(A/N: I do not own Spiderman. That right belongs to Sony)
Venom crept across the rooftops of Forest Hills Gardens, approaching the Parker household at a fast rate. It was a portrait style neighborhood, Venom had noticed. It was an array of pristine looking households which no doubt held many happy families. Not for Eddie, though. After his parents had died, he was shipped off to a miserable orphanage while precious Peter Parker got to live in a practical paradise in comparison with his perfect aunt and uncle. The very thought of this made him sick. Eddie remembering this pleased the symbiote as it fed off his building anger.
The symbiote covered college student kept moving until he was one rooftop away from the Parkers. He crawled all over the roof until he could see May Parker through the kitchen window. Venom could see the elderly lady as she took a tray of chocolate chip cookies out from the oven.
Venom could only sit and stare . He blinked as he could see her set the baking rack on a cold stove, sit down and drink a nice cup of hot tea that had been placed there from earlier it seemed. He watched her just sit down and relax as she just drank her tea and read the daily newspaper.
The symbiote infested 20 year old sat and stared for god knows how long. He didn't exactly know why. He knew what his mission was. Get in, grab her gently and get out for her to be used as bait. That was it. However for whatever reason, he could just only sit there and just look at her.
"Come on, Eddie, we know our mission. We use her as bait and then use her to kill Parker. New York City will be under our protection. No criminal would dare challenge us as we make sure no one goes through what we did" The symbiote said.
In response to this however, Eddie said nothing. The more he stared, nothing really filled his mind except a lingering doubt.
"I…I think we should think this through. May…May Parker never did anything to me. Neither has Gwen. I don't want to hurt them and I feel like going through with the plan we have now will do just that" Eddie had mentally said to his 'love'. He believed he actually meant that too.
It felt so strange to disagree with the actions of the symbiote for the first time but it honestly just felt right to do. It felt so easy talking about this with Osborn on a rooftop in Queens, using them to get to Peter. However, now that he was actually here and now contemplating the idea of using a kind, maternal lady who had heart issues as bait while also sending out an emotionally unstable addict to go for Gwen…it felt incredibly sickening to his core. This wasn't him. He didn't want this.
"No, no, no, Eddie. You're not thinking this through. We're only going to pick her up and coerce Parker to come to us alone so he won't have his little girlfriends as backup. No one's getting hurt but Parker himself" The symbiote retorted.
In response to this, Eddie merely shook his head, not even wanting to entertain the very idea anymore.
"Listen, I want revenge on Pete more than anybody. He ruined my life. Still though…there…there has to be another way to go about this. If she gets hurt in any way…because of me…there won't be a day that goes by where I don't regret it" Eddie thought, shaking his head. For the first time, he seemed to be in a mental conflict with the thing he proclaimed to be the love of his life.
"Eddie, come on. Be sensible here. What would we gain from either of them getting hurt? We've learned our lesson from before. Now we have the opportunity to do what is right and what's right is killing the Spider and bringing in a new era of protection for New York. We'll be heroes once we usher in true justice to criminals like Tombstone and all the villains the Spider locked up in prison but will break out of it again soon enough. We are the future, Eddie. Not Parker. You know this…so let's do our part and we'll all get what we desire" The symbiote said to Eddie, trying with great effort to ease his mind.
Eddie forced his body to stay and contemplate the choices being made before him. When the symbiote had put it like that, it made sense. One could even say it was the logical choice. However, it just…felt wrong. All of this felt wrong.
He remembered how he apologized to Gwen when she and Peter came to visit him at Ravencroft and he was sincere in his apology. Now he was going to use her as bait for Spiderman, something he swore to himself he would never do again? And bringing in Aunt May in as well? She treated him like he was a member of the family and for a long while, she, Ben and Peter were the only family he ever had. Terrifying her for what he and the symbiote had seen as 'the greater good' was just heart wrenching for him.
Finally, after several more minutes, Eddie shook his head. He had made a decision that this wasn't going to work nor was it the right thing to do…and the symbiote sensed this.
"What are you doing?!" The symbiote said, raising its voice at Eddie, something it had never done before.
"I'm sorry but this whole thing is wrong. Punishing both Gwen and May for Peter's wrongdoings is not the right way to go about this and I'm not going to let either you or me be a part of this any longer. We're just going to find Peter and settle it with him once and for all" Eddie had said to the symbiote.
