2888/Bombs of Many Kinds

Bombs of Many Kinds
Date of Scene:	12 August 2020
Location:	Upper West Side
Synopsis:	Mania and Spider-Man tag-team a bomb...and drop a few others.
Cast of Characters:	Peter Parker, Andi Benton

---

Peter Parker has posed:
The Upper West Side is not usually the kind of place where street crime is a big thing, but carjackings, home invasions, and the like happen up here where the payoffs are big.

As a pair of Ducati motorcycles hang next to the two motorcycle thieves who tried to steal them, Spider-Man perches on a brownstone condo and sends out a quiet ping through the Spider-Comm system, making his location visible to any other members on the network. It's been solo for most of the week, and it would be nice to talk to someone.

Andi Benton has posed:
Strangely, for the last week, there has been literal radio silence over the comms on the part of Mania/Andi. It's as if she's dropped off the face of the earth. Following the encounter with the released Billionaire Boyz Club guys and their new recruits, one that Ghost Spider intervened in, the items that make up Spider-Man's comm system have been left back home, stashed away in a drawer she knows her father wouldn't be digging around in.

Why? Reasons that are not yet known by others.

It doesn't mean she and the symbiote aren't doing anything. Contrary to that, she's been sneaking out at night to explore parts of Happy Harbor from another angle, or venture into the city for some rooftop views. Occasionally, there has been trouble out there. It hasn't been where she was, apparently.

Tonight, she's gone out a little earlier. No work at the music store, a job she's kept so far, so she made her way to a quieter part of New York City. A reason for that, most likely. It just looks rich. Rich, and fairly quiet compared to other areas. The crime here is different, when it happens.

The ping goes unanswered, at least by her, as she paces back and forth atop one of the residential homes.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man is still waiting for a response from someone when he sees a truck moving along the street. It is a panel truck, advertising soda on the sides and rear. Not a normal occurrence in the ritzier places.

The problem was how his Spider-Sense went to DEFCON 3 the moment it got close to him. Something in there was majorly dangerous.

He hopped off the building to land on the roof of the truck, noting with a frown that the buzz in his head went from DEFCON 3 to DEFCON 2.

As the truck continued onward, Spider-Man scuttled along the roof, trying to determine the contents.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania takes up a spot crouching near the edge of the home she's chosen to stop at. Then, activity.

//Andi, look. The Spider.//

She's alerted to the truck and webslinger by the 'other' before she's even aware of it, leading to her head turning in that direction. Her answer to the symbiote is a simple one.

<<So it is.>>
//What is he doing? Is he thirsty?//
<<Dunno. He can take care of himself.>>

In spite of her seeming indifference, she at least shifts position to get a better angle for viewing.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man sends the drone out to look for any way in, while he tries to figure out where these guys are headed. The license plate is connected to a Lexus 300...so probably as stolen as the truck...
The drone feed comes up as it flies around, but it takes some time to find a way in. It takes a picture of the drivers, two clean-cut young men in nondescript uniforms that could belong to any company.
But they have that Look on them.
Peter had been studying a few things that had nothing to do with Neuroscience. Namely, Lightman's book on reading body language, which had a chapter on facial expressions.

These men were looking straight ahead, not to the left or right, not chatting quietly. Looking forward as if that was all that mattered. A look shared by terrorists, suicide bombers, and school shooters.
Lightman had called it the "Human Missile" look. A locked-on-course expression.

Andi Benton has posed:
There are two sides to Mania, and one of them is growing more urgent. It isn't the host side.

//Andi we should help.//
<<Why can't we just have a quiet night?>>
//The Spider is chasing them! Something is wrong! We can feel it!//
<<That's probably just the chocolate you demanded. Wait..what are you-->>

A moment later, Mania springs off the rooftop with a line of webbing shot out ahead of herself, to swing low and gain momentum on the truck and Spider-Man. It is /not/ because Andi made the decision, either.

//We are HELPING.//

Peter Parker has posed:
The drone moves to one side and finds a corner to sneak into. The feed fuzzes, and then clears up.

And the feed comes into focus and Peter suddenly hates the spider that bit him.

