(Of Rats and Spiders)

Spectacular Webhead 11: That's the wonder of foreshadowing, whether it be the debut of a new villain or the redemption of an old one. Don't worry, Peter WILL be cured in due time, and the moment is looming ever closer with each chapter.

Jebest4781: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it.

Gamelover41592: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. Actually this may work out much better for Eddie than you think. You'll see in due time.

5FingerDeathFist: Every good story has a certain degree of suspense. And trust me, whatever kind of suffering Peter has gone through in this universe is nothing compared to what they put him through in the current comics. I know, bringing him home will definitely be cause for celebration when the time comes. And don't worry, I know you're just joking about some of the more… mature ideas you have in mind. Comparing Green Goblin to Bill Cipher actually does make sense on a certain level.

TheIrishman1999: Your ideas are… interesting as always. But trust me, Shredder and Green Goblin are both a lot of things, evil and sadistic being high on the list, but neither one of them are fools. Knowing how they can be, they'd more than likely try to double cross each other once they outlive their respective usefulness. And for the record I haven't watched Green Arrow, the only one I've seen is Supergirl and I'm only on the first season. In other news, thank you for keeping up with the story for the past two years, and here's hoping you stick with it all the way to the end.

C.S. Allen: Thanks, it feels good to be back. And yeah, a lot is happening here. Nice job picking up on some of the finer details of this chapter, like the body armor. You'll see how that pans out in due time.

Godzillaboy2021: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. There's definitely a lot to unpack, which includes Peter regaining some semblance of his humanity, and even Eddie taking the next step in his redemption. But that being said, there's a long way to go on both fronts, as well as several others.

Frosty Wolf: Nice job recognizing the elements of the second game, I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that. Honestly I had almost forgotten about John Jameson too, I was just trying to find a good place to include him again, but I can definitely see more villainous forces wanting him for his powers and potential. Regarding the Vulture, I wanted to show more to him than just the bitter and vengeful old man. His reasons for his grudge are justified, but he does admit that his methods are another matter. As for Leo, I get it but he's not wrong to think the way he does, given what happened the last time with Metalhead, not just because he got his ass kicked. I mean granted that makes sense for Raph, but not for Leo. Also, I wanted to show what happened to Peter after he got mutated, given how long it had been and there was no sightings of him.

ShakespeareRZA: Pretty dramatic description, but he is scum no question.

MercWithaMouth1: Thank you for keeping up with the story for the past two years, and here's hoping you stick with it all the way to the end. I did see

Guest: Thank you, and here's hoping you stick with this story all the way to the end.

GTA Godfather: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it so much. I always appreciate people giving ideas, but I can't promise I can work with all of them. I will keep them in mind for the future though. Also I have watched the new Avatar series and you're right, it was pretty good all things considered, and the actor playing Ozai did a great job.

Pikachu345: I don't know if I'd say that. Hulk may not be the most… articulate, but he does have a mind, and a conscience. I wanted to show off a little bit more of Vulture, and keep in mind that he is an engineer, so I think he'd get on with the likes of Donnie fairly well.

AlphaGodzilla19: Read and maybe you'll find out.

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Nightfall had come, and with it, sinister forces once again hard at work.

'Perhaps if the substance were to be electrolyzed, a very small voltage…' Norman sat at a table working with a canister of Mutagen, placing a few droplets onto a pad and looking at it under a microscope, only to scowl at what he saw 'But unfortunately unsuccessful, negative response to the exposure…' he was about to go back to the canister, but paused and glanced back at the door to the lab "I'm sure you would like to see the results for yourself, wouldn't you Scarlet?"

There was a pause, and then Scarlet Spider slowly made his way through the doorway, looking down in shame as he removed his mask "I… I didn't mean to hide from you Father."

"Don't be apologetic. I never apologize after all, so neither should you. So as I was saying, you would like to see the results for yourself would you not? Along with Dr Warren, I've studied the Mutagen extensively for some time in an attempt to stabilizie it or control its effects, but without a specific ingredient it refuses to cooperate as needed."

"I heard Dr Warren and Subprime talk of a girl with the key to perfecting the Mutagen that lay in her blood. Is that true?"

"That is what they believe, though I personally have my own suspicions. I won't share them until I manage to confirm them though." Norman paused and gave a small smirk "But I have to admit, the thought of it is proving to be very enticing, to say the least. Of course, I imagine that your spying on me isn't just about listening to various intricate theoris that may or may not even pan out, am I correct?"

"Yes, it's just that… The missions to recover the Mutagen canisters. Why did you take me off of those in favor of the others?"

"I believe that everyone has a use and a purpose to serve Scarlet. Rhino serves as raw power when it's most needed, Mysterio has his ambitious tricks and "illusions" as he puts it, Dr Warren serves as my partner and collaborator in the scientific department of our ambitions, the Kraang offer funding and technology for those ambitions, and Subprime serves as an ambassador of sorts between our organizations. The foot soldiers of our new Goblin Nation, and you… Well you can be sure that I have very big plans for you when the time comes, and I can't begin to describe just how much of a hassle it would be to find a replacement."

'To find a replacement…?' that part left Scarlet frozen for a moment, before he was led out the door by Norman.

"But right now, the best thing you can do to be of use is to stay here where it's safe, and be ready when the time comes."

"Father, I… If this is a form of punishment for failing to grab the last Mutagen canister then I can do better, I swear. Please just give me a chance to prove it."

"...We'll see about that when the time comes." Norman ushered Scarlet out the door and shut it promptly, scowling once it was closed all the way 'The last thing I need is to start over after spending so much time cultivating Scarlet. I still haven't heard of an update from Harry since I'd shown him to the Goblin chamber in the penthouse. The best thing for our plans right now is for him to stay away from where he's not wanted. The only problem is, thanks to the most recent show of incompetence from the Kraang the potential growth of the Goblin Nation has been stunted significantly. Now I have to find a way to bolster our ranks for the days to come.'

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Another day came, and grey clouds filled the skies over New York City.

"Alright, let's see here…" Martin Li made his way through the halls of the FEAST center while staring down at the clipboard in his hand, and then he made his way into the kicthen "May do we have a status update?"

"Everything has been set up." May turned to face Martin as she wiped some sweat from her forehead "All we need is a bit more supplies and I can get started on the food."

"Great, nicely done. I take it Eddie is handling that?"

"Way ahead of you boss man." Eddie made his way through the front door with several bags full of groceries in hand "And for the record, the guys at the market say thanks for the comically huge bonus you had me give them."

"Unlike most entrepreneurs in the world, I like to make sure that my wealth goes to places it will do genuine good instead of owning beach houses in Maui and Jamaica."

"...Was that a jab at Stark?"

"He's not the one I was thinking of, but a good example of that. Anyway thank you for getting these Eddie, now all that's left is the last truck with the toy donations for the kids and we'll be all set for the New Year's party."

"When is the shipment supposed to arrive?" asked May.

"Depending on how it does in New York traffic, it shouldn't be too long… is what I'd like to say, except it was supposed to be here an hour ago. I swear if he's trying to use Dragon Ball as a guide to working out again…"

"You mean flexing your muscles and screaming like a maniac in an attempt to force out your inner beast?" Eddie gave a raised eyebrow "I mean we've all done it at some point, we all grew up on Z."

"Yes I know that, I'm talking about the original Dragon Ball series. You know, before aliens and gods and death having no consequence."

"You mean the OG one? That one's pretty ancient by this point isn't it?"

"I wouldn't say that, it's only…" Martin pulled out his phone and did a search, and then his face fell in a comical fashion "Fourty years old… I remember seeing this in theaters."

"You uh… you okay?"

"Yes, just… having a momentary midlife crisis is all."

"Yeah well, hang in there I guess." Eddie awkwardly patted Martin on the back, only to pull away as another surge of energy washed over them "Uh… static cling again I guess. I really have to stop doing that.'

"Right… let's just hope that we hear something from Sam soon. The people of this city have been through too much this year to let something as trivial a traffic jam ruin the start of a new one." as if on cue, Martin took notice of his phone ringing, walking out of the room as he took the chance to answer it "Excuse me you two. Sam what's going on? You and the others were supposed to be here an hour ago…"

"That man never stops, does he?" May let out a chuckle, then turned back to Eddie "And I have to be honest Eddie, it is a big surprising to see you around so much more often. It takes a bit of getting used to, not that I'm complaining of course."

"Yeah I know, but if I have a job to do then I might as well do it right. Plus every situation is an opprotunity one way or another, and I've got a few things to show the people here." Eddie gave a smirk, then turned and went to start unpacking the grocery bags 'It feels like just a few months ago we were trying to ruin Pete's life the way he ruined our lives.'

"That was a mere few months ago in your Earth time. And make no mistake, we WILL be continuing that mission once the Kraang have been eradicated. Do not let sentimentality and nostalgia get in the way of such things."

"Yeah, I… I know.'

"Eddie? Eddie are you alright?" May shook him on the shoulder "You spaced out for a bit, are you feeling alright?"

"Actually… yeah, I feel fine. Not even stressed or tense." Eddie paused as he looked down at his hands 'It's weird, ever since we bonded I've felt so… enthralled in the hate, the rage, all of these negative emotions, and that usually gets ten times worse whenever I think of Pete. Now I feel perfectly calm. I know what happened between us, I know what I hate him for, or what I should hate him for, but … I don't feel anything. Did the feedback we got from Martin change something inside of us?'

"So much for everything running smoothly." Martin let out a frustrated sigh as he made his way back into the room and pocketed his phone "This is officially one of those times that makes me believe in jinxes."

"Is everything okay?" asked May.

"To give you the short version, no. That was Sam, apparently there was a problem with one of the trucks carrying toy donations and they're running short. Now I have to go down there and handle it."

"Actually, what if I went down there and dealt with it?" Eddie raised a hand, earning a look of surprise from Martin "I mean I've got some tech skills, if there's some kind of big glitch in the system then I can figure it out."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I mean I might as well. Plus it's like a wise woman once said, if you help someone then you help everyone." he glanced over at May, earning a small smile.

"Alright, if you're sure you can handle this… Then good luck." Martin gave a smile and a nod of approval.

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Meanwhile, with the start of the main plot…

"Well that was less than satisfying, at least in my opinion." Irma glanced over at April as the two of them made their way out of a restaurant and down the street "I know they say that pizza was gluten-free, but I definitely tasted gluten."

"And here I thought gluten was what made it taste good." Casey rolled his eyes, then shot a dirty look at Irma "Speaking of which, thanks a ton for showing up out of the blue and being the third wheel Irma. Like we needed a freaking babysitter."

"Well I doubt they would've let you sit at the big kid's table without me there."

"Ha freaking ha."

"Third wheel? Interesting word choice Casey, what did you think this was a date?" April shot a smirk at Casey, but it quickly fell away when she looked up and saw Ghost Spider perched on a rooftops in front of them, the two of them locking eyes for a moment before she quickly turned her head 'And the moment's ruined… yay. Now what's gonna-'

"Holy hell!" Casey jumped at the sight of a rat scurrying past the group, courtesy of a cat that had scared it off "Son of a-"

"Wow, you truly are the epitome of testosterone." Irma rolled her eyes "I can't believe someone like you could be afraid of a little rat."

"Well excuse me for not wanting rabies before I turn 30."

"Very droll Casey. You know rats are relatively harmless, and they share a variety of similarities to humans, which is why they're used in most scientific experiments."

"So what experiment do I have to do to get you to shut up for once?"

"None that you're capable of conducting."

"Alright you two, break it up. More importantly, I can't believe a rat was afraid of this adorable little kitty." April quickly began gushing as she picked the cat up into her arms and looked her over "The poor thing doesn't have any tags, and we can't just leave her here."

"Don't look at me, I'm more of a rat person. Have you thought about taking her in?"

"Maybe but it is a stray, and I don't think my aunt or cousin would be okay with that."

"Fair enough I guess." Irma paused at the sound of rattling, prompting her to look back into the alley behind her, but there was nothing there "Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"I'm not sure, I thought I heard something back there… Probably just my imagination. Listen I have to go, I… have something I need to check for my side job. I'll see you later, and good luck with finding a home for the cat." Irma quickly took her leave, pulling a cell phone out of her pocket as she did so "It's me. Listen, I think there's some sort of disturbance we need to look into in Little Odyssea."

"...Okay, that happened."

"Yep, and now this." Casey took the cat from April and plopped it down in the basket in front of his bike "I'll deal with the cat, my dad isn't gonna be thrilled but I know a few guys that could stand to do with a pet or something."

"Yeah, now that I think about it I do know some people. We're not really on speaking terms now, but…"

"A couple of guys, four bros with a single dad."

"Their dad is japanese but likes Renaissance painters…" April paused, and she and Casey shared a look as the realization dawned on them "Their names are Leonardo, Donatello…"

"Raph and Mikey… Oh you gotta be kidding me."

"How do you know about them?"

"How do you know about them?"

"Oh for- Okay, can we just hold up a second." April paused to try and compose herself, then cast another look at Casey "How exactly do you know about… them?"

"Started as me showing off my kickass skills on the Purple Dragons, met Raph and got into an epico throwdown with him, ended with us fighting a pack of robot ninjas. Next thing you know, Casey Jones is a bonafide hero so awesome the Avengers can suck it."

"Okay… I'm not gonna ask any follow ups to that."

