Season 4 Chapter 7: Femme Fatale Pt. 2

Another mundane weekend comes around upon ESU, and after the Manfredi gang slowly dissolves and separates from the loss of their leaders, many of New York's underground crimelords slowly make their move to see who could reach the top and fill in the huge gap of power. But while that is happening…

"...man…" Peter sighed while reclining on his chair and staring at the window, lost in his thoughts. 'Well, another sore moment to be hated in the secret life of Spider-man. That's one ally out, but… it does not seem so bad… right?'

"Yo bro! What's up man?!" Johnny screams and greets after his morning jog around campus, making the atmosphere in the empty room somewhat awkward. "Uhmmm, ahem, yo Pete, how are you doing?"

"Oh, hey Johnny. Nothing much. Just… had a lot of stuff in my head and I need to be alone for now," Peter replied before preparing a set of clean clothes with a towel and entering the bathroom. "Well, I'm gonna take a shower. Gotta go visit Doc Connors later."

"Uhmmm, sure?" Johnny confusedly replied, shrugging his shoulders before chugging on a bottle of flavored water.

As Peter enters the bathroom in his birthday suit, he turns on the showerhead's water, drowning himself in his thoughts from the same disappointed face Black Cat made the second time involving her father.

'Black Cat… I'm sorry… I truly am…' Peter muttered as he closed his eyes and felt the shower in his face. 'I gotta find a way to make things right— I must…!'

In an apartment just a few blocks away from ESU, where the hardworking law student Felicia currently stays…

'Curse you, Spider-man… curse… you…' Felicia murmured in her long sleep, saddened with dried tears from that time she was close to releasing her father from jail before Spider-man came in once again and disrupted her plans.

A minute later, her cell phone rings again with the same anonymous number that had belonged to her shady duo of clients, getting her phone to answer the call.

"What do you want…?" Felicia groaned.

'Just one last task, and I promise you your reward: the doctor left some notes in his former workplace at the Empire State University's laboratory. Collect the data fast by midnight, and then come to Tricorp,' Roderick called while using a voice-disguiser. 'Oh, and moreover, because of certain reports, we would like for you to collect the research data that are under the name of Stegron. They will be of great use for us.'

"Whatever you say…" Felicia groaned before ending the call abruptly, barely motivated after feeling heartbroken once more, "Ughhhh, this is just the worst…"

After the short shower and putting on his uncle's jacket over his red shirt and a pair of jeans, he gets his stuff in his satchel and wears his rubber sneakers before heading out of the dormitory to the ESU lab. However, he paused in his tracks when he noticed a few shady black vehicles parked and lined up near the subway station that's close to the ESU lab, with men and women in uniformed military suits and shades standing by outside the entrance.

'Whoa, now just what is going on? Who are those people?' Peter thought to himself, being vigilant around the strangers while slowly making his way to the lab's entrance.

"Hey kid, this place is off limits for now. Please come back again later," one of the male guards ordered.

"Oh, okay then," Peter shrugged, following the man's orders and walking away till he was out of sight before running to the back door of the lab, only to be disappointed when the door was felt to be locked and leaned onto the wall. "Rats, now I can't get in."

'Pete!'

Startling Pete out of nowhere before covering his mouth was Kitty, aka Shadowcat, phasing half of her body through the wall upon hearing his voice a short while ago.

"Kimphy!" Peter mumbled out of surprise from Kitty's appearance.

'Sh! Those guys won't let anyone in except for me and Gwen. We were spooked when they showed up out of nowhere. Come!' Kitty urged, pulling Peter into the lab by phasing him through the wall.

"Sssssirrssss, pleassse leaave. I don't have what you'rrre all sssearching for," Lizard pleaded, keeping the strange men out of the office where Martha hid inside with Gwen, Billy and Dr. Debra.

"Doctor, please cooperate. We can assure you that no harm will come to everyone in your laboratory, just please allow us to—"

"I'm going to repeat. One. Lasssst. Time…" Lizard growled with his tail arching up before slamming onto the floor shattering it. "Leaaave…"

"Why you—"

"Stand down, we don't mean any harm, and I mean it. So stand down," ordered the woman with a short haircut like a guy's hair.

"A-Affirmative, Agent Hill," the man backed down.

With that, the strange people and the woman named Agent Hill, quietly leave the laboratory through the entrance.

"...oh, and by the way, my superiors' were not the ones responsible for the sudden visit. It is out of courtesy for a friend of yours, as I have overheard," Agent Hill assured before leaving the laboratory.

"...Is it alright now, dear?" Martha whimpered, slightly opening the door to peek outside, with Billy and Dr. Debra following.

