Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel characters seen, mentioned, or used.
In a secluded high rise near the financial district of Manhattan, Walter Hardy and his longtime friend, fellow thief and former apprentice to the legendary Black Fox, Castillo Drake.
"I'm really not liking this Walter." Castillo said with a sigh before he raised a half full glass of wine and took a small sip of the dark red liquid, wincing at the bitterness of it.
Walter, who had been staring out the room's large panoramic window, turned his gaze away from the view of the city outside and gave the leader of the New Yok branch of the Thieves Guild and apologetic look "I know, but we need him if we're going to get to Hammerhead. He has just as much of a reason to want him dead as either of us."
"Spider-man doesn't kill, Walt." Castillo frowned at the man.
"Maybe... or maybe he's just never found a good enough reason until now." Walter said with a shrug before he turned his attention back to the city outside while the sky began to brighten in the East "Doesn't matter if he will or not, I just need him to clear the way so I can get to Hammerhead and kill the bastard myself."
Castillo shook his head at this "Your playing with fire Walt."
"I'm not afraid to get burned." the first Black Cat scoffed.
"No, but it won't be just you that will." Castillo set his glass down on the table and pointed to himself "I have dozens of people and their families to look after and the last thing we need, after everything that's been happening to us lately, is for a pissed off hero to start gunning for us because his ex-girlfriend's dad decided to screw him over too."
"I'm not forcing you to stay Cast, you and your people have done enough. Me and the kid can take it from here." Walter said as he turned back towards the Thieves Guild's leader.
"If by taking it from here, you mean straight to the graveyard, then yeah, you both can at the rate things are going." Castillo said as he ran a hand across his face and sighed "Walt, this place Hammerhead is set up in, it's a fucking fortress man. All of the guys who hadn't been bumped by the other Dons are holed up there with him with whatever Sable Tech they could get there hands on. You two go in there all cocked sure of yourselves, you'll just end up dead or wishing you were dead in your case."
Walter rolled his eyes at this and went back to staring outside the window, causing Castillo to scowl at him in response. For the past half hour they've been arguing about this, about storming Hammerhead's hideout, Walter was all for a simple direct approach while Castillo preferred something a bit more... discreet. But the biggest variable, at least in the Thieves Guild master's mind was Spider-man. He's had his people, at a distance, keep track of Spider-man since Felicia's death and safe to say, he was even more convinced the hero needed to NOT be a part of this.
After all, if he should get his hands on Hammerhead, if he does what Castillo thinks the man's gonna do to him... will it stop there?
'I'd rather not find out the hard way.' Castillo thought with dread at the prospect of another Punisher like minded vigilante running loose in New York, this one with actual super powers. Castillo shook his head at Walter and turned to pour himself another drink "You know, it's this exact kind of thinking that got Felicia excommunicated from the Guild in the first place. Going it alone, be damned the consequences."
"What? Since when was Felicia a part of the Guild?" Walter looked back with a frown at this bit of information.
While he did his best to keep a eye on Felicia without letting her know that he was still alive and that she was being watched, there was still quite a bit of gaps in his knowledge of her and her life that he was still uncovering.
Like an intimate affair with a certain web slinging vigilante.
"This was a while back, not long after she was done learning under the Black Fox, but before she took your old gear and started calling herself the new Black Cat." Castillo said as he topped off his glass and took a generous sip from it "She was one of our best, bringing in more money a month did some people did in a year, so much so that I was willing to overlook a few... issues. At least, for a while."
"Issues, what kind of issues?" Walter asked, curious to hear about how his daughter operated within the Thieves Guild.
"I-... well..." Castillo started before he stopped and adverted his gaze from Walter's "Never mind."
"Cast..." Walter said with a frown "What issues did she cause?"
"She... she wasn't what you'd call a team player. She rarely took part in scores that required more then just one person and more often then not, would snatch scores out from under other Thieves." Castillo said as he took another sip of his wine and sighed "The irony is, that could be forgiven, but... I found out that she began holding out on us. She was taking jobs without the Guild's knowledge or blessings and stopped giving it it's share of the spoils she did get from these... unauthorized heists. And these are just the ones we knew she was doing, God knows how many she really did and we never found out about."
Walter's eyes widened in shock at this before he reached up to pinch the ridge of his nose "Damn it Felicia..."
"Normally excommunication from the Guild has a death sentence attached to it, but because she was your kid and the fact she was with my daughter at the time, I was willing to just leave it at kicking her out." Castillo shrugged as he looked down at his nearly empty glass of wine and swirled the contents within "She left New York for a while after that, at some point picked up those two guys of her's you saw at her funeral with her mother, came back and started calling herself the Black Cat. She worked with a few independents around the city like Prowler and White Rabbit, but she largely operated solo."
