15Author's Note: So I've had this story in mind ever since I saw the preview of the new Venom movie and I finally got around to writing it. This is a sort of fusion/crossover of the Symbiotes falling into DC Earth instead of Marvel, so sadly there's no Eddie Brock in this fic, but hopefully, you'll accept Jason Todd as a substitute. This is also set slightly pre Under the Red Hood so Jason has returned to Gotham but isn't on Bruce's Radar yet.
I should also probably warn that this is my first time writing Jason Todd or anything with the Batfam to be honest and I'm not sure how it turned out. If you guys have thoughts on what I can improve let me know. I'd also like to thank the fabulous DapperSkelly for Betaing my first chapter and giving me some feedback on writing Venom.
Anyways happy reading and feel free to drop a comment or constructive criticism my way if you so desire.
Chapter 1
Jason crouched on the rooftop of a nearby building staring down at the target. The warehouse sat brightly lit, a beacon on an otherwise abandoned street. He didn't have to wait long before two covered trucks pulled into the back entrance. His eyes narrowed as a pair of gangly teenagers stumbled out of the vehicle, followed by a set of thugs holding them at gunpoint. Jason sighed. Checking his holsters, he stood up. Honestly, it was reassuring in a way to know the shady parts of Gotham didn't change in his absence, some things never changed. It was time to get to work.
Jason had been tracking Black Mask's shipments into and out of the city for the last week. Everything he'd found pointed back to this location, whatever was going on here it was some seriously shady shit, even by Gotham's standards. If he had to guess based on the whispered reports he'd say it was some type of experimental drug treatment or organ black market gig. The homeless, street kids, prostitutes going missing, people no one would miss, all from Crime Alley and the Lower Bowery. The fuckers.
Jason finished loading his backup magazines, thumbing brass into the nearly full clips. His vision tinged green at the edges thinking about it, he was dead and buried for two years and Bruce didn't know shit about the city he swore to protect. It made him sick. Still, he wasn't ready to hit Bruce over the head with his hypocrisy yet. There were still pieces that needed to fall into place. He needed to stay off the Bat's radar for a little longer as he tightened his grip on Gotham's criminal underbelly. And tonight was just a push in the right direction.
Jason grappled down silently onto the warehouse roof, finding a fire escape hatch, he gripped the panel and yanked. The hinges creaked in protest as they were forced open. Jason glanced around nervously, but when no of the guards below made any motion that they overheard, he slipped inside pulling the hatch closed behind him.
The first thing he noticed inside the warehouse was the faint scent of antiseptic and bleach filtering through his mask. He scrunched his nose in distaste. It smelled clinical. Unlike the dingy exterior of the building, the interior looked state-of-the-art. The walls were painted a crisp white, the concrete floors were scrubbed so clean they practically shined.
Jason glanced around. He was crouched on a series of catwalks that zig-zagged above the base floor. He took careful note of the exits below him, casing the place. He could hear the distinct hum of electricity around him, something in this building was sucking up a hell of a lot of power.
The lower floor was divided. A series of freight containers covered the area by the massive loading doors the rest of the warehouse was separated by glass walls that sorted the space into neat rooms and hallways. Jason grimaced under his mask. It looked like someone had retrofitted it into some sort of hospital. This didn't bode well for anyone, organ theft seemed more and more likely.
Jason dropped behind the large metal shipping crates. He leaned low and snuck along the top following the armed thugs as they escorted the kids down a hallway. The plan was simple, find out what operation Roman Sidious was running here and fuck up his shit. The kids were a new barrier, one he didn't expect, but he'd get them out before he blew this place to hell. He ground his teeth. The kids were off limits, and soon Gotham's gangs were going to pick up on that fact or they were going to die, painfully.
The thugs paused in front of a room and nudged the two kids inside. Jason could see another pair of shoes and the bottom of a long white coat. He couldn't quite make out anything else in the room from his current position, but Jason would bet his favorite AK-47 that there were doctors in there. He jumped down to the hallway, careful to keep his weight forward as he stalked towards the room, drawing one of his pistols. He paused along the wall just before he got to the room, careful to stay out of view as he peered inside.
The two kids clasped their hands together, clinging next to each other as their eyes darted wildly around. In front of them, a man in a white lab coat holding a clipboard assessed the teenagers.
