Chapter Text
Felicia layed back on her king sized mattress in her penthouse suit. She may be under the radar at the moment, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy some of the finer things of life. She just had to be careful about it, such as set up a fake account for her ‘parents’ so no one questioned why a teenager was a millionaire, keep her contacts away from her civilian life, and most importantly, avoid the Bourgeois hotel like it was the plague.
Sure, she had a few close calls here and there, like the occasion pearl necklace she swiped, or Rose being pushy about inviting herself over to her place, or how the ever loving hell Sabrina managed to figure out her home address (she left it blank in the school directories, literally wtf). But those close calls were what made the life of a thief that much more intoxicating in the long run.
Of course, none were as exciting as her run in with the heroes… .or more so with the hero that got it. The hero who both had naive charm and a love of the thrill, the chase, they need to show themselves in the most flamboyant and extravagant way possible… and in the most profitable way possible as well…. Spider-man.
Ever since that first night in the alleyway, Felice could hardly get the boy out of her head. The sarcasm, the gull to actually call life out by the bullsh*t it was and have fun with it as much as possible, and the moves and skill that showed so much strength and experience … oh that guy was incredible. How she’d love to dangle her legs around his arms as he’d try to come up with some sort of excuse to chase her, or having a jewel between their faces as they got in close … breathtaking.
She could do without the copycat and ladyjustice though, but hey, who didn’t have problems? She was a criminal for crying out loud. And some may ask ‘Felicia, why don’t you go after the other heroes’, well…. even if she was willing to experiment, the walking Watermelon was FAR too uptight for her taste, and the copy cat was cute, but only in a childish little brother way. He sought the thrills too, but only in a playful manner. With the proper couching, maybe Felicia could make him a proper black cat.
So for now, she would stick by the spider…. and BOY did she stick by him during that Horrifcator incident….that skinny but toned body underneath that suit….ooh, she wanted to lick up and down all the way. Maybe she should get akumatized, put on a show as a student, pulling him around, close to her lips ….
“Wow, fancy place.” Felicia jumped at the voice in her single apartment. Turning her gaze, she narrowed down on a blonde girl with a white jumpsuit, her eyes seemed to be almost sparking in the night, and a boy a navy looking cape, nothing but shadows underneath, except maybe the black nose. “Very high end for a girl your age. And the stilettos, oh you have to tell me where you shop girl, so cute.”
Okay, this wasn’t the first time someone’s ever broke into her place, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Play into the scared civilian role for now, don’t let them know you can fight back. “W-wh-what-who are you?” She said heavily in a shaky voice, pretending to fall to the ground.
“Oh right, gotta talk it out.” The girl said. “I’m Dagger, the brooding boy over there is Cloak.” Said boy didn’t seem to take that as an insult … or in any way at all, just standing there in silence. “Anyway, we were lookin around the city, cruisin, lookin for the Inner Demons until we heard they had a run in with a cat burglar, crazy right?” The girl went on. “So then we’re on the hunt for the girl over the course of a couple of days and here you are, a teenager that fits the description well enough. Barring the hair but hey, wigs and tape can get you pretty far right?”
“I… I… I don’t know… I don’t know what you’re talking about…. This… this is my parent’s apartment-”
Shink
If Felicia didn’t move her shoulder would have been impaled by something bright and sharp that sizzled against the wall. “Skilled, athletic, quick reflexes.” The blonde girl went on, tossing a dagger made of solid light up and down. “So, would these ‘parents’ of yours happen to include a Mr Li, or Mr Negative, or whatever the f*ck the guy goes by?”
“... Guess I drop the shy girl act now… good.” Felicia grinned feral, flipping over behind her bed and grabbing one of her gloves and her spare gun. “Been too long since I’ve been apart of some decent action.” She fired off bullets.
The dark kid moved in front of the blonde, tanking all of the shots … before they all fired back, one of them clipping her in the leg. “GAH!” What the f*ck were these guys!?
“Yeah, let that be a warning not to go for round two.” The dark kid spoke up for the first time tonight. “Mr Li, information, start now.”
“Well, since you’re so nice about it, why shouldn’t I?” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t know much, I stole from his goons a while back. I got chased, then the heroes sent me to Feast, which apparently was the hideout of said goons.”