"It isss sssafe, dear," Lizard replied, opening the door with his tail and letting his wife, student, child, and colleague exit out of the office.

"Dr. Connors!" Peter called, with Kitty following behind.

"Peter! Good to have you here! And uh—sssorry about the messss," Lizard apologizes, showing the disorganized laboratory with piled papers and materials littered in the library sections with desktop monitors left online. "Thank you, Misss Pryde. Your help iss obliged."

"Glad to assist!" Kitty playfully saluted.

"I-It's nothing, doc. Just what was going on here? Who were those people?" Peter asked.

"Them? They are erm— agentsss who are memberssss of an organization who had tiesss with uss when your parentsss were ssstill around," Lizard briefly explained.

"Wait wait, my parents!?" Peter replied out of shock upon hearing this.

'His parents? The Parkers?' Gwen wondered and felt concerned, realizing that Dr. Connors might have ties with Peter's family.

"Dear…" Martha whimpered, tapping on his husband's rugged and scaly shoulder.

"Come Peter. Sssseemssss that we have more thingsss to talk about," Lizard sighed, letting Peter into his office for a private discussion with him before closing the door.

"Let's leave them alone for now. It's for the best," Martha kindly suggests to both Gwen and Kitty, who responded with respective nods.

"Hey, Eddie? Would you mind checking on Mr. Kassidy for a moment?" Tanis requested.

"Sure, gladly," Eddie accepts and leaves the office to check on Cletus in his cell.

As he goes over to the wards where Cletus is, he slides the small window and peeks through it. He was speechless with fear and anxiety pounding in his chest and head, looking at the scarred floors and rabid carvings on the wall before noticing Cletus panting with a freaky grin and bloodshot eyes, carving what looked like jaws on the floor.

"...oookay… we might need to put him in a straitjacket," Eddie thought out loud, sliding the window closed before awkwardly walking away to check on the other wards. 'Better safe than sorry.'

Meanwhile, in the office of Dr. Kafka, where she and her colleague Dr. Nieves reorganized and monitored the recent data of today's counselling sessions…

"So, Ashley, when are you really going to take a break to settle down?" Tanis bluntly wondered.

"Ummm, define "settle down" please?" Ashley kindly asked while skimming and comparing some data from two sessions.

"Hey, I don't exactly mean by "that". It's just, you have been overworking yourself for the past few days. What's bothering you?" Tanis kindly asked out of concern.

"Not really much, I can assure that…" Ashley trailed off before remembering a certain email from the sender named SHELTER. 'I hope…'

"Now… this should be the final touch," Miles thought out loud with a smirk, lightly tapping the bottom of a flask containing a green-colored formula.

After he reaches over his lab table for a syringe and extracts all of the formula into it, he takes a deep breath before injecting all of it into his body. He then examines himself for any changes…

"Hmmm, how peculiar, no known changes yet I suppose," Miles thought out loud while looking at his hand, a tad disappointed from having his high expectations unmet. "Oh well, that is not important. Mr. Kingsley's project comes first.

He then proceeds to check the contraption he is preparing for Roderick's benefit, ignoring his reflection that shows small symptoms of the formula in the form of green fur growing at the back of his neck.

Not long after the personal talk about recent events that Peter had with Dr. Connors, he loiters around the campus for a few minutes before trying to reorganize his head in the campus cafe with Kitty and Gwen as his current company. As he stared at his coffee with his face downcast, he replayed the conversation in his mind…

'Peter, thossse agentsss that we all encountered today are all memberssss of a private organization under the government known ass SHIELD, quasssi-military department. And to be honessst, Martha and I, along with the Parkersss and Brocksss, have ussed to work with that organization ass their scientistss and researchersss when they offered the jobss to uss. We were all sso young back then and didn't know any better, and joined them without a sssecond thought,' Lizard explained with a heavy heart. 'We also ended up travelling around ssseveral dangerouss missionss ass membersss in their research department, which is how I ended up lossing my arm. Martha wass vehemently againssst uss working for them, and did well convincing our familiess to resssign working with them. However…'

'However?' Peter wondered what he meant.

'Her effortsss were in vain. It turnss out that the Parkersss and the Brockss sstill kept contact with SHIELD for sssome reasson, and joined them again after a long time. Gradually… we never heard from them ass the yearss passssed by, and even when the newsss of their deathsss circulated… I'm ssorry again, Peter…' Lizard apologizes with his face downcast.

"Peter?" Gwen called, sitting on his right and snapping him out of his sad episode. "Are you… alright?"

"Do you—wanna talk about it?" Kitty asked out of concern.

