Chapter 35: Multiversal Grudge
Ryo had never heard V like this. Furious…
So full of anger and hatred.
Sure, he had felt him angry in the past, like when he had expressed his disgust towards Bakugou, but this was different.
There was such hatred present in his voice, a hatred that could be compared to his own hatred for Bakugou, which was saying something.
"V? V! Come on man, answer me!" Ryo said mentally as he started to walk home. With the way V was acting, maybe staying out in the open wouldn't be a good idea.
"Come on V, now you're seriously worrying me! I've never heard you so pissed off." He continued to think about Ryo.
After letting out a growl, V finally decided to speak "Sorry Ryo. But just seeing that little girl... in that costume... made me furious."
"Do you know her?".
"It's a long story.".
"Well, I have all the free time in the world. So what do you say if you explain the situation to me?".
"…".
"V?".
"Let's get home first. Then I'll explain everything to you."
Ryo raised an eyebrow, but decided to increase his pace a little to get home quickly and hear what V had to say.
At this point he was far too curious.
Once he arrived, and after taking a quick look around, he opened the door of the house and entered, closing it behind him.
He walked towards his room, and once inside he sat on his bed saying "Ok, we're here now. Can you come out and tell me what's happening right now with you?"
V's head formed from Rio's left shoulder and turned his white eyes on his host. "As I told you before, Ryo, it's a very long story. I don't even know if you'd be interested in hearing it.".
"V, come on, after what happened it's obvious that I'm interested. I mean, come on, at this point I'm too curious to not listen to what you have to say anymore.".
A few moments of silence passed which were interrupted by V's sigh who started speaking again "Okay... what I'm about to tell you, Ryo, is very heavy stuff. Stuff that may seem impossible and incomprehensible to you, but believe me when I tell you that it's all real. Everything is absolutely true, down to the smallest detail.".
Ryo blinked a couple of times "Is this really that serious?".
"Oh, it absolutely is, believe me. Now tell me Ryo… what do you know about the Multiverse?".
For the umpteenth time Ryo blinked "You mean the Multiverse theory? That there are other universes besides this one we are living in?".
"That's right. Well you see Ryo this isn't a theory at all. It's a real thing. The Multiverse really exists.".
A smirk appeared on Ryo's face, as if he had just heard a joke, and he chuckled for a moment.
Moments of silence passed in which the two simply remained looking at each other with Ryo still wearing that smirk and V with an impassive expression.
Ryo's smile disappeared completely after a few seconds "Oh... you-you're not joking."
"As I told you before, everything I'm about to tell you is absolutely real. So yeah, I'm not kidding. The Multiverse exists and is as real as you and I.".
Ryo put one hand on his chin, while the other rested on his knees "Well… this… this is new to me… so are you telling me that there are other universes out there? Universes like this one but with small differences and universes that are not at all similar to this one?".
"Precisely.".
Ryo sighed. If he had been anyone else knowing that the Multiverse was real, it would certainly have caused him an existential crisis, but right now he was used to things that wouldn't seem possible so the Multiverse thing didn't shock him that much. He was in symbiosis with an alien symbiote, at this point knowing that the Multiverse existed wouldn't have seemed like a shocking surprise.
"And what exactly does this have to do with that chick… that Spider-Woman?" Ryo asked, raising an eyebrow.
An angry grimace appeared on V's face. "It has everything to do with her, Ryo. With her and all those like her!".
"All those like her? Do you want to explain yourself better?".
V heaved a sigh. "You must know, Ryo, that we Klyntar have a hive mind that expands not only for this universe, but for all universes in existence.".
Ryo widened his eyes, fascinated. "Are you serious?"
V nodded "Exactly. The memories and knowledge of any symbiote in any universe end up being part of the hive mind, therefore said memories and knowledge also become possession of all the other symbiotes in all the other universes. Including me.".
"Uh…" Ryo said, scratching his cheek. "Well, I won't deny that this is interesting, but I have to ask again what all of this has to do with this Spider-Woman and why you seem to hate her so much.".
"I was getting to that," V growled, "That Spider-Woman… you should know that in many universes there are variations of her. Alternate versions of her of any type… Spider-Men, Spider-Women and so on.".
Ryo listened to everything, enraptured and fascinated by the words of his symbiote "Alternate versions of her, you say?".
"That's right. And in many universes, alternate versions of me ended up coming into contact with these Spider-People, whether Spider-Men or Spider-Women, they ended up entering into symbiosis with them. Many times these alternative selves always end up entering into symbiosis with Spider-Men, and many times their secret identity is always the same: Peter Parker. For a while these me and these Spider-People live happily, in symbiosis. Then it happens: those damn Spiders get rid of the alternate mes. They break our symbiosis. They hurt us." V's tone of voice grew even more furious "And in our anger we enter in symbiosis with other individuals, who, many times, feel the same hatred to these Spider-People, to have our revenge. Not much different than how you and I entered into symbiosis over your anger towards Bakugou.".
Ryo nodded, gradually starting to understand.
"From that moment on, my new host and I come into conflict with them. They defeat us many times… and in some cases…" V stopped.
