Maya scrolled through her phone, the bright screen illuminated her face through a lightless room as she had headphones in to not wake up Jonah, who slept on the floor with the strangest position ever. That was when her eyes widened, she quickly scrambled off and slapped Jonah on the side of his face, causing him to jolt up and onto the ceiling in surprise.
"Don't fucking slap me!", Jonah exclaimed quietly.
"You need to look at this.", Maya showed her a video on her TikTok For You Page, he thought it was going to be an extremely stupid video again... until he saw himself, running after the Black Cat.
"Huh..."
Maya looked at him as he crawled off her ceiling. "Thats all you can say to that? I mean, this video went viral in HOURS and they think you're working with her."
"With what proof? An out of context video picking up on the worst time?", Jonah stated casually as he rummaged through his backpack.
"Take this seriously at least.", Maya says as she sat on her bed, watching him switch out his dirtied T shirt with a clean one. "I mean, this whole video spiraled into that crazy theory and now the Bugle is gonna drag your name into the mud."
"They're gonna drag Bullet Spider's name, not mine.", Jonah says as he shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm completely fine here."
It took a moment for it to sit in, Maya then tilted her head with a surprised look on her face. "That's... a really good point actually."
"I know right?", Jonah smirked as he rummaged through his current equipment and nodded. "I'm out, I gotta check in on my mom. Apparently she went to F.E.A.S.T after she got discharged."
Maya just gave a thumbs up. "I'll be seein' ya at school.", she says with a smile, only to quickly stifle her incoming laugh at his horrified expression. "Did you really forget?"
"Erm... Nuh Uh.", was all Jonah could muster as he crawled out the window he usually comes from and descended the fire escape. She playfully rolls her eyes before closing the window right behind him.
Considering it was barely in passing when he saw the homeless shelter, Jonah had a bit of difficulty finding it despite knowing it was in the general area of Chinatown. Despite that, he noticed the amount of... attention, his other self was garnering, posters, plushies, news articles entirely dedicated to the explanation behind his abilities.
Jonah still felt that pit in his stomach from the night before, he could hear the cash shifting within his backpack with every step. "I thought I could just sleep this off, but all that money just... makes me feel uneasy. Sure I can use it more responsibly, but does that mean I really deserve it? I'm suffering... but what about others?"
He would see homeless people scattered around the streets of New York all together, his web swinging had made him feel that much more guilty. "Maybe I'm not the only one that deserves it, I mean I'm homeless and I got a mountain of hospital bills to pay... hmmm, nobody would care if I just used some of the money to pay for the bills. Hell, who's gonna tell me otherwise when I say the Bullet Spider handed it to me?"
After walking through a courtyard where men, young and old played basketball. He was finally just across the street of the steps to the F.E.A.S.T Center. "Or. I just throw the money into the bay and just never speak of it again."
Jonah walked to the other side after the street had cleared up a little bit with less frequent cars, walking up the steps he opened one side of the double door. The entire shelter itself was looked to resemble a school, he wasn't sure what kind but it definitely had the same feel of one. Pass the receptionist desk he saw a gymnasium remade to have several bunk beds, singular beds, sleeping bags or clothes hanged up on wires.
"Can I help you?", the friendly voice of the receptionist asked him.
Jonah approached the desk. "Yeah my name is Jonah Parks, I came here because I received a message from my mother Natalia Parks saying she'd be staying here."
"Natalia Parks was it?", she says tilting her head. "Yeah, she informed the staff in advance for your arrival."
"Alright, do you know where she could be? Like exactly?", Jonah asked as she pointed at the entrance to the main area.
"Check in the cafeteria through here, the doors are open so it shouldn't be hard.", she says with a smile as Jonah nodded and sped walked way, which allowed her to check in a rough looking man with a dog.
Jonah passed through the main area, he watched as people talked amongst themselves, some playing chess or even watching the news on a small TV hung up. He finally walked through the entrance of the cafeteria and immediately saw his mother.
Jonah sat down in front of her as she ate the food given to her by the shelter's staff. She looked up and the dead look in her eyes completely vanished, a bright shine emerged as she jolted up and walked around, pulling her son in for a tight hug. "Hey to you to ma."
Natalia pulled away with a smile on her tires face. "It's great to see you too, мой мальчик.", she says before giving a kiss on his forehead. "You look great, you've packed on some muscle."
"I have?", Jonah felt his arms and noticed that he had grown some muscle around there, it surprised him as he never even noticed it. "Hmm... guess so. How are you feelin, ma?"
"Could be better.", she says as she rubbed her side. "Thankfully it was just a minor surgery so I should be fine if I don't exert myself too much."
"Ah, that's good.", Jonah says with a nod as he slid her food back over to her. "I'm staying with a friend in the meantime, I have to find a new job anyways."
