From The Smoke (Marvel SI)

Chapter 1– Rebirth

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Darkness.

Light.

Oblivion.

Life.

Memories spin like universes. Explode like suns. Chaos becomes order.

Formlessness.

It becomes form.

The urge to know rises from the silence, becoming a shout of being that echoes into consciousness.

There are no words. There is no language. One question resounds in the dark abyss.

Who am I?

The answer lies in dreams.

Dreams of a life still to unfold. And yet, paradoxically, a life already lived.

Faces. Places. Emotions. Events.

A collage of sounds and images drifting everywhere.

A hand reaches out. Yearning.

To hold them. Absorb them. Understand them.

But each time, the wave of understanding recedes into darkness. Each time, he is alone again.

He?

Yes.

A sense of maleness, of sexual identity forms. And with it, a surge of power that elates him, unbelievable strength.

With this strength, he reaches out again, and there is no resistance this time.

How fast he grows, weaving the web of self.

There is no time here in this dark world he inhabits, yet he seems to be moving forward with unbelievable speed.

As if rushing headlong toward an extraordinary destiny to an answer to the first question, the only question.

Who Am I?

He does not receive an answer.

Dreams of a life still to unfold. And yet, paradoxically, a life already lived.

And yet, paradoxically, dreams of another life already lived.

Faces. Places. Emotions. Events.

A barrage of sounds and images drifting everywhere.

Faces. Places. Emotions. Events. Faces. Places. Emotions. Events.

Too many faces. Too many places. Too many emotions. Too many events.

Memories spin like universes. Explode like suns. Order becomes disorder.

Contadictions. Paradoxes. Confusion.

Who Am I?

Two answers...

Neither is correct.

Yet both ring true.

Who Am I?

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The light, however dim, pains his eyes. The air, however welcome, burns his lungs.

He works himself to his feet, struggling as if he were a newborn. Maybe he is.

He stands on unsteady legs, tries to focus on erratic thoughts, and nearly crumbles back to whence he came.

He takes in his surroundings, searching for some measure of comfort, certainty, or assurance.

All he has is the dim light shining down from above. But, even then, he can barely make it out through all the smoke that clouds his sight, his everything.

Searching for something else, he relies on his sense this time. He reaches out his hands to his sides.

His hands make contact with smooth curved surfaces. He follows them around and spins in a circle.

Wherever he is, he is in a cylinder of some kind.

He can't go down, he can't go forwards or backwards, he can't go left or right. He can only go up.

Up.

Impossible for an ordinary man, and yet he is undaunted. Instead, he feels a sense of right when he places both of his hands on the curved surface in front of him.

He places his foot on the surface as well and then pulls himself up, and yet gravity has no effect on him, and he feels no strain as he sticks to the wall.

Placing his other foot on the surface, he ventures upwards into the unknown.

He moves upwards with ease, with agility. It is natural for him. It is second nature.

He smoothly moves up the cylinder, and with each step, he rids himself of the surrounding fog. With each move he makes upward, he sees more and more light.

As if ridding himself of the confusion and fog, he remembers more and more as he climbs, an intricate web slowly piecing itself together as if weaved by some higher power.

With each step he takes, he gains more fragments. With each element, he makes more connections, and with each link, he makes sense.

Sense of his mind, of his circumstances, of his world, of who he is.

It is only the last one that he finds a problem with, he knows who he is, and furthermore, he knows who he is. Which means he can't be sure of who he is.

Two different lives, two different worlds, two different families, all collided into a single being.

He knows who he is. he knows both of them.

He continues to climb, no crawl, upwards out of this dark pit he has found himself in.

He used to be human before he became more than human. He used to be weak before he became strong.

He used to be less. Now, he is more.

He reaches up again, but his hand hooks up onto a ledge instead of his hand going flat. Finally, he pulls himself up and out of the murky depths.

He sees the sun again for the first time, for the third time.

With the light comes clarity. There comes calm and understanding.

He is Peter Parker... Or at least he used to be...

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I remember everything and even more than everything.

Peter Parker, the little guy in the background. And sometimes, not even then, he was locked away in a locker most of the time.

Peter Parker, if there was one word to describe him, it would be pitiable. At least, that used to be the only word.

Born to Richard and Mary Parker, He went to stay with his aunt and Uncle just before his fifth birthday, but that was the last time he saw them.

They went on a business trip overseas, the plane went down in the middle of the sea, and the bodies were never discovered.

Since then, he lived with his Aunt May Parker and his Uncle Ben Parker, lovely, kind people who were there for him when he needed it most.

They raised him to be someone his parents would be proud of, and they became his mother and father in all but name.

Life wasn't the best in Forest Hills Queens, but it was all he ever wanted, even if he couldn't see that sometimes.

Things changed when he arrived at Midtown High. Things changed when puberty hit, and it hit hard.

He discovered new things, wanted those things, grew greedy, and grew selfish.

He wanted those things, but he didn't have the power to take them. Then the spider came.

The spider gave him the strength to take all he wanted and fulfil all of his desires.

It was a mistake. How he wishes he could take it back.

He can't. He lost his father once again.

This time it was his fault. He killed his Uncle, his father.

The least he can do is live by his words, some of the last words spoken by the man who raised him.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.

He would not let down his Uncle again. he would be someone his Uncle could be proud of.

And so the Spider-Man was born, don't forget the hyphen.

He used his great power responsibly to protect people and fight off those who wished harm to others.

He fought people made of sand, fueled by electricity, morphed by technology, and driven mad by power.

He grew up and matured. He moved on in his life, in both of them.

He graduated and went to university, where he met the love of his life. He was blinded by her brilliance and seduced by her wonder.

He loved her, could envision a life with her, wanted to grow old with her, and killed her.

He did it again upon the Brooklyn Bridge. The green madman may have been the one to push her, but he was the one who caught her. he was the one who ripped her life away from her and snuffed out her brilliant flame.

He wallowed, he despaired, but then he was pulled from his misery by someone who shone just as brightly as his first love. He was blinded by her kindness and seduced by her fire.

He healed and started to live, he couldn't forgive himself, but he could double down and continue to use his power responsibly. He could continue to live by his Uncle's words.

But she came back, his first love that shone so brightly until she dimmed, but the light came back again, but he knew what he felt, and he didn't dare to hope.

He was right. It was all a lie. A green madman, a different green madman here to ruin his life again.

He brought her back using his wicked science and morphed her into his own toy. He abused her to lure me out and devised to make me break again.

The Shea Stadium is where the madman chose for his final stage. when he arrived, he was struck from behind, and all he knew was darkness.

Wow. I feel like I've been stung by a hornet.

Two voices sounded out after he awoke, saying those exact same words, the same voice, the voice of himself and his clone's voice.

They both did the same thing they always do when faced with the unknown, and whenever they were scared, they used humour and made light of the situation, knowing deep down what had happened.

They didn't have time to think about the scary possibilities. A man's life was hanging in the balance. The madman had an innocent man trapped with a bomb and hung on the side of the jumbotron, and only the original specimen would be able to diffuse the bomb and save the innocent man.

The green madman laughed as they fought each other to get to the bomb, sure of being the original. Next to the angry green man stood the clone of his first love.

She may have been a clone, but she was still the same woman he loved, her heart shone through the madman's manipulations, and it shone so bright that she managed to reach past the madman's delusions and pull out his original self.

Gone was The Jackal, and Professor Miles Warren made a brief reappearance. Using that moment of clarity, he freed the innocent man just before the bomb exploded, devouring the man in its boom. The jumbotron collapsed and fell on top of himself and his clone, and then everything faded to black.

He awoke in the smokestack attached to a factory and crawled his way out, having more questions than answers, he knew who he was, but that was before he awoke. Who he is now is someone entirely different.

He knew the life of Peter Parker, of Spider-Man, having lived it himself. But he also knew of it through memories of watching it through a screen, but the life he watched through a screen is different from his own since he did not know Michelle Jones.

But that doesn't mean that the version of Peter Parker on the screen wasn't real. There were also two other Peter Parkers, one who married the redheaded love of his life and the other who felt the same heartbreak that I felt when losing our first love.

Different Peter Parkers, different Spider-Men from other universes. The Multiverse.

Admittedly those Spider-Men's lives seemed a lot simpler than his, maybe because they were stories portrayed by actors or just because of the lack of capable villains in their worlds. However, in the case of the youngest Spider-Man, the support of heroes much more experienced around him helps him. I would love a high-tech suit made by Tony Stark, but I have to do with the old underoos.

Most men would probably freak out after knowing that their entire life was just entertainment for people in another universe, and he probably would be as well. Still, he had other memories that came along with the viewings of the other Spider-Men played by actors.

The memories of the man who actually watched those movies, and while he watched them for entertainment, that does not mean they didn't have meaning. Even the fictional Peter Parker, Spider-man, gave hope and helped others by providing hope and something to believe in even when not physically present in the world.

Plus, he had already seen tons of wacky unbelievable stuff, so it would not be a stretch to see a universe out there where the superheroes of this world are fictional in another world. A calmer world but a world just as dangerous where these fictional heroes inspired people to be better.

Like the man these memories came from, who was just a common ordinary man, he had a life, a family, a job and most of all, he was content with all of it. He wasn't an evil man, but neither was he a good man. he was just a man. He lived a selfish life where he cared only for those around him and no one else, but being selfish does not mean being bad.

A life filled with tragedy and self-sacrifice in the service of others, a life lived in the service of one's self filled with contentment and satisfaction. Two completely different worlds merged into one body, the body formerly belonging only to Peter Parker.

He lost consciousness as Peter Parker and awoke as someone new. He was reborn in a smokestack and emerged as someone with quite a few differences from the man he was only a couple of hours ago.

Far out...

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He remembers the explosion at Shea Stadium, wreckage flying everywhere, and then he blacked out. He was a completely different man stuck in the smokestack of an incinerating plant in Brooklyn of all places when he came to. He had no clue what day it was or how long he had been unconscious for undergoing this strange metamorphosis, and exactly how he wound up in the smokestack.

After emerging from its depths, he just sat on the roof, absorbing everything that had happened to him and everything that had changed in him. he stayed until day turned into night. Then he looked up at that tower as it belched black smoke into a night that seemed too cold and too dark, and it chilled him, and he couldn't even say why.

He knew he had to get out of there, and so he lept off of the roof and into the night, swinging through the cold New York streets, yet even as he webbed away, he still could not shake the chill he felt, a deep feeling that something was wrong. A fundamental wrongness that was as if someone had taken the spine of his soul and twisted it as if the universe itself was somehow out of sync. It might have been embarrassing to admit, but he was the most scared he had ever been in his entire life, including the new one he suddenly gained.

He kept swinging and swinging, and at some point, he realised that he was actually heading for Aunt May's to beg her to hold him in her arms as she did when he was little and tell him that she loved him and that everything was going to be all right, but he wasn't a little boy anymore. He was a man, and not just any man but Spider-Man. he had learned years before that with great power came great responsibility. At that time, his most significant commitment was to find The Jackal. No matter his problems, he had his duty.

The man pushed all other thoughts aside and tried to focus on his duties, searching for Warren. He was concerned that the man might have somehow crawled away from that explosion (heaven knows he'd seen it happen before) and that the man's insanity had reinserted itself. However, he couldn't focus on anything else until he was sure that Ned Leeds was safe and that Gwen's clone was finally free of The Jackal's influence.

Until everything was sorted, he could not concern himself with anything else. For that, he needed to resupply and get more web fluid, so he decided to stop at his apartment, take a quick shower, grab a bite to eat and then continue to search, but as soon as he arrived outside his apartment window, his search ended right then and there.

At first, he thought that when he had been unconscious, the clone had slipped into his shoes and taken over his life, and he wondered if this was Jackal's plan all along. But, then, he looked in through the window at Mary Jane's face and saw the love and passion reflected in her gaze as she tried to comfort the other Peter, who pushed her away. He wanted to scream, to cry, 'No, Mary Jane! Get away from him! He's a fraud! He's a lie!'

He raised his fist, ready to smash the window and risk exposing his double identity to Mary Jane to keep the monster inside the apartment away from her and from everyone else he held dear. Still, then suddenly, a depth charge went off inside his head.

A psychic explosion started at the roots of his being and radiated up and out, ripping through every cell in his body. With the pain and shock being so tense that he lost his grip on the side of the building and plummeted to the ground, it was only his reflex that spared him from a fall that might have killed him. Maybe he would be better off if it actually had.

Because that 'explosion' opened up a door in his mind, and he knew with all his heart and soul that everything he thought proper about himself was, in fact, a lie, he wanted to deny it and repress it. He tried to dig a grave ten miles deep and bury it down there forever, but he couldn't, and all he could do to lessen the pain was to scream the truth out into the heart of the storm.

"I'M NOT PETER PARKER!!"

He started to rage. He threw a tantrum. He kicked. He screamed. He wept. He howled.

He prayed.

He was alone, an un-man haunted by recollections of an un-life. He may be in the body of Peter Parker or maybe even a clone of Peter Parker, but that didn't matter. The man in that apartment was more Peter Parker than he would ever be, regardless of who the clone was, simply because he himself was no longer Peter Parker.

He awoke in that smokestack alone and confused, and he had to rely on the powers of the spider to get out Peter Parker's abilities. Those memories took the forefront of his mind and convinced him that he was still Peter Parker, with extra memories from another life added to his head, which was reaffirmed by the fact that he was in Peter Parker's body dressed as Spider-Man.

But then he saw the other Peter in the apartment with Mary Jane. The dissonance in his mind exploded and brought out his true reason, which was a perfect blend of Peter Parker's mind and the mind of a man from another universe.

He had read stories in his previous life about people who magically took over other people's bodies and assumed their lives and entirely became that person, but what are you supposed to do when the person whose body you took over still exists and continues to live their life and you are in an exact copy of that body and have had your mind merged with his. So he fell to his knees right there in the alley and prayed right there in the rain, for help, for even a shred of hope.

He knew what needed to be done. He had to collect his memories and pack his bag of stolen thoughts, and leave. Leave Aunt May and Mary Jane, The Bugle and ESU, his friends and his enemies, and himself. Because they belonged to Peter Parker, and Peter Parker was alive while he was dead and buried. Somehow in the years of wandering to come, he was going to have to resurrect himself and become someone else, but right now, he needed time, time to process and time to figure out where to go from here.

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So he just spent a few hours sitting on top of a roof across from his own apartment, Peter's apartment, and watching everything that was going on inside while trying to process his life. It really put things into perspective watching Peter and seeing the differences and similarities between them, which were numerous and frustrating.

Peter spent the last few hours inside his apartment moping about his circumstances and ignoring Mary Jane before getting some shuteye, things that he found pathetic and ridiculous since one-half of his consciousness was now made up from the mind of a man who wouldn't let himself be stopped by things like guilt or pity, he was a man who placed himself foremost and made the most of all resources available to him.

It would actually not be correct to say half of him because that is not technically correct. So instead of having half of that man's mind and half of Peter Parker's mind, he had both minds. So instead of it being a half plus a half, it was, in actual fact, one plus one, which equalled 2. So he was that man from the other universe, and he was Peter Parker, and because of that, he is neither now. He is someone new because that man and Peter Parker were both individuals, and now he is both of those individuals.

He now had the best and the worst of both worlds. he had Peter Parker's morals, compassion, kindness, guilt, intelligence and heart, along with the man's selfishness, ruthlessness, single-mindedness, ambition and willingness to do whatever it takes.