“Where did you steal from?” The girl asked, peaking over the boy’s shoulder. “Some kind of warehouse or somethin?”
“Girl, I’ve been laying low since being spotted, excuse me for not committing locations to memory.” She grumbled.
The girl rolled her eyes. “Fine fine, we’ll do this the hard way.” She already nearly lost her arm and got shot in the leg, what was the-they both blinked out of existence, before she felt two hands on her head. “It’ll pinch a bit.”
ZAAP
“GAAAAA!” She felt her entire life flash before her eyes, all the hopes, all the fears, linking into one another like a complex web, before it suddenly stopped. “What … was …”
“Near the Bottega Veneta, that checks out.” The girl went on acting like Felicia was okay. “So, here’s the deal. We leave you on your merry way to steal again as you please. Say a word to anyone about us, you sleep with the fishes, we clear?”
“I…uh…Ih…uh…” She struggled to get her words out… still seeing flashes of everything… her family… her mother abandoning her… her father dead…… struggling to find her way in this cruel world…
“Neato, glad we can get on the same page. We should go shopping sometime.” The girl smiled, before snatching the cat pendant she stole from the inner demons around her neck. “We have to take this too btdubs, sorry, not sore.”
That snapped Felicia out of her state. “Hey! I stole this fair and square!”
“Sorry, we don’t play fair.” The kid in the hood said, wrapping himself over the girl … as they both vanished.
“... I really need to get my hands on some powers these days.” She would refuse to be powerless … like she used to be, before the world got even bigger than it already was. Felicia Hardy was nobody’s bitch, and she would go through anyone to make sure that stayed true.
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Annasi yawned as he ate his one hundredth coffee bean of the day. Normally he evened it out to a steady fifty, but his holder was having one of his ‘helpful moods’, which was just a fancy way of saying ‘I’m going to forget about all my problems by working tirelessly at FEAST.’.
“And that’s the radiator one hundred and ten percent to go.” The boy smiled as he turned on the heater.
“Thanks kid, means a lot.” One of the old dudes at the shelter smiled with a wave.
“Nah, think nothing of it. We all gotta do our part somehow.” Peter was no stranger to helping out at FEAST, but the boy had been spending extra hours at the shelter ever since the fight with that light/darkforce hybrid. And that wasn’t when he wasn’t tirelessly hunting for information from any criminal he managed to nab off the street.
“Don’t you have a life?” Turning up, they saw that screwball girl hanging upside down from one of the ceiling pipes, staring at Peter with a mischievous look.
“Of course I do. I just so happen to divide it between studying for college, watching my friends be idiots in a fun kind of way, running from supervillains, and helping my Aunt.” The boy replied with a smile. “If anything I could say the same about you now that your streaming time’s been cut.”
“That just means I have to compensate by doing double the dares in half the time.” She flipped over to the ground, grabbing a soda on the way down. “And I practice my quadruple backflips, so I say I have a pretty exciting life, nerd.”
“An exciting and extremely insane one, maniac daredevil.” Peter smirked back. “I’ll have you know that being a nerd is a much cooler and less riskier profession.”
“Name three science experiments that haven't gone horribly wrong.” The girl shot back with a playful grin.
“The invention of the light bulb, Ben franklin’s lightning experiment, and the creation of the arc reactor.” Peter listed off easily.
“Last one doesn’t count. That led to weapons and about a dozen knock offs, so it went horribly wrong eventually.” Screw smiled. “Same can be said for the other two. Lightbulbs developed into laser technology that’s used to make said weapons, which also one on said electricity, and Ben franklin got zapped with a lightning bolt. So yeah, every science experiment ever has gone horribly wrong eventually.” She smiled proudly. “So yeah, I win the argument, case close.”
“Aren’t you a bundle of optimism?” Peter responded sarcastically.
“Hey, I’m more optimistic than ladybug. Have you ever heard her talk? It's all ‘I can do this, shout, shout, I know everything, Lucky charm, and ‘I’ll lead chat noir on with cheeky comments and a practically spray painted suit’.” Screwball chuckled. “Compared to her, I’m the queen of happy town.”
“True that, my friend.” The boy chuckled. “I’m gonna go check on the food supply.”
