Today was a normal day for Alex Hunt.
He worked as a programmer in Silicon Valley. As nice as it may sound, it's not. But he doesn't complain, he's satisfied with his life.
His love life is also going strong. He was dating a bombshell of a girl and she was pretty interesting too. They'd been dating for a few weeks.
Yet, there's something missing. He always feels that there's something that he's not doing right. This normalcy in his life, as satisfying as it sounds, isn't something that truly satisfies him.
'I hope that Quantumania is good…' He thought as he walked hand-in-hand with his girlfriend to the theatre. They had date night tonight.
He was an avid Marvel fan, he'd kept up with not only the MCU but also the comics and his girlfriend shared that taste.
That's why they were watching an MCU movie for date night instead of a romantic movie.
At this point he noticed something.
He noticed two bright headlights coming towards them.
He didn't have any time to think anything as he pushed his girlfriend of a few weeks ahead of himself and jumped ahead after her.
Sadly, that momentary lapse where he pushed her away was enough for the huge truck to reach him.
At this point, everything was in slow motion for Alex.
He recalled his life and realized that he hadn't done anything monumental yet.
He had so many ambitions, but he'd never fulfilled any of them.
'If I can live…' As he thought that, the bumper of the truck hit him and flung him away.
He was in the air after trying to jump away from his spot which made his body get flung ever further.
The last thing he heard was his girlfriend's scream as his head banged on the concrete.
…
'Fuck, what's going on?' When Alex regained consciousness, he felt weird. That was the best way that he could term it as.
He couldn't feel his body, but he knew that it existed.
'Did someone put my brain in a jar or something…' That was his first thought in his current situation.
He didn't know what having one's brain in a jar would feel like to the consciousness within that brain but he thought it would feel like his current situation.
He felt like he had no limbs, all he felt was some sort of fluid.
He wasn't feeling any phantom pain or anything of the sort which would be the case normally if he'd lost his body.
He was really confused about his current situation. He was trying to move what should be his limbs but all he felt was the movement of some sort of fluid.
«Memory influx initiating»
There was a sudden prickling sensation that made Alex feel like someone was invading his mind.
Slowly, new memories and information appeared in his mind.
He learned of his current situation from those memories.
'A symbiote, huh… How ironic…' He laughed self-deprecatingly at his current state.
He was sealed within a space shuttle alongside multiple others of his own kind.
They were all on their way to Earth. Sent by an unknown entity. They weren't given any mission as he learned from the original memories of the symbiote.
Not that there were many memories there, to begin with.
It was like a blank slate that had woken up for the first time within the shuttle.
'Janette…' His next thought was about his girlfriend that he'd left back home.
'I hope she's all right…'
He didn't have too many attachments to his life in the last world, his parents were dead and he wasn't particularly close to anyone other than his girlfriend.
While there was some bitterness over losing his home of almost thirty years, what came after was a rush.
A rush of excitement. A rush of excitement for what was about to come. It was something any fanboy would feel in this kind of situation.
But even that excitement was momentary. As he remembered the dangers of the world where he actually was.
As an avid reader of the Marvel comics, he knew of the problems that came with being a symbiote.
'Fuck, Knull…' He remembered the creator of the symbiotes and the kind of influence that he had on them.
'Let's hope he's still trapped.' He gave up on following that train of thought.
'Couldn't I have been sent to a normal fucking world…' As exciting as this was, he was more concerned with keeping himself alive.

He felt a sense of urgency. He didn't know what was exactly going on right now and he needed information.
He didn't have the luxury of panicking right now and he knew that.
The first thing that he turned to was to look for the source of the voice that he heard that told him about the memory influx.
'You there?'
'Helloo?'
'Anyone?'
'System?' He hoped that he would have some sort of cheat to help him out.
There was no response.
He was disappointed but not disheartened.
He knew that he was a character with the highest potential for growth right now.
Venom and the symbiotes— in general, have one glaring flaw. Their undeveloped minds.
They don't have the creativity or even the full mental coherence of a human. This was one of the biggest limitations of the symbiotes in general.
Right now, his most important thought was to free himself from this flimsy containment and understand how long it would be to their destination.
His chamber wasn't made to be a seal that would actually suppress him. It wasn't exactly impossible for him to unlock it after fiddling around with it for a few minutes.
'Or was it a few hours…' His sense of time was a little flimsy as a symbiote.
A lot of the basic human instincts were missing and were sort of going haywire within Alex's mind.
Majorly because he wasn't a human. He wasn't even a humanoid species. He was a damn slime to be brutally honest.
When he got out of that containment chamber, he looked, or more accurately, felt around for the control panel.
He didn't have eyes. The only sense he possessed right now was touch.
Although loud sounds were a major weakness for the symbiotes, they couldn't inherently hear.
They could only be damaged by the sonic vibrations caused by loud sounds without actually registering the sounds.
He would have to find a host to get the reference and energy to create a humanoid form and get the basic senses.
He was unsuccessful in his endeavor after what felt like a few hours.
It was impossible for him to recognize the control panel in his current state.
'So, now what?' Alex was bored. He didn't know what to do.
'I could devour the others to get stronger…' He remembered the symbiote's inherent instinct to devour other symbiotes to be able to turn into stronger beings.
Strangely, he didn't feel anything wrong with devouring other symbiotes. Instead, he felt like his instincts were driving him to do exactly that.
'Well…' As weird as he felt doing this, he knew that to survive and maybe even flourish, he would need to get all the strength that he can get.
He first went to one of the other chambers.
They were all identical to his.
Tens of different chambers held different symbiotes.
He decided to start with one of them.
He felt around and opened one of the chambers.
Instantly, he could feel the presence of the other symbiote as he opened the chamber to release it.
'The hive-mind…' He remembered the presence of the hive-mind of symbiotes. Throughout the universe, all symbiotes were connected to the hive-mind of the symbiotes.
'I guess this shuttle is suppressing that connection for some reason…'
The symbiote in front of him was also a blank slate, having only woken up within the ship.
He hesitated after realizing that he could actually control these symbiotes.
He was much smarter than the average symbiote and could actively influence them.
'Let's devour some of them first. I'll see which option's better before deciding on what to do.'
The next second, Alex merged with that symbiote that was seemingly lost in the connection that it was feeling with Alex.
«Merger initiated»
There it was again. That prompt.
Alex didn't have any eyes or else he would've seen a blue box floating in front of his eyes with that text.

