Chapter 96

The Venom symbiote glanced at Ned and said, "Hey, chubby, you've got too much fat on you; I'm not interested. But your brain seems tasty."

Ned was immediately startled and stammered, "Oh my, I, I, I'll just continue searching for clues."

"You're not bad; do you crave power? Want to merge with me?" After intimidating Ned, the Venom symbiote looked at Spider-Tom.

Among the people present, aside from Mark, who it had shown interest in earlier, Spider-Tom was the most powerful, so naturally, it was curious.

"Hey! Do you have to flirt with them right in front of me?" Eddie Brock exclaimed.

"No, I'm not interested," Spider-Tom shook his head repeatedly. He remembered what Mark had told him earlier – the symbiote would implant itself into the marrow, read and record DNA, and even consume his brain. No way he was going to merge with this thing!

Spider-Tom kept his distance.

MJ, on the other hand, was quite curious about this. She asked, "What kind of relationship do you have? Are you a couple, spouses, or just partners?"

The Venom symbiote roared, "Fool, we're symbiotic!"

"Pah, it's just parasitic on me, that's all, benevolent as I am!" Eddie Brock retorted.

And so, the two of them began to argue again, making a commotion throughout the underground lair.

Mark and the others were speechless.

They had figured out that these two were a pair of clowns – chatty, constantly teasing each other, a bizarre way of getting along.

"The level of their banter is even higher than ours," Mark said, putting his arm around Spider-Tom's shoulder.

Spider-Tom looked puzzled. "Ours? Do I talk a lot?"

"Of course!" MJ and Ned chimed in unison.

"Oh no," Spider-Tom held his head, disbelieving, "I can't believe I'm considered talkative by you guys!"

"Hahaha—"

Mark noticed that Max had been standing quietly on the side and approached him. "Max, what are you thinking?"

Max smiled and replied, "Nothing, I just really like this feeling, friends."

"Haha, then you should join us!" Mark said.

"Okay."

So, Max joined the group.

The five of them cooperated to search for the remaining Green Goblin, Sandman, and the two Spider-Men, as well as the potential visitors from other parallel universes.

The atmosphere was quite cheerful.

Except for the fact that Eddie and the Venom symbiote were arguing incessantly.

It got to the point where even the Lizard Doctor roared a few times, trying to get them to quiet down.

But their bickering only led to more insults, like calling the Lizard Doctor "Where did the big lizard come from?" or "Is this a dinosaur-man?" and so on. This just made the situation worse.

In the end, the battle even spilled over to Doctor Octopus.

They teased him as "the octopus guy with eight arms," and it infuriated Doctor Octopus to the point that he threatened to thrust his mechanical tentacles into their behinds if he ever got out.

Ned asked in confusion, "But doesn't he have only six arms?"

MJ explained, "Doesn't he still have two legs?"

"Oh," Ned exclaimed, his mouth agape, finally getting it.

Bam!

Doctor Octopus slammed the magical barrier again, glaring at these two troublemakers angrily.

"Uh, uh," Ned shrunk his head back to the computer screen.

MJ, however, provocatively smiled and picked up a piece of paper, quickly sketching something while facing Doctor Octopus.

"What are you doing?" Doctor Octopus immediately sensed that something was amiss.

"I'm drawing a person in distress," MJ replied without looking up, and then she stopped drawing, holding up the sketchbook to show it to him, and said with a smile, "It's you."

On the sketchbook was a cartoonish portrait of Doctor Octopus in a difficult situation.

Doctor Octopus was somewhat helpless in the face of this childish behavior and chose to ignore her.

He turned to Mark and asked, "How long do you plan to keep us locked up?"

Mark shrugged. "Watch your phrasing, Doctor. I'm not the one keeping you here. It's Doctor Strange who believes you might disrupt this world, so he temporarily detained you. Don't worry; he won't keep you for long."

"Why?" Doctor Octopus asked.

Mark explained, "He'll figure out a way to send you back."

"Send us back?" Doctor Octopus was taken aback and then became angry. "No, you said that if I go back, I'll return to before my death! You want to send me back to die?"

"Oh my, I don't want to die," Lizard Doctor chimed in. He remembered that Mark had previously said something about how he had been killed by Mark in another world. Although it wasn't the same world - because he had never met Mark before - the fact that "he would die at the hands of Spider-Man" was likely true.

Nobody wanted to die, not even Max, who had been standing quietly on the side.

He thought carefully and realized that he had also appeared in this parallel universe during a confrontation with Spider-Man. Did this mean that he would be killed by Spider-Man just like them?

