Answers to reviewers' question or statements:
Jaeson Chandler: Oh Venom's gonna be sore about this encounter for a while. Well I can say there's gonna be some of what you described in this story, I mean with the characters that Peter will be around, it'd be kinda weird for their not to be. Plus you've read enough of my other stories to know that I will be broaching on things that are pretty grim and dark. I'll give a heads up several chapters in advance if it's particularly dark though.
Marveldcfan: Bit of both from each side.
charger2040: No, it won't be quite like that and even then, that premise wouldn't last long. I try to avoid the whole 'One more Day' storyline, I mean I'm not anal about Mary Jane and Peter's dissolved marriage like a lot of people tend to be, but Marvel could have done a much better job in handling it, I mean how hard is it to end a marriage between two characters without having to resort to a deal with the Devil? There is a thing call divorce and hey if Marvel wants to make Spidey relatable, that's one way of doing it, make him go through the hell that is divorce.
Harbinger of Kaos: And you assume right. As for it being sentient, not really, I'll hint that there's something there maybe but nothing like the suit itself gains full on sentience like Venom, Carnage or Toxin. True Peter wont make it easy on Norman, but the same could be said for the Dark Avenger in regards to Peter. Man may be insane, but he's no idiot. Ms. Marvel's brought back from the dead?
Arcadeadictt777: Moonstone will show interest in Peter, like with pretty much every man or woman she's around. As for the symbiote being a sort of dark version of Karen, no, it won't have that kind of sentience.
Rider Paladin: He'll be able to change back, like Anti-Venom. Well Daken, Venom and Bullseye did, but things had proceeded as Norman hoped, with a few unforeseen variables here and there but largely what he had planned. Yeah, when Iron man comes out of the coma thing he's in during this time, he's going to find quite a few people are pissed at him.
Mcleanbryce7: It's more like a combination of May Parker of Earth-X's Spider-girl suit and the Poison suit.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel characters seen, mentioned or used.
Peter had to hold back a groan as he landed on a rooftop overlooking Chinatown. For the past half hour, he's been making his way through the city towards the Baxter Building, something that was a lot harder to do given that he couldn't use his web shooters and Peter wasn't sure if this thing he was wearing could even produce something like webs for him to swing on. It also didn't help that his body was starting to throb in pain, whether it was from the wounds he received from Osborn's Avengers before he got this new suit, after or if it was the suit itself.
"Hopefully Reed can help figure it out… assuming he and the others are home at least" Peter said to himself as he stood back up, took a deep breath and leaped across the street and landed on the building in a crouch before sprinting towards the ledge and leaping into the air again.
He tried going to Doctor Strange's first but according to an annoyed Wrong, the man was currently somewhere else, and Peter didn't have the time to sit around and wait for the man to come back from wherever he was. He thought of going to the Night Nurse next before he remembered that she didn't have the kind of tech or even knowledge to help him with this kinda thing.
'Hell, she'd probably say go to Reed, so might as well save myself the trip and head there first. If he's not in… I should be able to work out what Osborn infected me with on my own with some of the stuff he has in there. And this is all me assuming i can even get in said building, let alone the lab' Peter thought as he navigated the rooftops of New York while keeping an eye out for any more of Norman's goons.
After some time, Peter finally made out the Baxter Building up ahead and let out a sigh of relief "Almost there… come on universe you've already threw me a hail marry today, a rather painful one mind you, let me have this one"
Peter hoped his prayer was answered as he landed on the last building closets to the Baxter Building before he jumped as far and as high as he could towards the home of the Fantastic Four. Peter was a bit surprised with how far he leaped before he landed on the side of the building, the concrete cracking slightly under the force of his landing before Peter began to make his way towards the top of the building. It was half way up the structure that a sudden thought occurred to Peter.
"Wait… will this place's defenses systems still be able to recognize me?" Peter asked as he came to a stop and scanned the area for any signs of the building's point defenses coming out to attack him. After several minutes of sitting there, Peter shrugged and moved on "Guess so… or I'm dead and don't know it yet"
After a few more moments, Peter had finally reached the upper levels of the Baxter Building and made his way to the closet window and looked inside for someone to let him in. Luck seemed to be smiling on him as he was greeted to the sight of Sue sitting on a couch reading a book. Peter tapped on the glass and watched as the woman jumped a little before she glanced at the window and saw Peter, or from her perspective, a guy dressed in some sort of black and red armored spider suit. Sue cautiously got up from the couch and approached the window before a holographic display appeared on the glass on her side and she pushed a glowing symbol.
