Archive of Our Own ^beta

The fight wasn't going well.

Eddie was exhausted and Venom was too—he could feel them sagging around him in spaces, the symbiote's normally endless energy nearly depleted. They needed a break. Four hours of continuous battle with nothing to show for it except a heap of still-twitching, biotech millipede parts and two overloaded amplification coils at the Bay Area Roxxon hybrid solar power plant.

They'd been fighting these things for months, trying to keep them from spilling out further and further into the city above. It was a losing battle, and Eddie was seriously questioning why they were even still doing this. Except he knew why. Liz Allen. The CEO of Alchemax knew about these things too, and in typical mega-rich CEO fashion was trying to profit off of them. She'd intended to keep the whole thing under wraps by buying up all the property in the streets above their millipede nest, which included Mrs. Chen's deli. So Eddie had found out and stopped that nonsense.

But the millipedes were still here, more of them every day and they were close to bursting out in other cities too. Venom couldn't be in every city, they had San Francisco to worry about.

"Too many!" Venom growled, tongue lashing out angrily as the writhing mass of gleaming blue and silver overwhelmed them. They just kept coming, more and more of them, and they couldn't have cared less that Venom was there, walking over them like they were a bump in the proverbial road.

One more coil? Eddie asked, hating himself for suggesting it, but also certain it was the only viable option given how many of them there were.

“One more,” Venom agreed. He leapt twenty feet to the next coil and grabbed hold of the regulator, yanked on it until that now-familiar burn tingled up Eddie’s palm and brought it to the live wire, sending the unit into overdrive. It began to spark and hum, the alarm light blaring silently as they’d had the foresight to disable those as soon as they got to the plant. They’d done this before after all, and the sound of the alarms was far more harmful to Venom than the thousand joules of electricity the coils produced: those they could handle.

Venom flung tendrils out in every direction, covering as much of the solar panel grid as they could at once and let the electricity ride through them one more time. It still hurt, in fact it hurt even more this time than it had the last two times, and Eddie grimaced as the pain sunk deeper into him than it had before. If it was hurting him, the pain for Venom must’ve been excruciating, though the symbiote showed no outward signs of agony aside from an infuriated roar, aimed at the millipedes feeding on the field of solar cells. But their trick, painful as it was, worked. The millipedes kept feeding, the electricity from the coils, filled them up and overloaded them, sending most of them bursting apart, sending pieces of blue-glowing biotech bug bits up into the sky that fell back down around Venom in a shower of metal-fleshy chunks. The last of the electricity from the coil discharged with a waning zap, and then sputtered out.

Venom dropped back down to the ground, and slumped against the coil housing. “Done.” It was a statement, not a question. They’d taken out as many as they possibly could, and if they stuck around too long, more would inevitably show up, but they didn’t have the energy left to take on another swarm. Not tonight.

"Yeah, we're done," Eddie agreed. He felt exhausted, and that didn't happen these days unless Venom was exhausted. Apparently four hours of non-stop oversized bug fighting was too much for both of them.

#

“You need to rest Eddie.” Mrs. Chen looked down at Eddie’s wrist where Venom had wrapped a tendril around in the loose shape of a bracelet, but as exhausted as they were even the bracelet was droopy. “You’ve been pushing yourself too hard. Both of you.”

“Nah. We just need a good night’s sleep and some grub, don’t worry.” Eddie handed her a twenty to pay for their aforementioned grub and gave her a smile, turned on his heel and walked right into the snack rack next to the counter. Venom shot out a tendril and kept the whole thing from toppling over.

“Eddie,” Mrs.Chen said more sternly. “Go sleep. Take a day off from the hero work. One day.”

“Okay, okay,” Eddie muttered, even though he knew they couldn’t afford to.

#

They shoved down two sandwiches and a king-sized Snickers bar and ended up getting about two hours of sleep before Eddie’s phone went off with another Alchemax high priority alert.

Venom grabbed the phone before Eddie could and smothered it in their mass until it was sufficiently muffled, having remembered how upset Eddie was last time they’d simply smashed the thing.

Eddie woke up well after sunrise to a slew of increasingly angry and threatening messages from Liz Allen. “You should’ve woken me!” Eddie chastised Venom.

“We took care of it,” Venom said, yawning as their head poked out of Eddie’s midsection.

“What? How?”

“Have you noticed where we are?” Venom asked, wrapping around Eddie’s neck to gently turn his head to the right.

