A Cat Takes Off The Mask and The Serum

A few days turned into a week with Cat lounging around my lab, acting exactly like a cat. Lazy and overall somewhat annoying.

Though I put up with it because having the company was nice. Especially in between trying to work out the kinks in the Oz Serum. I was pretty much there and within the next few days, I could move ahead with my plans.

We talked about what Fisk had on her and surprise surprise, it was a family member of hers. Her mother. Eleanor Hardy*, I found out after I did a bit of research with Karen.

(*A/N - No idea what Black Cat's mom's actual name is. This is gonna be an OC, I guess.)

An art collector who was also an art thief. Guess it runs in the family, huh

Well either way, Eleanor got on the wrong side of Fisk by trying to steal some art from him. He quickly found out where she lived and blackmailed her with Cat's safety while when Cat became of age and donned the mantle of Black Cat, she was quickly found out by Fisk who threatened her mother's life.

It's all very roundabout and a bit overly contrived but it was effective and with Cat and her mom kept away from his art and jewelry collection, Fisk doesn't have to worry about his shit being stolen.

It's not too much of a big deal when you think about it, but Cat wants her and her mother to be free of Fisk's control. Which I can sympathize with. So, after a small time of 'thinking' I agreed to help her get her mom out of Fisk's hands.

Now, where in the world is she being kept? No idea. Some fortress-like safe house, as far as Cat knows.

I put Karen to the task while I finished up the Serum work.

Once Karen found her mom and I'd taken the serum, I'd go and get her. Then I'd make sure Fisk stayed away. Well, I could do that, or I could negotiate with Fisk as Mask to get him to release Cat's mom while playing as Spider-Man and taking apart Fisk's operation.

Huh. I think I'll do that, actually. Sprout some shit about how Cat's working for me now and how I don't like my subordinates being leveraged.

Could work, I guess.

Though before I do that, I need to prepare a good enough guise to keep people from linking Peter Parker to any of my masked alter egos...

Smiling, I have Cat a sidelong glance as she lounged on a sofa near me, reading a magazine, "Say, Cat, do you go to school? You should be graduating this year, right?" I asked, sounding genuinely curious enough for Cat to look my way.

"Uh, no, actually," she blushed faintly before continuing while looking away from me, presumably embarrassed, "I...I got held back a year--Shut up! Not a word, Peter!" she stood up and pointed straight at me but with the faint blush on her face and the casual attire she was wearing, she didn't look very threatening at all.

Chuckling, I rolled my eyes before looking back at the computer I was working on, "I'm not saying anything. Just curious because I'm thinking about enrolling in Highschool. Would work as a good cover. So, I wanted to know if I could have a nice senior who could help little ol' me~" I said with a mock hopeful voice, joking with Cat who just grumbled at me before sitting back on the sofa, facing away from me with her knees brought up to her chest.

Things went quiet for a little while before Cat spoke up, "Hey, Pete...I think it's about time I showed you something," she said and I saw her stand up in the corner of my eye.

She was reaching for her mask and I held back a smirk, "Oh yeah?" I questioned, stopping my work and turning to her. She nodded in reply and took off the mask before taking out the blue contacts as well.

Light green eyes. Like a cats. Figures.

Somehow, without the mask she looked...better. Prettier, I guess. Maybe because it wasn't obstructing parts of her face now? I have no clue. Which is a weird feeling...I'm used to knowing most things nowadays. Not knowing something is an odd feeling. One I don't know whether I like or dislike right now.

Thing went quiet again, with Cat looking at me both expectantly and anxiously. When I finally couldn't hold it in any longer, I just smiled, "And? What are you showing me?" I played innocent to wind her up.

Huffing, Cat's anxiousness disappeared as she grumpily looked at me, "I'm showing you my, you know, secret identity..." she mumbled toward the end, realizing how childish it sounded.

Rolling my eyes, I stood up and walked over to her. Standing in front of her, I flicked her on the nose, "I already know who you are, Miss Hardy," I gave a teasing smile and Cat just froze before her eyes widened.

"What?!" she gave a shout, looking at me confusedly.

Shrugging, I answered, "We've known each other for two years, Cat. Do you really think I'd stick around an unknown variable for that long? The answer is no. I figured out who you were by the fifth month of us having met. Which is also when..." I gestured with my hand asking Cat to carry on the sentence.

Obviously me figuring out who she was by the fifth month of us knowing one another was total bull. I already knew who Black Cat was because I'd read the comics. But, without using foreknowledge to cheat, and just going off of information she actually showed me, it would've taken me five months to figure out who she was.

She was incredibly good at hiding her real life and information about herself. But it wasn't like I was intensely going out of my way to look for it either otherwise I would've gathered enough information to 'figure out' who she was within less than a month.

It was a game and games need to be fun, right?

Ignorant to my thoughts, Cat did finish what I was saying "...When you showed me who you were...Pete," she looked at me with disbelieving eyes.

Seeing those eyes, I laughed and gave her a pat on the head which was odd with our similar heights but I enjoyed it anyway, "I've gotta say, Cat, I'm slightly hurt it took you a year and a half before you told me. However will I recover from this betrayal~? Huh~?" I joked with her.

But what I didn't expect was for Cat to lean in and plant a kiss on my forehead, "Thanks for letting me take my time, Peter...maybe that will help with the hurt? Tell me if you need more and I'll be willing to help out~" she teased yet all I did in reply was shake my head.

"Dumb cat," I chided with a smile.

Hearing me, Cat or rather, Felicia gave a wink before replying, "Idiot who wears a mask."

"Oi, you wear a mask as well, you know?" I gave an 'offended' 'glare' to her and she just laughed before pointing her nose upward in pride.

