Disclaimer: I don't on any Marvel characters seen, mentioned or used.
Things were... crappy, to say the least.
After Peter stumbled across... whatever that was he saw in Felicia's apartment, something straight out of that lame medieval show that used to be all the rage in his opinion, he's been taking to avoiding her even more so than before. Which was proving to be a bit difficult given that the Black Cat was now actively seeking him out, three calls a day along with two texts, one in the morning and one at night, asking to talk. At first it was easy to ignore the calls and texts, switch the phone to silent and just not respond, despite wanting to with every fiber of his being. But once he began to notice that Felicia was now following him around while on Patrol, and even once got a glimpse of her shadowing him while he was walking through the mall with Harry just the other day, he realized their confrontation was inevitable...
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" Felicia whispered as she tried to stem the bleeding coming from the nice five inch long cut in his abdomen, courtesy of the Scorpion.
He just wished it was under better circumstances.
'Heh, not gonna lie, hearing her say that word because of something I did is kinda nice...' Peter thought with a faint grin under his bloodied, torn mask as he laid on a blood-stained couch in Felicia's penthouse.
He couldn't remember exactly how he got here, Felicia's place he meant, one minute he was in some abandon apartment complex out in Brooklyn fighting Scorpion, who upgraded his suit's tail which allowed it to move independently when disconnected from Gargan's suit, the next he was being gutted by said tail while Scorpion tried to physically choke Peter to death all the while screaming into his face what he was gonna do to his corpse. Now Peter wasn't just lying there taking it, he was able to get in a few good punches and he's pretty sure he kneed Gargan so hard in the groin he may have cracked something, but it was hard to tell if it was his knee or Gargan's wee little scorpion tail.
After all, having a several inch serrated blade dipped in a genetically engineered neurotoxin trying to slice open your intestines made it hard to keep track of things.
Peter was quite honestly ready to meet his maker at that point, he knew he was screwed no doubt about it, but just when it seemed like he could hear the fat lady singing, a gun shot rang out through the room and Gargan was suddenly lying next to Peter, howling in pain as he cupped his family jewels, blood leaking through his fingers. After that, things were a blur, but Peter could hear Felicia's voice, panicked and on the verge of some sort of hysterical breakdown as she dragged him out of the apartment complex, clear across the city and back to her place.
'Did we drive at some point? I'm pretty sure I was in a car for a while...' Peter thought as he stared up at the ceiling tiredly, the pain in his abdomen had since dulled to this odd uncomfortable feeling as Felicia desperately tried to sew up his wound so his insides wouldn't spill out on to her floor.
*MEOW!*
Peter blinked and slowly turned his head to see one of Felicia's cats, Laurence, was sitting on the floor, looking up at Peter with a glare of annoyance.
It seemed Peter had the audacity to die on his favorite spot on the couch!
"Heh, sorry boy..." Peter mumbled weakly as he reached out with a shaky hand and scratched the Persian's ears, causing him to let out a content purr.
It seems he was forgiven for the time being and would not need a loud 'meow' wakeup call at four in the morning for no reason.
"Peter?" Felicia said as she reached suddenly reached for Peter's hand with both of her's and brought them up to her chest while looking into his pain filled eyes with tear stricken red ones.
Her goggles hung uselessly around her neck and her hair was a bit frazzled, likely from her running her hands though it so much and occasionally pulling at it in anxiety.
But damn if she still didn't look great.
"H-Hey Fee..." Peter said with a pained smile "W-W-Whas... whas u-up?"
Was it him or was the room spinning like a merry go round? Must be the blood loss, and whatever drugs Felicia stuffed into him to keep any infection from taking root, or nullify the effects of whatever toxin was in Scorpion's tail. Or it could've been a mixture of all of them, with his luck lately he wouldn't be too surprised if that was the case. Though a part of Peter wondered if his body was finally going to give out from the various drugs in his body, Scorpion's toxin and all the physical damage his tail inflicted on him.
The human body, even one as augmented as his was, could only take so much.
