Reviews:

ReaperOfBalance: To be fair, the other two curses would work just as well.

Turnuphat: There will probably be a good few chapters before that as I want to have him do a few things first. But it is coming, promise.

ZealJD : I actually already have a few different ideas for the symbiote, including the one that you just suggested, I'm just trying to decide which one is best.

Chapter 49 -

"I haven't seen Felicia since the party," Harry admitted as he walked with Gwen and Peter down the hallway of their school, moving past and between the hundreds of students with practised ease. "She's not answered any of my calls either,"

"She hasn't been in school the last couple of days as well," Gwen said, frowning. "I hope she's okay,"

"I'm going to be meeting her tonight, hopefully," Harry replied.

"Yeah, fingers crossed that it goes well," Peter replied. "Hey, did you hear the rumours about this new superhero going around? Apparently, he's called 'Dragonfly'. I reckon that you two could...aargh!" Peter yelped as he fell to the floor, Harry looked past Peter and saw Flash standing by his locker and pulling his foot back, laughing along with other members of the football team.

"Careful, Parker," Flash chortled. "Would have thought that the genius would have learnt how to walk." Harry's eyes narrowed, he opened his mouth to say something when suddenly the locker behind Flash swung open and hit Flash hard in the back of the head, knocking him down to the ground.

"Flash!" Kong cried.

"Harry!" Gwen hissed behind him. "Eyes!" She whispered quickly. Harry blinked before realising what she meant, he closed his eyes, willing them to turn back from red to green. A moment later he looked at Gwen who gave him a short nod, Harry let out a small relief before helping Peter up.

"Dude," Peter said as they quickly walked away. "Was that you?" Peter whispered.

"Might have been," Harry whispered back. "Let's get out of here before someone starts accusing me of being a mutant or something."

"Part of me was kind of hoping you wouldn't show up," Felicia admitted once he arrived. She was dressed in her 'work' gear, standing with her arms crossed. She had been waiting patiently for Harry to arrive and had considered simply leaving many times. She had taken a good look around the roof, memorising it all. Memorising the litter, the roof units, air vents, the flag pole with the school flag and the other pole with the American flag. She considered calling him and cancelling when he landed on the school flagpole, dressed in his Spiderman suit.

"Yeah, but you knew I would," He replied, flipping off of it and landing in front of her with ease. "I hope it's alright I came in uniform, you didn't really specify what the dress code was."

"Spider, I will never tire of seeing you in this," She laughed as she took off her bandana, looking him up and down before stepping closer and staring right into the lenses where his eyes would be. "It's quite hot," She grinned, licking her lips.

"You're such a flirt," He said, she was able to tell quite easily that he was rolling his eyes. "Anyway, are you okay? You haven't picked up any of my calls,"

"I've been busy," She sighed deeply. Harry stared at her, he could see that she was tired, even if she did her best to try and hide it. Still, her eyes gave away the fact that she wanted nothing more than a good night's sleep.

"You want to go sit down or something?" He offered. "I can -"

"I'll be fine," She cut him off. "My family is in danger, I'll rest easy once they're fine."

"Your mother's not in the country at the moment, so I'm going to assume that she's safe, right?" Harry asked, Felicia looked surprised for the barest moment before rolling her eyes.

"Really, you researched me?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "Did your friends help you? How long have you been -"

"Ever since the first time you tried to steal from us," He shrugged. "And of course they helped me, you think I wasn't going to try and learn more about you?" I've been slowly learning more and more about you. Your mother is Veronica Hardy, a well-respected businesswoman in her late thirties. She's pretty rich, I mean...not Osborn rich but...rich. You're all currently living in a fairly nice penthouse as well, it's definitely not cheap. She married your father, Walter Hardy, that was about ten years before you were born. Now, he's the interesting part since there's not much known about him. The best that my research team and I could find is an old job as a security guard in a museum, funnily enough, that museum ended up losing several thousand dollars worth of items not long after he left."

"I'm...surprised," She admitted. "Most people can't even find out about the museum part,"

"Most people don't have my friends on their team," He replied smugly. "Still, you want to tell me more about it? Like, first of all, is your mum going to be okay?"

"I couldn't give two shits if she didn't come back from Europe ever," Felicia said bluntly, surprising Harry. "She's a vapid, shallow bitch that doesn't care two licks about me or my brother."

"Your...your brother? You have a brother?"

"He's unofficially adopted," Felicia sighed. "That's probably why you don't know much about him, she hasn't exactly paraded him around. Mother's friends with the orphanage owner and never bothered filling in the paperwork, I think it's so that she can send him back if he gets too irritating. I've known the kid for a bit but...I love him, he's a good kid. You'd like him as well, he's a big fan of yours."

"Always nice to be appreciated,"

"Of course, he's going to be appreciative if you save his life," She smirked at him.

