Symbiote 0236: A Waiting Game

Alex couldn't help but smile when he heard Gwen's words. They were very logical. Since he could suppress multiple variants of Thor for so long, taking care of Shang-Chi should be a walk in the park no matter how many rings the man had. Her thoughts were completely valid and he understood very well where she was coming from.

"Let's go home first, okay?" Alex asked. "I don't think you want to stay in this black void any longer." Without waiting for her response, Alex used the part of himself that he had connected to Cindy as the anchor and exited his ‹Inventory› with Gwen.

"No wait!" Gwen extended her hand outwardly as if trying to grasp something fleeting, but was left staring at the familiar ceiling of the warehouse wide-eyed. A sense of loss enveloped her momentarily before she was distracted by a loud moan.

"Yef, mafer~" Cindy moaned through the gag in her mouth as Alex railed her from behind. With a leash in his hand, he made sure that Cindy kept her head up and her back arched as he took her roughly.

"I wanna go back, Alex," Gwen looked at the man fucking Cindy and approached him.

"Where?" Alex asked, turning to look at her as he slowed down, "To that void of nothingness?"

"Yes. Take me back." Gwen nodded with a grave look on her face.

"Mafter~" Both Alex and Gwen ignored Cindy's frustrated groan as he nodded to Gwen.

"If you say so," Alex didn't see any reason to refuse her request and she disappeared again. As for Alex, he spanked Cindy's ass, making her yelp in pain, "Don't be so impatient." He picked up the pace again.

…

Gwen appeared back in Alex's soul as he took form in front of her, "So what's the deal?" He asked her as she was looking around while seeming at ease.

"I like this place," Gwen said, turning to Alex, "Can you create a couch for me to sit on?"

Alex raised a brow in confusion and agreed with a confused, almost hesitant nod. Gwen found a couch appearing behind her and sat down on it, leaning back comfortably, "This place is the best, I wanna stay here for a while," She looked at Alex imploringly.

"Let's unpack one thing at a time …" Alex said, "You asked why I don't just take care of this Shang-Chi person for you, right? It's because I don't feel like using my EP unless necessary. And if I start throwing Infinity Stones at all my problems, then things would get boring really quickly. You of all people should get that."

Gwen couldn't but laugh at his words, "Is that the effect of the Spider-Man philosophy rubbing off on you? I hold back because I don't want to kill. You're holding back for one reason and convincing yourself of another. Did you devour one too many variants of Peter Parker or something?"

"No …" Alex said with a weird frown, "at least I hope not. I don't want that kind of a tragic life. It's just that I don't have enough EP right now, especially while suppressing Thor here, multiple versions of him. The stones are constantly sucking away my EP since I need them to maintain the suppression."

"So we can't steamroll Shang-Chi with Infinity Stones?" Gwen asked with a sad expression.

"Why do I feel like our roles have been reversed?" Alex said. "I feel like you're trying to go all out and I'm the one holding back."

"Well, you are not wrong," Gwen said, pointedly looking at him.

"How about you help me farm EP then?" Alex asked.

"I'm not killing and eating people, Alex," Gwen said dryly.

"That's not it. Do you think I could get tens of thousands of EP without devouring an entire planet?" He asked. "I get it by devouring overpowered Hulk zombies that are infesting an entire planet. I devour those zombies and they give me a very good quantity of EP."

"I think I should be feeling disgusted by it …" Gwen said, making a weird face. "You use EP for all sorts of purposes. Including feeding me and increasing our bond level. You literally flood my body with EP every once in a while … EP that comes from Hulk zombies as you call them."

Alex knew exactly how to fix her thought process, "You know how there's a theory that all of the air that we breathe was at one point passed through a dinosaur? Think of it the same way as that. EP is a form of biological Energy. Energy doesn't have mass, remember?"

"Putting the fake dinosaur farts fact aside," Gwen said dryly. "You're right. That's why I don't have an innate feeling of disgust when thinking about you rubbing that EP oil on my body."

"Now that we've decided that we will wait until I collect enough EP, how about you tell me what you feel when inside my soul? Why do you feel so comfortable here?"

"No! We haven't decided anything," Gwen said. "You were about to ask me to help you farm EP on your apocalypse Earth place thingy."

