Drip. Drip. Drip.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Another cold night spent behind bars. Another night wasted when he could have been fixing the world, or at least, doing his part. Yet he was stuck in a small cell, with a slab of concrete for a bed, a blanket that felt more like sandpaper, a leaky pipe dripping and forming a puddle on the ground, and who's fault was it?

Certainly not his.

Spider-man had put him there, and while the wall-crawler roamed free, living his best life, he was stuck, rotting away somewhere he didn't belong. Without the serum, he was powerless to do anything about it. If he could just get his hands on it, then he could get out of this dump and make Spider-man pay for-

“Zero eighty-four, you have a visitor.” A guard, having just entered the narrow passageway, alerted him.

“Name?”

“Mr Edward Brock.”

“I don't know anyone by the name of Edward Brock.” He growled. “Let them in, maybe I should know them.”

“Alright.” The guard shrugged, and then stalked out of the room.

Moments later, somebody else was escorted into the room, then left by a guard who informed them that he would be right outside the room. The man was of average height, not exactly muscular but not lanky either, and had a messy buzz cut of near colourless brown hair atop his head.

“Mr Brock.”

“At last we meet, Doctor Connors.”

“A pleasure, but what is the nature of your visit?”

“I'm not here for me… well, not exactly. I've got someone who would like a word with you though.” Eddie informed him.

“Oh, and where might they be? Under that leather jacket of yours that reeks of smoke?”

“I judge by your tone that you are not interested and uh-” Eddie paused, glanced around the place and then smirked. “- Getting out of this dump.”

Doctor Connors frowned as Eddie turned towards the door. He was curious to hear more, but he had no idea who this person was, for all he knew it could be a trick. But if there was even the slightest chance of getting out of this place… he had to know.

“Wait!” He called at last.

“Ah, change of heart?”

“Something like that.”

“I thought that might do it.” Eddie said smugly.

“You mentioned getting out of here… tell me more.”

“First, allow me to introduce you to my friend. I should warn you to be careful though, he's… rather temperamental.”

Before Doctor Connors could comment, Eddie cracked his neck from left to right and closed his eyes, soon being enveloped in the sticky black of the symbiote that roared in triumph as it was set free.

“M- most incredible… what are you?”

“We are Venom.”

“Not possible. I- I heard the stories but I just assumed-”

“You don't talk, you listen.” Venom growled. “I'm not here to be marveled at, I am here to strike a deal and recruit you.”

“Recruit me?”

“Rumour has it that you have done the tango with Peter Parker in the past, and based on your current living quarters, I can only assume that those rumours hold truth.”

“You know Peter?” Doctor Connors’s eyes widened as he became fully invested in hearing what the symbiote had to say. If there was a chance that he could get out and find him, he had to try.

“We know him, we despise the spider and something needs to be done. Peter Parker needs to suffer and then die.” Venom hissed. “He has foolishly set a trap for us tonight, which is what brings me here. We need you on our team, you must want revenge the same as us, together we can dish it out.”

“I would very much like to help, but behind these bars I am of no use to you.”

“And that is where we come in…”

“I'm listening…”

“We have the serum and we are willing to hand it over, here and now, if-”

“You have the serum!” Connors cut in. “Where is it?”

Venom hissed in annoyance, but retreated, causing Eddie to reappear, looking his usual self. Doctor Connors marveled at his flawless appearance after the transition he had just witnessed.

“That was-”

“Incredible? I know.” Eddie smirked, reaching inside the breast pocket of his leather jacket. “Now, I'm going to give you the serum but be ready. After I leave and you break out, meet me at the harbour at least an hour before I need to go face Peter, we'll discuss the plan from there.”

“I'm beyond ready!” Connors exclaimed eagerly, his eyes like an eagle's on the serum that Eddie was twirling around in his fingers like a baton. “Hand it over.”

“Don't let me down.” Eddie warned as he threaded the serum through the bars.

“Oh, you don't have to worry about that. I want revenge on Peter just as much as you do. I'll be there.” Connors assured, taking the serum.

____________________________________

Peter had made it only half-way when the sound of sirens and screams erupted from somewhere in the distance, stealing his attention away from what he had stepped out to do. A distraction that resulted in him swinging straight into a wall and plummeting to the ground, crash landing against a dumpster and rolling onto his stomach in the middle of an alleyway.

“Focus, Peter!” He snapped at himself as he staggered back on his feet.

He took only a few steps forward and stopped when the screams chorused once again, and hesitated. His senses were already going haywire, and he didn't need to guess why. Whenever there were sirens and screams, there was always trouble. But Venom was his top priority, he couldn't let the symbiote slip through his fingers again. Too much had happened, too many risks had been taken as it were. Another few steps forward, and he stopped again, closed his eyes and drew in a breath.