"Save his...wait, I know the kid?"

"Does the name 'Ryan' mean anything to you?"

"Ryan? Wait, the kid that got kidnapped by a mutant?! That Ryan?!" He blurted out. "Hold up...you're his sister?!"

"Yep," She confirmed with a nod. "There I was, scoping out a job in disguise, then those thugs tried messing with us and you stepped in, all heroic-like. It took ages for me to convince Ryan to not tell me about you. Don't worry, made him promise me he wouldn't tell anyone else. Wasn't hard to work out who you were from there, especially with how you chased me."

"Right, well...that's a bombshell. What about your dad? What's the story there?"

"Look, he...he was a thief, the best there was," Felicia admitted. "He taught me all he knows, most of it at least. He's not the best person in the world, but between him and my mother, I'm choosing him every time. He cares for me, I know he does. I'm going to save him, I have to."

"Well, it would help if you'd tell me what the situation is," He said patiently.

"Long story short, my dad promised to steal some stuff for someone," She sighed, looking down at the ground. "He told me it'd only be a few simple jobs and then we'd be having a vacation somewhere expensive, next thing I know he gets arrested. He made a mistake or something...I don't know, never bothered finding out. He got sent to jail and then he got transferred somewhere else, not that anyone is willing to tell me where. And believe me, I've spent ages trying to find out where he is."

"We'll add it to my to-do list," Harry said, completely serious.

"Thanks," She nodded appreciatively before continuing. "Anyway, one day some asshole comes up to me and says that my dad promised them something, apparently he owed them quite a bit of money, and they had no better luck at tracking him down than I did. So, they said that if he wasn't going to show up then they were going to take it out on me and my brother. I made a deal with them, I would steal the things that my dad was supposed to get for them and they let us go. At first, they didn't think I could do it, but after the first time, they started to realise that I was pretty good at it. The Oscorp data was supposed to be the last thing I would steal, then that would have been it."

"What about at the other party? Why were you there then?"

"Practise," She shrugged. "I was there mostly to see what type of security your dad had. Not bad for the record. I probably shouldn't have, but...I don't know, I just really wanted to steal something that night. I'm a kleptomaniac, obviously,"

"Glaringly obvious, yes," Harry nodded before gesturing her to continue.

"And then you started chasing after me and I suddenly found myself obsessed with you...you big oaf." She said with a sort of fond exasperation. "The next day my mother had me enrolled in school, I think it's more her wanting me out of her hair than anything else. I was mad until I realised you'd be there, figured I could get some fun in before things went to shit. You know the rest, now I'm supposed to meet them in an hour with a copy of the data that I haven't managed to get unless you happen to have it on you."

"Nope," Harry shook his head. "Alright, tell me the location where you're supposed to meet. I'll go and take care of it."

"Spider, you can't just go and beat them up like they're common crooks," She glared at him. "If you send them to jail tonight then they'll be back out before lunch,"

"Then I'll send them to the hospital instead," He said without missing a beat. "Look, like I said, it's not my first time dealing with rich jerks. Now, tell me where they are,"

"No, I'm coming with you," She said firmly.

"Felicia, that's not a good idea, I think that-"

"Spider, it's my ass and my family that's on the line if this goes fuck up, I'm coming with you," She said firmly. "Besides, you don't know where it is and I won't tell you. If you want to go then you'll be going with me or you won't go at all."

"You're a stubborn woman," He said flatly.

"Thank you," She said, sounding delighted.

"Let's go then," He said before pausing and pointing a finger at her. "Don't fuck up and die,"

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Pep talk,"

"This is the best feeling!" Felicia screamed joyfully, arms and legs wrapped around him as he swung through the city. "You do this every day?!" She asked loudly over the strong winds.

"Whenever possible," He smiled from under his mask. "I like being up in the air,"

"I can see why," She smiled. "It feels like...like -"

"Freedom," He finished for her. "I feel free up here."

"Shame we can't do this forever," She sighed.

"A bit too early for a marriage proposal," He commented lightly.

"Perhaps," She replied before suddenly turning her head to face him. "Are you and Gwen together now?"

"No, we're not," Harry responded, biting back a sigh.

"Why the hell not?" She asked, sounding more curious than anything else. "I know you like her," She added as he landed on a rooftop, she continued staring at him, not bothering to climb off.

"Maybe because I like you too," He replied, staring right at her, she opened her mouth to say something when her phone rang. Hopping off of him, she took out her phone and answered it. Gwen's voice came out of it whilst also speaking from Harry's earpiece.

"You dumbasses know that we can hear everything, right?" Gwen asked blandly.

"I did not," Felicia admitted honestly before looking at Harry. "They're listening in on us?"

"I got comms in the mask and they're connected to my lenses so they can see everything that I can," He shrugged.

