Splash, splash, splash!!
A sticky, pitch-black mass surged out from Eddie's shoulder blade area, twisting into a ferocious face with a gaping maw. It bared its fangs as it stared Eddie down.
Looking at the "demon" right in his face, especially those eerie, pale-white eyes, Eddie couldn't hold it in and cursed.
"What the hell are you?"
"My name is Venom. And now, I am the owner of your body."
"You… you just…"
Eddie's face turned ugly. He raised a hand and gestured, his stomach churning violently.
"You just used my body to bite a guy's head off."
"I needed to replenish my strength, and…" Venom narrowed its eyes and let out a sinister chuckle. "It tasted pretty good, didn't it?"
"Urgh! Urghh!"
Eddie immediately started gagging, dry heaving so hard he nearly jammed his fingers down his throat. Still, he couldn't throw anything up.
Obviously, it had already been digested clean.
Eddie felt like he was going to die. He had actually eaten a person.
"Listen, Eddie. If you want to live, you need to help me do one thing."
Venom's eyes narrowed. Its bloody maw looked even more vicious, and Eddie instantly caved.
"W what is it?"
Eddie's voice shook. If it wanted him to eat people, then no, absolutely not!
"I need you to come with me and stop Riot. If Riot returns to outer space, he'll bring a swarm of symbiotes to invade Earth. That's not what I want to see…"
Venom's words made Eddie's eyes go wide, his face full of disbelief.
In the comics, Riot is Venom's direct offspring, with abilities even stronger than Venom's.
The movie changed that setting. Riot became an independent symbiote with no relation to Venom.
Not only that, Riot held real power in symbiote society. He was a leader with genuine authority. With a single call, he could rally over a million underlings.
By comparison, Venom turned into a complete loser. Just like Eddie, living a pretty miserable life.
In the movie, Venom chooses to stop Riot from returning to space and leading a symbiote army to invade Earth because Venom is living comfortably on Earth and doesn't want that good life disrupted.
Also, because of how strong the sense of identification is, Venom ends up liking Eddie quite a bit.
Eddie didn't believe it. Venom didn't look like a good thing at all. It would betray its own species for Earth?
Just looking at it, the vibe was completely wrong.
Venom couldn't convince Eddie with a few words. It got vicious and simply dragged Eddie off to find Riot. As for Agony and Lasher… huh? Weren't those two already dead?
On the other side, Zod's research on Lasher revealed there wasn't much worth studying. Lasher was about the same as Agony, both low-tier symbiotes. Thinking of the Venom that the Ancient One had taken away, Zod put on the Dark Knight armor and headed straight for the Life Foundation.
Life Foundation's boss, Carlton Drake, was a super tycoon, the kind of billionaire who seemed "approachable." He was young, but not a rich second-generation. At twenty-four, he founded the Life Foundation and grew it into what it was today, transitioning perfectly from scholar to businessman.
As a child, he was always "someone else's kid" in his parents' mouths. As an adult, he was the academic world's acclaimed rising star.
Today was Drake's turning point. His luck had run out.
The lab was robbed. Inhuman experiments that violated basic morality were exposed. Everything was a complete mess.
When Zod arrived, his super vision plus X-ray sight let him spot Riot. Zod watched Riot possess Drake, then charged in.
"Dark Knight Zod!"
Drake was startled, but his body had just fused with the symbiote, and he was right in that swollen, overconfident phase.
Zod Heath was a genius, and also the kind of genius that made countless people jealous and resentful. Drake was one of them. And now Zod had delivered himself to Drake's doorstep.
Then Drake saw Zod whistle, generating a sonic attack. Riot couldn't take it and immediately jumped off Drake.
Drake: …
The gray Riot lunged at Zod. This was an unbelievably powerful host. If Riot could get him, then Riot would definitely…
In the next second, Riot rolled back even faster than it had pounced, because Zod now held a blazing flame in his hand. Riot forced a hard stop in midair, then rolled on the ground and returned to Drake again.
Zod was pleased with Riot's reaction. It really was far stronger than Venom.
In the original movie, it was the same. Venom got beaten the whole time and still forced a fifty-fifty fight with Riot.
If Riot hadn't insisted on boarding the ship, Venom would never have had the chance to kill it.
Riot's abilities surpassed Venom's. Any part of its body could freely transform into weapons. Combined with super strength, speed, and neural reaction, its offense and defense were both impressive.
Riot launched a surprise attack when Zod put away the flame. Its hands turned into long, bladed weapons, only to be caught by Zod with one hand.
"Useless. In front of my powerful Dark Knight armor, you're just a weakling," Dark Knight Zod said casually.
Drake quickly fed Riot information on Zod Heath. The Dark Knight armor was ridiculously powerful. It even had sonic and flame capabilities. Drake had to admit Zod Heath truly was a genius. The technical sophistication of that single War Machine was something no genius on the planet had cracked yet. It was like they were a full century behind Zod Heath.
After hearing Drake, Riot judged Zod Heath as a more valuable host than Drake. As long as it could deal with that armor, then Riot could do whatever it wanted to Zod Heath.
"I just noticed something," Zod said suddenly. "You seem very afraid of sonic waves and fire."
Riot's body stiffened.
The next second, high-output sonic waves engulfed Riot.
With its weakness exposed so quickly, Riot thought bitterly that this really was the most brilliant lifeform on the planet. Powerless to resist, it was soon packaged up by Zod with freezing gas and taken away. As for Drake, before leaving, Zod planted a psychic suggestion in him. Next, Drake would liquidate the Life Foundation's assets and hand them over to Blade Technology Industries. After that, he could turn himself in. The evidence was solid, so there was no need to waste effort digging for proof.
Inside the lab, Riot floated in midair within a zero-gravity chamber created by Zod. Along the edges of the reinforced glass were repulsion generators to prevent Riot from touching the glass. Black Queen monitored it 2424 hours a day without interruption.
Zod also received the analysis results for Lasher and Riot. After removing portions of both as samples, Zod began his research.
If nothing else, Zod really wanted a symbiote battle suit. Mainly as insurance. When an enemy used magic, the symbiote suit could at least help him block one wave.
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