"The ceiling you dummy..." Felicia said with a small grin as she raised Peter's hand to her lips and kissed each bloodied knuckle tenderly, leaving faint crimson marks on her lips and the corners of her mouth.
"H-Heh..." Peter winced as he felt a stinging pain in his chest "Ow..."
"What were you thinking?" Felicia said with an angered look on her face "Taking on Scorpion in a confined space like that?"
Peter shrugged as he stared up at Felicia with a dazed look "S-S-Seemed... s-s-smart... at... t-t-time"
And it wasn't like Scorpion was giving him much of a choice on the matter, the crazed criminal supposedly had hostages and was killing them, forcing Peter to confront him directly. Upside was, no hostages in need of being made un-hostaged or whatever that word was, downside was he was right where Scorpion wanted him, an enclosed space where he couldn't utilize his greater agility and speed to overcome Scorpion's greater durability, strength and tail.
If Peter makes it out of this alive, he was soooo going to prank Jameson, like shave his mustache off or something.
"It was stupid is what it was." Felicia scolded the man as she reached down and gently ran a hand under the somewhat acceptable stich work on the man's abdomen "Your lucky I was at the Bar with No Name and heard Scorpion was looking for you."
Peter hummed at this, though he was a bit curious as to what Felicia was doing at the Bar in the first place. She rarely interacted with any of Peter's Rogues outside her occasional team-ups with him and after word got out she was his partner in crime, most days they avoided her like the plague or outright attacked her.
"H-Hot date?" he asked, wondering if it was the guy or the girl he saw the other night she was with.
Maybe it was both.
Felicia paused at this and looked towards Peter with a frown, already knowing what or more accurately WHOM he was referring to "No... I was just having a few drinks with White Rabbit."
"S-Still h-h-hot... date" Peter said with a pained chuckle.
Peter would be lying if he hasn't dreamed of a night with the two, crazy as both seemed.
'Dear god where did Ben and May go wrong raising me?' Peter thought as he stared lazily up at Felicia 'Ehh, it's probably the loss of birth parents and not getting that puppy I wanted when I was nine.'
Felicia grunted at the wall crawler's remark as she reached for a somewhat clean towel and gently placed it against the now messily stitched wound Gargan left in Peter's side. Thankfully Peter's healing factor finally decided to pitch in and help but it was obvious to Felicia that the wound would scar. A part of her wondered what kind of excuse he'd come up with to explain such a thing to his Aunt or any of his friends before she decided she didn't really care all that much.
"S-Sooo..." Peter said after a few minutes of silence between the two.
"What... what you saw the other day..." Felicia stammered as she tried to think of the best way to explain what it was that Peter stumbled across.
"It's... fine..." Peter said, exhaustion clear in his voice as he stared up at the ceiling with a slightly dazed expression "Not d-dating... can do what you... want..."
"No... we're not dating..." Felicia nodded, a look of sadness on her face "Though I was kinda hoping we would by now."
Peter chuckled weakly at this before he winced as one of the stiches threatened to come loose "Funny."
Though if they were dating and he did happen to come across that scene, Peter's pretty sure things would've gone a lot differently that night. Like the guy he saw would be picking his teeth up off the floor, assuming Peter didn't snap his arms in two, and he'd be tossing Felicia and that other girl out on to the street and keeping the cats.
He has no idea how he'd be able to house them all or feed them, but darn it he'd try, just out of spite.
'Wonder if Aunt May would want a cat?' Peter thought as Felicia continued to clean some of the blood off his body "So... your texts said you wanted to talk."
"I did." Felicia said with a sigh as she placed the blood stained cloth to the side and sat back on her haunches to look at Peter "Not just about what you saw the other night, but about... us."
"Are you superhero breaking up with me? Like the Avengers did?" Peter joked with a pained smile.
"No." Felicia said with a scowl "Can you please be a little serious at the moment? It's hard enough to do this while your one bad cough from reopening your stiches and bleeding out on my couch!"
"Can't have that, can we?" Peter sighed "Alright, fine. No jokes."
