EDDIE

To be real, it wasn't the symbiote that relished the rage. I had my share of rage. It was fear that drove my anger as pushed me into torpidity - fear of losing the one I loved, the one I couldn't live without. To protect her, I had to keep the world around me safe. No one could harm one strand on her head. 

"She was mistreated before all this came about."

"Who?"

It kept building up like water currents, for what I felt was not human and vexing my soul. It was twisted, it was something wrong and lacing onto my veins like poison. It was what powered me through the streets of my city, breaking into cement and cracking windows as I made my way downtown.

We'll feast on his body, Eddie!

I wasn't listening. My symbiote suit housed me protectively, my mind now in control of the beast in me. The side which I showed to the criminals. 

Barnum, we're coming for you!

A howling screech left our lips when we reached the rat's apartment building, not caring about the marveling infrastructure and breaking right through the glistening windows to the eleventh floor of the building. Crashing past the sofa that sat right near the window sill, and breaking the well-equipped coffee table. Barnum, who was suddenly aware of our presence, took cover behind his kitchenette and cowering with fear.

Venom leaped past obstructions, grabbing Barnum by the collar and lifting him up in the air to meet his fearful eyes. Venom was relishing in the fear, the short movement of jugular and ready to ease his hunger. He was ready to kill.

'Paul Barnum,' Venom rumbled loudly, his tongue lolling out in hunger, tasting his desired meal. He stunk of sweat and the blood rushing through his veins making Venom more hungry. 'You touched what's ours.'

'I - didn't - d - do - ' he choked, gasping for breaths amidst the hold of the devil. I could only sit back and watch, vengeance consuming me. He deserved everything that was going to come at him that night.

'You touched our female! And you know what you get for that?'

'P-please - l - let - ' he begged, his hands reaching out to weakly unloosen Venom's grip around his neck. 

'These hands which touched her,' he growled and pulled his arm with a light tug. 'We'll rip first and then, we'll take out your spine and then, your head. Yes, that will do.'

'I'm sorry,' he managed to wheeze out. 'Please, please!'

'We show no mercy to those hurt what's ours! They diiiiiie!'

Venom's jaw enlarged to drown Barnum's screams, teeth pocking out to pierce into his neck and clamp shut. The sharp snap of the bone was heard before his head and his arms giving off similar clasps as he snapped them apart. The squeamish scent of death and gore invaded our nostrils, Venom's hunger increasing by the second. The greed that fueled his anger, caused him to smack down on the headless corpse, consuming the housed organs in his midsection. I felt my human stomach gurgle at the display, no matter how many times I have seen it, it was still sickening.

'She's ours!', was the last thing he screeched into the night before, retracting back through the window and into the sleeping night.

- ♣ -

'Wait, you what?!'

I ground my teeth audibly, the anger still not diminished. My hands were still eager for something to strike, hard. And Tony was very distracting at that moment, prancing around me like a walking punching bag.

'I told you, Pete. Leave it out, what part of that didn't you get?'

'He was justified to know, Mr. Stark,' Peter stood his ground but I could feel on the inside, he was reduced to a blubbering mess. Disobeying his instructions wasn't a first to him. Neither to me.

'But he killed him!'

It was a good kill.

'He had it coming,' I muttered under my breath, leaning on to the lab table. Something lit up with my movements, a project of some sort related to a large hammer, but I ignored it like nobody's business. 

'Okay, y'know what, it's not my problem,' he shrugged nonchalantly. 'Kill away, it isn't related to me.'

Finally. Validation.

'Exactly,' I pointed out and Venom bristled with acceptance. 'The bastard was unproductive in every way. He deserved to die.'

'Who was?'

Behind me stood the woman who was centered around it all. Laura stood there in nothing but one of my old shirts which I grabbed from home and a pair of loose socks. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun, her eyes set on me. Flanking her side was a disoriented Wanda, already gleaned the conversation by looking into each of our heads. But she remained silent, knowing it would be best if it came from any of us.

'No one,' I said suavely for everyone else as she joined my side. It was an automatic response to press my lips to her hairline and inhaling deeply. She smelt natural; skin and bones. There were hints of bewildered and fear as she clamped a hand over my thudding chest, Venom quickly delving into calming my heart rate. Stark's stare didn't go unnoticed. 

'Yeah, just a person who died even though he didn't want to,' he said with pursed lips. 'The usual.'

'Okay,' she drawled, furrowing her eyebrows. She looked up, staring right at me as if unfurling me to figure me out. 'Everything's good?'

Look away, look away, look away . . . 

I willed my gaze elsewhere, letting it saunter near my feet. 'Just fine. Don't worry about it.'

A beat passed. A tense, uncomfortable silence.

'Great because I have news.'

'About?' Peter piped up, willingly involving into our conversation. She smiled at him instantly, greeting one of her favorite people in the room. Peter smiled back, waving softly.

'The copycat on the loose is a hunter symbiote,' she exposed. 'Sin knows about it.'

Tony straightened his back, intrigued. 'Well, spill the beans, wild one.'

'The Xenophage,' she said, uncoiling her arms from around me to fold it to her chest. This meant business and she was down for the job. 'It's a race which feeds on symbiotes. They've been gone for hundreds of years. Xenophages are biological shapeshifters so my guess is that it morphed into Venom when starting it's killing spree.'

I've never seen one so strong enough to survive this long.

'That makes so much more sense,' I said, relieved that my symbiotes name would finally be clear. 

'The only symbiote in existence is yours and Venom,' Tony elucidated, scratching his chin in deep thought. 'What about the rest of the dozen deaths?'

'We're not the only ones. Not anymore,' she said with a nip of her lips. 'There are more out there we just don't know of.'

Wanda finally spoke up. 'Will it kill everyone?'

Laura answered after a tick. 'Anyone that stands in its way.'

'So the crawler thing came here because it sensed symbiote coagulation,' Peter input, nodding his head. He merged his gaze with mine, questioning and serious. 'You freaked out when it was nearby right?'

'I didn't freak out,' I corrected, my self-esteem hurt. 'Venom went on lockdown.'

'It's using retraction frequencies, like with my suit,' Tony added, walking forward. He snapped his fingers, and I could almost see a bulb glowing over his head. 'Your symbiote isn't on a burnout. The natural ones - Venom - is affected by a certain frequency that the Xenophage is emitting. It allows the dissociation of symbiote matter. The Xenophage will sense the variation in the host and go for the kill.'

'I did not get a word out of that,' Wanda deadpanned. 'Layman's terms, Stark.'

'When the signals hit the symbiote, it goes on stealth mode for safety precautions. Without you even noticing it, it will protect itself. But this is the case for the natural symbiotes,' Tony drew out, locking his eyes with Laura. 'Yours is synthetic. Which means yours is the only which isn't affected by these signals.'

'Hypothetically,' she raised her brows. 'Right, Tony?'

'Yeah, potato po-tah-to,' he waved off. 'I think I might have some insight on the approach, now, since we have bait.'

'Which is?' I was quick to ask, irritation growing in me. If he thought he was going to use Laura as bait to trap that thing, everything I said about her protection went over his head.

'The extracted symbiote.'

- ♣ -

[ w/n: I had no heart to kill of Barnum. IT HAD TO BE DONE. he totally deserved it - every jerk out there with hands like that warrants to die. anyway, this chapter is done, next one will be up soon! I already have three chapters down - so psyched for this one! ]