The truck is carrying a large device. Wires lead from various parts into a central box on the top, where a key lock and a readout can be seen. The various parts are...
A text box suddenly appears in the general-activity chat, above the drone feed now showing up in the chat window.
"HOLY MARY MOTHER OF GOD."
Bricks of a tightly-wrapped substance surround a central core. covering them are buckets of nails, ball bearings, scrap metal. The wrapping on one of the blocks can be seen clearly: COMPOUND-4 PLASTIC EXPLOSIVE (1 KG).
And, to top it all off, a message is taped below the readout that is sitting at 15:32 and counting down.

HELLO MUTIE!

Andi Benton has posed:
These are things Andi would know if only she'd brought the comms with her. But, no. Instead, she has to act on her own while playing catch-up, going into this relatively blind while being led by Mania itself.

This is a first. The symbiote has influenced her in ways, yes, but going as far as forcing her to act? That's new, and potentially frightening.

"What are you DOING?!" she demands, and this time it comes out verbally.

//You would not help the one who helped us? You are being selfish.//

"What? It's not..I was..that isn't..."

"...fuck."

Part of her knows the symbiote is right, but the time to get into that is not right now. They have things to do.

Another line is sent out as the truck continues along, but she can go fast when she needs to and now she's responding more in tandem with the symbiote. The resistance is going away.

Softly, she lands next to him in a crouch, 'sticking' to the top of the truck so any danger of sliding off is limited. "Going for a ride?" she asks, trying to sound casual about it.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man looks up as Mania lands, and the eye-lenses are wide. Terror cannot be seen in a masked face, but when he speaks, she can hear it clearly.
So, one good use for a mask - no one can see how scared you are.

"Mania. THERE IS A BOMB IN THIS TRUCK. I think they are going to Mutant Town and set it off! We have to stop the truck! We..." he looked around. This was a bad place. "Construction sites near me!" he suddenly speaks, and Google answers with a waypoint to a site that is still working on the foundation. It's big. he hopes it is big enough.
"Mania, I need your help. In one mile, there's going to be a construction site off to the right. WE HAVE TO GET THIS TRUCK TO GO THERE...!"

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's eyes turn upward, almost an anime style of happiness at seeing Spider-Man as a claw-tipped hand lifts to join the expression with a wave. "Hello, Spider!" it says, sounding more Mania than Andi for a moment, before the duality comes back. Odds are the expression behind the 'mask' is not as bright and cheerful.

"We thought you..wait, did you say bomb? And Mutant Town? What the fuck.." That's definitely more Andi talking, now. She is, of course, not privy to the location of the construction site, but she may have seen it before in passing.

"Uhhh, how? Should we make some webbing to try to direct it somehow?" she wonders. A mile isn't a lot of time, but enough time for something.

Inside, the conversation renews.

//WE TOLD YOU!//
<<Yeah, yeah. Stop shouting in my head. Let's just get this done.>>

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods. He looks thoughtful. "Okay...stay low...they don't know we're up here yet. Okay..." He crouches down, body low to the roof of the truck. His voice is a quiet whisper. "How strong is your webbing? Do you know for sure?"

Andi Benton has posed:
"We do not know. We have not even tested something like that. But, we are strong," Mania determines, shifting positions so she goes more flat against the rooftop instead of crouching. The rush of air past them barely even moves the spiky 'hair' atop her head. "How strong is yours?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man muses, "It can hold about...twenty tons, the new batch. We..." He stops as a streetlight arm passed over them, then continues. "Okay. I think this is an all-wheel drive truck. One option, but it involves getting under the truck to web the axle behind the front-right wheel, while another webs the same side in the back axle. That would force the truck to turn right into the construction site coming up." He frowns. "I don't know the clearance though. Okay...option B. You come down on the left side and scare them. While they're distracted, I'll web the wheel and turn it to the right, same result. How do you feel about scaring a couple of lunatics?"

Andi Benton has posed:
20 tons of strength may be more than Mania can handle. If there is to be a web wall made, his would probably stand a better chance of working if they tried to drive through it, but getting stuck is not the result they're after. Using a lot of it, which she does not know yet, could also leave her weakened.

Silence settles in as Spider-Man's suggestions are weighed, and there is probably more of an internal discussion going on about the best path to take. When she answers, that duality is as strong as ever and, in this case, chilling as the line of a mouth begins to form in the shape of a predatory grin, the tip of a tongue flicking out as if tasting the air.

"We will scare them. Do not worry about that." It'll leave him to handle the turning, as needed.

