-New York City-
In a random cafe in the city, Peter and Felicia sat by the window after receiving their order. The two teenagers fell into the comfortable ambiance of the cafe as they traded light insults and teases as Peter verbally walked around all of Felicia's blatant attempts at flirting with him.
They've been here for a while talking about one particular another for the last fifteen minutes which was surprisingly enjoyable for Peter. She was surprisingly intelligent and insightful during their short chat.
Peter decided to broach the subject of the events that transpired prior to their arrival at the cafe
"So, wanna explain what that was about?" Peter asked as he took a sip of his coffee which seemed to capture all of Felicia's attention as she scrutinized his action with clear fascination.
Peter could feel his hunger subside for a moment, if only for a few minutes. As he thought, it was a poor substitute, but it does help in subsiding for a short while. It would do until he went to visit his aunt.
"How can you drink that? Seriously, I honestly thought you were joking" she teased as she made a face of disgust.
Peter simply regarded her with a deadpan gaze as he took another long sip to prove that he was indeed enjoying his black coffee with no sugar.
"And you call me the weirdo…it's like I said, they are friends," Felicia commented on his ability to enjoy his drink as she sipped from her beverage. She didn't seem to want to elaborate any more than that on her friends.
"Hey, if you don't want to tell me you don't have to. I'm not one to judge, you just have weird taste in friends is all." Peter commented.
"At least I have friends." Felicia retorted; her gaze leveled on Peter as she said that.
"Very funny, I don't need that many friends, from my experience, people are overrated. I just like my privacy" Peter replied in his usual tone.
"You don't have to remind me." Felicia huffed in annoyance, expressing some frustration over Peter's constant dismissal of her attempts at befriending him.
"Look. it's not like I don't want to make any friends, it's just that often people tend to be disappointing. Everyone's out for themselves, I just learned that the hard way." Peter continued.
"Is that why you keep avoiding me? Cause you think I'll just disappoint you too." Felicia asked. She leaned forward and regarded Peter with her usual charming smile.
"I honestly don't know; you just don't seem like the type to go for someone like me. Our social circles don't exactly click you know, so I figured it'd be best to just steer clear of you and your friends." Peter replied calmly prompting Felicia to chuckle at his reasoning.
"Hahaha, wait? You're serious?" she asked only to be met with Peter's annoyed look making her break into a small laughing fit.
"OK, that's not what I was expecting from you, but I can't say I'm surprised. That sounds oddly like you. Hehahaha." Felicia continued her giggling fit.
"And what would you know about me exactly?" Peter asked out of curiosity. She seemed to have this idea of him that made her want to befriend him and he was curious to know why.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Felicia teased as she recovered from her giggling fit. She seemed quite keen on keeping her reasons for her apparent interest in him to herself for as long as she could. "It's refreshing honestly, you're way more rational than I thought you'd be."
"And you're way more easygoing than I thought you'd be" Peter commented.
"Aww Pete, is someone falling for me already."
And just like that they fell back into their usual banter. It would be some thirty minutes later before Peter and Felicia parted ways with each other.
...…..
-Peter on the way home-
It's been a few hours since Peter's accidental meet-up with Felicia.
After he left, he went over to the hospital to visit his aunt and check up on Garfield. The ever-dutiful feline remained by his aunt's side as it was told to; keeping as close to his aunt as it could in different animal forms every now and then.
He spent an hour with them before he had some blood from the hospital's blood bank when he felt his hunger surface again. It couldn't be helped as it was getting too much for him to keep at bay. After taking a few blood bags for later and patting Garfield goodbye he left the hospital and began to make his way home.
He contemplated ways to deal with it as he walked. Maybe he could come up with a better solution that would effectively halt his need to feed on blood but what could he do? As he weighed his options, he noticed the streetlights brighten as the night set in.
The streets weren't as crowded as usual, and the ambiance was made for an enjoyable walk. Peter walked with one hand tucked in his pocket while he held a plastic bag with his blood bags.
After a short while he decided to take a shortcut by cutting through an alleyway to save himself some time. He was in no rush to go home but something else caught his attention.
He was being followed.
He could feel it, he wasn't sure who, and whoever they were seemed to know the streets well enough to avoid the street cams seeing as how Cypher was unable to locate them on the feeds, but Cypher was able to pick up something else on the feed; a car that's been tailing him since he got off the bus.
Peter could feel their gaze on him and judging from what his instincts were getting they weren't here to play nice. But it wasn't them that had his attention, no their' s were tame when compared to whoever else was watching him.
