As tensions mounted, the main group felt an unsettling weight in the air. Peter's absence on the long-awaited date gnawed at their nerves, sparking a flicker of concern about his well-being. Meanwhile, Kenji confronted his friends, his voice rising like a brewing storm as he accused them of spying on his father. It was clear he was standing firmly by his dad's side, especially after he surprisingly endorsed Daniel's controversial plan to exert control over the dinosaurs. They could see it in his eyes; Kenji was becoming increasingly blinded by his loyalty, his relationship with his father overshadowing their shared mission.
In their search for answers, they stumbled upon Mae and discovered a glimmer of hope: with Kash's expertise, they could dismantle the control chips under development.
"Nice distraction. Dangerous, but effective," Ben remarked, the adrenaline still coursing through him as they made their escape.
"So, what did you uncover?" Laura inquired, her brow furrowing in anticipation.
Brooklynn flashed a determined grin. "Only that we can fry those control chips."
Suddenly, a rustling noise erupted from the nearby bushes, causing them to turn sharply. To their astonishment, it was Carla, breathless and collapsing to her knees, visibly fatigued.
"Carla?" Brooklynn exclaimed, rushing to her side, alarm flooding her voice. "What happened?"
"That suit..." Carla gasped, struggling to articulate her fear. "The one your friend is wearing..."
"Peter? The V252?" Laura pressed her heart racing. "What about it?"
"It's not just a suit..." Carla stammered, panic rising in her eyes. "It's called a Symbiote. It's... an alien."
"What?!" Yaz sputtered, her shock palpable. "He's wearing an alien?!"
"And I think it's corrupting him," Carla murmured, her voice laced with dread. "We thought we had it under control... but it's spiraling beyond that. It's developing a will of its own, consuming the one it's attached to."
Brooklynn's mind raced as she recalled events on the boat. "Peter's been learning to wield that thing since then. So the longer it clings to him..."
"The harder it will be to bring him back," Darius added, his voice trembling with fear.
"How do we get it off him?" Ben asked, desperation lining his tone.
"We found out heat is a weakness," Carla explained, urgency punctuating her words.
"And sound," Yaz chimed in. "When Peter battled the Scorpios Rex, that scream—he was wounded."
"And those sonic soundwaves the others carried—" Ben recalled, serrated memories flashing through his mind. "They hurt him too."
"Loud noises and fire," Laura nodded decisively. "Alright, everyone, you need to assist the dinosaurs and the others."
Unbeknownst to them, a drone hovered silently above, a mechanical eye taking in every moment. Norman, skillfully wielding his controls, prepared to act on Carla.
"Where did you see him?" Laura urged urgently.
"He was heading—" Carla attempted to respond, but a sudden transformation seized her. She glanced down, horror flickering across her face as her arm began to regenerate, scales creeping along her skin. "No... not again!"
With a horrific scream, Carla fell back, morphing violently into the Lizard. In a flurry, she bolted into the jungle, leaving the others to scramble into hiding as she raced away, her instincts guiding her toward an undisclosed destination.
"That was bad..." Darius breathed, the weight of the unfolding chaos pressing down upon them.
"Okay, we have to solve that problem later," Yaz urged, eyes shining with fierce determination. "If Peter's in trouble—"
"I'll find him," Laura vowed, her claws extending as she braced herself for the chase. "I can smell him. You all focus on that presentation."
"You sure?" Darius asks.
"I've got this Laura promises.
"Good luck, Laura," Brooklynn called after her, pride swelling in her chest despite the dire circumstances.
With a deep breath, Laura inhaled the damp, rich scents of the jungle before darting into the underbrush, her heart set on rescuing Peter from the clutches of darkness.
Laura was making her way through the biomes, searching everywhere to find where Peter could have gone on the island. She checked the snow biome, but he wasn't there. But luckily the hybrid dinos were safe.
Laura marched through the forest biome and continued to look around and smelled the air, trying to find him. She looked up and noticed there were screens showing the dinosaurs already under their control. She snarled and felt sick to see this. After all of their work, Kenji was allowing this.
Laura followed the smell, hearing something coming from the darkness. She quickly smelled it and drew her claws, but was shocked to see it came from a broken BRAD coming out of the bushes. It sparked as it fell over, seemingly just escaping a fight kf some sort.
Laura decided to head in the direction that the BRAD came from. It seemed to be the right idea as she finally found Peter. He was letting out a roar as he then used a tendril that struck a group of BRADs. That was when Laura saw he was heading flr Kon.
"Its alive... it knows what they did to it," Laura was putting together. "The suit wants revenge!" She then rushed over and saw another BRAD try and attack Peter, only for him to grab it and quickly slam it into the ground. "Peter!"