"Look..." Felicia started with a deep sigh "We've been partners for what, several months?"
"Yeah." Peter nodded tiredly, hey that dull throbbing in his head is back, yay.
"We know each other's actual names, where we live, hell I've let you crash here when you were too tired to go back to your crap hole of a apartment."
"It's not crap... most of the time." Peter said in defense of his home.
Sure it was no luxury suite like Felicia tended to stay in, but it was certainly better then some of the slums he's rescued people from in the past when the resident drug den next door went up in flames.
"And you've... you've put up with me, and my... hobbies, a lot longer then most guys in this business would've." Felicia said as she brought her arms up to hug herself, her voice low and small "That ass in Hell's kitchen? Would've knocked my teeth down my throat and leave me for the cops. Punisher? I'd be in the ground by this point. Hell, I know your getting flack from the others for letting me go for so long."
Peter made no response to this, he has in fact been catching hell from some of the other vigilantes in the city for not doing anything in regard to Felicia. While she may not actively steal in front of him since they began 'teaming up', he knows she likely still does some on the side to maintain her current lifestyle, which in turn brings her into conflict with the others.
"Well... their just... jealous is all." Peter said with a weak chuckle "Have you seen their team ups? I got lucky with you."
Felicia cracked a small grin at this before she closed her eyes and slowly inhaled through her nose before exhaling out and looked Peter in the eye "Which brings me to my final point, do you want something more from me then just help with the occasional bad guy?"
"What do you mean?" Peter said, his heartbeat increasing dramatically.
The white haired woman rolled her eyes at Peter's blatant ignorance "I'm talking about being in a actual relationship. As in, I sleep with you, you take me out to nice dinners when you can afford something not off the local McDonalds dollar menu, hold hands in public and all that other crap normal people do."
"Oh..." Peter sounded as he seemed to slink further into the couch then one would think possible.
"Yeah, oh." Felicia said with a frown "So do you? Or do you just wanna a good fuck from me?"
"W-What?" Peter blinked at this before he shook his head "NO! That's not what I want!"
Felicia's frown deepened at this, causing Peter to groan as he reached up to try and rub his head to stem the growing pain in his head, only this caused the pain he was feeling in the shoulder of said arm he was raising to restart, causing him to hiss.
"What I meant... is that I don't want just... just sex from you." Peter mumbled.
"Then why haven't you said anything?" Felicia demanded "Is it really so hard to say 'Hey, I like you and wanna go out?'"
Peter would've rolled his eyes at this if he wasn't ninety percent certain doing so would cause one of his eyes to pop out. Scorpion did get a few good hits in on his face and he's pretty sure one of his brows is bruised to the point a poke will break it.
"With you, it kinda is." Peter muttered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Felicia asked.
"Your... your... your you!" Peter did his best to gesture towards Felicia before another flare of pain from his shoulders, and still healing abdomen flared up again.
"Well that makes things sooo much clearer!" Felicia threw her hands up in frustration at this.
"Now you know why I haven't said anything..." Peter mumbled.
"Clearly." Felicia said as she ran a hand across her face "Why do you have to make things so fucking complicated?!"
"Cause it's part of my charm." Peter said with a weak chuckle before it died as Felecia gave him a glare.
After a few moments, Felicia closed her eyes and took a deep breath "Alright, so you do like me and you do want to be in a relationship with me, and the only reason you haven't asked yet is because you haven't or can't figure out how to ask me, is that about right?"
"More or less." Peter nodded, embarrassed.
Why was asking Mary Jane out all those years ago so much easier then trying to ask out Felicia? Hell, the woman left him more of a jumbled mess, mentally and emotionally, then his red headed friend ever had.
'And I can't ask May about it because how the heck am I going to even start that conversation?!' Peter thought.
"Alright, fine."
"Fine?" Peter blinked at Felicia's comment.
Felicia nodded "Yes, fine, I'll go out with you."
"R-Really?" Peter said, dumbstruck "Just... just like that?"
"Yes, just like that." Felicia nodded as she leaned back a little "We get along well, we work well, and I far as I know, you or I aren't committed to anyone at the moment."
