----
By the time Peter burst through the Life Foundation's security gates, Carlton Drake knew his window was closing.
The boy had arrived faster than expected.
If he wanted to stand a chance against Spider-Man, Drake would need to act now no more rehearsals, no more theories. It was time to bond with Riot.
Inside the lab, the silver symbiote stirred, sensing danger.
But as Riot lunged toward Drake, he was met with a burst of high-frequency sound.
WRAAAAGHHH!
Riot dropped to the floor, writhing.
In the room's corner, Drake held up a compact sonic emitter developed by Dr. Dora Skirth before she defected. Symbiotes, he knew, were vulnerable to intense heat and sound.
"You're intelligent, aren't you?" Drake said, voice tight. "I've fed you. You've heard me. You know what's coming."
"Venom is bringing someone… someone powerful. If we let him win he becomes your leader."
Riot hissed, twitching, processing the threat.
"You want that? You want Venom ruling your species?"
The building trembled. Distant alarms blared. Peter was near.
The floor shook again.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
They were out of time.
Riot stopped writhing. In one motion, he surged upward and lunged at Drake.
Security outside the chamber watched with trembling fingers. The protocol was clear: if the host died, flood the lab with sonic waves.
They hadn't lifted a finger to save the homeless test subject earlier he wasn't worth the electricity.
But Drake? Drake signed their checks.
And no one wanted to be unemployed.
Inside the lab, Drake's body convulsed violently.
Then it changed.
Swelled.
Muscles ballooned. Skin turned metallic silver. Teeth tore through his jaw. Tendrils slithered along his back.
The Riot symbiote had found its host.
"So this… is power," Drake growled, voice layered and distorted.
CRASH!
The lab door exploded inward.
A flurry of bullets met the invader Spider-Man, cloaked in black, his new symbiote armor absorbing every round with sparks and shimmers.
Peter didn't even flinch.
The Venom symbiote peeled back slightly, revealing a second face beside his own. Its jagged teeth grinned.
"Riot…" it snarled.
Inside his head, Peter could feel Venom's unease. Rage. Fear.
Across the room, the silver creature twisted its head.
"Traitor," Riot/Drake hissed.
Peter tensed. Riot was massive. Taller than the Hulk. Spikes jutted from his arms. His presence alone radiated threat.
Venom growled inside Peter's mind.
"He's stronger. But not smarter."
Riot's hands morphed into blades. With a roar, he launched volleys of liquid metal spikes.
Peter dodged and fired webs midair, catching and flinging the projectiles into the walls. But more kept coming too many.
And Riot wasn't alone. Life Foundation guards surrounded the lab, armed and flanking him.
This wasn't a duel.
It was a siege.
Riot lunged.
Peter barely dodged in time.
The silver creature's fist slammed into the floor, leaving a crater.
Peter reeled. Venom hissed: "He wants to replace me. Rule over us. Enslave our kind."
Peter blinked. "You guys have a hierarchy?"
"A war," Venom whispered.
Riot wasn't just another rogue. He'd followed Drake to Earth for a purpose: to claim this planet as a feeding ground, to keep fueling the prison that held Knull, the god of the symbiotes.
If the seal broke, every symbiote who had ever rebelled, including Riot, would be exterminated.
Human casualties?
Collateral.
Peter dodged another spike, breath sharp. "Yeah, okay definitely not letting that happen."
Then, two new figures stepped into the lab.
One, in a pristine white lab coat, radiated raw power, shoulders broad, eyes calm, and body built like a sculpture.
The other, gleaming red and gold, hovered just inches above the ground.
Dr. Nolan.
Iron Man.
"Life Foundation," Nolan said with a faint smirk. "Finally."
He glanced across the chamber. In containment units along the walls, two additional symbiotes shimmered yellow and blue. Still alive. Still untouched.
Valuable specimens, Nolan thought.
Would've been a waste if Riot consumed them first.
Tony scanned the facility. "Friday, pull up everything on Life Foundation."
A holographic screen hovered in front of him.
"They held a press conference two weeks ago. Claimed to discover a regenerative fluid. Turns out it's… that stuff?"
Nolan nodded. "They're called symbiotes. Part of an ancient species. Millions strong."
"And those four?"
"They're unique. Venom, Riot, and two others we haven't named yet. But they all come from the same place and they all serve the same god."
Tony raised a brow. "God?"
"Knull," Nolan replied. "The Symbiote God."
"That's bad?"
"If he ever escapes," Nolan said, "Earth is gone before breakfast."
The guards in the room raised their weapons.
Before they could fire, the barrels twisted midair forced backward by a sudden magnetic field.
The guns locked onto their own users.
"Leave," Nolan said coldly.
They didn't hesitate. The guards bolted like their lives depended on it.
Because they did.
Nolan turned back to the battlefield.
Venom-Spider-Man vs Riot.
One trying to stop the fall of Earth.
The other is ready to claim it.
----
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