IV. Recollection
Eddie Brock Jr. Now there is a touchy subject. You see, we go way back, Eddie and me—back to before I was even born, if you want to get technical. Our moms were best friends; our dads worked together. Partners in the same lab at Trask Industries. Never heard of Trask Industries? Well, it's one of those big, evil R&D companies, competing with the likes of Oscorp and Roxxon for the title of biggest and evilest R&D company ever. My dad—Richard Parker—and Eddie's dad—that would be Eddie Brock Sr.—they had this idea for an entirely new kind of medicine. A revolutionary way to heal people. But when their funding ran out, they had to go work for Trask. And wouldn't you know it: someone in that company, maybe even Bolivar Trask himself, figured that he could use their work to make bio-weapons.
Some people just make me sick.
The idea they had was to create an artificial life-form, a symbiote. Something that the human body could wear like a suit. In theory, it would enhance the body's natural healing abilities. As it turned out, the thing that they created—it was code-named "Project Venom"—enhanced everything. Healing, strength, speed. If you had super-powers, it enhanced those too. And if you were a little crazy… it made you a lot crazy.
I know, because I wore the suit myself for a while. I thought that I could control this new, untested technology. The arrogance of me. Sometimes I make myself sick.
But I'm getting ahead of myself here. The suit… Trask wanted to make it into a weapon. But my dad and Eddie's dad, they wouldn't let that happen to their life's work. So they stole it, and they hid it somewhere. And—I don't know, to try and take control of the project, or to get back at them, or something, I just don't know—I think Trask had both of our parents murdered.
I mean, my mom and dad, and Eddie's mom and dad, they were all on the same plane, together on some kind of business trip… and the plane, it crashed. Nobody survived. I don't know for sure how it happened. But it's really suspicious, isn't it?
I went to live with my aunt and uncle. Eddie went to live with his grandpa. And it was Eddie's grandpa who had the hidden Project Venom research. When Eddie was old enough, his grandpa told him about it. He even had a sample of the "suit"—really, it was just a big old beaker full of black ooze—in his freezer in the basement. When Eddie decided to follow in his father's footsteps and study biochemistry at Empire State University, he wound up working with Dr. Curt Connors there, and he took Project Venom with him. He wanted to try and finish our fathers' work.
Maybe he would have succeeded, if it hadn't been for me.
You see, last year, I got an internship at ESU. I found myself working in Connors' lab too, and one day, Eddie took me aside and he showed me Project Venom. He said that it was our legacy—maybe even our destiny to finish what our dads had started. He also told me… that it was my dad's DNA that they had used to create the suit in the first place.
The stuff… the black ooze… it was like it had a mind of its own. When Eddie wasn't looking, it moved—got up, escaped from the freezer—it freaking followed me home, like a lost little pet blob. Eddie thought that I stole it, or something crazy like that. But it was worse than that. That stuff tried to bond with me… and it turned itself into a black Spider-Man suit.
You probably know this part of the story, or some version of it anyway. Yeah, I know, it's always hard to tell what really happened—so many rumors flying around, conflicting accounts. The long and short of it is, that black suit made me powerful… but it also turned me into a great big douchebag. A big, violent, raging, borderline-psychotic douchebag. When I finally realized what was going on, I tried to get rid of the suit. It had a weakness: sonic vibrations. I used a church-bell in the tower of an old cathedral to weaken the suit, just long enough to separate from it and capture it. After that, I knew what it was: in spite of my father's best intentions, it really was a weapon. And a horrible mistake.
I had to destroy the suit. The best place to do that was Doc Connors' lab. But when I took the ooze back there, I ran into Eddie, and… well… long story short, Eddie got his hands on it. They bonded… but they bonded wrong. I think it must have to do with the fact that his DNA isn't a match for the ooze like mine was. But while I had been wearing it, the suit had absorbed my powers, and my memories, and it gave those to Eddie. Eddie became Venom. My worst nightmare.
He was the only enemy I've ever had who knew enough to get at me by threatening Aunt May, threatening Mary Jane. I stopped him, got the suit off of him, but Eddie… he didn't completely make it through the separation. When the suit came off, he was gibbering, drooling, out of his mind.
I go visit him at Ravencroft sometimes. He hasn't gotten any better.
And worst of all, the suit got away. The last time I saw it, it was creeping for the sewers. Assuming the symbiote survived, I have no idea where it is.
• • •
This is officially the best day of my life, thought Peter. He was holding hands with Mary Jane as they walked down the hall from class. He glanced over at MJ while they walked; she met his eyes and answered back with a flirtatious smile, making Pete's heart skip a beat.
Out in the yard, Flash and Sally and Liz and the rest of the "in crowd" were gathered around the picnic tables, as usual. Peter and Mary Jane strolled by with heads held high.
