Venomous

3. Closing Time

a/n: AntiVenom's voice in italics.

Five Years Later

"Collins, do you have those files I was asking for yet?" I rolled my chair back from my desk, stretching out, realizing that I couldn't remember the last time I took a break. I looked up from my desk expectantly when I didn't receive an answer. The floor was practically empty, and it was dark outside. When the hell did that happen? I sighed, looking at my watch, my eyes immediately shooting open when it registered that it was almost 9. I had places to go and people to...

HUNGRY.

I smirked. Right on time. I patted my stomach affectionately. "Don't worry, buddy. We'll get you something to eat."

SomeONE?

I laughed in the empty room to myself. Whatever you say, bud. Instead of venturing my way downstairs, I headed up instead. I opened the door to the roof, setting it back on its hinges with a protesting creaking sound as it slammed into the bricks on the other side. Oops. I rolled my neck around in a slow circle before shaking out my arms and legs. As soon as I nodded that I was ready, I felt the familiar tingling sensation that began in my feet and my finger tips.  Then I felt it moving up and around my arm as it encircled my limbs completely.  I flexed my muscles, feeling the veins rippling as the black lines danced under the white skin.  It was like a sinister silly putty...

Don't say that!

I smirked as I felt the muscles rippling in my chest as my form filled out, glancing down as the fluid material slid easily over my clothes and skin, wrapping me up like a warm, winter jacket.  Sorry, buddy.  It was a monster metamorphosis and it felt not only liberating but thrilling and exhilarating, too.  I could feel the fluid, almost liquid feeling texture of my 'friend'...

Partner!

Partner.  I rolled my eyes just in time as I felt the sensation of slithering up my neck, finally wrapping around my face.  It had been awhile.

TOO LONG.

I leapt from the roof, feeling truly free for the first time in weeks. It had been too long. I had missed this, and New York never lacked troublemakers to feed my...friend's appetite. Like my brother, my 'parasite' and I had made a deal that both of us could work with.

"Give me the money, bitch, and no one needs to get hurt." My ears perked up when I heard the conversation from a few blocks away. The creature smiled.

Bad guy, yes?

I nodded my head. "Let's go get him." In moments, we were leaping from building to building, leaving indentations in brick and concrete as we swung easily from one skyscraper to another. It was so liberating; I could understand why Spiderman enjoyed getting around this way so much. Except instead of webs, I was connected with parts of myself. So much stronger. So many more toys – ones that no amount of Stark technology could match. I hovered above the darkened alleyway, taking in the scene in front of me. A woman was clutching her purse to her chest, glancing around anxiously. A gang-banger stood in front of him, gun held sideways in his hand like a moron and I laughed before my attention turned back towards the woman. Something wasn't quite right with her, and there was something strangely familiar. But my stomach was growling, and now wasn't the time to be playing with my memory. Things after the accident and my 'infection' had been a little fuzzy anyway, and now wasn't the time to...

"Put the gun down." Symbiote me dropped into the alley way behind the gang member silently. He spun around, nearly dropping the gun at the surprise sound of another voice behind him – especially a voice like the one the was now emanating from my mouth. It certainly wasn't human.

"What the fuck are you?" The panic in the young man's voice was almost squeaky, and a very small part of me felt empathy for him. But we were hungry, and he was threatening an innocent woman with a gun, so...

"We are Anti-Venom." The banger's brown eyes went wide as I slowly licked my lips, flashing my white fangs that stood in stark contrast to my long, pink, tongue. I glanced over the guy's shoulder to see the woman he had been threatening moving slowly behind him. "Ma'am, please stay put." My voice interrupted the symbiote's planned speech. We didn't need to make an innocent bystander any more traumatized than she surely already was. As the gang member started to move back towards his original target in order to see what was going on, his finger trembled on the trigger and a loud bang echoed in the alleyway. I looked down to see the bullet ineffectually clinking on the ground with a small 'plink' sound. The guy's eyes went wider than dinner plates and the hand holding the gun started visibly shaking. I rolled my eyes. Enough. A white tentacle shot out, knocking the gun from his trembling grip as my mouth opened wide, swiftly biting off the banger's head and swallowing in a single motion as his body slumped to the ground. I expected to hear a scream coming from the direction of the woman that I had so valiantly saved, but the silence surprised me. I looked up and then immediately did a double take. You've got to be shitting me. The woman had pulled a gun from her purse, and it was pointed directly at me. Unlike the now-deceased and headless gang-banger, her hand wasn't trembling at all.

"You need to calm down and come with me." Her voice was steady. Slightly raspy. And those eyes. Those green eyes. I would know them anywhere. My symbiote eyes, already wide in surprise, five years of residual anger, and probably shock.

"I like her." Anti-Venom's sentiment surprised me.

"You don't know her." The woman in front of me frowned at the sound of another voice. Was she frowning because she was confused? Or was there a hint of recognition underneath those bright green eyes, red hair and all-business expression. I started backing up, looking up at the building's walls to either side, planning the best way out.

"Don't do it," her voice was full of danger, and it just set me off.

"You don't get to give me orders anymore, Natalie." Her mouth opened wide, and I wanted to punch it. Badly. The gun in her hand lowered only slightly, but the hesitation was enough. White tentacles reached upwards, embedded themselves in the crumbling brick wall and lifted me high into the air. Once I reached the roof, I glanced down at the alley below. She was gone, and I wasn't planning on sticking around long enough to see where she went. By the time we got back to my apartment, my cell phone was buzzing insistently. Eddie.

"Bro, what's up?" I answered as I unlocked my front door, tossing my keys on the table and shutting the door behind me with a loud bang.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing," my big brother's voice was like a warm blanket that made everything all better, regardless of my evening surprise. I flopped back down on the couch as I caught Eddie up on the events of the day, leaving out the little bit about my ex at the end. I didn't want to talk about her. Not anymore. That part of my life was over and done with. Wasn't it?