Felicia Hardy hated funerals. If it were her choice, she would never attend another one in her life. They could say what they wanted about being disrespectful, but gathering in a graveyard and saying the Lord's prayer whilst people that barely knew the deceased reminisced on how they bumped into one another once at Walmart was an absolute nightmare. The way the girl seen it, everyone wanted to know you when you were dead. The man with the dark glasses filled her vision. It was him. It was funny how things happen. People pass you that change somebody else's life, that refracts and changes a few other lives in the process. And for what? Because one happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Benjamin Franklin Parker's funeral was a solemn one. It was raining, as if there couldn't be more of a pathetic fallacy. Peter Parker's blank look as the water poured down from his hair, was still in the girls vision as she sat down at the table for dinner, the smell of her mother's meat loaf filling her nostrils. It was there the following morning, and then re-ignited the following week when Peter himself walked through the doors, in a world of his own, his earphones in. There was a sudden hush as he walked through the corridors, eyes flickering in his direction. Everyone knew what happened by now, it was plastered all over the news. Ben Parker's killer was on posters all around the city. The boy kept his head down, cracking open his locker, fumbling away, as Flash Thompson came over, seemingly sticking to the usual bullying routine. Felicia was ready to tell him to get lost, when Peter span round grabbing Flash by the shirt, pushing him up against the locker violently. The girl stumbled back in shock, the Thompson kid's eyes as equally bewildered, the entire hallways gaze darting in their direction. Peter slowly released his grip, quickly grabbing his books, and pushing past the attention towards a concerned Gwen Stacy who stood in the middle of the corridor. As Felicia Hardy hissed a profane spat at Flash, Gwen hugged the boy, or tried to, as he stood for a moment, before striding out the door, tears streaking down his face. As soon as he left, the corridor erupted in noise once more, movement commencing, proving another of Felicia's point about death. Life moved on, whether you wanted it to or not.

"Hello Felicia! I'm making spaghetti and meatballs if that's alright with you" Mrs Stacy smiled warmly by the hob stirring the contents of a pan, as the brunette walked into the large apartment, Gwen closing the door after them.

"Mrs Stacy that's more than alright. It smells awesome!" Felicia enthusiastically did a chefs kiss, in the air, making her best friends mother laugh, the two girls making their way to Gwen's room to finish up some homework before dinner. The girl gave a fist bump to each of her friends younger brothers who had come out of their rooms hearing them arrive. In all honesty the entire Stacy family loved having Felicia around for dinner, and Gwen would never tell the girl, but she thought some part of them pitied her. Her mother worked back shifts at the hospital as an nurse to afford rent, as well as a second job cleaning and ironing people's clothes.

"This entire week has just been...awful" Gwen mumbled, too low in mood to even look at the books she sprawled out in front of them on the bed. Felicia nodded in agreement, heaving out a sigh.

"I hope they catch that psycho soon. Gwen, the guy walked right past me...I wished I'd known. I could've-"

"You couldn't have done anything. He had a gun" She strained her words, closing her eyes as if she was almost picturing that night. But, of course she couldn't imagine it. What occurred, nobody could have imagined it happening. Peter was the one that watched his Uncle die, his blood seeping into the grooves of his nails. Felicia gave a shrug, a shrug at something Gwen didn't exactly know. Mrs Stacy's voice rang out a few minutes into the morbid silence of the teenagers, the front door opening and slamming shut simultaneously. Captain Stacy was a man of average height, with a stern exterior, but his heart was always in the right place. He was a good father, and that's what mattered. He placed his uniform jacket over the back of his chair, moving to the store cupboard, where Felicia knew he put his gun, out of reach from wandering hands.

"How's your mother doing down at the hospital, I heard it's been busy" Gwen's father asked her best friend, once they had all sat down at the table.

"Yeah-yeah it has. She's been flat out." The girl nodded, twirling her fork in the spaghetti in the bowl in front of her, lifting it to her mouth. There was a silence that followed, the clinking of plates, the scratching of metal against ceramic, but it wasn't awkward. Felicia would never tell anyone, but she loved having dinner at the Stacy's. She loved her mother very much, but sometimes it was nice to just sit at the table, pretend to be part of a normal family, even if that could never be the case.

"You got anything on Black Cat, dad?" Howard Stacy asked enthusiastically, his freckled face turning to look expectantly at his father.

"Not yet, son" The man shook his head, heaving out a sigh obviously frustrated by the situation. Felicia watched as a meatball fell off her fork, that had been intended for her mouth, had she not froze the utensil in midair, at the boys question. "She's smart. I don't know how she does it, but she never leaves a trace behind. Not a fingerprint. Nothing. Although...the department are a bit pre-occupied with this vigilante"

"Vigilante?" Gwen cocked her head slightly, giving her father a questioning look, placing down her fork.

