boxofmisfits | Like Dads, Like Son

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Like Dads, Like Son

Telling Dick about Venom had lifted a great weight off of Eddie. Not only had the boy not freaked out, but he'd accepted Venom and now thought they were the coolest dads ever. Dad, that was something Eddie still liked hearing from Dick. Venom had even promised to scare any bullies who dared pick on their son, even if he hadn't had to make good on that promise yet.

Eddie was watching TV while browsing the internet at the moment. Dick hadn't come home yet, but he wasn't too worried. Dick had said he would be a little late coming home, since he and his lab partner had a project they were working on. He'd promised to be home by dinner, anyway.

The news was interrupted by a special bulletin, causing Eddie to look up. Apparently there was something going on at a local store, a robbery. More importantly, a kid in a costume was there on the scene, with the news reporter wondering if they were a new wannabe hero or some kid being a daredevil. Either way, Eddie easily recognized the kid in the mask. And things didn't look good for him.

Is that Dick?

Immediately, Eddie rushed out of the apartment and ducked behind an alley, suiting up into Venom. The bike was fast, but Venom could get them there easier.

Leaping across buildings, the store luckily wasn't too far away. The group of gunmen were still there. Venom jumped off the building and barged through the front door, snarling.

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Ever since Eddie and Venom had told him about their vigilante activities, Dick hadn't been able to get it out of his mind. Being a superhero sounded so cool, and it was a nice daydream to focus on whenever the kids at school were being meaner than usual. Since he wasn't getting in any more fights, he hadn't felt the need to tell his dads about the bullies, though knowing that Venom would come scare them if he asked made them a lot easier to deal with.

The idea reared its head again when Dick was looking for something under his bed and found an old costume from the circus. It did kind of look like the sort of thing a superhero might wear... it even had a cape and everything...
He made some modifications, put himself together a utility belt, made a mask.. just for fun, of course, he wasn't actually going to do anything with it...

Then he decided to go out after school one day, flipping across the rooftops and having the time of his life, he hadn't actually meant to do any vigilante stuff... but then there'd been this mugger in an alley and he'd flipped onto the scene and scared the guy off and the woman had been so grateful when he gave her back her purse that he thought...well... maybe he could do this....

So he'd made his excuses to Eddie and gone out a few days later as well, and when he'd stumbled across a robbery in action it had seemed like the perfect opportunity.

It had started out just fine, but he hadn't counted on quite how many of them there were, and they had guns...

When Venom burst into the store, one of them had managed to catch hold of Dick, holding him upside down by the ankle and getting obviously frustrated by the unconcerned way Dick was hanging there.

"Listen here you little punk," he growled, waving his gun in Dick's face - despite the utter terror he was feeling, Dick managed to keep up his unimpressed expression, arms crossed. "I'm gonn-what the fuck is that?"

He was responding to the sound of gunfire, as the two closest to the door had instinctively started shooting when Venom burst in, though when he turned to see what they were shooting at his eyes widened in fear and his grip loosened.

Dick caught himself on his hands and flipped to his feet, the colour draining from his face.

"Oh man I am in so much trouble...."

Venom took every shot, the bullets unable to penetrate the symbiote's coating. The more they wasted their bullets on him, the large target, the less likely they were to shoot Dick. Venom grabbed the nearest bad guy and threw him at the others, sending them sliding across the floor. One of the remaining two tried to run, but Venom grabbed him too, snarling at him before punching in and knocking him out.

Growling low in his throat, he turned to the one who had been holding Dick, approaching him as he futility shot the symbiote a few times. Venom grabbed him and opened his gaping maw wide.

Not in front of the kid!

"Fine."

Venom just headbutted the man and knocked him out too. The sirens were still going on outside, and no doubt the police would be coming in to make some arrests soon, so they would have to get out of there.

Dropping the robber, Venom looked over at Dick. "Science project, hm?"

"What the hell kid?" the guy stepped back, thrown off by not only Dick's casual flips but also the comment "He's with you?" he swung his gun around to Venom but it didn't do any good. He'd never know how lucky he was that Dick was there to stop him getting eaten.