But he still instinctively felt its presence.
He didn't have the time to delve into whatever he had, system or not as he was assaulted by a feeling of utter euphoria when he merged with that symbiote.
He felt himself intertwine with each particle of that symbiote which didn't even put up a fight. It felt like it was natural to be devoured by Alex's symbiote after observing his massive presence within the hive-mind.
That feeling lasted for quite a while before the merger process was completed.
Alex felt around and felt that his size had increased and he was now double the mass that he was initially. There was no stress on his brain either. The main reason was that he was the bigger being and another reason was that the symbiote was a blank slate. There was essentially no memory to be devoured from it.
«Merger completed»
He felt the presence of that prompt again.
'Status?' He tried a different variant of calling out the system.
'Nothing? Do, I need to devour more symbiotes? Or is it something else entirely?' Alex decided to not pay it any attention for now and think of his gains after devouring that symbiote.
The first thing he tested was the main reason that he devoured the symbiote in the first place.
He tried to split a part of his body from himself and form a different symbiote.
'It worked!' He could feel two different symbiotes connected to his consciousness.
He had full and absolute control over both of those bodies.
They essentially worked as his own limbs.
'I'm merging with them all.' He decided.
He knew that it was a risk, but he decided to take that risk. Especially since he had a way to mitigate everything.
He slowly opened the chambers one by one and started devouring all of those symbiotes.
When he'd devoured a total of 39 symbiotes he was done. This ship had a total of forty symbiotes.
When they were finally finished, Alex did the smartest move and split out half of his amalgamated body.
After devouring 39 other symbiotes, he was already pretty large.
That half again split into 40 parts, which went back into all of the chambers, locking them again.
This way, Alex had probably saved himself from being discovered by that being who sent them here.
He'd also gotten the ability to clone himself many times over.
He would need to experiment to discover more abilities, but his main priority was to find a host.
The symbiote alone was not enough. Especially without copying the genetic makeup of other beings.
He'd filled all of the chambers with a symbiote and his main body was within the shuttle.
He was still connected to them since they were all sharing the same consciousness. The chambers were only suppressing the hive-mind connection. They weren't able to disrupt the connection he had with the parts that he'd split from his main body.
Now, all that was left was to find out more about his abilities until he got to earth.
Soon after he'd started understanding his abilities, there was a fizzling sound within the shuttle.
Alex thought that there was some damage or a breach and was about to check things but he noticed that it was the sound of each of those chambers being ejected from the shuttle.
'What?' He was confused. He'd thought that all the symbiotes would be going to the same destination.
Instead, the shuttle with his main body was left stranded in space while the 40 chambers filled with his clones were sent out to some unknown destinations.
He didn't have a sense of direction as a symbiote but he could feel each of them going to vastly different locations.
At least he could tell that their destination was on different planets.
'Weren't we supposed to go to Earth?' He thought as he remembered the extra information that he'd gotten from his influx of memories.
As confused as he was he decided to start moving as he felt one of his bodies reach its destination.
==================
Legend:
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
«System»
[Telepathy]
=============