Rising, she springs away from the top of the truck, swinging out to one side courtesy of a webline, carrying her toward the intersection that will be the turning point.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man watches her go. Yeah...she can be scary, at times. He can't imagine what it's like for them.
He looked up. Half a mile to the turn-off point. They were eerily-focused in the cab. He figured that once you commit to something like this, being locked-on-course is all you have. He can't imagine how you get to that point...

*"Peter...what do you have there?"*

Okay...maybe he did, a little. But that had been out of fear. This was out of hate...and you hate what you fear.
Quarter-mile.
When Mania came in, he'd bust through the right-side window, web the top of the steering wheel, and pull. Gently, but that was still more than the strength they would have.

Fifty yards.
"NOW!"

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania can be fast when she needs to be, and the 'scare them' act is not really an act. Spider-Man himself saw what she can do at Crossroads, and has picked up on other examples of the symbiote's capabilities as well. Just prior to the moment, she lands and takes up a spot on the road closer to the driver's side, but fully in view.

By the time they've spotted her, she's gone into a crouch that looks like she's about to spring forward at them, arms spread out wide with her fingers having elongated into claws that look capable of rending flesh. Tendrils flick in a few areas, off the shoulders and at her back, the spikes along her arms and legs grow thicker, but it's the face that seals the deal. The mouth is fully formed, filled with deadly-sharp teeth, saliva dripping from the tongue that lashes out a couple feet, and there is a primal ROAR that follows.

Hopefully Spider-Man keeps his composure.

Peter Parker has posed:
JEEZ LOUISE.
He knew she could be scary, but this was John-Carpenter-THE-THING scary.
Even as scared as he is, he makes his entrance right on schedule.

While the two would-be bombers void bowels and bladders simultaneously, no one is driving when Spidey punches through the right-side windows, tempered glass shattering like thin ice. He webs the wheel and pulls.
He has to get this part right. Too fast, and the truck ends up on its side with an explosive device that might have been built with instructions from the INTERNET. Too slow, and they'll go into the steel girder at the border...

But for once, the Parker Luck calls in sick and the truck shoots through the gap and into the construction site.

Spidey leaps over the front of the truck. "I'LL PUSH, YOU PULL!" he calls to Mania, hoping she continues her streak of being quick on the uptake.

Andi Benton has posed:
Scary? That's Mania and the symbiotes in general, by default. Keeping it under wraps is more of a challenge than letting it out. When told to 'be scary,' it's like taking off the shackles.

She keeps up the look as she witnesses the reactions of the driver and passenger, the symbiote in particular taking great pleasure in the sight, and she races off to follow the new direction the truck is headed, into the construction yard.

Exactly what he means by 'pull' is left to interpretation, but in her case she takes it to mean getting some webbing out along the front of the truck and using momentum and leverage to keep it going, so that's just what she does.

//When this is done, we can eat them for what they were going to do.//
<<We don't eat people! It's wrong!>>
//That's not what Venom said.//
<<Venom..is Venom! We're not Venom!>>
//Are you sure?//

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man gets in front of the truck, then bears down and PUSHES, anchoring himself to the ground, THROUGH the ground, and the truck swiftly slows to a sudden stop.
"Web those two up for the cops! I'll check on the device!"

He jumps again to the rear, ripping the cheap padlock off and yanking the door open.

Andi Benton has posed:
There is surely time for Spider-Man to inspect the bomb, given the display the drone showed him. Mania separates herself from the webbing, which will soon dissolve and fade away, and she punches through the windshield with both hands in order to draw the would-be killers out through it, not caring if they get a few cuts in the process.

"Hello, losers. Oh, did you forget your potty training? We think you smell bad." She uses enough webbing so as to cocoon them nearly from head to toe, leaving only the area from the nose to the top of the head visible. "Don't go anywhere," she chides them, leaning over them with those teeth close enough that she could snap through their heads with but one bite.

//Do it, Andi. Make them pay!//
<<Stop that! I already told you that's not what we do!>>
//But we could. Let us show you how easy it is.//
<<No, and you can't make me!>>
//We could...but you make us what we are, Andi. We do not want to lose you.//

The threat of eating them fades, as does the more threatening appearance, and it leaves Mania to take a few steps from them, turning away to crouch and place her hands against the sides of her head, over where her ears would be.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man goes around the bomb, the readout now showing 8:54 and counting. He placed a call to the NYPD through Spider-Comm, direct-transfer to the bomb squad, then lays out the situation as the suddenly-alert technician starts taking notes.
"Listen, we're in a construction site, it's bare ground..."
"Not gonna matter, there's enough to shred a city block! We've got police on the way..."

