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Bang!
"Dad! Stop running!"
Raising his hand to deflect a wooden crate thrown at his face, Harry Osborn sprinted forward, looking utterly miserable.
Not far ahead of him, a figure as agile as an ape, dodging and weaving through obstacles, was on the verge of disappearing. It was his father, Norman Osborn.
Just moments ago, after learning something might be wrong with his father's health...
Although Harry was unhappy about Venom knocking Dr. Otto unconscious...
He had to admit that Venom's suggestion to forcibly take his father for a medical checkup was the most efficient solution under the circumstances.
However, since Norman had been out giving speeches lately...
If they couldn't reach an agreement in public and things got physical, it would easily cause panic among the already fragile refugees.
But if they held the "negotiation" (capture) at home, Harry worried his mother might come back and freak out.
So, he decided to stake out the location of his father's speech today without revealing himself immediately.
He waited until the speech was over and old Norman had finished comforting the refugees and sent them off.
Only then, on his father's way home, did Harry jump out in a deserted alley, intending to have a good talk with his old man.
But what Harry didn't expect was that his appearance seemed to trigger some kind of alarm in his father.
Harry was certain his father saw his face clearly, yet Norman turned and fled without hesitation, not giving Harry a chance to speak.
And no matter how much he shouted, Norman wouldn't come back.
"Look at this brilliant idea of yours!"
While carefully but quickly chasing after Norman's figure, Harry complained to the Venom symbiote inside him.
But Venom wasn't having it. Instead, he bragged smugly.
"What do you mean 'brilliant idea'? Didn't this instantly prove your dad has issues?"
"If he was normal, why would he run the moment he saw you?"
Hearing this, Harry didn't know how to refute it. He chose to stay silent, leaped onto the roof of a temporary prefab module, and continued the chase.
However, his silence only made the symbiote inside him even more smug.
Seeing Harry chasing his own dad so timidly, Venom let out a weird howl and forcibly took over Harry's body, entering full coverage mode.
"Ho ho, time to speed up~"
"No, wait! These houses aren't sturdy—"
BOOM!
Before Harry could finish, Venom stomped down hard, launching his body forward like a rocket.
The leap certainly increased their speed, but the prefab module under his foot suffered the consequences.
Although these temporary housing modules were uniformly produced by Stark Industries and weren't exactly shoddily made...
At the end of the day, they were temporary shelters mass-produced for refugees. They couldn't compare to real buildings made of reinforced concrete.
Ordinary people banging on them wouldn't cause damage, but with Venom's strength, that stomp instantly punched a massive hole in the roof, sending half the structure flying.
Crucially, as luck would have it, the woman inside was taking a shower. Hearing the noise on the roof, she had looked up nervously.
And bam—the bathroom ceiling vanished, half the wall was torn away, and her bathroom instantly became an open-air deluxe suite.
The woman froze for half a second, then...
"AAAAAAHHH!!"
Leaving aside how many spectators that poor woman's scream attracted...
Venom continued his parkour across the rooftops. Who knew how many prefabs occupied by people on the toilet or making babies were stomped into open-air models along the way.
But in exchange, his pursuit speed far outstripped Harry's careful advance.
In no time, he caught up to Norman Osborn fleeing below.
Just as Venom shot out a black tentacle, about to grab old Norman, the man suddenly accelerated and changed direction, diving into a nearby alley.
When Venom rushed to the alley entrance and looked inside, Norman Osborn was gone.
There were only three scruffy, ragged homeless men in the alley, looking at him calmly.
"Hello, did you see a middle-aged man run past here just now?"
This was Harry asking, having finally regained a moment to speak once the body came to a halt.
But as soon as the words left his mouth, Venom's body suddenly swelled. He stuck out his long tongue and hissed at the three homeless men, a guttural growl rumbling in his throat.
Before Harry could figure out why Venom was threatening these homeless guys...
Venom lunged.
Grabbed one in each hand, and stomped on the third one who was just trying to stand up.
"Idiot. Ordinary homeless people wouldn't look at us like that. And in a refugee camp like this, where would you find three strong, healthy homeless men?!"
Venom's voice was raspy and rough, but his words showed the rich experience of an "elder" who had traversed multiple parallel universes.
Even if "Agent Venom" was somewhat famous as a hero...
Whether they recognized him or not, ordinary people shouldn't be staring at a giant black monster with calm faces.
But before he could gloat further to Harry...
Thwuck!
A sharp dagger plunged into Harry's lower back.
As Harry grunted in pain, Venom's head spun 180 degrees with a swish, looking back at the person who had sneak-attacked them.
To their surprise, the person holding the dagger, looking completely calm, was none other than the Norman Osborn who had just vanished!
"Father?!"
The exclamation came from Harry.
But not because he saw the man with the dagger behind him.
In reality, Venom's "180-degree head turn" didn't snap Harry's neck—though that wouldn't have killed him anyway.
This time, Venom had simply moved his "face" to the back of the head.
However, Harry, whose face was left exposed looking forward, saw something else. The faces of the two homeless men currently gripped in Venom's hands rippled strangely... and then transformed into the exact likeness of his father.
At this moment, Harry's brain completely short-circuited.
Venom, noticing this too, still had the mood to crack a joke.
"What the fuck! Did we just stumble into a Mystique nest?!"