*Boom*
There was a loud crash within Central Park as what seemed like a meteor fell from the sky.
Alex, who was within the object that crashed was feeling uncomfortable but wasn't in any pain.
The chambers were made with the symbiotes' weakness in mind and mitigated most of the vibrations and didn't lead to any damage.
'Let's hope I can find someone soon…' Alex thought as he slithered out from the chamber and tried to blend with the surroundings.
He was glad that there was a canopy of trees as the light of the sun was a bit of an unpleasant experience for him.
Soon enough he sensed the vibrations within the ground that made him understand that someone had come to examine the crash site.
In the next instant, Alex ambushed the unsuspecting person and attached himself to their leg.
'Is this supposed to be spandex!?" He was dumbfounded when he felt the material that he was merging with.
'Is Spider-Man some sort of fated connection that all symbiotes have?' Although Spider-Man's appearance at the crash site wasn't that much of a surprise, it was still weird that he was the first person that appeared there.
'Shouldn't his Spider-Sense have activated? Maybe because I didn't have any bad intentions…' He thought
'Maybe it's some other person within the spandex suit…' He thought as he kept slowly and discretely merging with the suit.
He wasn't really interested in being wrapped around a man's body, even the thought disgusted him to the point of wanting to abandon his current actions.
Venom was different, he didn't have a real consciousness, it worked on its instincts. But Alex was different. He had complete consciousness and a thought process.
Just as he thought of abandoning this spandex-clad hero, he felt something. Something that a man could never have.
'Boobs?' He felt the ample chest of the person that he was attached to.
When he realized that it wasn't a man, he hastened his process of merging with the suit.
The female variant of Spider-Man was none the wiser as she was looking around that capsule-like chamber that had fallen from the sky.
"Is this supposed to be some sort of container of some lifeform that was sent to earth?" She was confident in her abilities and didn't bother to take too many precautions before coming here.
Alex took full advantage of that and completely merged with her suit.
'Ghost-Spider…' He realized as he saw the design of the suit.
The hood that made the Ghost-Spider distinct from other variants was what helped him realize who it was.
'Is this the Gwen Stacy from into the Spider-Verse?' Alex thought as he finally tapped into her genetic makeup and started developing his senses and powers which were derived from Ghost-Spider's powers.
«Bonded with a host»
«Bonding System activating»
'I knew it…' Alex had expected something like this after realizing the presence of a sort of system that was connected to him.
«Activation complete»
«Good Luck»
With that, the prompt disappeared.

'System?' As he was completely copying the genetic makeup of Gwen Stacy—The Ghost-Spider, he decided to see what this system was about.
[ Host #1 - Status
«Name: Gwen Stacy (Ghost Spider)»
«Bonding Rate: 0%»
«Powers: Superhuman Endurance— Superhuman Agility— Superhuman Strength— Spider Sense— Wall Crawling» «Currently Suppressed»
]
'What the fuck does currently suppressed mean? Is that why her spider-sense didn't warn her…' He thought as he read through her repertoire of powers.
'Oh, yeah… It was a thing that happened with the Ghost-Spider at some point. Is this supposed to be fate…'
He'd read that at some point, the Ghost-Spider had lost her powers. She only got them back after merging with the venom of her universe.
'Talk about weird shit… Why is she still in her hero costume then? Oh yeah… Goody-two-shoes. The problem with every variant of Spider-Man…' At some point, he had finally copied her genetic makeup and was able to create pseudo-senses for himself.
He developed sight, hearing, smell, and everything else that he kept feeling the lack of.
Finally, he took a deep breath of fresh air. Feeling his senses return to him was something that he'd been yearning for a while.
'What's this bonding thing?' He got distracted when he noticed [Bonding Rate] in Gwen's status panel.
'Eh, whatever…' He put it at the back of his mind for now and decided to focus on his new host.
The very sexy host that he'd just bonded to.
She had a cute face with short messy blonde hair.
There was a barbell piercing on her right eyebrow which he thought looked really sexy.
She had an amazing figure with slender legs, a toned stomach, and amazing tits.
'I wanna fuck her…' That was the first thought he had after he admired her amazing body.
Nothing of hers was hidden from him as he was basically covering her entire body right now.
'She even has navel and tongue piercings…' He noticed that there was a similar barbell piercing on her navel and on her tongue which he thought was really sexy.
The next thing that he did was try to use the telepathic connection that was established with her and read her memories.
Since he realized that he was a symbiote and in the Marvel, world to boot, his morals had gone out the window and he was focused on surviving and trying to enjoy his life.
He wasn't interested in living mediocrely again. He'd died full of regrets and he didn't want that to happen again. Especially when he could die at any time. There were beings that could kill him with a thought in the Marvel Multiverse.
'Let's let her get home before I reveal myself… I'll read her memories till then.'
When he'd blended with her suit he'd made sure that it didn't become black since it would be suspicious.
He waited as Gwen examined the crashed container for a while before webbing it to herself.
'She doesn't have organic webs…' He noticed when he saw her use web shooters.
'At least she should be able to get home soon.'
He spent the rest of his time delving into her surface memories.

