'Hello Hughie'

Hughie startles awake, dreaming of the moment Robin got taken from him. The never-ending nightmare that has been ruining his sleep every night abruptly ended in a fashion it never has before.

That voice, Hughie thought, who said that?

'I did'

Scrambling out of his bed and erratically looking around Hughie yells in terror, "What the fuck?! How'd you get in here?!"

'I'm not sure, one moment there was a never-ending expanse of darkness, and the next I awoke here.'

"You awoke? What the fuck does that even mean! And why can't I find you?" Hughie has searched almost everywhere in his room, his closet, the bathroom, behind the shower curtain, under his bed. And yet, he can't find where this strange voice originates from.

First Robin, the love of his life dies right in front of him by a superhero he looked up to and now some strange man broke into his room undetected. . . wait is he-?

"Are you a Supe?" Hughie said, collapsing on the floor in anguish. What could he possibly do against a super?

'Am I a super? No, no WE are something much greater than that.'

The Voice chuckles before black ink-like sludge starts enveloping Hughie's body. His confusion and fear morph into surprise as never-ending energy surges throughout his being. He feels on top of the world, he feels strong. Faster, better, he can smell the pungent dirty laundry from across his bedroom, he can hear the leakage in the ceiling from a faulty water pipe, he can see the individual hairs on the small fly landing on his bedframe.

"What is this?" Hughie questions in fascination, his voice now a mere whisper. While holding up his now black-fitted arms Hughie flexed them into a fist and felt the power they could now generate.

'This is US. WE are Venom.' The voice cackles in Hughie's mind, creating a feeling of excitement that suddenly surges throughout him.

Unclenching his fist and studying the claw-like appendages adorning them he just now notices how tall he has become. The complete transformation this new being has brought on had increased his height noticeably, half a foot. Maybe a full one?

Walking over to the bathroom he listens to the creaking the floorboards now make trying to hold his weight. What a fantastic feeling, Hughie thinks, a smile contorting his features.

Turning into the bathroom splashes a bucket of cold water over his new excitement, however, the creature staring back at him looks terrifying. Rows of sharp canine teeth paint his smile, milky white wide eyes, and black ink squirming all across his form, constantly shifting and changing texture like a parasite wriggling about.

"You're a monster," Hughie says with the mouth of the nightmare staring back at him mimicking his movement. The face begins to contort after a moment of silence, showing half of Hughie's face and half of the monsters.

Hughie's face has a mixture of awe and fear while Venom continues to show that same sickening smile.

"I am not, WE are." And with that statement Venom recedes into Hughie's body, showing no trace of ever existing. Hughie starts grabbing at his chest and abs searching for where the being went.

Looking all around him he says out loud "Where'd you go?"

"Inside of you," Venom responds with a chuckle manifesting just its head from Hughie's torso. Coming face to face with the wondrous new abomination Hughie can't help but say "And what do you want?"

"What do I want?" Venom echoes before pausing, his ever-present smile is slowly sewn shut, and the forever-shifting ink coloring his form suddenly manifests around Hughie's legs and walks him over to the mirror.

While Hughie grips the sink for stabilization he comes face to face with himself. Venom's form rematerializes behind him, looming over his shoulder while whispering "I want what you want."

"And what is that?"

"Justice Hughie, We want Justice."

Walking down the stairs Hughie is in a fantastic mood, after all, he has now become Super. Admittedly, his power is terrifying in the form of a black sludge that encases his body, gives him insane senses, has a conscience of its own, and is making him very hungry.

Hughie can smell the old expired milk in the fridge before he even reaches the kitchen, all the new sounds, smells, and sights are disorienting but thankfully Venom helps lessen them to a manageable extent.

Opening the fridge and grabbing the milk to throw it away, one of Venom's tendrils suddenly appears out of the back of his hand and slithers inside the carton.

Hughie cringes, feeling the contents of the old milk inside the carton rapidly lessen, and before he even knows it a crumpled-up carton is all that is left in his possession.

"That was expired," Hughie whispers, suppressing a shiver that threatens to come over him.

'Doesn't matter, nutrients are nutrients no matter the source,' Venom responds while using a tendril to open the orange juice and siphon its contents away. Hughie briefly looks in his Dad's direction to make sure that he isn't witnessing the alien appendage consume everything in his fridge.

After confirming they're safe Hughie hurriedly says in a quiet tone, "Don't consume all the food and drinks in here, my Dad will kill us."

'He is weak, We are strong. There is no way he could kill us even if he wanted to.' Venom seriously responds, pausing his search for more sustenance and instead opting to retract into Hughie's frame and forcibly move his body.

