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the gunshots deafened gwen. she’d seen venom bat them away before, but it didn’t stop the steady rise of anxiety in her stomach. she strained against her restrained again in vain. her attention still on peter somewhere on the ceiling behind her. silently, she willed him to stay hidden.

as if on cue he dropped down on top of the black cat. everything going perfectly to plan. the idiot. she’d just warned him!

the black cat gasped as she was suddenly face to face with spiderman. “hey handsome.” she purred. felicia my have had her arms pinned behind her head, but she wasn’t kitty in a corner. she pushed her thumbnails against the surface behind her and two small metal nails came off. what’s more, her legs were free. she kicked up and wrapped her legs around the spider’s torso, pulling him into her as she rocked against him once. “oh, I hate being beneath anyone.” the second time she rolled her hips, she thrust sharply and rolled him over to his back.

“I’m way better on top.” she winked and slammed his wrists where her nails had only just been pressed hitting a button on her thumb to activate the magnets that would keep him in place, at least for now. “and I prefer to work in secret which is why goldilocks should be inclined to accept my more than generous offer.”

gwen twitched as felicia slammed peter’s hand down. she pulled towards him before her attention return to the reloading guard attacking eddie. this had turned into a shitshow of royal proportions. “fine!” gwen said sharply. “fine. just don’t hurt either of them. please.”

-

Having the Black Cat under him the way she was had Peter sucking in a heavy breath. He hadn’t considered the positioning he could put them in with his attack, and was now... regretting the situation. She, however, took it gracefully, and that sultry purr had Peter pressing his lips together in an attempt to ignore the jolt of excitement shooting through the pit of his stomach. No, Pete, this wasn’t the fucking time. 

Then she rocked against him once, twice, and he closed his eyes tight, trying to fight against her while she worked on flipping them, though eventually conceded once she managed to straddle him. He groaned as she slammed his hands down to the ground, pain in his wrists much worse than he would have anticipated from such a petite figure. Gwen was right. Obviously. There was something in those gloves for sure. He tried to pull his hands back up, but the magnets held fast. 

Damn.

Peter gave a great kick of his legs, trying to stand or to free himself from the magnet’s hold. His lower body lifted, as planned, but his arms remained stuck to the floor. Mental note, Parker, add something to reverse magnet polarity in your suit. Instead, he was bested by the damn Black Cat again, and needed to find a way out. Pronto. “You know he screws everyone over, right? You think Fisk is really going to uphold his end of the deal? Give it up. Working with him is a bad idea.”

Venom continued to fight the guards that ran into the room, causing a bit more of a bloodbath than they’d originally intended. Every new opponent that came into view earned a bloody, saliva soaked roar, and Venom did his best to make short work of them. Especially those with guns. He could absorb the bullets, but there was a limit to what he could do.  

“nuh, uh, uh…” felicia tutted her tongue against the back of her teeth with disapproval. she looked up at venom with amusement. he cut an intimidating figure. while she typically preferred to work alone, her brief tenure as a mob boss had opened felicia up to new world of new opportunities. he was certainly something new. “stay where you are big fella.” she lashed out quickly and grabbed gwen by the crown of her hair pulling her head back sharply. “I promise you that she won’t like my claws.”

there was something unsettling about being unable to react properly to her spider sense. a hiss of air pushed through her teeth as the black cat sent another brief jolt of pain through her skull. the movement on the ceiling drew her eyes. peter. she looked away quickly hoping that no one else saw it. “I’ve gotta admit. I’ve had better interviews.” she could feel the grip tighten on her hair. gwen winced. “I’m okay.” she assured them. her eyes finding the reflective pupiless eyes of venom and smiling slightly. “you know what they say about kitty litter-” felicia used her free hand to punch gwen square in the other cheek. she was right. there were no good jokes about kitty litter.

the black cat put her claws back on gwen’s throat threateningly. gwen’s eyes lulled back slightly in her head. she shook her head to try and rouse her consciousness again. that cat had cybernetic enhancements in her gloves. that was the only explanation for the strength. they must be incredibly intricate to be nearly unidentifiable and seamless in the fabric. it shouldn’t have been surprising given the information she’d turned up about octavius’s involvement.

peter. he needed to know. how could she let him know that he was probably about to be fighting his own tech perfected by his mentor without letting anyone else know that he was here? “you’ve gotta tell me what your workout regimen is like because your hit a lot harder than you look like you would.” thud! her face whipped to the side as the next blow landed. “for the record, punching really isn’t a cat thing.” thud. gwen spat out a mouthful of blood. black cat brought her claws back to gwen’s throat and dug into the flesh, eyes kept tight on venom. a pointed reminder that she was closer to ending the blonde than he was to saving her.

“lets make this simple for everyone, hm?” felicia’s tone remained pleasant and steady despite her overt violence mere moments before. a couple of goons stepped into the now gaping hole of a doorway. “kill the story, stacy. hand over all of your information. purge all your files. stop pursuing this.” the menacing darkness of her eyes only made more severe in the expose light. “maybe start a gossip column instead. then you and your… big black toy can home safe and sound and have some fun tonight. if not… then I’ll just have to have enough fun for all of us.”