Peter frowned at this, his memory flashing back the... threesome, he stumbled across "What about those tw-"
"They were friends from a group I used to run with, or one of them is at any rate, and we were just blowing off steam is all." Felicia waved off Peter's question before she scowled at him "Which was what I've been trying to tell you! What, you actually thought I'd sink so low as to actually SHARE someone in a actual relationship?"
"W-W-Well, n-n-no, a-at least I wasn't s-sure." Peter stuttered.
"Pete, when I commit myself to someone, or something, I commit." Felicia said with a pointed look.
"Uhh... yay?" Peter said with a sheepish grin.
"Yeah, yay." Felicia sighed in frustration as she stood up "Wait here a moment, I need to grab some new towels for you."
"Not going anywhere." Peer said as he watched Felicia walk towards the hall closet to retrieve some more towels for him to bleed out into instead of her couch.
*MEOW!*
Peter turned his head slightly to see that another one of Felicia's cats, this one hairless, yeah it's creepy as heck looking, had poked their head up and over the couch edge to stare at him with it's wide yellow eyes.
"Uhh... hi, um, Manwell?" Peter guessed the cat's name, causing it to yawn at his face before leaning forward to lick at his nose "Good kitty..."
Manwell continued to keep licking at Peter's face for the next few moments as Peter laid there, listening to Felicia retrieve some new towels for him before the hairless feline was suddenly chased away by a small brown colored cat.
Tonight hadn't and continued to not going the way he thought it would, but he supposed it could be worse. He was still alive after-
*MEOW!*
*MEOW!*
Suddenly the small brown cat that chased away Manwell leaped up on to the couch and ran across Peter's body, digging it's claws into him to help grip the sudden unstable surface it was on and rush across the injured hero and to the other end of the couch.
"OW!" Peter flinched before Manwell leaped up too and ran over Peter's stiches, one of which got caught in the cat's claws and caused it to trip and fall and hang off the side... with the claw still caught in the stich.
"OWW! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" Peter said as he lurched forward and reached out to grab the cat to keep it from pulling away, and by proxy more stiches out.
On second thought, the night was NOW starting to go exactly like Peter thought, him in pain, bleeding out, and small furry pests run all over him.
...
Peter wasn't gonna lie, he really didn't want to talk to Mary Jane at the moment.
Partly because he was still upset over what Michael said, another because of his less than stellar conversation with Yuri. But most of it stemmed from the fact that the red head once again got it in her head that she'd be helpful in an all-out brawl between Peter and another crazy mutate or mutant or whatever the hell Blood Spider was supposed to be by this point. Now a part of Peter did appreciate what she was trying to do, really, he did, but it was becoming clear to him that she was getting way too comfortable with the idea of getting involved in situations that she was in no way trained for.
Hell, even the likes of Black Widow and Hawkeye, two people that Peter admired for their lack of superpowers and relied on sheer guts, skill and stubbornness to run with the likes of Thor or Hulk, knew when to sit out a fight and allow their more powerful teammates to deal with the situation.
'Guess MJ's confused spunky attitude for 'I can survive this no matter what because I say so'.' Peter thought with a snort as he stood on the corner of a remote rooftop, MJ's apartment just a bit of ways down the block.
The lights were still on from what he could see, so she was still awake and likely waiting for him to get there so she could read him the rioting act.
With a shake of his head, Peter turned and leaped into the air and shot a web line out, swinging AWAY from Mary Jane's apartment. He'll give her a day or two to calm down and come to terms with his decision and maybe come to the realization that if he hadn't shown up, she'd be dead by now.
'Who am I kidding? She's gonna find someway to make me sending her away for her own good somehow a bad decision.' Peter thought as he swung through the air.
He had no real destination in mind, but anything was better then just sitting on a rooftop or back at his apartment, thinking abo-
*RING*
*RING*
Peter frowned as he saw the number trying to call him flash in the upper corner of his mask's lenses.
It was Miles.
