1630/Spider / Mania

Spider / Mania
Date of Scene:	11 May 2020
Location:	Sports / Mania Warehouse, Garment District, NYC
Synopsis:	A kidnapping, a hostage situation, and the birth of Mania!
Cast of Characters:	Andi Benton, Peter Parker

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Andi Benton has posed:
It was the day after. Andi rushed back home and didn't say a word to her father about where she'd been or what happened, because a part of her was still struggling to believe it herself. It's not that she didn't buy what her eyes told her about the weird-looking guy with the tentacle arms. That was real enough. The rest, she couldn't be so sure of. That strange sense of another presence in her mind just didn't fit. Was it telepathy? She knew of it, but mainly from stories and movies and all that, not for real.

She had to talk to someone who might have experience with that sort of thing. While at her place, she pulled up the number Spider-Man gave her, tapping out quickly, "Need to talk. Important."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man was currently on the top of the Empire State Building, having just watched Squirrel Girl do her Flying Squirrel imitation, and he had to admit, she was pretty good at...

SMITE! ( https://soundcloud.com/cufftish/smite-crap-guide-to-paladin-clip )

Spidey looked towards the IM icon, which was blinking, and brought up the text. He hmmed, then sent a response: <Sure. In-Person or over the phone?>

Andi Benton has posed:
The response isn't long in coming, within maybe a minute.

"In person. Weird stuff. Kind of worried."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man frowns, but responds quickly. "Pick a place. I'm near the Empire State Building. You say where, I'll be there."

He's pretty serious. He didn't even remark on how much that rhymed.

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi's response is faster this time. She kept the phone out. "I'll come over there. Might be about an hour."

Then, she gets on the move to take transit out there from her location. Little does she know, she isn't the only one en route somewhere at this very minute.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man isn't about to think she's going to get up to where he is, so he descends the side of the building. He picks out one of the benches in the shade of the building. He doesn't 'zone' like some people do when waiting. He tend to people-watch purely out of reflex, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Because this is his life now.

Andi Benton has posed:
In the time that passes, Spider-Man might even have the opportunity to help an innocent person or two. There's always something going on in cities of this nature, and Andi even lets him know when she's about fifteen minutes away.

Once she gets to the vicinity of the Empire State Building itself, she taps away on her phone's screen, asking, "Where are you? I'm here now." By the time he spots her, he'll be able to tell something's wrong by the nervous expression on her face. It's similar to the one from the alley with the trust fund gang.

Peter Parker has posed:
"Up here."
Yep, there he is, sitting on the side of the Empire State Building. Because Spider-Man.

He drops to the sidewalk, beckoning her to a fairly quiet bench in the shadow of the building. "Okay, Andi...I'm here. What's going on?"

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton sees him. There's no wave, just a hurried approach. "Can we find a place that's less in the open? I don't want someone to see me around here," she says, and there it is in her voice - she sounds spooked. She's looking over her shoulder, suspicion in her eyes as they pass over one face, then another.

In Spider-Man's case, his costume lacks a traditional face, leaving just the bug eyes and the general idea of a face beneath it. Just how that resonates with her right now is unclear.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man looked around and beckoned to follow him. He moves to a part of the pavilion that is blocked off in preparation for some repaving to be started in a few days.

"Okay...no one's going to bug us here, so to speak. So spill, Andi. I can tell you have to get something off your chest."

Andi Benton has posed:
"So I was around some of those high-end clothing shops yesterday, just passing through because I'm not into most of that fancy shit," Andi begins, seeming to see a need to inform Spider-Man that those fashions aren't for her. "Anyway, one of them looked kinda abandoned and run down, but I think someone's using it to, like, torture people."

She points to the side of her head, revealing the part that's got her so bothered. "I felt something inside my mind. I swear I'm not some psycho just making shit up for attention. Someone was trying to get help."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man listened intently. He didn't show any sign that he thought Andi was making any of it up.

Spider-Man looked around. "Okay. Do you have any..."

And that was when Andi's phone rang. The contact came up simply said, "DAD."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton adds, "I started to check it out but then it was like this..this /feeling/ inside my head telling me to /run/ as fast as I could, and..hang on."

She pulls out her phone and rolls her eyes. "Really, dad? Right now? God.." She looks at Spider-Man and frowns. "I have to get this."

When she answers, she says immediately, "What is it, dad? I'm trying to talk to someone right now about something important!"

