HOME | DD

Description
Chapter Four
Why I’m Here

It took a little while, but things finally settled down between Robin and Cyborg. Spider-Man, or Peter Parker, had quit his video-game and was now socializing with Starfire and Beast Boy. He spoke mostly of his wife, Mary-Jane Watson, and how she would kill him for not telling her where he went, or that he even left for that matter. They had some conversations, exchanged life stories, and shared some jokes. The other Titans were sitting on the couch with Parker and his listeners, throwing in a comment once in a while. After some friendly converse, it was time for Robin to set one thing straight.

“Okay, Spider-Man,” Said Robin as he leaned forward in his place on the couch. “I can see you’ve made yourself comfortable, so I not gonna throw you out. Besides, any friend of Cyborg’s is a friend of mine. But I just want to ask you a few questions.”

“Okay,” Parker said as he rested his hands behind his head in relaxation. “Then shoot.”

“First question; where’d you get all that money you gave me?”

“I’m friends with the Fantastic Four,” said Parker. “Before I left New York, I asked him if he could spot some food money for the trip. I was only expecting him to give me about 300 bucks at the most, and he gives me a briefcase filled with 50$ bills instead. Heh...and I thought they were supposed to be non-profit.”

“Okay, second question,” said Robin. “I know you have a lot of enemies, but I also know you’ve got a lot of friends, too. I mean, why not hide with, uh, the Avengers, or the Fantastic Four, the Justice League, X-Men, or even the A-Team? Why pick Titans Tower?”

“First off,” Parker said as he sat back up, putting his hands in his lap. “The Justice League aren’t my friends. Batman and Green Lantern think I’m a hoodlum in spider-webbed pajamas and both Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl think that I like to peek at girls undressing in locker rooms. Second, I can’t stay with the A-Team because I already owe Mr. T a thousand favors and a lawnmower...and a new front end for his van, but that’s a completely different story. And lastly, I can’t stay with any of the other teams you brought up because those are some of the first places Venom would look. He won’t look here because he doesn’t know that I’m friends with Vic...or Cyborg, as you guys call him.”

“There’s another thing. Who’s Venom, and why’s he after you?”

Parker didn’t say anything at first. He put one hand on the back of his head and thought for a moment. “Well...he’s after me because...ah, screw it. It’s better if I just show you.”

Parker then began to rooting through his gym bag, tossing out an article of clothing once in a while. The Teen Titans, except Cyborg, looked on in wonder.

“I know I brought it. Where the h-..ah, here it is.”

Parker then pulled out a video-tape that simply read ‘Play Me.’ “This was mailed to my apartment about three days before I bounced out of New York.” he said. He stood up and walked towards the VCR. As he did so, everyone couldn’t help but stare at his ridiculous choice of footwear. Just when he was about insert the tape, he paused for a moment.

“Now look,” he said as he turned his head to face the Titans. “There’s some pretty freaky stuff on this tape, so for you timid ones or those of you with sensitive stomachs may want to leave room.”

“Really?” Beast Boy said, gaining a big grin on his face and taking a crouching position on the top of the couch. “Will we see, like, some weird black and white pictures of ladders, and flies, and breaking fingernails, and then some girl falling in a well? And then will the phone ring and some scratchy voice will tell us that we’ll all die in seven days!?”

This caused everyone in the room to give a very annoyed stare at the shape shifter. Even Starfire didn’t look the least bit amused at his joke. Beast Boy, realizing that now wasn’t the time for jokes, gave a sheepish smile.

“Um...not funny?”

Parker sweat dropped. “...No,” he said flatly as he pushed the tape in the slot of the VCR and sat back down at the couch. “Just watch.”

At first, the screen was blank. The Teen Titans, especially Robin, watched in wonder at who or what this ‘Venom’ character was. All, that is, except for Cyborg. Just then the screen flickered to life, revealing a man in his late thirties sitting in a rundown apartment facing the camera. Robin began to examine every aspect of the picture that was shown. The camera didn’t move an inch, so it was obviously sitting on something. An open window in the room showed a view of the Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in fog, distinctively pointing out that the tape was made in San Francisco; a city less than an hour’s drive from Jump City. While Robin’s detective side noticed every nook and cranny in the picture, the man himself was what everyone else payed attention to. He was huge. He was nearly seven feet tall, and had a body that would put professional body builders to shame. He had long, blonde hair with red highlights and a soulpatch of the same color. He wore a gray tank-top that said lethal justice for all, as well as a black leather jacket, dark blue jeans, and gray high-top sneakers. His most distinctive feature, however, were his dark, dominating green eyes.