“As long as there’s enough chips for a week, I’m covered.” Screwball replied. “Screwball out!” And she flipped out of the way.
“Plagg would get a kick out of her.” Annais noted watching her flipp out of the way.
“Don’t even suggest that. She’s scary enough without powers, don’t even bring up the idea of a miraculous screwball.” Peter shivered as he headed out.
“Meh, it’s a less scary thought than a miraculous hulk.” Gamma mutates, now that… that scared Annasi in a way he didn’t even WANT to comprehend. Whose bright idea was to give the One Below All a gateway access out of hell!?
Peter shivered even worse than before. “That is a fair point my friend.” The boy nodded. “Actually, what would a miraculous due to people that already have powers? I gotta imagine for some that would be power overload.”
“Depends on the source of power. Are we talking about people born better than others, people with suits of metal, or people that use far too much magic than the normal person should.” Annasi asked. “Cause really, miraculous can go wrong for anybody of all situations, it just depends on who uses it and how.”
“... So never upgrade you with gear, understood.” Peter muttered as he looked over a crate of food. But not a single coffee bag in sight. Such a shame.
“So this is it for the rest of the night? Just moving around boxes of food for homeless people?” Annasi asked. He wouldn’t judge the boy, but he was curious if he was gonna sleep in the bag if his holder passed out while working.
“Unless Hawkmoth plans on repeating a villain other than Mr Pigeon, then yes.” Peter nodded. “If Spider-man can’t find Mr. Negative, then Peter Parker can at least make up for all the bad he’s done by taking care of the people Li left behind.”
“That’s a sweet thought. It’ll burn you out faster than a candle lit on both ends, but sweet nonetheless.” He shrugged.
“Well, it’s not like criminals on the street are eager to tell me anything about his whereabouts.” The teen muttered irritably. “‘Oh sure, I won’t tell you anything about a boogeyman wanting to murder us.’ Buddy I’m dangling you in front of the police, give me something.”
“Guess some people are just too stupid to live.” Annasi guessed with a sigh. “Then again, they’re messing with light and darkforce energy, very tricky stuff.”
“... What and what now?” Peter asked.
“Lightforce and Darkforce energy.” Annasi repeated.
“... And you didn’t explain this earlier because …” He trailed off.
“Because that stuff has gotten so corrupted and diluted that I couldn’t tell what it was until we had our sh*t kicked by it personally.” Annasi answered. “That stuff’s existed ever before the dawn of the universe, that’s before even Tikki and Plagg existed.”
“... Isn’t Tikki … creation?” The boy asked. “How did it exist before … existing even …”
“It’s a mind boggle the human brain isn’t prepared to handle. Just imagine a malformed universe not having me in it, so the thing decided the best solution was to just collapse in half.” Annasi explained as best as he could. Technically the multiverse exploded upon itself like four times or something before kwami existed, so he wasn’t even going to go down that rabbit hole. “The universe only had basic and simple concepts. Light and Dark, but it was formed all wrong. So when it collapsed upon itself, that energy clashed, mixing, churning, exploding, existing, and constant state of ying-yang going on for eternity.”
“I’m following … follow up.” Peter said. “How come he’s not dying if the energy opposes one another?”
“It’s probably interfering with itself. Otherwise he would pull out stuff like making weapons out of thin air, teleporting, healing up any injuries you caused, and using cataclysm as he saw fit.” Annasi responded. “He’s got a small set of abilities he can pull out from what we saw.”
“So we got a living contradiction that’s basically not an avenger levels threat yet because he is literally holding himself back?”
“In all honesty, the expression ‘this hurts me more than it hurts you’ would be pretty accurate.” Annasi didn’t quite understand how someone could hold those energies in such perfect balance, let alone get access to them to begin with. “That level of energy he emits is enough to have a small impact on the web of life it taps that deep into the multiverse. It’s like a constant vibration I’m forced to feel every so often.”
“Vibration?” He asked.
“Yeah, it’s a sort of ‘Spider sense’ only I and Madame web have.” Annasi explained. “Vibrate it loud enough and I can tell where it is.”
“... So you’re saying you can find him?” Peter asked quietly.
“Give me five more coffee beans and we can start talking.”
“Bring this kinda stuff up before, you idiot.” The boy said, pulling out a bag. “Start tracking.”
