"Sorry bud, but the safari is on the other side of town," Izuku said. "Unless you're trying to hunt a cat and a spider, in which case I'm sorry to say your gonna need more a blow dart."
"Oh I think my tools will be more than adequate," Kraven said, as he pulled out a small pole, which then extended out, into a long spear, with a red glowing edge.
"A collapsable laser spear. Well, I'll give it to you, haven't seen that before." Izuku told him. "That would probably do some damage if you could hit me with it."
Immediately after saying that, Izuku dashed at the hunter, and tried to punch the side of his head to knock him out.
To his surprise, Kraven ducked, reacting to Izuku's incredible speed with alarming ease.
Izuku's spider-sense only went off for a second, before Kraven swept his legs, knocking him to the ground, and then got ready to stab him with his spear, fortunately, Izuku managed to jump back, landing on his feet as Kraven stabbed the concrete where Izuku had been.
Ok. This guy might actually be a threat. Izuku thought as he shot out a few web shots at the burly man.
Kraven took his spear out of the ground and used it to block all the web shots, the spears razor edge cutting up his webs with ease.
The hunter then charged at Izuku and tried to stab him in the stomach, but Izuku jumped up to dodge it, before flipping mid-air, so that he was facing downward and unleashing a hail of web shots down on him.
Kraven jumped back to dodge most of them and used his spear to destroy the webs that got too close.
Once Izuku landed, Kraven then threw a bolas at his legs, but Izuku just shot a web at it, sticking it to the ground.
Kraven then charged at Izuku and threw his spear at his head.
Izuku titled his head to the side, narrowly dodging the spear, as it landed in a chimney behind him, embedding itself in the bricks.
Kraven tried to punch Izuku in the face, but Izuku dodged, before trying to retaliate with his own blow to the head, only for Kraven to deflect it with his other arm, and then knee him in the stomach.
"Ohhh!" Izuku recoiled in pain before Kravin kicked him away. "Ahhh!"
Izuku went flying a few feet, rolling along the ground, before he pulled himself back up. "Ok. So you're tougher than you look."
"And you are holding back," Kraven said, as he pulled his spear out of the chimney. "I know now you truly a dangerous foe. Had you been fighting with your true strength and speed, I would likely not still be standing. And yet you allowed yourself to be stuck by me. I must ask. Why?"
"Well simply put, there are very, very few people who could take a full power punch from me and live. And you are not one of them." Izuku explained.
Kraven was in the category of, too weak to punch at full power, but too strong to take out with the average amount of force he used on most common criminals. Meaning he had to kind of fumble around until he found the right amount of power, to deal with him.
Thankfully his spider-sense would keep him from going overboard, but it was still a pain in the ass.
"But let's see if you can deal with this," Izuku said, before turning invisible.
Kraven just smirked and waited for a moment, before backhanding the air in front of him, hitting Izuku in the face, knocking him out of his invisibility, and causing him to stumble back.
The hunter then tried to capitalize, by thrusting at him his spear at the stunned Izuku.
Izuku barely managed to dodge in time, moving his body to the side as the spear grazed his stomach.
Kraven unleashed a flurry of spear thrusts, and Izuku dodged each and every one of them, before allowing himself to fall back, and then flip away, getting some distance away from the armed lunatic.
Alright. I have the strength and speed advantage but I can't press that right now. And he has a massive skill and experience edge. Izuku said, taking a moment to breathe and analyze his situation. I need to either adapt to his durability level faster or change my approach…maybe this will work.
Izuku then turned towards the side of the building and ran off. Diving into the alleyway below as he turned invisible.
"I have tracked many, many different preys more elusive than you. You will not escape." Kraven said as he followed, jumping down into the alleyway, embedding his spear into the side of the building to slow his fall until he hit the floor.
The moment he hit the ground and took his spear out of the wall, he had to duck to avoid a jump kick to the head from Izuku.
