TheRedeemer1995: Greetings, prospective readers, and welcome back to My Hero Academia: The Venom Inside! Last chapter got us off to a great start, and that's more than enough to fuel the inspiration we need to keep the writing flowing! Legionnaire, do you have anything you want to add before we get the ball rolling on this chapter?
LegionnaireBlaze: If you've seen the Venom movie then you might recognize a couple characters and places. Oh, and there's a surprise in the chapter.
TheRedeeemer1995: Indeed, there is! Also, we can confirm that we are planning a total of six arcs or "seasons," if you will, as well as a sequel. Well, now with all that out of the way, let's get this show on the road!
Chapter II
Venom
Izuku knew that there was something wrong with him when he got out of bed that morning following that horrifying nightmare he had last night, but it had taken Izuku a while to get his brain calmed enough to notice it. For one thing, his damaged leg was decidedly not damaged anymore, and was functioning as well as his other leg. Something that by all logic and reason, should have been impossible even with corrective surgery, if what Recovery Girl told him and his mother was correct, and he doubted it wasn't considering she's one of the few healing Pro-Heroes who have an actual doctorate in medicine.
For another thing, Izuku noticed he was really hungry for tater tots. And chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate. Either that, or juicy, juicy, brains… that last thought almost made him puke, and definitely not fungus, that stuff was absolutely disgusting. Plus, there was no telling what effects they'd have on him if he were to just start eating random mushrooms.
'Where the heck did all that come from?' thought Izuku once he realized what exactly had just run through his head as he dumped a whole bag of tater tots on a frying pan before reaching for some season salt.
"Ooh, that smells delectable… go ahead and throw some on there," said an alarmingly familiar haunting, raspy voice that caused Deku to freeze in place and look around in both fright and confusion at the sound of the voice from his nightmare last night, only to find that there was no one there. And yet, Izuku couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched closely and intently. Then, as Izuku took a look in a nearby mirror hanging from his wall, he leapt backwards in fright.
Where his reflection should have been there was instead a monster that was black as obsidian with demonic white eyes, razor sharp fangs that looked as though they were sharp enough to chew through solid steel, a tongue that looked to be as long as the top part of a python and while not quite on the level of someone with a Quirk that turned them into a hulking brute, Izuku cold tell that this creature was taller and stronger than any normal human being, not counting Mount Lady.
For some reason, though, Izuku thought it was missing something… some kind of mark or distinctive symbol…
Izuku closed his eyes and shook his head, opening them again to reveal that the creature had vanished, and in its place was a fourteen, almost fifteen, year old boy about ready to jump out of his skin.
'Maybe I should start seeing a therapist. I think everything that's happened to me lately is finally getting to me. Next thing I know, I'll be laughing like a hyena and making a box of deadly prank toys,' thought Izuku as he resumed making his tater tots. 'After all, they say all it takes is one bad day to drive you crazy… and I've had quite a few of those lately.'
A short while later, the tater tots were ready, and Izuku was pulling them out of the oven to let the pan cool before putting them all on a plate to eat. However, almost as soon as he set the pan down, the voice from his nightmare spoke again.
"Okay, I tried to do this the nice way, now we do this my way." the voice said before a mass of black sludge or tar gathered from beneath his skin, extended from shoulder, and almost touched his face as the same fanged thing from the mirror formed from it.
"BOO!" the thing yelled causing Izuku to jump back and trip over his own feet. "Going to ignore me now? Hard to ignore something that's staring you in the face isn't it?!"
"Wha-wha-wha-" Izuku stammered in sheer terror as he stared at the thing that closed in on him.
The thing sighed. "And this is why hosts nearing maturity are not the best idea. So volatile and fragile. I need food," it says before heading over to the tater tots and tearing into them with gusto.
Watching all this unfold before him with barely contained terror, Izuku finally was able to speak. "Who-wha-what are you?" he managed to squeak out. "You're not a Quirk, you can't be."
"Hmm?" the thing said, its mouth still full of tater tots as it looked back at Izuku. "Ihma… holon." it says before gulping down its mouthful of food. "I'm a Klyntar, we're a race of hive minded symbiotic organisms… well, something like that. My name, however, is Venom, and you are mine."
"Wha-wha-are you saying you're an alien? And what do you mean that I'm yours?" asked Izuku, panic began to take hold of him, hoping that… literally anyone but a hero would come to help him.
