Element: Season One by Nick Venom (ebook reader with highlighter .txt) 📕

Max and Guardian retreated to Max’s house. There they recollected their thoughts. They had managed to win the battle, but the culprits escaped. They lost sight of them within a second.

Guardian was irritated by the failure of capturing the culprits. He was unsure of how they escaped within a single unsupervised moment. He concluded that they had help but who would help the monster. He didn’t know of any speeders and couldn’t tell if the host was responsible for the escape. Too many unknown factors entered the chessboard. 

However, he was sure of two things. Max was getting stronger and they’re being watched by an assassin. Who the assassin was and what did they want would be a different thing.

Guardian healed Max using the highest-tier healing skill that he could use. The skill reverted Max’s broken bones to normal, but it didn’t relieve Max of the fatigue and stress that built up. That would be relieved after resting. 

Instead of forcing Max to continue training, Guardian granted him a day of relaxation. He had solved three crimes and escaped death within an hour. That was enough for him.

Max decided to head to Skylar’s house, inviting Gus to accompany them and to enjoy the day of relaxation with them. He knew that she couldn’t leave her house due to the pending investigation, so he arranged for them to be at her house. They weren’t allowed to bring in foreign things or move Skylar out of the house, but they managed to find uplifting and joyous things to do while being semi-quarantined. However, the freedom they have to be happy would mean that somebody else loses that freedom.

The host and the black goo was captured by a silver android. The android had the ability to run at fast speeds, teleporting the host and the black goo to Smithson Corporation Headquarters. There the android shipped the captives to a man dressed in a lavish black rubber suit. He had short blond hair, dark brown eyes, and pale skin. He wielded a hidden knife in his pocket and a pistol, both to defend himself. 

“You can leave Ghost Mask,” The suit-man instructed The silver android turned around and left the room, leaving the man to the captive.

“I believe I wanted Skylar dead? Why has that mission not been completed?” Kenny Smithson, the CEO of Smithson Corporation, asked. 

A man dressed in a black cloak, masking his body, emerged from the shadows and threw a picture of Max on the floor. “He stopped the kill,”

Kenny picked the photo up and analyzed it. “Some high schooler defeated the top assassin in Chicago. What a disgrace.” He said, spitting on the photo. He threw it to the side of him. Kenny then walked up to the assassin. 

“I don’t care how you do it, but I want Skylar dead. If you could find the kid that interrupted you, kill him.” He ordered. The assassin nodded, stepping back into the shadows and disappearing. Kenny shook his head as he walked up to the now conscious host of the symbiote.

“Where am I?” The host asked.

“Who are you?” Kenny asked him, politely. 

“I’m… not gonna tell you my name, fool.” The man retorted.

Kenny smirked as he reached over to a nearby table and grabbed a wrench. “It looks like we’re going to do this hard way.” He said as he brought the wrench up. “You did this to yourself,” He remarked as he brought the wrench down.

“I was kidding, I’ll tell you my name!” The host shouted. However, Kenny didn’t want to listen anymore. He beat the host half to death. He continued beating him until he felt that there was no more fun in it. 

“It seems like Franklin’s creation was for nothing if it attached to a dumb-witted fool like him.” The host was a pile of flesh and blood, but he wasn’t dead. He was still alive. 

The host screamed Kenny his name and revealed the identity of the symbiote.

“Garrett Lane is the host and the big bad symbiote is Toxic.” He said as he grinned. “Let’s see how much fun we could have.”

Marksman, the assassin Kenny hired, watched with disgust as Garrett was beaten. “What a crazy bastard,” he remarked before leaving. He left the screams and cries of Garrett behind.

“Want to accept my offer?” Kenny asked a beaten up Garrett. Garett nodded furiously. “Perfect,” He dropped the bloody wrench onto the floor, echoing a large thud sound. Kenny walked over to a nearby computer and opened a sheet, writing the name ‘Toxic [Garrett Lane]’ in one of the boxes. “It will soon be ready.” He remarked before walking away, leaving the screen open. Displayed on the screen were several other names in the same format as Toxic. Above the names were one word in bold. 

Vultures.

TBC…

Franklin Berry, a scientist working under Smithson Corporation, was busy working in an underground lab. The lab was under a Smithson Corporation building near the headquarters.

Franklin was one of many scientists hired by Kenny Smithson to work on a new invention towards a cure for cancer. An honorable objective; however Kenny’s real intentions were shrouded in mystery. Crates of a strange black and purple mixture were being delivered in large quantities to Franklin’s underground lab to be mixed with different compounds. These deliveries were shipped to Franklin, but the shipper’s face was never revealed. Almost as if they were being driven automatically to him.

