Black Cat dropped Peter off on a sidewalk several blocks away from Oscorp. The streets were silent and empty, with most of New York heeding the public health advisory and staying indoors. She had offered to take him all the way back to his apartment, but Peter declined. That route would take them in the opposite direction of Van Cortlandt Park and they both knew that time was of the essence now.
"Besides," He said. "It's a nice night and there's nothing like some fresh air after a night in the lab."
Black Cat looked at him seriously.
"You were amazing, Peter. This cure," She tapped her fanny pack. "it's exactly what we needed to fight Vermin."
"I just did what-" He began, but was silenced by her raised hand.
"Nope, no more modesty. I won't hear it." She smiled at him. "Thank you, really, for everything. I won't forget this."
"Trust me, neither will I."
"If you ever need anything, just give us a holler – me and Spider-Man, I mean." With a two-finger salute, she turned and leapt, soaring to alight on a streetlight above his head.
"Is there a red telephone for you? Or maybe a Cat Symbol I can shine in the sky?" He called up.
"Not a bad idea!" She laughed.
Then with a graceful, almost languid, back-flip, Black Cat sailed upwards and disappeared over the lip of a roof.
He stood there for a moment, staring up after her, his heart racing. The night's events were almost too much too process. Between Black Cat and Oscorp and the cure he'd helped Doctor Connors produce, his brain felt truly fried. He wondered if he'd ever see her again like this again, without his mask, just regular ol' Peter Parker.
It had been an interesting and rather enlightening experience, to say the least.
There was an alcove tucked under the shadow of a gargoyle about three stories straight up the building in front of him. Peter checked that the street was clear before he took a running leap and climbed up into it. His jeans and sweatshirt, along with the rest of his things, were webbed up and hidden, and a few seconds later, Spider-Man emerged.
He was tired and sore and still reeling from everything, but there wasn't a moment to lose. Black Cat was on her way to stop Vermin all by herself, and Spider-Man would not – could not, sit idly by.
The wind was loud and very cold as he zipped through the night sky towards the northeastern side of the Bronx. Spider-Man kept his eyes low, scanning the rooftops for a flash of white, the flickering silver flame that would be Black Cat's hair. He pushed himself to move faster, flying like a rock from a sling as he sailed over the Harlem river.
He saw her before she saw him, and although it had scarcely been ten minutes since they parted, he felt his heart shoot upwards to rest in his throat.
Surely she'll recognize me. The moment I open my mouth, she'll know…
But as certain as he was, there was no way he could avoid Black Cat. It would be easier to drop out of school, or say goodbye to Harry forever, or stop breathing.
"Cat!" He called and dropped down in front of her.
Say something cool. His brain screamed. Say something – Say anything.
"Lovely night to catch a rat, don't you think?" He said.
Okay, not that.
"It's just like that movie... Mouse Hunt." He continued.
NOT that either.
"Have you seen it?" He asked. "With Nathan Lane? It's the best film of 1997."
For the love of God, please shut the fuck-
Her eyes were golden, like the honey cure in the pouch at her waist, and as big as the moon.
She said nothing for a long moment. Neither of them moved.
Then suddenly she was rushing towards him, completely ignoring the nonsense spewing from his mouth, and throwing her arms around his neck. She knocked the wind from his lungs and all thoughts from his head as she collided with him.
He didn't know what to do besides sway on the spot, using his strength to keep them both upright, and pat at her back lamely.
"Spider…" She breathed into his ear. "I… I didn't know when… If I would ever…"
Her lips, cold and soft, pressed into his cheek and he became warm all over.
"You were worried about me?" He wanted to laugh, but knew he shouldn't. "I told you I would be okay. I've got-"
"Spider blood. Yeah, yeah, I know." With a firm grip, she grasped his shoulders and held him at arm's length. "Where the hell have you been?"
The absurdity of the question almost pulled the barely restrained laughter out of him. As it was, he couldn't stop his from grinning under his mask.
"Taking it easy, you know me." He drawled. "I've been laying low with a heated blanket, chocolate bonbons, my soap operas..."
