TheRedeemer1995: Greetings, prospective readers, and welcome back to The Venom Inside! Apologies for the delay, been playing some Oblivion and Elder Scrolls Online. You know, I really gotta admit, when I was reading the story My Hero Academia: Symbiosis on Ao3 and the idea for this story began to form in my mind, leading to me reaching out to LegionnaireBlaze for his aid with this idea, and then PrinceRiolu for editing in order to maintain a quality worthy of the support you guys have shown it, I honestly did not expect it to become the smash hit that it is now. Thank you everyone, truly.

Additionally, I am proud to announce one of the crossovers planned for this series, which henceforth will be titled "Tales from Earth 122023 and Beyond," and its eventual multiverse arc/subseries. In addition to PrinceRiolu's The Green Spider, I have great pleasure in announcing that our symbiote-empowered boy Izuku will, at some point down the road, be going toe-to-toe with his villainous, Quirk-based Infinity Gauntlet wielding counterpart, the villain known as Apotheosis, from Lord Wolfe's popular story, called, well, Apotheosis, which is found exclusively on fanfiction dot net. Naturally, I have asked for and been given official permission by both PrinceRiolu and Lord Wolfe in order to carry out these projected crossovers, which will exist as their own, self-contained stories separate from the works that they originated from, so that way nobody's toes get stepped on, and I can have a bit more leeway with how Izuku/Venom's arrival changes things, if they change at all.

Furthermore, I have decided to give Ochako a different Hero Name, that being Comet, as well as a new costume once she gets One For All. Additionally, after careful consideration, I have decided to reconfigure the storyline a bit. What that means is that, instead of there being six separate stories in the main series, there will be five arcs in this story, and a sequel with its own set of arcs, before we get into the crossovers. So, yeah, this is gonna be a pretty lengthy story, so buckle up.

Well, to be honest, aside from that, I don't really have much else to talk about. So… let us begin!

Oh, and before I forget, I would like to remind everybody that this AU's versions of the Klyntar Symbiotes do not possess the weakness to fire and/or heat, save for the heat generated by atmospheric re-entry and direct contact with the surface of a star. Nothing and no one is impervious to temperatures that high.

Chapter VIII

A Harrowing Endeavor

Outside The HPSC Coroner Office - The Following Night

Venom firmly landed on the pavement directly behind an ambulance, his landing barely making a noise as he did a small roll. Turning invisible a second later, he peeked out from behind the vehicle before quietly making his way over to the front entrance. There, he latched himself onto the wall directly above the door, only to start waiting. He had scoped out the morgue after school that day, and he had a pretty solid idea on how to get past the entrance security and get into the building. Namely, he had to rely on improvisation to get the evidence he needed to clear his name.

The vigilante had only one thing on his mind: Expose the HPSC for their lies about him, and any other heroes or vigilantes that may have cropped up. Granted, he doubted that was the case as far as the rumored Hero Killer was concerned. Admittedly, this Hero Killer thing was something he would have to look into later, once he had checked some items off his to-do list, like checking on how Eri was holding up at U.A. among the heroes and in Eraserhead's care. He supposed he could do that tomorrow, as apparently he didn't have school for the rest of the week, something about a teacher conference if Izuku recalled correctly.

And it was here that Venom smirked as he saw what appeared to be an overnight guard arrive to start his shift. 'Game on,' he thought as the guard walked up and scanned his Employee ID on the reader. The doors swung open, Venom quickly following inside as he made his way up to the ceiling before crawling over the metal detectors. Venom couldn't help but smirk and shake his unseen head. 'Really? Nothing to detect someone using an invisibility Quirk, or anything above the other security measures?' It was almost like they were practically inviting him in to expose their lies.

'Now then… which way do you figure the room where they do the autopsies and store the bodies is?' Izuku asked Venom.

"Let's check the basement level first, then work our way up," Venom replied before making his way to the stairs before beginning to wall-crawl his way down to the basement. Two grins followed this as they saw the morgue a minute later, empty and free. Their smiles widened even further when they found that the coroner was still logged into the computer, both guessing that the coroner thought no one would care looking at records of the dead. With this, Venom stuck the drive he and Izuku had brought along into the port, and began to search.