"Yeah, I never liked that place. Your manager was an asshole.", Natalie says with a shrug. "But you shouldn't be the one getting a job, you should be focusing on school and getting a job. That part should be on me... but I just, got shitfaced from day to night... ugh."
"What're you gonna do?", Jonah asked as he scratched his neck.
"I'll stay here for a while, they have some therapist on standby so I'll have to ask about that.", Natalia says with a sadden expression on her face. "Ебать... what would your father say if he saw us like this."
"I'm sure he'd be more mad at the hospital for trying to drain us dry.", Jonah says with a sarcastic tone, but he looked away from her. "What would do you think he'd say if I just... started stealing shit, from people who deserve it at least."
"He'd tase you for that.", Natalia laughed at this, before rubbing her cheek. "Seriously... he'd be disappointed that you'd have to do that. Would he understand? Yes. Would he still try to help? Of course."
"Ah...", Jonah says with a sigh as he stood up. "Well I gotta go, I've missed a lot of school already. I'll stop by after, okay?"
"I'll hold you to that.", Natalia says with a smile as Jonah, feeling a bit more content with himself just walked off. Exiting the homeless shelter with a small smile on his face.
It didn't take long for Jonah to actually arrive to his High School, though it was slightly more difficult to find a secure spot for his suit. Regardless he succeeded in arriving, simply trying to pay attention to the lesson as long as he could to at least grab some chunks of knowledge.
Somehow, it felt like minutes until the bell rang again, signaling they'd be moving classes again. "Mr. Parks, can you stay for a bit?", the biology teacher, Miles Warren, says as the students just left the class.
Backpack in hand, Jonah looked at his teacher with a confused expression. "What's wrong?"
"Well, I'm actually a bit concerned.", Warren says as he leaned against a wall. "A month ago you were doing fine in my class, now you're.. not even attending school, skipping classes and it's starting to grow in frequency."
"I know.", Jonah says with a sigh. "I've just been... busy, you know? I currently lost my job and I recently got evicted from my apartment."
Warren looked throughly surprised at his response. "Oh. I-I had no idea."
"Eh, how could you?"
"In any case.", Warren went to his desk and pulled out a small stack of papers, trotting back to him and handing it over. "These are all the assignments you've missed. You won't get full points but with these you'll be at least getting a decent grade again."
"Thanks. Be seeing you.", Jonah says as he strolled out of the classroom and went on his way to the next me. He rubbed his eyes as he passed through. "I could barely get any sleep, not only that but I'm suddenly a cat burglar? I was the one trying to stop that bitch, but that's how it works I guess. I just wanna grab a hold of that bitch and strangle her to death at this point, I could care less of what I'm actually called."
That was when his phone began ringing, he felt around only to realize it was his burner phone. Stepping into the men's bathroom and flipping it open. "What's up, Captain?"
["I got something you'd be interested in. Remember that cat burglar from the night before?"]
"Yeah?"
["Good. One of my guys found a letter at the crime scene, has an address and time as well."]
Jonah thought about it for a moment as he looked at his actual phone. "I'll need that address, and the exact time to meet her at."
["Good. Don't fuck this up again."]
"Yeah whatev-and she hung up, nice.", Jonah says as he quickly received the address and time, the red eyed young man grinned as he shoved it into his pocket. "Good, at least it fits in with my schedule."
Hours had passed and the sun had completely set, cars filled the streets as civilians walked along about their night. They gasped as they saw Bullet Spider swing right by and landing on a light pole only to leap off with his powerful legs.
"There's no actual way this isn't a trap. If it is, goddamn that's fucking lame.", Bullet Spider thinks to himself as the possibilities ran through his mind like a bullet train. "I'd actually fucking kill myself if this was a trap and I fell for it. Better than the swing of shame if it's not a trap at all and just a big joke."
Bullet Spider had arrived at the address with his talons bared only to look... surprised, genuinely surprised. Black Cat looked at him, sitting on a white table cloth with a bottle of wine and two glasses. "Hey there, Spider."
"Okay, what the fuck is this?", Bullet Spider asked as he pulled down his hood. Leaping off his perch and in front of her. "Like actually."
"Simple. I thought we could chat a little bit.", Black Car says with a shrug.
"Okay, why?", Bullet Spider says as his talons began to sink back into his fingers.
"I don't really meet that many guys that peak my interest, I thought about you... a lot.", Black Cat says with a smile on her face as she tapped her feet on the ground. "And I mean... in depth. I thought we might have a thing or two in common."
"Huh."
Black Cat gestures to the things she may or may not have borrowed. "I'm so glad you came, thought bringing this wine would be for nothing. It's really hard to get this up."
"You sound... actually like, deranged.", Bullet Spider says as he rubbed his neck that was covered by the blue cloth.