Peter Parker has posed:
The voice that came out of the phone...was not her father.

"ANDI BENTON. How NICE to finally speak to you again. I missed you after you so THOUGHTFULLY came by to visit me. I get so few people calling on me. In fact, I was so irked at the possibility of never seeing you again that I looked you up. I found your face on the Internet, as well as your name. I even went by your home, but you were not there."

The briefest of pauses.
"...but your FATHER was."

Andi Benton has posed:
If it's possible for Andi's pale complexion to turn even more ashen and ghostly, it does as soon as that voice registers. It's the one she heard when she was beating feet, getting out of the danger zone. "Oh, shit.." she whispers, audible to Spider-Man as she holds the phone an inch or two from her ear.

Depending on how much white noise is around them from the hustle and bustle of the big city, Spider-Man might even pick up a few words. That is, until the main bit of news is shared. That brings a strong reaction out of her. "You creepy fuck! You better not have touched him!" she yells into the phone suddenly, her eyes widening.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man had caught a few words, but it was not the words that turned his blood to ice. It was the VOICE.His voice he KNEW.

"Tut, tut, Miss Benton. I haven't touched him yet. Apart from taking him from your home. He's here with ME now. And if you wish to get him without TOO much damage, you are going to DO WHAT YOU ARE TOLD. Come back to the lab, dear. You have a destiny to fulfill. You have provoked a very INTERESTING reaction and I intend to delve further. And...should you consider calling the police...well, I'll let your father convince you."

A pause, then Andi's father whispered, "Go...unscrew yourself..."
"Tell me, Mr. Benton, what did the father say to his daughter when his arm was broken?"

There is an audible wet SNAP, and her father's bellow of pain was abruptly cut off as the call ended.

Andi Benton has posed:
"Dad! Are you okay?!" Andi speaks worriedly and hurriedly into the phone, trying to ignore what Doctor Octopus is telling her, teasing and threatening her with. "Let him go, you jerk! We didn't do anything to you! I don't even know what you're doing!"

And, that is the truth. She has no idea. Can't even begin to suspect what's really going on. However, she freezes when /that/ voice is back on the line, the foreboding words coming. "No, don't.."

When the snap follows, then the sound of her father's arm being broken, she shouts into the phone, right in front of Spider-Man, "You asshole! I'm gonna fucking kill you!" Her expression is a mixture of rage and barely-contained fear and after the call cuts out, she grips the sides of her head in both hands.

"He..that guy..he kidnapped my dad, and he just broke his arm, and I have to go there right now or he's probably gonna do worse, and..oh, fuck." She turns a half-circle in place, eyes darting around her like a wild animal.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man grasped Andi's shoulders. "All right. I know who that guy is. Dr. Otto Octavius, AKA Dr. Octopus. Okay. Listen. You need to show me where that warehouse is. and after you do, I need you to play along while I slip inside. This is the dangrous part. While I keep Doc Ock busy, I need you to find your father. As long as he's dealing with me, he won't come after you. I'll call the cops, but give enough time to find your dad so that the cops and the EMTs will be waiting for you when you get out. Find your dad, get out. Let ME worry about the lunatic with the robot arms."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton holds up her hands, backing away after Spider-Man reaches out for her shoulders in an attempt to steer her back to some sense of normalcy, to get her thinking again, more under control. "He said no cops. He said I have to do what he says, that I have some kind of destiny to fulfill. I wasn't even doing anything! I was just passing by, and..and you know this guy, and now he has my dad and he broke his arm and he's gonna do more if I don't go there right now!"

She turns away, trying not to hyperventilate, just attempting to figure out how to handle this. "My mom already left us when I was a baby, and if he kills my dad..."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey nods. "Go. Take the subway. He'll be expecting that. He'll be monitoring your phone. He's probablu hacking it as we speak. But he DOESN'T know you're with me. And I'll be there when you get there."

He looks around. "When you know I've confronted Doc Ock, find your father. He'll be close to the center. And BELIEVE ME...you will know when I've called out the Doc." He shook his head. "He used to be a brilliant man before he was driven crazy. Don't forget that. He may be insane, but he's not stupid. Anyway...get going."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton has nothing more to say to this, except to tell Spider-Man the location. "It's the old Sports-Mania place." Then she runs off into the nearest subway entrance, trying to keep everyone else from seeing her shake. Whatever Spider-Man knows of Doctor Octopus, it doesn't matter to her right now. He seems to know what he's going to do, but she's got to get there in time to rescue her father.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man grimaces. *Dammit, Doc, I RESPECTED you...*
He fires a webline and gets moving.