Needless to say, it wasn't long before Venom found the proof he needed to clear his name, causing his already wide grin to grow. "'Cause of death, massive overdose on Quirk-Enhancing Substances,'" Venom read aloud from the real death certificate. "And to top it all off, an email from the HPSC President herself ordering the fabrication and release of falsified documents to the police and the media!"

'Score!' Izuku exclaimed as a part of Venom retracted from his hand, allowing the symbiote and host to high-five before the symbiote covered his exposed hand again. 'Now, why don't we head up to the director's office and get the rest of the evidence?'

Venom nodded and removed the drive, soon latching onto the ceiling as he made his way up to the Morgue's Director's office. Luckily, the director's office door was ajar, allowing the vigilante to easily get in, only to see the director was still in there, seemingly finishing up some work. Venom stared at the man, only to see a scanner apparatus that, judging by the entire computer turning off when he scanned his keycard, seemed to act as both a log-in and a power button.

And as the director stood up and put his keycard in his back pants pocket, Venom couldn't help but smile. This was all too easy. With a single cloaked tendril, Venom plucked the keycard from the director's back pocket and waited for five minutes before lowering himself onto the floor. Scanning the keycard a second later, the computer turned on and Venom plugged in the drive again. And a few keystrokes later, Venom was one piece of evidence richer.

'All right, got all the evidence we need to entangle the HPSC in a doozy of a scandal. All we need to do now is get out of here and release these documents to the public… and I know just the news organization to leak the files to,' Izuku chuckled from within Venom.

Venom took out the drive and made his way out of the building, musing over his choice of recipients for the evidence he gathered. Out of all the news organizations in Japan, the only one that earned Izuku's respect and favor was known as Front Line Communications, which had once been known as Daily Bugle Communications before it was sold off after the previous owner had a bit of a health crisis. The primary reason Front Line had earned his favor was because it was practically the only news organization that didn't worship the ground heroes walked on, and was firmly placed in the realm of decency and common sense that Venom had made it his mission to drag the rest of the Hero Society into. They went so far as to call out the flaws of society and its heroes, much to the chagrin of Endeavor and several other heroes, as well as the HPSC. Thanks to their criticism over certain matters, it allowed them to stay afloat, Venom's recent actions also helping them gain popularity. Not only that, such disfavor with others didn't stop it from becoming one of the leading news organizations in Japan, alongside the likes of Deternat Communications and Japan News Network.

It wasn't long before Venom found himself on the outside of the building before leaping, soon starting to web swing away. And once he gained enough distance from the building, Venom became visible again, a vicious grin plastered on his face.

"Oh, we wouldn't want to be the President of the HPSC when Front Line breaks the news tomorrow!" Venom cackled, only for something to hit his back. "Yeow!" he yelped before falling, his face kissing a nearby rooftop a second later, "Ow! Okay, this 'getting blasted out of the sky' crap is REALLY getting old! Who is it this time?!"

A smug-sounding chuckle answered Venom's question before its owner landed on the building, 'Oh no, not THAT asshole!' spat Izuku from within Venom as the vigilante stood up.

Before the duo was none other than the Number Two Ranked Hero on the Japanese Charts, Enji Todoroki aka Endeavor, who was standing across from Venom with a smug smirk on his face. "Oh, I'd hoped I'd be the one to catch you. Finally, a chance to one-up All Might by bringing down a villain who actually made him turn tail and run away. This'll do wonders for my reputation! I can almost taste that big fat paycheck and the closed distance between me and the Number One slot!" Endeavor laughed, his voice dripping with smugness.

Venom let out a long growl, "And here we go with the damn pissing contest between you and All Might! Pretty sure All Might left the bathroom at this point. Tell us, have you burned your eyes out with your Quirk?" Venom snarled, "Haven't you noticed that the number of All Might sightings has been ever-so-steadily dropping ever since he fought Toxic Chainsaw a while back? His four-decade long time in the sun is almost over, and soon it'll be your turn. All you need to do is wait for All Might's age to finally finish catching up to him, maintain your Number Two ranking, and maybe be a decent father for a change and raise your kids to succeed you as the Number One Hero rather than a dying king who's already on his way out."

Endeavor just let out a scoff at this, "Been talking to people in tinfoil hats and reading supermarket tabloids, have you? Not that a villain like you has any right to tell me how to go about making my way to the top, much less how to raise my family."