He couldn't go deep into her psyche without making her feel his presence so he held back and only probed her surface memories.
He saw how she got here while sluggishly web-swinging. With her super strength suppressed, it was very hard for her to effectively swing around. He saw glimpses of quite a few things before seeing something that completely blew his mind.
'WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!!!' He screamed inwardly.
The first thing he did was look at the sky.
And that was when he saw them.
Huge spheres, reminiscent of the Earth were visible in the sky.
'This isn't an incursion… Something's wrong…' Seeing the stable state of those planets Alex realized something.
'The 40 symbiotes were for all the different versions of earth…' He realized.
His other bodies still hadn't arrived at their locations since the shuttle that brought them here had been closest to this planet.
'Fuck… This is going to be so much worse…' He realized that this was probably going to be even worse than he imagined.
He suddenly calmed down and took a deep breath.
'No point in panicking. I'll see how everything goes…' He decided to start working as soon as his other bodies reach the planets.
His main body had already taken a humanoid form and was trying to understand the situation within the shuttle that he came here in.
By the time he was done exploring Gwen's memories, she'd come back home and was in her room.
She was sitting at her desk, examining the capsule that brought Alex to this planet.
'Time to talk to her…'
[Hello…] He said within her mind telepathically.
Gwen jumped in her seat and took a fighting stance.
"Who's there?"
[There's no one in your room. I'm talking inside your head…] Alex tried to explain.
"Like Charles?" Gwen's tone was slightly scared. She knew what a telepath could do once they got into your head.
'There's the X-Men in this version of Earth…' He noted.
[I don't know who this Charles person is, but judging by your reaction you seem to think that I'm a telepath. I'm not. I'm what came out of that capsule.]
That made Gwen only warier as she started thinking about how she could combat him.
Alex could read her like an open book even without reading her memories.
[I mean you no harm. I am one of the innumerable species within the universe. Beings of our kind are symbiotes they rely on other beings to survive. I need you… Without you, I'll die…]
He decided to appeal to the hero aspect of Gwen's psyche. And it worked. She seemed to calm down after his explanation.


"Can you show me your real self?" She asked.
[Well, there's not much to see… My real constitution is that of a slime and I can merge with anything to form whatever I want… For example…]
He extended his head out from her shoulder and looked into her eyes. He had copied her face.
'Eat your heart out Venom…' He did what Venom couldn't do even after years of experience in the comics. He was proud of himself.
"Woah… It's like looking into a mirror…" She touched his face and felt that it was the exact same as hers, even the feel of it.
[I can also do something else…]
He decided to have some fun with her and made her Ghost-Spider suit morph into a dress.
It turned into a sexy black backless dress that revealed her cleavage and reached the middle of her thighs. There were two slits at the sides that also revealed her waist.
"Ahh!" Feeling her clothes suddenly disappear she screamed.
[Don't scream. Look in the mirror…]
The feeling of the loss of clothes was only temporary and startled her. She realized that it was the symbiote that was connected to her and saw that he'd made her a black dress.
"This is…"
[Yep, I saw you look at it on the way back so I thought you liked it…]
Gwen seemed like a tomboy, but she also liked wearing a beautiful dress every once in a while.
"This is so cool… Can you turn into my hoodie and pajamas?"
[Show me.]
Gwen understood and opened her closet.
The next moment she was wearing her comfy hoodie and pajamas.
"This is amazing…" She was just short of jumping and squealing as she saw her clothes instantly change.
Seeing her childlike wonder, Alex also felt like she was an interesting person and inwardly smiled.
"Hey… Do you have a name?" Gwen said out loud to the air while feeling a little weird.
[You can speak to me telepathically…] Alex understood her dilemma.
[Just think of something with the intent to say that to me.]
[Can you tell me your name?] She telepathically conveyed to him.
"Did it work?" She asked out loud.
[Yes it did work… My name is Alex.]
[That's a human name…] She furrowed her brows.
[Yes… I gave myself that name after seeing some of the various names all around. I thought that it would seem more normal to you…] He made a random excuse.
[Is that so… Couldn't this symbiote have been a female… I feel a little violated…] She thought but didn't close the telepathic link so he heard that. Not that closing the link would affect him from reading her thoughts.

[Why do you feel violated?] He asked, sounding hurt.
"What? When did I say that?"
[You told me telepathically that you feel violated… by my presence.] He was chuckling inwardly while acting hurt.
[No, no, no. It's not that.] She panicked a little thinking that she hurt his feelings.
[It's just that… in our culture, males and females are considered separate, and seeing that you seem to be a male being, I felt a little weird that a male was connected to me so deeply. That's it. I think that you're really cool…]
[Is that so… I guess it must have to do with your reproductive organs being accessible to me that makes you feel this way… It's understandable.] At this point, Alex was plain fucking around with her.
'I'm going to have so much fun with her…' He chuckled.
Hearing him talk like that had her blush.
He decided to fuck around with her even more and brushed a tiny tendril over her labia making sure that she felt his deliberate touch.
"Eep!" She jumped when she felt him touch her intimately like that.
[What are you doing!?]
[Oh, I'm sorry, are you sensitive there?] His tone was completely innocent.
[Y-Yes… Don't do that…] She didn't know how to blame him after hearing his innocent tone.
'…He must be curious.' She made excuses.
[By the way, I noticed there is a certain strand of your genome that's being suppressed… Is there a particular reason for that?] He said to her, changing the topic. He knew that he would have plenty of time to play around with her like that.
Gwen perked up when she realized that he must have been talking about her powers.
'Maybe he can help me…'
[Yes… There was an… accident. I ended up getting my strength sealed in that accident. It's been a big problem for me… Can you help me?] She asked with hopeful eyes as she lay down on her bed.
[Well… I don't really have the power to change your genome permanently, but I should be able to let you access it as long as you're connected to me…] He told her.
'I can easily change your genome and remove the suppression permanently, but where's the fun in that…'
[Really! Can you do it?] She didn't mind being connected to him. Especially if he could help her access her powers.
[Sure…] He decided to make a bit of a show out of this and changed into his real color— Black.
Slowly, he covered the entirety of Gwen's body in what looked like a form-fitting black latex-like outfit that completely stuck to her skin. It was as if she'd gotten another skin.
[What're you doing?] She was a little alarmed by his action.
[Shush… Just rest.] He soothed her as he went up her neck, over her mouth, nose, ears, and eyes.
He'd completely suppressed all of her senses. She couldn't even breathe, for now.
[Alex!] She was completely alarmed by the current situation and called out to him telepathically with a desperate tone.
[Just leave everything to me. This is important…] His tone was soothing, gentle, and calming.
The next moment, Gwen felt a prickling sensation in the back of her neck.
[Ahh!]