"So what's your deal? They never talk about you, and the one time I talked about her for one reason or another they got all sad and I'm pretty sure Donnie started crying over a jug of ice cream once I left the room."

"Um…"

"I ain't just a handsome face you know, I notice stuff when I pay attention. You guys have a big fight or something?"

"It's… complicated." April looked away from him "We were really close for awhile, but… I don't really talk to them anymore. I doubt they want to talk to me either."

"Eh, you never know how stuff like this goes down. You used to be pretty tight with them but life goes on, things change, people get left behind."

"Did… Did that happen to you?"

"Sort of." Casey breathed a sigh as he glanced up at the gloomy skies above "Last year me and my best friend Nick were up against Tromatown during the playoffs last year. He came up right behind me just as I was about to sink the winning goal, and then wham! I smacked his helmet right off his face. His face was swollen and he had a split lip, pretty sure he lost a few teeth from it too. The dude was my best friend since second grade… and he never spoke to me again after that."

"But… it's not like you meant to do it."

"Yeah, I know. It was an accident, but it still happened. I guess some stuff is just beyond our control." Casey paused, then shook off the downcast feeling "Anyway I'll bring the cat over to the guys, see what they think, maybe stop for a milkshake on the way. Catch ya later Red, and happy new year." then he mounted his bike and took off down the sidewalk.

'Some things are just beyond our control huh?' April breathed a sigh of her own as she watched him retreat, then glanced up at the skies above 'Maybe he's right… I mean this whole thing with the guys is just so… exhausting… But do they even wanna see me after how I treated them? I don't know if I could-' her musings were cut short by the sound of a low growling, and then she whipped around to find a hulking figure looming over her… and then everything went black before she could even scream.

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Meanwhile, with the newly christened Lethal Protector…

'Should be somewhere around here.' Eddie made his way down the street, the Symbiote covering his torso like a makeshift jacket (in place of the usual black t-shirt) until he came across a truck parked on the side of the street, and found the driver standing next to it with a clipboard in hand and several boxes "Hey, you one of the guys with the toy donations?"

"Um, yeah." the driver, clad in a green coat with the FEAST logo, glanced up at him "The name is Sam, are you with FEAST?"

"Yep, Martin Li sent me himself. Eddie Brock is the name."

"Right, Mr Li called and said you'd be coming. So the thing is, when we were doing our latest inventory check we found that there were at least a couple hundred missing."

"So what, did one of the trucks get robbed?"

"I don't think that's it. The weird thing is we were supposed to have two trucks out to deal with the pickups, but our GPS transponders says there are three. Something definitely isn't right about this."

"So you've got a fake posing as a truck to steal the donations and probably sell them. Now how do we figure out which one is the fake?"

"If you can send me a shot of the license plates, we can use that to check which one shouldn't be out there."

"Fair enough. I'll head out and see what I can find, maybe get in touch with a contact or two of mine. You have a list of the license plate numbers by chance? That way when I find the trucks, I can compare them and weed out which one is the fake."

"Yeah sure, no problem." Sam handed a piece of paper to Eddie and let him look it over "Don't bother trying to flag them down or anything crazy, just take a look at the plates and figure out which one is the fake. Once you do that, I can call the police and let them go from there."

"Sounds like a plan. See you later." Eddie gave Sam a quick two-finger salute and took his leave, ducking into an alley as the hulking form of Venom took over, allowing him to pounce from one rooftop to the next 'Stealing toys from kids, it's these kinds of things that keep making me lose faith in humanity.'

"Such pitiful creatures, but they are so rife with emotion… It allures us."

'Yeah, that's… one way to describe it. Anyway look alive, there's a truck down there.' Venom was quick to leap down onto a lower rooftop to get a look at the truck on the street below, allowing him 'There's the license plate- Crap, what about the lit he gave us?'

"It was absorbed into us when we took on our true form… This truck is not the imposter that we seek."

"Which still leaves two others out there, and once we find the scumbags stealing the toys from these kids… Well, you remember how I liked that Lethal Protector line from the fake Spider thing before?"

"You wish to put it to use on some of your own kind, rather than the Kraang. Let them feel what happens when they cross paths with us."

"Yeah… us."

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Meanwhile, with the start of the A plot…

"I don't know Master Splinter, this seems… kind of wrong." Leo cast an uncertain look over toward Splinter "Nothing about this seems particularly fair."

"I assure you my son, it is not." Splinter pulled out a cloth and tied it over his eyes in the form of a blindfold, with Gwen (in her Ghost Spider costume without the mask on) and the rest of the Turtles watching from afar "Now draw your weapon, and we shall begin."

"Hai sensei." so Leo draw a single katana and charged at Splinter, only for him to dodge the attack with ease, which caused the other Turtles to burst out laughing "How did you- What was that?"

"That is the point of today's lesson. Blind fighting is about much more than simply honing the rest of your senses, or other abilities you may sense." he turned his head toward Gwen at the last part "It focuses on perception and giving the illusion of control. Now come."

"Hai." Leo drew his other katana off his shell and leapt at Splinter with a swift series of strikes, only for each one to miss."

"You may think you have the upper hand in the situation, but…" Splinter weaved around every one of Leo's attacks with ease, eventually grabbing him by the wrist "You do not." and then he left sprawled out on the ground, which caused the other Turtles to burst out laughing.

"I guess that's what years of honing the craft will do to you. Which reminds me…" Gwen gave a pause as a familiar ringing went off in her head, causing her to duck right before the rest of the Turtles got smacked across their heads with a hilt.

"Also remember, it is not hard to sense those who run their mouths." Splinter turned away from the group, but suddenly paused and turned away from the group panting heavily… and then he removed his blindfold, revealing his eyes glowing red as he let out a snarl "You… turtles and the spider… You will fall!" he whipped back around and prepared to bring down the sword… but stopped as the glowing subsided, and he dropped the sword and fell to his knees.

"Sensei are you alright?" Gwen knelt down next to him "What was that?"

"Forgive me my student and my sons, this is… Something is wrong. I must meditate. I am afraid we will have to continue this training session another time. Take some time to rest."

"Alright, if you're sure…" Gwen pulled herself to her feet and followed the rest of the Turtles out of the dojo, but not before casting another uncertain glance at Splinter 'Okay, that was really out of left field. Something definitely feels off about this… We' d better keep an eye on him, just to be safe.'

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

'Well that was surprisingly easy.' the face of Eddie Brock poked out of the mask of Venom as he leapt across one rooftop after another following a certain truck 'Two trucks are legit, and we just found the one stealing from the FEAST donors.'

"If the task is completed, there is one thing left to do… Force these wretches to suffer for their transgressions, in the way only we can."

"No, not yet. There might be more of these guys, so let's follow them to where they're headed and see who else they meet up with." so with that in mind, he leapt down onto the roof of the truck as it continued on its way, allowing him to listen to the conversation between the two thugs inside:

"Listen, all I'm saying is that I don't want you making me look like an idiot in front of Joe. Got it? He's the one that's running this deal."

"Yeah I get that, but stealing toys? I mean a bunch of kids are looking forward to this stuff."

"Hey, I didn't get presents as a kid and I turned out just fine."

'Yeah, like you're not about to get a face full of black webbing.' Eddie rolled his eyes as he faded back into the mask of Venom and leapt off the truck as it pulled into a dockyard "So these guys are stealing toys as part of some kind of deal, and whoever Joe is he's the one organizing the whole thing.'

"If that is the case, then he is the one that must be made to suffer."

"We have to find him before anything else, and who knows how we can do that." Eddie frowned in thought, until a thought occurred to him as his phone emerged from the gooey black mass of his torso 'One of those times technology is actually a good thing. I can run their faces through a facial recognition program and see if we can get a match."

"And then the ones responsible will suffer."

"And then we get the toys back for the kids. Then we worry about these assholes." with the plan set, Eddie leapt onto a stack of shipping crates, allowing him to take a picture of one of the thugs wandering around 'Now to cross reference, and… nothing, this one is clean."

"No humans are truly clean."

"Either way, he's not the one we're looking for. Let's just keep going. It's not like there are that many guys here, right?"

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Several pictures later…

'Okay, hold still while I cross reference and… there we go!' Eddie breathed a sigh of relief as he finished cross referencing yet another picture, then looked down to see the thug in question walk up to a car pulling into the dockyard 'Finally we have our guy, and from the looks of it I'd say we just found the buyers too."

"And now that they have all been lured to the same location, all of them can be eliminated at the same time."

"It does sound pretty enticing. Let's just make sure to do this thing fast, I don't want anyone on the street noticing and getting drawn into the fray." Eddie faded back into the mask of Venom as he prepared to make his move.

"Ah good, you guys are here." the lead thug, Joe (sporting a mohawk) made his way up to the buyers as they stepped out of the car, unaware of the black tendrils picking off some of the thugs that surrounded the area "How about I just cut to the chase: You're about to get your hands on the hottest toys of the season. These are going almost double what the Spider-Man toys from last year went for, but because I like working with you, I'm willing to consider giving your group a bulk discount."

"Interesting that you mention bulk." a loud crash and a cloud of dust rang throughout the dockyard as Venom pounced down onto the scene, instantly drawing the attention of all of those present "Because we happen to have that in spades."

"What the hell is that thing?! Kill it!" all of the thugs present wasted no time in pulling out their guns and rifles and began rapidly shooting at Venom… only for the bullets to not even scratch him, and for a series of black weblines to latch onto all of them.

"Puny humans." Venom used the black weblines to repeatedly smash each of the thugs into the ground and/or into each other "Hulk, eat your giant green heart out."

"There is one still left standing. You know what we must do."

"Lethal Protector, right? I'll get to that as soon as I make sure the toys are safe." Venom made his way over to the truck to check on its cargo, only to stop when a large hulking thug stormed out of the back "Okay, are you serious right now?"

"Hands off the merchandise you freak!" the thug rushed towards Venom and let a fist fly… only for it to be caught and subsequently crushed in one of Venom's giant hands with ease, leaving him to be thrown to the ground.

"And then there was one." with that in mind, Venom turned his attention back to Joe, lying sprawled out in a small crater, to which he picked him up by the head "Let us give you the only warning you'll get: You try anything like this again… In fact, if you go anywhere in this city, praying on innocent people, and we WILL find you… We will eat both of your arms, and then both of your legs, and then we will eat your face right off your head… Do you understand us?"

"Get… Get away from me!" Joe tried to thrash his way free of Venom's hold, only for the grip to tighten on his head, causing him to cry out in pain.

"So you will be this armless, legless, headless, faceless thing, being left alone as it rolls down the street… like a turd in the wind… Do you feel us?"

"What… What the hell are you?!"

"Do you really want to know? We… are Venom." with that said, Venom tossed Joe into a nearby shipping container, then leapt onto a nearby rooftop just as police sirens began to sound in the area "Well that's one way to spread holiday cheer." the face of Eddie Brock emerged as he pulled a cell phone out of his oozy black form "Hey Sam, it's Eddie. I found the truck with the missing toys. I'm gonna send you a location, but all of them are safe and sound in a dockyard on the edge of Midtown."

"That's a huge relief. I'm gonna be right there. I can't thank you enough for this Eddie, you sure as hell saved the holidays for a lot of kids, not to mention my job."

"Don't worry about it. It's like a wise woman I know always says. When you help someone, you help everyone." with that in mind, Eddie hung up and stuck his phone back into his black oozing mass 'Huh, not a bad day's work. All goes well, maybe I can get out early enough to take Ashley to see the ball drop in Times Square."

"Entertain the woman how you wish, and know that we will honor your request to keep her safe from harm. But do not get lost in sentimentality. After all, we are all that you need to keep you safe from this world."

"Yeah, I… I got that." Eddie's face fell, but he shook off the uncertainty as he faded back into the mask of Venom and webbed a line, then swung away into the skies of New York.

What he didn't know, is what he was about to find before he made it back…

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Okay, sI have to ask." Gwen looked over at Donnie as the was mixing a few chemicals at the desk in his lab "I know I'm still relatively new to being part of this team, but Splinter isn't usually like that right?"

"Nope, that's pretty out of the blue for him." Donnie gave a shrug "Pretty crazy to see sensei get so close to going over the edge like that, unless you count this one time Raph stole one of his cheese-sicle to give to Spike."

"But turtles can't eat cheese." Gwen paused and looked at him "Okay, non-mutated turtles can't eat cheese."

"Yeah well, he didn't know that at the time and considering the number of times he threw me to the ground or sat on me, I wasn't particularly inclined to help him in any way. Also I was six at the time."

"Sup guys." this was when Casey made his way into the lab with a milkshake in hand "Sorry to keep you waiting, but Casey Jones has decided to grace you with his presence."

"Oh wow, I'm crying tears of joy." Donnie rolled his eyes without bothering to look up from his desk.

"Good to see you too Don. Any chance you guys got some extra room down here?"

"Maybe, it depends on where you're going with this."

"Okay long story short, any chance you guys can look after this thing?" he sat his milkshake down on Donnie's desk and held up the cat from before.

"You want them to adopt a cat?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Kind of a long story, but yeah basically. That a yes or no?"

"You do know that Master Splinter is a rat, right?" Donnie pointed out dryly.

"Yeah I know, and don't think I don't wanna see the cat go nuts and attack him. She could feed off his body for months."

"Okay I'm just gonna say it, there is something seriously wrong with you."