“Well one, you didn’t say anything before, so who’s the idiot for not asking, moron?” He shot back as he munched on his snack. “And two, it’s been quiet lately and-” VROOOM “....Whoa… either this coffee is hitting me harder than usual, or someone’s using migration like crazy…” No, it felt deeper than that….darker…. “Darkforce teleportation…..of course.” The one thing almost as annoying as breaks in the timeline.
“Go on Annasi, we-”
“Peter, are you back here?” May asked, opening the door.
“Ah, yes… just… scaring away a stray cat… shoo. Shoo.” Peter spoke to the air as he picked up the crate. “One more hour at FEAST, then we start looking.”
“Got it.” Looks like they were pulling an all nighter.
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Chat Noir did a flip as he leaped through the air. Once more it seemed like a clear and calm night for this good old cat. But given how many crooks ran the streets, he couldn’t be too sure. The last two Akuma attacks seemed to put everything back into the usually grove for the heroes of Paris, but with Mr. Negative MIA at the moment, patrol was more important than ever.
But since FEAST was kind of … found out at the moment, that meant that their only lead was gone as well. And for a bunch of criminals that wore demon masks, they were surprisingly good at keeping a low profile. No robberies, no attacks, absolutely silent. And while that was good for the safety of the people, it meant no tracking them.
Hmm … maybe he could double check the devil breath notes, see if there were certain chemicals that would be hard to obtain, stake them out, leave a little trap? Yeah, that sounded like a good plan, one his Lady would be proud of too. Chat was about to head back home … until he paused, noting a certain sight. “What do we have here?”
Peter Parker, walking the streets alone at night, constantly whispering to himself as he looked around. Was he lost? Usually Peter never strayed far away from home when he wasn’t at FEAST, school, or hanging out with Adrien. It was late a night… was he going on a coffee run? “I swear, I go through more bags of coffee than most people go through socks.” Mostly likely a coffee run. “At this point the class is going to jump me whenever I head towards a kitchen.” Maybe they did need an intervention.
Peter walked into an alleyway, Chat following from the rooftops. Peter was his friend, he wasn’t about to leave them wandering out in the middle of the night alone. “This way? Alright … you’d think it would be visible by now.” Visible, was he looking for some kind of light up market down here? “All that energy floating around, and not one-”
Crash
Something flashy crashed through the window near Peter, landing in the wall. “... Oh.”
Now, now was the time to get involved, especially before the boy did something stupid and got himself hurt. Chat Noir jumped down, making his way over to Peter. “Well now, usually it’s the black cat crossing your path before the bad luck hits.”
“Eh, Parker luck works in mysterious ways, fur ball. Like a flip of a coin… today I just so happen to land on tails.” Peter shook his head as Chat helped him up.
“Well mine should probably go and investigate what the heck is going on the other side of this wall.” His enhanced hearing was already picking up the sound of brawling now that he was close. “Why don’t you be a good samaritan and call the police for me?”
“Sure, sure, and here I was just trying to get a coffee.”
“This late at night?” Chat asked. “I think you might have an addiction you need to get checked.“
“Tell that to my therapist, mr ‘dress up in leather and fight bad guys for free’.” The boy chuckled as he began walking away. “Seriously though, big fan of your work, try not to die!”
“I’ll do my best.” Chat grinned, as he moved to the window, gently breaking the lock with his super strength as he slid in quietly, now hearing the fighting more prominently with shouts of mandarin. Plus side, he found the demons.
Moving along the wall, he came across many unconscious men, some men shivering in fear, and others pinned to the wall with what looked like burning daggers of light. His entire body was getting the same type of tingle he got when Mr Negative was around.
He finally came to the sight of … a teenage girl and a guy in a cloak standing in front of three armed men. “Really? Still going at it?” The guy in the cloak asked.
“You know criminals man, they’re the most determined co*ckroaches on the planet. Most of the time it’s because they know losing means jail time or death, but the point stands. Real guts and conviction, even if they’re not bright.” The girl went on and on. “So you guys wanna start speaking French before we kick your butt?”
“You know, kicking people’s butt IS one of my favorite past times.” If these two were fighting demons, then the need to be subtle wasn’t needed. “Especially when it comes to the men covered in cheap masks.”
