Chapter 11
The second his taloned hands skimmed your neck and broke the skin ever so slightly, not even enough to cause the oozing of blood to the surface, it happened.
The mutation that had lain dormant for so long surged to the surface, pushed up and out, it hummed and sang as it made itself known once more.
The wound didn’t close and you didn’t recoil nor did you even flinch. Yet Anti-venom withdrew with a sound that could best be compared to a creature being skinned alive. Ripping his hand away from you he cradled it close while you watched and waited for the realization to sink in.
“No.” he hissed “you lost that. You- you- you shouldn’t be able to- it should’ve gone away when you absorbed that damned symbiote!”
The smile you gave was full of sorrow and grief. There were no edges to it, just acceptance. “We both know that’s not how it works.”
“FINE” he growled, “I’ll kill you so well not even your curse can bring you back.”
“Not a curse.” you were tired, so tired. The desperation and rage that had fueled you through this fight and pushed back your pain were receding. You had never wanted this to happen, but the second your mutation flared there was no going back.
“I’m going to kill you.”
You shrugged with the faintest smile on your face, a look of pity, not challenge, accompanied it, if he had cared to look and see it. “So what are you waiting for?” you spread your arms like you were waiting for a hug. “I’m right here.”
You just wanted it to be over, the sooner this was over the sooner you could grieve properly, move on to the new chapter of your life, or at least work towards it.
He moved forward as if to lunge at you once more, but he never made it that far.
The few seconds you had conversed was all it had taken for your mutation to seep into Anti-Venom, into Oliver, and start to work to keep you alive.
To keep you safe.
The white of Anti-Venom began to melt away like wax, revealing a feral-looking creature that had once been a boy, and your best friend but now was more monster than man.
The hatred in his eyes was unmistakable, it held all the answers you needed, he would always want to kill you, or die trying.
So, in what was in his last moment, he pushed a little button, a detonator.
His last act of hatred and violence.
And just as the light faded from his eyes, the world around you lit up.
The fortress beneath your feet split open like an oyster, yet instead of a pearl you were met with a white-hot inferno that completely engulfed you.
—-------------------------------------
By the time you had managed to haul your ass out from under the last bit of the rubble the quinjet had just touched down.
Running to your family, you tackled them in a hug.
“He’s gone, can we go home now?” was all you managed to say before promptly passing out.
—-------------------------------------
You woke up about 17 hours later in a hospital bed in the medical wing of the Avengers Tower to the steady rhythm of a heart monitor.
Oh right, you’d gotten rid of Oliver and then got blown up.
Surprisingly the thought didn’t hurt as much as you thought it would’ve.
You didn’t feel guilty. You definitely felt bad, you felt the loss, the finality. But in the end you knew your mutation wouldn’t have let you kill him if there had been any other way at all, with even a fraction of a percent chance, your mutation wouldn’t have killed him. It was weird like that, but it definitely helped with the guilty conscience.
Scanning your surroundings leisurely you see Peter, unmasked but still suited up, on your left, sleeping slumped over in his chair.
Your arm, which had been completely shattered earlier, had apparently healed up, gotta love being Venom.
Next to him is Clint, also asleep with a small gauze patch on his face.
Standing guard at the door was Natasha, probably keeping SHIELD agents at bay and protecting the rest of the team, you smiled at the thought. Clearing your throat gently to catch her attention, you smile softly as she turns, receiving a small one in turn as she abandons her post to sit next to Clint.
Wanda and Pietro were dozing, leaning shoulder to shoulder against each other along the wall that faced the foot of your bed.
Vision and Tony were out of sight, but you assumed they were probably putting out media fires (exploding bunkers didn’t tend to go unnoticed sadly) and dealing with Fury.
Sam was sitting on the floor in the corner with his baseball cap pulled over his eyes but the soft snores told you he was sound asleep.
On your right, your dad and pops were holding your hand, passed out from exhaustion and refusing to leave your side. You knew them too well to think otherwise and besides, they had fallen asleep in their gear as well.
