"Come on guys! We need this guy. Without him, Ava will die," Powerman growled as he leapt from each rooftop chasing after the speedy Symbiote.
Behind him, Iron Fist, Nova, and Dagger were following.
With Ava in stasis to keep the leftover poison that Black Cat had injected her with from killing her, The team had been desperately looking for the creature that was responsible for it. They were only able to find Reaver by chance, finding him exiting a bank without triggering any alarms. If they lost him now, they would never be able to track him again.
"What the hell are you?! And how the hell are you faster than me!" Nova struggled to trail behind Reaver in the air.
The symbiote didn't reply at all. It just kept liquifying through cracks of the buildings and climbing rooftops before dropping down to others. Its green skin was dark enough to blend into the shadows which were giving the team trouble keeping track of him visually.
"Will you stop already?!" Nova shot off a few blasts which missed.
"Instead of using the creature as target practice, might you try to use one of those new sweeping abilities you learned from Dagger, my friend?" Iron Fist offered to his friend.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," the others slowed their pace as they waited for Nova to reach Reaver. "Yo, Sewer mess!"
Reaver turned to see that Nova suddenly appeared at the side of one of the cracks from which he materialized from. His eyes widened as the man's smirk twisted into a frown before being blinded by a shock of energy that stunned him.
Before he could move, Nova punched him down to the ground where Powerman grabbed hold of him and activated some high tech bracelets.
Reaver squirmed and tried to liquify before being shocked to keep him solid and stable. His screech was painful to the others, but Powerman shrugged it off as a minor inconvenience and kept his grip on him. After a while, the symbiote fell limp as it stopped struggling making it easier for Powerman to hold him.
"We have some questions for you, uh...What did you say your name was? Rivera? River? I know it had something to do with an R," Nova joked.
"This is no time for Jokes, Ava is dying." — Reaver froze at the mention of Ava's name, but no one seemed to notice. — "This is our only ticket to save her." Powerman scolded his teammate.
Nova just frowned and narrowed his eyes at the self-proclaimed leader. He wasn't the only one in distress about their friend's condition. Sure, Ava wasn't Nova's girlfriend, but nonetheless, it didn't lessen the impact of seeing her in such a bad place for any of them.
"This is all your fault," he pointed at the captive symbiote.
Reaver snarled and tried to split open a mouth on his face before being shocked to prevent any further shapeshifting.
"What, no talking? We clearly heard you talking during your first, extravagant, appearance dude," Nova goaded him cheekily much to Powerman's dislike.
"Shut up, Nova!"
"Please stop hurting him. I can feel his pain," Dagger interrupted before the searching bright lights of the helicarrier finally spotted them.
"His? This is not a person. It is a monster," Powerman grunted.
The team had been able to securely imprison the symbiote. The scientists on board had begun their research as they analyzed him trying to find out how to reverse the effects of the poison, while also trying to find his secrets and who was underneath the suit.
-Test number 32 Commencing Now- a voice came from the intercom as Reaver was shocked once again.
Dagger was long since absent from her position in the team as she wasn't able to handle the violence inflicted upon the creature. She could feel a familiarity with it, but she couldn't explain what.
Powerman, however, was stoic. Just standing there watching the whole process from outside of the tubed chamber.
Nova and the others had taken after Dagger and were elsewhere in the room trying their best to ignore the screams caused by the electrical shocks. Each one was painful to hear, both to the ears and to their heart. It was inhumane. The screams were those of a tortured animal covering the sound of an actual human's. Though at the time, they didn't know.
"Go fish," Nova splayed out the cards that would give him a win then proceeded to bunch up the winnings in front of himself.
"Not so fast my friend."
"No fair," he complained as he saw the cards Iron Fist held.
"The game is meant to be as flexible as the soul," Iron Fist calmly said as he took away all the winnings that were once Nova's, "But right now, I am honoured to have beaten you, my friend."
-Testing. Event 3- The screams of the symbiote rang out once again.
"I do not like this," Danny frowned.
"It's the only way to save Ava," Nova narrowed his eyes.
Both turned to where White Tiger's Stasis pod was supposed to be. In order to create a safe environment to contain the symbiote, SHIELD had to move Ava over to a different part of the helicarrier.
"How long is this going to take, Ms Stacy?" Powerman spoke up.
-We're going through this as fast as we can, Luke. We just don't know how the subject will react to the experiments. And I can't rush Doctor Connors. I am not that kind of doctor. I am here to make sure that the subject stays alive. We may need him later on if the first cure doesn't work.-
-Right now we only know that his blood matches several DNA of Carrier personnel. It also matches the DNA patterns of Spiderman. But that should be obvious. The suit was created from his blood.-
Powerman grunted in reply before striding out.
Danny and Nova just looked at him as he disappeared.
-Testing number 33-
This shock was the same at first. The symbiote cried out in pain. But this time it doubled over as the sound slowly became human. Strands of the symbiote tore themselves off somewhat revealing what was underneath.
"Gaaah! Ahh! STOP!" the distorted voice pleaded for mercy.
Danny and Nova were on edge. Danny pulled on his mask in case, getting ready for anything.
The scientists observing paid no heed though.
-Testing Event 2-
Reaver was now banging his body against the glass trying desperately to escape. The symbiote was now being forcibly removed and dripped some of itself through the vent cracks that made up the floor of the tube.