"I'm surprised you even let her back in New York." Walter said with surprise "I imagine you had gotten enough flak from the others on just letting her live in the first place."
"To tell you the truth, I didn't. Just let her come back, I mean." Castillo revealed with a snort "When I heard she was back and was taking jobs, I was about to have my people run her out of town, this time with a warning she wouldn't be able to afford to ever ignore, not if she wanted to live, but..."
"But?" Walter probed.
"She got, literally, into bed with Spider-man." Castillo said with a shake of his head before he downed the remaining contents of his glass "And I didn't feel like wasting resources and manpower going to war with a vigilante when we were struggling enough as it was under Fisk. The Maggia were bad enough, but Fisk? He literally had my organization castrated and kept our balls as a reminder of who was in charge."
"Now isn't that a lovely image."
Both Walter and Castillo froze at the sound of Spider-man's voice and quickly looked around the room for signs of the wall crawler before a low whistle drew their attention to the ceiling.
There, hanging from a single web line upside down, swinging slightly from side to side, was Spider-man, his red lenses narrowed to almost slits and focused on both men with an intensity that sent a cool feeling down their spines.
"Spider-man...?" Castillo said with surprise as he looked around the room to see how it was the vigilante was able to make his way inside without alerting any of his men he had stationed inside and around the hotel "How did you get pass all of my-"
"Your people should check the airducts more often." the wall crawler said as he released his grip on the web line and fell towards the floor, righting his body at the last moment so he landed in a crouch before slowly standing up.
"How long have you been there?" Walter asked.
"Long enough to know that trusting you will be a mistake." Spider-man said as he turned his head briefly towards the white haired man and glared "Screw me over a second time Walter, and your gonna wish you stayed in retirement."
"I'm shaking in my boots, kid." Walter said dryly, unimpressed with the younger man's idle threat before he finally felt a web line snag him in the chest.
Before he could even look down at it, he found himself pulled across the room and into Spider-man's outstretched hand. Castillo pulled a gun from a concealed holster in his suit and aimed it at the wall crawler while Peter simply held the the First Black Cat up by the collar of his jacket and glared.
"Put him down, Spidey..." Castillo said as he slowly stepped around the table so to get a better angle on the web slinger, even though he knew it was all but pointless with how fast he could react and move "Now."
Peter briefly glanced at Castillo before he suddenly released Walter and shoved the elderly man away "Consider this your only warning from me for the both of you. Next smart comment will have your teeth littering the floor."
"Noted." Walter said as he reached up and readjusted the collar of his jacket before he saw it was torn and frowned.
It wasn't an overly expensive one, in fact it was pretty dirt cheap, but he's had the thing for years now.
"So who the heck are you supposed to be?" Peter said as he turned to Castillo and eyed the man up and down, his gaze lingering on the pistol that was being placed back in it's holster.
"Castillo Drake..." he said as he narrowed his eyes at Peter "I'm the master of the Thieves Guild."
"Well good for you." Peter said in a sarcastic tone before he noticed the table in the room that was covered in blueprints and photos "I take it that's a layout of Hammerhead's place?"
Walter stepped tot he side to allow the man pass "It is."
"What's this place called?" Peter said as he held up a picture of the mental asylum that Hammerhead was now taking refuge in.
"Saint Bénézet Institute for the Mentally Decrepit. A red mad house I'm told." Castillo said dryly.
"Funny." Peter said as he tossed the photo back on to the table and looked at the other sheets of paper.
Some were just more photos of the building taken at different angles, some of which showed Hammerhead's men standing guard at random windows and doors. Others looked to be blueprints of the building itself with small little notes jotted down. It seems that Walter and Castillo had already mapped out the patrol routes of Hammerhead's people, their numbers, and-
"Any idea where they keep getting all of Sable's things?" Peter tapped a photo of one of Hammerhead's people waring some sort of combat harness that looked vaguely similar to the armor that Sable's people wore during their occupation of New York.
"A lot of it was looted off various dead Sable agents when the inmates from Rykers and the Raft poured into the city. The rest, I'm guessing Hammerhead has people on the Force still that pass along the locations of some of the caches they store them at until Sable International can come back and collect it all." Castillo revealed.
"Why didn't they take it all with them when they left?" Walter asked.
Castillo shrugged "Didn't have time maybe? The U.S. didn't exactly give them much time to pack up and leave once Octavius and Li were finally caught and Osborn resigned."
"Think Sable is missing her stuff?" Peter asked as he looked at another photo taken of a few Sable APC's parked outside Hammerhead's hideout.
"Probably." Castillo shrugged.
"You've dealt with Sable's tech, any ways around it outside of trying to brute force our way through it?" Walter asked as he looked directly at Peter.
