The Cat and the claw

1 month later...

The New York Bank, located near the center of New York City, was seemingly surrounded by the NYPD due to a heist that was currently ongoing.

"What should we do about the robbers, sir? It's been confirmed by the bank security footage that there are only 6 robbers inside the bank." A police officer nervously asked his caption George Stacy for their next plan of actions.

"Right now, all we can do is wait if we don't want to endanger the lives of the hostages."

George Stacy, a man in his early fourties with whitening blonde hair grimly responded. However, unbeknownst to him or the police force, a figure blitzed past the force and into the building.

Inside the building, the hostages were terrified and on their knees with their hands behind their head with a single robber guarding and keeping an eye on them while the other were in the vault room trying to open the, you guessed it, vault.

"For fucks sake, why the hell is this taking so long? If your work were my periods, I'd be pregnant by now." A female robber irritatedly asked the male robber who was trying to open the vault.

"Yeah well-"

"Cut it out Maria and James, hurry it up." A third robber who appears to be their leader stopped their bantering from escalating any further while rest chuckled at their actics.

As the vault was finally opened by James, the robbers were delighted to see the money in front of them. Adrenaline pumped through their veins from the sheer excitement.

"Aaaaaah!!!" However, Before they could do anything a scream was heard from behind them. As they turned around with their guns pointing in the direction of the scream, they saw their teammate was webbed up in a cocoon on the roof of the room.

Confused thoughts ran in their heads leading up to a single conclusion.

'Spider-Man' They all thought united before pointing their gun in every direction on the room trying to find thier spider assailant.

"Aaaaaah!!!" Another scream interrupted their actions as they saw another one of their teammates webbed up to a wall.

"Shit! back to back, circle up. It's Spider man" Their leader ordered his remaining two teammates. They had their back against each other to avoid any other surprise assault from the vigilante.

"Geez guys, It's Scarlet Spider not Spider Man." A exasperated comment from their top was heard by the robbers.

Quickly pointing their guns on their top, they saw their assailant clad in a red and black suit with red eyes and big black spider on his chest jumping on top of their teammate faster than the human eye could see, knocking him out cold.

Terrified but still having some composure left, the remaining two robbers started shooting at their assailant wanting to kill him. However, Scarlet Spider dodged their ammunitions fluidly like he saw those bullets in slow-motion or something.

Now out of bullets, they started to reload while meekly moving backwards. Scarlet Spider attached his webs to one of the assailants, throwing his against the wall behind him and webbing him up.

Just as the last robber finished robbing, Scarlet spider lunged at him, slamming him against the wall next to the vault not giving him time to shoot. The impact on him head as he got slammed aginst the wall knocked him out cold.

"This was the last of them, now there's just one left guarding the hostages." Scarlet Spider whispered to himself as he got ready to leave the room to finish off the last robber and reach school. Hopefully, not late.

However, he saw a figure in a leather suit with white furs at end with platinum blonde hair and Domino mask with blue eyes casually taking something from the vault.

"Behind you, bug boy" The figure warned the spider in a cheshire grin just as his spider sense activated, warning him of the incoming danger from behind.

Jumping to side just in time to avoid the bullets shooted by the last robber who had left his post after he heard gunfires from inside the room, Scarlet Spider lunged forward, taking a fast and fluid step at the robber, dodging his bullets in a zigzag motion.

The spider knocked the robber out cold with a punch to his jaw and then webbed him to the floor just as the unknown theif ran past him and towards the direction of the elevator which lead ip to the roof.

The spider ran after her to try and catch her but he was not fast enough as the elevator gate closed in front of his face.

"What a drag." Scarlet Spider muttered incoherently to himself before taking another route to the roof.

The elevator gates opened and the unknown theif walked on the roof elegantly.

"Without a scratch..." The theif said aloud visibly pleased with herself.

"So far..." The voice of another person from besides her startled her as she turned around to see Scarlet Spider who wad sitting on the edge of the roof.

"That doesn't belong to you. So why don't you just return it and surrender yourself to the police." The spider said sounding tired.

"I was wondering if we'd cross paths. I wanted to see the new spider, the old one was just boring." The theif said flirty.

"You broke the law. Here I am."

"Cut the shit, 'The Law', don't tell me that's why you do all... this?" The theif scoffed and asked mockingly.

"The city needs a protector, someone to hunt down people like you."