Dr. Octopus eyed the alien creature in the glass sphere. "Now, then...when the girl comes, you are going to show me EVERYTHING. Because when you hold anything back...I'll take it out on HER."
The blob seemed to tremble inside the globe.

Mr. Benton groaned as he sat in the chair bolted to the floor. He had the very real sense he was going to die here. But if Andi stayed away, maybe she would be safe, at least...

Andi Benton has posed:
But Andi could not stay away. For all she knew, her mother could have died at any point between the time she left them and now. What would that have made her feel? Why did her mother leave? Was she ashamed of her? Did she not want to have Andi? Did her parents have a fight over her?

She keeps her head down on the subway, only glancing up to find the stops until reaching the Garment District. At one point, someone approaches with a 'Hey, pretty lady..' line ready to feed into some other skeevy come-on, and she doesn't even know exactly how she looked at him, but it along with a 'Get the fuck away from me' response actually saw him withdraw back into the mass of commuters without another word.

She ran out of the station as soon as the train stopped and she got off. What was she going to do, though? She had no weapons. The pepper spray? She didn't expect that to actually accomplish much. Maybe Spider-Man would work it all out and save the day again, but what of that presence she felt? What was the deal with that thing?

As the sign for Sports-Mania loomed ahead of her, Andi held a deep breath and went toward that door she was about to open the day before, struggling with waiting long enough for a sign from the webbed wonder. "Hang on, dad.."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man waited until he saw Andi step out of the subway.
He took a deep breath. "God...don't let me be weak."

Dr. Octopus walked over to Mr, Benton, scowling at him. "One wonders what the creature sees in your daughter, Mr. Benton. Curiosity? Kinship? What could such a perfect creature see in such a lesser being like your recalcitrant daughter?"

"Maybe you're just a colossal JERK, Doc Ock."

Andi had just reached the damaged, half-open door when she hears Dr. Octopus lose all his happy thoughts.

"*<YOU!!!!>*"

Guess that's the signal.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mr. Benton doesn't really understand any of this. He's only a blue-collar worker, a nobody, just trying to get by from one month to the next, trying to raise his rebellious daughter the only ways he knows how as a struggling single father. Pained, he knows that broken arm is going to affect his ability to work, affect being able to hang on to that apartment. After this, it might not even be safe to stay in the same place. "Just..let us go, and forget you ever saw us. We don't mean anything to you," he begs, trying to appeal to some sort of noble side of the scientist, if one even exists.

Meanwhile, Andi listens at the door after trying the handle - unlocked as expected - and she swallows back some bile threatening to creep up. Yes, her stomach is in knots. "Keep it together.." she tells herself, before the yelling from inside results in her opening the door to slip within. Now, she has to get her bearings, find her father, and get out of there while Spider-Man deals with Doc Ock.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man jumps down to land on one of the computer banks. "Another Weird Science experiment, Doc Ock? You really oughtta-"
He suddenly jumps up and over the metal arm that lunges into the space where he once was. He lands on the computer server behind him, then grins and fires webbing into the rear of the server bank, gumming up cooling fans and heat sinks.
Otto's eyes widen. All of his data is in that server. if it melts down...
"GET AWAY FROM THAT!" he snarls, sending all four arms after the leaping jester of a hero whose annoying behavior becomes more excruciating with every passing second.

"Come on, Doc! You and I both know how this goes. So what say..."

The Spider-Sense SQUALLS from four different directions. He dodges three arms, but the fourth swats him into shelves of equipment, scattering vials and books and instruments everywhere.

Andi Benton has posed:
The lab fits in as it can in the open spaces of the warehouse, and the floor plan does allow for some maneuverability within. Parts of it had been set up for the storage and shipment of the sportswear, with manufacturing set up elsewhere, rows of tables that at one time held multiple sewing machines. In another time and place, it would be kind of neat to see where much of this stuff originates from. Now? It's barely a distraction.

"Dad..!" she calls out, after spotting the arrangement Octavius has put together for his experiments. There's all sorts of stuff in here that any real mad scientist ought to have, most of it beyond Andi's level of understanding. In fact, a lot of it looks like it could be straight out of a movie. Very sci-fi.