"...Cope got better things to do than get killed."
"What?"
Spidey blinked as he realized what he'd said. "Tell dispatch." Then he disconnected.

"Mania...I'm gonna need your help...!"

Andi Benton has posed:
When Mania comes back around, the eyes cause her expression to appear troubled, conflicted, as if something difficult is or has been going on. She rises and glances over a shoulder toward the truck at his voice, then moves to the back of it to peer inside.

"What is it?" she asks, and even the voice is strained. Not as bad as before, or as bad as it would have been before, but there's a sense she's keeping a thing or two together through will and effort.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man is using a tiny powered screwdriver to open a panel. "Mania, get those wire snips." He indicates the wire cutters on the floor near the bomb, then the wires along the top leading into the central housing.

"The bomb squad won't get here in time. We have to disarm this ourselves."

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania reshapes a couple fingers to serve as snips of their own. "We don't know anything about bombs. How can you be sure this will work?"

There is no attempt made yet to cut anything, though she's looking at what's running from the top into the main part of the bomb itself. "What if it makes it go boom?"

Peter Parker has posed:
"It's going to go boom, ANYWAY. We're going to keep that from happening."
Spider-Man removes the panel, looking at the circuit board. "Okay...I've looked at the wire. When I call a color, I want you to cut the corresponding wire. We're going to get ahead of this thing before it has a chance to go off. Are you ready?"

Andi Benton has posed:
"We would like to not be right in front of it when it goes boom, Spider," comes an answer out of Mania with enough sarcasm laid on thick that most of that is coming from Andi first.

The eyes betray doubt, but she is trying to trust here. "We are not ready, but we do not have time to be ready." The fingersnips move toward the wires.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods, looking at the circuitry, the A/R HUD identifying components.
Every lock has a key. And no bomb-maker with all ten fingers intact is going to make a machine without an off-switch.
He finds the off-switch panel, an innocuous array of five green LEDs. To the layman, that could be anything.
But he is no layman.

7:43.
"Green-and-white, twisted together. NOW."

Andi Benton has posed:
An internal frown lingers, conveyed mostly through that uncertain look in the eyes, but after a glance toward Spider-Man then back at the set of wires, Mania hears the set he calls for and slices cleanly through them.

"No boom."

Peter Parker has posed:
The five green lights becomes four green, one red....and then, only four.
"Good. Wait." He does another analysis. Only...backup circuit, primed and ready to go, using...

"Black-and-red, NOW."

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania cuts the next one.

//Will this be done soon? We are getting hungry.//
<<Concentrate. If we cut the wrong one, being hungry will be the least of our worries.>>
//We would probably survive. You might not, but we don't want that.//

"Done."

Peter Parker has posed:
Four green...two green, two red...then there are only two.

"Almost there. Do this and there's a chocolate cream pie in your future."
Also, keeping your head on your shoulders.
6:12.
Where is it...where is it...okay, that one...

"Green wire, in five seconds, four, three, two, one, NOW!"

Andi Benton has posed:
"There is?"

//There is?//
<<There is.>>

Mania's focus sharpens, tempted by the lure of chocolate, a great reason to make absolutely certain this goes properly. "Green. We see it. Done."

Snip.

Time is not a factor. Accuracy is.

Peter Parker has posed:
The timer suddenly speeds up, going from one every second to FIVE every second.

Spider-Man doesn't seem to notice. He is looking at what is now only one green light.

5:24...
4:29...

"Mania...red wire, when I say..." Spider-Man's voice is quiet but firm. There will be one shot to sever the circuit before the switch collapses the circuit and turns them all into atoms.

3:10...
2:41...
1:12...

"Now." His voice is almost gentle.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania is not looking at the timer, just the wires. If anyone's going to notice, it's going to be him. If he does, he doesn't appear to be flustered by it, which in turn helps keep host and symbiote more under control as well. What they don't know can't negatively impact them, right?

Snip.

"No boom?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Green...then red...then nothing.

TWO MINUTES LATER

Spider-Man climbed up on the edge of the condo, one hand holding a Marie Callender's bag with a wide, square bottom. He heads over to where Mania is standing.

He glanced down to watch the bomb squad disassembling the device, the NYPD putting the mutant-haters in a squad car. They wore amazed and uncomfortable faces, revealing that in all of their preparations, emergency pants was not one of them.
As Torg would say, you have to have emergency pants.

