"Parasite Sequence?"
Ben blinked, caught off guard by the unfamiliar term.
He wasn't surprised that the Omnitrix had recorded Venom's genetic code. Opening a whole new sequence, though? That was unexpected.
It didn't take long for him to figure out what the Parasite Sequence was.
As everyone knew, a symbiote couldn't survive for long without a host. Over time, without a way to absorb nutrients, it would die.
Similar life forms existed in the Ben 10 universe. While the Omnitrix had a safeguard that allowed parasites to survive even without a host for extended periods, Azmuth hadn't wanted to completely override their natural biology. So he designed a subsystem within the Omnitrix called the Parasite Sequence.
For any species cataloged in the Parasite Sequence, the wearer could not only transform directly into that organism using the watch, but also activate a parasitic mode to attach to other alien heroes. It was essentially giving every hero a symbiote suit. Power aside, the main draw was simple.
It looked awesome.
Ben, however, was more interested in another ability of the symbiotes: genetic imprinting.
When a symbiote bonded with a host and amplified their strength, it could simultaneously extract the host's DNA information to enhance itself.
Take Venom, for example. After bonding with Spider-Man, it acquired most of Spidey's powers, and its combat style became nearly identical to his. Just a much more violent version.
The ability originally came from Knull, the King in Black. Imprisoned by the gods, Knull commanded the symbiotes to fuse with the genes of lesser creatures so they could bring that harvested power back to him in a bid to restore his own strength.
Because of this, the symbiote's genetic copying had a hard limit. It could only retain one absorbed ability at a time.
Still, for Ben, that was more than enough. It gave him an idea for how to resolve the X-Superman problem.
Not the cheap trick of absorbing the X-Superman's genes and blending them with other alien powers, of course.
The X-Superman's power could indeed be absorbed, but the moment Enara and Orana decided they wanted it back, they could reclaim it instantly. Ben figured if he dared try something like that, the two of them would drop their bickering in a heartbeat and unite against him.
So until he earned Enara and Orana's forgiveness, no matter how he schemed to get the X-Superman's power, it would be useless.
He scooped Venom off the floor. Trapped in the bottle with no visible way out, Venom immediately erupted in a torrent of abuse.
"Let me out, you piece of crap! You've got no idea who I am! You think I won't—bleep bleep bleep—"
Venom's cursing was as foul as it got, and the guy's motor mouth rivaled even Peter's. His incessant jabbering was like a drill aimed straight at Ben's eardrums.
Not wanting to waste his breath, Ben stuffed the glass bottle into his backpack and immediately returned to Plaemos.
At this hour, the only person left at Plaemos was Banner.
Connors used to live on-site, but after Norman Osborn took control of S.H.I.E.L.D., Connors' reputation was restored. Having fought in the war against Hydra, he became a hero. He no longer needed to stay at the company and had gone home to reunite with his wife and son. As for Dr. Otto, he had his own place too.
Right now, Banner shuffled out in a crooked pajama set, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "What's going on?"
"Found something interesting." Ben pulled the glass bottle containing Venom from his bag. "Help me prep a sonic resonance device."
By now, Venom seemed to have exhausted himself. He lay limp in the bottle, motionless, his two white eyes squished together in a listless, dejected expression.
He'd been fine on the ship. That vessel was specifically designed for their species, capable of sustaining them without a host. But after arriving on Earth, if too much time passed without bonding to a host, he could die.
"What is that?" Banner's drowsiness faded the moment he saw Venom. The sludge Ben had bottled looked alive, instantly sparking his scientific curiosity.
Ben stopped him with a warning. "Careful, Dr. Banner. This is an alien symbiote. Once it bonds to you, it will amplify your emotions and make you a whole lot more irritable."
Hearing that, Banner's outstretched hand snapped back like it had touched a flame. He backpedaled several steps, keeping at least a meter between himself and Ben, his eyes fixed on Venom with sharp vigilance.