‘With great power, comes great responsibility.’

Peter exhaled slowly, hearing his uncle Ben's words loud and clear in his head, and for the first time since he had first taken on the Spider-man persona, he didn't know how to take them. As the web slinger, he had a responsibility to the people of the city, but as Peter Parker, he had a responsibility to his family; to aunt May, to Gwen. It was down to him to help the city when they needed him, and it was down to him to protect the ones closest to him. There was never a choice between the two. He had, for the most part, managed to balance both.

Venom clearly wouldn't be going anywhere, and he was ahead of time so far. With that in mind, he turned to the nearest wall and crawled up to the rooftop. From there he activated his web shooters and swung himself off the building and towards another in the direction all the commotion was coming from. It took him less than a couple of minutes to reach the scene, and when he laid eyes upon the reason for all the ruckus, his blood ran cold. He could feel all the colour draining from his face, being only a few feet away from an enormous, ten foot, lizard that was sending people flying in all directions with a rhythmic swish of its tail as it stormed around in circles like a reptile version of Godzilla.

“Alright, I've taken him once, I can do it again.” He said to himself, nodding his head in confidence.

Shooting one web to one building and one to another, he backed up until both the webs were stretched out as far as could be without snapping, and launched himself from them like a pebble from a slingshot. His feet barely grazed the ground as he accelerated towards the Lizard, getting its attention when he smacked right into it.

“Hey, green eyes! You miss me?” He quipped, jumping to the wall as a giant green hand attempted to crush him.

“Yessss.” The reptilian voice hissed. “I've been waiting for this moment for a long time, Parker.” He growled, stomping towards the wall.

“Oh, well that's too bad. You're gonna be waiting a lot longer, Mr Dinosaur.” Peter teased, then disappeared out of sight.

“Huh?”

A loud whistle cut through the air, and when the Lizard looked up, Peter was hanging above him, upside-down. “Catch me if you can.”

The Lizard's jaw opened and snapped shut, expecting to have caught him, but instead his teeth smashed together. He turned around clumsily, and Peter was now standing on the ground right in front of him. An easy position to be crushed in.

“What are you waiting for? I'm right here.”

Only one step was taken and then Peter was gone again. The Lizard looked around desperately through the crowd that had gathered around, trying to catch the glimpse of red and blue that would give away Spider-man's whereabouts. At last, he located him on top of a stationed truck.

“Too bad. Too slow, I've gotta go.” Peter waved, then jumped down from the truck and ran down the street, leading the oversized reptile away from all the watching bystanders as the Lizard began to chase him down.

A few blocks down, Peter's breath began to wear thin and his speed wavered. He grit his teeth, and pushed his legs even harder, but came skidding to a halt when four cop cruisers lined the street, blocking his way forward. Several officers were in place with their guns aimed at him, and when he threw a glance over his shoulder, the Lizard had already caught up to him, blocking the other exit from the road.

“Oh sh-”

“NYPD! I repeat, this is the NYPD. Put your hands behind your head and freeze, Spider-man!”

Peter made no move to put his hands behind his head, and the officer that had spoken repeated the words, this time more forcefully. Then all four of them were moving towards him with their guns raised and ready to shoot. If he moved forward, they would force him back… where the Lizard was waiting with drool pooling in the corners of his mouth.

“This is your last warning! If you do not surrender we will open fire.”

His eyes darted back and forth between the cops and the Lizard, trying to think of a way out of the trap. If he took to a wall or used a web to get past, they would shoot at him like they had the first time. He wasn't about to make that same mistake twice.

“Hey, Lizard! Are you hungry?” He smirked beneath his mask, and seeing it as his only chance, he charged towards the ten foot tall reptile.

Just as he had planned, the police opened fire and he started to zigzag to dodge the bullets until he was close enough to the Lizard, then he dipped down, sliding through the chunky green legs and then jumping to wall to avoid being crushed as the bullets hit the reptile.

Peter shot another two webs, aiming them so they stuck to the guns and then jerked his hands up in a sudden movement so that they slipped from the cops hands and hit them in the face, and flung them both away. He repeated the action once more with the second pair of cops, disarming all four officers just as the Lizard regained consciousness.

“Back up. Backup… this is officer Berke calling for backup from cruiser 09.”

“Oh, now that's just great.” He sighed, but he had little time to dwell on it and jumped to avoid being knocked over by the Lizard's angry tail swinging viciously back and forth. “My apologies, but you were asking for this.”

