Chapter Eleven – Third Date?

Harry was not best pleased as he had stripped down to his boxers and flopped down into his bed ranting about a cancelled date. Apparently the girl he was meant to be seeing tonight – the one he had been meeting the last week or so, had messaged saying she was now unavailable. He didn't take it well, as was evident to me from the fact that he had spent at least half an hour lying in the darkness of our room ranting to me about it, commenting that 'she's probably seeing that ginger asshole'. I didn't ask and didn't want to know – really I just wanted him to sleep so I could go out. After half an hour he had finally shut up, and after another half an hour I could hear him snoring to himself, which leads me to where I am now, perched on a building out in Downtown New York.

It was a quiet night. I'd broken a few muggers' arms, cracked a few skulls of some drunks who were getting rowdy, but aside from that I was bored. I'd felt restless. I wanted to get involved in some fights, I wanted to catch criminals, I wanted to find something big. My phone beeped quietly, and I almost jumped for joy: a police alert. Break into a jewellery store in Harlem. Security footage apparently showed a masked woman with cat ears making out the store with whatever was stolen.

Cat.

I switched my phone to silent and swung off towards Harlem. The air was cold and there was a fine layer of snow on the ground. Usually, I would be layering my suit at this time of year, but my suit seemed warmer for some reason. I didn't overthink it. All that was in my mind right now was getting my revenge on the Black Cat.

Wait, no. Apprehending the Black Cat. Not revenge. I shook that idea from my head, keeping my goal in mind.

I landed quietly on a building opposite the shop, making sure not to slip on the frost that threatened to throw me to the street if I wasn't careful. Down on ground level New York's boys in blue were swarming the shop, checking for signs of where Cat could have gone. I saw a large man outside speaking to the cops, probably a witness or the owner of the store. This would make it harder, I couldn't really go down there and do my own investigating while there was a whole precinct around. I was about to move to a different rooftop when something collided hard with the side of my head.

I instinctively dived to the side, twisting my body to see my assailant. The short, slim figure of the Black Cat came into view. She was dressed in a slightly different outfit tonight than the last time I'd seen her with a high-necked costume which exposed only her face instead of her open necked outfit from the previous encounter. In her hand was a snowball. I felt up to the side of my head and touched cold snow.

"Don't run." I said firmly, working out how quickly I could reach her. Three seconds was my guess.

"Don't you want to play kiss chase?" Cat chucked. She flung the second snowball towards me and I ducked out the way just in time to see her dive backwards off the building. I swore under my breath and leapt after her, propelling myself in her direction. I caught sight of her grappling towards another building and I swung down, impacting her hard and knocking her grapple from her hand. We landed on the lower roof with a hard thump, my body absorbing her impact as she landed on top of me. We rolled as we landed and I sprung up to my feet, pulling her with me and holding her against the wall by her throat.

"I told you not to run," I said angrily. I could see she was having trouble breathing, and for a moment I considered tightening my grip around her neck. After a second I relaxed it, instead using my free hand to web her arms and legs to the wall.

"That wasn't as fun as I'd hoped." Cat said, breathing deeply.

"What did you take?" I asked.

"Nothing. You can check if you want." She motioned down to the two small bags strapped to either thigh. I rummaged through them and found a variety of things: memory sticks, lock picks, small devices which I assumed were smoke bombs, but she was telling the truth, no jewellery.

"Why attack a jewellery shop if you didn't want anything from there?"

"I wanted to see you."

I frowned. "Why?"

"Cut me down and I'll explain." I broke the webbing, releasing her from the wall.

"You run and I'll break you leg next time I catch you." I threatened.

Cat smiled. "Where's all this aggression come from? Threatening behaviour, an all-black suit, you going through your emo phase Spider?"

"The black suit is from our last fight when that chemical shit covered me." I crossed my arms to hide my fists clenching at the anger that was building thinking back to our last encounter.

"I wanted to apologise." Cat said, her smirk vanishing to be replaced by a more serious face. "I was worried that you were injured in the explosion. It wasn't my intention."

"What do you mean? You pulled me out of the building didn't you?" I asked confused.

"No, I barely managed to get out myself." Cat replied. This puzzled me. "Couldn't risk losing my information."

