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- vfc15650: Thanks for the feedback! I think I have an idea on how to flesh out Tombstone a bit more in a later part, so hopefully it'll work. And yeah, someone should make a Scarlet Spider movie featuring Kaine. Cuz he's an interesting character and relatable imo. I'm glad you liked the four characters! Yeah, Gwen is gonna in a sequel to this fanfic. And she'll play an important role in Peter's next arc. (Won't spoil more ;)) For now, Kaine's dark side is still weak so he doesn't have much influence on him (Kaine). But that won't stop the Other from taunting and tempting Kaine ;)
(Later, at one of Kingpin's buildings...)
"Franco, how are things at your end?" asked a patrolling guard in front of a four story building through his radio.
"Clear so far, sir," the other replied.
"Good, keep your eyes open. Don't want an enemy spy to come and steal vital information, got it?" The guard let out a yawn, before continuing to scan around his surroundings carefully. "Man, I wish I could just go home and take a long sleep," he groaned to a fellow guard beside him. "I mean. Look at the sky, Jed! It's almost nighttime. Gosh, this 24 hour-shift sucks..."
"Heh, I feel you, John," Jed sympathized by patting his friend's back, "But we have a job to do. Can't disappoint the big boss. Especially his right hand men."
"Yeah... Don't wanna get to their bad side."
After moments of silence, just the two looking here and there... They heard the sound of a can falling to the ground not afar.
"You hear that?" John asked Jed, "It came from the alley."
John pulled out a gun from his holster and gestured Jed to follow him, who readied his own pistol. They leaned against the wall, before John peeked out and walked to the alley, with his fellow guard behind him. The guards inspected the area, their eyes darting here and there. Nothing and no one. Not even a can spotted.
"The heck? Funny, I thought something fell." Then, a small device on the ground caught John's attention. It prompted the man to bend down and retrieve it.
"What is that?" Jed asked as John brought the thing closer, both looking at it with curiosity.
"No idea... Looks like it's a mic?-" Before John could finish, it emitted a gas in front of the guards' faces. They started feeling doozy, their grip on the guns weakening. Seconds later, the two fell to the ground along with their weapons.
Behind a car at the parking lot, a masked Felicia was peeking out at the guards who had fallen asleep. She was wearing her leather outfit, her braided platinum blonde hair coming out of a hole on the back of her mask. One of her hands held the white smartphone with the words "GAS ACTIVATED" printed on the screen. "That sure did the trick," she smirked under the mask.
She put the phone back in her pants' pocket and pulled out a custom pistol, switching its noisemaker/sleeping gas cartridge to a jammer cartridge. Carefully exiting her cover, she aimed her gun at a camera nearby. Felicia proceeded to shot a round at the camera, jamming it for a bit before entering the building.
Once inside, the girl tapped one of the buttons on her "cat ears" and it began emitting sonar pulses, which she could see through the goggles she wore. The pulses revealed outlines of five rooms on the first floor, with a couple of guards patrolling.
"Alright. Let's find the layout of this building. And, I suppose I can interrogate one of the guards where to find the info I'm looking for," Felicia walked up to the stairs with her gun readied, her eyes darting back and forth to make sure no one spot her. She also had to walk carefully as to not to cause noise pollution for the sonar.
As she got to the second floor, a sonar pulse revealed three guards checking around. Realizing she needed to draw them to one place and take out a couple of the guards, she switched the cartridge back to what she used earlier. Then she shot a small device to the floor. Felicia didn't waste any time by holstering her gun and taking out her smartphone. She turned up the volume of said device and played an audio clip of a classical music on repeat.
"What in the- Who is playing that?!" a man shouted as he rushed toward the area. Felicia walked back a bit and crouched to remain hidden.
"Come out! Show yourself!" Another man with his fellow joined the first one from a different direction. "Huh... False alarm."
The second man noticed something on the ground and picked it up, bringing it closer to him and his fellow security guard.
"What is that?" the first one gave a curious glance at the device. "Wait, wait. Drop it!" he told them in a panicked tone and took a few steps back.
"It's nothing-" A sleeping gas from the thing made them feel doozy and fall to the ground.