He wasn't drowsy anymore. Not even a little.
"Keep that thing away from me."
He even thought Ben shouldn't have brought such a terrifying creature back into the same building as him. If an accident happened and the Hulk got bonded, it would be an absolute catastrophe.
"Relax, Dr. Banner. Symbiotes are vulnerable to sound waves and fire. As long as we take precautions, it won't escape."
"Wait, how do you know—" Inside the bottle, Venom shrieked like he'd just seen a ghost.
"What the f—!" Banner slapped a hand over his face, shouting in alarm, "This disgusting parasite can talk! And in English!"
That instantly made Venom snap.
"You're the damn parasite!"
Honestly, Venom was a little triggered.
Under normal circumstances, Venom's personality was shameless to a fault, with skin thicker than a city wall. Especially after the psychological baptism he'd received from that lunatic Deadpool, ordinary insults barely registered.
But the word "parasite" was taboo.
Because he really was a parasite.
It's like swearing at an American with a generic insult. They might not flinch. But call them a white trash pig and tell them all their pretty girls go for black guys, and that hits a nerve fast.
Only when you strike a real sore spot does it do damage.
Venom, already somewhat listless, started spewing curses all over again.
"Shut up."
Annoyed beyond patience, Ben carried him straight to an isolated lab in the basement and shoved him into a sonic machine.
Instantly, the sound waves agitated Venom until he bristled with spikes like a sea urchin. "AAAAH—stop! Stop! I surrender!"
Venom became very obedient, very quickly.
Ben shut off the machine. After being put through that, Venom slumped and oozed downward like a puddle of oil.
"Incredible."
Standing outside the lab, Banner watched Venom through the glass, marveling. He noticed the symbiote's volume had changed. At first, inside the container, its mass had been quite small. After the sonic assault, it contracted sharply. And now it was liquid-like again. "How does it do that?"
Venom wanted to ask the same thing: How did these people know his weakness?
The symbiotes' weaknesses had been there since their very creation. When Knull forged the All-Black, the Necrosword, from a Celestial's skeleton and his own shadow, the clang of metal and the burn of flame became their weakness. But in all the universe, few beings actually knew about it.
But he kept his mouth shut. Deadpool's experience had taught him one thing: the best move in this situation was to play dead.
He thought through his situation. He'd been attacked by a Chitauri fleet. Those Chitauri forces weren't far from Earth anymore. Whatever their objective, there was no way they'd spare the planet. Those cosmic locusts left nothing behind wherever they went.
There was no need for him to go head-to-head with these Earthlings. He'd just wait for the Chitauri army to arrive. Once Earth fell, he could naturally escape. Then he'd bond with the Chitauri and devour every last Earthling's brain!
Perfect plan. Heh heh heh!
Venom thought he was an absolute genius.
Ben, of course, knew Venom wouldn't die that easily, and he had no intention of letting him die. After all, Flash needed Venom's help to recover his memories.
However, the current Venom was a little too wild for Flash. Ben worried that if Flash bonded with him, he wouldn't become Agent Venom so much as Spider-Bully.
'I still need to find time to let Venom bond with Peter.'
A Venom that hadn't been baptized by Spider-Man was no Venom at all.
Then he turned his gaze back to the sludge and asked, "Venom, besides you, have any other symbiotes come to this planet?"
"How do you know my name is Venom?"
The supposedly playing-dead Venom instantly stretched a face out of the puddle, his voice incredulous. He'd wanted to keep up the act, but it was obvious this guy knew way too much about symbiotes. And now he'd just outright called him by name. How bizarre.
"Don't tell me you know that psycho?" Venom asked strangely. Then added, "Ah, forget it, whatever!"
"You know Deadpool?" Ben countered.
In all his years, Ben had never heard any mention of Deadpool's existence. To think Venom had already been worn by that guy.
"Holy crap, you seriously know him?" Venom bellowed, then launched into a crazed rant at Ben. "Everyone says I'm a lunatic, but he's the real lunatic!"