-

Venom roared when the Black Cat stepped by Gwen, her claws trained threateningly on her neck. Venom started forward, spurred by Eddie’s own emotional outburst, but Eddie came to his senses as the Cat’s grip tightened. They couldn’t take the chance, he knew that. He’d heard plenty of what Black Cat was capable of, and he didn’t want to test the sharpness of those claws. Not on Gwen’s neck, at least. 

Her confirmation did little to calm Eddie’s worry for her. Every punch Black Cat landed, Venom twitched forward slightly, stopped only by Eddie’s fear of something worse than a punch befalling Gwen. After one punch too many, their composure broke and they took a few steps forward, stopping only at the clicking behind him. They whipped around to face the trio that had entered. Venom roared. It was only a matter of time until they turned up, Eddie just wished they’d given him a bit more time to get Gwen untied, at least. One, two, six, twelve. The bullets were absorbed and Venom’s arms raised, taking two of the goons by the throats and knocking them in the third guard before tossing the two aside, charging the third guard. Venom’s jaw extended and he devoured half the man just as another group of goons ran in. 

Peter crawled toward them, eventually ending up directly above the women. Black Cat. He wasn’t surprised in the slightest, just... very disappointed. Theft was one thing, but the men who had run in were Fisk’s men. She was involved in a lot more than Peter originally thought.

The punches that she landed on Gwen’s face concerned Peter greatly. He could hear the thud of the impact from his perch above them, and could see Gwen’s eyes roll back. He was preparing to attack when Gwen spoke up again, and he frowned. A warning, perhaps? It made sense. Those punches were devastating, and purple and blue were quickly blossoming across the blonde’s eyes. 

He had to find Gwen. 

It had been too long since she’d contacted him. He had tried texting, calling, even going to her apartment, but to no avail. Perhaps she was ghosting him... It had been something he’d considered, but he assumed she was better than that. No, he knew that she had been up to something. She’d grown somewhat quiet over the last few weeks, focusing on a story that she’d been immersed in. Caught up in her work. A story about a crime family he was certain would be ready to retaliate. She’d found an address, last he knew.

White-knuckling the throttle for the last few blocks, Eddie finally slowed by the towering building and parked his bike in the street, taking a quick jog around the building to get away from prying eyes. 

Then they leapt, and black tendrils climbed around and overcame him, Venom’s hand digging deep into the masonry. Venom took them along the floors, inspecting the rooms in an attempt to locate Gwen. They weren’t sure what the next play would be, but it would be something they’d figure out when the time came. 

Meanwhile, another smaller figure silently crawled along the building, tracking something completely different. He’d been following a thief that had been nailing a number of prestigious art galleries and jewelry stores, and his investigation led him here. With a relatively quiet city, Peter set out and was now scanning the windows of the building for any sign of criminal activity. He suspected it was multiple people working together, so he tried to be as stealthy and quiet as possible. 

that comment managed to earn eddie a ‘don’t start with me’ look. he was right, though. she hadn’t been careful enough. peter had thrown her off her game. he always would. when it came down to it, gwen would always throw herself in harms way to make sure that peter wasn’t. it was a dangerous instinct. the main reason it was safer for both of them to be apart. gwen stepped closer and kissed him. “I’m a big, tough girl. I can take care of myself. I promise.”

the instant that venom came into contact with her skin, gwen felt an additional surge of power. she gasped. it was unexpected and quite frankly, a bit frightening. she looked up at the symbiote with surprise. is this what eddie was dealing with? no wonder it was taking his body time to adjust. gwen still felt the surge and she had the added stability of her own powers. eddie was just a normal human. this could have killed him, but didn’t. she doubted that he’d even bothered to see a doctor when it happened. venom probably wouldn’t have let him. “so venom is a-” parasite seemed to be a negative word. he idn’t like it. “-symbiote?” she asked, implying the question she really wanted to ask. is venom killing you?

when her hand separated from venom, she rested it on eddie instead. tonight had been stressful to say the least. she hadn’t expected the tension earlier to be the least dramatic thing of the evening, but then again, life rarely went how gwen expected it to go. “well, if you hadn’t run, I wouldn’t have to chase you.” she replied easily. “just try not to let it happen again. I’m not the only person who will notice.” she said looking over her shoulder to make sure that peter wasn’t up on a rooftop watching them or anything.

Eddie knew the look. It had been used on him by more than just Gwen, and he cracked a small smile. He leaned in as she did to kiss him, and he held the kiss until she pulled back. “I have no doubt about that,” he started, chancing a look down at her injured leg, “but one day it might not be your leg that gets hit, and that’s what scares me.” Though he and Gwen were still only dating, he cared deeply for her. He could tell Venom did too, despite technically only being introduced today. He didn’t want anything happening to her.

“A symbiote.“ Eddie echoed her words, following it with a nod. “Real long story. Wrong place, wrong time, and - yeah.” He laughed sheepishly, not wanting to divulge all of his history with Venom at midnight in the middle of an alley. He wanted to get home and get comfortable. Maybe when they weren’t in such a public place, Eddie would tell her the full story. Until then, the walls had ears, he was certain of it. “He’s been around since San Fran.”

“Eddie, up.” The timing for Gwen’s words was impeccable, as a figure had dropped from the... fire escape? They hadn’t heard the clunking of metal or any indication that someone was on the stairway, but how else was Parker able to drop down?