"Cut a gal some slack, I don't know how to do stuff like this.", she says with her smile in tact as she stood up and walked over to him, immediately noticing the bit of a height difference, tracing her hand around the spray painted spider on his chest. "Are you... married, by chance?"
"Nope."
"Do you like women?"
"Nop- I mean yes. Yes!"
"Are you horribly disfigured under there?"
"Uh... no?", Bullet Spider tilted his head confused by the question as the Black Cat pulled off her goggles, revealing her piercing blue eyes. "Ugh... fine, I'll stay for a minute."
"Hurray.", the Black Cat says as she sat down on the ledge, pouring him a glass before pouring herself one. She watched in a bit of infatuation as he rolled up his mask around his mouth. "Cheers."
Bullet Spider let out an annoyed huff before he heard something, time seemingly slowed down to him thanks to his accelerated vision. "Shit!", quickly pulling her towards him they narrowly dodged a beam of purple energy that drilled straight through the ledge and into a nearby building.
"Oh, you again.", Bullet Spider hissed as he saw it was Prowler holding some sort of modified sawed off shotgun before shoving it back into his holster.
"Leave, I ain't here for you.", The Prowler states as purple energy crackled along his claws. "I'm here for her."
"Guess I bring all the boys to the yard.", Black Cat says as she jumped off from Bullet Spider using his stomach as a spring board, sharpening her claws as she lunged at the Prowler.
The Prowler simply titled his head as he effortlessly dodged underneath and punched the Black Cat in the stomach hard, she grits her teeth before clawing at his chest only to be tossed away by him. Before the Prowler could continue his own assault, he was met with a heavy weight on his shoulders before being thrown into floor with enough force to crack it.
Bullet Spider flipped onto his feet, the talons protruding from his skin as he popped his neck. "How'd you like that?"
Prowler looked up as his screen-like mask had a crack right on the forehead. "I guess they will be gettin two bodies for the price of one.", the criminal states as he stands up, twisting the dials around gauntlets.
"I can't believe I have two men fighting over me.", Black Cat says sarcastically as Bullet Spider glared at her.
The Prowler took this opportunity to leap into the air with a purple flash, lunging at Bullet Spider as the vigilante caught him and kneed him in the stomach. Unbothered by this, the Prowler grabbed his head and slammed his head against the spider with an incredible amount of force that caused both to reel back in pain.
Grinning to herself, Black Cat rushed in and drop kicked the Prowler with enough force to send him stumbling back which led into Buller Spider landing a tornado kick to his stomach that sent the Prowler flying off the building.
Growling, the Prowler thrusted his arm forward, a small compartment opened up on his palm that shot out a sharp grappling hook that embedded into the stone ledge. Swinging from that, he leapt out from behind and drop kicked Bullet Spider off of the guiding before backhanding the Black Cat.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!", Bullet Spider applied pressure to the pad under his glove only to met with a capsule flying out, a clicking sound following that. "Ah great!", using his other hand, the webbing managed to catch onto the glass and stopped his plummet.
"Fuck, I should've just stayed with Maya. Why the fuck did I even just... agree to meet up with her anyways? I mean am I fucking insane? She's a fucking cat burglar, no wonder people are after her. She's smart enough to be a cat burglar but not smart enough to skip town and go to a nowhere place like Utah!", Bullet Spider shook his head as he swung onto the wall, crawling along it as thoughts raced through his head. "Im an even bigger idiot for coming here. The hell is wrong with me? I come over here to beat the shit out of her but instead agreed to just sit down and talk? Am I actually one of those fucking losers who can forget she's a batshit crazy thief that looks hot in latex?I hope they killed each other by now, I don't wanna deal with this anymore."
Bullet Spider finally climbed onto the roof and just groaned, they had left by then. "Yuri's gonna be mad at me for this. Then again... I throughly don't care."
He looked over as the door to the roof opened up, a police officer stepped out with a confused look. Bullet Spider lifted a finger up to the man. "Shhhhh. I'm thinking."
Wilson Fisk sat in a dark room in a silk, purple robe as he stared out onto the city with an unnaturally blank expression. A door creaked open as a man wearing a tuxedo walked in. "What is it?"
"The Prowler couldn't catch the Black Cat, she escaped in the middle of the fight.", The man says as Fisk tightened his fist with enough force to cause blood to leak out.
"Even after the incentive brought up by Hammerhead delivered to me, he still failed at this?", Fisk says with an annoyed expression.
"Don't worry, Mr. Fisk, you know he will never give up on a target.", the man says with a smile.
"Good. He knows exactly what would happen if he did.", Fisk hissed as he snapped his gaze towards he man. "Tell him we'll double his rate once he gets her, that would help out a great deal I suppose."
/End/