Izuku slid across the ground, and turned, before quickly webbing a dumpster that was next to Kraven and slamming it into him.
SLAM!
The dumpster smashed Kraven against the wall, and he winced in pain from the impact, before quickly, grabbing the side of it and pushing it away, and charging at Izuku.
"A change of arena. How clever." Kraven praised as he jumped up, and thrust his spear down at Izuku, who ducked forward, moving out of the way as Kraven's spear pierced the ground he stood on.
Izuku jumped onto the side of the wall, before leaping at Kraven from the side, as the hunter raised his arm to block his kick, successfully doing so, although the blow still hurt quite a bit, and slammed Kraven into the opposite wall.
Kraven quickly grabbed Izuku's leg, and swung him into the wall, his back hitting the brick so hard it cracked.
Izuku fell to the ground and Kraven tried to kick him in the ribs, but Izuku grabbed his foot with one arm, and pushed him back, giving the vigilante time to stand up.
"Hehehehe." Kraven laughed as he gave Izuku a bloody grin. "This is a good hunt. Worth more than the money being rewarded. Be proud. When I am done. I will mount you on my wall."
"Please tell me you don't actually mount PEOPLE on your wall?" Izuku asked in shock and disgust.
Kraven didn't give him an answer, instead, he just charged at Izuku, and tried to punch him in the face.
Izuku ducked his head to the side dodging the punch before trying to deliver an uppercut to Kraven's jaw.
Kraven moved his head to the side, and Izuku felt his fist brush against his face.
Izuku's spider-sense told him Kraven was going to try and knee his stomach, so he raised his own knee, colliding with the villains.
The two remained interlocked for a moment, but Izuku pushed Kraven away with his superior strength, forcing him against the wall.
Izuku shot out two webs at Kraven's hands, sticking them to the wall,
Thinking he'd finally got him, Izuku rushed in and prepared to punch him in the face.
He was so close, but then suddenly his spider-sense went off.
SMASH!
Kraven's hands rushed forward, not breaking free of the webs, but breaking that part of the wall free of the rest of the wall.
His fist rushed towards Izuku's face while Izuku himself already had his arm cocked back, and the teen got hit right in the face with a fist full of bricks.
"Agh!" Izuku got knocked back, only to get another fist to the face, and now he had his back up against the wall.
However Kraven still had webs on his hands, so instead of capitalizing on Izuku's stunned state by attacking him, he rushed towards his fallen spear and used the tip to destroy the webbing around his hands.
Izuku had recovered from the blow at this point and saw Kraven hunched over his spear, and shot out a web line at his back.
But Kraven turned and caught it, before yanking it forward, causing Izuku to come flying towards him.
Kraven kicked Izuku in the stomach and sent him to the ground, and then, he picked up his spear and got ready to stab the downed Izuku.
And then Black Cat came falling down and slashed Kraven's back with her claws.
"Aghhhhh!" Kraven shouted out as he recoiled in pain, as his coat was torn and five slash marks were made in his back.
He quickly turned and saw Black Cat smirking at him cockily. "Sorry. But I can't have you breaking my stuff."
Kraven swiped at her with his spear, but she just backflipped back, before jumping onto the side of the building.
"My quirk should make it easier for you to knock him down spider. Don't disappoint." Black Cat said.
"Thanks!" Izuku shouted as he jumped back up, before trying to sweep Kraven's legs.
Kraven tried to jump back, but as he was doing so, his footing slipped, and he fell on his back. "Oaf!"
Izuku shot a web line at Kraven and raised him up into the air, before slamming him into the ground on his back.
Kraven quickly cut the web with his spear, and pulled himself to his feet, only to slip and fall again when he landed on an orange peel.
Ok, that can't be a coincidence. Izuku thought. I guess this has to be Black Cat's quirk. Some kind of bad luck ability.
Black Cat. Quirk: Nine Minutes Bad Luck. Whenever she scratches you with her claws, you will have horribly bad luck for the next nine minutes.