“Not the bedroom,” Eddie said, taking in their surroundings. They were in the parking lot of a manufacturing plant of some sort, and had fallen asleep on the roof of a mostly crushed delivery truck. Eddie stood up and looked at the trail of severed millipede pieces leading from the truck to the warehouse door. “Did I sleep through the whole thing?”

“You needed sleep. We do not require it.” Venom yawned again, even more widely and let themselves sag down, sinking mostly back into Eddie, except for their head.

“You say that, but you seem pretty beat yourself.”

“We are not beat, just…” Venom’s words trailed off as they slumped forward, head lolling against Eddie’s chest, softly snoring.

“Yeah, this has to stop,” Eddie said to himself, patting Venom’s head gently until it too melted back inside of him.

#

"This isn't working" Eddie said, resigned. He hated admitting it, especially to somebody like Liz. But he was beat, Venom was beat. They were fighting an unending ocean of biotech bugs and for each one they took out of commission, a dozen more took its place. "We need help."

"So, get help," Liz said cooly. "Call some other..." she gestured with her hands at him vaguely, "...enhanced super-people and get one of them to help you."

"What do you think we're in some kind of club?"

She gave him a steady look that heavily implied, Have you never heard of the Avengers, you half-wit?

Eddie cleared his throat. "Okay, there are clubs—but we're not in any of them."

"Not my problem."

"It is—it is in fact your problem, because I'm telling you this isn't going away, it's getting worse. There are too many of them, and none of your machines, or your weapons are going to stop them." Eddie sighed and then a thought occurred to him. "You've tried reaching out to others, haven't you?"

Liz scoffed. "You honestly think you were my first choice?"

Eddie pursed his lips but didn't answer. The thought had occurred to him, actually, but he'd shoved it away into the crowded back corner of his brain where he kept all his self-loathing and doubt.

"Stark Industries won't return my calls." She played with her stylus, tapping it against her desk. "Even though I sent that lovely flower arrangement for Tony's funeral."

"Well I don't know anybody," Eddie said standing, eyes narrowed. "But I also don't have the resources you do."

"No, you don't," Liz said. "Find somebody else to help, or our deal's off."

Eddie froze. Liz had him over a barrel, and she knew it.

He'd do anything to protect Mrs.Chen and her shop, and this stretched so much further too. The millipedes were a threat to everyone, but...Eddie realized the rate at which they were coming up around the globe meant things were going to get entirely out of hand one way or the other. "No, it's not," Eddie said finally, a grin sprouting slowly.

"Excuse me?"

"You know I'm not enough, and it's not because of me. Not one of the Avengers would be enough by themselves. This thing needs a fleet of heroes. But you can't ask anyone because they all hate you. So you want me to ask for you."

Liz's deepening scowl just confirmed Eddie's point.

"So fine. I will. Because that's what heroes do," Eddie said triumphantly and turned on his heel.

“And we are heroes,” Venom said, turning their head back towards Liz, in much the tone of a Yeah, what he said.

#

“I might know somebody,” Anne said, thoughtfully. “Who knows somebody.”

“Oh?” Dan asked as he picked up his BLT for another bite. “That guy Frank, or—"

“No, Jennifer.”

“Oh…” Dan nodded. “Right.”

Eddie looked from Anne to Dan. “Is Jennifer a—“

“She’s a lawyer. But her cousin is Bruce Banner.”

Eddie stared at her blankly.

“Doctor Bruce Banner. The Hulk.”

“Oh!” Eddie perked up. “Big green dude.”

“That’s the one.”

Big and green?

Yeah he like did experiments on himself and turned into this huge, strong—

“Jennifer’s got a private practice in my office building. I’ll see if she can reach out to Bruce. Maybe he’s got some ideas. Maybe he can fly out here and—.”

“And help us punch them?” Venom finished, extending a small head as discreetly as they could, jutting out of Eddie’s wrist.

Anne cocked her head. “From what Jennifer told me, he doesn’t punch as much anymore, I mean only when he has to. It’s his experience with extra-terrestrials I think might be helpful.”

“We also have vast experience with extraterrestrials and we have never seen or heard of beings quite like this!”

Dan nodded his head towards Venom as a waiter came near, and Venom slipped swiftly back inside Eddie. “Maybe together, you can figure out why they’re here, and what they want.”