"I—I don't know guys, just how to take knowing that your only family anonymously leaves their kid and home for some strange organization, with no guarantee of security for its own members," Peter depressingly answered, staring at his coffee. "It's a lot heavier than I thought it was…"

'Peter…' Gwen muttered, depressed from his heavy answer before gently grasping his hand. "Peter, no matter what happens, family or not, you still got us."

"You can count on us, Pete. If you open up to us of course, like right now," Kitty pointed out.

"Ms. Kitty Pryde? Your iced coffee is served!" The cashier clerk called, placing Kitty's iced coffee on the retrieval counter.

"Oh! Coming!" Kitty responded before standing up to walk to the counter to get her iced coffee and went to the self-service shelf, lined with add-ons like cream milk, sugar packets, and stirring sticks with three small trash bin compartments.

While Kitty's busy, Gwen scoots closer to Peter's side and subtly gets his attention with his guard down.

"Uhhmm, Gwen? You're in my...personal space?" Peter nervously pointed out, making her smirk while giving him "the look". "Ummm, Gwen, what are you—?"

She then silenced Peter with a quick kiss in his lips, dispersing all of his stress in just a matter of seconds.

"…well, how do you feel now?" Gwen playfully smiled, making Peter blush in embarrassment.

"Uh—uhm, uh hehe, well, now that you're asking, I'm—fine now," Peter nervously answered and smiled back, scratching the back of his head with a glowing red cheeks. "T-Thanks for your concern…!"

"No problem, it's the least I can do," Gwen replied with a bright smile.

"Wow, you guys sure get cozy quite faster than I thought."

Startling both of them from behind was an annoyed Kitty, who came back after helping herself at the self-service shelf.

"K-Kitty!" Peter stammered in response. "W-We were just um—"

"Don't be embarrassed. No need to mind me," Kitty assures.

"Sorry, Kitty," Gwen apologizes.

"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of guys who would kill to be with a girl like you, I'm sure of it," Peter tried to sound reassuring, making both Kitty give him the "look".

"Um, no thanks. Don't you remember? I'm not an ordinary girl, and besides, I'm fine being a single pringle," Kitty shrugged.

"Well, do you have someone you like? There's gotta be someone, right?" Peter nervously asked with an awkward smile.

"Well, perhaps, but I'm not telling," Kitty slyly answered with a smirk.

"Boo, lame," Peter sighed.

"Hey guys!"

Walking to their direction with Mary Jane following behind was Liz…

"Liz! MJ!" Peter noticed, turning his head to see them.

"Hey, Tiger," Mary Jane casually greeted.

"What's up everyone?" Liz asked as she walked over to Peter, Gwen and Kitty before lightly kissing Peter's head.

"What's up? Nothing big really," Peter lied, being seen through his answer after Liz gave him "the look" and pursed her lips. "Okay okay, don't give me the look. I could explain, but not right here."

"Alright then, but I would like to know more later, and the sooner the better, 'kay?" Liz kindly replied back as she embraced Peter's arm.

"Mind if I cut in?" Mary Jane playfully asked, seating herself beside Kitty.

"Of course! Sure!" Peter allowed, awkwardly getting glares from the three women friends of his. 'Crud, did I do something wrong?'

"Why thank you," Mary Jane thanked before getting her smartphone out of her pocket and then showed some online internship registration form to Peter, a form bearing the trademark named "STARK INDUSTRIES". "Hey Tiger, I bet you could guess what this is."

"Whoa, no way, are you really sure that this belongs to 'that' Stark Industries?" Peter tried to clarify.

"I double-checked and it is real. I was thinking if you actually could—well, try signing up for the offer as well," Mary Jane suggested. "I tried asking Liz and Jan, but they got their hands full as they say."

"Yeah! I would love to try signing up for an internship, but my parents already gave me more offers, thanks to their connections," Liz shrugged. "But still, how cool is that?! Petey, you totally should give it a shot with this big brain of yours!"

"Well… I'll think about it. I have other things to do later, but I'll take note of that. Thanks," Peter thanked.

"No pressure, Tiger," Mary Jane smiled gleefully.

However, in a far corner of the joyful atmosphere, Jonathan glares at Mary Jane from behind a pillar before turning his glare towards Peter, brimming with jealousy.

'Drats, drats, again. I'll show them, I'll show them all, eventually,' Jonathan hissed before hearing his phone ring and showed a notified text that demands his presence at a certain address.

"Doctor, how's the invention coming— now where'd ya go?" Roderick paused, noticing Miles being absent from a lab that looks as if it's been ransacked and wrecked, all the while recalling that he never left the entire time. "Doc? Where are you?"

"Wow, I like what he did to this place. Just what the doctor ordered," Jester, hired and invited by Roderick, playfully jokes as he explores and looks around the messy laboratory.