"We should probably have this conversation somewhere else?" Dick responded to his dads instead, giving them a hopeful smile from behind his mask. The robbers were taken care of, nobody was hurt (except the robbers themselves) and the police were on their way, they should probably leave...

And maybe, just maybe, Dick could think of a way to get himself out of being grounded for the rest of his life in the mean time.

_{[Heads up lovely I'm at a LARP this weekend, posting will be scarce until at least Sunday]}

[No problem!]

Venom looked around at the store, and the knocked out robbers. Police sirens were already approaching and they could see the red and blue lights were already visible.

"Follow us out the back door."

Venom had to duck just to get out the door, making sure Dick was with him the whole time. They considered a nearby alley where they could talk, before Venom looked up, at the building next to them. It was about three stories tall and would provide a place for them to talk without being seen or overheard.

"Going up." Even though they knew Dick could probably get up there by himself perfectly well, being an acrobat, Venom still wrapped an arm around the boy and climbed the building, depositing him onto the roof.

Venom shrank and the black ooze melted back into their body as they returned to human form. Eddie gave Dick a stern look, hands on his hips. "Explain."

For a moment, Dick contemplating just letting himself get arrested, it would probably be easier than facing Eddie's disappointment. He knows that isn't really an option of course, so he trails after Venom looking suitably cowed.

Once they're up on the rooftop he hangs his head, scuffing his feet against the floor awkwardly.

"I...I wanted to help people... like you do..."

"What were you thinking?" Eddie demands, letting his hands fall. He sounds more worried than angry. "You could've been hurt. You could've been killed."

Black slime oozes out of Eddie's shoulder, forming Venom's face. The symbiote grins at Dick, "You've got guts, kid."

"No, we are not encouraging this, V!"

The smile Dick gives Venom is weak and it disappears quickly in the face of Eddie's worry. He isn't sure how to explain why he did it, not in a way that his father is going to accept. He wants to be out there doing what they do, and there's something a little bit addictive about the thrill of it all.

"I'm too quick! They can't hurt me if they can't catch me!" Admittedly probably not the best tactic to take since one of the robbers had literally caught him right when Venom arrived, but he was handling that just fine! ... sort of...

"And what if you get caught by surprise, and get a bullet in the leg? Or worse." Eddie has a symbiote to protect him, and heal him when he gets hurt in human form. Dick doesn't have that luxury. "What if V and I hadn't been watching TV and hadn't known you were in trouble?"

"Clearly he got it from watching us."

"I would have got out of it!" He insists stubbornly. He doesn't know if that's the case, but feeling bad about worrying his father has made him defensive.

"Yea!" He agrees with Venom, he doesn't know if it's the best idea but at least someone's on his side "I just wanted to be like you and help people..."

"How? By limping all the way home, risking bleeding to death or infection?" Eddie runs his hands over his face and through his hair. How did they get into this? He thought the worst he'd have to deal with was Dick getting in trouble at school.

"He wants to be like us, Eddie. Do we not want to be a good role model for him?"

"Not helping, V."

"I can do this!" He half-yells. It had been so exhilarating, he couldn't just give up on it, not so soon after he'd discovered it. He felt awful arguing with Eddie, this was probably the first time they'd ever argued, but he was so determined and maybe just a little bit still filled with adrenaline.

It was the first time he'd felt that kind of exhilaration since his parents died.

"Sure, until you end up in the hospital, and then social services finds out!" Eddie paused, rubbing his face again. The combination of worry over Dick's safety, and fear that the boy would be taken away from them, made Eddie's head swirl in a flurry of emotions. Venom, of course, felt all of it.

"Compromise?"

That stops him cold, eyes widening in horror at the very idea. Could social services find out? Would they try and take him away from Eddie? However good this whole thing feels he doesn't want that, he never wants that.

So when Venom speaks again he leaps on it, desperate for some way he can keep both things he loves "What compromise?"

