Peter was not very happy about having his date interrupted, but relatively speaking, Cindy was even more upset. Furthermore, since this operation was led by S.H.I.E.L.D., Cindy, as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, naturally joined in.
She was likely suppressing a belly full of fire, intending to give Carnage a thorough beating—though there was a high probability she wouldn't be able to win.
"The data on Carnage is basically out. Although it's a bit hard to believe, we've put together a preliminary parameter list."
Simmons posted various data points for Carnage for everyone to see. It could be said that across all metrics, Carnage was far superior to Venom, reaching a truly terrifying level of intensity.
The strength data already displayed alone exceeded 80 tons. This physical power was even higher than the current Peter wearing Anti-Venom, let alone Agent Venom, whose host, Flash, was just an ordinary human.
"That's not an issue. I mean, we have Spidey anyway, right?"
Faced with the fact that he couldn't defeat Carnage himself, Flash felt a bit deflated, but he quickly bounced back. If Carnage was a terrifying enemy, he didn't necessarily need to be the one to deal with him; didn't they have the invincible Spider-Man?
"About that... yeah, Anti-Venom can harm Carnage quite easily, but Carnage seems a bit different." Peter recalled the scene of Carnage fleeing when attacked. "It's as if... I can't completely catch him."
"Regarding this point, we have a hypothesis. To be precise, it's based on a comparison between the Carnage sample you found, Spider-Man, and previously discovered symbiotes."
As Simmons spoke, she began displaying the differences between Carnage and ordinary symbiotes under an electron microscope on the large screen. "While typical symbiotes are highly molecularized organisms, their connection relies on molecules communicating with each other. In other words, these cells are all part of a massive symbiote, and they can perform rapid self-replication using this molecular-structured body."
Just as Venom could transform into a large-scale state like the Hulk, this was one of the symbiotes' abilities.
"And Carnage... we found that every one of his molecular structures exhibits very obvious independent activity. Even when separated from the main body, they remain highly active..." At this point, Simmons reached a conclusion: "It's as if every molecule of Carnage is a symbiote in its own right."
"A symbiote hive-mind network." Peter looked at the Carnage sample under the electron microscope and immediately realized the difference between Carnage—strictly speaking, the Carnage he was facing—and other symbiotes. "Every molecule of Carnage is an individual symbiote. They rely on Carnage's consciousness to act in unison. Rather than saying Carnage is a single symbiote, it's more accurate to call him a symbiote hive-mind network composed of countless molecular-level symbiotes."
Simmons nodded. "Exactly right."
Now, Peter was even more certain that Knull was involved. Carnage was a miniature symbiote network rather than a solitary symbiote; such a thing could only be achieved by Knull.
"This also explains why high temperatures and sonics are ineffective against Carnage. He can achieve rapid self-regeneration through high-speed self-replication and the dissociative nature between different molecules. Moreover, because there isn't much of a structural link between these molecules to begin with, his molecular structure cannot be easily destroyed."
Flash listened intently to the entire explanation, only to realize he hadn't understood a single word.
"Uh, so, do we have a way to deal with him yet?"
"Wipe Carnage out until not a single cell remains; that is the only way to completely destroy him. Otherwise, we have to find a way to separate Carnage from Cletus—"
As he said this, Peter suddenly paused, and the furrow in his brow relaxed.
Carnage was not without weaknesses. His greatest weakness was that he still required a host. Although they could turn themselves into a monomolecular-level symbiote after fully merging with Cletus, it didn't mean Cletus had disappeared.
"Doctor Octopus's molecular oscillator. As long as we can separate Carnage from Cletus, we can easily destroy Carnage."
Peter then looked at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents present. He remembered that all of Doctor Octopus's remains had been recovered by S.H.I.E.L.D. Therefore, that device should theoretically be with S.H.I.E.L.D. as well.
However, unexpectedly, Fitz—hearing about this device for the second time—shook his head.
"Agent Venom mentioned this to us once before, but we... didn't find that device. We checked all the items seized from Doctor Octopus, examined his mechanical arm structures and programming, and found nothing."
"That's impossible."
If that thing didn't exist, how did Doctor Octopus separate himself from Venom back then?
The disappearance of this item could now be attributed to only one scenario: Hydra within S.H.I.E.L.D. had hidden all the data for that device.
Otto Octavius had previously joined the Weapon Expansion Project to research symbiotes. He had even utilized symbiote grunts from the symbiote surge to later develop his own artificial symbiote.
And as almost everyone knew, the Weapon Expansion Project was nothing more than a Super Soldier resource bank for Hydra. Therefore, it was likely that all of Doctor Octopus's data and records regarding artificial symbiotes had backups with Hydra.
Given that Hydra possessed all the data on symbiote research, held the records of human experiments conducted on Ryker's Island, understood that location, had someone forge Cletus's execution records, and deleted all information on weapons specifically targeting symbiotes...
Was there any doubt left as to which group of bastards had cooked up Carnage?
He took a deep breath and said nothing. After all, Ward was still here. Although Coulson, having been warned in advance, should already know that Ward was a Hydra agent, he had no intention of replacing him or taking action just yet.
He could just contact Fury directly later, or talk to his senior sister... Now everything was clear: the mastermind behind the creation of Carnage and the cover-up of Cletus's information was Hydra.
That brought up another, more troublesome question: Had Hydra really only created one Carnage? Or was Cletus merely a test subject, and were they attempting to mass-produce Carnage while still being uncertain about his various performance parameters?
"I'll collaborate with the Baxter Building to see if Reed Richards can help me solve this problem."
Peter sighed, using his connections to temporarily deflect the topic. "So, the next question: how do we draw Carnage out?"