He had no doubt that if he were only made up of that man's mind now, then he would be plotting to kill the Peter Parker inside the apartment and assume his life driven by his self-preservation and selfishness. But, on the other hand, he also had no doubt that if he were only made up of Peter Parker's mind now, then he would be running away without a plan giving up all aspects of his life, including Spider-Man and his powers driven by his guilt and his willingness for self-sacrifice.

It was a good thing that he wasn't made up of only one of them, or he would be making some pretty stupid or evil decisions right now. Still, instead, he is now being cautious and taking a measure of the situation before deciding on what course of action to take. Still, it killed him to see Peter inside the apartment be so callous and at arm's length with Mary Jane as he still harboured deep feelings for her, as diluted as they might be after combining both his memories together, no doubt that Peter inside the apartment feels what he feels a thousand time more even if he doesn't see that at the moment.

But regardless, Mary Jane loved Peter Parker and not him. It seems that Peter has woken up and decided to make a move, and he does so in a regular fashion as he shoots off across the New York skyline dressed as Spider-Man. He quickly follows, wanting to gather as much information as possible and discover what exactly happened after the jumbotron exploded and collapsed on him. If anyone would know then, it would be Spider-Man.

He follows Peter at a distance relying on his enhanced abilities and senses to keep track of him and not web-swinging as that would be pretty eye-catching. He doesn't want Peter to know about his existence. He knows precisely how Peter operates and moves, having once been him, so it is easy to predict his movements and devise paths to stay out of his eye line. Spider-sense only picks up on danger. He wishes Peter no trouble, so he should be safe on that front.

Still, he is so used to web-swinging that he finds it challenging to keep up with Peter (how does Daredevil do it?). Still, eventually, he figures out his own way, which generally just relies on having the high ground and then using his high intelligence to quickly map out his surroundings in the few seconds he is up there and then retaining that information and using it as he tailed Peter making sure to keep as high as possible to continue mapping possible routes and passages.

Eventually, the buildings get smaller and smaller, making it more difficult to track Peter undetected. Finally, they have to cross a bridge with Peter swinging across the top of it and him below running along underneath the bridge to remain hidden. They are both in Queens now, and there are smaller buildings and trees here, which means Peter has to slow down, which means he has to take more care in remaining undetected, which he does by running along buildings and roofs facing away from Peter.

Finally, they arrive at a gated area which he knows to be a cemetery, on account of knowing a few of the people laid to rest inside. He has to awkwardly hide and wait in a tree as Peter ducks behind some bushes in the cemetery and changes back into his civvies. Once Peter finishes changing, he resumes on to his destination at a more leisurely pace. It takes little time to figure out where he is headed.

He is proven right when Peter approaches a woman kneeling down and placing flowers in front of a gravestone which holds the name of Gwen Stacy. But, of course, it is a surprise to see that the woman in front of the grave is also Gwen Stacy.

Peter stands next to her in silence, and she notices him. Still, neither start a conversation, with her continuing to sort out the flowers in front of the grave and Peter starting to stare listlessly at the grave, lost in memories, the presence of Gwen's clone means that the situation is most likely dealt with and considering The Jackal's obsession with her I doubt he would let her go so quickly which means that The Jackal is no longer my problem and if he somehow did survive then it will be Peter's job to stop him, after all, he is no longer Spider-Man even if he is wearing the suit at the moment.

So he watches as they continue to mourn in silence and how he wishes to be there instead of him and feel what he feels. Still, the simple fact of the matter is that he no longer feels as much as the man down there does. Even as he stares at Gwen's clone, all he feels is slight sadness and attraction, which is no doubt the very muted feelings of Peter Parker and the one down there feels this a thousand more times than him. He doesn't have time to think about it anymore as Gwen's clone acknowledges Peter.

"I have to think of her... As someone else, Peter. Someone I knew a long time ago when we were both... very young. Was she the real Gwen Stacy... Or am I? Now I know how Spider-Man felt last night..."

She finally finishes fiddling with the flowers in front of the grave, stands to her feet, and turns to Peter. He, in turn, reaches his arm out to grasp her shoulder in a show of comfort.

"Confused... Frightened. Everyone has that moment when they wonder about themselves, Peter. About who they are deep inside. I think- I think it would be better for both of us if we didn't pretend to be the same people we were when Peter Parker loved Gwen Stacy... And she loved him. I wish I could know you the way she knew you, Peter, but I can't. Because I can't... This is goodbye."

She takes him by surprise and kisses his cheek while caressing the other. Peter tries to turn to her, desperate to say something, but Gwen pushes his face away before he can.

"Don't say it, Peter. Turn your head... And please, don't look back."

Saying so, she turns around and picks up her luggage before walking to the cemetery road, where a taxi waits for her. She gets inside it, and the cab moves along the road and out of the cemetery. Peter stays still, looks down forlornly at Gwen Stacy's grave, and sheds a tear. Meanwhile, he watches from a tree, unsure of what he feels.

Suddenly, multiple police sirens can be heard in the distance, and Peter quickly wipes his tear away and checks his surroundings before running off into the woods in that direction pulling his shirt apart and revealing the iconic suit beneath. He too feels the urge to run off chasing the sirens, but he fights it off because this is no longer his rodeo. After all, Gwen was right. Of course, they shouldn't pretend to be the people they used to be, but if he is no longer Peter Parker, then who is he?

He decides to go to the place that Peter used to frequent whenever he had a problem or issue he didn't know how to handle, and so he leaps from tree to tree, heading towards this special place. When he arrives, he makes sure no one is around before jumping down and walking towards it. He stands there feeling all sorts of emotions as he stares down at the grave of his Uncle Ben.

He can remember all the time before he came here and felt great comfort and peace but also contradictorily felt mass amounts of guilt and regret. Yet, standing there now as the person he now was, he no longer felt such a massive amount of guilt though he did still feel regret.

With the perspective of two lives, he now understands that bad things happen to everyone, and it is not your fault when things go wrong. Even if he could have prevented it, there was no way to tell the future, and so while he regrets not stopping the thief when he could, he also understands that what happened was not his fault.

Still, just because he no longer feels such amounts of guilt doesn't mean he is going to stop being the man that his Uncle wanted him to be. He will continue to live by his Uncle's words, 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility', and after the merging of his two minds, he had even greater power.

He will never forget the two people who cared for him and treated him as their own. He will never forget Ben and May Parker because even if he was leaving, they remain his parents, parents he didn't have in his other life, and he will honour them, Ben Parker and May Parker, formerly Reilly.

"Thank you for everything..."

And so left the man having formed the first part of his new identity, his name... Ben Reilly.

 

Chapter 2– Chance Meeting.

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I pull my mask back up over my head as I jump back up into the trees and jump through the forest and out of the cemetery, leaving the graves and, indeed, that part of my life behind as I move forward to new horizons, I still remain in the Spider-Man suit, but that is just out of necessity as I have nothing else to wear.

I plan to leave spider-man behind as well, this world only needs one spider-man, and I know just how crucial being spider-man is to Peter, so it's time I left that life behind, and if I am honest, I don't feel as much pain as I should at the prospect because of my new memories.

Coming out of the cemetery, I move in the opposite direction of the sirens, which is coincidentally in the same direction as Aunt May's house, which I don't want to even go near, afraid of the possible feelings that might erupt at being close to such a wonderful woman, I continue my method of parkouring across the buildings and sticking to the shadows knowing that there will be a lot of questions asked if two spider-men are seen in two different places.

I am now Ben Reilly which means that I have to leave everything Peter Parker at the door before I leave New York, which includes the costume. Still, I will have to keep wearing it till I find something else to wear. Still, as I ponder about the outfit, I begin to think about some critical questions about Professor Miles Warren. This costume is made of the same material as it always has been. I am still wearing the same underwear I was when I was till Peter Parker yesterday morning, which begs the question, how did The Jackal get so close to discover these things about Peter Parker?

I know that Peter wouldn't be idiotic enough to not notice if his costume was different or his underwear had suddenly changed the brand, which means that both myself and Peter were wearing the same exact items of clothing when we awoke at Shea Stadium, The Jackal knew precisely what underwear we were wearing which is a frightening thought because if he had observed us so much that he knew that then what else does he know?

I shake my head to rid myself of thoughts, knowing that those questions don't matter now that The Jackal is probably dead. At the very least, these questions aren't relevant to me anymore as they are questions for Peter. So I will leave these issues to him, just like I will leave everything else to him as well, which means I will also have to leave my appearance behind as well and to do that to the best of my abilities at this moment in time will mean that I have to dye my hair a different colour than my current brown and got some contacts or at the very least shades for my blue eyes.

Spotting a nearby convenience store, I drop down from the rooftops to the alleyway behind it and then crawl into the establishment through a small toilet window. I immediately regret it as this must be the most disgusting broken-down men's room I have ever seen.

All I can do is be thankful that the ceiling is much cleaner than the floor though that is not saying much, making sure to avoid the different shades of dark brown on the top (how is that even possible?) So I begin to lurk at the 90-degree angle above the doorway, waiting for some poor shmuck to make the mistake of coming in here and grace me with the choice of leaving.

It takes about twenty minutes, but eventually, some fat guy enters through the door looking as dirty and disgusting as the bathroom itself, which is made even more apparent when he makes no noise of surprise at the state of the place, not wanting to dwell on that situation any longer I quickly slip out before the door closes and begin to sneak around the roof of the convenience store looking for what I need which is quite hard to do when you are trying to sneak around on the ceiling of a well-lit convenience store dressed in a red and blue costume and trying to read all the signs and products upside down.

However, I finally managed to pinpoint one of the items I was looking for, that item being blonde hair dye. So with a quick check around, I quickly and quietly shoot a web at it. It sticks on, after which I pull it up, but being a shoddy convenience store, things are not appropriately stacked, so when I pull the hair dye off of the shelf and up to my waiting hands, the rest of the products on the shelf lose their precarious standings. They all begin to topple over one after another, with quite a lot tumbling down to the ground.

I quickly take a look around the convenience store to see if anybody has noticed, which of course, they have. All of the people inside are looking up at me at the ceiling, shocked though one little child does seem to be happy. I don't stick around any longer and quickly run across the ceiling before jumping out of the door, snagging the first pair of black glasses my hand touch from the glasses stand as I bolt out and web zip onto the rooftops before running away.

"Come back, Spider-Man! I didn't want to believe it, but Jameson was right about you. You are a MENACE!"

Sorry, Peter, but needs must and all that. one thing I am not gonna miss about being Spider-Man is all the hate I get (though I was in the wrong in that situation, still, I bet Captain America doesn't get all this flack for taking emergency supplies without paying) and J.Jonah Jameson's big head and loud voice calling for my condemnation every 2 minutes, I continue to run across the rooftops before I finally slow down and take a rest for a minute and stare down at the two items I hold in my hands (seriously, why doesn't this costume have any pockets or even a utility belt?) with one of them being the blonde hair dye.

The other is a pair of polarised sunglasses that are pitch black which actually works quite nicely, and they are the weird type of glasses that cover the sides of your head as well, which is truly perfect for me. So now I just need a place to dye my hair blonde without being disturbed for 2 hours because the instructions on the box say I need to leave it alone for two hours.

Before that, I have to wash my hair, which means I need a bathroom, but it needs to be a place where I won't be disturbed for over two hours. I would prefer it to be clean, and I think I know precisely the place I am looking for. I need to use the disabled toilets at a government-owned building as the government-owned building will have kept well-kept and clean disability toilets. I know that disabled toilets are in much less use and more well supported than others, so I will have to go to the train station, the courthouse or the library.

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I am now at the library, it took a lot of work and time, but I eventually managed to figure out where the disabled toilets were in the building by stalking and observing quite a lot of people discretely through the windows, which was a bit weird but necessary, I managed to finally figure out that the disabled toilets were on the edge of the building providing easy access for me as all I had to do was slip in through the correct window, and then make sure the door is locked before beginning the process of turning my brown hair into yellow hair.

The window was one of those small windows next to the ceiling that was hard to reach and kept slightly open to keep the room fresh, which made it easy for me to then pry the window fully open and then crawl along the top of the ceiling before dropping down and then locking the door which it already was weirdly enough, I breathe a sigh of relief and turn around only to see a bar of soap fall and slide across the ground towards me, and when I look up, I spot a young child with crutches who was in the middle of reaching for the tap and seemed to have dropped the soap in shock at the sight of me.

Before the kid can do anything, I reach my hand up to my mouth and shush him, I don't need more trouble now, and I certainly don't need everyone seeing Spider-Man at the library and then getting confused about why he was also in another place as well.

"Shhhh, quiet, please. I can't have anyone know I am here in case some supervillain finds out. I just need a moment to wash up before I go do my superhero thing again, okay?"

The boy rapidly nods his head yes with pure excitement on his face before he waddles towards me on his crutches, I think he's coming for a hug or handshake or something, but instead, he just tries to pick up the bar of soap on the floor which he can't do as he tries to lower himself to the ground while still standing on his crutches which just looks really awkward and painful, not wanting for this to go on and wanting to get him out of here as soon as possible I reach down and pick up the bar of soap before dropping it into his hand after which he moves back over to the sink which is directly under the window to wash his hands and as he does so he begins to talk to me.

"I-I can't believe I am meeting you. This is a dream come true, and it's happening in the toilets. I have so many questions. What is it like to swing through New York? Are you friends with Captain America? Do you spin webs out of your butt and then collect them to put into your web gadgets? Can I get your autograph? Are you here to use the toilet? Do all superheroes still go to the toilet?"

The kid rambles on asking meaningless dumb questions, which get on my nerves, especially the web one, since if I did spin webs out my butt, then the only logical option would be to collect them at home and then put them into my web shooters but thankfully that is not how it works. I want to get this kid out of here as soon as possible, and if that means I have to answer his questions to hurry him along, then so be it. I just need to dye my hair to stop looking like Peter, get enough funds and then get out of this city once and for all.

"In order, it feels amazing. I think I am friends with Captain America. I do not spin webs out of my butt. If you have a pen on you, then I can give you an autograph, I am here to use the toilet, and I need somewhere private, so I can take care of business and then get back to business as usual and finally, yes, nearly all superheroes still going to the toilet, they are human after all. Now is that it, or do you have another question?"

"D-Do you, do you think they also pick their boogers?"

"Oh yeah, but only when there is no one watching."

The kid begins to giggle uncontrollably, finding great joy at the prospect of heroes like Iron Man and Hawkeye picking their noses, and I find myself smiling at just how much enjoyment he has gained from a few of my words. I allow the kid to continue with his laughter as he finishes washing his hands and goes to the hand dryer to blow his hands, and once he's stopped laughing, he begins to talk again.

"You're funny, Spider-Man. That's why you are my favourite hero. When something big is going down, and everyone else has serious faces, I just see you still being the same person and cracking jokes, and it makes me feel safe knowing you can still joke because if you are joking, then that means the situation is not as bad as it might seem. My parents really hate you and say you are a menace to society, but I think that is just because they read too much of the Daily Bugle. Unlike them, I really like you, and most of the kids at my school do as well. It's a shame that I don't have a pen for an autograph, but that's fine. I'll leave so that you can use the toilet and then get back to fighting crime as soon as possible."

Saying so, the boy uses his crutches to walk out of the disabled bathroom, surprising me with just how chill that young teenager was, but I ignore that for the moment in favour of running over to the doors to make sure that they are locked and also checking the rest of the bathroom to make sure there were no other surprise people waiting to catch me with my mask off, after that and having a moment of respite I worry that the boy who just left might actually tell someone not being able to contain his excitement. So I go through the window again, being assured that no one will enter again since I have locked the door.