"Is this all you could get?"
Thug one grunted.
The scientist sighed, jotting down a note on the clipboard. "Well I guess it will have to do for tonight, but if you bring in this few tomorrow I'll tell Black Mask. We need more subjects or we're never going to get anywhere."
The two thugs seemed unconcerned and shrugged off the threat, shifting their assault rifles to their shoulders, and moving to stand by the door. The scientist moved closer to the teens, appraising them. He pulled stethoscope and gestured for the boy pull off his shirt. The boy jerked back and darted towards the door but wasn't fast enough to escape; one of the thugs moved, slamming the kid down on the floor. The girl screamed and threw herself at the thug, trying vainly to claw him away from her companion.
"Knock it off, you idiots!" The scientist hissed, "We need them unharmed to keep the validity of the test! And, since you two only managed to find two urchins in all of Gotham, if you mess them up now I can't run any trials tonight!"
"Not my fault you can't handle two punks, Dr. Erwin." The thug scoffed.
The scientist -Erwin, rolled his eyes and grabbed a syringe off a tray. He inserted it into the boy's neck with brutal efficiency and shoved the plunger down. The boy jerked but slowly stilled. The girl let out a whimper from the corner she backed herself into.
"You're next girlie!" The other thug chuckled.
"There, now let him up, I gave him a sedative." Erwin said, as he gathered a new syringe and drew blood, "I just need some baseline results for these two and we'll be ready to start."
The doctor checked the boy's pulse, heartbeat, took a skin sample, and swabbed the boy's saliva. He bagged and set aside the samples, then approached the girl cowering in the corner.
"Wh-what did you do to Matt?" The girl stuttered, pressing back further from the scientist. Erwin ignored her, instead reaching out and tugging the girl up. The girl lashed out, racking her nails across his face, digging into any flesh she could reach with feral desperation. The doctor howled and reeled back. "I asked what you did to Matt you bastard!"
Jason smirked. You can take the kid out of Crime Alley, but you can't take Crime Alley out of the kid.
"The bitch scratched me!" The doctor said, staring at the kid as if she'd grown a second head. He held his hand up to his face dabbing at the blood, "Just, just put her in containment! We have one test subject, that will have to be good enough tonight."
The doctor gestured to the glass door. The thugs moved in a slow saunter holding their guns high as they backed the girl up to the door and slid it open, forcing her inside. One guard stood watching as the other grabbed the sedated boy dragging him into the side room before he slid the door shut and locked it.
Jason bit down a growl that was resonating up his throat. Behind the two kids rested a series of beeping machines plugged into a canister. All he could see was some black liquid. It could be a toxin, a nano-parasite, or something else entirely. He couldn't tell from this distance.
The girl had gathered Matt up in her arms and was murmuring to him softly.
The scientist picked a radio, holding it up to his ear and pressing down the call button, "Okay, subjects 42 and 43 are in containment, release the locks." There was a click and a hiss as the container popped open.
Jason didn't think, he just moved. He shot twice, one bullet for each of the thugs' heads. He didn't bother with the door, instead firing once more. The glass shattered, falling to pieces as cracks webbed out from the bullet hole. Jason's combat boot kicked up shattering the glass that remained as he shoved his way into the lab room.
The scientist whirled in surprise dropping the radio as he tried to find the threat. Jason aimed and pulled the trigger. The man screamed in pain as a bullet ripped through his left thigh. Jason rolled his eyes. What a baby, he hadn't even hit the femoral artery.
Jason took a sick pleasure in making sure his footsteps were obnoxiously loud, stepping over the fallen glass shards as he approached the ashen scientist, his gun held high.
"Hey there Doc," He said his mask giving the tone a robotic twang, "What's up?"
Erwin's eyes widened as he caught a good look at him. The man whimpered. Jason stomped on his injured leg, hard. The man screamed like a banshee. Jason punched forward catching Erwin right in the teeth, the idiot needed to shut up before every man in the warehouse heard.
The doctor slumped backwards to the floor, blood from his mouth dripping down his lips. He let out a low whine before falling into inaudible mumbles as he gripped his face.
"What was that Doc? I don't think I heard." Jason said making it a point to lean in close to the man's face.