“Oooh, stray hero, nice.” The girl grinned. “Well we have backup now, wanna surrender now and tell us where your boss is? I don’t think your bodies could handle triple bruising.” And she was a jokester, how fun.
“Ugh, am I the only one who takes their job seriously here?” The boy in the cloak muttered. “Last chance before we do this the hard way. Where. Is. Your. Boss?”
“You’ll see him soon enough….when we give you the express lane to HELL!” One of the demons shot forward with a mallet that was coated in the black and white energy.
“Finally, we’re getting somewhere!” The girl shouted as she jumped back with the boy in the cloak. “Hey, deal with the other two.” She moved her hands around, before firing a lot of … something, into the boy’s body, before he vanished.
A second later, the boy reappeared behind one of the demons … impaling him with white daggers. “AAAHHHH!!” The man screamed in agony, smoke emanating from the wounds.
“Whoa, hey! Watch it!” Chat said as he slammed two demons into the wall. “Don’t kill them!”
“What, this? Nah, this is just a little scratch for these guys. They’re made of the same stuff we are.” The girl in white shrugged as she pulled the dagger out, smoke still coming out, but no blood. “We’re not at the killing stage…not yet at least.”
“No, no ‘not yet’, not at all!” Chat shouted as he jumped over two more armed with swords, whacking them with his pole.
“Look kid.” The boy said, letting someone fall into his cloak, before he blinked up to the ceiling, letting the demon fall a couple stories until he fell onto the ground. “If you don’t wanna get your claws dirty, you can leave anytime. I’m fine dealing with one jokester.”
“You know you love me Cloak.” The girl said as she threw out more light blades to the demons.
“Do I?” The boy rolled his eyes as he blipped behind another one and rammed their head into a wall.
Now he felt like a third wheel on a date… was this how Spidey felt all the time? Nevermind, he now had TWO problems to deal with right now, namely making sure these two maniacs didn’t kill anyone! Chat blocked his staff against a sword user, grimacing at the familiar electrical burn, before kicking their legs and sending them into the wall. “Well as much as I hate to be in the way of two people as close as you, I have to say I as young heroes, you’re not setting the best example for our fellow teenagers.”
“Heroes?” The girl asked. “Sorry my friend, but that’s YOUR profession. We’re mercenaries, hired to kill one Mr Negative.” She responded, moving to the french speaking demon. “So, wanna start telling us where your boss is?” The girl pulled out a larger, sharper looking dagger. “We’re not gonna ask again buddy.” And pressed it against his neck.
“I’d talk if I were you.” The guy in the hood spoke up from his cloak. “I’ve seen her cut off fingers for less.”
“Yeesh, and I thought Ladybug could be cruel and unusual.” A familiar voice was heard on the ceiling as a chain wrapped around the girl’s arm and pulled her to the wall. “Maybe it’s a good thing she just has a yo-yo. Can’t imagine what a ladybug with a gun would be like, nightmare fuel for decades.”
“Glad to have you here Spidey.” Chat grimanced. “We have two mercenaries out for blood … and suddenly the demons have become second priority, because of course.”
“Hey, I think we’re doing the world a favor personally.” The girl said with a smile. “You try and fight them, the demons get away and Mr Negative runs free. Just leave him to us and you’ll never have to worry about the bastard again.”
“Tempting, tempting, and it’s a blonde asking me, so really I’m only seeing wins here.” Spidey tapped his chin playfully. “Your offer is enticing. However, here’s a counteroffer. No one dies, we find Negative together, and I give you my phone number. Sound good?”
“Also tempting.” The girl said playfully. “Unfortunately, my partner has something to say about that.”
“Your who now-” Spidey asked, as Cloak appeared behind him, dragging the hero inside with his chain before vanishing.
“What the heck did you do to him?!” Chat got the claws out.
“I didn’t do anything. Cloak’s just getting him to a ‘safe’ distance.” The girl shrugged, before creating more light projections. “Which unfortunately, I can’t say the same for you, kitty cat. Name’s Dagger by the way.”
“Cloak and Dagger….. cute.” Chat growled.
“I know I am.” The girl chuckled, and threw her daggers at him.
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Spidey blinked as he felt gravity leave him. “What the …” He just wanted to find Mr Negative, stop the demons, and hopefully get some answers. Now he was stopping a girl from murder and suddenly being attacked from behind.