Peter had been spurred on by worry for Gwen. That’s what he told himself, at the very least. She’d leaned forward to kiss Eddie, and Peter’s body all but started to move on its own. There was an urgency behind it, something that he didn’t quite understand, but the jealousy he felt was something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Probably just because Eddie was already closer to Gwen than he was, and as the only other Spider-Person in the city, Peter longed for the opportunity to get closer to her.

“Uh, hey Gwen,” Pete started quietly, looking from Gwen to Eddie, and finally to The Glob extending from Brock. “MJ wanted to me to make sure you were alright...” The words were directed to Gwen, but his eyes did not once leave Eddie and the ink monster attached to him. “Evening, Brock and co.”

“I am careful.” gwen assured him. she usually was. extraordinarily careful, in fact. “I just- I got distracted. it’ll be fine in a couple days, though. it’s not like anyone has even noticed anyway.” she shrugged. truly, she had managed to hide it pretty well. even if hiding it meant gritting her teeth and forcing herself through the pain. “trust me, this isn’t a common thing for me.” there was some relief in eddie knowing and not reacting.

the ink-like creature slowly crawled it’s way into sight. obviously, it quickly drew gwen’s attention. he wasn’t like anything she’d ever seen created in a lab. no, this was something different entirely. without thinking, she held out a hand to try and touch it. “hey venom, uh, I’m gwen. nice to meet you.” she said without a lot of confidence. was it nice to meet him? she wasn’t sure yet. “hey buddy, could you do me a solid and not tear down half the city if you need to go somewhere. it would make my job a lot easier, okay?”

“Not careful enough,” Eddie noted, but let it drop following her explanation. She was okay, walking (with a bit of difficulty, sure) and drumming with the injury. It wasn’t as serious as it could have been. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you.” His voice was lower now, as if saying it aloud would make things worse. He nodded. “Just try not to get distracted next time.”

Venom immediately reached for her hand as she extended it. Eddie took a step back, but the symbiote forced Eddie’s foot in place, and it extended to meet her hand. Eddie’s own concern grew with Venom’s excitement, and Eddie had to do everything to make sure Venom didn’t just up and leave his body in favour of Gwen’s. He could tell there was something about Gwen that excited Venom. Whether it was compatibility or something born of Eddie’s own feelings for her, he wasn’t sure, but it scared him nonetheless. Venom wasn’t exactly doing great things to his body, despite the abilities he now possessed.

gwen shrugged and looked down at her hand. “honestly it’s nothing. it’s the least I can do. take credit for it if you want some brownie points with your boss, though.” she suggested and turned her head to look at one of his shelves. her brows knit together as she noticed something familiar. a hair ribbon that she’d had for years sat amongst an assortment of odds, ends, baubles, and bits. she couldn’t remember wearing it the night she’d been shot, though. “did I leave that here the other night?” gwen asked, pointing to the thing.

“you don’t think she heard the machine? they’re not exactly quiet.” gwen asked, still giggling a bit at the concept. she only knew the bare minimum when it came to sewing. essentially it was only what she needed to know to patch her own suit when necessary. thankfully, it wasn’t often necessary. “I just decided to wear cheap jackets instead. I now reserve all nice jackets for non-spider activities.” she smiled at him. it was all familiar to her, but entirely foreign. gwen caught herself and looked back down at her hands quickly.

his shock at her web shooters took her by surprise. gwen had guessed his were the same essentially. obviously that had been an incorrect assumption, but did she want him pulling apart her gear? “well, not necessarily. they have fluid, but they create it. I had to make a few adjustments over the years for tensile strength and distance, but they’re really genius.” gwen had taken apart the shooters and put them back together more times than she could count. it was a necessity dimension hopping. if she got stranded, then gwen had to know how to fix her own things. she couldn’t rely on anyone else, and she couldn’t be spiderwoman without webs. “uh, maybe.” no. she had to tell him no. not encourage him. “when I know you better, I guess.” smooth.

“Not going to take credit for it, but it’ll still score me brownie points. Thanks.” The food was finally done, and Pete took out two large bowls from the pantry. He served her her ramen, placed a hardboiled egg in the piping liquid, and went to hand her the bowl when she mentioned the hair ribbon. He stared at it for a moment, frowning as well. “I... uh... No, I’ve had that there for a long time...” Granted, he couldn’t exactly recall why or where he got it from, but he knew it had been there for years, sitting by an empty picture frame. “It’s definitely been there since before I ever met you.” Why, though? He was certain he’d seen it before, but where did he get it from? It wasn’t something he’d use himself, of course. Maybe MJ left it and forgot about it.

