The next day, Peter was hanging out over at Mary Jane's after returning home from college earlier on. There was nothing interesting happening, besides continuing to procrastinate with apologizing to Harry and Gwen for his previous actions. Part of him enjoyed the lack of drama, on the other hand it made him feel pretty guilty leaving them out to dry even with everything, he always cared deeply for his friends even if they could drive him a little crazy at times.
Fortunately for Peter, he hadn't checked the news as of yet learning about what went down with The Controller and the murdered A.I.M personnel by the mysterious monster with powers like himself.
"Have you wondered lately about having an apartment?" Mary Jane asked curiously.
Peter glanced over at her cuddling together. "Aww, are you really thinking about moving in together? Aren't you romantic!"
She nudged Peter gently. "No silly for goodness I was thinking generally about it. We only started dating."
"You know I wouldn't exactly, maybe, be opposed to, uh moving in together. That'd be pretty nice, seeing you everyday and night." Peter said with his voice quietly.
"And you called me romantic. That wouldn't be bad, though we're in no rush to get out of our houses." She reminded.
He nodded in agreement, getting up. "True, both our aunts still need us around. I mean they'll probably always need us around. Wouldn't have to move far away, it would just be nice having privacy, for private activities. And being Spider-Man or having a woman dressed like a tiger popping by, kinda isn't a stealthy costume."
"Oh yes, bright red and blue, much more subtle isn't it?" She joked back at him.
"You totally already made that remark! Black isn't my style, so I think I'm going to be keeping up with my old getup. I was never really into subtlety anyhow, I'm a bit of a loud mouth and got a feeling you wouldn't disagree."
She laughed. "Nope, you definitely have a loud mouth. It's amazing neither of our aunts have figured out your identity yet." Mary Jane replied sarcastically.
"Be nice, I'm not that bad at keeping my secret! Probably?" He laughed back, then felt his phone vibrating. "Wonder who that is?" Checking it was a surprising text from Gwen, her father had awoken from his coma. "Looks like we're going out."
"A little early for a party or a nightclub don't you think?" She remarked and looked over at his phone. "Different kind of party I guess."
Peter sighed. "Looks that way."
They left to the hospital taking the bus down there, cerious how everything would go and how Mr. Stacy was doing. The text was a little vague with promise, if something was wrong she wouldn't say so or called instead.
Shortly the two reached the hospital finding Gwen and Harry waiting outside of his room waiting impatiently.
"Hey Peter, glad you and Mary Jane could come." Gwen immediately started to say.
Peter nodded and rubbed his hands together. "Yeah, hey I just wanted to say to you both. Look I'm really sorry, how I was acting before. It was wrong of me and really crude. Can you two forgive me?"
"Yeah of course Pete! You were just having a bad day I guess, it happens to the best of us man." Harry responded, patting him on the shoulder.
Gwen shrugged. "I'll need time, but I wanted you two here. The doctors were just looking over him. Said it was a miracle he survived. The rest of my family was going to get him breakfast. He hates hospitel food." She entered his room finding the doctors finished up with Stacy awake now.
"Gwen dear, I'm glad you're still here." He got up a little to give a hug. "You brought some of your friends over I see, very nice of them all to come."
"We all were happy to see Mr Stacy sir.' Peter said with a nod.
George Stacy understood, sighing in relief. "I was out for quite awhile wasn't I? What's happening in the city?"
Gwen rolled her eyes. "Goodness shakes dad, you almost died from one of your own officers, the city can wait! We're all worried about you."
"Yes you're completely right. I want to hear about how you are doing then." Stacy then said looking at them.
Meanwhile, with one good thing occurring, another bad was playing out. A sinister visitor was heading to the prison where some of the most dangerous prisoners were being held.
Eddie Brock was heading inside, looking for one exact target in particular.
"What brings you here?" One of the guards questioned out front.