#

"Whoa," Eddie said. He'd known what to expect, sort of. He'd read that Bruce was always Hulk-shaped now, even though he was mentally-speaking Bruce more often than not. And it was clear from the soft smile on his face, the raw intelligence in his eyes, that this was Bruce Banner he was looking at, not a mindless rage-beast.

"Nice to meet you," Bruce said, holding his hand out to Eddie. "I've heard— Well no, actually I haven't heard anything about you, but Jennifer trusts Anne, and I trust Jennifer." He clasped his giant hand around—completely around—Eddie's and shook it.

He is not entirely human, Venom observed.

No he's not.

He's very large.

Yeah, you think?

Yes, I do.

"So this data Liz sent me is...nuts. How long've these things been around?"

"A few months now. I found out about them in January, but from what I can figure, Alchemax has known about them much longer."

And their numbers grew this much in five months?" Bruce shook his head. "Any idea how they're multiplying?"

"No. I can stop them, one at a time by snapping them in half, " Eddie made a breaking motion with his two hands, "But they're sort of still alive after that? Just not as mobile."

Bruce narrowed his eyes. "These things are hard as titanium apparently. You got super-strength?"

Eddie smirked, nudging Venom to flow out around his hand making an impressive, gleaming black fist. "Yeah, something like that."

"That's your symbiote, huh?"

"Venom," Eddie said as Venom covered his face wholly. "Our name is Venom."

"Well, then nice to meet you too," Bruce said, unruffled. "Anything to add?"

"They're not from this world, but also not from any charted planet we are aware of. And we do not know why they've come here," Venom said.

"Liz says they're feeding on tech?"

"Inaccurate," Venom said, and retracted to let Eddie's head slide back out. "Well sort of, it's not just computers though: semiconductors, anything with silicon and electricity. We're pretty sure it's the silicon they actually eat."

"You think that's why they're here?" Bruce asked, but something in his tone made it clear he had a different theory.

"Maybe," Eddie narrowed his eyes, "but you don't."

Bruce huffed a laugh. "The footage of them burrowing up. Their speed. They're not scavenging, or following a scent trail, there's no distinct pattern other than away from their point of origin."

"Meaning?"

"They're not invading, they're trying to save themselves." Bruce shrugged, shoulders slouching in a self-deprecating way. "I've seen it often enough firsthand. They're fleeing from something."

"From what?" Eddie was even more confused. The millipedes didn't seem scared to him, but then he couldn't exactly read their facial expressions.

"That's the question. Let's figure out the answer." Bruce winked at Eddie.

Why did he blink one eye at us?

I don't know, I think it's supposed to be encouraging or something.

#

"So this is where you found them, huh?" Bruce asked, brows furrowed.

"This is where Alchemax was trying to keep them under wraps." Eddie looked down at the walkway, noting how the flesh remnants he'd seen on his prior visits had been cleaned up. By Alchemax or by time he wasn't sure. Either way he couldn't quite forget the living chunks of meat he'd seen there, and still felt a bit queasy at the thought.

"They're pretty shady."

"Very."

"So why do you work for them?"

"We do not work for them. We have an alliance to protect our friends and neighbors," Venom interjected, forming fully over Eddie's head and body, preparing for battle.

Bruce smiled sadly. "Yeah, I've had those too. Doesn't always work out well." He shrugged, and gestured towards the hole in the ground. "Shall we?"

"Yes," Venom said, throwing out a tendril to hook around a support beam up above them. The number of millipedes pouring out had decreased somewhat, so many of them out in the city now, but they were still swarming up. The only difference was now they could see straight down the middle of the walls, a seemingly endless pit stretching down into the darkness below.

Bruce looked at Venom. "You gonna carry me?"

"You have a better idea?"

"I figured we'd just jump."

Jump? Does he know how far down—

"It's a three mile drop straight down."

"Eh, we'll bend our knees." Bruce chuckled. "Come on, we're both mostly indestructible right?"

"Yes." Venom's irritation seeped into Eddie's consciousness and they told him privately, Just don't look until we've reached the bottom.

Fine. Eddie sulked. He didn't like this plan, but nothing else had worked, and Bruce was right. They had to go to the source to get a better idea of where the millipedes were coming from.

"You first," Venom said smiling a toothy smile.

"Okay. See you down there." Bruce took a few steps back from the catwalk and did a slow jog towards the edge then jumped with a half-hearted "Woo."

