After separating from Peter Parker, Venom had once again been forced to move from host to host while searching for someone truly compatible.
Eventually, almost by accident, everything changed.
At the time, Venom had been hiding inside a stray black cat.
Then it saw Leon Carter riding toward it on a motorcycle.
The instant Venom sensed him, something felt different.
Leon gave off an unusual presence—something that immediately caught the symbiote’s attention.
Venom instinctively realized that this human might be exactly what it had been searching for.
So it made a decision.
Using the cat’s body, Venom waited until Leon was close.
Then— It jumped directly in front of the motorcycle.
Leon watched the memory with growing disbelief.
So that cat…
The accident hadn’t been caused by some rabid animal randomly losing its mind.
Venom had done it deliberately.
During the brief instant when the cat passed in front of Leon, the symbiote secretly transferred itself from the animal onto him.
The movement had been fast and subtle enough that Leon hadn’t noticed a thing.
Once Venom entered his body, it immediately felt the difference.
Compatibility.
Perfect, comfortable compatibility.
After jumping between so many temporary hosts, Venom finally thought its miserable search was over.
No more constantly changing bodies.
No more wondering when the current host would start breaking down.
It could finally settle somewhere permanently.
Venom had been ecstatic.
Then it examined Leon’s body.
Healthy muscles.
Strong organs.
Excellent overall condition.
To a starving symbiote, Leon had looked like an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Venom’s first thought had been extremely simple.
Finally.
Food.
It eagerly began drawing energy from its new host.
Then something went wrong.
Almost immediately.
Venom had barely absorbed enough energy to keep itself from starving when Leon’s body abruptly resisted.
Not consciously.
Leon hadn’t even known Venom existed.
But some invisible mechanism seemed to activate automatically.
The moment Venom’s feeding approached a level that could negatively affect Leon’s health, the process simply stopped.
Completely.
Venom tried again.
Nothing.
It pushed harder.
Still nothing.
The symbiote had inhabited more bodies than it cared to count, yet it had never encountered anything like this.
At first, Venom refused to believe it.
Maybe it had made some mistake.
Maybe Leon’s biology simply required a different approach.
So Venom experimented.
Again.
Again.
And again.
Every attempt ended exactly the same way.
It could absorb only a limited amount of Leon’s energy.
Enough to survive.
Never enough to actually feel full.
Anything beyond that point was automatically blocked.
Eventually, Venom had no choice but to accept the truth.
Something inside Leon was protecting his body from the symbiote.
That created another problem.
Venom was hungry.
Very hungry.
Living forever on the biological equivalent of starvation rations wasn’t exactly appealing.
So Venom decided on an obvious solution.
Leave Leon temporarily.
Find something else to eat.
Come back afterward.
Simple.
Except— It couldn’t leave.
When Venom attempted to separate from Leon’s body, it discovered that the supposedly perfect host had somehow become a prison.
No matter how hard it tried, something dragged it back inside.
Venom struggled.
It stretched outward.
It pushed against Leon’s body with everything it had.
Nothing worked.
That explained Leon’s bizarre dream.
The black slime struggling to crawl away from him during the night hadn’t been some random nightmare.
It had been Venom.
Actually trying to escape.
And failing miserably.
Things became even worse.
Venom couldn’t communicate with him.
A symbiote normally possessed several ways to influence or communicate with its host.
Yet inside Leon, even that basic ability had been suppressed.
For perhaps the first time in its life, Venom genuinely panicked.
It had bonded with well over a hundred different humans and animals.
Ordinary hosts were easy.
In many cases, Venom could simply overwhelm their consciousness, control the body, feed until the host became unsuitable, and then move on.
With exceptionally powerful hosts such as Spider-Man, Venom had needed to behave more carefully.
It couldn’t simply dominate Peter.
So it remained cooperative in the beginning while subtly influencing his emotions from within.
But Leon?
Leon was something else entirely.
Venom couldn’t dominate him.
Couldn’t influence him.
Couldn’t speak to him.
Couldn’t properly feed from him.
Couldn’t even leave.
It was trapped.
And the force responsible wasn’t some special organ or conscious ability.
It was Leon’s mind.
More specifically— His subconscious.
Leon’s enormous mental power behaved like the most unreasonable prison guard imaginable.
Without Leon even realizing it, his subconscious restricted practically everything Venom tried to do.
Feeding too much?
Blocked.
Influencing Leon’s consciousness?
