CH 13: On the run

After Chaos used his Shapeshifting to get the flash drive out, along with a gum or two, the Symbiotic duo waited for Steve to return for it.

Once he arrived in sweatpants and a hoodie covering part of his face, he immediately went to the vending machine while trying not to be suspicious.

However, he was left speechless when he didn't see the flash drive nor the guns in front of it. But when he heard a pop from behind, he looked at the reflection on the vending machine to see Natasha nonchalantly chewing on a gum.

He turned around and immediately pulled her towards a room. But just before he could corner her into a wall, Natasha's hands shot up and backhanded his hands away :"Watch it."

Steve :"Where is it?"

Natasha :"Safe."

Steve :"Do better."

Natasha :"Where did you get it?"

Steve :"Why would I tell you?"

Natasha :"Fury gave it to you. Why?"

Steve :"What's on it?"

Natasha :"I don't know."

Steve :"Stop lying."

Natasha :"I only act like I know everything, Rogers."

Steve :"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?"

Natasha :"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you."

"I'm not gonna ask you again." He glared as he tried to grab Natasha's arms. But her hands shot up and grabbed his wrists, stopping him before pushing them away, causing him to frown.

Natasha :"I know who killed Fury."

Steve :"..."

Natasha :"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years."

'(Ah yes! Steve's boyfriend makes an appearance!)'

Steve :"So he's a ghost story."

Natasha :" Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff.

I pulled us out. But the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer so he shot him..." She pulled up her shirt, revealing a bullet scar :"Straight through me. Soviet slug. No rifling. *Smirking* Bye bye, bikinis."

"(You know I can fix that up in less than a second, right? My Regenerative Healing Factor is no joke." 'After all, it's the same as comic Carnage's. And that bastard is persistent as fuck.)'

Steve :"... Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now."

Natasha :"..."

"(Can I take a bite out of his ass?)"

Natasha :"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried."

"(Not after bonding with me.)"

Natasha :"*Pulling out the flash drive* Like you said, he's a ghost story."

Steve :"*Taking the flash drive* Well, let's find out what the ghost wants."

-

After hearing the situation, getting a change of clothes, at least Rogers doing so, while Chaos just changed his biomass which was his host's clothes, they set off to find out what was inside the flash drive.

As they walked in a mall, towards an internet cafe or something, Natasha just walked nonchalantly while Steve was looking around :"First rule of going on the run is don't run, walk."

"If I run in these shoes, they're going to fall off." The blond man groaned, causing the redhead's Symbiote to cackle.

After opening a computer and getting to work, Natasha informed Steve of the situation :"The drive has a level six homing program, so as soon as you boot up, SHIELD will know exactly where we are."

"(I don't think that's a problem. In fact, it's better. We'll just kill them off, or better yet, eat them all, and the case is closed.)"

"Sigh..."

Steve :"How much time will we have?"

"About nine minutes from..." She plugged in the flash drive :"Now." And immediately got to work on hacking it to get the information out.

Natasha :"Fury was right about that ship. Somebody's trying to hide something. Describe is protected by some sort of AI. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands.

Steve :"Can you override it?"

Natasha :"Sigh, the person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly."

"(Natasha. They're here.)"

"*Whispering* Where?"

"(They just got off the car and entered the mall.)"

Natasha :"Alright, I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from."

"Can I help you guys with anything?" A man with a beard and long hair that reached his chest walked towards them with a smile.

Knowing what she's going to say, and not willing to hear that shit, Chaos took complete control of her body. But not as in going Symbiote Mode.

No. As in literally taking control of her body. Everything. Natasha, taken over by Chaos, put her hand on Steve's shoulder with a smile :"Oh, nah.

Me and my best friend were just choosing where we should go with our other best friend. He's just getting the car ready."

When she returned back to the computer, and Ali gave back the control, she just stood there flabbergasted for a second as she whispered :"What? Did you just take control of my body?"

"(I did.)"

"Why?"

"(Cause knowing you, you were going to say some bullshit or something.)"

"... *Smirking* Is somebody jealous?"

"(You want your kidney eaten?)"

"*Smirking with a light chuckle* No, I don't."

"(Then shut it before I decide to take a bite out of something.)"

"*Chuckling quietly* Fine, fine. Don't be grumpy. I won't tease you. For now."

"(*Growling* You will never do it if you want all of your organs.)"

Man :"Oh. Where are you guys thinking about going?"

Steve :"*Looking at the name of the location that popped up* New Jersey."

"Oh." The man nodded, before he had a look of realization. Steve grew a bit confused and worried, but it went away when the man smiled :"I have the exact same glasses."

Natasha :"Wow, you two are practically twins."

"(I can TASTE the sarcasm, Natasha.)"

Man :"*Chuckling* Yeah, I wish."

"(What the fuck...? Didn't this guy get it? Bro, I did. And I'm not even human.)"

He lifted his hands and presented Steve with a smile :"Specimen. If you guys need anything, I've been Aaron." And he walked away after showing his card when Steve nodded :"Thank you."

"(... Correct me if I'm wrong, but was this guy just... Hitting on Steve?)"