"I said fucking bats!" The scientist wheezed, spitting blood onto Jason's mask. Jason didn't hesitate to pistol whip him. The man's skull made a satisfying crack.
"Do I look like a fucking bat?" He hissed low and dangerous, shoving the pistol barrel into the man's forehead.
"N- no!" The man stuttered out.
"That's what I thought. Now let me tell you how this is going to work Erwin. You're going to tell me what kind of operation Black Mask is running here and if you're a real good boy I might even let you walk out of this alive."
The man gulped, sweat gathering on his face. It was times like this Jason loved wearing a full face mask, it gave nothing important away, things like the fact that there was no way in hell Jason was letting this kidnapping shitstain live.
"It's trials!" The man blurted out, "Some top-secret compound Black Mask thought could be weaponized and sold on the Black Market! Please, I'm begging you, I'll do whatever you want just please don't kill me." The man held his hands up over his head.
He frowned under his mask. A weapon? Some sort of bioweapon from the look of it.
"So what Doc, you and your compadres thought you could just snatch people off the streets of Gotham and do whatever you want with them? I don't know what kind of bullshit degree you got, but generally, human experimentation is a no-no. How many people do you have in here anyway?"
"We've…" the man started slow, licking his bloody lips nervously, "We've done 41 tests, no living subjects."
"Fuck!" Jason cursed, the man flinched away from him. He shoved the discarded radio in the man's hand, "Call up and tell them to unlock the door and shut off whatever you bastards started!"
"I… I can't," The man wailed, "Lab safety procedures - we can't have those things getting out. The test started, no one will open it now."
A deep growl reverberated around them and Jason's head shot up to gaze into the containment room. The black liquid in the container had seemingly disappeared.
He watched the girl turn to face the other kid in the containment room snarling and crouched low, taking a predatory stance. The sedated boy backed away looking alarmed.
"Molly? Molly, it's me, it's Matt. What are you doing? What's happening?!"
Then Molly lunged, her greasy brown hair stringing around her as she threw herself at the other kid. He screamed as they careened into the wall. The glass cracked behind them. The girl bit down on the kid's arm, tearing off a chunk of his flesh. Blood smeared across the girl's face as she chewed.
" Holy Fuck !" Jason whispered. He needed to get the other kid away from her now.
He knocked the radio out of the scientist's hand and shot the guy low in the gut. It was a slow, painful way to go. Jason heard him groan and drop fully to the ground. He stepped over the body in a rush to get to the glass door.
There was a keypad by the door. Jason wasted no time shooting it. Sparks flew out, a light flashed red and then yellow. The door slowly began to slide open.
"Hey, kid get over here!"
The boy's wide eyes focusing on Jason as he desperately scrambled away from the girl. The girl looked a Jason and cocked her head to the side examining him as she chewed. The boy managed to find his way to the door and Jason yanked him the rest of the way out and slammed the door as the girl lunged.
"I don't understand what's happening? She was fine and then she just lost it!" The boy rambled, clutching his gushing arm. Jason tossed him a roll of bandages laying on the examination counter.
"I know. Get behind me."
The girl's lips quirked into a toothy grin, bright red blood glinting between her teeth. A shiver went down his spine. She looked like a fucking animal.
Her mouth began to move, shaking with each syllable, "B-ba-bat."
That was all the warning Jason got before the girl flung herself full speed against the glass. She collided and some part of her body snapped. The glass shook but held.
Jason gripped his pistol tightly aiming it at her form. She probably knocked herself unconscious but-
She stood up. Something cracked as she stood, bones grating together in a way God never intended. Jason winced. Her shoulder was bent back at an odd angle. Definitely broken Jason assessed. The crazy smile was still plastered to her face.
"Bat! Bat! Bat!" The girl slurred out in a sing-song voice. Then she threw herself at the glass again. The glass shuddered and the woman pounded her fist against it. Spiderweb cracks raced out from her fist as the glass's integrity gave way. Jason's eyes widened, this glass was reinforced, there was no way-
The girl's fist slammed through the glass. Her eyes narrowing as she seemed focused on Jason's red helmet. What the fuck was in that black liquid cocktail?
