The Venom Inside

Chapter V: Tragedies of The Past

TheRedeemer1995: Greetings, prospective readers! Welcome back to The Venom Inside! Well, I gotta admit, I truly am having a lot of fun writing this thing, and as such, we gotta keep this gravy train rolling!

LegionnaireBlaze: Mmmm, gravy!

TheRedeemer1995: Indeed, yum-yum! All right, now, since we don't really have anything to go over starting off, let's get this party started!

Chapter V

Tragedies of The Past

Izuku, who was now sporting a much less fluffy hairstyle that, as Venom put it, made him look much less like a walking piece of broccoli, in that it was now a bit shorter and combed back, held in place with a bit of hair gel, making him look marginally more handsome, as the barber who had done his haircut told him, combined with his school uniform, consisting of a black suit with a black undershirt, a red tie, black dress shoes, and his fold-up walking cane, made the young teenager seem far more dapper than he would under normal circumstances, was making his way through the streets of the city, trying to formulate a plan on how to clear Venom's name.

"In all honesty, I think that Trigger-Enhanced thug's actual cause of death was likely from an overdose on Trigger," Izuku told the symbiote inside him. "The trick is going to be getting the evidence that proves that to be the case, especially since the HPSC is pushing the narrative that we killed him in cold blood."

'This HPSC, they're your government right?' Venom asked from inside Izuku's mind. 'If that's the case, then why are they so adamant on pushing the narrative that we killed that guy and labeling us as murderers?'

"The society the HPSC has built thrives on absolutes, the belief that black and white are clearly distinct, without even an iota of gray between them," said Izuku. "Enter us, a vigilante who is trying to protect the innocent and be a hero despite having what appears to be a villainous Quirk, who proudly resides in that gray area the HPSC so vehemently denies exists, who operates completely outside the incredibly flawed system they've built, and they'll likely do anything and everything they can to paint us as monsters, killers, criminals, anything else they can think of to turn both society and the Pro Heroes against us."

'I see...' Venom said inside Izuku's mind. 'So, in that case, we'll need a way to keep them off our backs, if only for a short time...'

"Exactly, and that's why I'm thinking that dealing with a scandal caused by it being revealed that they manipulated a coroner to establish a false cause of death and frame us for murder should work out quite nicely for those purposes," said Izuku. "If all goes as planned tonight, we should be able to get the information to the proper sources in time for the morning news tomorrow."

'Or we could suit up and go now, make it in time for the evening news,' Venom said inside Izuku's mind.

"No, that's not the best idea," said Izuku. "Most of the Pro Heroes operate in broad daylight, where they can show off in front of God and everybody. Considering we're not only vigilantes, but are currently wanted for murder, it's too risky to suit up in broad daylight. On the other hand, fewer heroes operate the night shift, so we should be able to operate as the Symbol of Vengeance with relative ease."

As he continued walking, Izuku caught sight of a familiar looking head of brown hair just ahead of him.

'Hey, it's Ochako!' thought Izuku.

'Well? Aren't you going to go talk to her?' Venom asked in Izuku's mind.

Izuku could see the symbiote's grin in his mind's eye as he limped to catch up with Ochako. "Hey, Ochako, it's me, Izuku!" he called after her, prompting the brown haired girl to turn around and face Izuku with a bright smile.