"Hehehehehehehe, finally…"

"Doctor? Is that y— whoa?!" Roderick screamed and fell on his butt. "D-D-D-Doc?"

"Mamma Mia…!?" Jester looked in awe and fear, backing away to the corner near the lab's only entrance and exit.

Scaring Jester and the CEO badly that he fell on his rear was none other than Dr. Miles Warren, walking into the light in tattered pants and a ripped lab coat, covered in green hair with sharp medium-sized elvish ears and dark green eyes while wearing a creepy grin on his new devilish appearance.

"Oh yeeees, it is I, Dr. Miles Warren. But no more am I the disgrace of New York's scientific community, for I shall rise up reborn, as the true Jackal I was and am! Yes… I will make all of Manhattan cower before the genius of me, the Jackal!" Miles, now self-proclaiming himself as the Jackal, maniacally swore his vengeance upon all that have wronged him.

The day finally ends, but not everyone is ready to rest. Taking this chance to infiltrate the ESU laboratory, Felicia quickly dons her Black Cat outfit and wears a new convertible utility belt that could transform into a durable metal whip around her slim waist.

"…Ughh, I really have a bad taste for men…" Black Cat sighed and groaned in front of her reflection in the mirror before leaving her apartment silently.

Back at the ESU laboratory, in its closing hours…

"Come on up, Billy, time to feassst on some shawarma wrapsss," Lizard playfully suggested.

"What?! Wicked!" Billy joyfully responded while sitting on his father's shoulders.

"Are you sure about the lab being secure this time?" Martha asked out of concern.

"Possssitive, my dear. I have utter faith thissss time," Lizard assures, remembering that Spider-man and possibly his friends are in the university while escorting them down to their new customized family van before driving away.

"…well then, while the Lizard's away…" Black Cat quipped, hiding from atop a building as she watched them leave the scene before heading down to infiltrate the lab. "The cat can play…!"

'Spidey, are you really sure about this? We could always do this tomorrow anyway,' Kitty, in her Shadowcat outfit, quietly pointed out as they sneak around from the shadows—reasoning out why she and Peter, in his Spider-man outfit, are trying to get into the ESU laboratory.

'Hey, even if that class is just second period, I have my doubts that I'll be off the hook easily being late in Mr. Vamp's class. Better safe than sorry,' Spider-man replied. 'And besides, why did you wanna come along anyway? Didn't you have something to talk about or—gyagh!'

Before Spider-man could finish his sentence, the infuriated Shadowcat drags Spider-man from his hind collar and then phases through the wall with him into the laboratory.

"Better?" Shadowcat playfully asked.

"Even better," Spider-man replied back before his Spider-senses got triggered. "Kitty, duck!"

With ease, Shadowcat was startled when a hand with retractable claws phases through her mutant body before pulling back, making her run to Spider-man's side.

"I should have known… you were always being a thorn in my side, Spider-man…!" Black Cat replied as she walked into the light, being overcome by her own unstable emotions.

'Cheese and sprinkles…' Spider-man gulped internally, facing Black Cat again.

Unable to restrain her temper, Black Cat lunges towards Spider-man with her retractable claws. After Spider-man was able to stay ahead of her movements because of his enhanced reflexes and a bit of learning from two members of the X-men, he was caught off guard when some kind of metal chained whip grabs onto his ankle and quickly pulls and drags him down to the floor like a tail.

"Ugh, ow," Spider-man groaned as he held his aching head before trying to crush the whip, only to open one of its compartments by accident.

"Do you like my new toy, Hotstuff? My line of work awfully pays well, and you rejected me for what? Your own self-righteousness?" Black Cat scoffed, before seeing Shadowcat run to Spider-man and phase him out of her whip's grasp.

"Thanks Kitty, but I got that easy, alright?" Spider-man pointed out.

"Okay," Shadowcat playfully replied and dropped Spider-man.

"Next time, Spider," Black Cat taunted as she smashed a smoke bomb to the floor and immediately shot a line to the ceiling window with her grappling to strategically withdraw, failing her mission.

"Oh no you don't!" Shadowcat tries to chase after her until Spider-man stops her by catching her shoulder. "Wait, aren't we supposed to—"

"You get the others, many as you can," Spider-man pleaded.

"Why?" Shadowcat wondered what he meant.

"I don't think this is just any simple burglary," Spider-man explained as he reels in a small flashdrive from the floor with his web that fell off Black Cat's whip compartment, showing a logo name— Tricorp. "I know that something's not right, so you better go get the others, and I'll text the address of the place to you, or just tell Gwen and she'll lead you there. And hurry!"

