Mint and Chocolate

In a flash some of those bombs came rocketing towards us. I was paralyzed, meaning Venomette was too. Panic ripped through me like a tsunami. I was vaguely aware of falling to my knees, ET just gone, my consciousness fleeting. I could see an orange sphere heading for me. 

My mind brought up the smell of the theater. My friends laughter dying in their throats as the first bomb hit the ticket booths. Then screams as his laughter broke through the smoke. I was thrown to the ground by the manager, Ashland, he was almost retiring, I remember something piercing us. It stuck me to the ground, and killed him. Then there was nothing. 

But right now, with all this power, I couldn’t move. I was just as weak as I had been then. 

Then Otto came out like a shot overhead, Peter Two working in tandem as they countered all of the bombs coming towards me and Dr. Strange. There was a brief second, watching Otto’s back, that my heart seemed to skip a beat. Goblin was going straight towards him. 

Venomette just erupted, without a specific form. We enveloped Otto, almost covering him except for we missed one end of a metal arm, we were too slow. He screamed as we pulled him back away from the fray. 

In a heap we fell several stories down, landing hard on our back as we somehow managed to place Otto down. Somehow Sparky was here too who we also deposited. 

We just looked straight up, breathing hurt. We couldn’t move. Something was lodged in our side. It took several moments to realize somehow Goblin had activated the blade on the head of the actuator and promptly thrust it into our flank. But something was different about it. We were laying on it, the blade angled upward, probably hitting our spleen and stomach, being dug in from our weight. 

“Poison,” ET managed in my head, I was shaking, unable to focus my eyes. 

“They don’t look good,” Sparky’s voice sounded like he was speaking over a radio with bad reception. It sank into me. I couldn't even blink, the pain in my eyes excruciating. 

“Galen!” We felt Otto kneel next to us, his sharp intake of breath making us hurt more. 

“Oh so you two are on a first name basis,” The other man said, his voice making my head spin. ET was trying and failing to come out, something about this poison draining all we had. 

“No, no, no,” Otto was chanting, his voice clear as day. We could even feel his hands checking for a pulse, realizing we were only in agonal breathing, he scooped us up into his chest. He was rocking back and forth, sobs wracking through him. 

“There’s a blade in their back,” Peter Two sounded far far away. 

“It’s my fault,” Otto sounded utterly destroyed. “If I wasn’t here they’d be okay, I’m not supposed to have this.” We were vaguely aware of our heart slowing, blood running down our leg. 

“If we take out the blade,” Peter Two said. “Do you think she’d heal?”

“I don’t know,” Otto was protectively keeping me close to his body, trembling. “I don’t know what they can do, or what’s going on… please, Peter, if you can take it out safely, they may have a chance.”

“Okay, Otto,” Peter Two sounded wrecked too. “Easy does it, you have to hold her still, part of it is in her spine, I’m pulling it out, there’s iridescent green on it, it’s almost there, you’re going great, keep her steady, and there!” I felt the blade exit, followed promptly by ET roaring out of me, swallowing part of Otto too. 

“Doc!” Peter Two sounded alarmed, his voice normal cadence. ET was ferociously containing the poison, healing us with break neck speed. Somehow they were healing Otto too, who was stiff as a board. It did not seem intentional, but ET was wild right now. They had never been so unhinged, my knees buckling at how much I resonated with their rage. I had to imagine feeling someone healing you without knowing what they were doing was an odd sensation. For Otto’s credit he just held onto me. 

“I’m fine, dear boy,” Otto’s voice was tight. I couldn’t see his face, but it seemed like ET was splattered across his torso and some of his human limbs. Essentially wherever he’d been keeping us against him.

“Are they hurting you, doc?” Peter Two sounded unconvinced. 

“No,” Otto said gruffly. “They’re scared, healing, I suspect Venomette will pull back when Galen is safe.” It was shortly after that ET was running a final check, a green slime shooting out one side, melting metal across the way. We heard Peter Two whistle in disbelief. 

“That was inside her?” Sparky’s voice went up at the end. “It just melted metal.”

“The Venom in our universe wasn’t this powerful,” Peter Two mused. ET sank into me, satisfied we were safe. I blinked a bunch, my head just resting on my dad’s collarbone. He hadn’t looked down yet, his gaze focused on Peter Two. The metal arms though were trained on me, one pushing flat on my back to keep me upright and not sliding down. My whole body felt like jello, and I knew ET was severely weakened from saving us from apparently melting. 

“There’s someone like this in our universe?” Otto’s voice could have cut stone. 

“Yeah, Eddie Brock,” Peter Two squatted in front of us, looking me up and down. “Who is she to you?”

“Well, Peter, this is Rosie’s child,” Our dad seemed to be beaming, instinctively clutching us a little closer. “Apparently I did exist here, but I died when Rosie was expecting our child. Galen tells me her father here was a math guy, who died in his lab. Sounds like a bad dream.”

“Otto, that’s, this is amazing,” Peter Two sounded genuine. “You always wanted to influence young minds.” We saw him stand suddenly, looking up as the shield came crashing down through the scaffolds. Otto looked down at me then, realizing I was just staring at his face he grinned sheepishly. 

“Hey,” I wheezed out. “You know you can ease up now.”

“I don’t really want to let go, or think I can right now.,” Otto said faintly, looking up a moment as Peter Two leapt down to the shield. When he refocused on me, his eyes were brimming with emotion. 

“How about you at least stand up, old man,” I countered with less force than I wanted. “Your knees shouldn’t have to take this kind of abuse. Otherwise you may need more metal soon,” Our dad smirked, using his mechanical limbs to rise to standing, keeping us bridal style in his grasp. But, he did ease up a bit, making it easier to breath. 

