The Other Symbiote

Introductions

She landed in an alleyway a block from her house, trying to be discreet and pulling Nemesis in. *So, what do we want for dinner?* *Phanaeng curry and a side dish or I will eat your liver.* 

*Done and dusted.* She quickly swivelled on her feet and walked down to the local Thai shop.

"Hey, Mrs. K." "Hello, Raiva." The old Thai woman smiled softly as Raiva looked at the side dishes. *Get some noodles too.* She ordered and paid for the food before leaving and walking back to the apartment. 

"Eddie, I'm home." She pulled her key out of the door, only to hear the news feed talking about her.

Raiva didn't have any parents - she was adopted by Eddie Brock, the reporter who just so happened to be infected with Nemesis's symbiote sibling, Venom. She felt her symbiote curl around from her back as both Eddie and Venom paused the TV and turned.

"Do you know how dumb of an idea it was for you to expose yourself like that? I thought we agreed to stick to under the radar, on the down low, silent crime fighting. But no, you went ahead and got on TV!" Eddie argued with her in English whilst Venom went at it with Nemesis in Klyntarian.

Raiva sighed and simply opened her food, offering Eddie some but he pointed to an empty box of dinosaur nuggets that stuck out of the trash can. 

She nodded, quickly downing the food to Nemesis' delight before taking out the trash.

She trundled down the four flights of stairs and walking around the back, opening the apartment bin and throwing in the bag. 

*So many delicious things to eat in there.* *Nem, I love you, but I'm not going dumpster diving when I just gave you a full thing of noodles.*

Raiva giggled before hearing soft boots thud on the ground. She turned with Nemesis pushing out at her hands, encasing them in dark blue before relaxing and soaking back in.

"So, you're a 17 year old who got adopted by a reporter. Anything special about him?" Nat spoke and Raiva laughed. "You sound like one. You track me?" 

She tried to step around Nat but the spy blocked her. "Move, Rasputin." She poked at her Russian heritage before Nat calmly gave her a card.

"Call us if you want full time employment when you're done with school." "I finished school ages ago." Nat's eyebrows rose. "Eddie just sends me there because I need to socialise with people my age."

"I actually graduated in Class of '08. '13 Going On 30' vibes, but I was a smart kid. Got 1599 on my SATs, graduated MIT with PhDs in Forensics and Bioengineering two years ago. And that brings me to last year's disturbance of my entire life, so why don't you run along, Rasputin?"

She snatched the card and shoved her headphones back in, shooting her arm up and webbing back up to the window of her apartment. "Far out, the government is annoying as fuck sometimes."

"Language jar." Eddie pointed aimlessly as he watched the news. She groaned and placed a dollar in the almost full jar. "It's Nemesis. She's rubbing off on me, like a parasite."

*PARASITE?!* She watched Eddie flinch as Venom probably said the same word in a similar tone. "I'm heading to bed, Ed. See you tomorrow morning, unless you have an early morning story."

"Uh-uh. One more in the jar." She groaned heavily. "It's not a swear word." "They aren't parasites. They are symbiotes." She placed another dollar in the jar before trudging up to her room. 

As she lay down in bed, she felt Nemesis rise tickle in the back of her mind. *Karma's a bitch, and it's spelled 'ha'.* *Oh shut it.*

I know this one was a lot shorter than the first chapter (400+ words, but who's counting?), but I'm getting into the swing of things... haha, web-slinging joke. Catch ya on the flip side!