Mark patted Max on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry; I can handle this."

"You can handle it? How?" Doctor Octopus immediately asked.

"Since in your universe, you will die, all we have to do is not send you back to your universe," Mark replied with a smile.

"You mean stay in this world?" Doctor Octopus asked.

Mark shook his head. "Let's not get into whether Doctor Strange will allow you to stay in this world for now. Even certain entities you can't currently interact with won't allow you to stay here."

"Certain... entities we can't interact with? What are they?"

"I can't say, I can't say," Mark acted mysterious.

But he wasn't entirely making it up.

In the vast multiverse, there indeed existed an organization known as the Time Variance Authority (TVA). They were located in a dimension known as the "Null-Time Zone" and were unaffected by the passage of time.

It was a massive bureaucratic organization dedicated to overseeing, adjusting, and balancing the numerous timelines across the infinite variations of the multiverse.

Their low-level employees were known as "Hunters," they are mainly stationed at their respective desks, monitoring their assigned timelines for any irregularities.

When anomalies were detected, Hunters would inform their superiors, who would then dispatch clone-agent operatives called "Minutemen" to deal with the time-law-breaking culprits.

At the highest level were three Time Keepers, or certain entities hidden even deeper within.

In theory, the TVA had the authority to access every existing timeline and possessed the power to undo everything, erase entire timelines, or even directly erase someone's existence from history. The Infinity Stones, considered artifacts of immense power, were just common stones in the eyes of the Time Variance Authority.

When Mark learned about the existence of this organization, he was actually somewhat surprised, and even a little frightened. Because, in a way, he himself was a "Time criminal."

However, despite traversing multiple worlds and changing many things, he had never encountered anyone from the Time Variance Authority coming to confront him.

So, either this organization was merely an imagined concept created by people on his side of Earth, similar to the TOAA.

Or, there were issues within the Time Variance Authority, and they were too preoccupied to deal with him.

Of course, there was also the possibility that he was indeed a "legitimate" time and space traveler, just like his fabricated identity, which was why the TVA turned a blind eye to his alterations of the timeline.

Regardless of which scenario it was, for him at this moment, he could temporarily set this matter aside.

"What does that mean, then?" Doctor Octopus asked, growing annoyed and thinking that Mark was playing with him.

Mark raised his hand and said, "Join my Time-Space Team and become a legitimate quantum traveler like me."

"You want me to be your subordinate, kid?" Doctor Octopus sneered.

"I didn't say that," Mark shrugged, looking at Max by his side. He extended his hand and smiled, "And it's not a subordinate; it's a partner."

Max was taken aback but also extended his hand, gripping Mark's firmly.

"Partners!"

Doctor Octopus remained silent. He wasn't Max, and he didn't have any psychological issues, so he wasn't easily swayed. Mark didn't really care either. He had already formed a partnership with one Doctor Octopus, and once they borrowed the miniature arc reactor left by Iron Man from Spider-Tom, their relationship would progress further.

Whether there was one more or one less person didn't matter.

As for the remaining two:

Lizard Doctor, to be honest, Mark didn't think much of him. He wasn't very powerful, his research abilities were rather average, and he had limited development potential.

As for Venom, well, he was just too dangerous.

Ding-a-ling!

A rapid series of ringing suddenly echoed.

It turned out to be Spider-Tom's phone.

"Hello, Aunt May," Spider-Tom answered the phone, but his voice was soon interrupted.

"Hehehe—" a sharp laugh came from the phone. "Little Spider~"

Spider-Tom's expression changed, and he stood up abruptly. "Who are you? Where's Aunt May?"

"The young Spider in this universe! I heard you have Spider-Men from other universes with you. How about we play a team-based showdown game?" Another voice emerged, contrasting the previous one with its hoarse and low pitch, like gravelly.

"Who are you people? If you want to deal with me, come at me and let Aunt May go!" Spider-Tom's face turned red with anger as he shouted.

"Don't worry, we're not interested in her for now," the voice replied. "Of course, if you don't cooperate, things might change."

Mark reached out and gently pressed on Spider-Tom's shoulder to calm him down. He took the phone and said, "Explain your 'team-based showdown game.'"

"Who are you? Oh, I see now, you're the little Spider from another universe, right? Hehe, since you fancy yourselves as heroes, we'll be the evil team. Let's have a grand game of good versus evil!" The voice laughed wildly.

°°°

Hungry for more chaps? Then check out our pătreon!

Link: Påtreon.com/BaphometFiction

I post 10 advanced chapters of this fanfic there.