Episode 43: Familiar Faces and Thieves!

Delilah's eyes widened. "Carlos? Is that you?"

"Of course it's me," Black Tarantula replied. "Were you really fooled by this mask?"

"It's been years since we last saw each other, so I didn't recognize you from your voice."

"That's not much of an excuse! I came all the way from Argentino to find you, and you don't recognize me?"

"Is this starting to turn into a soap opera, or is it just me?" MJ whispered to Peter.

"Yeah," Peter agreed. "Maybe we should take this as a queue to escape."

"Couldn't agree with you more." MJ then turned her attention to Noirspi. "Use Spider-Tracer to find Ben and Thor, then lead the way!"

Noirspi chittered in response as its eyes glowed, showing multicolored lines that resembled map coordinates. Then it seemed to perk up and leaped through the door next to the office. Peter and MJ followed him carrying their backpacks, while Peter told his exhausted Spidermin to use Stun Web on the doorway.

Surprised by this sudden turn of events, Delilah clenched her hands. "Those brats are getting away. After them, Rikoshay!"

"Wait!" Black Tarantula warned. "Don't do that!"

But Black Tarantula's warning came too late as Rikoshay leaped into the web within the doorway and got stuck while getting electrocuted in the process. Peter wanted to go back, but MJ grabbed him by the hand as they went through several rooms until they came to a room that had a safe which was open. Ben and Thor were present, but so was another person. It was a teenage girl with platinum-blonde hair wearing a black catsuit with a white fur collar, a black choker, and a black mask that had white goggles to obscure her eyes. Next to her was a thin cat-like creature that was standing on its hind legs with black fur, white eyeshadow, and a hook-like tail while holding multiple PDBs and a flash drive.

"Hi there," said the platinum-blonde haired girl, looking amused. "Care to join the party?"

"Who is she?" Peter asked.

"Black Cat," Ben answered. "She's a thief known for stealing jewels and art pieces in Yortown, so I'm not sure what she's doing in La Vie City."

"I was on vacation, and thought I would have some fun," Black Cat said.

"By stealing from Don Fortunato?" Peter exclaimed. "You know he'll kill you once he finds out what you stole from him."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," replied Black Cat. "With this flash drive, I could access Don Fortunato's bank account information and run him dry."

"But why would you do that?" Peter asked.

This made Black Cat pause. "Let's just say he's been threatening a certain businessman that I'm close to. But now I've got to go."

Instantly, the cat-like creature's hook-like tail extended to a perfectly cut hole in the window next to the safe. Once the hook end of the tail caught onto something outside, Black Cat picked up her cat-like creature and ran toward the window.

"She's getting away with our PDBs!" Thor said. "They were in the safe she broke into."

"Noirspi, Web Shot the PDBs out of that cat's paws!" MJ ordered.

In an instant, Noirspi sent a web that latched onto the four PDBs the cat-like creature was holding causing them to be pulled toward Noirspi. The cat-like creature noticed and tried wiggling out of Black Cat's grasp forcing her stop by the hole in the window.

"No, Blaccet," Black Cat said, petting the cat-like creature's head. "We got what we came for, so we can let the PDBs go. But next time, we won't be so generous."

Black Cat then leaped out of the hole in the window. Peter and Ben ran over to the window, and looked down. Apart from a crowd of confused people and some police cars that were showing up, there was no sign of Black Cat or her Marémon.


Once the La Vie City Police reached the office of Don Fortunato, they arrested Black Tarantula and Delilah, who were fighting each other while Peter and the others encountered Black Cat, along with the now recovered Rose and Don Fortunato himself for kidnapping and blackmail. The police also confiscated their Marémon with the intention of taking them to a Marémon Correctional Facility, where all criminal-owned Marémon went to. But Peter insisted on taking Rikoshay with the intention of reforming him personally.

"Well, normally, we don't allow citizens to take Marémon once owned by criminals," said the police officer at the scene, who looked like a male version of Officer Jean. "But since you kids managed to subdue the gangsters Rose, Black Tarantula, and Don Fortunato, I guess we owe ya."

"Thanks," Peter said as the officer gave him Rikoshay, who was still paralyzed from Spidermin's Stun Web.

"You look familiar," MJ noticed. "Do you know a police officer in Yortown named Jean?"

"She's my sister," the officer said. "I'm Brian DeWolff, and I was transferred here a year ago to help the police investigate Don Fortunato to find out why he changed locations."

"And yet you didn't do anything to stop the gang war that was tearing this town apart," Ben said.

"Our hands were tied, kid," Brian said. "We didn't have the manpower or resources to deal with the gang war ourselves, and we didn't want to have to call SHIELD in to deal with the gangs in case it interfered with our city's business operations. But seeing how you guys managed to take the leaders down, it's made me realize that the La Vie City Police Department needs to do better."

"No kidding," Ben responded bitterly. "Do you need me and the others for anything else?"

"We've gotten all the information we need, so you kids can go," Brian answered, trying to hide his disappointment.

"Don't let Ben's words get to you," Thor said encouragingly. "You've done a great deal for us. If your men hadn't shown up, we might have been trapped and possibly killed. So for that, we sincerely thank you for your service as an officer of the law."

Peter and MJ nodded in agreement. Then the two of them and Thor followed Ben out of the casino with their belongings in tow.

To be continued…