“Spider-Man,” the man said, his deep yet smooth voice betraying the fact that he was trying to control his anger. “I’m sure you know why I’ve sent you this tape. But knowing you and your vindictive, backstabbing personality, you’ve probably forgotten by now. If that’s the case, then allow me to refresh your memory.”

The man reached into his pocket and removed a wadded up piece of cloth. After giving it a few lashes to the nearby end table, it was revealing to be a blood-stained mask.

“That looks like the mask that Spider-Man wore at the docks,” Raven thought.

“I found this mask in the cold, dead fingers of my wife,” the man continued to say. “Unless there’s two scum-bags with masks like this, then this can only mean one thing...”

The man then slowly stood up, still holding the mask and still in the camera’s full view. At first, he did nothing, save for standing tall. He took in a deep breath, and then threw his whole upper body backwards as he let out a scowl of pain. All of a sudden hideous cracking sounds could be heard as black, slime-like tendrils emerged from his back and began to quickly engulf his body. Soon his body was changed from his clothed form to a freakish monster with jet-black skin and a white stylized spider on his entire torso and back. Fingers were replaced with claws, and his head was swallowed by a mouth lined with fangs that seemingly grew from his shoulders. At first, his head was nothing more than a black blob sitting on a human neck. Just then, the bumps began to smooth themselves out as eyes that resembled white flame formed from his face. In addition to that, his upper and lower jaw began to extend themselves, reaching proportions that defied the laws of human physics. As he opened his new mouth, four inch long fangs emerged from his gums, and a serpent-like tongue grew from the back of his throat and licked his saliva covered teeth clean. Thus the man was no longer human. He had become San Francisco’s Lethal Protector and one of Spider-Man’s worst nightmares; Venom.

“It means that you betrayed us again, Wall-Crawler,” he said, his voice now deep, raspy, and guttural. “In a sense, we shouldn’t be the least bit surprised. You never were good at keeping promises, let alone fulfilling you’re end of a deal. The deal was that you stay in Manhattan while we went back to San Francisco and out of each others lives. But you couldn’t have that, could you? Could you!?”

It was obvious that Venom could no longer hold his anger in.

“What did you think we would do after you murdered our wife!? Did you think that we would sit in the corner of some God-forsaken pit and mope for the rest of eternity while you bask in your sick circle of victory!?”

He then paused for a moment. His jaw took a form that vaguely resembled a smile as a few chuckles escaped from his vocal cords.

“Once again, you’re wrong, little spider. For this heresy, you will pay dearly for what you have done to us. For what you’ve done to our wife. We’re coming for you, Spider-Man. And when we find you...”

The monster, or symbiote, that was bound to him subsided around his head, revealing his human face once again.

“I will personally make your life a living Hell. See you ‘round...Peter.”

The way that he stretched his last word was filled with so much hatred that it sent a chill down the spine of anyone who heard it. Just then, the tape ended, showing nothing but static on the TV screen.

“Anyway,” Parker said after the tape ended. “That was Venom, and he’s why I’m here. He thinks I killed his wife and now he’s more determined than ever to kill-“

“Uh, Spidey?” Cyborg interrupted.

“Yeah Vic?” said Parker.

“Sorry to interrupt you man,” said Cyborg. “But you might want to look at your audience before you start giving a ‘why I’m here’ speech.”

Parker looked at the other Titans after Cyborg’s remark. Although Raven didn’t seem the least bit phased, Starfire had buried her head in Robin’s chest in addition to throwing her arms around his torso, quietly weeping out of fear. Robin had seen every bit of the tape, and was doing everything in his power to comfort her, particularly by lightly patting her upper back and saying, ‘It’s okay, Star, it’s only a tape.’ Then there was Beast Boy.

He was nowhere to be found. He had changed into a flea and was hiding in Robin’s hair, quietly and quickly chanting to himself, find a happy place.

“...point taken,” said a half-dumbfounded Parker.

“Okay,” Robin said after Starfire calmed down. “I’ve seen some freaky stuff in my life, but that was just plain horrifying! If he’s as ferocious as he is ugly, how do you sleep at night knowing that a monster like that is after you?”