Seeing what happened to his colleagues, the terrified man ran away to start an alarm. "Gotcha," Felicia put her phone in her pocket, turned off the sonar mode, pursued the man, and tackled him. His face hit the ground and she stepped on his back. The girl then unholstered her gun and pressed it against the guard's head.
"Who- Who are you?" he trembled in fear, "Are you from Hammerhead's side?"
Felicia leaned closer to whisper, her voice filled with anger and revenge. "No. Mine only. And I'm a reminder that there's an unfinished business from the past with Shocker and Tombstone." She proceeded to ask, "Where can I find info about locations of Kingpin's other buildings?"
"Never," he answered in defiant tone.
With that, Felicia popped up the claws from one of her gloves. "Don't test me. I can make these claws cut deep into your flesh. Or I can just shoot your limbs and legs. Either way leads to a slow, painful death. If you don't want me to make it a living hell, then spit out the answer!"
"Okay, okay!" he relented, "It's on the fourth floor, one of the rooms has it. You'll find all you need there!"
"Alright. Where can I find the building's layout?"
"S-Security room," the man replied, "There are two guards monitoring the cameras however. You go straight, turn to your left, and you'll find three rooms on the hallway. One of them is the security room. But there's a camera too..."
"Nice. I can handle them," Felicia chuckled softly, "How can I disable the security system?"
"I- Um..." the guard stuttered, " I don't think I know. I'm just a security guard..."
"Ah great. My job just gets easier," she replied in a sarcastic tone. "Anything I need to know or worry about?"
"Lasers in the information room. Only guards with RFID badge can bypass them."
She smirked under the mask, "That won't be a problem. Thank you for the information. Oh and before you go to sleep, remember this: tell Shocker and Tombstone that revenge is coming for them." Felicia proceeded to hit his head with the butt of her gun, knocking him out. After that, she turned him over, took his badge, and put it inside one of her pockets before going to the security room. She didn't forget to hide the unconscious men in a spare, empty room.
On her way, Felicia again switched the cartridge to the one with jammers. She came to a stop and leaned against the wall, slowly peeking out from the corner. A camera was spotted and luckily, it wasn't facing her direction. With this chance she had, Felicia aimed her gun at it and shot two jammer rounds.
She holstered her gun, remained there, and waited patiently. Her patience was answered by two guards coming out from the security room, trying to check what caused the disturbance on the camera. Felicia let out a couple of whistles, catching their attention.
"Hello? Hey, who's there?" asked one of the guards.
No response.
The two looked at each other and walked toward the source of the noise, only to get greeted by a hit on their faces then a punch to their necks, making them unconscious as they fell.
After dragging the unconscious guards to the same empty room, Felicia entered the security room and took pictures of the layout, before going up to the fourth floor. On the last floor, she found a few guards, managed to knock them out, and hid them inside a room. Not only that but also jamming some cameras. Now clear, the girl walked into the information room—its lasers turned off as she got in—started looking for info through paper files and computers.
"Where are you... Just where are you..." she murmured as she sifted through folders and document files on a computer. Upon clicking a file and seeing its content, an excited grin formed on her face under the mask. "Gotcha!" ...Only for it to slowly fade as she realized there was only one location found. This prompted her to look for other documents but to no result, due to only being available to those with high level security clearance. "Alright. Better than nothing, I guess." She brought out her flash drive, plugged it in and copied the file. She also uploaded a virus into the computer, which triggered an alarm.
"That's my cue to get out." Felicia unplugged the flash drive and shove it back into her pocket as she hurried out.
"Hey, you!" a security guard spotted her, "Freeze!"
She just ran straight toward a large glass window and jumped through it, breaking the glass in pieces. As Felicia descended into a fall, she directed her arm with a wrist grappling gun at a building and shot a grappling hook. With the device, she swung away from building to building, laughing while the security guards gathered and watched helplessly.
"Goodness... The boss is gonna kill us..." a guard said solemnly, looking down as if he already accepted his fate.
*
At the corner of the street, Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider were seen webbing two groups of goons. One against the wall while the other hanging upside down on a street light.
"Andddd there you go!" Spidey chuckled, "Thank you for coming to my neighbourhood. Come back next time! My bad puns and quips will one hundred percent surely irritate your ears."
