With moves that surprised me, Felicia screamed in inarticulate rage and suddenly seemed to get… bulkier, much like the girl on the rooftop I fought, and she rushed right for Fisk.
I winced as she got close to him. Fisk was a big guy, and I liked to tease him by calling him fatty and such, but the truth was that most of his bulk was solid muscle.
As angry as she was, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that he could see the attack she was making.
He hit her before she hit him. Hard.
Felicia flew back and I managed to get in between her and the floor, trying to soften the fall. We both tumbled back, which gave the Kingpin's men time to enter the room, automatics loaded for bear. He smiled.
"Now, now, my dear. That really is no way to treat your host. But… I think I could see my way clear to let you go after one last job…"
She looked up at him, and I groaned inside.
"He's not going to let anyone go Felicia. Don't."
She looked back down at me.
"Sorry, Peter. There's no real choice here."
She looked back up at Fisk.
"What's the job?"
He smiled, and led her out of the room, closing the door behind us. As he left, I heard him say something else.
"Oh, just a little something special…"
My spider-sense told me that no one was watching the room, Mr. Hardy and I were trapped in, but I waited about an hour anyways. I sighed and looked up at the stereotypical ventilation system.
I really hope he doesn't wake up…
Getting into the cooling system was easy, but making sure that Jack Hardy stayed safe and didn't get too many bruises was significantly harder.
About halfway through, the alarms sounded, so I assumed they knew we were missing, but I managed to get us out of the building.
Now the question remained, what was I going to do with Felicia's father, who was bound to wake up sometime soon, while I went for my costume?
The penthouse was out, naturally, as was my house. The hospital was a no go; Kingpin's bribes could get him anyone out of there easily. A police station sounded promising, but then my name would be brought into it, and I really didn't need that.
But then…
I sighed. My name was already in this, after all I'd been kidnapped too.
So… 'Spider-Man' rescued us, and then… what happened to me that I'm not with him. I can't be a part of it now, Aunt May will fuss over me and never leave me alone for a second once this breaks.
Hospital?
I'd need to be injured for that. While I'll admit it's likely for me to get seriously injured today, I'd like to think I'm better than that.
My train of thought was interrupted by a groaning next to me. I started to check on Mr. Hardy.
"Hey, are you alright?"
He looked at me blearily.
"Peter?"
I nodded. At least he recognized me.
"How are you doing?"
He slowly sat up and shook his head a bit.
"Okay… not good, but okay… where are we? Where's Felicia?"
"We're on a rooftop, sir. Spider-Man got us out of Fisk's place…"
He nodded, and stood up. Walking to the ledge, he took a look around.
"I recognize this intersection. Good."
He went over to the fire escape, really spry for a guy his age, and pointed when we got to the ground.
"You see that building over there, Peter, the one with the clock on it?"
I nodded.
"Yeah."
"Good. I own it, but not directly. Get inside. Fisk's people are probably looking for you."
I nodded, then caught his arm.
"What about you?"
He grimaced.
"I have to stop him. It was my fault he got the formula. He's going to have Felicia go after the materials to produce more of them. I can't just leave it alone. Not when he's got my daughter. Go to the building, Peter. I'll try to collect you later. If you don't hear anything by tomorrow, well… it's your call."
I ran towards the building until he wasn't watching anymore, then I ran for home.
Alright, from now on, I wear the costume underneath my clothes. This is just ridiculous.
Costume on, I swung back to Fisk Towers, and entered the way I'd left before, except this time I didn't go into the cell. I continued on a bit, before slipping into the hallway, and crawling along the ceiling.
It wasn't too long before I heard voices.
"Father!!"
Nuts.
Well, apparently Jack had been caught, and the lack of scuffle coming from the room said there were a lot of guards, they were locked up pretty tight, or both.
Well, here goes nothing…
I edged closer to the door, moving slowly so that I'd have plenty of time to feel the peculiar tingle that said I was being watched. Reaching the door I felt nothing, as expected, and, this was where I got lucky for once, nothing as I touched the door with intent to open it.
Easing it open, I slipped inside, and skittered up among the works of what appeared to be a lab.
Great. They wouldn't be here unless the job was done. So much for thinking Fisk'd wait for nightfall to strike. Criminals lack style these days… unlike yours truly.
Crawling around, I found them. A bunch of mixers and test tubes and burners. On one wall there were a bunch of computer banks, and on the other was a glass panel from with I couldn't see anything other than an ominous glow at this point.