After he had said this, Eddie turned around, ready to get out of there and find Peter. However, at that moment, he had become practically frozen where he stood. He couldn't move a muscle no matter how he tried to move, his body utterly twitching as he tried to move forward with no avail.
"What..What's going on? Why can't I go anywhere?" Eddie asked, growing concerned and a little scared.
"We've waited too long for this opportunity and this is the only chance we've got. We're not letting you throw away months of planning because you suddenly get a change of heart" The symbiote answered, not taking no for an answer it seems.
"Wha…how…I-" Eddie stuttered, trying to find some way to make this make sense.
"We've been bonded for a long time, Brock. Much longer than we have with Parker. Every day, we've grown stronger. We fed off your anger and your hate until we arrived at this moment. Now we have more control than ever. Before, we could only control Parker when he was unconscious but you don't have even a quarter of his strength…so you're a much more feasible host to manipulate" The symbiote said.
Eddie didn't know what to say. At this point, he was completely terrified. This was the love of his life? This was something he had wanted to spend the rest of his life bonded with? Jesus Christ, what had he done?
"We sense a great fear in you, Eddie. It's not quite the same as anger…but it suffices us nonetheless. You have no need to worry, though. We'll still get what we want and together, we can rule over this city once we take down Spiderman" The symbiote proclaimed.
"N-no. Please…please don't do this. This isn't right" Eddie practically pleaded at this point, not knowing what else to do.
"Enough of your whining, Brock. That was always something we hated about you. We're doing this job and doing it right" Venom had said and began to take full control of Eddie's body, pushing Eddie's pleas aside.
The symbiote, now in full control of Eddie's body, leaped from the rooftop to the ground, ready to go forward with the plan.
*Meanwhile, inside the Parker Household*
May Parker had finished her daily dose of New York City news and placed the newspaper down. She got up and stretched her back, taking a deep breath. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to call it an early night. Besides, Peter had a key and was fully capable of taking care of himself for her to stay up all night worrying about him. She just hoped he would get back at a semi-decent hour.
As she stood up and began to make her way from the kitchen to her bedroom upstairs, there was a sudden knock on the door. This caused May to turn from the staircase to the front door with a raised eyebrow. That's odd. Who would be here at this hour? A delivery man delivering Peter's usual science equipment that he had used in the basement downstairs? Maybe so. It was odd she didn't hear a delivery truck coming or anything though.
The elderly woman approached the door and opened it gently. However, she was surprised to find that there was absolutely no one and nothing there. Not even a package. She stepped outside, stepping down the stairs of the porch and looked to see if there was anyone there except she could not see a living soul. She just blinked repeatedly at this and after a while, just scoffed and rolled her eyes. Must have been a few neighborhood jokers playing a good old fashioned game of ding dong ditch. For heaven's sake, kids these days needed something better to do with their time.
May turned around and went back into the house, closing the door and locking it behind her. However, when she turned around, she let out a frightened yelp at what she saw.
In front of her was who she read as the monster 'Venom', who was standing tall in the middle of her house.
"Shhhhh…don't be afraid. We're not going to hurt you, Mrs. Parker…you're only going to lead us to someone we REALLY want to hurt" Venom said before letting out a cruel chuckle.
May stepped back and tripped as she stumbled backwards towards the ground as Venom started walking towards her, still laughing and letting out his long, slithery tongue.
*NYPD Police Station*
"And you're absolutely sure about this?" Captain George Stacy asked as Spiderman, Firestar and Black Cat were huddled around in his office desk while both Sergeant Carter and Officer DeWolff, his two most trusted officers, stood behind him. Several ongoing police officers sneaked glances in the room. It wasn't every day three costumed superheroes were gathered in the NYPD.
"Yes, sir. I'm sure. Both Venom and the Green Goblin are back…only, er…it isn't exactly the Green Goblin we've known from before" Spiderman said, trying to explain the situation.
"Yeah, because you blew the other one away, right?" DeWolff said in a slightly untrusting voice, her eyes narrowing on the red and blue costumed vigilante.
Spiderman stayed quiet as he had absolutely nothing to say to that remark.
"It's not exactly like he had an array of options laid out before him in the scenario" Black Cat said, raising an eyebrow at the woman cop.