"Stop it. I'm serious." She released him long enough to punch him in the arm. Her full strength wasn't behind it, but it still made everything below the elbow go momentarily numb. "I thought you were dying. Are you okay? Are you still sick?"
"You ask me if I'm sick after you hug and kiss me?"
"Just answer the question before I hit you again."
"No." He chuckled, slowly prying himself free from her grasp. "No, I'm not sick. It only lasted the night really. This morning I was right as rain."
He took a step back, removing himself from her personal bubble, but she followed close, striding forward until their chests were almost touching. Her eyes were still very wide and set firmly on his own face, as if she were studying him.
He had to reassure himself that he was masked, even though a small part of him, buried so deep it was hard to locate, almost wished she would recognize him.
It's me, He thought at her. Timid teenager Peter Parker. Can you believe it?
But apparently Black Cat couldn't read minds and she did not believe Peter Parker and Spider-Man were one in the same.
"Don't stand me up again." She said, her breath warm his face. She pressed one of her fingertips into his sternum. "Next time, I might just take it personally."
"We really need a system for contacting one another." He mused. "I'll brainstorm some ideas. Maybe a couple of pre-paid cell phones or something."
"Walkie-talkies? We can get a matching set." She offered, a small smirk playing on her lips.
"Yeah! Maybe."
He had hoped that she would have brought up Vermin by now or the fact that she was carrying what was an extremely valuable and magical cure in a fanny pack, but apparently that wasn't going to happen without his help.
"So what were you up to before I dropped in? Looked like you were on a mission or something."
As if waking up from a dream, she started, the vertical pupils of her eyes narrowing, sharpening like knives
"Right. About that - it's a long story, but I'll tell you what I know on the way." Black Cat motioned for him to follow and together they started towards the edge of the roof.
She talked as they went, giving him much the same information that she'd given Peter Parker, albeit with a little more detail on what she'd discovered about Vermin's alter-ego, Edward Whelan. Spider-Man still didn't know how she'd gotten all this information and she was exceedingly vague about it, but he decided he could question her about her sources later, after they'd stopped Vermin.
They moved in unison, vaulting over the rooftops towards Van Cortlandt Park. The number of tall buildings dwindled fast, but there were plenty of trees to swing from up ahead. Without looking and without an ounce hesitation, Black Cat reached for him and Spider-Man pulled her to his side so he could carry them both through the air.
As he swung them into to the heart of the park, over empty tennis courts and cricket pitches, he thought she might be clinging to him a little more tightly than usual, but then again, that may have just been his imagination.
A series of squat concrete building were situated on the far end of the park, inside of a circle of chain-link fence. The large and glossy painted sign mounted by the gate identified the area as a filtration plant, and the small, chipped name-tag on the security guard's shirt identified him as 'Morris Bench'.
"So what you're saying is that the reason why everyone is getting sick…. is because of an evil rat Super-villain?" Morris surmised.
"Yes." Spider-Man said.
"And this super-villain is on his way here right now?"
"Yes." Black Cat said.
"Because he wants to poison the city's water supply?"
"Yes." They both answered.
"And you need my help to stop him?" Morris puzzled. He was seated in a security booth just inside the gate and his garbled voice came through an intercom set into the hardened glass.
"Yes, we do." Spider-Man nodded furiously. He wasn't sure why Morris was being so slow on the uptake, although he supposed it was a lot of information to be confronted with all at once. "We just need you to point us to the fastest way to get to the valve chamber under the park."
Morris seemed to deflate at these words.
"Oh, is that it?"
"Yes."
"You don't want me to go down there with you?"
Spider-Man was already shaking his head before he'd finished the question. They'd been talking to the security guard for barely five minutes and Spider-Man knew bringing him along would be a mistake. Besides the obvious dangers, he didn't like how Morris's hand twitched to the belt on his hip, even though there was no holster there.
Black Cat spoke before he could.
"We need you to stay up here and watch our rears, Mr. Bench." She said, leaning against the window that separated them.
"Phrasing." Spider-Man warned.
"Shush." Black Cat hissed, but she didn't take her eyes off Morris. "Please, sir. We can't do this without you. We need you, please."