"Are you going to go there to fight abominations that can fight toe to toe against base Hulk?" Alex asked.

"What's base Hulk?"

"You know … Banner is just chilling and Hulk abruptly comes out and decides to punch someone in the face without feeling any anger. That's base Hulk," Alex said. "Though there are some abominations there who can truly give The Hulk a run for his money. Until he actually gets angry enough. Then, he can just destroy the planet."

"And you want me to go fight there?" Gwen asked.

"Or, finish up with this Mandarin guy while I plot how to weed out all of the superheroes in this world by either taking over them or bringing them to my side somehow."

"And why do you want to do that?" Gwen asked crossing her arms under her chest.

"Because, silly, I want to bring your planet into my Gaia cluster. It will get the official moniker of Earth-65."

"This is Earth-65C. 65 and 65B are different ones."

"Then you'll get Earth-65C. I'm taking over the world eventually, I'll call it the My Little Pony Earth if you really want me to."

"You sound far too close to a supervillain," Gwen said. "Fate's machinations might just bring about a superhero to become your nemesis or something."

"Yeah, repeat that a few more times to really stabilize the jinx that you just put on me," Alex said dryly, making Gwen laugh.

"I'm kidding," She laughed, "Fate's machinations only destroy the lives of spider people."

"Gwen …" Alex growled, "Let's move on. What's the deal with your interest in staying inside my soul? Why do you feel this level of comfort inside here?"

"I … don't really know how to put my finger on it," Gwen said thoughtfully. "It's like … like how when you return to your bed after a long day of fighting bad guys back to back, you just fall asleep like a rock. And you can only feel it on your own bed, nowhere else. Ever feel that?"

"Only, every single day." Alex said, dry enough to cause a draught, "I definitely spend my time being Spider-Man."

"You get my point." She rolled her eyes at him. "It's an unmatched level of comfort that just makes me want to stay here all the time."

"So that means I can't bring any of the girls here …" Alex said.

"Yes!" Gwen's eyes brightened up, "I have no plans to meet any of your other hosts right now, and instead, I want this place all to myself."

"Gwen …" Alex looked at her threateningly as she showed him her tongue before puffing her cheeks.

"Can't give me anything …" She said poutily.

"You are literally inside my soul, Gwen. Eventually, the other girls will most likely end up in a situation where I'm forced to pull them into my soul to protect them," Alex said. "You can't be hogging all of the real estate."

"So you do eventually plan to move us here?" Gwen caught on to the implications behind his words despite the vagueness.

"Stop deducing everything before I'm even able to speak," Alex admonished. "That wasn't a plan before, but seeing your preference to stay here. I might end up using my own soul as the place where I put my sanctum."

"I'm not even going to ask …" Gwen shook her head. "Now what? Can we get Shang-Chi or what? That red glow gave me the vibes of another Infinity Stone, right? And it seems like one that you don't have." She glanced over at the three stones floating in Alex's soul.

"That red glow, Gwen," Alex said, "was the Reality Stone. The moment I pulled you into my inventory, the reality stone established an illusion domain that would make it impossible for us to track Shang-Chi, even with my Sixth Sense, let alone yours."

"That's bad," She said. "Do we really just need to wait until you gather some EP?"

"Sadly yes," Alex said. "Earth-Z was separated from its axis for a bit, causing a lot more time to pass there than it did anywhere else. Now though, it is even slower than here. We will need at least a few days before I can put the right people to work and collect the necessary EP."

"What do we do until then? Stay reactive?" Gwen asked. "That man has already started affecting the political landscape of the world after numerous failed and successful assassinations."

"Let him do his thing," Alex said. "Gonna be helpful for me in the long run. You haven't noticed it, but the successful assassinations were of the people who had some real dark shit in their past. As for the failed assassinations? They were a mix of publicity stunts and threats to get people to step down."

"You really want to take over my planet, don't you?" Gwen asked.

"Wouldn't it be fun to have you kneel under my presidential desk as you blow me while I'm meeting with people to make decisions to change the world?" Alex asked.

"I don't see the appeal," She lied. "You won't even be paying your full attention to me."

***

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