𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙'𝖘 𝖑𝖎𝖋𝖊! ; 𝚂𝚙𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛-𝙼𝚊𝚗

¹⁰ HOMECOMING: Ercole

"Sorry. You left it out." Phineas defended his nosey actions. "You know, I'm a curious person by nature. I finished designing that high-altitude vacuum seal. In case you want to, you know, go for the big one?"

Cole narrowed his eyes on him. "You're still on that?"

"We talked about this already." Adrian locked his phone and put it away in his back pocket, all while never averting his eyes from Phineas. "I told you, no. The answer's no. Forget it."

Phineas did everything but forget about it. Adrian turned around and walked up to Cole, his eyes glancing around trying to spot the third crewmate. "Where's Jackson?"

"Dead." Adrian stopped abruptly, he glanced at the Shocker whose wound was being wrapped up before his gaze returned to Cole. "He fell out of line. Did sh*t he was told not to. He faced the consequences."

Adrian felt his heart dropping to the pit of his stomach as he thought of the worst. "You killed him?"

Silence engulfed the room, everybody stared at Cole with either shock or judgmental gazes. "No."

The whole room visibly relaxed and got back to work. Adrian looked at him suspiciously as he gestured at a wounded Shocker and the huge scratches on the side of the van. "Then what happened?"

"Jackson did a demonstration of the weapons, he caught unwanted attention." Cole proceeded to explain.

Adrian huffed loudly, he turned to Shocker and yelled at him. "How many times have I told you not to fire them out in the open?"

"That's not all." Cole ran his fingers down the corners of his mouth, Adrian turned to him. "The mole. Edward White was there."

"We don't know that for sure." The Shocker added, he stood up from the high chair, hand bandaged, and he walked up to them. "Symbiotes can take on different hosts."

Cole shook his head. "How else would he have found us, huh? That's no coincidence. It had to be him."

Adrian ran a hand down his face before letting out a long and heavy sigh, the man seemed bored out with this conversation. "Who killed Jackson?"

"The symbiote," Cole answered sharply, jaw clenching. "Right when we were driving away a tendril shot out and pulled Jackson off the van, I caught him biting his head off from the rearview right before leaving the place."

The Shocker took a step forward, eyes wide with a silent point. "That's exactly why I think it wasn't Edward. Just think about it. Sure, the man gave us hell before escaping, but why would he seek us out while knowing we are hunting him down?"

"To finish the job." Cole offered. "Definitely."

"Then that would mean a vendetta." The Shocker argued, Cole shot him a look, the man didn't appreciate him discarding his theories. "He's a spy. Spies follow orders, you should know that. Why would he come back to kill us? What would he gain from that? Unless the symbiote affected him neurologically, and he isn't himself."

Adrian exhaled. "I don't like this. He's a loose end." Cole and Shocker turned to their boss. "We're gonna slow down with the expansion. Sell ​​only to our niche." Cole nodded. "With that loose end, right now it is not convenient for us to look for new consumers."

"Copy."

Adrian turned around and started walking away, he spoke in a raised voice. "You come across that symbiote? Terminate it. We can't afford loose ends." He snapped his finger and pointed at the storage room where all their weapons were stored. "We got a weapon to tame that beast. Put it to use."