That did the trick. Spider-Man couldn't help but roll his eyes as Morris leapt form his chair to exit the security booth. He led them to one of the nearby concrete buildings, with Black Cat grinning the whole way. Inside, past a series of doors that Morris had to open with his badge, was a freight lift that was suspended over a black chute that disappeared downwards, vanishing into the center of the Earth.
The control panel inside the lift didn't have many buttons and only one seemed to be dedicated to telling the elevator to move up or down.
"Thank you, Mr. Bench. You're a true saint." Black Cat smiled coyly at Morris and Spider-Man gritted his teeth as he closed the lift doors, a pair of metal grates, with a hearty slam.
With a press of a button, the lift rattled and started to move.
"It's no problem at all, ma'am. Just doing my job." Morris saluted and watched them as they descended. "I'll head back to my station and notify the authorities of the situation."
"Don't let them follow us." Spider-Man called up. Visions came to mind of more police getting swallowed up by a cloud of Vermin's poison, just as DeWolff's squad had been, albeit this time in an enclosed, underground space. "Black Cat and I will handle this from here."
Whether or not Morris heard or understood, Spider-Man didn't know. The security guard had risen up and disappeared out of view.
The lift was very loud as it descended and although some lights were installed on the metal frame, it was still dim in the elevator shaft, and only growing darker every second. Soon, there was nothing above or below except for vast swatches of black.
It was a little disconcerting. Heights, Spider-Man could do no problem, but he'd never been this far below ground, and with no other sights or sounds to occupy him, it suddenly felt like he and Black Cat were the only two people in the world.
"You can be pretty manipulative, huh? With all the 'Mr. Bench's and 'Sir's back there." He said it without thinking really, just talking for the sake of having something to do. "That was pretty good."
"It's basic psychology. People love the sounds of their own name, and they especially love it when you appeal to their authority." She put the last word in air quotes, her voice cool.
"It was pretty impressive. I'd probably still be trying to talk to him. The fluttering eyelashes were a nice touch too. It's hard for me to do that in the mask." He was rambling, but only because his mind was replaying earlier events. He tried to recall how often she'd said Peter Parker's name, how much she'd complimented him, and the way she'd looked at him, with those big eyes of hers. "I bet you could have asked for his wallet and keys and he would have given them to you."
"You think so?" Black Cat turned to face him. Her golden eyes glittered in the low light. They had an almost hypnotizing quality. "And what if I asked you for something… would you give it to me?"
"I, er- it would depend what you asked for." He suddenly wished he hadn't said anything. The look in her eye, the shift in the timbre of her voice, made his mouth very dry for some reason. "And if I realized you were fake flirting to get it or not…"
"Oh, Spider." Had she always been so close? Her torso was angled toward him, eyes suddenly half-lidded. "When I flirt with you for real, you'll know. Trust me."
She had too much confidence in him.
At that very moment, he couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. He didn't ask though and he kept his mouth shut for the rest of the ride down. In the end, he supposed it didn't matter whether she toyed with him, or Peter Parker, or even Morris Bench, not when she was doing it for the right reasons.
Besides, it's not like anyone's feelings are getting hurt. He thought dully.
The lift stopped two-hundred and fifty feet below ground, depositing them in a long, concrete maintenance tunnel. Straight ahead of them, they could see that the passageway opened up to a much larger chamber, where the ambient hummmm of massive machines could be heard.
"Hang back a bit." Spider-Man said quietly as they advanced forward. "If he's here, I'll draw his attention."
"That didn't work last time."
"True, but this time we know what to expect." He took her wrist, stopping them just within the mouth of the tunnel. "Stay here, at least for a minute. You have the cure with you and you can't afford to get hit by his poison."
"But you can?"
"Well… when you think about it-" He began.
"No," She cut him off. "This is a bad plan. We'll go in together."
Spider-Man sighed, not knowing what he could say. He could keep arguing with her, sure, but they had wasted enough time, and she'd probably just end up doing whatever she wanted anyways. But in the second he took to mull over his options, he realized that neither of those things mattered. He trusted her, especially after everything she'd done that night. She was the reason they'd gotten this far.
