Prologue

Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, was walking hurriedly down the streets of Red Hook towards her apartment. She kept her equipment and gear in a duffel bag strung by her side. She brushed her hand through her hair which had faint traces of explosive residue. Only an hour earlier, Hammerhead had laden her penthouse with explosives in an attempt to kill her, but little did he know Felicia had anticipated this. She had an unnatural ability to determine the probability of people's actions, and her skill became invaluable when she decided to double-cross the hard headed mobster. She'd been hired by Hammerhead to steal a number of drives from rival Maggia gangs for 100 million. Her plans changed when she discovered the drives contained the entire wealth of the Maggia. She had longed to start a new life, one where her past wouldn't find her, all driven to protect the most important person in her life: her son. She'd gone through great lengths to keep him hidden from the world, especially the criminal underworld where she knew there were many powerful figures who'd take a keen interest in the boy. He was after all the son of a world renowned thief and New York's friendly neighborhood Spiderman. It'd had pained her to deceive her former lover, but his deception was essential to fulfilling her plan. Now Hammerhead, Spiderman, and the world now believed her dead and she had the entire wealth of the Maggia to begin anew. She crossed Lorraine street before reaching her apartment complex, a former warehouse that had been converted to a residence overlooking the dock. She rushed up the stairs before finally reaching her apartment. She opened the door to find the young nanny she had hired sitting on the couch watching the evening news.

"Sorry I'm late," Felicia said as she placed her bag by the doorway.

"Oh it's no problem, he's sleeping right now" the nanny replied.

"How was he today?"

"Handful as always, but he's bright!," the nanny grabbed a stack of papers from a nearby table. All manner of of numbers and equations were scribbled on them, answers to an assignment the nanny had drawn up for that day. "He is honestly so bright for his age. I do hope you put him in school soon." Felicia grabbed and looked through the papers. She smiled slightly, happy to know how bright her boy was. The nanny, a young Indian woman by the name of Anika Patel, was a recent NYU grad looking to finance her masters. Felicia hired her after finding her ad and reviewing her qualifications. She was originally meant to teach and take care of Jason for a month, but Felicia's generous pay made the girl delay attending school by another 6 months. She knew Felicia by her alias, "Felicity Harmon."

"I'll think about it, thank you." Felicia saw the nanny out and handed her pay for the week. "I'll call you about next week."

"Thank you, Ms. Harmon. Have a good night," the nanny waved as she left. Felicia frowned slightly as Anika went out of sight. The brilliant young lady was a crucial part of her son's educational upbringing, and now Felicia knew she'd never see her again. She glanced around the apartment that had been home for the past several months. She'd been keen not to furnish the home too much lest the day come when she would have to vanish in a hurry. Now that day had come and her focus would be on her departure, but before she'd vanish for good, she needed to see her son. She walked upstairs to her son's bedroom. She opened the door to find toys thrown about, paper drawings adorning the walls. Everything one might expect in a three year old's bedroom, everything but the three year old. Felicia sighed.

"Jason what did I tell you about hanging off the walls?" She turned her head to the corner of the ceiling. There ,hanging upside down, was a little three year old boy, with platinum blonde hair, brown eyes nervously looking at his mother below.

"I'm s-sorry m-mom," he stuttered as he crawled towards his mother. He leapt into his mother's arms as she raised him to her face.

"You can't do that when the nanny's here. She can't see you doing that," Felicia said as she wagged her finger at her son.

"I'm sorry mom, I-I won't do it again" he said nervously as he looked into his mother's stern eyes. Felicia's glare quickly broke as a smile drew across her face. She loved her son and could never be angry at him. 'Jason Walter Hardy,' was anything but a normal boy. He was the son of two human mutates, the father's biology being wildly different than the mother. Felicia remembered the pregnancy as being particularly painful. Her son's enhanced strength became a problem early on even before he was born. He had little control of how much strength he was exerting and it became imperative that his surroundings be reinforced for his well being. The first two years were trial and error teaching him how to control his strength. Until she felt he had absolute control of his abilities, she couldn't have him around other children. He was going to be an extraordinarily expensive child to raise, the kind of expensive that motivated Felicia to set out on her plan.

She carried him to his bed and raised the stack of papers the nanny gave her.

"You're doing really good, I'm so proud of you."

Jason smiled as he turned his red face away from his mother's. He pointed to the wall beside his bed which had new drawing he had made. Besides having gifted intellect he also had latent artistic talent.

"Oh what did you draw me today?" Felicia said enthusiastically as she grabbed the drawing off the wall. It was a drawing of a smiling black cat with a spider perched atop it's head. Jason had been on a drawing streak ever since hearing from his mother that she "liked," Spiderman. The drawings had been Felicia's lone comfort on the long nights she'd be on a stakeout. She'd made numerous photocopies of them and would hang them as a reminder her work was no longer just for herself anymore.

"Thank you," Felicia said as she kissed her son on the cheek. "Alright kiddo it's nap time." She laid her son down onto his bed and threw his sheets over. She patted her hand through his hair. She pressed a kiss on his forehead as she whispered "Good night, no more hanging ok?" to her son.

"Ok, good night mom," he said as he closed his eyes.

Felicia turned the lights off before she walked out the room , her boy was safe and now she had only their future to think about. She walked downstairs and reached for her bag. She unzipped it and removed her laptop and a series of drives that were originally intended for Hammerhead. She figured she'd go over the one drive she hadn't gone over, the one she personally stole from Hammerhead. She'd been quick to uncover the original was tagged with a tracker and made a copy prior to faking her death. She popped the drive into her laptop and began scanning through it's contents. As she examined the drives contents she thought back to the series of events between her Spiderman that led to this situation.