Under the stark glow of the moon, the Empire State Building stood like a monument carved from shadow, an ancient castle keep piercing the modern sky. The wind at its peak was a living thing, whipping Felicia's silver hair into a hazy, ethereal veil.
"My friend said you were looking for me, Kitty."
The voice, calm and laced with amusement, appeared out of nowhere. Felicia startled, spinning around to find him. He wasn't on the roof with her, but perched impossibly on the very tip of the building's lightning rod, balanced against the wind like a black flag planted at the summit of the world. His dark suit, a stark contrast to her own, hugged the lean muscles of his body, making him look impossibly agile and coiled with power. He stood with his arms crossed, his masked gaze fixed on her.
She was an elf of the night, and he was its silent guardian.
A flash of genuine surprise crossed Felicia's eyes before she quickly smothered it, burying it under a layer of practiced cool. Cats play with their prey, she reminded herself. Be mysterious. Be in control.
"It seems my little friend is an obedient one," she purred, her voice dripping with condescension.
"When a strange, masked woman breaks into your home in the middle of the night, you tend to take her messages seriously," Ben replied, spreading his hands in a gesture of mock surrender. "It's a matter of self-preservation."
"Really?" Felicia smirked. "From where I was sitting, I don't think he was complaining."
"Alright," Ben said, smoothly changing the subject. "You have my attention. What's this about?"
"I'm taking on the Kingpin," Felicia stated, flexing her hands and letting her vibranium claws slide out with a soft snikt. "I need a partner." After seeing him again, her initial thrill was mixed with a burning curiosity. She needed to know how she measured up, how wide the gap was between her newfound power and his. She secretly hoped she was stronger; she wanted to be the one protecting him for a change. She envisioned two distinct lives for herself: the bubbly, blonde Felicia, and the untouchable, silver-haired Cat Queen, able to switch between them and keep him forever on his toes.
The thought excited her so much she could feel the hair on her arms stand on end.
Ben raised a skeptical eyebrow. "That's not how you ask for help."
"Then let me test your qualifications!" she declared.
In an instant, she was a blur of motion. She crouched low and launched herself across the roof, her toes barely seeming to touch the ground as the moonlight glinted off her black leather suit. Her claws slashed through the night air like silver lightning, leaving five fleeting contrails in their wake.
Ben simply opened his arms and leaped backward, dropping from the lightning rod in a graceful arc to avoid the attack.
SHRAANK!
The metal spire behind him was sheared into several pieces, which tumbled end over end toward the city streets hundreds of feet below.
"No throwing things from high places," Ben chided. A strand of white webbing shot from his wrist, snagging the falling fragments and yanking them back to the roof before they could endanger anyone below.
Her first move having missed, Felicia landed on the rooftop's edge like a cat, tucking into a light roll to absorb the momentum. She came up in a half-kneel, turning to face him with a provocative smirk.
"What's wrong, Prime? Afraid to fight me?" she taunted.
She tapped a finger against her bright red lips, deep in thought. She needed a special name, one that belonged only to her. The way her lips glistened, as glossy as a strawberry candy, reminded Ben of her kiss the night before.
Then, as if struck by a brilliant idea, her eyes lit up. "I know.… puppy?" she purred. "If I win, you have to be my little puppy."
The white eye-lenses on Ben's mask narrowed. "You want me to be your puppy? It sounds to me like our little kitty needs to be taught some manners."
Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, Felicia rushed him again. Her attacks were a fierce, acrobatic flurry. Walter's training had transformed her, but even knowing how sharp her claws were, she kept the metal alloy ones retracted. She wouldn't risk accidentally hurting him.
In truth, her attacks posed no threat to Ben. He was the one holding back, afraid his superior strength might injure her. As Felicia began to realize she couldn't land a clean hit, her frustration grew, and her attacks became faster, stronger. She moved with an inhuman softness, dancing on the precipice of the skyscraper as if it were solid ground.
Ben raised a hand to block a strike, but it was a feint. She used the opportunity to boldly launch herself at him, wrapping her legs around his waist in a scissors lock and using her momentum to throw them both inward, away from the edge. They rolled across the rooftop several times before she ended up on top, pinning him beneath her.
But before she could savor her victory, Ben reversed their positions with a surge of strength she couldn't match, pressing her firmly against the cold stone wall of the building's spire. He moved in close, his body flush against her back.
Then, he "gently" tapped the seat of her suit.
Smack!
A crisp sound echoed in the darkness.
"Now," he whispered in her ear, his voice a low rumble. "Who's the puppy?"
Felicia felt a jolt of shame and anger, her body temperature skyrocketing from the pressure of his body against hers. But she refused to back down.