“Sorry kid, hope you can fly.” He turned to see some guy in a blue cloak apologize, before vanishing.
Peter had so many questions, the most prominent being ‘why was there so much wind’, before looking down … and seeing the ground a good couple of meters below him. “Oh that’s just a dick move pall! I didn’t know you and blondie were exclusive!” Okay, analyze your surroundings, you were in the air, duh, that was obvious! Stupid spidey pointing out the obvious!
You were also in the warehouse district, meaning the buildings were too low to the ground to use to alleviate the impact in any meaningful way. Your powers were the ability to be sticky, using that stickiness to draw objects to you, durability but not invulnerability, a never ending chaing that he couldn’t swing from without hitting the ground……why couldn’t spiders fly!? Or at least glide, that could be useful! Why couldn’t he have something to let him….
Chat was able to hover with his bo staff…..and some spiders were able to use threads of silk to glide through the air….oh this was either going to be one of his coolest moments or one of the most painful.
Extending his chain with about a fifty feet radius, Spidey began rapidly spinning it in a helicopter position. Come one, glide on the winds, glide on the winds, for the love of all things spidey, GLIDE ON THE WIND! He felt himself slow down … yes, yes this was working!
SMACK
He fell into a roof, landing in the same warehouse as before. “... Well … I managed to live at least … that counts as a work in my book.”
“Wow, you actually lived.” Blondie said with mild impresseing, pressing a light knife against Chat’s chest. “Either you’re tougher than you look, or Cloak’s getting soft on me.”
“I thought you said he was safe!?” Chat shouted, covered in nasty looking gashes.
“It’s never the fall that kills you, it’s the shock.” The boy in the cloak shrugged without any shame.
“Well here’s a shocking comeback of the Miraculous Spider-Man!” He swung out his chain, which hit nothing considering this guy was a teleporter.
“You sure that’s what you want to be known by?” The girl said, kicking Chat Noir away and leaping towards his back. “I feel like ‘amazing’ is a better adjective. Spectacular works too, though I am partial to sensational as well.”
“Those are old timey adjectives, this Spidey’s running with the trends.” He said, jumping back as the daggers were thrown. “How are you holding up, Chat?”
“Remember how Mr Negative’s stuff hurts us really bad?” He asked, heaving a little hard.
“The bruises would point to yes.” Spidey nodded.
“Hers is WORSE.” The black leather hero growled. “It’s like she’s cutting up my soul.”
“Yeah, Dagger’s crazy like that.” The one in the cloak popped up behind Chat Noir, who tried to swing his pole out, only to teleport above the cat. “Always burning brightly through any and all occasions.”
“Aww, love you too sweetie.” Dagger cooed, preshing a light knife to his neck. “So as long as I got you in a talkative mood, you two wouldn’t happen to know anything about the dear old Mr. soon to be dead Li?”
“I know I’m gonna have a few words with him as I throw him in the slammer, alive I’ll have you know.” He slammed his elbow into the girl’s stomach, landing a kick as he got some distance, swinging his chain to block the daggers.
“A shame, I think we could have been real good friends if it wasn’t for that tiny little disagreement we have.” Dagger smirked, creating a massive sword of light as she swung against him.
“Excuse if we think killing people is a little MORE than just a ‘tiny’ disagreement!” Chat shouted, still trying to claw away at the constantly moving Cloak.
“When you’ve ended as many lives as we have… it kind of is.” Cloak said with practically no energy or mirth. “It’s just life you have to accept.”
“Accept this! ADHESION!” Spidey shouted his hand out at Cloak, bringing the tall dark figure near him.
“I can still tele-wait…wait why can’t I-ahhh!” Cloak yelled out in pain as his head connected with Spidey’s fist.
“TY!” Dagger shouted, looking at her fallen partner, allowing Chat Noir to jump her from the back and restrain her arms. “LET ME GO!”
“I don’t think so!” Chat shouted. “One wrong move and-”
“I SAID LET ME GO!” The girl began glowing bright white, sharp spikes forming from her body as the ground started to turn red from sheer heat. “Ty can’t be hurt, I can help him, and I won’t let you-!”