"Hey I didn't wanna deal with it, if you're gonna spew fire point it at April." that was enough to make Donnie tense up, and the atmosphere turn sour "What?"

"You mean… you were with April?"

"Yeah, we got lunch and stuff and we found this cat. She can't take it so I kinda said I'd get you guys to keep it."

"Great, that's… Whatever. I'm gonna go and tune up the Shellraiser." Donnie quickly rushed his way out of the lab without another word.

"What did I say?"

"Long story short, April is a sore subject. Anyway I'm gonna go ahead and go, I have to check on something." and so Gwen made her way out without another word, with Casey being left alone in the lab.

"...So is that a yes or no about the cat?" Casey gave a shrug as he sat the cat down on the desk, only to see her knock over his milkshake, causing it to spill into a beaker of Mutagen "Oh come on!"

"Aw, look at the kitty!" this was when Mikey made his way into the lab and started fawning over the cat "I didn't know you like cats dude."

"I don't, I just brought it cause April wanted to find it a home, then Donnie and Gwen got all weird about it." Casey gave a shrug, only to pause when he noticed Mikey looking considerably downcast "What, sore subject? And speaking of which, when were you guys gonna mention you were friends with April?"

"Probably when it stopped feeling like it was rubbing salt in the wound. So yeah, I doubt it was gonna be for awhile." Mikey breathed a sigh "We were friends with April for awhile, met her the same time we met Pe- Spidey."

"I kinda figured that out. So what gives?"

"Long story short, remember the whole Mutation Day thing a like two months ago?"

"Yeah, glowing green stuff falls from the sky and apparently a bunch of people went missing or turned into stuff out of Generator Rex."

"Yep. It… It was our fault. We were fighting the Kraang in the ship they were using to send out a bunch of Mutagen, we got cocky and it fell out of the ship… April's dad got hit with one of the ooze canisters, turned into a giant mutant bat. She blamed us for it, probably still does. It's a big part of why Donnie's been so focused on finding a cure, to turn him back… And to get April to forgive him."

"Ooh. When you put it like that, kinda easy to see what's got him so down." Casey's face fell at the thought… but it quickly turned into horror when he glanced over to see the cat licking away at the beaker full of mutagen and ice cream "Crap crap crap!"

"Okay that's not good, that's so not good…" Mikey cringed as he watched the cat break down into a pile of melted ice cream "Oh god…"

"What the hell am I gonna tell April?! Can we go to jail for this? Does this count as animal cruelty or something like that?"

"I don't know man, does it count when we beat the crap out of Razhar or Fishface or any of those guys?" Mikey didn't get an answer, mostly because the two of them looked up to see what used to be the cat rise up in front of them, now being made entirely of ice cream "Woah… Not gonna lie, did not see that coming."

"Yeah, now April's cat is a freaking dessert! What the hell are we gonna do now?"

"Take it easy man. You think this is the first time I screwed with one of Donnie's experiments and had to cover it up? I've been doing this since before you could hold a hockey stick. Let the pro show you how it's done." with that in mind, Mikey scooped up the newly formed ice cream kitty into his arms and rushed out of the lab, with Casey following right behind him.

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Meanwhile, with the aforementioned rat master…

'Be sound of mind… Let my spirit be at peace…' Splinter did a series of breathing exercises as he meditated in front of the shrine in the dojo, only to stop on the spot when he found himself in a familiar darkness and sensed a certain presence "No, this cannot be… I defeated you, and you were gone!"

"That's where you're wrong, for I am never gone. I live so long as you live."

"Get out of my mind!"

"I'm even deeper than your mind, I've entered into your very soul. It's only a matter of time before you give everything to your king… Your Rat King!"

"No!" Splinter formed a hand seal as the black void disappeared, and he found himself back in the dojo "You do not have control over me."

"Perhaps not yet, but I have what I came for." and then the voice disappeared.

'What he came for…' Splinter looked up from his meditation and gazed at the picture on the shrine, leaving him panting slightly 'I will not let it happen again… I cannot…'

"Is everything alright sensei?"

Splinter looked over to see Gwen standing in the doorway to the dojo and was quick to try and compose himself "I, I am fine, yes… Though perhaps some ice would sooth my head… and perhaps a cheesesicle as well…"

"Say no more, I'll go grab something for you." Gwen was quick to make her way out of the dojo, though she did spare another worried glance back towards Splinter as she did.

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Meanwhile, with the C plot…

"Alright my little friend, there you go." by this point, Mikey and Casey had taken the newly mutated form of Ice Cream Kitty and stuck her in the freezer in the Lair's kitchen "This will keep her from melting until we can figure something out."

"But how do we know the others ain't gonna find her in here?" Casey raised an eyebrow.

"Relax, they never even touch the fridge if they don't gotta. Who do you think does all of the cooking stuff around here?" Mikey pointed a thumb at himself, which led Ice Cream Kitty to lick his face and leave a glob of ice cream on it, which he subsequently licked off "Okay, so being full of mutagen doesn't make it taste any worse. Good to know. Alright keep a lookout for the others, I'm going in." and so as he wrapped his arms around himself, he leaned in and began licking away at Ice Cream Kitty.

"Dude, you know it looks like you're making out with yourself, right?"

"Why do you think I told you to keep a lookout? Now give me a second while I rush in and get another taste before-"

"Ahem."

"Holy shell!" Mikey and Casey slammed the freezer door shut and whipped around to find the rest of the Turtles, along with Gwen, staring right at them "Uh… Hey. How long have you guys been standing there?"

"Long enough to be scarred for life." Raph told him dryly.

"Uh… It was him!" Mikey immediately pointed at Casey "It was all him!"

"I didn't do it, I swear it was an accident!" Casey was quick to protest, and he and Mikey began pointing at each other Evil Monkey style.

"You're the one who dumped a milkshake all over the poor thing!"

"I ain't the one who stuck the ooze where it could get to the stuff!"

"It was all his idea!"

"He's done it loads of times, put him down or something!"

"He likes to sleep with a Sonic the Hedgehog plushie-" the two of them were cut off from their attempts to blame each other by two shots of web fluid being slapped over their mouths.

"I didn't want to have to do that." Gwen breathed a sigh of relief as she rubbed her temple and ripped the webs off of their mouths "I'll ask you guys what all of this is about later, right now I just came to get some ice and a cheesesicle for Splinter. He's not doing so great, and at this point I'm worried something might push him over the edge."

"How do you figure?" Mikey received his answer in the form of a loud roar echoing through the Lair, followed by Splinter charging into the kitchen on all fours, his eyes glowing red as he pounced towards the group."

"Like that."

"This isn't helping my whole rat thing!" Casey was left huddled in terror behind the counter and holding onto a stool.

"I've got him!" thinking quick, Gwen latched onto Splinter with a series of webs and used them to pin him to the ground, along with her enhanced physical strength to keep him subdued "Are you guys okay?"

"Even if you are now, you won't be for long…" Splinter let out a snarl, his red eyes flashing with rage as his voice lost its distinct Japanese accent "I already have what I came for… It won't be long now before New York, and the world, belongs to me!" then the red eyes vanished and he keeled over with a thud.

"Sensei!" Mikey and the other Turtles came rushing into the kitchen toward Splinter, with Gwen helping him to his feet "Sensei are you okay, what's going on?"

"I… I am sorry, my sons…" Splinter slowly pulled himself up onto his knees, his expression and tone grave "It seems that the Rat King… has returned…"

"Oh. Oooh. Yeah, this one ain't gonna be good."

"You guys know a dude called the Rat King?!" Casey immediately leapt to his feet and clutched his stool in terror.

"Mad scientist guy who went nuts, tried to make himself read minds, works with the Kraang and now controls rats. That's the short version anyway." Raph paused as the sound of vibrating drew him to pull out his T-phone "Text from Daredevil, he wants us to turn on the news and brace for a big one.

"In terms of size or how bad this is?" askd Leo.

"Both."

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Sure enough, out on a rooftop overlooking the city, the Rat King himself what he was capable of with the forces at his command, mainly in the form of an army of giant rats completely under his control.

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Meanwhile, in the Lair…

"This is Joan Grody reporting live from Bleaker Street, where an army of giant rats have emerged from the sewers. These revolting rodents have made it their mission to snatch people away on this edition of Grody to the Max- Oh god not the face, NOT MY HAIR!" and then the camera cut out.

"Giant rats…" Casey was left particularly horrified by the current situation as he slumped onto the ground in a stupor "Why the hell did it have to be giant rats…?"

"Take it easy Casey, you might wanna sit this one out." Leo idly patted Casey on the shoulder, then turned towards Splinter "I know you don't like going out there yourself sensei, but we could really use your help with this one. Let's not forget that the last time we fought that creep you took him down with one punch."

"I cannot Leonardo, for the last time was different." Splinter's tone was grave as he turned to face the others "The Rat King has grown too powerful since our last encounter. I do not fear for myself, but for what he could… force me to do."

"Sensei…"

"Don't worry about it, we can handle this on our own." Gwen leapt to her feet as she pulled her Ghost Spider mask down over her face "So let's get to it."

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Meanwhile, with the B plot (mixing slightly with the A plot)…

"Yes, our moment is at hand!" Rat King barked out a laugh as he watched the chaos unfold from his place perched on a rooftop overlooking the city "You can see it Aristotle, the human species is finally coming to the gruesome end it deserves. The time has come to advance the next phase of evolution! At long last, rodents shall rule over this world!"

What he didn't notice however, was a certain figure watching him from a perch located on an even higher rooftop, in the form of Scarlet Spider, his gaze hardened with resole underneath his solid red mask 'Well I think I just found the source of the disturbance if there ever was one, or just some really weird Comic Con trend. Should be simple enough though, as long as I stick to the plan… that I'm making up as I go along. No stay focused Scarlet, you got this. I just have to slip close enough to this wannabe ruler that I can take him down, extract whatever information he has on the Mutagen he's collected that can be useful to our cause, I give it to Father and then boom, favorite son all over again.' and so he prepared to web a line and swing down to carry out his plan…

Or he would've if not for the fact that one of the giant rats had climbed onto the rooftop he was perched on and subsequently tackled him off of said rooftop, sending both of them crashing to the ground, the rat continuing to claw and bite at him until a burst of proportionate strength of a spider threw it off, and a layer of webbing soon left it pinned to the ground.

"You get points for trying, but that's about it." Scarlet Spider leapt back to his feet and onto a nearby lamppost 'Okay, going to pretend that didn't happen, but all the same I should probably find a different position to ambush this guy. Now where's a good spot to- Wait a second.' he paused when he looked across the street to see two figures perched on another rooftop fighting off a group of the giant rats 'Daredevil again, and there'sthat the mutant with the adamantium claws, Wolverine I think his name was? Interesting, both notoriously dangerous and also more than likely working against the Kraang and the Foot Clan. Maybe I can use them as a way of trapping-' his musings were quickly cut short by a black webline latching onto his back and yanking him onto another rooftop… but not before sending him crashing through a billboard in the process, leaving him to groan in pain as he picked himself back up 'Okay, what the hell just happened?'

"Oh come on now bro, you should know better than to wear a mask or a new suit with us by now." a hulking figure landed in front of Scarlet with a mighty crash, and revealed himself to be none other than Venom, towering over Scarlet and practically pulsating with rage as he grabbed Scarlet by the throat and slammed him into the ground "After all, if there's anyone on this whole goddamn planet that knows you, it's US. We used to be you after all."

"The… The Symbiote host?" Scarlet found himself thrown through a water tower, but managed to recover in time to avoid the follow up punch Venom threw at him "Here I thought you were supposed to be one of the good guys now."

"Just because we hate the Kraang and have no problem killing the scum of this city, that doesn't mean we won't make time to rip you limb from limb? There is NOTHING that will stop us from fulfilling our missions, making our enemies SUFFER. And you're just lucky enough to be the first."

"Yeah well, I'm not a clean cut heart of gold superhero myself, so I've got no problem using what I have to bash your face in." Scarlet pounched at Venom and managed to slug him across the face, then moved in for a follow up attack… only for Venom to grab him by the head and throw him to the ground, stomping on his head over and over again.

"You can try and pretend to be something you aren't Pete, but it doesn't matter. We still plan to fulfill our purpose for existing: Making you suffer for the way you've tormented us all this time! Remember what we are: We're poison to both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, we are VENOM!"

'Peter Parker… Spider-Man…? He thinks I'm Spider-Man? And apparently Peter Parker is the real Spider-Man. Good to know.' taking a moment to recover from the brief beatdown, Scarlet latched onto Venom's face with a webline and used it to slam his face into the ground while he leapt back onto a wall to in order gain some distance "Hate to break it to you big guy, or guys, or however the hell that works, but I'm not Spider-Man. Though I will say that may be the nicest thing anyone has said to me in days. And frankly, that's kind of sad."

"Again with pretending to be something you're not. You can't fool us!" Venom let out a roar as he latched onto Scarlet Spider with another black webline and pulled him towards him, then punched Scarlet hard enough to send him crashing through the brick wall behind him, as well as onto another rooftop across the street, with Venom swinging over to the other rooftop to continue his assault "We can recognize that irritating voice from miles away."

"Yeah well… excuse me for not sounding Morgan Freeman." Scarlet quickly unleashed a quick shot of webbing over Venom's eyes, allowing him to leap upright, web a line and swing away across the rooftops 'Okay it's pretty obvious I can't beat him head on, I'll have to retreat and come up with some kind of new plan.'