The hostility was potent enough to feel
Peter walked at a slow steady pace through the alleyway making sure that he was getting through the blind spot of some camera.
As soon as he walked in a car drove up to a stop on the opposite end blocking his path, and another drove up behind him blocking the other side. The car doors opened as a group of men walked out of both vehicles wearing ski masks led by one with a hand on a concealed an obviously weapon.
Peter paused, choosing to wait and see what they would do.
*Crash*
Someone dropped from the rooftops, landing in a loud crash on one of the trash cans. The figure was dressed in a purple and black combat suit with tech attachments on the arms and legs and eccentric neon lines running down the sides; he also wore a purple Kevlar trench coat and a mask that had purple diamond shapes outlining his eyes.
He glared at Peter through the white lenses of his mask.
"…You really don't wanna do this?" Peter said calmly as he placed his plastic bag on the ground and held up his hands in the universal sign of surrender.
...…..
-Not far from where Peter was located a few minutes later-
Felicia Sarah Hardy jumped from rooftop to rooftop, moving across the dense urban environment with super humane agility and speed. She checked her wrist for the location of her tracker and increased her pace.
She was dressed in a black combat suit with claw-like metallic designs on her boots and gloves. Her suit hugged her form closely but allowed her to move with relative ease, she also had on a leather jacket that was lined with special ballistic resistant fiber carefully lined underneath for that extra protection; complements of Kingpin. She wore her signature black and silver kabuki cat mask adorned with intricate designs painted in silver that covered her entire face. Her hair was tied back into a low ponytail.
'Miles's you idiot!' her thoughts repeated as she jumped onto the next roof, landing in all for much like a feline and launching herself forward at increasing speeds.
A few hours after she left Peter, she managed to spot one of Mile's boys tailing her and after a rather painful confrontation, she managed to get a confession from the guy. A confession that both confused and shocked her.
He told her that Peter Parker was the person who put Miles's uncle in the hospital and Miles was going to take Parker out for that. As revenge for his uncle's state Miles was gonna kill Peter Parker. She couldn't let that happen, for several reasons, one of which was for Miles's own sake; the teen had never killed anyone before despite his time working for his uncle. His uncle would not let Miles cross that line unless necessary, his own way of protecting his nephew from the burdens of taking a life regardless of his chosen profession.
Now that he was out of the picture, Miles took it upon himself to take the reins and lead his uncle's gang, The Prowlers. The attack on the Kingpin increased the tension between the street gangs of New York among other factions that called those streets home: it did not make the situation any better for Miles and his choice to lead in his uncle's place.
The teen wanted to increase their hold on the streets by increasing his uncle's turf and came to her with an offer to join forces which she politely declined. An answer he didn't take seem to like but she had her own issues. The only reason she was working for the Kingpin was to pay off her father's debt and ensure his safety and protection in prison from other hostile factions.
She was a thief; she didn't care about the streets or the gangs that ruled it.
If she could keep her dad safe and get rich doing it, nothing else mattered to her. She just had to get there before Miles did something stupid and hurt Peter.
Right, there was that too. She was unsure whether she was doing this to stop Miles or save Peter. She wasn't clueless about Miles's feelings for her and a few months they might have had a chance but now she had her interest set on Peter.
She was fascinated by him. It was a few months back when she first saw him, that night Miles invited her to one of the many underground fight clubs to check out a new fighter that set the scene on fire, Miles himself took part in some of the fights but only when he felt like he needed the practice. He had become a fan of another fight; the black wolf they called him, a vicious up-and-comer that tore his way through the ranks faster than any other competitor.
She had nothing much to do that day, so she joined him to watch the fight. Miles didn't do him justice; he was a vicious and brutal fighter. For whatever reason she couldn't recall she left early, it probably was the scent of blood and the noisy atmosphere that affected her heightened senses to an annoying degree. She left after that fight but Miles chose to remain to watch the final fight.
It was on her way out.
That's when she saw him, the black wolf and the boy behind the mask sitting by the bus stand waiting for the midnight bus like any normal person would. She was both surprised, curious, and maybe a little interested to know why someone who looked like that would fight in the way the black wolf did. He looked no older than her or Miles, maybe even younger. It was his scent that gave him away, her heightened senses made it easy to identify him after seeing him in the ring up close.
When she approached him to talk, she found herself unable to move or speak when he turned to look at her. All her instincts screamed at her in unison, her hair stood on end as goosebumps crawled all over her skin. It told her one thing, if she made any movements right now, she would die. It was as if he exuded death with his presence alone.