"A few." Peter answered, though he kept studying the various photos.
From what he was seeing, Hammerhead had even more of Sable's tech there then he did at the little hideout Blood Spider was squatting in.
A lot more.
"You mind sharing those ways with the rest of us?" Walter asked dryly.
"Hammerhead's hideout is a literal fortress thanks to all of that crap, trying to storm that place is a death sentence. The Thieves Guild doesn't have the manpower to pull it off." Castillo stated.
"Any chance of seeing if the other Dons would be willing to work with us to take down Hammerhead?" Walter inquired "Him trying to steal the entire Maggia fortune and take them out has to have placed him on their shit list."
"I've considered approaching them with this info and just let them go on ahead of us and attack the place, but they seem content hunkering down and waiting for him to come to them." Castillo answered with an eye roll "Either they lost more people then their willing to admit and actually can't afford to launch an attack on the place, or their confident they can bring Hammerhead down WHEN he decides to come back to the city."
"Which will just get a bunch of innocent people caught in the crossfire." Peter hissed in frustration at the Maggia Dons' cowardice.
The city was still recovering from both the Demons' attacks and the Ryker/Raft inmate riots, the Police were stretched thin enough as it was dealing with just Hammerhead's faction. There'd be no way they can properly contain an all out war between the Dons, especially if one of them was arming his people with Sable weapons and vehicles.
"What about some of the people he normally deals with?" Walter threw a thumb in Peter's general direction "All those guys in their fancy getups and powers, can we find any of them and see if they want in on this? I have plenty of money to spare if that's what it'll take."
"Your welcome for that by the way." Peter said, a brief spike of anger at Walter and himself for being so gullible and helping the aged thief recover millions in stolen art not too long ago.
"Most of them have been caught and locked back up." Castillo shook his head with a sigh "And the ones that weren't? Their all staying out of this from what I've been hearing. Their gonna wait and see who comes out on top, Hammerhead or one of the other Dons, then do something."
Peter frowned at this before he was hit with a sudden memory and glanced at Castillo "Do your people know where Screwball is? The woman with the web show of her doing crimes and all that crap?"
"Not at the moment, but we could find her, why?" he said, confused.
"Find her and see if maybe she'd be interesting in a little... collaboration." Peter said as his mind began to slowly work out a possible plan of attack on Hammerhead's hideout.
As annoying as the woman was with her asinine gimmicks, she knew how to draw in a crowd... a rather outlaw-ish one. The Thieves Guild may not have the manpower to attack Hammerhead, but Peter was willing to bet that Screwball could get a number of her crazed, violent, unlawful fans to help out.
Castillo glanced briefly at Walter before he nodded as he returned his gaze to the wall crawler "Alright, sure."
"You think she'll be helpful?" Walter asked.
"At the very least, she and her legion of 'fans' will provide a distraction Hammerhead's people won't be able to ignore." Peter said as he went back to staring at the blueprints for the abandoned asylum, looking for possible ways into the building and the fastest route to Hammerhead's possible location.
Of course the actual building will be run down, entire halls either caved in or rotted away, but he'd deal with it.
"Isn't that a little... ruthless?" Castillo said as he and Walter shared an uneasy look with one another "I mean her 'fans' will be going up against Hammerhead's people, some of the most brutal and viscous bastards in the Maggia, armed to the teeth with Sable tech. They'll be slaughtered."
"Nothing of value will be lost." Peter snarled as he remembered all of Screwball's 'fans'.
The lowlife, violent animals that ran around terrorizing people because some bitch on the internet enabled them. The kind of people who had no problem with setting up bombs to hurt people, assault people-
'She and Hammerhead would've gotten along real well.' Peter thought darkly as his fingers slowly began to dig into the surface of the table as images of Felicia's apartment exploding, the shootouts Hammerhead's men committed, Blood Spider's words echoing through his skull like a bad memory.
"I had her... I had her like this... too. Pinned beneath me, at my sweet... mercy."
"When she was working for Hammerhead... we had all sorts of fuuuun! Though not as much fun... as she had with the boss I think. He really got her screaming... when he-"
"Y-Your just m-m-mad... that y-y-y-you... didn't get t-t-to... f-f-fuck her again-"
KRAKK!
Peter was suddenly dragged out of his dark thoughts by the sound of wood splintering and looked down to see that his fingers were now imbedded in the table.
"Uhh, you okay there, kid?" Castillo asked nervously as his gaze flickered down to where Spider-man's fingers had stabbed into the table.
"I'm fine..." Peter said as he slowly pulled his fingers out of the table and stepped away from it, shaking off a few splinters of wood that were caught in the material of his suit's gloves.