"I'm on it!" Shadowcat assures as she runs and phases out through the walls, making her way to their dormitories.

Meanwhile, Spider-man tries looking for the secret spare office key that the mutated Dr. Connors revealed, in case Spider-man needs his help. As he opens and enters the office, he triggers a secret compartment that stored his Spider-armor, by the consent of the resident scientist himself.

"The good ol' Spider-armor. It has never failed me—yet," Spider-man thought as he dons and examines the Spider-armor before leaving the laboratory to zip and swing to his destination: Tricorp.

"Wait doctor, what do you mean that was just a joke?" Roderick demands.

"Did you not hear me clearly? That was nothing more than an insignificant reason to call in a test subject by the time our little cat friend arrives," Jackal slyly replied while monitoring a containment canister containing the Carnage symbiote for his questionable experiment.

"Wait, do you mean—"

"Yeeess, now you're learning," Jackal grins as he tries to operate what appears to be a glass-cased gas chamber.

"Wow, wacky stuff for a quack," Jester carelessly commented before noticing and barely dodging a pumpkin bomb heading in his direction. "I take it back, you're both nuts! I'm outta here!"

"Don't worry, doctor. He won't cause us trouble," Roderick assures while donning his Hobgoblin outfit and wearing his Hobgoblin mask, activating its built-in voice disguiser. "His contract is not yet over after all. He will just be our guard dog outside like the good boy he is."

"Excellent," Jackal grinned.

"Sorry boys for the long wait, and— whoa…!?"

Just in time, Black Cat enters and pauses by the door from looking at the horrid appearances of the Hobgoblin and the Jackal.

"Wh-What's with all the creepy getups?!" Black Cat demands, taken aback from the sight of the two madmen.

"Nothing important, to you that is," Hobgoblin huffed as he remotely locked the laboratory entrance before throwing a pumpkin bomb containing knockout gas at her, making her faint and fall down to the ground. "There you have it, doc."

"Outstanding work, my friend, I promise you that this experiment will marvel your eyes and make your company great!" Jackal maniacally assures before maniacally laughing so loud that his voice resounded in the dark corridors.

"Never thought I'd come back here again, after that fiasco with that mad cephalopod out of water. Awww good times," Spider-man quipped, landing on the sidewalk just by the front of the Tricorp facility. 'Hope the team can get here quick, but here goes nothin'!'

He then rushes to the front door of the facility, greeted by several stationary gun turrets that hide from their spots, but are rendered useless against the spectacular bulletproof Spider-armor, enabling him to easily and quickly enter unscathed. Noticing that the place is kept dark, he kept his vigilance while sneaking and crawling on the walls of the facility, only to be met with even more stationary turrets shooting from the ceilings. Feeling annoyed by the turret…

"Okay, that's it," Spider-man huffed, hopping off the wall to acrobatically and accurately web up the turrets with several web bullets to stick and jam their systems before landing nimbly on the floor, despite wearing the heavy Spider-armor. 'Why do I feel like I'm reacting faster than my Spider-sense?'

Just as he said it, his Spider-sense detects danger coming from the wide corridor to his right, barely dodging a flying missile that scraped his Spider-armor's chestpiece, but not damaging or denting it and letting it detonate upon impact of the wall.

"Wheew, that was close! Hey! Do you have any idea how hard it is to maintain this suit!?" Spider-man yelled out of anger to the right corridor.

Suddenly, the lights turned on, revealing several bulky armored magenta-patterned mechs, armed with their own fashioned arsenal of hidden weaponry, pointing infrared lasers at Spider-man's body.

"Really? Again with the suit?" Spider-man deadpanned before dodging an array of missiles fired at him around the room.

Recklessly trying to head inside, he rushes to land a slinging kick to the abdomen of the mech, but instead feels the painful rebound and retreats.

"Awgh, that hurts! What kind of alloy is that!?" Spider-man thought, holding his aching feet before noticing two of the giant bulky mechs aim their missile launchers at his face. "This is gonna hurt…!"

After taking a few launched missiles exploding and detonating right to the face and laying down in a cinched crater of rubble, he tries to desperately get back up in his damaged armor and slightly burnt suit before seeing the mechs prepare their giant claws to apprehend him. However, before they could do so…

"Waaaahooo!"

Catching a glimpse at the corner of his eye was a flying Shadowcat, phasing through the armor of the mech, causing it to malfunction and power down and startle the other two mech users.

"W-What?" Spider-man whimpered before seeing Shadowcat run to him.

"Spidey!" Shadowcat called, helping him get out of the crater. "We got here as quickly as possible."