It isn't hard to find the kid again, and he is sitting at a computer desk at the very back of the library. I worry that he might be posting about his chance meeting with spider-man, and so I risk it and crawl inside the library window at the very back, where there are, thankfully, not a lot of people. I crawl along the ceiling and manage to get a glimpse of what the boy is doing on the computer, and when I do, I feel bad for doubting the boy who sits there and continues to work on his homework.

With no reason to be there any longer, I move to leave and return to the disabled toilets. Still, before I do, I catch out of the corner of my eyes a pot of pens and markers on a nearby table and wanting to repay this kid for my doubt in him, I attach a web line to the ceiling and lower myself to the ground after making sure that it was clear, now having a black marker in hand I pause for a second considering what object I should do it on. Still, there is nothing, not even a sheet of paper, nearby, so I pick the closest thing that I know the kid will be taking home with him.

I sneak over behind the kid at the computer desk and slyly snatch one of his crutches that is leaning against the desk, and then I sign Spider-Man's autograph on it before placing it back and heading back to the disabled toilets. The kid deserves it for being such a good kid, and I know for a fact that Peter has given a few autographs before.

But, of course, a few in New York means a lot, especially when most of the population hates him. But, on the other hand, I'm sure he doesn't remember most of them, so this one should be okay, and he also does take secret stops in restrooms all over the place, so this whole scenario should be acceptable.

Getting back into the disabled toilets, I pull out the hair dye and glasses from inside my suit (the power of stick is beneficial when you don't have pockets, who would have thought?) before setting them on the side of the sink, I then pulled off my gloves and mask. I placed it on the side of the sink as well for easy access if someone breaks through the door and I have to pull my mask back on in a hurry since I don't want to expose Peter's secret identity as that would be a dick move.

Opening the faucet, I pool the water in my hand and begin to wash my hair entirely in order to prepare it for the blonde dye which I will be applying later on. one thing for sure is that this will begin the process of the death of Peter Parker's clone and the birth of Ben Reilly who is his own man and has nothing to do with Peter or Spider-Man.

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After about an hour, I had to leave as there was a librarian banging on the door since quite a few people had complained that someone in the disabled toilets was taking too long. So I didn't quite get to even out the dye in my hair correctly and get the right colour. Still, I was happy with what I had as I no longer had brown hair, which meant that the first change was complete, no matter the difference in colour.

All that mattered was that my hair was now different. So, putting my gloves and mask back on and stowing the glasses in my suit before disposing of the rest of the blonde hair dye box, I go over to the door and unlock it before quickly booting over to and out of the window before anyone could come in. After that, I began to run and leap across buildings while being discrete as possible with my next destination already in mind.

I have already completed my first objective to the best of my ability at this time without sufficient resources on hand, so I know it's time to move on and achieve my second objective, which is to gather resources and money so that I can live well for a while and have some time to figure out what I am going to do without worrying about money and try to sort out some identification and proof of identity.

For this, I was going to have to get a little on the wrong side of the law. While Peter Parker would have had a problem with that, Ben Reilly sees the necessity and is willing to make the sacrifice for the greater good, and so I continue to transverse through the city until I begin to reach the edge of New York.

I am planning on robbing some bad guys for a bit of wealth to tide me over until I can get the proper identification and get a job and maybe even restart my education and get a great job. Still, for all that to happen, I need to get some money and to get some money, I need to find some bad guys. When you want to see bad guys, there is only one place you can be sure to find them.

So I stare down at the docks and nearby warehouses, knowing that somewhere in this area is a lot of ill-gotten cash that would certainly feel better in my safe and capable hands. Still, I have no doubt that it will not come without a fight, so I am prepared to bust a few heads and maul a few bad guys to the necessary funds.

I am sure that it won't hurt to have one last outing as Spider-Man and bust a few heads for the good ol' NYPD that loved me so much that they sent me loads of bullets every day. I am sure that it isn't going to hit the news headlines, so Peter should be unaware of this as well. If the crooks claim that Spider-Man robbed them of their money, then obviously, no one will believe it.

If they do investigate, then I know Peter will be in the clear as he isn't the type, and I know that his innocence will be proven. Still, maybe it is good he gets some hardship since I am the one who has to run away and leave the only family I have, no matter how diminished my feelings are now. Still, even so, I only have any emotion for them right at this moment and no one else, so I am obviously butt hurt at my forced eviction from New York.

Now I just need to search through the entire docks and the warehouses until I inevitably find the place where goons gather and money resides, which shouldn't take too long. after all, crime spreads like rats infesting a restaurant, and goons pop out of the woodwork like louses so a few criminals won't be hard to find in the crime-ridden New York. I probably didn't even need to come to the docks to see it, as there would have probably been a few criminal establishments surrounding the library.

Of course, I wanted the least public place. The docks and the warehouses at the port are the most isolated place you can get since no one really goes there except the workers. They are primarily paid by the crooks to keep their mouths shut, so I can be sure of my visit here not reaching Peter. I leap down off of the roof I am on and down into the hive of villainy. I am probably gonna find too much money in this place.

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"DIE, YOU GODDAMN BUG!!"

I lean out of the way of a big burly dude lunging at me with a metal pipe in hand, and he goes flying by me and straight into a wall, and he ends up hitting his own head with the pipe and knocking himself out. I look down at him for a second before lucking out at the rest of the warehouse and all of the bodies lying down unconscious, as well as all of the bullet holes all over the place, and I sigh.

"Spiders are arachnids, not bugs. How many times does it have to be said before it gets through their thick skulls?" So I say to myself as I look around the ruined warehouse. All of this trouble, and I didn't even achieve what I wanted.

TV shows have lied to me. When they show these kinds of places on TV, there are always guns, drugs and money stacked up all over the place, but here there are only guns and drugs with no aforementioned money to be seen. They are supposed to have stacks of cash in here, and they are supposed to have made a money fort out of it, but I see no such thing. Hence, my disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined (the one thing I particularly enjoy from my new memories is all the funny memes, though I will probably be the only one who understands them in this world).

With no money to be found in this place and with this being the third warehouse I've raided, I am going to guess that these criminals are more competent than they look. But, unfortunately, they don't keep all of their product and wealth in a singular place which means I no longer have a reason to be here. I can leave this to the cops, but before I go, though. I spot an AK-47 just lying on top of a desk, and I get the uncontrollable urge to try shooting it, never having used a gun before.

While Peter had never properly held a gun, and he abhors the use of it, I am not him, and right now, I am curious about how it would feel. Hence, I go to pick it up as Peter would never do this, which is fine because I am not Peter. So I pick it up and go to fire it before I stop and think about what I am doing for a moment and then go over to one of the laid-out idiots on the ground and take their phone from their pockets before dialling a number on it.

"Hello, 911. I need help. There is some type of fight going on at the East Docks. So I-" I pull the trigger and fire the AK-47 towards the pallets of drugs in the warehouse, ripping through them and having fun while doing so. "-OH MY GOD, THEY ARE FIRING BULLETS, PLEASE SEND HELP NOW!!"

They go to ask something, but I cut off the call before firing a few more rounds into the drug pallets and having fun doing so. Firing a gun and just doing mindless destruction is quite fun, and I can understand why some bad guys out there do it. Still, when you start harming people, it has gone too far. So I stop firing and throw the AK-47 to a random corner of the warehouse before jumping up and out of the window on top of the warehouse. Then, facing towards the ocean, I launch the mobile phone as far as I can and watch it skip a few times along the water before it finally sinks.

That guy will definitely be sad when he discovers he's lost all his progress on Candy Crush. I know because I looked through his phone, and he had progressed quite far. Also, he didn't even have a password on his phone for some reason. Still, he deserves it because he chose to be a bad guy. So, with that done and having vented some of my frustration by firing the gun, I move and resume transversing through the city, confused about what to do now since my plan fell through. I guess I will just run around a bit until I find something or come up with the next stage of my project, but I am very likely to find something, what with it being nighttime now.

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After having stopped several crimes by being quick and efficient so nobody would see me, I am now eating a hotdog while sitting on a rooftop in Manhattan. I got it by quickly stealing it from the vendor and leaving some money that I had misappropriated from some thugs' pockets. I stopped a few crimes, but nothing too big, and I still haven't found anything or come up with anything to do now that y last plan fell through.

I guess, for now, I should just finish off my hot dog and then find somewhere to sleep for the night before trying to figure out what I am going to do. I stare out into the night of New York City and hear the caterwauling and noises that ring out into the night and find it hard to believe that I am actually going to miss this place. Yet, as I look out at the city, my eyes manage to capture movement on top of the New York roofs.

Spotting a certain someone leaping across rooftops, I quickly stuff the rest of my hotdog into my mouth before getting up and running after them. I guess I finally found something fun to do that will keep my mind off of thinking about my future. Of course, this might find its way back to Peter, but I honestly don't care at the moment. I want to have some fun.

 

Chapter 3– Cat and Mouse.

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Taking a running start, I jump across the street to land on another building and then run along the rooftops of that block, never taking my eyes off the moving target that also prowls the rooftops while sticking to the shadows like myself. I run and jump and bound across the concrete jungle, getting closer and closer to them, but while I move with efficiency and speed, they move with all that with some poise and some grace.

I feel mesmerised as they spin and twirl along Manhatten, making each jump and every leap look so easy, which is for me, but the person I am chasing is just an average human, and yet I am only barely managing to catch up to them.

I no longer care about catching them. I am merely chasing them now to watch the daring feats they perform with just standard human capability as opposed to myself, whose strength and existence are all fabricated and mocked up by some mad scientist in a silly green costume.

Still, I suppose nowadays, the evilest men aren't those in boardrooms and in meetings (some of them are), but they are mostly those who choose a green theme (and some of those guys are in boardrooms and in discussions). The Jackal, the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Doctor Doom and those are just a few from this universe. Even in the DC universe, there is Ra's al Guhl, Lex Luthor with his favourite kryptonite, and finally, the worst one, The Joker, who takes madness to a whole other level and is the reason my other half is happy that he came here and not to that universe.

I actually have a lot of memories of different worlds created in my previous life by many great authors and creators, but if this universe turns out to be real, then doesn't that mean the- SPIDER SENSE IS TINGLING- I automatically transition into a handstand and push my fingertips against the ground to change my direction. As I do so, I lift my head and spot the danger I was awarned of, a pair of black bolas spinning through the air towards me.

As I watch them pass through the previous position, I realise that I had begun to daydream while enraptured by the enticing performance ahead of me and lost track of my surroundings. Springing back to my feet, I settle into a languid position as I am used to doing when facing others as Spider-Man and watch as my target-turned-assailant jumps onto the same rooftop that I occupy and stops a healthy distance from me.

"Well, now, I didn't think that I would be running into you tonight, Spider. I'm just having a late-night shopping spree. can't a girl have a little fun anymore?" Black Cat sultrily speaks as she begins to circle around me while walking with a sway in her step and a duffel bag clasped in her palm. I watch, finding it hard to not let my eyes wander away from her face.

The Black Cat is a 5'10" woman who weighs around 120 lbs, and she is an attractive tall (we are around the same height, she is just taller because of the heels) woman with a full head of platinum blond nearly white hair and fair skin with mesmerising deep blue eyes.

She wears a tight-fitting black latex catsuit with some small heels at the bottom of her feet. It is lined with white fur around the top half of the suit along the back of her forearms and around her collar. she wears a black choker around her neck that is stylised to look like a cat collar with a metal ring taking the place of the tag and to finish off the ensemble she has a black stylised domino mask upon her face that accentuates her features and her lipstick red luscious plump lips.

"Of course, you can have fun, but it's not fair if you are the only one having fun, is it? I also want to have some fun, so why don't you show me what's in the bag? I am sure it will alleviate my boredom." I speak with my arms crossed in front of my chest and tilting my head to the side, playing the role of Spider-Man to a tee having all the necessary memories and muscle memory to slip right back into the role as if putting on an old glove and the feeling that surges in me at this moment is immense and thrilling.

I don't know how I am going to part with such a thing in the future. I know that Peter used to feel a similar feeling as well, but what I am feeling right now is much more intense, and I can only assume that it is because of the new memories that I relish this feeling and wants more of it.

"You want to see inside my shopping bag. Wouldn't you rather we go somewhere more private, and I can model all my great purchases for you? Well, if you are that impatient, I suppose you can have a look inside, and you can pick out something dazzling for me to wear later on." She naughtily smirks at me before stopping and turning to face me before she lifts up the duffel bag and throws it up high into the air towards me.

I watch it go up for a second before I realise I have seen this same development in one too many moments. So my gaze flickers back down just in time to catch her leaping towards me with a foot aiming straight for my face. Moving slightly to the side, I reached a hand and grabbed her by the ankle that was flying towards me. Still, her moment carries forward, and she begins to swing around and fling her other leg towards my head, forcing me to release her from my grasp and jump backwards to avoid the blow.

We both look each other in the eye. I see in her eyes the same wild excitement that I feel inside, and at some unheard bell, we both blast off to each other, with her starting with a high right kick that I avoid and counterattack with my own right jab, which she sways out of the way of but instead of retreating like I expected her to she brings her extended right leg down to wrap around my arm and then taking me by surprise she grabs my arm to lift herself into the air at which point she spins around to bring her left leg around which wraps around my neck. Still, she doesn't stop her spin, and I get caught up in the motion.

I find myself falling to the ground with my neck constricted in place between her left leg and thigh. After taking a moment to savour the feeling, I reach my hand out to press across the ground and stop my head from impacting against the concrete. Still, before I can do anything else, she slips away from me and out of my sight, avoiding my spinning back fist as I push myself off the ground and back to a standing position.

We are once again at a standoff, and as I keep my eye on her, I notice her gaze flicker to the side for just a second. When I see where she is looking, it reminds me that we both have different objectives here. Her objective right now is to fight me off and escape with her duffel bag of stolen treasures, while my goal right now is t- I don't know what my objective is right now because I only started chasing her out of boredom since I did not have anything else to do and no idea where to go or what to do when I spotted her bountiful form prancing along the skyline.

Right now, I am just fighting her because it is the basic instinct ingrained in me. The Peter in me saw her committing a crime (most likely, given that I did not see her do anything illegal, but she was carrying a suspicious duffel bag) and immediately went into action. In contrast, my other half saw a beautiful woman prancing within my eyesight like a graceful gazelle and was instantly gravitated towards her. Then that side got caught up in the battle and began to enjoy it in a way that Peter never could.

Now knowing that there is a difference in our goals here, I decide it is time for me to change up the game a little and play a bit of cat and mouse with her, with her obviously being the cat in this scenario and me being the mouse she is trying to catch, and I find it ironic that the roles we are both suited towards are going to be switched around.

I moved suddenly without warning towards her at a full-out sprint. Surprised, she jumped back to give her more room to function, knowing that I was approaching fast. But instead of going after her, I stop halfway and pick up the duffel bag and put it over my shoulder before turning around and running in the opposite direction from her.

"Hey, what the hell? THAT IS MY STUFF. GIVE IT BACK!!" She shouts in the background as I run off, leaping over to another building. I can hear her chasing me from behind, and I find it hard not to laugh out loud at the thought of our roles now taking such opposite extremes, with the thief being the one who is chasing the hero, and this also puts her on the back foot.