"Aw, you'd throw me out and waste away as a loser rather than accepting the power I offer? Power enough to allow a powerless weakling like you to walk with the false gods you wanted to join the pantheon of? Power enough to finally prove this world wrong about everything they know about it? Tsk, shame…I thought you were better than that, Izuku…" Venom said as he leaned closer to Izuku, a sly smile on its fanged mouth.
Izuku froze. How the heck did Venom know about all that? About what his dream had once been, and what his new heart's desire was? For that matter, how was an alien able to even speak perfectly fluent Japanese?
"Okay, I'll bite. What exactly can you do?" asked Izuku.
Venom laughed as he slithered over to Izuku to look him in the eye. "That's more like it, Izuku! For starters, I can enhance your senses, strength, speed, reflexes to superhuman levels, and allow you to detect impending danger before it even happens, bestow upon you a healing factor that allows you to survive almost injury, even regenerating severed limbs, and that's just the start of the power I offer you."
"And how exactly can you do all of that?"
"When we bond with a host, we copy some parts of them to empower us and help the next host. Like how I gained your insatiable appetite for tater tots."
"Really." Izuku just replied, completely disbelieving him.
"We don't get to pick what sticks, okay?" Venom said with audible exasperation in his voice, before Izuku gets off the ground and dusts himself off and heads for the door, grabbing a hoodie and his fold up cane on the way, despite no longer needing the latter.
"I can't deal with this. I am not dealing with this, it's a hallucination and I just need some air."
A Short While Later…
'You're really going to ignore everything I told you?' Venom asked in his head as they walked down the street, fresh from a confectionary store, pockets lined with every chocolate bar he could afford. As he walked, Izuku just kept silent as he mulled over everything that happened in the past hour.
"All right, if you're gonna stick around, we need to set some ground rules," said Izuku firmly. "First rule: we don't kill or eat people, I remember the hunger for brains, so don't say you haven't eaten them before; all that gets me is a one way trip to Tartarus Prison, and you a one way trip to some government or private lab run by a suit scouting for intergalactic real estate," explained Izuku as he took a bite of chocolate.
'Pussy.' Venom's blunt insult actually brought Izuku up short. Knowing Japanese he could understand, but Izuku had never called anyone that before.
'I've seen your memories of that Bakugou brat… oh, I hope I get to meet him sometime… be fun to knock him down a peg or two… dozen.' Venom said within his mind. That made much more sense, sadly.
"However… we can beat them close to it, and leave them to rot as they serve out their sentences hooked up to a hospital bed," said Izuku.
'Oooh, I do believe I can work with that,' said Venom with a dark chuckle. Izuku could see the symbiote's excited grin in his mind's eye.
"But, only the really bad people. Anyone else who doesn't fit the bill, we beat black and blue but not to the point of near-death, and anyone who surrenders peacefully, we incapacitate, but not excessively harm," said Izuku.
'Oh? And what, exactly, would you define as a 'really bad person?'' Venom asked in a mocking tone.
"Rapists, pedophiles, serial killers, serial rapists, willing kidnappers, knowingly and willingly abusive individuals, psychopaths, any combination of the previous... you know what, I'll just make a list for you to read later," said Izuku.
'Not murderers?' questioned Venom.
"A single murder can be forgiven but never forgotten. Especially if the killer isn't willing, or if it was an accident, like due to a weapons malfunction, for example," explained Izuku. "But if they do kill someone, or more than one person, with the explicit or obvious intent to do so, or show no remorse for doing so, then yes, they have officially forfeited their right to eating solid food or being able to do much of anything ever again."
'I see…' said Venom within Izuku's mind. 'You know Izuku, looking at some of these memories, it seems like you were dedicated to becoming a true hero until All Might finally crushed your dream… and now here you are, plotting to beat criminals into paste as a vigilante… it's madness how much someone can change in six weeks…'
Izuku gave a small smile. "Yeah, well, when you take off the rose-tinted glasses when it comes to these so-called heroes, it becomes surprisingly easy to see the truth behind the facade of the world we live in today: the heroes of today aren't heroes, merely vigilantes who have immunity from the law because they won the genetic jackpot. They give people hope, only to take it away again when they don't have the right powers, or any powers at all," said Izuku. "That's what I want to change. I want to prove that there are no such things as villainous or weak Quirks, and that anyone truly can be a hero, all it takes is the dedication, and the heart, to be better." Izuku finishes as he takes another bite out of the chocolate that was starting to melt a bit from his body temperature.
The next thing Izuku knew was that something small had run into him, knocking him to the ground with surprising force.
'Gah! What was that?!' cried Venom within Izuku's mind. Izuku looked up at what had knocked him over, and was shocked at the sorry state of the child.
