Chapter 25

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.

Chapter 13– Reluctant Thieves.

Edited: 01/04/2023

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"Alright, so let's think this out and come up with a plan, and then we can go from there." We are both now sitting in the living room on our comfy white couches, but we are not in the mood to enjoy the luxury. The Kingpin had only left a little while ago, and it was only after my danger sense had been absent for a good fifteen minutes that we left the bathroom and closed all of the blinds and curtains, preventing anybody from looking in.

After that, I pulled out one of the many gadgets I had made to help us out on our thieving escapades. It is a little detector gizmo that will search the surrounding areas for any cameras or listening devices. So I quickly and entirely silently gave the apartment a quick once over, and thankfully I found a few listening devices, which I immediately destroyed.

"A plan? What plan? He knows who I am, and he knows about my mother. If he knew where I lived, even with me using an alias, then he definitely knows where my mom is. So all we can do is follow whatever Fisk says, and then he will hopefully just leave us alone. that is the only way I can keep my mother safe." Felicia explains resignedly, having convinced herself that this is the only way and that there is nothing else to be done, but there are always options, though they may be unfavourable.

"Listen, Felicia, right now, the only thing I see that they have over us is your mother. She is the sole reason you would be listening to Fisk's commands. Otherwise, you could just ignore him. So we simply remove her from the situation. I am sure you have enough money and enough contacts that you can easily make her a new identity, just like the one you provided me. Then, we can help send her off to another country to live a whole new life, free from Fisk's clutches, and you can just keep doing what you are doing." I explained to her a simple way that we could get out of this, by getting rid of her mother.

"That is not an option. My mother is a strong, stubborn woman. She is a lawyer, after all. She will refuse to leave and prefer to stick it out, adamant about not letting a man scare her away, even a man as scary as Wilson Fisk. And even if we could convince her, what would I say? She would need a good reason to leave, which would mean I would have to reveal what I really do to her. There is no way she would be happy, and she would probably turn me in herself. So, no, we can not do this." She sighs. Clearly, she does not have a good relationship with her mother.

"Alright, clearly, that is not good for you, so let's try the other part of the problem here, which is Fisk himself. Right now, he has the luxury of dealing with you personally and making threats in person, which tells me that he is quite secure right now without many problems. The fact he didn't give you a job outright means he doesn't urgently need anything, so you are not priority number one. So we just need to move you down his list, preferably off his list, which means we need to create bigger problems for him so that he can't bother you anymore." I tell her, and I don't really like it, not only will this one take a lot more work, but Felicia's mother will still be here and still a target, which means we need to take out Fisk fully.

"And what sort of problems can we make for him? Should we burn down more of his warehouses, or maybe we can start messing with the bureaucracies of his legal businesses? Better yet, why don't we dig up some dirt on him and fight fire with fire? Then we can blackmail him and get him to leave my mother and me alone." Felicia offers up a new option, which is definitely the worst option of the bunch because blackmail is going to escalate things.

"We can't do that, Felicia. It is just not a good idea. First of all, a man like Wilson Fisk, who is at the very top of the ladder, is very careful when it comes to scandals, evidence and sensitive information. Either it doesn't exist, or he has it locked up somewhere only he can get to it. And then, even if we do get it, when we use it to threaten him, he isn't just going to take that lying down. He is going to want that evidence back, and we will become his number one priority. he will not rest until he has it back, and we are six feet under." Blackmail, apart from being morally reprehensible, will not be very effective here.

"Then, what the hell are we supposed to do? The guy is just too powerful, and we can't do anything to him. I wish we could just go brain him, but apart from you probably objecting to it, it would b hard to get through all the super-powered minions he undoubtedly has. Argggh!" Felicia picks up a pillow and smashes her face into it, promptly letting out a frustrated scream. I easily ignore the murder threat she made, it is understandable since she is in a stressful situation, plus the fallout that would result from his death would be insane.

"What is the one thing that regularly gets in Fisk's way and disrupts his business?" I ask, to which Felicia pulls her face out of the pillow and gives a shrug, still pretty downcast.

