New Home
It is late Sunday night, and I have school early tomorrow morning, but instead of sleeping comfortably in my bed, I am instead currently trying to escape a horde of angry men with guns, all loyal to Kingpin.
By my side is a silver-haired woman wearing a tight leather costume, similarly running for her life, but compared to me, she seems to be enjoying the situation much more.
"Why are you smiling so widely right now, you crazy woman!" I yell as another bullet whizzed past my head.
"Oh, come on, aren't you having fun right now?"
How did I get into this situation…
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[Flashback to earlier that evening]
I let out a sigh while putting down the last box in my new bedroom. Carrying things might not exactly be heavy for me, but moving is still exhausting. That being said time to start unpacking.
I had finally bought my own apartment and moved out to live by myself, leaving May behind at the old house.
It took a bit of convincing for her to let me go but eventually, she agreed when I said I just wanted to try being more independent. I'm 18 years old, so I could have left even without her permission, but I didn't want to leave on a sour note since I did feel just a tad bad leaving her completely alone.
The home I bought was in a fairly modern apartment complex, only built a year ago, which means the quality was more than satisfactory. The main reason I chose this place was not only because it's nice to look at but also because it is on the very top floor of a relatively tall building and I have full access to the roof, which means it is easy for me to go out on my patrol as Spiderman.
There are a few other apartments on this floor that have access to the roof, but since there is nothing there, I doubt anyone else would ever bother even taking a look. It should be enough to hide me being Spiderman, at least until I am strong enough to not care about wearing a mask anymore.
Since the apartment was pre-furnished and I didn't own much other than my clothes, computer, and a few books, I was able to get everything unpacked in a short manner of time. Putting away the last of my clothes into the closet, I hear some unexpected knocking on my front door.
I quickly checked my phone to see if either Gwen or May had sent me a message that they would be visiting since they are the only people who know I have moved here, but I see no such messages. Who else would want to visit me right now?
Going ahead and opening the door to investigate, I am met with a woman around my age standing on the other side. She has brown hair and green eyes and, for some reason, is carrying a small cake in her hands.
"Hello?" I greet her while in my head going through all the possibilities on why this random woman would be knocking on my door at this moment.
"Good evening. Are you the person that just moved in here? I saw that the 'for sale' sign was taken down yesterday. " She asks me with a bright smile.
"That's me, yeah," I say, and she presents the cake she was holding, practically pushing it into my hands.
"That's great, you know I just moved into the apartment next to yours last month. Most of the other people living here are rich old couples who seem to have a grudge against me, so I was hoping someone friendlier would move in." She explains, "Do you mind if I come in? Or perhaps are you busy with moving still?"
Eh? Why does she suddenly want to come in? Well, I guess she did bring a cake and come to meet me on her own accord, so it would be rude to just say no. I wasn't planning on doing anything of importance regardless, so why not get acquainted with a new neighbor.
I step out of the way. "Not at all, come right in."
She walks in, and I push the door closed behind her and head into the kitchen with the cake as she sits down at the couch in the living room that is connected to the kitchen with no wall in between the two rooms.
Since she brought a cake she probably wants to eat it with me, should I make tea or something? Clearly, I'm not very proficient in hosting guests…
I quickly fill a teapot with water. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to get it ready. While doing that, I notice that the woman is looking around the entire room with evident interest but seems a bit disappointed.
Hey, I know the place is barren, okay, I just haven't gotten around to decorating yet!
An uncomfortable silence had broken out between us as she was busy inspecting the room, and I was preparing the tea, so I decided to strike up a conversation. "You said everyone else living here have some sort of a grudge against you. You think they will dislike me too?"
My question brings her attention back from the room design to me. "I doubt it. My situation was a bit unlucky."
"What do you mean by unlucky?"
After taking a moment to think, she answers, "Right after I moved in, all of them started getting robbed randomly, and since it didn't happen before I moved in, they all just started blaming me for it."
"Looks like they just needed a scapegoat," I say, and she nods in agreement.
I cut out two pieces from the cake and put them on plates, handing one over to the woman. "Can I ask if by any chance you are a student? I'm asking because you look about my age, but other than myself, I don't know many students who live alone."
I go back to the kitchen to pour the hot water into two cups and add teabags into both since that's the only way I know how to make tea.
"Not yet, actually. I just moved back to the United States a bit over a month ago, so I've been looking for a school to join while working. I'm planning on joining Bayville sometime soon, though." She says.
Bringing over the tea, I hand one cup over to her and sit down across from her with my own cup. "Oh, no way, I'm also going to Bayville. If you need someone to give you a tour once you start studying there, feel free to find me, my name is Peter Parker, by the way." I say and take a sip of my tea.
"I'll be sure to do that once I begin my studies again. My name is Felicia Hardy."
I choke on my tea. I'm sorry, what did you say?
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[Name - Felicia Hardy (Black Cat)]
[Level - 27]
[HP - 590 / 590]
[Description - A seemingly ordinary woman that likes to dress up as a cat and steal things.]
[Affiliation - None]
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"Are you okay? Did something I say surprise you?" She asks, seeing me choke.
Coughing a few times to clear my throat, I say, "No, I'm fine, stupid brain just forgot how to consume liquids for a moment."
Why the heck is the Black Cat my neighbor? What sort of rotten luck is this… now I have to be even more careful when going out or returning from my spiderman duties.
And wait you totally robbed everyone in this building! Also didn't she visit just to eye up my place as a potential target? Jokes on her I have nothing of value here.
The two of us continued to chat for a while longer after that, and I tried to act normal throughout the whole time as if I didn't know her secret identity.
Most of our conversation was about rather unimportant topics, the usual small talk, but one thing I did learn about her is that before coming to New York a month ago, she used to live in London with her father, but due to circumstances, she didn't want to talk about they decided to split, and she moved to the US.
Finally, after finishing two pieces of cake, she said her goodbyes and took her leave, saying she had 'some work to do later tonight.'
Obviously, I had my suspicions about that, so I decided to wait and see if she would go out as Black Cat that night, and sure enough, at about 2 AM, while looking out the window, I noticed a certain someone jumping from the roof of this building.
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Note: While writing this chapter, I suddenly realized that the amount of health given to some people just doesn't make sense, along with the damage Peter can dish out with the basic mana bolt spell.
Theoretically, he can do nearly 4000 damage a minute right now while most people don't have anything near that.
In a few chapters, I will probably do a short 0.3.1 system update that will rebalance hp, on average it will give everyone, including Peter, more HP while nerfing the mana bolt spell…a bit.
Anyways, oops about that.