"Who are you?" she asked with narrowed eyes.
"Come on Sue, how many guys do you know that are this good looking and can stick to walls?" Peter asked with a small wave.
"Peter…?" Sue said with surprise, recognizing his voice even if it did sound a little different.
"Yeah, is uh Reed in?" Peter asked as he looked around "I uh, really need to talk to him"
"Yeah, he's in his lab…" Sue said as she stared at Peter's new attire and let out a whistle "Where'd you get the suit?"
"It's what I'm here to talk to him about" Peter said as he looked down at himself "I was ambushed by some of Norman's Avengers not too long ago and they infected me with… I don't know what it was, but after I accidently inhaled it, I go this"
Sue's eyes widened at this before she spoke "Is it… is it contagious?"
"Far as I can tell it ain't, but I'd recommend encasing me in a forcefield when I get in there, just in case" Peter advised.
"Right…" Sue said as she tapped in a few commands before stepping back as a portion of the window depolarized and allowed Peter to jump in. She made sure to form a bubble around him before he even so much as moved and watched as he landed with a heavy thud "Someone's put on a little bit of weight"
Peter shook his head at this "I know, I used to fit in a size small for my Spider-man costumes, now it's a size medium!"
"How dreadful, guess you better lay off the hotdogs for a while" Sue chuckled as she gestured for Peter to follow her to Reed's lab. Peter took this time to examine his surroundings, not having had much of a chance to explore the place the last time he was here.
"So, where's the kids?" Peter asked as they passed by Franklin and Valeria's rooms.
"They're with Johnny today. They went to see a movie" Sue said.
"Which one?" Peter asked.
"I don't even know anymore, something about a movie with some alien guy, a brooding vigilante and some woman from an ancient society of warriors and a bunch of other people" Sue said as they arrived at Reed's lab and waited for the doors to open before they entered to see Reed examining some sort of floating orb with glowing lights coming from it.
"Incredible… absolutely incredible" Reed muttered as he wrote down a few notes on a sheet fo paper with one hand while he had the other hand adjust a few of the instruments used to scan the device in front of him.
Sue cleared her throat to get his attention "Reed, honey, Peter's here to see you"
"About what dear?" Reed asked as he kept examining the device with a focused expression.
"About the new suit that grew out of me after Norman had Bullseye shoot me with something" Peter stated, his altered voice dragging Reed's attention away from his research.
The leader of the Fantastic Four's eyes widened at the sight of Peter "What on earth… Peter, what happened?"
"I was hoping if you could answer that" Peter said with a sigh as Reed grabbed a small scanner and approached him.
"I have him in a bubble in case whatever this thing he has on is contagious" Sue said as Reed typed in a few commands on the scanner's screen.
"Good, good, might help narrow down what this is" Reed said as he circled Peter's form "So what was that about this growing out of you?"
"Well, I was fighting some of Osborn's Avengers and Bullseye shot me with an arrow. I caught it, but it shot some sort of vapor into my face, I inhaled it and then… this thing started to grow on me" Peter said as he rubbed his hands nervously together as his head began to hurt a little, almost as if his spider-sense was going off but wasn't.
Reed hummed at that as he examined the readings on the scanner before his eyes narrowed. He rechecked the data and made a few more scans of Peter's person over the course of ten minutes, even going as far as to get another scanner just to be sure of the results before he frowned "No… that can't be right…"
"Uh Reed?" Peter said with worry while Sue went to see what had her husband concerned before her own eyes widened.
"My god… are you sure?" she asked as she glanced at Reed "Could it be a mistake?"
"Come on guys, while I like suspenseful movies, I kinda hate it in real life, especially in this part of my life" Peter said with growing anxiety… and anger.
"No, it's definitely identifying itself as such, but what I'm curious is how it has seemingly bonded with what appears to have been dormant cells of-" Reed started before Suddenly Peter was in front of his face, his lenses having narrowed into angry slits.
"HEY! I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT THE HELL IT IS YOU'VE FOUND OUT ABOUT THIS THING THAT'S FREAKING YOU PEOPLE OUT!" Peter yelled to the point it was more of a roar than anything else.
Reed to his credit didn't flinch but merely showed Peter the date the scanner collected on his suit.
