Chapter Text
Peter opened his eyes to darkness. Then he closed his eyes again, before opening them once more to make sure. The darkness was still there, though as his eyes adjusted he started to be able to make out some shapes.
Everything was covered in black liquid. The ground seemed to be completely covered by it, and it was making its way up the surrounding buildings, tendril by tendril.
Venom? But why is there so much, and how? Even with spider-healing, I’m pretty sure my body couldn’t produce enough blood for someone to make this much of it.
He heard the beating of wings overhead, and looked up to spy a dragon flying above him. One with some pretty distinctive features. Peter mused aloud, “What, is this Loki’s body-swap-to-facilitate-symbiote-monster-army-invasion plan 2: electric boogaloo? …Well, speaking of electricity, at least I’ve got my taser webs.”
A scream echoed from the distance. Peter couldn’t see anything from where he was, but he started swinging towards the sound. Building after building had tendrils wrapped around them as he passed, but everything else seemed eerily still.
Not long after he started swinging, he found a group of people. Unfortunately, said people were all bonded to symbiotes, and they didn’t look friendly. Though some looked familiar. “Hey, I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but replacing the spider symbol with a scorpion? That’s just insulting!” As he spoke, he shot his taser webs at one of the people in the group, activating them as soon as they connected.
As electricity surged through the webs, the symbiote was blasted off its host, revealing a teen girl in a red and blue costume. Hey, isn’t she one of the new Avengers? “Are you okay?” Peter asked.
“Spider-Man?” She looked around a bit, getting her bearings. “Uh, why are there two of you?” Peter had been cautiously watching the symbiotes, who seemed to be waiting for something, but he spared a glance towards where Ms. Marvel was looking. There was indeed another Spider-Man, who seemed to be just as surprised as he was.
“I have the same question, along with several other ones,” said the other Spider-Man. The bottom part of his mask was torn off, and there were still-bleeding cuts on his skin. And he was holding an unconscious, barely-clothed man. “But if you want to have time to explain without having to fight them-” he nodded towards the symbiotes, who were slowly moving towards them -“see if you can do that electric web thing again on Storm.” He pointed towards the one with the mohawk as he said the name. Peter quickly obliged his other self, and used his taser webs to shock the symbiote off of her.
After a couple seconds of gathering herself, Storm channeled lightning towards the rest of the symbiote group, quickly freeing the rest of the unwilling hosts; The Thing, She-Hulk, Captain America, and a guy with a visor that Peter didn’t recognize. Peter said, “So, is it question time, or…”
“I’d say we ought to return to the base and regroup. That way we can get Eddie some medical care, those injuries of his look serious. And you wouldn’t have to worry about an attacker interrupting the conversation,” said Captain America.
Eddie’s gotta be the mystery unconscious guy, Peter thought. Out loud, he said. “Good idea. Hope you won’t mind leading the way, since I have no idea where this base is.”
|
Once they arrived at the Fantastic Four’s lab, Peter asked, “So, who exactly is this Eddie guy? And what the heck happened to him?”
“For someone who clearly has in-depth knowledge of symbiote weaknesses, I’m surprised you don’t know who Venom is. Especially since you’re me, and Venom and I have a long history. But as to what happened to him; Knull happened.”
“I know who Venom is! And he’s not him. At least, not in my world. And I’ve got the longest history with Venom out of anyone, since it technically starts before the symbiote even existed. No idea what Knull is, though.”
“Okay, that’s a lot to unpack. About Knull, though, he’s the guy causing the whole symbiote catastrophe.”
“How much blood did he even need for all this?”
“What would he need blood for?”
“Y’know, making all those symbiotes in the first place.”
“...I get the feeling this is probably another universe difference.”
“So… are the symbiotes here not made from your blood then?”
The other Spidey looked taken aback. “You mean to tell me that they are in your world?”
“Yeah…”
“Man, that’s weird. The ones here are aliens, but they also have a god for some reason, and that’s Knull.”
“Yours doesn’t sound not weird. But at least people don’t target you over it.”
