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Dante hovered over the city, the wind tugging at his long coat. The city was less chaotic than what he had imagined. Many streets were eerily empty, littered with abandoned cars and shattered glass, but there wasn't any corpse to be found. Not a drop of blood either.
In a handful of streets, though, the silence broke.
Blue strobes of light flickered against brick walls as armed squads moved in tight formations. They wielded bulky rifles, which shot focused bursts of sounds—sonic disruptors. The frequencies destabilized symbiotes' molecular structure and forced them to peel off their hosts in writhing, shrieking agony.
These forces belonged to none other than the one-eyed Director of SHIELD.
'About damn time they did their job.'
He steered clear of these secured zones. SHIELD had the tech and numbers to play the cleanup crew. He was here for the places the cavalry hadn't reached yet.
Those places looked like Roosevelt Island all over again.
The symbiote hive-mind wasn't aiming to kill people. Rather, the hive-mind seemed to be hell-bent on conquering New York just like Norman Osborn. And the only way to achieve that was through spreading fear.
"I'll cover that direction." Laura took the initiative to split up, which made it easier to cover more ground.
"Smart girl," Felicia murmured, clinging to his neck. "Darling, I swear I'll empty Asgard's vault one day. How fucking bold of them to bully my boyfriend."
Dante glanced down at her, one eyebrow raised behind his mask. "So you do acknowledge our relationship."
"What the hell do you mean by that?" She asked in an indignant voice. "I sucked your dick like a Tootsie pop. We're way past boyfriend-girlfriend definitions."
"Just wanted to make sure we're on the same page."
She huffed, then leaned in and pecked the side of his mask where his cheek would be. "We should talk about Gwen instead. That little sweetheart is crushing hard on you. Dangerously hard."
"...I noticed."
"No idea how to feel about it, huh?" Felicia looked down at the streets. "Me neither."
Her best friend (probably) had feelings for her lover—any one would feel weird, perhaps betrayed in that situation.
"So what are you gonna do? Are you going to let her in?" Felicia asked playfully. "I mean, she's pretty. Smart. Funny. Science nerd and a good drumist. Great ass. That checks a lot of boxes."
"I won't say no to her. But Gwen probably won't."
Felicia and Silvija weren't normal women. One was an adrenaline junkie who got off danger and loved stealing. The other was a mercenary princess raised by hunting the most dangerous criminals. Their lives were so twisted that being a second lover to someone wouldn't affect them as much.
Gwen Stacy… Gwen wanted stability. She wanted movie nights and coffee dates without feeling like she was fighting two other women for her boyfriend's attention. She was a superhero, sure, but her heart was still normal.
Gwen wasn't built for a harem.
"Cold," Felicia murmured, nuzzling her face against his. "I love it when you're like this. Makes me wanna dominate you."
"You what?"
"Over there!" Felicia suddenly pointed her finger forward, conveniently ignoring his question.
He narrowed his eyes on the hulking symbiote lumbering down 5th Avenue, roaring at a school bus full of terrified kids. It had taken them five minutes to find a target, mostly because he had been flying at a leisurely pace while having a conversation.
"Darling, you must be tired," Felicia said in a sweet voice. "Let me handle it."
He pulled his hands away from under her knees and back., effectively dropping her two hundred meters down.
"WHEEEEE!" Felicia screamed like it was a rollercoaster. She twisted mid-air to turn the fall into a dive bomb.
The slingshot kick drove the symbiote into the front of the bus with a CRUNCH of buckling metal. The bus rocked. Kids shrieked again.
Before it could recover, she pulled a pair of sleek, matte-black gloves from her belt. Tiny diodes glowed blue along the knuckles.
She slapped her palm against the host's shoulder.
"Smile for the kids!"
ZZZEEEORT.
The moment her gloves touched the host, the symbiote shrieked and ripped itself off the host in a desperate bid to escape. The black mass scuttled toward a nearby sewer grate, looking for safety.