"So that makes me, what, a villian? Sounds fun." She said grininge while the spider slowly started to circle around her.

"Gotta admit it though- you give a good chase. One day you might actually catch me."

"Tonight."

"Don't you know not to corner a wild animal? It's dangerous."

"Then let's put you in a cage."

"Bring it, spider." She said before revealing her claws.

She lunged towards Scarlet Spider in an attempt to slash his face but he easily dodged her attack.

Despite the speed and power of cat burglar attacks, Scarlet Spider was easily able to persist against her. Through each punch, kick, slash and throw that the spider faced, his steps, his shifts, his movements were all becoming faster and sharper.

His improvement was at a speed that could be easily discernible even to one not trained in combat.

"You don't talk much, do you?" Another kick was aimed towards his face. As he dodged that kick, the theif tried to do a low sweep in order to make him lose his balance but he also dodged that attack by jumping.

"Talking's not really my thing." The spider finally retaliated by throwing a well timed punch at her face that would surely leave a black eye.

"Tch" The cat burglar clicked her tongue in anger and then tried to punch his face. The attack connected surprising the spider who was caught off guard because his spider sense seemingly stopped working.

Seeing the opportunity, the theif ran and tried to jump off to another building but was stopped by the Scarlet Spider who now after getting over his initial shock attached his web to her back and slammed her against the wall next to him.

The theif cut the web attached to her back and stood up now facing the Scarlet Spider.

The two stood in front of each other waiting for the other one to attack.

"Why go to all the trouble for this?" The spider asked holding up a pen drive between his fingers.

"When did you- shit." The burglar's eyes widened seeing the artifact she was trying to steal now in the hands of the vigilante.

The opening of the door next to them interrupted them as several police officers along with captain Stacy entered the roof and pointed their guns at them ready to shoot.

One of the police officers tried to take a shot at both of them but was stopped by their captain.

"WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! Do not shoot!" Captain Stacy ordered his men not wanting them to shoot the vigilante along with the theif.

Ignoring them, Scarlet Spider took a few steps toward the cat burglar who also in turn slowly backed away.

The spider however, stopped when his spider sense activated warning him of the incoming danger as one of the police officers disobeyed his captain's order and fired at the vigilante who dodged in the nick of time.

"Goddamit! I said don't shoot!" Captain Stacy took his subordinate's gun away in anger that he had directly disobeyed his command.

Scarlet Spider regarded them for a moment.

The theif on the other hand took the opportunity and once again tried to jump off to another building but another bullet shot by a scared police officer interrupted her jump.

Her fall broke mid-air due to the early jump she had to take to avoid the bullter.

"No!" The spider ran after her and also jumped off the building in an attempt to save her.

As the both of them were falling to their deaths, the vigilante made his way to her and grabbed her wrists and sticked his other hand to the wall.

"Guess I was wrong about you catching me." The theif grunted and said aloud as she looked up to the spider.

"Don't struggle or you will fall."

"But thats what you crave- the struggle. I know men like you." The spider pulled her up just as she finished talking, her face being only inches apart from that of the spider's.

The eyes seemingly gazing through the spider.

"Bye, spider." Winking, the cat slashed the spider's cheek and a grapling hook emerged from the fur on her gloves.

The cat grappled away but the spider didn't follow her. He wanted to follow her but he was late for a hellhole people called school.

The spider swinged towards an alley near his school where there was a bag webbed to the wall.

The vigilante took off his mask revealing a very handsome indivisual but he had a slash mark across his face.

He then wore his normal clothes on top of his costume after taking off his gloves and web shooters and putting them in his bag.

He ran towards his school as fast as he could avoiding many pedestrians but he was not fast enough.

Arriving late to class, he opened the door to see that the first period had already started just as another late student stood next to him.

"You are late, Miss Hardy and Mr Osborn. What are your excuses?" The teacher asked curtly.

"I got mugged on the way."The figure next to him, now revealing herself to be Felicia Hardy replied in a impassive tone.

"And you Mr Osborn, were you mugged by a cat on you way to school if the slash mark on your face is any indication?"

"No, I uh.. got lost... on the path of life."

"Seeing that this is the first time both of you are late to class, I will not take any strict actions but make sure that this kind of action does not happen again." After eyeing them for a minute, the teacher spoke with conviction.

Both of them while walking to their desks observed each other. Both of them had the exact same wound on their face that they had inflicted with their masks on.

To be continued...