Spider-Man. The House Of Venom

As soon as they got back to the warehouse, Felicia looked for her special stack of files. Liv had been helping her organise them but these ones were different. There were several piles. Different crimes, locations of brothels and drug dens. All the information Aleksei had collected for blackmail or extortion.

The files Felicia was currently holding were different though. These files sent Liv into shock. A quick read and, if she was lucky, she would only suffer from small tremors. The one labelled MGH had sent Liv into a full seizure, leaving her catatonic for most of the day.

“So,” Felica handed Peter and Gwen a file. It was labelled 'Liv. Do Not Read' in big bold letters and was everything collected into one file. “It’s not good.”

There were a lot of notes in the files about MGH, but not what it was, or where it came from. Whoever was making this drug was careful. Any evidence of the drug or how it was made was gone. The acid-spewing Powered had made sure of that, and the collar proved that it was intentional.

Gwen nodded, “It looks like some kind of synthetic hormone, maybe that's the H part.”

Aleksei had been digging. A few well-placed bribes and he had a formula. A few kidnapped workers and he had locations. But neither of them had helped him any. There were pages of frustration at either being unable to get the new formula to work or how to find a way to get a sample. Nobody would cooperate, and nobody would talk.

“Ask Liv?” Peter suggested, “If you don’t tell her what it is, maybe she can work on it without it triggering anything.”

Gwen frowned the edge of her mouth curling up in unhappiness. “If it goes wrong, you know this could really mess her up?”

It was no secret that the collar had long-term effects on Liv. It had been in use so long that some of the original orders were now a part of her brain. Even after the collar had been removed the wrong question or topic triggered its effects.

“Then don’t, and make sure she never sees this.”

Gwen nodded, “Keep her busy then. I can grab the lab upstairs, and she should be okay knowing I’m working.”

“I can do that,” Peter said, nodding.

Felicia coughed, covering her mouth with a hand, “fuckher,” and gave Peter a small smile as he raised an eyebrow at her. He shook his head and headed into his home.

Gwen batted Felicia on the arm, “that's cheating.”

Felicia just shrugged, “nobody said I couldn't. You’re just upset he does and I win the bet.”

Gwen snorted, “please. You know how long it took me to get him into bed. I still say it’s going to be months before either she just grabs him or we have to.”

Felicia laughed, “fine, fine. Get the formula made and I’ll clean up here, but if I hear banging, I’m making sure.”

⁂

She could have asked Poison to make it. To start with she did. Gwen had taken one look at the formula, made a small sample, and then had been violently sick.

“That’s vile, and fucking toxic Pete. It's like someone drank Oscorp formula and then puked it back up and used it to make a new formula. I, shit, I can’t tell you what that is, Poison won’t even go near it, it’s so vile.” She had told them, after getting several glasses of alcohol to wash her mouth out.

So it went into the drug synthesiser. They patiently waited as it churned out five samples of the strange chemical.

“Yup, it's a synthetic hormone,” Gwen stared at the bottle, “it's weird though, not quite right.”

Peter looked at Felicia who shrugged.

“So what now,“ Peter asked her.

“Now, I need blood samples. I'm not injecting this into anything living. From what I can tell with Poison it's not going to be pretty. So. Sleeves up, and yeah, I need Liv.”

Peter raised an eyebrow,

“Control. I’m a host, Felicia’s a host and enhanced with Oscorp formula, and you,” she shrugged, “we have no idea what you are. Liv is not a host and is clean. I need her as the control group.”

“Fine, but,” Peter began but Gwen waved a hand at him,

“I know, I know.” Gwen interrupted abruptly, “go have a fun afternoon while I stare at a machine for three hours.”

⁂

Liv and Peter did have a fun afternoon. He did his best to trim her hair, which as a massive frizz wasn't the easiest thing to do. Then they watched Television together, curled up on the couch in the centre area.

“It’s not fair I can't help,” Liv complained. She was starting to look a lot healthier. The colour had come back to her skin and all the cuts and scrapes had healed nicely. Even the holes in her skin, where the needles had been, were closed.

“I know, but we can’t risk another seizure. We don’t know if they might kill you.”

Liv smiled and slid across the couch towards him, flopping onto his shoulder. “Is that concern I hear Mr Parker? Would you miss me?” she asked cheekily,

Peter snorted and lead his head against hers, “You know they’ve got a pool going to see how long it takes me to get you into bed.”

Liv covered her face with a hand, trying to hide her laughter, “Oh?”

Phff, as if I would, Peter thought to himself. She was a lot older, and once upon a time, his enemy.

He knew his symbiote powers increased his sex drive. Even with three, he was never completely satisfied. He would never admit, that even super stamina Felicia, worn out and begging for rest wasn't enough.

Yeah, yeah I would.

Liv was a nerdy kinda hot and even the twentyish years she had on him didn't phase him whatsoever. He knew he really needed to stop lying to himself. Even as he once fought with Felicia the urge between fight and fuck was defiantly blurred for him. He was slowly realising. Liv was attractive, smart, funny, and completely his type.

Peter rubbed his chin, “Yeah, but,”

He was stopped as Liv leant up and softly kissed him. ”But?”

Peter laughed, “maybe a small but.”

Liv leaned up and slid an arm around him, softly kissing him again, “Anything?”