“This whole experience has been… thrilling,” He said, looking out at a foreign New York. “I don’t know what happens when we go back to our respective worlds. I left an unstable mini-sun in the same pier you found us in. It has to be stopped, and Parker is there, he can’t die for our mistake.” 

“We hope that you live,” We said, ET and I, which earned us an arched eyebrow. “So we can find you again, maybe on another plane.” 

“I am quite suspicious of you, ET, and how you’ve come to know all this,” Otto brushed some of our hair from our face, seemingly absently but we curled towards his touch. 

“We know many things,” ET was speaking from a pool of knowledge I didn’t share. “Our kind has traveled many places, been to many earths searching for hosts like Galen.” 

He just made a sound in his throat, letting us down when we moved to stand. He kept a firm hand on our upper back, a tentacle wrapped loosely around to keep us from going face first into the ground. We were all looking down at the fight between this universe’s Parker and Goblin. I saw he wasn’t holding back now. 

When Parker used his full strength, he was denting metal with ease. The older two Spiders were hovering, watching, waiting. We saw MJ and Ned here, watching the fight too. We were glad Otto had decided we didn’t need to intervene. Then again, it didn’t seem like either of us were in fighting shape. 

One of his top tentacles was cut off on the end, little spurts of electricity coming out. I looked down lazily at the other end of it that Peter Two had pulled out of me. Otto reached down, looking at it longingly before handing it to me. I held it in one hand, stroking one side. 

“You’re amazing,” We said, looking at the head of the actuator. 

“Arrogant perhaps,” Otto was staring at my profile, his hands clenched at his sides. 

“Maybe well earned,” We said, ET wrapped around my forearm. “I had always thought of dabbling in robotics, but it always made mom wild to consider it. I guess we both know why though.”

A very loud clang brought our attention down as we watched Peter Two stop this universe’s Peter from killing the Goblin with his own glider. That earned him a stab in the back, which promptly had Tall Peter jamming the cure into the Goblin’s neck. 

We held out an encased black arm to stop Otto from lunging forward. The two lower tentacles still gripped the edge, ready to push him over. We shook our head, realizing that there was damage to him. There were deep gashes through both his coats on his back. 

“Healed what we could touch,” ET spoke in my mind. We were still keeping a thick arm across his chest, feeling him push into us. Otto clearly cared about Norman Osborn, his jaw set, anger vibrating through him. I nudged our father again, and he shot us a look, that rage I knew too well behind his eyes. It was only there long enough to acknowledge before he blinked it away, swallowing. 

“What’s your favorite book, father?” We asked, and he refocused on us, one brow creeped up his forehead. It had amused us that he reacted just a fraction differently whether we said dad or father. 

“Same as Rosie’s,” He said, stepping back from the edge. “T.S. Elliot was her favorite.” 

“Oh right,” We chuckled. “She read it to us–to me growing up.”

“How much does ET talk to you,” Otto pulled back from the ledge, watching the black seep into my arm. He held his arms slightly away from his side, and I wedged myself between his arm and body. That damn harness was hard as hell, rubbing against my ribs. 

“We rely on each other at this point, saved each other,” I said, wrapping one of my arms between the base of the actuators, making it about halfway across his back. 

“These machines,” Otto gestured to the tentacle currently wrapping around me. “Are what drove me to evil, like children they were impulsive, trying to achieve my goals without morality. And I didn’t care because Rosie was gone, my future meaningless.” 

We just nodded, standing next to him, watching as the sky started cracking. Strange and Peter were up at the top of the statue, we then saw the Spider jump towards his friends. 

“It feels like time is running out,” Sparky said behind us. We must have both given him the same look over our shoulders because he just threw his hands up. 

That got us laughing, the same laugh, which made us both cry, hugging and sobbing. I hated this, I hated memorizing his smell of cigars and leather, and I tried urging ET to go with him, to protect him from whatever was waiting. 

“He is not a suitable host,” ET told us firmly in our mind. “We would kill him, his harness takes up too much energy to survive both.” I pushed my face as far into his chest as I could before he pulled my shoulders back. He had a flush to his face, but was smiling, tears still falling. 

“I do love having met you,” He spoke quietly, just to me. “I love that you exist, that we both have some answers. I didn’t think I could ever feel again, even when the voices left, but I do. I care so deeply about you Galen. About who you can be, who you are.”

“It doesn’t have to be the end, dad,” I rasped, balling his turtleneck in my fists, unable to look at his face. Pain like when you realize the future is waiting to eat you lanced right into my chest. 

He put his hands on mine. I choked on a laugh, seeing how ridiculous mine looked surrounded by his. I was dragging the hem up, which pulled from just above the harness, I saw ugly red scars there. Burns from how poorly the skin had healed. 

“We just got you,” I snarled, putting my head down against him again. He moved his hands to my shoulders, just gently pulling me towards him. 

“I know, dear,” He eased my hands from his shirt, and I still attached, wrapping around his waist, the bases of the arms digging into me, the warmth of the harness pushed into my sternum. He seemed to give up trying to get me to let go. 

“Nothing will ever hurt like this again,” I could tell something was changing. I looked up at his face, and he looked down, I felt the turtleneck dismantling from the back, like he only had it here. 

“I hope not,” His smile looked painful, red seeping into his hair again. I don’t think he could feel any of it, his pain was born from focusing on me crumpling. 

“Maybe I’ll study planar travel,” I choked out. “Instead of sound waves.”

“Don’t do that,” His color was fading, he was starting to look more exhausted, his eyes boring into mine. 

“I won’t forget you, dad,” I weeped as he faded completely, three words dying on his lips. I collapsed to the ground, ET hugging me tightly. I went to my knees first then just melted down, head on the wood.