Costume Party (venom fic)

[monicawoe]

Title: Costume Party
Fandom: Venom (Movie 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: movie-typical violence and eating of heads
Characters: Eddie Brock | Venom, Dan Lewis (Venom 2018), Anne Weying, Vincent Stegron, Liz Allan
Additional Tags: Gender-Neutral Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Established Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote, Dinosaurs, Body Horror, Decapitation

Summary: Eddie and Venom are invited to a costume party at the museum. While there, they find a mad scientist in the dinosaur wing who is up to no good. (Spoiler alert: Venom takes the shape of a T-Rex)

Written for the 2019 Spook Me Halloween ficathon event, and as a gift fic for rokhal Thanks to my beta raeve

on AO3

I like this place. Venom swirled inside of Eddie, a soft prickle of awareness behind Eddie’s eyeballs as Venom looked out through them.

“Yeah, me too,” Eddie craned his neck, admiring the high curving ceilings of the museum. “Haven’t been here in years.”

The museum was hosting the Saint Francis Foundation’s annual fundraiser this year, and they’d booked it the night of Halloween. The attendees were mostly in costume, though some had done little more than don a mask to match their fancy duds. There were even a few kids around, either related to parents who hadn’t been able to find a babysitter, or who just really loved the museum. One of the kids, a boy of about twelve, was munching his way through the hors d’oeuvres table, bopping his head in time to the music coming from his earbuds. Eddie could almost hear it from where he was standing, which made him wonder if the kid had it way too loud or if it was just another of the senses Venom amplified.

It’s that Imagine Dragons song that’s always on at the thrift shop.

“Really? This is your costume?” Anne asked, sounding simultaneously disappointed and amused.

Eddie turned around and grinned at her; Anne’s wig—complete with hair-buns—bounced a little as she shook her head.

“What? It’s a classic.” Eddie said defensively. He pulled the black rayon cape up and held it in front of his face with a flourish. “Count Dracula iz alwayz in style.”

Anne laughed at that.

“Plus, I didn’t even have to pay for fangs,” Eddie smiled wider, as Venom’s extended canines peeked out over his own.

“Mm. You two doing party tricks now?” She cocked an eyebrow.

“When we’ve got the night off, sure.”

“Eddie!” Dan said, as he came to stand next to Anne; he was wearing a brown vest and pants with a plastic ray-gun strapped to his leg—Han Solo to Anne’s Leia. “Hey, so glad you made it.”

“It’s not every night we get invited to a costume party at the museum,” Eddie clapped Dan on the shoulder. “Plus it’ll make a nice piece for the paper—help promote your hospital’s work for the foundation.”

Dan smiled again. “Seriously, I appreciate it, Eddie.”

“Least I can do.”

“Anne?” An older gentleman came up behind Anne and Dan.

“Excuse us a minute,” Anne said. “Time to mingle.”

Eddie gave them both a nod, and turned, heading for the hors d’oeuvres table: mini-quiches, crab cakes, shrimp and some kind of vegetable he wasn’t familiar with covered in caviar.

Venom made a dubious sound, not thrilled by any of it. Living flesh tastes better.

“So you’ve said, many, many times.” Eddie picked up a napkin and several shrimp, eating them with relish. “But tough. I like shrimp.”

Humans eat many things from the ocean; it should clearly be the other way around.

“Why do you say that?”

Ocean life is far better constructed than you.

“What? No way. Fish can’t even breathe out of the water.”

And humans can’t breathe underwater. That’s not much of an argument.

Eddie thought for a minute, unwilling to let it go, but unable to defend his stance. His eyes fell on the sign spanning the arch to their right, marked Ocean Life. “Fine, you know what? Let’s go look at some ocean life. We’ve got free admission to the museum, Anne and Dan are busy anyway.”

A fine plan. Maybe you’ll admit how poorly built humans are.

The California Academy of Sciences was a combination research institute, museum, aquarium and planetarium. Eddie hadn’t spent much time in the aquarium section, more interested in the planetarium. The stars had always held more fascination than the ocean.

“This is a well-constructed species,” Venom said shooting out a tendril to point at the model of a great white shark.

“Can’t argue with you there, but can it ride a motorcycle?”