Squeezing your right hand you were about to ask Nat for some water and something to spike your blood sugar again when Tony walked in with a large coffee and vision floating not far behind him.
A dark tendril ripped it from his hands and flew towards you before he had a chance to react, without a second hesitation you began to chug it like a man in a desert who had just found water.
“HEY! That was-” Tony glared around until his eyes locked on you, but whatever he was going to say next was drowned out by the shouts, exclamations, and relieved sighs of the rest of the team, who had been woken up by his indignant cry.
You weren’t really sure what was happening but you were getting dragged into a hug by your fathers, then Peter, then your fathers again, then you were getting pats on the back and shoulders.
“You gave us a scare.”
“Glad to see you’re feeling better.”
“Need anything? More coffee?”
There were lots of tears as your family finally had a proper reunion.
The next day you were cleared, perks for being a super-human, and found yourself curled up on the couch between your fathers, who were still incredibly overprotective (not that you minded at the moment) when someone finally asked the question they had probably all been thinking.
“So Ven- I mean Y/N, sorry still adjusting,” Sam began, “What was that thing you did to Anti-venom, Oliver, whatever his name is?”
You felt your dad shift slightly forward and could smell the change in his mood shift from a content calm to an overprotectiveness that could rain the fires of hell on anyone it was directed at.
You leaned into him and your pops squeezed his shoulder, finally getting him to sink back into the couch. He still wasn’t quite relaxed but it was an improvement.
“I was actually wondering the same thing,” Nat said with a mild disinterest but you could read her well enough now both in scent and body language to know she was actually, in fact, quite interested but didn’t want to force you.
Deciding that since honesty was the running theme for you this week that since you had already revealed who you were there was no point in keeping the rest of it under wraps. “I’m what Three
Streams classified as an ‘Extreme Switch Endurance Mutant’ or ESEM for short,” you said with a shrug.
Noting their confusion you explained.
“The system accounts for three main types of Mutants: Offensive, Defensive, and switch,” you held up a finger for each one.
“Offensive mutants obviously have offensive abilities, in a fight, they would be a mutant that attacked others and deals damage. So if Hulk was a mutant he'd count as offensive, Venom would also be an example. Well technically a switch, but really more of an offensive, but that’s beside the point.”
They seemed to be following so you continued.
“Defensives, on the other hand, protect themselves and/or others, they’d be people with healing, enhancing, or shielding abilities. They would basically take what often are incredibly powerful supportive roles that could improve the cohesion of a team etc., etc., etc. you get the picture” you waved your hand.
“They’re often targeted first due to the whole ‘kill the healer and the rest die faster’ philosophy. I currently think of any examples sorry.”
“Wolverine?” Sam offered.
“No, but good guess, he’s in the last main category. He’s a switch, like the majority of mutants.” you waved your hand. “Wanda is a switch, so is Wolverine, Pietro probably falls under that category too and… I can’t currently think of anyone else again. But basically, a switch can do both offensive and defensive damage but tend to cover the middle ground. But yeah that essentially covers the 3 main types.”
Peter raised his hand hesitantly.
“Yeah Pete?”
“You said you were an Extreme Switch, what does that mean?” he said carefully, watching your dad hesitantly like he was going to try and strangle him like Darth Vader from where he was sitting.
“Well,” you said slowly, “Switches are kind of the middle ground whereas extremes are, well, extreme. So that means I’m either really offensive or really defensive but nowhere in between.”
A quiet fell over the room as your family and teammates processed what they had just been told.
“OH!” everyone jumped at your exclamation, “sorry,” you said quickly not really sounding all too sorry. “But I’d also like to add abilities don’t really have anything to do with personality, well I guess it does in a sense, but there can be very aggressive defensive mutants and very calm and peaceful offensive mutants. Just wanted to debunk that whole aggression mutation BS.”
“But what about the endurance part?” Natasha asked, having seemingly processed the information dump better than the rest of the team.
“That’s my ability. It means I have an endurance or survival ability. I don’t really heal others, I can on the very rare occasion but not normally, and I don’t even have a set ability.” you shrug.
