"Hand over your wallet. Then turn around and let me get a look at your face."
The cold tip of a switchblade pierced the surface of Gwen Stacy's cream-colored trench coat, pressing against her lower back. The Black robber's breath reeked of cheap marijuana.
The convenience store was deathly silent. The heavyset middle-aged man behind the register cowered with his hands over his head, while three other robbers armed with sawed-off Remington shotguns ransacked the shelves.
Gwen Stacy didn't move. Her fingers still rested on the box of dark chocolate.
Deep inside her mind, the black alien symbiote erupted.
"Adrenaline... Fear... Bloodlust..." Venom's voice was no longer the mutter that had begged for chocolate earlier. It had become a demon's frenzied roar.
"Gwen Stacy, these people are bad guys, right? Can I twist their heads off and kick them around now?"
Gwen Stacy closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"No eating people," she ordered coldly in her mind. "But you can break their bones."
"Deal!"
Boom!
Black fluid surged up Gwen Stacy's spine like asphalt bursting through a broken dam. In less than half a second, it completely engulfed her cream-colored trench coat.
In its place was a skintight black-and-white costume that traced her slender curves.
White web patterns spread across her chest. A hood rose to cover her blond hair, and two narrow, ghostly white eyes lit up in the dim convenience store.
Like a ghost.
The Black robber behind her froze. He rubbed his eyes, but before he could figure out what had happened, a hand coated in black fluid clamped around his wrist like lightning.
Crack!
"Aah!" The robber screamed as his wrist was forcibly bent ninety degrees. The switchblade clattered to the floor.
"What the hell is that?!" The other three robbers whipped around.