“Having the means to propel yourself at speeds your body isn’t built for doesn’t make you the pinnacle of evolution. It just means humans have a death wish.” Venom’s head slid out of Eddie, turning towards him and they widened their jaws to mimic the shark. “One we’re happy to grant,” they added, with a snap of teeth.

“Grant to very bad people,” Eddie said poking Venom where their nose would be, if they had one.

Venom scrunched their face briefly and shifted back into something more serpentine. “What’s that one?”

“A cuttlefish,” Eddie grinned, leaning in close to watch the cephalopod flatten and elongate its body as it pressed close to the floor of the tank, shifting from smooth green to bumpy grey. “It can change its shape, just like you,” Eddie said.

They stood, watching the cuttlefish change color, texture and shape for a good three minutes before Venom said, in a most approving tone. “This species has potential. Good camouflage, excellent body control. Could use more teeth. But vastly superior to humans. ”

“Vastly? Please. They’re tiny.”

“Size is irrelevant. There are several single-celled organisms on this planet that can easily kill humans.”

“You mean viruses?”

“Yes.”

“You got me there,” Eddie admitted. He walked to the next tank and grinned as he pointed, “Octopus.”

“Looks delicious.”

“They’re really smart, apparently. I read about one that kept shorting out the camera they kept over its tank.”

“Smarter than some humans, then.”

“You know, you can’t just keep insulting humans.“

“Why not?”

“Because, uh…”

Venom narrowed their eyes at Eddie, then turned back to the tank, blinking at the large octopus and when it held up a tentacle, Venom mimicked it, making their own, suckers and all.

Eddie tapped on the glass, staring at its bulbous head, and the way its flesh rippled when it moved.

The octopus ignored them both and moved to the other side of the tank, twirling elegantly as it did.

Venom retracted back inside of Eddie. “What other creatures are here?”

“There’s lots of other rooms.” Eddie spun on his heels and headed back towards the great white shark near where they’d come in.

“This one is still my favorite,” Venom said, grinning widely at the shark as they passed. “But the spine is unfortunate.”

“Unfortunate? I find spines pretty useful,” Eddie said, feeling oddly defensive of his own apparently poor construction.

“If I break it, that’s it, you’re done. We have killed many evildoers this way.”

“Well yeah, but—“

“Face it, humans are a disaster.”

Eddie sighed. “Well, can’t argue with you there.” He thought for a moment. “Ocean life was a stupid place to start anyway, here come on, let’s go look at other mammals.”

#

“How are any of these different from humans?” Venom asked, without sounding the least bit sarcastic.

“Uh…” Eddie gestured around at the different skeletons surrounding them, sloths, tigers, horses. “These aren’t even remotely related to humans.”

“Genetically, there isn’t much difference.”

“What? Of course there is. I’m not—I’m different from a horse!”

“Your teeth are just as flat, you have four limbs, a spine.”

“How about a tail and a mane?”

“You have a mane,” Venom tugged gently on the Eddie’s hair.

“We’re very different from horses.”

“I have yet to see any species here that’s inferior in design to humans.”

“We’ll just have to keep going then,” Eddie said, feeling more and more defensive of his own species.

#

“Fine, I give up,” Eddie said as they turned into the Hall of Dinosaurs. “I don’t know how humans have survived this long.”

Venom grumbled a laugh. “Long is relative. You’re a blip on the cosmic timeline.”

“You’re a...blip.” Eddie crossed his arms.

“Don’t sulk, Eddie. It’s not your fault you were born human.”

Eddie snorted. “Good thing you came along to help me out.”

“Yes, a very good thing.” Venom jerked them both to a halt and stared up, making a sound of pure awe. “What is this magnificent being?”

Eddie squinted against the overhead lights as he looked up, grinning. “A Tyrannosaurus Rex. King of the dinosaurs. They’re extinct.”

“Your planet is clearly capable of—“

“Sh!” Eddie hushed Venom, slapping his hand over their mouth. There was somebody else in the room with them, a man in the back corner of the room, behind a counter, possibly a museum employee, wearing a lab coat. That part of the room looked like an actual lab, with Petri dishes and microscopes, set up for museum staff to be out in the open so students and tour groups could watch them do sciencey things.