Peter had never done anything like this and only focused on capturing her, with reclaiming the stolen goods only being a secondary objective. In contrast, I don't give two shits about capturing her, having enough problems of my own to deal with. She is basically just a harmless thief who steals from people who deserve to be stolen from and thinking about it, I realise that this here duffel bag may actually be the answer to my questions as it no doubt holds a lot of treasure and the one thing that I have been searching for all day is wealth to help finance my other goals.

Now wanting to actually get away with this duffel bag of loot, I begin to try my best to actually escape from her, running, jumping and flipping to ht best of my ability to escape my sexy latex-clad pursuer and get to a safe area where I can take stock of my stolen riches and figure out where to go from there.

No longer caring if anyone sees me and knowing that those who will see me are only going to be those who are incredibly skilled or have powers, I begin to run and jump without care and without stealth. I feel so much freedom and so alive at that moment that I can't help but fully embrace it and go on autopilot, leaping and twisting through the sky as I continue to run and run without a destination in sight.

As I remain on the move, I begin to ponder what exactly my next moves are going to be after I have taken inventory of my newly gathered wealth, having already thought of several options before and knowing that they are not viable, which is why I decide to take the less than legal route. Still, even though that comes with risks, I considered going to the Fantastic Four for help due to my good opinion of them. Still, I realised that they cared more for Peter and would definitely inform him of my existence, so I thought of going to the Avengers. Still, I know that those members are a mixed bag, and they will probably break out into a fight with a difference of opinions.

I considered going to SHIELD and Nick Fury, but that was a dumb idea, and it would be better to stay away from such a paranoid man. I considered going to Captain America, but while he does have the heart and morals needed, he does not have the resources necessary to help me. I considered going to Tony Stark, but he is the exact opposite of Captain America, having the resources but not the morals or heart needed, as he is more likely to use my existence to his benefit and use me as an off-the-books operative and not for the first time I relent about the fact that we can't all be so blessed to have the fantastic Robert Downey Junior as Tony Stark in our universes.

This is why my most favourable option at the moment is the illegal one. I will probably end up going to some criminal like The Tinkerer or something who would easily take this bag of loot as payment and someone like him who would find it laughably easy to create a new identity for me and forge some documentation.

Hell, they could probably even make some mad invention to use on people and insert yourself in their memories to create a functional backstory which would actually be great for- SPIDER SENSE TINGLING- I seamlessly transition into a roll to avoid whatever it is that blasts past straight above me narrowly missing my body. I roll back onto my feet, but I don't let that stop my sprint, and I continue to run. Finally, I saw that the thing that was blasted at me was actually a miniature grappling hook.

When I turn back around for a second, I am shocked to see the cable attached to the miniature grappling hook coming out of the white fur on the sleeve of The Black Cat, who is pursuing me like a woman possessed with a focused stoic look on her face as her eyes focus only on the duffel bag in my hand. She chases after it with a single-minded focus, and when she notices me looking back, her eyes focus on mine, and I find myself scared at the intense emotions that reside behind her eyes. So I turned around again, more determined than ever to escape this curvaceous mad woman.

Having underestimated the woman, I stop my daydreaming and focus back on my goal, which is to escape from her sight and make off with her stolen treasure. Then I can work out the specifics later, knowing that this woman will not be as easy to shake off as I had expected. So I begin to make more use of my abilities to escape her as they allow a range of more options and paths for me to take. Still, I refrain from using my web shooters, not wanting to draw even more eyes to myself than there already are and swinging through the middle of the street definitely draws more attention, even if it would be the most effective tool at my disposal right now.

I continue to run, having an idea of where exactly I am going to run, and I hop and skip across the building in search of an area with my exact parameters. When I finally approach it, I can feel some relief rush through my body as I jump off of the ledge of a building to jump onto a brick wall attaching to it with both of my hands and feet having the duffel bag on my shoulder, after properly securing myself I look back to see The Black Cat still chasing after me.

To my knowledge, while she has some tools, her only method of transportation is those small grappling hooks in her sleeve, and so feeling in a safe place, I turn around and give her a two-finger salute while hefting the bag up with my other hand to grab her attention and shove it in her face. It works as I can see her start to growl, which amuses me greatly, and then I turn back around with only my feet up against the building. I begin to run up the side of the tall brick building, and I start to chortle as I can hear a scream of frustration sound behind me as I climb the building with increasing speed.

With this, I can be assured that I have lost her since I made sure to choose an area with multiple tall buildings. The real kicker is that these buildings will get progressively taller as I move more and more into the centre of Manhattan. I will continue to get higher and higher, which it will take time for The Black Cat to reach as she will be spending a lot of time shooting her miniature grappling hook to hook on and then pull herself up and then keep repeating the process while I am just sprinting up the side of buildings with inhuman speed.

I continue to run and travel up the side of a few more buildings changing my direction along the way to avoid staying on a linear path. Finally, when I reached the top of another building, I stopped having climbed more than enough and not believing that Black Cat would be able to catch up to me anytime soon. So I slow to a stop atop this building and take a moment to calm my breath and calm down my surging emotions and my plumping blood, having found the entire exchange and chase exhilarating and addicting.

I know that Peter enjoyed some of his encounters with villains and heroes alike. But, still, he more enjoyed the exchange of wit and making quips and jokes and riling people up that way, and while I also appreciate that my new personality meld means that I also like the fight and exchange of fists as well as the chase because I take great pleasure in the rush of my blood through my veins, the adrenaline surging through my body, the electricity that surges through my limbs and the fire that runs along my skin.

My past life never had too many fights, and the ones they did have, they never felt like I do right now. Likewise, Peter never felt like I do right now, so I am a bit confused as to where this unexpected depth of emotion and feeling came from, but if it is not from Peter. If it is not from my past life, then I can only assume that it is mine and something that I myself have developed over the course of my so far short existence, and I love the feeling.

I am not Peter, and I am not the man from the other universe either, and while I am made up of both of them, I have my own emotions and feelings that are solely my own, which this situation proves. I am going to embrace those feelings and let the-. A black blur with white streaks flashes by me, and the duffel bag that was grasped in my hand is ripped from my palm and follows the black blur across the rest of the rooftop and off of the edge, jumping into the night sky and then falling out of my sight, shocked because my spider-sense didn't notice anything (probably because there was no harmful intent directed towards me, and the thief was only taking the duffel bag).

I run to the edge of the building and look down to see Black Cat free-falling headfirst through the air with the duffel bag in her grasp. Then, as if sensing me, her body spins around in mid-air. She sticks her pink tongue out at me before pointing her arm to the side and firing her miniature grapple gun to attach to the side of a building and transform her fall into a bastardised version of a web swing and then swings away into the night.

I just stay there and watch her go for a while. Instead of feeling frustrated, I just feel the excitement coursing through my body because I could easily just go searching through the streets and come across some regular hoodlums and tail them. They would lead me to their bosses, and then I would follow those guys to their bosses, and so on until I found a boss with sufficient wealth on hand, which I could steal, or I could just happen across a criminal's secret stash with this being New York and all.

But that would not be fun at all, a bubble of laughter escapes from my mouth as I back up a bit before running and jumping off of the edge of the building, and a feeling of freedom and utter profoundness fills my being as I shoot down through the air like a bullet. I get lost in the moment, so much so that I lose sight of my goal as I feel the cold air smash against my face as I nose dive straight towards the ground.

Seeing the ground, I come to my senses and remember that I am supposed to be chasing the lithe cat-themed thief who is currently running across the rooftops and gaining a lot of distance from me. Still, I don't find myself panicking at all, even though I continue to fall. At the same time, she gets further and further away. Looking up from the ground, I begin to closely examine my surroundings even though I am dropping like an anvil. Still, thanks to my enhanced sense, I can easily make out everything around me even as it passes me at hundreds of miles per hour and doing some insane mental maths in my head, I pick out a point on a wall a sufficient distance below and away from me and I reach my hand out to the side. For the first time, I used my web shooters to do a web swing.

I press on the trigger on the inside of my palm, and a strand of webbing shoots out and impacts the wall. I continue to fall for a moment before the web pulls taught, and I swing through the air. I swing until I am perpendicular to the ground, at which point I let go. I fly through the air which such speed that I think I might be able to continue on at this height forever, but eventually, I lose momentum and I slow down, but that doesn't matter as I have already accomplished what I wanted to do.

I spear through the air and tackle The Black Cat, who has no clue what has hit her, and we tumble across the concrete rooftop. As we do so, I reach my hand out and grab onto the duffel bag and rip it from her grip, ready to run off with it again. Still, as our momentum ends, we finish tumbling with my laying down on the concrete with my back against it and her lying atop of me, and I take a moment to relish in the situation.

Her head tilts up to look at me, and I smirk down at her. Even though I have the mask on, I can tell that she somehow knows what I am doing because her lips curl up into a beautiful smile. Still, even if it was beautiful, I could tell that it wasn't genuine as her eyes were regarding me with an emotion that I couldn't quite place. Still, I can't really bring myself to care about that right now as I want to continue the chase and escape with the duffel bag, which is within my grasp.

I heft it up so that she can see it just to rub it in her face, but instead of getting frustrated, her smirk somehow gets bigger, which confuses me. Then she nods down, and I follow her nod down the length of our entwined bodies to see her outstretched clawed hand dangerously close to my nether regions, and now that I can see it, I can actually feel the clawed tips skimming along the edges. I find myself nervously sweating, having not got to use the equipment yet, and already it is in jeopardy.

"Now, how about we have a little chat?" Black Cat whispers into my ear, and I feel her begin to trace one of her claw-tipped fingers upwards, and I don't know what to feel. Am I lucky or unlucky?

 

Chapter 4– Help in the Unlikeliest Place.

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I am in quite a precarious situation right now though there are some who would be pretty envious of my current position since Black Cat is lying on top of me right now. I can feel her purposely pressing herself against me, which is arousing all kinds of feelings in me, but at the same time, she is currently trailing one of her claws up the length of my middle leg, which also arouses more feelings in me though these feelings are a mixed bag.

Black Cat begins to lean into me even more, and her mouth gets dangerously close to my ear. I can hear her panting right up against my ear and her hot breath on my skin as her lips get closer and closer until she stops just before contact. as usual, she is being her teasing, flirty self. However, something is different this time as I don't think she has ever threatened me in such a way before. "Hmm, you aren't the Spider. You are someone else. Just who are you?"

All other thoughts immediately leave my mind as her words register in my ears, and suddenly I no longer feel any arousal at all. Instead, I only feel extreme danger at this point in time, as I am particularly aware of her pointy sharp claw skimming along the surface of my most valuable appendage.

I know that while the Black Cat is just a thief who doesn't go out of her way, she can also be quite vicious and ruthless when she wants something, and someone is in her way, so right now, I am in legitimate danger of being made into a eunuch under this siren because I am in her way. She wants the bag of loot I hold in my hand.

"Come on, don't be ridiculous, Cat. Who else looks this good in spandex, especially in such primary colours?" Projecting confidence and trying to make a dumbass quip, like the real Spider-Man would, I try to throw this woman off the trail she has somehow found. She is supposed to be a cat and not a hound dog, so I don't understand how she clicked on to the fact that I am not Spider-Man or at least not fully Spider-Man.

Apparently, my attempt doesn't work as she just narrows her eyes at me, and her smirk somehow extends to become even more significant, if that is even possible. Then, her tongue darts out to lick her lips for just a split second before it slips back into her mouth. Again, I feel like I am in the trap f some kind of predator.

"If that is true, you must be pretty high right now because you are acting nothing like you usually would. Right now, the pure and righteous Spider would have shrivelled and died under my grasp, but you? You are rock hard like a diamond, and this kitty likes diamonds." Her hand moves faster than expected and travels downwards to cusp me. I feel a shock journey through my body as five clawed fingers surround my balls and begin to dig into them a little, sending my concern and worry through the roof and in response, without even thinking about it, one of my arms moves off their own accord and strikes out.

I hear her gasp a little, and I quickly realise what I have done. My left arm is still outstretched and holding onto the duffel bag, but my right hand has encircled her throat and is grasping it tightly. Of course, Peter would have never done this, and while I should feel some shame at the thought, all I can feel is a little happiness as it proves that I am my own person, utterly separate from Peter Parker.

"Y-Yeah, there is no way you are Spider-Man, not a chance. He would never put his hands around my throat because of his aggravating morals that hold him back, not unless it was his only option. But, unlike him, you have quite the mean streak." Then, finally, she choked out, and I looked up at her in surprise to see that her jade-like pale skin had been marred by the bright red flush on her face because I was restricting her oxygen intake.

However, the most surprising thing is that she looks down at me and still smiles as my hand chokes her. She looks pleased with the fact like it is just her birthday, and she got the best present ever. Her eyes are now gleaming, and she has the same look in her eye that she has when she is trying to steal valuable items like I have seen in the past.

Getting weirded out and noticing that she is no longer focusing on threatening my sanctity as a man, I use my leverage on her throat to throw her backwards. She flies backwards to fall on her ass, so I take the opportunity to get back to my feet and gain some distance as I no longer liked the way this situation is heading. I wanted to get far away from this woman who seemed to have caught on to me, a woman like the Black Cat would most likely want to use the information for herself.

Thinking it is too much of a hassle to continue with this escapade any longer and wanting to get rid of this intuitive woman, I throw the black duffel bag back at her. But, unfortunately, she catches it just as she gets to her feet, sending her back onto her ass. I can find some other source of wealth because there is crime and opportunity everywhere, and I don't need Black Cat's loot to complete the goals that I have set for myself.

"Here, you can have this back. I don't need it. Hopefully, there are some diamonds in there for you to busy yourself with, as you love them so much. See ya later, Cat." And with that, I turn away and go to leave the roof to search elsewhere for a way to complete my objective. I am seriously contemplating going to Wilson Fisk's place and stealing from him.

I know where he lives, and he is a bad guy, so- SPIDER SENSE- I leap to the side and turn around to see Black Cat sliding with great speed across the concrete floor, and she catches herself and slows herself down by sticking her claws into the ground, I stand there and stare at her as she gets back up and stares right back.

"Hold up, don't go just yet. The fun was just starting, and I am not that interested in that bag anymore as I found something else to preoccupy my time." Saying so, she quickly whips out two bolas.

She flings them at me, with one going towards my feet and the other heading towards my torso, but instead of dodging them and retreating, I instead move towards them and leap forward and spin to fit through the gap between the bolas, which takes her by surprise, I do a perfect roll to get back to my feet without losing any momentum and spring towards her wanting to incapacitate the troublesome woman and leave as I can do without the hassle.

Using this moment where she is surprised, I go straight for a finisher and launch an uppercut at her torso so that I can knock her out and move on with my day. Still, her reflexes are incredible as she quickly reacts and back springs away, leaving my fist to skim past her uniform and narrowly miss her. As she lands a distance away from me, I realise that while she may have escaped any damage, her outfit did not, as I can see two big globes of flesh hang out in the cold open air for my viewing pleasure.

I am taken aback by the view and stop pursuing her in favour of savouring the moment. And being confused as to why I stopped chasing her, she follows my gaze and looks down at her exposed upper body. I expect her to do some girlish scream and quickly cover herself and turn around, but instead, she looks back up at me and smirks, not the least bit bothered by her nudity which leaves me flabbergasted.

"You are definitely Spider-Man, no doubt about it. Nobody else would be able to pull off those moves with such ease and flexibility except maybe Daredevil, but there is no way I would ever forget that cute tushie of yours. But at the same time, you are not Spider-Man. He would have never stared at me for this long, and you haven't looked away even now. Not to mention how brutal you are as you planned to knock me out with a powerful punch to the stomach, whereas he would have whittled me down slowly, too afraid of causing me permanent harm though I can't say I dislike your style." She crosses her arms to emphasise her chest, making my gaze even more attracted to the bare skin.

