She was in free fall, spinning out of control. She tried not to windmill her arms, electing instead to plunge headfirst through clouds into a large body of water. The liquid closed its grip on her and yanked her inexorably downward, aided by her sodden puffer coat. She attempted to free herself but only managed to entangle herself more tightly. Fear gripped her, and her heart felt as if it had melted within her chest. She kept her head and refused to let panic overtake her. She kept getting dragged down, the farther upwards she tried to kick. She was tiring quickly, and things were getting fuzzy.
Something hard grabbed her by the hood and hauled her out of the bay, landing her hard on the concrete.
"Give her mouth to mouth," Venom suggested to his partner, Eddie Brock. "Make sure she's breathing."
"I know how to do rescue breathing," Eddie snapped as he rolled the girl on her side to clear her lungs. She coughed up a copious amount of nasty salty water.
Right on cue, a gray suit of armor plunged into the bay and became entangled in a cloud of kelp. seaweed.
"What was that?" Eddie asked as he helped her sit up and get out of the sodden coat. She was all too happy to comply.
"That was an Iron Man drone gone wrong, War Hammer," she said hoarsely. Her throat was on fire from the salt water she'd just ingested, and her stomach felt queasy.
War Hammer rose majestically from the water, dripping with seaweed and saltwater. Its red eyes were lit up and it scanned the concrete determinedly. Narrowing on its prey, it announced "Target acquired. Terminate Trinity Stark,"
"From neutralize to terminate. Who are you working for, anyway? Nobody's terminating me today," Trinity snarled. She raised the bow she'd managed to hold on to but watched in amazement as her savior transformed into a black warrior, pounced on the suit and promptly devoured it.
"He tasted terrible," Venom complained. "Like nothing I've ever eaten before."
"I thank you," Trinity said in awe, "but what in the world are you?" She didn't even have the energy left to swear.
He morphed into Eddie again. "We are Venom. Lethal protectors of San Francisco. And you are?"
"Ready to pass out," Trinity quipped before slipping into unconsciousness. It had been too long of a day, and a weird one at that.
Eddie picked her limp, dripping form and hoisted her over his shoulder. "How are we going to get her to our place?"
"The same way we got here," Venom told him. They transformed and very carefully carried her across the city to their warm, dry apartment.
Trinity awoke hours later, wrapped in a blanket and sprawled on a platform bed. Her hair was stiff with salt water and her eyes felt scratched.
"Hey, Mister. Do you have anything clean I can put on?" She'd roused halfway through the journey to their home, in the black clutches of Venom. "Venom?" She remembered what the man had told her, right before she'd passed out.
"Clothes are on the foot of the bed," Eddie said from the kitchen. "Do you drink coffee?"
"The blacker the better," she replied as she shrugged into his Mumford sweatshirt and a baggy pair of sweatpants. She gladly discarded the ruined dress. It just wasn't really her style. Yes, she enjoyed dressing up, but that dress had been meant to impress Pepper. It really wasn't her preference.
She stumbled into the main living area of the apartment. Her eyes felt like fire; her throat burned like what she assumed strep throat felt like. She wasn't sure, since she was immune to the ailment.
"You look like hell," Eddie said as he observed her. She sat at the table, shielding her eyes from the light, which was much too bright.
"Gee, thanks. I feel like somebody dropped me on my head," she rasped. She gratefully accepted the proffered cup of coffee and sipped it cautiously, wincing as it sliced down her throat.
"Is this what saltwater does? It sucks."
"You almost drowned," Eddie reminded her. "You look like you've got a case of pink eye from the contaminated bay water. I want Dr Dan to take a look at you."
"Is he used to treating inter dimensional travelers?" she asked, drinking the coffee once it cooled further.
Eddie blinked. He knew about inter-dimensional travel, having done it himself recently. It hadn't been a pleasant experience.
"You can do that?" He sounded shocked. He'd never met anyone who'd done it except for him and Venom.
"Apparently so," she said sarcastically. "Here's your sign." She rolled her swollen, bloodshot eyes at him.
"I like her," Venom said appreciatively. "She's smart."