It’s not that the man looked out of place, per se, but he was muttering to himself in a rapidly rising and falling rhythm, something that sounded like “Where, where? I know you’re here!” over and over, and he hadn’t noticed Eddie or Venom at all. Venom retracted fully, winding tensely around Eddie’s lungs and heart as they moved closer to the lab. There was something about this guy that was setting off all of Eddie’s alarm bells, and he’d learned to trust those.

“Hi. Um…” Eddie waited for a reaction, but the guy was steadfastly ignoring him, sorting through ampules and Petri dishes with a frantic, frenzied look in his eyes. “Should you be back there? I’m pretty sure that’s off limits.”

“Only the weak-willed allow their lives to be dictated by limits.” The guy had found whatever he was looking for, eyeing the ampule in his hand like it was full of eternal happiness. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a syringe already filled halfway with something green and glowing, then set about cracking open the ampule and filled the rest of the syringe.

“Ohhhkay.” Eddie took a few steps closer until he could read the man’s name tag: Vincent Stegron. Stegron? Really? “Sure. Sure, Vincent. But this—this is a museum, and that might be an invaluable sample of prehistoric life...or something.” Eddie argued, hoping he’d catch Vincent’s attention.

“I’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment.” Stegron said, bringing the syringe to the crook of his elbow.

“Whoa, whoa, hey!” Eddie made a move towards him. “Don’t you have to like, test that on mice first?”

Stegron blinked at him. “Why would I do that? Mice are perfectly happy being what they are. I’m the one that’s miserable. Condemned to being human.”

How apropos.

“Uh huh.” Eddie took another step closer, debating. He had no idea what Stegron was doing or what he even had in that syringe, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t a flu shot.

“But no longer!” Stegron grimaced as he pushed down on the plunger of the syringe, sending whatever it was into his vein.

For a few long seconds nothing happened, and Eddie wondered if the guy was just run of the mill crazy. But then, he never was that lucky.

Stegron started coughing, gasping for air, his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell, convulsing, onto the museum floor. Then with a garbled scream, his spine arched and his body began to swell: torso and legs distending violently as all his muscles and bones grew; his skin rippled, covering itself with grey-green scales, and his nose flattened, as his jaw became longer, filling with razor sharp teeth.

Interesting turn of events.

Stegron stood on his now heavily-taloned feet, rolled his shoulders back, shedding the last few tatters of the lab coat as a pair of leathery wings unfurled from his back. He was easily nine feet tall, with a wing-span to match. “You see? DNA can be overwritten! Changed! “ He threw back his head and roared, or tried to, it came out more like a sputtering hiss, possibly not what he’d been going for, but certainly in character.

Eddie couldn’t help himself. “You figured out how to change your own DNA and you used it to turn into a dinosaur? Couldn’t you do a lot more important things with that kind of technology? Cure disease? Help people?”

“I don’t want to help people. I want to be a dinosaur! That’s all I want.”

“Okay. So what now? Are you gonna go in peace? Find a forest somewhere and live off of deer?” Eddie asked.

Stegron looked at him derisively. “Don’t be stupid. I’m going to eat people.”

“Bad people?”

“Whoever I want. Now I’m the top of the food chain.”

“Yeah, not so much.” Eddie said, as Venom flowed out through his pores. They grew to their full height, nearly matching Stegron’s new size.

“You found a way out, too!” Stegron crowed, excitedly. “We can share the food here. There’s plenty to go around.”

“No,” Venom said. “The people here are innocent. We only eat evildoers.”

“Speak for yourself,” Stegron said. “I’ve waited my whole life for this. I’m not about to let some anomaly stop me now.”

“We were not asking for your permission,” Venom said. “We gave you a chance to leave and exist in peace.”

“There is no peace in this world. It’s eat or be eaten.” Stegron lunged forward, elongated jaw snapping at Venom’s shoulder.

“So be it,” Venom answered, opening their mouth wide in response, tongue wrapping itself around Stegron’s jaws, forcing them back together. They grabbed hold of the dinosaur-man’s wings as he flapped them furiously back and forth,

Digging his fingers into the folds of the wings, Venom held on as Stegron started to lift sluggishly off the floor—they flung out a tendril, grabbing hold of one of the museum’s support columns, slowing Stegron’s ascent further. The claws! Eddie thought, and Venom caught on, shooting more tendrils out to grab hold of the claws at the top of the wings. Using the leverage they’d given themselves, they held onto the claws while simultaneously shoving their fists against the center wing spines until the spindly bones began to fold inwards and Stegron plummeted down the few feet he’d managed to climb.

