3 Weeks Later

Felicia raced down the stairs leading into the subway station at Columbus Circle. She hurried to the C Northbound platform where the train was about to arrive. She turned her back, pretending not to notice the two hooded men who had arrived at the end of the platform. They'd been following her since Broadway. The past two weeks she'd been noticing a cast of suspicious characters of unknown affiliation stalking her from afar. The surveillance initially started as stationary figures observing her from the distance to eventually patrols that would follow her intensely. She was an expert in surveillance, so despite their efforts to be as clandestine as possible, Felicia became aware of their presence fairly quickly. They often wore brown hoods that partially covered what appeared to be body armor with an exotic color scheme. The figures she'd see often wore a combination of facial tattoos and face paint. The repeated color scheme and patterns, that she'd see on their faces, gave away that they were affiliated with one another. Felicia was unsure if they were aware of her other alias, "Felicity Harmon," or more importantly, her son, Jason. As far as the world knew, Felicia Hardy was single and owned many properties across the city: a penthouse on upper west side and a number of other properties nearby. "Felicity Harmon," on the other hand, was a single mother that lived in Greenwich with her 4 year old son. Felicia had noticed surveilling patrols on her way to and from the properties she owned, but not from her property in Greenwich. Even before she became aware of the surveillance, Felicia took extreme precautions to ensure the world remained oblivious to her son's existence. This included specialized routes that Felicia would take to avoid detection. She'd swing to her one of her properties, enter then leave from a hidden exit and make her way to her Greenwich property. She'd take back alleyways and rooftops before reaching her destination and changing into her other alias. On occasion she'd sleep a night or two at her "Non-Harmon," residences, whenever her nanny was available to stay the night at her other residence. She figured the spying party had not uncovered her routine as she'd find no sign of individuals stalking "Felicity Harmon." Still, she figured it would only be a matter of time before they uncovered her deception, something she couldn't risk for her son's sake. From her own investigations, the party in question was a powerful mercenary organization mostly situated in the Eastern hemisphere. They were led by an enigmatic individual known as "Kraven," who had an almost cult-like following amongst his men. He was revered as a prolific hunter, whose skills had allowed him to claim some of the world's most dangerous animals as trophies. Allegedly, his game list had recently expanded to include a new target that no regular hunter or person could condone: man. That last particular detail concerned Felicia as she wondered what exactly drew Kraven and his hunters to New York. She wondered if they were stalking her to potentially recruit her for a job. That was her more optimistic theory. Currently, however, she had no interest in working for any party and operated solo, something she feared the spying party would not take kindly to hearing. The timing of their arrival couldn't have been worse for Felicia as she had planned to leave for France at the end of the month for her son's medical appointment. In any case, she wasn't about to risk putting him in danger and had made recent arrangements to have him leave early and stay with her friend, Garcon. She'd eventually join them once she had determined it was safe to do so. Her whole plan was contingent on whether her nanny, Anika, would agree to take Jason to France on her own, something she was racing home to find out.

She checked her phone and saw Anika had texted her. "Hey, where are you?" The message read. "Omw," Felicia texted back. As she slipped her phone back into her pocket, she lightly turned her head to catch a glimpse of the two men who'd been following her. They were still at the end of the platform looking at her intently. She turned her focus to the train that was just arriving. She readied herself as the doors opened and a mass of commuters hurried out of the train. She quickly meshed herself in the crowd of people proceeding into the train. The two men who'd been following her raised their heads trying to get sight of Felicia amongst the crowd entering the train. One of the men gave an angry sigh as he slapped his comrade's shoulder, motioning him to enter the train with him. They hurried inside just as the doors closed. They pushed through commuters as they headed through to the next car, looking intensely for Felicia. The continued proceeding through the subway cars until they reached the last one. They looked at each in bewilderment before the realization had come that Felicia had managed to give them the slip.