Still, at her words, I look back up at her face to see her regarding me with a thoughtful look. I don't like how close she is getting to the truth, and I know that the longer I stay around her, the more she is going to become interested in me. So finally, deciding that I have had enough, I go to leave. But, unfortunately, I know that Black Cat may just throw one of her gadgets at me again in an attempt to stop me.

Still, this time after dodging, I will just continue to leave and run away instead of facing her. If she chases me, I may just end up using my remaining web fluid to swing out and leave her in the dust. I am willing to risk people seeing me, and most likely, even if Peter hears rumours about it (which I seriously doubt since Spider-Man swinging around New York isn't big news, it is just another Tuesday), he can be pretty stupid sometimes so he will probably just ignore it.

"Hold on right there, mystery man. You have piqued my curiosity now, and I want to know more about you. Also, you probably don't want me telling the real Spider about this, do you? I mean, meeting such an interesting person like yourself, I would find it hard to keep such news to myself, and I always run into Spider-Man when doing my errands, so I will probably blurt it to him. But, I really am just fascinated by you. with the Spider, I am more interested in the mask than the man beneath since I have a feeling that he isn't as fun or exciting when he isn't wearing his mask, but with you, it is the opposite, I am more interested in the man beneath the mask. So, really, who are you?"

I pause and stop in my steps. I look back at her as she stands there and looks me up and down, intrigued. I really don't know what to do in this situation because I know exactly what kind of person the Black Cat is, and I know she is the kind of person who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Although I remember feeling great relief that all she seemed to want was to steal from rich people and nothing more serious, it would be pretty hard to deal with her if she had much bigger ambitions.

From all my memories of tangling with her and chasing her, I know that she is a selfish, greedy woman who wants everything, and she can sometimes be ruthless enough to get whatever she wants. But, most of all, she is a woman who loves excitement and thrill, and right now, she seems to believe she can get both from me. "You know, sometimes it is better not to know and stay in the dark. Have you never heard the phrase, curiosity killed the cat?"

"Well then, I guess it is a good thing that I have a few more lives to waste. Though I suppose I can understand your hesitation, I am asking you to reveal yourself to me, and I know how you spider guys don't like to do that. With Spider-Man, I never asked to see beneath his mask. I never took mine off in turn because I didn't want a relationship with him as the people under the guise as I thought we were truly the masks we were wearing. That part of him is all I wanted and not the other stuff. However, he didn't seem to be receptive to that idea which is why he has rejected my advances, but with you, I can tell that you are hiding your true self under that mask, somebody else's disguise and the person hiding underneath is fun and wild and just like me, and he is raring to come out. And so, because I am asking to see the person you truly are-"

She whips her domino mask off, exposing her bare upper face to my eyes. "I am willing to reciprocate in turn. after all, you are much more interesting than the Spider since you are as similar to me as you are to him, which interests me oh so much. I can't bear to let this opportunity go. I don't want to wonder just what kind of valuables I could have got my hands on. That is the worst thing for a thief like me, knowing you had something of considerable worth in your hands and letting it slip through your fingers." I stare at her face, and it is incredible just how much beauty that little domino mask is hiding as the area around her eyes is revealed.

I notice that her deep blue eyes have now changed to emerald green that is just as absorbing as her obviously fake blue eyes were (probably some sort of lense or tint on the eyeholes of her mask), but that is it as I already knew who was under the guise. In this world, the Black Cat has yet to be caught by anyone. Having only really been pursued by Spider-Man, and him being easily flustered and confused, he has ended up letting her escape more than once and only managing to retrieve the things that she stole.

But while Spider-Man did not know her real identity, my otherworldly memories did have that knowledge, and because of that, I knew exactly who she was. I knew that she was Felicia Hardy, what she had to go through and why she trained, which was to get revenge, but before she could find the man she wanted to kill, he was run over and killed in a car accident, left unfulfilled she started a life of thievery and enjoying the rush she made a career of it as she wanted to take back control.

"So you took off your little mask, is that supposed to make some sort of connection with me? Because news flash, just because I can see a tiny bit more of your face and your natural eyes doesn't mean that I will take off my own mask and show you my face. I don't know what you are trying to gain here, but I have better things to do with my time, don't follow me." Having had enough of this conversation and finding no reason to remain, I turn back around to leave.

Wanting to leave on the double, I decide to say fuck it, and I point my hand upwards and touch my fingers to my palm to release a strand of web that shoots out to attach to the side of the building. I go to jump off the edge of the building and swing away to actually- "You are scared, aren't you? That's why you are running away, just like he would." -I skid to a stop, still holding onto the web, knowing that I should have just jumped off of the edge of the building and left, and yet I find myself standing still having heard some words that I do not like.

"He is afraid to take off his mask, to expose himself. He has excuses like wanting to protect his loved ones and wanting to have a private life, and while those may, in fact, be true, he also has another reason. The truth is that he is scared. He needs the distinction between his civilian and his heroic identity because if he sheds the mask, then he will not be able to deny who he really is. He doesn't want to be only Spider-Man, and that is why he wears a mask so that he can do what he wants and be an illegal vigilante and so that he can also have his own life separate from that, but if he takes off his mask then he will be fully embracing his true self, and he shies away from that, he wants there to be a time when he can put down the mask and retire, but we aren't like that are we?" She says, and I can't help but listen.

"We don't want to fade away into mediocrity and disappear to live a quiet little life in the suburbs, we want to live a meaningful life full of excitement, thrill and joy, and we want to continue doing that till the day we die. I know I want to, and I think you do too, so will you be just like him and shy away from who you are? Or are you going to embrace who you are and live your life to the max, be your true self?" I don't want to listen to her words, and yet I can't stop. I know that Peter's reasons for protecting his identity are for noble reasons to protect the people around him, and yet I can't deny the fact that there is some truth to her words.

It was always in the back of his mind, the day he could finally stop feeling the guilt about Uncle Ben and the day he could stop repenting for what he had done, finally having retrieved redemption for the terrible thing he had done. Still, in the back of his mind, no matter how much he tries to deny it, he knows that he will never be free of the guilt.

He will always be Spider-Man, no matter how many times he tries to stop, until he is physically unable to do it anymore, and even then, he will probably continue to try and help in whatever way he can. He isn't a coward, but he also isn't true to himself, and he doesn't accept himself, but I am not Spider-Man. I am not Peter Parker. I am Ben Reilly, someone completely different who wants more than to be eternally pinned down by self-loathing and guilt. I want to be myself.

I am in disbelief as I open my hand and let the strand of webbing go. As it leaves my grasp, I feel as if I am letting some other things go with it as well. I watch it swing off, knowing that I am probably making a dumb decision, and yet I turn around to look at her and at the sight of her face, I again feel trepidation, and the smirk upon her face irritates me something fierce.

Still, I am more annoyed at the thought of being like Peter, of being a clone and having no other substance to me. I don't want to walk down the street and have people go, 'Hey, that's that dude, you know, Spider-Man's clone. What's his name again, Clone-Spider, right?' I abhor the thought of it, of being just a remnant of Peter, as if he scraped off a little skin one day, and that skin grew to be me as if that is all I am. So I refuse to have my Facebook profile be 'Science nerd, Arachnid lover, Genetic experiment and Peter Parker's clone. If you want to know more than just look at his bio, I am a copy and paste of him after all.'

I stare at her for a moment as she stands there, exposed in both senses of the word and uncaring of her current position, and she watches me like a hawk with enjoyment in her eyes as if a predator playing with its prey. I know that I might just be doing something that I may come to regret in the future. Even so, my hand reaches up and grasps the top of my mask, and I slowly begin to drag it up.

I am unsure if this is real as I have memories of doing my utmost to never take off this mask, yet I am doing precisely that. Of course, Peter would have never done this, and for good reason, but I don't care about good reason, and I think I am doing this simply because Peter wouldn't, and that is enough reason for me.

It is only when I feel my newly blonde hair flop down against my head and the cold breeze of polluted New York air across my face that I realise I have already taken my mask off. I pull my hand down to my face to look upon the mask of Spider-Man, the red spandex mask, the black lining stitched to look like a web and the white lenses fashioned from the screens of old watches. The maniacal man even went as far as to recreate the costume down to the most minor parts.

I look up from the mask to spot Black Cat paying particular attention to my features as if trying to burn them into her memory, trying to remember every inch and imperfection and store them in her mind. She finally pays attention to my eyes and looks into my hazel eyes as I stare right back into her green ones, she smiles at me, but I can't place exactly what type of smile it is. I don't know what she is thinking.

"I am Felicia Hardy, otherwise known as the infamous thief Black Cat. I used to be an Art Major, but I gave that up due to circumstances. I decided to be free and enjoy my life instead of being someone who is taken advantage of by society. Nice to meet you, ...?" She pauses, which is my cue to talk.

"Ben Reilly..."

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"So, Ben Reilly, welcome to my penthouse suite. Make yourself at home, please." She says as she walks around her furniture and to her coffee table. She takes the duffel bag, unzips it, and turns it upside down so that all the contents can spill out onto the coffee table. I watch as jewellery, cash, diamonds and gold fall down onto the table, and once the bag is empty, she throws it onto the sofa before turning around and going off into another room, leaving me alone in the middle of her penthouse suite.

As I look around her current home, I ponder what in the actual hell I am doing here. After taking my mask off on the rooftop and telling her my newly chosen name, she began to move, telling me to follow behind her. Not knowing what else to do, I listened and chased off after her, not knowing what to expect but knowing that it was better than staying on that rooftop, and she led me to this place.

I spend a few more moments observing the room, but it is just your ordinary luxury penthouse suite with nothing being out of the ordinary apart from the plates piled up in the sink and wrappers and packaging covering the kitchen counters and a whole lot of mess piled up around the room itself, she really does embody a cat with all of the mess she's created here while lounging around.

Finally, the door opens, and she walks back out dressed in an oversized loose-fitting t-shirt that descends to her knees, and I can't tell if she is wearing anything under there... She probably isn't. given her apparent disregard for clothing that she showed earlier and her okayness with nudity, she walks past me to the kitchen. She gets a bottle of wine out of the fridge and picks up a wine glass before plopping down onto the sofa and kicking her legs up onto her pile of goods on the coffee table, and she switches on the tv to watch some inane sitcom.

"So, Ben, what is your story? Also, what is your connection to Spider-Man?"

 

Chapter 5– Eye Opening.

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"So, Ben, what is your story? Also, what is your connection to Spider-Man?" She asks as she begins to haphazardly pour herself some red wine and spill some all over the white sofa staining it practically forever because she is trying to focus on the TV while fixing herself a drink. She also doesn't seem to care about anything in this luxury penthouse suite because it doesn't belong to her.

It is also kind of pissing me off that she asks me such an important question about my life, like it doesn't really matter. This woman is paying more attention to her wine and TV show than she is to an impertinent question about my existence. I don't think I will answer her. I am not even sure why I am here.

"I'm not saying anything. why do you even want to know? Honestly, I am wasting my time. I don't even know why I came." I really don't. All I know is that she said some hard-hitting things that really hit the nail on the head for me, and when she told me to follow her, I ended up doing so. Maybe it was because she flashed a little skin at me, and I followed, being controlled by my other head.

I really am not Peter am I, as he would have definitely not done that, and yet I did. So I guess at least half of me is not Peter which means I will obviously make some different decisions than him, but then again, Peter is also the cleverer half, so this was probably just a bad call made by my idiot half that was blinded by the sway of her succulent flesh, I need to get out of here before I make any more mistakes.

"Come on now, Ben. You know why you came here? It's because you have nowhere else to go. So now come here and take a seat. Do you like The Office? Do you want some wine? I have beers as well?" So what the hell am I doing? I really don't know, but I go and sit down anyway. Still, I make sure to sit on the sofa chair instead of on the same couch as her as I am sure that if I do, then I might end up making some serious mistakes, so I cross my arms and sit stiffly on the chair as if that will somehow make my mindset rigid and unchanging.

"No thanks, I'm good," I say, rejecting the glass of wine she was offering me, and she just shrugs and takes a sip showing she doesn't care about my rejection. My more ordinary side constantly worried about saying the wrong thing or offending someone by accident and forever breaking that bridge, which is probably why that side didn't really achieve much. I will be better than that. I will be better than both of them.

"So Ben, you clearly don't want to talk about it. And that is fine. It is actually normal. But we are not normal people, are we? I go out and steal all sorts of things while dressed as a cat. I don't even steal valuable things sometimes, like one time I stole a small plushie of a cat from a gift store at a museum I robbed and completely forgot about what I came for and left with just the plushie." I actually, for some reason, that actually makes me feel a bit better.

"I still have that plushie in my room right now. And you, well, you are dressed like Spider-Man, have the same powers as Spider-Man, you sound, talk and quip like him and yet, you are not Spider-Man, not at all. It isn't hard to make some guesses. I mean, there are all sorts of stuff in this world, and you hear quite a lot of bizarre things. I am sure you are not the weirdest thing to ever exist." I am not the weirdest thing in the world, and it probably isn't the most incredible thing in the world, but to know that there are others in more abnormal and worse situations than myself makes me feel better.

"You came here. You followed me because you had nowhere else to go. I was like that once, I trusted the wrong person and let my guard down, and they took advantage and abused the trust I had for them. They didn't even think they did anything wrong, which made me so angry that I felt like ripping him to shreds. I quit college and completely pushed everything else out of my mind except for him. I got rid of everything and focused only on him and how I would make him pay." This does sound familiar. I think I have heard it somewhere before.

"When I was finally going to get him, he got run over by a car and died on the asphalt, having not felt any of the pain that I felt. My rage grew even bigger and more toxic, knowing that I had nowhere for it to go and knowing that I would never satisfy the ire inside me. I was lost, and I had nothing when someone came out of nowhere. A friend of my father's came, and he gave me direction and somewhere to channel the feelings inside me, so I trained and worked till is sweat blood until I became the best thief in the world." I mean, I knew some of her origins and had a general idea thanks to my other half's knowledge, but I...

"You are just like me, Ben, like I used to be. You had something that you lived for, that was your single purpose for being, and now you don't. You are lost like I was, and that is why you followed me because you thought that I was going to carry the torch and light the way for you. But I am not gonna do that. It is too much responsibility for me. But I can help you by showing you how I dealt with everything I felt and my lost purpose." So I suppose she could be correct, and that is why I followed her.

Could it be because I had suddenly lost Aunt May and Mary Jane, who were the critical factors in my life as Peter Parker and the only people I still had access to? But I couldn't even go to them as there was already a Peter there who was precisely the person that they remembered instead of whatever person I am now?

Maybe I was just looking for some sort of companionship? Perhaps I was desperate for it? And that is why I followed this woman who showed a bit of herself to me, craving something that resembled what I had with them. Even my other side wanted it, never having ever had the sort of relationships that Peter had himself.

"And what is that? How did you deal with it, oh wise cat burglar?" She is a bloody thief. How in the hell is she supposed to help me with my problems? And yet even though I am asking her sarcastically, there is still some part of me that is hoping beyond hope that she might actually have one iota of actual knowledge. Something that may be able to help me or give me some direction on what to do with myself since I am entirely unsure of what to do past my first goal of acquiring money.

She looks at me, taking her eye off her comedy show and regarding me for a second before picking up the remote and pausing the show and placing her glass of wine on the table. Then, finally, she takes her feet off that table and sits up straight to face me with a serious look on her face.