It was Kenny who just couldn't resist opening his mouth. "Aw, nerd love!" he hooted, following that with exaggerated kissy noises.
For once, Flash seemed tired of the game. "Shove it, Kong," he growled.
Kenny was confused. "What gives?"
"I just don't want to hear it today, all right? Grow up."
Liz Allan turned around on the bench and smiled up at the couple. "So you two are an item now?"
"Yup," said MJ casually.
"Well… it sure took you guys long enough."
Peter groaned. "Why does everybody keep saying that?"
MJ laughed and pulled Peter away. "Because," she whispered, "in spite of what you may think, people do notice you. Even without the red and blue pajamas. And you always made it kind of obvious."
"Then why didn't you ever say anything?" asked Peter.
"I was making it obvious too," said MJ. "I just wanted to know how long it would take you to figure it out."
"Oh," said Peter, blushing now.
By the time they arrived at their favorite hang-out spot on the bleachers, they found Harry Osborn sitting there, all by his lonesome. He was staring at Pete and MJ, his face an unreadable stone mask.
"Hiya, Harry," said Pete. "Uh… where's Gwen?"
"I dunno, playing hooky today, I guess," answered Harry. "You two look… friendly."
"Pete apologized," said MJ. "We made up."
Harry stood up and hopped from seat to seat until he was off the bleachers, feet on the blacktop. Facing MJ, he said, "I was going to tell you that I had a great time the other night, but I guess… there's no point, really." Then he turned around to walk away.
"Harry… where you going?" asked MJ.
Harry paused and glanced over his shoulder just long enough to say, "To be alone."
Peter and Mary Jane were left there alone together, awkwardly wondering after Harry Osborn.
• • •
That afternoon, once school was out, Pete and MJ caught a bus downtown together. They slipped into a nondescript alleyway, and Peter stripped out of his street-clothes, revealing his Spider-Man costume underneath.
"That's right, take it off!" joked MJ.
Peter said nothing. He just smiled as he pulled his mask on over his head. Then he pulled a woolen ski-mask out of his backpack and handed it to Mary Jane. "Your turn, Red."
MJ held up the mask. "Really? This will totally give me a horrible case of mask-hair."
"You have to hide your face, or you can't be seen web-slinging with Spider-Man."
Sighing, Mary Jane pulled the mask on. "All right."
Grinning underneath his own mask, Peter put an arm around MJ and told her to hang on tight. Then he fired a web-line high up between the buildings and gave a tug on the elastic substance. With a snap, they were up in the air. Mary let out a little scream before clinging to Peter even tighter. Pete just chuckled as he shot out another web. Now they were swinging gently through the New York City breeze.
Mary Jane was altogether breathless at first, but soon she calmed down and started to enjoy herself. To her surprise, she found herself mostly enjoying the way Peter filled out his costume… but the swinging through the air was pretty great too.
• • •
Peter landed on the roof of a tall building. Here, it was high up enough that they wouldn't be spotted by anyone else. He removed his mask, and MJ did the same with hers. As predicted, her long red hair was now a frazzled mess. Peter did his best not to embarrass her by laughing too much.
"Peter, that was… incredible. You're incredible." Mary walked over to the side of the building and peered down. "Spider-Man… I can't believe I didn't see it before."
"What do you mean?" asked Pete.
"Well, you have saved my life. Twice. And I never would have imagined that it was you under that mask."
In fact, Spider-Man had indeed rescued Mary Jane from danger on two separate occasions over the course of the past year. The first time had been from a simple mugging. But the second… that was when Venom had appeared, snatching her, seemingly at random from out of a crowd, an innocent hostage with which to taunt Spider-Man while they fought…
"Yeah… about that. Listen, MJ… it was time I told you the truth about something else. About what really happened to Eddie."
MJ looked at Pete questioningly.
"And after I tell you what I did, then maybe you can decide whether you hate me or not."
"It can't be that bad, can it?"
Peter let out a breath and began the story.
• • •
After Peter finished, neither of them said anything for a long while. Finally, MJ forced a hollow laugh and said, "At least this explains why you went through that emo phase for couple of weeks."
"MJ, I'm serious about this—"
"I know, Tiger. Listen, Eddie… he had other issues that you maybe didn't know about. Things that he never would have admitted to you." MJ looked down at her feet and shook her head. "Eddie's grandpa wasn't the greatest guy in the world. And Eddie was always kind of jealous of you. You had Uncle Ben and Aunt May. You were the one everyone always called a genius. And then there was me…"
Pete looked over at MJ. "You?"
"Well, yeah. We were the same age, Eddie was three years older than us. So guess who always felt like a third wheel? Heck, fourth wheel after we brought Harry into our little group."