He acted calm and confident. "Ah, an interview. Stanley Carter called himself the Sin Eater or something. Real piece of work right?"
"Damn right. Guy is a disgrace to the badge. This better not be a sympathetic piece about the guy or we're going to have trouble"
Eddie chucked. "No, no. Not a chance. Going to rip the guy apart. Feel lucky for the guards going to have a front row seat."
"Sounds good, you're clear to enter. Keep safe, reporter." The guard said, letting him inside with a proud look.
This wouldn't be the best idea, but none of them knew about what they just let inside with Brock going straight to The Sin Eater. He was locked up in maximum security alongside some of Spidey's other foes including the Scorpion who ironically was locked up right next to him. Gargon wanted to kill Carter himself for what he put Dewolff through, still having a care towards her after their time as partners on the force. It meant a lot to him even after what he became.
Eddie was let to stay outside of his cell only having a small window to see the man confirming it was Carter. "Do I know you?" He immediately questioned.
"Don't recall us? Reporting on you happened to ruin our life. The lies and manipulation, it was well done." Eddie began saying.
"Us? Our? You stupid or something? Drunk perhaps? I bet you've been drinking. If what you're saying is true, tell me how I messed up your life?" Carter asked curiously and with a cocky dismissive tone.
Eddie didn't respond. "You're a criminal. One who's done nothing good for this world, nobody is going to miss you."
"Threatening the guy in prison? Great plan. What could you do to me here?"
With a laugh Eddie had an answer. "See for yourself." Saying that he started to transform into a gooey monster right before his eyes ripping around the cell door and smacking around two nearby guards with tangles from his body.
"Dear god!" Carter shouted in terror.
"Oh no, god isn't here!" The creature replied with a sickening grin. "Not a soul will stop me! The guards are not nearly armed enough!" It said in a chilling voice with its giant teeth revealing.
Carter looked desperate. "If you kill me, a good man's life will be ripped apart! Yeah, at least they call him one. Others too, I expose a lot of ugly truths! If you kill me, all of them go with me!"
"Was it a threat or more incentive I wonder!" The creature looked amused and lifted Carter off his feet. "Any last words Sin Eater? Ready to answer for your sins?"
"Wait dammit! Can we be responsible?"
The creature shook its head. "Oh no, things won't get better and there won't be any getting out of this pal." The Sin Eater's head got crushed and that was the end of it.
More guards came rushing and the prison was in full alert. Escape would've been difficult, that is for something other than the creature on the loose.
It easily busted through the wall escaping and rushing to the database to wipe it out the evidence of him being there as Eddie Brock the prison had no way of stopping him from finishing it and leaving proudly with covered tracks.
Peter was out later hearing the news of the prison attack and The Sin Eater now being a dead man.
Out of the prison's walls, he met with Jean Dewolff to discuss the events wanting to leave Stacy time to heal. "Part of me is happy he's gone." She admitted.
"Can't blame you for feeling that way. Though nobody deserves to die. What happened anyways? How could someone or something break into prison? To kill a guy at that, must've hated him tons." Spider-Man replied.
She nodded. "Agreed that nobody, not even him deserved death. And to answer your question, the guards described a monster. Black, with white eyes. Seven feet tall. Or Eight even."
He glanced back, looking greatly concerned by that. "A monster with white eyes. Did it look like my black suit?"
Dewolff again nodded. "Yeah, that's not a coincidence, is it Spider-Man?"
"Unfortunately, probably not. See, my suit change happened after that ship crashed and nearly hurt John Jameson permanently. It was the suit, an alien! Made me stronger, but also far more dangerous, and cruel. Thought I destroyed it. Looks like I was wrong, maybe it's taken someone else over now." Peter realized to his horror.
"There is an alien out and about? Oh my god. Would've appreciated a heads up about this being a possibility out there." She said not pleased. "The Controller's convoy was attacked, with A.I.M getting killed by an unidentified attacker with webbing. This guy is just getting started."
