"Mark! Felix! Anyone!"

Seán ran through the empty Avenger's Mansion, his heart pounding in his ears as alarms blared around him.

"It's your fault you're alone." Signe remarked, her voice echoing around Seán as he looked around him.

Red warning lights illuminated the abandoned base, a dark shadow lurking in the corner of Seán's vision.

"Who's there?" Seán called out, whirling around to see Peter standing in front of him with a smile, his arms open for an embrace.

"Dad!" Seán sobbed happily, reaching out towards his father.

Peter's expression remained unchanged as his body turned to dust, Seán's arms wrapping around empty air.

"No..." Seán whispered, falling to his knees with his head in his hands.

The hero looked down at the floor and saw his own reflection, his blue and green eyes staring back at him as Seán shot up to his feet and ran.

"Seán wait!"

Seán skidded to a stop and glanced back to see Anti, the symbiote looking exactly like him except for the bright green eyes.

"Look, I know that things suck, but don't give up. PMA, right?" Anti encouraged Seán, the Irishman looking away from the symbiote.

"Seán!"

Seán bolted upright and hit Mark directly in the nose, the Irishman wincing in pain as he flopped back down onto the pillow while Mark staggered back in surprise.

"Sorry Mark!" Seán apologized sheepishly as he rubbed his aching forehead, the dark haired male shrugging off the apology as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You good man? We heard you crying in your sleep and say your dad's name." Tyler stated gently.

Seán was lying in Felix's room on his bed, the floor filled with junk food trash, bean bag chairs, and abandoned video game controllers.

"Yeah, I'm good." Seán lied, plastering a fake smile on his face as he swung his feet over the side of the bed and hopped off onto the floor, cringing as he stepped on a half empty bag of chips.

"Like we believe that." Felix scoffed, rolling his eyes as he sat on his bed, motioning for Seán to sit next to him while Tyler, Mark, and Robin took a seat on the bean bag chairs.

"It's just...the only family I ever knew is dead, Signe hates my guts, and that Thanos asshole is still out there probably destroying more lives while we do nothing!" Seán blurted angrily.

"What can we do? Fly to space, hunt down Thanos somehow, and kill him?" Robin interjected.

"If that's what it takes to take him down, then yes!" Seán huffed in irritation.

"You should tell them about your nightmare-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Seán shouted, Felix flinching away.

"Let me guess, Anti's bothering you?" Mark spoke up, his disdain for the symbiote evident in his tone.

Seán nodded numbly as he let out a long weary sigh, Felix patting his back comfortingly while the others shot Seán sympathetic looks.

"He's right though...there's something I have to tell you guys." Seán admitted, swallowing hard before recounting his nightmare.

The four friends listened to Seán intently until he finished, all of them silent as they contemplated his story.

"We can do some patrolling and take out the smaller threats while the Avengers work on stopping Thanos." Mark offered.

"It's better than doing nothing. I'm in." Seán decided, Felix, Robin, and Tyler nodding agreement.

"Alright then...I feel like we should have like a team name." Mark murmured thoughtfully, Felix's expression brightening.

"Oh oh oh, what about the Defenders?" Felix suggested excitedly.

"I like it, the name seems fitting with what we do." Robin chimed in.

"It's good with me." Seán shrugged nonchalantly, Tyler shooting Mark a thumbs up of approval.

"Okay then. Defenders, assemble!" Mark shouted, the males rushing to change into costumes and pack equipment.

Seán dug through his forgotten duffel of belongings and pulled out his wrinkled up spider suit.

"Do you want my help?" Anti spoke up, his tone sounding surprisingly gentle.

"Why should I trust you?" Seán shot back under his breath as he shifted through his stuff in search of his web shooters.

"Honestly, there's no real reason why you should, but I will tell you this. I don't have a family either, Dark's the closest thing I have since he's like a brother to me. I understand that you want revenge, and I'm willing to help you get it." Anti explained.

"I don't want revenge, I want justice." Seán corrected Anti stiffly, holding up one of his web shooters.

