Peter made his way home, stumbling due to his sudden lack of strength or energy. He stumbled as he tried to stand on his own two legs, but once he reached the kitchen, he ripped open the door, accidentally breaking it in the process. He then grabbed the milk carton and chugged the entire thing, feeling like he hadn't eaten anything. He then started to feel dehydrated, so he grabbed some water bottles from the fridge and downed them, luckily not drowning due to his strong lungs.

"I'm hungry," Peter muttered as he crawled around the room.

Once he made it to the freezer, he opened it up and found some frozen tater tots. He ripped the bag open, scarfed those down without even warming them up. Despite eating all of that, he was still hungry for more, and that's when he eyed some of the rotten food in the garbage he was supposed to take out. But before he knew what he was even doing, Peter leapt into the garbage and started to eat the garbage food. That, however, seemed to be just enough when black ooze began to flood his eyes and vanish. Peter suddenly felt completely sick from eating the trash and ran to the bathroom. Once he reached it, he spat out the garbage and huddled over the toilet.

"Ugh...what...what is wrong with me?"

While the battle downtown between Leslie and the new black-suited Spider-Man went down, there was someone else who was making their rounds while the police were distracted by the fight. The Black Cat was sneaking around the city, keeping her claws on anything shiny she could get her hands on.

When she made her way back home, she was carrying a duffel bag up a fire escape. Once she made it to the familiar window which led into her bedroom, she slid it open as quietly as she could and sneaked her way inside. When she slipped off the duffel bag, she sighed in relief knowing she had managed to get away with it. With that new goody two shoes of a hero - aka Spider-Man - out there, things quickly became a bit harder for her.

She knew while he was fighting the lightning girl, she could sneak around the city and get some of her activities out of the way. When she took off her mask, there was a figure sitting in a wheelchair in her doorway she hadn't even noticed. When she cleared her throat, that got Felicia's attention; she flinched and spun to shield her bag.

"Hey, Aunt Maggie!" Felicia greeted her aunt with a smile. "Good morning."

"I've been up for a while, wondering where you had been," said Maggie as she sipped her coffee. "Where were you?"

"Just...doing my job," Felicia shrugged and tried to play it off casually.

"Your job is to be a kid," Maggie reminded Felicia, having a good idea what's in the bag. "Not to go out stealing valuables."

"I'm only taking them from people who can afford it, or people who have already stolen it," Felicia defended with a shrug. "I mean, the money I got from Lex Luthor for those jewels should prove that; it was basically a pickup and delivery service."

"Felicia," her aunt said sternly, "your mother sent you here to get you out of this habit." Maggie stated as she looked over the suit she was wearing. "And this...is a step in the wrong direction."

Felicia said, "If I am going to be staying here, I should at least be helping out." She added, "I feel like I'm just a nuisance to you."

"I offered to take you in," Maggie said. Then she raised her hand. "Give me the bag now."

Felicia sighed and knew that it was coming; she did as she was told. She reached out and grabbed the duffel bag, then handed it to her aunt. After a moment of hesitation, she finally let go of the handle and allowed her aunt to take it away.

Felicia warned Maggie, "There's about 2,000 worth of stuff in there."

"Good to know," Maggie said as she rolled off. "You can take these things back later."

Felicia sighed in annoyance, knowing she should have expected this too. She tossed her domino mask onto her bed and wandered over to lie down on it. She had to admit, the peace and quiet of Metropolis weren't exactly what she was used to; even the constant honking and yelling weren't much compared to the noise she was used to. She had to admit, she missed her home. She also missed her mom a little. But Maggie was a sweet relative she rarely got to see often. It was nice to be out of the dreary and misery of Gotham for a while.

Peter was still in the bathroom, huddled over the toilet as he was still trying to get over what had just happened. That's when Lois entered the house and was shocked when she saw the kitchen was destroyed. Kori entered right behind her, wearing a normal sundress that Lois had picked out for her, and carrying a few other bags of clothes.

