TheRedeemer1995: Greetings, prospective readers, and welcome back to The Venom Inside! Thankfully, LegionnaireBlaze is feeling much better now, so we can resume working on this thing.

LegionnaireBlaze: Glad to be back everyone. Let's do this!

TheRedeemer1995: Hell yeah! And on that note, let's get started on the Interlude and see how the rest of the My Hero Academia cast react to the newest vigilante and Symbol of Vengeance on the block!

Interlude One

U.A. Campus-Lunchtime

Ochako Uraraka was sitting on one of the benches on the school grounds, quietly eating her lunch as her newfound friends, Shouto Todoroki, Tsuyu Asui, Tenya Iida, Mina Ashido, and Momo Yaoyorozu sat around her, all of them chattering about the big news that had broken last night: All Might having been forced to retreat from a new, and honestly terrifying, vigilante known as Venom, who claimed to be a Symbol of Vengeance standing for the Quirkless and the Villainous Quirked.

From what she'd heard from her classmates, the majority opinion felt like Venom was nothing more than a vicious, mindless monster who was deluding himself into thinking he was a hero, although there were a few folks who felt like he had a point, and that there had been rumors that Venom had actually done some vigilante work prior to his encounter with All Might, and that the sweet little girl, Eri, that had been seen helping out the teachers and staff by being their errand girl, had actually been saved by Venom before being brought to U.A. to get help with her Quirk, which was likewise rumored to be very powerful and very dangerous.

"Well, I think we're asking the wrong questions," Mina's voice said, pulling Ochako out of her thoughts. "The real question we should be asking is who is it that is actually standing for the Quirkless and Villainous Quirked, as the creature says: Venom, or the host inside the suit?"

"Host? What are you talking about?" asked Tenya.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" said Mina matter-of-factly. "Venom is actually two beings combined into one. Just from eyeballing it, and judging from his speech patterns, I'd say that someone has become bonded with some kind of symbiote, an alien creature that needs to bond with a host to survive for extended periods in our world. In exchange, the symbiote provides the host with superhuman abilities that can put them on par with even the likes of All Might, as you can clearly see. However, there can be a few side effects, such as becoming a complete jerkwad and borderline supervillain, or being eaten from the inside out. And on top of that, they're super hard to unbind from their hosts, usually only certain sonic vibrations, like say a bell from a cathedral's bell tower or a Sound Quirk, or a Fire Quirk will do the trick. In some cases, they can also be unbound with Electrical Quirks."

"Uh-huh…" said Shouto, clearly not buying a word that Mina was saying. "And how do you know all this, exactly?"

"I have my sources," said Mina vaguely.

"Riiiight… I think you need to lay off the sci-fi movies and manga, Mina," said Momo, an amused smile on her face.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger, Momo, I'm just saying, that's what all the facts point to," said Mina.

Ochako frowned in thought. If Mina was right, by some stretch of the imagination, could that possibly mean that this theoretical host was merely an innocent victim who was just along for the ride, like a puppet or suit? Did they truly stand for the Quirkless who were 'trodden upon' or treated as second-class slaves, and those who were cursed with Quirks that were perfectly suited for villainy? Or was that the theoretical symbiote? In all honesty, Ochako had never once thought about if villains had ever wanted to be villains in the first place, or if they turned to villainy because they felt they had no other choice because of their Quirks…

Or… was there something more nefarious that Venom was after?

Ochako didn't want to jump to any conclusions, not without seeing the creature first hand… but if Mina was right, and Venom was in fact a parasite of some kind who was using his host as a sort of hostage… then they, as heroes, needed to save whoever was trapped inside Venom before they lost themselves in some way.

That is, assuming they wanted to be saved by this point…

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the U.A. Campus…

Katsuki Bakugou hated it when he was right… even if he had no way of actually proving his theory. Not that he was usually the theorizing type, that was more of a Deku thing… or at least, it had been…

Ever since he had that run-in with Deku when, as it turned out, he was dropping off a poor little girl that even he couldn't help but feel sorry for, judging from what he'd seen of Eri's condition at first and hearing about what she'd been through. If he'd had his way, Katsuki would've blown that psychopath to the hell he belonged in. But, thankfully he was put at ease by the fact that Deku had cleaned her up and brought her to U.A. to get her help controlling her apparently dangerous Quirk and to keep her safe from the villain that had kidnapped her.

'Even without a Quirk and a bad leg, you just can't stop yourself from playing the hero, can you, Deku?' Bakugou had thought at the time, a smirk on his face… until Venom had made his big debut, taking down that hulking abomination and again forcing All Might to turn tail and retreat.

After their last encounter, Katsuki had suspected that there was something inside Deku now, some kind of monster or darkness, and despite his rescue of that little unicorn girl, the appearance of Venom, a creature the exact shade of black that he'd seen Deku's eyes change to, referring to himself as 'we' as Deku had… it was all too obvious to Katsuki that his former childhood friend was inside that monster somewhere, swallowed, consumed, by it…

Had Deku really been so desperate for power that he'd made some kind of deal with the devil and willingly turned himself into that creature?

Even worse than that, Katsuki had a terrible feeling that he had a role to play in creating that monster, if the creature's rant to All Might was anything to go by… even if he couldn't actually prove his suspicion that it was Deku inside Venom.

Regardless of whatever guilt he was feeling about the possibility of his old friend being inside Venom, Katsuki had every reason to believe that the heroes would find Venom and stop him, even if All Might had been forced to flee from him. There was such a thing as a strategic retreat after all. He was sure of it.

