Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics Chapter 6073 - 5089: Fighter’s Fate (35)

Venom suddenly let out a startled cry. Before Eddie could react to what was happening, a wisp of purple gas suddenly spread out, and Venom abruptly began to boil.

Eddie didn’t even know how to describe that feeling; it was like all the blood in his body had come to a boil, every cell screaming. That could no longer be called excitement; it should be called madness, a kind of sudden derangement as if he had transcended matter itself.

"Ugh!!!!"

"Calm down... Venom, calm down!" Eddie screamed in agony while trying to soothe Venom, but the latter seemed to have completely lost his mind. Black slime surged out and wrapped around Eddie’s body, leaping several meters high and slamming straight into the ceiling.

At the same time, Eddie felt Venom become incredibly powerful, and it was not quite the same as the power he’d had after gaining Spider Power—this was a kind of extreme aggressiveness. In almost an instant he smashed down one side wall of the warehouse, roaring as he charged out, devouring everything in his line of sight.

Thankfully, these warehouses were all built in relatively remote places, with basically only buildings and cars on the ground and no living creatures. But the last shred of Eddie’s reason told him that he absolutely could not let Venom run into the city like this, otherwise this Superhero was going to turn into a Super Villain.

Eddie kept using his remaining rationality to suppress Venom, while Venom was constantly rebelling against his control. The two tugged back and forth in place for a long time, and just as Eddie was about to lose control, the glow of Magic flashed before his eyes, and the rampaging Venom was slammed to the ground.

Eddie let out a breath of relief, and in his daze, he saw Peter’s face. Sure enough, Spider Man was still reliable.

A few dozen minutes earlier, the more Peter thought about it, the more wrong it felt. All these things that had happened recently seemed unrelated on the surface, yet it was like they were all strung on a single thread, swaying left and right in the wind, ready to fall all at once at some unknown moment.

Peter had always been a man of action. Once he sensed something was off, he immediately started looking for Eddie and arrived at the anti-smuggling warehouse almost at the same time as him. He’d thought that with Spider Man’s Spider-sense there shouldn’t be any danger, but not long after Eddie went in, a berserk Venom came charging out, rampaging everywhere.

Peter used Magic to stop him, but Venom didn’t seem fully awake yet and kept struggling. Worried that Venom might attack inward and hurt Eddie, Peter didn’t dare bind him too tightly. He used Magic to restrain Venom while running toward the more desolate mountains.

They circled around the mountain several times, clashing back and forth for over an hour before Venom finally calmed down a bit. And just then, when Peter turned his head, he saw that the warehouse at the foot of the mountain was on fire.

It was already too late to go down and put out the fire, and before long, the fire trucks arrived. Peter then noticed how incredibly practiced the firefighters were—they jumped out of the trucks and headed straight for the fire hydrants, without needing to ask or look around. Clearly, this kind of situation had happened many times before.

Once Venom had completely quieted down, Peter helped Eddie up from the ground, then asked, "What the hell happened?"

The first thing Eddie saw, however, was the thick smoke from the warehouse. He frowned in confusion and said, "How could this happen? Why would the owner be willing to abandon this batch of goods?"

He then remembered that when Venom had probed the inside of the crate, he’d seen a wisp of purple fog that looked like some kind of chemical, and then Venom had gone berserk. This wasn’t right.

Eddie recounted his experience to Peter. Eddie was a reporter and didn’t know much about academic stuff, but Peter immediately realized that what was inside that crate wasn’t medical supplies or pharmaceuticals at all, but some kind of illegal chemical compound.

"What kind of substance would drive a Symbiont insane?" Peter asked.

Eddie shook his head and said, "Ever since I met him, I’ve never seen him this crazy. Sure, he was a bit short-tempered at first and even wanted to smash my head into the wall, but at most we’d just brawl around the house. We’ve never had anything like what happened today."

"We have to keep digging," Peter said. "This isn’t something simple; there’s very likely a huge conspiracy behind it. Can you still hold on? Want me to take you home?"

"I’m fine, and Venom’s okay too." Eddie straightened his clothes and then said, "I can’t handle the rest of this investigation alone. We’ve got to leverage the power of the Rebirth Alliance and find out where this shipment came from."

Peter nodded. He knew very well that if the other side had backing, the police alone could never get to the bottom of it. Officials covering for each other, friends protecting friends—getting the truth would be incredibly difficult. They needed an external force like the Rebirth Alliance to intervene.

Besides, tracking the movement of goods would inevitably require technical means, and the Rebirth Alliance’s tech was also very powerful. Especially with Jarvis now—he could dig up any tiny clue. As long as they could determine where this shipment came from, things would become much clearer.

The two of them drove together toward the Recovery Alliance Headquarters, and on the way, Eddie asked Venom in his head, "What the hell was that? What is that stuff?"

"I don’t know how to describe its components in your terms," Venom’s voice was unusually grave. "But for the Human race, it’s not something good."

"That much I could see," Eddie said. "Anything that can make you like that—if it weren’t for you, I’m afraid I’d already be dead from poisoning."

