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Arthur curled his lip. "What the hell is all this 'in chaos' nonsense?"
He rubbed his temples. "Go on…"
"After that incident, that fast-talking guy was fired."
Tony shrugged and said, "Now, six months later, someone saw him in contact with a Life Foundation researcher, Dr. Dora Skirth. After that, there's no more news... Yeah, that's the situation. Natasha says her instincts tell her this is important, so she insisted it had to be reported to you."
"…Fine. Thank her for, wait a second!"
Arthur, mid-sentence, suddenly froze, his eyes going wide. "Say that again. What was the name of the guy who got fired?"
"Uh, Eddie Brock." Tony raised an eyebrow. "Why? What's wrong?"
Arthur gently tapped his forehead and muttered, "No way…"
"What do you mean, no way? Is something actually wrong? Seriously, what are you seeing that I'm not? If we're talking genius here, I'm pretty sure I've got you beat," Tony said, puzzled.
Arthur rolled his eyes. "Where do you get that confidence?"
He paused, then added, "I think I need to go back. I'm not completely certain yet, but if this is what I suspect it is… something incredible might be happening."
"What kind of thing?"
"I'll explain later." Arthur cut the comm line and rubbed at his brow.
Eddie Brock!
He muttered the name under his breath, and then another name slipped out:
"Venom!"
That night, the shimmering light of the Bifrost lit up the outskirts of New York. Arthur landed and looked around, grateful that Heimdall didn't drop him on the other side of the planet this time.
He drew a teleportation circle on the ground, and the next moment, he was at Camp Lehigh.
Just as he was about to leave, he spotted a stack of files on the table, along with a note that read: "Everything you wanted is right here!"
"…Seriously?"
Arthur rolled his eyes. Did Natasha have to understand him this well?
He'd spent the whole day in Asgard, mostly arranging things for Coulson.
That balding uncle needed to be properly settled, and absolutely not sent back to Earth. As much as it sucked to be exiled, Arthur had no other choice in this critical time. Coulson would just have to endure it.
Luckily, the guy was pretty cooperative, making all of Arthur's pre-planned excuses unnecessary.
After dealing with that, Arthur also went to Loki to explain the Coulson situation.
Better to give a heads-up now than risk Loki one day casually offing him with a magical ice dagger. Without Arthur nearby, Coulson probably wouldn't stand a chance.
Giving Loki a heads-up was just insurance.
Say what you will about Loki, he at least didn't take humans seriously. In his eyes, mortals were pathetically weak and unworthy of his time.
Even though he nearly got beat to tears on Earth, he still thought himself superior. No one really knows where that confidence comes from.
Still, because of that, he probably wouldn't bother killing Coulson again.
To him, Coulson was like an ant, alive only because of Arthur's involvement. As long as Coulson didn't go asking for death, Loki had decided he'd ignore him completely.
In short, after a whirlwind of complicated internal debates, both sides came to an agreement. Arthur dusted himself off and returned to Earth, ready to investigate whether there really was a connection between Eddie Brock and Venom.
This matter could be trivial, or it could be catastrophic.
Venom on his own was already an unknown variable… but rumor had it that there were millions more like him. If all of them suddenly arrived on Earth? Not even the gods would be able to handle that kind of disaster.
Arthur picked up the case file and carefully reviewed it. Chin resting on his hand, he grabbed a pen from the desk and started scribbling notes on the paper.
Moments later, he frowned.
"Why… is someone missing?"
According to the file, one of the Life Foundation's aerospace modules had crashed. But everything inside the craft had been sealed under heavy confidentiality.
One detail, however, caught Natasha's eye, and she made sure it got included in the report.
On the day of the crash, an ambulance en route was also involved in an accident. Everyone inside died on the spot.
But here was the twist, one person listed in the transport manifest never appeared on the official death list.
Instead, his body was found several dozen miles away, at the scene of an entirely unrelated criminal case.
What was worse, there were no visible wounds on his body. But according to the autopsy report, his internal organs had all suffered systemic failure, with the heart and brain most severely damaged.
Cause of death? Organ collapse, nothing else.
And the other victims in that case? Completely unidentifiable.
Unconfirmed number of casualties. No confirmed causes of death. The reason? Their remains had been shattered beyond recognition. Even the best mortuary reconstructionists couldn't piece together a single whole body.
Tucked into the file were a handful of photographs, viscerally disturbing.
Arthur, however, examined each one carefully. Inch by inch. He finally set them down and massaged his brow.
The case had officially gone cold, no killer found, no methods determined, and not a single clue about where the missing parts of the bodies had gone.
To this day, the incident remained a bureaucratic quagmire. No solid reporting had ever come out.
Reaching for the file again, Arthur gently tapped the desk, then scribbled two words across the paper:
"Cannibalism Involved!"
After rereading the entire report from top to bottom, Arthur began to mentally stitch the puzzle together.
Life Foundation.
Human experiments.
Eddie Brock's report.
The aerospace crash six months ago.
The ambulance...
Then it hit him.
Arthur suddenly frowned. "A normal aerospace module shouldn't require an ambulance. Which means, someone was inside. This wasn't just an aerospace device. It was a spaceship!"
Venom.
Eddie Brock.
Symbiote.
Extraterrestrial life.
Life Foundation.
All these threads whirled together in Arthur's mind like a storm. He stared down at a phone number printed on one of the pages and hesitated only briefly before dialing.
The call connected.
A woman's voice came through after a moment.
"Who is this?"
Arthur got straight to the point.
"Are you Dr. Dora Skirth?"
"I know what you're going through. I believe… you're going to need help."