'This place is off.' Venom said as we looked around the empty room while I recorded with my phone.

'I mean it'd be weird if it wasn't. Can you place what's wrong here?'

'No. There's definitely no living things here, as I would be able to sense them, but there's still something wrong.'

'Hmmm…'

'...'

'...'

'What are you looking around for?'

'I dunno…'

'Seriously? Aren't you supposed to be smart or something?'

'I mean, for computers, sure? But I'm not some sort of detective.'

'Then why are we even here!?'

'I don't know Venom, I just thought we'd come here and find some sort of big clue or something! This is just an empty concrete room!'

'YOU'RE SHOUTING LIKE THIS IS MY FAULT! I WAS EXPECTING SOME ACTION!'

'THIS IS MY MIND VENOM! I'LL SHOUT IF I DAMN WELL PLEASE!'

'OUR MIND!'

I looked up in frustration and-

'... Umm… Venom… What is that light?'

'I don't know; I'm telling you this place is off…'

'But this room is completely dark, isn't it?'

'For a mere human like you, yes.'

… Oh shit… That's a night vision camera…

'Venom we need to get out of here, now!' I turned around and started heading to the do-

Wait a minute… Where's the door!

'Eddie, what did you do!?'

'It's a trap Venom, we need to-'

"AGH!" I felt how my body was flung against the wall.

Venom immediately went haywire while I sunk inside his anger, losing the grasp over my body.

I felt my mind choke under the blackness, the dark. I desperately tried to get out but my body was not even mine to control.

'WHO!? WHO!!!!? I KILL YOU! I FIND YOU AND I KILL YOU!!!'

I concentrated and managed to resurface; I regained my vision, yet I was still struggling to gain control of my body.

Gas poured out of nothingness as Mysterio materialized in front of us, walking forward slowly.

I was trying to calm Venom but he was angrier than he had ever been; he ignored me in favor of trying to muscle through the steel net that I now noticed we had been trapped in.

Venom fixated our eyes on the man in front of us. He seemed odd, not unlike the rest of the room.

His voice emanated from around us:

"So out of all the assets they could've chosen to infiltrate my premises, they chose this disgusting-"

"SILENCE! YOU COWARDLY PIECE OF MEAT! LET ME OUT OF THESE ROPES AND I WILL- AAAAGH!"

Misterio balled his hand into a fist as electricity ran through Venom's flesh.

"It's rude to interrupt your betters, filth."

Venom tried to respond while my words continued to fall on deaf earsf ears. His locked jaw and spasming muscles kept him from saying anything but grunting noises.

"It is a shame, though; whoever infiltrated my security systems might have proven to be somewhat entertaining, but you seem to be about as sophisticated as the average stuntman."

'Venom you seriously need to snap out of this, we're not gonna break these things if-'

Venom interrupted my attempt at talking to him by struggling against the net and shocking us yet again. I wasn't feeling any pain but I knew that Venom wouldn't last for long like this.

"That being said, even a stuntman will generally know who the director is. So tell me, thing, who is it that is both smart and suicidal enough to mess with me?"

Gatling guns mounted on robotic arms surrounded us and pointed at our head from all directions. Venom bore his fangs.

"I'd rather not waste this perfectly fine bullets on your empty head, so how about you try to cooperate with me, hm?"

"I… KILL YOU!" Venom said, before struggling to get out of the net and getting shocked again.

"... Oh well, I'm sure the autopsy will give me enough answers." The guns started roaring around us as they began to spin.

Everything was out of my control. I felt Venom trying to move my body in futility, saw the weapons close in on my head; Mysterio raised his hand, as if ready to direct his lethal orchestra.

I let go.

I sunk.

I couldn't handle it anymore. I couldn't swim up to the surface, not with these waves.

I suppose I'm going to die.

If I'm going to die I might as well do it down here; up there things are too chaotic, down here it's calm.

Quiet.

Dark.

Comfortable.

I wonder how deep it goes. I wonder what's at the bottom. I wonder why it's getting louder. Why it gets louder as I lose sight of the surface.

I wonder why darkness is bright red.

I wonder why it is that, down here, I'm so fucking ANGRY.

'Venom!' I scowled at the small blob.

It sloshed away from me, pathetically. But there was nowhere for it to go.

'You're gonna make us die? Die like prey?'

'I will kill you!' the blob said.

'You're nothing without me!' It cowered to my voice.

'Silence huma-'

'You are a tick, Venom! And you will cooperate or I will rip you off like one!'

Venom stayed quiet. I remained looking into its soul.

'Do what you have to do.'

I breathed in. Felt the steel ropes pressing into my sides. I grinned.

"Those guns look pretty heavy for those robotic arms." I said.

"What?" Mysterio asked as the spinning slowed down.

"I know fake robotics when I see them. I also know a hack when I see one, Mysterio."

Mysterio's mask swirled in anger.

"That's mighty rich coming from the one who's trapped in my net, filth."