In the observation deck, a red light blinked warning that the vitals were destabilizing. But everyone's attention was focused on what was happening below.
"We will not perish in the hands of you."
Reaver broke through the glass and rushed at Iron Fist before anyone could react. In seconds, he was now in full possession of the hero.
"Danny, I don't want to hurt you. Fight it. Fight the symbiote off," Nova floated off the ground.
The new symbiote ignored Nova as he walked straight to the exit doors.
- Bar the doors.-
One of the commands echoed into the intercom.
"Hey, Ugly!" Nova blasted Assimilate.
It turned and growled.
"Get your hands off my friend!" Nova fired off another blast.
A mouth split open showcasing rows of teeth and saliva. The blast was gobbled up by Assimilate forcing Nova to try and blast him on other sides. Each of them was absorbed and then redirected back to him in a violent explosion destroying the room.
Assimilate turned his attention to the scientists who were experimenting on him.
"You split us into pieces." Assimilate jumped through the window startling everyone inside.
Assimilate began using the energy he absorbed from Nova to reduce his victims to ashes.
"While possessing other people, we don't have our original powers. But we're still going to make sure that this death will be a painful one. We promise you that."
Assimilate tightened his grip around Dr Connors as he bunched up the remaining energy he still had into a small marble and placed it on the scientist's forehead.
Dr Connors began to squirm as he opened his mouth to scream. But nothing came out.
Assimilate dropped the scientist to the ground leaving him to slowly and painfully die.
Amalia just watched in horror from her place on the floor. Blood seeped from where she was impaled. She was dying in front of the most dangerous creature in at least the country. She didn't know about any other creatures or villains that posed a greater threat than him, but it might be a biased thought as to what she was experiencing right now.
"No. Please don't," she whimpered.
"You didn't stop when we begged you."
Assimilate was walking slowly to her but stopped in his tracks when a banging noise came from the door. He cocked his head questioning what was making that noise.
The door was knocked off the hinges and fell forward revealing Powerman standing there. Amalia sighed in relief.
"Get away from her, Danny."
Assimilate screeched. It could feel Iron Fist start to wake up and fight back inside of him.
"Let's see if you really are unbreakable," Assimilate hissed.
It launched itself at him lashing out with its claws and fangs. Powerman grabbed him and kept him away from his face. He used his strength to throw him into the floor which broke and opened up to a room underneath them.
Their fight was tearing through the Helicarrier as if it were a piece of paper. Personnel scurried out of the way as they barreled through everything.
Each punch that Powerman threw was absorbed by Assimilate and thrown back at him. The glasses that covered his eyes were starting to crack, but his clothes were undamaged. His body was too, but it was tiring him out.
Powerman grabbed Assimilate and threw him into a wall again. This one led to Ava's room where she laid catatonic.
"Do you see what you have done? This is what you did to Ava," Powerman locked Assimilate into a choke hold and forced his face to look at the woman that was lying inside of a tube which monitored her life signs.
"Ava?" The symbiote laxed as it saw the body of his former affection.
"You were sculpted out of Peter's DNA. Yet, you are nothing but a shadow of New York's hero. Peter would never do this. You are a disgrace to his name," Anger blinded Powerman as he tightened the grip around the symbiote.
Without knowing, Powerman twisted his hands quickly and snapped the neck of his friend. Reaver laughed. He got one of his victims to kill off an enemy.
"No!" Powerman came to and realized his deed.
"What did you think was going to happen?" Reaver pulled himself back together into his human form. "We are a symbiote. We do not have a body. You can't kill us. But you can kill those who we possess," Reaver sneered. "Thank you for bringing us here though. Couldn't have done it without you."
They symbiote splashed onto the pod and wiggled into it. Powerman pounded on the glass struggling to grasp at the symbiote and prevent it from entering. But he was too late.
The glass exploded outward as White Tiger jumped out covered in the symbiote. The suit still resembled her White Tiger costume but with an added detail of orange Tiger stripes.
"It seems as though you took advantage of Ava's grief after the demise of our former host," she cackled. "You do know that she doesn't really love you right? She's just hurt and wanted to replace her anguish of Peter with…"
"Enough!" Powerman grabbed her and gave off a shock. "Get out of her!"
Reaver was expelled from his current host and slithered around radically before disappearing through a hole in the ceiling of the hallway.
Powerman was left to his devices with his girlfriend's body in his arms and the corpse of his best friend beside him.
Amalia was trying to get out of the wreckage of the room to rid her sight of the bodies of her former colleagues —Dr Connors was disfigured and shrivelled from his exposure to the energy.
But Reaver stood blocking her path. Fear renewed her vigour as she picked herself up and started running to the where they had kept the symbiote prisoner.
However, before she could jump, Reaver tossed himself at her and enveloped her. They landed harmlessly. They stood up and gave off a wail until the soundwaves punctured through 5 walls giving them an exit.
AN: As I may have unwittingly mentioned in my Author's Note from the last chapter, this story is also on Wattpad. In fact, the Wattpad version updates quite more frequently than here. Every time I finish and flesh out a chapter, it goes straight up over there. While here I update weekly, or try to update weekly. So if you want to read the chapters as they come out, head over to Wattpad. Ultimate Spiderman Symbiotic is #6 on the "Symbiote" tag over there.