"I thank you for putting in your two cents, Black Cat. I'm so glad to hear you've also apparently changed your ways from being a cat burglar to being another vigilante, just what the city needs" DeWolff said, her eyes beginning to glare at said anti-heroine.
"That's enough. Bickering is not going to keep this city safe…I appreciate you coming to us, Spiderman. This definitely is troubling news. We're going to need to put out APBs on both Venom and Harry Osborn" George said, standing up from his desk chair.
"And we're just going to let him order us around now, I guess?" DeWolff asked with a raised eyebrow towards her captain.
George just placed his hand over his eyes and sighed, shaking his head. After a few short moments, he placed his hands down and turned back at the two cops.
"Listen, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of the fact that we have vigilantes in this town. I'd like to go back to when we didn't even have supervillains in the city to begin with but the times have changed. Fact is we can't deal with the likes of either Venom or the Green Goblin on our own. Not yet at least. If I'm forced to put the safety of our city in someone's hands, I'm glad it's Spiderman, the man who saved my own daughter on more than one occasion" George said, turning his head towards Spiderman with a light smile.
Spiderman felt himself get all warm and fuzzy inside. He had a weakness for sappiness.
Carter and DeWolff looked at each other. Carter gave a nod while DeWolff stood still for a moment before rolling her eyes and letting out an audible sigh.
"Yes, sir" DeWolff said. With that, both her and Carter left the room, getting ready to go out on a search for Eddie and Harry.
Spiderman looked to George as he turned around.
"Thanks for sticking up for me, Captain" The spider hero said, letting out a smile behind his mask.
"It's nothing, really. I owe you a lot for all you've done for this city…and for my family" George said, letting out a light smile as well before getting back to business. "Do you have any idea where they could have gone?"
"We don't really know, sir. For all we know, they could be anywhere" Firestar said, rubbing her forearm, feeling a little bad they didn't really have a whole lot of useful information to share.
"Yeah, I was afraid of that. Guess that's the cost of operating in one of the largest cities in the world. Anyway, it doesn't really matter anyway. We'll have to put out APBs for those two anyway. Here" George said as he reached into his desk and got out a little earpiece. He came around his desk to hand it to the spider hero.
Spiderman raised his eyebrow as he looked towards the police captain.
"It's a two-way earpiece. When we find either one of them, I'll let you know so you can come help us handle it, assuming you don't find them first that is" George explained.
"Oh wow, cool. I'm like a Spider Cop now" Spiderman said as he examined the device.
Both of the females behind him groaned. They really hoped this wouldn't be a usual pun of his.
"Uh…yeah, sure. Whatever you say, kid. Anyway, I have to get going. Let us know if and when you spot them" George said as he started to leave his office, passing by the heroes. However, right before he left the room, he turned his head back towards him and opened his mouth one last time.
"Oh and…be careful, son…please" George said, giving a bit of a semi-worried look before leaving the room.
"Huh…I'm getting a bit of a slight 'son I never had' vibe here" Black Cat said, turning to her boyfriend with a raised eyebrow.
"I still do think he knows and just doesn't let on" Firestar said, agreeing with Cat.
"Can we please talk about this later, we need to get together and plan out what we're going to do" Spiderman said to the ladies.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's get out of here. It makes me feel icky being in here, being with all these cops. I feel tremendously out of place" Cat said, shivering.
"Really? With your background, I would've thought this would be a home away from home for you" Firestar said, snickering a bit at Cat's expense. Even Spiderman had to let out a little chuckle at Firestar's little quip.
"Yes, you're such a comedian. Seriously, let's just get out of here and regroup on some rooftop nearby. We need to figure out where those two are" Cat said to the two laughing hyenas of superheroes.
*ESU Laboratory*
Curt and Martha Connors were both still in the lab, awaiting any news that could come from Peter about Eddie. They just sat and worried about the both of them as they both sat in the lab office.
"We never should have agreed to take in that ooze to begin with. We should have just let it go with the government and let them deal with it" Martha said, beginning to pace back and forth throughout the office.
"I doubt they would have known what to do with it, much less have had any use of it" Curt said, disputing his wife's suggestion.
"With how many secret organizations they likely have under their watch, there's probably at least one" Martha retorted back to her husband.