"But I wear a mask to look sexy and mysterious...you just wear a blank mask with nothing but two slit eye holes. Yours is boring, mine isn't~" she gave a childish argument while sticking out her tongue at me.

Seeing it, I deadpan replied with, "You have a booger on display to me right now," I quipped while pointing at her nose.

In reply, Felicia quickly covered her nose, a faint embarrassed blush coming over her face, "N-no, I don't. Don't lie about that kind of stuff, Pete," she said in a flustered voice.

Laughing out loud, I turned around and began walking back to my computer "Don't worry, Felicia, your identity is safe with me, just like mine is with you~" I laughed but suddenly felt Felicia jump up onto my back with her arms wrapped around me.

...She's getting awfully handsy lately, huh?

Her legs wrapped around my waist and I turned my head to look back at her, "Any reason why you're trying to topple me over, Cat?" I asked but I didn't get an answer other than her hugging me. I couldn't even see her face - her silver hair was covering most of her expression. Shaking my head, I continued, "Geez, Cat...you're a real handful sometimes, you know?" I asked a rhetorical question. Yet Felicia hopped off my back before answering it anyway.

"Yep, I know," she said in a joyful tone, "One of the reasons I like you so much is because you put up with me and how unreasonable I can be," she said and as I sat down on my chair, I looked to her, only to see her walking off.

"You finally leaving?" I asked curiously.

I saw her head bobble up and down, "Yeah...I do have a life, you know? And the excuse of 'I have a fever' can only get me out of school for so long," she laughed but still didn't turn back.

Turning away from her, I waved goodbye, "Yeah, yeah, about time you've left as well. You've been hogging all the food down here, Felicia," I quipped though I gave her a glance, "Be careful out there, yeah?"

"Mhm, I will," she said before picking up into a jog to wherever she'd left her costume.

Seeing her leave, I went back to looking at the computer, "...Dumb cat," I muttered but from the laughter I heard coming from outside the room, Felicia had obviously heard me.

...She's definitely not a normal human. Maybe a Mutant? Possibly. Whatever, doesn't really matter.

Back to work. Just without a wild Felicia Hardy to keep my company..."At least I've still got you, huh, Karen?" I joked, and yet I still got a beep of affirmation from the speakers in the room.

Well, Karen's definitely making progress, huh?

. . .

An entire month of hard, grueling work where I didn't even have a chance to sleep more than 3 hours a night. Somewhere between 680 and 700 hours spent perfecting the serum I was now holding in my hands.

And yet looking at it...was unsettling.

A glass tube filled to the brim with a black and red sludge that looked to be the same consistency as honey. It writhed. Like it was a living being. Moving and ever so slightly changing color between red and black. Though the color changing was uniform - parts would turn from red to black and other parts from black to red.

But it's appearance wasn't what unsettled me. It wa the understanding of how much power was in this liquid. The power to change a human down to their very cells, spurring on a qualitative change that would make a human into a superhuman.

It was made of a combination of all the Spider Venoms and the perfected Oz Serum. I just called it the Spider-Oz Serum because I wasn't a very original person, I guess. Plus, coming up with cool names is hard, so, I'd rather go with a boring one that actually makes sense then to call it something cool but misfitting.

Oh, and onto the spiders that I stole.

First up, we have an arachnid that is part of a very odd genus; Indicoblemma Lannaianum. A spider that rather than focusing on being quick or having strong webbing instead focused all of it's evolutionary ability on...armor. Thick armor that allowed it to resist attacks a being it's size shouldn't have been able to do. I'd extracted this piece of it's DNA and mixed it with it's venom so my skin could gain this strength and become even harder than it would have become.

Next, we have the classic; the Jumping Spider. A spider with incredibly limb strength but also the ability to use their incredible blood pressure to throw themselves even further. They also have incredible eyesight and visual acuity. I'd extracted as much as I could because most of what this spider could offer because most of what it had was useful.

After all, not only would my legs be strengthened by so would my arms. After all, a spider doesn't have 'legs' in the same way a human does. It just has limbs. So, there's nothing wrong in assuming it's limb strength would apply to my arms as well as my legs.

Third in line we have an outright terrifying spider: the Huntsman Spider. 'Fast' 'Incredible Explosive Speed' 'The Ultimate Roach Killer' are some of the ways you'd describe a Huntsman Spider. These things can catch a cockroach quite easily and those guys, if scaled to human size, would be able to sprint/leap at hundreds of kilometres per hour - and Huntsman Spiders are faster and stronger. Fast and strong enough to take down cockroaches so as to make them a part of their usual diet. So, speed and strength would be what I'm getting from this spider.

Fourth, we have quite a...marvelous spider--Get it, 'MARVELous'--Whatever, on with the show; Darwin's Bark Spider. A spider with spider silk so tough, it's considered the toughest biological material ever studied. Over ten times tougher than similarly-sized pieces of Kevlar and two times as tough as any other type of spider silk. This makes this things web, when scaled up, is stronger than steel cables of the same size.

So it's pretty strong.

And last but not least; Wolf Spider. A spider that not only has incredibly hunting ability like a Huntsman Spider but it can also see in the dark, the Ultraviolet Spectrum and parts of the Infrared Spectrum*. An all-rounder, I guess you could say.

(*A/N - Wolf Spiders can only see in the dark and the ultraviolet spectrum but I thought I'd use my bullshit powers as the author to give him the ability to see into the infrared spectrum as well because...well, why not?)

Fitting the tube into the machine I'd soon be getting into, I looked to the four other tubes, each a mixture of the Oz Serum and a specific spider's DNA and venom.

Well, it's time to get superpowers, huh?