"Haaaagh!" Ghost Spider cries as she aggressively knocks one of the mechs with a kick, causing it to fall and lose its balance. "Man, these big metalheads seem easy to take on."

In that moment, one of the mech appears to be analyzing Ghost Spider and then pops out some sort emitter that then shoots sonic waves at Ghost Spider.

"Urrrghh! Nghaaaaagh!" Ghost Spider screamed in pain as the symbiote had a painful and violent reaction to the sonic waves.

"Ghost Spider!" Spider-man called out of worry.

Answering the call was the swift Hornet, firing laser blasts at the emitter with great precision and giving Ghost Spider time to recover and angrily transform into her Gwenom form.

"Okay, these guys are sooo dead!" Gwenom growls as she furiously runs towards them with her talons bared.

"Yo Spidey!" Hornet, retracting his visor to reveal his identity as Hobie Brown, casually greets with a playful salute. "Need a suit? I could ask Jan to make you one!"

"Hobie! Oh man, it's great seeing you again man, although I kinda had a hunch that you'd stop going around with us," Spider-man nervously replied out of honesty.

"Ooohh, that hurts me man, but I understand. Love to stay and chat, but we all got something to do here," Hobie replied before wearing his visor again and facing the mechs.

"Whoo! Time to crash this house!" Human Torch wildly cries as he shoots flamethrowing blasts of heat towards the mechs.

"This will be a 'cold' snap!" Iceman quips as he glides along his ice slide while firing his ice beam on the mechs to provide covering support.

"C'mon Spidey!" Screwball playfully skates over to his side.

"Screwball?!" Spider-man hysterically responded.

"Hey, that's rude of you to scream at me like that," Screwball huffed and pouted cutely.

"You guys continue downstairs. We got this one in the bag," Hornet orders as he hovers over to launch mini missiles out of his gauntlets at the mechs.

"Hold on tight to my hands, guys! The elevator can't wait anymore!" Shadowcat quipped as she took Spider-man and Screwball's hands before phasing along with them down through the ground.

"Are you done yet with the doohickey, doc? We can't stay here too long with these unwanted visitors. And my guard dog was nothing but a little chicken desperate for crumbs," Hobgoblin grunted impatiently while looking at the cameras.

"Oh why yes, just allow me a solid quarter of an hour, and the experiment can commence," Jackal kindly demanded.

"Ugh, uhn. Huh?" Black Cat groaned as she slowly woke up and panics in a yellow-tinted gas chamber. "W-What?! What is this?! Get me out!"

"Ahhh, she has awakened!" Jackal maniacally pointed out.

"You monster! Let me out!" Black Cat angrily demands, banging on the glass instead of hitting it a while ago.

"Tsk tsk tsk, I cannot do that, little missy. You see, you are a vital ingredient to our cause," Jackal devilishly answered.

"Ingredient? Was that whole request nothing more than a setup?!" Black Cat angrily barked behind the glass.

"Well, the Stegron part was just collateral. Everything else was nothing important," Hobgoblin adds.

"But besides! A rare specimen like you is too rare to find, to evolve into a being one step higher than feebleminded humans," Jackal adds.

"You won't get away with this. Spider-man… he will stop you!" Black Cat swore.

"Oh but why? Is he of any importance to you by any chance? Surely not," Jackal mocks.

'…he's right…' Black Cat thought to herself. 'I kept pushing him away and antagonizing him. I deserve this...'

"Well well well, awesome halloween party you got here!"

Catching everyone's attention with a smooth entrance from the ceiling was a battle-damaged Spider-man, along with two female heroines Screwball and Shadowcat.

"Oh look! It's you!" Screwball playfully points at Hobgoblin.

"Grrrgh, just when things could become quieter," Hobgoblin growls as he mounted atop his glider and hovers at a high altitude in the lab.

"Hahahahaha! So, the itsy bitsy little Spider has come to save the feline damsel! What a joyous moment if not sad when he dies at my hands!" Jackal maniacally laughs, showing off his sharp nails with a grin on his face.

"Um, is it really normal for you to fight psychos like them?" Shadowcat nervously questions.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout this," Spider-man apologizes.

"Now, you, die!" Hobgoblin roars, trying to ram his glider's blade at them.

"Scatter!" Spider-man calls, making them separate and avoid getting scratched.

"We got this orange ugly! You go get the green one!" Screwball called, engaging in combat against Hobgoblin with Shadowcat.

With that, Spider-man engages in combat with the Jackal, shielding himself from his sharp talon-like nails with his damaged gauntlets and dodging his every attack while trying to get to the monitor and then spotting Black Cat trapped behind glass. "Black Cat!? Whoa!"