"Is that so? We'd probably do a better job of it than you. Though, by the time we're done, you'll have all the time in the world to work on that."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" the hero hissed back.

Venom chuckled as his signature grin began to appear, "Oh, nothing much. Just that we happen to have a little something that might snuff that flame of yours out for good. Would you care to take a guess how many innocent people got a viking funeral from fires caused by your villain fights? Or would you prefer something easier like how many innocents required extensive surgery from injuries sustained from those fights? All bought and paid for by the Hero Public Safety Commission, with quite a bit of hush money from them on top," Venom cackled as his grin widened on his face. "Don't think the Prime Minister, his Cabinet, and the National Diet would be okay with that appropriation of tax money. And that's just the first load of dirty laundry we've got on you, the HPSC, and a fair few other heroes with rather destructive tendencies… oh, yes, we fear this is your last night, Enji Todoroki! Enjoy it, because we get the feeling tomorrow is going to be a very busy day for you, and after that, who knows? Maybe you can be a better father so your remaining kids don't cremate themselves to try to smear you! Oh, wait, that's right, according to you and your agency, Touya didn't kill himself, he died in an accident, didn't he?"

A look of pure, unbridled fury formed on Endeavor's face as a fireball appeared in each of his hands. "WHY YOU-!" he bellowed before hurling the fireballs, only for Venom to gracefully dodged out of the way of the projectiles, which exploded on the side of the vent behind him.

"All right burnout, you wanna have a trial by fire? Then let's have a trial by fire," snarled Venom as a Symbiote Bomb formed in his hand. "We just hope you're a better workout than All Might was. But somehow…we doubt it!" the black-clad vigilante laughed before throwing the Symbiote Bomb on the last word of his sentence, only for Endeavor to sidestep the projectile. He took to the air again and started throwing more fireballs at the vigilante, only for Venom to easily slip by each bit of flame.

"Stay still, God damn you!" the fiery Pro Hero bellowed.

"No, we don't think we will," replied Venom before launching his arm at Endeavor, his biomass wrapping around the Pro Hero's legs before lifting him over his head and slamming him into the ground. A crater was soon formed at this, only for Venom's other hand to turn into a giant mace before bringing it down on Endeavor.

"Stings, doesn't it?" sneered Venom. "Tell us, if All Might couldn't stop us, what chance did you think you had?"

Endeavor growled at this before pulling himself up from the crater. "I didn't get to be next in line for the top spot on the charts without learning how to take a beating. This ain't over until the fat lady sings!"

Venom just smirked back, "Then we guess someone had better tell her that she's on in five." With that, the vigilante charged at Endeavor, the hero swiftly dodging before getting ready to hurl another powerful fireball, only for Venom's arm to transform into a giant mallet. With a flick of the arm, he reached out and struck Endeavor in the side, causing the fireball to go flying off of the building and into a weird arc that fell to the street below.

And as this happened, a fuel truck that was on its way to a nearby gas station passed by an older, low-income apartment complex, populated primarily by people who were Quirkless or had Quirks that were impractical for hero work…and then the fireball hit the truck.

BOOM!

Hearing the explosion, Venom whipped around to find that the building across the street was now instantly engulfed in flames, burning shrapnel raining down a second later. This was quickly followed by the sound of panicked screaming and crumbling masonry as the roof started to collapse.

'Oh God… forget Endeavor, we need to get in there and help those people!' Izuku said from within Venom, who turned to face Endeavor. "All right, so, good fight, let's chalk this one up as 'No Contest,' because right now we got better things to do than punch each other in the face. We'll play with you some other time when people's lives aren't in danger," Venom growled before leaping off the rooftop.

"Oh no you don't! You're not getting away from me!" Endeavor yelled before launching a blast of fire that struck Venom in the back, sending him flying through the wall of the burning building.

The vigilante landed inside one of the burning apartments before coming up on one knee and letting out a furious roar at Endeavor. The hero responded with a look of pure fury before leaping into the room and smacking Venom across the face with a flame-covered fist. A second later, he began to pummel the vigilante before Venom kicked him off and threw the fiery hero out through the other wall.