"You're not getting away from us that easily!" Venom pounced at Scarlet Spider and was able to tackle him onto a different rooftop, then quickly wrapped him in a thick cocoon of black webbing, and then the hulking mass of Venom faded to reveal the form of Eddie Brock, casting a look down at Scarlet, though his glare did soften slightly "You have to remember, we… I know you better than you know yourself, bro." he knelt down and in front of Scarlet and subsequently pulled off his mask… and was immediately taken aback when he noticed the head of shaggy brown hair and dark brown eyes "You… You're not him. You look so similar but… you're not him."

"Not Spider-Man, or whoever the hell you were looking for? Yeah, what do you think I've been trying to say this whole time?" Scarlet spat out some blood to the side.

"Should've guessed, you're nowhere near as scrawny as he is." Eddie's frown lessen slightly as he glanced him over "So if you're not him, then who the hell are you supposed to be?"

"I can answer that."

Eddie glanced over to the side to see Daredevil and Wolverine leapt down onto rooftop a short distance away "Let me guess, another Kraang thing I don't know about?"

"In a manner of speaking. I'm guessing you remember from our mission to TCRI, I mentioned another Spider we'd been dealing with?"

"Don't tell me, this is him." Eddie glanced back down at Scarlet "Still raises the question, who the hell is he?"

"We have theories about that, none of them have been confirmed or denied."

"Sounds pretty convenient."

"Depends on who you ask."

"Hate to break it to you Red, but we don't have time to worry about that right now, for a couple of big as hell and probably rabid reasons." Wolverine jerked a thumb down to where the giant rats were still causing chaos across the city "What do you think, we go to the guy controlling these things and take him down?"

"No, let's not be too hasty. If last time is any indication, he's probably operating out of his base underneath Herald Square, at least based on what the Turtles told me. Plus I think it's safe to say that he's gotten his hands on a sizable amount of Mutagen, so I think it would be best to cut up the snake starting at the head."

"Meaning we head to this lunatic's Lair and get whatever he's using to make the giant rats before he can use any more of them." Wolverine paused, then gave a shrug "I've followed worse plans before."

"So it's settled then."

"In case it slipped your notice, we're already a little preoccupied." Eddie jerked a thumb over at where Scarlet Spider lay on the ground "If we go hunting for the rat nest then what the hell are we supposed to do, bring him with us?"

"At the very least, it's better to keep enemies like him nearby, rather than let him run around on the loose. Besides, if your fight with him was any indication, it's pretty safe to say that he can't try anything suspicious, especially with three of us surrounding him."

"...Fine. But if he tries anything, I'm squashing him."

"Oh yeah, squash the spider joke, how original." Scarlet rolled his eyes as Eddie hoisted his bound figure over his shoulder 'But all snark aside, and the fact that my everything hurts right now, at least I'm getting taken to the source of the giant rat thing. Once I'm there, I just have to find an opportunity to get out of this thing, find whatever he's using and bring it to Father. All according to plan, as far as anyone else is concerned.'

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Seriously dudes, again with this?" as one could imagine, Turtle Titan was less than thrilled to be wearing a piece of cheese on his head as he rode the Stealth Bike through the streets alongside the others "I'm all for going out and helping and stuff, but why the shell am I wearing the cheese again?"

"I figured it would've been obvious by now." Nightwatcher shot a smirk at Turtle Titan as he rode alongside on his own motorcycle, trailing behind where Leo and Donnie drove in their own patrol buggies "We gotta lead the rats away somehow, and you're the best of us at being bait."

"You mean because you guys don't wanna."

"That too."

"Figures. I'm just gonna say it though."

"This is the worst thing ever!" Casey rode onto the scene on his own bike, still clearly scared out of his mind, but that didn't stop him from smacking a giant rat across the face with a metal club in his hand.

"Yeah, basically what he said. Also, FASTER!" Turtle Titan revved his engine and sped up as two giant rats chased after them, only for them to take notice "Aw shell…"

"Get back you guys!" luckily for the group, this was when Ghost Spider raced onto the scene on the Spider Cycle and launched a series of web projectiles as she surged forward, pinning one of the giant rats to the ground and causing the rest of hte group to scatter "Sorry we're late guys, now let's get to dethroning the Rat King!"

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Now alone in the dojo, Splinter was once again trying to use meditation to cleanse his mind and spirit, but like last time, the Rat King entered into his mind to try and take control of him, and told him that he already belonged to him. He just didn't know it yet…

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Meanwhile, with the rat fighters…

"Those things ain't gonna get me today!" Nightwatcher sped up as the giant rats continued to chase after him, only for another rat to leap off one of the nearby rooftops and pounce on him and the Stealth Bike, riding on top of them despite his attempts to throw it off "Hey guys, can I get a little help here?"

"I got it!" Ghost Spider pulled back a bit and launched a projectile from her Spider Cycle, hitting the rat with a sphere that released a large wave of webbing, trapping it in a makeshift cocoon as it tumbled to the ground, only for another rat to leap at the Spider Cycle itself, forcing her over to the side of the street as she fought them off, webbing one of them to the ground but having her free arm being caught in the jaws of another "Now I wouldn't say no to any of you returning the favor!"

"Hang tight Ghosty, Turtle Titan is on his way!" Turtle Titan sped his way back towards where the Spider Cycle had stopped, launching a barrage of shuriken from one hand to stop the rat that was chasing him and then throwing out a series of smoke bombs to stun and/or ward off group of rats in front of him… only for this moment of glory to be cut short by a giant rat burst out in front of him and pouncing forward, tackling him off the Stealth Bike and biting down on his shell as it dragged him away, despite his attempts to get loose or shake it off "Not gonna lie, I kinda figured this was gonna go differently."

"Mikey hang on!" as soon as Nightwatcher saw Turtle Titan being dragged away, he spun around and prepared to drive after him, only to see several giant rats preparing to pounce from the rooftops above him "Aw shell."

"Split up!" Leo and Donnie drove off in different directions, with a few rats chasing after them, and Nightwatcher, Ghost Spider and Casey luring away some of their own.

"Yes that's right fools, bow before the true masters. Now Caligula, come to me!" Rat King let out a triumphant laugh as he mounted the back of one of his giant rats "Come my brothers, let us return home! Claudius, Nero, Comedus and the rest of you get back to the Lair! We've already taken enough specimens."

"You son of a…" Nightwatcher let out a snarl as he watched Rat King make his escape, but was quick to shake that off as he screeched to a halt and chased after the rat dragging Turtle Titan away "Get the shell off my brother!" he pounced at the rat when it tried to push Turtle Titan down a manhole and launched a series of attacks, only for the rat to brush it off and backhand him with his tail, sending him crashing to the ground as it disappeared "MIKEY!"

"Raph!" this was when Ghost Spider sped back onto the scene on the Spider Cycle and screeched to a halt beside him "What happened, is Mikey…?"

"They got him. He's gone." Nightwatcher slammed his fist into a nearby wall a few times in pure frustration.

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"OH YEAH!" with a mighty roar, Venom burst through a thick concrete wall and left a gaping hole in his wake, then glanced back at the rest of his group as his hulking form faded to reveal the face of Eddie Brock "There, I basically just did the Kool Aid man, you happy now?"

"I don't really do happy, but yeah that works for me." Wolverine gave a smirk as he made his way through the hole, with Daredevil close behind him, and handed the cocooned form of Scarlet Spider back to Eddie "Not a bad job of doing it either."

"It wasn't even that hard, I don't think I needed my other to do that."

"I've seen Wilson Fisk to it on at least two occasions." Daredevil noted.

"See, he gets it. Truth be told I just find it kind of demeaning, but it was really easy all things considered."

"I can vouch, I've seen at least three guys do it before." Scarlet Spider finally spoke up, only to roll his eyes at the sight of the glare that Eddie was throwing his way "You know you don't have to give me the stink eye, I'm not gonna try and run or anything. Mostly because I can't break out of these things."

"Yeah well tough shit, we trust you about as far as we can throw you." Wolverine told him flatly, then paused and looked around the metal tunnel surrounding them "Okay, call it a hunch but I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

"Ha freaking ha. We're probably in the old pneumatic subway, they were built all the way back in the 1800's but nobody uses them now."

"They're not paying attention." Eddie jerked a thumb to where Wolverine and Daredevil were both forging on ahead "But I get where you're going with that, if I wanted to hole up somewhere and screw around with Mutagen and rats, that might be where I'd do it."

"They definitely came this way if nothing else." Wolverine bent down to sniff the ground in front of them, then paused as the sound of squealing and growling drew their attention "That enough proof for you? Either that's a pack of giant rats or we're dealing with the Brotherhood crashing karaoke night again."

"I thought you and the Professor stopped having those." Daredevil noted.

"You ever wonder why we stopped having those?"

"...Not anymore."

"And there you go. Anyway the scent is faint and goes off in a few directions, any chance you can use those fancy senses to figure out where they're heading next?"

"Let me see." Daredevil paused to try and take in the sounds in the distance, but after a moment he let out a sigh and turned back to the others "There's multiple groups of them running around the sewers, and the sounds are being distorted down here. I can figure out where each group is headed, but I can't confirm if the leader is with them."

"Better than nothing I guess. Let's keep moving."

"That sounds promising." Scarlet rolled his eyes and glanced at Venom "I'm just gonna say it, the two of us might be better off going it on our own.

"Yeah well tough shit if you don't like it, you're stuck with us so just deal with it." Eddie slung Scarlet Spider over his shoulder and began walking after Daredevil and Wolverine.

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Meanwhile, with the captive…

"Mikey? Mikey wake up."

"Yeah Megan Fox, let's go up on that rooftop and-" Mikey's eyes snapped open and he leapt to his feet, only to relax slightly when he found himself in a large metal cage, complete with a certain familiar redhead in front of him "April, what the heck-"

"Keep your mask on, you don't want anyone else to see you." April quickly pulled the Turtle Titan cowl back over his head as the two of them sat back down "So the giant rats managed to get you too?"

"You mean the giant rats? Yeah, me and the others tried taking them down. One of them got me and I guess I ended up here… wherever the shell here is." Turtle Titan paused and cast a look around, finding several other civilians trapped in cages around them "In the sewers I guess."

"Not just the sewers, apparently us and everyone else here is a prisoner of the Rat King. So I guess he's back."

"Well… if nothing else, at least it ain't those freaky mutant squirrels again. I still get nightmares about those things."

"...I'm gonna choose not to ask about that. So… I don't suppose you let yourself get captured so you could swoop in like a superhero and break everyone else?"

"Kinda, I mean we had no idea you were gonna be here too, but…"

"Ah. Figures." April's face fell as she looked away "Of course you didn't know. You probably wouldn't have come for me if you did. Not that I could blame you."

"What are you talking about? Of course we're gonna save you and everybody that got kidnapped by the rats, it's kinda what we do."

"That's not what I meant Mikey. It's just-" April was cut off by the sounds of rats screeching throughout the lair.

"Welcome to my humble home my most esteemed guests." the Rat King made his way out of the shadows to make himself known to the prisoners "There's no need to fear, I have no intention of hurting you. That much I can promise you."

"Kinda broke that already with the giant teeth marks on my shell dude." Turtle Titan pointed out dryly "Let us the shell out of here already!"

"All in good time my reptillian companion. Before that, take a look at my soldiers that brought you here." he gestured to the giant rats stationed throughout the Lair "These noble creatures were once no more than simple ordinary rats, until I was able to transform them into what you see now thanks to my special Mutagenic growth serum."

"Right, the Mutagen. Probably should've seen that coming."

"But these were not the soldiers that I was looking for. The good news is that after months of experimentation, I have finally unlocked the secrets of the ultimate army. Rat people. And now you may rejoice my friends, for you will become that army!" he was met with various gasps of horror from the prisoners and squeals of joy from the various mutant rats.

'Oh boy, this one ain't gonna be good.' Turtle Titan shared a look with April as he slipped his T-phone out of his suit and began typing on it discreetly 'Lucky for me the giant rats weren't smart enough to snag this from me. But seriously bros, if you're gonna show up to do a rescue mision, you're gonna wanna do it fast.'

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"You know, it's kind of funny." Wolverine cast a glance over at where Scarlet Spider still lay draped over Eddie's shoulder as the group continued searching their way through the sewers "A few weeks back I met with Red over here and one of those Turtles, and they told me about this interesting little trip they made to pick up one of those canisters of ooze awhile ago and met a pretty interesting guy there, a scrawny teenager with spider powers. What were the words that he used? Oh yeah, a bad but sad boy. Word for word Kind of tacky, but looking at you now, it ain't that far off the mark if you ask me."

"Go ahead and keep up the snark while you can." Scarlet shot a glare at Wolverine, though it did little to detract from the way his face turned red with embarrassment "Just wait until I see him or any of the Turtles again, then I'll be sure to-" he was silenced by Wolverine holding up a set of claws pointed at his face.

"You're welcome to try, but if you do then I ain't gonna hold back. The same goes for the rest of them, and if you got beat down by one guy, you really wanna try your luck with three of us at the same time?"

"Fine, be the big man with the scary claws while you can. You don't scare me, the same goes for the rest of you. Compared to the wrath of my Father, the rest of you are basically the equivalent of little kids in Halloween costumes."