Dante swooped down and snatched the symbiote before it could squeeze through the bars.
"Tasty," Venom purred in satisfaction. "Growing stronger."
Venom had already recovered it's past strength. The fragments it had absorbed weren't the same flesh that had been cut off from its body. Every symbiote had matured, carrying more power within their cells.
Felicia helped the trembling man sit against a wall. She dusted off her hands and gave a thumbs up to Dante. "I'm strong, aren't I?"
"You've certainly come a long way from getting your ass beat by one symbiote."
"DON'T bring up Norman files."
"SKULLFIRE!" A high-pitched scream cut through the air. A young boy was leaning halfway out of the school bus window, waving frantically. His face was flushed with excitement. "We missed you, bro! Where were you?!"
Dante waved back at the innocent kid.
"You probably won't see me after this," he whispered to himself. His superhero work would become occasional the moment this symbiote mess had cleared. He had plans for his peaceful life after.
The kid's shout cracked open the silence. People peeked out from behind curtains and stepped onto balconies. Then cheers started to ripple down the block.
An elderly couple shuffled out of a nearby house and draped a blanket over the trembling man Felicia had saved.
"We've got him, dear," the woman called up, her voice shaking with gratitude. "Thank you, Black Cat."
"Yeah! Go get 'em, Black Cat!" another voice yelled from an open window.
Felicia froze. She turned to look at the crowd and laughed. "Get back inside, everyone! We'll handle the trash and make the streets safe!"
Her thief codename had somehow become her superhero identity before she dropped it on the crime scene of a big robbery. She wore a black symbiote and her fighting style resembled a cat. People giving her the superhero name Black Cat was only natural.
'The thief becomes a superhero.'
Dante descended and offered his hand.
"Where's your bride, Skullfire?"
"Yeah! Tell her we need her!"
He pulled Felicia into the air, ignoring the shout as they ascended.
"That's the real question, Darling," Felicia said, her voice turning serious against the rush of wind. "Why isn't she here with us?"
"I have no idea, honestly."
Oh my god." Felicia gasped and dropped her to a horrified whisper. "You... you killed her in Asgard, didn't you? You snapped her neck and buried her under a mountain!"
Dante looked at her, deadpan. "Stay quiet if you don't want to lose your ninth life."
She nodded quickly with a terrified expression. "Lord help me… I'm dating a supervillain."
He soared high in the sky for a better observation point, letting the city spread beneath him like a cluster of chaos.
Still, he couldn't find what he was looking for.
He spoke into the wind, knowing she was always listening. "Death."
"Yes, Companion."
"Where is her father?"
"Let me see… oh no!" Death's playful voice made Felicia freeze. "This is terrible."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?" Felicia panicked over what might have been a deliberate misunderstanding by Death. "Death, sweetheart, my heart is fragile. Go easy on me."
Death manifested in front of him, hovering like a grim reaper without a scythe. Her pale face was expressionless. "No time to explain. You must move if you don't want him dead."
Felicia's nails dug into his neck. "Darling, please go fast. I beg of you."
"Then hold tight."
He followed the direction of Death's finger and accelerated. The Helio Reactor on his chest glowed and pumped solar radiation throughout his body as he pushed himself.
The streets became ribbons of light.
Buildings became vertical smears.
The wind screamed like a high-speed jet had just flown past their heads.
But Felicia in his arms stayed unharmed, protected by an invisible forcefield being projected by Dante.
In a minute and half, he arrived at the destination and the scene made him sad and furious.
A ring of SHIELD agents surrounded a kneeling figure in the middle of an intersection. Four bulky sonic disruptors were trained on a single symbiote host, blasting waves of high-frequency sound from all sides. The black mass covering the man's body writhed and peeled away from his face but clinging desperately to the rest of him.
Walter Hardy.
"I… CAN'T… DIE!" He roared and clung to his transformation with every ounce of willpower even as the sonic waves battered him. "FELICIA!"
