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Eddie Brock has vowed to destroy all of the symbiotes that are on Earth. He has started by tracking down Hybrid.[1] Although Scott Washington has been using his symbiote for good, it is only a matter of time before this symbiote begins spawning. He ambushes Hybrid while he is on patrol, incapacitating the hero with his weapons. Brock apologizes to Scott, wishing there was another way, before shooting Hybrid with bullets that dissolve both the symbiote and its host.

Meanwhile, Agent Venom has been accepted into the ranks of the Secret Avengers. From their orbital headquarters, the Lighthouse, Giant-Man and Beast show off the containment unit where the Venom symbiote will be kept when it’s not being used by Flash Thompson, the alien’s current host. The two scientists assure Captain America and Valkyrie that the creature can be controlled. Flash, who aches to be with the symbiote again, expresses his concerns that he won’t be able to have access to the symbiote if he is in danger. However, Giant-Man has thought of this, explaining that he has created a special phone number that Flash can call that will cause the symbiote to be shrunk down via Pym Particles so it can be transmitted to him through the phone. Flash totally sells that he hasn’t developed a dependency on the symbiote, a lie easier to sell now that Flash has been fitted with cybernetic legs. Captain America is pleased and is certain that Flash is up for the job. As Valkyrie escorts Flash back to Earth, the three other Avengers worry about Flash getting out of control and wonder what they are going to tell Spider-Man.

As Flash is being escorted to the transporter, he asks Valkyrie if she ever feels like she is in over her head. Val assures Flash that he’s earned this and not to worry because if they’re wrong he’ll be dead anyway. She is also flattered when Flash calls her beautiful. Flash finds himself with his foot in his mouth over this, and has to tell Valkyrie that he’s not interested in her because he has a girlfriend. Still, as Flash teleports away, Valkyrie is flattered by his kind words.

Flash materializes in his apartment as Peter Parker is knocking on his door to speak to him. Flash lets Peter in and he checks the apartment for alcohol after Betty told him that Flash called to break up with her a few days ago. They had called the Veteran Affairs office and nobody knew who he was. Flash admits that he went on a bender and was avoiding people.[2] Peter suggest they go outside and get some air.

Meanwhile, Eddie Brock has now set his sights on another symbiote, Scream. He has set up an ambush in her sewer hideout and when she enters she is ambushed by Brock who kills her with some knives he was heating in the hideout’s furnace.[3]

By this time, Peter and Flash have stopped at the Coffee Bean to get some coffee. Peter can understand Flash’s moment of weakness as he knows what it is like to lose a loved one and knows that Thompson has been having a hard time recently. He also tells Flash that his friends are there for him, but he doesn’t understand why he’s taking Betty down with him. Flash explains that he broke up with Betty to keep her away from him while he goes through his downward spiral, but Peter says that he is still hurting her and points out how absent he has been in their relationship. When Flash tells him that it’s complicated, Peter asks him to explain himself. Flash gets Peter to swear to secrecy, but before he can tell the truth he gets a call from his sister Jessie. Jessie demands to know where Flash has been and he agrees to finally come and visit their mother. After ending the call, he tells Peter he has to go because he hasn’t seen his mother since the funeral.

However, when Flash arrives at the Thompson family home, he tries to tell his mother that his job has kept him away. However, Rosie Thompson has lived with a drunk for 46 years and knows that he is lying and demands he tells the truth. He realizes that, for her own safety, he can’t tell her the whole truth and admits to her that he had started drinking again and is going back to Alcoholics Anonymous. When he returns home he finds Betty waiting for him. She is looking at a picture of them from when they went on a skiing trip and remarks about how, back in those day, Flash was a really bad liar. She remembers how she told herself to not get back together with him because she would just suffer more heartbreak.[4] When Flash tries to interject, she stops him and says that she didn’t come to talk, but to make him listen to what she has to stay.

She is sorry that his father died and while she is impressed how he turned out given his troubled up bringing, but she has decided that he isn’t enough of a man for her. Spending time with Flash’s mother while he was off on a bender made her realize that she didn’t want the same life that Rosie Thomspon lived married to Flash’s father. She then tells him that he doesn’t get to break up with her because he’ll think they can get back together once things quiet down. Instead, she is breaking up with him and she tells him that they are never getting back together again. She then walks out of his apartment slamming the door behind her.

That’s when Flash gets a call from Giant-Man who needs Agent Venom on a mission. He tells Pym that he can go and lies to him by saying his personal life is exactly as he left it. Moments later, he is teleported to the Secret Avengers satellite headquarters.

Recurring Characters

Agent Venom, Secret Avengers (Captain America, Giant-Man, Beast, Valkyrie), Peter Parker, Jesse Thompson, Rosie Thompson, Eddie Brock, Hybrid, Scream

Continuity Notes

1. Brock gives a brief run down saying that Hybrid’s symbiote was harvested by a corporation from the Venom symbiote. That’s not entirely accurate. In actuality, Hybrid was six symbiotes that were harvested from the Venomy symbiote by the Life Foundation in Venom: Lethal Protector #4. Five of these symbiotes merged together to become Hybrid when they bonded with Scott Washington in Venom: Along Came a Spider #2

2. Flash mentions the death of his father and the bender he went on after here. Harrison Thompson died of cirrhosis of the liver in Venom (vol. 2) #7. Not long after this, Flash was blackmailed by Crime-Master to go to Las Vegas to steal the Toxin symbiote and ended up in a battle to save the planet from being conquered by Blackheart. Flash did go on a bender at the time as well. See Venom (vol. 2) #10-14.

3. He mentions how Scream is another offspring of the Venom symbiote. She first appeared in Venom: Lethal Protector #3. Her symbiote is the only one that didn’t merge with the others to become Hybrid.

4. Flash and Betty have dated on-and-off for years dating back to Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #98. Their relationship has always been sidelines due to demonic invasions, alcoholism and the whole pesky issue of Betty being married at one time.