"You wanna shut up at some point?" Eddie moved Scarlet around on his shoulder to shoot a glare right at him.

"Hey if I'm gonna be kept hostage by an alien host, a flea ridden mongrol and a guy sharing the name of the literal Devil, the least I can do is make sure you don't get to enjoy it."

"Okay all of you pipe down, we have company." Daredevil held out a hand to stop the others, and directed their attention to the sewer drain area located at the end of the tunnel "We're not alone down here."

As it turns out, a squad of pumpkin soldiers were making their way into the sewer drain, being led by Mysterio, only for the group to stop in their tracks, which caused him toook around the area dramatically "Why have we stopped? Are we being pursued?"

"No, because there's giant rats running all over the place." one of the soldiers told him dryly "I don't know what freaky Shakespeare meets Harry Potter thing you've got going, but some of us don't wanna get our faces mauled. We gotta be careful."

"You're being too dramatic."

"I'm dramatic? Are you freaking kidding me?"

"My point is that I have to show the Goblin King what Mysterio the Master of the Arcane Arts is truly capable of, and if any of you ruin this for me, I'll throw you to the rats with the biggest smile on my face."

"You mean under the fish bowl on your head?" another soldier blurted out with a smirk under his pumpkin mask, earning a low growl from Mysterio.

All the while, Eddie and the others watched from their place hidden by the entrance to their sewer tunnel "Damn, the Goblin Nation must be really desperate for recruits if they brought in that guy."

"Yeah well pain in the ass or not, he's gonna be a problem." Wolverine knelt down and sniffed the ground in front of them "We gotta head to the other side of the drain and they're blocking it off."

"So what are you thinking, we create a distraction?"

"Leave that to us." Daredevil leapt to his feet and shared a nod with Wolverine, then turned back to Eddie "You stay here and wait for my signal, Wolverine and I will distract them long enough for you to slip through." and so he took off around the sewer drain, with Wolverine following right behind him.

"...Okay then."

"Well that was easier than I thought it'd be." Scarlet Spider shrugged his way off of Eddie's shoulder and leaned against the wall of the sewer tunnel "Once those two are occupied, the two of us can slip through, find the Rat King and get him to expose whatever secrets he's got up his sleeve."

"Where the hell did you get the idea that we're some kind of partners in this?"

"We might as well be. The Devil of Hell's Kitchen and the weasel over there don't have anything at stake in this, but the same can't be said for us."

"You don't know me run, so stop acting like you know what-" Eddie was cut off by the sound of vibrating coming from the black mass on his chest "Like I said, quict acting like-" the vibrating started again.

"Dude, you might as well just answer it."

"...Shut it." Eddie turned away from him as he pulled his cell phone out of the black mass of his chest 'Voicemail from Ashley. Crap, I was supposed to pick her up so we could watch the ball drop in Time's Square.'

"Voicemail from the love interest? That doesn't sound good." Scarlet's head suddenly popped up over Eddie's shoulder, only to end up getting thrown off again.

"Stay the hell off of me reject. But what doesn't look good?"

"I heard from Dr Warren about the time he tried to recruit you into the Goblin Nation. Truth be told I think the guy is a smarmy prick and his methods border on supervillain movie cliches, but some details I find are worth listening to. He mentioned you found yourself a partner."

"So what if I did?"

"Let me paint a little word picture: New Year's Eve, you got plans with your woman to make it the last and most romantic night of the year. But change of plans, you get called off to do some over the top superhero stuff, you miss out on it, she's pissed and she turns on her heel and walks out on you. I've watched the first season of Invincible, I watched Mark and Amber crash and burn, know what I'm talking about."

"Quit spouting some stupid bullshit, Ashley isn't the kind of person to make threats over stuff like that. She believes in me, she knows that I'm… trying to get back on the right path. To be a hero in my own way."

"In that case, follow up question: Has she told you that herself? If you're so confident that I'm wrong, go ahead and play the voicemail, hear what she has to say."

Eddie didn't say anything, he just stared at his phone… but then promptly stuffed it back into the black mass on his chest.

"I kinda figured as much. You know you and I have a fair bit in common big guy. One way or another, we're trying to show what we can bring to the table, why the people around us should trust us to pull our weight. And we can't fail, because we know from experience than letting down someone that we really care about, that thinks we're special."

"...Just shut up and stay behind me." Eddie turned his back to Scarlet as a hulking black mass pulled him in to the mass of Venom, and he let out a roar as he leapt forward and let a series of black balls of webbing at Mysterio and the pumpkin soldiers "We hope you're ready, because we'll be sucking the marrow from your bones before we're done with you!"

"What the hell are you doing?" Daredevil and Wolverine leapt down onto the scene and rushed forward alongside Venom "We had a plan, what happened to waiting for the signal?"

"We don't have time to screw around, we're ripping through these guys and finding the Rat King's lair." Venom let out a roar as he shot a seires of tendrils towards the pumpkin soldiers and Mysterio, sending many of them crashing into each other, before he and the rest of the group made their way into the next sewer tunnel 'The kid is wrong about Ashley, she isn't like that. I know she isn't.'

"Perhaps, but one part of what the boy says is the truth… The world is cruel and filled with people that will betray you. She will too sooner or later. Remember Eddie, we are all that you need to protect you from this world."

'Yeah, right… all I need.' Venom paused momentarily after this thought passed through him, but he quickly shook it off and continued on with the group.

"Dammit, of course the hulking abomination had to show up." Mysterio scowled as he picked himself up and dusted himself off, then turned to the pumpkin soldiers still standing "It seems like we're not alone down here, we find the monster and anyone else he's travelling with." and that was enough to get the remaining pumpkin soldiers to follow him through the sewer tunnel after the group.

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"I fear that Michelangelo is in much more danger than we realize." Splinter's tone was grave as he turned to face the rest of the group "While you were out doing battle with his forces, the Rat King himself peered into my mind in order to see what makes me unique. With that knowledge at his disposal, he will use it to create an army of rat people under his control."

"Yeah, like hell that's gonna happen." Raph leapt to his feet as he picked up his Nightwatcher helmet "What are we waiting for sensei, we've gotta get out there and stop them!"

"I already told you my son, the Rat King has grown too powerful, even for me."

"But Master Splinter, if there's one time we could use your help it's now. Mikey is out there and we can't just-" Leo was cut off by a sharp tap of Splinter's cane.

"Enough! My decision is final" he turned and started to walk away, until a certain voice stoped him in his tracks.

"So that's it?" Casey drew Splinter's attention as he leapt to his feet "One of your own freaking kids gets taken by these things and you're just gonna sit around doing nothing?"

"I have already made my decision known. I will not put any of you in danger again."

"So what are you doing then? You ain't doing squat to help him, that's for sure." Casey's gaze hardened with anger "Never knew one of you big shot ninja masters could turn out to be such a damn coward."

"Casey!" came the sharp reply Raph, complete with looks of shock from everyone else, but they didn't deter him.

"You think if you sit around taking a nap, things are just gonna work out hunky dory? You being in it or not, we're still going out there to fight the good fight. It ain't just today, we're going out there to fight the good fight against all kinds of big monsters, armies and ninjas, but they ain't gonna have you there helping them out either. I know damn well what the risks are, and what might happen, but I'm going out there anyway cause someone's gotta do it. The same goes with the rest of them, if you're there or not. You shutting yourself away in a rat hole isn't gonna change that. Plus look at me, everyone here knows I'm balls out terrified of rats, but I ain't letting it stop me from going outthere and kicking some tail." he was met with stunned looks from Ghost Spider and the rest of the Turtles.

"You ain't gonna help Raph or Mikey or any of the others by running away. They don't think of you as the kind of guy that runs from his problems and hides away in a hole. You oughta be facing your fear and trying to kick its ass instead. It ain't a hard call rat man, you're this great ninja master they look up to, or you're just a coward. What's it gonna be?"

Splinter said nothing, he simply turned his head slightly to meet Casey's gaze… but then he just walked away into the dojo without uttering a single word.

"...Well shit, I really thought the epic heartfelt speech was gonna work." Casey let out a sigh as he turned to face the others "So what now?"

"If Splinter is out then we'll just have to do this on our own." Leo pulled himself to his feet as he pulled out his T-phone "Plus I think we all just got the same notification, we just picked up the locator signal from Mikey's T-phone."

"So what, he's trying to lead us to him?"

"That's my guess, which means now we know for certain where to go." Leo turned to face the rest of the group as his gaze hardened "Everybody get ready and gear up, we're heading out in 10 minutes at most."

"Got it. Just give me a minute to grab one thing and Casey Jones is gonna be ready to beat down some giant rats." Casey gave a smirk and quickly rushed into the kitchen, opening the freezer door to find Ice Cream Kitty waiting for him "Can't believe I'm gonna say this, but you might actually help us win this one. You ready for this?"

"Meow." Ice Cream Kitty gave a smile.

"Works for me, now let's do this." Casey pushed her into a cooler he held, then pulled down his hockey mask "It's go time."

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Well this is… unsettling, to say the least." Daredevil pushed through a large metal gate as the group continued forging ahead, only to find themselves looking at various narrow plateaus over an incredibly deep gorge, to which he case a glance over at Wolverine "At the very least, we are going the right way correct?"

"This is where I've been tracking the scent to so far." Wolverine took another sniff and cast a look around "Yep, the rats are definitely ahead of here, not too far at least. Gonna take a bit to get through this though."

"Does it matter? If we have to go forward through this then we will, don't overcomplicate everything." Venom shot out a line of thick black webbing, latching onto a structure on the other side of the chasm "Now move."

"How obliging of you." Daredevil leapt onto the webline and quickly rushed his way along it toward the other side, with Wolverine following close behind him.

"Good, move fast." the mask of Venom receded to reveal the face of Eddie Brock as he looked down at the chasm below "Not gonna lie, something about this place makes my skin crawl, even by New York standards."

"It really shouldn't be that surprising." Scarlet glanced up from where he was being carried on Eddie's back "We're in the entrance to the Undercity. Or in the vernacular of stupid people on the internet, we're in Mole people territory now, and god only knows what we're bound to find down here. Actually in this case it's pretty obvious, giant mutant rats. Plus the chams around here go down at least 1,000 feet, even your claw buddy over there would be hardpressed to come out of that unscathed."

"Yeah good to know, thanks for the Ted Talk. Now cram it and let's get moving." Eddie's face once more faded into the mask of Venom as he continued onwards across the chasm, until…

"Wait!" a frantic shoult from Scarlet caused Venom to stop and falter on one of the narrow platforms.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Something's wrong, my sixth sense is going off like crazy."

"So what's causing it?"

"I don't know, I can't see anything in front of you."

"Then what the hell are we-"

"Get the hell back!" Wolverine and Daredevil leapt off the black webline just before the end was engulfed in a sizable explosion, destroying the last platform and sending the two of them falling down into the foggy chasm below.

"NO!" Venom unleashed another webline to try and latch onto them, only for it to disappear into the chasm along with them, so he prepared to leap down in pursuit of them, until…

"Wait!" Scarlet cast a frantic look up at Venom before he could depart "If you're gonna go down there after them then take me with you, or at least untie me so I can get out of here."

"Why in the hell would we want to do that?"

"Forge ahead my masked companions!" the voice of Mysterio rang from beyond the gate to the chasm "And we shall show them the spiritual might of Mysterio! And the Goblin Nation too I suppose."

"...You really hate that guy don't you?"

"Ask the Devil about it when you see him next." Scarlet's look once again turned frantic "Please, just let me go and I swear I won't rat you out, I just…"

"You really expect us to fall for the desperation act?"

"It's not an act I swear… I don't want to get replaced. I know what happens to the ones that fail Father… Think about your partner, what would she do here?"

"...Don't make me regret this." Venom let out a low growl as he brought down his giant claws on the black web cocoon, freeing Scarlet from its hold "Just know that the next time we see your face, we WON'T hold back."

"I expected as much… especially after this." Scarlet suddenly reached into the belt around his waist and pulled out a small device, to which he placed it on his palm and pressed two fingers to the center of it, unleashing a pulse and audible humming that left Venom screaming in agony as the Symbiote pulsated violently "A small sonic grenade I got from the Jackal. I stand by what I said about him being an asshole, but he's got his uses. I'd say this is nothing personal, but considering you basically used me as a human fly swatter earlier, it's pretty cathartic. But beyond that, this is just business, plain and simple."

"You… filthy little bug…" Venom let out a snarl before the mask faded to once again reveal the face of Eddie Brock as he fell to his knees "You're gonna pay for this one…"

"I won't be surprised when that happens. For now on the other hand, I'm tracking down the Rat King and getting my hands on whatever resources he's got. See ya." Scarlet Spider gave a quick two-finger salute, then leapt his way across the platforms to the other side of the chasm, where he disappeared into the darkness.

"You son of a…" Eddie tried to pull himself to his feet as the sonic burst subsided, only to then find a series of rifles pointed at him from multiple sides "Aw crap…"

"Well well, what do we have here?" Mysterio glided his way across the chasm and stepped through the group of pumpkin soldiers to look Eddie in the eye "It seems that we found our little intruder. Our superiors should prove to be VERY pleased."