"No, you wouldn’t die from poisoning," Venom said. "It’s a kind of compound drug that seeps into your whole body through the respiratory system and rapidly restructures your bones and muscles, while simultaneously sending an irresistible excitatory neural signal to your brain. That will cause you to go insane as you mutate..."

Eddie could tell Venom was rapidly turning things over in his mind, trying to give this science dummy an Explanation of what was going on. Fortunately, his Explanation was indeed very clear. Eddie asked, "This drug would make me mutate?"

"Yes," Venom said. "I’m not exactly sure what you’d mutate into, but you’d probably be pretty strong. The problem is it would also make you lose control, and its damage to the brain and nervous system is extremely severe. It would turn you into one of those Monsters with Strength but no Wisdom at all."

"Figures it wouldn’t be that simple." Eddie said. "So how did you get hit? Don’t you have Spider-sense?"

"I can’t hear your Spider-sense." Venom said. "Sure, I can use your Superpower, but you’re the Spider Man; the Spider-sense should stick with you. Didn’t you hear anything?"

Eddie thought back, but he really couldn’t recall, so he looked at Peter in the driver’s seat and asked, "What’s Spider-sense like?"

Peter froze for a second, then said, "It’s like a boom in your ear, then every hair on your body stands up and you dodge on instinct..."

Eddie covered his face. "I thought that was Venom screaming in agony."

Eddie had indeed heard a sound—more precisely, his brain went boom—but the problem was, on a normal day his head already feels like there’s a rock band living in it. It’s like setting off firecrackers in a nightclub; anyone who doesn’t know better would think the DJ’s cranking the treble.

Normally Venom loves to chirp away in his head, randomly shouting at full volume. After all this time, Eddie’s completely used to it. How’s he supposed to tell whether it’s Spider-sense or Venom suddenly flipping out?

Besides, Eddie did kind of feel a sense of danger—like goosebumps, and an instinct to dodge—but his body isn’t entirely under his own control, so he can’t necessarily move out of the way right away. And even if he does, it’s useless; Venom had gone in with the Symbiotic Factor. Even if Eddie’s main body dodged, Venom would still get hit.

Eddie sighed. Clearly, there’s no such thing as two completely non-conflicting Superpowers in this world. So he said to Venom again, "Could you keep it down a bit? With you yelling in there, I can’t even hear the Spider-sense. Otherwise, do you really think we’d have gotten hit?"

"Are you stupid? You can’t even tell my voice from the warning sound of your Spider-sense. If word gets out, the other Spider Man will laugh you to death."

"You know other Spider Man?"

Venom went silent again.

"What did it look like inside the box?" Eddie switched on his reporter’s instincts and started digging for details.

"There was a whole lot of packaging, shaped really weird." Venom’s description was vague. "White plastic shells about as long as a finger, filled with liquid, with something attached on top. I couldn’t make sense of it."

Eddie was completely lost, so he described it to Peter. Combined with what Eddie had said earlier about seeing a trace of purple Fog, Peter said, "Could that be something for nebulizing?"

Peter couldn’t be totally sure either. Strictly speaking, meds for nebulization should stay purely liquid and can’t turn into mist without a nebulizer device. But if this chemical is special and nebulizes once it leaves a certain storage environment, that’s not impossible.

Venom probably tried to grab a sample but accidentally damaged the packaging, causing the stuff to turn into Fog and get absorbed by him.

"Was it stored at low temperature?" Peter asked.

"Seems like it." Venom said. "It was in one metal box after another, all sealed. Of course, to me that’s not really sealed. Might’ve been a little cold, but Symbiont’s afraid of heat, not cold, so I didn’t pay attention."

Eddie sighed. "Is there anything in your brain besides chocolate truffles and pizza?"

"Are you calling me stupid?! How could you..."

Venom suddenly stopped—but it wasn’t him stopping on purpose. Eddie’s brain went boom again, and he shouted, "Peter!!"

Peter got what he meant almost instantly. His reaction was lightning-fast: he yanked the steering wheel, and the car shot sideways off the road. A split second later, a black figure slammed down and blasted a huge crater right where they’d been driving.

A giant over two meters tall landed in the middle of the road, with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern chasing right behind him. But more figures jumped down from the building above, and the Superhero team suddenly became the ones surrounded.

The two of them jumped out of the car at once—one arming up with Magic, the other with Symbiont—and rushed into the fight at top speed, helping the Rebirth Alliance Superhero team deal with this pack of super mutants.

Fortunately, reinforcements arrived fast. Sea King Arthur joined the battle as well. Water Magic was perfect for controlling these Mutant; one wave washed over them and they could only flail helplessly in the water—they didn’t know how to swim at all. Combined with the Lasso of Truth and the Divine Power Shackles issued by the Rebirth Alliance, several Mutant were quickly captured.

Peter let out a breath of relief. Good thing they ran into these two here; at least it didn’t turn into a disaster. If even one or two had slipped out, Forward York City would be in trouble again.

"Sorry, but you two have to come back with us for questioning." Natasha sounded utterly exhausted, her voice so hoarse she could barely get the words out.

Peter nodded and said, "I get it. We were just heading to the Recovery Alliance Headquarters anyway. Let’s go together."