"Hm, okay, I'll tell you then. I started to live for myself. I started living for myself and only myself, and everything is so much better when you only have to worry about yourself. You don't have to worry about others. You don't have to change your life in order to fit into other people's schedules. You do what you want to do and only what you want to do. You don't even have to pay any attention to the law or how what you do affects other people because you are living for yourself. It is okay to be selfish. You have already given yourself, and everything you were to others, and they took advantage and used you till there was nothing left of you. it is time to live for yourself and not others." I don't really, I mean.

This is how my other half pretty much lived, except he was a bit too much of a coward to do whatever he wanted without regard for the law, too afraid of the consequences, but this does resignate with the part of him inside me. Even my more noble half is resignating with this. Peter has given a lot and sacrificed a lot. He lost his Uncle because of his selfishness, but that was not his fault. It was not his job to stop thieves, even if he did have powers. He was still just a kid back then.

Becoming Spider-Man and trying to save others took more from Peter than being selfish ever had. First, he had basically killed the father of his only love, and not only that, he even lost the greatest love of his life due to his own foolish actions. The Goblin might have pushed her off the ledge, but it was his web that snapped her spine into two. And then, just when he began to heal and move forward in his life with the wondrous Mary Jane, the clone of Gwen Stacy showed up and brought all the guilt to the forefront of his being again.

And because he was Spider-Man, Gwen was not even allowed to rest in peace. Having a facsimile of her brought back to life was all his fault and would never have happened if he was not Spider-Man. And now he can't even be with Mary Jane because he is no longer the man she fell in love with. The other Peter is, regardless of who was the actual clone. So maybe it is time to be selfish. The death of Uncle Ben was a terrible thing, but it did not occur because he was being selfish. In contrast, being selfless has consistently brought misery and misfortune to his life and the people surrounding him.

I am broken out of my musing by Felicia. she is talking to me again. "So, come on. I told you about myself, so tell me about yourself. I might just come across Spider-Man one of these days, and maybe I will tell him about the curious encounter I had with someone who looked exactly like him. I am sure he will- AH!" My hand is wrapped around her throat and pressed down hard, constricting her breathing and turning her face red.

She can still breathe, but just barely, and I know that if I were to squeeze just a little harder, I could completely cut off her airway and stop her breathing forever. To have such power in your hands is intoxicating. I can feel myself getting absorbed by it. Suddenly, Aunt May and Uncle Ben flash through my head, and I quickly shake my feelings away and slightly loosen my grip around her throat to let her breathe easier.

With the newly found oxygen making its way into her lungs, she begins to look less ruddy, and her arms suddenly move up and grasp around my arm. I ready myself for another battle with this woman- "Harder." -She pulls my arm further in to press against her throat, and I quickly release my grip and jump backwards away from the redfaced woman who is panting heavily.

Massaging her throat, she smirks naughtily at me and sits up a bit to right her position on the sofa, not at all showing any anger at my actions. If anything, I would say that she is disappointed that I removed my hand from her oesophagus.

"So, are you gonna tell me or not? Or do you wanna go back to choking me? It is up to you, really." She casually says, acting like I wasn't just choking her within an inch of her life, which catches me flat-footed as I am unsure of what to do in this situation.

I am also warring with the contradicting thoughts and feelings inside of myself, with one half of me thinking that I should either take her up on her offer or get rid of her for the sake of my future in this world, while my more heroic half is vehemently against it not wanting to harm someone even if it is for my own sake. I need to sort out this had of mine and reaffirm just what kind of person I am now instead of pussyfooting around and being indecisive. If I do this at the wrong time, I could very quickly end up dead.

"I am a clone of spider-man." Ah, it just slipped out of my mouth. Goddamn, you stupid Peter side, you just knew that my more cynical half was probably going to kill this woman because I sure as shit did not want to tell this woman anything about my background, especially because she is a cat burglar and a thief which obviously means she is untrustworthy and that I can not trust her as far as I can throw her because I can throw her quite far, at least three city blocks. I don't know what I would have done in this situation.

I definitely did not want to tell her anything, so chances are I would have ended up physically confronting her, and I don't know how far I would have gone, especially with the sly threats she was making me. So I guess that my Peter side probably did the right thing. What would she do with that information anyway? Probably best not to think about that. What's said is said, and now I am just going to have to deal with it and move forward. I really need to get my head in order.

"Oh, a clone?" She says, and I wait for her to continue, but she doesn't. Instead, she just reaches down, picks up her glass to take another sip of her red wine, and relaxes on the couch with her legs rising to rest on her coffee table.

She languishes on the couch like I didn't just tell her I was proof of one of the most researched subjects in the world, that my literal existence would make kings and representatives of nations all across the globe drop everything they are doing in the hopes of acquiring my body and the secrets of cloning held within my body.

"I-Is, is that it? No, how is that possible? No, who in the hell made you? I-I am a clone, a copy of Spider-Man made on the whims of a mad scientist, and all you can say is, oh, a clone?" I-I am a... What is wrong with this woman? Is that the correct response when confronted with such a mind-blowing revelation, human life fully cloned and copied, an entirely new separate life created from someone else's cells? Someone took the role of god and put something new onto this Earth, and it is not even an average human that was cloned, but a superhuman and all she can say is, oh.

"Hm, what do you want me to say? Oh my, a clone of Spider-Man! Just think, if I can discover the secrets of cloning from his body, then I can continuously clone thousands of Spider-Men and create a Spider-Army. With such an army, I can take over New York, nay, the entirety of planet Earth. And then I can live out the rest of my days as the empress of Earth, having my Spider-Men continuously attend to my every need and having weekly orgies with them. Is that what you expected? Well, sorry to disappoint, but I am delighted with my current station in life. I enjoy looking out for only myself, and it seems like my happy life would be seriously upset if I took such actions, though I am quite curious about your origins, so just so I can avoid him in the future, but who was this mad scientist?"

"O~kay, the orgy part was unnecessary, but I think you made your point."

"Really? I thought that was the most crucial point. If you rule the world, you will obviously have orgies. It is just a matter of fact." I shake my head at her words. I mean, if I did rule the world and I had no one trying to upset my rule, then yeah, I probably would have orgies, but that is just a fantasy. I would also probably try to keep my distance from a touchy subject like cloning. If everybody knew you had all the secrets of cloning, you probably wouldn't get any time to yourself.

"You don't have to worry about the mad scientist. He is most likely dead, and if he isn't, you just have to keep your distance from Spider-Man, don't get too close to him, and you will be fine. As for my origins, well, I am a perfect clone of Spider-Man down to the very last cell and memory, though I am more jaded than he is, which is to be expected with me being an artificially created life. Brewed in a test tube."

Felicia lets out a laugh. "And I was a C-Section. What's your point? There are quite a few test-tube babies in the world. Just because you were made as an exact copy of someone and were probably aged up doesn't mean you are any different from them. Seriously, stop bitching. As far as I can see, you have just been given a fresh lease on life with none of the previous commitments, not to mention you have a superpowered body, make the most of it and enjoy life instead of complaining about it. Also, you have all of his memories and the same body, right? I can tell that you have that same juicy rump, but are you the same everywhere, or are there some differences?" She seriously confuses me, this woman.

Why can't she just stay on one topic instead of switching every which way and continuing to catch me off guard? I hate it even more since she actually makes some good points apart from some of the stuff she says, which tells me that she obviously doesn't have much of a background when it comes to scientific subjects.

"As I said before, I am a perfect clone of Spider-Man. You can basically think of it as a different timeline. You know how in Back To The Future, they go back in time and change the past, which creates a separate branch of the future. It is kind of like that. My memories are basically the same as the originals up until I woke up in that massive test tube. At that time, I had branched off and become an entirely different existence completely separate from the original. It would make a lot more sense if I could use some visuals. Do you have a chalkboard or something?" That is about the best way to describe how my and the other Peter's existence correlate together.

But that doesn't even consider the appearance of my other memories from another world. Also, our existence didn't separate when I came out of a test tube, but when I emerged from the top of that smokestack, but I don't want to tell Felicia about that.

"Nerd. But I get it. I don't need any visuals, so stop with the medical mumbo jumbo. You are the exact same until that point, so that means he looks exactly like you do under that mask." I... did not think about that when I was explaining things, crap baskets. I am the exact same as him except for my newly blonde hair, so I have just basically fucked him over even though that was the one thing I did not want to do. I just wanted to leave this city and leave Peter and Aunt May and everybody behind to live their lives without me.

Still, I have just basically revealed his identity to one of the criminals Peter confronts weekly. Though Peter is not exactly famous, and there are probably a thousand people in this city that could look similar to him, it is perhaps not the end of the world if she has an idea of what she looks like. I plan on leaving, and my image will slightly fade from her mind afterwards, so she will most likely not find him anytime soon, and if she does, that will be his fault and not mine.

"He lives in a city of millions, and he doesn't exactly stand out. You would be hard-pressed to even find him, you would be looking for a random white dude with blonde hair, and you are definitely not gonna run into him when he is out of costume. So it honestly doesn't matter if you know what he looks like. the chances of you running into him without his underoos is a billion to one." I say, leaving in the red herring of Peter having blonde hair though I can't do much in the way of my other features.

Hopefully, if she begins to search for him, that will become a crucial part of her search criteria, which will eliminate Peter from her searches even if he looks the exact same as me. People can be dumb like that sometimes, hiding in plain sight, as it were.

"Hmm, well, I don't particularly care. I was just wondering if he is as good-looking as you are. Also, I just wanted to confirm that I wasn't flirting with some weird guy. you can't always be too sure who you are dealing with or who it is under the mask, after all." She says while shrugging before grabbing the TV remote and resuming her show, leaving me awkwardly sitting there, not knowing what to do. I honestly didn't know what would happen when I followed her here, but I expected something else instead of just sitting here and watching her drink wine and watch a comedy.

I sit there and watch the comedy with her for a while as she just sips her wine and laughs at the show, but eventually, I get tired of just sitting here and not doing anything. I need to be doing something to better my situation, and this is clearly not it. I let out a sigh and got to my feet, knowing that I at least gained something here, which was a new perspective on life. Walking towards the balcony, I at least know that I have some kind of idea of what I want to do with my life, and that is whatever I want to do. At least Felicia gave me some-

"Hey, where are you going? Sit down and watch the show. if you're hungry, I have some snacks and stuff in the kitchen." She calls out to me, stopping me from heading onto the balcony, resuming my life, and getting away from whatever weird little pitstop this was.

"I'm going, Felicia. I appreciate your help, and your words did help me in some way, so thank you. But I need to go now. I don't have the luxury to continue wasting my time here. Goodbye, Felicia." I resume my steps, hearing her pause her show once more and get to her feet, but I don't let that stop me as I get to the glass doors and place my hand on its handle. I go to put-

"Ben did you not even listen to what I said. So you don't have the luxury? I literally just told you to start being selfish and enjoy yourself, but I suppose I can understand some of your aversion to that being who you used to be. But maybe this will change your mind, you only have whatever is on your body right now, and that is it, don't you? I have connections and can help you get identification and whatever else you need. And if it is money you need, well, I can help with that too." She gestures to the pile of jewellery and cash on the table, which does catch my eye. After all, I was just trying to steal it from her less than an hour ago.

"We can deal with all that stuff tomorrow, though, for now. You can sleep on the couch, or if you prefer... You can join me in my room. my bed is big enough for two." She slinks over to her door and presses the handle down before pushing it open and leaning sultrily against the doorway with one hand caressing the other side of the doorframe, inviting me into her room to spend the night.

I am... I really need to sort my head out.

 

Chapter 6– The Morning After.

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"Good morning Ben. Did you have a good night? Sleep well?" Felicia asks as she walks across the room. Blearily opening my eyes, I look around the room with my head, trying to get a bearing on my surroundings, with my mind still quite fuzzy.

Surveying the area, I spot the Spider-Man suit I was wearing last night, or relatively early this morning, strewn across the ground haphazardly. My only other possession was the sunglasses I misappropriated from that convenience store, which sat on the table.

Ah, now I remember. Last night, arguably my first ever night, I had happened upon the sexily dressed minx known only as the Black Cat, and I was enticed back to her lair and into her snaring clutches. Felicia Hardy had made me an attractive proposition last night.

However, I had no clue about the more invasive details, and she gave me some time to think about it, but then she gave me another arousing proposal and invited me to her bed. Needless to say, I had gotten no time to think about the first thing and was more bothered by the second.

Sitting up, I pull the blanket off of myself, revealing my naked upper body. Thankfully, I had woken up in that smokestack with a pair of underwear on beneath the costume. Rubbing my eyes, I can't help the yawn that escapes my mouth, a symptom of my lack of sleep caused by the woman who is currently walking over to the kitchen. I had been up all night because of her presence and her parting words.

After she had said those words, she closed the door on me. I thought about it for a bit and weighed the pros and cons. Still, before I knew it, I had a hand on the door handle and was very close to pushing it down. Then, realising what I was about to do, I pulled my hand away as if the door handle was scorching hot.

No matter how I may think, I cannot trust this woman, especially not so much as to climb into the same bed as her and let my guard down. That would be incredibly dumb.

And so I backed away from the door, found a blanket in the living room, stripped down to my underwear and slept on the sofa, except I didn't do much sleeping. No matter how much I tried, I could not drift away into unconsciousness.

Every time I closed my eyes, I could only see Felicia standing at the doorway of her bedroom, beckoning to me, seducing me inwards. Finally, I turned in my makeshift bed and buried my face into the sofa, pulling a cushion into the back of my head as if that would somehow block my imagination.

I could not fall asleep, no matter how much I willed it. I was denied escape from my new reality. I sat there with my mind wandering, brewing fantasies so wild that a therapist would almost definitely derive some deep-seated issues from them.

Eventually, I could hold myself no longer, and I gave in to the promise of pleasure. Stalking over to the door like a man possessed, I reached out and clasped the handle once more, and once more, I froze.

How long had it been since she first invited me into her bed? How long had I been fretting over and fighting over my decision? Has it been just minutes that felt like hours, or has it been literal hours?

I couldn't expect her to stay awake in her room just for the chance that I would take her up on her offer. Surely by now, she would have fallen asleep, and me creeping into her room now would just be plain wrong, had I missed my chance.

I stood at that door for who knows how long until I decided just to go back to the sofa and get some shuteye. Maybe now that the option was taken from me, I could actually get some rest and not wake up no matter what disturbed me.

That thought itself disturbed me, I was basically in enemy territory, and I was about to go to sleep without any protection, like an idiot. Sourcing a wine glass she left on the coffee table, I head towards the door and lean it on a tilt against it. Now, if the door were to be opened, the glass would fall, which would wake me up.

I headed back to the sofa and tried to slip into a slumber, and I should be able to now since the reason I could not fall asleep was not because of her open invitation but the threat she presented to my sleeping self. But, of course, that was the reason, wasn't it?

Regardless of the reason, I did not fall asleep till sunshine was peeking over the horizon, and not long after, the door was opened, and the glass fell, bringing me back to the land of the living. Felicia did not pay any attention to the glass and walked across the room towards the kitchen, bringing us back to the present moment.

"Hello, you awake, Ben? I asked how the couch was. sleep well?" She asks from the kitchen, putting on a pot of coffee, dressed in the same T-shirt that stops just below her hips, allowing her long legs to be seen and for me to wonder very hard about the possibility of her not wearing any panties. This woman is seriously not good for my health, and if I stay around her any longer, I can't help but feel I will die sooner rather than later.