'Oh boy...' Peter thought with a tired sigh before taking a deep breath as he shot out another web line and answered the call "Hey Miles."
"Hey Pete! Sorry I haven't been able to call lately. School's been killing me!" Miles groaned "It's like their trying to catch up with all the school I missed because of the whole Quarantine thingy with the Devil's Breath in like two weeks!"
"It's fine, I've been busy." Peter said as he continued to swing through the towering skyscrapers of Manhattan.
"Oh yeah, I heard. Apparently the Maggia are trying to take over or something?" Miles said.
"More or less, though it's more of Hammerhead is." Peter said, barely able to hold back at snarl at mentioning the Maggia Don.
No need to drag Miles into any of this, kid had enough on his own plate as it was.
"Do you need help?" Miles asked excitedly, too excitedly in Peter's opinion "I mean I know we're still training me and all and I doubt I'll really be all that much help in like, a all out attack on their headquarters or whatever, but I can provide tech support, you know? Or-or-or maybe I can ask around, see if anyone's heard something? Wait, do I know anyone that knows someone? Ah, I'm sure someone knows something-"
"That's not necessary Miles." Peter said with a faint grin at the thought of Miles walking around asking random students at his school if they had connections to the Maggia.
"Yeah, it'd probably tip them off or something." Miles said with a laugh "Anyway, I was I wondering, maybe sometime this weekend after my shift over at FEAST, I was wondering if you could like, give me a tour of the city? I mean, like all the places you go as Spider-man. All the hot spots and stuff. Maybe introduce me to some of the other guys out there?"
Peter shook his head at this "You want me to introduce you to the other guys? What like Moonkinght?"
"Well I was thinking... maybe... Black Widow? She-Hulk?" Miles said with a sheepish laugh "Spider-woman?"
"Trust me Miles, your better off staying away from some of the ladies in this outfit. Especially the first and third one." Peter said as he landed on the top of a water tower and surveyed the area he was in "And even if I wanted to introduce you to them, they wouldn't bother."
"Whaaaat? Why?!" Miles cried.
"Because Spider-man isn't exactly someone of real note in their eyes." Peter said with a snort as he remembered his own past encounters with Spider-woman and Black Widow.
Jessica was nice enough he guessed, but she really had no time for the likes of Peter, despite ripping off his name and all, and Black Widow had no social life and was always on missions for SHIELD last he checked. Jennifer might be willing to meet Miles, but being the head of the Avengers' Legal Team left little time to socialize considering someone somewhere was always trying to sue the group or individual members for one thing or another.
"Awww man!" Miles groaned "I've always wanted to meet them. Well, besides you, and Captain America-"
"Now that I can and will arrange. Besides, he's waaay better then any of them anyway." Peter said with a chuckle, causing Miles to break out into excitement and begin pestering him with questions on the First Avenger as he was about to shoot another web line out to swing away with before he heard someone land on the rooftop below him.
Peter looked down to see who it was and saw a dark red clad figure emerge from the shadows, looking up towards Peter, a billy club in his hand.
"Miles, I need to go. Something's come up." Peter said before he ended the call as Miles began to ask him what he meant by that.
Without another word, Peter flipped off the water tower and landed behind the newcomer and slowly rose to his feet, keeping his eyes on the man. They were taller then Peter by a few inches and a little bulkier, though part of that stemmed from the kevlar padding weaved into the red suit he was wearing.
"Murdock." Peter said as he had his lenses scan the vigilante of Hell's Kitchen.
"Peter... mind if we talk?" the red clad man asked in an uncharacteristically soft tone.
Well, softer then what Peter usually hears when the blind lawyer was in this suit.
"I'm all ears, horn head." Peter said with a sarcastic edge to his tone.
"That'll be a first." Murdock said, slowly slipping his billy club back into it's leg holster.
"So... how've you been?" Peter said as he briefly scanned the rooftop to see if he brought anyone else with him "Haven't heard from you in a while."
"I've been busy." Matt said as he closely monitored Peter's breathing, heartbeat, and voice, something that was a little difficult for him to do given the material of his suit
He could still 'see' the man was agitated with how tense his muscles were, the slight growl in his words and the fact his heart was beating faster than normal.