Blocked.
Taking control?
Not happening.
Leaving?
Also blocked.
Venom had somehow found the perfect host and simultaneously locked itself inside the worst possible prison.
Its existence became miserable.
It wasn’t dying.
But it was never truly fed either.
Venom remained trapped in that barely-not-starving state for days.
Then came the crash.
When danger suddenly appeared, Venom desperately tried to warn Leon.
It gathered everything it could and forced a tiny signal through the mental barrier.
Danger!
Move!
That brief warning had almost exhausted it.
Until that moment, forcing even a few words into Leon’s consciousness had been practically impossible.
Then the truck hit.
Pain.
Fear.
Grief.
The violent emotional shock sent Leon’s mental state into chaos.
For the first time, the barriers surrounding Venom weakened.
Not much.
But enough.
When Leon finally answered the voice in his head— Venom had almost cried from relief.
He can hear me.
After being trapped inside a host it couldn’t communicate with, that simple response felt miraculous.
Then Leon consciously accepted it.
Accepted Venom’s existence.
Accepted the bond.
Accepted its power.
The restrictions loosened dramatically.
Not completely.
One rule remained absolute.
Venom still could not harm Leon’s health.
But everything else became far easier.
Which explained what Venom had done almost immediately after finally manifesting physically.
Eat.
Leon finished viewing the memories and slowly opened his eyes.
Across the hospital room, Venom was doing exactly that.
A tendril had opened one of the nearby cabinets.
Fruit had disappeared.
So had several packaged snacks.
Venom apparently considered wrappers an optional inconvenience, because it was swallowing some of the food with the packaging still attached.
When Leon opened his eyes, Venom was finishing something from the back of the cabinet.
Its long red tongue slid across its teeth.
“Thank God somebody left an expired chocolate bar in there.” Venom sounded genuinely relieved.
“Otherwise I’d still be starving.” Leon stared at him for a few seconds.
There was a lot to process.
Peter Parker was Spider-Man.
Venom had once bonded with Deadpool.
Then Peter.
The strange cat had been Venom.
His increasingly ridiculous appetite had been partially connected to the symbiote.
His chocolate cravings suddenly made considerably more sense too.
But one detail bothered him more than the others.
Leon folded his arms.
“There’s something I don’t understand.” Venom stopped searching for food.
“What?” “In your memories, your personality changed because of your hosts.” Venom nodded.
Leon continued.
“Deadpool left you mentally unstable.
Peter’s negative emotions made things worse.” His gaze sharpened.
“You became chaotic.
Aggressive.
Malicious.” Venom stared at him.
“But you don’t seem like that now.” Leon leaned back against the hospital bed.
“So what changed?” Venom remained silent.
Leon didn’t soften the question.
“Or does it just take time?” Venom’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Maybe this version of you is temporary.” Another possibility occurred to Leon.
“Or you’re acting harmless because you need me to trust you.” Venom slowly moved away from the table.
Its black mass stretched until its head hovered directly in front of Leon again.
“That is incredibly suspicious.” Leon raised an eyebrow.
“Shouldn’t I be?” Venom sighed.
Then its expression shifted into something resembling resignation.
“No.
Actually, fair question.” It moved onto Leon’s shoulder.
“The answer is you.” Leon frowned.
“Me?” “Your mind.” Venom gestured dramatically around Leon’s head.
“That ridiculous ocean you call mental strength.” Venom paused.
“Imagine taking dirty clothes and throwing them into an industrial washing machine.” Leon stared at him.
Venom continued.
“All the garbage I picked up from previous hosts?
Deadpool’s chaos.
Peter’s anger.
Everyone else’s emotional leftovers?” It made a washing motion with two tendrils.
“Gone.” Leon blinked.
“You’re saying my mind…
washed your personality?” “That sounds stupid when you say it like that.” “You’re the one who used the washing-machine metaphor.” “And it was an excellent metaphor.” Leon sighed.
Venom ignored him.
“Anyway, yes.” Its voice became more serious.
“Your mental power stripped away most of the negative influences I’d accumulated from previous hosts.” Venom looked almost pleased with itself.
“I’ve suffered tremendously since entering your body.” “You jumped in front of my motorcycle.” “That is unrelated.” “You caused me to crash.” “You survived.” Leon stared at it.
Venom stared back.
After several seconds, Venom cleared its throat.
“As I was saying…” Leon almost smiled despite himself.
