Edge of Venomverse #1 (2017)

Standing in an elevator snacking on a box of French fries, X-23 notes that this is her fifth escape attempt from the Facility, the previous four having ended in her being recaptured through various means. As the elevator stops, she extends her claws and lunges at the group of soldiers waiting for her, declaring that this time they won't stop her. As she slaughters them, X-23 states that she was created to fight and kill but no longer wants to be their weapon, and is willing to die trying to break free. A PA system announces her escape and calls for backup as a knockout gas - used to subdue her in her prior escape attempt - fills the hallway. X-23 retreats into one of the laboratories and leans against a tank, wondering what other monsters the Facility has created. As she's spotted by guards, who tell her they'll go easy on her if she surrenders, X-23 accidentally punctures the tank with one of her claws, and a black amorphous creature - the Venom symbiote - emerges and latches onto her. Two months later, Kiden Nixon, Tatiana Caban, Bobby Soul, and Li'l Bro - a group of homeless teenagers - hide from Zebra Daddy - a pimp and drug dealer to whom they owe money - in an abandoned, derelict bank. Looking around, Bobby declares they could live like kings in here, with Kiden adding queens to include the girls. Tatiana states they should move on, explaining to Kiden that local legend has it that the bank is home to a monster. X-23 watches from the shadows, the symbiote suggesting they get rid of the street kids and that no-one will miss them. Just as Kiden says she wishes they could live in the bank, X-23 shouts "No!" in response to the symbiote suggesting she eat them. Kiden introduces the group and asks if X-23 - now going by Laura - is the only one living here, the symbiote interjecting that it finds her annoying and wants to eat her. X-23 retorts that it cannot, and Kiden mistakenly believes she's talking to her. The symbiote warns X-23 that the group has seen too much and can't be allowed to escape, but she ignores it and tells them to leave. Tatiana, Kiden, Bobby, and Li'l Bro leave, Kiden being disappointed while Tatiana expresses relief. They immediately run into Zebra Daddy and one of his thugs, the former demanding that they pay him the money they owe him. Instead, the teens run away, but Bobby is cornered. As he tries to talk his way out, Zebra's thug pulls out a knife but is impaled from behind by a pair of claws. Transformed into a monstrous black-and-yellow creature with a mouth full of fangs, clawed fingers, large white eyes, and yellow spider insignias on her chest and back, Laura stands over the thug's corpse as the symbiote notes that they don't like seeing people hurting each other, but it's all they know and that together they are Venom. Pulling a gun, Zebra Daddy calls her a monster and demands to know who she is, aiming his gun at her. Venom retracts the symbiote from her face and introduces herself as Laura before cutting off his right hand. As she prepares to finish him off, Bobby grabs her arm and stops her, saying she doesn't need to kill him. Laura snaps that Zebra Daddy called her a monster, but Bobby says that he can say that Zebra Daddy is wrong on account of her saving his life. The symbiote disagrees, but Laura mentally replies that it's nice to have someone who doesn't see her that way. The symbiote warns her that the people who created her are still looking for her, and that like it or not they are a monster. In a hospital, Zebra Daddy is visited by agents from the Facility and identifies Laura as the one who attacked him before they smother him with his own pillow. The four homeless children move into the derelict bank with Laura, who is happy to have friends for the first time in her life. However, the symbiote warns her that because of their association with her the people she cares about are now in danger. Weeks later, Laura and her friends sit outside the bank listening to Tatiana tell a story about the Vulture, which Kiden dismisses as nonsense. Laura notes that she's still not completely comfortable around other people and that it feels weird, but it's a good weird. Glancing into the street, she tells Bobby that it's time, and he reluctantly punches her in the face. Her nose bleeding, Laura staggers towards a man unloading boxes of ice cream from a truck and asks for help. As the man steadies her and helps her into his store, Laura thinks to herself that her friends care about her, and that she looks out for them in return and gets them the things they need to survive. Kiden and Bobby make off with two of the boxes, but as they flee Kiden is grabbed by an agent of the Facility. The agent tells her he wants to ask some questions and they can do things the easy way, but the lower half of Kiden's face is covered by the symbiote and she sprouts a fanged maw, snarling that she wants to do things the hard way. As she pins the man, who relays that the children have been contaminated by the symbiote, Bobby runs over and tells her to let him go and escape. Kiden refuses, but Bobby transforms his hand into claws and grabs her shoulder. Inside the ice-cream store, Laura notices Facility soldiers approaching and extends her claws. As the soldiers hold Kiden, Bobby, and Tatiana at gunpoint, Venom lunges through the window and attacks them from behind, telling her friends to flee. As Facility soldiers storm the bank in order to apprehend all the children, Laura laments that she told her friends a thousand times to hide or flee if the Facility attacked, but instead they transform into Venomized monsters and fight back. Tatiana is knocked out while mauling a soldier, and Venom comes to her defence. Kiden bisects a soldier from behind, while Bobby is briefly apprehended but uses tendrils to strangle the soldier about to handcuff him. As they retreat towards the bank vault, Venom is blasted by a flamethrower, barely making it through. Closing the door, Bobby asks if the men attacking them are the ones who created her and if they are now after them, and Laura responds affirmatively both times, then negatively when asked if they'll stop. As the Facility soldiers begin cutting through the door, Laura tells her friends to get behind them. The symbiote recalls the pieces of itself it leant to the others in order to be complete, ignoring their horrified protests. Venom is abruptly sucked into a vortex, leaving her friends trapped, scared, and defenceless, and reappears in the ruins of a building. Enraged, Venom swears that she will make whoever took her from her friends pay, but is approached by a Venomized Captain America, who tells her they have a war to win.