Location: Avengers Headquarters.
Displayed on a screen were a series of images. An image of a teen girl, pale, with straight and even neck-length red hair, seemingly taken from a school ID. Another was taken from security footage showing a crimson-colored figure with a fanged mouth, white eyes, six clawed arms, and a generally arachnoid appearance to her carapace-like figure.
"Okay Avengers," Tony Stark declared, "I've received a warning from multiple sources about a new potential threat."
"Maria Miranda Marshall, age 16, alias Massacre. During the 'Absolute Carnage' incident, her parents were killed by one of the Carnage drones. To hear her own testimony, she killed the host of the drone while in a fugue state and was immediately possessed by the drone herself. She was placed into foster care and sent to Trauma for counseling, but her foster family was killed during Knull's attack and she vanished."
"She resurfaced recently, seemingly bonded to a surviving Carnage Drone, and..." Tony started double checking notes on a tablet, "approached Wilson Fisk, offering her services in exchange for help making contact with The Consultant. Fisk arranged for her to receive bootleg super soldier enhancements and a healing factor from The Consultant... Then had The Consultant murdered in her presence, His assassin then claimed she was an accomplice."
"A few days later, he had her participate in a raid on a building that was doing biochemical research for ORCHIS, under false circumstances, where several of the guards were murdered. Spider-Man, the younger one, investigated the break-in and found her standing over a body. He made the obvious assumption and engaged, but she escaped after being punched through a window. However, it is highly unlikely that she killed anyone that night."
"According to Steve, the same evening Deadpool broke off from the Avengers Unity Squad after one of their touch-ins with the X-Men citing that he had something personal to follow up on. After he got back with a noticeable spinal injury, he confessed that he was going off to execute what he believed to be a quote 'Carnagized' Itsy-Bitsy only to discover that it was in fact an unrelated teenager who harvested the symbiote codices from his body and then demanded to be left alone."
Tony paused for a moment to check once more that he had the course of events lined up properly. "The next night began what amounted to a nightly crime spree." The images on the screen changed to security footage from the CDC New York satellite lab, specifically the symbiote host stalking about, breaking into a vault in the subbasement, and then exploring the facility while carrying a black orb. "Starting with the theft of a payload of the Venom Symbiote virus from the CDC."
The images changed, to a slumped-over body with the Symbiote host, writhing tendrils emerging from her back and her arms now two blades. "Unfortunately for Maria, Fisk decided that things weren't working out and he sent assassins after her. It seems that, during the confrontation, Maria was infected by the entire payload. she responded to this by bursting into the Hellfire Club and assaulting Fisk. I was present for this incident and afterward, Emma Frost discretely probed Fisk's mind for details, which is where most of the information thus far."
"Emma has also informed me that the X-Men's spy in ORCHIS has picked up some muttering. Apparently, a symbiote host stole and 'ate' one of the Iron Man suits a few nights ago," Tony seemed somewhat frustrated by that, "quote-unquote 'the one with the red repulsor blasts.' So, the Endo-Sym Armor. While I can't confirm that that was Maria, it would corroborated by witnesses describing he flying off with 'rocket feet' after her attack on Ravencroft two nights ago..."
"Which brings me to two nights ago, when she attacked Ravencroft. Here we have the most detail, a guard saw her slithering out of the cell of the patient, Freak, who was another of Carnage's drone-hosts, before making her way to the infirmary. During this time she was confronted by the Institute's guards and by Man-Wolf, but she defeated them. During this time, she demonstrated advanced martial arts skills incongruent with her known history as well as the ability to generate web fluid. Once in the infirmary, she confronted Dr. Malus though he refused to divulge what she wanted."
"Last night, she stalked Spider-Man to his home and assaulted him, citing being punched through a window, and stuck a needle in his spine. Afterward, she was immune to his venom strike and claimed to have his powers while demonstrating a bio-electrical charge on her own hand."