"Suppose your main goal was blackmail wasn't it?" I asked bluntly. "I guess Drake didn't give into your demands?"

"What do you mean?" Cat questioned, pacing.

"That's why you leaked all those files. The court agreements and allegations?" I had positioned myself on the wall in a sitting position, making sure to keep her in reach.

"No. I don't want anything to do with that bastard." She said bitterly.

"Then why go through all the effort of getting it?"

"Because I was one of the people he raped."

My heart fell and my chest went cold. I had never considered that as a reason. Cat had seemed so strong and confident that the idea someone could force themselves upon her seemed ridiculous to me.

A few seconds passed between us. "I'm so sorry."

She smirked at my apology. "Don't apologise. I've won. Now everyone knows his dirty secrets."

"Why not go to the police?" I asked in what I now realised was naivety.

"I did, but they didn't care." Cat looked away at me. "It was my word against his. I was a poor teenage girl who liked going to clubs and showing off my body, he was a twenty-something son of a rich businessman. Doesn't take a genius to see how that turned out."

"I'm sorry." I repeated. I felt awful. I felt angry. I'd always felt like the police could be trusted, and I suppose for some people that was true. Cat wasn't one of those people though. I made a mental note to keep that in mind.

"Anyway, I didn't break into a store just to make you feel bad." Cat say, walking up to me.

"Then why?"

"I know where Mr Negative is."

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The pair of us slinked towards the building Mr Negative had based himself in. I had retrieved Cat's grapple from the building and we had made our way to one out the further out parts of New York. We were now watching the shop where Negative was working from. It was originally a hardware store which Negative had bought out and was now where he was funnelling his money through. Cat had found this out from a tip whilst looking for how to break into the Life Foundation, having been told that should she need supplies such as drills or tools that this was a safe place to go to.

"Reckon anyone's home?" Cat asked.

"Let's knock and find out." I replied.

Cat and I crept over to the door, and I kept watch whilst Cat picked the locks. I heard the small click and the handle twisted, allowing us inside. The alarms seemed to already be disabled, probably due to the regularity of which people entered and exited at irregular times of day and night.

"Let's split up." I said quietly to Cat.

"And look for clues?" She replied with a smirk. I ignored it and crept around, looking for a sign. You know, the basics: books to open secret bookcases, sconces to open hidden passages, that sort of stuff. After a few minutes we met back up.

"Anything?" I asked.

"Yeah, an entrance to a basement or something in the back room." Cat replied. "Locked from the inside."

I swore. "Any idea how we get in?"

"One." Cat replied, and turned to one of the shelves. She gave it a kick and the side broke of with a loud bang, spilling the hammers on the shelf onto the ground with increasing crashes and thuds.

"What the hell?" I asked.

"Grab me and get on the ceiling." Cat said quickly, pushing body close to mine. Reflexively I followed her command and pulled both of us to the high ceiling. Not a minute later the door to the back room swung open and two men stepped through.

"You see anything?" The second man asked.

"Yeah, looks like a load of shit fell off a shelf."

I dropped Black Cat quietly to the floor and made my way across the roof, positioning myself above the men.

"Hi boys." Cat said from behind them. They jumped and turned in a panic. As they twisted I dropped down onto the one man, making sure to kick my foot at his head to knock him unconscious. When I rose Cat had already smacked the second man around the head with a tool from her bag and he fell to the floor. I dragged them to the other side of the room and coated them in webs, keeping them safe until we'd cleared the rest of them out. Cat led me to the basement entrance, a small hatch leading to some stairs. "Pretty sure this is the only way in and out."

"Ladies first."

Cat crept down the stairs towards the door at the bottom. She placed her eye to the keyhole and looked inside. "Six guys, not including Negative. Lot of money in there."

"Going loud?" I asked.

"Absolutely." Cat said moving to the side.

I brought my leg up and kicked the door, splintering the wood on either side and launching it off its hinges. I instantly flicked my wrists inside, my webs connecting to two of the men whom I yanked off their feet.

"I'd like to return a screwdriver I bought." I shouted inside.

"Kill him!" I heard Negative shout. I launched myself in the room, my foot connecting with a third man who was flung across the room and into the wall with a crunch. I quickly did a 360 of the room, spotting Negative. Behind me Cat launched herself into the room towards one of the men who had been pulled off his feet, knocking him back down. I flipped myself over to Negative and grabbed him, lifting him off his feet.

