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Part 1 of The Tangled Web Rivals AU
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2025-02-21
Updated:
2025-10-22
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67/?
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Tangled Web

Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Two Doses of Venom

Summary:

Peni faces off against the source of her nightmares, but when the cursed mech gains the upper hand, a certain lethal protector enters the fray.

Notes:

Every chapter from here on out is long, so buckle up!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

There were few things that could truly terrify Peni Parker at this point. The first and foremost was losing the only family she had left. Sure, her and her Uncle Ben weren’t always on the best of terms, but they tried their best to understand one another. After everything they’d endured, they at least needed each other. 

The second was the mech that took that family away in the first place. 

VEN#m. 

After what happened to Addy and Aunt May, her uncle had confided in her about how her father had really died. The VEN#m mech was supposed to be the first true upgrade to SP//dr, a way for her spider to finally rest as a new wetwork CPU could link with her father. But that new CPU took on a life of its own. What had happened to Addy and May had happened to her father. Complete and total assimilation, to the point where nothing was left. 

Her father was somewhere in that machine, his mind lost to that machine. Just like Addy. Just like Aunt May. 

There was something else about that CPU, something that Uncle Ben was hiding. Was he hiding it out of guilt? Shame? Peni couldn’t tell, but it weighed on her uncle nonetheless. At the very least, she knew that that cursed mech was responsible for so much pain, and left unchecked, it could cause that pain to be shared across so many people. 

It was her responsibility to deal with that monster. She was going to see this through. 

Peni heard the roar once more. It was close. Closer than she thought. She could feel her spider sense start to rise, ringing and wiggling at the edge of her focus. She sent a ping of reassurance to her spider across their link, trying to calm both its nerves and her own with the simple gesture. They both needed it. Neither one of them could afford to be caught by surprise, just because their nerves were getting to them. 

But it still took them by surprise. 

A thunderous crash took Peni off guard, sending SP//dr flying into a nearby building. No warning from the spider sense. The impact rattled the pilot around in the cockpit, leaving her to wonder if that was yet another concussion she had to deal with. She didn’t have time to keep pondering, though, as the building around her shook with a second impact. 

It was right in front of her face. Standing tall in its dark purple and shining white paint, bound together by the poisonous neon green that dotted the mech’s frame. It had the same lanky limbs and bulky torso as SP//dr, but with a far more arachnid, far more haunting visage, with its jaw open wide and neon tongue lashing around each jagged tooth. 

The monster that took Aunt May from her. 

“Peni…” 

That voice. That damn voice. Aunt May, Addy, and her father, all layered together into one combined perversion. And here it stood, looming in front of Peni in perfect condition, like its final fight years ago never even happened. 

“I’m not scared of you!” Peni shouted through SP//dr’s comms. It didn’t matter if her nightmares were once again in front of her. She had beaten it once before, and she could beat it once again. She threw her arm out, with SP//dr following suit, unleashing a powerful right hook right into the opposing mech’s head… but it merely turned its head back towards Peni. 

“Good,” it stated, staring intently through the visor and into Peni’s eyes. “We do not want you to fear us.” 

“You sure about that?!” 

SP//dr’s shoulder pauldrons rotated into place, sliding open to reveal the cluster cannons hidden within. There was no hesitation as Peni opened fire, sending volley after volley into the cursed mech. VEN#m was forced to back away as it tried to shield itself from the unrelenting attack, but its electronic eyes narrowed in frustration, as if analyzing an unexpected setback. 

Peni paid the machine no mind as she kept firing. The space her attack had awarded her allowed her to step forward, gaining ground every few seconds. But her spider was yelling through the link, warning her not to lose herself in the moment. Peni couldn’t hear it though. What she saw in the moment was the source of her nightmares backing away, her efforts actually working, her ability to be able to put the beast down. 

And of course, the beast decided to use that to its advantage. It raised its arm forward, and fired a web of its own. 

A web snare. 

Without warning, Peni found SP//dr’s limbs confined to the snare, unable to move or even keep firing. VEN#m used that to its advantage, and it lashed out, raising its other arm out and ramming it directly into SP//dr’s torso. Peni and her mech were sent crashing to the ground once more, the violent force harsh enough to knock the pilot out of her seat. 

Panic was starting to seep into Peni’s nerves. VEN#m wasn’t like this years ago. It was showing signs of adapting to the task at hand, but that shouldn’t have been possible. VEN#m being here at all shouldn’t have been possible. Peni personally tore the machine’s CPU to shreds once everything was said and done, but here it was, acting with enough intellect to counter what she could dish out with SP//dr. 

“Be not afraid, Peni,” the mech stated, approaching SP//dr with an almost feral curiosity, “We do not seek enmity. We seek something stronger. Something more… complete.”  

“Complete?!” Peni called out. “What are you–?!” 

“We wish for you to pilot us.”  

Peni’s blood turned to ice at that moment. Pilot. It wanted a pilot. A pilot to consume, just like how it consumed May and Addy and her father. And the pilot it wanted was her. 

Peni scrambled back into SP//dr’s seat, her hands flying across the controls, pressuring the mech to do something, anything, to break free from the snare. One of the mech’s arms was able to break free, snapping the webbing open, but VEN#m was quick to act, and it clamped its clawed foot down over the arm, pinning SP//dr back down. 

“We have learned many things, Peni,” VEN#m whispered, leaning in close as it placed its metallic hand over the cockpit hatch. “But above all, we have learned that we cannot be alone. We would be perfect together.” 