Letting out a roar of frustration, the Symbiote looked over and snarled at Kon and Kenji.
"Revenge!"
Laura rushed in as fast as he could, quickly leaping and tackling Peter into the hut. Kenji and Daniel gasped as that was when Laura saw the others were stopping the investors from controlling the dinos.
"I'd get out of here!" Laura warned them. She then turned to face Peter. "Pete. You need to stop. That thing... that suit... it's controlling you."
The Symbiote snarled as he faced Laura with a growl. "Laura... get out of our way."
Laura saw that he was not letting down and knew she was going to have to fight him. "Don't make me do this..." she slowly drew her claws and got into a stance. "Please..."
The Symbiote roared as they rushed in and attacked Laura. She quickly ducked to dodge the tendril and used her claws to cut the tendril.
"Come on, Peter, this isn't you!" Laura tried to break through. "You're not a killer!"
"You're one to talk!" Peter stated, turning around and stretching more tendrils at her.
Laura quickly rushed over to a tree, climbing her way up and escaping the tendril. She saw she
had a second as the tree was too thick for him to knock over in one hit. She looked around and had to remember: fire and sound are its weaknesses. Where can she get that?
Looking over to the cars, then down at her claws, she got an idea. She just hoped it would work. Leaping over to another tree just as Peter came to attack her, leaping to tackle her.
Laura managed to dodge the attack quickly and drew her claws, sliding down and then sinking her claws into the car. She managed to cut the fuel line, causing it to leak and spill around the area.
Peter came charging with a screech, but Laura used her claws to cause a spark. Using the spark to light the gas, causing flames to cover the dirt road.
The Symbiote let out a screech as he felt the pain. Then when the car explodes due to the gas and flames. The screeching from the Symbiote became much louder due to the pain that it was in.
"I could have fixed everything!" Peter screamed in anger.
"How?" Laura asked, marching forward. "By killing them!? That's not how this works!"
"Don't try to mentor me on what's right and wrong!" Peter exclaimed, quickly trying to fight her again, but his suit grew weaker. "You're the one out for revenge!"
"Revenge?" Laura asked in shock, using her claws to strike one of the tendrils. "I wanted to figure out what happened to my siblings! I did it the way you wanted me to! Without killing!"
"And you think that makes you better than me?!"
"I am not saying that!" Laura cried. "You're stronger than that stupid suit, Peter!"
Peter reached a tendril that latched onto her. He then dragged Laura over and dangled her upside down.
"I need this suit! It makes me a better hero!" Peter snarled. "You just want it for yourself!"
"Trust me, I don't do slimy!" Laura mocked, using her talon to cause the tendril to let her down. Cutting the tendril seemed to have harmed him, giving Laura the chance to rush in and try and begin to claw it off. She did tear a small portion of it off, but it wasn't enough to help as it began to regrow itself. "You told me that our powers don't allow us to decide who lives and who dies. What changed?"
"I got better," Peter growled.
"So that's it then?" Laura asks. "Kill or be killed?"
"And we are sick of being the kill!" Peter exclaimed, rushing in to fight her again.
Laura ran, sliding down as she cut the tendril, chopping off a large portion. She then used her claws and dug them into his shoulders, pushing Peter down.
"I can't let this go! I am finally strong enough to protect everyone!"
"Yeah? That's what you call this?" Laura asked.
Peter pushed off a tendril, but Laura chopped that off, harming the Symbiote further. "Come on, Peter... you're better than this!"
Peter growled as he used spikes to shove Laura off him. He then grew dozens of tendrils and began to rise himself off the ground. He created a blade in his hand and prepared to finish the job.
"WE WARNED YOU!" Peter snarled, rushing in to finally finish the job.
"Peter!"
"STOP!"
Laura was struggling to keep up when Brooklynn and Yaz jumped in front of her, causing something to change. Peter actually did stop fighting. He froze yet kept the face of still anger as he looked down at them.
"Peter... look at yourself." Yaz tried to get through to him, the black suit now terrorizing her.
"This isn't you," Brooklynn tried to get through. "You have to be strong, Peter... and I know you've been strong, keeping yourself together for us..."
"But you need to stop," Yaz tried to get through. "Look at all of this. Look at what that suit is doing to you."
Peter started to finally break through, looking down at his weapon and tendrils.
"Come on, Pete, focus on us," Yaz said.
"Come on!" Brooklynn cried.
Peter then started to break through as he fell over and crashed onto the ground. He then began to fight through the suit. He finally began to understand what they were saying. Forcing himself to tear the suit off of his face. His real face revealed its tired self underneath it. The flames began to die out around him as Peter continued to rip the suit off. He then went for his chest, pulling at it like he was opening a sealed bag. He then finally managed to pull the entire thing off of him, tossing it aside, and dropping to his knees in pain and tiredness. He fell over as Brooklynn and Yaz rushed over toward him. Laura was happy to see he was okay and retracted her claws.