And yet, that didn't stop him from feeling an inkling of guilt over the possibility of his childhood friend having become a terrifying and deadly monster because of him…

Meanwhile, in the U.A. Staffroom…

Toshinori Yagi sat on one of the couches, his head between his hands. How on Earth could he have missed this? How could he have missed any of this? He was supposed to be a Symbol for the Quirkless and Quirked alike! And yet, he had missed this…

His cell phone had been ringing off the hook with calls from the Hero Public Safety Commission, which ultimately led the aging hero to turn the damn thing off as he looked over what he had dug up during his research. Nearly all of the suicides from the past year alone had been by Quirkless young adults and even teenagers who, upon further examination, had been living absolutely miserable lives, bullied by their peers, discriminated against by their employers, among countless other terrible acts. Other suicides had been commited by people who had Quirks that were too weak to be used in a practical sense for hero work, or Quirks that would have made them into terrifying or deadly villains, yet these people had no desire to turn to villainy, and according to their suicide notes, they had felt the world would be better off without them.

Toshinori couldn't help but shudder at the feeling of shame that was washing over him. These people had looked up to him as a Hero and as the Symbol of Peace, but the more Toshinori looked into it, the more he began to realize that Venom was right. The peace he had given the world was nothing more than a sham, a forgery of true peace, a peace that was only skin deep, masking the discrimination and bigotry underneath.

That needed to change. He would do everything in his power to truly prove himself worthy of the title, even in the eyes of these people whom he had failed, people like Izuku Midoriya… and Venom.

But, first, he needed to find Venom and talk to the black clad being in order to help him see reason before he went too far… the only problem was, he had no clue how to go about doing that, at least not without waiting for the vigilante to show up again…

Toshinori heaved a reluctant sigh. He supposed that was what he would have to do then.

In the meantime, however, he would continue to seek potential successors for One for All… although, after her efforts in saving young Midoriya during the near-catastrophic Entrance Exam, Ochako Uraraka was his top candidate for a successor…

Elsewhere-The Bar With No Name

A small and strange menagerie of people sat at the bar watching a replay of the fights involving Venom, against the Trigger enhanced crook and against All Might.

"Now do you understand why I keep that 'muck' alive, and why I want you to bond with it, my protege?" 'Sensei' said towards a young adult with dull blue hair, dry and cracked skin, and eyes as dead as a fish's. The young man simply sighed and scratched at the back of his neck.

"I don't understand why you're so adamant about me using mods when the Final Boss has already been nerfed."

"Because with one of these creatures, even a Quirkless individual could become a problem to our goals, just as one did in my younger years. I would very much prefer to have one on our side to level the playing field against this newcomer."

"You're really worried about that hacker, Sensei?"

"Whoever is underneath the 'mask' of Venom was able to use All Might's own technique to gain distance from him, most likely for a quick escape. That suggests a highly analytical mind is at work beneath the bulk. If you, as you are now, were to get into combat with him, the more likely scenario would be your loss."

"I got it, I got it. He's running a High Intelligence, High Strength build, so I need to match his level or it'll be a TPK." The protege said as he grabbed the container for the green symbiote and reduced it to rusty metal and broken glass.

Apparently realizing it was free, the green symbiote seemed to look around, as though it was noting its surroundings, before fixing its gaze on the young man who had released it.

Then, the green symbiote lunged for the young man, and began to meld with him.

Izuku's Apartment-Later That Evening

Izuku, a mug of hot chocolate in his hand, smiled as his new, bigger, and recently repaired TV that he salvaged from cleaning up Takeba Beach, turned on to the starting jingle of the evening news.

"Well, let's see what the latest public opinion of our exploits last night were, shall we, Venom?" Izuku asked his new best friend as he climbed onto his bed.

"Sounds good to me," Venom said as his head emerged attached to a tendril from Izuku's back, a grin on his face.

As Izuku took a long drink from his mug of hot chocolate, the news took a turn that neither he nor Venom were expecting.

"-per the order of the Hero Public Safety Commission, the vigilante and so-called 'Symbol of Vengeance' known as Venom, is wanted for the murder of the large red creature they were seen engaging in combat last night, identity currently unknown. Any citizens with information leading to the immediate arrest of the vigilante should call-" the newscaster said.

Izuku choked on the sip of hot chocolate he was drinking before another of Venom's tendrils emerged and whacked him on the back, clearing his windpipe.

"WHAT?!"

TheRedeemer1995: And that's a bingo! Now then… did you guys really think Venom would instantly become a symbol for the Quirkless and Villainous Quirked to rally behind right out of the gate? Nah, that'd be too easy! But, either way, you can't deny that there are some interesting things afoot, now that Shigaraki is host to his own symbiote, and that Venom has been pinned for the death of that red abomination from the last chapter.

In other news, I have an announcement to make. In addition to this story, I am also beginning development on a Villain Deku story, currently titled "The Heir to Evil." Right now, the story is that in his broken state after finding out he's Quirkless, Deku accidentally walks off a bridge and falls to the water below, and is presumed dead. Except he's not, and his broken body is found by All For One, who seeks to raise him as his son and ultimately, his new vessel, only for his attempt to hijack Deku's body a couple years before the start of the MHA series proper (ie before Katsuki destroyed Deku's Hero Analysis notebook and threw it in the fish pond), to go wrong, killing All For One and leaving our favorite green haired boy with the All For One Quirk and the Quirks the villain has stolen over the centuries. After that, well, life takes the newly all-powerful supervillain to interesting places.

Now then, with that aside, if you guys liked what you saw here, be sure to kudos, bookmark, comment, subscribe, and join us next time as Izuku and Venom figure out what to do about the whole "being blamed for murder" thing. See you then! Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!