Chapter 24

"I will contact you at a later date with a job, so just wait until then. And you can even bring that friend of yours along, though you will have to pay him out of your own pocket." Fisk states while getting up off the couch and walking towards the door, dismissing my existence entirely.

"But, he also stole from you. And he is a superhuman. Surely he would also be of use to you. Why do you need me? I am just a normal ordinary person." I narrow my eyes when Felicia tries to get me involved with this situation and brings me to Fisk's attention. Still, my eyes soften as I realise that she is just trying to protect her mother, and while I am understandably still angry, I can understand. I would do anything for Aunt May, even if I am no longer a part of her life. If I learned that she needed me right now, I would drop everything and run to her, so I could understand why Felicia just did what she did.

"Because, Miss Hardy, right now I need a thief. And people with super strength are a dime a dozen these days. I can find much more qualified and skilled people than your friend. Now, I will contact you soon. Goodbye, Miss Hardy." Fisk says at the door before opening it and exiting the room, closing the door quietly behind him, leaving Felicia alone in the room with me watching her from the vent.

But even though Fisk has left our apartment, the danger I am sensing has not diminished in the slightest. Therefore Bullseye is most definitely still looking in on this apartment and watching Felicia through the scope of his sniper rifle. If I hop out of the vent now, then I may escalate the situation, and he will probably start firing, so I will just stay put here and wait, but if that takes too long, then I will backtrack and go out of the way I came.

Felicia seems to deflate and falls back onto the couch, closing her eyes and letting out a deep sigh before she opens them again. She glances towards the balcony, likely waiting for me to show up, before she closes her eyes again.

We stay like this, with her occasionally looking towards the balcony and myself waiting in this vent and holding on till the danger rescinds, and finally, it does. Fisk must have left the building, and Bullseye is following him. So when the threat is completely gone, I give it another minute or so before pushing the vent out, sending it clattering to the ground and hopping out, startling Felicia due to the sudden noise.

"OH, MY- What the fuck are you doing hiding in the vents, B-" I quickly shoot across the room and grab her, holding her mouth closed and preventing her from speaking. She looks into my eyes while I look back dead serious and bring a finger up to my mouth, signalling for her to keep quiet. She nods her head, and I motion for her to follow me. I walk towards the bathroom and turn on the shower, drowning out all other noises.

"So, is there a reason why you dragged me to the bathroom and turned on the shower because I am not getting in there with you? Also, where the hell were you, and what the hell were you doing in the vent?" Felicia questions when I signal that it is alright to talk.

"I brought you into here and turned on the shower because we don't know if Fisk planted any listening devices anywhere, and the shower will drown out the noise we make. Now-" I try to continue, but Felicia cuts me off.

"Wait, how do you know about Fisk?" Felicia questions worriedly, and I sigh before quickly explaining.

"When we were on the way back home, my danger sense suddenly reacted-"

"Your spider-sense." Felicia intersects.

"That was a term for Spider-Man, which I am not, so it is now danger sense. Anyway, my danger sense reacted, and I tried to find the source, and I figured out it was coming from our apartment, but by that point, you had already entered, so I crawled through the vents to our apartment, and then I waited in case you would need me to act if things took a turn for the worse." I tell her, and I see realisation slowly bloom on her face and then panic and shame.

"So, you heard me..." Felicia mumbles out, to which I silently nod.

"I am so sorry, Ben, he threatened my mother, and I panicked, and I just started talking, doing anything to keep him from hurting her, and I tried to use you for that. It was the only thing I could think of. I really am sorry, Ben, I..." She immediately apologises and tries to explain herself, but then she stops, and before I can even do anything, she runs out of the bathroom.

I stand there silently, just listening to the shower and the water hitting the porcelain, contemplating where I go from here since Felicia just ran away, ashamed. I stay for a moment longer before I decide to leave, go get my stuff and exit, and so I walk to the door and open it before walking out. I have enough money now that I can figure something out and start going my own way and-

I was walking out of the doorway when Felicia came out of nowhere, pushed me back in, and closed the door behind her, keeping us both in the bathroom. I frown at her, confused as to what she is doing, but I don't say anything waiting for her to explain. My danger sense hasn't gone off, so she doesn't mean me any harm, and I can see she has a package tightly gripped in her hand.

