SPIDER-MAN: MARK LEE

𝟲𝟰 (𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗟𝗢𝗚𝗨𝗘)

That was just Mark lee, being Mark Lee.

The Rhino took notice of Mark's foolish words. In order to make Mark shut up, he lifted the nearest vehicle from the ground and threw it towards him. It was thrown with tremendous force, flying through the air towards Mark with astounding speed. With that, the Rhino erupted the silent air with his evil laughter again and pivoted to shoot more fire at his surroundings.

I jumped down from the roof and saved Mark, pushing him aside and causing both of us to tumble and roll onto the ground together. When we successfully avoided the vehicle, we fell to the ground with a hard thud and landed on each other, our bodies intertwined and pressed together, with me being on top and him being on the bottom.

This was obviously a surprise for Mark.

Although he wore that mask, I could feel him widening his eyes, and parting his lips open.

"J— Jaehyun?"

I could've sworn I heard Venom's voice in my head, calling him stupid. My head shook from left to right before coming up with an explanation. "It's me... Juliane."

Mark paused, as if he was malfunctioning. He was clearly dumbfounded and stunned. He was aware that the Symbiote was still in me the day Jaehyun passed away, but I presume he just wasn't expecting to see me in the suit during the crime scene.

"Yeah, I figured." Mark mumbled under his breath. His words befuddled me, but I soon realized what he meant when I noticed that somehow, his hands were resting on both sides of my rear.

Unamused, I frowned at him. "Mark Lee, are you serious right now?"

I could tell that the second time Mark heard my voice beneath this suit of mine, he realized that this was real, that I was here as Venom. The protective side of Mark immediately turned on, as his hands slithered up to the sides of my arms to tighten his grasps. "You cannot be here Juliane. Not right now."

Soon, both of us gradually pushed ourselves up from the ground. We were in a bit of pain after tumbling on the cemented pavement.

Both Mark and I peered over to see the Rhinoceros, still occupied with showing off his gun machines to the sky above us, clearly overlooking the two vigilantes present. We knew that he must be stopped as soon as possible before he could exacerbate his vandalism.

"Okay Juliane, you have to stay back and let me handle this."

"But I'm here to help Mark—"

"Nuh-uh."

"Yuh-uh."

"For the love of God, Juliane." Mark heaved, palming his forehead. "I won't let you help me. This is too dangerous."

It was an instinct for him to be this protective. I totally understood why he didn't want me to be here, especially after losing Jaehyun, but I could give many reasons to why being here was the right decision. But there was no time to explain during such a time-pressuring situation, so I had to save it for later.

I looked him in the eyes. Despite the masks we were wearing, we could still feel the eye contact we were sharing. "Mark... trust me." I spoke, firm and sure.

Mark was clearly stressed about the circumstance. He wanted to let me down, but he also knew how important trust was between the two of us. And so, he had no other option but to agree to this unexpected and sudden collaboration.

"Fine..." Mark mumbled.

"Alright then!" I exclaimed with a small bounce, elated that Mark was finally agreeing. "So... what's the plan?"