Felicia trembled in his arms. "Dad…"
Walter knew that without the symbiote, the ALS would finish what it started. He fought with everything to stay alive long enough to see his daughter one more time.
Dante slowly descended. "Leave him."
One of the SHIELD agents glanced up, his eyes narrowing behind his tactical visor. "Sir, this symbiote is more lethal than the others."
"Yeah," another agent added, showing respect to Skullfire's power. "It took us a whole twenty to subdue—"
Felicia jumped down and kicked the SHIELD officer in the chest. Her figure flickered and formed afterimages everywhere. She kicked the disruptor out of the second agent's hands and drove her elbow into his helmet. The third and fourth agents didn't have time to react to her.
In three seconds, all four were groaning on the ground. The sonic disruptors lay in pieces, slashed apart by her claws.
"FELICIA!" Walter stumbled forward the moment he was freed. The symbiote receded from his face completely, revealing tears streaming down his weathered cheeks. "I'm so sorry, kitten. I'm so sorry."
Dante gestured to Death. She waved her hand to summon her cloak, hiding everything a hundred meters around him.
Felicia's mask peeled back as she buried her face in her father's chest, sobbing like a child. "Dad, I missed you."
"I missed you too." Walter stroked her back. "I'm sorry for what Norman made me do. That was horrible."
"It wasn't you, dad. Don't apologize for it."
After a minute, Dante cleared his throat, hating to be the one to disrupt their sweet reunion. "Walter… Sir."
He couldn't bring himself to use Walter's first name. And "father-in-law" felt presumptuous for his current relationship with Felicia. So he settled on the safest option.
Felicia grabbed his arm and dragged him forward, giggling through tears. "Dad, meet your future son-in-law."
Walter looked at him and smiled warmly. "What do you need, son?"
He smiled wryly at Felicia's introduction and how easily Walter accepted it. Then again, the hive-mind had probably fed him every detail of what had happened between Dante and Felicia over the past weeks.
He pointed to the writhing symbiote on Walter's skin. "It's still connected to the hive. We need to remove it."
The symbiote hive-mind could order Walter around if it was necessary. It acted as a ticking time bomb in its current condition.
Walter's smile faded. "It'll kill me."
"Dad, no!" Felicia gestured to him. "He can cure you."
Walter took a moment to process it, looking between Dante and Felicia, then showed a skeptical look. "If it doesn't work, I might kick the bucket. Again."
Felicia scrunched her nose. "You're awful for faking death."
"Had to stop you from following my line of work." Walter showed a bitter smile. "You still pulled off the heist of the century at Oscorp Island. Norman was throwing every curse at you."
Felicia hugged Dante's arm, pride shining in her eyes. "The achievement is ours. Dad, let him heal you."
Dante came closer when Walter nodded, resting his life in his daughter's judgment. Venom stretched a tendril to retrieve its fragment. At the same time, Dante placed his hand on Walter's shoulder. He didn't need physical contact anymore, but it helped with focus.
Golden light flickered across his palm. He didn't stop at curing Walter's ALS and fixed a plethora of issues that came at Walter's age and turned the clock back on Walter's body. Walter could easily move as nimbly as a twenty something young man.
Walter tilted his head up, and rolled his shoulders. That was enough to realize the change. His eyes were bright and clear as he smiled at Dante.
He stepped forward and clapped a hand on Dante's shoulder. "My family owes you too much, son."
The mention of family reminded Dante of the worn-out photograph tucked in his wallet. Unfortunately, he had kept it safe in Silvija's room. Carrying it around would've gotten it destroyed just like his phone.
'I should leave it for later.'
Felicia dragged Walter away. "Come on, dad. You're embarrassing yourself."
Walter chuckled. "You two get on with your work. I'll head back to meet my wife… Have to make up for all those years in prison."
'Venom—'
"Take it," Venom whined. "Dissect me like a lab rat."
'I promise I'll make you stronger.'
Venom was still his strongest form outside of Hyperion's Resonance. And Venom had potential to grow so much stronger through Biokinesis. He was definitely creating his own lab after this to put a use to his skills.