Peter sighed.
"The point is, I don't blame you," said MJ. "You made the best of a… a terrible situation. I miss Eddie too, but all we can do right now is hope that he gets better. You can't keep beating yourself up over something you can't change."
A small smile appeared on Peter's face. "I don't deserve you."
"Yes you do," argued MJ. Then she took hold of his face and kissed him.
Fireworks. To Peter Parker, kissing Mary Jane Watson felt like fireworks inside. This, he thought in some tiny, unoccupied corner of his brain, makes it all worth it.
It was quite a while before they finally separated, both breathless and a little bit numb in the lips. Mary Jane glanced down at her wristwatch. "We need to get back," she said. "Drama club has a late meeting tonight."
"Yeah, and I have to get over to ESU," said Peter, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. "Doc Connors said he had something important to tell the interns."
"Well," said MJ, pulling the knitted ski-mask back on, "we can always pick that up again tomorrow."
"Definitely," said Peter. In a flash, his mask was on again too, and they were once again webbing through the air.
• • •
The hybrid genetics lab at ESU was nominally run by Dr. Curt Connors, but it was his wife and partner, Dr. Martha Connors, who actually managed most of the day-to-day affairs. Between the two Doctors Connors, she was undoubtedly the stricter taskmaster. Back when both Peter and Eddie had been working in the lab together, they used to joke that she was the Iron Lady of Test Tubes. Perhaps that was why it was such a shock to Peter, to see her looking defeated and packing the things on her desk into a cardboard box.
"Doctor Connors?" asked Peter. "What's going on?" Pete hadn't even had time to trade his backpack for a labcoat before he spotted Martha packing up her belongings.
"Oh. Peter. I'm… I'm sorry we didn't tell you this sooner, but… well, Curt will explain," she said sadly.
"Where is Doc Connors, anyway?" asked Pete. (It was a subtle distinction, but whenever the interns or grad students referred to them directly, Martha was always "Doctor" and Curt was "Doc".)
"In his office," said Martha, indicating the direction with a tilt of her head. Peter figured that he wasn't going to get much more out of Martha until he spoke to Curt, so he excused himself and went on over.
Dr. Curt Connors was coming out of his office, holding a bundle of rolled-up schematics under his one good arm. "Peter. I'm glad you're here. I could use a hand, no pun intended."
"Doing a little spring cleaning?" Peter asked.
Curt sighed. "Doing a little moving out," he admitted. "The university board made their decision yesterday. They're handing the lab over to Dr. Warren."
Peter shuddered a little bit on the inside. Dr. Miles Warren had been with the lab for a few months now. He was a cold man, the sort of person who gave Peter the creeps just by being in the same room. In fact, in many ways he reminded Peter a great deal of Norman Osborn…
"But… if Dr. Warren is taking over the lab, why are you and Doctor Connors leaving?"
A crestfallen look came over Curt's face. "Martha and I made a decision of our own. This place… has caused us both a great deal of… of difficulty, and—"
"If this is about the whole Lizard thing—" started Peter, but Curt cut him off.
"Not just the Lizard. Max Dillon… Project Venom… Colonel Jameson… there have been so many—I can't even call them all accidents. Experiments gone wrong. Martha suggested that we get away from all this madness for a while, clear our heads… and I agreed."
"But none of those others were your fault," protested Peter. "I'll give you the Lizard, but that's it."
Curt put the roll of papers down on a nearby table so that he could rest his hand on Peter's shoulder. "You're a good kid, Peter. Someday, you'll learn that, as scientists, we have to take responsibility for the unforeseen consequences of our work. Sometimes, we move too fast, and we can't always see the wrong turns. Or the dead ends."
Pete didn't say anything as Curt gathered up his papers again.
"If you're worried about your job, don't be. Dr. Warren promised to keep you on, although I think you'll be reporting to Miss Whitman most of the time. Now, if you don't mind, can you get the box of books in my office for me?"
"Yeah, sure," said Pete. "I'm going to miss you guys. It won't be the same around here without you."
"I know," said Curt. "That's what I'm hoping."
Author's Note: So, by now it should be pretty obvious that in building the setting (or maybe I should call it a "continuity") for this story, I'm borrowing liberally from two sources: the Ultimate Spider-Man comics and the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series. I'm taking the things I like best about both and combining them into a single, new universe for these characters. That way, we get the good things from Ultimate (like badass Gwen Stacy, or Venom not being an alien) while leaving the crap behind (all the dead main characters, the turd-burp universe that Ultimate became following "Ultimatum"), and I can tweak the little things about Spectacular that bugged me (like Montana being the Shocker… come on). I just wanted to take a moment to explain that.