“Look missy, we really…. really…. Really don’t have patience for …. whatever it is that you’re trying to do here.” Spidey said with a glare. It was times like this where he needed to put the man in Spider-Man. “You’re the one going into this trying to kill people, and we don’t want that to happen.”
“Well it’s not like we have a choice either!” She shouted from her grasp, Chat looking like the pain was getting to him from the spikes and heat.
“Well how are we….. supposed to know that….. you don’t… tell… us…. anything!?” Chat shouted underneath the pain. “We don’t… want…. Anybody… to get hurt…. so talk…. or no one gets…what they want.”
The lightshow was dying down, but she still held her glare. “Let me go first.”
“And we’re supposed to take your word for it?” Spidey shot back.
“I can treat the guy you gave a concussion too, unless you feel like adding police to this brawl.” The girl growled.
“The guy holding you back can destroy anything he touches, just FYI.” Spidey warned. “He won’t, cause he’s a nice guy, but something to remember if you piss him off.” He looked back to Chat and gave him a nod. “Let her go, but stay prepared.”
They reluctantly let go, as the girl ran over, light coming off from her hands. After what felt like a minute, the cloak guy groaned. “God … what hit me?”
“The spidey train heading to downtown paris?” Chat offered with a laugh and a cough. “Ow… .that hurt… joy is pain now.”
“Shhh, it’s okay Ty, just don’t speak too much.” Dagger rubbed the boy’s head with a glowing hand.
“Okay, we let you go, now you talk. What the heck is your deal?” Spidey crossed his arms. “Why do you want Mr. Li dead?”
“We don’t. We were just ordered to.” The girl responded bluntly.
“... By who?” Spidey asked with trepidation.
“There’s this … place.” She said with a low sigh. “They take kids off the street, offer them a big sum of cash, and all they have to do is wait around for a couple of …” She rubbed her body. “Experiments.”
“... What kind?” Chat Noir seemed to narrow his eyes, an almost cat-like curiosity in his gaze.
“They found out how to access extra dimensional energy.” Cloak said, slowly getting up. “The problem was they didn’t know how safe said stuff was around humans, and willing volunteers are few and far.”
“And even then, the survival rate was low.” She added. “We’re two out of three people that managed to survive the process… number one is currently MIA.”
“So you, cloaky here, and Mr. Negative are all connected to the Dark and Lightforce?” Spidey questioned.
“The what now?” Chat asked.
“Yeah … that’s the jist of it.” The girl said. “Once they realized what we could do the … people … that made us, got us on lock. Our families ‘safe and secure’ in return for doing jobs every now and then.”
“... And what about Li?”
“He didn’t have any family left to exploit, so keeping a leash on him was harder. Lucky bastard.” Cloak rolled his eyes. “He was the first…. and the most dangerous. Both light and dark run through his body. They left him on the run because it was easier to let him live his life … but with his stint as ‘Mr Negative’, the people up top want him shut down before he gets any traction or spills any secrets.”
“So it’s just one big cover up.” Chat muttered in anger. “Not about helping people or stopping more from dying… just trying to wipe the slate clean.”
“Bingo.” Dagger nodded. “Like we said, we ain’t heroes, we're mercs. When you two get powers, you’re loved, celebrated, and can afford to stream your existence to the entire world. When people like US get powers, the powers that be want nothing more than to shove us into the shadows of the world. We don’t get the luxury that is morality.”
“You don’t have to work for these people.” Spider-man glared.
“We do.” Cloak said. “They have our families on lock, remember?”
“We could help them.” Chat offered.
“Sweet of you to offer, but that’s not how it works.” Dagger chuckled without any energy.
“So what? You kill Li, and that’s it? You just… wait until you told to kill again?”
“... Yep.” Dagger didn’t need to finish, saying it without any mirth. “If it’s any consolation, there’s no fixing him … every power has a cost.” She turned to Cloak. “If I go too long without darkness I overload, if he goes too long without light, he’ll starve. It’s why we’ll always stuck together, through thick and thin.” … Explained the earlier freakout at least.
“And Martin Li … he has both.” Cloak stated. “The nicer he is, the more good he does, the more the anger builds, like a demon.”
“So opening up FEAST … even that was just to build up enough negative emotions for him to use.” Chat gripped his hands.