Peter chuckled. “Oh, I have no doubt she did. I just thought I was being sneaky. I had this whole elaborate plan if she ever asked what I was doing. In hindsight, pretty dumb, but she never asked, so I got away with it.” His excuses had always been poor when it came to May. He had a terrible time lying to her, but clearly managed so far. The more she asked for help with Feast, though, the harder it became to maintain his lies.

you don’t have to worry. yeah, right. only an insane person wouldn’t be worried to see, well, whatever the hell that was. gwen had friends who’d tried to be her, tried to kill her, tried to help and tried to destroy her. she’d seen the gambit of possibilities. she’d seen science experiments turn into horror movies. she knew when to pursue the red flags. the last thing she wanted was to lose eddie like she had some of the others. “my leg?” she looked down at it and back up at him. it dawned on her suddenly that she had no explanation as to how the fuck she’d gotten here so quickly and that it was entirely possible that he’d seen her webbing around. that was definitely not great all things considered, but she hadn’t been concerned with her own secret for a second. gwen had been too worried about ensuring eddie’s safety. “oh, uh-” if she wanted the truth from him, she needed to give it too. “I got shot.”

now it was his turn to explain. obviously, gwen could hold her own against anything that he threw at her. weird was her life. “venom?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “what- or who- is venom?”

“You got shot?” Eddie frowned. That led far more credence to the fact that she was Spiderwoman. It made sense. She saved the city, and got hurt while doing it. “Be careful, Gwen.” He looked down at the leg she was favouring, concern obvious on his face. “I know you do what you have to, but be careful.” 

Now that the discussion was on the symbiote, he could feel Venom’s excitement. He knew that Venom liked Gwen - he’d been told so on one of their first dates - and Venom’s chattering in his mind was enough to prove that. “Venom is...” He felt the familiar pull of tendrils pulling from his skin. The symbiote was extending from his back, elongated eyes peering over his shoulder before the rest of the head became visible, teeth, tongue and all. .”This is Venom.”

he was right. there was no doubt that peter would be amazed by the lab. if she spent too much time anywhere in her life it had been in a lab or on a rooftop. “I would have loved to see it.” she agreed. “pym usually will do whatever he can to help. he’s just hard to get a hold of sometimes.” that being because he was oftentimes not on the planet. or he was part of the planet. hank had a very weird life- even compared to them.

gwen tried to imagine peter in high school sitting in his closet with a sewing machine. the idea tickled her. “you really didn’t need to add in the closet part.” she giggled. “why didn’t you just sew in your bedroom normally?” as peter went about grabbing things from cupboards and moving pots and pans about, gwen realized that he might be better cook than she was. that seemed unfair somehow, but that could just be because she was really hungry right now.

“you mean you don’t love ruining your jackets in the dead of winter? why not?” gwen could still remember her favorite hoodie gets scorched off of her. it was a tragic day. “I don’t know, actually. I didn’t make my suit. I’ve only ever had two actually. one no longer exists at all.” that had been a rough day too. for several reasons. she looked up at peter and remembered the hardest part. she remembered why it was so important for this like this to not happen and yet, she’d let it happen again. gwen shook her head. “I didn’t design my shooters either, and they actually don’t use any sort of fluid per say. they use the moisture that is already in the air to create the webbing so that I don’t have to worry about running out or anything like that.”

Peter chuckled. He could understand being tough to get a hold of. “It’s a good thing that Otto is persistent, then. You get him set on something and he gets it done. Thank you. I appreciate this. I’m sure Dr. Octavius will, too.”

Hey, it was the truth and a silly idea. Spider-man hiding in his closet to sew suits. He shrugged. “I wanted to make sure May didn’t find me. So I’d pretend to be gone meanwhile I’m sewing away on the other side of the closet. I didn’t want to take any chances.” Finally, he added the final ingredients to cook in the broth before they were done.

peter pushed through the crowd without hesitation. mj wished that she could react that way, but no. she always thought about what she was doing. she had more fear and anxiety about the potential outcome of her actions than was healthy. instead she followed him step for step outside of the bar and towards the sound that he had obviously heard better than she had. since he seemed to know exactly where they needed to go.

harry was laid out flat on the ground. “harry!” mj called and sprinted over to him. she knelt down beside him and felt for a pulse. luckily, there was a strong one. it looked like he just got decked. that wasn’t surprising, but it was surprising not to see gwen. she couldn’t imagine that her drummer would leave an unconscious man on the ground alone. “where’s gwen?” this added up to a bad situation.

harry coughed and stirred when the cold water splashed against his face. he sputtered most of the liquid away, but the sudden wet had him shooting up. “what happened?” he breathed more a sigh than a question. he remembered coming out to get the girl and then he remembered black… then nothing. “mj?”

mj looked up at peter’s weak excuses. she was used to them. they’d been friends for years. heck, they dated for a while, and peter had always vanished on a dime. especially when bad things were happening around them. “peter, go find her.” mj said. “I’ll stay with harry. bring her back undamaged. I need her. go!” she said. while she didn’t know exactly what peter did when he ran off like this, mj knew that peter parker was no coward. he would certainly find a way to help.

gwen webbed from one building to the next seamlessly. she knew this city better than most. it had been seen from damn near every angle. there weren’t many alley’s that she hadn’t chased a crook down. how the hell was he moving this fast? what was that thing? she’d seen some weird things in her time as spiderwoman, but this was something else. this seemed… extra.

“come on, eddie. where did you go?” something caught her eye down an alley and headed in that direction. hopefully peter had managed to find harry by now. she felt the weight of the guilt for leaving him, but he’d brought some of it on himself. gwen had told him to leave. she sighed and dropped from the skyline into the alley, completely forgetting that she was sporting an injury. “shit!” she landed hard on that leg and winced. at this rate, it was never going to heal. “eddie?!” she called again looking around wildly. gwen could have sworn she saw someone come down this way.