With that, he webbed the Lizard in the face, momentarily blindsiding him, and moved towards the cops. Having had their guns snatched from their hands, the only weapons left on them were their tasers and truncheons. Neither being dosed with electricity or bludgeoned sounded too appealing, but if he made the right moves then he could redirect their attacks towards his other problem.

“This is your final warning, Spider-man. Hands up in surrender or you will be tasered.”

Peter chose to ignore their warning for now, and strode almost calmly towards the Lizard. He heard the shuffle of feet as the cops closed in on him, and once he was close enough, he moved suddenly as they activated their taser guns, swinging out of the way, causing the Lizard to be tased. Using the opportunity while the cops were distracted, Peter swung back around and shot three more webs that tangled all the officers and stuck them to a nearby wall.

“Finally, now I can deal with you before the backup arrives.” He said, more to himself. “Come and get me.”

After the Lizard stopped convulsing from the shock of being tased, he stared at Peter with wide, monstrous eyes and cocked his head to the side.

“You're gonna regret that.” He hissed, licking his lips.

Just as Peter had hoped, the Lizard started after him, one booming footstep at a time, and only once he was close enough to strike, did he start to run. As he picked up speed, he leapt onto a nearby fire escape to avoid being crushed by a giant green fist that slammed into the road, sending quakes through the ground and creating a small crater. As Peter jumped to another wall, the Lizard jumped in front, blocking his path again. Thinking on his feet, he let himself drop from the height but clung to the last rung of the broken ladder of the fire escape to stop the fall. He rocked himself back and forth to build movement, then flung himself through the air and used a web to make it safely to the rooftop of the next building.

An angry roar was followed by the shake of the building and Peter glanced over the edge to see the Lizard climbing up towards him. The sound of sirens in the distance pulled his attention away briefly, making him all the more aware of how little time he had, and when he looked back, the Lizard was standing in front of him. A reptilian hand swung at him and he ducked to avoid the blow before shooting a web in his face, and using the opportunity, he sprung himself onto the giant reptile and crawled, spider-like, all over, leaving trails and trails of web until he was covered almost completely. But he couldn't keep using webs so carelessly. Sooner or later they would run out, and he would need them to help him move when the time came to deal with Venom.

Before he could think of a follow up attack, the Lizard swiped at him again, and this time he didn't miss. Peter landed on his chest, and it wasn't until he felt the vicious sting between his shoulder blades that he realized he'd been clawed. He winced as the trickling blood tickled his skin, but sprung back to his feet in time to avoid being caught by the Lizard's claws again.

“Look around you… all of the chaos you're causing… Doctor Connors, don't you care for anyone other than yourself? Or maybe you've always been this self-centered, that's why your wife left you!”

“No, everyone turned their back because they didn't believe in what I could do.” He hissed. “Humans are weak, outdated. This… this is an upgrade.”

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. In reality, it's the ramblings of a genius who has lost his mind. It's what landed you behind bars, not me… you.”

“You're the one who put me there!” The Lizard growled, taking another swing.

Peter jumped back again, avoiding the claws for the second time. “What you did was wrong, you put many innocent lives in danger.”

“Oh, Peter… you can play the hero all you like but the truth is that you are the problem. You're the one who needs to look around you. Everything you touch gets destroyed. Why do you think they always blame you and not us?”

“This has been fun.” He shrugged, ignoring the attempts to guilt him. “I wish I could stay and play, but I've got somewhere more important to be. So, if you're finished throwing your toddler tantrum, then I'll be on my way.” He saluted and started for the edge of the rooftop.

“Fine. If you want the blood of everyone on the block on your hands, then by all means, leave.”

Peter froze, his hand hovering above the trigger of his web shooter, and then turned around.

“In your slimey, reptilian dreams, Barney.”

Sirens grew louder still, and he could now see the faint flashing of red and blue lights in the near distance. If he didn't get out of there now, he would be trapped once again. He had to get to the cure and get it running through Connors’ system, but on his own it was easier said than done. Last time he'd had Gwen's help, and he still hadn't managed to achieve what he was trying to do without someone getting hurt. This time it was all on him. If the cops would take a moment to open their eyes to what was really happening, he might be able to convince them to help him retrieve the cure.

But how?

In their eyes, he was always the troublemaker, never the hero. Even after everything they had seen, they were still blinded by what they wanted to believe about Spider-man. Without the cure, he would be fighting the Lizard to no avail. Killing Doctor Connors was not an option, at least not one he would consider.

The flashing lights grew brighter and several more cruisers pulled to a stop in the street below. There was no time to lead the fight away from the people now, and taking his chances, he leapt down from the building, using a web to lower himself safely to the ground. Several guns were pointed at him the moment his feet touched the asphalt, and he threw his hands up but ignored their orders for him to freeze. He paced calmly towards them, knowing the risk he was taking, and taking a deep breath, he decided to address them.