"What happened here?" she wondered.

"That's what I want to know," Lois said as she walked around the apartment. "Peter, are you here?"

Peter groaned as he opened the bathroom door, still feeling woozy and barely able to stand. "Hi..."

Lois wasn't entirely sure what to do, so she decided to just have them sit at the table where they could lay everything down on it. She had a bit of explaining to do, and Peter wasn't quite sure he could explain. He did his best, explaining everything from that weird dream he had to his recent fight against Livewire.

"Okay, so, things have been happening since your encounter at LexCorp?" Lois questions.

"Yes, and I...I have been hearing this strange voice in my head," Peter said, trying his best to explain. "At first, I thought it was nothing, but then when I almost died, it was like something morphed out of me."

Lois repeated, "Like a parasite?"

"PARASITE!?" Venom screamed in Peter's head.

Peter flinched and looked behind him, expecting someone to be there. "Okay, nope, he doesn't like to be called a parasite."

Lois asks, "He? As in him?"

Yeah, he likes to be called Venom," Peter explains. "I don't quite understand it either."

"Wait..." Kori said, her voice shaking as she realized something. "Lex Luthor was experimenting on a species down there while I was being held captive."

"What kind of species are they?" Lois asked worriedly.

"They're known by many names, but where I come from, we call them Klyntar," Kori explained as she eyed Peter. "They're known to latch onto different species and use them as hosts for their own purposes."

"What?" Peter asked as he jumped up, looking over himself. "How do I get it out?"

"You cannot," Venom stated.

"But I don't understand," Kori said as she stood, walking over to Peter. "From what I saw, humans don't even last an Earth hour with one inside of them."

Peter reminded her, "It's been inside me for a day."

"Yes, which is what is confusing," Kori said.

"Okay, this is fascining, but how do we get this parasite out of him?" Lois asked.

"What did she call me!?" Venom asked as Peter's arm stretched out and a tentacle formed across the room, grabbing Lois by the neck and lifting her. The entire room went into a panic over what to do, as Peter couldn't exactly fight back since it was his arm (albeit covered in goo) that was attacking her. "Call me a parasite again!"

"Whoa, stop it!"

"Peter!"

"It's killing you! I'm killing you!"

"Stop this right now!" Kori demanded as she got prepared to shoot another energy blast at Peter. "I have no thought if this can hurt Peter, but I will help Lois!"

"Wait, whoa, there has to be a better way to settle this!" Peter cried in worry. He then eyed the parasitic tentacle that was killing his mother. "Look, I'm sorry she called you a parasite, but can we please discuss this calmly and rationally?"

They watched as the tentacle continued to strangle Lois, and Kori got ready to shoot it. But then they watched the grip soften and Lois let in a deep breath of air. She was slowly lowered to the ground and released. The tentacle then returned to Peter's body; he sighed in relief to see it release his mother. But then they watched as a pile of the same goo came out from the back of Peter's shirt and morphed into a face. Two giant eyes similar to the Spider-Man suit that Peter wears, and a mouth filled with giant sharp teeth.

"Hello," said Peter, greeting the Venom Symbiote.

"Hello again," Venom snarled as he slithered his long, creepy tongue out.

Peter wasn't sure what to say; he noticed Kori and Lois were just watching him. "So...my friend says you're an alien."

"I thought that would have been obvious," Venom said as he slithered around Peter like a snake. "And after all I've done to keep you alive, you choose to insult me?"

Lois asked, "What is he talking about?"

"It wasn't the boy's skills that kept him alive during that fight; no, I gave him a hand in that department." Venom explains to them.

"That's what happened with that car. That was you." Peter started to realize.

"Yes," Venom replied. "I kept you alive because you have begun to keep me alive longer than any other human has ever done so. You've fed me. Your body...your mutation...instead of killing you, it accepted me. It allowed you to gain my perks. Enhancing all of your abilities tenfold."