'What the heck, she's covered in bandages and cuts!' Izuku couldn't believe his eyes as he got up to ask her where she came from, all it took was one touch to realize, 'She's trembling from fright, who did this to her?!'
"Now, Eri, don't you think you should apologize for running into him?" a man called out from the shadows as he approached them. As they drew near, Izuku could feel the impending danger senses that Venom granted flaring up. When the shadows stopped covering him, Izuku could see he was wearing a facemask akin to a plague doctors'.
"I'm sorry for my daughter, she just keeps playing around and getting hurt. I don't know what to do with her sometimes." The man says with a 'smile'.
'Hey, Venom… remember what I said about abusive individuals, and psychopaths?' Izuku asked Venom inside his mind.
'Yeeeeees?'
'Not while children are around.' Izuku threw the half-eaten chocolate bar at the man's face, making him have a massive freak out while Izuku pulled Eri into his arms and ran at full speed back to his apartment complex.
"Don't worry, Eri." Izuku said to her as they ran, "Your dad won't hurt you anymore if I have anything to say about it."
'If we have anything to say about it.' Venom corrected his host with a noticeable snarl.
'Careful, Venom, or I'll start thinking you care.' Izuku snarked back at his passenger.
'Of course I care! Young ones should never be harmed, even the most vile of my kind agrees on that!'
"Hi, ! !" Izuku says rapidly to the apartment complex's receptionist as he passes by her to get to the elevator.
"Izuku, wha-?" asked Mrs. Chen as Izuku, who appeared to have what looked like a small child that looked malnourished and covered in bandages, entered the elevator and quickly pressed the button for his floor, leaving her completely confused. "I'm not paid enough for this job." she sighed as she went back to her magazine.
A Few Moments Later…
As soon as Izuku got to his apartment, he sat Eri down on the couch, locked the door, and barricaded it with one of his chairs. As soon as he had finished he looked over to the little girl, only to see that her eyes had reddened. Had she been crying the whole way to the apartment?
"That might not hold for long, but it's the best I can do for now. Let's get you cleaned up, okay?" Izuku asks Eri as he approaches her, only for the girl to shy away from him. "Eri?"
Eri mumbled something that Izuku couldn't make out, so he slowly crouched down, "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear what you said. Could you repeat it, please?"
"why…"
"'Why'? 'Why' what?"
"Why did you help me?! I'm cursed!" the little girl screams as she breaks down crying again. Izuku's heart clenched at those words coming from someone so young, especially since he thought the same for a short time.
"Who told you that?" Izuku asked as he sat down next to her. "Eri? Was it your father who told you that?"
"Not m' daddy. Daddy's gone. I ma' him go 'way." Eri said through her tears, and running snot. Izuku rubbed her back comfortingly.
"Eri, just because your dad left…"
"DADDY DIDN'T LEAVE! I MADE HIM GO AWAY!" Eri screamed at him hysterically, making Izuku realize exactly what she meant by that.
"Oh my God… Eri, I'm so sorry…" whispered Izuku. 'So that means that masked man-'
'-really is not her father…' Venom said inside Izuku's mind, his voice filled with growing rage.
'He'll be begging for death to save him by the time we're done with him,' Izuku told the symbiote before returning his attention to the girl in front of him.
"Hey, Eri," Izuku said. "You don't have to worry about that bad man in the mask anymore. I'll take you to U.A, they have specialists there who can help 'break' your curse and keep you safe. If that doesn't work, then… I have a… friend. He'll make sure that masked man can't hurt you or anyone else ever again."
Eri looked up at the greenette, a small glimmer of hope in her eyes. "R-really? They can help break my curse?" she said, her voice trembling.
"Yeah, or at the very least, they can help you learn how to keep it from hurting people you don't mean to," said Izuku with a friendly smile. "Now, come on, let's go get you cleaned up and maybe get you a proper meal for a change. How's that sound?"
Eri sniffled, but smiled up at Izuku.
A Few Hours Later…
The afternoon shadows had begun to form as a much happier Eri, now with fresh bandages, cleaned wounds, and now wearing Izuku's gray hoodie and eating apple slices, made her way to Izuku's side, as the pair got ready to make their way to U.A.
However, while he was cleaning Eri's wounds, he found what Izuku assumed was a tracker chip embedded under her skin, which meant that whatever the masked man was doing needed Eri to work. Actually, if that was the case, Izuku was surprised the man hadn't shown up and tried to take her back.
