A Gathering of Heroes (Part 1)

Let's rewind a little, back to when Eddie left the Life Foundation's underground and saw the purple Spider-Man beating up the silver-gray Riot.

Riot, who was being held down by Spider-Man, threw a powerful punch. Spider-Man rolled away to dodge, and just as he was about to rush forward to stop Riot, a huge black Shade roared and charged up.

Spider-Man leaped backward, dodging the lunging Venom, which had also transformed into a gigantic Venom, and punched Riot in the face. Spider-Man wondered to himself, "What's going on? Do you Symbiote have a grudge against each other?"

"It's hard to explain to you," the Illusion Demon said with a hint of helplessness.

At this point, Venom and Riot had already started fighting. Phantom said to Peter, "Venom and Riot do have a feud, but that was when Venom was just born."

"I still don't understand what's going on with your race? Why..."

Peter had just finished speaking when he saw Riot's two arms transform into two enormous blades, slashing at Venom. Venom was not to be outdone, unleashing a burst of black Slime and countless tentacles that hammered at Riot. The two fought fiercely, evenly matched, and began to move towards the outside of the base building.

As Peter chased after him, he listened to the Phantom Demon explain the Symbiote to him.

"Actually, we are not called Symbiote. Our race is called 'Clint'. We were born on the Klyntar planet in the Andromeda Nebula. Our creator is the Knull."

"He was an evil and ancient being who created the Symbiote and used us to invade the universe. Later, the vast majority of the Symbiote considered his actions evil, and we collectively overthrew him and imprisoned him on our home planet Klyntar."

"That Riot doesn't seem to be part of your group? What's the deal with Venom? And how did those two become enemies?"

Phantom sighed. Peter discovered that this female Symbiote's emotions were more human-like. He could even sense her complex emotions through the brainwaves transmitted by Phantom.

Moreover, her emotions were significantly more stable than Venom's, and she spoke very logically. Peter could hardly tell that she was an alien.

The hoarse female voice came again. "The reason we betrayed our creator is because of the Symbiote. When we parasitize other races, if they are righteous, we will also be infected by their righteousness."

"Knull's unrestrained acts of destruction and devastation are seen as evil by most races. Many of our kin, who have parasitized the righteous races, feel deeply that we are aiding and abetting evil, and most of us are beginning to awaken."

"After an accident, most of the Symbiote's connections with Knull were severed, so we joined forces to defeat and imprison him."

"However, the damage caused by Knull is irreversible, and many of our people feel guilty about it. So, we formed an organization called 'Agents of the Cosmos'."

"Members of this organization will choose to parasitize righteous and benevolent alien races, become their partners, help their civilizations develop, or rebuild those civilizations that were once enslaved and destroyed by Knull."

"You seemed to have mentioned this organization earlier. Are you a member of this organization?"

"That's right, I am one of the current leaders of this organization."

"And what about the Riot? I just heard you call him a 'traitor to the Agents of the Cosmos '?"

"That's right, exactly what it sounds like. Riot was once a member of the Agents of the Cosmos, but he betrayed us."

"As you have seen before, our life form is very special. In most cases, we need a host to move freely, but there are exceptions. On our home planet Klyntar, the Symbiote can move freely even without a host."

"So, although the home planet has become a prison for Knull, there are still quite a few Symbiote living on it."

"About... well, anyway, a long time ago, a split occurred within the Agents of the Cosmos because a group of agent who remained in Mother Neo Klyntar were summoned by Knull."

"Knull's evil and chaos have infected them again, causing them to betray the Agents of the Cosmos and become Knull's henchmen once more, and their leader is Riot."

"Just like his name suggests, he led a group of Agents of the Cosmos in Riot, who rejoined Knull's ranks and wanted to release him from prison."

"I understand this part now." Peter, communicating with the Phantom Demon in his mind as he chased after the two monsters fighting each other.

"And what about Venom? What grudge does he have against the Riot?"

"Venom is a madman, that's something all Symbiote agree on, he's completely abnormal."

The Phantom seemed unsure how to express herself to Peter. Peter sensed that she had thought for a moment, and then he heard her say, "I know you were once parasitized by Venom, but I must tell you, his method was abnormal."

"You might not believe it, but the Symbiote involved in Agents of the Cosmos all follow the same rules. We have a complete set of parasitic rules to help us achieve a good symbiotic relationship with our hosts."

"For example, the first thing we do when we parasitize a host's body is to analyze various data about the host's body and formulate our parasitism plan based on this data. At the same time, our first priority is to ensure the safety of the host's life, which is why I stopped you from jumping off the building earlier."

The demon's voice sounded helpless. She said, "When I first came to Earth, I had already parasitized several standard humans. I know what the physical fitness of an ordinary human should be like, and I know how much impact we can withstand together."

"Based on your development, you can't even be considered a normal adult human; you're more like a cub."

"And I am not a power-type Symbiote either. Even if the two of us were to jump from a building of more than thirty stories, we might still get injured. That's why I want to stop you."