Eddie thought he’d escaped. He was certain that they had managed to outrun her. There was no way she could have kept up. Especially with her injury. He remained on the ground next to the dumpster, knees pulled up, head bowed and fingers intertwined over the back of his neck. He stayed there, as quiet and immobile as possible, hoping that if she was following close behind that she’d just run right by. Though his head was bowed, he turned his head slightly so he could see the entrance of the alleyway. He kept an eye on it, waiting to see the blonde run by.

Instead, she dropped from the damn sky and startled the hell out of Eddie. It took him off guard, and he immediately looked up when she did. Shit, he thought. He was all but spotted. He wanted to try to hide, to stay quiet, but the shout of pain from her had him concerned. Not only that, but she seemed to be quite concerned. He really didn’t want to get her involved, but then again, she also seemed to have a secret. She had dropped down, from what he assumed to be the top of the buildings, with such grace and so effortlessly that there was no question. It was the only thing that made sense. She was Spiderwoman? There was no suit, but nothing else made sense. He shifted, using the wall to push himself to a standing position. “Gwen?” He spoke quietly, keeping a bit of a distance from her. “Why’d you follow?”

Peter had to find Gwen. Considering the condition they had found Harry in, it was worth looking into. He wasn’t extremely concerned about Gwen - she could hold her own a thousand times over, that much was obvious if you knew - but he needed to make sure. You could never be too certain, and besides, MJ was worried and had asked it of him. Seems he needed to take acting classes. Perhaps he should just tell her. With the amount of times he’d bailed on her suddenly, it would just be so much easier if she knew. Maybe he would. If he found Gwen safe, anyway.

It didn’t take long to find them. All he had to do was follow the obvious trail of fallen brick and metal. What the hell had made that mess? It looked like something had taken chunks of the building out. At first he thought perhaps some smaller aircraft, but... it didn’t make sense. And that would have made much more noise. He followed the mess, peering over the edges of buildings until he finally spotted her. He couldn’t see anything alarming, aside from the fact that she was in the alley with Eddie. Whatever happened, there was no mess any further ahead, so he could only assume that the threat had been taken care of. Unless the threat was Eddie, but he couldn’t see how it was possible for Eddie to have made that mess. Something was amiss.

“you never stopped to think that maybe the important shit is things like this? you know, being able to be not punched in the face on the reg? because if not, I am here to tell you, as someone who has been punched in the face on the reg, it’s very important not to be. genius.” mj said and completely ignored the jab about earlier. she’d said what she meant and didn’t regret it. she took the drink from him and gulped it down. while she did try to keep hydrated on stage, it was easy to forget after an entire set. “you know he’s going to try something with eddie. he hates that guy.” mj sighed. although, with what eddie had written about norman, j couldn’t blame harry for being salty. then again, eddie wasn’t known for printing lies. she didn’t really know what to make of it one way or another. eddie seemed decent enough. gwen liked him. harry was her friend. when it came down to it, she’d protect harry. but until then, she’d do her best to keep out of that fight. “if you don’t want to babysit him, then don’t. he’s a grown man. he is perfectly capable of making his own decisions. besides, he bailed without saying goodbye again. he deserves a little- did you hear that?”

gwen looked back at the unconscious man and then back at the inky black humanoid that she was relatively sure was coming out of her boyfriend. “you don’t want to hurt me?” well, that’s a first. “good to hear. I appreciate it. d-” she started to ask what the fuck was going on, but before she could get another word out, venom was on the move. this was not good. she didn’t have her mask or a suit at all, really. her leg was still injured. she was exhausted. harry was on the ground and she didn’t want to leave him alone, but she couldn’t let eddie go off. especially not if that thing was hurting him… or planning to hurt anyone else. “shit.” she sighed. there was no telling how fast they were moving. it was probable that she would regret this decision, but gwen couldn’t think of anything else and she was running out of time. he would hear her. gwen took a deep breath and screamed for peter.

she flicked out her wrists and shot webbing in the direction that venom had gone but higher. chasing bad guys through the city quietly was something that gwen had come to excel at. they didn’t call her the ghost for nothing. and when the building were this tall and this close together, height actually let you get some perspective. thwip! gwen landed on her good leg and looked for a glimpse of eddie, but she didn’t see anything yet. “this is bad…”

Peter listened to MJ and sighed. She was right. He remembered Eddie's pieces on Oscorp, and they didn't cut corners. They weren't exactly flattering, and it was no secret that Harry wasn't exactly Eddie's biggest fan. He sighed. This could go two ways: 1) Harry bitches but doesn't try to start anything, or 2) Harry tries something with Eddie and proooobably gets laid out. Peter really hoped it was the first. He brought the drink to his lips again but stopped mid sip. He had heard that. Gwen had shouted for him.

Immediately, he pushed through the patrons and ran to the door, noting that MJ was following not much further behind. He opened the door, saw Harry, and ran over. He knelt down next to him, gave him a once-over, and looked up. It was distant, but he knew that figure up in the skyline. Gwen was on the move. What the hell had happened? "Harry, hey," He reached down and tapped Harry on the cheek. He could see he was breathing, but out cold. At least it didn't seem to be that bad, provided Harry woke in a reasonable time. He thought for a moment, then uncapped the water bottle and poured the rest on Harry's face in an attempt to wake him. He had to go. He had to make sure Gwen was alright... But he couldn't just leave. Harry was still unconscious and MJ was tight behind him. Out of the question.