"Hmm. It seems that your companion has put you at a disadvantage." Kraven said pulling himself up again, almost slipping on a particularly wet piece of ground. "I will retreat for now. Next time we fight. I take your head."
Kraven then said something in Russian, before he was engulfed in light, and vanished.
"What….what just happened?" Izuku said, eyes wide with shock.
"Our Hunter also seems to be a Magician, and pulled a vanishing act," Black Cat said, her voice carrying a hint of annoyance. "Well, nothing we can do about it now. Time we split before the heroes arrive."
"...Yeah." Izuku sighed, not at all pleased with how the fight turned out. "Be careful on your way home. Don't wanna get ambushed by that guy out of nowhere."
"Same to you Spider," Cat said, as she ran up the side of the building, disappearing into the night.
WRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Izuku heard the police arriving, and turned invisible, before jumping onto the wall and crawling upwards, starting the long trek home.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"It seems like Kingpin recognizes you as a threat," Nezu told him, after listening to the whole story.
It was the next day and Izuku had come into Nezu's office to give him what info he had and tell him about the events of last night.
"Part of me wants to be happy about that but the rest of me knows that's a bad thing." Izuku sighed. He could still feel the wounds from last night's battle. "It's a bit unnerving to think that he has people like him on the payroll."
"Well first let's discuss our hunter friend a bit more," Nezu said, after looking up some information. "They call him Kraven the Hunter. He started out illegally hunting dangerous animals and selling them to the highest bidder, however in recent years he's moved onto bounty hunting. Seemingly he's just after thrills and money. And his quirk is called Apex Predator. Whenever he consumes freshly killed meat, he gains a significant boost in power."
"Wait, what did he kill before he fought me?!" Izuku asked in alarm. "Because he would have had to have eaten something really fresh to be THAT strong right?"
"You're correct. He would have had to have been to have been at max power to fight you as he did. Your not exactly an opponent anyone can afford to take lightly." Nezu confirmed. "But neither is he. Kingpin likey contacted him to assist his own forces, so you'll have to deal with both him and other villains simultaneously in the future."
"Ugh." Izuku groaned, putting his hands on his head as he imagined how much of a pain that would be. "Well, hopefully, I can get more adjusted to fighting him in the future. Maybe I can get him with my Venom Blast."
"Ah yes, I was to going to ask why you didn't try and use that ability during the fight," Nezu said. "From what you've told me, that ability sounds like it would have been most useful."
"Well, it would be, if I knew how to control it." Izuku sighed in dismay. "It's a new ability so using it without killing someone is…difficult. As with most of my abilities."
"That's the price for being so powerful. And for fighting crime without any professional hero training." Nezu said, lightly berating him.
"I know," Izuku said. "Although I'm glad I don't have to wait before I can help people. My spider-sense would drive me insane, telling me about problems I can't do anything about."
"I can only imagine the number of incident reports we'd both have to deal with." Nezu laughed. "But would help you through it. As I do now."
"And I'm very thankful for it," Izuku said, giving him a polite nod.
"Well, putting all this aside for now. You did well last night. Regardless of your failure to arrest Kraven, you got what you came for, that being the information. Which is the most important part." Nezu told him. "Remember, gathering information is your primary goal. Anything else is secondary."
"But…" Izuku suddenly looked a bit unsure. "If I don't beat him, he'll be free to hurt other people."
"Indeed. But Kingpin hurts more people than Kraven will ever hurt, in the span of a few months." Nezu pointed out. "And let's not forget, if you die, then no one gets helped."
"...I need more practice," Izuku concluded with a fiery look in his eyes. "This wouldn't be a problem if I just had more practice."
"Unfortunately practice can only do so much against your specific problem. What you need is experience." Nezu told him. "Although practice doesn't hurt. In particular, it sounds like your need to commit less to your attacks, so you can better make use of your spider-sense to dodge attacks. Perhaps a more counter-attack-focused fighting style would be advantageous in this case."