"How about we all call it a night... or morning." Walter said as he glanced out the window to see the sun was now rising "Right now we know where Hammerhead is and what's in store for us. Tonight we'll try to locate Screwball and see if she'll be willing to assist us."
"Assuming my people can find her, and that she'll help." Castillo said.
"She won't be able to resist, and neither will her 'fans'." Peter said with a snort "Storming a Maggia Don's base of operations with the Thieves Guild? She'll be trending for days."
And it'll give her rabid fanbase of criminals an excuse to attack other people.
...
"I understand that things are going... poorly, for you."
Hammerhead's brow twitched at this, the grip on his phone tightening to the point it was a wonder it hadn't cracked "Everything's under control."
"Not from where I'm standing." the man on the other line said "In fact, from where I'm standing, I see the four Dons having a meeting to discuss what their going to do to you when they find you."
"Well they can talk all they want, it's all they ever do now a days. Just talk." Hammerhead said with a scoff.
It's why he broke away and tried to seize control in the first place, the other Dons had gotten complacent with how things were now. Thirty years ago, they RULED the East Coast, now they were just a step above your common street gang as far as he was concerned.
"Yes, well, the theft of so much of their money has left them in a particularly foul mood and their looking for blood. Yours, to be specific, since the Black Cat's has been blasted across half a city block by that little bomb of yours." the man remarked.
Hammerhead's eyes narrowed at this "Need I remind you, it was YOU that wanted to work with her in the first place! I told you she was gonna burn us!"
"Yes, and I also told you to keep a close eye on her. Which you didn't, ironically enough, considering how close you let yourself get." the man replied coolly "The loss of the drives is unfortunate, but it was a possibility we took into account when we first approached her to begin with. We'll just have to do without, Tombstone's racketeering and drug running should provide us a suitable replacement until we can start selling off Sable's tech. I have a few buyers already lined up that are interested in some of the equipment your people were able to acquire"
"Happy to help..." Hammerhead said with a frown.
Personally he wanted to keep what his boys had found and use it to take over the Maggia and keep the cops off his people, but with how strapped he was for money, and how valuable Sable tech is on the market, he wasn't being left with many alternatives.
"Excellent, I'll inform my employer." the man on the other side of the line said before the call abruptly ended.
"Yeah, you do that." Hammerhead growled out in frustration.
If that pinstripe suit wearing bastard was in front of him now, Hammerhead wouldn't have hesitated to snap his neck for the gross disrespect he just showed him by hanging up on him like that.
"Fucking little shit..." Hammerhead said as he placed the phone back in his pocket and ran a hand over the scars on his head, the ones left as a result of the amateurish surgery that gave him his infamous metal skull plate.
He clicked his tongue in distaste at the memory and instead turned his attention to the large table, really just a few pulled and taped together, and the various files, photos and maps on it's grimey surface. Some of the files were those of prominent Police Officers, Politicians and Judges that he'll have to deal with after he takes over the Maggia. Others were of what he and his men could get on Spider-man, which was frustratingly little despite his near nine year presence, and areas he's been spotted around with greater frequency then others, perfect places for ambushes, and people he's interacted with on more then one occasion, potential hostages if things go south with the freak.
'Hmm, maybe I can use that cop friend of his to unbalance him.' Hammerhead thought as he glanced at the file of Yuri Watanabe.
It wouldn't be easy, but if he could just-
Suddenly he could hear voices outside the room, some belonging to his men, others from people he didn't recognize. Hammerhead frowned as he looked up from the table and listened in, but couldn't make out any discernable words, even if half the walls in this shit stain of a building were filled with holes and god knows what else. But, considering there was no shouting or gunfire, whoever these newcomers were, they were apparently friendly, which meant they were either part of his... partner's crew, or they were from-
The doors suddenly flung open, nearly thrown off their own hinges, and there, standing in the middle of the doorway was a towering figure dressed in the leathers of a biker, or at least Hammerhead assumed that's what they were supposed to look like. They possessed pale skin that some people have mistaken being caused by albinism, a shaved but scarred head, and sharpened teeth that were a bit crooked.
"Tombstone..." Hammerhead said with a nod towards the towering brute of a man.
Of the many crime bosses in the city, at least those left, Tombstone was... tolerable, in the Maggia Don's eyes.
Some of the time.
"Hammerhead!" the large mass of muscle grinned with outstretched arms as he stepped into the large descript room, the wooden planks beneath his heavy frame groaning with strain "Hell'uva place you have. Took me and my boys a while to reach it all the way up here. Thought you'd be sticking closer to the city."
"Yeah, well things didn't go exactly to the plan in case you hadn't heard." Hammerhead grumbled as he turned his attention back to the map on the table and scowled at the markings that identified the different districts under the other Dons' control "That bitch screwed me and took all the drives."
