Spider-Man: Duty and Loss Chapter 25: Jewel Robbery

"See you later Laura." Peter waved goodbye as he made his way out to patrol. The relationship between the two had been growing recently. Peter wasn't sure exactly why, but after Aunt Mays' birthday came and went, Laura started to act nicer to him.

There was also a look in her eyes that he had caught once that had unsettled him; it was a look of understanding that had never been there before. But Peter being Peter, he put it to that back of his head and didn't think anything of it.

Instead Peter was actually quite happy that she was talking a lot more. There conversations didn't always start with Peter bringing up something. But of course they still weren't close enough to share their personal stories.

Laura would only ever say that the people she used to 'live' with treated her like a tool to be used. This raised even more question for Peter as he had seen her fight once. 'What type of tool were they trying to use' That was the small thought that he had, but he left well enough alone, when she was ready she would talk to him. Just like how he didn't talk about his life much.

Getting relatively close to the park and finding an alley way to change it wasn't long before Peter was swinging around doing his duty for the lovely people of New York. Though sometimes Peter wonders about how wonderful they are, seeing as no matter what he does there are always so many criminals about.

Actually Peter always wondered why they kept doing business with him around, being one of the first heroes' to appear; there was a lot of business elsewhere. But of course now with more people turning up to keep the peace in different cities, it didn't matter.

But then again not many places had 2 super hero groups and about 4-5 vigilante super heroes. Peter thought about this as he once again stopped a mugging, carjacking and bank robbery. It was the third robber of the week! When would they learn? Especially since he started being more active recently.

*Sigh* Peter let out a small sigh as Crystal spoke over the comms. "Peter, it seems that there is a jewelry theft down town, sending the address now." "Thanks Crystal" Peter screamed as he felt the rush of the wind go by him as he was mid swing. Pulling himself back up he changed course, but crystal wasn't done yet. "I've hacked their cameras and assessed their systems; it looks like a certain 'cat' could be the perpetrator."

Peter almost fumbled mid swing as he heard Crystal's words, and soon enough stopped on a roof. He still wasn't at the scene of the crime. "You sure?" Peter's voice turned somber as he asked. "There is an 82% chance that it is her." Peter's body looked as if he didn't want to go to the area anymore as he stood for a solid minute thinking of his decision.

Finally after a long though process Peter threw out his hand. *Thwip* Webbed to a different building and continued on his way. His mind was a jumble of mess as he thought of one specific person that had disappeared right around when the Battel of New York happened. He honestly didn't think she would be coming back.

Even though Crystal was rarely wrong, Peter hoped somewhat that she was mistaken, and that Black Cat wasn't there. *Shake* Shaking his head to clear his thoughts as the wind whipped past, Peter finally came up on the building.

Landing on the roof top he stared down the glass window on top and saw that it had been broken with pieces of gear all over the place. Gear for people to repel down. He lamented in his head how every jewel was kept in some building with a bloody glass roof overhead. A stupid idea when there were so many thieves that used them.

Walking up and making sure that there were people still in side, he quickly cased out the room. The alarm was a silent one so there was no noise in the building as he slowly crawled down one of the walls. Using his enhanced hearing and pinpointing a group of people and the sound of breaking glass, Peter moved closer.

Finally the light from a torch caught his eye as he followed it into a big room. Seeing the 5 men that were going around the place smashing up the cases and stuffing jewelry into duffel bags, Peter wanted to make a quip about how cliché this was but decided to use his element of surprise and stealth.

At the same time he also gave a small sigh of relief as he didn't catch sight of a certain platinum haired sexy woman with a thing for skin tight leather and red lipstick. "ohh and I shouldn't forget the sharp claws, never forget those' Peter thought to himself.

Crawling above the wannabe thieves Peter set his plan into motion. *Thwip* *Thwip* With 2 well aimed webs, one to shut up the person and the other to pull them up, Peter quickly pulled someone to the roof where they were then wrapped in a cocoon of webbing and stuck there.

No sound was made as the other went on with what they were doing. *Thwip**Thwip**Thwip**Thwip* Very quickly there were only 2 people left in the group of 5, and with the reduction in noise they finally realized something was wrong.

Pulling out 2 guns they looked around and realized that their comrades were gone. "Shit where are they??" "It wasn't the devil of Hell's kitchen was it? I heard he drags his victims to hell." *Smack* The one who was scarred shitless was smacked upside the head for his comment. "You idiot Jacob, we're nowhere near the devils territory." The more level headed one responded quickly as his flash light moved around from place to place.

"Yeah he's right, you're in my territory, aka the whole of New York is inside my Web." Peter's voice finally came from their surroundings. "Ohh crap it's the bug!" *Thwip* "That's not nice." Snatching one up, a quick blow to the head knocked him out.

Finally Jacob was the only one left, he was shivering in his pats as he located his friends in cocoons above him. "Arghhhh!" *Bang* *Bang* Screaming and running in fear Jacob fired at random as he tried to escape.

*Hup* *Bang* Landing in front of the scared man and cracking the ground slightly, Peter rose to his full height in as much menace as he could muster and in a deep voice talked."Boo!" "Arghhhh!!!!" Jacob screamed again and turned to get away, of course there was a newly placed bar at head height right behind him, hanging to the wall thanks to a strand of webbing.

*Crash* And with that the thug knocked himself out. "Hahahah" Laughing his ass off after watching the man knock himself out, Peter went around taking down the people in cocoons and cleaning up the area slightly. With that done, he went back to the way he came in and fired a web up.

Crawling quickly to reach the glass and make it to the roof, just as he was about to swing off, a feminine voice behind him spoke. "I set this up to draw you out, and you were about to leave before I could even say hi." The voice spoke playfully as Peter's body froze mid motion. He could hear the mocking pout in her voice, but underneath he could also hear some concern.

In his head Peters first thought was 'So Crystal was right' before it started to devolve into other things. Without turning around Peter spoke quietly. "Felicia."

Chapter end