American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

A clump of orange-brown mud-like substance was quietly lying in a sealed tempered glass jar.

“It’s an alien creature. According to it, it calls itself Quiet. It ended up on our planet by accidentally hitching a ride in a human return capsule. They are a parasitic life form. They like to parasitize intelligent life, learning knowledge and obtaining food from them, while also enhancing various qualities of the host.”

Gwen Stacy looked at the listless symbiote Quiet in the glass jar with some concern, but still tried to explain the information she learned about the symbiote from Quiet as concisely as possible. Although it felt strange to have such a thing in her body, the other party seemed harmless and could talk to her about anything, which gave Gwen a peculiar feeling, similar to friendship.

Even though she felt crazy the moment she had that thought.

“Food?” Tilda Johnson, who came with Gwen, narrowed her eyes.

“They feed on human emotions,” Gwen replied. “Its favorite flavor is happy emotions, especially the joy derived from knowledge.”

“This is a major discovery, a life form from an extraterrestrial civilization!” Tilda was very interested. The intense gaze made Quiet in the glass jar shrink back. Unfortunately, she needed to focus on her current project and didn't have the time or energy to study such a valuable alien creature. This made her feel very regretful.

Luke looked at the mud-like symbiote in the jar in front of him, and a lot of interest in this group arose in his heart.

For ordinary people, a symbiote is a powerful aid that can instantly transform them into a superhero or a supervillain. To some extent, symbiotes are even better than Tony's Mark series armor in some aspects. Unfortunately, the shortcomings of symbiotes are as obvious as their advantages.

It's afraid of fire and sound waves.

It can influence the host's behavior and thoughts. If a symbiote's previous host was a heinous villain, its personality would automatically align with the host's personality. If the symbiote and the host agree, then naturally everyone is happy. If they disagree, it is easy for two consciousnesses to fight in one body, vying for control of the body.

So, symbiotes generally choose a host that suits them, unless they are forced to.

Is the symbiote worth studying?

Without a doubt, it is worth studying.

Any scientist who sees this thing would want to get their hands on it.

“What do you want to do with it?” Gwen watched Luke staring at the glass jar for a long time without speaking, hesitated, and interrupted his thoughts, asking him how to deal with this symbiote. She had already prepared herself for Luke's forced request, but who knew that Luke didn't give her the answers she expected, but instead passed the buck back to her.

“What do you want to do with it, Miss Gwen?” Luke tapped the glass jar, and the symbiote Quiet wriggled inside. “It was taken out of your body, and it seems to get along with you well. From this point of view, you are the one who has the right to make choices for it. Of course, I can use some high-sounding words to transfer its ownership from your hands, and no one can say anything, but that's not my style.”

“What is your style?” Tilda asked curiously from the side.

“It depends on who I’m facing.” Luke glanced at Tilda. His bottom line is also very flexible when facing different people.

“Then, can I take it away?” Gwen asked tentatively. She didn't know why she wanted to do this, but inexplicably, she just felt that she shouldn't let the other party leave her. This seemed to contradict her behavior today, but that was the truth.

“Of course.” Luke nodded. “But before you take it away, can I communicate with it?”

“I don’t know if it’s possible, but I can try.” Gwen thought for a while and replied. She had already prepared herself to be a bridge of communication.

“Do you want to let it out now?” Gwen looked at Luke. Although she felt that Quiet had always seemed harmless, even when it was taken out of her body, it didn't resist too strongly except for a slight resistance in consciousness, but what if it got angry after being released? After all, it was a dangerous alien creature.

Luke made a gesture of invitation. In his own laboratory, he was not afraid of a symbiote messing around.

Gwen stepped forward and unscrewed the top cover of the glass jar. The symbiote, which had been like a puddle of dead mud, rushed upwards the moment the top cover was opened, revealing countless small tentacles underneath, tightly clinging to the glass wall and climbing upwards quickly. In the final stage, it almost jumped, impatiently pouncing on Gwen's arm, wrapping her entire right arm, and then quickly penetrating into the inner layer of the skin, disappearing completely in front of Luke and the others, and merging with Gwen again.

“Don’t call me it. According to your accurate way of calling it, you should call me she!” An orange, female-headed creature appeared from Gwen's body with the adhesion of many tentacles, half-suspended in mid-air, and corrected Luke and Tilda's previous address to her aggressively.

“Still a lady?”

“We don’t have that thing called gender, but we can have our own gender cognition.” The symbiote Quiet said, “I know you want to study me, but that’s impossible. I recommend you go find other symbiotes. They came to this planet with me. Those are all bad guys. If you can solve them, the symbiote group might even thank you.”

“I can give Miss Gwen a reward.” Luke was not surprised by Quiet’s rejection. He came to a storage area in his laboratory and took out a palm-sized, round white spray bottle.

“That’s her own business.” Quiet hesitated, but still refused with her head held high, “Miss Quiet never gives in.”

Luke walked to Gwen's side and sprayed the synthetic agent in the small spray bottle directly on Quiet's face.

“What are you doing? What did you spray on me? Oh, this is quite delicious, I haven’t tasted this flavor before! More, please!” Quiet, who was covered in the atomized synthetic agent sprayed from the spray bottle, was first annoyed, then puzzled, and then happy. Her exposed body trembled comfortably, and every tentacle seemed to be dancing happily. That kind of high satisfaction was clearly sensed by her host, Gwen.

“How is it?” Luke asked again with a smile, “Can we talk about research again now?”

“Quiet never gives in!” Quiet shouted first, then looked at the round white spray bottle in Luke’s hand expectantly, and surrendered, “Unless it includes room and board.”