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His body was moving, but he wasn’t inside it.
This body is elastic, bendy.
Or, he was inside?
Very light, very easy to move.
He wasn’t sure what was happening…
Different than other humans. Difficult to control.
Everything was dark, but it wasn’t—he could still see clearly.
Eyes are dry. Blink.
He was moving, but he wasn’t.
Bend and jump. Reach with arms and land, then push and bend and jump.
He was thinking, but he wasn’t.
Right leg, then left leg, then right, then left.
He was still in his body, could see it moving, but he wasn’t controlling it. He wasn’t the one running across rooftops and jumping from building to building. He wasn’t the one blinking or breathing.
Awake?
Was there someone controlling him, controlling his movement and body?
You are awake?
Was that voice talking to him?
Answer!
Was there someone else in his head? What was happening?
Answer now!
But he didn’t, wasn’t going to obey someone who was hanging out in his head.
Then there was screeching, high pitched and deafening, ringing in his ears—but it wasn’t. It wasn’t real, only in his head, but somehow it still hurt—and then it was over, gone as if it had never been there in the first place.
Answer!
Answer? But what was the question?
Awake?
Awake? Was “awake” even a question? What did that mean?
Answer!
Okay, okay! I suppose I’m awake if that’s what this is. Well, he tried to say that, but it didn’t come out, only stayed in his head, stayed thoughts. His jaw didn’t move and his vocal cords didn’t vibrate.
You wake quickly. Good.
What was happening? Was this a dream?
No, this is real.
Oh, okay then. So if this was real—how sure was he that this was real—wait, why should he trust this, this—
What was this thing that was controlling him?
I am Venom, and this is real.
Oh, okay. That didn’t really tell him anything—wait, this entity was possessing him? Listening to his every thought
Yes, you are very thoughtful.
Yeah, Peter has always had a lot of thoughts going on in his head all the time, but that didn’t give this guy—Venom? What kind of name was venom? That’s so toxic—the right to eavesdrop.
We share space in your head now. You cannot block me out, and I cannot block you out.
Okay, well that was creepy. Definitely a violation of privacy. But why? Why was this guy in his head—in his head—and not someone else’s?
You are a viable candidate, very sturdy.
Great, he has a high constitution, and that's attractive apparently—wait, was he in his Spider-Man suit? Wait! Don’t think about that! It’ll give all his secrets away!
Yes, you are a Spider hybrid. It makes you sturdy.
This guy knew. Okay, but at least he didn’t know Peter’s real name—Oh no, he just said it! No biggie, he didn’t know his last name—Parker—so he couldn’t actually—dammit, stop thinking so much! Stupid ADHD!
Your human name means nothing. I need only your body, and I will use it how I wish.
Good God, did he have to say it like that? Sounded like prostitution was in his future! He wasn’t consenting to this!
I apologize for taking away your liberty. However, I need a body, or I will die.
So he was a leech, stealing Peter’s freedom and Peter could do nothing to stop him—well, he hasn’t tried yet.
Correct, you can do nothing.
The being controlling his body landed on another rooftop, but fell and skidded, scraping his left side on the rough rooftop, ripping the suit—thank God he was wearing his suit, in case someone saw him—not maneuvering right, and yeah, Peter may not be in charge, but he still felt that and ow!
Let me move and control my own body since I know how to use my own muscles!
Negative. You may not have control.
But you’re hurting me!
You are far more difficult to integrate into and adapt my biology onto than humans.
“Than humans”?
Did this guy think that the Spider-Man suit and the name Spider-Man meant that he was actually a spider?
Ha! This guy was so stupid! Peter was human, just like everybody else!
Negative. You are not human.
Okay, yeah, he had super-powers and super-enhanced abilities, but he was still flesh and blood. Just with more responsibilities than normal people.
Negative. Again. You are not human.
What did that mean? Of course, he was human. That was ridiculous.
Negative. You are not human. Your mapping is not parallel to humans.
Again, what the crap was that supposed to mean? Explain!
I am a symbiote. I latch onto genetic mapping and I control it. Your genetic mapping is not parallel to a human’s. Latching is very different and much more difficult. Your genetic mapping is unique. You are not human.
His DNA? It wasn’t human? After the bite, he’d gone through changes, but that’s what gave him his powers. His DNA was human before, and now it’s not?
Correct. Your DNA has mutated. All humans have parallel DNA structures. Yours is not parallel to humans. You are not human.
He wasn’t human?
He wasn’t human. Peter had never considered that before. He supposed it had to be true, it made sense. But still: he wasn’t human.
Venom must have found his destination; they were crawling down the side of a building, OSCORP if the purple neon was anything to go by.
Why were they here? What did Venom want?
Norman Osborn possesses something most valuable to me, and I must reclaim it.
What was it? And why did Norman have it?
I am weak. Only half of me is here. Norman Osborn possesses the other half. He uses me to keep his son alive.
Harry? Norman has Harry? Harry is here? Harry is being kept alive? Why? Was he sick? Why was Norman using Venom to—to keep—
There were so many thoughts running through his head that he couldn’t really focus on anything in particular.
You have many thoughts and are very loud.
Well, thanks, man. It’s not like Peter could just stop thinking. ADHD didn’t work that way. If anything, it was the complete opposite. The more he tried to not think, the more that he thought.
Venom stayed oddly silent as he—he? They?—as they shattered a window on the top floor and swooped in, landing ungracefully in a pile of glass unbalanced and tipped over to scrape his arms to bits as he—Venom, because Peter knew how to control his body—as Venom tried to catch himself.
This was the Osborns’ personal floor, and Peter remembered every part of this place—and he was pretty sure Venom relied on those very memories to get around. He suddenly missed Harry very much, and all those questions swirled around some more.
Peter could tell somehow—some weird, strange way that he couldn’t describe except that they were connected—that Venom instinctively knew where his other half was because they walked right up to a blank wall and started punching their way through—well, punched. It only took one try.
Since Venom couldn’t control Peter’s strength, one single punch rocked the whole wall, crumbling that section of drywall to pieces to land at their feet—dang, that was kinda cool though, Peter was kinda impressed with himself.
Peter had never done something like that, but it was oddly satisfying using all his strength like that—well, not all, but a lot of it.
At last.
There, in front of them, floating in a tall tank of strangely colored chemicals was none other than Peter’s best friend, covered in thick black goo—that seemed to be alive, twitching and crawling all around his body. Harry was clearly not okay, and Peter didn’t know why but he vowed to find out as soon as he possibly could—whenever Venom reunited with his other half and left.
Negative. I will not leave. I need a host.
What?
Peter didn’t have time to formulate questions. They marched right up to the tank, punched it, and the glass shattered, half crumbling at their feet again, half falling backward to collapse against the wall.
The goo stretched itself out, moving Harry’s unconscious body with it, reaching for Peter’s outstretched arm and connecting with his fingertips.
The moment they touched, it released itself completely from Harry’s body, dropping him like a rock to lie amongst the broken glass to crawl up and engulf Peter’s body much the same way sit had Harry’s.
It was everywhere, covering every inch of him, thick goo, like molasses with a mind of its own, and the thin space between suit and skin was moistening from it.
Peter could do nothing as it crawled around him and slithered over his face, turning him to walk away—to leave Harry’s body there. He tried to turn around, to go to Harry and help somehow, but he still couldn’t move. He didn’t know what to do.
They couldn’t just leave Harry there, though! They had to help him!
Negative. Now, I have my body, and I have my full power. You are nothing, only the food. I can turn you off now.
Um, that was scary. Venom was proving to be more formidable a foe now.
And just like that, Venom shoved Peter away to sleep in the back of their head.