"Too busy to help stop Li and Otto from turning this city into something out of hell?" Peter asked with a glare that could be felt rather than seen through his mask.
"You know why I couldn't come back so soon. Fisk still had a number of major enterprises in Asia being run by his wife that needed to be dealt with." Murdock replied flatly "In fact, your exact words were 'Nah I'm good, sides on the off chance big old Willy gets out, he won't have a criminal empire left to run'."
Peter scoffed at this as he began to pace back and forth in front of the Devil of Hell's kitchen "So who was it?"
"Who what?" Murdock asked.
"Who called you?" Peter snapped as he glared at Murdock before he snorted "It was Yuri wasn't it? Always fucking her!"
"She's worried about you Peter, as am I. Your starting to act out in ways that have us concerned." Matt stated as he closely monitored Peter's vitals and actions "I see you got a new outfit, this the suit Otto helped with?"
Peter stopped his pacing and looked down slightly and held up one of his clawed hands, his lenses narrowing in thought "No. Felicia made it for me. She led me on a chase through the city, robbing over fifty million, before I thought I caught up to her at a old hideout of her's. This suit was there, along with all the loot she took."
Murdock hummed at this "Hell'uva woman. Most that I chase around the city usually leave me bleeding out on the ground or feeling like an idiot, not fifty million in stolen goods and a new suit to show off in."
"Funny." Peter mumbled as he let his arm fall back to his side.
"That's usually your job, mine's to be the brooding one." Matt pointed out before he sighed "Listen, Pete, I know what it is your feeling at the moment. Believe me, I do, more then most in our line of work. But right now you need to stop and take a breather and collect yourself."
"I'm collected." Peter hissed.
"No, your not. Your angry." Matt said.
"Believe me Matt, if I was angry, you'd damn well know by now." Peter said.
"Like that Maggia punk you tortured recently?" Matt said, causing Peter's lenses to narrow at him.
"Oh and like you haven't made guys like him talk before? Remind me again how'd we meet? Me hearing one of Fisk's men screaming as you broke his collar bone and were using your finger to fish around and try and pull it out of him?" Peter snapped.
"And if I recall correctly, you were right where I'm at then, talking me down before I went any further." Matt said as he began to slowly approach Peter until he reached out and placed a hand on the younger man's shoulder "Peter, I just want you to stop and GRIEVE. To come to terms with what's happened."
"I know damn well what happened." Peter said as he shrugged off Matt's hand and stepped away from the man "I messed up, got Felicia killed and now I'm running around this city trying to find that son of a bitch that killed her!"
"And just what will happen to this 'son of a bitch' once you catch up to him?" Murdock asked as he pointed in the direction of the Bar with no Name "Is he going to get the same treatment his men have? Or are you planning something else?"
"What's it matter to you?" Peter demanded as he stepped right up to Daredevil.
It was only years of self discipline, and experience that kept Matt from reacting to Peter's sudden proximity with something that very well drag this out into a fight.
A fight he won't win.
"It matters because I don't want to loose another friend to these people." Matt said.
"Then how about instead of siding with Yuri, you hop off that moral high ground you think you belong on, and actually HELP ME?!" Peter shouted the last part with a shove aimed towards the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Before Peter's hand could connect with Matt's chest, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen shot his arm up to parry Peter's away before delivering a kick to his abdomen. Peter let out a startled yelp at the sudden contact while Matt used his brief connect to Parker's body to springboard away and place some distance between themselves.
Peter quickly regained his footing and balance and snarled at matt as he landed in a backwards roll before springing back up, his billy club drawn and held at the ready.
The two stood there, tense, waiting for the other to maker their move.
Matt could hear Peter's heart beating a mile a minute and his feet adjusting slightly to allow him to leap into the air, either towards or away from Matt, while a distinct click emanated from both of Peter's wrists as he prepared his web shooters. Matt's grip on his billy club tightened to almost painful levels as he mentally planed his response to Peter's attacks. In terms of speed, strength and agility, the wall crawler had him beat a hundred times over. Coupled with his preference for long range combat with his web shooters, Murdock knew he was at a distinct disadvantage.