But most importantly, it was just Fisk, a guy in a lab coat, and two guys with guns. Guns pointed at an unconscious Jack, ready to fire if Felicia threatened. Manageable. Not the best situation in the world, but manageable.
The guns being pointed at Jack was bad, but all that meant no one was going to be looking up at me anytime soon. They had to be taken care of first. Once they were out of the picture… well, Fisk probably had more men waiting in the wings, and he was a handful by himself, but at least the older man would be out of the immediate line of fire.
They were being smart about it though. They weren't right next to each other, so they couldn't be taken out at once.
I had no choice but to wait for now. I tuned in the conversation below.
"Now, Ms. Hardy, if you will be so kind as to hand over the last of the ingredients, I won't kill your father… or that boy we have locked in the back room, Parker, was it?"
I arched an eyebrow under the mask. Fat boy was playing it a bit smarter than I thought. He didn't have me back there, but he was doing what he could to pretend to be infallible.
Felicia reached into her costume and removed a final vial of… something… from well, I certainly would have expected to find anything there. She tossed it to the Kingpin, who smiled, and handed it to the lab tech, who inserted it into the last chamber of the mixer, and started it up. Fisk motioned to the guards, and one suddenly turned the bead on her.
Hoping that she could take care of herself, or take the bullet, I dropped on the other one and grabbed the old man, just as Felicia ducked under the bullet fired on her and smashed the man's face in.
Then, my Spider-Sense went off, telling me to get out, now! I started running for the door, hopefully to the nearest window, Felicia a step behind, surprising me by not going for Fisk. My spider sense just started screaming louder and louder as we ran.
"What did you do?!"
I was yelling, and she yelled back.
"I replaced the last ingredient with an explosive I found in the lad I got the stuff from!"
Great.
She went through the window first, clearing the glass as I followed with her father. We landed on an adjacent roof top. I laid her father down, then tackled her as the sense peaked, the top of the building exploding.
That reminded her of something.
"Peter!!"
I grabbed her to keep her from going into the fire, and she spun around, belting me in the face. I reeled from the blow, but kept grip on her arm. She spit at me.
"Let me go, creep!"
"Easy, Felicia…"
"Go to hell, Spider-Man!"
I sighed.
God, I hope this doesn't come back to bite me later.
I whipped off the mask, and she stopped. Then she enveloped me in a bone crushing hug.
Several months later…
I waited for her on a rooftop.
I couldn't keep doing this. Felicia was great, but… it seemed like all our time together was in costume. Nothing was ever Peter and Felicia, it was just Spider-Man and Black Cat.
Not a great way to have a relationship.
Going to the movies wasn't her idea of a good time. Beating down thugs in central park was. A walk on the beach wasn't romantic, but swinging through the buildings was.
Whenever I tried to be me, Peter, she'd always laugh, purr a little, or do something to get me to be Spider-Man again.
I couldn't keep doing it. Spider-Man was a knee-jerk reaction, made to cover how completely scared of what could happen most of time, a way to keep my mind off it.
Someone once said: Fearlessness isn't courage. That's an idiot. True courage is being afraid, but doing what needs to be done anyways.
But that was something Felicia didn't understand. I suppose I understood why. Black Cat was how Felicia found freedom from being an ordinary, idle rich girl.
I couldn't be with Felicia anymore, not when she didn't like me for me, but me for Spider-Man.
She landed on the roof a moment later, downcast. We spoke at the same time.
"We have to talk."
She blinked, and I motioned for her to start.
"Fisk has resurfaced, Spider. My father… he's moving us out of the country for now. To Europe somewhere. I don't want to go, but he's right. The Kingpin will come after us if we're here, and probably abroad, but we'll be harder to get at there."
I nodded.
"I… I guess this is it, then."
She looked at me.
"What did you have to tell me, Spider?"
I sighed.
It doesn't matter anymore.
"It's… nothing. Don't worry about."
She looked at me uncertainly, but nodded and went to the edge.
"I know you've been upset about something lately, but I won't pry… I don't have the time anyways. Daddy is waiting. See you around some time."
She jumped off the ledge and disappeared into the night. I swung around for a while, then went home.
Okay, so I lied. Only one more chapter. The interlude is done now, so the next chapter will go back to our regularly schedualed programing. I'm thinking we'll start off back in the prison, where 'all hell broke loose'.
Hopefully it won't be too long before the next update, but I'm not making any promises.
Neverwhere