Venom sighed as Eddie's resignation peaked, made a tether to lower themselves the first fifty feet or so and then jumped—flinging out tendrils to slow their fall when they could. That got harder the further they went down, the walls thoroughly covered in millipedes by the time they'd passed the halfway mark. So for the last of it they just tucked their arms around themselves, offering Eddie as much of a hug as they could, and fell.

"There you are!" Bruce said seconds before Venom hit the ground with a thump, remembering belatedly to bend their knees, though it made no difference. their resilience had very little to do with human anatomy.

Venom retracted, letting Eddie take a look for himself. His eyes weren't nearly as good without Venom's enhanced vision, but Venom had learned Eddie appreciated being able to see in his own limited capacity after something upsetting. Like for example a three mile drop.

"Well that sucked," Eddie said, taking in a few big gulps of air. He looked up and immediately regretted it, unable to see much beyond the electrified blue ripples of the blue horde above them. The millipedes were in fact the only light source down here. "Anyone know how we're gonna get back up?" He nudged Venom mentally, asking them to encase him again.

"Climb, I assume," Bruce said, focused on their surroundings. A dozen feet away from them was a crack in the ground, glowing the same blue as the millipedes, only much, much brighter. He headed towards it, Venom following.

"Very strange light signature. We have never seen it before," Venom said, duly impressed.

"What have we here...?" Bruce murmured, dropping to his knees next to the fissure. Bruce pulled out something from his pocket—the size of a smartphone but thicker and held it next to the edge. "Huh."

"What are you measuring?" Venom asked, coming closer.

"Radiation," Bruce said, "and other things." He pushed a few buttons on the gadget. "This is a portal."

"Transdimensional or transspatial?" Venom asked as Eddie got more confused.

"The former," Bruce said, brow furrowed as he looked at the readings and then the fissure itself. "Whatever's down there... there's a point where it changes. It's still Earth, just not our Earth."

"Are we going through?"

Wait, whoa!

"How else are we going to learn why these beings have been coming here?"

“Right,” Bruce said, “Let’s go.”

Wait a minute! Eddie thought more insistently so Venom retracted their head to let Eddie speak. “We don’t know what’s through that portal, we don’t know if we can breathe there and we don’t even know if we can get back!”

Bruce nodded. “Valid concerns.” He tapped again the wristband he was wearing and a holographic display popped into existence for all of them to see. Venom stretched out a head too, to get a closer look.

“From what I can make out, there’s a tunnel just like this one curving back up into the other dimension. Once we get above ground, we should be fine. Atmosphere’s within breathing range, temperature’s a comfy eighty degrees Fahrenheit. Clear skies. I mean I don’t know what color exactly, based on the radiation and atmosphere readings…maybe yellow?”

Eddie stared at him dumbfounded. “You’re a scientist, right?”

“Last time I checked.”

“You have some kind of a death wish? Or do you always rush headfirst into unknowns like this?”

Bruce’s smile soured for a split second before settling again. “For a few years now, yeah. Helps that I’m eight feet tall and nigh indestructible.”

“Yeah but what if we get stuck there? What happens if you don’t make it back? What about your friends? Loved ones?”

Bruce’s eyes went glassy and his fists clenched and Eddie wondered if he’d made a serious mistake, crossed a line he shouldn’t have. He got even more worried when Bruce squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath before leveling him with a stare, eyes glowing green.

“Sorry,” Eddie swallowed, “I—“

“I lost people I love, not too long ago,” Bruce said quietly. “I’ve lost a lot. And yeah maybe I’m...a little more reckless these days.” His eyes faded back to brown. “But no, I don’t have a death wish. Not today anyway.”

“This is not reckless, Eddie,” Venom said, earnestly, “We have been reckless before too. This is a necessity. If we do not uncover why these beings are coming here, this Earth will be overrun by them. I promise, we will make it back.” They turned their head towards him, smiling wide. “We like it here too.”

Eddie gave Venom the best smile he could manage and nodded at Bruce. “Okay then, I trust you. Let’s go.”

“We’ll make it back,” Bruce said, clapping his hand against his wristband. “And if we don’t, this thing’s got a pretty impressive signal.”

“That’s reassuring,” Eddie said, holding his smile in place until Venom had enveloped his head again fully. Then with one last look at the rippling wall of blue bugs around them, Venom followed Bruce down into the fissure.