"Superheroes," I say simply, and Felicia's head perks up. Because, really, it makes sense. Fisk's business is crime, and Superheroes' business is to stop crime. Ergo, the superhero's business is to stop Fisk. If we are capable of getting some superheroes to start looking intensely into Kingpin and mess up his operations, then he won't have time for us, and maybe we will get lucky, and they will even lock him up. Felicia obviously understands my line of thinking as her eyes light up, but then they dim a little.

"Okay, I get that, and that makes sense, but the superheroes have obviously been after Fisk for a long time since he is at the head of nearly all organised crime in the city. Fisk may appear clean in the eyes of all the New York citizens, but every superhero in this town worth their salt knows exactly what he is, but they have never even gotten close to taking him down, so what is going to make this time so different?" Felicia brings up an excellent point, but I wouldn't have suggested the idea if I didn't already have a plan in mind.

"Me," I say, to which Felicia stares at me with unamused blank eyes.

"You? What the hell are you going to do?" Felicia questions, and quite rightly so, because guys like Daredevil have been going after Fisk for a long time, so what difference am I going to make?

"We need Fisk to become preoccupied with other things so he won't have time to focus on you or your mother. And it just so happens that I have a wealth of experience being the sort of nuisance that would distract Fisk, as well as very likely giving him an aneurysm." So I explain very clearly in what I am planning to do.

""Wha- Wait, you are planning to go be Spider-Man again, and you are going to start going after Fisk's business? I appreciate the fact that you would be willing to put that costume on again to help me, but what would you be doing differently that the other superheroes and the actual Spider-Man are not?" Felicia catches on quickly, though she got the idea a bit wrong.

"You are wrong. I am not going to go running around as Spider-Man, there is already one, and that is enough. I can just make up some new crappy hero to go out as since it will just be a means to an end. Also, the original didn't really use his brain and just goes out and waits to run into problems. Me, I am going to be the problem, and I am going to be smart about it. I am going to dismantle his business enough that the guys under him are going to start getting ideas and break away from him. he will be too busy dealing with the insurgency to deal with you." I explained, not the best plan, but it will work.

I also plan to collaborate with any other heroes that I might run into. So I can use all the help I can get. Plus, I don't intend to actually be a hero. This is just a facade I am going to wear to use to my advantage, and if I can somehow pass this mission off to Daredevil or Luke Cage or someone, then I will. I am just going to get the ball rolling, and then I can hand it off to the others. As long as Fisk is busy, then I don't care how it is being done or by who.

"Okay, alright, this is good. I feel good about this. So the both of us will go and start messing about with Fisk's business, break it till he has to focus on that, and then my mom and I will be home free." Felicia excitedly states, ecstatic that there is now a light at the end of the tunnel.

"No, it is just me that is going to bust up his business, and I am going to come up with an entirely new costume for it as well. We need to make sure there is no connection between this new superhero and you because if Fisk finds out, then he will definitely carry out his threats. You will be going about your business and doing any job that he asks. Hopefully, he won't give you too many jobs before I complete my bit." Felicia nods at my words, and then we sit there in silence for a moment.

"Alright, we should get some rest. Tomorrow is a big day. We have to set everything in motion and get this thing going, so get some sleep, Felicia. We will start dealing with this stuff tomorrow." I say, standing up and walking past her, heading towards my room.

"Ben..." I stop as I hear her, a particular vulnerability in her voice that I have never heard before. I look back at her. "Thank you for helping me... even though I don't deserve it."

I simply nod at her and then walk off into my room, closing the door behind me. I fall back onto my bed and stare up at the ceiling, contemplating my life right now, my actions going forward, and where I am going to go after this.

Tomorrow I will start dealing with this whole situation, and then once that is over, I am going to leave. What am I going to do after that? One thing is for sure, I am leaving New York. Too much shit goes down here. It is the literal epicentre of invasions and bad shit, so I need to leave. Maybe I can go to university, get some good qualifications and degrees, and then I can open up a business, finally use this brain that Peter just refuses to do.

Perhaps I will leave America entirely, maybe go to England and attend Cambridge, start an altogether brand new life there, where there is no chance of someone discovering my origins and a whole lot less super shenanigans going on. Then, I can be anything and do anything. Maybe I might even cash in on my physical ability and become an athlete or something. But, unfortunately, I am a lot less morally scrupulous than Peter.

The world is my oyster. Just as soon as I can wedge my way out of the shits creek that is New York.