"Huh, good to know," Felicia said before ending her call and turning to Harry. "Sorry for discussing this without you, Gwen." She smiled in Harry's direction while turning off her phone so nobody would call her. "Should we discuss this later?" She asked in an airy voice.

"Gwen has a few choice words for you," Harry said a few moments later. "But they can wait, so...we're here. What's going on?"

"Down there," Felicia said, pointing down towards an old Italian restaurant. "I'm supposed to meet on the rooftop there in a half hour or so. If I have the goods then everything was supposed to be okay."

"So, the big boss is meeting here?"

"No, one of his underlings, but he's pretty big himself," Felicia answered. "You ever hear of a guy called 'Hammerhead'?"

"Hammerhead?" Harry repeated. "Why the hell is he called that?"

"You'll see," She replied while tying her bandana around her face. "Anyway, he's pretty well known in the criminal underworld, not much scares him so the guy that he's working for is probably even worse."

"You know him well?" He asked, switching to his thermal imaging to check out the restaurant, he noted that nothing seemed out of the ordinary so far.

"I met him once or twice," She shrugged. "Daddy had business with him," She said before a mischievous grin appeared on her face, she looked to Harry and nudged his shoulder. "And now my other 'daddy' is going to deal with him for me," She purred, running a hand across his chest.

"Business first," He told her with a shake of his head before pausing. "Later though," He told her.

"Ah, there you are," Hammerhead said, waiting atop the rooftop. "The new 'Black Cat'," He added mockingly.

"Here I am," Felicia confirmed, stopping a short distance away as she looked at Hammerhead. Standing behind the man was a pair of well-dressed goons with guns, attracting almost as much attention as Hammerhead himself. Hammerhead was dressed in expensive brown boots, a striped blue suit with a black shirt and white tie. The oddest thing about the man was his head, it was broad and the front was flat, rumours were that he had a metal plate in his head. "Is your boss here?"

"Only boss a'me, is me," Hammerhead told her, adjusting his suit collar.

"Oh, yet you're working for someone else?" She asked innocently. "Don't bother denying it."

"What happens between me and the 'Big Man' is exactly that, between me and him," Hammerhead growled.

"Does he know about me?"

"What does it matter?"

"Maybe he'd like my services," She shrugged.

"He doesn't even know you exist," Hammerhead snorted. "Far as I know, at least. Consider yourself lucky girl, once he has you in his sights, you don't get to leave. Now, pass the goods,"

"No," She said bluntly. "I'd rather not,"

"Excuse me, I don't think I heard you right," He said tightly, glaring at her. "Pass me the drive, now,"

"Going to make me?" She asked mockingly.

"Boys," Hammerhead clicked his fingers, he paused and waited, Felicia simply crossed her arms and waited patiently. "Boys!" Hammerhead clicked his fingers again, he looked back and blinked hard when he spotted both of his men tied up together with webs, their guns dismantled on the floor next to them.

"You see, Hammerhead," He looked back and saw Felicia staring at him, Spiderman standing behind her. "I brought back up of my own," She said smugly.

"I'm back up," Harry said with a lazy wave.

"The Spider?" Hammerhead stared for a moment before recovering, he stared at Felicia and chuckled. "You don't do things halfway, do you, girl?"

"What do you know about this big man?" Harry asked casually.

"Oh, you going to scare me into talking?" Hammerhead laughed. "You pair of dumbasses, you think you have me cornered, don't you? Guess again,"

"The hell are you on about?" Felicia asked, remaining vigilant.

"I was dealing with the daughter of Walter Hardy, you don't think I didn't have a plan B in case things went to shit?" Hammerhead asked with a big grin. "You're good, but neither of you is ready to play with the big boys. If you really want to know about the Big Man, let me introduce you to one of his top men, graciously on loan to me. Sparky!" He yelled.

"Don't call me that!" Someone yelled angrily. A moment later a new arrival flew in, hovering in the air was a man dressed in a dark green bodysuit with dark brown boots, yellow lightning covered his entire body, seemingly emanating from his hands. His skin was pale, his head was bald and his face had what looked to be several burn marks on it. "Call me 'Electro!'." He shouted.

"Right," Harry stared at him for a moment before turning to Felicia. "I'm sure that you can take the dickhead,"

"Hammerhead!" Hammerhead corrected him whilst pulling out a couple of knuckledusters.

"Dickhead," Harry repeated.

"I'll be alright," She said, rolling her shoulders.

"Great, I'll come and help once I'm done with Sparky over here." He told her before running forward and leaping into the air.

"The name is Electro!" Electro yelled before shooting lightning at Harry who twisted in midair to dodge it before he swung towards him. "Call me, Electro! Electro!"

"Sure thing, Sparky!"

"Aaaaaaargghhhh!"