He gave in.
"Okay. Let's go."
The chamber was longer than two football fields, but only about a dozen yards wide. A metal catwalk led from the maintenance tunnel and ran the perimeter of the entire chamber. Enclosed in the center of the railings were numerous, large pipes that thrummed with power. Spider-Man knew these pipes collectively controlled the flow of over a billion gallons of water into New York City each day, and he wanted so much to just take a second and absorb the magical feat of engineering in front of him that made it all possible, but he couldn't.
Vermin was here and he was waiting for them.
Black Cat's heart was pounding, pumping blood through her arteries to drum in her ear. This was it. They would not let Vermin get away this time, and she could tell that Spider-Man was thinking the same thing by her side. He was stiffer than usual, with fists clenched.
Vermin, in all his rat glory, was kneeling atop one of the larger pipes in the center of the chamber, his yellow eyes fixed directly on them. Black Cat saw then that the pipe he squatted on was affixed with a reinforced metal plate, the kind that could be removed to access the pipe's interior given the right tools. Vermin's claws seemed to be doing the trick though.
Large gouges, visible even at a distance, were carved into the edges of the plate, cut deep enough so tiny spouts of water leaked out and dripped down to the chamber floor. Black Cat could only guess how long Vermin had been working at it. She knew from experience that if she tried to use her own claws to cut through solid steel like that, it would be an hours-long endeavor.
"I heard you," Vermin croaked as they stepped into the chamber proper. He pointed a clawed finger to his ear as he spoke, his voice raised to carry over the ambient din that filled the room. "I heard you coming on the elevator. The sound carries through the tunnels, and the pipes, and the water."
Black Cat didn't know what to say to that. Maybe 'Congratulations?' would have been appropriate, but Vermin didn't look in the mood to be mocked. He looked wild, more-so than when she'd last seen him, his mane of wiry hair was tangled and matted and his eyes were wide as saucers and there was some red mixed in with the yellow, bloodshot from what was certainly lack of sleep.
"Edward." Spider-Man called. At least he seemed to know what to say. "We heard what you were planning and it's not going to work. They're shutting down the flow of water right now-"
"Liar." Vermin hissed. "The only way to close these valves is here, underground, and there's no one here but us…"
Indeed, Black Cat could see a station setup halfway down one of the catwalks, a series of gauges and consoles that probably took hours of training to learn how to properly operate. Flip the wrong lever or press some buttons in the wrong order and they could destroy a major part of New York City's infrastructure.
Probably. Regardless, she'd rather they didn't have to find out.
"Okay, yeah, it's just us. Can you blame me for trying though?" Spider-Man started down the catwalk towards Vermin slowly and Black Cat followed a pace behind. "We just want to talk to you."
"Yes, talk…. Just like that witch you sent after me, right?"
This gave Spider-Man some pause.
"I… can't say I know what you're talking about." And no, he wouldn't.
Spider-Man didn't know anything about America Chavez or the order of sorcerers, because Black Cat had never told him. She had left all of those details out of her info dump earlier too. It was simply too big a topic to explain with everything else going on and she wasn't even sure if he was allowed to know, given the whole secrecy thing the sorcerers seemed to subscribe to.
Screw them. She thought bitterly. I'll tell him – I'll tell him everything when this is over...
"That witch attacked me." Vermin was saying, shifting on his perch as they drew near. "You sent her to get me. That's how you know my name, right? She must told you… but I made her sick. I made you both sick… how are you here?"
"If you're asking why I'm not sick, let's just say maybe your poison isn't as potent as you think. And if you want to know how we found you and how I know your real name," Spider-Man said. "It's because people are looking for you. They're worried about you."
"Stop lying!" Vermin snarled, a hoarse roar that almost made them flinch. Wisps of brownish smoke curled from the corners of his mouth and his eyes shone yellow and frenzied. "There's no one! Only you, you liars and thugs and monsters! All you do… is hurt me." He looks down, to the surface of the pipe between his feet. "It's my turn now..."
