"Do you have anything to say?" Robert asked Peter Parker as he saw both him and Hulk standing still, neither daring to speak or move. Robert's gaze narrowed as he focused on Peter. He wasn't as angry with Hulk because Hulk's intellect wasn't the best, and being a newcomer to the Avengers, he might not have been aware of certain unspoken rules. Hulk's mistake was forgivable.
But Peter Parker was a different story. He had been with the Avengers since its inception, and even before that, he had spent a long time with Robert. He knew the rules about sparring between teammates. Sure, Hulk had bitten Peter first, and it was Venom who fought back, but Venom should have been under Peter's control. Letting Venom continue the fight was a lapse on Peter's part.
"Well, it was my fault, but I wasn't blinded by rage—I was just caught off guard..." Peter Parker apologized quietly, looking at Robert. "I've been through a lot of battles, but this was the first time I encountered something like this. When Venom started biting back, I was too shocked to react. If I had realized sooner, I would have restrained Venom."
"I admit I lost my temper, but that guy looked like he was going to eat us both! How could I just sit back?" Venom emerged from Peter's body, looking a bit upset. "You have to understand, we symbiotes have a tradition of absorbing others by consuming them. When he bit me, it triggered an instinctive reaction..."
Robert fell silent for a moment. Both Peter and Venom had valid points—it was Hulk who initially triggered the situation. But Robert couldn't simply overlook their mistake. In battle, anything could happen, and while it was acceptable to lose control against enemies, attacking teammates was a different story.
If Robert hadn't been the one to intervene, but instead someone like Pietro, could they have stopped a rampaging Venom? Even when in a berserk state, maintaining some level of control to avoid harming allies was crucial.
Both Venom and Hulk needed to address this issue to better integrate into the Avengers. This would allow the other Avengers to trust them fully, knowing they wouldn't suddenly be attacked by their own teammates.
"Listen, you—huh?!" Robert's gaze was fixed on Peter Parker and Venom when he suddenly felt a drastic change in Hulk's aura. What had been pure rage now carried an air of madness, and his power had surged significantly. More importantly, this new aura didn't originate from Hulk himself but from something new within him!
Robert could tell that this new presence was eerily similar to Venom's, almost like they shared the same origin.
"Venom! What did you do?!" Robert's expression turned grim as he glared at Venom.
"Huh? What?" Venom was clearly slower to catch on. He hadn't realized that a new symbiote had emerged within Hulk's body, essentially making it Venom's offspring—whether it was a son or a daughter.
"WTF?!"
"Holy crap?!"
"Hulk just turned red!"
Cries of shock echoed through the observation room as everyone noticed Hulk's transformation. His body was now covered in a layer of red symbiote, exuding an aura of bloodlust and slaughter!
"What a childish consciousness. How could someone like you be worthy of such a powerful body? You're so immature that your memories aren't even complete. Well, then, I guess I'll take over. From now on, this is my body. My name... is Carnage!" A voice, completely different from Hulk's, emerged from Hulk's mouth. It was far more coherent and intelligent, but unfortunately, it was no longer Hulk speaking.
Hulk's situation was truly pitiful. He had previously shared a body with Bruce Banner, only taking control when Banner was frightened or in danger. Most of the time, Hulk was suppressed within Banner's body.
Now, just as Hulk had finally gained his own body, the flesh he had consumed from Venom had unexpectedly given birth to a new symbiote: Carnage. Whether Carnage could be considered Hulk's child was irrelevant—the fact remained that Hulk had once again lost control of his body, reduced to a helpless observer in his own mind.
It was understandable; Hulk couldn't outmatch Banner's decades of experience, but now he couldn't even overcome the newborn consciousness of Carnage. Unfortunately, this was just the way symbiotes were by nature.
"Wait, what?! I didn't lay any eggs in him! How did a symbiote get born?!" Venom shouted in disbelief, his large eyes widening further as he stared at Carnage in confusion.
"What?! You laid eggs?! You didn't do that in my body too, did you? Ugh! That's disgusting! Venom, get out of me!" Peter Parker instantly felt repulsed, his previous tolerance for Venom turning into immediate disdain.
"Did Hulk become the mother of this Carnage?"
"Is Hulk Venom's wife?"
"What? Did Hulk and Spider-Man get married?"
The Avengers, watching from the observation room, were wide-eyed with amusement, deliberately spreading false information as they joked about the situation.
