New chapter!
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Evan came over the waves in full view of the world.
He moved slowly, almost casually, as if the ocean were a sidewalk and Fisherman’s Wharf were only another street corner.
The image was so impossible that no one looked away.
In less than three minutes, every eye on the wharf locked onto him.
“God, the demon is coming.”
“Somebody stop him!”
“Where’s Iron Man?
Where’s Spider-Man?
This is exactly when we need people like them!”
Panic rippled through the crowd.
Venom had appeared twice before, and both appearances had left people with the same impression.
A cannibal demon.
A monster straight out of hell.
Iron Man and Spider-Man did not arrive first.
Someone else did.
Thousands of strangers poured into Fisherman’s Wharf, and the number kept climbing fast.
They spread through the main roads and exits, sealing off every route out.
Some civilians realized what was happening and tried to leave.
They were stopped.
Anger flared.
People shouted.
A few stepped forward to argue.
Then the strangers changed.
Thick, wet matter crawled across their bodies.
In the space of a breath, ordinary people became monsters.
Symbiotes.
Thousands of them.
The moment the crowd saw what surrounded them, panic became terror.
But the symbiotes did not slaughter anyone.
They held position like soldiers, strict and silent, as if waiting for an officer to arrive.
Their officer came in a custom Rolls-Royce that roared straight toward the wharf.
The line of symbiotes opened for it.
The car slid to a stop in front of the docks with almost theatrical precision.
The door opened, and a handsome man stepped out.
Handsome, but not warm.
Carlton Drake.
Riot’s host.
The instant Drake stepped out, his eyes turned toward the ocean.
When he saw Evan walking in over the water, his pupils tightened.
Rage twisted his face, and a moment later, Riot swallowed him whole.
The gray monster leaped to the roof of the highest building near the wharf and looked down like a warlord over a battlefield.
Today, he had called every nearby symbiote he could reach.
Today, Venom died.
“Nick,” Tony Stark said over comms, hovering high above the city at a distance.
“This is bad.
We’ve got a lot of slime monsters down there.
Close to ten thousand already, and more are moving in.
Looks like a civil war.
What do you want to do?”
Iron Man had arrived early.
He had kept his distance, watching instead of rushing in and making himself the center of attention.
Below, a lighter figure swung between buildings.
Spider-Man.
“We wait,” Nick Fury said over the line.
His voice was hard enough to cut glass.
“If they’ve got internal problems, good.
Let them kill each other.
Best-case scenario, both sides wipe themselves out.”
Fury had been drowning in this mess for days.
Every time Venom appeared, people died.
Yes, the dead were symbiotes, but every symbiote had a host.
One symbiote killed meant one human host dead with it.
The pressure from above had been brutal.
So if Venom and Riot wanted to destroy each other, Fury was perfectly happy to let them.
“That is wildly optimistic, even for you,” Tony said.
“The kid-slime thing is strong, sure, but there are ten thousand of them down there.
One against ten thousand?
I’m not buying it.”
“If there really are that many…
slime things,” Fury said, hating the word, “then no.
He probably can’t handle them.”
None of that mattered to Evan.
None of it mattered to Riot.
Evan stepped off the last wave and onto Fisherman’s Wharf.
Waiting for him were Carlton Drake, Riot, and an army of symbiotes.
“Venom!” Riot shouted from the rooftop.
“You traitor.
Today, even wings won’t save you.”
Evan looked up at him and sighed.
“Run?” he murmured.
“Why would I run?
I should be thanking you.
I was getting hungry.”
As he spoke, Venom rose over him and took form.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.