"M, uh..." Peter started quietly. "I'm not really feeling well..." He did his best to appear as woozy as possible, and took a step back. "I -" he sighed heavily. "I need to go. Think I'm gonna be sick. Message me when he's up." He wasn't that drunk at all, but he was playing the part well enough. He stumbled back a bit, cleared the rest of the parking lot and turned the corner. Once out of sight, he broke into a jog, entered an alley and climbed to the roof of the building, where he scanned for Gwen. Nowhere. He sighed. "Where the hell are you?" Not safe, but Pete pulled the hood of his sweater up, dig his shooters from his pocket, and webbed over to the next street, eyes scanning for either her or Brock.

Eddie was charging through the street now, Venom leaping from one building to the next, leaving crumbling debris to rain down into the street below. Although Venom cared much less than Eddie, the symbiote seemed to understand the urgency of the situation. They needed to move, they needed to hide. Because otherwise they'd get run out of another city, and he wasn't entirely ready to relocate again.

"Venom, stop." She's following, Eddie. Not far behind. Eddie groaned, pushing the symbiote a bit further. How the hell was she following? There was no way in hell she could chase down through the streets, so how the hell was she was keeping up. He searched for a decent hiding place, found a particularly dark alley, and dropped down into it. He breathed a few moments, allowed both himself and Venom to calm down, and took a seat in the alley. He lowered his head, hoping he would blend in with the New York scenery as a homeless man in his alley.

"You need to stop acting out like that."

"He called me a parasite."

"You are a parasite."

as her brain spiraled from one connection to the next and she began double-checking her calculations, gwen was awash with relief. it was all evening out. “I don’t have plans to leave the bugle anytime soon, but thanks. I’ll keep that in mind if jonah ever gives me the pink slip. although, I’m not sure I would be that much help, and I’m pretty sure interns can’t offer positions.” she said, still smiling in spite of herself. gwen began a small sketch in the bottom corner of the paper and beneath that very clearly wrote an e-mail address. “yeah. exactly. well, professor pym’s wife was a mentor of mine.” it wasn’t entirely true. his wife in gwen’s dimension was really her mentor. however, hank pym, due to the nature of his work, knew well about the multiverse. janet had warned hank that gwen might come to him and had given her his information just in case. gwen had not decided that she needed it for her own problems. yet. however, she made the executive decision that while this wasn’t an emergency, it definitely worth his attention. especially when it would likely only take a modicum of his attention. “this is his contact information. do not give it out freely. have your boss send him a proposal. he will want to help, and he is a lot better at this than I am. this is a mock-up he could easily polish up.”

the food actually started to smell really good, and gwen was starving. not having lunch really had made her hungrier than she’d realized. a loud rumble came from her stomach. “I love spice.” she sighed. everything he listed sounded really, really good. “you really make your own suits?” it was just another thing that she was behind on. janet and elsa had done so much for her in those beginning days. she was be forever grateful. there was no chance that she’d have survived without them back then. however, now she was without them, and gwen did not know how to make a suit and her suit was virtually destroyed. she might be able to learn something from him about it. “what improvement? what ideas? what about your web shooters? did you design those yourself too? I’ve noticed that your webbing pattern is different from mine. am I asking too many questions?”

Although Peter couldn’t entirely focus on everything she wrote while cooking the ramen, but every spare moment he had was spent glancing over to keep up with what she was coming up with. He chuckled. “Hey, while I can’t hire anyone, I can strongly recommend. You know what you’re doing, and you’re providing excellent feedback that I don’t think either of us had considered... I wish I could take you to see the lab, you’d probably be amazed.” Pete’s jaw all but dropped. “Holy shit!” He laughed, looking down at the paper as she handed it over to him. He examined it, and only set it aside when he heard the meat sizzling and popping. He focused on the food again, removing the meat from the pan and adding the secondary ingredients to the broth to allow them to cook. He listened, in awe, as she explained what and why. “Got it, will do. Holy shit, he’s going to really want you on the team if you can hook him up with Dr. Pym.”

The moment she gave the affirmative for spice, Peter opened the cupboard and pulled out the various spices. There was a time where he couldn’t handle spice, but over the years he’d grown bolder, and had acquired the taste of reasonably spicy dishes. He wasn’t about to eat a carolina reaper raw, though. “Yeah I do! Have been since I started, actually. I spent.... a lot of time sewing in my closet as a teenager.”

What improvements? “Something to better insulate the suits, for starters. And I’ve been meaning to find something that stands up to the test for padding and isn’t extremely bulky. It’s tough, finding materials that suit exactly what you need. Something will excel in one thing, and absolutely bomb in the next. I’m sure you know.” Peter paused, dipped a spoon into the broth to taste it, and frowned slightly. “Do you know? Do you make your own?” He grinned. “I made those, too! Those have improved significantly, too. What about your web fluid?”

mj managed to not completely howl in laughter at peter’s comment. “look who’s talking. you do realize the two of you are such close friends because together you almost make half of a functional human, albeit with an astronomical iq.” at that, glory laughed too. she said her hellos to peter and then headed towards the bar for drink. god, that girl was something else. “we definitely should go after him.” mj nodded and did not move. “but we may as well wait for him to actually fuck up first. it’s not like we can stop him from doing it- just clean up the mess after. besides, gwen can handle herself. I’m sure she can handle harry.”

