My heart nearly bursts through my chest as this horrifying fusion of Carnage and Goblin, crawls down the wall like some nightmarish spider. Each movement is fluid yet wrong, her limbs bending at impossible angles while that grotesque face remains fixed on me, those milky white eyes never blinking, never looking away.
I back up instinctively, my hand still clutching the sonic device like it's my only lifeline. The shattered remains of my golden mask crunch beneath my boots as I retreat, my gaze darting frantically around the blood-soaked entryway for any sign of Ellie or Spider-Woman.
"Looking for your girlfriends?" Carnage-Goblin purrs, her voice a disturbing harmony of Norma's cultured tones and the symbiote's alien rasp. "They're taking a little nap upstairs. Don't worry about them."
She reaches the bottom of the wall and drops to the floor, her crimson body rippling with those black veins that pulse like corrupt arteries. The symbiote has perfectly merged with Norma's armor, creating something that looks both organic and mechanical.
My breath catches in my throat as she slithers closer, each step bringing that monstrous fusion nearer. I've never felt terror like this, not when I first faced the Goblin, not even during those dark days in the underwater prison. This is primal fear, the kind that turns your blood to ice and your muscles to water.
"Carnage, you have to get off her," I plead, my voice barely above a whisper. "She's a monster, she'll corrupt you, make you so much worse than you already are."
The creature pauses, tilting its head at an unnatural angle. Then laughter erupts from that nightmare maw, a sound that's both Norma's cultured chuckle and the symbiote's alien shriek combined.
"Oh, Shane," Carnage-Goblin purrs, taking another step closer. "You misunderstand. This symbiote and I have so very much in common." Her tongue, long and glistening with slime, slides across those razor teeth. "We both want the same things."
My back hits a pillar. Nowhere left to run.
"And what's that?" I ask, though I already know the answer.
Those blank white eyes narrow with predatory focus. "We both want you, Shane." The creature's voice drops to a growl that vibrates through the marble floor. "AND WE BOTH HATE SEEING YOU WITH OTHERS!"
She moves faster than my eyes can track. One moment she's ten feet away, the next her crimson hand is wrapped around my throat, lifting me off the ground like I weigh nothing. My feet dangle uselessly as I claw at her grip, but it's like trying to bend steel with my bare hands.
"Please," I gasp, struggling for air as she brings my face level with hers. I can smell her breath—chemical and alien and wrong. "Carnage, if you can hear me in there... get off her. Join me instead."
Something flickers across that monstrous face, hesitation, maybe, or curiosity.
"I'll be your host," I continue desperately, grasping at any chance to separate them. "Just please... anyone but her."
The creature's grip loosens slightly, just enough for me to suck in a painful breath. Those blank eyes study me with unsettling intensity, as if two separate consciousnesses are fighting over my offer.
For a moment, hope flickers in my chest as crimson tendrils begin snaking from Carnage-Goblin's body onto mine. The symbiote stretches between us like living taffy, pulling away from Norma and slithering across my suit, probing at the seams, seeking skin contact.
"Wait… Hey!" Norma gasps, her voice suddenly more human as patches of green armor become visible through the retreating crimson mass.
The first tendril touches my exposed face where my mask shattered, and my world explodes into chaos. My mind fills with alien thoughts, fractured, violent, hungry, as Carnage begins integrating with me.
It laughs inside my head, as it rifles through my memories, my fears, my desires. The sensation is violating, worse than anything Norma ever did to me. I can feel it drinking in my trauma, savoring the damage she caused, using it to build connections within my mind.
Then it finds something else. Something that makes the entire symbiote freeze, both on my body and still connected to Norma.
My love for Ellie.
The emotion is so overwhelming, so pure despite everything that's happened, that the symbiote recoils as if burned. It screams inside my skull, a sound of such rage and jealousy that I feel like I'm going to pass out.
'YOU ONLY LOVE MY PROGENITOR!' The voices wails as the symbiote violently tears itself away from me, flowing back onto Norma like a crimson tide rushing home.
The Goblin's face contorts with pain as Carnage reintegrates with her, bonding even more aggressively than before. I fumble desperately for the sonic device still clutched in my hand, my trembling fingers searching for the button that might save us all.
Carnage-Goblin's eyes widen with fury as she spots the device. Her hand shoots out, impossibly fast, snatching it from my grip before I can activate it. With a triumphant snarl, she crushes it between her fingers, the metal and circuitry crumbling like dry leaves.
"No more tricks," she growls, tightening her grip on my throat until black spots dance at the edges of my vision. "No more escapes."
