Resolutions

After being knocked out by Doctor Paine, Eddie Brocks wakes up in the sewers to discover that the doctor and his symbiote are gone. That's when he remembered that he set off at time bomb in case his confrontation with the symbiote went south. removing the bomb, Eddie flees the sewers and leaps into the Hudson River just seconds before the bomb goes off. However, he is caught in the blast and suffers injuries to his body. As he pulls himself out of the water, the pain caused by his injuries makes him miss the durability and resistance to pain that his symbiote had brought him in the past. As he walks along a pier, Eddie is attacked by a pair of men who mistaken Brock for the one the winos they regularly terrorize. Not wanting to be delayed, Eddie easily beats the men, becoming more frantic with each blow as he fears for the safety of his other.

This is because Eddie can sense his symbiote being tortured by Doctor Paine at his lab facility. Since capturing the symbiote, Doctor Paine has been attempting to bond it to the patients in his sanitarium. However, none of these forced bondings have came with much success. Giving up on this approach, Paine then decides to experiment on the symbiote directly by extracting physical samples from its mass. Having stolen a motorcycle, Eddie can feel the symbiote's pain. Racing to Long Island, he calls out to his other, telling it to hold on as he is coming. Arriving on the facility grounds, Eddie wonders questions Paine's plans, as he should have thought about Eddie Brock coming back to rescue his symbiote. He easily breaks into the sanitarium and takes out two of the guards before continuing his search.[1] Eddie manages to get into Paine's lab where he finds the symbiote contained in a cylinder. As he tries to find a way to let his other free, Brock is interrupted by Paine and his men, who intend to stop him.

When one of Paine's orderlies tries to restrain Eddie, he manages to overpower his attacker and smash his face through the cylinder. This frees the symbiote and it promptly merges with Eddie transforming him into Venom once more. Venom easily slaughters Paine's armed guards and then attacks the mad psychologist. However, he quickly learns that Paine cannot feel any physical harm. That's when Venom decides to leave Paine with a fate worse than death. Sending the tendrils of his symbiote into every orifice of Paine's face, the symbiote drains all of the phenethylamine from Paine's brain. With this complete, Venom spits in his face and leaves the mad scientist to his fate. Paine suddenly begins to feel the results of phenethylamine withdrawal and begins feasting on the brains of his dead minions. Over the next few days, Eddie Brock has researches how to replenish the phenethylamine supply that his symbiote needs to feed upon. Sure enough, the solution turns out to be quite simple. After a shopping expedition, Eddie Brock returns to his home in the sewers with something that will provide phenethylamine, a simple box of Valentine's day chocolates.

Recurring Characters

Venom, Dr. Thaddeus Paine

Continuity Notes

1. One of the guards asks the other if he had watched the previous evening's episode of ER. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 as the this television series ended in 2009.