"Can I still get a refund if I've lost my receipt?"

"Funny." Negative said dryly. He grabbed onto my wrist and I felt pain suddenly as his darkforce coursed through my body. I shouted in pain; the black hands of my costume inverted to stark white as I dropped to my knees, Negative still keeping hold. I twisted my hands and broke his grip, then pushed him away forcefully as I breathed deeply. Negative made for the stairs. "Shocker! Do your job!"

"What." I mumbled, before feeling a kick from behind forcing me to the floor. I saw Cat running after Negative out the door, having knocked out three of the remaining four men and saw a familiar figure in front of me.

"Been a while Spidey."

"Can you give me a minute Herman, just trying to catch my breath."

A smile crossed the Shocker's face. He was unmasked; probably the I didn't recognise him initially, but now I realised as I looked at the dark olive face of Herman Schultz. He had a pair of black cargo trousers on as well as military boots and had his trademark yellow long sleeve tucked into them. I looked to the wall behind him and saw his sleeveless orange hoodie hanging on the wall. He was slowly fitting his metal wrist gauntlets onto his arms.

"Wonder what happens when I use these in a small space." Shocker said, pointing the gauntlets at me. He clenched his fists and I jumped to the ceiling, avoiding the direct hit from his concussive vibro-shock gauntlets. The room filled with ringing high-frequency noise and I screamed in pain, losing my grip and dropping back to the ground. I landed painfully on my back. It didn't usually hurt this badly, especially considering I didn't take a direct hit.

"Hurt did it Spider?" Shocker crooned, a smirk on his face and repositioning himself. "Let's see how much you can take." He aimed his gauntlets again straight at me and I was hit with the full force of his attack. I screamed loudly; my whole body felt like it was being torn apart from the outside in. After a few seconds the noise stopped, and I suddenly realised I hadn't been breathing due to the intensity of the pain. My lungs filled with air and I breathed deeply, not even being able to pull myself to my hand and knees. I managed to turn my head after a few seconds and look at Shocker.

His brown eyes were wide in shock. "What the hell are you?" He asked, a quiver in his voice. He had taken a few steps back and his tanned face was now pale with fear. He turned to run out the room, only to come face-to-face, or mora accurately foot to face with Cat, who's kick dropped him to the floor. She saw me and rushed over, putting her arm around my back and helping to pull me into a sitting position.

"You alright?" She asked, concern in her voice.

"Yeah." I gasped. The room was still spinning. "Shocker got me with a good hit." I slowly got to my feet, still supported by Cat, and leant against the wall. "Where's Negative?"

"Unconscious." Black Cat replied. "I'd locked the hatch. He'd just managed to destroy the lock by the time I'd got to him. Choked him out from behind."

"Amazing." I limped towards Shocker's unconscious body and pulled one of his gauntlets from his arm to take apart later. I needed to find out what he'd done to increase the intensity of his attacks.

"They both really did a number on you." Cat said. "Negative's weird powers made your costume pretty sweet though."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Cat pointed behind me and I saw a small mirror. I looked at myself in shock. Whereas my suit was originally jet black after the other night, it was now accented by white. The backs of my hands were completely white, with white stripes extended up the arms towards my shoulders. The spider logo on my chest which originally had vanished, blending in with the rest of the black suit, now was the same bright white, the legs of it extending round my shoulders and ribs around to my back. The final part of this new suit upgrade were two large white eyes on my mask.

"Thanks Martin." I muttered to myself.

"Time to go?" Cat asked me.

I took a deep breath. "Yeah."

The pair of us dragged Negative, now in his normal Martin Li form, back to the room. I pulled out my phone ready to send an anonymous message to the NYPD.

"Want my number?" Cat asked. "In case you want to do this again?"

"Sure, sounds good." The pair of us swapped numbers. Cat was a useful ally to have, and she'd proven that her intentions were good.

"Can't wait for our next date." Cat winked at me, then grappled off into the night before I could respond.

Definitely one of the weirder dates I'd been on, I thought to myself smiling as I swung my way back to mine and Harry's dorm.

Song Recommendation: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys