Symbiote 0281: Team Introductions

Gwen and Alex sat on the couch in the living room, lazily watching a movie.

"You're distracted," Alex said.

"So are you," Gwen retorted. "Admit it, your movie choice is just boring."

"Not the movie," Alex turned to her. "Are you stressed? It's going to work out. Don't worry."

"It's not that," Gwen shook her head. She rested her palm on Alex's chest. "I wonder … I wonder if I even deserve it. I fucked up and to be let go without any consequences just seems a little … unfair."

Alex held Gwen's face, cupping her cheek, "Do you really think you don't deserve that pardon, Gwen?" He asked as his thumb traced her lips. "You have spent the past two years doing good, saving so many people. Ever since you graduated high school, you haven't stopped atoning for that one mistake."

"Doing good can't offset the bad that one does," Gwen said, leaning her face into Alex's palm.

"Don't you think that's a little hypocritical of you? I'm not a saint and you don't seem to be too strung up about how I do things."

"Well, that's you. Your goal is world domination. My goal is just … to help people."

"So you feel that if you get pardoned, your moral high ground won't be as high anymore?" Alex leaned forward, his breath mixing with Gwen's.

"If you help in exchange for something … then you aren't really helping, are you? It's more of a transaction." She reciprocated, brushing her lips against Alex's ear.

"It's always a transaction, Gwen," Alex chuckled, his breath tickling Gwen's ear. "Even when you save someone without the expectation of a reward, you get a rush of dopamine that makes you feel good. Maybe you don't get anything material out of helping people, but you aren't exactly completely selfless."

Gwen gave him a disgruntled look before pressing her lips against his. She didn't seem interested in continuing the conversation.

Minutes passed as the duo made out passionately; Gwen was doing her best to distract herself and Alex obliged. Soon, the doorbell rang.

"I'll go see," Not caring about her disheveled clothes or the erotic blush on her face, Gwen jumped up from Alex's lap and ran to the door. He shook his head at how she just left him to deal with her messy appearance.

"Welcome home, Dad," Gwen looked imploringly at George, blocking the doorway.

"Mind if I enter?" He asked.

"What did they say?" Gwen didn't move.

"Is that any way to ask your father about something like this?"

"Daaad~ Tell me!" Gwen shook her father's arm like a little child throwing a tantrum.

She felt a hand on her head and calmed down, looking up at her father.

"It's done —" Hearing those words, Gwen squealed and tightly hugged George. "Calm down," He patted her back to calm her down. "How about we get inside the house now?"

Gwen nodded with tears in her eyes and stepped back allowing George to enter.

"Evening, son," The man greeted Alex.

"Hey, Mr. Stacy."

George didn't stay in the living room and instead moved to his room to shower and change.

"Alex~" Gwen came to him while squealing. "I got my pardon." She jumped at him, making the couch creak due to the force she used. "I finally got my pardon" She repeated like a broken record as Alex hugged her.

"To think you were all stuck up about whether or not you should be getting the pardon in the first place."

Gwen giggled weakly, tightening her arms around Alex. She was trembling, holding him as tight as she could.

"You know, a normal man's bones would've shattered by now …" Alex teased as Gwen let out a sobbing laugh.

"Fuck off," She tightened her arms even further as if Alex would disappear if she loosened her hold.

…

"Spider Woman, allow me to introduce to you your team for the foreseeable future," Samantha Wilson said. "This is Jessica Jones, a private investigator and a part of the Defenders team." She gestured toward a jet-black-haired woman who gave a nod to Gwen and shook her hand. "This is Iron Fist, he serves as the unofficial leader of the team and is usually the one we contact whenever we need to get something done from them," A blonde man nodded with a smile and shook Gwen's hand.

"Hi, are you single?" He asked. "If you say yes, I'll tell you my secret — hey!" Jessica grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him back.

"Don't mind him, he just gets a little blunt at times." She said succinctly as Gwen recoiled a little.

Samantha shook her head, "Lastly, this is Luke Cage. He and Iron Fist both work as heroes for hire."

Gwen shook the man's hand as he spoke, "Don't mind him. He's just trying to break the ice."

"It's fine," She smiled. "I'm Spider Woman. I guess we'll be working together for a while."

"Get yourselves familiar with each other. Jessica, you should have already received all of the information we have regarding the potential bombing sites."

"What about the other members of the team?" Iron Fist asked. "The Neo Avengers, I mean."

"They are assigned to the other boroughs. You four will be limited to acting in Brooklyn. If you find leads that may take you outside, you forward the information to the respective point of contact for that borough. As for Brooklyn, Jessica is the point of contact. If any of the other teams find information regarding Brooklyn, they will forward it to her."

"What of law enforcement?" Jessica asked. "Will we have to deal with them as well?"

"No, the Governor has already agreed to work with us. Neither the army nor the police will hamper your investigation. If you find something that needs police intervention, Spider-Woman can directly contact the Commissioner's office. Any other questions?" Samantha looked at all four people who shook their heads. "Great, I wish you all the best in your endeavor. The fate of New York and potentially the entire country hangs in the balance. No pressure."