"Alright. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you, sir." Izuku said.
"Your welcome. Now continue on with your day." Nezu dismissed him.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
As Izuku closed the door to Nezu's office, he immediately felt someone wrap their arm around his shoulder, and then heard a far too familiar voice whisper in his ear. "Found you spider."
Izuku's eyes widened so much you'd think they were about to pop out his head, and he quickly moved forward and turned around to confirm his fears.
It was her. Black Cat. At U.A.!
She obviously wasn't in her costume. Instead, she was wearing a U.A. uniform that he suspected didn't actually belong to her. Her hair was also black instead of white, likely as some form of disguise, although having seen her up close he could definitely tell it was her.
"What are-" Izuku was about to shout when Black Cat rushed forward and put her hand over his mouth.
"Shush. Don't make a scene. You don't want to get me caught do you?" She told him, her overconfident grin not giving even a hint of urgency. "Let's take this somewhere private shall we?"
XXXXXXXXXXX
The two eventually snuck onto the roof, where they could be certain no one would be watching them.
Well except maybe Nezu over the cameras, but that was fine.
"Alright. How did you find me!? And how did you get in here!?" Izuku shouted in pure panic.
"You gave me your actual phone number." She said giving him a smug look as she leaned against the fence. "So I traced it."
"I…" Izuku was taken aback. He felt the urge to facepalm. In retrospect that was probably an obvious mistake. But at the time he was too busy thinking about how much he didn't want to work with her, that he literally let her track him.
Black Cat walked up to him and gave him a pat on the back. "Don't be too upset, if it makes you feel any better, at least only I found out and not anyone with bad intentions."
Izuku gave her the most deadpanned look he had ever given anyone in his life.
"Oh come on spider, I'm not gonna do anything insidious with this info. I just wanted to see what was behind the mask." She said in a tone that was half mock offended and half smug. "And honestly, kind of underwhelming. No offense but your just kind of plain."
"I'm aware." Izuku sighed, clutching the bridge between his nose. "Now what do you actually want? You wouldn't have taken the risk of coming here just to see my face."
"Honestly I kind of did." Black Cat said casually, as she sat against a wall. "I wasn't lying when I said I found you interesting. Even now that I know who you are I'm still curious about how you came to be who are you, despite your boring face."
Izuku really wished he was Spider-Man right now. Because Midoriya Izuku was not equipped to deal with someone like her.
"So, I'll cut you a deal. You answer my questions, and I'll answer yours." Black Cat offered. "Because I'm certain that someone as curious as you is wondering what a skillful, beautiful young woman is doing as a professional thief."
"I…" Izuku couldn't lie, he was interested in learning more about her if only to try and understand why she was the way she was a bit better and not feel so lost when talking to her. Not to mention she already knew way more about him than he wanted to, so at this point what did he have to lose. "Ok."
"Great. Now." Black Cat gestured to the spot next to her, urging him to sit down.
Izuku gave her a nervous yet warry look, but sat down, although quite a bit farther than the spot she'd pointed out.
"So, since you seem as likely to take the initiative as All Might is to kick a puppy, I'll start first." Black Cat said. "So, when I read your file something I found something very interesting. It says you're quirkless. What's that all about?"
"You had to start with that question." Izuku lamented with a sigh.
"What is it personal?" She asked curiously.
"No. It's just…complicated." Izuku tried to think of the best way to explain this. "Ok, so this is gonna sound dumb. But it's what happened. I'm not lying."
"Oh, this ought to be good." Black Cat looked eager to hear whatever it was Izuku was about to say. It must be really weird if he was this flustered about it.
"Alright…so I was born quirkless. But one day, I got bit by a spider. And it gave me all of its powers." Izuku explained as simply as possible. "That's it. That's what happened."
