A Symbiote's Best Friend

Jessica opened the door to Dr Connor's lab and walked.

"Hey Doc, I'm here!" Jessica called out.

"That's great, come here I have something to show you." Dr Connor's called back from a side room. Jessica followed his voice and walked in to the room to see Dr Connor's holding a test tube full of a clear green liquid.

"Is that what I think it is?" Jessica asked.

"Yep, the first prototype ready to be tested on one of our mice."

Jessica smiled brightly. At last her and Connors had developed the first step to helping the world. Connor attached the test tube to an injector before picking it up.

"Would you care to do the honours, Jessica?" Connors said as he offered her the injector.

"Of course I would." Jessica said excitedly before taking the injector from her teacher. She walked over to the small glass enclosure that was holding there test mice and gently picked one of them up. She pet it's head with a finger before putting the tip of the needle from the injector just above its missing leg. Once she was done she but the mouse in to a different box.

"Alright I'll give Menken a call and get him here to get blood work done once we have results." Connors said. "Please go and relax, I'll be with you in a minute."

"Alright, thank you Doc." Jessica said as she exited out of the room. She walked all to the fridge in the corner of the main room and took out a bottle of lemonade before going to sit down.

"You think it will work?" Sling asked.

"I hope so, a lot of money has been put on to this project." Jessica responded. She opened the lemonade bottle and took a swig from it. "And if it does fail we still have the funds to try again."

A few minutes later Dr Connors came out of the room and sat across from Jessica.

"Now the waiting game." Connors said as he drummed his fingers across the table.

"How long do you think it will take?" Jessica asked.

"I don't know, maybe an hour?"

"Alright..." Jessica said as she nodded her head. The two of them fell in to silence for a couple of seconds before Jessica spoke up.

"So if I may ask, how did you loose your arm? You don't need to answer if the question if too personal." Jessica said curiously. Connors let out a short chuckle.

"Heh, it's ok. I'll tell you. Honestly I'm suprised you didn't ask sooner." Connors said with a smile. "So about 15 years ago I was in the army as a field medic, granted I was overqualified for the position but I couldn't get another job at the time. I was in an active combat situation when it happened. We were holding out in a small shack when a sniper fired through the window. It hit me in the arm and it came clean off. It's a miracle I didn't bleed to death."

"Holy shit..." Jessica said in amazement.

"Yeah, after I my recovery I got my job at Oscorop. Which eventually got me here."

"That is quite the change of career."

"Heh, yeah."

They sat in silence once again before Connors spoke up.

"Well now I'm curious about if you have any serious injuries?" Connors asked.

"Well not as seriousas loosinga limb, but ive got plety of scars." Jessica said. She tried to think of one that didn't involve her work as a vigilante. She eventually thought of one she got before meeting Sling.

She rolled up the sleeve on her hoodie and showed Connors the back of her arm. There was a long thin white streak down it.

"Two years ago I got attacked by some nutcase in the New York subway. Had to get twelve stitches in my arm." Jessica said.

For the next hour the two of them shared stories about there time in New York and the constant superpowered occurrences that happened there. Eventually Donald MenKen walked in to the lab and approached the two of them.

"Ah, Menken there you are, good to see you." Connors said.

"Good to see you too Doctor." MenKen said.

"Well it's about time we checked on our little friend." Connors said. "Come on Jessica, let's see the results." Jessica nodded before following the two of them I to the side room. When her eyes laid on the glass box her mouth fell open.

Inside the box the once three legged mouse had now grown a fully functional fourth leg.

"Holy crap it worked!" Jessica exclaimed.

"Yes it did!" Connors said as he picked up the mouse. "Alright, we need to draw some blood from it and have it examined."

Menken walked over to the rat with a small needle before drawing some blood. He then took it over to a microscope and gently squirted it on to a glass dish. He looked through the microscope and examined the blood.

"It all looks stable, aside from the small expected abnormalities." Menken said.

"Abnormalities?" Jessica questioned.

"It simply means that the blood can't be used in donations or transfusions. It's to be expected when implementing reptile DNA in to other creatures."

Jessica nodded in understanding before yawning.

"Hey, Jessica why don't you head home and get some rest, me and Menken can finish up here." Connors said.

"You sure?" Jessica asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about it."

"Alright, thanks Doc."

Jessica waved at Conners ans Menken as she left the lab. She stepped out on to the street and walked in to a back alleyway and letting Sling surround her.

"Alright, let's get home." Jessica said.

"When we get back can we have bacon and eggs for a late dinner?" Slimg asked.

"Heh, sure." Jessica said before using her webs to pull herself up the side of a building before starting to swing home.

Jessica and Sling were almost home when she suddenly stopped in alley.

"Something is wrong here." Sling said.

"What do you mean?" Jessica questioned.

"I sense something... something familiar."

"Like what?"

Before Sling could answer she forced Jessica to turn and catch an incoming punch. The sound of hard metal slap. She looked at her attacker and saw a familiar person dressed in yellow armour.

"Oh shit..." Jessica said to herself.

"Nice reflexes, but I bet that it was because of what your wearing." Shocker said. His fist glowed a dull yellow in Jessica's hand before blasting her backwards. She crashed in to the ground and rolled a few meters before getting back on to her feet.

"I must say it wasn't easy to find you." Shocker said as he examined his gauntlets.

"Find me?" Jessica said.

"Not you, the other one. The one your wearing. It's been a real pain trying to find you. And now it seems you found yourself a new host."

Jessica could feel Sling glare at Shocker through her eyes and she felt a rage boil inside of her a rage that she has never felt before.

"But atleast we're here now. It's just to bad your old host didn't make it. If only he had ratted you out."

With that Sling forced Jessica towards Shocker at speeds she didn't know she could reach on foot. Shocker puts his arms up defensively as Sling threw a punch at his head. Shockers arms blocked the impact but he wasn't fast enough to block the push coming to his stomach. He let out a groan and lowered his arms. Sling threw a third punch to Shockers face, knocking him backwards.

"You don't have the right to talk of Eric!" Sling said through Jessica's voice. Her words were distorted, disguising her voice with an deep echo.

"There you are." Shocker said mockingly. "Let's see that ugly beast come out."

Sling yelled as she charged at Shocker, but this time he was ready. He brought up his fist and activated his gauntlet. A massive yellow blast came from the gauntlet in a continuous stream. It connected with Jessica and Sling and immediately they both felt intense pain. Jessica could feel Sling being forced off of her by the intense vibrations coming off of the blast. She screamed in pain as a pain in her head flared and she fell to her knees.

"Heh, not as skilled as I thought... Even Eric could have dodge tha-" Shocker's words were cut of as Sling forced Jessica's arm forward, a long tentacles shot out from around her arm and grabbed Shocker before thrashing him against the walls and floor of the alleyway. By the time she was done the vibrations had stopped.

Jessica let out a pained groan as she got to her feet. She looked at Shocker who was struggling to get up.

"L-lets go... now." Jessica said.

"No! Let's finish him!" Sling protested.

"I said we are leaving."

Jessica turned and began to walk away from Shocker before scaling up the side of the alleyway. Leaving Shocker behind.

Once Jessica was gone Shocker got to his feet and spoke in to a radio.

"Start the patrols, we don't stop till we have them both."