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Dante traced golden symbols across his bare chest, repeating the process for the fifth time today. Just half a day of practice had cut down the time in half.
Felicia drifted to Silvija, whispering something to her. Silvija gave him a narrow-eyed glance before both women flew straight through the wall.
Dante blinked. Either Felicia wanted to give him privacy with Death, or she planned to bond with Silvija over their shared frustration with him—he would bet his last dollar on the former.
He finished the final rune on his shoulder and glanced up to see Death sitting across him on the cold bunker floor.
"Companion, you're drowning in worry." She raised one finger and twirled it through the air. A miniature galaxy materialized, and the stars within it flowed with the movement of her finger. She clenched her fist and made this disappear. "With my cosmic power, one touch will make Silvija fall in your lap as a doll. Obedient, loving, and forever yours."
He replied without hesitation, "I'd rather lose her than ruin her."
It would've been hard to explain his relationship with Death to Silvija with words. Still, he had shown it to her before their first time together. So she wouldn't feel betrayed and used.
"You'd rather lose something than ruin it," Death repeated his words under her breath, an appreciative smile on her face. "You understand my struggle better than most people ever could."
It took him a moment to grasp her meaning. Death cherished every soul that came to existence. But loving life meant letting go. A world without Death wasn't a paradise—it was way, way worse than Hell.
"Death isn't just necessary for new life. It's necessary for the universe to function at all."
A universe where Death lost the war against life was shown as an alternate reality in the comics.
Earth-10011, also known as Cancerverse.
Lovecraftian Gods had corrupted every life and turned them into their twisted servants. Calling this universe horrific would be an understatement.
Death's eyes gleamed. "You have glimpsed a universe without me? In your comics?"
He nodded awkwardly. Death talking about comics as one of comic characters would never stop being weird. Then again, his Death might not be exactly that Death. She was prettier and far more loving.
Since she showed childlike curiosity, he vividly described the Cancerverse, bringing the twisted world to life with his enhanced intelligence. Death listened like a child lost in a particularly dark fairy tale.
"Fascinating… I'd love to visit such a place someday."
"Nah, I'd rather not."
She stood gracefully and extended a hand, which he accepted naturally. Thanks to Silvija, he had grown used to being on both sides of such courteous gestures.
"My 'What if'," Death whispered, pulling him to his feet. "is Companion having the ability to visit every comic universe once you reach your full potential."
"My full potential?" he muttered with narrowed eyes. "Null, search One Above All in your database."
[Searching for data related to One Above All.]
[Search complete.]
[Character One Above All found in Universe-X's database with a special tag The Creator.]
[This Character data contains endless information which is still classed as incomplete. Transferring it may have undetermined effects on Administrator's mind and body.]
[Requesting permission to begin the transfer process.]
"NO! Cancel it!"
[Process canceled.]
He heaved a sigh of relief. A few moments in Death's mind had nearly shattered his sanity. Even one second in One Above All's consciousness would have obliterated him completely.
'So One Above All is my final resonance?'
Embracing that data meant becoming The Creator of all realities in this universe.
An omnipotent being.
He cut off the thought before it consumed him. That day was too far in the future. Forget omnipotence. Right now, he barely qualified as cannon fodder in the Avengers' war against Thanos.
Death squeezed his hand gently. "A new discovery in the Null Repository?"
"Yeah," he said, a cheeky smile curving his lips. "I'll explain when you return again."
Death gave a soft laugh, amused that someone dared to bribe her. "How manipulative."
He also succeeded.
"I just can't live without you." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in a bear-like hug, breathing in her intoxicating scent. After enduring endless seductions from Felicia and Silvija, he really wanted to push down and eat one of these beautiful women. It was depressing that despite having two gorgeous girlfriends, he had yet to see them nude, let alone try anything else. Too many crises. Too little time.
Death put her arms around his back and bit his shoulder, just enough to leave an impression. "Don't tickle me like that."
"Death, protect our bodies when we leave for the underground facility."
"Hmmm. You can leave without concern."
"Thanks… for this, and for helping me with Silvija especially."