Scarlet glared at the other group hanging upside down. "You ever wanna come back here? Sure." He walked to them and extruded a stinger from his wrist, earning a disgusted look from one of the goons. Then, he pointed it close to a masked goon's eye, "I'll take pleasure in hearing your painful screams and dissecting your body. To the point you start pissing in your pants. Heck, if you hurt or kill someone, I'LL MAKE SURE TO MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIVING HELL."
"We- No, no! We won't come back. Promise!"
"Hm. Good," he said with a nonchalant tone, retracting the stinger.
After making sure the authorities would arrest those goons, the two masked teens swung to a nearby rooftop. They sat down and let out a yawn.
"Great, no signs of Quilt Man and his band..." Peter groaned, "I think it's time to end today's patrol. My parents are gonna be so worried."
"My mom is working late or something. But agreed, we really could use some rest."
As they were about to go home, they saw a masked blonde girl in black leather outfit swung by with her grappling hook. The Parkers glanced at each other, confused why she didn't trigger their spider-sense, yet she looked like a thief? Then, it occurred to Kaine she could probably be a spy sent by Shocker to lure them both. Just the very thought of that made him tighten his fist.
"Coz. Wait, what are you-" Before Peter could even finish, Kaine already leaped off the rooftop and started swinging to pursue the girl. He sighed and joined him from behind, determined to stop him.
Felicia glanced over her shoulder and her eyes widened, realizing they were after her. She retracted the hook and landed on a nearby rooftop and turned her attention to Scarlet Spider, who landed on the same place.
"What do you want from me?" she asked to the masked figure with black mask and red lenses wearing a black jacket.
"You have to be a spy sent by Shocker. Where is he?" he spoke in a deep voice, full of anger and impatience as he got closer to her.
"What the- I don't know. I'm not even his spy!"
"Liar. Where!?"
Now backed against the wall and him just a few meters apart, Felicia popped up her claws from the gloves, only for Scarlet to yank them with his webbing. She tried to throw punches and delivered kicks, but he managed to dodge some of her attacks. The masked teen shot a few webs which bound her with the wall.
"Once again..." he grew more impatient, popping a stinger from his wrist and pointed it at her, "WHERE. IS. SHOCKER!?"
"Hey!" Spider-Man shot a web line to Scarlet Spider's back from his finger tips and pulled him away from her, before landing on the rooftop. "Have you lost your mind? She's not a threat. Let's just have a civilized conversation."
Both turned to the girl and her reaction caught them off guard. Fear was reflected on her eyes as they looked at her in the eyes. She was shaking too. Seeing this reminded of Kaine the time he saw his mother abused by his very own father. He felt a pang of guilt in his heart...
"I'm... I'm sorry," he used the stinger to cut off the web and freed her. The girl then slapped him in the face, however he didn't retaliate, accepting that he deserved it.
"The hell is wrong with you..?" her voice was full of disgust, it was reflected on her eyes too.
"I thought Shocker sent you to lure us..." Scarlet Spider said with shame in his voice, "I... I want to kill- No. I want to exact my vengeance on him." Scarlet glanced at Spidey, before looking back at her. "He almost killed someone close to me."
The look on Felicia's face changed into somewhat sympathetic. Death and vengeance being the reasons of what they did. They weren't so different.
Bending down and picking up the fallen gloves, Spider-Man carefully inspected them. He checked the front and back parts, along with the fingertips. When he saw the black claws, he could only utter one word. "Fascinating..." He then approached the girl, handing her gloves. "Ma'am, I believe these belong to you."
Felicia chuckled and retrieved her white gloves, proceeding to wear them. "Thank you, Webhead."
"That's better than being called a bug or an insect. I mean, I'm a freaking spider for goodness sake." The three laughed at Spidey's joke. "Anyway, um. I hope you're okay. Sorry for the misunderstanding."
"All is forgiven," she reassured the two, before asking her question. "Are you after the Shocker?"
"We are," Spidey answered. "Wait, we don't know much about you. You're new here, right? Who are you? And what is it exactly you've been doing?"
Felicia replied, "I am, kind of. Let's just say that I'm just a normal girl who has some unfinished business with Shocker and Tombstone. Been wanting to mess with their criminal empire and their big boss. Because they have messed with mine a year ago. The bad guys have a war with the other bad guys, so it'll be more fun to ruin them." She pulled out the flash drive from her pocket and showed it to the heroes, "And I got a lead on one of their locations."
