Issue 33: Trials of Merlin Part IV

"Easy Cat, I need this money so I can't share it with you!" Kaine said as he took off running as fast as he could.

Black Cat gave chase and meowed before saying, "Come back my treasure, don't run from me."

The Scarlet Spider started to really push himself and leapt farther than he ever attempted before when he felt his foot slip. 

"Wait a moment, I don't slip!" Kaine thought as he placed his webbed to a nearby and pulled himself far away from Felicia's bad luck.

Felicia purred, "Spider-Man? Didn't know you were into robbing crooks. Does your girlfriend know about this?"

"Lady, I'm not Spider-Man!" Kaine said as he removed his cloaking tech, and showed himself to Black Cat, "Not Spider-Man? Then what's with the outfit? You certainly seem like Spider-Man to me. Although, I have to say, I dig the new colors," Felicia said eyeballing the cash, "Especially the green."

"I'm the Scarlet Spider. I may have similar powers to the guy you know, but trust me, I'm a lot meaner than my heroic counterpart." 

Scarlet Spider tried to web away when Black cat tore through his webbing with her claws and said, "Stealing from bad guys is my thing, but since your new here I'll only take half."

Kaine laughed as he dropped one of the duffle bags, "Take it, and just leave me alone."

Felicia was cautious as she approached the bag. Seeing that he wasn't making a move, she smiled and picked it up. After wrapping it around her shoulder, the cat burgler walked towards him, and got up close to his face, "Your right, you're not Spider-Man, he looks a bit shorter than you, and I have to say..."

Felicia placed her hand on Kaine's chest and said, "I like what I see."

Scarlet-Spider webbed over to a nearby building and said, "Stay away from me Cat, I'm a monster. Get too close and I might bite your head off." 

He pulled himself away and zip-webbed over to another building. As the Anti-Hero disappeared into the distance, Felicia smiled and said, "I think I found something fun to play with."

Kaine went out to find a hotel to rent while he searched for a way back to his universe. Unfortunately, this version of Kaine had never heard of or meet Doctor Strange. So, he realized that his best bet was with the Fantastic 4.

However, before he could make any progress in his attempt to get home, he would have to find a place to rest. 

The Scarlet Spider had just finished fighting off an army of Carnage Clones made by what he believed to be the God of Symbiotes, which in reality was The Redeemer a powerful god-like being from the Micro-Verse.

After finding a Hotel to crash in, he laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling, "Maybe this isn't so bad, not like anyone will miss me, and in this world, there might not even be a Kaine, maybe I could start over."

As he fell asleep the Symbiote that followed the Anti-Hero here was desperately searching for a place to give birth. 

The Symbiote known as Venom was beginning to undergo mitosis. After merging with Kaine who then transformed into the 'Other' the massive surge of multi-dimensional power was more than enough for the Symbiote to split and duplicate, "Must find a worthy person, can't end up evil, don't want it to be evil."

Venom felt itself growing weaker and weaker. Without a host, it would soon die. However, if it bonded during its mitosis, it would put too much strain on the host and result in killing both it and the child. So, in order to find a warrior and a kind person he headed to a police station, thinking it could find someone like Patrick Mulligan, a human that had managed to rehabilitate a Symbiote and use it as a force for good. 

"Come on dad! I'm going to be late for work." A young blond who looked around 17 or so stood in front of a police cruiser.

"Hold on Gwen I'm coming, just give me a moment!" George Stacy turned to the officer he was speaking to, "Anyway, I'm glad to see you're doing well Officer Watson."

MJ's father smiled, "Yeah, AA meetings help, thanks for referring the group to me, Captain."

George laughed and patted him on the shoulder before he said, "We've all been there before. Sometimes you see some pretty bad things on the job, and I know how bad it can get when you're constantly seeing the worst of humanity. If you want, I can even find you a good therapist to talk too." 

"Thanks, Captain, but the AA meetings should be enough. That and my daughter slapping me really gave me a wake-up call." The two shared a laugh, when Gwen shouted, "Dad!"

George turned his head and shouted, "Alright I'm coming, see tomorrow officer, Watson." 

"Good night, Captain." The two parted ways and drove off in different directions, Gwen completely unaware that a spawn of Venom had latched itself to the bottom of George's police cruiser. 

Venom then watched as they drove away, "Hopefully it will have a chance for redemption."

The Symbiote then went off in search of a host of his own. Only two people came to mind, Flash Tompson, and Eddie Brock.

Gwen's dad had driven her to Horizon labs, and as she stepped out and gave her dad a kiss on the cheek goodbye. The new Symbiote had crawled inside her backpack and nestled inside waiting for the moment they came into contact. 

Venom had originally intended for George to fuse with the Symbiote, but Gwen was the first one to exit the car, and it couldn't hold on much longer.

After headed up to her lab and working tirelessly she took a break in her office to get some sleep. As this happened the Symbiote latched onto her and fused without her even noticing. She woke up hanging over a building on a strand of her webbing. As she stared at her reflection, she tilted her head and looked over the pitch black and yellow Spider-Man suit with a spider symbol on her chest.

"Am...am I dreaming?!" Gwen was one of the Spidey Couple's biggest fans. She even was on a pre-order list for new plushies of the two when they came out.

While she was seconds away from geeking out, the suit responding to her surprise, dropped from the webline, and began webbing across the city. 

"Wa~it!" Gwen shouted as the rush of web-slinging took her to new heights, her speeds peaked at maximum velocity as she fell towards the ground and started swinging of her own accord, she started laughing, "This is so fun!" Gwen shouted as she headed back towards her lab.

Along the way, a certain Peter Parker in Spider-Man uniform was eating at his favorite hot dog stand. "Joe you make the best dogs in NY."

Peter pulled out a 20$ bill, "Too much Spidey, besides I told you, Spidey People eat for free."

Peter smiled and said, "No can do buddy, the more money I give you the better your food gets, besides if you start saving up, maybe you could buy a restaurant."

Joe tried to give the money back when Peter saw something that almost made his jaw drop.

Gwen zip passed them making Peter go wide eyed, "Did you see that?"

"Sure did."

"Ugh...only in New York, right?" Peter pushed the bill into the owner's hand and scarffed down on the rest of his hot-dog before giving chase.

While Spider-Man shot after her, he sent a message to MJ, "Hey MJ, your Symbiote didn't spawn a new one, did it?"

MJ quickly responded all the way from the Himalayas, "What are you talking about Tiger?"

"I'm looking at someone with a Symbiote who's not you!" Peter replied.

"Need some help?" MJ asked.

"No, I got this. How are things going over there?"

"Doctor Strange and I have been held up in our own waiting rooms. We're waiting for us the appointed time of our council with the King. Oh, I think someone's coming. Got to go, Love ya, Tiger."

"Love you too, babe!" Peter responded and ended the mental link as he had finally caught up to Gwen.

While swinging beside her, he then turned to Gwen and dodged the Symbiote trying to web him away before shouting, "Hey! Watch it! I'm swinging here!" 

Peter saw that she was totally enthralled in web-slinging and couldn't even hear him.

"Unkown Spidey-Girl, this is the New York Spider Police. Spidey-Cop demands you pull over!" Peter shouted making Gwen snap out of it. 

The blond Symbiote Host shot to the top of the roof she webbed to, and shouted in surprise as Peter landed in front of her, "Spider-Man!"

"I'd say the one and only, but I know that's not true." He stood in front of her and examined the black and yellow Symbiote, "Webster can you scan her?" 

Thanks to Tony's adjustments to his Nanobots he had installed an A.I into the chip that would give Webster access to the internet and had computer functions that could make the world's most advance Supercomputers destroy themselves out of shame and jealousy.

Tony also made sure to add plenty of useful functions that he and Peter spent hours arguing whether or not he needed them, Tony actually wanted to make a disco party function that took Peter several hours to talk him out of.