It didn't hurt much, but with her senses suppressed, her sensitivity was heightened and she felt the pain much more.
She wasn't able to scream since Alex had completely prevented her from even opening her mouth.
The next instant, Gwen felt a sort of euphoria wash all over her body. What he'd injected was something that would enhance her hormone production. It would make it easier for Alex to start influencing her and also increase her metabolism, allowing him to enhance her with more efficiency. The euphoria came from the sudden excretion of dopamine.
It also served as a nice connection to her genome. Now she could have access to her powers and more as long as he wanted, but he could also take them away from her whenever he wanted.
As he started making slight changes to her physiology, Gwen seemed to be getting comfortable wearing the tight restrictive clothing that Alex had formed all over her body.
Alex could see her right now and she looked unbelievably erotic. In a normal situation, he would've loved to cum all over her latex-clad body.
'Patience…' He thought as he continued his task.
[Aahhhh~❤] The euphoric sensations finally pushed her over a threshold as she came.
Alex ended up absorbing her juices reflexively and the notification that followed surprised him.
«Bonding Rate: 1%»
'Making her cum increases the bonding rate?' He was a little surprised but not too much.
'Cool. Another reason to fuck her silly…' The system's incentive was cool but not something that he cared about too much.
By the time Gwen came down from her orgasm high, he was already done making the slight changes that he needed to.
He'd made her a little more sensitive for obvious reasons and he'd established a deeper connection with her body.
It wasn't related to the bonding rate mentioned by the system. His deeper connection meant that it would be harder and harder for her to separate from him.
When he fully bonds with her, she would become his, completely bound to him and unable to ever get rid of him.
He would also be able to hide within her and prevent himself from being too affected by sonic waves.
'I should try to find Extremis…' He thought as he slowly freed her senses, one by one.
He slithered down her face. The moment he freed her nose, she started taking deep breaths after being deprived of her ability to breathe.
[What the fuck was that Alex?] Before he even released her mouth she angrily asked him.
He could tell that she was just acting angry to hide her embarrassment from being made to cum within seconds. And by an alien nonetheless.
[It was necessary for the procedure to go smoothly. I also added something fun. Let me show you…]
Before she could say anything else, he changed the black latex that was covering her from below her neck and added her Ghost-Spider suit as another layer above it.
He didn't get rid of the latex skin since she didn't ask him to do it yet.
She could feel the latex snugly covering her body but didn't say anything as he formed her suit.
[Let me get my shooters…] She understood his tactic and decided to go out. She was also excited about having her powers back.
[No need… Just jump.] He didn't want her to use her web shooters.
[But…] She was hesitant.
[Trust me.] Alex took advantage of hesitance and took control of her body.
"Ahhh!" She screamed as she fell from her 7th-floor window.