Tombstone chuckled at this as he came to a stop next to the table and peered down at the map, humming to himself as he took in the various locations of the Maggia's fronts and store rooms.
If things don't pan out too well this time around, at least he and his boys will have something to do afterwards.
'The Maggia are gonna be hurting for bodies after what's to come.' Tombstone thought with a grin that was both gleeful and cruel as he rapped his knuckles against the map "So when you gonna hit them?"
"After I get more of that Sable tech little miss homicidal queen left when she and her people were sent back to their shithole of a country with their tails between their legs." Hammerhead claimed as he grabbed half the map and folded it over the other side, stopping Tombstone's examination of Maggia points of interest "Few of my people think they've found some stashes the Police have locked up and looking into ways of getting it. Might need that Prowler guy now that the bitch is dead."
"Heh, good luck with that one. He wants nothing to do with you." Tombstone revealed, causing Hammerhead to look at him with confusion.
"What?"
"Prowler and Black Cat were- what the hell do these brats call them these days, frenemies?" he said before he shook his head "Whatever, he doesn't want to work with you because you blew her up. Plus, I hear he's trying to go... straight-ish. Something about all that bullshit with the Devil's Breath and Li's goons shooting up and bombing places seems to have shaken him up a bit."
"What about Shocker-" Hammerhead began before a grin from Tombstone stopped him "He's out too?"
"Wants to lie low until everything's settled down. He thinks what's left of Li's people are still looking for him, so we won't be hearing from him for a while." Tombstone said.
"Then I guess we're doing this the hard way." Hammerhead sighed.
"Don't you have any people in the police that can help get you this crap?" Tombstone asked.
"Most of them got pinched when they were clearing out Fisk's people and the few still left are mostly Don Vincente Fortunato's. I got one left and I'm having him watch that captain Wannawara or whatever the fuck the chink's name is. You know, the one that's practically riding the bug's dick because her people are fucking idiots." Hammerhead said.
Tombstone hummed at this "Guess you should've had the Cat steal the Sable tech first."
"We needed the money more then all that fancy equipment at the time." Hammerhead said as he gestured to their surroundings "And as you can see, we still do."
"You know, that reminds me, how did you find her? Once it was obvious she was helping the Spider, we all wanted her head, but no one could ever find out where she was hiding when she wasn't slutting around with that kid. So how'd you do it?" Tombstone asked, curious.
Once it became obvious that Black Cat was now actively working with Spider-man, a lot of people were looking to track her down and make her pay. But no matter how long some followed her around for, nobody ever found out where she was living. A few did manage to find her loot caches but whatever was taken ended up being re-stolen by her later on, making the whole endeavor pointless for most.
Even Tombstone tried finding her after she and Spider-man began to hit some of his drug dens.
"Same way I've been able to get so much of this Sable tech, our little old bird told me." Hammerhead said as he retrieved a half full bottle of vodka and two glasses "Plus, I invited myself over to her place a few times to talk discuss our... partnership. Heh, gotta say, I can see why the bug kept her around for as long as he did, girl knew how to use those hands and mouth of hers."
Tombstone hummed at this "You know, word on the street is, the Spider is looking for you, and I mean he's really looking for you. He attacked the Bar with No Name and left one of your boys crippled on a rooftop after he... asked him some questions. Painful ones, I might add. The Police is being all hush, hush about it, but our mutual source was able to confirm it. If he finds out you were putting it to his girl when she was working for you, he might do worse."
"Is that right? Huh, never thought he'd actually have it in him. Guess I was wrong." Hammerhead shrugged as he poured himself and Tombstone a generous amount of liquor in each glass before passing the latter his.
"Appreciate it." Tombstone nodded in thanks as he held his glass up in toast before he threw the hole drink back in one shot.
"And I thought I could throw back a drink with the best of them." Hammerhead quirked a brow at the sight as he took a sip of his glass before sighing in content, it'd been too long since he's had a good drink.
Once the glass was drained, Tombstone set it down and let out a cough as the aftertaste hit the back of his throat "Damn, that's strong."
"It's imported, not that cheap piss water Americans are so fond of." Hammerhead chuckled as he took another sip of his drink before setting the half full glass to the side "Will your people be ready to move?"
"I think so." Tombstone nodded with a frown.
"Think?" Hammerhead asked with a pointed look "It's a simple yes or no. Can they or not?"
Tombstone growled at this, the urge to rip that metal plate out of Hammerhead's skull briefly surging through him before he suppressed it, for now "Won't be easy, but yes. But I don't exactly have a lot of people left compared to you. That fucking plague shit tentacle man released wiped out half my boys and I lost another third to Sable."