Webster read the organic structure and replied, "It's very similar but very different. This species is radiating other worldly particles, like it's not from our time and space. It also appears to an alien species. I was created by studying a similar substance and crafted using your genetic template. This species seems to have your genes somehow, I am reading it as Peter Parker, so be warned your spider senses won't work on it."

"So, it came from another universe? Great, I hope this is the only one that made it here, but knowing my luck..." Spider-Man sighed as he thought to himself.

He then turned to Gwen and asked Webster, "Is there anything else you can tell me? What about the age of the Symbiote, and who the current Host is?"

Webster answered, "The Symbiote seems newly hatched, not more than 5 or 6 hours, and the suit is keeping me from scanning her facial features, so an identification software is limited, judging from her measurements there are 15,783 possible identities that are residents of NY, would you like to see them?"

"Umm...could you say something, you've been staring at me for a while now, and you're starting to freak me out a little," Gwen waved her hands in front of his face, 

"Where did you get that?" Peter asked pointing at the suit. 

"I don't know I just woke up with it on."

"I don't suppose you work for an evil corporation investing technology into interdimensional travel by any chance?" Spider-Man quipped.

"What!? No!" Gwen responded.

"Phew! That's a load off my shoulders," Spider-Man let out a sigh of relief. "Do you know what it is you're wearing?"

"Not really. As I said, I don't know how I got this thing! The last thing I remember was going to sleep, and bam woke up with a Spidey suit that took me for a ride," Gwen responded.

"Okay then first off, what you are wearing is an alien species known as the Klyntar, there are two factions those that call themselves the Klyntar belong to the Agent of the Cosmos, they are a peacekeeping force that seeks out worthy host to imbue with their powers and partner with."

Gwen's face lit up when Peter held out his finger, "However, yours is a stray not recognize by the Klyntar, heck I'm not even sure if they exist in this universe! The Strays don't belong to any faction, and the other faction is called the Knull Symbiotes, they travel from world to world absorbing everything and making it part of themselves." 

Peter then thought of how Knull had originally designed them to take out Celestials and Gods, and then how the fact that his Parents had made something on the same level.

"This is different, my Symbiote species isn't connected either to the Klyntar or Knull, it's an entirely new man-made branch." Peter thought as he looked back to Gwen.

Gewn's face paled and said, "What do you mean universe?" 

Peter ignored the question because it would take too long to explain and said, "Look up Multiverse Theory when you get the chance. Now back to the Symbiote, you have to think of your Symbiote as a newborn baby. It doesn't understand human morals or emotions, you have to teach it, because right now it's not good or evil, it's just trying to survive."

Petter scratched his head, "I know someone who can help you teach the Symbiote, but you need to follow me."

Peter webbed over to a high rise, "You know how to do this?"

Gwen webbed out next to him, "The suit has been teaching me." Gwen looked at Spider-Man's face and said, "Why are you helping me?"

Peter laughed, "Because it's the right thing to do."

As he jumped off, she followed behind and kept up rather well. She was doing the wacky yahoo gig the whole way there. 

When they arrived at Strange's Sanctum, they walked through the entrance and returned to see Wong glaring at him. 

"What? I said I was going out to eat."

"I'm not mad because you went out, I mad because you didn't bring anything back?" Wong frowned.

Peter held his hand out and said, "That's not true, I brought someone back!"

Gwen waved her hand, "Hi! I'm...Um...Spiderette!"

Wong raised an eyebrow and sighed, "Wong, Pleasure." He shook her hand and turned back to Peter, "You get back to studying."

"Hold on, Spider-Man said that someone here could help me!" Gwen raised her voice slightly.

Wong nodded his head and said, "He's not home right now, you'll have to wait until he returns."

"When will he be back?" Gwen asked.

"That is unknown right now," Wong answered.

"He seems to be a man of few words," Gwen whispered.

"Tell me about it," Peter sighed as he started to leave the room.