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Yes, it's only a matter of time…" the Rat King let out a chuckle as he filled a syringe with his Mutagenic serum, only to pause at the sound of a rat chittering on his shoulder "Yes Aristotle, that's right. Every time one of my rat people bites a human they will infect them, which will cause the mutation to spread further and further, until every last human being in this wretched world is transformed into one of us." his smirk widened, but it quickly fell away at the sound of more chittering "What's that you say? The serum isn't perfected? What do you mean?" he poked his head into a nearby bin "Oh."

"Cheese…" as it turns out, one particular test subject lay in said bin, mutated into a twisted mass of flesh and fur with bones sticking out of it, showing traits of both human and rat, his voice deep and distorted "Please… give me chees…"

"...Well not every experiment can be a success." Rat King gave a shrug as he looked down at the syringe in his hand "But this new serum will work, I give you my word. Though perhaps we should test it before we initiate our plan. Now the question is, who would be the best test subject to try it out on?"

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen." Turtle Titan cast a glance over at Rat King, then turned back to where April sat in front of him "So yeah, that's pretty much everything that's been going down since the last time talked."

"Wow, that uh… That's a lot, no doubt about it." April glanced up at him "Sounds like you guys have really had your hands full."

"Pretty wild time to put it mildly. Trust me, some of those parts you oughta be glad you weren't around for, like the Squirrelanoids. I still get nightmares about those things. They put most of the freaks in Stranger Things to shame."

"I can believe that. It's not like I haven't been up to anything myself. Try storming TCRI with Venom and Daredevil's new team, almost getting dissected by the Jackal and then ending the night by finding out you're actually a half-Kraang mutant."

"...Say what now?"

"I know, everything has been so weird for me since then. Now I feel like I don't know how to talk to most of the normal people in my life like I used to." April let out a chuckle, though it held some bitterness to it "I tried to cut off any of the mutant alien craziness and live a normal life, and maybe part of me thought my problems would disappear if I did. So much for that panning out, huh?" she paused, then looked back up at him "It was… good to talk to you Mikey- I mean, Turtle Titan."

"Yeah, same. You know the guys all miss having you around… especially Donnie. He's still hard at it trying to find that retro-mutagen."

"So I've heard. Gwen came and talked to me a few weeks ago. Guess I probably should've taken a guess of that myself beforehand, huh?" April's face fell slightly at the thought "For a couple of reasons."

"You know, you might get to say that to him soon, and a couple other things. He and the others are probably almost here now. Maybe you could talk to them when you get the chance?"

"Um… maybe. We'll see." April quickly looked away from him 'Assuming they actually want to talk to me.'

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Well isn't this an interesting turn of events." Mysterio glanced down at where Eddie was forced to kneel in front of him "It seems that we're not the only ones down here searching for a little rat that got a bit too big for its britches. That sound about right?"

"Like hell I'm telling you anything." Eddie shot a smirk at him "Aren't you supposed to be doing a kid's birthday party somewhere?"

"Evidently you share Spider-Man's passion for wit and humor. The question is, can you keep it up while we keep you occupied?"

"What, I'm supposed to believe you're gonna send a bunch of your robot duplicates to beat me into the ground, or just leave it to these guys?" he gestured to the pumpkin soldiers aiming their rifles at him "Hate to break it to you, but anything multiplied by zero is still zero."

"Ah, there's the famous arachnid wit again. Well if you must know, I have something better in mind in that regard. Venom was it? Allow me to introduce to you a little gift bestowed to me, courtesy of the good men at TCRI. I give you… the dracodroid. I'll leave the two of you to get acquainted." so on that note, Mysterio and the remaining pumpkin soldiers disappeared in a cloud of green smoke.

"Dracodroid, what the hell is-" Eddie was immediately cut short by the sound of a loud roar that echoed throughout the Undercity 'Um… I don't suppose there's any chance that was you doing that?"

"There is not. We have rather dire circumstances looming toward us."

"How dire?" Eddie received his answer in the form of a certain two-headed mechanical dragon bursting out from within the fog of the undercity and looming over him "Oh… I take it that's the dracodroid?"

"Yes."

"And that sonic blast from the Spider still has us weakened, right?"

"Unfortunately, for at least a few more moments."

"Great. Just freaking perfect." Eddie was forced to brace himself as the dracodroid unleashed a laster blast from ach of its mouths, resulting in an explosion that destroyed the platform he was on, sending him hurtling down into the chasm below.

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"This is the place." by this point, Leo and the rest of the group made their way to the entrance to the Rat King's Lair, stopping before they could be seen, but they were still able to see the people being held in cags, specifically some that made him breath a sigh of relief "Mikey, oh good he's okay."

"And… April's there too…" Donnie seemed particularly stunned at the sight of April sitting in the cage with Mikey "That uh… I did not see that coming…"

"I don't think any of us did, but we have to focus. The two of us can't let the humans see us, so the others will have to free them."

"Works for me." Nightwatcher cast a glance over at Casey and Ghost Spider, then turnd back to the others "And we bust some rat snouts while we're at it?"

"Just do what you do best." Leo fixed his gaze on the scene in front of them, only to falter when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he and the others spun around to see Splinter standing before them "Sensei?"

"I believe the time has come for the Rat King to be dethroned." Splinter glanced up at the Rat King at his work station "Once and for all."

"Yes, I knew you wouldn't let us down!"

"I will always be there for my family. However, if I should lose control in the battle to come, then you do what you have to do."

"That ain't gonna happen, not when you got a badass like Casey Jones watching your back this time." Casey gave a smirk as he held up his cooler in one hand "Especially not when I got my secret weapon here to bust some rat snout."

"...Very well then. Let us make haste." and so the group scattered throughout the lair to carry out the rescue mission.

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Kid? Hey ooze kid, wake the hell up."

"Son of a-" Eddie's eyes snapped open as he found himself sprawled out on a rusty metal girder suspended in mid-air, with Wolveirne on one side with his claws embedded into it, and Daredevil on the other holding onto it with his Devil's Horn "Oh, hey… You guys aren't dead either. We aren't dead right?"

"Pretty sure us being dead would smell a lot better." Wolverine gave a scowl as he took a sniff and looked around at the darkness surrounding them "Upside is we're not dead, just trapped in the chasm, about halfway down if I had to guess. Downside is there isn't much for us to hook onto, so it ain't gonna be easy for us to pull ourselves out from here."

"Shit. Neither of you can fly?"

"I think we've already established that." Daredevil cast a glance over at Eddie "I don't suppose the Symbiote you're bonded to would be able to generate a pair of wings?"

"If it can then I haven't figured out how yet. Anyone else got any bright ideas?"

"Actually, I might have one." Wolverine gave a smirk as he used his free hand to yank Eddie onto his feet "You ever heard of a little combo move the hero community likes to call the Fastball Special?"

"Is that the one where the big guy grabs the little guy and chucks him like a football?"

"That's the one. I'm thinking you chuck one of us, we latch onto something and pull you up

"...Give me one second." Eddie pausd as he began another internal conversation with his other half "So just to clarify, we can't form wings right?"

"We cannot."

"Any chance we can at least turn back into our usual form?"

"We can, but we are still weakened by the Spider's unpleasant sonic blast. We cannot be sure we will have the strength to carry out this plan."

"I guess there's only one way to find out." Eddie paused, and after a moment he faded away into the hulking form of Venom "If we're going to do this then we have to do it now, so hurry and climb on." he held out a hand.

"Agreed, because I think we're about to have company." Daredevil stepped into Venom's giant hand, allowing him to be hurled into the air… just as the dracodroid came hurtling down the chasm toward them, allowing him to latch onto it with his Devil's Horn and pull himself onto its back "I'm on, now both of you brace yourselves!"

"We're more than ready for this." Venom latched onto the underside of the dracodroid with a black webline, allowing him to carry Wolveirne up and land on its back alongside Daredevil, then used two more weblines akin to reins to force it to fly upwards until they were out of the chasm "NOW!"

"With pleasure!" in a matter of seconds, Wolverine pounced across the dracodroid's back, and in a few swift movements he used his claws to cut off both of its heads, sending it hurtling back into the chasm below while they landed on the other side, safe and sound "Well that went pretty well. For about three seconds."

"Meaning?"

"Give it a second and you'll find out."

"Scio praeses Veneris!" another cloud of green smoke appeared, and it quickly cleared away to reveal Mysterio standing before the group, along with several copies of himself, accompanied by a dozen or so of his little gremlin robots "So you defeated the dracodroid. An impressive feat I'll admit, but it means nothing when you have to contend with the mighty Mysterio!"

"...Why the hell do I always have to contend with the hammy freaks?"

"Better them than bloodthirsty psychopaths." Daredevil took a step toward Mysterio as he brandished his Devil's Horn "Go on after Scarlet Spider and the rest, I'll take care of Mysterio myself."

"Better you than me."

"We've wasted enough time already, let's go!" Venom picked up Wolverine over his shoulder, and the two of them took off out of the Undercity and back into the sewer tunnels.

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

'Looks like this is it. One clean shot is all I need.' Ghost Spider crouched on a ledge overlooking the lair and gave her a clean view of the Rat King at his work station, and she prepared to fire a shot of webbing at him… only for her Spider Sense to go off just as she turned around in time to see Splinter strike her in one of her pressure points, his eyes glowing a familiar and ominous shade of red as she fell to her knees "Sensei?"

"I see the Turtles have a new arachnid-themed companion." Rat King let out a chuckle as he turned to face her "Not that it will do them any good, not in the face of my power, and that of my prized pawn."

"No… get out…" Splinter tried to fight off the Rat King's influence for a moment, but this did little good, and he ended up striking Ghost Spider in another pressure point, causing her to fall flat on her back.

"You belong to me now Splinter. The time has come for you to kill your companions, one after another."

"Like hell that's gonna go down Reject! Get a load of the Ice Cream Kitty right here!" lucky for all of them, this was when Casey pounced forward and opened the cooler, letting Ice Cream Kitty hurtle towards Rat King and attack him with all of her strength, breaking the mental hold he had over Splinter "Now that's how Casey Jones saves the day."

"With a cat made of ice cream?" Ghost Spider took a moment to collect herself as Splinter fixed her pressure points, allowing him to leap back to her feet "That raises a lot of questions for the record."

"I figured as much, for now we got some rat tail to kick."

"I've had it with you pests. Go my brethren, destory all of them!" Rat King threw Ice Cream Kitty off of him, then rushed over to a throne and pressed a button, activating a trap door that he sunk into, with Splinter climbing in after him.

"Like hell you're getting away!" Casey leapt down into the hole after the two of them, being forced to use his metal hockey stick to stop his descent when he neared the bottom "Okay… I probably should've thought about this part."

"That's what happens when an inferior mind tries to fight back against homosuperior!"

"We have no time to stall!" Splinter took Casey onto his back, and he quickly took off on all fours after the Rat King "You run like a coward when not in control!"

"Who said I'm not in control? ATTACK!" Rat King gave the order, and a masive wave of rats began flooding the tunnels behind them.

"Okay seriously, now I'm just getting sick of those things." Casey grabbed a small green sphere out of his pocket and hurled it at the wave of rats, unleashing a powerful surge of electricity that evaporated many of them "Ha! Ninja electro balls! Randy Cunningham, eat your freaking heart out!"

"Stay alert, we have more enemy forces in front of us!"

"More rats?"

"Not those enemies."

"So what, he's got more of them?" Casey quickly received his answer as he looked ahead of them "Oh."

"Hold it!" as it turns out, the previous squad of pumpkin soldiers stood before the Rat King and the others, rifles in hand "Listen up Rat King, you're gonna give the Goblin Nation everything that you-"

"Ninja cold balls!" Casey threw another ball towards the pumpkin soldiers, detonating once it hit the ground, enveloping the group in a large block of ice "These things ROCK!"

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Meanwhile, with the giant rat fight…

"Get down!" Ghost Spider leapt forward upon seeing Leo being beaten back by a giant rat, to which she latched onto it with a webline and hurled it off the platform, sending it crashing to the ground in an unconscious heap "Hurry up and free the prisoners!"

"I'm on it!" Nightwatcher was quick to rush over to the lever off to the side and pull it, releasing one of the cages that held two specific prisoners.

"Finally free, now we're talking!" Turtle Titan leapt to his feet and caught Nightwatcher in a quick high five "Took ya long enough though."

"New plan, next time I'm freeing you last." Nightwatcher paused when he looked past him and saw April climbing out of the cage "Oh. So this is gonna be a thing now huh?"

"Yep, I already filled her in on a lotta stuff. Talk about the drama and junk later, let's just free the rest of them and get out of here."

"Got it." Turtle Titan leapt over to one of the levers, then cast a quick glance at April "You cool with helping us get the cages?"

"I'm on it!" April rushed over to the nearest lever and pulled on it, releasing several of the cages and their prisoners and allowing them to take off running.

"Nice!" Turtle Titan quickly leapt over to another lever and pulled it, releasing more prisoners and letting them run away.

"You know rats are known to be remarkably intelligent creatures, but you have nothing on this turtle!" Donnie was in the middle of fighting off two giant rats at once, until one headbutted him from behind hard enough to send him hurtling off the platform and down towards a giant fan below him, until…

"Look out!" a red and yellow flash quickly rushed over and tackled Donnie out of the way before he could hit the fan, sending both of them crashing to the ground… and it was only then that the two of them realized April was lying on top of Donnie, both of them in a stupor "Donnie?"

"A-April?" it took a little longer for Donnie to snap out of his own stupor "Hi."

"Hi, it uh… it's been awhile."

