97?! She gave birth?!

No matter what happens, only Lady Time always moves forward unhurriedly—unless, of course, you get your hands on the Time Stone. In that case, you could do all sorts of unspeakable things to her...

A week had passed since Ben Parker’s funeral. Though Jos continued his missions, most of them had ended in failure. It’s worth mentioning that, during these days, he ran into Laura again. She had already moved into the mutant school in Classroom X and showed absolutely no interest in joining the Avengers.

Aside from that, the only other significant event was Spider-Man finally joining the Avengers. As for Jos’s plan for a super hybrid symbiote, its fate remained uncertain. When S.H.I.E.L.D. took over the Life Foundation, they found nothing but corpses—both human and symbiote—strewn about the lab. Whether the experiment had succeeded or failed was anyone’s guess.

Thanks to Tony Stark’s technological support, someone nicknamed “Super Backpack Man” had also joined the Avengers, alongside Spider-Man and Gambit. For now, the shortage of manpower seemed to have eased.

But compared to these matters, the problem Jos now faced was far more pressing.

Little Black was about to give birth!

Although Jos had considered the possibility, he’d taken no particular action—so Little Black’s sudden labor was rather shocking. Surely no one had made a move while his attention was elsewhere? But then again, symbiotes didn’t reproduce like humans. Even if he had done something, this shouldn’t have been the result, should it?

Jos sat in the living room, listening to the rather enticing—certainly not pained—moans drifting from Little Black in the next room, his brow furrowed in thought. Half his mind pondered why Little Black was suddenly giving birth, the other half wondered just what she might produce.

But the first question was almost moot. Back at the Life Foundation, merely a dose of some drug or other had prompted Venom to split off five offspring in a snap.

As for the second question...

“In the movie universe, most symbiotes became Venoms—siblings rather than offspring, strictly speaking,” Jos mused. “But Carnage didn’t fit that pattern. And I didn’t see any blood-red symbiotes at the Life Foundation’s facility…”

After a bit of thought, Jos surmised that this might coincide with the original timeline, when Venom and Eddie visited the prison—just when Venom spawned the ill-fated Carnage.

With this realization, Jos’s mind began to turn. If he got his hands on Little Black… no, wait, Carnage was still a newborn, not yet led astray by that madman Cletus Kasady. Its potential was enormous.

After pondering for a long while without finding a suitable solution, Jos decided to set the issue aside for now, as the noises from the other room had ceased.

Creak—

With a rather unpleasant squeal, Lilith emerged from the room. Looking past her, Jos could see Little Black sprawled on the bed, panting.

“How did it go?” Jos hurried over to ask as soon as Lilith appeared.

“She laid an egg,” Lilith replied, her expression blank.

“Uh… Are you insulting me or just stating a fact?” Jos looked at her uncertainly.

Lilith, uninterested in further conversation, simply cupped her hands and showed him a blood-red, fleshy, egg-shaped object.

“So it really is an egg?!”

Jos had never witnessed a symbiote giving birth before, so he had no idea whether this egg-like form was typical for symbiotes or unique to this modified version of Little Black.

With some trepidation, he took the crimson egg from Lilith’s hands. Having only just been born, it seemed, the egg had not yet awakened any parasitic instincts, allowing them to handle it so easily.

[Special symbiote detected—Carnage juvenile.]

The moment Jos’s fingers touched Carnage, the system immediately made its presence known in his mind.

[Calculating…]

[Calculation complete. Recommended handling schemes for Carnage are as follows:]

[Scheme One: Bring the world a delightful Carnage!]

[A. Let Carnage bond with you. Gain a fixed 1,000 Points of Reckless Source daily. If separated for more than three hours in one day, the Points cannot be earned.]

[B. Let Carnage bond with any Avenger. Depending on the host, receive between 10,000 and 50,000 Points of Reckless Source.]

[C. Let Carnage bond with its destined host, Cletus. Receive 30,000 Points of Reckless Source.]

[Scheme Two: Perhaps a new world will open up?]

[A. Destroy Carnage entirely. Receive 15,000 Points of Reckless Source.]

[B. Modify Carnage. Points consumed depend on the modification template.]

[C. Use Carnage’s body to enhance a piece of equipment. Points consumed depend on the chosen equipment.]

Two schemes, three options each—it looked like there was plenty of room for choice, but Jos was certain the system had set some trap for him.

No, he was sure of it.

Leaving aside the second scheme for now, the first scheme mostly involved having Carnage parasitize someone close to him.

He’d considered it before, but seeing the actual object made Jos even more anxious. Considering this was Carnage, he couldn’t shake the sense of danger.

It was often said that a symbiote’s personality followed its first host, but Jos recalled that, in a certain universe, Carnage’s first host was Spider-Man himself—yet he still ended up becoming a homicidal maniac.

The same went for Riot. From the moment he arrived on Earth, his purpose was clear, and his methods brutally ruthless. His first host was supposedly an astronaut, who ought to have passed all manner of psychological screenings; such a person couldn’t possibly possess that kind of fanatical, anti-human personality. The origin of his nature remained a mystery.

Even if the odds were one in a thousand, Jos wasn’t willing to risk letting Carnage bond with himself. He didn’t lack for power, and there was no guarantee that Carnage at this stage could even best him. There was little benefit to be gained.

Letting Carnage bond with someone close to him presented the same issue. Rather than seeking power, Jos was far more concerned for their safety. Whether it was Lilith or the Avengers, he didn’t want to see any of them transformed into bloodthirsty killers.

As for using it to craft equipment, that was an idea—but Jos wasn’t exactly short on gear these days. He couldn’t very well forge a shovel and pair it with a jade dragon wok, could he?