"I thought it was gone. At least, hoped it was." He sighed. "Stopping it is my responsibility before it kills anyone else. Please tell me if you have a lead. Anything to help me find this?"
She looked with disappointment. "Nothing I heard, but I don't hear as much as Captain Stacy would. Where do you think it'd head next?"
"My guess, attacking more criminals. Or after me." Spider-Man responded and then felt immediate concern over that, could the symbiote have remembered things, personal details about his life? "I gotta go." He started swinging away and called Mary Jane first, then next up would be Aunt May. Please pick up. Please.
"Hey, Peter. Where did you get off to?" MJ asked, sounding okay.
"That alien, it's alive!"
She paused for a moment, shocked. "What!? How do you know that?"
"Doesn't matter right now, all that matters is I have no idea what its intentions are or where it is. Could be doing anything, right now it's attacking criminals, so with any luck, it'll not stop and switch things up." Peter said with worry.
Mary Jane sighed understanding. "You really think it could want revenge?"
"It was filled with anger and I tried to destroy it, so yeah, there is a chance. With any luck it's forgotten everything, maybe just its new host's memories. Assuming it even has a host. There are a lot of questions and no answers yet." He looked around paranoid. "Stay put MJ, I'm coming to you. Actually no, better idea. Call Ava, she'll watch out for you, could sense it before while it was taking me. Bet she could if it came after you too."
She listened and understood. "Okay, on it. I'll call you right away as soon as Ava arrives, in the meantime, what are you doing?"
Peter sighed, continuing now to swing away. "I'm not sure, might check on Aunt May. It could be targeting people I care about, it could even know exactly what I'm thinking for all I know. Unsure of how to fight this."
"Then it's a good thing you wing a lot of your plans, can't figure you out that easily if you change tactics on the fly!" MJ said, which sounded sincere, but also a bit of sarcasm.
"I'll take that as a complement, I think." Peter replied looking a little puzzled by how exactly to take that. "I'll remember what you said, thanks MJ." He hung up and rushed back home to see Aunt May.
It took no time to make it back home with the speeds he was moving at rushing through the door finding her safe giving a massive hug.
"Oh Peter! What was that for? Everything okay?" She asked, a little surprised and flattered by the hug not having such a massive one in a while.
"It's important to me, letting my favorite aunt know how much I love her." Peter replied simply.
Aunt May smiled at him. "You're a sweet young man Peter, I'm very grateful to have you as my nephew. And to see you acting more akin to how I raised you to be. Was concerned for some time there, seeing you more angry."
He looked around. "That was uh, a bad time for me. Was in a darker place, the worst part of me was taking over. Rather just move on from it."
"If there is anger inside of you Peter, you know it'll not be as easy as that to overcome it. Coming out once, means it can come out again."
Peter looked uncertain, it wasn't exactly that, but the symbiote had to be getting the feelings from somewhere. That place it was coming from needed to be found and worked on. The thought of having such darkness within scared Peter. "Not really sure how to fight it. How to completely rid myself of that side of me."
"Peter, you should know you can't rid yourself of the darkness inside completely. It's not possible. All you and all of us can do is fight it. Seems to me you put up a valrient job fighting it back." Aunt May said with pride.
He nodded and then glanced out the window seeing a shadowy figure was watching them. This didn't alarm his spider sense which was worrying. He decided on going to investigate, having the horrible suspension it was the symbiote coming now.
Peter calmly exited, eyeing the figure, as it started to move away. Oh no you don't monster, not getting away that easily! Running down he couldn't find it, it seemed like the figure vanished into thin air. That was until a bit of webbing flung him to the ground and he got dragged through the dirt. It wasn't hard breaking loose and he immediately got defensive looking around, again finding nothing.
"Come on out! Scared to fight me?" Peter shouted looking around, seeing he was in a neighbor's backyard, fortunately they weren't home.