"Can you even imagine?"
"I tell him my body can turn into weapons, and he tells me to turn into a 'hot weapon' so he can get off with it, you catch my drift?"
"I tell him I'm not a cup, and he insists I stick my head out so he can... He said he'd never tried using his own mouth to..."
"Do you have any idea what kind of trauma that is for a symbiote baby?!" Venom roared.
Banner was stupefied, his entire worldview taking a hard refresh.
Then Ben asked, "So you gave it to him?"
Venom smacked his mouth. "He insisted..."
"He insisted, so you gave it to him?" Ben's expression grew even more disgusted.
Venom lost it. He screamed at Ben even louder, "HE INSISTED!"
"He insisted and you just gave it to him?"
Venom: "..."
For a moment, the three individuals in the lab fell completely silent.
After a long while, Ben finally spoke. "Dr. Banner, I didn't touch him with my hands earlier, did I?"
"I don't know if you touched him when you grabbed him. I sure didn't." Banner sounded relieved.
Ben's face darkened further.
"Hey, hey, what the hell do you mean by that?!" Venom protested. "I'm still clean! You think I'd hang onto that nasty stuff?"
"Shut up!"
"Now I know why you've got so many damn offspring." Ben flicked his hand in distaste and excused himself for a moment, deciding to give his watch a thorough cleaning.
Banner practically jogged to leave the room alongside Ben. Being alone with Venom, even with a glass barrier between them, made him profoundly uneasy.
"We'd better find something to lock him up permanently," Banner said.
He was honestly terrified that Venom might sneak out without him knowing and bond to him. If the Hulk got provoked, even if Ben could eventually subdue him, the destruction would be massive.
"You're right." Ben nodded. He planned to modify Venom's escape pod later and build a sealed environment where the symbiote could survive.
After cleaning his watch, Ben returned to the lab. Bruce Banner had already gone to rest. Seeing Ben come back, Venom perked up again, slapping against the glass wall with a wet smack, like a glob of keyboard-cleaning slime.
Venom volunteered, "You want to know the whereabouts of the other five symbiotes. But I'm not telling you anything."
"You just told me there are five others yourself," Ben said, spreading his hands. "Eunice?"
Eunice's calm voice responded. "The Life Foundation has no record of receiving any extraterrestrial materials."
Ben had put Eunice on monitoring the Life Foundation's activities ever since the Stark Expo. It seemed this time the symbiotes hadn't fallen into their hands.
"You can't find them," Venom laughed smugly. Then he emphasized, "But I can. And I'm not telling you a thing."
Ben glanced at him. The subtext was clear: Venom wanted something.
"What do you want?" Ben asked.
"I want to eat your—" Venom caught the dangerous glint in Ben's eyes and hastily corrected, "I mean, that other guy's brain from earlier!"
"Not a chance." Ben rolled his eyes. Bruce Banner's value was worth more than ten Venoms combined. Besides, Ben wasn't in the business of providing brains.
Wait. Maybe that wasn't entirely true.
Ben suddenly recalled that quite a lot of brains were currently on their way to Earth.
So he curved his lips into a grin that even made Venom shudder. "Venom, there'll be brains aplenty. Question is, are you a picky eater?"
"For real?"
Ben then told him about the Chitauri army that would be reaching Earth in a few months.
"You already know about that?" Venom countered. "But your timing's off. It's not a few months. I'd guess we've got only a few days."
Now it was Ben's turn to be taken aback.
Venom explained how he'd been attacked by the Chitauri, then added with utter disgust, "For the record, I, Venom the Great, would never normally eat those locusts' brains! They're factory-farmed bargain bin stock, with less brain capacity than a rooster."
But halfway through, his expression twisted into a savage grin. "Still, those bastards dared to attack me! Now I'm gonna bite their heads clean off and use 'em as piss pots!"
/-\
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