"Hm, oh yeah, just peachy. Can I get some coffee as well, Felicia?" I ask, getting up off the sofa, coincidentally making the blanket slide off of my body. I stand to my full height and stretch out all of my limbs, feeling my muscles stretch, and my bones pop. that white couch may have been lovely, but it was not as comfortable as a bed.

"Oooh, what did I do to deserve such a treat?" She says, looking at my almost naked form while leaning against the kitchen counter with the coffee pot brewing behind her, her hands against the countertop. Her eyes raked up and down my form with a focused gaze, paying particularly close attention to my behind.

I can only thank whatever deities there may be that I was provided with underwear. Embarrassingly, her gaze made me want to crouch in on myself and shield my body, but I didn't do so. I have to maintain a strong front while in unfamiliar territory. I can't act like Peter would, who was so afraid to show his own skin, who gives in to his discomforts.

"Hm, I don't think you have done anything to deserve such a sight. Nothing good, at least." I say, putting on a faux bravado and hiding my real emotions. Fake it till you make it, though her eyes have still got a glint in them as she looks at me, and I begin to doubt whether my facade is working as it seems like she sees right through me with those piercing green eyes.

Feeling uncomfortable with her predatory pupils on me, I unhurriedly reach down and pick up my Spider-Man spandex pants and casually slip them on. However, I made the decision to leave my chest bare, not wanting to put the complete ensemble on as that would show my discomfort with the current situation.

Covering up entirely would showcase how uncomfortable I am, and right now, I can't afford to show any weakness because a woman like Felicia will pounce on it and rip me to shreds.

"Mmm, even in spandex, that ass looks good. Here, your coffee." She hands me a cup of coffee, and I sit back on the couch, taking a sip before placing the cup on the coffee table, not caring about putting it on a coaster considering all the other mess strewn around the room and the various stains already on the coffee table.

Felicia comes and sits next to me on the couch, picking up the remote control and putting on some random morning show. She sits up entirely on the sofa, drawing her legs into herself, holding her cup with both hands and taking a sip.

We sat there for a while, just drinking our coffees. I personally really needed the beverage after the lack of sleep I got last night, the brown liquid staving off my tiredness for at least a few hours more.

I continue to watch the TV just being a mindless gorm, but eventually, I can no longer bear the inane chatter coming from the speakers. So I turn to Felicia to ask a question that has been bugging me for a while, ever since I first trekked into this apartment.

"Felicia, I can't help but ask, but why is this place so filthy? You don't strike me as the kind of girl to live in squalor, so why is there garbage all over the place?" I am seriously confused by this since Felicia is all about glamour and living a luxurious life.

Yet, she sleeps in this place with dishes piling up in the sink, garbage lying all over the place, and various stains all over the abode where she has obviously spilt and dropped food and drinks and not bothered to clean them up.

"Ha, I am not the kind of girl to live in squalor, but I am also not the type of girl that cleans up after herself. First of all, this isn't my home but a room on the top floor of a hotel I am staying at, so I don't really care about the mess since I am not planning on sticking around. It is hard to get money straight into a bank account with the kind of stuff I steal, so I have quite a lot of cash lying around. Every couple of weeks, I just move from luxury hotel to luxury hotel using the cash and checking in under fake names, pay a high enough price, no one really asks any questions, and I have a lot of money to spend." Felicia says nonchalantly while taking another sip of her coffee, lazing on the couch.

"But, what about all the mess you leave behind? And what about all your possessions, your things? Where do you keep them?" I ask, curious about how she is living like this. While it may be suitable for living semi-under the radar while still living a life of comfort, eventually, your life is pretty empty, especially for a selfish and materialistic seductress like Felicia.

She must have somewhere to keep all her worldly things. I'm sure Felicia has kept some of the treasures she stole for herself. What about all her gear for her nightly escapades as Black Cat? She uses quite a lot of tools and equipment, so where does she store it all?

"Ben, first of all, the mess is not my problem. I pay an exorbitant amount, well above the asking price, to stay here, and so if I want to ruin all the furniture, then I will ruin all the furniture. Plus, all those workers are paid to clean up, and I'm sure there are worse rooms than mine in this building. The rich get up to all sorts of weird crap. I am not staying here for long, so I can't be bothered to clean it up." She tells me.

"As for my stuff, I have a travel bag I take with me that has all my necessities and another bag that holds all of my Black Cat equipment, but for my other possessions and my stock of gear. Well, of course, I have a place for all those things, a place I fully own under a fake name, but you aren't about to see the inside of the place any time soon." She states irritation on her face, most likely from being overcharged by the various hotels she has visited. I guess this is her petty way of getting back at them.

"Oh, any time soon? So that means that eventually, I could?" I ask, not that I really want to gain access, but the fact that she might welcome me into such a private and personal place does seem interesting, and it begs the question, why? For some reason, Felicia can see me in the future as being someone she can trust enough to allow access, but why would she trust me? What does she see happening after today that could lead to her allowing me entry? What is such privilege contingent on?

"Hm, yeah, you could. Depending on your future performance, that is." She shoots a sly smirk at me, which she swiftly hides behind the rim of her coffee cup, which she still wields with both of her hands, and such a sexy smirk sends the neurons in my brain firing. My performance? What sort of performance?

Everything you can do in life can be a performance, in the literal sense of acting and theatre, or how you perform an action or thing, such as a test or job. Or maybe she means performance in the more physical sense, as in my body's performance in some arduous task, some challenging task, perhaps even a pleasurable task. Maybe she wants me- No, keep your mind on the ball, Ben, stay focused on your goals.

"Oh, and just what exactly is it that I will be performing? Please, do tell." I say, maintaining a casual expression leaving no inkling of the impure thoughts roaming through my head. Why am I like this? Peter had such ideas, but he would never act on them, and they were relatively minor.

Still, with this new soulful addition to myself, my more sinful thoughts were pushed to the maximum, amplifying and feeding the thoughts of both halves, each eating the other and growing more prominent in a continuous loop like an ouroboros, the same rings true for the different aspects of myself. Still, man was my otherworld part, a horny man, these feelings often most take the forefront, and it is only my tenacity (courtesy of Peter) that keeps them at bay, but just barely.

"Ben, my newfound friend. You are going to perform various dangerous escapades with me, and we are going to get rich and have fun doing so. I have never had a partner before. Something new. it will be fun to see what happens." She places her fully finished, now empty coffee cup down on the coffee table and begins to slide over the couch towards me, crawling on her hands and knees till her head is right next to mine.

"Oh, okay. And why, pray tell, would I do that? I don't particularly see why I need to become a thief to get rich, and even if I did, why would I do so with you?" So I speak, ignoring her pants brushing against my ear. However, I am increasingly more aware of each pant and breath that escapes her lips and feeling them caress my ears with each one. I stay still and focus my gaze on the TV in an effort to retrain myself, but that just makes my ears more enhanced and more aware of her position next to me and her lips almost touching my ear.

"Hmm, those glasses on the table, they aren't yours, right? After all, you showed up on that rooftop with only the clothes on your body and nothing else, not an identity and not any money. So how did you acquire those glasses, hmm?" Her breathy words sneak inside my ear, and she lays her hand upon my shoulder and inches ever close to my skin, yet there is a thin impermeable barrier between the meeting of our flesh, only a couple millimetres at most. But, of course, she is correct, though not about the money. I confiscated some from those thugs in the warehouse, after all.

"Alright, I'll admit it. I borrowed the glasses from a convenience store, I had nothing on me, and I couldn't just stay dressed as Spider-Man. I needed to be able to go places without looking like the original, and so I had to procure a disguise. unfortunately, I only got as far as the glasses before my midnight rendezvous with you, though I fail to see how that factors into why I would help you in your nighttime fun." Those stupid bloody sunglasses, I didn't even get the chance to use them.

And I myself foolishly revealed my face to Felicia for some bizarre reason I don't understand, perhaps caught up in the moment and swayed by her words. this does make me recall the urgent need I have to get some other clothes and then get rid of all spider related paraphernalia on me.

"Oh, okay, we'll play it like that. You borrowed the glasses, just without the intention to give them back, ever. Come on, Ben, just come and have some fun with me." She whispers, her breath tickling my ears.

"Hm, let me think about it. Okay, thought about it. No, thank you." I curtly answer, my face still blank, though it is taking all my willpower.

"Why not? We are very much alike, you and I, me and you. Us." The words sent a shiver down my spine. Each syllable she enunciates for a bigger impact, her words said with a focused intention behind them.

"Oh. Except for a sense of propriety and decency, an-and a moral centre. Not to mention the fact that I would never be caught dead in latex." I say, trying to undercut her persuasive methods, though I stutter slightly halfway through when she pants heavily against my ear. Maybe my attack on her character will get her to back off before she goes any further, though I can somehow feel her lips curling to my left instead of diminishing like I wanted.

"Ha, you say those words like they actually mean something. You will come over to my side. I know it." Her words carry an insane amount of belief, of certainty, as if she genuinely does expect reality to play out like this.

"You, uh, you seem very certain." Suddenly she moved, and I had no chance to react without expecting it. Before I know it, she has reached past me. She is currently above me cowgirl style, her hands clutching the top of the couch on either side of my head, her legs resting against the sofa on the sides of my legs, her face just an inch from mine with an iota of space between our lips. Yet, annoyingly, there is a slight gap between us that feels like a cavern. We are so very close, and yet not one bit of myself is in contact with any of her.

Her lips move closer to mine, her lips slightly opened and beckoning for me to enter, and I find myself drawn in, controlled like a cobra being swayed by the music from a flute. My lips inch towards her closing the gap, and yet they find no purchase. Our lips were still the same distance from each other, and she had moved backwards as I moved forwards.

Catching myself, I move back to my original position, leaning my head against the sofa. Still, she follows my head backwards, maintaining the distance between our lips, my head now facing towards the ceiling and hers above me looking down.

"One word, sweetie. Curiosity. You long for freedom. You long to do what you want to do because you want it. To act on pure selfish impulse. You want to see what it is like. And one day, one day soon, you won't be able to resist. Because you and I are alike." She sinfully whispers, her lips swaying towards and away from my own, trying to entice me in again and doing a reasonably good job of it.

"I have faith in you, Ben. Do you want to know why?" She asks but doesn't give me a chance to answer, continuing on, our lips still playing a weird game of tug of war, and whoever gives in is the one who loses and falls entirely into the other.

"Curiosity. Now that I have said it, you can't stop thinking about it. You're going to want it. The chance to be free, unfettered from all worries and feel the thrill. And gain the rewards that follow. You won't be able to resist. You're going to want to know... what it tastes like." Then, all of a sudden, she stops maintaining the distance and her lips close in on mine, closer and closer, and she is staring right into my eyes with desire in her eyes.

"I-I do. I want to know what it tastes like." Her lips stop moving just before they touch my own. I don't question it, I have lost this tug of war, and I don't care. I move forward to capture her lips, but I don't. she backs away once more.

"But, I know that as the sort of man that would never perform such selfish acts, you would not take advantage of me and my coffee-addled brain. Seeing as you are a good man, I know that you would never put me in a position that would compromise my honour." I freeze, hearing her words and registering them in my mind. I have no time to do anything, though, since she quickly backs away and hops off of the sofa and onto her feet, moving towards her room without looking back, her hips seductively swinging, exaggeratingly so.

"Well, you don't have to decide right now, Ben. I am going out to do some shopping and splurge on some new outfits and jewellery. While I am out, I will buy some clothes for you as well, since you are so obviously in need of a new wardrobe. You can order room service with the phone. Just make sure you take everything from them at the door and do not let anyone in. they will not be pleased with what I have done with the place. I will be back later this evening. I am giving you time to think, but don't take forever. After all, I could easily change my mind." She opens the door of her room and steps inside, bringing the conversation to a close.

And then, with her back still towards me, she reaches down and grabs the hem of her T-shirt. Then, with one swift movement, she takes it off and flings it to a random corner of her room, gracing me with the sight of the side of her right breast, which jiggles after she completes the action, and I can see her thin neck, her supple waist and her sinful curves.

At the same time, she did not wear a bra. However, it turns out she actually did have underwear on, as I can now see the black panties she has on. But, unfortunately, my observation is cut short as she reaches a hand behind her and swings close the door, leaving me alone with only my thoughts and chatter from the television.

I... I completely lost that exchange, utterly so. In relationships, there is always someone doing the pulling, and someone is being pulled. Very rarely do you see a relationship where there is balance and equality? If the two people try to pull each other into themselves, there is friction, leading to adverse outcomes.

Instead of dragging her into me which I didn't really want to do, or maintaining the exact distance between us which would have been ideal, she nearly dragged me into her. The only reason I wasn't was that she pulled away at the last second.

If I did kiss her, it would have been me being pulled into her, and I know that I would have probably stuck with her because of my libido, which would've blinded me to everything else. So if I accept her offer, I can't do it for such a reason because that way only lies in failure. So I have to do it for my own reasons that don't involve anybody else.

I sit there blankly, looking at the TV, just thinking. At some point, Felicia leaves her room. Still, I don't even raise my head to look at her, and I don't respond to her farewell as she exits the suite. Partly because I am focused on my current problem and partly because I don't want to look at her and feel that same temptation and risk being pulled into her again. I just need to think and sort out my sleep-addled brain and iron things out.

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It is dark now, and I have been in this place since Felicia left on her shopping trip. I snooped around the apartment for a while but didn't find anything of interest, so she must not keep anything she cares about here, which says something as I found a lot of stolen goods around the place.

I watched TV and saw some superhero battles on the news, but I didn't move to help as I had bigger things to worry about and had faith that they would save the day, and sure enough, the superhero defeated the villains and came out the hero.

After that, I started to surf the various news channels. I did this for hours, and never at any single point was there not a superhero fight going on. It was constant, every second at someplace in the world, there was a battle between Superheroes and Supervillains, and this should have worried me, but it didn't. Because at the end of all those confrontations, at the end of every single one, the Superheroes won, and the villains either lost or retreated, this set things into perspective for me.

This world already has everything they need, and it doesn't need me. I am just a surplus, a spare part that was discarded, and nothing is expected of that extra part. This world will be just fine, so I should just live my life and enjoy it, but for that, I need money and proper identification.

Suddenly Felicia appears on the balcony dressed as the Black Cat, clearly having enjoyed her day out, carrying a few duffel bags. She opens the glass doors and enters the room, but I speak before she has a chance to do anything else.

"I'll do it, Felicia. I'm in..."

 

Chapter 7– Pilferer in Training.

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"Hmmph, I swear, this is so unfair. It took me years to refine my art to such a degree, and yet here you are after a couple of hours, reaching my level of skill with such ease." Felicia harrumphs after seeing me crack open a safe in under a minute, and not just any safe but a high tech almost unbreakable safe held within the basement of one of New York's most luxurious jewellers, which I had just finished cracking with unbearable ease.

"Well, it isn't that hard, what with the vaults nowadays being more technology-based than having any manual processes to open it. So all it took was quickly crafting some tech to help with the techy bits, just a scanner to find the fingerprints on the number pad of the safe and figure out the passcode from that.

I then extrapolated the fingerprints for the fingerprint scanner as well as used those same fingerprints to look through various databases across the world to find the owner, and then using the preprepared copies of all the worker's eyes, I used the correct one on the eye scanner." I say, standing back up to my knees and grabbing the handle of the safe and spinning it, hearing a series of clunks as it does so.