#

The portal rippled shut behind them and as Venom's eyes started to adjust, Eddie sucked in an astonished breath at what he saw. It was beautiful. The ground shimmered endlessly around them, like a landscape made of gleaming mirrors.

"Where are we?" Eddie asked, staring in awe at their new surroundings. It was breathtaking—metaphorically but also quite literally.

Venom tilted their head to look up at the sky. "Still Earth, but not ours."

"This is their Earth," Bruce said, kneeling down to touch what looked like a boulder sized hunk of quartz jutting out of the ground. "One that followed a very different developmental timeline."

A sharp sound, like giant nails on a chalkboard, sounded from behind them and they all turned towards it, but saw nothing.

"What was that?" Eddie asked, unsettled. Venom's enhanced senses gave him some idea of what was happening though he couldn't parse it. The crystalline ground itself was still vibrating from that sound, and there were things moving within it, visible through the transparent surface, familiar-looking giant millipede things.

The ground shook, Bruce bending his knees to keep his balance. Then it burst open, holes exploding all around them as dozens of millipedes came boring out.

Venom got into a fighting stance, but suddenly it clicked—what Bruce had said. "They're running from that," Eddie said, pointing towards where the sound had come from, towards the horizon where something else was moving. Something massive and roiling. Like a tidal wave or no...a storm made flesh, Eddie thought as the details became clearer. Whatever it was, it was organic—at least partially, Venom could sense as much.

"What the hell is that?" Bruce asked, brow furrowed. He too had gotten into a fighting stance, muscles coiled and bulging.

"Looks like a Sporr," Venom said, narrowing their eyes to get a better look. "Haven't seen one in a long time."

"What are they?"

"In your terms? Think Pelomyxa. Just larger."

"Yeah, a bit," Bruce said chuckling.

"Pelo mix—what?" Eddie asked.

"Think amoeba with tentacles," Bruce said.

"Oh," Eddie watched the thing get closer, thick grey ooze rolling over the crystal ground, propelling itself forward with dozens of thick flagella that gripped and pulled at the jagged outcroppings, rolling over the fleeing millipedes. As it got closer, Eddie could see the millipedes—sparking with their innate electrical current —trapped inside the Sporr. It was absorbing them as it moved, consuming them. "How—uh—how do we stop it?"

"Sporr can't be stopped. They come, they feed, they leave. Eventually." Venom said.

"Eventually when?" Eddie asked.

"When they've consumed all available biomatter on a planet."

"That's not an option," Bruce said. "We've got to move this Sporr thing somewhere else too.”

"So it can what, eat another world?" Eddie asked.

"You got a better idea?" Bruce asked.

"Maybe, how about we talk to it?”

"It has no brain."

"That's never stopped me before," Eddie said resolutely.

Venom gave him an internal appreciative pat.

"We can shrink it, maybe?" Bruce said, like he was thinking out loud.

"You have a shrink ray, too?"

"Yeah actually. Well not on me, but I know a guy."

"Of course you do." Eddie looked at the Sporr again as it oozed closer and closer. Even with the Hulk on their side, they were no match for this enormous thing. It was like trying to fight a living, hungry mountain made of flan. The millipedes, meanwhile, were still fleeing, streaming around them in a river of metallic blue. They brushed against Eddie's legs, oblivious or uncaring of his presence. Only the Sporr and its imminent threat mattered.

“We need a shrink ray and something to collapse the fissure between our dimensions,” Bruce said, “Think you two can keep this thing busy while I go get those?”

Venom began to pour themselves over Eddie’s head. “Yes. Go.”

“Wait but—“ Eddie interrupted, and Venom paused mid face, leaving Eddie’s eyes and mouth mostly exposed. “We still need to get the millipedes off of our Earth. And we can’t do that until we’ve—“

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan,” Bruce said. “You keep it focused on you, I’ll be back in a jiff.” He ran towards the portal at breakneck speed, wholly incongruous with his size.

“Okay,” Eddie said, not entirely convinced. But on the other hand, Bruce was a professional, an honest to goodness Avenger, and Eddie...wasn’t. So who was he to argue?

“Ready, Eddie?” Venom asked, enveloping Eddie more firmly, layers of symbiotic tissue layering themselves thickly over Eddie’s limbs. They were making armor, denser than usual, to give them some more defense against the Sporr.

“Ready,” Eddie said, tilting his chin down as Venom’s fangs surrounded his teeth and they became fully merged once more.