Spider-Man reached into the bag and lifted out the pie box. Not an Aunt May Special, but still pretty good.
"One full chocolate cream pie, Mania. You earned it."

Andi Benton has posed:
They have relocated, and for much of that time Mania said nothing outwardly. There were still conversations going on inside, mainly covering what to tell Spider-Man, what to keep to themselves. They haven't figured it all out yet.

She's been watching the aftermath of the situation, the police and bomb squad finally getting there. The webbing she'd used to wrap the would-be killers up had weakened and broken down enough that they were just starting to free themselves when they were told to freeze and put their hands up. By the time one of the cops picked up a strand of webbing, it fell apart and slipped through his fingers.

Eyes light up when the pie is brought out. It can be smelled even before it can be seen, and that mouth forms again. Not to frighten this time, but rather to open wide as hands dig into the box and unceremoniously scoop globs of chocolate, cream, and crust into that gaping maw. Nothing is left beyond the box and tin, not even a crumb or especially a drop of chocolate.

"Mmm, we enjoyed that," she says, the mouth moving with the words as long as it's still there.

Peter Parker has posed:
Wow. Wonder how she'd react to Aunt May's apple pie? An experiment for another day.
He chuckled. "Yeah, I could tell." He pauses for a moment, then his voice came out a little softer, a little more personal. "I'm glad you were there to help."

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania cleans up well, mainly because not only is there nothing left around the face, anything else is either licked away swiftly or somehow absorbed into the symbiote. "We already liked chocolate, but now we like it even more."

Then, there is a prolonged period of silence out of both host and symbiote, even after his words of appreciation. Suddenly, the eyes don't want to linger on him, averting elsewhere.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man gazes at her for a moment, his shoulders relaxing slightly.

"I'm not SHIELD...or the League. You don't pay dues, you didn't sign any loyalty oath, and we don't take attendance. You don't have to justify your presence...or lack of it."
He smiles slightly under the mask. "I choose to be glad when you are active, and hope you are doing well when you are not, Mania. Period, the end."

Andi Benton has posed:
"It's not that." The voice is now more Andi than that combined thing he's heard, with that underlying danger that can lead to others soiling themselves. The face fades away until it's featureless again, then it begins to part as tendrils draw away from her head, receding toward the back. It leaves the teenager with a troubled expression, and no signs of the things he'd given her to keep in contact with.

"It's just that some things have been really weird lately, and I haven't been feeling comfortable around people as much. This stuff is hard, and some of the urges I've been having aren't easy to control all the time. I almost let you deal with those guys by yourself," she explains, a suited hand running through her hair before she rubs near an eyebrow piercing.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods. "Yeah...I can understand it, a little. Not in the way you're dealing, but also...dealing with urges...a desire to show off, or hurt those bullying me. What matters is how you respond. What you do in response makes you who you are." He smiles wryly. "But tonight, you chose to help. And that is noble, and heroic."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton's expression holds a frown. "I know, but..we met someone else with a symbiote. His name is Venom. Ever since then, Mania's felt kind of..off, like something more dangerous got unlocked. When I start feeling that way, I just try to remember the ways you've helped, and think about how you do things. I'm just trying to stay in control. Mania needs me, and I'm Mania too now, but it would be so easy to just let some things happen."

She clears her throat, grabbing her shoulders with her hands, arms crossed. "You know a couple of those guys from that gang are out again? I was watching the area you found me in, and they had a couple new guys with them. A part of me still wanted to do something bad to them, but Ghost Spider kind of kept me from going too far again."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man raises one "eyebrow" at the mention of Venom. Another one with a symbiote, and he sounds like he's all id.

"...I let something happen, Mania. I let something happen because all I was thinking about was myself. Three weeks later, the man I respected the most was dead. Because I was selfish. It's the worst feeling in the world, Mania. You two have to work together...and you have to commit to helping people. Because watching someone die because you could have done something and didn't? It's the worst torture this side of Hell."

Andi Benton has posed:
"Shit.." Andi's response is in line with her way of speaking, but it also conveys the appropriate feeling as her lips draw thin. "I mean, that sucks. I was back there, you know, a mile or so when you went by with the truck, and I was just going to let you handle it but Mania decided to get involved." Exactly how that came to be, she's keeping to herself. /She/ still doesn't quite understand what happened, yet.