She reflexively tried to throw her web as if she had her shooters and was surprised.
[Holy fuck, Alex…] She was speechless as she swung through the skyscrapers.
[It's organic webbing, baby... You don't need those shooters anymore. Tell me I'm awesome. Tell me.] He wanted praise.
[You're awesome Alex… Truly.] After that weird experience which Gwen didn't know what to think of, she was feeling amazing.
After so long of being powerless, she'd finally gotten her powers back, and she even felt like she was stronger than she was before. That remained to be tested though.
[Thank you, Alex… Thank you so much…] She was feeling nothing but gratitude for him.
[Of course… I need to rely on you to live. Helping out like this is a given…] Alex also realized how the empathetic connection with the host affected him. The symbiotes were able to connect to their hosts on an empathetic level. This made the hosts influence the symbiote's state of mind.
Gwen's happy feelings were literally infectious to him. He was also happy about her getting her powers back.
He didn't mind the empathetic connection since it couldn't affect his thoughts. At best it would help him know what the host was feeling.
He stayed silent as she swung around through New York for a while.
"Help!" At some point, she heard someone call out.
She instantly turned in that direction.
She saw that it was a burglar who was running away with a lady's purse.
"Come on now… A girl could beat you up. You should look for another career." Gwen landed in front of him and punched him square in the jaw.
*Crack* There was a sick cracking sound as she realized that she'd used too much force and broken his jaw.
[Shit, fuck, crap, goddamnit…]
"Oh no!"
Her inward and outward reactions differed very much. She didn't seem to be as much of a goody-two-shoes as she acted.
She didn't panic though. She first handed the purse back to the lady who thanked her before bringing her attention back to the criminal.
[Alex…] Without realizing it, he was the first person that she'd turned to when she messed up. Usually, she'd have to take care of this herself.
[What is it?] He'd been busy trying to explore more abilities that the system might have so he hadn't been paying attention to her.
[Can you help him?] She asked in a pleading tone.
[Why do you think that I can help him?] He saw the situation and asked her.
[You seem to be very good at biological manipulation. I thought that you would be able to heal someone…] She was a little unsure of her assumption.
[Well, you're correct… I can heal him.]
[Really? Thanks, you're the best…] She assumed that he was going to heal the guy.
[But why should I?] He asked her. He didn't have any reason to help the guy.
[Because I asked… Pretty please?] She made a cute face under her mask and asked him.
[Why do you even want to help him? He's weaker than you… You have the right to kill him and take everything useful he has… I think that humans call it the law of the jungle or something according to the memories that I was infused about Earth.] He wanted to see exactly how her moral compass works.
[…This isn't the jungle, Alex. Even if he's weaker than me he had all the right to basic human decency. I have a responsibility to help people…] She told him with a solemn tone.
[Why though?] The fanboy inside him wanted to hear those magical words.
[A very close friend of mine told me once that with great power, comes great responsibility. I've tried my best to live by that creed ever since he…] She was sorrowful.

[I'm sorry for your loss…] He conveyed his condolences.
[It's fine… It was quite a while ago. I'm over it now. So, can you please help him?] She asked expectantly.
[I still don't see a reason to do it, Gwen. You're the one who follows that creed. Why should I listen to you?] He wasn't going to listen to her without some benefit.
[What do you want?] She decided to indulge him. She also understood that she couldn't force him to do something. She didn't realize that he knew her name without asking her.
[I want to read his memories…] He was frank with her.
[What? No!] Gwen was mad.
[I could've agreed to your request and read his memories anyway, Gwen. Consider this as a gesture of trust from my side. If we're going to be partners going forward, we need to trust each other. It's not going to be quick, I know. But it starts with these gestures.]
[That doesn't change the fact that you want to read someone's memories. That's a violation of human rights on so many levels…] She understood his point but she still didn't want him to read his memories.
[It seems we're at an impasse then…] He was adamant.
[Why do you even want to read his memories?] She wanted to bargain.
[I want to understand how this world works. How everything works here. That's all.] He just wanted a front to be able to use his full knowledge of earth without seeming suspicious.
[But that doesn't mean-] She was going to argue with him for more but he decided to take control and put her to sleep.
Gwen's eyes slowly closed as she fell into a deep slumber. His connection with her allowed him to do basic things like this.
He took control of her body and put his hand over that guy's jaw.
It would be healed completely within a minute. He also took that minute to probe deeply into that guy's memories to see the basic differences between this world and his original world.
Since the thief was knocked out, he wasn't able to resist the invasion.
Most of the things were exactly the same except for all the media from his earth being missing. Which made sense.
With that done, he wrapped him in a cocoon of Gwen's new organic webbing and left the area, going back to her house.
She lived with her parents so he had to sneakily get back in through the window.
When they were back in her room, Alex woke her up again.
She fluttered her eyes open after sleeping with a level of peace that she hadn't felt for a long time.
[Alex?] She looked for him as she opened her eyes.
She was lying on her bed while wearing her comfy hoodie and pajamas. She couldn't help but think that her powers returning was a dream.
[Yeah, Gwen?]
[Did we… go out before?] She asked skeptically.
[Yes, we did. It wasn't a dream.]
[What happened?] She asked as she remembers blacking out after their conversation.
[Nothing, I healed that burglar and then brought you back here.]
[Did you…] She asked with a frown on her face that looked cute to Alex.
[I did…]
[Why? I asked you not to. We were talking about it…] She was angry.
[It was taking too long. And I didn't want to fight with you.]