Hearing what she said, Scarlet frowned. "Normal girl? Then how do you know much about those criminals?"
"I promise I will answer them," the girl replied as she put it back in her pocket.
"Wait, wait," the webhead interrupted both, "You said there's a war going on?" Felicia nodded and Spider-Man was taken aback... "Goodness, my home isn't safe... I can't let that happen." For a few moments, he remained silent, brainstorming for an idea, before he finally spoke up. "U-Uh can I call you Black Cat? Since I don't know what to call you."
"Sure," she smiled, "I don't mind. That's a good name."
"Okay. Since you know who the criminals are, what if we work together to take them down? I mean, we all are after them. So why not, right?"
Black Cat and Scarlet Spider looked at Spider-Man in disbelief and stared at each other in distrust. Scarlet made a short distance from the girl and gestured his cousin to come to him. "Webs... You sure about this?" he whispered to the webhead, expressing his doubt, "I don't trust her. She's full of mysteries... Like, Cat isn't just a normal girl. There's more to it."
Spidey sighed and nodded, acknowledging what Scarlet said. "Yeah but she has a lead on them. We really could use some help," he pointed out a different side, "Plus, it'll benefit everyone, right?"
"Eh, I still don't trust her..."
They turned to Black Cat and approached her. "What do you think about our team-up?" Spider-Man asked her.
The girl eyed each of the duo and shook her head. "I'm... I'm not sure I can," she hesitated.
"Why, what's wrong?" There was genuine concern in Spider-Man's voice.
"Well..." Cat exhaled deeply and glanced away, "You can say I have trust issues. Don't wanna talk about it."
"Oh... I'm really sorry," Spider-Man sympathized.
"Don't be. Anyway, I don't think it's gonna work," she added.
The red and blue hero chuckled as it reminded him of what Anna said when they first met two months ago...
*
After finishing his wheatcakes, Peter waited for the drinks. A couple of minutes later and Kaine hadn't yet to return, which confused Peter. He sighed, got out of his seat and walked over to the bar, finding his cousin talking with a female bartender around his age. He let out a chuckle as he approached Kaine and tapped his shoulder.
"Psst! You forgetting me, Coz?"
"Wha?" he turned to Peter, "Oh- Sorry, Pete. I got carried away."
"Not cool, man. Leaving me for eternity. Not cool," the younger Parker shook his head in disapproval.
Annabelle looked at the two amusedly as she listened to their banter. "You must be Kaine's cousin. I'm Annabelle Adams." She offered her hand.
"I'm Peter," he accepted it and gave a warm smile.
The girl raised an eyebrow, noticing Kaine and Peter were identical. "One question. If you are cousins, then how come you're like...identical twins?"
"My dad and his dad are twin brothers. So uh- That's the answer," Peter laughed.
Anna rolled her eyes in amusement. "Okay, okay. Gotta get back to work since I'm not doing my job."
"Job?" asked Peter, tilting his head a little.
"Yeah. I work during school holidays, just to do something productive."
The Parkers nodded in understanding. A smile of respect formed on Kaine's face especially.
When Annabelle turned away to take care of the next customer, Kaine called her. "Uh wait! Will we meet again..? I still wanna talk with you..."
She sniped over her shoulder and gave a soft smile. The girl reached to her pocket and pulled out a notebook and a pen. Anna wrote down her number on a blank page, tore it off, and handed it to Kaine. "We can call or text during my free time. And make a group chat with your cousin in it too," she said, "If you want, we can hangout later."
"I uh... That's pretty quick?" Peter fidgeted his fingers, biting his bottom lip softly, before looking at Anna nervously, "Other than my cousin, I never got to know other people and do things together with them. Why include me? I'm basically a stranger to you."
"Well, you and Kaine seem real sweet and great to talk with. I wanna know you more," Anna explained.
"You sure it will work out, Ann..?" Peter expressed his doubt, hesitant over the idea of knowing someone new.
She just chuckled. "I'm sure it will work out just fine. Don't worry, we'll get along. Trust me," she winked at Peter.
"Alrighty then. I guess I'm the new member in the friendship club now." The three laughed before parting ways as Annabelle got back to work.