Thankfully the bus came, and he walked right in without a word or sparring her a second glance. As he left, she felt herself let out a breath she wasn't even sure she was holding.
The next time she'd meet him was by the sidewalk on some random street purely on accident, thankfully whatever threatening feeling she got from him before was no longer there and as luck would have it, she would later discover that he was attending the high school she just enrolled in. It was pure coincidence; he didn't even seem to remember her at all which stung her pride somewhat.
It didn't help when she heard about him from those around her. Apparently, he was the local nerd, one of the smartest students in their class, and a victim of constant bullying by the jocks in Midtown High which only served to confuse her more and increase her fascination with him. None of the students in school seemed to know about his nightlife.
All of them were not aware of how dangerous Peter was and he gave them no reason to think otherwise.
It was actually rather funny when she thought about it at that time.
When she found out about his situation with his aunt and uncle her interest only increased. She watched him every other day when he thought no one was watching, it was simple curiosity at first, she tried approaching him, but he always avoided her attempts with sarcastic remarks. Over time it developed into their usually witty banter with her trying something and him often always rejecting her attempts.
She noticed something odd about Peter Parker the more she observed him. Peter Parker had no sense of self-preservation, it was the little things, the way he fought in the ring in his black wolf persona, the way he stood an inch too close on the sidewalks every time since their first meeting, or how he moved without paying attention to anything around him as if nothing could hurt.
She took notice of it only due to her own nature, she had keen instincts in-tune with spirits and other mystical bullshit. If the self-proclaimed Cat Goddess in the totem had anything to say about Peter it was that the child (Peter) was loved by death and that she should stay away from him.
It had the opposite effect on Felicia than what the Cat Goddess was hoping. She came to understand she and Peter were alike in a way. Two broken teenagers who lost almost everything and so they were doing what they had to do to get by both putting up their own masks in front of everyone around them.
Although they both had their own reasons for doing what they were doing the principles were the same.
Her abilities came from a cat totem she had in her possession, bound to her blood and soul. It was something her father stole from a reclusive African tribe, believing it would heal her from her disease when she was younger, a disease that took her mother's life, something that she inherited from her mother.
He was right.
It healed her and did so much more, but it was a little too late by then, he was already knee-deep in debt paying for her alternate treatments, so they had to run. That was what led them to Kingpin.
After her father was arrested Kingpin promised to let him go and to protect him in prison if she paid her father's debt in his place, all she had to do was a few jobs every now and then.
It was easy work, all she had to do was steal a thing, and she'd be paid of course, if anything it was a purely professional relationship. It was during that time two years ago that she met Miles and his uncle as his Arron was working as the Kingpin's right-hand man at the time.
Now she had to go stop Miles from making a stupid mistake. She increased he speed and launched herself forward across the urban rooftops.
...….
-Felicia arriving at Peter's location-
Felicia dropped down in the alleyway and froze in shock. That feeling she got when she first saw Peter came back in full force.
"Oh, look more of you…" She heard Peter's voice; his tone was as calm as ever only in the present situation it made her hair stand on edge. Her instincts screamed at her to run now.
Her heart picked up, hammering in her chest, her hands shook slightly as she clenched it into a fist in response, and one-inch metal claws shot out of the knuckles of her metal gantlets.
Peter stood in the center of the alley holding Miles's beaten form up by the throat; Miles's body looked beaten, and he was bleeding. Eight bodies littered around him with twisted limbs, all beaten and bruised and bleeding as well.
Bullet holes littered the walls and trash cans all around the alleyway.
Peter regarded her with a predatory gaze, his eyes taking on a yellow hue that seemed to almost glow in the dark. He tossed Miles into the walk with a resounding crack.
"I told them not to do it, but they didn't listen…Guess you're one of them too, huh? Word of advice, clench your teeth, 'cause it's gonna hurt." Peter's lips curled up into a slight smile as he spoke.
"Just, so you know, I'm an avid supporter of gender equality."
"Wait-."
Peter shimmered out of her sight in a burst of speed before she could finish speaking.
Her instincts warned her to move. Darkness filled her vision before she could even attempt to react.
-Chapter End-
Character Reference with images.
Peter Parker
Gwen Stacy
Wanda Maximoff
Pietro Maximoff
Bobby Drake
Kathrine 'Kitty' Pryde
Jean Gray
Ororo Munroe
Anciant one