"I don't know what he is, if I'm honest. Witnesses have said he wears a mask like a spider" Captain Stacy let out a chuckle, at the stupidity of the situation. His job usually involved stopping armed criminals, not some anarchist in a mask.

"A spider? Huh. What's with these weirdos dressing up as animals, don't they have a day job?" Felicia questioned, the whole table erupting in laughter, and all she could do was laugh along with them. Laugh as if everything that came through her lips wasn't a lie.

The night was a cool one, with a gentle breeze, the stars just breaking through the murky black of the sky. Felicia Hardy had just walked out of the Stacy's apartment block, and became one with the well lit street that was still very much alive. The girl turned onto the next block, and instead of walking down the steps to the subway station to take her home as she was expected, she sauntered past, pulling her coat tighter to her body. She dodged through families coming back from dinner, and street performers, before slipping into a darkened alley. Her eyes rose to a lifted fire-escape, at which she jumped, hauling herself to the platform, before nimbly heading up the stairs. The stairs however came to a stop with the highest window, as they did in every building in the city. Her leather gloved hands, slid into her pocket, revealing another small device that she held up, clicking, a wire suddenly erupting out attaching to the top of the roof, lifting her up. Felicia rolled onto the roof, landing back on her feet, her eyes landing on a camera set up on a tri-pod, where a listening sound system stood beside it.

"Alright, let's see what we've got" She muttered to herself crouching down, placing the headphones over her head, turning the system on, the two wheels beginning to spin. It came out as only static to begin with, the device she'd attached to the man days previous struggling to decipher one voice from another. However, after several moments each voice began to single out, and the girl could start to make out clear conversations. A small scoffed laugh left her lips after the sudden realisation that the men were yet again at that lousy bar. But maybe that was a good thing. The Bar With No Name wasn't called that for nothing. Things went down behind its doors. They had to.

"Yo, you heard anything about where the crew are meeting? I heard the Dons are gonna be there" A strong new yorker spoke through the wavelength, clearly talking to someone else.

"Down at the docks, last I heard. There's talk we've landed weapons..."

"Well we'd better land something soon, how else we gonna take out Hammerheads lot" Felicia on the mentioning of the infamous Maggia boss, lowered her headphones off her ears having heard enough for her to begin formulating some sort of plan. There was one positive out of this. This Maggia family were not in line with Hammerhead. If she was working with him, she'd be dead already. Even Felicia had her limits. Before the girl could place the headphones back on, to further her knowledge of the weapons being mentioned, a myriad of sirens sounded from a few blocks away. However, seeing as it was NYC, it wasn't an unusual sight. She sat down on the edge of the building letting her legs dangle in mid air, peeking over the side at the rushing vehicle glowing red an blue below, as they give chase to seemingly nothing. It was only when Felicia put a pair of binoculars to her eyes did she see a small figure travelling through the air, seemingly swinging from one lamppost to the next, trying to get some height. The spider. In a matter of seconds, the station where the girl had been became vacant, only a glimpse of black and white flipping over the rooftop.

Ever since the murder of his uncle, Peter had been on a constant mission. Determined, he thought that if he caught the killer, some part of him would feel better. In some twisted sense, something good was created the moment Benjamin Parker fell to the ground. Spider-Man. It was the spider from Oscorp that started it, but his death, was really the kick in the ass that got it running.

If Peter Parker was to tell his younger self that he was swinging through the air in spandex, being chased by the cops for vigilante behavior or whatever they were chasing him for, he'd probably call himself insane. But you just could not make this stuff up. He thrust forward, flipping in the air, getting height above the many cop cars, starting to run from one building to the next. He skidded to a halt out of the bright lights of the heart of the city, catching his breath, his chest rising up and down at a slowing pace. And therefore so it happened. The spider once again met the cat. It began with a slight movement in the right top of Peter's vision, as he turned in the spider suit, to see a figure standing on top of the water tank.

"Incy, wincy spider, fell down the water spout" Black Cat mused in her low set voice, like liquid mercury. She flipped forward nimbly off the water tank, landing in front of him, making him back up only slightly. Deciding to keep his cool, he straightened up, narrowing his eyes at the girl.

"What have I done, for the queen of new york's criminal underworld, to grace me with her presence?" He queried, which only served to make her let out a snicker shaking her head, her ponytail swaying with the movement.

"Oh, I was just curious." Her red lips lined into a smirk as she walked over to a table and chairs someone had placed on the roof, sitting down with her feet resting on the table.

