San Francisco.
3 PM.
Outside a Starbucks, Tom, AKA Venom the symbiotic fluffy, currently in his ordinary fluffy form, sniffs frantically, looking around.
“Mummah wuz hewe! Mummah wuz jus hewe!”
His other speaks up in his mind.
“I wouldn’t know her scent, I haven’t met her. But if you’re sure, then follow that trail, quickly!”
Tom, still sniffing, follows the trail.
He knows his mummah’s scent. And he knows her favorite kind of perfume. She’s still using it, he can tell.
Tom has a big happy smile on his face.
He’s spent quite a while searching for his mummah.
He still isn’t aware that she deliberately abandoned him.
After meeting his new friend, Tom traveled across the country, all the way from New York, just to find his mummah.
After dealing with his other’s spawn, bonded to a feral fluffy who started out psychotic and only got worse, Tom and his other had a chance encounter with Calvin Korkea and Marley, the strongest man and fluffy alive, who offered to help the symbiotic duo find Tom’s owner.
Unfortunately, fluffies aren’t the best at describing people. All Tom could tell Calvin is that his owner is a blonde woman, and that doesn’t narrow it down.
Tom was chipped, but when the Klyntar first bonded to him, it felt the chip in his body, and, not knowing what it was, got rid of it.
When Calvin discovered that Tom wasn’t chipped, and explained what the chip was for, the Klyntar felt extremely embarrassed.
Had it not removed the chip, their quest would already be over.
Several streets away, Michelle Howard, attorney at law and Tom’s former owner, returns to the law firm, a cup of coffee in hand.
Michelle is one of those people who just cannot function without coffee. She has a coffeemaker in her bedroom, that’s how dependent on caffeine she is.
Michelle’s worst nightmare is a worldwide coffee bean shortage. Literally, she’s had that nightmare multiple times.
More than once, she woke up screaming.
If that scenario became a reality, Michelle would readily sell her soul to Satan for a cup of java.
Of course, Satan might not be willing to do business with Michelle.
After all, she’s a lawyer.
He’s probably going to get her soul anyway.
Venom leaps from rooftop to rooftop.
“We am awwmost dewe!”
Tom ducked into an alleyway to change form.
He was in a hurry, so he didn’t check thoroughly enough for witnesses.
Fortunately, the only human who witnessed Tom’s transformation was a hobo, who had chosen that alleyway to relax in as he enjoyed a pleasurable drug trip.
So, when that hobo sobers up, he’ll disregard Venom as something his chemically altered mind conjured up.
And no, that hobo isn’t Victor either.
He’s currently on the distant planet Dunna.
If you know anything about Dunnans, you know what Victor is doing there.
Back in her office, Michelle drains the cup, tossing it into a wastepaper basket filled with identical cups.
“Can’t wait until the coffee machine is fixed.”
Then Michelle quickly gets up, feeling the need to use the bathroom.
You shouldn’t be surprised.
Look at that wastepaper basket.
That’s how much coffee she drinks in one day.
After Michelle is done in the bathroom, she feels the cravings again, heading back to Starbucks.
When Michelle gets back into her office, another coffee in hand, she finds a surprise waiting on her desk.
A familiar face. One she didn’t think she’d ever see again.
“TOM?!?”
She’s so shocked, she drops her coffee.
Were she not so shocked, she would probably start lapping it off the floor.
Seriously, that woman’s got a major caffeine addiction. It’s quite concerning, but Michelle refuses to admit that she has a problem.
Tom, back in regular fluffy form, smiles at Michelle, his tail wagging much like a dog’s.
“Hai, mummah! Tom haf bin wookin fow yu fow su wong!”
Across town, in San Francisco’s own fluffy graveyard, a bird rests on an unmarked grave.
That grave looks like a new one.
When the bird hears something slithering towards the grave, it flies away.
A mass of dark red slime, looking like blood, oozes to the grave.
It works its way into the plot, burrowing down into the ground.
A few minutes of silence pass.
Then…
Something red and fluffy-shaped claws its way out of the grave, screaming in triumph.
“CAWNAGE… WIVES!!!”
The newly-resurrected Carnage scurries out of the graveyard, cackling madly.