The Sporr was less than two dozen feet away now, and Eddie had just enough time to steel himself before Venom leapt forward, tongue lashing in challenge as the Sporr reared up—gross, ludicrous and terrifying all at once. 

They latched onto the Sporr, or tried to, but its surface was as slick as Jello, impossible to get a foothold on. They slid down until Venom extended their claws and tore into the Sporr’s side, eliciting an unearthly howl—that same steel scraping on metal sound that had shaken the ground before, Venom cried out as they lost hold of Eddie, the frequency within damaging range—for a split second, Eddie found himself in freefall and scrambled frantically for purchase, his fingers digging into the grooves Venom had dug into the beast’s side, but they were closing quickly. The Sporr fell silent, and Venom fought to reconstitute themselves as quickly as possible, digging their claws deep into the beast’s side once more.

But the thing kept moving, rolling on towards the fleeing herd of millipedes, absorbing dozens with each slow roll of its massive body. We have to get deeper inside of it, Eddie thought. It has organs somewhere right? Something we can hurt, some way to slow it down?

"Yes," Venom said. "It has a nervous system and a brain, but they are buried within its mass. And its entire being is filled with digestive acid. If we dig our way inside of it, we too will be consumed."

Oh goodie. Eddie thought. Any other way we can slow it down?

"None that I know of." Venom extended their claws further, razor sharp tips growing another two inches. "We have shifted as much of our mass into strengthening our outer layer. It will delay the digestive acid's effects. But I need your help. My focus will be on keeping us safe and undigested. You need to use our body to dig as deep into it as you can, as quickly as you can."

Got it, Eddie thought, but how—

"I trust you Eddie," Venom said and Eddie's brain lit up, his senses extending further as Venom's mind handed the reins over to him. He could feel all of them, not just his own body inside of Venom, but their body—up to the tips of their talons and their long, whipping tongue. He could feel their strength, all their potential, and with a burst of determination he leapt up on top of the Sporr, and lunged down, digging in deep with claws and teeth. He tore out a chunk of the Sporr's mass, ignoring as best he could the terrible sound it let out. Venom had covered their ears, muting those senses, but the vibration still rattled him. Eddie didn't let it stop them though. He kept digging, kept burrowing deeper until he could see the purple fibrous strands that made up the Sporr's neural network. And then he felt the pain set in. It was a distant prickling thing, the acid starting to eat away at them. You okay? He asked.

"For now. Hurry." Venom shifted their outer shell, hardening around their head and back, covering them in a convex shield to keep the acid from doing too much damage.

Eddie renewed his efforts, digging down deeper until he grabbed hold of the nerve and pulled. The Sporr cried out again and stopped rolling, flattening out into a hideous, gelatinous carpet.

"It's working," Eddie said his voice echoing strangely through their mouth.

"Pull harder. We don't have much time."

So Eddie did. He tugged on the nerve as hard as he could. But the Sporr was fighting back, pulling the nerve down back into itself, and Venom right along with it. He could feel their limbs sinking, being pulled down into the beast, its acid no longer just prickling but searing, boiling hot against their skin. Eddie gritted their teeth together and kept going. And the Sporr lit up, that familiar eerie blue from the millipedes coursing up its inside, charging the gelatinous monstrosity with electricity. Like the acid alone hadn't been bad enough.

“Eddie, we need to—you need to pull harder, it’s too much. I can't hold it off much longer.”

And Eddie did, he gave it one more pull with all their might, felt the weight of the giant beast yanking back down, pulling his arms and legs so hard he thought they'd come out of their sockets, an incredible pressure that sent spasms of pain shooting up and down his tendons along with every electric pulse. But Eddie kept on, gritting his teeth until the pain went from bad to worse to excruciating to blinding. He screamed right along with Venom as the thing fought against them, Venom’s form stretched to the limits, the shield wall they’d created not just wavering anymore but flapping like a cut sail as the blue lightning shot up and down its breadth. They were spent.

I’m sorry, Eddie thought, right before his vision began to tunnel and he saw Venom fold in on themselves, billowing down to the ground like a cut sail.

Eddie reached for Venom, grabbing hold of the nearest tendril and trying to pull them close, needing that warmth against him.

The Sporr reared up, someone roared from behind him and then the Hulk leapt into view, landing on top of Venom who reformed around Bruce, a fifteen foot black and green behemoth that roared again in challenge, ran at the Sporr grabbed it with two massive clawed hands and tore it wide open.

