Why Are You So Good at This? (Part 1)

"Hello? Anne, it’s Eddie. Eddie Brock. Don’t hang up yet. Give me three minutes. I need to tell you something very important."

"Just yesterday, I was attacked by two unidentified assassins. I’m on the run now. There’s evidence that these assassins may be connected to Drake, the head of the Life Foundation I interviewed before."

"The two assassins who attacked me came from a mysterious organization called The Hand. The people investigating this organization saved me, and they told me that The Hand and the Life Foundation may be plotting a huge conspiracy."

"The reason I’m calling is that I hope you can help me. I need more information about Drake."

"I know I should apologize. I shouldn’t have looked through the files on your computer. But things have reached this point now. They sent assassins after me, and if I don’t deal with this mess, I’ll never have peace again."

"So I hope you can give me any information you know. You don’t have to answer right away. Keep yourself safe. Goodbye."

Eddie hung up. He stared blankly at his phone, then stood there in a daze for several seconds before covering his eyes and saying, "God! How could I talk to Anne in that tone? She’s going to think I’ve gone crazy…"

"What was I even saying? I told her my name was Eddie Brock…" Eddie took a deep breath and said, "Who did I think I was, an FBI agent?"

"Clearly, you don’t understand women at all." Venom’s voice sounded in Eddie’s mind. Just as Eddie was about to argue, the phone in his hand rang. Anne’s anxious voice came through from the other end.

"Eddie, are you okay? Are you really being hunted? Where are you now? Hello? Answer me. You should call the police…"

"Calling the police is useless, Anne. The police can’t handle The Hand’s assassins. Their previous partner was Kingpin, the man who controls the entire East Coast criminal empire. They’ve got their eyes on me, so I need to leave for a while…"

"Wait! Eddie!" Anne’s voice came through the phone, tinged with disbelief. "Eddie, if your voice hadn’t stayed the same, I would’ve thought it wasn’t you. You’ve never spoken to me in such a calm tone before."

"Listen, I know the Life Foundation isn’t some righteous organization either. The legal dispute they hired me to handle was also related to human experimentation. But you’re saying they sent assassins to hunt you down? I find that hard to believe. Still, if it’s true, you’d better hide quickly."

Anne truly was an elite lawyer. Though her tone was somewhat anxious, her thoughts remained clear. "I know Drake isn’t a good person, but my boss asked me to defend him. That’s how lawyers work. We don’t judge our clients by their positions."

"But personally, I fully supported you punching him. The reason I was so angry afterward was only because you invaded my privacy and did it without communicating with me at all. I was angry because you didn’t trust me, and because you acted recklessly and impulsively on your own…"

"Anne, I don’t have much time. We can talk about us later."

Anne fell silent for a moment. She sighed, then finally said, "The Life Foundation researcher I worked with, Dora, has been wavering. When we talked privately, she once complained to me that her boss was too cold and only cared about profit."

"She once revealed that she didn’t want to work for Drake anymore. I can give you her contact information. She should have the information you want."

When Anne heard no response from the other end, she asked, "Eddie, are you okay? Eddie! Answer me… Did you run into danger?"

"No, I didn’t." After a while, Eddie’s voice finally came through the phone. Anne heard him say in a low voice, "Once I get out of this mess, I’ll come settle things between us. If I’m still alive by then."

The call ended with a busy tone. Anne took a deep breath and tossed her phone onto the bed. Leaning sideways against the headboard, she covered her eyes in pain.

"Eddie, if only you could’ve been this calm earlier," Anne murmured.

After hanging up, Eddie also let out a pained breath and muttered, "She gave me useful information so easily. So what exactly were we fighting about before?"

"Why do you think she was so angry before? Don’t tell me you thought she broke up with you because she supported Drake?"

Eddie opened his mouth, and Venom continued in his mind, "You deserved to get dumped. Obviously, she only wanted you to explain yourself. She wanted you to calm down and communicate with her, to tell her why you did it. But you said nothing."

Just as Eddie was about to open his mouth and argue, his phone vibrated. Anne had sent him a text message containing the contact information for Dora, a Life Foundation researcher.

That night, outside an apartment in Manhattan, Dora was rummaging through her handbag for her key card. A black figure stood at the end of the alley. The streetlamp cast a long shadow in front of him, like a black blade slicing across the alley wall.

"What the hell is this?" Eddie looked down at his palm. A layer of black armor covered the back of his hand. Turning his head, he saw his reflection in the window of the apartment building beside him.

Eddie was now wearing a black suit of armor. The entire suit was pitch-black, with soft inner lining and thin armor plating on the outside, along with a cape hanging from his back.

