Chapter Text
Parker hates stakeouts.
There. They said it.
The long hours sitting, doing nothing and not allowed to do anything lest they miss something important happening. It felt like every passing minute sipped away at their very soul and left them a time-lost zombie. There was never a day or night that Parker would voluntarily undertake a stakeout and today is no different. If this intel is good, though, then it's a lead on whatever shenanigans connected Scorpion, Alchemax, and that new electricity powered super that rocked their socks earlier in the month. Parker still didn't have a name to call him by. Apparently Shocker was taken, and by someone with no powers at all.
As hour three of the stakeout comes to a close, Parker begins to wonder not for the first time about the veracity of the intel. Sure it had come in the form of a note left on their backpack on a rooftop in Queens where they'd suited up to begin patrol. Yes, it was handwritten, in a delicate, curvy font that reminded them of some of their preppier classmates’ schoolwork. But a tip was a tip. Right?
Parker is just about to call it quits and search up where they can get a milkshake at 2am when an unmarked white box truck comes rolling cautiously down the industrial street. The headlights cast deep shadows where objects block the beams, rendering chain link fences into umbral nets and bollards into aphotic crevasses that stretch the length of the block. Two muscly individuals hop out the back when it comes to a shuddering stop in front of a business with the unhelpfully vague name of "Stewie's". The building sits in front of a yard filled with lengths of metal pipe, carefully sorted by length, which still tells Parker nothing useful.
They're just about to find a way closer, maybe get a peek into the box truck, when their spider sense alerts them to a presence on the roof with them. They tense but don't otherwise move. The newcomer has the audacity to laugh.
“Don't worry, Spider. I'm nothing to worry about.“
The voice is light, feminine, conjuring images of femme fatales with red lipstick and unseen firearms. Parker would call it seductive if the speaker didn't sound as young as themself.
“You know, somehow that doesn't make me feel any better.”
“No, I imagine not. Still, you followed up on my tip so we at least have some common ground to work with.”
“That was you?“
Parker looks briefly over their shoulder, not wanting to take their attention off of whatever is going down across the street for long. The newcomer is dressed all in black, the material matte enough to soak up light like a sponge and leave them a silhouette against the dim glow of the city behind them. Even so, Parker's enhanced vision shows them plenty. The feminine voice is matched to a feminine physique, a cute face partially hidden behind a colored visor, and a thick coil of black braids that seem to come to their mid-back. Make-up adorns their cheeks in what at first glance is a facsimile of whiskers but upon closer inspection is made of multiple geometric lines with sharp angles that make it hard to look at for more than a moment.
“The visor is emitting a light-based signal that is obfuscating my visual sensors,” Karen tells them without prompting. Parker's eyebrows rise, widening the lenses of their suit. That's a neat trick. Probably intended to defeat facial recognition and keep camera from seeing their face despite it not being very covered.
“That was me,” the other vigilante replies, answering Parker's question. “You can call me Black Cat. She/her pronouns, if you were curious.”
“O-oh, thank you,” Parker stutters. “I'm... not used to people volunteering that.”
Black Cat shrugs as she crouches down beside Parker, eyes on the goons below. Something under her visor moves and there's a barely audible mechanical whir. There seems to be a lot of tech packed into her mask. Parker starts to wonder who she's got backing her. It's no secret that Spider-Ma--- The Spider is associated with Iron Man but considering that they've never even heard of Black Cat before now....
Parker realizes they've been staring and pulls themself back to the present.
“I, uh, use they/them. For now.”
A small smile quirks Cat's lips.
“I had a hunch, though it's always nice to have it confirmed.”
“What gave me away?”
“The rebranding. And a little intuition. You can say I've had an eye on your career for a while.”
“How long is a while? Why only make contact now?”
Cat juts her chin toward the activity below. The truck is nearly empty, all the contents neatly contained in wooden crates featuring no major identifying markings. Parker isn't even sure what they're doing is illegal at this point.
“Call it curiosity if you want. Our goals happen to align and I wanted a closer look at the Friendly Neighborhood Spider. I have to say, I like what I see.”
A flirtatious smirk follows the statement and Parker forgets to mention that she hadn't answered the first part of the question. Their cheeks flare hot under the mask, prompting them to clear their throat.
“So, uh, w-what brings you here? I mean--- the tip. The lead. Oy vey.”
Cat giggles lightly, reaching into a pouch on her belt to withdraw a small tablet. Karen quickly scans it, reporting that it has no wireless protocols she can detect. Despite being a similar form factor to a smart phone, it's entirely air-gapped. Black Cat seems to take undetectability very seriously.
The screen lights up, filtered to a yellow hue. A schematic of the building appears, indicating that only the front space is actually used for the apparent purpose of the business it advertises. The rear two-thirds is a series of labs and workspaces incongruous with selling metal pipes and more aligned with staging and testing chemicals. Fume hoods, analyzers, and other devices, all properly wired and breakered. The secondary space even looks to be on an entirely separate power block from the more legitimate enterprise that hides it.
Most telling of all is the information that fills in beside the diagram detailing the ownership of the structure. Though it's a few steps removed, Black Cat has done her homework and the connection is clear.
“Alchemax.”
Cat nods.