With a cheeky smile, she left the four people in the empty coffee shop.

[How fun, your very own ragtag group of superpowered individuals. They're all probably going to be dysfunctional in their own ways.]

[You haven't already investigated them?] Gwen retorted.

[I have. That's why I know they are all dysfunctional. Especially Jones.]

"So what's our first target?" Gwen asked no one in particular.

"I'm going to need a few minutes to look things up," Jessica said, pulling her laptop out of her bag.

"I'll order us some coffee while she goes through SHIELD's information," Iron Fist was already on the way to the barista.

"So you guys work as heroes for hire," Gwen turned to Luke. "How does that work?"

"We provide investigation and protection services. It's usually bodyguard work and the like," He answered.

"And her?" Gwen pointed at the busy Jessica. "Is she also a member?"

"She has her own practice," Luke shook his head.

"What are you talking about?" Iron Fist appeared, inserting himself into the conversation.

…

As Gwen got busy playing superhero with her new group of friends, Alex put his own plans into motion regarding her planet. Though before doing all of that, he had something else that needed to be taken care of.

Alex's corporeal form appeared inside his soul, right in front of the three Infinity Stones at the center of his soul.

"I apologize for taking so long to devour you guys, but Thor is honestly a hack of a character when it comes to Marvel," Alex looked at the three buff blonde-haired figures that were floating listlessly under the light of the three stones. "I could not for the life of me devour these fuckers despite all of that suppression. Ultimately, I need to actively use one of the stones to devour you three."

Alex had delayed devouring Thor due to how low his Bioenergy number was. But now that he had more than twenty thousand points after devouring the evil dragon, he could finally splurge some to devour these Thors.

As Alex willed it, the green and orange glow of the Time and Soul Stones receded from the suppression light, leaving just the yellow glow of the Mind Stone to suppress the three Thors. They stirred unconsciously as if attempting to break free from the suppression, but it was useless.

[EP -15,000]

Alex immediately consumed fifteen thousand points of Bioenergy to offset the backlash that he would have received after using the Soul Stone to control the minds of the three Thors — five thousand for each. He controlled their subconscious thoughts and lowered their innate defenses. Even killing them wouldn't have weakened their innate defenses by so much because many subconscious aspects of Asgardian physiology would hamper his devouring.

Immediately, a black substance appeared on their bodies that started devouring their entire existence. At the same time, Alex invoked his newly gained ability to devour not only the physiques and abilities but also the souls of the three.

A purple glow escaped from the black substance that had covered the bodies of the three lightning gods, signifying the invocation of ‹Soul Devour›.

As the minutes passed, Alex felt himself being empowered by a ridiculous margin. While the three Thors were on the weaker side and had much of their potential to be realized — that was the entire reason they could be captured by the Nova Corps in the first place — Alex's devouring took not only their actualized abilities but also actualized a part of their potential, empowering him that much more.

Hours passed before the process was finally concluded, leaving nothing behind after Alex devoured the three Thors.

"Finally," Alex exhaled as a euphoric feeling crossed through his entire being. He especially felt the nigh unbelievable empowerment in his soul after invoking the evil dragon's ‹Soul Devour› ability.

'I should add in a numerical representation of my soul as well … Considering I'm going to be devouring souls in the future as well,' With his decision, he opened his upgraded skill panel.

«Skill Acquisition»

«EP/Bioenergy Units: 29,176 -> 14,176»

«Cosmic Energy Units: 0.0000»

«Soul Energy Units: 386 -> 1463»

«Manipulation Abilities»:: ‹Lightning Divinity› ‹Basic Blood Manipulation›

«Innate Abilities»:: ‹Biological Manipulation› ‹Host Enhancement› ‹Devour› ‹Copy›

«Derived Abilities»:: ‹Cosmic Physique Creation› ‹True Sixth Sense› ‹Inventory› ‹Advanced Camouflage› ‹Elemental Immunity› ‹Hypnosis›

«Magical Abilities»:: ‹High Magic Affinity› ‹High Chaos Affinity› ‹Host of the Scarlet Witch› ‹Soul Devour›

«Authorities»:: ‹Time (2.5%)› ‹Mind (2.5%)› ‹Soul (5%)›

«Cosmic Abilities»:: ‹Low Cosmic Manipulation (Incomplete)›

Devouring the Thors finally upgraded his lightning manipulation to the level of Lightning Divinity and even strengthened his physique to the point of overcoming the chasm that was Low Cosmic. Alex could finally crush a planet with his raw strength if he so wished.

As for the newly added Soul Energy Units, Alex used the metric of the number of sustainable bodies to measure that. Previously, he could sustain somewhere along the lines of three hundred bodies at full strength. With the new upgrade, he could maintain 1463 bodies. Of course, it wasn't as easy as that. He could barely sustain the existence of that many bodies at full strength. Actually using his abilities to their fullest with all of those bodies was a much smaller number. A tenth of the main number to be exact.

If he wanted to take action with all his bodies and use complex abilities like lightning or chaos magic, that could only be done by 146 bodies for now.

***

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