"Honey" Curt said, standing up and walking towards his wife. He stopped her in mid tracks as he placed her hands on her waist and made her look him in the eye. "There's no possible way we could have known things would get to this point"
"That's exactly why we shouldn't have interfered. This was an alien lifeform from god knows how many planets away that we're likely not even close to understanding and we let it infect our very own lab assistant. We…" Martha said, having to take a deep breath in between her sentences as she began to lose hold of her emotions. "...We caused that, Curt"
Curt just sadly looked at his wife's face as a little teardrop began to roll down her face. He stared for a moment before opening his mouth again.
"We're going to fix this, Martha. We're going to help Eddie however we can. I promise you that" Curt said, grabbing her hands and pressing them to his lips. This succeeded in calming Martha down a tiny bit as she started to get a hold of herself.
The redhead looked up at her husband with a soft smile which he returned. They both leaned in for a bit. However, just as their lips were about to touch…
A loud explosion went throughout the lab. Hearing this, both doctors jumped away from each other, covering their ears from the loud explosions. They landed on the floor as their ears began to ring as a result of the loud bang.
"What the hell was that?!" Martha said after gaining composure and standing up.
"I have no idea" Curt said, getting up from the floor as well. He went to the office window and looked through the blinds that had been covering them. He lifted one up to see what was going on.
From the outside, Curt could see the lab doors had been detonated open. Smoke and debris had blocked the line of sight from the outside at first. However, a few moments later, he could see a figure. Actually, scratch that. He could see two.
As the two figures settled in, it could be seen that one of them was dressed in practically weapons grade armor. He was also wearing a mask that covered his face. All that could be seen was short, stripey red hair. The 2nd figure Curt could see was…Gwen?!
It was indeed Gwen Stacy being dragged inside the lab, her face covered in tears with her eyes filled with fear and a hint of sadness.
"Ah…so this is where it all started, huh? Where he was born" A mechanical voice said from behind the mask.
"Curt, what's going on?" Martha asked, whispering hurriedly in a frightened tone.
"I…I don't know. It's a man…it looks like he's holding Gwen hostage or something" Curt said, a worried expression rapidly growing on his face.
"What?! Wh-wh-why?! What does he want?!" Martha asked question after question, having no clue what was happening.
"I…I don't know. I need to get out there" Curt said, reaching for the door before his wife stopped him.
"Curt, no! We don't know what's happening here! You could get hurt" Martha said as he grabbed her husband's arm, trying to prevent him from leaving.
"It's the right thing to do, Martha. This guy came to this lab for a reason, something he likely wants from us. If I could save Gwen from this, I need to" Curt said, looking at his wife with a determined look.
Martha was about to open her mouth in protest before she could hear a little cry from Gwen which caused her to stop her line of thinking in its tracks. She blinked rapidly to keep in pace with her heartbeat. After a while, she simply closed her eyes and nodded.
"Ok…please be careful" Martha said, letting go of her husband's arm.
Curt nodded back at his wife then turned back at the door. After taking a deep breath, he opened the door, leading outside to the lab where the mercenary looking man and Gwen had moved from the lab doors to the middle of the room.
"Stop!" Curt had said to the man who had turned his head towards the blond doctor.
After a brief deadly silence, the man let out a chuckle.
"Ah, Dr. Curt Connors. Exactly the man I wanted to see. I was wondering if you could help me with an issue I'm facing at the moment" The man said.
"I can help you with whatever it is you need but please, just leave Gwen out of this. She has nothing to do with this" Curt said, almost pleading with the man
"You see, that's where you're wrong" The man said as he grabbed Gwen by her shirt and lifted her off the ground. "I'm afraid she's quite important for what I'm wanting right now"
"...And what would that be?" Curt asked, practically dreading the answer.
"Spiderman…and his dead body laying at my feet" The man proclaimed as a bit of hate filled his voice.
Curt just started intensely at the man's mask as he conjured up what words to say next.
"...Well…as you can see, he's not here so you've clearly wasted your time, I'm sorry to say. I can help you in other ways. You're obviously pretty mentally sick. Why don't I call someone who can come down and settle this for you" Curt hastily suggested.
As he began to turn around to call the police, he could see the armored man pick something from a large compartment from his bulky looking belt. Curt's eyes widened as it looked to be a grenade. No doubt the same kind he used to blow the doors open.