"Dick obviously wants to keep doing this. Perhaps he can still go out and fight crime, but with adult supervision?"

Eddie can see where Venom's going with this and shakes his head, pointing an accusing finger at the symbiote. "No. No way, we are not making him part of that life. That's a you and I thing, not a 'the three of us' thing."

"You would rather he keep lying to us and sneaking off behind our backs?"

Dick's eyes widen with excitement, because the idea of actually getting to fight crime alongside his fathers is absolutely the best option here -family bonding time with the thrill of taking down bad guys? It was everything he wanted.

"I'd definitely be safe with you there to look out for me! And.. and I'll train! I'll get even better! I could be a really good sidekick!"

Eddie can see that he's outvoted, and even if he keeps saying no, then Dick and Venom are going to keep arguing that they should go with the symbiote's idea. He buries his face in his hands for a moment, before lowering them.

"Alright, fine. But, you have to promise us not to take any stupid risks, and if we tell you to fall back, then you fall back. Understand?"

For a moment Dick stares at him, as though he can't quite believe what his father just said. Has he actually... did he really just agree to let him do this? To take him out and let him fight crime side by side with the two of them?

"You're the best!" He whooped, leaping forward to fling his arms around Eddie in an excited hug "you won't regret it dad, I promise"

Eddie returns the hug. He still thinks this is a bad idea and it's just asking for Dick to get hurt, killed or taken away. But if Venom feels that he can protect their son, then Eddie can go along with it.

Pulling Dick back just a little, Eddie says, "You know we're still gonna have to punish you for basically lying to us?" Eddie takes a second to think it over. "You cannot play video games for one week."

Damn, he'd hoped Eddie would forget about that part, but he guessed it was one of the reasons he was such a good dad, he did actually know when to put his foot down. He sighed, nodding reluctantly.

"Okay... not even if I'm playing them with you?" He added hopefully - just because he understood the need for punishment didn't mean he wasn't going to try and find a loophole.

"Sorry, not even then. And no playing video games on the computer either."

Of course, Eddie still had to let Dick use the computer for school or chatting with friends, and he couldn't really stop Dick from playing games on his phone since he couldn't in good conscience take that away from Dick either.

Eddie also found video games most enjoyable when he played them with Dick, so he and Venom most likely weren't going to be playing them while he was on punishment. No need to taunt their son.

"Did you stash some normal clothes nearby? 'Cause we know you didn't change into that at the apartment."

"Okay dad..." Dick nodded, still, he wasn't feeling quite as down as it might appear, not when they'd agreed to let him go out with them to catch bad guys, he just thought it was probably better to take his punishment and not gloat too much.

"I have a backpack stashed in an alley a couple blocks away," he confirmed with a nod

"Alright. Show us where you stashed the backpack, we'll watch your back while you get changed."

They changed back into Venom, so they could get across and down the building easier.

Dick nodded, turning towards the edge of the roof. He hesitated for a moment, clearly trying to decide something, before a grin spread across his face and he launched himself forward.

If Eddie still had reservations, Dick would show him what he was really made of - this wasn't taking a risk, he knew he had the skills. This was just him showing off.

He flipped his way across the next few buildings, trusting Venom to keep up.

Venom ran after Dick, keeping up with the boy easily, making every jump he did. If anyone had actually seen them, it might have looked like a monster was after the boy, rather than an unusual set of dads simply following their costumed son.

They knew Dick was agile and flexible, both from his home antics, and from the mere fact that he used to be a circus acrobat, but this was the first time they were getting a real idea of what he could do.

Dick pulled out all the stops - he was a born performer and it was a while since he'd really gotten to put on a show, so he was really putting on a show. Every flip and twist and death-defying stunt he had in his arsenal, he pulled them all out, finishing off with a graceful little spin at the edge of a building so he was facing his fathers (and making sure they were watching). He flashed a grin and leapt backwards, pulling off a quadruple back-flip (his crowd pleaser, the one only he and his parents could do) to land on the opposite fire escape. He gave them a cheeky little bow before bouncing his way down the ladders to reach the alleyway where he'd stashes his things.