With a sudden determination, he latched onto the pipe with all fours. He clenched his teeth and his arms shook from the effort, but his toiling had paid off. He deepened the grooves that he had already forced into the seams of the plate, sending numerous spouts of pressurized water jetting into the air.
"Edward wait!" Spider-Man left her side to leap onto the railing of the catwalk. He crouched there with an arm outstretched, pleading. "If you do this, you'll hurt a lot of innocent people. So many of them, nearly all of them, have nothing to do with you!"
Vermin stopped in his assault on the pipe to send Spider-Man a solemn glare.
"I know." He said, his voice low, so it was barely audible.
"And you want to do that? You want to be that cruel?"
Vermin looked away and Black Cat took the opportunity to silently slip to the left, positioning herself to attack from the side.
"Cruel…" Vermin muttered. "I don't think you know what that word means."
"This seems like a pretty textbook example to me." Spider-Man's voice grew soft then, although he remained in a tense crouch. "Listen, if someone is hurting you, Edward, then we can help. We want to help."
Vermin's grip on the pipe tightened and more narrow streams of water filtered from the cracks in the plate.
The zipper on Black Cat's fanny pack was blessedly quiet as she opened it and reached inside to wrap her fingers around the vial.
"You expect me to believe that?
"It'd be nice if you did." Spider-Man admitted and Vermin let out a huff, almost a laugh. "It's not to late. If you stop now, I swear that we'll do what we can to protect you."
"And stop them from locking me up? From taking my power?" Vermin demanded. He waited for an answer, half a second at most, but Spider-Man still hesitated and that was enough. "Yes... I didn't think so..."
With a powerful wrench, he ripped the pipe open and it exploded like a geyser, showering the entire chamber with fat spouts of water. Black Cat threw an arm up to instinctively shield herself, protecting her face while the rest of her was instantly soaked. She heard Spider-Man yell something and she looked up just in time to see Vermin whip the metal plate he'd pried free directly at her head.
Apparently she hadn't been as stealthy as she'd thought.
The four-inch thick piece of steel flew like a Frisbee and very likely would have liberated her skull from her spine, if she hadn't ducked and rolled. She slid off the catwalk and landed between a pair of large pipes, splashing down into a puddle of water.
Down on the chamber floor, the mechanical sounds of the pipe system were almost deafening, and yet Cat could hear the rushing water inside the burst pipe above her, churning and sloshing as some of the flow splashed out to soak the concrete below. The pressure inside the pipe seemed to have equalized though, because it was no longer raining indoors.
The vial containing the cure was in her fist and she wheeled to where Vermin was crouched above her, ready to use it.
A stream of fog was billowing from his jaws, growing thicker with each breath, and Vermin reared, ready to send a blast of poison into the exposed water supply, but Spider-Man was ready. Black Cat heard a thwipp and watched a glob of webbing fly over head to clamp over Vermin's mouth. He gagged and clawed at his face, giving Spider-Man the perfect opportunity to leap over and tackle him from his perch.
They landed heavily on the far side of a pipe next to where Black Cat crouched. She heard them wrestling fiercely, Vermin letting out muffled snarls and growls as Spider-Man tried to grapple him into submission. Taking off at a sprint, Black Cat ran and dropped low, sliding on the slick floor and under the pipe to join them on the other side.
Vermin had his claws hand wrapped around Spider-Man's throat, trying to hold him at a distance so he could use his other hand to pull the webbing off his face, but Spider-Man was relentless in his attacks. He punched and kicked, delivering blows to Vermin's face and chest that would have shattered a normal person's bones. As it was, Vermin rocked on his feet, snarling in pain with each hit, his eyes flashing with rage.
He charged forward and slammed Spider-Man against the nearest wall of curved steel. The sound of Spider-Man's head connecting with the pipe was like that of a ringing bell and then Black Cat was suddenly pouncing, hissing, head empty except for a single thought: kill.
She landed on Vermin's back and wrapped her arms tightly around his thick neck.
"Remember me?" She growled in his ear.