"V?" Ryo said worriedly.
"It's better if I show you one of these cases, so that you understand better.".
"Show me?".
"Exactly. Since we are in symbiosis I can show you part of the memories of the hive mind. But only a small part. The hive mind has a whopping 80 billion light years of hive knowledge and memories across all the universes that would explode your tiny little brain. Your mind couldn't contain it all. A smallest fraction of what the symbiotes, and the alternative mes, have experienced.".
Ryo nodded slowly at this.
"Ready, Ryo?".
Ryo nodded with a resolute expression on his face "Let's get started.".
V closed his eyes, starting to concentrate, and in an instant Ryo's mind was overwhelmed by memories.
Not his.
But of the hive mind.
Of one of the alternate versions of V.
He first saw a man, in a bell tower, tearing off the alternate version of V.
He saw how this alternative version of him immediately entered into symbiosis with a blond man, giving birth to the Venom of that universe.
It went straight to another memory, again from that same universe: the man who got rid of the alternative V was in a costume similar to that of Spider-Woman, making it clear that this had to be the Spider-Man, the Peter Parker, of that universe, and was in a skyscraper under construction together with the alternate V and his host, the two separated.
The symbiote was surrounded by the iron bars, groaning in pain from vibrations caused by them, and the individual he understood to be Spider-Man took what looked like a bomb from a glider-like thing at his feet..
Ryo immediately understood what he was planning to do.
And apparently the guest of that V had also understood this.
"Peter!" Ryo heard the blond man shout at Spider-Man, a look of pure terror on his face, "What are you doing?!".
Spider-Man threw the bomb towards the symbiote, but noticed the blond throwing himself towards the symbiote too late, both to reunite with him and to take the bomb off him.
"EDDIE!" Spider-Man, Parker, screamed and looked like he was about to dive to save the blond man, who Ryo now knew must be called Eddie.
But it was too late.
The bomb exploded, completely disintegrating both the alternate V and Eddie, killing them both.
Those memories ended completely and Ryo returned to the real world with a jolt.
He took a few deep breaths and immediately looked at his V, to see that he was okay.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw V's face still there, his white eyes still open, his expression a mix of anger and sadness.
"All I saw… was… was it all…?" Ryo said, still shaken by what he had just seen.
"It was all true. The memories of the me of that universe which then ended up part of the hive mind and, consequently, became memories of all the symbiotes of the Multiverse.".
Ryo nodded slowly at this.
"This happens many times, in many universes. The alternate mes, sometimes with their hosts, end up being killed. From a Spider-Man, or a Spider-Woman, and so on." V began to explain once more "that's why I reacted the way I did when I saw Spider-Woman. Because I know what people like her do to alternate mes and other symbiotes in so many universes. They hurt us. Sometimes they even kill us. When I arrived on Earth and entered into symbiosis with you, when I saw that there were no mentions of a Hero or vigilante with spider powers I thought that we were lucky to live in a universe without a Spider. But instead…" V let out a growl "Fate had other plans…".
Ryo remained silent for several seconds and then started speaking again "And now you fear... that what happened in many universes could happen here?".
V remained silent for several seconds, but his eyes widened when he felt Ryo wrap his arms around his head in a hug.
"I won't let it, V. I won't let what happened to many alternate yous and their hosts happen to us. I won't let this Spider-Woman hurt us. This is a promise.".
V remained silent for a few more seconds, but eventually hugged him back, creating tentacles from Ryo's stomach that wrapped around him like arms. "Thanks, Ryo," V said. "And I promise, too. I also promise that what happened in many universes won't happen to us too. We will protect each other.".
The President, sitting in her desk chair in her office, silently observed Naomasa for several seconds.
His presence there made her think that he had come to tell her if the police force's response to the fact that Honda's capture was of the highest priority, but the detective's rather serious look made her think that the response would not be good. .
"President" greeted Naomasa with a nod "I am here to give you the answer that was given to me by the police regarding what I was told to report during the meeting a few days ago.".
"Tell me." The President said.
Naomasa sighed "Unfortunately the police have no intention of cooperating. It seems that what happened with Shocker scared the police a little. And it seems like it… put suspicions in their heads.".
The President's eyes closed into slits.
She was afraid of where he was going with this.
Naomasa sighed once again saying "They are starting to suspect that there is something wrong with Honda's powers. They say there is something behind it and that the Commission knows more than it wants to show. Ma'am... they will not cooperate until we reveal to them everything we know about Honda and his powers, and that includes their alien nature."
Several moments of silence passed, then interrupted by the President who took a deep breath "Damn…" she muttered "We didn't need this at all. Didn't they say if there is another way for them to collaborate?".
"Unfortunately not, ma'am." Naomasa shook his head "Until we reveal everything we know about Honda and his powers, they won't help us. And so we won't have enough strength to search everywhere for Honda as was planned.".
The President heaved a sigh, rising from her chair to walk towards the huge window showing Musutafu. "We have no choice then…" she said. In any other situation she would have been adamant about not revealing the truth about Ryo to the police, but the situation was different now. "We will have to tell the police everything we know.".