Eddie’s head was entirely enclosed in a mechanical helmet. There was a bat-like emblem on his chest, surrounded by web-like lines.

He had to admit, the suit looked incredibly cool. Its sleek lines, futuristic mechanical joints, and strange yet Gothic-looking patterns made Eddie feel like wearing it to save the world would be awesome. The only problem was…

"But what’s with these ears?" Eddie asked Venom in confusion.

The suit’s helmet completely enveloped Eddie’s head, making him look like a robot. Yet this robot head had two pointed ears.

"That’s the important part." Venom told Eddie firmly, "As long as you have those two ears, you’ll never die, because you are Bat… Venom-Man."

"Venom-Man? That name sounds way too evil… Fine. What do we do next?"

"If you don’t know what to do, lower your head and look at the emblem on your chest. Then follow your instincts. It will give you the answer."

Ten minutes later, Dora was taking out her keys to open her apartment door when she heard a noise behind her. The moment she turned around, a tall black shadow appeared in the darkness of the hallway.

Just as Dora was about to scream, the black shadow appeared behind her and covered her mouth. "Don’t make a sound. Let’s talk inside."

With that, he dragged Dora into her apartment. After the door closed, Dora collapsed to the floor in fright. The mechanical helmet covering Eddie’s head retracted, and he said to Dora, "You should know me. I’m the reporter who punched Drake during his interview a few days ago. My name is Eddie. Eddie Brock."

Dora’s eyes widened. Supporting herself against the back of the sofa, she stood up and said with a slight tremble, "You… you really do seem to be that Brock, but…"

Eddie’s voice was low as he said to Dora, "Because I exposed Drake’s despicable human experiments, I’m in trouble now. He’s working with another evil organization, and their assassins are hunting me."

Dora pushed up her glasses, straightened herself, and said, "Actually, I was planning to find you. I didn’t expect you to find me first."

"Why were you looking for me?"

Dora sighed. After realizing Eddie was not a kidnapper, she gradually relaxed. Then she pointed at the wall behind him and said, "Press the switch over there and turn on the lights, thank you."

Only then did Eddie realize there were no lights on in the apartment, yet he could see everything clearly. When had he gained night vision?

Following Dora’s instruction, he turned around and switched on the lights. The sudden brightness made Eddie raise an arm to shield his eyes. He realized that he had actually become somewhat sensitive to light.

Dora walked over and sat on the sofa, but Eddie did not move. He remained standing in the corner of the room. Dora looked back at him and said, "I don’t have much to offer guests, but at least sit down and have some water?"

As she spoke, she rubbed her hands awkwardly on her pants and said, "I don’t have many friends, and people rarely come over. Please forgive my poor hospitality."

Eddie silently shook his head. Dora turned around, rested against the back of the sofa, and looked at him. "You’re completely different from what I imagined. I thought you’d be the kind of person who was… well, the kind with a stronger sense of justice."

"You can just say I’m the impulsive type."

"No, that’s not what I meant. Actually, I think you did the right thing. That punch you gave him was really satisfying."

"You seem very dissatisfied with your boss."

Dora pursed her lips, her expression complicated. She turned away again, facing away from Eddie, and said, "I don’t know how to describe it. As a boss, he’s actually not bad. He pays me very well."

"But he isn’t a good person. You could even say he’s very evil. You don’t know what he’s done in the laboratory…"

"That’s exactly what I want to hear."

Dora bit her lip, seeming conflicted. Then Eddie’s voice came from behind her. "You don’t need to worry at all. If there were even the slightest chance I approved of what Drake was doing, I wouldn’t have risked ruining my career by punching him in front of so many people."

Dora seemed to see the sense in that. She sighed and said, "He really is conducting experiments on human beings, and they’re incredibly cruel, inhuman experiments."

"What kind of experiments?"

"You know about the Immortality Factor, right?"

"I’ve heard a lot of people mention it."

"Drake is extracting the Immortality Factor from an unknown creature."

"But I heard that stuff was extracted from vampires?"

"That’s true for normal Immortality Factors, but vampires are tightly controlled by the authorities. The few that exist are all with Stark Industries or the Osborn Group. The Life Foundation can’t get hold of them."

Dora pushed up her glasses again and continued, "But Drake saw the enormous profits in the Immortality Factor field, and he wanted a share of the pie too."

"The Life Foundation and the Osborn Group are competitors. They’re both biotech developers, so the Osborn Group would never hand over valuable vampire materials to them."

"But I heard the Life Foundation developed an Immortality Factor serum too."

"That’s right, but that serum wasn’t extracted from vampires. It came from another extraterrestrial creature."

"What exactly is it?"

Dora turned to look at Eddie again and said, "I can’t describe it to you, but I can take you to see it."