The only thing he could hope for is that Peter's rage will make him sloppy and give him tunnel vision, which might, and he stresses might, give him a advantage.
'Come on kid, don't do this.' Matt thought as he waited to see if Peter would make the first move or not.
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, Peter suddenly turned and leaped into the air and shot a web line out and swung away. Murdock let out a slow exhale through his nose as he listened to Peter leave, the younger man's powerful heartbeat which sounded like an artillery gun going off now slowly quieting as it's owner swung away. The Devil of Hell's Kitchen slid his billy club back into it's holster and slowly made his way towards the edge of the rooftop and sat on it's ledge and sighed.
This conversation did not go the way he would've hoped.
'He's a lot angrier then I thought. I knew he cared about her, even after their breakup, but this, this is something else, something more. What'd I miss?'
Perhaps Peter and Felicia's relationship was more then what the former said it was, maybe something else had happened and the thief's death was simply the breaking point.
'Doubt he's going to tell me now.' Matt thought with a shake of his head as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees and his chin on his now interlocked fingers and began to plan how he was going to have to actually stop Peter before he-
*RING*
*RING*
*RING*
"Dammit." Matt growled as he reached into his suit's belt for his phone and flipped the vibrating device open and pressed the brailed button that would answer the caller, taking a brief second to change his voice from that of 'the Devil of Hell's Kitchen' to 'Mathew Murdock' in case this was a 'lawyer needed call' "Hello, this is Matt-"
"That went well." a cool female voice with a hint of a Russian accent emanated from the phone's speaker "Guess that infamous charm of yours that you save for in the courtroom didn't work so well outside of it, hmm?"
"Nice to hear from you too. I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking." Murdock said with a scoff, his 'polite demeanor' going straight out the window.
"I was getting to that. Patience never really was one of your strong suits dear. Ironic for a lawyer if I say so." the woman on the other end chuckled.
"Is there a reason why you called me, Natasha?" Matt said, his patience having been used up with Peter.
And whenever Natasha Romanoff was involved, Matt's found he needed every bit of patience he had and then some.
"I called to see if things were going to calm down in regards to Parker, but from where I'm sitting, that'll be a no." Natasha said with a sigh.
"Where are you?" Murdock asked as he tried to zero in on Natasha's heartbeat, it was... unique, for the lack of a better term. A bit too slow compared to the average man or woman's, but not in a manner that indicated heart trouble or some other medical issue.
"Sitting in a nice hotel room out in Mongolia while I'm looking at you through a computer screen." Natasha said with amusement in her voice "You didn't think I'd actually be anywhere near there, did you?"
"Never know with you Nat." Matt said as he reached up to pinch the ridge of his nose "Also never took you for stalking."
"Is Parker going to be a problem?" Natasha said, her voice cold and detached, the time for lighthearted banter was over for the Black Widow it seemed.
"No." Matt said with a shake of his head, though he didn't need his exceptional hearing to hear the doubt in his own voice.
"I love how confident you sound, which you don't by the way." Natasha stated as the sound of shuffling could be heard on the other end of the call "Listen Matt, Parker's actions are starting to gain attention, no one important yet, just among the typical low level analysts that monitor the 'street level' guys like Spider-man is classified as... but if things keep up, Fury is going to hear about it and he is going initiate a response."
"Who, you?" Matt asked with a grim chuckle.
"I'm the best-case scenario Matt, and we both know that Fury won't send me to handle Parker. He's going to send someone a lot bigger than me to handle him." Natasha explained.
Matt didn't both to ask who the 'someone a lot bigger' was, out of all of the Avengers current roster, there was only one man that Fury will reach out to send in that's not only on hand but has the skills necessary and experience to take on Peter.
Still, he couldn't help but ask...
"Why would Fury send Him? Isn't that a bit overkill?" Matt asked as he tried to figure out Fury's reasoning, a feat in of itself given the master spy's nature.