From high above the sleeping city, the sound of rhythmic applause continued for some time.
Finally, holding her smarting backside, Felicia surrendered. The force Ben used wasn't strong enough to truly hurt, but the sensation was entirely new. Each slap sent a dizzying, electric tingle through her, a paralyzing numbness that quickly sapped all the fight out of her. If it had continued any longer, she was certain the floodgates would have burst.
"Now do you know who the puppy is?" he teased.
"Hmph! I haven't given up yet!" she shot back, though her legs felt like jelly. She looked at him with a mixture of resentment and something else she couldn't quite name. Why are my legs so weak?
Ben, completely misreading the situation, wondered if she might have a fear of heights.
Half an hour later, Felicia had recovered her composure. She had given Ben the abridged version of her story, explaining her connection to Walter Hardy and Kingpin's desire for the serum, carefully omitting her own identity.
"No wonder you want to go after him," Ben said, then spread his hands wide. "But why should I help you?"
"Isn't that what superheroes do?"
"No, I'm not a hero," Ben said, feigning a turn to leave. "For something like this, you should really call the Avengers."
"What if I offered you… another benefit?" Felicia called out behind him.
"What kind of benef—oomph."
Ben turned back just as a silver-and-black blur pounced on him. Felicia tackled him with the force of a linebacker, and with a triumphant cry, leaped off the roof of the Empire State Building, taking him with her.
"Wha—!"
The roar of the wind was deafening as they plummeted toward the glittering streets below. Ben couldn't speak, not only from the shock, but because his mask had been pushed up and his mouth was once again covered by a sweet, strawberry-flavored candy. He'd thought of her kiss as a hard candy, but he was wrong. This was definitely a soft, yielding candy.
In that dizzying moment, it felt as though the entire world had flipped upside down and was rushing up to meet them.
Mwah!
This kiss was shorter, more frantic.
"You have ten seconds to decide!" Black Cat shouted over the howling wind, straddling his waist as they fell.
"Do you even have to ask?!" Ben yelled back.
He twisted his body in mid-air, wrapping his left arm securely around her slender waist. With his right, he shot a line of webbing that snagged on a nearby building, and their terrifying fall instantly became an exhilarating swing, launching them through the concrete canyons of New York.
Ten minutes later, they landed silently atop another skyscraper.
"That was amazing!" Felicia said, her voice giddy with excitement. "Web-swinging between buildings… I've always wanted to do that!"
"Okay, okay, head down," Ben instructed, gently pushing her head down so they were both prone on the rooftop's edge.
Across the street was Fisk Tower. Even in the dead of night, its upper floors were brightly lit, a beacon of the evil that festered while the city slept.
"Do we really have to lie prone?" Felicia complained. "It's a little… uncomfortable… being pressed down like this."
Ben glanced at the area she was referring to. After becoming the Black Cat, she had not only grown a little taller, but her figure had… developed. The blonde Felicia was modest, but this new version had surpassed even Mary Jane.
"What's the plan?" he asked.
"Go in and kill him," Felicia stated simply.
"And what happens after we kill him?" he retorted. "Kingpin is the underground emperor of New York. Countless gangs are under his control."
"So? Shouldn't he be killed?"
"It's easy to kill him," Ben explained. "But if Kingpin dies without a replacement, all those who want to take his place will tear the city apart fighting for the throne. The gang wars will cause more chaos and death than he ever could."
It was a hard truth. Kingpin was a villain who deserved to die, but he was also a stabilizing force. With him at the top, the criminal underworld had a structure, a twisted kind of order.
"Then what do we do?" Felicia frowned.
Ben's lips curved into a smile she couldn't see. "It's actually very simple. It doesn't matter whether Kingpin lives or dies. What matters is that there's someone ready to take his place."
"You mean… someone needs to become the new emperor of the underworld?" Felicia's eyes widened with understanding. "You want to be the king?"
"I don't have the time for that," Ben shook his head. He raised a hand and pointed directly at her. "Besides, tradition dictates that whoever defeats the king earns the crown." His voice dropped to a low, suggestive whisper. "Don't you want to be Queen?"
Felicia's eyes lit up, a dangerous, ambitious spark igniting within them. "The Black Cat Queen?" she breathed, the words tasting delicious on her tongue. She twirled a strand of her drooping silver hair around a finger, lost for a moment in the intoxicating dream of it.
"Then what are we waiting for?"
She coiled her body like a predator about to strike. The next moment, two dark figures launched themselves from the roof, hurtling across the open air and crashing directly through the reinforced glass of Fisk Tower.
Shards of glass rained down around them, glittering like a swarm of fireflies in the reflected city lights.