Marvel: I'm a Symbiote

Symbiote 0293: Spider Philosophy

Down in Earth-65, Alex reestablished Stacy Industries with Cindy as the CEO. The poor girl had received enough punishment for her actions regarding Shang-Chi, and it was now time to have her use her strengths in management. While irredeemable to most people, Alex couldn’t be less concerned about her actions.

He had just indirectly allowed almost four billion people to die because of his own benefit. Cindy’s actions were downright saintly in front of him.

The following days resulted in a period of rapid development and expansion as Stacy Industries quickly established a base of operations in every country to provide humanitarian aid. With the resources of two whole planets behind them, they had nothing to be afraid of and rapidly used their resources to win over the common people.

In smaller countries, the division heads were equivalent to literal kings with the influence they had. With the deterrent force of Apex and the surrender of the Illuminati, no governmental body could go against the rapid expansion of power and influence that the company was amassing. Including all of that, Alex decided to employ some help from the sorcerers of the mystic arts as well.

Having Doctor Strange deploy one of his sorcerers to each country with the division heads, Alex allowed the use of magical means to truly accelerate the development of the company. Within a week, every single country had a base of the company that was managed by a division head directly under Alex’s hypnotic control.

Until he could develop his own trusted forces in terms of management, these people would be managing the planet for him.

Along with Stacy Industries, Alex had a second project that he was working on, The Apex Force. Not the supernatural cheap-copy-of-the-Odinforce kind — that would require not only all six of the Infinity Stones but also decades of research. The Apex Force on Earth-65 would be a simple task force of heroes that were under his direct employ.

Using the previous Neo Avengers, Alex gave the heroes an offer that they couldn’t refuse. They would work under a special division of Stacy Industries that was essentially a private militia. They would be deployed all over the world with the division heads to maintain the peace of the situation. With the presence of a sorcerer and a trusted team of heroes, the divisions in different countries were able to develop unimpeded.

While not all of them accepted his offer, most of them did. No one other than Gwen was actually aware of whether Alex could prevent Wanda’s actions or not. To them, he was a hero. The only one who was slightly suspicious was Doctor Strange, but he was a pragmatic man who knew when to accept the circumstances and adapt.

‘Eventually, I will try to bring everything under a single name. Maybe Apex Empire or something … That would make things much easier to manage.’

With everything going smoothly — at least as much as possible — Alex was able to spend some much-needed quality time with his girlfriend.

“So your plans of world domination have finally come to fruition,” Spider-Woman spoke to herself, perched on the top of the Empire State Building. She looked over the skyline of the previously glamorous city that was now a husk of its former self. Many chunks of the city seemed to have completely vaporized into nothingness while most of the other skyscrapers were also in tatters. This was one of the only scant few skyscrapers in the city that had survived.

[While this is a tragedy, in fifty or even twenty years, the revolution that this planet experiences will be enough to make the sacrifice worth it.]

“You know, Alex … I should hate you right now. Despise you even. To have chosen a path of such bloodshed to further your own goals. So, why is it that all I can think of is the next adventure that you will take me on?” She asked. “Every non-evil spider person I’ve met has been righteous to a nauseating degree. Shouldn’t I be like that? Shouldn’t I bust my ass trying to convince you to turn yourself in? To repent for what you’ve done … And still be too scared to ask for you to receive the death penalty.” She looked up at the night sky and the myriad heavenly bodies that littered their sky. The red shield surrounding the planet didn’t seem to have any effect on the view of the night sky. “We don’t even have our moon anymore.”

“Do you truly believe that every spider person out there is the same, Gwen?” Alex floated in the air beside her. “You don’t need to follow some kind of template of goodness. I have a question for you. Do you help people because you like to do it, or is it because your power has come with that responsibility?”

“Can’t it be both?” Gwen’s voice came out as a little nasal.

