"Parasitic Sequence?"
Ben blinked, surprised by the new term.
He wasn't surprised that the Little Broken Watch had recorded Venom's genes, but he hadn't expected it to unlock a new sequence.
Soon, he understood what a parasitic sequence was.
As everyone knows, creatures like symbiotes cannot exist for long periods without a host.
After a while, the symbiote would die from lack of nutrients.
The Ben 10 universe also had similar creatures. Although the Little Broken Watch had a protection mechanism that could ensure these parasites could survive even without a host for extended periods, Azmuth didn't intend to disrupt the natural state of parasitic species. Therefore, he designed a subsystem called the Parasitic Sequence within the Little Broken Watch.
Genes recorded in the Parasitic Sequence allowed the wearer not only to transform directly into that species via the watch but also to activate Parasitic Mode and possess other alien heroes.
It was essentially like giving all heroes a symbiote battle suit.
Whether it was powerful or not was secondary; the main thing was that it looked cool!
However, Ben valued another ability of the symbiote even more: gene imprinting.
While a symbiote provided a power boost to its host, it could also acquire the host's DNA information to strengthen itself.
For example, after Venom possessed Spider-Man, it gained most of Spider-Man's abilities and its fighting style became more similar to Spider-Man's, albeit a more violent version.
This ability originally came from Knull, the Black King. While imprisoned by the gods, Knull, to restore his power, controlled symbiotes to merge with the genes of lower-level animals, and then returned with that power to his embrace.
This also meant that the symbiote's gene imprinting had a limit, only being able to acquire one ability.
But for Ben, it was enough.
He thought of a way to solve the problem with Alien X.
Of course, it wasn't a shortcut like absorbing Alien X's genes and then merging with the powers of other alien races.
Alien X's power could indeed be absorbed, but as long as Enara and Oyana willed it, they could immediately reclaim their power.
Ben felt that if he dared to do that, they would immediately put aside their arguments and deal with him.
Therefore, until he gained the forgiveness of Enara and Oyana, any method Ben thought of to obtain Alien X's power would be futile.
He scooped Venom up from the ground. Trapped in the bottle, Venom saw no way to escape and immediately started cursing.
"Let me go, you piece of garbage!"
"You have no idea who I am!"
"Do you believe I... beep beep beep beep..."
Venom's insults were as foul as could be, and his incessant chatter was almost as bad as Peter's, chirping away as if trying to shatter Ben's eardrums.
Ben couldn't be bothered to listen to his nonsense. After stuffing the glass bottle into his backpack, he immediately returned to Primus.
At this hour, the only person still in Primus was Banner.
Originally, Connors lived in the company building, but after Norman took control of H.A.M.M.E.R., Connors' reputation was restored. After participating in the war against Hydra, he became a hero.
Therefore, he no longer needed to live at the company and had reunited with his wife and son at home.
As for Doctor Otto, he had his own home.
At this moment, Banner, rubbing his eyes and yawning, walked out in a crooked, rumpled pajama.
"What's up?"
"Found something interesting," Ben took out the glass bottle containing Venom from his backpack. "Help me prepare a Sonic Resonance Device."
At this point, Venom was probably exhausted, lying limply in the bottle, its two white eyes squeezed together, looking dejected.
It had been fine on the ship, as that ship was specially designed for symbiotes and could provide them with nutrients without a host.
But upon arriving on Earth, if they remained without a host for too long, they could die.
"What is this?"
Seeing Venom, Banner's sleepiness significantly reduced. The blob Ben had contained looked alive, instantly piquing his scientific curiosity.
However, Ben warned, "Be careful, Doctor Banner. This is an alien symbiote. Once it possesses someone, it amplifies their emotions, making them more irritable."
Upon hearing this, Banner, who had been about to reach out, quickly retracted his hand as if he had touched fire.
He took a few steps back, maintaining more than a meter's distance from Ben, and looked at Venom with extreme caution.