"Wait stop, stop, I was joking, joking!"

Venom walks unabashed toward the couch where Hughie's dad is watching a movie despite his host's desperate pleas not to.

"He won't kill us, it was a joke!"

"What are you whispering about over there Hughie? I'm trying to watch Remington Steele."

As Hughie's dad turns to his one and only son, he can't help but notice the frightened look he has adorned, most definitely due to the loss of his girlfriend.

Even the 45,000 dollars that Vought offered in Condolence money wasn't enough to shake him out of this state. Worried for his son and wanting to get a few words out of him Hugh Sr says "Are you still thinking about Vought's offer?"

Hughie stops moving, coming to a standstill about a foot away from the couch. He hesitates for a moment, looking confused for a brief moment before Hugh Sr decides to hold up the NDA paperwork he has been keeping all this time.

His face quickly contorted into a sneer a second later. "No-" Hughie loudly exclaimed, turning around and heading back to the fridge, "-I am trying to file a wrongful death since supes can't be charged for deaths on the job."

"Hughie come sit."

Opening the fridge and ignoring his dad he continues. "All I need is for Robin's parents to sign off on it and we can send it in."

"Hughie, please. Come sit."

With a sigh, Hughie takes some grapes out and walks slowly to the couch. Venom has been quiet since the forceful ceasing of his host's body, not even making an appearance when the fridge was open.

Sitting down and facing his dad, Hughie can hear his heartbeat rise alongside his father's. Both of them, it seems, are afraid or uncertain of what this talk may bring about. After a few pats on the shoulder, Hugh congratulates his kid, saying "Good for you. You want to make this right, what happened to Robin."

"But you can't."

What? Hughie thought, confused at the sudden turn of events. I can't? I can't get justice for Robin?

"So please, sign this." Pushing the NDA onto his kid's lap Hugh feels bad for what he just did, but it's the truth. Hughie isn't strong enough to go through with this, he doubts that even he'd be strong enough to go through with it.

"What?" Hughie voices out and stands up from the couch, letting the NDA fall onto the floor.

"This is a lot of money, Hughie. We could really use it."

"Money? Dad, th-they killed her." Hughie's features painted his internal struggle, horror at his dad's insistence to not pursue getting Robin justice, surprise that his dad could be so cold at the mention of taking money to pay for a human life, and most of all, anger at feeling so underestimated in all of this.

"You need to be realistic-" Hugh drives home, unphased at his son's angered face. "Even if we could pay for a lawyer and that is a big if, there is no case. Okay, she was in the street."

"She was half a step off the fucking curb!" Hughie's voice shifted slightly towards the end of his sentence sounding offly like the symbiote currently inhabiting his body. Thankfully his dad glossed over the change because of how visibly angry his son was.

"You can't do this." His dad stands and pushes a finger into him.

Pushing his Dad's finger to the side Hughie steps back and says"Why not?! I have the-"

"You don't have the fight."

Hughie stops backing away now, the step he was in the process of finishing becomes frozen. It is like a bucket of cold water rained down upon him, and Hughie stopped the anger-fueled tangent he was about to go on.

"You never have. . .I'm sorry but it's true. Neither do -"

"I do have the fight." Hughie interrupts, staring down at his feet, "We do."

Seeing his son so defeated left Hugh with a horrible taste in his mouth, deciding that talk was enough he sat back down while saying "Okay, do you wann-"

And before he could even finish his sentence Hughie was out the door after leaving his untouched bowl of grapes on the coffee table.

How could he? Hughie thought, feeling the sting of betrayal from having his closest confidant so confidently shoot him down, basically calling him a spineless coward who wouldn't fight for the love of his life.

Maybe he would be right, if in some alternate dimension where he hadn't gained any powers and was still drowning in a sea of hopelessness, loneliness, and fear. But now, however, Hughie has something the previous him didn't.

"Hey Venom," Hughie starts, "Do you believe I can enact Justice for Robin?"

'No.'

"What. . .But you said-"

'You alone cannot do it.'

Pausing in the middle of the sidewalk and disrupting the flow of foot traffic around him, Hughie's expression falls and he is on the brink of collapsing. First his friends, next his father, and now his own superpower doesn't believe in him. Images begin to appear in the forefront of his mind, memories of all his limited interactions with the creature.

"Could. . .Could we do it?" Hughie says, ignoring the attempted shoulder check that someone tried using on him. The loser who tried to move Hughie only ended up hurting himself, almost like running into a brick wall his shoulder just about dislocated.

'Like I said earlier We can do whatever We want. Do you want to enact True Justice on the 'Hero' who killed your beloved?'

"I do."

'Then We shall.'