"What do you know about portals, anyway?" Eddie was skeptical.
"Toolbox," she said, and a small portal opened. She reached in and withdrew her purse, arrows, and various odds and ends.
"Oh, I want her ability," Venom murmured in Eddie's mind. "I can almost taste it I want it so bad."
"Stop it," Eddie said immediately, out of habit.
"Stop what?" Trinity looked at him like he was crazy,
"Oh, Venom is interested in your ability. He says he wants it. I told him to stop lusting over it. He can't have it."
"I don't want to steal it, I only want to share it," Venom pouted, appearing from Eddies back. "I can do that, you know. It's one of the perks of being a symbiote."
"Symbiote, as in a symbiotic relationship?" she asked with curiosity. This was different from anything she'd ever encountered before.
"Yes!" Venom was excited. "Mutually beneficial for both parties involved."
"You know, some might disagree on that point, but yes, it's a good example." Eddie corroborated. "We've helped each other out of a lot of scrapes." He looked at her red, swollen eyes critically. "I'm calling Annie and Dan. I don't like how red your eyes are. What size are you, anyway, extra small?"
"Small," she said in surprise. What was this Eddie up to?
Anne and Dan came over a couple of hours later. Dan had antibiotic eye drops and pills for her to take. Anne brought clothes and pajamas for her to wear.,
"Honey, who is your dad?" She asked sweetly as she gave the clothing to her.
"Tony Stark, the industrialist," she said, thanking Anne for the clothes. The pjs were super soft and cozy, like a giant snuggle. Eddie choked on his coffee, and Dan pounded on his back.
"The iron guy?" Eddie said in awe. He remembered hearing about his hero's sacrifice from their brief jaunt into her dimension.
"Iron Man," she corrected. She saw the glum expression on his face and bristled. "What? What are you not telling me?"
"I don't know. When was the last time you saw him?"
"Yesterday afternoon," she said defensively. "He told me to stand down so War Hammer wouldn't attack. I told him it was already programmed to neutralize me and Pepper, that I couldn't back down. That's when I ended up here."
Eddie was confused. How could Stark be dead yet alive? It made no logical sense.
"I'll explain it to you later," Venom murmured. "Her dad is going to die sometime in her future. We did a little time traveling in addition to dimensional travel. I need to find out how developed her talents are."
Dan put the drops in her eyes for her and listened to her lungs, just to make sure she wasn't suffering from dry drowning, but Eddie and Venom had been on the scene quickly enough to help her.
Later that evening Venom put Eddie into a deep sleep and went to Trinity. "Do you want to see the city with me?"
"Sure. I would love to," she said eagerly. Venom melded with her and took her to his favorite high spot. They looked over the city, enjoying the night view.
"You aren't using the full potential of your gift," Venom told her accusingly. "I can help you there. I have six million years of hive mind experience to draw from. I can teach you to be a great warrior."
"I would love that," she admitted, a bit shyly. "My dad and foster dad are my heroes. They are great warriors."
Venom taught her to make purposeful, specific short jumps. He started her by starting on two feet jumps from place to place. That way, if she was in a fight, she had the element of surprise by hopping around. He also taught her some alternative fighting techniques to supplement skills she already knew.
Trinity got a job at a big box store, courtesy of a fake identity that Eddie helped her obtain. He became her Uncle Eddie, and aged her up a bit, so she was able to work full time. He and Venom didn't see any need for her to become involved in their misdeeds, however. There was no telling how long she would be in their dimension. No need to complicate matters by exposing her to too much infighting.
She was stocking shelves in the candy aisle of Cmart one evening when she heard a young child giggling behind her.
"What are you doing?" Eddie hissed quietly as he perused the selection of chocolates. Venom was partial to anything dark chocolate and Reeses, especially after Trinity told them that peanuts were even higher in pheylaline than chocolate.
"Me? Nothing." Venom tried his best to sound innocent.
Trinity turned around and choked back a laugh. Venom was playing a game of peek a boo with the child, who was erupting in fits of giggles. It was all well and good until the mother turned and caught sight of Venom. Shrill screams followed. Eddie grabbed his candy, and they took off, bounding over shelves with abandon.
