And Sat Down Beside Her!

Rescuing his ex-wife from police custody, Venom escapes to the roof of police headquarters to find Spider-Man waiting for him. Venom instantly attacks the wall-crawler who feels out of his depth because he doesn't have the same experience fighting Venom as Peter Parker has.[1] As the two battle, Detective Steen orders her fellow officers to mobilize and go up onto the roof an apprehend Venom. Back on the roof, Spider-Man holds his own against Venom when his spider-sense goes off. He doesn't know why until he is struck on the back of the head with a pipe by Anne Weying. She apologizes for striking the wall-crawler, explaining that Eddie is actually trying to rescue her. Venom tells Anne to stand back as he knows how to deal with Spider-Man and resumes his attack.[2] That's when officers arrive on the roof and begin opening fire. That's when Detectives Steen and Clark arrive on the roof and order their men to hold their fire since they might hit Anne. This interruption allows Venom to catch Spider-Man in his own webbing and tosses him off the roof.[3]

As he falls to the ground, Spider-Man quickly breaks free from Venom's webbing and manages to break his fall just inches from the ground. He then borrows one of the officer's bullhorns and rushes back up to the rooftop. He tries to weaken Venom by shouting in the symbiote's face with the megaphone, but it doesn't work due to the device having a low battery and Venom easily swats it away. With the police officers unable to do anything with Anne in the way, Officer Steen rushes back into the building with a plan. Meanwhile, Venom continues to pummel the wall-crawler until Steen manages to activate the rooftop air raid siren. This causes sufficient noise to cause the Venom symbiote a great deal of pain. Unable to stand the pain, Venom is forced to flee the scene without Anne but vows to come back for her. While back on the roof, Anne is put under arrest for interfering with the police. When Spider-Man protests this, the detectives warn the wall-crawler that they can arrest him as well. With no leverage on the matter, Spider-Man is forced to head home and lick his wounds. While down below the city, Venom returns to his hideout. He is furious at Spider-Man, once more blaming the wall-crawler for ruining his career as a journalist and vows to destroy Spider-Man once and for all.[4]

Back at police headquarters, Detectives Steen and Clark leave Anne with booking so they can talk about their next move in private. Steen wants to know why Clark is running Anne through the system. He explains that he wants to capture Venom and bring him to justice and the Weying woman is their key. In order to have a better chance at capturing Brock, Clark has been in contact with Doctor Ashley Kafka at Ravencroft Institute who will be providing the police with resources he hopes will allow them to finally arrest Venom. By this time, Venom is still fuming in his hideout when the phone he rigged up begins to ring. To his surprise, it is Anne, who has been allowed to make her one phone call to tell him that she has been arrested. Things at the police station get even tenser when Trish Tilby arrives with a news crew to get the story. As Detective Steen tries to clear out the media, she notices Anne Weying on the phone and orders her officers to stop her. This prompts Tilby to start asking why Weying is being denied her rights to make a phone call. With the situation quickly falling apart, Anne has Eddie promise not to come for her. While Brock agrees not to come, he sends his other across the phone line. The alien symbiote quickly travels across the line and begins to bond to Anne.

Meanwhile, Ben Reilly is in his apartment mending his costume, remembering how he used to have to do this in his Aunt May's attic.[5] He is watching television while he works. Suddenly, the talk show he is watching is interrupted for a special news bulletin by Trish Tilby at police headquarters. Ben is shocked to see that the Venom symbiote has now bonded to Anne Weying and is now on a rampage.

Recurring Characters

Venom, Spider-Man, She-Venom, Detectives Clark and Steen, Trish Tilby

Continuity Notes

1. Spider-Man refers to Peter Parker as his "clone". At the time of this story, Ben Reilly was led to believe that he is the real Peter Parker in The Spectacular Spider-Man #226. However, this is a grand deception organized by the Green Goblin as revealed in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1.

2. Venom says he knows all of Spider-Man's tricks here. He is unaware that the real Peter Parker retired as Spider-Man in The Spectacular Spider-Man #229 and that Ben Reilly took on the mantle in Sensational Spider-Man #0.

3. Venom notices that Spider-Man is fighting differently, as though they have never fought before. Spider-Man thinks to himself that this is not accurate. This is because Ben Reilly has fought Venom on two different occasions during the Exile Returns and Planet of the Symbiotes story arcs.

4. As explained in Amazing Spider-Man #300, Eddie Brock was a newspaper reporter for the Daily Globe who was making it big with his exclusive interviews with the man he thought was the Sin-Eater. However, his career was ruined when Spider-Man caught the real Sin-Eater in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110. This led to Eddie coming upon the Venom symbiote (left to die by Peter Parker in Web of Spider-Man #1). Venom became determined to destroy Spider-Man until the two made an uneasy truce in Amazing Spider-Man #375.

5. Actually, it was Peter Parker who used to mend his Spider-Man costume in Aunt May's attic. The reason why Ben Reilly knows this is because, as a clone of Peter Parker, he has all of Peter's memories up to Amazing Spider-Man #149.