"Kehaha."

"(By the way, those guys are getting closer.)"

Steve :"You said 9 minutes. Come on."

"Relax. Got it." She said as the exact location popped up on the screen, Wheaton, NJ. Steve furrowed his eyebrows as he looked closer, causing Natasha to raise her eyebrows :"You know it?"

"I used to. Let's go." He said before taking out the flash drive and walking away. While walking, Natasha had her Symbiotic Sense active, keeping an eye on the agents as Steve reported the situation, not knowing that she knew it better :"Standard tac team.

Two behind, two across, and two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro."

Natasha :"Shut up and put your arm around me. Laugh at something I said."

Steve :"What?"

"Do it." She said and he immediately complied. With his arm around her shoulder, he pretended to laugh before they passed the two agents.

"(It's going to be hard getting out like this.)"

"*Whispering* What do you propose?"

"(Let's disappear.)"

"... He will find out about you."

"(I have a feeling that we won't need to worry about people knowing about me after this whole ordeal is over. So it's fine. Just warn him to stay calm.)"

"... Sigh, fine. But let me tell you something, I won't let anybody try to harm you."

"(*Smiling* Mhm, yeah, I know. Thanks.)"

As they walked, Natasha suddenly grabbed onto Steve's arm, gaining his attention as she looked at him seriously :"Don't freak out."

He was confused, but when he saw a liquid come out of her hand and start climbing up his arm, he immediately twitched and was about to jump if not for Natasha holding him forcibly :"I said, don't. Freak. Out."

With a shaky breath, he nodded as he watched the unknown liquid. But his eyes immediately went wide when it just shot up faster than his eyes could track.

The next thing he knew, he couldn't see Natasha, or his own body! "... What the... Hell?" He whispered as he lifted his hands to look at them.

But even though he could feel them, he couldn't see them at all! Natasha was still holding onto his arm, and started walking while pulling him and leading the way :"Don't ask right now.

I'll explain it when we're out of this situation. For now, just walk. I'll lead the way, so don't worry. And whatever you do, don't get away from me. Cause if you do, we're probably busted."

The get away from there was as smooth as it could get. While being invisible, running away could hardly be any easier. Steve was seriously confused though.

His brain worked like a single mother on Christmas trying to buy her children gifts, trying to wrap his head around how she was able to do what he did. After getting out of the mall, and stealing a car to drive to their destination, they finally hit the road.

"So you wanna explain what the hell that was?" Steve glanced at Natasha, who was leaning back against the seat with her foot on the dash.

"... Well... I got a parasite." She spoke playfully, trying to rile her Symbiote up, and succeeded when he slammed her head to the window :"Aww."

She groaned playfully while Steve looked at her in confusion, but his eyes immediately went wide and got alarmed when a deep, raspy sound was heard :"Parasite?! You're seriously trying your luck, Natasha!"

"What the hell was that?!" Steve frowned, looking around, causing Natasha to chuckle while running her head :"Calm down, it was him."

"Who?!" He furrowed his eyebrows, and she shrugged :"My para... Symbiote." Smirking when Chaos growled :"I dare you, Natasha. Try me, bitch."

Steve :"What are you talking about?????" What is going on???"

Natasha :"Well, long story or short story?"

Steve :"... Both."

Natasha :"He's a slime-like alien who needs to bond with a living human to stay alive in our environment. I became his host, he gave me powers. Camouflage is one of them."

Steve :"... Alright... That didn't really clear things out... Give me the long story."

Natasha :"Some time ago, a genetics corporation, called Life Foundation, believing that humans are on the brink of extinction because of climate changes and population, sent a spacecraft to space to find a planet that we could live on.

They didn't find it. But they found something else. A comet. With millions of living aliens on it, which they called Symbiotes. The astronauts decided to take a few and bring them to Earth to learn about them.

This Symbiote of mine, Chaos, was one of those Symbiotes. He lives inside of my body. And is completely conscious and intelligent... Well, heh, I guess not that much."

"Fuck you too." Chaos scoffed, before a tendril came out of her side, transformed into a hand, and went to Steve to shake hands :"Hey, I'm Chaos. Nice to meet you."

However, he didn't greet him back. Just cautiously stared at the liquid hand while glancing at Natasha from time to time.

"Heh, relax. He won't bite." She smirked before he hummed as well :"Yeah, I won't. Unless you talk shit. Or act rude. We might have a problem if you do."

Cautiously, he reached out and slowly shook the red hand :"Steve Rogers... Nice to meet you too..." And the hand retreated back into Natasha's body.

Steve :"So are you gonna explain the rest?"

Natasha :"Relax~. He's a good guy until you piss him off. Just don't do that, and we're all good. Anyway, a few months later, about nearly half a year ago, the shuttle came back to Earth.

But crash because of one of the Symbiotes getting out. That one escaped, but the other ones were taken to the Life Foundation, along with Chaos.

About three months later, me and Clint were given a mission by Fury to go and check what they were hiding, why the spacecraft crashed, and what they brought.

I found Chaos in one of the labs. But a guard found me, and while I took care of him, Chaos bonded with me without me noticing."