"Just be safe. Someone you trust is watching you very closely," the art museum curator told Hyper Hawk, and slipped a bronze key into the girl's hand. "And take this key. Be careful with it- we lost much just to obtain it."

Hyper Hawk glanced down at the key. Why would someone go through that much trouble just for a key? She thought, then gripped it tightly in her fist and nodded at the curator. "I won't let you down, ma'am. You can count on me," she said, and quickly left the Pop Art Museum, hopping into her blimp and making haste towards Counterfeit Island.

Upon return, Hyper Hawk hopped off her blimp and rubbed her temples in frustration. She was exhausted from running around all day; she had not gotten any breaks since she woke up that morning, in which she spent the night in a jail cell. With a groan, she took a seat on the bench in front of the dried fountain. "I just don't get it," she mumbled to herself, and lifted up the key she was given to examine it. "After all that work to find out who the thief is, I still haven't captured him. And now, I'm given a key that I don't even know where it goes to. What am I gonna do now?.." She buried her face in her hands for a moment, only hearing the chirping of the birds and chatter of people around herself.

In spite of herself, she sighed heavily and stood back on her feet. "Can't give up now. I'm so close, I can feel it... I know I am." She started to walk herself down the sidewalk to clear her mind. "The curator must've given me this key for a reason if it's so valuable... The missing link is where it goes to."

"Psst! Hey!"

Hyper Hawk stopped abruptly and lifted up her head. "Huh?" she asked, and turned to see the street painter she saw earlier, waving towards her. She took a deep breath in relief. "Oh, it's you," she said, approaching him. "Sorry if I look frustrated. I'm having a rough day today. I wish something would just give me a hint on what I'm supposed to do."

The painter said in sympathy, "I'm sorry you're not having the best of days today. But I'm sure it will get better soon, you'll see."

"Thanks."

"Anyway, I want to tell you something strange that happened today," he began. "Recently, I sold a painting to Investigator Vueve-Noire... but with no frame!"

Hyper Hawk nodded, but did not seem to be following him. "That's cool. Which painting did she buy?"

He replied, "I can't remember. She asked me for any one of them." This struck her as a bit unusual, and listened more intently to him. "Oh." she said, "that is strange."

"Yeah," the painter said. "why would she need a painting without a frame? Someone should investigate that."

Hyper Hawk shrugged. "I dunno... That is weird, but I haven't suspected the investigator of anything." She looked down and frowned for a moment. This may be a clue connected to the crime. Maybe she could ask Investigator Vueve-Noire a few questions, just in case. Hopefully, it would progress her mission in some way. With a crooked smile, she said, "Thanks for telling me. This could help me solve this case."

"No problem. I hope you get to the bottom of it!"

She spun around to go downtown, but then she added, "Oh and, by the way, did anyone ever tell you that you look like Bob Ross?"

The painter nodded. "Yeah, I get that a lot."

Hyper Hawk ran all the way across downtown and into the countryside, halting in front of the inspector's house. Climbing up the doorsteps, she took another deep breath and knocked on the door. "Excuse me, Inspector... Vev Noo-ar," she to the door, not able to pronounce her name. She waited patiently for a response, but never received any sign that someone was in the house. Hyper Hawk tried jiggling the door handle, but it was locked. She bounced on her toes impatiently; the thief needed to be stopped as soon as possible. Jamming her hand in the pocket of her jacket, she felt the bronze key. After some thought, she came to the conclusion that it would be worth a try to unlock the door with it.

At first, she felt hesitant to walk into someone's house without permission. However, this was an emergency, and Hyper Hawk reminded this to herself. Swallowing down her throat, she took the key out of her pocket and tried to fit it into the keyhole.

The key fits! Hyper Hawk thought to herself after she unlocked the door, then twisted the doorknob and pushed it open. Why did the curator have the key to the inspector's house? She thought again. And why did she risk things for it?