"Yes and no. Spider-man should've been brought in when he first started out, but Fury allowed him to stay... freelance, as a favor and respect to Parker's late father. Which means, every fuck up Parker did, that was on him, because he allowed that kid to strike out on his own without any oversight. He put his faith in that kid and now it looks like it's going to come back and bite him in the ass if things keep going this way." Natasha said in a grime tone "So, to keep things as quite as possible, Fury will be sending in someone that can track down Peter and stop him without leveling a city block."
"How long do I have?" Matt asked.
"That depends on Parker. If he keeps his current pace, you might have another two or three days, assuming Captain Wantanabe can keep her people quiet. I have faith she'll try her damn hardest..." Natasha said.
"And if she can't keep her people quite?" Matt looked back in the direction Peter went.
"Quinn Jets will be in the air and arriving in New York within the next few hours, Fury will wanna get ahead of this as soon as possible before the public really starts to catch wind of what's going on. God, I can already hear Jameson's rant now." Natasha revealed with a sigh "And 'He'll' be on one of those jets with about two to three STRIKE squads to back him up. So, if you want to keep that from happening, stop Parker before he goes too far, TONIGHT, and I can sweep most of this under Fury's radar."
"For how long?" Matt asked as he was already heading back inside his apartment, loosening his tie as he went.
"Long enough that by the time he does find out, things will have calmed down and the worse he'll do is bitch me out, probably pay Parker a visit and bitch him out before giving him the cliché 'Keep a close eye on you' and call it a day." Natasha said.
"Oh, is that all?" Matt said with a shake of his head.
He's met Fury enough times to know that things are unlikely to end at just that.
"It's better then the alternative Matt." Natasha stated.
"Then I guess I shouldn't complain too much." the Man Without Fear said as he made his way over to the ledge of the building he was on.
Peter's heartbeat was too far to hear anymore, though he thinks it has more to do with that new suit of his then because the younger vigilante was out of his range now. He'll need to come up with a way to keep track of him with that new suit of his if he wants to find him again.
It was sheer dumb luck he even came across the web-head tonight.
"Still, I can't help but notice something's off about all this." Natasha said with hint of confusion in her voice.
"What is?" Matt asked.
"This, all of these damn mind games that Hammerhead is putting Parker through. I know he likes to mess with people's heads, but this is a bit much, even for that one." Natasha pointed out.
Matt nodded silently in agreement, he too has noticed the rogue Maggia Don's latest actions of the psychological nature.
"Guess he hired some pros to help him out this time instead of relying on the American education and judicial systems' failures. Wonder if it's anyone I know." Natasha snorted.
"If I ever see any of these people I'll ask." Matt said, already dreading what he'll find.
He has his suspicions, but he'll worry about that after he reigns Peter in before it's too late.
"Keep me posted and if you need assistance, I'll see what I can do. Sweet dreams, Мой милый дьявол." Natasha said with the sound of a kiss at the end.
And with that, the line went dead, leaving Murdock to stare off into the distance before he switched off the phone and looked off in the direction Peter left and sighed before he placed his phone back in his suit's belt.
"Leave the city for a year and everything starts to fall apart."
...
And done.
Next chapter, Closing in on Hammerhead...
answers to reviewers' questions or statements:
Kryn Womble: She has a literal army at her beck and call and some of the best training in the world, she doesn't need to use mind games or emotions to torment him lol. Plus, I liked the dynamic between her and Spidey during their fight with Hammerhead, they felt like actual equals in their partnership, with a bit of one upping and distrust with one another's methods, compared to Peter and Mary Jane's... thingy.
josereyes121367: Under normal circumstances Peter wouldn't let people badmouthing Felicia get to him, he's heard far worse when they worked with one another, but given she's now dead and he sorta blames himself for it, on top of losing May, Ock's betrayal, the Sinister Six, it's all catching up to him and he's not properly dealing with it. And just last chapter he's starting to see that even people he trusted like Yuri seem to be turning on him, in his mind at least.