“I just survive, my mutation changes to ensure I stay, for the most part, physically and psychologically intact. Venom tends to handle most of it but sometimes he isn’t enough, and I didn’t always have him.”
Tony looked ready to ask a question but you fixed him a look and kept going.
“Before Venom and I merged, which happened because of my mutation by the way, since it thought he could help me survive if we fused. But anyway it used to give me super strength, other times I would grow extra body parts like wings if I was falling or gills if I was drowning.”
You squeezed your fathers’ hands and offered a sad but reassuring smile to the team as they finally grasped the implication of what you had just said.
“I could create shields, be fireproof, bulletproof, explosion-proof, I can’t be poisoned, tortured, anything really. I just can’t die. I can still get sick but it’s not as bad, I still age but I don’t get most of the problems that come with it. I’m just supposed to endure.” you said the last part like it left a sour feeling in your mouth, but you had long accepted that particular lemon.
“But because it’s a survival mutation it only activates when you need it to survive,” Bruce said, quickly catching your drift.
You pointed at him and said “Bingo.”
“That’s why you let him go for your throat isn’t it?” Wanda said softly
“Yeah, I needed my mutation to kick in, I didn’t want him to die, even after everything he was still my friend, and people change but the memories rarely do,” you said with a look of relief, sadness, and guilt. It looked as if you felt guilty because of your relief at your once best friend’s death.
“Your mutation would’ve done what was absolutely necessary and nothing more,” your pops said slowly, like he was still figuring it out, “that's why you used it.”
You nodded with a sad smile on your face “yeah, it is.”
“I’m sorry you had to do it.” Someone offered softly.
“Don’t be, it gave me closure. I had always wondered what had happened to him and now I know.”
Just when the silence was bordering on suffocating Tony, god bless, broke it. “So, starlight, any movies you want to watch? FRI can order pizza.”
And just like that, the team was back to being a family, albeit a dysfunctional one, but yours all the same.
—---------------- 5 Weeks Later ---------------------
You were at your usual rooftop hang out, the criminals seemed to have taken the night off which you always appreciated especially since you had only convinced your fathers to let you patrol (alone or with Spider-Man) a little over 2 weeks ago and were still coming down from their overprotectiveness high.
When you had dropped down onto the roof Venom had peeled back so to any passers-by you were just another girl sitting on her rooftop looking out over the skyline.
You didn’t move when you heard a soft swish and thump as someone landed behind you.
Only when Spider-Man sits down next to you and pulls off his mask to reveal your friend did you speak.
“Heya Spidey, find anyone?”
“I gave some young mother directions and walked her home but that’s about it. How about you? Any bad guys?”
You leaned back on your hands and he mimicked the gesture. “Nah, it was all clear when I checked but I’ll probably take another look around in an hour or so before heading in for the night.”
“Yeah” he sighed, “I’ll pry do the same, would you mind if I came with you?”
“Have at it man.”
You sat in companionable silence as you watched taxis and trucks drive by on the streets below you and the clouds drift across the face of the moon every now and again.
“Um…” Peter said softly, “Y/N?”
You could smell his anxiety, turning to look at him you smiled as reassuringly as you could with an inquisitive tilt of your head. “What’s up?”
“Never mind,” he grumbled, “it was a stupid question.”
“Ok you can’t just say that then backtrack, besides it can’t be that stupid, we saw Clint burn a hole through the bottom of a cast-iron skillet last week.”
He huffed out a nervous chuckle at that before staring at his feet and taking a deep breath.
When he didn’t speak for a few more seconds you gently nudged his shoulder.
“Hey,” he turned to look at you, “you know you can tell me anything, right? I won’t judg-”
“Can I kiss you?” He blurted before his face turned bright red as if realizing what he just said.
You froze, processing.
He got up and started moving away, laughing awkwardly “sorry, um, stupid question, I’m just- yeah, I’m just gonna go-”
During his ramblings you had gotten up and reached out, grasping his suit in your fist you yanked him down to you, “I don’t see why not.”
And so, with a soft blush dusting his cheeks, he kissed you through a smile.