[So you read an innocent man's memories?] She reprimanded him.
[He was barely innocent. The burglary was the least of his crimes. He was a murderer and a rapist. Brain-fucking him was the least that he deserved.]
[That doesn't change the fact that you violated his human rights.]
[Gwen, I don't know if you know this or are just denying it… Your current situation is very dangerous. This… What I did wasn't a big deal. But the situation of this planet and the 39 other planets that all seem to be orbiting each other in a big cluster is a very huge deal…] He wasn't planning to fight with her over this and changed the topic of conversation.
[Yeah but…]
[Although things have been calm for the past few months, that doesn't mean that they will stay calm. Something is going to happen sooner or later. This was necessary, all right? I won't do something like this again.] He decided to compromise with her a bit.
From that guy's memory, he'd realized that these worlds had been present here in a huge cluster for a few months now. Which was the reason that things seemed to be a little calm. But the undercurrents were running.
[You promise?] She had a cute frown on her face as she asked him.
[Fine… I promise. Though there was something pretty fun that I learned from that guy's memories…]
[What is it?]
[I'll tell you some other time…] He decided to tease her and leave her hanging for now.
[You…]
"Gwenny… Come on down. Dinner's ready." Her dad called out from the kitchen.
"Coming dad." She said.
She instinctively tried to take off her hoodie to change it for another t-shirt.
[What're you doing?] Alex asked as the hoodie she tried to take off turned into black tendrils which wrapped around her waist.
"Ahh!" She'd forgotten that her clothes were basically a living organism right now.
[Sorry, I forgot. Could you change my top into that t-shirt? A-And I also need to wear a bra.] She blushed when she mentioned the bra.
She was conscious that Alex was a male and he was essentially able to access her body at all times.
It was something that turned her on and made her feel weird at the same time.
[All righty.] He made the hoodie disappear into a sexy black lace bra. Then he formed the t-shirt that she was pointing to over it.
[I don't have that bra…] She asked him when she saw what bra he'd made for her.
[That guy had quite a few things in his memory. He was what you would call, a pervert. I thought that this was a nice bra.]
[It is nice, I won't lie…] She liked his choice.
[Great, so from now on I'll choose the clothes you wear.]
[What? No.]
[Too late, it's decided.]
[You-]
"Gwen?" Her dad called out again.
"Coming..." She opened the door.
[We're not done.] She told him as she left her room for dinner.
***

-x-X-x--x-X-x--x-X-x-

Back with Alex's main body, he'd taken his original human form and was exploring the ship. Trying to understand how the language and controls work.
His main body had stayed within the shuttle, suppressing his connection to the main hive-mind.
The shuttle worked as a support device that helped him suppress his presence to that of a normal symbiote within the hive-mind.
This helped him not become a beacon to all the symbiotes within the universe. His complete consciousness was very attractive to the symbiotes.
'I don't think I can understand this. I might need some help…' He thought as he tried to understand the controls and labels in the control panel.
He was smart but not some unbelievable genius.
Although Gwen was extremely smart, he couldn't copy that trait of hers. The symbiote could copy only the powers and physiology that its host has. Their smarts, ideas, and IQ weren't something that he could get just by bonding with them.
'I could devour someone, on the other hand…' He thought as his second symbiote also arrived at its destination.
There was a similar crash within Central Park Alex's second body landed.
'I guess they're all homed in at Central Park…' He thought as he exited the container and moved away, waiting for someone to arrive.
This time his situation was vastly different. He had all his senses which were also enhanced by bonding with Gwen. He was also able to take the form of a normal human.
Soon a familiar spandex-clad individual arrived at his location.
'You have got to be kidding me… Is someone controlling all this or is this just a coincidence… Am I just a puppet of the Beyonder?' He got annoyed when he saw the familiar scene.
He didn't know what was going on and didn't have any control over it, so he decided to do what he could. He decided to devour this Spider-Man.
He wanted to develop more abilities and for that he needed energy. Biological energy. Devouring superpowered individuals was the best way to do that.
He even developed a way to bypass Spider-Man's spider sense completely. He'd understood its nature when bonding with Gwen so he could easily ambush the Spider-Man who was walking to the shuttle.
It slowly snuck up behind the Spider-Man and the next instant he was covering the body of the Spider-Man in front of him.
"Arghhh!" He struggled futilely against Alex. Soon, he started feeling pain. Horrible searing pain, as if his body was being melted.
That's exactly what was happening. Alex was devouring Spider-Man, getting a lot of biological energy in the process.
He realized that all the powers that he'd copied from Gwen were getting enhanced.
The superhuman strength, endurance, agility, wall-crawling, and even the spider-sense were enhanced.
'The augmentations that I can provide to Gwen's abilities have also increased.' He realized that the enhancement of the symbiote on their host's abilities was also affected by his collection of this biological energy.
'I should test things out with Gwen…' He decided before focusing on finishing the devouring process.
'Oh hey, it's Andrew Garfield…' When he noticed the face of the spider-man that he was devouring, he realized that it was the iteration of Spider-Man from The Amazing Spider-Man movies.
'I guess this makes sense… These worlds are basically on the outskirts of the planetary cluster. It makes sense that they aren't the mainstream ones. The two planets at the center are probably the strongest…' He thought looking over the structure of the cluster.
All of the planets were revolving in delicate orbits around two planets that were at the center.
The rest of them were basically moons to those two main versions of earth.