Peter didn’t have to reply to that, her hand was gently resting around his reply, “Yeah, but no.” He moved it. “I’m your carer, and I won’t take advantage of that.”

Liv snorted and pushed herself back up, “You are such a gentleman.” but it wasn’t a compliment.

Peter was thankful Gwen opened the door to the upstairs lab. “Uh, Guys. I kinda need you.”

Peter patted Liv on the thigh and helped her into her chair., “Look, I like you, but this is a bit weird. We were fighting less than a month ago,”

Liv laughed, ”yes, and this morning you wiped my arse and then washed my front and back in the shower. I like you, Peter. You’re kind and handsome, and I would like to explore a bit more than just kissing.”

Peter pursed his lips, “we’ll see. If Gwen hasn't blown the lab up by then.”

Liv laughed, “We should see if she wants us both first. At least,” and she shrugged, “you know.”

“You might not be able to talk about it, but you can discuss the results of an experiment right?” Peter asked.

Liv frowned for a moment. She slowly thought out her words before speaking. “An experiment on a new chemical formula that has properties unknown to Miss Stacy?”

Peter held her hands, but there was none of the telltale signs Liv was about to have a seizure. “I think that works.”

Peter smiled, “let me make sure there is nothing to set you off, and then I can come to get you.”

Liv's now had a new and proper wheelchair. He had looked at an electric motorised scooter but they had been well out of his budget.

Maybe if the cream sells well, he mused, it would be a great Christmas present.

Climbing the stairs he saw the ruins of three tables. One had four Petri dishes on it and they were perfectly pristine. Another had four on it and they were covered in strange shapes. The reaction between the formula and the blood painting patterns on the agar jelly. The last was covered in webs, half melted and it looked like Gwen had set one sample on fire.

“Okay, wasn't expecting that,” Peter looked surprised as Gwen stood fuming in the corner. “Everything okay?” He could see just how angry she was, but not at what.

“Calming down after that.” She clenched her fist and waved a finger at the mess. “The formula went nuts when it hit the blood.”

“Liv can talk about the results, but not the formula itself, you okay with that?”

Gwen nodded, “I have samples left, but my notes are all next door.”

She had calmed down when Peter brought Liv into the lab, and she chuckled as Liv laughed,

“Now this looks like a proper lab. Bad reaction?” Liv asked, with a small smile on her face.

“Right.” Gwen pointed at the first set of samples. “The unreactive ones are  Felicia’s. So whatever it was, it won't react to anyone who is already enhanced by a formula. No change, no matter the dosage.”

Moving to the second table, “this is your blood. And it's weird, not as weird as,” she motioned to the last table, “but yeah, Weird.”

Gwen sighed. “That was your blood, Pete. Whatever the hell that stuff is went nuts when it hit your blood. I think one sample came to life.”

Peter pointed at the one that looked like it was set on fire, “That one, but alive?”

Gwen had a small camcorder set up, and she slid in the memory card. Hooking up the display they used the examine slides in greater detail.

They all watched as the Petri dish rattled for a moment. Gwen stood back, watching as it sprouted what looked like black symbskin tendrils. It knocked off its lid and sought out the other sample dishes.

Gwen covered herself with Poison and sprayed the table. At first, it seemed to work but the black tendrils broke free and began to move again. Poison moved to spray it with another type of webbing which ignited. The tendrils reacted to the flames. It pulled back, but Poison kept spraying them until there was no movement.

“Napalm webs?” Peter asked, raising an eyebrow, “seriously? You can make napalm?”

Gwen huffed, “it's not napalm. I can eat food high in potassium and store it in my body, making. Yeah okay, it's napalm, awesome right?” she said with a huge grin.

Peter nodded slowly, “sure, I’ll give you a cookie later,” but then shook his head, grumbling, “I can't make napalm.”

Liv however was poking to remains with a pen. “The formula is an enhancer like Oscorps but it seems to react violently to symbiotic tissue. What about the other samples?”

Gwen smiled, “Oh wait until you see this.” She moved over and flicked off the lights, and two of the samples began to glow. “It's some kind of mutagenic formula. If I had to guess, like the one you gave Electro. Your cells soaked it up but all four samples are completely different.”

Liv frowned. The formula they gave Aleksei and his crew was experimental, but it was only a variant of the Erskine formula. Even using multiple doses only reinforced the original change, not did not produce a new mutation.

Liv was deep in thought as Gwen stared at her, “Liv. I know you can’t, so. The formula I made is unstable and I think they were incubating it in people rather than an animal. A formula like this would only be completely stable that way."

Liv felt her hands begin to shake and clasped them together.

“Pete. take her downstairs, get some coffee into her.”

The start of a seizure meant she was close enough to one of Osborn's truths that it would end up hurting Liv.

Whatever this mutagenic hormone was, it was bad news and it was dangerous.

There was also mention of three separate labs in New York alone. Whoever was producing this was producing it on a large scale.

While their intentions were good, the result was not. Whoever ran these labs made sure there was no evidence. If they weren't quick enough, then the remaining three labs would be cleaned out and empty. There was now a ticking clock on getting to the locations and trying to gather as much evidence as possible

The sooner Huntress and Venom took care of it, the better.

But if it was as bad as she thought, they might need both Poison and Muse to make sure.