“It can. Of course it can,” Alex nodded. “But you know in your heart that the ones who do it for responsibility are the most miserable of all spider people. As for the ones who like to do it regardless, they eventually stop after a decade or so because it doesn’t feel as good anymore. They settle down and pass on their mantle to a worthy successor. Is that not the case?”

“What of the one who believes it to be their responsibility and likes to do it regardless?” Gwen was stubborn.

“Well, you take that, and you have Peter Parker Prime. 616’s Spider-Man. The one who has spent the majority of his life in poverty. Lost his first love to the Green Goblin. Lost his marriage because of a deal with the devil gone wrong, all to save his aunt May. Lost his body to Doctor Octopus at one point. Still lost his Aunt May while his marriage and relationship were still in shambles. Need I go on? Poor guy’s life is the tragedy of all tragedies.”

“And yet he always gets up,” Gwen said. “He is the strongest of all spider people. You know that.”

“Maybe. But so what? What does he have to live for after all this sacrifice? It is the responsibility that keeps him going. Boiling it down to the basics, he is the worst kind of workaholic.”

“And what kind is that?”

“The kind you can’t even admonish. Because if he ignores his work, people get hurt, or worse, die. He isn’t strong enough to have that on his conscience. The end result of this weakness is that he sabotages his relationships and neglects those who care for him. There is no winning scenario in that situation.”

“To me, Spider-Man is the best superhero of them all.”

“And when you grow up, you will realize that he is the stupidest of them all.”

“I’m not Spider-Man …” Gwen sighed, raising her arm up in the air. She shot a random web up at the sky. “I’m selfish and only do what I do because I have fun. Of course, your actions don’t make me hate you … You protected everyone even remotely close to me. You made sure that it wouldn’t have any actual impact on me personally.”

“I knew,” Alex nodded, “that you wouldn’t resent me for it. That is why I took the most efficient course of action. If I stopped that spell, it would’ve been impossible for me to have such progress in a single week. I would’ve needed years, if not decades, to bring things under even a semblance of control.”

“I’ll forgive you,” Gwen said with a scheming smile on her face.

“I didn’t think you were mad at me.”

“I am. Half of my planet is dead. But I shall be magnanimous and forgive you …”

“I’m listening.”

“If you join my university as a fresher, I’m going to be in my sophomore year soon.”

“You do know that your friends think of me as having some kind of business. Not to mention MJ, who knows so much more as a member of Apex Force.”

“Come on,” Gwen turned to him and shook his arm. “It’s going to be amazing. I’ll take you hazing with the girls and start a sorority. It’s going to be amazing. I’ve lived my life as such a normal student. I want to get into the wild aspects of college life.”

“And I’ll be what? One of the sorority boy toys?” Alex chuckled.

“Of course not,” Gwen shook her head. “You’ll be our only sorority boy toy.”

“I think you need a psych evaluation,” Alex said. “Let’s start with your name.”

“Come on, call me mommy. It’ll be so much fun,” Gwen could see that while Alex was playing along, he was getting a little rattled and pushed further.

“I think you need to be reminded of our roles in this relationship once again … A weekend-long punishment should be sufficient, I think.”

“Hmm,” Gwen nodded with a serious pout that was hidden behind her mask. “I agree. If I’m going to dominate you from now on, I clearly need some practice. What size strap-on are you — ahn~”

“It seems that I need to tame an unruly spider,” Alex’s gaze was dark and sent shivers down Gwen’s spine. Suddenly, her piercings suddenly started vibrating, making her feel the electrifying pleasure down to her core. She squirmed as Alex twisted her piercings, and it became difficult for her to maintain her balance.

“I — Mmf,” Just as she opened her mouth to speak, a gag formed under her mask that went into her mouth, and her vision turned dark. The eyes of her mask had become opaque.

“Let me take you to a special place called my dungeon. I will spend at least a month there with you to fuck this unruliness out of you.”

Gwen symbolically resisted as Alex grabbed her waist and put her on his shoulder, groaning through the gag while waving her arms and legs around.