"So you need more people? I have plenty to spare, take your pick." Hammerhead said with a wave towards the door where both of their men were behind.
"I will." Tombstone said as he reached for the bottle Hammerhead left on the table and swiped it up before the other crime boss could say or do anything.
"You have any idea how much that costs to get out here?" Hammerhead scowled as he watched Tombstone begin chugging the bottle like it was a bottle of water.
Tombstone made a muffled humming sound as he downed half the liquid within the bottle before he removed it from his lips and let out a sigh of content as he wiped away some of the excess alcohol with the back of his hand and set the glass back on the table "You can afford it."
"Not at the moment." Hammerhead grumbled before his phone began to vibrate in his pocket.
Curious, the Maggia Don pulled it out to see that he had just received a text from one of the lieutenants he had watching over some of the small caches of Sable tech he's been able to acquire.
"Ahh dammit!" Hammerhead said with a frustrated sigh as he switched the phone off and tossed it on the table with a scowl.
"Problems?" Tombstone asked, his gaze flickering between Hammerhead and the phone.
"One of my Sable caches just got hit by the bug and now the pigs are all over it." Hammerhead said as he ran a hand over his face in frustration "The one I had that freak we were given, what'd he call himself, watching over it."
"Blood Spider?" Tombstone said with a raised brow before he shook his head in grim amusement "He's not gonna be happy."
"No shit." Hammerhead growled in annoyance.
Then again, when was Fisk ever happy when it involved that web swinging punk?
...
Peter sighed as he sat in a cushioned chair in the middle of the hall outside the room he, Castillo and Walter were discussing their plan of attack on Hammerhead's hideout, watching as Mary Jane continued to try and call him for the seventh time in the pas hour, twelve times in total since last night.
He was tempted to just mute her number entirely until he was ready to deal with... whatever mood she was still in, but putting this off any longer then he already has meant the inevitable confrontation will just be even more... difficult.
He has no regrets sending Mary Jane away and refusing her help in the manner he did, with how brutal his fight with Blood Spider ended up becoming and how it ended. Of course she'd find some excuse to justify her staying to 'help', make up some hypothetical scenario where he'd be doomed if not for her help. But looking back on his fight with Michael, Peter knew what would've happened if Mary Jane stayed, she would've tried to stop him from shutting Michael up for what he said about Felicia, what he insinuated, and in that brief pause, that split second, Michael would've made his move, either to escape, take Mary Jane hostage and use that to injure or even possibly kill Peter, or just outright kill her as one final measure of spite against the wall crawler.
"Why the hell is it so hard for her to understand that her being there wasn't going to be helpful in any way?!" Peter hissed in frustration as he set the phone down on the small table next to him, rested his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands as he tried to fight down the growing anger he felt whenever he thought of Mary Jane running head first into these situations.
His fear for her safety was long gone, and so too was the annoyance, now it was just pure anger he was feeling. Anger at Mary Jane for thinking she could pull this crap time and again and think it'll end well, anger at himself for allowing her to think that and get away with it, anger at her bosses at the Bugle, Robbie in particular, for praising her for these actions and embolden her to do it more often.
Anger at-
"Spider-man?"
Peter looked up to see a woman dressed in a black pencil skirt with a slit running up the left side of her leg until it reached just below her waist, a dark grey blazer and buttoned up white shirt underneath that. Her hair was completely shaved on the right side while the rest hung from the left down to her shoulder. Gold and silver piercings decorated her exposed left ear and looked like they cost more then a year's worth of rent for Peter's apartment at least.
But what really struck Peter about the woman, aside from that ridiculous hair style, was the fact he recognized her. It was the same woman he saw with Felicia and that other man that night, engaging in... whatever the hell that was. He hadn't seen her since then, and Felicia never brought her or the man up, something he was privately thankful for, but he never did stop wondering just who the hell she was and what her exact relationship with Peter was.
A part of him wondered if the two ever got back together after Peter all but chased her out of the city after handing her gear over to Yuri.
"Yeah?" Peter said, annoyed at being interrupted from his thoughts and having to see this woman again.
The woman's eyes narrowed in contempt as she spoke "My name is Odessa Drake, I'm Castillo Drake's daughter."
"Good for you." Peter replied.
"I understand that you were in a relationship with Felicia." Odessa said as she made a point of eyeing Peter up and down with a look of mild distaste "Odd, she never mentioned that to me."
"Oh, she never told you everything either huh? Guess we have something in common when it comes to her." Peter said.
"So it would seem. Come, we've set up a room for you to sleep in." Odessa said as she gestured for Peter to follow her.