He would be stupid to not understand Death's reason behind provoking Silvija. The cosmic beauty had used her infinite wisdom and subtle manipulation to craft a perfect situation, where Silvija wouldn't explode on him. Death had managed the situation beautifully.
She was truly worthy of being his first wife.
"...You're annoying," Death muttered against his chest. "I already said I won't fight your mortal lovers. They're temporary. I am eternal."
"Yes, yes."
She suddenly rose on her toes and pressed a lingering kiss to his right cheek, leaving wet warmth. Then she shoved him away and stepped aside, suddenly looking anywhere but at him. That look only meant revenge.
Right then, Felicia and Silvija flew back through the bunker wall. Felicia wore the biggest, most shit-eating grin he had ever seen on her as she pointed at his face. Silvija glared daggers like she wanted to stab him.
He touched his cheek and saw his fingers come away stained with black lipstick. Death's affection also had a mischievous plot behind it.
"Silvija…"
Silvija crossed her arms and squeezed her eyes shut, and then turned away from him, refusing to acknowledge his existence. Her intentions were crystal clear: I'm not talking to you, cheater, two-timer.
Dante sighed deeply. His harem ambitions would absolutely be the death of him. Not because he lacked charm or capability, but because he had fallen for possibly the worst woman for it. Silvija Sablinova wouldn't easily agree to share her man, even if her competition was a cosmic goddess.
Now, he could only work his ass off as he had started caring for this royal queen.
Death leaned closer. "A lover who can't leave is not yours—they are a prisoner. This is the consequence of your choice, Companion."
He met her gaze with a smirk. "A lover, not a prisoner. It's exactly why you chose me."
Before she could reply to having her own wisdom thrown back at her, he dashed through the bunker wall.
"You'll pay for this later!" Death's voice echoed in his mind. She sounded angry, but he knew this cosmic goddess was blushing furiously.
'Worth it.'
Felicia and Silvija followed him silently. The trio flew over the heavily guarded facility and drifted into the central compound. At its heart was a huge freight elevator with massive space. Norman had set it up to transport cargo trucks filled with symbiote samples and distribute them.
Felicia went into the lift and gave him a frustrated expression. "No panel here. It's controlled from down there."
"He is too cautious."
Norman knew Silvija's crew had technical geniuses. He had planted measures to make sure she couldn't visit the underground facility.
"How will we do the job if we can't access the area?"
He smiled. "I have a way. Trust me."
The trucks came and left at the same time every day. He could sneak in with them.
"Norman never allowed me to access the lower levels," Silvija said, still a bit confused about the fuss. "Why are you so obsessed about the elevator? Walls mean nothing in astral form."
Felicia put on her haughtiest pose. "Felicia Hardy is this peasant's name, Your Majesty. I'm not just Dante's sidekick; I'm also a cat burglar. Someone paid me to steal something from your client."
She laid it all out now that Silvija had agreed to cooperate. Silvija's help would make her job much easier.
Silvija looked like she wanted to put a bullet between Felicia's eyes. The anger was suddenly directed toward Dante. "Working with her to sabotage my client… how deplorable… is this a punishment for following my heart?"
"Silvija, listen to me for a second. I need her to stop Norman."
She shook her head. "Keep your explanations and sympathy. I mean nothing to you."
"You mean…"
She leaped and dove down the elevator shaft, leaving him with a stretched hand that was still reaching out for her.
"...Everything."
Felicia tried to offer a sympathetic pat on his shoulder, but astral form had limits. "Give her space, Darling. She needs time to think if this is what she wants."
He let out a sigh. "I know."
The two followed Silvija. Unbound by laws like gravity, an Astral form could travel at any speed. They arrived at the elevator's next stop in a near instant.
The elevator doors opened up to a massive underground garage, which stretched in both directions. A thick steel door sealed off the only entrance to the facility. The elevator controls weren't present even here, possibly managed from a command center elsewhere.
Felicia poked her head through the door and stumbled back, eyes wide in horror. "Jesus Christ… that thing is hideous."
Silvija seemed to be skeptical, thinking Felicia was exaggerating. She walked through the barrier, only to return quicker than Felicia. Her face seemed drained of color.