“I think she can decide for herself.” harry spat back with more venom than he’d intended to have towards the reporter.

“for the record,” gwen started cutting her eyes to both harry and eddie in turn. “she does not appreciate being spoken about in the third person, because she has a brain and a voice and a name. so you can both stop that right now.” this could get out of hand quickly. obviously there was tension between the two, but she didn’t know how to calm the situation without giving herself away to one or the other. not ideal. “harry, thanks for the offer, really, but I’m okay. eddie says he isn’t sick. I believe him. and even if he is and doesn’t realize it, I have a great immune system. top notch.”

harry scoffed. then eddie convulsed slightly. “you’re my best pal’s buddy, you seem like a nice girl. personally, I would love to get to know you better.” gwen knew that was true. then he might turn around and try to kill her though. her relationships with osborns were extremely complicated. “I don’t want to lose the opportunity because he’s lying and crashes his car because he’s having some sort of seizure. you don’t even need to go with me. go home with pete or mj, but you shouldn’t go with him.” harry insisted and stepped forward to grab gwen’s wrist. she easily evaded his grasp. gwen’s instinct was to stop him, but that would definitely be hard to explain afterwards. hopefully, she could just talk her way out of this. harry’s hand instead landed on eddie’s shoulder.

harry dug his fingers into eddie’s shoulder and began to say. “she’s-” when an actual creature who appeared to be made of ink or slime or oil emerged from eddie. gwen gasped audibly her eyes widening in shock. what was that? harry looked up at the thing with a genuine fear in his eyes. “wha-” he took a deep breath and gwen could feel it. he was about to scream. she glanced around them quickly. they were still close enough for him to be heard. bad. bad. bad. bad.

if someone heard him scream and came to investigate, they would either see gwen attempting to fight black goo with no mask, gwen being eaten by black goo because she couldn’t use her powers, or they’d take eddie. gwen knew what it was like to live with a weird secret. without hesitation, she reeled back and punched harry in the face. it was not at her full strength (that would kill him). however, it was not the light tap that it may have appeared to someone else. it was just enough to knock him out of consciousness. it would probably give him a bruise. no concussion, hopefully. just as quickly, she grabbed him from hitting the ground. gwen winced at having to put that much pressure on her leg as she swiftly laid harry on the ground and stood in front of him defensively.

gwen put up a hand. “I don’t want to hurt you.” she said clearly. “eddie, what’s going on?”

Peter laughed and shrugged his shoulders. “Our minds are too busy on the important shit to worry about how to avoid things like this.” He gestured out toward the door that Eddie, Gwen and Harry had walked out of. Too busy on important shit to worry about how to avoid things like what the hell happened earlier, MJ.” Peter turned to look at her, eyes narrowing slightly. “Yeah, I don’t doubt she can handle him.” He chuckled, then motioned toward the nearest bar. “C’mon, I need a drink before we head out.” He cleared the way through the floor to get to the bartender. Peter got three waters, and turned back to MJ. “Here you go.” He held one out for her, pocketed one, and chugged half of the other in one go. “Hopefully he doesn’t try anything with Eddie...” Pete sighed, glancing toward the door. “I don’t feel like babysitting him tonight.”

Eddie glanced down at Gwen, then back to Harry, and smirked slightly. “There you have it, from her own mouth.” He didn’t want to fight. Not now. He enjoyed having Gwen around, and if he and Harry fought, he knew Venom would win. That and he couldn’t afford going around accidentally killing Norman Osborn’s son. Not good. Not to mention, if Venom made an appearance, he’d likely have to cut Gwen out of his life, and it wasn’t exactly something he was interested in doing at that moment. He enjoyed having her around, and genuinely liked her. Yes Osborn kept fucking pushing. Harry kept stepping closer, and Eddie could practically feel the symbiote pulsing, and he moved to take a step back when Harry’s hand grabbed his shoulder. “No.” Too late. He could feel the tendrils moving through his arms, his neck, his face. He was seeing through Venom’s eyes now. His - their - arm reached up to grasp Harry’s wrist, adding a tad too much pressure. “Not a parasite.” Venom growled down at him, hand grabbing Harry’s wrist crushing just that much more, until -

Harry was out cold.

they were working towards it but didn’t have a capable biochemist in their lab? seemed unreliable. biochemistry wasn’t as easy to step into as other fields. the specificity and practical application required intricate detail and calculations that would require days of tedious thumbing through old academic text and papers if you weren’t familiar with it. “d’you know what he’s attempting to use as the fluidic agent? finding a suitable substitute for blood and plasma that equally conductive could be tricky. there may not be one available naturally. it would involve some tinkering. though I think if you- do you have a pencil?” gwen didn’t wait for him to answer. instead she webbed the magnet marker that was against the fridge to her hand. with her other hand she grabbed a piece of paper with a takeout menu on the back and started to write. her concentration narrowing to the equation in front of her. gwen began solving it fluidly, although still not as fast as she once would have. she’d hadn’t been able to really do this sort of work since she’d left elsa and janet’s lab. a part of her truly missed it, but it wasn’t feasible here. not yet, at least. “are you familiar with a scientist named hank pym?”

gwen knew that he was joking, but she gagged all the same. even if bananas weren’t her kryptonite, that would not be delectable. even in fancy ramen. “so what exactly do you put in this fancy ramen?” she asked. she stayed and continued puzzling through her own query despite every inch of her wanting to go an examine those suit. “and you make the suits yourself?” that was… impressive. 