"...Please don't do that…or I'm going to have to do something I really don't want to do…" The man said, threatening him to stop.
Curt froze in his tracks as he looked from the bomb to the man's mask.
"...Who…who are you?" Curt asked, almost whispering as fear began to overwhelm him.
"Call me the new and improved Green Goblin" The man said as he placed the bomb back into his belt.
"Green Goblin? But…I thought that…" Curt stammered to say before he was interrupted.
"Like I said, new and improved. Now anyway, I'm aware that this is the birthplace of Spiderman, yes?" The self proclaimed Green Goblin asked as he let go of Gwen and started walking around the lab.
"...I….I have no clue what you're talking about" Curt said, shaking his head and pretending to be confused.
"It's so cute that you think you can fool me. Peter Parker came here for a field trip more than a year ago and he was bitten by a genetically mutated spider. That's correct, yes?" The Goblin asked, looking by various tanks of genetic experiments including lab rats and guinea pigs.
"Y…Yes. That's true. However, you wouldn't be trying to insinuate that he's-" Curt tried to say before the Goblin became bored and wanted to get to the point.
"Yeah, we can skip over you trying to convince me he isn't. I've already been through it once already. What I'm saying is that if that Spiderman got his powers from a teeny little spider…then I wonder…" The Goblin said, coming across a glass tank of an abundance of large mutated spiders. "...What exactly would happen if someone was bitten by one that's all grown up"
"What?! No! Are you insane! The effects would be immeasurable! The person who would get bitten might go through mutations not seen today in genetic splicing today" Curt said, knowing full well what he was saying given his personal experience.
"I know…which is why I'm so glad I found my volunteer" The Goblin said, turning towards Gwen who just stared at him blankly.
Curt looked from the Goblin to Gwen with his mouth agape.
"No! No, you can't! If…If you have to do this, please take me instead" Curt said, stepping towards and blocking Gwen, covering her as best he could.
The Goblin sighed and walked towards the both of them. When he was close enough, he grabbed Curt and threw him across the room, his entire body colliding with the office wall. As a result, his wife came out and shrieked as she found her husband laying flat on the ground, groaning in pain. She quickly went to his side and pulled him up into her lap. Concern turned to anger as she turned towards the Goblin.
"Who do you think you are?! Why are you doing this?!" Martha demanded.
"Listen, I'll be straight with you. I'm just after the Spider more than anyone. He took everything from me and now I'm going to make him pay. If you don't do exactly what I say, I'm going to turn Gwen here into a pretty little spider" Goblin said, running a gloved hand through Gwen's silky blonde hair as he leered over to the glass tank of fully grown mutated spiders.
"Don't listen to him, please! He wants to kill Peter!" Gwen pleaded with them, trying to dissuade them. However, her cries were then muffled as Harry placed a hand over her mouth.
"Shhhhh. Quiet now, dear. Daddy's talking" The Goblin said, mockingly 'consoling' her. His head turned back towards the two doctors.
"Please just give me your phone. That's all I ask" The Goblin said, holding his hand out.
"Why…my phone?" Curt said, coughing mid-sentence as he began to lean up.
"He trusts you more than me at the moment and will actually pick up. This way I can entice him over here and then we'll settle our business man to man" The Goblin explained to the recovering doctor.
Curt just stared silently, constantly looking from both Gwen to the Goblin, not knowing what to do. It certainly wasn't an easy decision to make on the spot.
Finally, the Goblin got impatient. "No? Ok then"
He began to walk towards the tank of mutated spiders again. Once he was there, he removed the top and began to reach carefully down for one. Thankfully for him, his armor protected him from any bite he would receive.
"WAIT! Wait" The blond doctor said. The Goblin then stopped then slowly turned his head toward the doctor, waiting for his next move. Gwen could be seen almost violently shaking her head.
"Here" Curt said, taking out his phone and presenting it. Martha just stared at her husband, her face unchanged from her frightened state. A chuckle could be heard from under the Goblin's mask
"There…was that so hard now?" The Goblin said as he walked towards the two doctors and snatched the phone from Curt's hand. "Now the show can really begin"
The Green Goblin's successor opened the contacts and flipped through it. He could see Peter's number and pressed it. The phone began to ring out to one Peter Parker