"Oh, but can't you see my memories? Then you should be able to see me swinging around on high-rise buildings all the time."

"No, this also violates the parasitic rules of the Agents of the Cosmos. Without the host's consent, we can only read the superficial memories."

"Because most intelligent races are very averse to having their memories spied on, in order to achieve a good symbiotic relationship, we generally do not actively spy on the host's memories."

"Well, you guys are quite polite, but Venom..."

Peter paused for a moment, then continued, "He always tries to get me to do bad things. I thought Symbiote were like him."

"His situation is special." The female Symbiote's voice had a strange rhythm. "Venom was born during the war after the split of the Agents of the Cosmos, and at that time, he happened to be born in an area occupied by Riot."

"The Symbiote led by Riot were mostly chaotic and evil, which led to Venom having no concept of rules."

"Their feud began around that time."

"Riot was the leader there at the time. Because it was during a time of war, Riot needed members of his kind who could fight against real Agents of the Cosmos. But Venom had just been born and didn't have much power, so he couldn't participate in the battle. As a result, he got almost no food and was often bullied."

Peter glanced at the two monsters wrestling together and said, "But now it seems like the situation has reversed."

"Because Venom is a madman. This isn't an adjective, nor am I saying anything bad about him; I'm stating a fact." Phantom Demon's tone sounded utterly helpless.

"It could be a childhood trauma, or it could be that he was born abnormal. In any case, Venom is a crazy Symbiote."

"Generally speaking, Symbiote are indeed affected by their hosts, but this influence is limited because we are also intelligent beings. We can selectively absorb certain traits from our hosts to strengthen ourselves."

"The more hosts Symbiote has parasitized, the stronger its self-control becomes; this is true of the leaders of the Agents of the Cosmos."

"But Venom is not like that. It accepts all the traits of its host and engraves all sorts of random things into its genes."

"His first host was a madman wearing a red and black uniform, and the Venom that parasitized him became even more insane."

"The two of them caused a lot of trouble in the universe. The most famous time was when this guy went to the Andromeda starport and insulted a group of dwarves."

"The dwarves recognized the Symbiote that was parasitizing that person, and then blamed it all on the Agents of the Cosmos, which caused us a lot of trouble."

"Moreover, Venom is also exceptionally gifted."

"As a Symbiote species, the influence we exert on our hosts is limited, especially on certain intelligent species with strong willpower, who can even break free from all the influence we bring them through sheer willpower."

"But the corrosive effect of Venom on its host is limitless. It can completely change the host's behavior patterns, even without the host's awareness."

"Therefore, all Symbiote on the Order side know that they must stay away from Venom and the hosts that Venom has parasitized. That's why I didn't want to parasitize you before."

"But I don't feel like I'm that crazy?"

"I also find it strange." The Phantom Demon's voice was somewhat puzzled. "When you wanted to jump off such a tall building before, I thought you were crazy, but since you have other special powers, it means that your thinking is normal and has not been affected by Venom. Could it be that Venom has really reformed?"

Peter then asked, "Then why did you come to Earth?"

"This... it all started with Knull. Not long ago, Agents of the Cosmos discovered that Knull was creating a new Symbiote."

"During his imprisonment, he remained completely still, but then he suddenly started having offspring, leading us to suspect that he was trying to escape."

"Besides the Agents of the Cosmos, the rebels led by Riot also discovered this. They are very excited and hope that this newborn Symbiote can welcome back their creator and lead them to invade the universe again."

"Both of us are watching our home planet Klyntar with bated breath, awaiting the birth of that new, unique Symbiote."

"But on the very day we thought he was going to be born, he disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"That's right, it disappeared. The special Symbiote that was supposed to be born suddenly vanished."

"The Agents of the Cosmos and rebels are confused, but this is a good thing for us. Once the special Symbiote is born, it may start another war to annihilate Knull."

"We thought there might have been a problem during the creation of this Symbiote by Knull, but who knew that Riot, a close advisor to Knull, received an order from Knull to retrieve this newborn Symbiote."

"In other words, the Symbiote was taken away, and Riot was ordered to retrieve it."

"Riot has received orders and is heading straight for the Nine Realms. The Agents of the Cosmos must stop him and not give Knull any chance to escape."

"Riot can disregard the rules and sneak in directly, but Agents of the Cosmos cannot. We first sent someone to inform Asgard and obtained the consent of All-Father Odin, before I came to the Midgard of the Nine Realms through the Asgard passage."

"So how were you arrested?"

"Riot arrived here before me. He found a human collaborator, who is his current host. He realized that the Agents of the Cosmos were following him, so he set a trap."

The Phantom Demon said angrily, "He used to be a member of the Agents of the Cosmos and fought against us for a long time. He knows the weaknesses of each of us."

"They designed a trap for my host, who was just an ordinary person at the time. In order to ensure his safety, I had to voluntarily leave him."

"The Symbiote, having lost its host, struggles to move freely and is then captured by the Riot and imprisoned."