“Surrender now or we will open fire!”

“I'm not the one you want to be focusing on.” He called out, raising his voice for them all to hear. “I'm trying to help, and if you don't let me then a lot of people- innocent people, are going to die.”

“You have to the count of three.” The leading officer warned. “Three!”

“After everything you've seen, you can't possibly still think that I'm the bad guy. I'm on your side.” He added, panic rising in his chest.

“Two!” The officer counted. “On your knees.”

“Please.” He pleaded, taking another step forward. A brief glance back over his shoulder showed him the Lizard crawling down from the building they were just atop of. “That thing needs to be cured, and I can do that, but I can't do it alone.”

“One!”

As the word left the officer’s lips, all of the surrounding cops pulled the trigger on their guns repeatedly firing at him. He ducked, dived, dodged and swung as much as possible, but there were too many and as he jumped from a stationed car to the wall of a florist shop, he was struck by a bullet to the shoulder. The pain was brutal, as he remembered it from the first time he had been shot, but despite the nauseating dizziness that was trying to grip him, he leapt off the wall and activated his web shooters. However, no webs were produced, and gravity pulled him back down.

Peter landed on top of a parked truck, denting the roof and shattering its windows with the impact of the fall, then rolled off onto the ground, choking as small splinters of glass sprinkled down on him. He lifted his head just enough to see in front of him and saw all of the officers closing in, his mind wandered briefly to the Lizard again, but before he could form a coherent thought, everything faded around him and his head dropped back to the ground.

____________________________________

The glass was already as clean as it could be, but Gwen continued to scrub at it anyway. It was the last of the washing that had piled in the sink, and after that there would be no more chores that could occupy her mind. Despite the setback of her crutches, she had dusted every counter, polished everything that could be, washed and folded every bit of laundry and sorted and organized every cupboard in the house. Three hours had already passed, but without knowing what was happening at that very second, the hours had felt like only minutes.

With a heavy sigh, she set the glass down and leaned back on the crutches. Her hands were numb from all the cleaning, except for the tingling that had started around the same time she had picked up that last glass. She had done her best to ignore it, telling herself that it was all down to her imagination running wild with worrisome thoughts, but the harder she had tried, the stronger the feeling got.

‘Don't sit doing nothing’, Peter had told her before he'd left, and she hadn't. Yet it did nothing. She had upgraded his suit, but she doubted that it would be enough. Webs were hardly going to be able to slow Venom down. But it was all that she could do to help. Peter didn't want her in the fight, and she had come to realize that he was right this time around. Not only would she not be able to offer much help, but she would be an easy target, which could become a fatal distraction for him.

Gwen pulled out one of the chairs from the table and sat down, trying to think of something else to do. Her eyes were getting heavy, but she knew that if she tried, she wouldn't be able to sleep. That, and the fact that she didn't want to until she knew everything was okay. Sometime between sitting down and losing herself to her thoughts, she had begun mindlessly drumming her fingers on the table top and it was only when the sound snapped her back to the present that she noticed something that she hadn't before.

In the middle of the table, a plastic sandwich bag was laid out neatly with a note on top. Her eyebrows pulled together in a frown, wondering how she'd missed its presence before, and after a brief hesitation, she reached over and grabbed the note that was on top. She gave it the once over, then her eyes flicked back to the top and she began to read through properly. After reaching the bottom of the paper, she placed it aside and reached for the bag.

She swallowed back the rising dread as she emptied its contents onto the table; several cards, a chunky wad of money held together by a rubber band, and a USB stick. Paired with the note, it was clear that Peter had left these things on purpose and if she had to guess why, it's because he feared… no, he knew that not everything worked in his favour.

“Typical bug boy.” She muttered with a hint of humour, and her hand closed around the USB stick. “But this… this is a new one.”

Before noticing the bag, she was perfectly content with staying sat drumming on the table, but her curiosity about what was on the USB got the better of her and unable to help herself, she reached for the crutches and struggled from the kitchen to the front room, where she had left her laptop on the coffee table. Once she got comfortable on the couch, she opened it up, and slid the USB into one of the three ports on the side. On the screen, a folder popped up and she wasted no time clicking on it. When it opened, her confusion grew. There was one video file, several image files, and one audio clip on it, all disorganized and ordered at random.

“Typical Peter.” She muttered, and for a moment, grinned in amusement.

She spent a minute scrolling through all the files before finally deciding to start with the first of the many image files and to save the video file for last. Whatever was on it, he had clearly intended for her to see it, otherwise he wouldn't have left it in plain sight. She closed her eyes and drew in a breath, then clicked to open the first file.