"Here, this is yours... Just... open it." She pushes the package against my chest and lets it go. I grab hold of it and then look down at the item with caution before looking back up at Felicia, who is watching me sadly. Sighing, I open the package and pull out the contents inside and, seeing the first document, I quickly begin to paw through the rest of it, shocked at what was just handed to me.

"This is..." I mumble out, unable to even finish my sentence, so stunned at what Felicia had just given to me, gifted to me. This was one of my most important goals, and I had yet to learn about how to go about getting it, or rather, getting such a good version of it, and yet Felicia has just handed it to me.

"I know this was something you needed, and I know this was practically the only reason you chose a career of crime and to come be a thief with me. I just got this from my contact a few days ago, and I had been meaning to give it to you, but I was afraid you would leave, which doesn't matter since you are going now anyway." Felicia says, and I can see her eyes start to get a little teary. I go to say something, but she charges forward and continues to talk.

I, uh, I had to guess your age, but I put it around the age where you would be in college... or university. I gave you a 4.0 GPA in every science subject and all of the ah, techy subjects. As for the others... I gave you good grades. I also got you a driver's license and everything else that you could possibly need. There is also a passport in there... if you maybe want to leave the country. With this, you... you can do whatever you want, wherever you want, and you have enough money to get started." Felicia starts to ramble, stutteringly explaining what she gave me even though I have already seen it for myself.

"Felicia, I... Thank you." I say this simply because I really don't have the words to describe the gratitude I feel for her right now. I am a living, breathing person with my own thoughts and beliefs, but I am also a clone, and as a clone, I have no proof of existence or identity, nothing to tell the world I existed. And without ID, in a world like the one we are in today, you really don't have many options, and you have to deal with that.

Miles Warren, the mad bastard, gave me the gift of life, but Felicia, she gave me the gift of freedom and opportunity. Right now, I am free to do whatever I want in this world, and I have enough money to do it as well. I could go to university, I could go to another country entirely, and I could get a loan and start a business with the excellent credit Felicia gave me. Literally, no doors are closed to me. I can do anything.

"It is fine, please don't thank me. I had this, and I wasn't going to give it to you, and then I tried to use you as leverage to better my own position and help my mother. So just take it and make a new life for yourself, a better one, and I hope someday in the future, we can still be whatever it is we are now." Felicia says before moving to the left and opening the door, leaving the way out open to me, fully expecting me to go through it and go live my life.

I walk forward towards the door, and then I reach out and grasp the handle and shut it before turning around and looking at Felicia. "Felicia, I am not leaving."

W-What?" She says, taken by surprise as I walk up to her.

"I am not leaving you in such a shitty situation all by yourself, Felicia." I tell her as she looks at me, shocked, the tears still in her eyes yet refusing to come out.

"But why?" She questions, and to be honest, the answer is quite clear. While I am still a bit miffed that she tried to offer me up, I can understand her situation and the tricky position she was put in. Also, it was my fault that she was put in such a situation, and it would not be fair for me to leave now.

"Because it is my fault that you have been put in this position. I was the one who burnt down that warehouse, and I broke apart my fair share of the guys in that place. And while you might have been the one to break Montanna's legs, The Enforcers would not have come after us if I didn't do the last two things. So I am going to help you and protect your mother because this is as much your problem as mine." So I say to which Felicia looks down at the ground, and I see her shoulders begin to shack before she lunges forward and hugs me tight.

"...Thank you." She mumbles out while I just hug her back.

I know I had reservations about stealing from people that didn't deserve it, but the sort of things that fisk would want won't belong to people that cannot afford the loss. So I can do this, and the only way that I might refuse and try to stop Fisk would be if the item he wants is incredibly dangerous and may harm a lot of people.

I can leave and start my life after I have sorted this Fisk business out, but right now, I need to focus on solving this problem.