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It had started out so simple, like any fun thing to do.
For someone like Doreen Green, the beaches of Krakoa were far, far more enticing than anything similarly stuffy to the Hellfire Gala. And yeah, she understood the nature and the importance of such a highly prestigious event, but that wasn’t her kind of scene. She was freaking Squirrel Girl, for crying out loud! She wasn’t some high society matriarch overlooking the corporate and political landscapes of the world like Ms. Frost, she was Ms. Go-Getter out in Central Park being one with squirrel-kind!
So, naturally, she took to relaxing next to the waves, and luckily for her, she wasn’t alone in doing so!
Benjy Grimm, Mr. The Thing himself, sat beside her under the umbrella shade as he read an old book of his that he brought from New York. Being made of solid rock meant that swimming wasn’t exactly an easy task for him, but he was more than content to relax on the beach shore. As for who was actually swimming, that ended up being the tag team duo of Rocket and Jeff, each chasing each other in an impromptu game of Water Polo, which was the darn cutest thing she had seen since Tippy Toe in a dress!
“Mrrreah!”
“Polo!”
“Mrreeew!”
“Polo!”
For Doreen Green, this was the life of luxury, and for the weekend, she’d live it to the best and fullest of her ability!
At least… that was the plan. Unfortunately, things rarely, if ever, went according to plan in the superhero business.
The first sign that things were off was a sudden shift of color in the water, an obvious switch away from the crystal clear blue of Krakoa to pitch black. The shift started slowly, miles out from shore and away from the team, but it approached fast, making a beeline towards….
Oh no.
Towards Jeff and Rocket.
“Guys!” Doreen yelled out, leaping out of her chair and knocking the umbrella out of the ground in the process. “Get out of the water! Something bad’s in there!”
All it took was one quick glance for Rocket to immediately understand the danger that was approaching, and he growled in frustration. “Oh, flark this! Jeff, hold on!”
Jeff didn’t even have time to react as Rocket scooped the hapless little land shark up into his arms as he took off with his water based jetpack. The darkness in the water seemed to react to the act, however, and it rose from the waves with vitriolic vigor.
And that was when those white slits for eyes split into existence, and Doreen instantly knew what they were dealing with.
“ Symbiotes! ”
Speaking from personal experience, any time there were symbiotes outside of Venom and either Spidey, Eddie, or Flash, it was a world of hurt for Doreen. Spidey himself explained how the symbiotes amplified your worst traits, making it easier to give in to your darkest impulses. Combine that with the recent discovery of whatever the nuts Knull was, and all it spelled was maximum danger, something that Doreen very much did not want to deal with today. This was supposed to be a relaxing day and—
KRA-THOOM!
An explosion rocked the surface of the island, shaking the land beneath Doreen and Benjy violently. A quick glance back towards the center of the island allowed the duo to see the rising flames, as well as the field of flyers swatting at each other in the skies above.
Benjy growled at the sight. “Oh, you gotta be kidding me! First the sludge, now this?!”
And that was when they heard the scream.
“GUUUYYYYYYYYYS!!!”
Doreen’s gaze shifted back towards the waters, and she gasped in shock at the sight unfolding before her. The symbiotic sludge expanded, larger and larger, as a psychotic flurry of spiked tendrils and gnarly teeth emerged from the mass. But that wasn’t even the worst of it, because the real worst part?
It grabbed Rocket and Jeff.
“HANG ON!” Doreen yelled out, taking aim with her trusty slingshot as she fired pot shot after pot shot. Rocket himself was blasting the sludge as much as he could with his little chaingun, but among the various nasty traits of symbiotes, they tended to bounce bullets and acorns off their surface with ease. At the very least, the noise of Rocket’s handmade gun was messing with the symbiote, rippling out just enough to allow Jeff to wiggle his way out of the beast’s grasp.
“MRRAAAAAAH!”
Benjy took off running, splashing his way into the water in an effort to reach the little land shark. Jeff, in response, took off swimming, paddling and paddling hoping to get out of danger’s way.
But that symbiote was smarter than expected.
“Hey, what the—?!” Benjy exclaimed as the symbiote reached for him instead of Jeff, wrapping itself around his rocky skin. “Jeff, get away!”
Jeff, however, could only whimper in terror at the sight of his friend being wrapped in the sludge of the beast. His own time with a symbiote was not a fun one, and even with his own immunity to the creature’s control, it was a scary, scary experience for the little guy.
“Big guy!” Rocket yelled out, dealing with his own battle of getting wrapped in symbiote sludge. “Throw Jeff to the shore! Get him out of this!”
Without so much as a word, Benjy lifted little Jeff out of the water, grasping him firmly as he aimed for the shore, and more specifically, Doreen. “Squirrely! Go long!”
Both Doreen and Jeff let out squeaks of surprise as Benjy sent Jeff flying through the air, fastball-ing him away from the symbiotic danger in the water. Doreen herself didn’t have much time to react, but she held her arms wide open as the little land shark slammed right into her. Thankfully, she was able to wrap her arms around him as they both fell to the ground with a resounding thud.
“Oof… you okay little guy?” she couldn’t help but ask.
The response she got was a slobbery, if reassuring, lick to the face.
“Phew!”
And that was when Doreen remembered that danger was still very much happening, and she immediately leapt back onto her feet, still holding Jeff as she did so. “Shoot, what about you guys?!”
“We’ll take care of this thing!” Rocket yelled out as he began punching the symbiote sludge alongside Benjy. “You guys get to the Gala and warn the others! And help with whatever the flark is going on there!”
“Get to it pronto!” Benjy barked out. “Don’t worry about us, so move it!”
Oh, Doreen had objections to that. Several loud and worry-fueled objections that would probably last until sunset. But with the way that things were going right now, voicing them would mean losing precious time to get help and in turn help the Gala folks out. She had to hop to it asap.
“Come on Jeff, we gotta move!”
“RAAAAH! AH! AH! AH!”
But, as it turned out, a bit of symbiote had stuck itself to Jeff… and now it was on Doreen as well. It erupted into a larger form, enveloping the two of them….
And then there was silence.