"Yeah, it has. How… How have you been?"

"Good, good. Keeping busy, as much as I can anyway. How about you?"

"Same, same." there was a pause, and then he quickly leapt back to his feet and pulled her up with him "Right, we should get back to-"

"And I gotta help the people with-"

"Yeah."

"Yep." April was about to take off, but then paused and looked at Ice Cream Kitty "Is that the cat that Casey and I found earlier?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking we're gonna have to ask him a few things later. Probably Mikey too, but that might just be force of habit."

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Meanwhile, with the chase…

"Yes Caligula, very nice work." at the same time, the Rat King had reached the aforementioned chasm within the Undercity, prompting him to dismount his giant rat and leap from one platform to the next as he made his way across.

'He will not escape!' it didn't take long for Splinter and Casey to catch up to him, the latter still running on all fours and carrying the former on his back as they leapt across.

"Now fall before me!" eventually it got to a point where the Rat King summoned a wave of rats that he was able to ride onto the next platform, while subsequently bit down on his hands and caused him to lose his grim on one particular platform.

"I gotcha!" Casey managed to hold onto a pipe and grabbed Splinter by the tail before he could fall into the chasm "You good?"

"I will be as soon as our foe is vanquished. I will not allow him to escape this time!" with a roar of determination, Splinter sunk his claws into the side of the pipe and climbed his way back up to the platform, with Casey still holding onto his tail "Come, we shall finish this together, once and for all!"

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Meanwhile, in the Rat King's lair…

"Hurry and get to the surface, we'll lock the door behind you!" April quickly ushered the prisoners out of the lair, only to suddenly find herself face to face with a giant rat that leapt to the ground in front of her 'Crap!'

"Get down!" lucky for her, this was when Donnie leapt down in front of her and beat back the giant rat with his bo staff, then cast a quick glance back at April "You guys get everyone else to safety, we've got this covered."

"Yeah. You always do." April gave a small smile as she watched Donnie get back to the fight, though her face quickly fell as she took off after Turtle Titan and Nightwatcher 'With or without me around. Is that everybody?"

"Yep, we got all the people out. Just one problem though." Turtle Titan gestured to the giant rat in front of them blocking access to the manhole above, but he was quick to wrap his kusarigama around it and hurl it into the wall, knocking it out cold "Well, there WAS a problem. Now this guy knows there's only room for one cheese loving freak in this town, and you're looking right at him."

"...Good to know." April idly patted Turtle Titan on the arm, and the two of them, along with the Nightwatcher, rushed out of the lair along with the last of the prisoners.

'Good, that's the last of the people they kidnapped.' Ghost Spider watched from a platform above as the group fled, only to let this distract her long enough for a rat to headbutt her hard enough to send her hurtling back into a wall 'Okay, ow… I think I understand now why Peter hated the Spider Sense as much as he does… That thing never works.'

"Meow!" this was when Ice Cream Kitty suddenly leapt down and landed on the nose of the giant rat, clawing away at it until she eventually got tossed into the rat's mouth, but that didn't stop her from still clawing at it until it got spat out.

"Wow… that is one heroic cat." Ghost Spider knelt down and quickly took Ice Cream Kitty into her arms as she shot a quick Electric Web at the giant rat, shocking it enough to leave it knocked out cold "Is that all of it?"

"Yep, I'm pretty sure that's all the giant rats." Leo pulled himself up onto the platform next to Ghost Spider, with Donnie following close behind him "Raph, Mikey and April are evacuating all of the people too, so that just leaves sensei and Casey unaccounted for."

"The last I saw of them was when they were chasing after the Rat King."

"In that case, I say we go and back them up. Splinter wasn't letting us down, so we aren't going to let him down either."

"Works for us." this was when Nightwatcher and Turtle Titan came rushing back into the lair and leapt up to join them.

"Me too." Donnie paused and cast a look behind them "So… where's April? I mean, didn't she go with you guys to get the civilians out?"

"What do you mean? She was right here." Turtle Titan turned around, only to pause when he saw that April was nowhere in sight "Uh… you know what guys, go check on sensei without me. I'll be there in a few." and so he quickly took off towards the exit to the Lair.

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Meanwhile, with the end of the chase…

"Tough shit for you old man." it didn't take much longer for Casey and Splinter to finally catch up to the Rat King "You ain't running away from us this time."

"This is where your arrogance will be your downfall boy, because I find that I no longer need to run." the Rat King, with Aristotle still perched on his shoulder, turned towards the two of them and placed a hand to his temple, and then he began dodging attacks from both of them with ease, eventually finding the chance to deal Splinter a fist to the gut that was hard enough to bring him to his knees "Yes that's right, bow before your master like the rat that you are. There is nothing you can do that I can't see coming from a mile away."

"So you claim… and you believe you are in control of this situation?" Splinter suddenly pounced at the Rat King, missing him by only a hair.

"As I said, I can see all that you-"

"Yeah well, you can't predict what Casey Jones can do!" Casey suddenly leapt at the Rat King and dealt him an uppercut, sending him staggering back and causing Aristotle to fall off his shoulder and into the void below.

"Aristotle!" the Rat King watched in horror as he disappeared from sight, then shot a glare at the two of them "You'll pay for that. Don't forget that I still have one more rat whose eyes I can see through."

"So you believe… but how about now?" Splinter held up something in his hand… the bandages previously wrapped around the Rat King's eyes, which he then wrapped around his own eyes, leaving the Rat King's vision shrouded in darkness.

"What?! When did you-"

"One of the most important lessons I have learned in my life is that control is little more than an illusion."

"Shut up!" Rat King tried to punch at where he thought Splinter's voice was coming, only to be met with Casey beating him down with his hockey stick, but this did little to deter him in any way "Where… Where the hell are you?!"

"Control can be even more blinding than the inability to see? And what is worse is that when one fails to realize this…"

"I am your master, and you will bow before me!" Rat King rushed forward one final time, only for Casey's hockey stick to trip his legs out from under him… and send him hurtling into the chasm, disappearing into the void in a matter of seconds.

"It can send you over the edge, never to return." Splinter turned his back to where the Rat King had fallen as he ripped off the blindfold "This is goodbye, my king."

"Damn, way to be hardcore at the end." Casey let out a low whistle, then cast a glance up towards Splinter "Nice end quote by the way."

"I simply spoke what I felt was the truth. Just as you did previously." Splinter threw away the blindfold as he turned toward Casey "I will say that I am grateful for what you said to me before the battle, as… crass as it might have been. I had allowed fear to cloud my mind, and I was the one who fueled it, no external factors. However, if my sons were able to overcome their fear, then I should be able to do the same. For that, I thank you."

"Oh. Cool. Didn't think we were gonna get sentimental, but alright." Casey glanced towards the other side of the chasm and saw Ghost Spider and the other Turtles rushing toward them "Looks like this is the part where we go binge on anime and pizza. Sign me up."

"This night is one worth celebrating, I do agree. Not just for this victory, but for the new year as well. However, when the celebration is over, I would like to meet with you in the dojo."

"About what?"

"I have observed you in battle and heard of your prowess from Raphael. Based on these, I can see that you have spirit and a fair amount of skill and potential. However, I have also noticed that other areas could use a bit of… polishing, so to speak."

"Oh. Cool. Alright, why not? Kinda like hockey practice without the ice." Casey gave a smirk as he brandished his metal hockey stick "This oughta be interesting."

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Meanwhile, with the wayward teammates…

'Looks like things really have changed…' April sat on a rooftop overlooking the night sky above New York as fireworks exploded in brilliant displays 'In more ways than one… Doesn't feel like things will ever be the same again.'

"Hey."

April glanced over to see Turtle Titan sit down next to her "Hey. I figured you'd want to ring in the New Year with Splinter and the other Turtles. It's only about an hour to midnight."

"Yeah, but I figured I had to take care of a few things before I went there, like check on Gwen and May and make sure they're alright. Gwen is cool, she's just gonna be spending thenight with her dad. With Pete gone, it didn't feel right to let May be alone tonight. Turns out she's working at the FEAST center, making sure the people there can ring in the New Year on a high note."

"She's a great woman."

"No doubt about it. Like she says, you help someone and you help everyone. So I figured that tonight I'd follow up on that… With you. If we go now, I think we got enough time to grab a few pizzas from Antonios and watch some Super Robo Mecha Force before we watch the ball drop on TV." he was met with a raised eyebrow from April "What?"

"You… You'd really want me to come for New Year's with you guys?"

"Yeah, why not? The guys and Splinter are gonna be thrilled to see you."

"Will they though?" she looked away from them "I mean if you guys wanted to see me so much, you could've reached out and come talk to me… Not that I would've listened, but the point is you didn't try. Of course you didn't. Why would you after everything that happened?"

"I know we messed up with the Mutagen spill, we ain't gonna try and get around that. But we do wanna make things right, Donnie's spending every spare minute he's got to-"

"I'm not talking about you guys. I'm talking about me."

"What do you mean?"

"What do you think I mean Mikey? The way I yelled at you guys and basically disowned you for what was basically an accident? I get it, some stuff is just beyond our control… but the way that I reacted wasn't. I said I didn't want anything to do with you guys, and you've been getting by just fine without me… You don't need me. None of you did. You seriously think any of the others are gonna want to have me around after the way I basically cut ties with you, when the last thing I did was scream at you guys that I never wanted to see you again? I made my choice, and it's pretty clear that you made yours. You didn't need to have me around to keep being heroes, and you don't need me now."

"But April…"

"I still remember just about everything that Splinter taught me. Not just about fighting, but about your philosophy and ideas. Ninjas pride themselves on their honor right? Like MJ, I might be fairly attractive but I'm not stupid. Unless it comes to trig, but I'm not pulling the pin on that grenade anytime soon. I have enough self-respect to accept that I screwed up and even if I did go to talk to the others, they won't want me to be part of their team anymore. I just…" she turned away from him as tears brimmed in her eyes "I blew it. I had a good thing going with all of you, and then I just threw it away."

"Come on April, you don't have to be like that." Turtle Titan pulled back his cowl to reveal the face of Michelangelo "Just because friends have a fight doesn't mean that they can't make up later on, right? You said you didn't want to see us, so we wanted to respect your wishes and give you space. If you wanna be with us again then you just gotta say so, we'd totally welcome you back with open arms."

"Do… Do you actually think that?"

"I don't just think it, I know it. If you just let me take you back to the Lair, they're gonna know that everything is okay now."

"...Wow." April let out a chuckle as she wiped away her tears "When did you get so mature and wise? You're sounding more like a leader than Leo."

"Not trying to be a leader now. I'm just trying to be a friend. Plus it's the New Year right, new start for everybody and all that." Mikey pulled himself to his feet and held out a hand to April, prompting her to take it "Also we're gonna have to make a stop on the way, I put in a big order to Antonio's. Did you know that superheroes get discounts from there?"

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"WE'LL WRECK YOUR WHOLE WORLD!" Venom let out a primal roar as he busted through the wall and into the Rat King's lair… only to pause when he found nothing but the bodies of unconscious mutant rats and no people in sight "And there's no one here. Did we miss everything?"

"Why the hell am I not surprised?" Wolverine rolled his eyes as he stepped through the hole in the wall after him "Oh wait, I'm not. Mostly because one of Yoshi's turtle kids texted me, said they took care of the so-called Rat King, apparently killed him like they did Palpatine."

"Threw him into an endless abyss never to be seen again?"

"Pretty much yeah. Not gonna go into the dumpster fire that is Rise of Skywalker, let the idiots on the internet deal with that one." Wolverine paused and took a quick sniff "Speaking of cheap knockoffs of better stuff, we still got a rogue Spider to track down."

"You have the superior sense of smell, so where is he?"

"Tone it down Thing 1 and Thing 2, I'm not trying to pick a fight." a familiar voice drew their attention to where Scarlet Spider was searching through the Rat King's abandoned work station on one of the higher platforms "One of our scouts already confirmed it, the giant rat and the kid in the skull mask fought the Rat King. Even if they didn't kill him, he got sent plummeting into the chasm. That drop is at least 1,000 feet, he'd have to be built like the freaking Hulk in order to survive that."

"And apparently that didn't stop you from searching through his stuff." Wolverine pointed out as he crossed his arms.

"Just because the freak himself is dead doesn't mean he didn't leave behind anything useful, be it about his research or any potential modifications he made to the Mutagen. Unfortunately it's not at his little work station, and whatever else he had out apparently got destroyed during the fight that broke out here earlier. I Probably have the Turtles and that new female spider to thank for that."

"So it really means that much to you huh? Do you even know what he was doing?"

"No and I frankly don't give a crap, I just gotta find something that my Father is going to find useful." Scarlet continued to search through the work station without looking at him "I already screwed up the last mission he sent me on, so I decided to jump at the first chance I could to make up for that. Do you have any idea what Father is gonna do to me if he sees me come back empty-handed, especially since I'm pretty sure he didn't want me going out anywhere without his permission? It's either go through his stuff and find something useful or literally dig my own grave somewhere in the sewers. This is the better option if you ask me."

"...Okay, this is really bumming us out now." the hulking form of Venom faded away to reveal the face of Eddie Brock "You got issues man, you know that?"

"Yeah well, that's just life as I know it with the Goblin Nation. Everybody has a use, and if you don't then you head for the great big unemployment line in the sky. I'm sure you get it just as much as I do."