One lab for science.
Another for magic.
"Make me stronger than the OLD ASGARDIAN," Venom hissed. A betrayal to Dante was a betrayal against itself. But it had been quiet until now, knowing it couldn't match Odin's power in any way. "I will teach him a lesson."
'Don't worry. We'll fuck him up together and take his world.'
"Like Knuhhllll."
Not a name Dante wanted to hear because of how overpowered Knull had been.
He let the symbiote leap to Walter's shoulder. "This should keep you safe from symbiotes."
Walter seemed reluctant but accepted it anyway. "Come home with Felicia later. I'll crack open my old collection for you."
He cleared his throat. "Mind if I bring Sable along?"
Walter sighed. "Yes, why not?"
Felicia beamed a smile at that. She jumped in Walter's arms for one more hug, squeezed tight, and returned to Dante's side. "Darling, let's go."
The sweet, affectionate voice made him smile. He lifted into the air as she waved at her father.
Suddenly, Felicia's phone buzzed. The symbiote tendrils on her wrist split open and presented the device to her.
"I don't know this number."
He glanced at it and recognized it immediately. "Put it on speaker."
"Felicia." Psylocke's Japanese-accented voice came through. "Can I talk to Dante?"
"I'm here."
Psylocke knew of his return since he had visited Emma's club to get Emma and Jean onboard for the crazy idea of controlling Norman's hive-mind. Her Hellions had also moved to Hellmoon Club to help out Manhattan against the symbiotes.
"Dante… did the plan fail?"
"Pretty much."
He could control the symbiotes again, but Emma definitely wouldn't allow Jean in her mind for the second time. And besides, it seemed like symbiotes weren't as numerous as his predictions. Maybe less than a thousand. Norman had burned too many symbiotes on random things.
"Did Jean's telepathy spiral out of control?"
"Nothing like that."
No point explaining the demonic hand that had ripped through a portal and ruined everything.
"Hmmm."
Dante wished he could see Psylocke's face. Her hums were impossible to read over the phone.
"Should I come over with the kids?"
He thought for a moment and agreed with the idea. "They still owe me one day of service."
Psylocke let out a sound that might have been a laugh. "Child slaver."
"They did it to themselves." He chuckled. "Don't worry about Emma. She is alright."
"Why is she fine?" Psylocke sighed. "What about my plan to take over her wealth?"
"I'll kill her then. Fifty-fifty?"
"Agreed." She chuckled and put the phone on hold for a second. When she returned, her tone wasn't teasing. "Ororo wants to join. Should I allow it?"
Usually, these decisions went through Emma, but she was unconscious. As Emma's ally and someone Psylocke respected, she chose to ask for his permission instead.
"Why not?"
"I am lending a hand." Ororo's regal voice, a bit deeper voice cut in. "But afterward, you must come with me to meet the Professor. He'll need an explanation for why Jean used her powers outside the mansion."
"Jean volunteered. We both saw that."
"She must deal with her own consequences, I agree," Ororo replied. "But you could lighten her burden. Otherwise, the Professor will be… harsh."
"It's not my place to help her." His voice became sharper, less friendly. "If SHIELD moves against Jean, I'll protect her. Nothing more. Nothing less."
"You're taking SHIELD too lightly, young man."
He touched the roof of a skyscraper with his feet. "Or you're underestimating me, Miss Ororo. SHIELD's toys work on mutants. I'm not one."
Ororo went quiet for a moment. "You're even more stubborn than Emma described."
He laughed. "The way I look at it is, I don't bend myself to let others step on me. I do my own thing."
"Then don't disappoint me when SHIELD eventually shows up," Ororo said sharply. "I'll see you later, Mr. Dante."
The call ended with a beep.
"She is mad," Felicia said. "What now?"
"We find Gwen and rescue some VIPs."
The list included Clint Barton and Frank Castle, who probably could've been defeated by someone else.
***
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