"Shit," He cursed, stepping back and putting a hand on the kid's chest to force him behind him, "Kid you sure you didn't get any of that stuff on you?"
"N-no."
"Good."
Smash! The girl's fist came down again, her fingers tugging at the shards of glass trying to widen the hole.
"Containment Breach. Containment Breach." Blared monotonously on repeat from a series of overhead speakers. Alarms flashed red around them.
For her small skeletal frame, there was no way she naturally had that kind of strength. Jason was already herding the boy towards the door when the girl managed to pull the rest of her frame through the hole she'd made in the glass. Cuts ran along her body as she forced her way forward. Baggy brown clothes were shredded on the edges of the smashed glass.
The girl didn't pause as soon as she got her feet under her she darted forward with unnatural speed, tackling Jason to the ground.
"Kid, take this and get out of here!" Jason yelled, scrambling to his thigh holster as he tossed one of his pistols at the boy. Matt fumbled it but managed to get a hold on it, before nodding and darting out the door. Crime Alley kids didn't need to be told twice.
Jason tussled with the delirious girl, trying to get out from under her as she tried to tear off his mask. She was strong. Her fist came down inches away from Jason's face leaving a small crater in the concrete. Jason rolled his head to the side and blinked.
"Holy hell!" He muttered.
The girl's arm was enveloped in a black gooey substance. It pulsed across her skin, writhing as if it were alive, as she pulled her arm up to get another hit in. Jason watched in horror as her closed fist cracked against his mask. His head cracked against the concrete and his mask went dark for a moment before flickering back to life.
Fuck, she hit like a super.
She was strong, but Jason himself was no pushover. Besides he was better trained. He arched his back using his weight to counter hers and flipped them. He pinned her down, sitting on her chest with his knees situated across her shoulders. The black substance jerked across her skin, vibrating angrily as it tried to scrape against Jason. Jason drove his knee further into her injured shoulder trying to distract her. She didn't so much as flinch when he pressed down on her injured arm. It was like she had no concept of pain. The black ebbed away, receding into the girl's skin.
Well, that couldn't be healthy.
Jason frowned. Maybe this was some kind of Bane Venom, he wasn't sure. He didn't have a fancy lab like Bruce. But if he could knock her out he could leave her somewhere safe for the Bat's to find and hopefully cure. The perk of being a hypocritical bastard, they get all the toys.
He dug around on his belt pulling out a syringe of paralytic and jabbed it into her thigh. The girl screeched, bucking with all her inhuman strength to get him off. A few minutes later the tremors started as the chemicals started shutting off typical muscle function. It wasn't pleasant and the kid was going to be in for a rough wake-up. Normally he saved this stuff for kidnappings and interrogations of the slimiest lowlifes gnawing on Gotham's streets. But, this was an emergency and he'd used what he had. It would have been an embarrassment to his training to do any less.
Jason slowly rolled off the girl noticing as he did so that her fluttering eyes were a filmy white as if she was blind. He frowned he needed to get her medical attention ASAP.
He hoped whatever this was it wasn't contagious, just in case he left the kid on Leslie's doorstep. The last thing Gotham needed was a zombie epidemic.
Jason picked the girl up throwing her over his shoulder as he left the terrorized lab behind him.
Jason made it down all of two empty hallways before all hell broke loose. He really should have known that it was going to be one of those nights.
He heard the sound of rushing footsteps before he saw anything.
He took two more corners and was tugging out his grappling line to retreat back to the catwalks when he rounded on a group of armed men.
"There's the intruder."
One of the guards so wisely pointed out.
Jason sighed setting the girl down against the wall. This was so fucking typical, break into a facility to blow it up and instead find unethical experimentation and get shot at. If Talia could only see him now.
"Kill them both! Retrieve the Symbiote."
The order echoed down the hallway as the men raised their weapons. He could hear the click of a trigger.
He moved.
Jason dove into the fray, a knife in one hand a pistol in the other. He brought his weapons down with brutal efficiency, carving through his enemies in a fluid dance.
One of the men aimed for his head and fired. Jason dodged left, hearing a hiss as the bullet scrapped against his hood. He grimaced, at this rate he'd have to build a whole new mask before he went out tomorrow.
His knife found its way into his assailant's throat. He could hear bullets whizzing about, but didn't bother to slow down. At this range, they'd be more likely to hit each other than him.