"All right, Eri, I'm going to go ahead and make sure the coast is clear. I want you to stay here and not open the door for anyone except for me, understand?" Izuku instructed Eri, who nodded to show she understood. "Good girl. With any luck, I'll be able to get you to the heroes and my friend can just enjoy a nice evening at home," Izuku said before he removed the chair from the door and exited the apartment before taking the elevator back down to the lobby.
As the elevator drew closer to the ground floor, the early-warning senses provided by Venom kicked in again. 'Get ready', thought Izuku as the elevator reached the ground floor.
'Gladly.'
As soon as Izuku walked out of the elevator he came across around two dozen armed thugs, and could they look any more stereotypical?
"You people really don't want to do this." Izuku said to them as they raised their weapons to him, some of which looked like grenade launchers.
"The girl, now." the lead thug said as he cocked his pistol.
"Alright, you asked for it. Now!"
"YES!" Venom quickly covered Izuku and grew to their full size before letting out a vicious roar at the group of gathered thugs, who were immediately thrown into a panic.
"What da hell kinda Quirk is that?!" one of the thugs shouted.
"Was da boss actually right?!" another thug yelled.
"Kill it! Open fire!" yelled the lead thug as his subordinates did exactly that, and a few grenades came Venom's way. Venom, however, simply created a shield out of his biomass to catch the grenades and throw them back at the thugs who launched them, rendering them out of commission before charging at the lead thug, grabbing him by the leg, and slamming him into the ground with earth-shattering force, before turning his right hand into a huge mace and using it to lay waste on another group of thugs, breaking nearly every bone in their bodies, before using four tendrils or tentacles of some kind to grab ahold of another group of thugs, lift them high into the air, and slam them into the ground, leaving craters where they impacted before unleashing a mighty roar to the heavens.
Within the apparent monstrosity, Izuku was completely enthralled by everything he was experiencing. Never before had he felt so alive… it was like he had been trapped within a cage for nearly all his life, and now, he was finally free…
It was beautiful…
Realizing the losing battle they were facing, the few thugs that remained decided to turn tail and run for it. Venom, however, snarled and shot something from the back of his wrist at one of the retreating thugs, which latched directly onto the thugs' back, with him being blissfully unaware of it, too preoccupied with running for his life.
'And that should lead us right to their boss,' symbiote and host thought in perfect harmony before Venom took off after the thugs, leaping into the air and crashing through the wall right above the door, shooting a strand of webbing that latched onto a nearby building, and began to follow the thugs' escape vehicle from above, remaining undetected by the thugs during the chase.
A Short Time Later…
The masked man known as Overhaul loaded his hands up with nearly half a bottle of hand sanitizer, still smoldering with rage over that little shit making off with his property. Oh well. Odds were, the little shit was dead now, and his property was its way back to him, and he could resume making his products with little fuss… well, little fuss from his employees and customers anyway. As for the girl… well, he would need to make sure she didn't slip her leash again.
'Ah, speak of the devil, here they come', thought Overhaul as he noticed the approaching vehicle that he recognized as belonging to one of his men. However, as it drew near, Overhaul quickly realized something was wrong, as from what he could see, each of the men inside had looks of sheer terror on their faces, and with a noticeable lack of his property.
"What happened? Where is Eri!?" Overhaul demanded furiously to his underlings. The idiots he sent began babbling over one another, barely able to get an actual word out before a shadow covered them all.
"Oh, you won't be seeing her anytime soon!"
Suddenly, the source of that shadow, a massive black creature with a fang-filled mouth, a nightmarishly long tongue landed on top of the vehicle his men had been driving, flattening it like a tin can before it shot some of itself at his three underlings, trapping them against the wall.
Overhaul reacted as he usually did when someone with a Quirk tried to interfere with his plans, drawing his special gun and shooting the diseased with his cure-filled bullets. Each bullet impacted the hideous creature, except instead of causing the tar-like substance to fall away from the human encased within it, its grin only grew wider.
"Your thugs already tried shooting us, what made you think you'd have better luck?" it said as it extended a tendril, smacking the gun from his hand before grabbing one of his legs and lifting him into the air.
"You cut up a little girl, how about we return the favor? Should it be the eyes first? The lungs, or pancreas? So many options, so little time." Overhaul starred in horrified disbelief at the thing holding him.
"What in God's name are you?"
"We…" it said before sliding its disgusting tongue against his forehead, "are Venom."