Venom continued.
“I’ve suffered.” It dramatically emphasized the word.
“But I also gained far more than I expected.” Venom straightened proudly.
“The instability is gone.” “The emotional contamination is gone.” “I feel better than I ever have.” Its enormous grin widened.
“You could say I’m a completely new Venom.” Leon didn’t answer immediately.
Venom moved closer to his shoulder.
“I know you’re not going to trust me completely overnight.” Its voice became quieter.
“But you don’t need to keep treating me like some parasite waiting for a chance to eat you from the inside.” Leon glanced sideways at it.
Venom continued.
“You’ve seen my memories.” “You know what a symbiote is.” A tendril pointed first at Leon, then at itself.
“We’re connected now.” “If you die, I die.” Venom paused.
“We’re about as close as two living things can get.” It lifted another tendril.
“Think of me like another limb.” Leon looked at it.
“One that talks.” “Yes.” Venom nodded enthusiastically.
“And has opinions.” “That’s the concerning part.” “And excellent taste.” “In chocolate?” “In everything.” Leon gave it a flat look.
Venom grinned.
Still, some of Leon’s unease gradually faded.
From what he’d seen in Venom’s memories, the creature wasn’t lying about the nature of the symbiotic bond.
A symbiote depended heavily on its host.
Its feeding and emotional influence could certainly harm a host indirectly, especially if the relationship became unhealthy, but killing a properly bonded host would make little sense.
And Leon’s case was even stranger.
His own body—and apparently his subconscious—wouldn’t allow Venom to drain enough energy to damage him in the first place.
If anything, Venom seemed to have less control over their relationship than Leon did.
Another question immediately came to mind.
“You keep saying there’s something unusual about me.” Venom tilted its head.
Leon tapped his temple.
“Is it just my mind?” “You said my mental strength was somewhat higher than normal.” Venom became completely still.
Then it slowly turned toward him.
“Somewhat?” Leon frowned.
“Yes.” Venom stared.
Then shook its head.
“Leon.” “What?” “Your mental strength is not somewhat above average.” Its voice became emphatic.
“It is absurd.” Leon raised an eyebrow.
“Absurd?” “I’ve bonded with a lot of living things.” Venom stretched upward.
“Humans.” Another tendril.
“Animals.” Another.
“People with abilities.” It pointed dramatically toward Leon’s head.
“I have never encountered anything like what’s inside you.” Leon remained quiet.
Venom continued.
“The problem is that your body can’t properly handle it.” “My body?” “Exactly.” Venom nodded.
“Your physical condition is far too weak compared with your mind.” Leon almost laughed.
He was healthier than he’d ever been.
Calling his current body weak sounded ridiculous.
Venom seemed to read the thought from their connection.
“Not weak compared with an ordinary person.” Its expression became serious.
“Weak compared with that.” Again, it gestured toward his head.
“That’s why you can’t consciously use most of your mental power.” Leon thought back to what he’d just seen.
Venom’s restrictions.
The inability to feed.
The inability to communicate.
The failed attempts to leave.
“So my subconscious was responsible for all of that.” “Exactly.” Venom nodded eagerly.
“When I tried absorbing too much energy, your subconscious stopped me because it would’ve hurt your body.” “When I tried communicating before you accepted me, your mind treated my consciousness like an intruder.” “When I tried taking control?” Venom spread its tendrils.
“Forget it.” Leon leaned back thoughtfully.
That explanation was bizarre.
But within the context of everything he’d experienced, it fit remarkably well.
Then Venom’s expression suddenly brightened.
“Actually, there’s something else.” Leon looked at it.
“What?” Venom leaned closer.
“Have you noticed your body getting stronger lately?” Leon paused.
Stronger.
The motorcycle.
After the crash with the cat, he’d pushed it out of the drainage ditch far more easily than expected.
His injuries had vanished almost immediately.
His appetite had increased dramatically.
He’d originally assumed it was simply because he was still growing.
Now…
Venom’s grin widened.
“You noticed.” Leon slowly nodded.
“I thought I was going through a growth spurt.” Venom laughed.
“Oh, no.” Its white eyes seemed almost to glow with excitement.
“This is much more interesting than that.” Leon narrowed his eyes.
Venom deliberately paused.
For once, the creature was clearly enjoying having information Leon didn’t.
“You want to know why?” Leon stared at him.
Venom’s grin grew even wider.
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