"Goddammit, Endeavor! We told you we were done fighting! People are in danger here, so if you're not gonna do your blasted job, which you get paid actual money for, stay out of our way so we can do ours!" Venom roared before making his way through the apartment, listening intently for anyone who was in danger from the blaze.

It wasn't long before he heard the sound of a baby's wailing, and the screams of two people coming from outside the building. Hazarding a guess at what that meant, he followed the sound of the infant's wailing, Venom soon finding the baby in question. He quickly morphed his 'mask' to look less terrifying before scooping the child up into his arms just as his Symbiote Sense went off.

Turning around, Venom saw none other than Endeavor launching himself towards the black-clad vigilante with a loud yell. Growling at this, the arm not holding the baby turned into a mallet before the hammer slammed into Endeavor's head, knocking the Pro Hero out cold.

"Shh! You're scaring the baby!" Venom hissed at Endeavor's unconscious form as the baby in his free hand giggled happily, no doubt having been reminded of a cartoon where someone was bonked on the head with a mallet. "Alright little one, let's get you back to Mommy and Daddy, shall we?"

The baby, being a baby, merely babbled and blew a raspberry at Venom, giving him a smile that had a few teeth already poking through. A second later, he had delivered the infant to their parents before going back in. For the next forty-five minutes, Venom made his way through the burning building, searching for people trapped by the blaze and getting them to safety. By the time Endeavor came to and other heroes arrived on the scene to help with the blaze, everyone had already been evacuated by Venom, much to the newly-arrived heroes' confusion, and the black-clad vigilante was long gone.

Hero Public Safety Commission Headquarters - The Following Morning

Hinata Haruno, the President of the HPSC, let out a weary sigh as she made her way from her car to the main entrance of the building. Her morning was just going fan-freaking-tastic. First, Endeavor blew up a fuel truck and set a building on fire, and then instead of saving the people inside that burning building, he kept attacking that… monster… and as a result, got upstaged by said monster. The monster literally got everyone out of the burning building before any other heroes or the firefighters showed up, making the next number two hero look like a raging lunatic. Which, considering the things he had done to his wife and children, he most likely actually was.

Damage control was not how she wanted to start her day. Sometimes, Hinata just wanted to fire Endeavor and be done with him. However, that wasn't an option, not with All Might on the cusp of retiring thanks to the injury he sustained in his final battle with that horrible, horrible, demon…

As such, the woman was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that the HPSC President walked directly into a parked car, causing her to stagger a bit. "Ow…" groaned Hinata before she realized what exactly she had walked into: the Prime Minister's car.

Hinata frowned at the sight. She didn't recall having a meeting with the Prime Minister today, and she prided herself on having an excellent memory. A moment later, Hinata realized that there were several government vehicles parked out front of her building… and that some of them were being loaded by agents carrying cardboard boxes out of the building.

'What in the Goddamn…?' thought Hinata as she walked around the car and entered the building to find it was now a hive of activity, with a number of government agents carrying out computers, cardboard boxes filled with files, and several other items of importance, much to her ever increasing confusion. Catching sight of Commissioner Mera, the HPSC President walked up to her right hand man. "Commissioner Mera, what is going on here, what-what is all this?"

Mera opened his mouth to speak, only for someone else to cut him off. "I was hoping you could tell me that, Miss Haruno."

Mera and Hinata both turned in the direction of the voice to find none other than the Prime Minister of Japan, Kohei Horikoshi, walking toward them with a tablet in his hands.

"Mr. Horikoshi, I'm afraid I don't know what you're referring to."

"I see…" Kohei replied while looking down at the tablet in his hands. "Then do you perhaps have an explanation for this?"

Kohei turned the tablet's screen to face Hinata and Mera, causing the blood of the HPSC President to run cold. She immediately recognized it as a news broadcast from those imbeciles at Front Line, but that wasn't what made her blood run cold. What did that was the headline of the broadcast.

Vigilante "Venom" exposes HPSC Corruption! Endeavor, Hawks, and other Top Heroes now all indicted!

TheRedeemer1995: And that's a bingo! Just like that, Izuku/Venom took a number of things involving the HPSC, Endeavor, and possibly other heroes that have yet to be determined and completely flipped the script as far as they're concerned. If you liked what you saw here, then be sure to fave, follow, review, and join us next time for the second interlude as we take a look at the fallout from other characters' perspectives! See you then!