Fusion

Scott Washington, his brother Derek and his friend Dwight Simms are playing basketball in their neighborhood when they are interrupted by members of the Easy X gang, who consider the court part of their turf. While Derek refuses to leave, Scott warns his brother not to start a fight because they are outnumbered. Things get heated when Derek shoves one of the gang members. In response, the gang banger pulls out a gun, but Scott easily disarms him. The gang demands that the Washington brothers show some respect. However, the situation is quickly defused by a passing patrol car. The thugs leave, but their leader vows that he will get even with Scott and Derek. After the close call, Dwight head for home and Derek comments on how cowardly Simms can be. Scott points out that Dwight did the smart thing by not taking any risks and cautions his brother to be careful because their neighborhood has the highest murder rate in the city. Derek only rolls his eyes, since he figures his brother is going to make another speech about how he is going to try and get his family out of Bedford-Stuyvesant someday. Scott says he doesn't want his brother to live in an area that has problems with gangs and drugs. However, until then, Scott warns his brother Derek that he has to be smart and play safe if he wants to survive until then.

Scott knows all about being smart, thinking about how he had gotten a job as a Guardsman at the Vault in order to earn the money he needed to get his family out of their troubled Brooklyn neighborhood. Of all the super-powered inmates in the Vault, he befriended Vance Astrovik, a member of the New Warriors who was imprisoned thereafter he murdered his abusive father in self-defense.[1] Scott developed a respect for Vance when he refused to allow his teammates in the New Warriors to break him out of the Vault, as he wanted to serve out his entire sentence.[2] He thinks about how, after his stint at the Vault, he has then hired a top-secret testing facility in the Adirondack Mountains to guard to four symbiotes that were recently captured.[3] That was until a test caused the four symbiotes to merge into a hybrid creature and tried to escape. After being briefly bonded with the symbiotes, Scott felt their pain and allowed them to escape. When his superiors learned of this, they fired him on the spot, forcing him to return home before he could raise the money needed to get his family out of Brooklyn.

By the time they get home, Derek is asking Scott if his new job is going to give him a gun. Their mother, about to head off for work at a fast-food restaurant, hears this and tells them both that there will never be a gun in her home. After grabbing something to eat, Scott goes upstairs to shower and get ready for work at his new job as a security guard. As he showers, he once more thinks bout how dire things are. Somewhere, the Hybrid symbiote feels Scott's pain and sorrow and continues trying to locate him. After his shower, Scott goes over designs that he sketched based off the Guardsmen armor that he used to wear at the Vault. He tells Derek that the armor could have some practical uses for law enforcement and security jobs. When Derek makes a joke about how Scott could make a killing selling the designs to street gangs, it is poorly received by Scott. That's when they hear the subwoofers of a car parking outside the apartment, annoying Scott. Suddenly, members of the Easy X gang come bursting in through the front door and open fire on the pair. Although Scott tries to get his brother to safety, both are gunned down. Scott watches in horror as his Derek's body is riddled with bullets. Thinking that both men are dead, one of the gang members spots Scott's designs on the table and grabs them before they leave.

Six Weeks Later

With the stolen Guardsmen designs, Leon the leader of the Easy X gang, has paid for black-market technology that will allow him to create this armor for his gang members. Leon has managed to get off on the shooting of the Washington brothers. He tells the man selling him the equipment that without witnesses, the judge had to let him go. Leon gloats that while Derek was killed in the shooting, Scott was left crippled. They then begin going over the new designs that will allow his gang to take out their rivals and earn some real money.

Meanwhile, at Brooklyn's Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital, Scott Washington is visited by Vance Astrovik. Vance offers to go after the Easy X gang for him. However, Scott refuses to let his being a paraplegic stop him from avenging his brother's death. He even jokes about weaponizing his wheelchair in order to do it. Concerned about Scott, Vance gives him a card and tells him to call if he changes his mind or needs any other help. Eventually, Scott is discharged from the hospital and is allowed to return home. On his first night back, alone in the apartment, Scott looks out the window and sees members of the Easy X gang driving by and he suddenly feels terrified and helpless. That's when the Hybrid symbiote comes crashing into the apartment. He tells the creature to stay away, blaming it for his current situation. However, when the symbiote bonds to him, Scott discovers that he can walk again. Realizing he now has great power, Washington vows to get revenge. This horrifies the Hybrid creature, as it sought Scott out as a kindred spirit and now finds that he is not the same man that the first bonded with.

Recurring Characters

Hybrid, Justice, Dwight Simms

Continuity Notes

1. Vance Astrovik murdered his father in New Warriors #20. Scott states that it has been about a year between Vance Astrovik's incarceration and his story. This hould be considered a factual reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.

2. The New Warriors attempts to break Vance out of the Vault in New Warriors #26.

3. These symbiotes were captured following the events of Venom Separation Anxiety #1-4.