In that moment, all his sleepiness vanished.
"Keep it away from me..."
He even felt that Ben shouldn't have brought this terrifying creature back and shared a living space with him.
If an accident occurred and the Hulk was possessed, it would turn into a disaster!
"Don't worry, Doctor Banner, Symbiotes are afraid of sonic waves and fire. As long as you take precautions, it won't escape."
"Wait, how do you know..."
Inside the bottle, Venom roared in disbelief, as if he'd seen a ghost.
"I just figured it out!" Banner covered his face and shouted in surprise. "This disgusting parasitic worm can actually talk, and in English too!"
This immediately made Venom lose his composure.
"You're the parasitic worm!"
Honestly, Venom was a little rattled.
Normally, Venom's personality was tenacious, his skin thicker than a city wall.
Especially after undergoing the mental baptism from that guy Deadpool, minor issues really couldn't affect him.
But the word "parasite" was a taboo!
Because he was a parasite.
It's like if you curse Americans, they might not react much, but if you call them white pigs and say all the attractive women are taken by black people, they'll be the first to break.
Only when a sore spot is truly hit does it have any real impact.
Venom, who had been somewhat listless, started spewing again.
"Shut up."
Ben, annoyed beyond belief, took him directly to an isolated laboratory in the basement and threw him into a sonic machine.
Instantly, Venom was stimulated by the surrounding sonic waves, sprouting spikes like a sea urchin.
"Ah— stop! Stop! I surrender!"
Venom immediately became compliant.
Ben turned off the machine.
Tormented, Venom immediately sagged limply, like a pool of oil.
"Amazing."
Banner stood outside the laboratory, watching Venom's current state through the glass, marveling.
He noticed that Venom's volume had changed.
Initially, it was very small inside the glass container, and it contracted violently under the sonic attack, but now it had returned to a liquid state.
"How did you do it?"
Venom also wanted to ask: How exactly do you know my weaknesses?
The Symbiotes' weaknesses had existed since their birth.
Back then, Knull forged the All-Black the Necrosword from the bones of Celestials and his own shadow. The clash of metal and the burning of fire became their weakness.
However, few in the universe knew their weaknesses.
But he didn't say anything.
Deadpool's experience had taught him that the best course of action in such a situation was to play dead.
He thought about it. He had been attacked by the Chitauri fleet, and those Chitauri armies were not far from Earth. Regardless of their destination, they wouldn't let Earth go.
Wherever those Cosmic Locusts went, nothing was left behind.
He had no reason to confront these few Earthlings.
He just needed to wait for the Chitauri army to arrive, for Earth to fall, and then he could naturally escape.
At that time, he could possess some of those Chitauri and devour all the Earthlings' brains!
Plan complete, hehehe!
Venom thought he was a genius.
Ben, of course, knew that Venom couldn't die that easily, nor did he want Venom to die.
After all, for Flash to recover his memories, he still needed Venom's help.
However, the current Venom was a bit too "city" for Flash. Ben worried that if Flash bonded with him, he wouldn't become Venom Agent, but Spider-Bully.
'I still need to find time to have Venom possess Peter.'
Ben thought.
A Venom that hadn't experienced the Spider-Man baptism wasn't a good Venom!
Then, he looked at Venom and asked:
"Venom, besides you, have any other Symbiotes come to this planet?"
"How do you know my name is Venom?"
Venom, who was pretending to be dead, heard Ben call out his name and immediately stuck a face out of the pool of liquid, asking in surprise.
He wanted to keep playing dead, but he realized that the guy in front of him seemed to know a lot about their Symbiotes, and now he had even called him by name.
"That's strange?"
"You don't mean you know that lunatic, do you?"
He asked curiously.
Then he added, "Never mind, who cares!"
"You know Deadpool?"
Ben shot back.
In the past decade or so, he had never even heard of Deadpool's existence. He hadn't expected that Venom had already been worn by Deadpool.