Franklin, however, ceased his curious thoughts. He shook his head as he sat down on his favorite stool, carefully examining today’s combination of elements and compounds. The black goo that was created by mixing Kenny’s mixture and normal elements sprung up, nearly splashing in his face. He jerked his head back, avoiding the spray of goo. 

“Black in color, flexible and rubber in texture.”He muttered to himself as he felt the goo with latex gloves on. 

He brought out a testing kit, grabbing a small sample, and testing it. After a few seconds, he confirmed his worst nightmare.

“Another failure,” He remarked, grabbing the remainder of the goo and wrapping it in plastic wrapping before placing it in a large white box. He grabbed a post-it note, writing “FAILURE” on top of it. 

Franklin sat down at his desk, intertwining his fingers through his messy hair. “Another failure, another failure, another failure!” He shouted before slamming his fists on the desk. “Kenny poured almost a hundred million dollars into my research and I can’t show him any results. Failures and failures.” He looked over at a framed picture of his mother. “If I could get the cure to cancer before the end of the year, I could save her.” He muttered, taking out a piece of paper. He began to scribble on it, not noticing the black goo oozing from the box. The goo slid down the box’s walls and reached the floor, crawling towards Franklin. 

Before the goo could reach Franklin, he stood up and left the room. The goo escaped the room, discovering the entrance quickly. Franklin went to the restroom, not knowing of the situation arising outside. After finishing his business, he left the restroom and returned to his room. 

In his room was an open box covered in black residue. He noticed the mixture missing from its case. He spun around, following the black residue trail and searching for the goo, noticing that the entrance/exit of the lab was wide open with black residue resting on it. He looked out at the stairs leading to the outside. There was black residue on the stairs towards the outside. Franklin looked around bewildered. 

“Kenny’s going to kill me,” 

The black goo traveled out of the lab and to the outside. Once outside, the goo covered miles to search for a host. As it traveled, the goo began to materialize a voice. The voice was dark and coarse. 

“E-Energy,” it muttered. “E-E-Energy!”

It snailed towards an unknown destination. It was born a matter of minutes ago, yet it was familiar with the area. It had zoned it on a possible host, eyeing a young man named Garrett Lane. Garrett was walking home from the nearby grocery store, holding two bags of groceries, before three men jumped him. They emerged from a dark alleyway and nearly bashed his head in with baseball bats. They threw his groceries to the ground before whaling on him. 

After they were done, they fled, leaving a wounded Garrett on the ground. His soul was diminishing by the second. His heartbeat would soon follow suit. 

Fortunately for Garrett, the goo had neared him. Once close enough, the goo began covering his body. Garrett---half-conscious---reached out at the goo, feeling the rubbery texture of it. “W-W-What… that?” He muttered, his consciousness flickering. 

The goo had completely covered his body, healing superficial wounds, deep gashes, and a broken skull, before speaking out to him.

“Host?”

“Host?” Garrett muttered, his conscious stabilizing. “Who are you?”

“Toxic,”

“Toxic? Wait, why is the pain disappearing?” Garrett asked the mixture of elements and compounds, not a complete symbiote yet.

“Help,”

“Help?” He repeated. “You helped me or you need help?” 

“Both,” It muttered in a low sinister voice. 

Garrett stood up, his body covered in the flowing black goo. He looked around, noticing the streets empty. Not one person passed by him or caught wind of his attackers. However, Garrett had a hunch of who his attackers were. Garrett was the youngest of a gang family. His father ruled the Lane gang with an iron fist, taking control of Chicago which ended up aggravating the other gangs situated in the city. They wanted to destroy his father through him. Killing an arm for the future. 

“Why did you help me?”

Toxic didn’t respond, seemingly not having an answer.  

“Okay, since you can’t or won’t answer that problem, what do you need?” He asked his new suit.

“Energy,” Toxic responded, near-instantly. 

“You need energy? Where do we find this energy?”

“Near,” Toxic remarked.

“Okay, then lead me there,” Garrett told him. He put too much trust in the mixture. Whether or not the relationship between the two could be maintained will depend on the future. For now, Garrett has a new option towards dealing with the gang violence around him.

TBC…

A month later, the assassin after Skylar’s head was captured and executed. A nickname of ‘Bronze Dagger’ was given and a motive was thrown into the air; he wanted