He obviously did because he lunged backwards, carrying both her and Spider-Man along like massive ticks, and tried to slam her into the pipe behind them. But Black Cat remembered their last fight just as well, and she released her hold on him to avoid getting crushed. She dropped to the ground and swept at Vermin's legs with a powerful kick.
His momentum sent him tumbling and he released Spider-Man as he flailed, tossing him away like a rag-doll. Spider-Man flew through the air, twisting as he went, with his arm thrust out to fire off a web-line towards the ceiling, but Black Cat didn't see what he did next. She didn't know if he saved himself from crashing into a wall or the floor, and she didn't have time to check (although almost every nerve was screaming at her to look up and see).
Vermin had succeeded in prying the webbing away from his mouth and he opened his jaws wide, wider than any human should.
She was still holding the cure in her fist and she knew that if Vermin was able to let loose even the smallest blast of poison at her, it would all be over. She pounced on him again, landing squarely on his chest and, without hesitating, without even thinking, shoved her whole fist, vial and all, into his gaping mouth.
"Gullkk" Vermin said, staring up at her with shock.
Black Cat didn't know what to say either frankly, but she did know that she didn't want him to start chewing on her wrist, so she did the only natural thing and squeezed her fist as hard as she could.
The vial shattered in her hand.
Her glove protected her from the glass shards, but the same couldn't be said for the inside of Vermin's mouth. Trickles of blood mixed with the honey solution and they together bubbled in his throat as he snarled and shoved Black Cat off of him. He rolled onto all fours, gasping and spitting, pawing at his mouth with his hands.
"Wh- what was that?" He wheezed, turning to look Black Cat and shuddering. "What… what did you do…"
He shook and trembled and Black Cat could only guess that this was the cure at work, attacking the plague from inside.
"Just a little medicine." She said. "Eat it up, it's good for you."
He stared at her, eyes wide and furious, he looked unhinged. With another roar, he lunged forward, flying towards her with claws outstretched. She braced herself, raising her own claws to meet his, but Vermin never reached her. Spider-Man dropped from above and landed squarely on Vermin's back, flattening him to the floor. Black Cat joined him and together they held him down – which was not an easy task considering how much he was thrashing.
"I gave it to him." Cat gasped, adjusting her hold on Vermin as he snapped at her. "I gave him the cure."
"I saw." Spider-Man said. He jerked his head to dodge a swipe from Vermin's tail and then fired a spurt of webbing, lashing it to the ground. "It doesn't look like it's agreeing with him."
He was right. Vermin's muscles were spasming, sending convulsions up and down his body and causing his attacks to fly wide. He couldn't escape them, no matter how much he flailed, and as his eyes rolled in their sockets and a pinkish foam started to froth from his lips, Black Cat felt a wave of panic wash over her.
"Change back!" She commanded, loosening her grip slightly. She knew better than to restrain someone who was seizing, but if she couldn't risk taking her hands off completely in case he decided to bolt. "Detransform now or it will kill you!"
Spider-Man followed her lead, trusting her instincts even if neither of them fully understand the mechanics of it all.
"Listen to her!" He shouted and he climbed off Vermin to kneel by his head. "Edward, please!"
Vermin's gaze had gone unfocused, so Black Cat wasn't sure if he'd heard Spider-Man's words. He gave one last, mighty lurch, and then he grew still.
Black Cat held her breath. If she'd killed him by forcing the cure on him, then she didn't know what would happen. She didn't know if she would be able to forgive herself, but she knew that Spider-Man definitely never would…
Then suddenly there was a flash of light and all the air in Black Cat's lungs left in a single breath.
Vermin was gone and she was left staring down at a skinny, balding man in a pair of well-worn florescent overalls, who was shivering and crying, but very much alive.
"Edward?" Spider-Man placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"N- No…" Edward Whelan wept, covering his face with his arms. "No, no...please d- don't. Don't take it…"
Black Cat knew what he was talking about. She could see the metal chain just inside the collar of his work shirt, but before she could so much as reach for it, Spider-Man was scooping Whelan up and into his arms.
"We won't hurt you anymore, I promise. Let's get you out of here."