“Who can tell but Li himself.” Dagger stated. “For what it’s worth…I’m glad the world has heroes like you two.” She sighed, tapping Cloak’s shoulder. “Maybe you’ll stop more people like us from happening.”
“We’re not gonna let you-” Spidey’s next words were cut off as the two pulled inside of the cloak, blinking out of existance … and didn’t come back. “Instant teleportation…. doesn’t even bamf like Nighclawer.”
“What’s the plan?” Chat asked. “Try and track them down?”
“Range is too big, he sent me a couple of miles in the sky.” Spidey pointed out. “I only found you fighting them because Annasi has a hack with the universe ….I was trying to find Li… but I guess they messed with the signal.” Of course he wasn’t going to find him tonight, that would’ve been too good and convenient for everyone.
“Still though, we didn’t come out of this with nothing.” Chat noted, looking back at the demons. “We got demons for the police to collect, and we have a more concrete motive for Mr. Negative. He wants revenge on the people that turned him…. well… negative.”
“Right …” Spidey looked at the mask. “He … he said he wanted to stop people from becoming experiments … like us.” The pieces were falling into place. “Li had it all taken away … the anger built up as he couldn’t do anything …” Light and Darkness, maybe not two personalities, but a bi polar disorder. “This rabbit hole’s just getting bigger. We have Hawkmoth, Negative, Cloak Dagger, and who gave those three that kind of power.”
“... You think Hawkmoth and the evil people who gave him the experiment are one and the same?” Chat asked. “Supervillains in a bottle and all that?”
“No, motivation’s too different. Hawkmoth wants your and ladybug miraculous, but negative and everyone else hasn’t even said a word about it.” Spidey said. “But it’s still the same process, just with a different coat of paint. Someone took advantage of Li, gave this power….” And turned him into a monster….a good man trapped in a well of his own demons. Spidey would still take him down, but now he understood….. But whatever the case… “Martin Li, Mister Negative…it’s no different than an Akuma. The only difference is that we need to try harder to reach him before anyone else does.”
“... We will, Spidey.” The cat patted him on the back. “We will …”
========================================================================
Tandy leaned back in the chair. “So let's review. You got injured, the heroes are aware of us, we broke several secrecy protocols, and now we lost our only leads as they’re probably going to be taken to a jail cell.” She said aloud. “Did I miss anything?”
“The heroes are apparently aware of the Dark and lightforce….enough to know it by name at least.” Tyrone reminded her.
“I see …” She nodded. “... Tomoe’s gonna totally rip into us when this whole thing is over, isn’t she?”
“Undoubtedly so.” He groaned, slumping onto his bed. “We're gonna have to kill those Inner Demons once they're in custody. Can't’ afford to leave anymore loose ends.”
“Mmm.” That was gonna be annoying. Probably should set up a blackout and blitz in quickly. Take one and interrogate their soul for information about Mr Negative … if the residual power didn’t f*ck them over. “Hey Tyrone.” She started.
“Yeah Tandy?”
“Do you like heroes?” She asked, turning to the boy.
“You mean in general or the one that knocked me out specifically?”
“In general.” She answered. The spidey guy was still cute, even though she totally would stab him in the gut for hurting Tyrone. “I mean, what kid hasn’t wanted to be a hero at some point in their lives?”
“We haven’t been kids for a long time, Tandy.” Ty answered. “It’s good that heroes exist… but that’s not a world we get to be apart of.”
“True that … wonder what would happen if we lived in New York?” She asked. “Someone like Daredevil getting in the way before we got our powers.”
“Sure, then Iron man can take us into one of his hundreds of penthouses while having lunch with the Silver Surfer on weekends.” Tyrone answered sarcastically.
“I’m not talking about the big boys, just … someone on our level. Crime behind the scenes.” She answered. “... Then again, I guess that’s why it’s behind the scenes, heroes don’t walk back there.”
“They don’t…. or else we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with.” Tyrone sighed. “We’ll find away out of this life one day, Tandy. Tomoe won’t live forever, and her daughter doesn’t seem like a complete jackass.”
“True that …” Good kid. “... Get some rest Ty, you’re gonna have to pull a lot of warps in an hour or two.”
“Will do. Night Tandy.” Light and dark, ying and yang…..together forever