"Yeah? I heard that's bad for cats" Peter scoffed, turning as she walked. The girl let out another laugh, showcasing her pearly teeth.

"You're funny...in a not really funny way. I like that." She pointed to him, in which he noticed the retractable metal claws attached to her black leather gloves.

"Thanks?" He furrowed his eyebrows, under the mask, scratching the back of his neck.

"No need. But now that you are here-" She paused, leaning backwards in the chair, however as it tipped she bent over, doing a backwards walkover landing once on her feet. When her eyes were level with his once more she continued "I think you could help me, little spider"

"I'd be honored, but I'm going to have to pass. Art heists aren't really my thing" Peter spoke sarcastically, the girl now balancing on the edge of the roof dangerously.

"Oh! So that was you in the mask last week...loving the new suit by the way. You see, spider, it's actually those guys you took down that I need help with. They've been hounding me for months and it's getting...well annoying. The Maggia-" However at the mentioning of organised crime it was the boy in the suit's turn to laugh, shaking his head.

"The Maggia?! No. No way. The Maggia are no joke" Black Cat stood a metre from him, and it so happened that he began to formulate a plan. The girl was a criminal. The police had been trying for years, literal years to catch her. And here she was. Right in front of him. If he somehow managed to hand her in, maybe the NYPD would finally release that he was on the same side as them. Not just some masked vigilante who was more harm than good. His hand went idly to his web shooter, slowly, trying to make it seem casual. "You shouldn't be playing with them" He added, producing the same smirk to rise upon her lips

"Aw, but I like to play" She spoke in a flirtatious manner, now centimetres from him, before she, unbeknownst to Peter slid out a small metal cylinder object, suddenly attaching it to him, pressing a button. A few seconds later, the device detonated in a burst of electricity, Peter feeling every part of his body surge with electrical current. Black Cat took a couple of steps backwards, flexing her claws.

"Sorry, spidey, but if you want to catch me, you're gonna have to do a lot better than that. Nice chat" And with that she took off, launching herself off the building. However, Peter, who was barely recovering from the tasing device, stumbled forward, aiming his web shooter at her feet, successively wrapping web around one of her ankles. She let out a little gasp, as she was pulled back, disappearing down the side of the building. Peter hurried forward, just managing to catch her wrist before she dropped onto the street below. The girl frowned at him, immediately flipping up onto the roof again, already another tasing bomb in her hand. However, Peter lunged tackling her to the ground, webbing the arm with the device to the ground.

"Get off me, I'm warni-" She struggled against his restrain, when unexpectedly he reached for her mask, slipping it off her face. Peter didn't know who he was expecting to find under the mask, but when a pair of dark green eyes stared back at him, he fell backwards standing up with exclamation.

"Felicia?!" He yelled, his voice straining. Felicia, who was busy pulling her arm from the web, succeeded upon hearing her name, her eyes darting to his. A sudden recognition then filled her eyes, as she too stood up.

"Peter...?" Her head cocked to the side, her face frowning in bewilderment. Peter reached for the bottom of his mask, pulling it off, his hair exploding into its usual chaos.

"I-what? You're-you're Black Cat?" He jumped from one foot to the other, pointing at her, as if he wasn't believing his eyes, because he wasn't.

"And you're that spider boy from YouTube-" She crossed her arms, finding the entire situation a little overwhelming if she was being honest. Peter Parker had some kind of powers. Just like her.

"It's Spider-Man" He corrected through clearing his throat.

"Right. Spider-Man"

"What happened to staying on the straight and narrow?" Peter raised a thick eyebrow, in which she shrugged sitting down on the roof once more, swinging her legs, her back to him.

"Well, technically Felicia Hardy is staying straight, I didn't say anything about Black Cat. And anyways, I can't. Peter, I wasn't lying about the Maggia. It's job after job, and I can't take it anymore. Someday I'm gonna run out of...luck. But if I don't steal for them, they'll find out my identity, they have their ways, and they'll kill me and everyone I'm close to. My mom...Gwen. I need to take them down or this never stops...I've been tracking them for the last week...waiting for the right moment" Her eyes lifted with the mentioning of Gwen, the situation now becoming a little more personal to Peter. The boy looked at the ground for a few minutes, contemplating his options. He could still hand her into the police, but this was Felicia Hardy, his child hood best friend. He didn't have the heart to do that. He could let her go, and refuse to help, but then Gwen's life could be at risk. He let out a small, inaudible groan, pulling his mask back on his face.

"Alright. I'll help. You got a location?" To which the girl nodded, the white hair of the wig on her head moving as she did so. And hence, the spider and the cat formed an alliance.