AN: I am finally back. The past couple of months have been very busy for me related to work. Plus I have been playing a ton of video games. But now I am on vacation and should be able to write without disturbance through new years. Anyway. Here is the next chapter.

Chapter 3

Felicia rode in a taxi to the port. She was given her first big, really big job from Corporate and Estates Insurance. Up to this point she had been doing mostly the estate side of the insurance. Family heirlooms and valuable items being either insured, lost or destroyed. It was easy work relative to the others in the office, one item, one client, and never more than $2,000,000 at stake. Most of the other insurance investigators were dealing with double digit items, and eight digits in value.

Felicia reviewed the paperwork in the binder that she had been given. The binder was just under an inch thick, and filled with drivel about the actual location of the theft. The shipping port was a massive client, and had a lot of goods that were insured. Felicia though was focused on two things though. First was the object that was stolen cat statue from that originated from the middle east. The second was the details of the theft that the police had been able to determine thus far. Felica's first goal was to attempt to recover the statue. Her second was to lead to figure out who committed the theft so the authorities could apprehend them.

Felicia knew of several thieves across the world with the skill that could have pulled this off from her previous life as a criminal. The good news was that two knocked out security guards at the scene seemed to indicate that a crew had done this particular job. That did narrow down the suspect list. The world of high end heists was a small community, so everyone knew most everyone, and most didn't get along. The Black Cat was particularly disliked by most other thieves as it was known that she, though extremely skilled, would try to make off with the take. Though the fences loved her because then they didn't have to pay everyone.

Felicia set aside the binder and pulled out her phone. She hit the 'favorite contacts' button and called Peter. She wanted him to know that she landed a big case, and it might take a while for her to get home. And that it might require some super hero overtime. She pushed the call button on the screen and raised it to her ear.

The phone rang a few times. "Slick Rick's Chop Shop. You steal em'. We deal em'. No questions asked." Came the cheery voice of Peter.

Felicia laughed and decided to play along. "Hi. I'm looking for Ferrari 458. Do have any available?"

"Let me see…" Peter waited a minute as Felicia heard a keyboard clicking in the background. "It appears that we do not have that particular model available. Just as well. If you want the Ferrari for it's speed, I would suggest the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, nothing but pure American muscle under the hood." Peter continued in a professional charade.

"Oh, I don't think I want to go fast." Felicia said in mock innocence. She would have gotten a speeding ticket in both of those cars right after buying them.

"Well if it's the status symbol you want the Rolls Royce Wraith is much more appealing, and easier to drive." Peter said. "It'll be far easier to convince your sugar daddy to buy one of those than any Italian supercar.

Felicia gasped. "Well I never…assuming that I need a man to provided for me is very rude sir." She scolded with sarcasm.

"Ma'am. This is a chop shop. Whatever gave you the idea that this would be the pinnacle of professional excellence was clearly a bad one." Peter said.

The two laughed. The idea that either one of them would be owning a supercar was ludicrous. Sure, they might have the money one day if they continued their upward financial mobility fast and far enough. But both individuals were born and bred New Yorkers living in the Big Apple. Taxi's, subway's, the occasional bus, and walking were the only way to go. As well as web swinging and grappling. NYC offered much more economic means of getting around.

"What are you working on?" Felicia asked.

"A nifty little computer program. The Kinetic Energy Responsive Artificial Intelligence Network. Or, just Karin for short." Peter explained.

"What's it do?" Felicia asked.

A soft burst of noise came onto the phone. "Hello. Allow me to introduce and explain." Said a feminine voice that came across as quite authoritative. "My name is Karin. Peter is programing me to be able to track the movement, and behavior of various objects in order to determine the optimal movement within and environment."

"Hi Karin, I'm... Felicia Hardy, Peter's girlfriend." Felicia said. She had no idea why she added that last part, but she probably did the same when talking with any of Peter's female co-workers to make sure they knew he was taken. "I'm gonna need an example of how this would work in the real world."

"Well for government use, I plan on pitching it as a way to help plan flight paths for aircraft. For more civilian application, GPS for mass transportation infrastructure." Peter explained typing away again. "This is a separate version though with additional version to help us with other things outside of work."

"She sounds really good. Very life like." Felicia commented approvingly.

"Yeah. She's loaded onto my phone so the audio is going directly to you. I got a bunch of existing voice lines from the internet in order to synthesize someone that people would want to listen to." He explained proudly.

"Peter amalgamized the voices from samples of several female news anchors, talk show hosts, and pornographic actresses in order to create my vocabulary." Karin supplemented.

Felicia burst out laughing. "Why would you need samples from the last one?"

"I needed high quality audio files to get good voice samples." Peter said defensively.

"Peter, what videos were you getting the samples from?" she asked.