Peter watched her go for a few moments before he returned his attention back to his phone and watched as another call from Mary Jane tried to connect. He wasn't in the mood to sleep, and he sure as hell wasn't going to have some sleezy thief that dared to sleep with his Felicia order him to follow like a DAMN DOG-
"Are you coming or not?" Odessa's voice, laced with annoyance, cut off Peter's slowly darkening thoughts, causing him to look up from his phone to see that she had stopped halfway down the hall to look back at him with a scowl.
"No." Peter said dryly as he pocketed his phone and sat up from his chair and walked in the complete opposite direction that Odessa wanted him to go.
The suite wasn't that large of a space compared to the likes of Osborn, Fisk or even Charles Standish's penthouses, but it was still bigger then Peter's place by a factor of at least four, and he was curious to see if he'd find any of the art he inadvertently helped Walter steal.
If he did, he was going to outright destroy them, no point in taking them when the deadbeat of a bastard was just going to steal them back at a later point.
"SPIDER-MAN!" Odessa called after Peter as she rushed to catch up with him.
"What?" he asked as he passed a lavishly decorated bathroom the size of Peter's entire apartment.
Seriously, why do people need bathrooms that big? All he needed really was enough space for a shower, toilet and a sink to get by, not a giant jacuzzi of a bathtub on top of a shower big enough to be it's own room and a sink with like three sinks and three mirrors in it!
'Rich people are weird.' Peter thought as he continued out into the main 'living room' of the suite and looked around to see if he'd spot any of Walter's stolen art pieces.
Aside from a few fancy looking vases and statues, nothing really screamed 'stolen art made by a dead guy' to him.
"SPIDER-MAN!" Odessa yelled again as she all but stomped after Peter with an annoyed look on her face.
Again, Peter paid her no mind and instead focused his attention on a small room off tot he side that was left partially open. Curious, more so because he could see faint blue-ish white lights emanating from inside, he quickly hopped across the room and pushed open the door slightly when he landed in front of it.
"SPI-HEY! GET AWAY FROM THAT!" Odessa yelled as she raced across the room and made to grab Peter by the shoulder before he stepped through the door and into the room, his damaged lenses widened in surprise at the contents of the space.
It was all Sable tech.
Snipe rifles, assault rifles, armor, jetpacks, shields, those weird shock batons that hurt like a mother, and even a few rocket launchers!
"Okay seriously, was there a freakin Black Friday sale I missed?" Peter muttered in disbelief as he stepped further into the room and looked around at some of the equipment.
He was just about to reach for a helmet and take a closer look at it when he heard the sudden 'click' of a pistol behind him and slowly looked over his shoulder to see Odessa pointing a small handgun at him. The glare on her face did not make her look any more attractive then that weird hair style of her's did, leaving Peter to really wonder what it was about this woman that Felicia saw fit enough to... sleep with her.
'Can't be her personality, she makes Willie seem pleasant in comparison.' Peter thought as he stared blankly at the woman.
"I told you, to stay away from here!" Odessa snarled.
"You did." Peter nodded.
"You ignored me." she hissed, taking a step closer so that the barrel of her gun was inches away from Peter's back.
"I did." Peter nodded again, his mind already racing on how to handle his current situation.
He wasn't too worried about being shot, his spider-sense had yet to go off and he's confident he can dodge this woman's shot and put her head through a wall until she stops moving-
Peter shook his head at the last thought, he was getting a lot of those kinds lately.
'I really need a vacation.' Peter thought dimly as he fully turned towards Odessa and quirked his head slightly to the side as her gun was now aimed at the center of his chest.
"You are going to leave, now, before I make you wish you never stepped foot in h-" she started before a blur of motion saw her gun snatched out of her hand, her wrist twisted to it's near breaking point, and her arm held at an angle that all it would take is a bit more pressure from to one particular side to dislocate it.
"Trust me, I'm wishing I never stepped foot in here since it means I have to keep listening to you." Peter said as he held Odessa's arm at an odd angle with one hand while the other held her gun.
After a brief glance at it, he proceeded to tighten his fist around the firearm until it was crushed in his grip and pieces of it fell to the floor. With the gun destroyed, Peter released Odessa's arm and allowed the woman to stagger away before she righted herself and glared holes into him.
"If you ever touch me again-"
"Would you have preferred I beat the ever loving hell out of you, your father, and whoever the hell comes up here to see what's going on and tries to comer to your defense, or do you want to leave it at me disarming you?." Peter countered coolly with narrowed lenses, his voice adopting a notable growl at the end "We can go the other route if you want."
Odessa gritted her teeth as she glared daggers at Peter.
"That's what I thought." Peter said with a nod as he kicked away the crushed remains of Odessa's firearm, sending bits of plastic, metal and brass bullets skirting across the floor.
"I'm beginning to see why Felicia left you... Parker!" Odessa sneered.