Venom made quick work of him, yanking a security chain off of one of the exhibits and winding it around Stegron’s ankles and wrists, hog-tying him.

Stegron cried out, pained keening—far more agonized than Eddie thought the situation warranted.

“Look, You’re clearly a smart guy. Find a less criminal hobby, okay? You can —"

Stegron screamed again, a screeching, ear-piercing sound that grew louder and deeper as his body began to convulse once more, limbs and torso swelling anew.

“Oh. Guess you weren’t done.”

The chains around Stegron’s ankles stretched then broke, clattering to the floor uselessly.

Stegron pushed himself to standing again, now easily fourteen feet tall and nearly all dinosaur, he towered over Venom, opened his mouth and roared, blasting them with foul smelling breath.

Well shit, Eddie thought, helpfully.

At least he can’t fly anymore, Venom thought back, noting the wings had withered, and now looked far too small to carry the oversized beast.

“Thunder, feel the thunder,” a voice sang. “Bam bam bam. Lightning and the thunder.”

A kid’s voice, Eddie realized, heart racing.

Stegron spun around, tail lashing, and headed straight for his new target.

The kid hadn’t even noticed, too busy admiring the Triceratops display, shuffling his feet back and forth in a half-spirited dance.

“Look out!” Venom shouted, hoping to get the kid’s attention as they shot two tendrils out at the columns and launched themselves across the room, at Stegron.

Venom collided with the beast just in time to shift him off course, dinosaur jaws snapping shut just inches shy of the boy’s hair. The kid, to his credit, whipped his head around, eyes widening in terror and then ran away, screaming.

Stegron took off after him, and no matter how much Venom tried, they could barely slow him down, he was too large, too strong.

“We need to be larger.”

Great, let’s do that.

“Need more mass.”

From what?

They ran into the next room, housing the dinosaur exhibit’s crown jewel: the nearly complete tyrannosaurus skeleton, and Venom streamed off of Eddie, pouring over the T-Rex’s frame, then yanked Eddie inside.

The bones rattled as Venom wove back and forth, securing Eddie inside the rib cage.

What the hell!

“Relax. I know what I’m doing.”

Glad one of us does.

With a series of shockingly loud snaps, Venom pried the bones loose from the exhibit and leapt off the platform, chasing after Stegron with a staggering lurch.

They crashed right through the next hallway, taking a sizable chunk of the walls down as they powered through the arch just in time to see Stegron pin the boy under his foot.

The kid screamed in fear and Eddie spurred Venom on, pumping his own legs furiously as though that made any difference in their current configuration. But they got within tendril distance quickly enough, wrapping themselves around Stegron’s feet and pulled him off-balance. He crashed against the corner of the room, cracking the stone wall where his head impacted.

Venom leapt the last dozen feet and landed in front of him. With a mighty roar they thrust their head down to Stegron, but their giant T-Rex skull got wedged in the corner, too wide to fit.

Stegron looked up at them and laughed.

Venom looked down at the T-Rex’s unfortunate, tiny arms and grinned wide, flashing truly mighty teeth as they poured more of themselves down the arms, grabbed Stegron, picked him up, shoved his head into their mouth and bit down.

#

“Johnny!” a woman shouted, “Johnny! Oh my god!” She ran into the Hall of Dinosaurs, skidding around the corner just as Venom finished retracting fully into Eddie. The T-Rex bones were scattered around them, laying in a heap on top of Stegron’s headless body. Eddie quickly nudged a femur on top of the pile, hoping it would somehow obscure the fact that Stegron was headless and still bleeding. He tried to make himself look presentable, which was tricky considering he had about half of his costume left, the shirt had a rip in the sleeve, and the cape had gotten lost somewhere in the chaos. As it was, he looked more like a waiter that’d had a really rough night.

“Johnny,” the woman said again, as she shoved past Eddie and fell to her knees next to her very-much-alive son, pulling him into a desperate hug. “My baby.”