Black Cat would have wagered her own crest that Whelan didn't believe Spider-Man's words, but apparently the man was too weak to fight. She followed as Spider-Man climbed back up onto the catwalk and set Whelan down gently on the metal grating.
The man stayed crumpled in on himself, covering his face with his hands.
"No, no no…" He repeated, shoulders shaking and the occasional sob cracking his voice like glass. "No… please, no."
"He needs a doctor." Spider-Man turned to Cat. "Go and get help. I'll stay here and-"
He stopped talking suddenly and whipped his head around to stare at the maintenance tunnel entrance – and when Black Cat focused, she could hear it too. Someone was coming… a lot of someones.
The sound of many boots hitting the metal catwalk filled the air, competing with the mechanical humms of the many pipes around them. There had to be two dozen people, most of which were wearing body armor and carrying rifles. At their front, was a severe looking police captain that Black Cat recognized on sight, but whose name she didn't know.
"Nobody move!" The captain shouted. He, along with the rest of his squad, had his gun drawn and pointed at the three of them. "Hands up, all of you!"
Black Cat didn't move, neither did Whelan, but Spider-Man showed them his palms and stood slowly.
"Hands are up. We're being cool. I know things look messed up down here, but I promise it's all under control now."
"Spider-Man." The police captain's lip twitched, exposing a rather wolf-like canine. "It's been a while. Where is the rat?"
"Captain Stacy." Spider-Man greeted in reply, a little stiffly. "Good to see you too. Vermin isn't here anymore. It's safe."
"What do you mean he isn't here? You let him get away again?" Stacy didn't lower his gun. "After he attacked my officers last night?"
"He didn't get away. This is Edward." Spider-Man stepped to the left and gestured to the hunched man behind him. "He was Vermin, but he's not anymore. Black Cat and I shut down his powers. He's not a threat and he needs medical attention."
Captain Stacy narrowed his eyes, looking between Whelan and Spider-Man, then back again. He seemed to be mulling over the explanation and after a long moment, pointed his gun at the floor.
"I see." He said, although his tone didn't fill Black Cat with much confidence. "We'll sort it out." He spoke over his shoulder next. "Arrest our friend Edward over there, and then get some of the facility's engineers down here to sort out this mess." Stacy set his glare on Spider-Man again. "You and Miss Cat are going to come with us and answer a hell of a lot of questions."
"Yes, sir." Spider-Man said, then he turned to Black Cat and gave her a thumbs up, but she didn't return the sentiment. Something about this felt off.
Five of the heavily-armed officers advanced on them, all of their rifles pointed at Whelan.
Black Cat stared at the exposed chain around his neck. If she didn't try to take the rat crest now, she might not get another chance and whatever promise she'd made Wong and America Chavez aside, she was hyper-aware of the fact that she could not allow Whelan to keep it, or for it to be in anyone's hands but her own.
She was formulating a plan to subtly palm the crest from him, when Whelan suddenly perked up and peeked through the fingers covering his eyes. He blinked slowly at the people bearing down on him and his breath hitched. His hands shook as they climbed to cradle his head and his murmuring grew louder and louder.
"No, no, no." He unfolded his legs and started to stand.
"Just breath, relax." Spider-Man said.
"Don't you move, fucker!" A voice shouted.
Time suddenly moved in slow motion for Black Cat and several things happened at once: Whelan's hand moved from his head to clasp his crest through the front of his shirt, Spider-Man suddenly launched himself forward, throwing himself in front of Whelan, and there was a sound like crackling thunder as a rifle's muzzle flashed.
There was a moment where no one was entirely sure what had just happened. They all stood frozen and silent, except of course, for Spider-Man, who crashed down hard on the catwalk and did not move.
Someone screamed and Black Cat was distantly aware that it was her own voice she heard. She didn't care though, nothing mattered, because she was at Spider-Man's side and gently rolling him over and looking at the jagged holes in his chest and in his stomach – and had his suit always been that red.