Peter asked, "And what does that mean for you?"

"I get to live," Venom stated.

Lois said, "Well, that is a pretty good motivator." She had to admit.

"So, I keep you alive, and you keep me alive?" Peter asked.

"I believe this is what you would call a mutual arrangement?" Venom clarified with him.

Peter thought of it and realized that if this creature could help keep him alive, then it was something that would benefit him. He didn't need to have his mother worrying about him, and he could use his enhanced skills to protect the city even better.

"What do you guys think? Give him a trial run?" Peter asks the women in the room.

"Only if he learns to clean up after himself," Lois said, crossing her arms.

Venom immediately got to work as his arms started to stretch out of Peter, causing him to get pulled around. The tentacles were beginning to clean up the mess that he made during his food rampage. And in the process, he picked up a couple of chairs and pushed the girls and Peter into them before dragging them to the table. They just let whatever was happening to happen and even watched as Venom began to make some dinner from what they had left over. They also noticed how careful he was around the oven and flinched at the open flame.

"Ouch!" Venom cried out to the open flame. It was the first time he had admitted to being in pain, except for when Livewire shocked him.

He then dragged over a few platter of pancakes as a bunch of other tentacles finished cleaning up the entire kitchen and apartment. He then dragged a cup of coffee over to Lois and placed it on the table.

"Ta-da!"

"Okay, he can cook, clean, and stay," said Lois. She was already okay with the creature. "But if he even thinks about hurting you, I'll burn him off the face of this planet."

"I'll gladly help," said Peter. "But I do like this guy. He's careful and nice."

"Ketchup?" Venom asked as he dragged a bottle over.

He squeezed too hard on the bottle, causing it to implode and send ketchup onto Peter's face. "We'll work on that," he said.

And while they were getting acquainted with the new symbiote houseguest, Cletus was in his cell lying on his bed. When a guard knocked on his cell, he was expecting some sort of reaction, like normal. But there was no reaction of any sort from him.

"Cletus! Wake up!" The guard demanded. "Hey!" But there was still no reaction from the monstrous Carnage Killer. "Oh, shoot."

When the guard opened the cell, he approached the monster inside and reached over to wake him up. But when he then reached to grab him, Cletus reacted quickly by impaling the guard through his ear with a pencil. The guard let out a cry of pain as Cletus shoved him against the wall. He took the man's gun and shot the guard who was about to enter the cell.

Then all Cletus had to do was walk out while wearing the guard's clothing to blend in. He was still stuck under the prison, but the card he snatched off the guard was enough to get him out. The prison suddenly went on high alert, but Cletus continued to make his way out of the prison before anyone became any the wiser as to who or where he was.

He was a free man to do as he wished. But only one person was on his mind.

"Lois Lane."

Bruce Wayne was in the Batcave when he saw the alerts go off indicating that there had been an escape from the Metropolis prison. He was shocked when he saw that the escaped prisoner was Cletus Cassidy. He knew the criminal well; after all, there wasn't anyone who didn't know about the monster. The man practically killed people for the fun of it.

"Oh, my! A bad time for the Man of Steel to go missing." Alfred commented worriedly.

Bruce asked, "Alfred, isn't Mr. Wayne due for a trip to Metropolis?"

"I believe so, sir. What is your plan?" Alfred asks.

Bruce fixed his cowl and knew he needed to get to Metropolis. "I have a feeling that this Spider-Man isn't going to be able to fight this killer alone."

"Might I suggest, sir, that you do try not to scare him?" Alfred asks of him.

Bruce pulled up the recent footage of his fight with Livewire. He was a little surprised to see how well he took her down, but also noticed how sloppy he was. This hero needed a true mentor, someone who could at least teach him how to fight without getting himself hurt. Not to mention that this black suit had him fascinated; he realized there was more to it than met the eye.