“Mom,” Johnny said, pulling back in the annoyed yet grateful way all teenagers had. “Mom I’m fine.”

“I heard you screaming, and nobody knew where you were and then—“ her words cut off as she took in the pile of bones, and then looked at Eddie. “What is this? What happened here? What’d you do to my son?”

Eddie had his hands up defensively. Dinosaur-men were one thing, but angry mothers were not to be trifled with.

“No, Mom, he saved me!” Johnny said.

“Saved you from what?”

“A dinosaur!” Johnny pointed at the tip of Stegron’s tail, sticking out of the pile of bones.

“Johnny…” his mom had a tired, exasperated look on her face softened by the sheer relief radiating from her. “Dinosaurs are extinct.”

“No, there was one here and then he—“ Johnny pointed at Eddie, “was covered in all this black slime and took these bones and turned into a T-Rex and ate the other one’s head!”

The mom looked at Eddie in disbelief.

“I—uh…” Eddie stammered.

“Great job!” Dan said, jogging into the room, Anne by his side.

“Yeah! Good job, everybody!” Anne echoed, smiling a wide fake smile at Eddie.

“The scene looked amazing,” Dan said clapping Eddie on the shoulders with just as fake a smile. “That’s a wrap, Eddie.”

“A—wha huh?” Eddie was completely lost.

“The movie’s gonna be great!” Anne said.

“Movie?” Johnny’s mom asked, brow furrowed, as she stood brushing off her dress. “You were filming a movie?”

“What? No way!” Johnny said, “That’s bullshit.”

“Uh...right, the movie,” Eddie said, nodding.

“This is real,” Johnny said, shoving the dinosaur bones nearest him.

“Practical effects. The museum was nice enough to let us shoot here.”

“During a fundraiser? With kids? You endangered my son for a movie?” Johnny’s mom shouted. “I didn’t sign any waivers!”

“No, it’s all perfectly safe,” Anne said, hands spread wide. “Foam and other—uh—special effects."

Johnny narrowed his eyes at Eddie. “What about the black slime?”

“Uh…” Eddie let out a breath, trying to come up with a good explanation.

Show him.

No, his mom will freak out.

We can take her.

No!

“With AR,” Anne said.

“Right, augmented reality,” Dan said, nodding to himself. “Really cutting edge stuff.”

Johnny climbed to his feet and glared up at Dan. “Bull. Shit. Do you even know how AR works?”

“Yes…” Dan said.

“Bet you’ve never even played Pokémon Go,” Johnny said, turning away from them, to face Eddie and added, “I don’t care if you don’t believe me. I was attacked by a dinosaur and Venom saved me. You all just don’t want anyone else to know.” He smiled at the end, fully confident he’d figured it out. And he had, of course. “I’ve seen him on YouTube.”

We’re on YouTube, Eddie!

Eddie looked at the kid, silently pleading. They were gonna have a hard enough time as it was calming down his mom without her being aware that Venom was in fact in the room with them this very moment.

“Venom’s gone now,” Johnny continued, catching on, “but if he was still here, I’d tell him thank you, he’s a hero.” He smiled as he brushed the hair from his face.

“Thank you,” Eddie smiled and gave him a surreptitious wink, “I’ll pass on your message.”

“Johnny, we’re leaving,” his mom said, grabbing him by the arm. “And if you’ve got so much as a scratch on you, I’m gonna sue!”

“Mom! I’m fine!” Johnny said, as he was herded out.

Dan clutched his hair with his hands and sank to the floor. “Oh god, the museum’s never going to let us host here again. They’re gonna arrest us, the foundation will be shut down, I’m gonna lose my license.”

Anne sat down next to him and took his hand. “You’re not going to lose your license.”

“It’ll be fine,” Eddie said, joining them on the floor, crossing his legs. “I’ll just—I’ll explain what happened. There was a dinosaur man and we had to stop him and there may have been some collateral damage. Walls can be replaced!”

“Eddie, they’re not gonna believe you,” Anne said, then her eyes widened. “Until they look at the security footage.”

“Security footage?” Eddie groaned. “Shit. Dan, I am so sorry—"

“For what, saving lives? It’s not your fault.”