*
He couldn't stop smiling under his mask as he remembered that day. Peter told her, "I once was afraid friendship wouldn't work. But a friend of mine told me that it would work out fine. And it kinda did, so why not try trusting again? That is if you want to though."
She shook her head and shrugged. "No can do," she replied, "But fine, I'll probably need help. I'm game for the team-up. However, that's it."
"Fair enough," Scarlet Spider said.
The pair proceeded to exchange their numbers with Black Cat's and added her to their group in a secure messaging app.
"This way, we can keep in contact with each other." Spider-Man held back a yawn and sighed. After almost yawning in front of her, he scratched his head in embarrasment. "Sorry... The patrol was pretty exhausting. It's time to go home now..." the hero said sheepishly.
Felicia giggled and everyone waved goodbye to each other before swinging their way home.
*
(Less an hour after the break-in...)
Inside a room, Herman sat on a wooden chair, wearing safety goggles and gloves. Before him, was a bunch of materials and tools, along with his vibro-shock gauntlet blueprint laid on a large table. On another table, were two pairs of said gauntlet. He glanced at the blueprint one more time before he soldered a few wires to a printed circuit board. A smile formed on his face as Herman started humming softly, yet he remained focused.
"Boss, boss!" a henchman barged into the room. The sudden interruption prompted Herman to drop the soldering iron from his hand.
"Fucking Chr- Can't you knock before coming in?!" He rubbed his forehead, trying to regain his composure, "What's the matter?"
"Sorry, Boss. It's just that we got a report of a break-in at one of Kingpin's buildings."
Herman rose from his seat and took off the goggles, bewilderment reflected on his eyes. "What happened? Who did it?" he asked.
The henchman only said, "That's something the Kingpin will answer... Speaking of the big boss, he and Tombstone want to see you."
*
As Herman and Tombstone waited for Wilson Fisk to accept the video call, he dreaded to see the big man's reaction. Not only that but his fears came true.
"Well, good evening, gentlemen," he greeted them in a sarcastic tone, "I must say that we received such...unpleasant surprise tonight. And I believe it is something that might ring a bell." Kingpin shared a picture he received from a security guard, displaying the text "THE CAT WAS HERE" on a glitched computer screen.
"What? Impossible, I blew off Walter's head!" Herman exclaimed then proceeded to ask Fisk, "How can this be?"
"Our Cat has another life in form of a girl, none other than Hardy's daughter. She is coming for you two and my empire."
Tombstone frowned his eyes and glanced at the black-haired man. "Now we are attacked from two sides. The war must be won, but not if we get rid of those little, annoying pests. Problem is one can only focus at one task at a time."
Herman's eyes met Tombstone's as he processed what the pale man told him. He looked away, thinking for a moment... This could mean the end of his life if he didn't do something about it. "...Then I'll handle the Cat and those clowns so they won't bother us in this war. I look forward to personally eliminating them myself," Shocker replied with determination in his voice and nodded at the Kingpin.
"Do not make me regret recruiting you, Herman. Do what you must," Fisk warned before exiting the call.
He only grinned. His hand curled into a fist as he couldn't wait to wipe them off the face of the earth. "With pleasure, Kingpin. With the utmost pleasure..."
- To be continued in Part 2A -
A/N #1: And so, this marks the end of the first part. (Sorry that this chapter is pretty long XD) I'll be taking a small break from writing fanfic XD But I'll try to get back to writing as soon as I can. I'll write the chapters of Part 2A first, get some feedbacks, and upload them. (Reason being I can't upload daily if I write one chapter then upload it to this site. My writing process can be slow :')) More or less, you can expect Part 2A to arrive next month...hopefully. I also need to think how I can begin the first half of Part 2 (Part 2A). But don't worry, I have the general idea of how this whole story begins and ends ;) One thing for sure, Shocker is the main physical villain in P2A with Tombstone (gonna be fleshed out a little more) being teased to join and make things more difficult for the heroes.
Anyway, thank you everyone and followers for reading this! And those who comment on this, thank you too because I love getting to interact with you and knowing your thoughts on the fanfic. Don't forget to follow, favorite this, leave a comment, and share it! If you want, you can also send me a PM if you have any questions. Hope everyone has a good day and see you on the next part! :D
A/N #2: If anyone feels déjà vu reading the stealth segments, it's because I use Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid V for inspiration XD So, you might find their references too here ;)