I extended some tentacles as well as an eyeball into my backpack within our flesh.

"Careful, your insults are getting redundant." I retorted.

"I will not have some anthropomorphic shitstain criticize my language!"

"There you go, now make your insults just a little more pretentious and then all of your insecurities will finally be completely hidden."

I merged Venom's flesh into my brain and felt my mind speed up, forcing myself to type with these unfamiliar tentacles on the barely-open laptop.

"Just because your PRIMITIVE nervous system cannot comprehend a GREAT MIND doesn't mean-"

"Oh please, your costume is designed to bring attention to how 'big' your head is; it's about as subtle as 90s CGI."

"Your dismissal of early computer graphics proves just how SMALL-MINDED-"

"Oh, so you are a movie guy!"

"W-what?"

"Yeah, I thought the reference to stuntmen was kinda weird. Thanks for confirming my suspicions."

"ENOUGH!" Mysterio tightened his fist and the electric current passed through Venom's muscles once again.

This time, I felt the pain in full, but I knew that my trump card was now up my sleeve as I rested a single tentacle over the enter key.

"You can claim your insignificant victories: Those guns are fake, meant to extract information from simple, cowering minds. But the electricity that is passing through your body isn't, and it's power is nowhere near its limit either. So as a trophy for your barely above-average intelligence, say your final words."

"AHH!…" I tried to resist my body's contortions. "U… U-H…"

"U-H? Are you playing spelling bee now?" he asked smugly.

"U-H-F… AGH!… I recommend UHF!"

Mysterio lowered the intensity.

"What nonsense are you spouting?" he asked.

"I recommend UHF… you know: Ultra High Frequency Comms?" I looked him in the face as he stepped back in confusion "Harder to jam."

Enter.

Around me everything started to break down. Things clipping into each other, snapping to wildly different locations in the room. Mysterio himself contorting into strange shapes.

I looked around and found a point that was intermittently flashing bright lights and ran towards it.

Once I smashed it, everything disappeared and went dark. Venoms eyes adjusted to the darkness and revealed large pieces of complex machinery.

I was tempted to destroy them, but I had no idea how much time it would take Mysterio to arrive, not to mention that those things could electrocute me or explode.

'Venom, we need to get out of here.'

'...'

'Venom!'

'...'

Great, a tantrum now of all times.

I walked towards the place I thought I had come in through and opened my laptop.

I ran the same code as before but nothing happened.

Oh man, Mysterio probably deactivated all the systems as a last-ditch effort.

'Venom, I seriously need your help right now!'

'...'

'Can you at least enlarge my arms so I can try to break this wall?

After a couple seconds, my arms engorged with unnatural musculature.

'Thanks.' I said as I quickly started punching the side of the door.

I wasn't sure what was the best way to do this so I just striked it like I would a punching bag.

I finally uncovered the rebar and managed to get a grip on it. I lifted my legs and placed them on the sides to give me leverage as I pulled on it.

I pulled with all my might but I soon realized that I had to remove more concrete before I could do this.

Damn! This is taking too long!

Suddenly, my back and legs grew with musculature as well and I quickly managed to pull the rebar towards me, sending the concrete next to it flying in little pieces and letting in a ray of sunlight through the hole I had just ripped open.

'Great! Nice Venom!'

Venom yet again didn't respond. The musculature he had given me shrunk once again so that I could pass through.

I was finally in the alley that I had entered through before. I decided to go to the rooftops again, so I attached myself to the wall and… How did Venom do this?

'Uhh, a little help here?'

'...'

'You can take control again, Venom, it's okay.'

'...'

Uh-oh, this might be more than just a tantrum.

I slowly went up the wall, mechanically moving each of my extremities one by one and attaching them and detaching them accordingly.

When I finally got to the top, I heard some tires screech. A guy quickly got out of the poorly parked car and hurried towards the alley. I hid behind the short brick wall on the edge of the rooftop I was on.

His steps came to a halt beneath the appartment.

"Shit!" he said, in a hushed voice.

A second set of steps indicated the arrival of another person.

"What happened?" The woman asked.

"Something infiltrated the place."

"Something? So there were people spying on us the other day!"

"Well I would hardly describe that thing as 'people,' but yes, and it's powerful enough to brute force its way through my traps."

Of course he won't admit what happened. You're as prideful as they come, huh?

"Well that sure sounds like a fun task for me, I've been waiting for this." the woman said excitedly.

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait a while longer, Shriek." Mysterio's masked form told her.

"What! Why?"

"We still don't know what this thing is, what its intentions are; trying to fight him without information places risk on the plan."

"So what? Am I supposed to wait for you to research this thing and hope it doesn't get a jump on us before you find something?" Shriek said angrily.

"Actually, problems like these have a tendency to solve eachother if given the right… push."

"Stop talking in your corny riddles, Mysterio."

"Just get in the car. We'll talk elsewhere."