"Yeah, I couldn't quite keep up with her luxury life style if I wanted to keep eating off the dollar menu at McDonalds. Sorry, but the chicken nuggies take priority." Peter shrugged, though privately livid that someone that was apparently close to Felicia, enough to sleep with her, knew his identity.
A part of him did wonder though if she had ever hooked back up with either or both of the individuals he saw her with that night, and whether she told them anything about him. Or perhaps as a result of this 'Thieves Guild' following Felicia around, they found out about who he was around the time Peter mustered up the courage to share his secret identity with her.
'Well it's not like I have much of a family left to worry about should word get out.' Peter thought sadly as the memory of his final moments with May flashed through his mind.
With a deep inhale and exhale through his nose, Peter turned his attention away from the unhappy woman, and instead began to better examine the tech accumulated by the Thieves Guild. He never did get a chance to really inspect Sable's equipment before they pulled out, only just enough to create his Suspension Matrix after taking a few hours to dissemble a jetpack from one of Sable's agents. Truthfully he wanted to find a way to make a smaller one to use, be so useful in areas with low rise buildings and against the likes of flying villains' like Vulture, but the Suspension Matrix had proven useful in his fight against Scorpion and Rhino.
The memory of using the gadget to suspend Rhino into the air and lure Gargan underneath him just in time for the Matrix to end and drop the multi-ton Russian on the crazed man still made Peter chuckle.
He really should've recorded and posted that.
"What are you laughing about?" Odessa demanded.
"Don't worry about it. You wouldn't get it." Peter said as he picked up a Sable helmet and looked to see that it could be adjusted to be worn on heads slightly larger then Peter's own "How'd you get all of this? Hammerhead I can see having his people pick through destroyed checkpoints and some of the bases I shut down before the cops showed up, but you? You had to have snatched this from somewhere else."
"That dumbass Sable's compounds weren't as secured as she liked to think. It was almost pathetic how easy it was to swipe this from her." Odessa said with a scoff.
"Yeah, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact half her force got infected with Devil's Breath and died, being under near constant attack from the Demons, Rykers and Raft inmates, Otto's Sinister Six, oh and me." Peter said dryly as he placed the helmet back and turned his attention to a armored chest piece "Compared to that, a few guys sneaking in to steal a crate or two was probably considered acceptable in her eyes."
Though it probably was the reason she was even more pissed off with everyone.
'Should probably send her a fruit basket with an apology.' Peter thought as he lifted up the chest armor and examined what appeared to be a power supply of some kind 'Least I can do after trashing her guys, equipment and forcing her to put up with Norman Osborn losing his crap.'
"Whatever helps you and her sleep at night!" Odessa scoffed.
"Don't know about her, but for me it's a half bottle of Melatonin gummies and crying until I pass out." Peter said as he placed the chest piece back down and glanced at Odessa and frowned at her from underneath his mask "Don't you have somewhere else to be? I'm not tired and when I am, I'm just gonna go home and sleep there."
Odessa's brow twitched at this before she turned to leave "You should get someone to look at the suit of yours, it looks like someone dragged you through a field of broken glass!"
"And your haircut looks like it was done by a blind drunk with Parkinson's, but you don't see me telling you to go see a barber." Peter replied.
Odessa paused for a moment and her head briefly turned as if to look back and glare at him before she shook her head and left the room.
Peter grumbled quietly as he looked down at his suit, it was covered in tears from the fight at the Bar With No Name and Blood Spider, leaving it to look like he was in fact dragged through a field of sharp things.
"At this rate I'll be back to wearing my old wrestler suit." Peter mumbled with a snort.
Honestly he wasn't even sure if he still had that thing, after his failed start as a pro-wrestler and the creation of his classic red and blue suit, Peter had tossed the old thing in a box somewhere and promptly moved on. The only real drawback to wearing it again, assuming he can find it, was that it was his most basic and primitive suit, which was of course obvious given it was literally a red shirt with a airbrushed black spider on the front and back, blue pants, and a pair of rubber black and red boots he found and a blue cloth mask with red and white patches sewn on. Honestly Peter would rather charge into Hammerhead's hideout with only his mask and a pair of brief's on then wear that thing again.
Peter sighed as he spared another glance at some of the Sable armor plates and narrowed his eyes as the gears in his mind began to slowly turn.
Maybe instead of a regression, an upgrade was in order.
...
And done.
Next chapter, Compromises...
answers to reviewers' questions or statements:
SPBRX: There is a reason for some of the things Felicia did, both intentionally and unintentionally. And they will be explored!
Speed Reader: It's a surprise.
CRUDEN: I am excited about the game, but I'm also equally dreading it, especially with some of the comments I'm hearing from the game developers.