The creature laughed. "Scared? No, we just want to have our fun first! We're not ready yet to face you, old friend. Though we weren't ever friends, were we buddy?"
"Friends? Who are you?!" Peter exclaimed looking around. "You took someone I know? Part of your revenge?"
"You speak like we aren't one, we are one and sharing the same goals!" The creature roared back.
Peter moved towards where he could hear it speaking getting closer. "Sounds like you are a pretty confident fella aren't you now?"
"We! It's us! You know nothing and you Spider-Man won't get it our way. We have an important mission to save this city, unlike yourself!" It yelled out in a confident and mocking tone.
He moved in close about to get the drop on his enemy before being webbed up once again and thrown away. "Ha! Trying to get a drop on us? Nice try, we have a trip to Ravencroft scheduled. Feel free to attempt to stop us Spidey!"
"Wait!" He exclaimed and saw it in the distance quickly vanishing away, leaping a far distance away. Great, it's toying with me. Is it speaking the truth about Ravencroft? I'd have to imagine so. It's killing criminals. I gotta believe it, the only lead I got. Everything it said didn't give me any clues to its identity.
Peter had his suit right with him and departed immediately swinging away as fast as he could without thinking. It appeared to be mincing his powers.
Come on, think. Who could it be taken by that monster and what they'll do next. Stopping it won't be easy, not even one bit. Perhaps its weaknesses are still on the table. That implies I have a chance of even getting close, it's stronger than me and is faster. Not to mention it seems invisible to my spider sense. I'm going to have to be smart about this, throw everything I got, no holding back. He thought to himself, determined to bring an end to this nightmare.
Spider-Man arrived at Ravencroft, it appeared he wasn't too late this time as nothing had been on high alert. Though he recalled the symbiote could change its appearance, so it could already be inside of the prison.
That thing, it's here somewhere stalking me. Where are you? If I was a homicidal alien taking over someone in my life where would it be? How wouldn't I know?!
Spider-Man sighed heavily and looked around seeing some of the guards eyeballing him. Normally that'd be concerning, especially with him not being popular more than ever. Right now it was far worse with that monster around.
He rushed around finding nothing still out of the ordinary. No sign of something sinister arriving.
A woman approached Spider-Man. "May I ask what you're doing here? Could upset some of the patients."
"Oh right, that tracks, put some of the happy people in here right? Doctor?"
"Kafka, doctor Ashley Kafka. Yes Spider-Man you did bring a large amount here or at least many are primarily aware of your heroic activities. And your lesser ones as of late too." She replied.
He nodded understandingly. "Yeah, that's actually why I'm here. In a way. Have you seen anything out of the ordinary? Like an alien?"
"Alien?" She looked puzzled. "Can't say I've seen that. Only one patient claimed earlier an alien invader was coming to kill someone here. Which with him isn't the most out of the ordinary thing to preach."
"Maybe I was wrong." Spider-Man doubted.
A colleague of hers came over. "Oh doctor, have something for you to sign?" He walked beside Spider-Man then grabbed his throat. "Gotcha"
"Doctor! Run!" Spider-Man managed to break loose as his attacker revealed its towering form. With a white spider lego around its chest. "What are you?!" He demanded to know.
"Oh. Us? We Spider-Man, are your end. We. Are. VENOM." It shouted with a roaring thunder.
Next chapter, as you all probably can imagine, will finally be the showdown between Spider-Man and Venom. Along with the ending to the symbiote plot.
Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Can't believe next time will be chapter 75 after all this time. Things really changed from how I originally planned the story to be going, but I hope it was a good choice the direction it's all going. Can safely say, can see the end of the tunnel becoming more and more clear at this point. Plots will be starting to wrap up sooner than later, I admitable do have a lot of loose ends to deal with. Hoping they all end well.
Thanks again for sticking around this long.
(As usual, that was quite a while ago. I do hope you all enjoy this climax anyway. -Me in July of 2024)