Serena Calico, the Feline Avenger, took a deep breath. This was it. This was her chance. She would prove herself to her former mentor, and she'd bring in enough loot to finance the fusion experiment ten times over.
She paused outside the store entrance, then opened the door and went in.
The sparkle of the jewellery was exquisite. A selection of exotic metals, precious gems and the finest craftsmanship dazzled her. For a moment, she found herself overwhelmed by the allure of the riches before her, transfixed by their beauty. She'd always had a fondness for jewellery, but she'd never been able to indulge it before. A physicist's salary didn't extend to gold or diamonds. It was different now. She was no longer Serena Calico, dowdy scientist. She was the Feline Avenger, and all this was going to be hers.
Heads turned to watch her as she strode across the plush red carpet. She was enjoying the admiration that her black leather and her lusciously flowing red locks were getting, and she smiled to herself when she realised how much more attention she'd get when everyone in the store found out what her real intentions were.
A tall, balding man, his expensive-looking suit marking him as the manager, gave her an obsequious smile. She'd never had that in this sort of store before. She'd always been ignored before, passed over as shop attendants scrambled to assist their more glamorous customers. Yes, he'd do just perfectly.
She came to a stop in front of the counter. His eyes met hers and he leaned forward involuntarily. With a flutter of her eyelashes and a slight hint of a smile, she grabbed his tie playfully. Slightly startled, he nonetheless reacted with an answering smile. There was no point in offending customers like this one, even if he hadn't been seduced by those eyes, huge golden irises with pupils that narrowed to cat-like slits. Slit pupils? The realization startled him and he jerked back.
Serena Calico snarled. She pulled him forward by his tie, until their faces were almost touching.
"Miaow," she whispered.
Her victim recoiled from the determination in her voice.
"Give me everything you've got," Serena said softly. "I won't hurt anyone unless you force me to, but I want your jewellery, and I want it right now ..."
Otto Octavius had not been having a good day. His trip to the bank had been interrupted by the arrival of Spider-Man, a figure he'd considered to be an urban legend perpetuated by unscrupulous tabloids until their first encounter at his failed fusion experiment. Now the red-and-blue-clad web-slinger had been doing his best to thwart Otto's plans. He'd inconvenienced Otto, that was true, but he'd still managed to escape with a considerable quantity of gold. Perhaps the legendary Spider-Man wasn't as skilled as rumour made him out to be?
Then, as he was fleeing the site of the robbery, he'd found himself dodging police cars and even the odd helicopter. Annoyingly, it appeared that they weren't even chasing after him, but rather after some jewel thief. He didn't want publicity, of course, but it still irked him that he had to share the limelight with someone else.
Although he was indeed rather amused by the new nickname he'd been given by the tabloids. "Doctor Octopus" sounded suitably menacing. "Doc Ock" was less so, but he found it oddly catchy. Doc Ock, super-villain, scourge of Spider-Man, super-scientist - he was running out of "s" words, but he liked what he'd got so far. He'd have to work Serena in there too. Perhaps she could be his tentacle-polishing handmaiden? The thought popped into his mind unbidden, and he flushed as he realised that not only would she not approve of such a title, but that he was finding thoughts of her doing such a job to be strangely ... pleasurable.
No, he wouldn't give Serena's attributes any more thought. She his former student, by far the most brilliant he'd ever had, and he wouldn't take advantage of her new-found sensuality.
The relative darkness inside the warehouse soothed Otto's eyes. He'd had his sunglasses shattered by his hostage, and the trip back had been uncomfortable. His eyes were very sensitive to light since the accident, and he'd found himself forced to wear sunglasses in most environments. Actually, he rather liked the mysterious air they gave him, even though he wouldn't have admitted it to a soul.
A tentacle dumped the heavy bag on the ground. A lone gold coin fell out and landed on the wooden floor with a muted clink.
"Serena!" he called. There was no response.
He wondered where she was. With the uproar in the city both from him and from the jewel thief, it certainly wasn't safe for her to be out, especially not during the day. As agile and dexterous as she was, she didn't have the brute strength of his tentacles."Serena?" he called again, a note of query in his voice.
This time, he got a muffled response. She'd obviously been sleeping. He strode over to the source of the voice, which was at the far end of the warehouse behind some empty wooden crates.
"We have the gold!" he announced with a triumphant smile as he rounded the corner.
It sounded more than a little trite when he said it, but he hoped that she'd be impressed by the deed, rather than by his words. However, his smile froze as he saw Serena.
She was lying on an old grey blanket, curled up like a cat. Scattered on the blanket, like the myriad stars in a galaxy, were piles of jewels, their glitter hypnotic. Serena lay half on top of the riches, her eyes closed and a small grin playing around her lips. She opened her eyes and stared directly at him. Her hair fell over the right side of her face, like a river of fire. A tiara perched on the flame-like mass, and huge diamond earrings dangled from her ears. Diamonds gleamed around her wrists, neck and ankles.
For a moment, Otto was reminded of an ancient queen. Her loveliness was so intense that it was almost heart-stopping. The precious sparkles surrounding her only enhanced her beauty, rather than stealing his attention from it. Then he frowned and raised an eyebrow.
"You were the jewel thief?" he asked, the sentence more of a statement than a question.
Serena shrugged as modestly as she could, while she tried to hide her pride in her skills and in the riches around her.
"You risked everything. You could have been killed! Worse, you could have compromised my experiment!"
Serena's face fell and her jaw tensed. She stood up, jewellery falling everywhere, and faced him directly.
"Listen, Octavius, if you think I'm going to wait here while you do everything, you're wrong. I told you this before – I'm tough, I'm competent, and I'm sure as hell not going to wait around here sewing your clothes and cleaning the warehouse!" she hissed, her pupils narrowing to thin slivers.
A tentacle twitched angrily, then snapped meaningfully at her. Serena stood her ground. If it came to it, she'd fight him again, and this time she'd win.
"I told you to wait here. It's dangerous out there. You're causing problems that we don't want or need," Otto said, forcing himself to remain calm.
Serena threw up her hands in frustration.
"You don't need to protect me. I'm no longer your student, someone who needs to be sheltered from the outside world. I can take care of myself. I showed it today, didn't I?"
Suddenly her shoulders dropped and she sighed deeply. She folded her arms across her chest, then looked up at him again, hair still curling down the right side of her face.
"I was glad to see you again, Dr Octavius, but I think it's time for our association to end. As much as I respect you, I do not think we can work together any more. Stay in the warehouse – I'll find another shelter."
She turned away and began to pack the jewels in a soft leather knapsack.