"The suit, the material that it's made from, it seems to be some sort of hybrid strain of the Transmode and Techno-Organic viruses. As for why it's more like an armored suit rather than having bonded to your body like it has to Cable's or even Apocalypse's on the cellular level… it seems to be because of the dormant Venom cells in your body have somehow altered it into some sort of… well a cybernetic symbiote of sorts"
Peter was silent for several moments as he stared at the screen with wide eyes before spoke "Your shitting me, right?"
…
As it so happened, no, Reed was not shitting him. For the next several hours, arguably the world's smartest man had Peter examined by just about every sort of scanning device he had in his lab, even a few from Sue's. Every square inch of the armor covering Peter's body was carefully scanned and broken down to the near atomic level. His sensory and motor skills were also tested to see if the suit had altered or hindered them in any shape.
Reed had even broken off a few small pieces of Peter's armor to examine while Sue tried to find a sort of soft spot in Peter's armor to draw blood from.
"Ouch" Peter winced as Sue was able to find a soft spot in the armor surface around Peter's elbow.
"Sorry" Sue said as she began to extract the blood. A frown grew on her face as she saw that Peter's blood had seemed to undergo some alterations as well.
It was no longer red, at least bright red, now it was darker and seemed to have some sort of odd bioluminescence to it. It also seemed to have a greater temperature to it, she could even feel the heat radiating from it through the syringe.
"That… doesn't look good" Peter said as he stared at the blood that Sue drew before she pulled the needle out and watched as the suit seemed to meld over the wound.
"No, it doesn't" Sue said as she took the blood sample over to Reed as several more people entered the lab.
It was the other two members of the Fantastic Four, Johnny Storm, the second Human Torch and Ben Grimm the Thing.
"Hey Reed where's-" Johnny started before he stopped as he saw the armored spider themed man on a examination table "Uh, Peter, that you?"
"No, it's the Muffin man" Peter replied dryly "Also thanks for saying my name the moment you see a spider themed individual, that's not gonna compromise my identity in any way"
"Well to be fair, you are in Reed's personal lab and he doesn't just let anyone in here. Plus there's like a million Peters in the world, I'd need to say your last name before I run the risk of blowing your secret I.D." Johnny said as he approached the man and examined the suit "Nice threads"
"Thanks" Peter said.
"Hey Stretch, what's going on here?" Ben asked as he made his way over to Reed and Sue who were both now looking at Peter's blood samples.
"Peter had recently engaged several members of Norman's avengers and during the altercation, Peter was infected with some sort of hybrid strain of the Transmode virus and the Techno-Organic virus" Reed said as he adjusted a few dials on the microscope he was using "Instead of taking over his body and converting him into a techno-organic being, it encountered trace remnants of the Venom Symbiote that was still in Peter's blood and somehow the two bonded, creating some sort of cybernetic symbiote for the lack of a better term"
"Oh…" Ben said with wide eyes "Where'd the heck did Osborn get his hands on that kinda stuff?"
"I… have a few theories" Reed said with a frown on his face.
"You mind sharing them dear?" Sue asked.
"Before Tony was ousted as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it was rolled over into H.A.M.M.E.R., he approached me about working with him on a new project of his" Reed said as he sat back in his chair and let out a sigh "Tony was trying to find a way to enhance the Extremis virus he had within him and he thought the best possible way to do that was by studying and somehow replicating samples of the Techno-organic Virus that the X-men had given S.H.I.E.L.D. if not outright find a way to use the original samples themselves. After all, the Extremis Virus is pretty much a watered downed less advance version of it barring a few differences here and there"
Sue and Ben stared at Reed for several long seconds in total shock before Sue's eyes narrowed dangerously in anger "And what did you say when he approached you with this project?"
Reed adverted his gaze at this "Honestly Sue, I never got a chance to answer him on account of the Skrull's invasion"
"But you would've said no right?" Ben asked nervously. While Reed has made some rather questionable decisions as of late, he didn't think Reed would go quite this far...
Reed, to both Ben and Sue's worry, didn't answer right away as he glanced back at the date from Peter's blood samples before he spoke in a low tone "I think I would have said yes at the time…"
Ben stared at Reed for several moments before he shook his head "I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank god for the Skrull's invading"
"Agreed…" Reed said as he rand a hand over his face before he noticed a few oddities about Peter's bloodwork aside from the fact it was now techno-organic in nature "Hello, what is this…?"
