Bow the Fuck Down

[Cell]

Venom trudged away from the corpse he had made. Scarlet drops of blood slipped from his fingers, blotting the white floor and leaving a gruesome path behind him. His new host, Roger, was a stormtrooper in the employ of the Empire. Venom's understanding of this governing body was no longer a mystery as he probed the human's mind. He considered barrelling through the portal and into Coruscant, the Empire's capital, and in normal circumstances he would. Yet the information gleaned from the stormtrooper now under his thrall spoke of a force stronger than one symbiote could handle.
 
He saw endless battalions of soldiers, with their glistening white plate armour and polished black rifles, all in service to the Empire, and its figurehead, the Emperor. He saw how the world of Coruscant was run, and how little success a gargantuan black monster such as himself would have against such a highly disciplined, highly regulated army. Even if he didn't immediately start attacking and causing havoc, Roger's knowledge led him to believe that he would be watched if only for his frightening appearance, and eventually captured. The purposes of illegal incarceration weren't definite in the human's mind, but they were numerous; experiments, enslavement, permanent imprisonment, and of course good old fashioned murder.
 
Claws still sticky with blood, Venom wanted more, but he wasn't stupid. If this human's memories held truth, rampaging through Coruscant meant a death sentence, or worse. He had to find another realm to satiate his desire for carnage, one with less restrictions and less governmental oversight. But the risk-taker in Venom wanted to disregard all of the warnings in the human's mind. Where was the fun in taking the safe route? The only time anyone ever felt truly alive was in the heart of conflict and war. Why should he hide away, after this Omni had freed him of his prison and given him an entire dimension to run rampant in?
 
Venom picked up his head. He hadn't noticed anyone else other than the two guards he introduced himself to, but absorbing Roger had distracted him rather well. Chatter reached him and he turned back to the portal he had just left.
 
A muscled humanoid, his body deep pink and looking as if someone had flayed him, spoke to a shorter, horned creature with purple skin and white, bony segments. Venom had been in enough alliances with other sinister individuals to recognise when another meeting of insidious minds was occurring. A human also stood with them but took a passive stance, staying mostly quiet while the other two chatted amongst themselves.
 
As Venom retraced his steps, the gathering at the portal apparently oblivious to the slashed corpse occupying space to the left of the portal, the skinless metal-face turned and strode into the portal, vanishing. The short horned one and the human did not follow him immediately, perhaps delaying after catching the hulking black symbiote approaching them. Venom chuckled. He knew his visage inspired if not fear, then at least apprehension, in those whom he met.
 
"And just what the devil might you be?" the violet skinned creature asked, a note of distaste in its haughty and imperial tone.
 
Venom let his tongue snake out of his teeth-lined jaws before speaking, enjoying the change in expressions on both of his new acquaintances' faces. "I am Venom, little creature."
 
The eyes of the horned humanoid darkened. "Obviously you don't know whom you're speaking with. I am Lord Freeza, and you best watch how you address me."
 
He spoke with full-throated authority and confidence despite his comparatively diminutive build, finding no fault with his arrogance. Venom turned his head, inspecting Freeza like a predator would a defiant but defanged meal. There must have been something behind the bravado for him to speak to the symbiote in such a matter, but obviously Freeza wasn't taking the symbiote seriously.
 
Venom lifted a clawed finger and pointed to the carcass of the Imperial soldier by the portal. "Do you see that dead human? I did that."
 
"And killing mere humans is something I should be impressed by?"
 
Freeza gave away at least part of who he was in that statement. A regular person would show some disgust, surprise or trepidation about being presented with a corpse, especially if Venom was the one claiming responsibility for it. This one's face did not change at all; no raised eyebrows, no loosening of the eyes or lips, no sign of baulking at a dead body. Freeza was either adept at killing, had experienced plenty of death in his life, or both.
 
"True, most humans don't pose much of a threat," Venom growled. "But I think you'd be hard pressed to absorb one."
 
Before Freeza or the human beside him could respond, Venom stretched his mouth open, beyond the limitations of a jaw, his entire head peeling back. Roger's eyes fluttered open, and Venom drank the adrenaline that pumped through his body as his memories flocked back to him.
 
"Please!" Roger yelled, his voice breaking, pleading with the horned humanoid before him. "You have to get this thing off me! It's all over me, it's all ... inside my head somehow, I ... I can't fight it! Please, do something! I can't-"
 
Venom's black sludge oozed up his neck and engulfed Roger's head. His swirling white eyes and shark-like teeth reformed.
 
"Now maybe I don't seem like some idiot in a costume."