"Damn it, you really know him?"
Venom roared, then furiously started ranting at Ben: "They all say I'm crazy, but he's the crazy one!"
"Can you believe it?"
"I told him my body could turn into weapons, and he actually told me to turn into a firearm and let him have a go, you know?"
"I said I wasn't a cup, but he insisted I stick my head out and let him... He said he hadn't tried using his own mouth to... himself..."
"Do you know how much of a shock this was to me, a symbiote baby?"
Venom roared.
Banner listened, dumbfounded. His entire worldview had been shattered.
Then, Ben asked, "So, did you give it to him?"
Venom smacked its lips and said, "He insisted..."
"He insisted, so you gave it to him?" Ben's expression grew even more disgusted.
Venom was breaking down. It yelled at Ben even louder:
"He insisted!!"
"He insisted, so you gave it to him?"
Venom: ...
For a moment, the three people in the laboratory fell silent.
After a while, Ben finally spoke, "Doctor Banner, I didn't touch him with my hands just now, did I?"
"I don't know if you touched him when you grabbed him, but I didn't."
Banner said with relief.
Ben's expression turned even worse.
"Hey, hey, hey, what's that supposed to mean?!"
Venom was unhappy. "I'm still clean! You don't think I'd keep that disgusting stuff, do you?"
"Shut up!"
"I finally understand why you have so many descendants."
Ben flicked his hand away in disgust. He temporarily excused himself, deciding to properly clean his watch first.
So Banner also trotted along with Ben as they left.
Being alone with Venom, even with the isolation glass, made him extremely uncomfortable.
Banner said, "We should find something to contain him in forever."
He was genuinely worried that Venom might sneak out without his knowledge and then possess him.
If the Hulk were to be enraged, even if Ben had the ability to subdue him, it would cause immense destruction.
"You're right."
Ben nodded.
He planned to modify Venom's escape pod later and create a sealed space where Venom could survive.
After cleaning his watch, Ben returned to the laboratory. Bruce Banner had already gone back to rest.
Seeing him return, Venom became active again, splatting against the glass wall like a blob of fluid used for cleaning computer keyboards.
It spoke up proactively, "You want to know the whereabouts of the other five symbiotes from me, but I won't tell you anything."
"But you just revealed it yourself."
Ben spread his hands. "Eunice?"
Eunice's calm voice came through.
"The Life Foundation has no record of acquiring extraterrestrial objects."
Back during the Stark Expo, Ben had already asked Eunice to monitor the Life Foundation's every move. Now, it seemed, this symbiote hadn't fallen into their hands.
"You won't find them, but I can." Venom chuckled smugly, then emphasized, "But I won't tell you anything."
Ben glanced at it.
He could tell from Venom's words that it meant: Pay up.
So he asked, "What do you want?"
"I want to eat you..." Venom noticed Ben's gaze turn dangerous and immediately corrected itself, "I mean, the brain of that person just now!"
"Not a chance."
Ben rolled his eyes.
Bruce Banner's value was something ten Venoms couldn't match.
Besides, Ben didn't provide brains.
Wait, maybe that wasn't entirely true.
Ben suddenly remembered that quite a few brains seemed to be on their way to Earth.
So he curled his lips into a smile that even made Venom shudder and said, "Venom, there are plenty of brains, I just don't know if you're a picky eater."
"Really?"
Then Ben told it about the Chitauri army that would arrive on Earth in a few months.
"You already know?"
Venom retorted, "But the timing is off. It's not months away, I estimate only a few days."
Now it was Ben's turn to be surprised.
So Venom recounted its encounter with the Chitauri, saying in a very disgusted tone, "Originally, I, Venom, would never eat the brains of those locusts!"
"They're mass-produced farm stock, their brain capacity is worse than a rooster's."
But halfway through, it started to laugh menacingly:
"But who told them to dare attack me!"
"I want to bite their heads off right now and use them as chamber pots for my pee!"
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