"Spider-man!" Black Cat cried out, holding her tears while watching him struggle against the Jackal.

"It has dragged on long enough that I can finally gain this form and overpower you!" Jackal smirked while trying to slash Spider-man and evading his attacks in return.

"Dude—whoa?! Who are you?! I don't even know you!" Spider-man screamed as he quickly avoided getting cornered and maintained a certain distance between them, inching sideways close to the monitor.

"Oh, but I know you very well. Very very well, after you and that weakling Connors put me out of commission and humiliated me!" Jackal barked.

"Waitaminute, don't tell me— Dr. Warren?! Is that you?!" Spider-man exclaimed upon realization.

"Wrong! Miles Warren died a short while ago today. From now on, the Jackal lives in his place, to torment you, your friends, and all the citizens of New York!" Jackal laughed sadistically.

"Not if I can help it!" Spider-man differs, trying to land swift attacks on the Jackal before he could get the chance to release Black Cat out of the glass prison.

"Hrngh! Hragh! Drats, well, worth a shot," Black Cat curses, seeing that her retractable claws couldn't damage the glass.

"How about I try?" Shadowcat confidently suggests, phasing out of the ground in front of her.

"You…!" Black Cat backs away in response.

"Uh huh. Look, I don't know what you got on Spidey, but he shows genuine concern for you on many occasions for weird reasons," Shadowcat spoke her mind to her. "And to stab him in the back like this is just—"

"Watch out!" Black Cat warns and flinches from the flying razorbats heading towards them and get stuck on the glass.

"Sheeesh, bad aim," Shadowcat sarcastically remarks as she moves and phases away from the razorbats, astonishing Black Cat in the process.

"Wow," Black Cat blankly responds in awe.

"Pretty sure you could guess it by now. And you know, I had half a mind of just leaving you here. But because I can't imagine watching Spidey mooing around again, you need to come with me," Shadowcat explained as she phased her arms into the enclosure, catching Black Cat off guard. "Take my hands, and close your eyes."

She then pulls and phases her out of the glass gas chamber, making Jackal furious upon seeing his test subject escape while choking and pinning Spider-man by his neck to the wall.

"No! Why you!" Jackal grunts before feeling a grappling hook grappling around his wrist that's trying to pull him around.

"You guys really need to learn how to chill!" Screwball quipped while acrobatically evading Hobgoblins pumpkin bombs on her retractable roller skates and dragging Jackal's arm around.

"Grrgh, little pest!" Jackal furiously roars as he throws Spider-man away and pulls Screwball close to him before pinning her to the wall instead.

"Owngh!" Screwball grunted.

"You know, I could always try out this death serum that I've concocted in my spare time, to see how powerful it is to an ordinary human like yourself!" Jackal laughed as he pulled out a syringe from his lab coat's pocket and injected the formula into Screwball's arm.

"No!" Spider-man barks and tackles Jackal to the wall so hard that it causes a bigger portion of the upper wall to collapse on top of him, incapacitating him in the process before going to check on Screwball. "Screwball! Oh man, please, don't die!"

"Awwwgh, ow, that hurt!" Screwball screamed, holding the side of her arm from the numbing pain.

"Waitaminute, I thought death serum is supposed to cause your organs to shut down or something?!" Spider-man hysterically reacted.

"Hey! Don't kill me off like that! He must've used something else on me, I just hope it isn't anything bad," Screwball thought out loud, caressing the sore part of her arm.

"Come here you meddling brats!" Hobgoblin roars, rushing towards them atop his glider while throwing razorbats at them.

"Get behind me!" Spider-man orders, letting Screwball get behind him as he parries and then catches them to return to sender.

"Grrgh!" Hobgoblin growled as he threw another batch of razorbats, flying towards Black Cat and Shadowcat.

"Whoa!" Black Cat nimbly evades the sharp blades before realizing one of them boomeranged back at her and slashes only her eye mask.

"Cat!" Spider-man yelled.

"I'm alright!" Black Cat replied, accidentally revealing her face and identity as their senior schoolmate, Felicia Hardy, before wearing another eye mask that's kept in one of her belt pockets.

'Felicia?! It was you?!' Spider-man thought in awe for a moment before getting back to reality and webbing a line to sling himself onto the Hobgoblin and struggling to get him off of his glider. "Let's end this, here and now, Hobby!"

With a finishing blow, he puts all his weight into kicking the front head of the glider, causing it to fling the Hobgoblin off his position and crash into the containment canister before getting webbed up by Spider-man. Seeing this as a chance to escape, the Carnage symbiote quietly leaves through a small vent in the wall unnoticed.