She poked her head inside and surveyed the empty room. "H-Hello?" she said shyly. "Inspector?" Not being able to pull herself back outside, she quickly went in the cottage and shut the door behind herself. Her footsteps echoed on the polished wooden floor throughout the hallway. She looked up into a staircase that was in between the hall and a small kitchen. At the top of the staircase, a door was wide open with bright light coming from the inside. It seemed to welcome Hyper Hawk inside of whatever room was up there. She reluctantly brought herself up the stairs, and found herself in a large bedroom, with a framed painting in the far left of her view.

Her head cocked to the side as she slowly approached it, scanning the entire painting up and down. The picture consisted only of splotches of bright and lively colours. "This must be the picture that street painter sold to her earlier... but it's framed now," she muttered to herself. "It's such a random painting to hang up on the wall, too... A landscape painting would have been much more fitting with this room." As she got close enough to look up at it, Hyper Hawk noticed that the corner of the paper the painting was on was somewhat folded over, revealing a dull, reddish-orange colour behind it. She narrowed her eyebrows and lifted her hand up to pinch the corner of the paper.

It was on top of... a canvas?

Slowly, she peeled off the street painter's artwork to see what it was hiding. When she fully uncovered it, she instantly recognized the painting before her, and dropped the paper in shock. Her hand moved up to cover her mouth from gasping too loud, and her eyes were huge.

"T...The Scream!" Hyper Hawk exclaimed in horror. She began to panic even more when the bedroom lights cut off in response of her shouting. "H...Hey, who turned off the-" she began, but then took a blow to the head from behind before she could finish. She passed out before she hit the floor.

"Ohh..." Hyper Hawk groaned, getting herself to wake back up. She cringed when a sharp pain grew on the side of her head. "Oww, my head... What happened?" She tried to reach for the spot on her noggin where she had been struck, but oddly enough, she could not move her arm. Struggling to open her eyes up, she came to realization that her arms, legs, and waist have been tied to a chair by a thick, brown rope. This shook her fully awake, and her head lifted up to stare into the pitch darkness that circled around her, putting her in the center of a large, bright spotlight, illuminated by only a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.

"Is anyone there?" she yelled out into the darkness, her voice trembling. "Hello?"

Suddenly, she heard someone giggle right in front of her. Hyper Hawk gulped down and asked, "Who's there?! Show yourself!"

In response, the sound of high heeled boots clacking on the concrete grew closer towards her, and someone hiding within the shadows stepped out into the light in front of her, with her hands on her hips and her cherry red lips curled into a mischievous smile. Hyper Hawk widened her eyes once again as she looked her up and down. "Oh, uh..." Her eyes darted back to her face. "Who are you?"

"I am the Black Widow," she proudly answered, "the world's greatest art thief!"

Hyper Hawk could feel her heart drop down as she heard her say this. Not only was she the Black Widow; she had recognized her voice.

The inspector is the thief! How could I've been so stupid?! She exclaimed in her head, then grimaced, recalling a page of the French Dictionary she skimmed over the day before. How could the people have been so stupid? They all speak French; the biggest hint is right in her name!

She said in a small voice, "But- But I thought you were a cop! How could you-"

"Enough!" Black Widow commanded, pointing at her and walking threateningly closer to her. "I'll be the one asking the questions."

Hyper Hawk, dismayed, gave her the nastiest glare. "What would you want from me?"

Black Widow bent down so her face was right in front of hers. "I know you've spoken to that cursed curator," she said, cupping her hand under her chin. "You know where all the art is being hidden. Tell me."

"W-What?" Hyper Hawk narrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What're talking about?"

There was another intensifying silence between the two women. Hyper Hawk could hear her heart racing through her chest. Another one of Black Widow's tempting smiles suddenly stretched across her face, and she hovered herself right above Hyper Hawk's lap to have a seat on. "Don't play dumb with me, honey," she said.

"Whoa, hey," the other girl responded, reeling her head back, "now, Miss Widow, I know what you're doing, and I'm not OK with it."

Black Widow could now visibly see her trembling, and became delighted. "Are you scared?"