Meanwhile on the other end of the lab, Johnny was busy taking an up close and personal look at Peter's latest attire, be it willingly or not. So far, he was impressed. Peter had finally ditched the red and blues for something more badass. He was still a nerd, but a nerd with a sense of style now. Johnny made a mental note to see about updating the Fantastic Four's look as he saw a sort of pulse emanate from the various red lights around Peter's body.
"Man, this is like if you combined Venom with Iron Man's armor or something" Johnny said as he tapped Peter's glowing spider emblem "Heck, you look like one of those anime robots from that monster movie I saw the other day"
"Hmm, well I guess that would make me Mecha Venom now" Peter asked as he looked down at his arms and frowned as he saw the claws extend again.
"Mecha Venom, heh, more like Neo Venom" Johnny said as he poked at Peter's shoulder with a flame coated finger.
"Or Cyber Venom" Peter said as he batted Johnny's finger away "Also stop trying to burn me"
"What, I'm just seeing if this thing's weakness is the same as Venom's is all" Johnny said with a shrug "Might help us in figuring out how to get this off you… even if it does make you look like a total badass for a change"
"Hmm, I do feel more confident in this thing" Peter nodded before his eyes winded and he whipped his head towards Reed "Oh god, it's already starting to make me like it Reed!"
"I don't think it can do that Peter, from my readings, it doesn't have any sort of conscious to it like Venom, Carnage or Toxin did. It's entirely reactive to your thoughts alone" Reed said as he scanned various screens that showed different angles and readings of Peter's newest suit.
"Like whatever he thinks, it can do?" Johnny asked.
"Within reason" Reed stated as he made a few notes on the atomic structure of Peter's new suit.
Peter glanced down at his hand for a few moments as he tired to concentrate. Johnny saw Peter's focused look and bumped his shoulder into his "What'cha doin?"
"Trying to see…" Peter murmured before suddenly the suit around his hand and wrist began to recede… inside himself "Well, at least that answers if this thing came come off or not"
"Where's that thing go anyway?" Johnny asked with a frown as he poked at Peter's exposed hand "Is it like under your skin or something?"
"It's in Peter's blood, not at all too dissimilar to how the Carnage symbiote bonded with Kasady" Sue said as she came over ad examined Peter's hand and noted how warm it was. She then looked up towards Peter's face "Do you feel a little warm?"
"Only when a woman as beautiful as you his holding my hand" Peter chuckled before he nodded "But yeah, I do feel a little hot under this thing, it's like sitting in a sauna almost. Wonder if I can have this thing make me a mini air conditioner else I'm gonna be cooked alive during the summer in this thing"
"Well at least your personality was unaffected by this event" Sue said with a smile as she reached for a small light on a tray by the table "Can you try to retract the mask portion of your suit? I want to check your eyes and see if their still functioning the same"
Peter nodded and prepared to do just that when suddenly his spider-sense went off, causing him to tense up. This didn't go unnoticed by Sue and Johnny.
"Peter?" Johnny asked with worry.
"What is it?" Sue asked before she stepped back as suddenly Peter's hand was covered in the suit again.
"Trouble" Peter said as he began to scan the room for anything that could set his spider-sense off like this. Given some of the stuff that Reed has made over the years in this room, some of which was still lying around, the easier question would be what wouldn't set his spider-sense off.
It was then that the three's company's attention was drawn to where Reed and Ben were currently standing as the resident strongman of the team was watching some of the security monitors before his eyes widened at one that showed the lobby.
"Uh Reed, I think we're about to have company" Ben said as he stared at the monitor with wide eyes.
"Who is it?" Reed asked as he examined more of Peter's modified cells.
"Norman freakin Osborn and his Avenger wannabe cronies" Ben said in a grave tone, causing Reed to pause in his research and turn his head towards the screen to see the director of H.A.M.M.E.R. himself standing there in his Iron Patriot Armor, flanked by Sentry and Ares with over two dozen H.A.M.M.E.R. agents behind them.
Norman stared up at the camera for several moments before he spoke in a cool tone that carried a bit of an electrical undercurrent to it thanks to his suit.
"Mister Richards, I'd like to have a word with you in regards to the dangerous fugitive your harboring…"
…
And done.
Next chapter, unexpected and unwelcomed guest.