"Anyway, is that, uh, part of why you helped rescue my dad? Why you do all of this stuff?" she wonders.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey nods. "With Great Power Must Come Great Responsibility. I was too selfish to understand what it meant, until it was too late. So now...now I do it because I *have* to. I have no choice in the matter, not if I want to be able to face myself in the mirror. Standing by and doing nothing...cost me everything. I can't afford to go that route ever again."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton's eyes shift toward one side. "Yeah, well..I know, kinda. I know how I felt when that loser had the symbiote captive and it touched my mind somehow, and I know how I felt in that alley before all that. Mania means I don't have to feel like that again."

There's a 'but' there, and here it comes.

"But after meeting Venom..I know there's something more dangerous with all of this. He understood me, but he was so much more..I guess..primal. Like he's totally embraced everything and he doesn't mind going to extremes if he thinks someone deserves it. And that sort of woke up something in mine."

She considers covering up her face again, tendrils licking at the sides of her head near the ears, but she lets him see the struggle in there. "The chocolate thing? Yeah, it tastes good, but I think it helps for another reason...because there's something in it that really works somehow and, uh, if it wasn't for that I think it'd be wanting to eat something in people instead."

She begins to inch her way back, half of her expecting this friendship, or partnership, or whatever it is to end right then and there.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods, looking down. "That's in EVERYONE, Mania. You have it in more physical, powerful ways, I'll be the first to admit that...but at different levels, everyone has that dark part they fight. For many, they give into it, and it controls them. They enslave themselves to it."
He looks back up to Mania. "But to FIGHT it...to HARNESS it...to make it work with you, for your needs instead of its own. The symbiote wanted to help when you didn't. That's because you are human. I'm still human...the parts that count, anyway. And I deal with that every day. But when you think of others instead of yourself...when you help people instead of just looking out for Number One..."

She can practically HEAR regret in those last five words. Like saying them had cost him too much.

"...that is when you know that you have been measured and not found wanting. That you used the gifts you were given, and well."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton readies herself for the turn, for Spider-Man to decide she needs to be captured as a threat, a danger, taken to SHIELD, or the military, or somewhere to be locked away before she can bite the heads off those she deems unfit to survive. It's what most would probably do upon hearing something that would be so horrific.

It doesn't happen, though. She murmurs, "I think there are things I can learn from Venom, things he can maybe teach me, but..things to be careful about too. Things you've already got me thinking about. He didn't seem, like, evil or anything, but I think he and his symbiote are just on a totally different level of morals and things."

If someone is willing to consume brains or other tissue, that's one way of putting it.

"Chocolate works, so I'm gonna make sure I have enough of it around. And Mania really liked that pie. And I'm trying. I am. I know I've had this for like a few months now, and I've been learning stuff, but it's all new for me. I didn't care about other people a whole lot when I was just me. I just wanted to be done with school and go do my own thing. I guess that's not a good excuse now."

She exhales, still embracing herself, covering up much of that black biosuit that's become a part of her.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods. "It's hard. I know. But life is, unfortunately, unfair." He takes a deep breath.

"I want to meet this Venom. And it's also because I want him to meet *me.*"

Andi Benton has posed:
"I haven't seen him since that night. It was a few weeks ago," Andi explains, shaking her head. "We didn't exactly swap numbers."

She focuses on Spider-Man, the rest of the Mania appearance returning as her face goes away, those eyes remaining on him.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey nods. "Well, I suspect you might see him again, if my theory that the symbiotes resonate with each other is correct. So...if you see him, tell him I want to talk to him. Face to face."

Or largely-fanged muzzle. Either or.

Andi Benton has posed:
"We should go, but he seemed interested in meeting you, and in helping us learn more about ourselves."

When Mania lowers her arms, there is something there that wasn't before: a large image of an arachnid, in white. Its head ends just below the throat, its abdomen pointed down, legs together to either side of that and separated by three lines of black.

"Thank you for helping us remember what is important." She turns away, revealing the same imagery across the back.

Mania has taken on the insignia of the spider.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man blinks.
There is something about a symbol. It can be a flag...a coat of arms...a statue. It signifies a code, a goal, an ideal.

And Mania has taken the symbol of a spider.
The idea that he has directly inspired someone fills him with awe...and an awesome sense of responsibility. He was not acting for himself. He was forging a path for another to follow.

It's humbling enough to leave him awestruck even after she has already gone.