"Seán, I'm in your head. You and I both know that that's a a fucking lie." Anti pointed out.

"Look, I'll be honest too. I want to help you since I hate this Thanos guy too. He seems like a major dick." Anti added in a dramatic voice, earning a slight smirk from Seán.

"If we're going to be sharing a body, I guess I have to learn how to trust you eventually." Seán conceded.

"Seán, what are you doing?"

Seán looked up from his bag at Mark, the dark haired hero already dressed in his dad's old uniform with his shield slung across his back.

"Nothing, just..." Seán trailed off, Anti seeping out of Seán's back and beginning to cover his body.

"Seán-"

"It's okay Mark, he agreed to this." Anti finished reassuringly.

Seán could feel Anti surrounding him, yet he could still control his limbs much to the Irishman's relief as he flexed his fingers.

"Hey, I just saw a picture on the media that seems like something we should look into. There's a symbiote on the loose, and it has a host." Tyler informed the group, the male suited up in his armor.

"We all good to go yet? I'm ready to take ass and kick names!" Felix shouted, Seán and Anti snickering at the Swede.

"It's take names and kick ass Felix." Mark corrected him, Felix fake pouting in response as Robin entered the room.

"Everyone in the Quinjet, we're arriving together." Mark instructed, directing the statement at Felix with a glare.

"Fine, fine." Felix huffed dramatically as he followed everyone to the roof where the Quinjets were kept, Tyler tapping a button on his wrist that lowered the boarding ramp of the nearest Quinjet.

"I'm piloting this, everyone else get ready for a fight." Tyler directed grimly, Seán gripping the hand hold hanging from the ceiling hard enough to turn his knuckles white, Mark, Felix, and Robin standing by him.

"Pussy." Anti sneered jokingly, Seán gritting his teeth to keep from retorting.

The group arrived near the vicinity of where the picture was taken, Tyler turning the Quinjet's cloaking device on and touching it down on a rooftop.

They were close by what looked like a run down grocery store, a male with short brown hair and a trimmed brown goatee walking out with a bag in hand.

"That's our guy." Mark informed his counterparts quietly, Felix immediately running towards the target.

Before Felix could get close enough to grab him, an inky black substance quickly covered his body and created a arm that smacked Felix aside.

"Sorry, sorry!" The male apologized sheepishly as the substance disappeared into his skin, Felix staggering to his feet while the others ran to his side.

"You have a symbiote, they need to be stopped!" Robin shouted, creating a ball of magic in his hands.

"Walt what? Hold on a sec, who the hell are you weirdos?" The make interjected.

"I'm Mark, this is Seán, Tyler, Felix, and Robin." Mark spoke up, gesturing to each male in turn.

"We're the Defenders." Felix added proudly.

"Right. I'm Eddie Brock, and Venom is just a parasite-yes you are!" Eddie shouted to the air.

"We have symbiotes too." Seán chimed in, Anti waving a tentacle at Eddie while Dark crawled out of Mark's skin just enough that he could be seen before sinking back in again.

"Okie dokie then! So um, I'm just gonna go home then since there's no issues here and-"

"Wait! How do you cooperate with your symbiote so well?" Mark interrupted hastily, Eddie glancing between him and Seán.

"You gotta trust each other no matter what." Eddie stated simply before walking off, bag still in hand.

Seán watched him go until he felt something vibrate in his pocket, Anti pulling his phone out for him and holding up to Seán's ear.

"Signe?" Seán answered incredulously.

"Seán! Look, I was over dramatic when I left. I wanted to apologize." Signe admitted.

"O-oh! Well, it's okay. I'm living in the Avenger's Mansion and saving the world, so it's probably for the best that you did go." Seán replied.

"Can...can we still be friends?" Signe asked hopefully.

"Absolutely." Seán answered without hesitation, feeling like a weight was being lifted off of him.

"Cool! I'll talk to you later then." Signe spoke in a rush before hanging up, Seán grinning as he put his phone away.

"Why are you grinning like that?" Tyler questioned warily, Seán shrugging nonchalantly.

"Nothing, just my PMA."