Blood splattered around him and he could hear his heartbeat. Green burned at the edges of his vision. Jason felt his pulse quicken as a nameless rage washed through him. He roared. He wanted to tear, to feel their blood drip on his hands, to choke the life out of them.
Kill. Kill. Killkillkilllkilll. Something whispered. Who was he to deny it?
Eight men dropped to the floor dead.
Jason wasn't sure how long he stood there, breathing and trying to get a hold of the unfiltered violence singing in his head. When his mind finally found its way back to his body he picked his way across the room to where he left Molly.
The girl rolled her head over to look at him again. Her eyes were still white but they seemed less coherent than before. She was no longer smiling.
Jason blinked in surprise at the movement. The paralytics should have lasted longer than this.
He reached over to pick her up when he felt something wet seep through his gloves. Jason glanced down to see deep red across his palms. He knelt down looking the girl over.
Blood stained through her ragged clothing pooling on her lap. He tugged her shirt up. Just below her left lung was a gaping hole.
Fuck, she'd been shot. He reached around her back looking for an exit wound. There was nothing.
"Shit!" Jason cursed, fumbling to tear off a piece of his shirt to bind the wound. It wasn't meant to end like this, but between that weird chemical and the amount of blood she was losing he could tell she wasn't going to last much longer.
"Hey, hey Molly can you hear me? It's going to be alright."
The voice came out robotic and he frowned. He reached behind his ears for the clasp and pulled his hood off. The girl deserved to see a real human face before she died.
Molly wheezed.
"No, you don't need to talk."
He was using his Robin voice. The voice Bruce had taught him to reassure civilians. He hadn't used that voice in two years, not since Ethiopia. Not since-
Jason cut the thought off. No time for that.
"It's going to be alright. I promise there's nothing bad on the other side. You can trust me I've been there."
Molly whined and Jason took off his bloody glove to run a warm hand through her hair. He picked her up gently holding her close to his body as he swung them up to one of the overhead catwalks.
"It'll be alright. It's a hell of a lot better than here." He murmured, laying her down on the metal pathway.
He'd take her body with her when he left too. Bury her someplace nice and quiet. The one thing about being an up and coming crime lord is for once in his life he had money to spare.
"Ma-Matt" She managed to gurgle out, a dribble of blood rolling down her face. He shifted her onto her side, her lung was filling with blood.
"Yeah, I'll tell Matt what happened to you and make sure he got out of her safe. I'll burn this place to the ground too. This isn't going to happen to anyone else."
Molly nodded weakly, meeting his eyes, her eyes were back to a dusty brown.
"Who'r yu?"
"Jason."
"C'rm ally hero," She managed to gurgle out past the blood.
He cracked a smile. Like recognized like, "Don't know if I'm much of a hero anymore, but I can promise you that I do vengeance."
Molly dipped her head in a nod, "Giv'm hell."
"Will do kid."
After that, her breathing became shallower as she struggled with each breath. It wouldn't be much longer now. She was already fading out and a collapsed lung didn't feel pleasant. If she wasn't already in shock from the chemicals they'd given her then she certainly was now.
He wasn't sure how long they sat in the quiet like that. He could hear thugs scrambling around down below them, but that didn't matter as soon as Molly passed on and he got her body out of here he was going to burn this place to the ground and then knock off every one of Black Mask's distributors he could find.
Molly let out a one last choked breath before she sighed and was still.
Jason eased her to the floor and closed her eyelids. She was dead.
He reached past the corpse to where he set his hood. Something warm and wet slithered across his ungloved hand. What in the hell?
Jason instantly snatched it back and held it closer to the light to inspect it. His eyes saw nothing but his pale skin. He shivered the hairs on the back of his neck standing at attention. A warning feeling came from the pit of his stomach. Something told him he should get out of here.
He tentatively reached back over snatching his mask and inspecting the inside. He could have sworn he felt something. He shook his head trying to dismiss the feeling. It didn't matter he had places to be and buildings to burn.
He shoved his hood back on his head and the locks clicked into place. He carefully lifted Molly's body and slipped out through the overhead hatch he entered through. He'd get her someplace out of the way and then come back and finish the job.