Black Cat actually snickered and looked him over for a second. "Really? A spider gave you a spider quirk? And also the ability to turn invisible? And the ability to emit electricity."
"Yeah, I honestly don't know why I can do that," Izuku admitted. "But really that's what happened. I got bit by a spider, I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks, and when I come out, I have spider-powers! That's all I know about how this happened!"
"So there's just a spider that can give people your powers just, somewhere in the city?" Black Cat asked, sounding extremely amused. "Just crawling around?"
"Well no, I squashed it." Izuku sighed when he realized there was little he could say to make his story more believable. "Look, I don't know what else to tell you."
"No, no. I believe you. Or at the very least I don't think you're lying. Your not the type to make weird complicated lies." Black Cat said. "If you were gonna lie to me, you'd probably say something like, there was a complication with the paperwork. Or you were an unbelievably late bloomer. But still, that doesn't explain why you're STILL listed as quirkless."
"Well, I already started my vigilante activities before I could get my new quirk registered, so at that point, we figured that it'd be better to just keep me registered as quirkless to help hide my identity," Izuku explained.
"Makes sense, given how unique your quirk is. If you registered that, you'd have been caught right away." She pointed out, before giving him a sly grin. "Well, now you get to ask a question. Don't be scared. Just know that my three sizes are off-limits."
"I wasn't gonna ask about that!" Izuku shouted, his face turning bright red, and only getting redder as Black Cat laughed at him. "Fine well, what's your name?"
Black Cat snickered. "Really? That's the question you want to ask first? You couldn't have chosen something juicer?"
"W-well I don't just want to keep calling you Black Cat! Especially when you already know my name!" Izuku flusteredly defended himself.
"Fair enough I guess." She smirked. "The name's Fukona Shoko. Call me Fuko for short."
"Eh!? I-Isen't that a bit too personal!?" Izuku stuttered, once again turning red as a tomato.
"You know your personality is way different from your spider-man persona. I honestly expected you to be a little less easy to fluster." Fuko teased. "But, now it's my turn. So, why be a vigilante? With those skills and that power, you could have easily passed the U.A. entrance exam and become a pro hero. And yet, you choose the hard route for seemingly no good reason. Why?"
Izuku sighed. "That…is kind of an embarrassing story…you see, one day I happened to bump into a woman who was being attacked. So I helped her, and ended up having to use my quirk…and then Eraserhead showed up, and tried to arrest me. I panicked and ran away. Then I may have overreacted, and decided the only way to be like a hero, would be to become a vigilante and try to get them to acknowledge me as a hero."
Fuko then immediately burst into laugher, causing Izuku to wince in embarrassment. "So you just…wow…calling that an overreaction is a bit an understatement don't you think!?"
"I know! I know! I messed up!" Izuku buried his head into his legs. "I was in a very emotional state, and Eraserhead was making it sound very serious!"
"So your just…a spaz. A spaz who spazed his way into getting ultra-powerful, and then has just been bumbling his way into becoming the most infamous vigilante in the city." Fuko summed up with a look much like that of a school bully discovering someone's embarrassing secret. "Am I understanding that right?"
Izuku opened his mouth, wanting to rebuke those claims…but found that he couldn't.
Because really, was she wrong?
Izuku was generally a smart person, but his decision-making skills when outside of battle, were questionable at best, and just outright bad at worst.
He tended to get overly emotional and overlook important details. Such as giving a thief his real phone number!
Eventually, Izuku just closed his mouth and sulked.
"Oh, cheer up," Fuko told him, giving him a gentle flick on the ear. "If it makes you feel any better, it's your turn to ask a question."
Izuku paused for a second to get over himself, before finally coming up with a question. "Why did you become a thief?"