Eddie kept worrying that Dick was going to hurt himself, but after the first few flips and tricks, began to relax, since the boy knew what he was doing. Besides, if something did go wrong, Venom could easily save Dick in a heartbeat.

As Dick climbed down the ladders, Venom simply jumped off the building, landing without trouble, though the did break the concrete a little. Turning back to human form, Eddie said, "We'll wait at the end of the alley for you."

Turning around to give Dick some privacy, Eddie turned the corner, keeping an eye out.

Still feeling the adrenaline high of his little performance, Dick grins at his fathers before ducking behind a dumpster to quickly change back into his civvies, shoving the costume back into his backpack and then half-bouncing his way over to where Eddie and Venom are waiting.

"Okay, I'm ready to go!" he said brightly. No amount of punishment was going to ruin his good mood right now.

Eddie nodded and guided Dick out into the open, starting on the walk back to the apartment. "Okay, if we're gonna do this, we need some ground rules. First, your safety is top priority, so don't be reckless. Second, if you see a situation where we're needed, and we're not together, you call us first and we'll be there as soon as possible, no running in by yourself."

As much as Dick wanted to flip his way across rooftops and beat up bad guys, he knew the only way he was going to get to do it without Eddie putting his foot down was to do it by following the rules. And as rules went, they weren't the worst, and he was a sensible enough kid that he could see the reason for them.

"Okay, no rushing in without waiting for back up, I promise."

"Third, if we deem a situation too dangerous, you step away and let Venom and I handle it." Looking up and away from Dick, Eddie addressed Venom. "Also, so long as the kid's with us, we don't do anything that could traumatized him. Got it?"

Fine.

Venom only had to read Eddie's mind to know exactly what he meant.

For his part, Dick is genuinely intrigued what traumatising things Venom might do - he can make a couple of educated guesses, admittedly, but he wonders if there's anything else that he doesn't know about.

But he knows what's expected of him right now so instead of letting his curiosity run wild he focuses on the matter at hand and nods.

"Okay," it's a small price to pay for getting to do it at all.

"You endanger yourself, or act reckless, you're grounded for a week." Eddie thought maybe he was being a bit harsh, but it was in the name of keeping Dick safe, if he really wanted to fight alongside Venom.

Now that this is all settled, we could use some food.

"You got it." Looking back down at Dick, he said, "What's say we just get some take out?"

"I promise I'll be as safe as I can," Dick says obediently - and he does actually mean it, he's not the kind of person to make a promise lightly for a start, but also he'd much rather stay out of a fight or two than be grounded for a whole week. Of course that might change when he's actually in the moment, but right now it seems an easy rule to follow.

"Yea! Takeout!" he cheers, brightening up almost instantly.

"Just keep one thing in mind. V and I are bulletproof, you aren't."

Eddie would take a bullet in a heartbeat for Dick, but thankfully the symbiote is tougher than he looked. Eddie also isn't about to risk Venom bonding to Dick, because they have no way of knowing if their son's a genetic match for the symbiote.

"How's Chinese sound?"

"What if I got a bullet-proof costume? Like... like kevlar or something? Just for extra safety?" and if that gave him a little more excuse to get stuck into dangerous situations because he was slightly more protected, well, that was neither here nor there and definitely not why he was asking about such things.

"Chinese is great."

"We'll talk about that later." Eddie can't believe they're talking about this, getting a kevlar vest for their son. He thought the hardest part about being a dad would be making sure Dick was raised right, and talking to teachers who had it out for the boy. Now here they are talking about Dick fighting crime with them and putting himself in danger, and kevlar vests.

The Chinese place is just a few blocks from the apartment, and thankfully they're pretty fast, so they're able to get the food and resume their walk back home.

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Like Dads, Like Son

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I thought I'd replied to this, sorry!

Re: I thought I'd replied to this, sorry!

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sorry for the delay!

welcome back!

Re: welcome back!

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