“There is no security footage,” said a woman, walking up behind them, heels clicking on the floor. She had a severely sharp bob cut, a suit that likely cost more than Eddie made in a year, and a look in her eyes that said murders and acquisitions. Two bodyguards flanked her, wearing matching suits and steely expressions.

“Sorry, who are you?” Eddie asked, standing.

“Liz Allan,” she said, ignoring Eddie and handing business cards down to Anne and Dan. “CEO of Alchemax. We’re big supporters of the museum, as well as the Saint Francis Foundation. I personally selected the security system here.” She turned to look at Eddie. “The power shorted out approximately eighteen minutes ago. No footage.”

Eddie felt his eyebrows creep up.

“Okay but what about the—the whole dinosaur wing is trashed, and—" Dan stammered as he and Anne stood up.

“We’ll cover the damages.” Liz snapped her fingers and one of her escorts handed her a checkbook and a gold pen. She flipped open the checkbook, scribbled something, tore out the check and handed it to Dan. “Another two zeroes added to our annual donation should cover it, don’t you think?”

Dan, still slack-jawed, said nothing.

“Yes,” Anne said, eyes widening as she took in the number on the check. “Yeah I think that’ll be a big help.”

“Alchemax...” Eddie said, as the gears in his brain started turning again. “Right. You had that whole health code violation issue a few years ago, didn’t you? Chemical waste in the sewers. Mutated animals—"

Liz turned her icy glare on Eddie and he swallowed despite himself. “And you’re Eddie Brock, disgraced journalist, who had a very public nervous breakdown last year involving a lobster tank, was it?”

Eddie cleared his throat. “We all have our bad days.”

Liz lowered her voice considerably and leaned in close to his ear. “But we’re not all hosts to alien parasites.”

Eddie!

I know, I don’t like her either.

“I assume nobody’s been willing to put you on their payroll full-time, Mr. Brock.” She smiled thinly. “That’s not likely to change any time soon given your damaged reputation. But I might have an assignment for you.”

“What makes you think I’d work for you?” Eddie said, getting angrier.

“Because everybody gets desperate at some point. When that happens, give me a call.”

#

“Well, this is definitely a Halloween I’ll never, ever forget. As much as I may want to,” Dan said, giving Eddie a hug before climbing into the cab next to Anne.

“See you soon, Eddie,” Anne added, waving.

Eddie stuck his hands in his pockets and walked down the broad steps of the museum, heading back towards the city. “We did good tonight, millions of dollars of property damage aside.”

“Property damage is insignificant compared to saved lives, that’s what you said two months ago.”

“Wow you remember that, huh?”

“I remember most things.” Venom settled around Eddie’s shoulders and spread up his neck and down his back, forming around him, leaving only his face exposed. For example, I remember you saying that Halloween is for costumes and candy. You lost your cape, but we can make our own costume.

As if on cue, a group of kids in costume ran past them, jack o’lantern buckets swinging. The girl at the back of the pack skidded to a stop in front of them, and stared up at Eddie. “Whoa...cool costume dude!”

“Thanks!” Eddie looked at her for a second. “Same to you. Captain America, right?”

“Yup.” As she lifted her plastic shield up to show him, Eddie saw a slim black tendril reaching into her jack o’lantern, it came out a second later holding a Milky Way.

No! Put that back!

It’s chocolate.

Put it back right now!

But—

We’ll get our own chocolate. You don’t steal from kids.

She has an entire bucket. If she eats it all, she will make herself sick, like you did that one time when we—

Now!

The tendril unfurled and, with serious attitude, let the Milky Way drop back into the bucket.

“Well, have fun trick or treating,” Eddie said, smiling at the girl, who luckily hadn’t noticed the attempted candy theft.

“Happy Halloween!” she said, running off to catch up with her friends.

Eddie. She said we were cool.

“She thought you were a costume.”

Cool Eddie.

“Well, you are.”

Venom’s head flowed out of Eddie’s shoulder, and turned to look him in the eyes. “We are.”

“Yeah, we are pretty cool.” Eddie smiled and leaned forward to give Venom a kiss.

“You promised chocolate.”

“I did. Let’s go get some.” Eddie rolled his shoulders back and Venom formed fully over their head. They took a few running steps across the street, shot out a tendril towards the skyscraper nearby, and leapt up into the night.