"Now, her Psychological profile is... Kind of a mess," Tony admitted. "Digging suggests that before the attack she was a textbook 'good girl.' Straight-A student, played violin, at most she seemed to be a bit of an introvert. After the attack... Trauma wouldn't tell me. Doctor-patient confidentiality. It seems like she doesn't want to needlessly hurt anyone—she could have easily killed Fisk if she wanted to—and openly confessed to not wanting to fight the guards at Ravencroft but at the same time, she's clearly escalating, symbiotes are known to amplify and influence the emotions of their hosts, and her symbiote is probably Carnage derived," Tony finished. "She's probably just a messed up kid making dumb decisions but we should probably try to figure out a response strategy just in case. Seriously, the last three or four Carnage-related events ended up being whole ordeals for everyone."
"The first step would be fingering out what she wants," Sam Wilson, Captain America, started. "It seems like she's going after things related to Symbiotes but..."
"Man-Wolf was taken by Carnage twice. If she was just collecting the stuff she had a chance to take his codex but didn't," Tony finished.
"So she's going after... Do we have any details on this 'Freak'?" Carol Danvers asked.
"From what I can tell, he's a vagrant. Real name unknown. Used to be addicted to meth before his healing factor restructured his nervous system. Adaptive regeneration and a suit of physical mutations that make him hard to hurt" was the explanation.
"It seems as if she is specifically targetting symbiote hosts or symbiote adjacent objects that possess atypical powers." The Vision suggested.
"No," Sam countered. "I've fought Malus, the only thing weird about him is that he's a hybrid. Otherwise, he's just got the normal stuff."
"The Spawn of Knull possess wills of their own and share minds with their hosts," Thor added, "perhaps it was not the Doctor's powers that intrigued her, but his mind?"
"Great, the last thing we need is a Carnage that knows how to give people power broker treatments," Sam quipped.
"We are not yet certain that she is a threat," The Black Panther T'Challa replied. "She could simply be a scared child seeking power in a misguided attempt to find some form of safety. She encountered Deadpool. yes. Does he know where she has been living?"
"He claimed to have encountered her in an 'abandoned Spider-Man villain lab' in the New York sewers," Tony confirmed, "but if she's smart she'll have moved elsewhere."
"Perhaps I could inquire Lady Sif about her location?" Thor suggested.
"She's a traumatized, orphaned teenaged runaway embroiled in supernatural circumstances who is, whether she knows it or not, making powerful and dangerous enemies," The Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff observed. "I have the feeling that, sooner or later, she'll be stepping through my door."
"Both good ideas," Tony agreed, "but so far she seems localized to the New York area so we should probably get into contact with all of the New York affiliated heroes and send out the message to keep their eyes and ears out, have them network with us and each other... Hopefully, we can find her before she kills someone and resolve this by talking for once... But just to be safe, if she ate the Endo-Sym sonic attacks aren't going to work on her."
"We should also get into contact with symbiote users. People with more experience dealing with these issues," Carol suggested. "She might be more open to talking to someone with similar experiences... What was Agent Venom's Sidekick called?"
"I think she's going by Silence now, but she and Anti-Venom have gone to ground somewhat since the incident with Senator Krane's rally in New York," Tony replied. "No clue where Venom's living, either. Might be able to make contact with Red Goblin, but he's just a kid, it wouldn't be right to drag him into a teenager's drama."
"Do we know where they buried Kassady's bones?" Wanda asked. "If her symbiote is Carnage derived I might be able to track her down with a sympathetic spell."
"And if not, it may be wise to claim his body regardless," T'Challa added. "If she is after interesting, powerful, or ineligible symbiote codices... It is my understanding that Kassady was effectively a demigod of death and chaos when he was finally defeated in that incident. A fraction of that power may remain in his bones."
"Good point. Seizing or keeping an eye on known 'unusual' symbiote artifacts could lead her right to us," Carol observed, "It shouldn't take more than a few days to track down all the big ones and as long as she's still trying to minimize harm we should have at least that long to figure something out. What are the chances that she'll do something big tonight?"
Location: Avengers Headquarters, the Next Day
"...I really should have known better than to say that," Carol lamented.