Eddie felt cold, the connection between him and Venom silent, and as the innards of the Sporr cascaded down around him, covering him in half-digested millipede parts and burning crumbs of electricity, Eddie fell thankfully unconscious.

#

...a real hero."

"How is he?"

"He'll be fine. They'll both be fine. They're strong."

Eddie blinked his eyes open and found Dan smiling down at him. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"I'm—" Eddie swallowed, his mouth dry. He took stock of how he felt. Tired, achy but more importantly not alone. He could feel Venom there, curled around his heart and he reached out for them mentally, felt Venom stir, flowing out to cover his hand, though clearly still sleeping.

Anne came into view. "You were both out cold for a while there. From what Bruce told us it sounds like it was one hell of a fight."

"Bruce?" Eddie asked, pushing himself up to sitting. Bruce was there too, leaning against the wall in the corner of the hospital room. The size of the chair next to him made it clear why he'd opted to stand instead of sit. He gave Eddie a little wave. "Hey, partner."

"Partner?" Eddie repeated, bitterly. He didn't remember being much of a partner. He remembered fainting, and Venom leaving him to kill the monster with Bruce.

"You two put up a hell of a fight. Kept the Sporr busy until I got back, just like we planned."

"Yeah, but you took it down."

"No, we did," Hulk pointed at Eddie's hand. "Your symbiote is something else. You're lucky you have each other."

"Yeah, we are," Eddie said, wrapping his hand more tightly around Venom, who squeezed back in response though they were still sleeping.

"What happened?" Eddie asked, "After we—"

"We tore the Sporr apart enough to use the shrink ray on it, trapped its pieces in the containment jars I brought. That calmed the millipedes down enough that they stopped running. Came back here, brought you two here to the hospital, dropped the Sporr off in a safe place."

"And the millipedes here?" Eddie asked dubiously.

"Cleared out the ones here in San Francisco myself. Used the shrink ray. Made it a lot easier to catch them. Might've accidentally shrunk a few traffic lights,  too. Oops. Anyway, I've got some friends taking care of the rest of them. One of them is pretty good at opening interdimensional portals. He'll make sure they all get back home."

"Wow," Eddie said.

"Yeah, good thing we called Bruce for help, huh?" Anne said with a chuckle. "Think I owe Jennifer a Starbucks or eight."

"Yeah," Eddie said as Bruce laughed back and said it wasn't a big deal, he was happy to do it, and lots more things along those lines. Eddie could barely look him in the eyes, but thanked him anyway, he deserved that much.

#

Eddie... Venom swished inside Eddie finally peeking out just below his chest, and sent a small serpentine head forwards, stopping just short of the trajectory of the barbell.

Eddie ignored them, and kept going, "eight, nine..." his arms were quivering from the effort. He hadn't pushed himself like this in years, but he had to. "Ten," he grunted through clenched teeth.

"Why are you doing this?" Venom asked.

Eddie ignored them, focusing instead on setting the bar down. He sat up and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his wrist.

"Eddie!"

"Because I feel like it," Eddie said.

"You want to be stronger? We are very strong—much stronger than humans."

"Yeah, but it's not enough, is it?" Eddie said, grabbing for the dumbbells. He sat up and started on shoulder presses, keeping his arms as steady as he could. He couldn't get the image of Venom and Bruce merged out of his head—the sheer size of them and the unparalleled strength they'd needed to defeat the Sporr. Eddie wasn't anywhere close to competing with that, but he couldn't not try.

"Eddie..." Venom extended a head and turned to level Eddie with a look. "Are you jealous?"

"What? No."

"Bonding with Bruce was the only way to save you. I would never have done it if it wasn't—"

"I know. I know, okay? But—you shouldn't have to." Eddie's arms were starting to shake but he pushed past it, shoving the dumbbells up one last time before letting them drop the the floor with a thump. He looked up at Venom's milky eyes. "I want to be enough."

"You are." Venom leaned in and kissed Eddie gently on the forehead. "You are more than enough."

Eddie's eyes started to tear up but he sniffed, shrugging it off. "Doesn't feel like it most of the time, but thanks."

Venom swirled themselves around Eddie in a tight hug, and squeezed him. "Don't care if you aren't the strongest or the smartest. I'm not either of those things, but together we are everything I want."

And to that, Eddie couldn't do anything but agree and lean in closer to give Venom a proper kiss.