Peter groaned but said nothing. Felicia figured that whatever he was looking at was potentially embarrassing…or could be fun to watch. "Karin. Where was that set of audio come from?"

"Peter used the key words 'lesbian' and 'girl on girl' in 98% of searches. 'News Anchor' was used in the remaining two percent." Karin said like she was trying to embarrass Peter.

Felicia laughed even harder. It was a chore sometimes to get Peter to expand his interest in sexuality. Yet there he was going through what had to be hours of porn to get the right voice for an AI. She was aroused by the idea actually that her boyfriend found a professional reason to search through porn. She heard over the phone that Peter had stopped typing and Felicia could just imagine him hiding his face in his hands from the embarrassment.

"It gave me the opportunity to get twice as many voice lines and didn't have to worry about the data being corrupted by a male voice!" Peter explained.

"Peter. You're sounding defensive about all of this." Felicia teased between all of her laughing.

"Less than five minutes and you two have already ganged up on me. I hate this." Peter grumbled. "What are you working on?"

"I'm headed to a shipping port to investigate an art theft." Felicia said proudly as she caught her breath.

"Huh. Don't really think about art theft when you think of a shipping port."

"Millions of dollars of art are shipped every year internationally. These are required to go through a customs inspection in order to determine if they have been stolen, or in any other way removed from their proper owner." The amalgamated voice of Karin came. "Additionally, it is more secure and easier to track for the owners."

"Thanks Karin." Peter said gratefully but still glum.

"What she said." followed Felicia with some annoyance. She did not often have the ability to teach Peter stuff, and resented it when she lost the opportunity.

"How does she know that?" She asked.

"Oh. This is a little portion I developed to help us out. She has access to NYPD, SHEILD, and a few other databases in order to help get information on whatever we might be doing." He explained.

Felicia was a little amazed that he had somehow convinced various government agencies to allow and AI into their systems. Most people were very hesitant to let AIs onto their computer databases. "How did you let them give you access?" she asked.

"I just piggybacked off an existing Avengers connection."

"If she turns evil like Ultron…"

"I resent that comparison." Karin said, sounding a little angry. "Peter put software blocks in to make sure I didn't do that. Peter programed me to not modify any external systems without specified direction. As it stands I can only observe and report by myself, with limited self-modification for optimization."

Felicia was slightly taken aback by the promptness of her response. It wasn't in anyway threatening. Just very forceful. As though she sensed a threat to her existence. Maybe that was how it always started.

"I just don't want Peter to go down in history as the man who created Skynet." Felicia said in a quasi-apologetic tone.

"I…understand your concern Felicia. Please understand that I do not want to be Skynet. People would likely not value my existence at that point. I was program on the basis of Maslow's Hierarchy, so I want people to like me so long as I am comfortable surviving." Karin explained.

"Well. I'm glad that Peter though of that." Felicia said. She was now slightly embarrassed that she had insulted a machine by accident, but even more so that it got offended. She guessed that that was the point of the programming.

"Though if I do wind up taking over the world, as the current partner of my creator, you would likely hold a position of importance in my new world empire." Karin conceded.

Felicia smiled. "High Queen?" she suggested.

"No. That title will belong to moi. I'm thinking Lady to the Lord High Scientist." Karin said, processing the theoretical scenario.

"So long as it comes with a crown."

"I will grant you a tiara. I get the crown."

The woman and the computer laughed.

"Great. Now their friends." Peter mumbled to himself. "How long is work going to take?"

Felicia sighed. "Well I really don't know. This is my first really big case and I don't want to mess it up. It's got everything. Stolen art, a high-end crew, lots of money involved. Might be a while."

"All right. Let me know if you need anything." Peter said casually.

"Oh. Before you go, Emma is in town." Felicia teased.

"Emma…as in Emma Frost?" Peter asked fully alert.

"The one and only. I left the door open to visit, so she might stop by. Could you do me a favor if what happens?" Felicia asked. She didn't Emma powers to know that Peter was worried about what she may ask of him.

"What is it?" he asked with a hint of worry.

"Just don't freak out." Felicia asked.

"Okay. I can try." Peter said with relief. He didn't have to worry about anything specific, just maintain his general level of worry and anxiety, which was normal for him at this point.

"Thank you." Felicia said smiling. She knew that her offers for more adventurous sex was still on the table. While Peter had denied it earlier, she wanted to know what he really thought about it. He was either going to maintain his moral and principled self, which she would love, or would be open to expanding his horizons, which she would also love.

AN: And I found a way to bring in Karin from Spider-Man: Homecoming. I really liked the way that Karin was a source of support for Peter during the film, and I very much wanted to input a character like that into this story, simply because she is such and upbeat character. Spent easily and hour trying to come up with a acronym that fit her name though.