"You… were right." She addressed Dante directly, even forgetting to maintain her cold act.
Dante remained calm. He already knew what awaited them on the other side. He stepped directly through the reinforced steel.
The stench made him recoil instantly. It was like chemicals mixed with swamp water. A well-lit corridor stretched ahead with multiple doors on both sides. Black, writhing material covered a good part of walls, ceiling, even the floor.
The source of Felicia and Silvija's horror wasn't this corridor but the hunchbacked figure patrolling the area. The creature's body was sleek and muscular, its black skin constantly rippling as muscles shifted underneath. The most horrifying part was its mouth. A wide, lipless maw stretched too far, almost splitting the face in half. Rows of teeth jutted from both upper and lower jaws, some as short as a finger, others as long as a dagger. A long tongue flickered beneath these vicious teeth like a serpent tasting the air.
It resembled Venom, but smaller, leaner, and stripped of the iconic Spider-Man symbol.
Felicia and Silvija ventured closer once their fear subsided, observing every inch of the symbiote's alien skin.
"So what exactly am I looking at?" Felicia asked.
"A lab experiment gone wrong?" Silvija muttered, scratching her head. "Does a certain someone know anything about this monster?"
Dante didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Silvija's childish act was completely unlike her reputation as the legendary mercenary queen. Showing this act in front of Felicia meant she had somewhat accepted the mischievous burglar as a friend.
"Symbiote," Dante explained. "An alien life form. This is its state after it bonds with someone."
"Doesn't look like anything special," Felicia said dryly. "Are those tentacles useful for anything besides fulfilling Norman's sexual fantasies?"
Silvija frowned and turned to him for an answer. It was an instinctive reaction since she averted her gaze right away. Even Ava maintained better professional composure. Silvija hadn't lied about keeping her personal and professional life one and the same.
"A normal symbiote host can lift a car, run faster than Olympic athletes, and shrug off bullets. It can also regenerate wounds and broken bones." He closely observed the symbiote soldier's behavior and found an anomaly. "It's not acting like a symbiote or human. Someone else must be controlling it. Norman…"
The implication was huge. Having an army of mini venoms was one thing and having complete control over the said army were two different levels of challenge. One could wreak havoc and the other could conquer at Norman's command.
"You've got to be kidding me." Felicia took a sharp breath. "Darling, you're a magician. Banish this freak to some distant dimension."
Silvija crossed her arms. "Only Ava can fight something like this. Good thing it's the only one."
The words had barely escaped his lips when another Symbiote shambled out of the Door L1, and then another from L5.
Felicia peeked inside a couple of rooms and returned pale as snow. "We're fucked, Darling."
Silvija and Dante swept through the labs. Every room followed the same pattern: a scientist, sealed head-to-toe in hazmat gear, tested different compounds on symbiote samples and recorded the results under the watchful gaze of a symbiote soldier. These scientists obviously were forced by Norman to be here. The only alternative was joining the symbiote army.
Dante read through the data from room to room. One file detailed enhanced metabolic absorption rates, one detailed improved cellular regeneration timeline, and another reported improvement in tentacle density. He understood most of it, thanks to Sue Storm's knowledge in biology and genetics.
Norman was perfecting symbiotes through constant experimentation.
The L-Section was the experimentation lab. This being so close to the elevator meant they weren't a priority to Norman anymore. These thirty Symbiote warriors also meant nothing to Norman.
'It couldn't have happened in one month.'
Norman had been preparing this for a long time.
At the end, the corridor branched in two paths. X-Section and V-Section.
They investigated X-Section first.
The chamber was massive and circular, with a ceiling three stories high. Tendrils of symbiote matter pulsed along every surface. The place looked like the inside of a massive organism.
And in this chamber were pods.
Hundreds of large pods in three neat rows. Each pod was roughly human-sized, made of semi-transparent material. The fluid within was dark and always churning, but Dante could make out the twitching and spasming of human figures. It was unknown if it was from pain or transformation.
The upper row housed the three biggest and sturdiest pods. Nothing moved within that dark liquid, but he knew these were the strongest hosts.