That however was when their moment was ruined by knockout gas containers being shot from a BRAD. They landed at Peter and Laura's feet, causing Peter to use his strength to push the girls away as he fell unconscious.
"Peter!"
"Laura!" Sammy cried, shocked to see what was happening.
Drones then showed up detaining the dinosaurs and they looked over to see Kenji, Kon, and Norman.
"I just got you back, and now I almost lost you because..." Kenji then eyed the group. "Because of you!"
"We were just doing what was right," Darius stated.
"Look around!" Kenji said. "Does any of this look right to you?"
"Do you kids have any idea what you've done?" Kon asks. "You've ruined us! All of our investors are gone!"
"Not all of us." One of them said, walking out and was on the phone. "Sorry, I snuck my phone in. And my buyer is still on board. This was a disaster. But BioSyn is very interested in your tech. They wanna meet. Not here, obviously."
"Great! Set it up." Kon said.
"What are you going to do about them?" Kenji asks.
"Don't worry," Kon said. "I'll make sure they're not a problem."
Jeff whimpered as he lay down and curled in fear.
They were locked up in the nursery pen with a BRAD watching them. But Peter and Laura weren't with them.
"You're just as bad as Kash." Sammy snarled.
"Enough. This is for your own good." Kon said. "You've proven you can't be trusted to roam freely. Besides, it's only for a few days while we meet our new buyer on Isla Nublar."
"Nublar? Are you seriously gonna let this happen?" Darius asked Kenji. "This can't be what you really want, Kenji."
"Save it," Kenji said. "None of you care what I want. I'm done with you guys."
"But we're family," Sammy said.
"No, we're not," Kenji said. "You all went out of your way to prove that today."
"Where are Laura and Peter?" Brooklynn asks.
"What did you do to them?" Yaz questioned.
"Don't worry about your friends," Kon said with a sinister tone. "Mr. Osborn will remain behind to ensure they're... safe."
Peter groaned as he woke up and found himself latched down to some sort of table. He looked down and saw his hands were restrained as well as his legs. He looked over and saw Laura was still knocked out, her arms and legs restrained just like he was. Then he looked over and noticed the Lizard standing perfectly still in the corner of the room. He had her under his control.
"Laura?" Peter tried to get her attention. "Laura?"
"I'm afraid young Laura will be unconscious for quite some time," Norman said, marching over with his cane. "I was expecting you to be asleep for a little while longer." He then pulled out a needle. "Sorry about this." He then injected it into his arm, beginning to use it to draw blood out of him. "But your blood might finally hold the answers that I have been looking for."
"Why?" Peter asks.
"I told you. Gene splicing, kid." Norman said, revealing he had already taken Laura's blood. "I am doing this not only for myself. But also the rest of my bloodline."
"You don't know what that will do to you, Norman," Peter tried to warn him from doing it. "My dad-"
"Was a fool!" Norman yelled, throwing some empty canisters off the table. "He was supposed to finish this months ago. But he had to get all noble at the last second."
Peter didn't flinch, he was too tired to even react. The Symbiote took a lot out of him. "True fathers do anything for their sons."
Norman then walked over with more knockout gas. "And that is exactly what I am doing." He then sprayed the gas in front of Peter, knocking him out. "Anything for my son..."
Then he walked over and saw that the three blood samples were already turned into a possible antidote. He then reached over and picked up a control chip he kept on hand that was modified for the purpose of no remote necessary. Capable of controlling with voice commands. He looked over to Peter and knew he was too weak due to what the Symbiote had done to his mind.
Luckily there was another...
Back on Isla Nublar, on the other side of the island, where the yacht once crashed, the S.H.I.E.L.D. swarm arrived on the island. They parked on the docks and began to break off and set up a small campsite and sensors that were meant to try and scare the dinosaurs off.
"Alright, the network is down, but luckily a lot of people posted their visits to the park before it went down," Coulson said, showing the maps to the park. "The camp wasn't exactly added to the map in the time that this was taken, but we pinpointed where it was supposed to be."
"Good, set up camp tonight and we will start sending squads to search the area," Fury told Coulson. "Get those gates to the dock locked and barricaded."
"You heard him, team, move out!" An Agent said, rushing off with a group.
The V252, the Symbiote, it got away. Crawling around the jungle before reaching the sewers and escaping the BRADs hunting it down. It fell into the sewers and managed to slip away... it wasn't done yet.
Norman finally got to work, finally getting the three serums combined, hoping the regenerative factors of the Lizard, Spider-Man, and X-23 combined might be enough to actually cure him of his disease.
He took the serum and injected it into his neck and waited to see what happened...