“I've been on their tail for months. Not my normal gig but I have a vested interest in seeing them turned inside out. They, on the other hand, seem to be very concerned about you catching on, considering the effort Scorpion and Electro have put into giving you the run-around. So I figured I'd do them the disservice of bringing you straight into the fold.”
Parker's head spins with questions. What constitutes a normal gig for Black Cat? Is the electric guy really just named Electro? Was all of Scorpion's pestering really just distraction like they'd suspected? Parker is in the middle of choosing which to ask first when Cat's attention snaps forward again. In a flash, she stows the tablet and rises.
“You coming?” she asks, one foot already on the edge of the roof. Parker has only just nodded when she leaps off.
They scramble to follow her, flinging themself across the width of the road to stick to the front wall of the building. Mid-fall, Black Cat's trajectory abruptly changes direction, turning from a dive to ground level into a parabola that carries her to the roof of the business. Parker scuttles quickly up to meet her.
“How the heck did you do that?” Parker hisses, moving on all fours to catch up as Cat makes for a ventilation hatch.
“A girl doesn't kiss and tell.”
“But we haven't kissed?”
Cat pauses, one hand on the grate, to throw what Parker is starting to consider her trademark smirk their way once more.
“My, aren't you forward.”
The blush reaches Parker's ears this time.
“So why are we actually here?” Parker asks as the two of them clamber into the vent. Cat takes the lead which leaves Parker desperately trying to look anywhere but at her butt. They only mildly succeed, not in the least because allowing their eyes to gaze anywhere except forward causes that shortness of breath and uncomfortable sensation that harkens back to their terrible first encounter with Vulture homecoming night.
“Recon. And a test. I want to know if you're capable of being sneaky.”
“I can be sneaky,” Parker retorts. “It's in the name. Quiet as a spider.”
“Quiet is only one part of it. How do you handle cameras? Laser tripwires? Infrared detectors?”
Parker frowns, considering the answers to those questions. Their extra sense — Parker Tingle? No, still not good — gives them a decent idea of lines of sight, both organic and electronic. Infrared detectors they might have something for. They've never had to deal with lasers before, though.
Cat comes to a stop above a vent and twists around to face Parker in an impressive display of flexibility, all while managing to make no additional noise. She peers down into the room beneath them and grins.
“Jackpot. Time to prove yourself.”
“What do I need to do?” Parker asks, moving to look through the gaps in the metal themself. The room is dark but for a few machines glowing from little LEDs and an ominous yellow aura coming from the other end of the space, beyond what Parker can see from their narrow viewpoint.
“Nothing major. Just one of the yellow canisters and photos of the equipment.”
“You totally could have done this yourself.”
“Wouldn't be much of a test then, would it?”
Black Cat smiles innocently at them, one hand below her chin, and Parker rolls their eyes. Though it's not visible through their mask, Cat only smiles wider before gesturing in an after you motion.
It is, all in all, a simple task. The cameras all point downward, having no regard for The Spider's gravity defying maneuvers. Karen informs them that there's no laser sensors at all. The only thermal detector is connected to an automatic light switch near one of the doors. Parker tries out the theory they formulated in the vents by webbing over the little black sensor and silently cheers to themself with nothing happens. Apparently the endothermic reaction of their web expanding is enough to make the sensor ignore it, allowing them to easily obscure the switch without trouble. From there, Karen handles the photo taking while Parker skitters over to the far side of the room. Several glowing, yellow containers rest there in cradles and boxes, identical to the ones Scorpion was trying to take from the warehouse last month.
Parker uses a web to pull one to them from a crate, hopefully choosing one that won't immediately be noticed as missing, and hurries back to Black Cat.
“Perfect,” the young woman coos as Parker hands it over. She tucks it into a matte black pouch on the back of her belt as Parker re-settles the vent cover.
“What is that stuff?”
“Not here. Outside,” she commands in a sudden change of demeanor. Parker obeys, heading back along the ducts in the direction they came. The reversal of their earlier situation with respect to butt viewing potential does not go unnoticed by Parker.
Once back on the roof of the building, Black Cat keeps moving, running and leaping until coming to a stop several structures away from where they started. She spins on the spot to face Parker with a wide grin.
“I'd call that a successful outing!” she beams, not even a touch out of breath. “And an A+ to you, barring one last thing. The photos.”
Cat pulls a small plastic-covered device from one of her many pouches and hands it to Parker. It seems to be a USB stick. Parker is left wondering how she expects them to put the images on it without taking it home first when Karen informs them that there's a wireless connection available to the little gadget. Parker connects to it with their HUD and sends the photos over before handing it back. As soon as Cat returns it to her pouch, the connection vanishes.
“What are you gonna do with those? And that?” Parker asks, gesturing to where she has the glowy canister stowed.
“That's for me to know... and you to find out.” Black Cat's grin turns to a smirk and she begins walking backwards toward the edge of the roof. “I'll be in touch, Spider.”
With that, she falls backwards over the edge and vanishes from view.
Parker stands, staring at the spot she occupied for another minute, left feeling like a lost kitten after the last half hour of following instructions. Cat's parting smirk and her silhouette against the city lights floats across their mind's eye. A heartrate warning blinks on their HUD. Turning back toward home, only one thing comes to mind to summarize the evening's activities.
“Wow.”