"Okay, let's see what we can do..."
Jemma Simmons looked at the symbiote Whiplash, which was sealed in a containment unit after its rampage last night. She pushed a stray strand of hair from her forehead and put on her glasses. This new life form fascinated her. She had never seen such a peculiar creature before and was extremely excited. She started by scanning the symbiote in the containment tank, beginning with an electronic analysis of its entire body.
The entire Bus team was busy with their own tasks. Due to Coulson's rules, they all had to be present for any experiments. Simmons was happily analyzing Whiplash's molecular structure, while Fitz had already started analyzing the active symbiote samples from Spider-Man's blood and some of the characteristics from Whiplash, hoping to find a way to capture a long-range signal.
"That's odd..."
After working on his computer for a while, Fitz looked up in confusion and mumbled, "The symbiote in Spider-Man's blood isn't showing any activity, but this one... is it called Whiplash? He's sending out some kind of special electromagnetic signal, and it's a cyclical, rhythmic signal."
"You mean he's calling his allies?" Ward asked while punching a sandbag. Fitz thought about it and shook his head uncertainly. "I'm not sure, but if he is, that might be the most troublesome scenario."
"Or, we could just catch them all at once," Ward said, shrugging after punching the sandbag. He lost control of his force, and the sandbag flew back and hit his head, making everyone laugh. Ward shrugged helplessly. "What? I'm just telling the truth, aren't I? They're just a bunch of alien slimes that are afraid of fire and sound waves. We'll just take care of them all."
"Can you trace who he's sending the signal to?"
"No, this electromagnetic signal is very strange. In theory, a symbiote doesn't have a diffusion device, and according to the signal's decay rate, it can't transmit very far. Theoretically, unless another symbiote is nearby, it can't receive the signal." Fitz said, his brow furrowed, as if he had discovered something. "Wait, something seems... odd. Uh, Whiplash isn't sending the signal horizontally. He's sending it straight up."
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents all looked up—at the thick ceiling.
There was actually a much simpler way to find out Whiplash's purpose: they could have someone bond with it and just ask it. But that method was too risky and unethical, so no one had brought it up.
Ward offered his blunt suggestion.
"So... they're asking aliens for help?"
"Spider-Man said these guys are traitors to their own kind, and their purpose is to find their god. I don't think their own kind will be coming." At this point, Coulson suddenly thought of something. He pondered for a moment before looking at Fitz. "Are these unique, repetitive signals?"
"Yes, it's a repeating broadcast, like a fixed message. We haven't been able to decipher it yet."
"Can you search for other similar frequencies on Earth?"
Fitz, of course, knew what Coulson wanted. He nodded, tapped a few times on his tablet, and said, "I've connected to all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s research satellites for a simultaneous scan, but as I said before, the signal's decay rate isn't strong enough for the instruments to detect. Maybe they can detect it themselves."
"Align all the satellites' analysis equipment to the Nordic region."
Fitz stopped and looked at Coulson, who gave him an innocent look. "What? Can't you do it?"
It wasn't that he couldn't do it. Fitz shook his head helplessly, grabbed the tablet, and began to adjust S.H.I.E.L.D.'s satellites, strengthening the signal capture over the Nordic region. Coulson looked at the map for a while before looking at Fitz again. Fitz then used astronomical telescopes in the Nordic region in conjunction with the S.H.I.E.L.D. satellites to capture a repeating signal from a chaotic mess of electromagnetic signals, looking at Coulson in surprise.
"Spider-Man told Director Fury a story about a symbiote god who was defeated by lightning. If these symbiotes came to Earth to find their god, and their god was defeated here by lightning—"
Then that god was most likely Thor, and the likely location of the symbiote god's defeat was in the Nordic region.
The next steps were clear.
Midtown High School.
Peter received a special phone call from Tony Stark. He was a little surprised but answered the phone, and Tony's voice came through. "Hey, kid. S.H.I.E.L.D. found something special, and they're sure they should tell you about it."
"Okay, I'm listening. What did they find?"
"They found a symbiote signal in the Nordic region, and it's most likely not from the ones you've been catching." Tony was halfway through his sentence when Peter realized what they had found. He quickly left the hallway, made sure no one was around, and asked, "Wait, what did they find?"
"We don't know yet. To be safe, S.H.I.E.L.D. has invited the Avengers and the Fantastic Four to go see what it is. Maybe they can deal with it directly just in case?"
"No, no, no, absolutely not!"
Peter's head was spinning. He sighed helplessly and repeated what Venom had told him to Tony. "If a symbiote dies, its consciousness returns to their collective consciousness network. If they really find Knull's symbiote dragon, killing it will send Knull's consciousness back. Then, an entire planet of symbiotes will become his army and invade the universe."
Tony on the other end was stunned for a moment, then let out an "oh," but it was unclear if he had taken it in or not.
In any case, Peter let out a helpless sigh.
"Okay, should I ask for a day off from school?"
"What? Of course not." Tony bluntly explained why Peter wouldn't be coming. "Don't you have school? What I mean is, you don't need to come on this mission. Just take care of New York. The Avengers and the Fantastic Four will go and see what this symbiote god is."
After hanging up the phone, Peter was completely bewildered. His Spider-Sense hadn't told him if there was any danger yet, but this whole situation seemed to be screaming danger.
So he decided that after school, he would go find an expert on the subject to ask for advice.