Peter, for once, found himself speechless. He watched as she worked while also trying to keep an eye on his cooking. He leaned over a bit to look at takeout menu. Or rather, what she was scribbling on it now. He scoffed, only taking his eyes away from the paper to look at her instead. “Holy shit,” he chuckled, “colour me impressed. If you ever decide to quit your job at the Bugle, let me know.” In response to her question, Peter nodded fervently. “Of course. Pym particles! He’s right up your alley.”

the moment that peter’s lips met hers felicia realized that she was incredibly bored. sure, the tiff earlier had been exciting. the company seemed crazy enough to keep her interested. but peter? nice as he was, he was so vanilla. nothing wrong with vanilla. it just didn’t pair well with her. there was too much she could be occupying herself with to be bored by anything, especially a nice boy. she pulled back, the smile still nice on her face. there was no need to be burning any bridges. her phone buzzed and felicia glanced down at the name that popped up. “uh-oh. it looks like my boss is calling me. till next time.” she wink and promptly turned towards the door.

harry sighed. he tried not to make it too loud and obvious, but at the same time, he wanted peter to hear him. it was time sensitive, and hopefully, peter had the rest of the night to woo his lady friend. unfortunately, it seemed that would not be the case. “what do you mean she knows more than she should? about what?” harry knit his brows together in confusion. “why didn’t she say hello to me? why is she with that guy? he looks like he has the flu. you know, she really looks like she needs someone to give her an opportunity for an out.” harry cut his eyes sideways at his closest friend. it was so easy to simply step back into his city life. peter was, thankfully, a big part of that. “I’ll be right back.”

mj approached peter hand in hand with glory as harry walked away from them. “he’s going to do something stupid, isn’t he?” she recognized the look that she’d seen in his eyes. well, it wouldn’t be home unless harry was there making bad decisions. now all they needed was for peter to bail without reason and no one to answer mj’s calls later and it would be typical queens fashion. “what happened to your date?”

gwen took the drink that eddie offered to her and took a rather generous drink from it. usually, she didn’t drink after shows. it was hard enough to find the energy to work sober, but it was exponentially more difficult when intoxication was involved. however, one more drink on one night shouldn’t do too much damage. besides, pressing the pedals all night had her leg screaming in pain and she needed something to dull it. “we’re popular because mj and glory are brilliant. I’m mostly just there to keep rhythm and be loud, but thank you.” in one more swift motion, gwen finished the drink and pushed the glass back onto the bar. “any chance you could give me a ride home tonight? I, uh, well, I hurt my leg the other day practicing dance.” close enough. she began walking (with only a slight limp) towards the outside. “and ordering a lyft sounds doesn’t sound half as fun.” she laughed.

harry caught up to gwen and eddie right outside the bar. “hey brock.” he turned to the blonde and nodded politely. “gwen.” he acknowledged. “I noticed that you’re not looking well tonight, eddie. thought I would come offer to walk miss stacy home just in case you’re contagious.” peter had obviously not suspected illness, but drugs. harry, however, had enough experience in that field to know better. “I’m sure you wouldn’t want to infect such a beautiful creature-” “not a creature, but thanks.” “-beautiful person who is in no way creature-like with your bug or parasite. you should see a doctor. I’ll even pay your hospital bill.”

Peter was taken slightly aback by the fact that Felicia left so abruptly. He frowned, but nodded. “Oh, alright! Uh- Have a good night, Felicia!” He waved a few times, watched her leave the building, and turned to Harry.

“She acts like she knows too much. Sounds very confident when she talks. Nothing wrong with that, but that’s just my thoughts.” Pete was definitely way tipsier than he had planned on getting. Patrol was going to be fun tonight. At least he ate. At least he ate. Might be worth stopping at McDonald’s somewhere to get a few cheap burgers. Harry started his barrage of questions and he looked from his friend to Gwen and Eddie, and then back to Harry. “What? I don’t know, Harry.” He hadn’t paid attention to half of what he was asking. And then he walked off. “Harry, wait!” Buuut it went ignored. Peter sighed heavily, ran a hand through his hair, and turned to the newcomers.

“Of course he is. Because he’s Harry Osborn and that man is a mess.” Pete smiled when he noticed Glory. “Oh, hey Glory! How are ya?” MJ’s question had Peter shrugging. “She left. Got a call from her ‘boss’ and took off. I got a kiss, though. So I’d consider that a win. D’you, uh... Y’think we should go after him?”

“Call it whatever you want,” Eddie said as he lowered the drink from his lips, “I think you do a great job with it.” As Gwen finished her drink, so did he, and he nodded. “Ordering a Lyft means you need to make small talk with someone for the most painful ten minutes of your life. Of course I can give you a ride.”