But, Mr. Benton, Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man, and Andi are not the only ones in here.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man pushed himself to his hands and knees before he was grabbed by the neck and lifted up to meet Otto's goggled eyes. "You have been a BOIL in my life, and I'm about to have you LANCED."
Spidey clutched the talons of the arm, trying to keep from choking. "You...REALLY should pick better places. Garment...District? REALLY...?"
Otto sneered at him. "You have no ability to appreciate my vision. When I discern the secrets of the alien lifeform I've captured..."
He looked over to the left for the globe that imprisoned the creature...only to realize he had thrown Spider-Man into that exact location. It was a frenzied mess...and the sphere was nowhere to be seen.

The creature moved across the discarded labels and signage as it moved closer to where the OTHER was there again. The OTHER was there because of the FATHER. He was the FATHER, and the OTHER was his offspring.
Pain and anger mingled with the innate longing. It moved closer to the OTHER. If it could reach her...

"WHERE IS IT?" Octavius demanded of Spider-Man, swinging him around to bash him into the wall.

Andi Benton has posed:
"Dad? Where are you?" Andi calls out, the need to find him more swiftly taking precedence over doing so quietly. Spider-Man..she just had to trust he'd be fine, that he'd be able to deal with Doc Ock himself.

She had no idea where the creature was, or even what it was. She never saw it, only felt some touch in her mind. That shouldn't have been possible, yet it happened. She didn't have an explanation for it, but she knows she felt something that was unique, different, maybe even..alien.

Then, she caught a glimpse of her father, facing away from her. He looked slumped forward, but he was breathing even if it was a little shallow. He could see signs of the fighting going on from his position, which she was not yet in a spot to witness. But, her emotional state grew stronger when she saw him. "Dad.." she whispered, as anger mixed with fear, mixed with a sense of urgency, mixed with a desire for revenge. It was like a beacon.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey groaned. "You really...give me too much...credit sometimes."
And then he is thrown the length of the lab, landing in a heap at the far wall. He hit hard, rolled to a stop.
Get up.
Spider-Man got to his feet.

The OTHER was so CLOSE now...
The blob of black good rolled and sent out thin pseudopods to propel itself forward. Forty feet...thirty feet...

The need was so strong, coupled with the blind imperative of its owwn alien biology.
Twenty feet...
It pushed forward, losing focus of all else.
Ten feet...

CONTACT.
The blob touched her foot, moved up her leg...and then SWARMED over the other.

<*WE ARE JOINED...*>

Andi Benton has posed:
Up to now, that presence had not registered in Andi's mind. She approaches her father, telling him, "Hang on, I'm gonna get you out," but the sounds of the fighting cause her to flinch. She hesitates at the sight of a red and blue figure soaring past from one direction to another. That could not have felt good.

But suddenly, anticipation, need. Thought from that /other/ thing from before. But from where? Her directional awareness of it comes only in the final ten feet of its approach, a strange mass of some amorphous black substance that comes into contact with a shoe just as she's asking, "What the..?"

And then, darkness. A sense of cold as it envelopes her from head to toe, a swirling, winding mixture of form and tendrils, shifting and flowing all around. She gasps, and then...contact.

Peter Parker has posed:
The feeling of cold is followed by a sudden, ferocious upswell of strength.

<Accept us. Join us. We can become one. We can become strong. Strong enough to survive. Strong enough to defeat our enemies, to destroy those who would try to hurt us...>

The heat is growing stronger, moving into her mind. And with it...a glimpse of an unknown, unimaginable power. There for the taking.

There to be accepted...

Andi Benton has posed:
Desperation in Andi's thoughts. Fear of the unknown, but still fear of the known as well. Just a lot of fear. She is weak. She is nothing special.

<I..I'm just..I'm nobody!> she insists, but the alien presence doesn't seem to accept that. It felt something in her, locked on to her presence then, her emotions now.

Beneath the fear is still anger, a desire to save her father, to help Spider-Man, to get revenge on Doctor Octopus. That last part, she may share with the being that has chosen her over anyone else. All it had known so far upon landing on Earth and being extracted from the asteroid was the harsh experiments Ock put it through. Now it's free. Now it has a potential host, and it does not seem inclined to let go.