Before the other Spider-Man could respond, the Human Torch entered the room with a teenage boy in tow.
“Sorry I couldn’t come get you myself, Dylan, but as you can see, something unexpected came up. And thanks for doing that for me, Johnny.”
“No problem,” said the Torch, who then went to where most of the other heroes were gathered.
Dylan looked at Peter with a strange expression on his face. “What’s with this guy, then?”
“I’m just your friendly neighborhood alternate-universe Spider-Man,” Peter said. “I have no idea why I’m here, though.”
The strange expression stayed, but Dylan turned to the other Spider-Man. “Where’s my dad? I wanna see him!”
The older Spidey said, “C’mon, he’s this way,” and turned to walk towards the little medical bay in the lab. Dylan walked after him, and Peter followed after a few seconds. Once he spotted the hospital bed Eddie was in, Dylan ran towards it. He gripped the side of the bed as he waited for the others.
“I hate to break it to you, kid, but your dad’s not doing well,” said Tony Stark, in full Iron Man armor with the faceplate up. “His best bet of survival is if we can bring a symbiote to him. And we need your dad alive, so I’m gonna go get one of the big ones. I’m gonna tame a dragon.”
“Wouldn’t it be harder to get a symbiote if its host is a dragon?” Peter asked.
“They don’t have hosts, these symbiotes are dragons.” Peter’s eyes widened, but he stayed silent and let Dylan continue. “And they’re a lot more powerful than regular symbiotes, so if we could get one and disconnect it from the hive, it could be really useful against Knull.”
“What’s the hive? I don’t think my universe’s symbiotes have that.”
“The symbiotes are all connected to a hive-mind, and Knull can control them through it. That’s why we’d need to disconnect a symbiote from it before we could use one to save my dad.”
“This plan sounds pretty risky. It doesn’t look like we’ve got much time to waste, and it sounds like there’s a good chance it might not work even if time wasn’t an issue.”
“You got a better idea?” asked Tony.
“Well…” Peter sighed in resignation. “Remember how I mentioned my universe’s symbiotes not having a hive-mind? That’s not the only difference between them. My universe’s symbiotes are made from my blood. I know how to make them, and it doesn’t take long.”
For once, Tony Stark was speechless.
Dylan said, “I guess that’s why you felt off. Dragon or no dragon, let’s just save my dad already!”
“I’m gonna ignore that for now. But you should tell me what you mean by that after I get this done. So, if nobody’s got any objections, I’m gonna go make another Venom.” Peter approached the lab equipment as he spoke.
“I guess maybe you do have a better idea, or at least a less risky one,” Tony conceded. “We might be able to use that lack of a hive-mind to our advantage in combat too, I should go mention that to the others.” He gestured to the other side of the room, where most of the heroes were having a conversation about the next move.
After finding a syringe, Peter started the process of making a symbiote, and as he continued he watched Tony talk to the others, hearing bits of the conversation and getting the occasional odd look before finishing. He turned to Dylan, who had been silent the whole time, and handed him the vial with the new symbiote. “Here, you should give it to him. If I do it it might just try to bond with me instead, blood connection and all.”
Dylan gave him another weird look, but took the vial and approached his dad’s hospital bed. “Please,” he said, before pouring the symbiote out onto Eddie’s chest. The symbiote spread over him, quickly covering him entirely, and soon his vital signs on the nearby monitor started to improve.
Peter let out a sigh of relief. The other version of him did so too, then turned to him. “Guess it’s a good thing you got stuck here, I don’t want to think about what could’ve happened otherwise.” He turned to Dylan, who had a conflicted-looking expression. “Is something wrong, buddy?” he asked.
“I can barely sense him. It’s kinda disorienting.” Dylan looked at Peter and said, “Actually, he feels a lot like how you feel right now, it’s gotta be because of that blood symbiote thing. But at least he’s okay.”
At this point the conversation on the other side of the room had stopped. Everyone was looking at either Eddie or Peter. From the looks he was getting, Peter belatedly realized that maybe creating a symbiote when there was an active symbiote invasion going on would make some people think he was in on said invasion.