None of the Avengers had yet realized how dangerous Carnage was. They assumed that since Carnage was Venom's "child," he couldn't be an enemy. They simply thought Hulk, like Peter Parker, had gained a new power boost, with Carnage now controlling his body.
As for Carnage taking over Hulk's body, they weren't too worried. Peter Parker had gone through similar situations before and had always managed to regain control. The Avengers were more curious about how Peter and Hulk would get along in the future.
"What a powerful life force. There's a being even stronger than this body? Where am I?" Carnage muttered as he stared at Robert, drooling as he spoke. Born by accident and with limited memories from Hulk, Carnage only had the racial instincts and traditions of symbiotes to guide him. When he saw Robert, he couldn't look away, torn between keeping Hulk's body or trying to take over Robert's instead.
"Carnage!" Venom took control of Peter Parker's body again, shouting at Carnage as he charged toward him.
"Venom!" Carnage finally turned his gaze away from Robert, becoming even more excited as he saw Venom. He charged toward Venom, drooling as he shouted, "Venom! I'm going to eat you!"
"What the...?" The Avengers, who had been joking around, were stunned by Carnage's words. They exchanged confused glances before asking, "Isn't Venom supposed to be Carnage's father? Why does he want to eat his own dad? This doesn't seem like a joke—Venom's reaction to Carnage seems off too..."
"Maybe it's a species trait?" Martian Manhunter speculated uncertainly. He didn't know much about symbiotes, but he could sense that both Venom and Carnage saw each other as mortal enemies. Venom seemed even more frenzied now than when he had been fighting Hulk.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
Before Venom and Carnage could collide, they were both thrown back, landing on the ground in disarray.
"I just finished talking to you, and now you're letting Venom act out again?" Robert said, his tone displeased as he looked at Venom, though he was really addressing Peter Parker.
"Saiyan, this isn't Spider-Man's fault. You don't understand Carnage—he must be destroyed... Watch out!" Venom tried to explain, but before he could finish, he let out a sudden cry of alarm.
"Bastard! How dare you strike Carnage! I'll take that body of yours!" Carnage's massive, red form lunged at Robert, his mouth twisted into a sinister grin as he seemed ready to devour Robert whole.
"I'm listening. Go on," Robert said calmly, completely unfazed by Carnage's attack.
A hum filled the room as an invisible force wrapped around Carnage's body, just as he thought he was about to devour Robert. The next moment, Carnage felt his body being contorted, forced into a spherical shape, with every part of him compressed tightly together, rendering him completely immobile.
Seeing Carnage reduced to a ball, Robert couldn't help but chuckle. He remembered a similar situation in the Dragon Ball world, where Majin Buu had tried to absorb Vegito, only to fail. Venom had tried something similar earlier, but now both had failed.
"Saiyan, I swear it's not my fault! You just don't understand how we symbiotes work..." Venom hurriedly explained as he watched Carnage being restrained.
"From a human perspective, Carnage might be my son, and we should live in harmony, maybe even raise him well. But symbiotes aren't like that. From the moment Carnage was born, he was an independent symbiote. Among symbiotes, very few are like me, capable of coexisting peacefully. Carnage, based on his color and aura, is definitely an evil, violent symbiote!"
"Weren't you also evil and violent at first? And now... well, except for today, you've been pretty well-behaved," Robert said, glancing at Venom dismissively, not taking his words seriously.
After all, Venom had been just as aggressive as Carnage when he first appeared, trying to take over Robert's body, only to become docile after being overpowered.
In Robert's view, if he could tame Venom and turn him into a helpful ally for the Avengers, he could do the same with Carnage.
In fact, a new idea had already begun forming in Robert's mind: mass-producing obedient symbiotes. After all, based on Venom's earlier statements and the way Carnage had been born, it didn't seem too difficult to create new
symbiotes.
The most crucial aspect was that Venom's strength hadn't diminished after Carnage's birth. In fact, based on Carnage's aura, he seemed even stronger than Venom!
Robert didn't know if Carnage was an exception, but if this was a common trait among symbiotes, it suggested they had significant potential. A species with such potential, capable of rapid reproduction, could be a major asset—imagine every Avenger equipped with a symbiote!
Even if the Avengers weren't interested, Robert could still create a symbiote army. It would be an incredibly powerful fighting force...
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