Sired by a Symbiote (Patreon)

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Dylan asked, his hand stopping inches from the symbiote.

Down there in its glass bowl, the symbiote was already in motion, rippling like a speaker booming out some pounding beat, only without any noise. Just the oscillations. It was very ready to be bonded. It only waited for Dylan to take the final step…

“I mean, who wants to quit being a superhero?”

“Me,” Mary Jane said firmly. “I don’t have it in me. And now that we don’t need to be bonded, well… it’s been nice, but I’m ready for my life to go back to being as normal as it ever is.”

“Aww…” Dylan stopped himself from spewing an obscenity beyond that first little syllable. He seemed compelled to argue, even as he wanted Mary Jane to give up the symbiote and let him take over as Venom. “You did great as a superhero! You could clearly handle it…”

“Handling it and being suited for it are two different things. I feel like I took one first aid class and then had to do a double shift as an ER nurse. Just because I managed doesn’t mean it’s the life I want. I’m more than willing to let Dr. Noah Wyle take over for me.”

“You think I’m Noah Wyle?” Dylan asked her. “Who’s Noah Wyle?”

“Just bond with the thing already,” Mary Jane told him. “You can tell it wants a Brock back in the driver’s seat.”

Dylan reached out, his hand going a little further than where it had first stopped. Now it touched the symbiote. For a moment—a moment much longer than there normally would’ve been with such a viscous looking substance—the surface tension held and his fingers seemed to be impossibly pushing the fluid down. Then it broke, not just rushing in over his pinning fingers, but washing up his wrist, his forearm, his elbow…

Mary Jane involuntarily lifted a hand to her mouth in shock. It looked so much like something vicious—a school of piranha, all made of inkblots, stripping a carcass down to the bone. But they weren’t reducing the teenager. They were adding to him, clothing him, absorbing him and immersing him. Until what stood before her was the always familiar, yet always alien figure of Venom.

“You’re right, Miss Watson. That does feel better!” he said. Or they said. It was so hard to know about pronouns when Dylan was now speaking for both himself and an entirely separate entity. If the symbiote could still be considered separate when it had bonded with him. “Oh yeah! I forgot how strong we were! Ha!”

Venom went into a series of bodybuilding poses: flexing his biceps and pecs one way, then another. Now Mary Jane hid her hand to avoid giggling. It was a little silly, just how big and bulky he was. And she’d looked like that not long ago. What a strange life she led.

“If only you men got this excited about colors besides your basic black,” she quipped.

Dylan remembered her and just about flushed right through the symbiote at her watching him. “Thanks for letting me have the symbiote. I know you wanted to give it up, but it still means something that you trusted me with it. Venom kinda feels like the two of you are… pals.”

“I guess I’m pals with it too,” Mary Jane said. “Though I am grateful to have some space now—”

“We’ll give you space!” Venom cried, and covered the distance between them in a heartbeat to scoop Mary Jane up and hold her high.

“Dylan!” Mary Jane yelped, before remembering that she was about as safe with him—and with the symbiote—as with Peter himself.

“Yeah! Look what we can do!” Venom crowed, pumping her up and down like a barbell.

“I don’t weigh that much,” Mary Jane groused. “You probably could’ve done that before.”

Venom set her down. “The symbiote remembers how much you liked webswinging, so I kinda remember how much you like it. It’s all a bit of haze, but uhhhh… you wanna go for one last ride, for old time’s sake?”

“After I just said I’d like space?” Mary Jane asked wryly, crossing her arms.

“Aww, c’mon! We know you don’t mean that. Us superhero types may drive you nuts, but who else are you going to hang out with? Actors?”

Mary Jane rolled her eyes. “You have a point there. And it has been a while since Peter went swinging with me.”

“Now there’s a guy who doesn’t know a good relationship when it bites him. Trust us, we’d know.”

“Tell you what. No more talk about exes and you can tote me around the city like a Labulu. Just to show there’s no hard feelings between this odd couple.”

“Aww, nertz—” Dylan said. “I can’t believe what I’m bringing to this partnership is knowing what a Labulu is…”

“Hey now, come on,” Mary Jane said soothingly. “I knew that already, so you’re not teaching Venom anything yet.”

“You’re reminding me why Spider-Man is the one who quips. Venom is the one who looks cool and lets his drool do the talking.”

Mary Jane refrained from thoughts on how Venom would go back to slobbering now that it was a boys’ club again. Especially because she had to hold her breath with Venom snatching her up, cradling her in his arms, and lunging out the window with her.

She knew she was no Aunt May, but she hoped someone was keeping track of all she went through for this little rascal she was stuck with.

***

Far below, the silvery light of the streetlamps gave Mary Jane the only grounding she had. Lit windows in dark skyscrapers were like stars passing by; the stars themselves were darkened, shut down by an overcast night.

MJ could safely say she’d never get used to it. Not as Venom and definitely not as a simple ordinary redhead. In fact, it was really only with Peter that all of this felt… sane. Or at least like it made sense.

“You feeling okay?” Venom asked her.

Mary Jane guessed she was looking a little paler than went with her red hair. “Yeah. I’m just not used to swinging through the air without being able to bounce off all those big buildings. At least, bounce off more than once…”

Venom set her down on a rooftop, lit only by the yellow creeping out from a neighboring window. Through the open drapes, Mary Jane could see a bedroom. She wondered how many people left their lights on in the bedroom, with the drapes wide open. Certainly not to sleep, but… they couldn’t make it much easier for someone to look at them, to see what they were doing.

There was no one in the bedroom, though, so Mary Jane felt a bit silly. What had she been looking for—someone parading around in the nude? Like she didn’t have enough men in her life.

“You want me to swing you back to your place or, uh, call you a taxi?” Dylan had probably never called a taxi in his life.

Mary Jane smiled to herself. “Just give me a moment to catch my breath. Then you can take me back. Nice and slow.”

She expected him to make a comment about spending longer in his arms—that’s what Peter would do. And Dylan certainly wasn’t Peter, but he was getting to be that age and she wasn’t his mother…

Of course, there were more than enough girls his own age. He wouldn’t be interested in her like that. And there was no need for MJ to feel defensive. Maybe she was just all mixed up from finally being rid of the symbiote. It was nice, but it was a loss too. No power anymore. She was back to being on the sidelines… how could that not feel like a step back?

“Thank you for being so patient with me,” she started to say, but then noticed Dylan wasn’t being patient. He was staring at the window. And when she saw what he saw, Mary Jane couldn’t blame him.

Peter and Felicia were in the bedroom, both of them naked, damp from the shower they must’ve taken.

 “She’s so beautiful,” Venom whispered. “Her tits are perfect.”

Mary Jane’s mouth jerked open. She’d never heard Dylan say anything like that before. But she’d never seen him staring at a naked woman either.

They saw Peter and Felicia embrace, kissing heatedly. Peter’s hands moved down Felicia’s back and sampled the swell of her ass, squeezing her thick glutes as he pulled her to his erection.

Mary Jane breathed hard, watching Felicia pull away from Peter, then look down at his prick with fire in her green eyes. She knelt before Peter, taking hold of his cock with both hands, smiling naughtily at what she now had in her possession.