"Now we're getting into the juicy questions. I knew you had it in you." She chuckled. "Well, it's a bit of a long story. But to give you the short version. I was homeless, and I wanted to eat. So I took to thieving. But not the same kind of thieving I do now obviously. No, back then it was just a picking pocketing here, stealing some food there. Up until I tried to pick from the wrong pocket. In particular, it was the pocket of one Black Widow."
"Wait…I recognize that name." Izuku took a second to try and search his brain, and recall what he knew about that woman. "Wasn't that the rouge Russian spy that turned into a vigilante and started taking down secret organizations around the world?"
"The very same," Fuko said, smiling fondly. "I tried picking her pocket, I don't think I need to tell you how poorly that went for me. Not only did she keep me from picking her pocket, she then gave me advice on how to pickpockets, in the most insufferably smug tone I've ever heard. And from that moment on, me being the most stubborn child in the world, decided to stop at nothing in order to steal from that woman specifically. It was of pride you see."
"So, you, a small child, were determined to steal from one of the greatest spy/assassins in the world." Izuku summarized, looking confused.
"Yeah, it was about as hopeless as it sounds. But, I've always been lucky." She said playfully. "So as fate would have it, I managed to keep finding her. Really, finding her once, was unlikely, twice is just stupidly lucky, but by the third time, I figured it was fate. As you can imagine, she was pretty mystified as to how this same random homeless kid kept finding her, so much so that by the third time, she suspected I might be connected to someone trying to find her, and just plucked me off the streets."
"You mean like…kidnapping?" Izuku asked.
"I mean not really, I was homeless kids. Can you kidnap a kid no one wants?" Fuko asked.
"I feel like if you abduct a child against their will, that is kidnapping," Izuku told her firmly.
"Eh well if it was, no one really cared." She shrugged. "Expect me obviously, I was terrified. But after a quick interrogation, she was mostly sure I wasn't a spy. But to make sure, she just kept me with her for a while."
"That sounds extremely irresponsible." Izuku pointed out, his opinion of the secret agency worsening the more she spoke.
"Well again, I was a homeless kid so no one really cared. And she was feeding me, so I was NOT complaining." Fuko shrugged. "And over time, we got to know each other, and she taught me a few things. Namely infiltration, self-defense, and how to steal from assholes. Eventually, she just left me on my own, with all these lovely new skills, and so I just kept doing what I'd been doing before. Except bigger, and better."
"Well, that's…an interesting story." Izuku was honestly unsure what to think of that, or of her in general. It was clear she had it pretty rough, and did the best she could just to survive, and while he didn't condone pickpocketing, he also understood that it was probably her only real option.
Honestly, it spoke to her character that she chose to steal from criminals and not defenseless civilians.
Maybe he'd judged her a bit too harshly. Sure she was a thief, but she hadn't really done anything to hurt the innocent, and it's not like she was a killer. Maybe he could actually say she was a good person?
RINNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!
Suddenly the bell rang, signifying that Izuku needed to get back to class.
"Looks like time is up. A shame." Fuko said as she got up, and stretched, looking more like a cat than normal. "I'll be seeing you later spider. Make sure you don't get caught."
And with that, she opened the door that lead back down into the school building, but before she went down she gave him one last sly look. "Oh, and next time, let's talk a bit more about Tinkerer."
Then she left before Izuku could utter a response.
"I have a feeling that I'll never quite get used to dealing with her," Izuku said to himself, as he quickly got up to leave. "But why do I have the feeling we're gonna end up meeting, way more than I'd like."
Alright, so let's talk about the chapter.
Now, earlier I said that the excuse of Spider-Man, not one shotting his villains because he is holding back was dumb. But I said it was dumb, because Spider-Man fought those villains, a million times.
He's not used to Kraven, and Kraven is really tough, so he has to adjust. If he fought Kraven like three times, then he would be able to defeat him pretty easily, but the first few times, he's gonna struggle.
Also, Black Widow will most likely not be showing up in this story. This was just a fun reference and a way to explain how the hell she got so skilled.
Anyway, please review, and have a nice day.