"Pretty sure that's not the same thing."

"Still kinda ominous if you ask me." Wolverine cast a glance over at Venom "Any chance you're gonna elaborate on whatever the hell he's talking about or do I have to guess?"

"It's… personal stuff, alright?" Eddie let out a sigh as he pulled out his cell phone "Ashley sent me this voicemail awhile ago. I haven't actually listened to it yet, but I know she isn't thrilled about me being bonded with the Symbiote, or doing god knows what on New Year's Eve when I kinda promised to take her to Times Square, so… Yeah, I've got a fair idea of what she might be thinking right now."

"...You know there's an easy fix to that."

"If you say online dating or Craigs List-"

"It's called listening to the freaking voicemail dumbass. Seriously, how are young people so freaking stupid when it comes to romance?"

"Okay I get it, you don't have to go on some whole tangent." Eddie rolled his eyes as he pushed the button, and the voicemail played.

"Eddie hi, it's me. Sorry, but I'm going to be a little bit late. There was a meeting they wanted me to attend at the last minute, and I had to cover for one of my colleagues. It's probably for the best though, I know you have a lot on your plate working at FEAST, and your… other job, if you take my meaning. I know you have a lot on your plate, but what you're doing in both of your jobs, it's to help people. Waiting a few extra minutes, or an hour or two, it won't be the end of the world if it's for a good cause. Just let me know you're okay though, when you get the chance. I'll see you later tonight Eddie." and then the call cut off.

"...Well I feel like a jackass." Eddie paused as he stowed away his cell phone, but he couldn't stop himself from letting out a chuckle "I shouldn't be surprised though, this is Ashley we're talking about right now."

"Let me guess, you thought she was gonna go the Invincible route huh?" Wolverine rolled his eyes "Why the hell does everyone think that's how it's gonna go down?"

"I don't know, they just assume the worst and that's the best example they can think of?"

"Yeah yeah, good for you blondie?" Scarlet Spider let out a sigh as he slumped against the wall next to Rat King's work station "At least someone got something worthwhile out of this, too bad I basically screwed myself in all of this."

"...Speaking of assuming the worst." Eddie's gaze softened as he made his way over to Scarlet and sat down next to him "You know, as much as it pissed me off, you weren't wrong about what you said before."

"You're gonna have to be more specific."

"I spent a long time thinking that everyone and everything in the world was out to get me, and I ended up directing it at the wrong people… one person in particular. He's done some shit that still gets under my skin, no getting around that, but… maybe it isn't really as bad as I was letting myself believe it was."

'About time he started thinking with more than just the black goo.' Wolverine gave a small smirk of approval, but then something else caught his eye, leading him to start feeling along one of the walls, until he took notice of a certain something.

"I kept those kinds of feelings buried inside me until they just boiled over and bubbled up to the surface, and directed it at the one that I thought deserved it the most… But then over time, I met the person, or people I should say, that made me feel like I really mattered, that I was capable of being more than I thought I was. It just took some time to let myself meet them, and to let them in. If it happened for me, I don't see why it couldn't happen for you too." he held out a hand toward him.

"Maybe, I…" Scarlet glanced over at Eddie… only to immediately look past him when he took notice of Wolverine pulling a metal box out of a compartment in the wall "How the hell did you find that?"

"I ain't a scientist or a tech wiz or anything like that, but I've been around guys like that enough to learn how they work." Wolverine gave a shrug as he held up the box in question "The most important thing to remember: They always make a backup of the important stuff."

"Give me that." Scarlet leapt over Eddie and pounced at Wolverine, only for him to roll out of th way.

"Yep it's official, the power of nice is bullshit. The power of big-ass claws and muscles, that's where the money is." he shared a quick fist bump with Eddie, and was then forced to leap out of the way of a series of web shots, to which he drew his claws and charged at Scarlt Spider, only to quickly be met with a roundhouse kick to the face hard enough to knock the box out of his grip and send him hurtling off the platform they were on… and down into the fan below.

"Ooh… Yeah that's not gonna be pretty. Well the good news for him is that he's still got the healing factor, so he'll be up and about in a little bit. In the meantime…" he turned his attention over to the box "I have a little package to collect."

"We beg to differ." Venom let out a roar as his hulking mass reformed and he pounced at Scarlet Spider, only for him to slip under his legs and deal him an uppercut kick to the face.

"Close but no enchilada big man!" Scarlet latched onto Venom's face with a webline and used it to hurl him clear across the Rat King's lair.

"That won't be enough to stop us!" Venom stopped himself in mid-air using a series of black webs, and then he used more black webs to grab the body of a giant rat and hurl it into Scarlet's back, sending him hurtling to the ground. And then he followed up by latching onto Scarlet's chest with another black webline and hurling him into a wall, leaving him to fall back to the ground.

"Lucky for me, at least depending on how you look at it, this might be the best time for me to test out a little something that I've been working on. Get a load of my brand new ricochet webbing!" Scarlet Spider shot out a series of web shots that ricocheted off of multiple walls throughout the lair.

"Bounce them off all you like, those aren't enough to hurt us, no matter how tricky they might be!" Venom dodged and weaved his way around every shot of webbing that bounced around him, using his own shots of black webbing to cancel them out as they closed in on him, and once he saw Scarlet try to attack him from behind with another sonic grenade, only to grab the hand that was about to deploy it and crush it, reducing the grenade to rubble, allowing him to throw Scarlet to the ground once again.

Scarlet wasn't done however and leapt back to his feet, then tried to attack Venom by leaping over his head and aim a kick at his back, only for it to be blocked by a shield made of black goo, blocking the next series of punches, kicks and web shots being hurled at him, eventually being met with a brutal fist to the face that sent him hurtling backwards, and then being trapped in a large ball made of black webbing.

"Is that all you've got?"

"Not… even… close!" with a burst of strength, Scarlet ripped open the ball of black webbing and pounced at Venom as fast as he could "If you wanna help as much as you claim, then give me the damn box!" he dealt Venom a swift two-legged kick to the face, followed by a swift series of punches that ended with a brutal uppercut to the jaw that sent him crashing to the ground and the box flying out of his hand, to which he moved to grab it… only to be stopped by one of Venom's tendrils reaching out to hold it over Scarlet's hand while another tendril quickly wrapped around Scarlet's throat.

"You put up… a decent fight… We'll give you that…" the mask of Venom faded away to reveal the face of Eddie Brock within the hulking form "But there's no way in hell we're gonna let you or the people you work for do what they want…"

"I wouldn't… look at it like that…" Scarlet spat out some blood to the side while in the middle of panting heavily "Look, you're stronger than me… and I'm already exhausted… There's no getting around that… If this keeps up, you and the cat man over there are probably gonna beat me and get out… But remember that my higher ups… my Father… They know where they can find you… and your woman…" that was enough to make Eddie stiffen, and the tendrils around his throat tighten, choking him further "Kill me if you want… but Mysterio saw you… he'll report this to Father and the rest, and they'll hunt you down… along with her… So just hand over the box… and this can all blow over quietly."

"...Fine." Eddie let out a snarl as the tendrils around Scarlet's throat subsided "But you stay the hell away from Ashley. And from FEAST." he released the tendrils holding the box, allowing it to fall into Scarlet's hand.

"You have yourself a deal. I appreciate it." Scarlet stowed away the box and turned to leave, but stopped and cast another glance back at Eddie "I'm not just saying that… I really do appreciate this." and on that note, he webbed a line and swung out of the lair, albeit rather halfheartedly as he did so.

"Dammit…" Eddie let out a snarl as the hulking black mass enveloping him faded away, leaving only his human form visible, and then he glanced over to see Wolverine pulling himself out of the fan, his uniform mostly shredded "Oh yeah, I kinda forgot you were in there."

"Thanks for the concern Goo." Wolverine rolled his eyes as he cracked his neck, but then paused and cast a glance over at him "I heard what went down in there. So you gave up the info to keep your woman safe huh?"

"You gonna lord that over me?"

"Nope, not my style." he paused again, then gave a small smirk "You know it's kinda funny if you think about it."

"What is?"

"When you and I first met a few weeks back, I said you acted like you were the only one that suffered, and told you that I was giving you the same chance I was given: To be more than just what you were. Guess you actually listened to me after all."

"Kinda hard not to listen to what a guy's saying when he's stabbing you in the chest over and over again."

"You stabbed me too, I say we're even." Wolverine let out a chuckle "But in all seriousness, you put a lot on the way your woman thinks of you, making sure you're on the right path. For what it's worth, if she could see what you've been doing here today, I think she'd be pretty proud of you."

"...Dammit." Eddie wiped away a few tears that were brimming in his eyes "I didn't think you were the sentimental type."

"I've got my moments. You gotta learn to balance it when you work with unstable teenagers for a living. Anyway we'd better get moving, make sure Red doesn't need help with the jackass in the fish bowl."

"Okay, I have good news and bad news." this was when Daredevil made his way into the lair, his uniform ripped and shredded in a few areas and with an unconscious Mystero being slung over his shoulder "The good news is that eventually I managed to take down Mysterio, despite some of the… challenges he's posed for me. Seriously, this guy is the worst case scenario of sensory overload incarnate. Also he's annoying. The point is we can take him in. The bad news is, the remaining Goblin Nation soldiers managed to escape… except for a few I found frozen in a sewer tunnel on the way here."

"And we lost whatever info the Rat King was keeping secret, so that's probably not gonna end well." Eddie let out a sigh "So much for the big hero guy huh?"

"Quit griping about it, you can't win them all." Wolverine patted Eddie on the shoulder "Go get your woman and ring in the New Year, the same with you Red. I'll drop off the jackass in a cell somewhere."

"Works for me."

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And now to ring in the New Year…

"Okay, I'm just gonna say it." Casey glanced over at Raph as he and the other Turtles sat in front of the TV in the Lair "The show is cool and all, but where the subtitles? Dubbed anime sucks, plain and simple."

"Are you out of your gourd?" Raph let out a scoff as he changed the channel, showing the ball dropping and the countdown "Try watching the dub for Yu Yu Hakusho and say that again, I freaking dare you."

"Yeah I get it, a few good dub, that ain't one of them."

"You don't know what you're-" Leo cut himself short when he glanced over to see Mikey make his way into the Lair "Hey, where have you been? It's almost midnight, you missed Super Robo Mecha Force."

"I had to pick up the good stuff, and take care of a few things." Mikey gave a shrug "And I'm probably never gonna say this again, but this thing is definitely bigger than Super Robo Mecha Force."

"And what exactly is that?"

"I think he means me." there was a pause, and then April slowly made her way into the Lair with several pizza boxes in one hand, and she gave the group a shy smile "Hey guys."

"April, hey. You uh… You're back."

"Yeah. I think it was kinda overdue. So… you guys miss me?"

"I believe that we all did." Splinter was the first one to step towards April and gave her a small smile "It is very good to have you back with us April."

"I definitely missed you too Master Splinter. I… don't suppose there's any chance that we could start training again soon?"

"Of course. Whenever you wish." he bowed to her, prompting her to do the same.

"Great… That's really great." April took a breath, and then she turned to the others "With all that was happening before, I never got the chance to tell you guys that… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for the way that I treated you."

"Wait, you're sorry?" Donnie shared a look with the other Turtles "But the mutagen spill, we were the ones that screwed up, and your dad…"

"What happened to my dad was an accident, and you guys have been doing everything you can to try and change him back. I can't ask for any more than that. Besides, you guys are my friends and we have… or had a good thing going. I shouldn't be letting a stupid grudge get in the way of that. Not after everything we've been through.

There was a pause, and then Donnie quickly made his way toward April and pulled her into a tight hug, with Leo and Mikey doing the same "It's… It's so great to finally have you back with us."

"It's great to be back. Really." April returned the hug, then let out a chuckle "I guess I didn't have to bring the dozen or so pizzas on me after all."

"You uh… You wouldn't believe everything that's happened while you've been gone."

"Actually I probably would, but I get it. Mikey filled me in on everything. I almost didn't come tonight, but he talked me into it… and I'm glad he did."

All the while, Raph and Casey just watched the scene unfold from afar, and the former raised an eyebrow at the latter "I'm gonna go ahead and guess you said something to her?"

"Just said what I thought dude, you know how I am." Casey gave a shrug and a smirk "Plus I'm like an onion, I got layers."

"Figures. You did a good thing tonight Jones, not just with her either."

Once the group hug had broken up, April pulled Donnie back close to her for another one "I should thank you too Donnie, for always being there… Even when I didn't want you to be. I think it's time I returned the favor." and so she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, just as the clock struck midnight and fireworks began sounding off from above.

As for Donnie, he only had this to say: "I LOVE BEING A TURTLE!"

A/N:

Another chapter comes, with new characters and new threats to deal with. In this case, the second coming of the Rat King. This is one episode I've been looking forward to covering for awhile, given that it finally ends the grudge between the Turtles and April, and I took the opportunity to show something they never really did anything with in canon: A bit of bonding between Master Splinter and Casey Jones of all characters, which I thought was fun.

In addition to that, we see what happens when Venom has his first encounter with the Scarlet Spider, and a few changes in Eddie's mental state since he's begun to work at FEAST. That's actually deliberate on my part, and you'll see how that pans out in time. Trust me, I've thought this through. Oh and yes, Venom did a Kool Aid man. You can thank Brooklyn 99 for giving me the idea for that.