"Damn it," one of the men exclaimed angrily. He raised his wrist to his face and communicated into a communication device he was wearing. "We lost sight of the target, Columbus Circle," he muttered into his communication device. Back at the station, Felicia raced back up the stairs, making her way toward the station exit. As she exited the station, she looked around, seeing if there were any other cloaked figures in the vicinity. Amongst the crowds of people she saw no one who appeared to be surveilling her. She left the area quickly, fearing a new patrol would arrive soon, and headed south towards the Garment District. There she knew of a discreet alleyway used for deliveries and usually empty, where she could take an "alternative," route home. She made haste, walking past the crowds of people leaving Times Square, looking occasionally around for any surveilling parties. She finally reached the alleyway which was sealed off with a metal grate and chained off with a combination lock. She looked through the grate to see if there were individuals already inside the alleyway. Seeing no one, she reached for the lock and entered the combination, having worked out the code long ago. She locked the grate as soon as she entered and headed down the alleyway. After walking some distance she stopped and looked at the alleyways end, which was covered in a number of stacked boxes, before looking back at the entrance. She could see streams of people walking by the fence, too focused with their own business to look to the side and see the inside of the alleyway. She gave a sigh before rolling the sleeve of her coat up, revealing her wrist mounted grapple hook.

"Hate doing this during the daytime, but what other choice do I have?" She thought before launching her grapple hook to the top of an adjacent building and propelling herself upwards. She pulled herself up over the ledge of the building onto the rooftop and looked around for any civilians. Seeing no one she raced towards the other end of the buildings rooftop and scanned to see if there were any hunters in the area. Seeing none, she took a few steps back ,before tying her hair into a ponytail and pulling out her goggles and placing them on. She launched a line to the building across and swung to the next building, being careful to not get into any unsuspecting persons line of sight. After about 15 minutes she reached the rooftop of her Greenwich home. She stopped short of entering and looked around briefly, searching to see if anyone had followed her. She gave a sigh of relief as she saw no one and entered the building. She took her goggles off as she raced downstairs towards her apartment floor. Once she reached her floor she hurried over to her apartment entrance. She took a moment to catch her breath before entering. Inside she found her son and nanny sitting on the couch watching a cartoon. They turned their attention to Felicia, who was relieved to see their familiar faces. As a smile drew across Jason's face, his mother raced towards him, pulling him towards her and pressing a number of kisses on his cheek.

"Go to room right now sweetheart please" she said him sternly. She put him down as he looked at her slightly confused, but her stern face made him disregard questioning her order. He scampered off as Anika looked at Felicia anxiously, taking note of her slightly disheveled appearance and lateness as uncharacteristic of her. Before she could say anything Felicia walked past her, making her way to the living room windows. Felicia looked side to side before shutting the blinds of each window suddenly. Her behavior didn't dispel Anika's growing concern as she could see the anxiety emanating from Felicia.

"Okay Felicia, what's going on?"

Felicia gave a heavy sigh before answering her. "Nothing good."

"What do you mean?"

Felicia walked over to her kitchen, pouring herself a glass of water and taking a sip.

"There are some people coming to New York. Like really bad people. It's not safe here anymore for Jason."

"What kind of people?"

"Not the kind you wanna know."

"Oh God. What did you do? Rip them off or something!?"

"No," Felicia snapped back to Anika. "I'd never get involve with these people. They're mercenaries that work for some crazy hunter."

"What do they want?"

"I don't know, but they want me for something. And Jason…." Her voice broke slightly as her emotions rose. "I can't put him at risk."

"Do they know about him?"

"No, I don't think so."

"What are you going to do?"

Felicia finished her water and placed the glass on the counter. She looked down at the floor, sighing slightly, before looking back at Anika. She had proved to be one of Felicia's most tolerant friends, their friendship coming inadvertently about when Anika had discovered Felicia's true identity. Previously, their relationship was professional as Felicia had hired Anika to take care of and tutor her son Jason. It was following Felicia's arrest after stealing from the Maggia did the development of her true identity come about. After her legal counsel secured her freedom, Felicia returned home to a son, and a nanny dealing with the revelation she'd been working for a wanted criminal. They talked extensively, the topics of conversation being a mix of betrayal and confusion, before finally concluding with Felicia reminding Anika that she was free to go if she'd like. Her decision not to, partly fueled by the sentiment she held for Jason and a morbid intrigue at the prospect of working for a famous criminal, was the catalyst to the familiarity they now held. After a while, Anika started addressing Felicia by her real name and not her alias "Felicity Harmon," and even assisted her in resolving a number of issues she had with her Black Cat tech. The comfort Anika showed in her continued employment, greatly surprised Felicia as she felt any other civilian would have left the moment they discovered her true identity. It was this comfort that led Felicia to be more open with Anika, inviting her out on friendly engagements and even disclosing details regarding jobs involving her identity "The Black Cat." Still, as accommodating as Anika was, the request Felicia was about to ask was far above anything she had ever asked of Anika before. Felicia gave a deep exhale before revealing the details of her plan.

"I need you to go to France with Jason for me."