How bad would it be if Andi just accepted it? That warmth spreads, a strange tingle in the back of her mind, like another voice. And..power?

The things Andi Benton could do with a little power...

Peter Parker has posed:
Dr. Octopus turned to look at Mr. Benton, and some black amorphous shape crouched in front of him. All four arms rose to descend upon the black figure, to cut it to pieces.

"NO!"
Dr. Octopus suddenly found himself tackled by Spider-Man. He is hurt, hurt very badly, but he does not stop ad his fist strikes one of the arms, causing it to spark.

It is a symbiote. It cannot survive on its own. It needs her. and she needs it.
It seizes on that moment of desire, and in that moment, her mind accepts it. Which is all it needs to bond with her...

Andi Benton has posed:
There is a sense of awareness of what's going on around her, but it comes through the symbiote. Andi sees, but not yet with her own eyes. She hears, but not yet with her own ears.

Before any movement, Spider-Man is back in the fray, buying Andi and the symbiote a few more precious moments. Would the symbiote have allowed anything to happen, or would it have moved them both out of the way?

No matter. Acceptance follows, and as soon as it does, as soon as the bond is cemented, the mass becomes more defined. Humanoid. All black, except for a pair of expressive white bug-like eyes. A few spiky bits of 'hair' atop a smooth head, no visible nose, mouth, or even ears. Hands look normal except for a sign of claws, and feet are covered in thick-soled boots, the body slender and just feminine enough to make the gender clear, but short black spikes form in the shape of some kind of wraps around forearms and shins.

She starts out from a bended knee, her arms spreading out a bit as she gets a good look at herself, sight having returned to a more normal place. "I...I...what is...this? What...what did you do...to...me?" Exactly who she's asking is unclear.

Peter Parker has posed:
<I have made you into what you can be when we are strong together. We can defeat our enemies together.>

Doc Ock raises the other three arms, then tbringing them down on Spider-Man's body to beat him down into the pavement.
"STAY DOWN, INSECT."

Doc Ock turns towards the Bentons, frown as he sees the figure now in sharp definition. He does not know what happened, but when he kills the father and imprisons the other, he can take it apart at his-

"DOC..."
Doc Ock froze, turning around to see Spider-Man is up on his feet again.

"We ain't done, Doc...I didn't hear no damn bell..."

Andi Benton has posed:
"Together..?" Andi asks aloud, as if a part of her is still uncertain and confused by it all. Because...she is. She's /very/ confused. But, she can feel something that had not been there before, beyond just the presence of another entity within her mind, sharing words only she can hear in this form. In that sense, her question is in response to something nobody else was privy to.

Then, she witnesses Doctor Octopus attacking Spider-Man, as if to flatten him, to finish him off. Only, the crazed scientist turns his attention toward Mr. Benton and what Andi has become. She rises slowly, just about the same time Spider-Man is, and before Ock faces him he might just catch a glimpse of a mouth forming in the face of the newly-made...thing. It is filled with sharp teeth, curling into a venomous smile.

Then, she attacks. Leaping from her place near her father, Andi and the symbiote, now as one, snarl with rage and intent, landing atop Ock's back before immediately tearing at him with claws that are suddenly much more menacing. "Gonna..kill you!" The voice is not Andi's alone, nor is it the symbiote's.

It's a combination of the two, as if an echo of an echo. It's...chilling.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man's eyes widen as the black...THING attacks Doc Ock. The doctor brings up all four arms to defend himself...well, three and a half. But the creature attacks him such...savage eagerness, the wounded metal arm is damaged beyond repair immediately. The other three arms grab at...well, what Andi has become to pluck her off of his back and throws her at the nearby stone pillar with all the force they can muster.

"What ARE you?" Doc Ock demands. Spider-Man doesn't join in because his bones are still knitting, but he has to admit he's a little curious himself.

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton is sent flying, but not before a hand reshapes into an axe or blade of some kind, a swing taken at one of those tech-arms. This is primal, animalistic, no holding back at all. As she's sent away, she twists around enough to spring off the pillar and land in a crouch, one hand against the floor that fang-filled grin perhaps wider and more menacing than even before.

The smile is punctuated with a long, snake-like tongue that drips saliva, briefly flicking out as if to taste the air around the creature. If that's Andi now...whoa.