"Well, that wasn't so bad. Now our job is finally—"

Just when things are going smoothly, an earthquake of some sort happens in the laboratory, and the Jackal, who was supposedly unconscious, stood awake and triggered a hidden self-destruct mechanism.

"I will not be arrested! I will be back! Spider-man! And you— all of you will pay for this humiliation!" Jackal swears as he leaves through a single-use escape route hidden beside the huge stack of data.

"Come on guys! The elevator can't handle too much stress!" Shadowcat calls, making Spider-man go to her with the tied up Hobgoblin before phasing through the laboratory entrance to leave the forsaken place.

Shortly after the dust clears and the facility quickly crumbles down, the police and team of law enforcers arrive at the scene to apprehend the group of mech users and the unmasked Hobgoblin, revealing his identity as Roderick Kingsley to the police. While the officers do their job, Spider-man and his team rejoice atop a nearby apartment building after another job well done…

"Booyah! We totally rocked that one, literally!" Hornet pointed out.

"Heck yeah bro! Too bad the ice cube's not here with us," Human Torch agrees.

"True but…" Ghost Spider trailed off, getting everyone's attention and curiosity excluding Black Cat.

"But…?" Screwball repeats.

"Those mechs seem too well-prepared at fighting guys like us. I'm afraid we might become walking targets by some evil mastermind, judging from the heavy arsenal we just fought," Ghost Spider explains.

"Well, we just have to be ready when the time comes, and be a bit more discreet I guess when crime-fighting…?" Spider-man playfully shrugs, making Shadowcat laugh in response.

"Uh ahem," Black Cat clears her throat loudly. "I'm sorry to be the killjoy around here, but I have to go."

"Hey now just—"

"Okay," Spider-man quickly answered and walked up to her, making the heroines glare at him in response. "You can go now if you want to. Sorry to just ignore you, with all this that's happening and—"

"Shhhh, say no more. And it's not always your fault, Hotstuff," Black Cat shushes his mouth with a finger. "A lady like me has issues you cannot easily comprehend, but I am going to let all that slide, after everything you did for me..."

"Really? I mean—"

Before Spider-man could say anything, Black Cat closes in to kiss him on the lips, exposed by his battle-damaged mask, before pulling back and hiding her flushed cheeks—all the while inciting the jealousy of the heroines present in the group. She then shoots a line to another building with her grappling hook before glancing back at Spider-man…

"Till next time, Hotstuff!" Black Cat bade before swinging away.

"…See you…" Spider-man trailed off, close to uttering her real identity. 'Felicia…'

"…Humph!" Screwball huff and puff with pursing lips and crossing her arms.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Human Torch asked.

"Nothin', just practicing self-control," Screwball replied.

"Awww cheer up, Liz. She was only there for a little while anyway," Human Torch playfully replied as he nudged the side of her arm.

"Ow hey! Why'd you—huh? Whoa! Why are you setting me on fire?!" Screwball hysterically replied, seeing a fire growing on the part of her arm that was nudged.

"Hey hey! That wasn't me! Honest!" Human Torch shook his head with his hands out.

"I got you," Iceman assures as he puts out the fire with his icy palm before being startled by steam coming out of her back. "Yikes!"

"Wait! Wh-What's happening?!" Screwball screamed as she noticed her gloves and sleeves steaming and turning into lint and ashes before removing her helmet to clearly look at her flaming hands and burning feet, tripping and falling on her rear from being scared of herself.

"Liz!" Ghost Spider tries to help but gets stung from a burning sensation as she touches Screwball's hot shoulder and backs away in response. "Agh, Hsss. What is this?!"

"Liz—"

"No! Don't come near me!" Screwball pleaded before turning to Iceman. "Bobby, shoot your ice on me!"

"O-On it!" Iceman complies as he shoots his ice beam around Liz and gradually lowers her body's sudden rising of temperature. "Whew!"

"Huh? Whoa!" Liz screamed as he noticed her hair being enveloped in flames and ducks to hide her naked body behind the ice. "Hooo man, that was close."

"Liz…? Are you…okay?" Spider-man slowly walks towards Liz, seeing half of her head and fingers pop out.

"No! Don't come any closer! I'm… not decent… at the moment…" Liz pleaded, hiding in her birthday suit behind the translucent ice walls and making the atmosphere turn coldly awkward with the guys turning their backs away and the girls showing mixed expressions of sorts.

'…This is… going to be the death of me…' Spider-man thinks to himself as he turns back and forth to see the disappointed looks in the heroines' eyes and the strange phenomenon happening to Liz.

—To be continued


A/N:

Yas! 20th chapter done!

Milestone accomplished! XD

Thanks again guys for sticking around to read.

More things will come!

God bless and take care!