'One of them must be 616… What about the other though? It's not 1610, I'm sure of that, nor is it the MCU…' He was deep in thought as he absorbed the memories of this Spider-Man whom he'd just devoured.
«Energy Point +1»
«Energy point has been collected»
«New feature unlocked— Skill Acquisition»
He was surprised as he saw a few notifications from his very minimal system.
'New feature? Skill Acquisition…'
His mental thought opened the Skill Acquisition panel for him.
[ «Skill Acquisition»
«EP: 1»
«Owned Skills: ‹Superhuman Grade Strength› ‹Superhuman Grade Endurance› ‹Superhuman Grade Agility› ‹Enhanced 6th Sense› ‹Biological Manipulation› ‹Host Enhancement› ‹Devour› ‹Copy›»
]
'Well, this makes things easier…' He realized that he wouldn't have to develop his abilities on his own.
'Teleportation…' This was the first ability that he wanted so he tried to search for it.
«‹Lesser Teleportation› ‹Greater Teleportation› ‹Master Teleportation› ‹Void Traverser›»
He focused on the ‹Lesser Teleportation› ability to get a reference of what he would need.
‹Lesser Teleportation›:: Allows the user to blink away, teleporting a distance of at most 10 meters. Requires training to optimize and determine the location. Cooldown: 1 hour. Cost: 10000 EP
'Motherfucker… Just rob me, why don't you…' He was full of complaints over the high cost of the ability from the system.
'10000 Fucking EP… I have to eat 10000 Spider-Men… Fuck. There better be a more efficient way to get EP…' He decided to look at a simpler skill this time.
‹Lesser Heat and Sound Resistance›:: Grants the user weak heat resistance and weak sound resistance. Passive skill. Cost: 10 EP
'10 Spider-Men for this shitty skill? It's not even immunity…' He decided to not look at this shitty Skill Acquisition and focused on his current situation.
He'd already devoured Spider-Man and absorbed his memories.
'It's somewhere in the middle of the second movie. Gwen's alive and is leaving the country for Oxford soon. This Gwen's much smarter than the one that I'm bonded to right now. I could use the excuse of studying some alien tech I found to work with her…' He thought as he took the form of the Spider-Man that he'd just devoured.
'Two Gwen's huh… I wonder how it would feel to fuck both of them side by side...' He was lost in depraved thoughts as he swung through New York.
He had two things to do right now.
One was to devour Harry Osborn, the newly formed green goblin, and Electro.
He was sure that devouring both of them would net him at least 3 to 4 energy points.
It was Electro that he was hopeful for, Harry Osborn might not even be worth 1 full point.
He knew that they were both in Oscorp right now.
'Spider-Man kills the CEO of Oscorp. Hehe…' He could already imagine the consequences of his actions.

…
Harry had just helped the hate-filled Electro to escape. They were both at Oscorp, killing all of Harry's opposition.
After finishing with this, they would go after Spider-Man.
As they were rampaging through the Oscorp building, there was a loud bang on the floor that they were at.
"Spider-Man!" Electro was the first to scream hatefully at the new entrant.
"Hey there, Max!" His goofy grin was visible even from under his mask. He was wearing the signature red spandex suit. No need to attract unneeded attention by going black abruptly.
Alex was enjoying acting out Spider-Man's persona.
"How you doing man?" He waved at him.
"DIE!" Max aka Electro was easily triggered by his nonchalant attitude and turned into raw electricity to attack him.
'Come to daddy, bitch.' His goofy grin under the suit instantly turned malevolent and he instantly activated the ‹Devour›.
Just as the electricity was about to hit him, it started to lose its momentum and started to get sucked into him instead.
Max was too late in realizing what was going on and got stuck.
He tried to escape by turning back into a human form, but that made the next scene even more gruesome.
Half of Max's body was sticking out of Spider-Man's suit as he tried to escape.
"Ahhh!" His desperate screams made things even worse for the others within the room. He was slowly sucked into Spider-Man's chest.
This scene was especially terrifying for Harry since he had seen firsthand the power that Electro had.
Spider-Man containing Electro like that was something that shocked his psyche completely.
'Fuck, this is difficult…' Alex was having a harder time than he showed. It wasn't exactly easy to absorb a sentient energy entity.
Even now, he hadn't actually devoured Electro and was only keeping him trapped within his body. It was going to take time for him to completely devour him.
"Harry! My old pal… How are you doing?" As much trouble as he was having right now, he didn't show an ounce of it on his face as he walked to Harry with a menacing aura.
"Y-You killed him!" He was a little shocked at seeing his best friend kill a person so easily.
He slowly hovered up on his glider, trying to make some distance.
"Not really… I just contained him. His death comes later…" He said in a murderous tone.
"Y-You're not him!" Harry's shock instantly turned into anger as the effects of the volatile green goblin serum affected his mind.
He threw a bomb at Alex, expecting him to dodge. He was ready to attack Alex after he dodged the bomb.
What Alex did completely turned him over on his head. He caught the bomb and absorbed it within the suit.
"What the fuck are you?" He got even more agitated and started firing the machine guns at Alex.
"Your worst nightmare, bitch.." He taunted as he checked his reflexes while dodging the bullets. He wanted to see how it was different from when he was with a host.
***