"I only told you that we would be cracking this safe yesterday when you agreed to start helping me with my jobs. How could you have prepared so much in such little time? And that still doesn't explain how well you dealt with the practical part of the safebreaking, turning the dial and listening to the mechanisms. I only started teaching you that part earlier today on the bunch of safes I have stored in a warehouse to keep my skills from going rusty, and just now, you cracked the safe almost as quickly as I would have. It's frustrating. how?" She questions as the handle of the safe finally stops spinning and comes to an end.

Reaching towards it, I grasp and pull on it to avail the insides of the nigh unbreakable safe. What greets my eyes are stacks and stacks of cash, along with priceless jewels, jewellery and diamonds neatly arranged upon shelves.

"What can I say? I had a lot of time on my hands, and I always like to be prepared. Plus, the technology isn't that hard to make if you know what you are doing. You don't even need any expensive or rare materials, just the know-how. As for the actual safebreaking, the two hours you spent teaching me were enough for me to become proficient at it. After that, I only needed the technical knowledge and the information about the inner workings of safes in general and as a whole. After that, my powers did the heavy lifting. The keen senses help me to hear precisely what I need to, and I just need to be aware of what it is I am actually trying to listen for." I answer her taking a step back to admire my work, proud that I had become an excellent safecracker in less than a day, but as I do so, Felicia saunters inside to take a glance at the valuables held within.

"Hmmph, cheater. Well, I don't care since you are on my side now, and this way, I won't have to go to the Tinkerer for tech anymore. That bald old man always charges an arm and a leg. Ooh, shiny. A treat for a job well done, gimmie." Felicia finishes as she reaches out and picks up an enormous diamond, most likely worth millions, and brings it towards herself, using her other hand to grasp the suit and pull it wide to reveal her cleavage, which she goes to place the diamond within.

"Stop." My hand grasps her forearm, keeping her from stowing the diamonds between her breasts, where I would never have been able to retrieve the diamond from. But, instead, her greedy eyes rip away from the sparkling blue diamond to behold my own firm eyes that make it clear that I will not allow her to take this diamond out of this safe, not under any circumstances.

"Remember our deal, Felicia. I will only help you steal from bad people and those who can afford it, and that is it. I will not help you steal from establishments like this, museums, or innocent people. If you want to do that, then do it on your own time because I will not be a witness or an accomplice to it. So put the diamond back, and let's get going. this was only supposed to be a test, after all." I state firmly, staring her dead in the eyes, my will unrelenting. No matter how much I may try to deny it, there are still vestiges of Peter and his morals inside me, so I absolutely will not steal from those who do not deserve it.

Plus, this helps me to set the terms going forward working with Felicia and serves to make sure that I am not her obedient little lapdog or minion or something so that I will not be dragged under her spell. I have a firm rule that I will abide by that will help me to keep aware of who I am and what I want. I haven't figured out the other rules yet, but I am firm in my decision that I will not harm any innocents at any time. Apart from that, I could do what I wanted.

"Ben, you do know that this diamond, much like every other thing in this fault, will end up in the hands of some corrupt politician, some ruthless mobster, or even some supervillain. So it doesn't matter if we take it now because it would be similar to just taking it from them later. this just saves us time that we can use to take even more stuff from more people who are undeserving of it." She tries to argue, but I am hearing none of it.

"If this stuff is just going to end up in their hands, then we will wait for it to do so, wait for them to pay for it or take it and then we can take it back from them rather than stealing money from the pockets of the people that work here. You need to understand that, or we can't work together, and you will just have to go back to buying tech from the Tinkerer." So I state, as a matter of fact, my resolve unshakeable. Either she abides by my rules, or I walk. There is no other option, and I have already learnt what I can from her, and I can learn the rest from other places.

"Tch, fine, I'll put it back. Are you sure you are Spidey's clone? He would usually say, stop stealing from people, become a hero, use your skills to help others, while you are telling me to do it when you are not around. Quite a big difference." She lets out grumpily as she pulls her hand out of my grasp, which I let her do, knowing that she won't be trying anything again.

Felicia moves to place the diamond back on the shelf she took it from, though she is clearly not happy with it as she makes sure to try and get a little dig in and be spiteful by mentioning my clone status, which doesn't even phase me after all my origin has much more complicated issues than just cloning.

"Being made up of someone else's DNA, someone else's everything, being a clone really changes your perspective on life. Being in such a situation where I had no choice in my creation made me realise some things. Primarily that I can only control myself and what I do, and I cannot control others and what they do. So if you want to steal from people who don't deserve it, then go ahead, I can't stop you, but at the very least, I will not be part of it." So I tell her as we both exit the safe with the diamond placed back where it belongs, leaving the inside of the safe practically untouched.

Part of the reason behind my new philosophy is the morals left by Peter inside me, and part of it is the fact that I don't want to create trouble for the superheroes in the world so that they can continue keeping the world safe and allowing me to live a good life. So I will control myself and my actions to make a minimalist impact on the planet, and my existence will undoubtedly have an effect.

On the other side of the spectrum, I cannot control what others try to do, meaning people who may significantly impact the world, like supervillains or superheroes. However, Felicia doesn't make much of an impact being a selfish cat thief, but even so, I don't want to change who she is and what she does.

"What, did you get that from a self-help book or something? Do you have any more inspirational quotes of wisdom for me?" Felicia snidely says as I close the safe door and spin the handle to lock it back up. When the thunking and clunking from the mechanisms inside finally stops, I take a step back to look at the shiny safe door, which shows the reflections of myself and Felicia.

Felicia is dressed in, surprise, surprise, her Black Cat outfit and me wearing the clothes she had procured for me earlier. From top to bottom, them being a black cap, the black sunglasses I had procured for myself, and a black rag that I had wrapped around my lower face, which completely disguised my head. And then I had on a plain black T-shirt, a black leather jacket, a pair of black leather gloves, black leather pants, and, to finish the ensemble, black leather boots that ended at my calves.

Obviously, Felicia decided on these clothes due to my comments the other day, where I said I would not be caught dead in leather. But unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about my choice of clothing as I had to come out for this expedition, and Felicia no doubt knew that I would have no time if I accepted her offer. No point dwelling on it.

"Quotes of wisdom, quite a few, actually. How about 'You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you'. That one, I quite like." I don't feel anything at the barb she sent at me, but I still know that it carried malicious intent. So I pretended not to notice it and answered her query calmly though I do be a little mean, and gave her a quote that may hold particular meaning for herself. I am a little bit of a dick, but what goes around comes around. You shouldn't dish it out if you are not ready to take it.

Felicia goes strangely quiet at my words, and we just stand there in silence. I feel a bit strange at that since I am used to her being chatty and giving as good as she got, but when I look at her face, she seems weirdly reflective, so I leave her to it. I also take a moment to think about the quote I just said as well. I couldn't control what happened to me, but I can control how I view it, and instead of letting it change me, I can choose how it changes me, something to ponder on.

"Sigh, alright, we can't just stand around here all night. It's time we leave, so let's get going." I say, breaking the silence and ripping Felicia away from her thoughts. She looks startled as she looks up at me, only just realising that she has been lost in thought, but she quickly smirks at me and takes the lead in walking towards the exit, and I move to follow her.

With the safe being in the basement of the jewellers, which is full of cleaning supplies and other such things, we had to get through some security to get down here. So we entered through the door, which leads upstairs, as that was the best option, at least according to Felicia, and who am I to argue with arguably the world's best thief.

I would have thought the best entrance would have been the few small windows high up on the wall on the right side of the basement. Still, Felicia told me that was stupid, and that is the thought of every other two-bit thug, so those windows are alarmed, and any change will set off an alarm and alert the authorities.

I follow behind Felicia towards the door to the stairs, avoiding looking at her too closely, trying to limit myself and keep everything purely professional. Or as professional as possible, what with me living with her for the time being, but containing myself is undoubtedly the best option to keep things uncomplicated.

Felicia suddenly stops out of the blue, and with me following closely behind her, I very nearly bump into her behind, but I manage to stop just in time. However, I am very aware of my groin as it lightly skims against her rear, but I quickly push it out of my mind for my own sake and back up.

"You know, Ben, I have a quote of my own. Though I don't know if it is very inspirational, but I like to live by it anyway. So it goes, 'If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough'." Felicia turns around, and there is a mischievous smirk on her face, which stirs an ominous feeling within my gut. And then, when I looked down and noticed that she had a cleaning bottle in her palm that she must have sneakily picked up from the various supplies around when I wasn't looking.

"Felicia, what do you mean? Don't do anything-" *SMASH* One of the small glass windows to the right is now shattered, the cleaning bottle now being outside of the building resting on the floor of a street, and Felicia is standing there with her hands on her hips looking very smug right now.

"Felicia, why on gods green earth would you do that? Now we-" *BEEP* *BEEP* The alarm blares insanely loudly, setting off a sense of urgency and panic within me. All the while, Felicia continues to stand there with a naughty smirk on her face looking like butter wouldn't melt, seeming to have fun at my expense and enjoying my distraught.

"Come on, Ben, we can't just stand around here all night. The police have already been alerted and are already on their way, so let's get going." Felicia Uno reverses me, spitting out nearly word for word what I had just said to her less than five minutes ago and throwing it into my face. I guess she didn't take kindly to my subtle dig at her, and now she is acting out. I am so stunned that I don't have time to say anything before she picks up a rag and walks over to the broken window, using the rag to clear out any remaining shards of glass and make a safe passageway.

"Well, hurry up. Are you staying here? Or are you coming with me?" Without even turning her head, Felicia says, and then without even waiting for a reply, she jumps up and slithers out of the newly made opening. Impressive, really, given that the window is literally around thirty centimetres in height and sixty centimetres in length. Quite the small fit but easy for someone with her skills or someone with powers like mine.

"Note to self, do not start any more little fights with her. Even if she is the one that starts it, do not respond and ignore it. In the end, it is not worth the trouble. Just let the comments roll off of you like water and save yourself from the woman's wrath. like they always say, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." I sigh to myself, and having no other option, I quickly run over and slide through the window as well to follow her. But, unfortunately, I can't go through the door and up the stairs the way we came because we snook inside delicately, which means that way would take longer, so this is my only option.

Crawling out through the window, I stand up to my feet and look around the dim alleyway trying to spot where Felicia has headed as well as figure out my bearings. So that I can try to discern which direction the police will be coming from and figure out the best path to run to avoid them. It doesn't matter if it is in the opposite direction of Felicia's penthouse, as I can just loop back around.

"Come on, lazy pants, your falling behind down there. Don't tell me all the leather is slowing you down. Can't you climb walls like Spider-Man?" I hear Felicia laugh, and I look up to see her climbing up the fire escape on the side of the building and peering down at me, and then she reaches the top and quickly springs out of view onto the buildings. Not wanting to be left behind, I quickly ran and jumped onto the wall legs first, and not needing my hands due to my powers, I just ran straight up the side of the wall and easily reached the top within seconds.

Not stopping my run when I reach the top and not losing any momentum at all, I quickly turn my angle by ninety degrees and begin running on the top of the rooftop. Sighting Felicia ahead of me, I promptly sprinted to catch up with her, not willing to be left behind. She leaps across a few buildings and sometimes uses her whip to bridge the gap, but I keep up using my powers and bridging those gaps with my superpowered jumps. I quickly catch up to her and begin to run side by side with her.

"Felicia, what the hell? Why did you do that? We could have easily snuck out the way we came with no one being none the wiser, but now you have alerted the police, and we have to run away when we could have just left." I shout to her over the rushing wind in our ears as we run at high speeds. Still, even then, my beratement doesn't seem to have had any effect on her as she doesn't even look towards me to acknowledge my presence by her side, not caring that I am seriously limiting myself to her speed right now.

"Haha, I did say tonight would be a test run, didn't I? Well, more often than not, my jobs end with a run from the law or some superhero, so I obviously had to test you under pressure and see how you handle it." So she says as we continue to run across the rooftops, and it is apparent that she has just made a bare-faced lie. After all, she knows that I am a clone of Spider-Man and that I have his memories, so it is only natural that I can handle myself under pressure. I really have no clue why she did it.

I can hear sirens in the distance as the police have undoubtedly turned up at the jewellers, a fast response time that amazes me. Peter was not too used to the police being on the ball. After all, they must care more about expensive jewellers than some poor people being accosted in their own neighbourhoods. After all, the higher class don't visit them. They visit the jewellers.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, when we both put our front foot on the edge of the ledge to jump forwards, Felicia changed direction. While I jumped forward to the other building, she did not jump at all and skillfully changed her momentum to change her angle by ninety degrees and go straight down through the gap between the buildings and into the alleyway taking me by surprise.

Skidding on the rooftop, I kick up some of the... whatever the top of roofs are made out of, and I quickly do a one-eighty and turn back to follow her. Of course, I could have just left and gone my own way, but I... actually don't have a good reason, and I am sure there probably is one. Plus, I have already turned around to follow her, and I have jumped to follow her down.

Falling down through the alley, I quickly spot Felicia. She had deployed her grapple to wrap around a pipe in the passage and was now nearing the precipice of her swing, bringing her to a point further down the alley and onto another building. But, of course, I didn't have my web shooters to follow her trajectory because I left them at Felicia's penthouse, not thinking I would need them and not wanting to use them, Spider-Man uses webs, and I am not Spider-Man.

As I fall down, I reach out a hand and press it against the wall attaching myself to it, which changes my momentum as I fall down and then swing towards the wall catching myself with my hands and feet. Then, steadying myself, I detach my hands and stand tall on the side of the wall and then run along it towards Felicia having to go in a diagonal line as I had fallen quite a bit before catching myself, but I am now back on her trail again.

Unfortunately, that was not the end of my troubles as Felicia continued to pull tricky manoeuvres and take long detours as I followed her. Nevertheless, I managed to track her, only falling behind because her pathing was so slippery and hard to predict. I even ended up forgetting about everything else and just focused on following her, actually losing myself in the motion and enjoying the chase.

But I was reminded of the seriousness of the situation when I was following Felicia on a straight stretch across an arch bridge thing connecting two buildings, and out of nowhere, my spider-sense blared out, ringing inside my skull. So without thinking about it and following my instincts, I reach forward and grab Felicia around the waist before jumping off the side of the bridge and reaching my hand out to connect to the side and pull myself underneath the bridge to hide underneath it.

Felicia goes to say something, but I quickly wrap my hand around her mouth, preventing her from speaking. Of course, there were absolutely no police following us by this point in time, and we had been traversing through the city for quite a while with no one pursuing us, which made my spider sense that much more bizarre, but I didn't question it at all.

I wait there in silence with my hand covering Felicia's mouth, and to my surprise, she doesn't even try to free herself. Eventually, my spider-sense calmed down, meaning that the danger had passed, even though I had no inkling of what it was, not even sensing anything or anyone passing through the space around me, but that was fine with me as long as we were safe.

Somehow sensing my relief, Felicia takes this opportunity to act out and bite the hand covering her mouth, making me, by instinct, remove it, giving her the power of speech again. I expect to hear her berate me or shout, which is why I am surprised when she turns her head around.

Instead, she suddenly reaches her hand out to wrap around my head and pull me down into a searing kiss, which is when I realise that I am pressing her body tightly against mine. I am hyper-aware of her ass pushing back against my crotch and my arm wrapped around her slim midsection.

I don't have time to think or realise anything else, though, as I lose myself in the kiss, and I reach my own hand out to the back of her head to pull her deeper into the kiss, feeling her smooth white hair in my palms.