She was late coming home that evening; Venom had made an awful mess for her to clean up, but she didn't mind; the look on the woman's face was priceless. It was even more satisfying to say she hadn't seen a thing, that she must have been hallucinating. She'd seen her wailing on her child in the store before, and it gave her great pleasure to humiliate her in the worst possible way.
On her way home another evening, she decided to check out the convenience store close to Eddies apartment building. She wanted something to drink, and Eddie didn't believe in sodas. He said they were simply full of sugar and chemicals. As she approached the door, she saw a husky Hispanic man with a knife threatening the proprietor, who was attempting to stock her shelves.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the Asian lady said dryly, looking up from her seated position on the tile. "I've got protection you don't want to mess with."
"Yeah, right, lady. You're going to start emptying out your cash register right now." The hapless youth brandished his knife, jeering at her. He started to jab at her, and Trinity sprang into action.
'Portal in, portal in, she thought to herself. She ended up practically on top of the assailant.
Outside the shop, Eddie watched her bounce around in amazement. Something about the way she was moving reminded him of Venom.
In the melee and close range hand-to-hand, she accidentally snapped the neck of the burly man. He dropped to the floor and landed with a sickening thud. She froze, looking down at her hands in shock.
"I can't believe that worked."
"I take it this is the first time you've ever killed somebody?" Mrs Chen asked sardonically as she scrambled up from the floor. The entire frenetic fight had lasted less than a minute.
She nodded mutely. "What to do with the body?"
She started opening a portal, but Mrs Chen stopped her. "That's not going to be a problem, honey." Trinity looked up and saw Venom striding towards them, grinning like a fool, tongue out in anticipation of a good meal. The bad guy was gone in short order.
"Nice moves. Can we keep her?"
Eddie morphed back into himself and saw that Trinity had sustained a nasty gash to her arm. "Only if we cover her hide in something more appropriate."
Dr Dan looked at the ER waiting room. It was uncharacteristically quiet for a Friday night. The only person sitting in the uncomfortable chairs was Eddie, and even he was calm, completely relaxed. Strange things were afoot.
"Dr Dan, we have a knifing victim in room one," the nurse said briskly. "She's young."
He blinked when he went in. Trinity rested on the er bed, waiting. He looked at her vitals and thought to himself that he had never seen such perfect vitals in his life. They were like the vitals of a young goddess or something.
"Ok, Trinity, let's see the damage," he said professionally, holding out his hand.
She smiled and laughed, but he could see the pain reflected in the glaze in her eyes. "Please, call me Brewster. It's my Pops nickname for me."
"Brewster? Why Brewster?"
"Remember the old tv show Punky Brewster? Well, he decided that I'm trouble like her, and it fit. Brewster is a much more inventive way to call someone a troublemaker."
Dan laughed and conceded the point. Intelligent man.
It took thirty stitches to close the wound. It took Eddie a week to find a leather duster for her to wear, something that she liked.
"I feel like Ronin in this getup," she said. "I need someplace to put my bow and my bo."
What drove her nuts was the look of pity that would cross Eddies face every now and again, on off evenings, when he didn't think she was watching. Even Venom occasionally had the look. It made her insecure.
Finally, one evening, she'd had enough. "What is it with you two? Why do you keep looking at me like I've just lost my best friend or something like that? What is going on?"
Eddie didn't know how to respond, so Venom took over. "Your father, Tony Stark. At some point in your future, he's going to sacrifice himself for the sake of half of the life in your universe. A villain named Thanos is going to wipe out half of life in your universe, and Tony is going to wipe out Thanos and his army, bring everyone back, at the expense of his own life."
"What? Oh, no! I've got to get back home! I need to spend as much time with Pops as I can!" Tears flowed from her eyes, but she didn't sob or boo hoo. It wasn't in her make up. "Although, that does sound like Pops."
"When you get back, look up a boy named Peter Parker for us," Eddie added. "He's known as Spider Man. Young kid, I gather. Special senses. He swings around New York on webbing like a spider. We're intrigued by him."