Before Venom could do anything, a large cable wrapped around him and pulled him away from the masked man. Venom looked up in rage at his captor to see two individuals, one looking like a gremlin or goblin, wearing purple and carrying him through his hover device. The other had electric blue skin and was wearing a green and yellow suit modeled after electricity or lightning.
'Who the hell are these clowns?'
'The one in the green and yellow is the Living Electricity Hero: Electrus, he's Rank 25 on the Japanese Pro-Hero Chart, the one with the green skin and hover glider is the Halloween Hero: Green Gremlin, he's Rank 24. They work together more often than not, but it's strange to not see either of them with Professor Squid.'
'They must think we're a villain,' Venom told his host before swiping his claw at the cable, severing it in a single slice as Electrus and Green Gremlin circled around him, awaiting his next move.
'We can't be fighting heroes, not yet. We need to get out of here and lie low for a while. We'll deal with this stunted piece of slime and crush his bones into powder another time,' Izuku told Venom as he and Venom looked down at the terrified Overhaul with a look of disgust on his face before he returned his attention to the two heroes.
Venom let out a monstrous roar at the two heroes before making his escape, with Electrus and the Gremlin in hot pursuit, throwing bolts of lightning and concussion grenades shaped like jack o' lanterns at him in equal measure, before Venom shot a web at one of Green Gremlin's grenades and threw it back at the two heroes stunning them just long enough for Venom to lose them as he continued to swing away from them.
Once he was satisfied with the amount of distance he had put between himself and the two heroes, Venom landed on top of a building with a grunt, only to look up and find himself face to face with none other than All Might himself, standing proud and firmly in place as he stared at what he no doubt thought was nothing more than just another villain, likely having been tipped off by Electrus, Green Gremlin, or a concerned citizen.
As the two beings stared each other down, waiting for the other to make the first move, the tension in the air was thick enough to be cut with a knife before Venom finally spoke.
"No more false gods! Not while we're around!" Venom snarled, anger filling his voice as he released a vicious roar before fading away and ultimately vanishing into thin air. All Might kept his guard up, turning left and right, not knowing that his opponent had already fled the scene.
Not Too Far Away…
Venom became visible once again before reverting back into Izuku, now clad in a black zip-up hoodie, instead of the gray one that he had given Eri earlier. As he began to walk away, Izuku's mind was reeling from what he had just experienced. He couldn't believe just how… there was no other word for it, good, he had felt during his transformation into Venom, all the power he had felt coursing through him, that feeling of being truly complete, all of it… it was intoxicating.
Ever since he was four years old, he had always wanted power, the power to protect others, the power to be a hero, just like he'd once thought All Might to be… and thanks to Venom, he finally had the power he'd always wanted. It was a heck of a trip…
'You know Venom, I think you and I are gonna get along just fine,' Izuku told the symbiote within his mind as their purpose became clear.
In a world of heroes and villains, they would be the anti-hero. In a world where All Might was a Symbol of Peace, a false peace, Venom would be a Symbol of Vengeance for the people oppressed by that 'Peace'.
A symbol… Now that was an idea…
'So, after we drop Eri off with the heroes, we need to go over some suit design choices. But, after that, what do you want to do?'
The symbiote laughed. 'Way I see it, Izuku, we can do whatever we want!'
Izuku smiled.
'I like the sound of that.'
TheRedeemer1995: And that's a bingo! Man, the more I learn about the villains in MHA, the more I think they need a Lethal Protector or Anti-Hero like Venom… and before you ask, yes, we're doing ALL THE REFERENCES! ALL OF THEM! Also, yes, Electrus and Green Gremlin are MHA Hero versions of Electro and the Green Goblin. In fact, the corrupt heroes that Venom will be throwing down with will similarly be knockoff versions of Spider-Man villains. And since they are based on Spider-Man villains, they actually ARE corrupt, unlike the ones Stain goes after.
LegionnaireBlaze: Well, the ones we're making Stain go after. There's a lot of debate about if Stain really killed fake heroes or not, but in this story he's going to be a bit of an overzealous All Might fan who see's anyone not acting like All Might to be frauds. That means a lot of the actual frauds get away because of how good they are in their public personas.
TheRedeemer1995: And that means Stain and Venom will be meeting up at some point. Matter of fact, I did consider Stain for becoming Carnage's host, but at the end of the day, too many of his ducks are in a row to be compatible. In any case, if you liked what you saw here, then be sure to fave, follow, review, and join us next time as boy-bonded-to-alien-symbiote meets girl, and Venom officially makes his vigilante debut, white spider and all! See you guys next time! Oh, and Happy Holidays!