The cursed machine lowered its gaze, as if to stare at Peni through the carbon fiber plating of SP//dr. “Join us. Join Addy. Join May. Join your father. The choice has been made for you. Together, we will be VEN#m.”

And that was when a deep, guttural, vicious laugh echoed out. 

“You?! VENOM?!” 

A thick strand of black, viscous goo latched onto VEN#m from above, and, the monstrous mech was ziplined away, high into the sky above. Peni didn’t take the time to question what was going on, and instead put those precious seconds to tear the rest of the web snare off of SP//dr. In an instant, her trusty mech was back on its feet. 

SLAM! 

VEN#m came crashing back down, cratering the road in front of her with a ferocious impact. As it tried to rise from its crater, the guttural laughter echoed once more. 

“You make us laugh, machine.” 

Before Peni could blink, a large, black mass slammed onto the ground, placing itself between her and VEN#m. Its body was made of taught, ripped muscle, bulked out beyond human reasoning. Jagged claws tipped its hands, and a striking, vicious white spider was emblazoned on its shoulders and back, crafting the image of a hulking, top-heavy beast. 

“However, you are no Venom.” 

“What is the meaning of this?” VEN#m asked, narrowing its neon optics in quiet fury. 

The beast turned to face Peni, letting her see the gaping, toothy maw and long, serpentine tongue of this beast of a rescuer. “Hello, Spider! You are needed!” 

“What… are you?!” the young pilot couldn’t help but ask. 

The beast grinned, wide and jagged, in response. “We are the real deal, Spider! More so than this pretender could ever hope to be!” 

“We are no mere pretenders. We are VEN#m.” 

“Hah! As if!” 

“Be silent, beast. We have a purpose to achieve.” 

SP//dr’s shoulder pauldrons once again shifted into cannon mode. “No, you don’t!” 

“Well said, Spider.” 

“What authority do you hold, Peni? What authority do you hold, beast?” 

The black beast in question growled as it stepped forward, long tendrils of black goo snapping out of its very skin. “We are no mere beast! We are more! We! Are! VENOM!” 

“VEN#m?!” Peni glanced back at the beast, finally meeting the gaze of the beast’s beady and jagged white eyes. This… thing was another VEN#m?! How?! It was all ooze, all slimy and icky and unsettlingly toothy! 

“Not VEN#m, Venom,” this organic Venom corrected, a hint of amusement in its eyes, “you will learn the difference soon, Spider!” 

“Enough!” and with that cry, VEN#m lunged forward, its maw unhinged wide as it roared in insanity. 

“Open fire!” 

SP//dr’s cannons rattled off once more, firing round after round into the enemy mech. Venom leapt forward, grabbing the monster mech by the head and slamming it back down into the ground. VEN#m lashed out, swiping at its assailant with its claws, cutting through the black, gooey flesh. But Venom was undeterred, as it raised VEN#m back into the air, cocking its arms back as if it were about to throw the mech. “CATCH!” 

“EH?!” 

And it did, hurling VEN#m towards Peni with such ferocity. With the split second timing of her Sense, Peni shot out a web snare of her own, hitting the monster mech with a dose of well deserved karma before catching the now captive beast with SP//dr. 

“I will never be your pilot!” 

“YOU WILL.” 

Before anything else could be said, SP//dr slammed VEN#m back into the ground, head first this time. 

“INCOMING!” 

Two of Venom’s tendrils snapped into place around the downed machine. Reflexively, Peni had SP//dr step away, and in the very next moment, those tendrils went taught, and Venom rocketed down, knees first, into VEN#m. The black beast of a man flipped away, landing next to SP//dr with a surprising grace. It grinned widely with enthusiasm. 

“We forgot how much fun fighting with a Spider can be!” 

VEN#m twitched as it tried to rise from its newest crater, its frame battered and bent in all the wrong directions. Its neon optics narrowed into furious daggers as it glared at the unexpected duo. “You WILL be VEN#m, just like us.” 

“No. I won’t.” 

And with that decree, SP//dr raised its arm, its claws fully opened, and slashed down into VEN#m’s neck cables, tearing the mech’s head clean off. The nightmare’s head on the ground, Peni wasted no time, opening up a latch on the suit to shoot out a series of small, circular devices. 

BeepbeepbeepBEEEEEEP! 

There wasn’t much fanfare to those tiny explosions, but they were enough. VEN#m’s head now lay destroyed, burned and pulverized into pieces so small that no man, sane or insane, could hope to piece it back together. A sigh escaped Peni’s lungs as she released the tension from her shoulders. It was done. VEN#m was gone again. 

No one died this time. 

Her unexpected ally chuckled yet again. “Quite the unique Spider you are. Peni, yes?” 

“Yeah… Venom, right?” 

“Correct!” It… Well, they, Peni supposed, looked a bit too pleased with their reply. 

“You’re not gonna try to assimilate me, are you?” 

And there it was again, that deep, guttural laugh, though Peni could tell that this one was more true to its humored tone. Venom’s gaze seemed to soften, ever so slightly, as their grin grew wider with glee. 

“You have much to learn, little Spider. The Lethal Protector is no assimilator.” 

Lethal Protector? Peni thought to herself. Who even calls you that? 

“But enough of monikers. Peni, was it?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Follow us. The Spider Islands await us.” 

Another tendril shot out from Venom, this time from their wrist, and the so-called “Lethal Protector” swung away. Peni was quick to follow suit, firing one of her webs to join her new ally towards her destiny. 

Unbeknownst to either of them, the cables of VEN#m began to move once more. 

Notes:

I want you to know that I listened to several versions of “Venom” by Eminem while writing this particular chapter. It set the mood.