He could shove his face inside them to see their faces, but that would only ruin his mood. It wasn't like he would find any one familiar among Norman's symbiote army.
"Oh God." Felicia turned away, covering her mouth. "Norman Osborn is inhumane."
Silvija squeezed her fists. "This horror happened right under our noses. I was protecting this slaughterhouse. Disgusting."
Dante reached out to comfort her, but his hand passed through her shoulder like smoke. "This is only one facility. Norman has many."
"You're so calm," Felicia said. "You knew it would be this bad?"
He shook his head. "Let's just say I have come across worse things."
Nearly a century in Hyperion's life, about ten years in Sue Storm's, and about five years in Doctor Strange's life—the cosmic-scaled events he had experienced through them made everything feel miniscule in comparison.
Silvija's soft gaze lingered on him, reminding him of the night they visited Hellmoon Club, when she fixed his collar. That moment was imprinted on him. "Can we even fight Norman?"
Felicia twisted a strand of her platinum blonde hair. "Don't count on me, Sweetheart. I can tussle with your average thug, but this is way out of my league."
"I don't need you to fight," Dante said, glancing up at the three pods. "I need you to infiltrate the facility with me. Let me handle the rest."
He glanced in V-Section's direction, where he would find the source of symbiotes. It had to be there, otherwise, Norman wouldn't hire Silvija for defense.
They ventured into the V-Section.
Glass cells lined both sides of a long corridor, each cell showing humans writhing. They weren't normal humans as symbiote matter covered some part of everyone. Some let out guttural roars, which never left the cell. Some pounded and clawed at the glass, which proved to be futile. Some just convulsed in the corner, silently suffering.
It was a torture chamber.
Scientists in full hazmat suits observed and recorded like each human was nothing more than data in their eyes.
Felicia looked nauseated. She would've vomited if she was in her physical body. The young burglar had yet to come across such a cruel sight. She had yet to become the Black Cat who laughed and enjoyed life in every crisis.
Silvija's strict training and vast experience kept her steady, but Dante knew the fury beneath the stoicness. She was determined to take revenge. Norman shouldn't have hired her to protect something so vile.
Dante barely flinched. He had come here expecting worse. Nothing Norman ever did was 'kind.' Instead, he focused on the data spread from clipboards and terminals, and something clicked in his head. Why didn't Norman directly make symbiote hosts but instead chose to make them suffer? The symbiote within these cells weren't exactly alive like Venom. Only through agony could the symbiotes awaken primitive consciousness and bond properly. After all, symbiotes were known to adapt emotions from their hosts.
'This is beyond fucked.'
He didn't spend another second in this twisted prison. Past the symbiote hosts' prison, an immense circular vault door waited. Twenty feet of layered steel covered in security panels and biometric locks. A barrier designed to shrug off bombs and heavy weaponry.
Inside was the real secret.
Dante phased through it without hesitation. The chamber beyond was almost as spacious as the area with symbiote hosts pods.
A giant glass vessel stood in the center, about fifteen feet tall and ten feet wide. Inside that vessel was the symbiote. Its tendrils stretched and retracted, sometimes forming a signature face of Venom. The cycle was a response to torture as four robotic arms periodically stabbed and sliced at it. The pieces tried to crawl back to the symbiote, only to be captured by the arms and passed out of the vessel.
The symbiote pressed against the glass. It almost felt like it was pleading with Dante to rescue it from the endless cycle of harvesting and suffering.
For the first time, Dante felt pity for a symbiote. The good news—acting on his emotions didn't clash with his goal of stealing the source of symbiotes. The bad news—he had yet to plan the steps after he stole the source symbiote. If only it was as simple as walking up to Norman Osborn and executing him with Death's authority. But doing so might unleash a symbiote army on New York.
He looked at his only allies. Felicia, lost in her own world, creating a mindmap for the heist. Silvija, lost in her world as well, considering a plan to fuck over Norman Osborn.
'Yeah, this team can't handle such a threat.'
He needed more powerful allies. Someone absurdly strong. Someone brilliantly smart. He knew someone who was both.
Emma Frost.
'She loves using people. Now, it's her turn to be used.'
***
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