I claw uselessly at her hand, lungs burning for oxygen as my feet kick helplessly above the floor. The golden energy of my teleportation power tries to form around me, but just like always, it's impossible if I'm constrained.
Carnage-Goblin's mouth twists into a hideous grin as she studies my face. "Maybe you'd love me instead if your precious Ellie wasn't in the picture anymore, hmmm?"
My heart freezes mid-beat.
Before I can even process her words, we're airborne. She leaps, still clutching me by the throat, sailing upward to land on the second-floor.
That's when I see her, Ellie, unconscious on the floor, her symbiote partially separated from her body, pulsing weakly as it tries to reintegrate. Her face is pale, vulnerable without the protective black covering.
Carnage dangles me over the edge, my feet kicking uselessly in the air as she positions herself above Ellie's prone form. Slowly, deliberately, she raises one foot, poised directly above Ellie's exposed head.
"NO!" The word tears from my throat, raw and primal. "DON'T TOUCH HER! PLEASE! I'LL DO ANYTHING!"
My desperation explodes outward with the only last ditch idea I have. Maybe lust can stop her. My palms start to glow like miniature suns as I push my golden energy into them.
"PLEASE! NOT HER!" I'm screaming so hard I taste blood in the back of my throat, my hands blazing brighter with each second.
Carnage tilts her head, her eyes narrowing as she notices the golden light emanating from my hands. Her grotesque face splits into a mocking grin.
"What's this?" she purrs, the symbiote rippling across her form with curiosity. "Are you trying to get me too horny to hurt your lover? Is that your grand plan?"
"It's the only thing I've got," I choke out as the golden light from my hands intensifes. The energy burns through me like liquid fire.
Time slows as Carnage-Goblin's foot descends toward Ellie's exposed head. In that horrifying moment, a weak tendril of black shoots upward from Ellie's symbiote, wrapping desperately around Carnage-Goblin's ankle. The tendril strains against the massive force bearing down, trembling as it struggles to hold the monstrous foot at bay.
Watching the thin black tendril struggle against Carnage-Goblin's foot, I push my power harder. The light blazes from my palms like twin suns, but it's not enough. I need more.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" I scream, my desperation feeding the power surging through me.
A sudden, excruciating pain explodes in my temples, like white-hot needles drilling out of my skull. The agony is so intense my vision blurs, but I don't stop. I can't stop. Ellie's life depends on it.
I keep going, forcing more energy through my system even as my body screams in protest. Blood trickles from my nose as the pressure builds inside my head.
"I'd rather die than let you hurt her," I gasp through clenched teeth.
The pain doubles, triples, until I'm certain my skull is going to split open. I want to stop, to curl up and surrender to the darkness creeping at the edges of my vision. But then Lileth's words echo through my mind.
'Sometime soon in your life, when you feel at your most vulnerable, when you want to save everyone, you're going to have to channel all that energy like I just showed you and push it all out.'
'You'll think it's a bad idea, and it might even hurt. Probably a lot. But I promise you, if you want to truly protect those you care about...'
I understand now. This is what he meant.
With a primal scream that tears my throat raw, I push every ounce of energy outward, not through my hands, but from my entire being. The golden light explodes from me in all directions like a supernova.
Something begins to tear through the skin in my head. I scream louder, unable to process anything except the need to protect Ellie.
Carnage's grip loosens more as she stares at me in confusion. "Shane whats happening to you?"
I barely hear her over my own screams as horns burst fully from my temples, the sickening pop of breaking skin lost in my howls of agony. Blood streams down my face, but I no longer control the energy pouring from my body. It's flowing through me, reshaping me into something else entirely.
My hands contort before my eyes. My fingers elongate, the nails hardening and sharpening into deadly points.
The pain in my back intensifies, becoming an unbearable pressure that threatens to split me in two. I arch backward as something tears through my suit, through my skin. The wet sound of ripping flesh is drowned out by my own inhuman screams as massive structures unfurl from my shoulder blades. I feel them stretching outward, leathery membranes expanding between bony spines.
Wings.
The transformation races across my body like wildfire, my skin burning as it shifts from human to something else entirely. A deep crimson red replaces my normal complexion, the color of fresh blood and hellfire. The pain is cleansing, burning away my humanity and replacing it with something primitive, something powerful.
A strange sensation at the base of my spine draws my attention downward. Something new is growing there too, pushing through my lower back. With another pop, a thin, whip-like appendage breaks free, ending in a sharp spade-like tip that seems to move with a mind of its own.
Carnage-Goblin's grip on my throat tightens reflexively as she stares at me.
"What the fuck?"