Captain Stacy was barking orders, yelling something along the lines of "I don't care! Tell them there's an officer down, just get EMTs down here now!" and Edward Whelan was just standing there, momentarily unaccosted, and staring, staring, staring down at Spider-Man like he couldn't believe what had just happened. Black Cat was only dimly registering any of that though, because she could not believe what had just happened either.
After everything, after these past couple of days of misery, of wondering, of missing him and worrying about him, she finally had him back. They'd fought Vermin and beaten him together. They'd won, like they always did, because when they worked together there wasn't any number of super-villains that they couldn't beat.
And he was Spider-Man for fuck's sake.
Sure, he could get hurt, but he could never be shot. He could never be killed.
But what her heart refused to accept, her brain understood. Spider-Man was choking quietly, it seemed like he couldn't breathe through his mask and she made to pull it off his face.
She had just found the seam on his neck, when he raised his hand and grasped her fingers. Her skin burned; a million white-hot needles digging into the flesh of her hand where every one of his atoms pressed against hers.
She'd never told him about her hypersensitivity. She had never told him a lot of things.
But as she stared into this white lenses that covered his eyes, wide and blank and mysterious, she found that her tongue wouldn't work. She didn't say any of the many, many things she wanted to tell him, and he didn't say anything neither. His grip on her loosened, then became slack. Black Cat tightened her hold on his fingers so they wouldn't slip away and brought her other hand up to rest on his torn chest.
She felt him take his last breath and then go very still.
"He… he saved me…" Whelan was standing over them. "… He saved my life."
Yeah, he does that. A voice in Black Cat's head said , but still, no words left her lips. She didn't even look at Whelan.
She didn't know what she'd do if set eyes on him, or anyone else in the room for that matter. A part of her, a very large and loud part, was telling her slash and claw and rip them all to shreds. She could tear them apart until there was no one left, and then, when more people showed up, she could tear them apart too.
Maybe she would take the rat crest from Whelan and wear it herself, if the damn magical thing let her, chose her. With those plague powers, she'd be untouchable. She could stay down here forever, lurking underground like a monster, and ruin anyone stupid enough to come close.
But no, she wouldn't hurt anyone or do any of the terrible things she so desperately wanted to in that moment. She would not wear the rat crest. She had her own, useless crest of the Cat, which apparently did nothing except let her run, jump, and fight, gave her claws, let her meet Spider-Man…
Black Cat pulled his body to her and cradled him in her lap. She kept one hand on his chest, over where his heart should have been beating and she closed her eyes. It was easy to picture him in her mind's eye. He was so vibrant, quite literally; a red and blue paragon with a hero's complex and a heart bigger than the universe itself.
She wasn't sure exactly when she fell in love with him, but it was definitely a moment like this.
Well, not exactly this, but for sure a moment when she'd witnessed his bravery and his selflessness, when he showed her exactly what it meant to be a hero.
The "useless" crest that rested beneath her suit grew hot, then suddenly searing, as blistering as Spider-Man's touch had been moments ago. Her skin did not burn though.
It was instinctual, like how she knew how to breathe and chew and speak. Black Cat took her heart, her very soul, and snapped a piece free, then she pushed that piece away, down her arm and into her hand, then into the solid, unmoving chest that her palm lay flat against.
The whole world seemed to be waiting. The pumping sounds of the valve chamber and the police chatter around them was gone, in fact there was no sound but a soft th-thump th-thump, a heartbeat.
When Black Cat opened her eyes, Spider-Man was looking back at her. She could tell because he had lifted his head slightly off her thigh, and the apertures around his lenses moved with his brows as his eyes narrowed.
He coughed.
"Cat?" He said. "Wh- what just happened?"
Spider-Man looked down, at his chest and stomach, where holes in suit were dotted like islands, but there were no gaping wounds, only small, ugly, circular scars.
"You… healed me?" Spider-Man reached up and gently took her by the collar. His touch was soft and warm, nothing like the uncomfortable pins and needles she was so used to. "Cat... you saved my life. How?"
Black Cat bent her head and pressed a firm kiss to his forehead, then she told him the truth.
"I... I think I just gave you one of mine."
And then, for the first time in as long as she could remember, she cried.
