had a lead that they needed to get back on the trail of. Regardless of how it had come into their hands, Venom was determined not to let whoever this LTL individual was slip away.
As they dug into the identity of this mysterious individual, Venom soon began to question how they had not at least begun to put together the pieces before. Their research yielded that there were several businesses with those letters in the title, ranging from "LTL Auto Repair" to "LTL Gym & Fitness." This guy's initials were everywhere, yet somehow, whoever owned all this stuff had somehow managed to fly more under the radar than an escaped convict or a spy.
Determined to find and bring down this individual, Venom continued their research, both by day and by night. When the sun was up, they would search for anything that would help, such as financial records or anything else in public domain that might point to how this individual was hiding in plain sight. During the night, they would barge their way into places where New York City's most notorious individuals frequented, demanding answers from everyone they came across. Yet, as scared as they were at their appearance (some of whom even fainted before Venom could interrogate them), they were either even more afraid or extremely loyal to this "LTL" person.
Still, Venom did not give up. They would investigate and hunt and track down every lead they could find. If it came to it, they would kill every criminal in the city until there were none left, taking out the operation that way. They wanted to find the Big Man in charge though. They wanted to end his career good and properly, making sure that he could no longer be a threat to this city, terrorizing it in secret. Whatever it took, whatever they had to do to get him, whomever they had to go through, they would find him and end this, once and for all.
Hope you're still enjoying this!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" Romans 8:35, 37