"We are your end," it says, and again there's that eerie double double voice, a blend of Andi and symbiote, and the figure rises to stalk toward Doctor Octopus, a predator ready to toy with its prey, if there was even any toying in the cards. The blade has returned to its prior shape, but the fingers are elongated. "You tortured us. You hurt someone important to us. Now we will make you pay with your life."

Then, the creature lets out a blood-curdling roar as the mouth morphs further into something almost Lovecraftian, two or three rows of sharp teeth within, no sign of a human face whatsoever...and that tongue.

Somewhere along the way, Mr. Benton has passed out.

Peter Parker has posed:
Dr. Octopus moves to one side, grabbing one of the modules he had used on the symbiote. "Whoever you are...WHATEVER you are...I know how to put you in your PLACE!"
Then he turned the sonic emitter as high as it will go and pointed the emitter at Andi/the symbiote.

The sonic attack is indescribable. it is every loud concert rolled into one, and the sound is as poisonous as acid. The symbiote seems to shriek in pain, and the shriek is inside Andi's mind...

Andi Benton has posed:
The reaction/response is immediate. As full of rage and revenge as Andi/the symbiote was just before, it's replaced by an equally horrific scream that reveals the intensity of the pain the creature feels, and it's not just the symbiote. It's Andi as well, now as good as one with the symbiote itself. What one side feels, so does the other.

For a moment, the retreat instinct of the symbiote is so strong, it begins to flow away from Andi. Both Ock and Spider-Man can see evidence of her own face beneath the outer layer, twisted into a rictus of pain as she begins to double over on herself, moving toward a fetal position. In that moment, she knows the things the symbiote felt when Octavius tormented it, trying to force it to respond.

But, as they both scream as one, it creates an opening for Spider-Man once again.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man takes the opportunity to throw in something else.
The power regulator for the server was simple and basic, and Spider-Man took a chance to pull some necessary components and push the blocky device towards Doc Ock. It got within five feet before overloading, sending an electromagnetic pulse that shorted out the other three arms, the server, the sonic emitter, and half a dozen other machines.

Doc Ock turned to catch a punch from Spider-Man knocking him back into the side of a workstation desk.

"It's...over, Otto." Spider-Man did his best to mute the pain, which was...very bad,

Andi Benton has posed:
So loud. So much pain. Can't do anything. Separation imminent, and so soon after the bond was formed. That's how much the symbiote wants to escape the sounds, and there's already a part of Andi trying to cling to the bond, mentally.

Thankfully it ends, and the symbiote seemingly snaps back into place. However, she/it begins to verbalize concepts from the day before.

"Run flee leave fast hurry away..." In doing so, the creature staggers into that same pillar, stumbling away from it as Andi/the symbiote tries to get its collective bearings again. Her father is still here, and that expressionless face is back except for eyes that are twisted into a weakened sort of look based on the way they've reshaped. "Father safety home run run run..."

The recovery, now that the audio assault is over, is faster than one might have expected, and the black figure scoops Mr. Benton up from where he'd been kept, freeing him first if need be. He's cradled protectively in the arms of the creature, which stops to look back toward Spider-Man. The sense conveyed through the eyes is one of appreciation, somehow, before it turns away, zeroing in on the same door Andi had entered through.

Peter Parker has posed:
The cop lights begin to flicker in the window. The cavalry's arrived.

Doc Ock groans as Spider-Man webs him to the ground. He looks to the black figure, aware that Andi is in there, somewhere.

"Bring him to the ambulance. There'll be one out there in seconds. They'll take better care of him than you or I can."

It's part guidance, part test. How much of Andi is still in...whatever she has become now?

Andi Benton has posed:
"Yes. We will. Tell them..something."

This is all Andi/the symbiote says, and the voice is more hers this time, except for the 'we' part that seems conflicting when coming from her own voice. There are no plans to be within sight of any police or paramedics the way she is now, and she is not in a position to go back to normal and explain anything.

She gets her father outside and gingerly sets him down in the most comforting way she can, and while he remains unconscious and his arm looks bad, she rests a black palm against the side of his head. "We're..sorry, father. I'm..sorry, dad." Turning away, she leaps to scale the wall of the warehouse, where she takes up a perch to watch the goings-on for at least a few minutes.

Before that, there is one more show of emotion. A fist forms into a spiked ball and it's thrust out, the arm stretching enough for it to plow through part of the old sign that told of who operated out of the building before.

Now, it reads only 'Mania.'