“Believe me, I ask myself that same question every day,” said Parker. “Anyway, that was Venom. The human you saw was Venom’s human host, Eddie Brock. To make a long story short, the black thing you saw wrap itself around Brock is called a symbiote, and alien creature that binds itself to human hosts in order to survive. The symbiote was once bound to me, but I got rid of it once I found out that it was another living creature with it’s own intentions. The symbiote was extremely sensitive sonic wavelengths, link the ringing of church bells, so I used the bell at an old abandoned church to get rid of it. About six months later, I managed to capture a serial killer called ‘The Sin Eater.’ A newspaper company called The Daily Globe had Eddie Brock working there as a journalist. He was writing articles about a guy who claimed to be the Sin Eater, but he turned out to be a compulsive confessor. Brock was fired, his first wife left him, his family disowned him, and society shunned him. Nobody would hire him for any kind of job, so he managed to eke out a living by writing articles for the supermarket tabloids. He was forced to move into the Bronx because he couldn’t afford any place else. But most of all, he blamed me for all of his problems. Unable to take being shunned, he considered killing himself. Thing was, he was raised a Catholic, and suicide’s considered a one-way ticket to Hell as far as he’s concerned. He went from church to church begging for forgiveness. Eventually, he ended up in the same church where I disposed of the symbiote. As my luck would have it, the symbiote wasn’t dead. It grew a hatred towards me for trying to kill it, and it sensed Eddie’s hatred for me as well. The symbiote latched onto Brock and formed a permanent bond. Thus, Venom was born.”

“Venom and I had more battles then I care to remember, mostly because he always had an advantage over me. He’s completely invisible to my spider-sense, giving him the ability to sneak up on me whenever he wants to. Since the symbiote was once part of me, Venom has all my powers, my abilities, and even my memories. This continued for years, and I thought it finally came to an end when I saved Brock’s ex-wife. Venom looked at me in a different view from there on. After that, we made an agreement; he would go back to his home town and I would never mess with him again. Venom went to San Francisco, set up an establishment, and even managed to re-marry. Who fell in love with him, I have no idea. You can probably guess why I’m here by now.”

“Look,” said Robin. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but Venom’s evidence looks pretty solid. I mean, he has a point. Who else where’s a mask like yours?”

“Nobody,” said Parker. “But let me show you something...”

Parker took the remote and rewound the tape and paused it at the part where Eddie took out the mask.

“Now take a really good look,” he said. “The mask he’s holding was the mask I wore when I was sixteen years old. That’s when I got my powers. I made that mask as well as my costume, but I outgrew it and threw it away. How Venom got a hold of it, I have no idea. Now let me show you something else...”

Parker then reached into his gym-bag and pulled out another mask. “This is the mask I wear now. See the difference?”

The Titans did see the difference between the masks. The mask that Venom held on the screen was slightly faded in color, the web-design looked a bit retro, and the eye pieces were very small. The mask that Parker held before them was in prime color condition, the eyes were bigger and bore a slight reflective surface, and the web-design was much sharper and more modern.

“Now I’m no detective,” said Parker. “But it sure as Hell doesn’t take one to figure out that someone wants me dead. And whoever that person is, they want Venom to do the job for them.”

“One more question,” said Robin after a brief pause. “You said earlier that Venom had all of your memories. What’s to stop him from coming here if he knows that you’re friends with Cyborg?”

“Because he doesn’t,” said Parker. “I didn’t meet Vic until after Eddie Brock became Venom. Venom has all my memories leading to were I was separated from the symbiote. Everything after that he could care less about.”

Robin rubbed the back of his head and thought for a moment. Should I really let him stay? He thought. This Venom guy doesn’t sound like a pushover, and what if he does find out were Web Head’s hiding? What would happen to the Titans? What would happen to Starfire...

Then something happened to Robin that hadn’t happened to him since he started training with Batman. He went with his basic instincts instead of his detective instincts. Spider-Man was Cyborg’s friend, and Cyborg trusted him. And if there’s one thing Robin learned, it was that Cyborg’s trust wasn’t easily earned. Besides, Venom never even met Cy, let alone knew that he was affiliated with The Amazing Spider-Man. He would never even think to look in Jump City.

What could go wrong?

“Well,” he finally said with a slight smile. “Welcome to Titans Tower, Spider-Man.”

“Cool,” said Parker, feeling very relieved. “Thanks a lot man. I really appreciate it.”

“Well alright,” said Cyborg. “Now look Spidey, we don’t have an empty room right now, so you’ll have to crash on the couch for a few more nights. That cool?”

“Are you kidding!?” said Parker. “I’ve slept in six different dumpsters for the past couple weeks! A couch would be Heaven on Earth right now.”

“Before we begin,” said Starfire as she flew towards Parker until her face was inches from his. “I have three simple questions for you; what planet are you from, what is your favorite color, and will you be my friend?”

“Um,” said a confused Parker. “Well, last time I checked, I was from Earth. My favorite color is blue, and, uh...sure. Why not?”

“Glorious!” Starfire exclaimed as her face beamed with happiness. “Then welcome to our home, friend Spider-Man!” Starfire then treated Parker to her world famous bear-hugs, causing a surprised Parker to whelp in pain.

“Oh God, my back!!!”

End Chapter Four