Suddenly, Hyper Hawk stopped quivering. "Well," she began, "you're straddling me on a chair that I'm tied to inside of a dark and secluded room, so..." -She pretended to give this some thought- "Yep, I'm scared shitless."

Black Widow shushed her again, growing impatient. "I've no time for this, Hawk, and you know it. Now, tell me, sweetie," she said, gently grabbing on to Hyper Hawk's jacket lapels, "where is the great art hidden?"

Hyper Hawk was still scared out of her mind, and had absolutely no clue on what she wanted from her. She simply just shook her head. "I have no idea!" she admitted. "Honest!"

A frown took over the foe's face, and she stood up, putting her hands around Hyper Hawk's face and tilted it up. "Well, you don't get comfortable, either. I'll be right back." Then she walked off of her and headed towards the exit.

"What are you gonna do to me?" Hyper Hawk croaked behind her. Black Widow paused briefly and looked over her shoulder to reply, "You'll see when I get back." She left the room without saying anything else.

Hyper Hawk tilted her head down at the ropes straining her from leaving the chair with a glare. "Man, she was hot. But I need to get outta here!" She started to struggle against the tight ropes to possibly loosen them up, but they were knotted very efficiently. She groaned. "But how am I gonna do that when I'm all bound up like this alone where I don't even know where the hell I am?!"

"You're not alone," another voice said behind her, making her jump.

"Wha- Now who's there?!" Hyper Hawk asked, twisting her head to the side to try to see who was behind her. It was another chair, with its back towards her, and someone else tied to it. Above it was the back of someone's head, and a brown fedora on top. Hyper Hawk quickly looked back forward with huge eyes. "You!?" she yelled, and glared into the darkness. "You're the one who set me up! Man, I can't stand anyone in this room!" She paused, and added softly, "Well- except for me. Me, I like." Turning angry again, she said, "And not you! I swear, when I get outta these ropes, I'm gonna-"

"I'm afraid we've both been set up, my friend," the man said.

She turned her head sideways again. "What do you mean?"

The man gave a deep breath and confessed, "For years I've been the Black Widow's right hand man... but now, she's betrayed me."

"Really?" Hyper Hawk asked. "Looks like we're both in trouble... But ropes can't stop me! If you're telling me the truth, then we'll need to get out of here before she comes back!"

The man thought for a moment, then said, "I've got it."

"What?"

"C'mon, see if you can work your way over here and I will untie you... Ah, here, I got one hand loose."

Hyper Hawk's eyes trailed down to the old, grey concrete floor. "A-Alright," she mumbled. She leaned slightly forward, then slammed her back on towards her chair, scooting it slightly backwards. She repeated this tedious process, being careful not to tip over. Finally, her chair brushed up beside his. He turned his head to give her a surprised look.

"That was fast!" he said, using his free hand to tug on the ropes cinching her wrist. Hyper Hawk shrugged. "I am pretty fast when it comes to a life or death situation. Thanks for untying me," she said, wiggling her hands around to help loosen the ropes. "When we bust outta here, the first thing I'm gonna do is report her to the police."

"Ah, it ain't that easy," the man replied. "The Black Widow has henchmen around every corner of this place. We'll have to sneak past them in order to get to her. She's probably in her gallery." He glanced down for a moment. "Where she always is..."

When the two untied each other, Hyper Hawk was the first to stand up, and lifted her arms up to stretch. She felt so uncomfortable tied to that chair, and wondered how long she was in that position. Glancing down at the man, she stuck her hand out to help him up. He nodded at her and grabbed ahold of her hand for support to stand himself up. "Thanks, kid. I've been sitting like that for an hour, I'd say..." Rubbing his wrists, he added, "Y'know, I might've underestimated you when we met yesterday. You're actually full of wit."

Hyper Hawk smiled. "Thanks. You're not so bad after all, either. Now let's get out of this room." She turned to where Black Widow had exited the room. "We've got a spider to catch."

And that very day would be the last for the Black Widow's art thievery.