2012-11-03 A Threeway Confrontation

Since Scarlet Spider had already gotten his half of the diamonds, there was only one way to make sure his current roommate (if that's what you could call her) would follow him to meet with this 'The Spider.'

So casually as anything, he knicked her diamonds while she was in the shower and left her a note to 'Catch him if she could.' He gave himself the head start only because he knew from experience that their powers didn't interact well if they were working together... or against each other he assumed.

Good Luck Bad Luck = No Luck... and usually crashing into each other. And not in that fun way they'd done a few times now. No this was much more painful... well, slightly more painful.

However he was also making sure to make his path rather obvious, he wanted to make it seem like a game to Cat, so he had left his spikes in various walls and rooftops to give her an idea of where he had gone. He just hoped that this 'The Spider' would show.

Black Cat finished her shower a few minutes later. She was getting ready to sell off the remaining diamonds to her "appraiser" (which was partially true, he appraised many of her items and was intending on selling these jewels to various buyers for a modest fee. Black Cat was a thief not a vendor). She was attaching her earrings and half-dressed when she went into her bedroom to take another peak at the diamonds, they shone so brilliantly in the morning light.

She gasped when she saw the note. Black Cat did not appreciate Longshot's "Flirts". What a piece of work. She cursed his good looks and ran into her wardrobe to quickly throw on her Black Cat garb.

And within a few more moments, Black Cat was grappling out of her apartment window. And with damp hair.

Slipping back into the place was a pain. People usually weren't fans with masked strangers returning things that were stolen. You easily got associated with the crowd that took them, good intention or not. Ususally because of the mask.

Still it went without a hitch, and before long Scarlet Spider was swinging up high. Landing onto a rooftop he smiled underneath the mask. Deep down it felt good to do the right thing. If Scarlet was a different man...he would have kept the diamonds.

His gaze went over the rooftops and he saw a familiar sight, "Star-Ma-," he caught himself, "Longshot?!" Scarlet cried out. The man was in the distance, but few blonde haired men with leather jumpsuits took to rooftops.

Longshot literally skidded to a halt at the edge of a roof as his eye began to glow again making sure that he didn't tumble over the edge. He backflipped from his location and smiled and waved up to this Spider person, "Hello again! She should be here in a bit so I'd hide until it's dramatically appropriate. You get better ratings that way. The critics love it, too!"

Longshot had no idea why he said that, just seemed right. Maybe its because he's been watching Felicia's TV. He seemed to 'get' TV. Only thing he seems to really understand at all.

Ben Reilly looking at Longshot, "Bowie convention, next weekend...you'll get along great there Major," he quipped then gave the idea a thought. "Alright Mr. Spielberg, just keep the camera going for my close up," jumping down between a building Scarlet jus twaited to see what was going to happen. This was Longshot's show and the guy obviously had some kind of plan.

Longshot smiled and winked at the Scarlet Spider. This... this stuff felt so familiar to him. Dangerous situations with friends and allies back-stabbing each other here and there and everywhere. Never knowing who to trust or what move they'll make.

He ran towards a chimney and flipped against it, barely catching the edge with his fingers and then he pulled himself up to the top of the chimney. He would be easily visible now. He just had to wait for the fiesty feline to show up.

Black Cat had been tracking his knife patterns through the city. It had been fairly easy to determine which direction he was heading. The man was certainly lucky, but that didn't necessarily make him stealthy. Of course, this all really could be a game of tag. It was cute, but really not appreciated before her morning coffee.

And after some tracking she came across the blonde devil sitting on top of a chimney. She landed onto the roof below him and placed a hand on her hip, as she sighed. Black Cat shook her head, "Naughty naughty little kitten. I'm going to need those back."

"Well to be honest Cat, there's something we need to talk about. -All- of us actually," He looked over to where the Scarlet Spider had hidden and said, "Ain't that right, Mr. The Spider."

"And come on down and tell him what he's won!" Scarlet cried out as he swung upward like a pole vaulter. A grin could be heard in his voice as he was in the air, "Someone's been a naughty kitty and it's not Mister Bowie over here, but he is a cool cat."

Landing on the roof top to form a triangle between the three he waved to Black Cat, "You didn't return my calls...now I see why...," he gestured back to Longshot. Despite the humor there was a small twinge of hurt. He bowed his head, "I know...I know...I can't pull off the Earthling look as good as he can...but I can hit the gym...lift up Boeing's....bulk up," he flexes a little and the man was already firm. After a moment he pushed up against the muscle with a finger to try and make it look bigger. Again the man stopped once a few seconds passed, "And I thought we had a moment Pretty Kitty..."

Black Cat rolled her eyes but had a smirk on her face as she circled around the Spider, but she would casually glance up at Longshot as well. This was certainly a surprising turn of events for the day. Her now ex-"Roomate" and one of the newfound spandex-clad heroes have made some sort of team-up. Delightful. This is why she preferred solo gigs with her team any day.

She purred to the Spider, "I'm not the kind of girl who goes steady after one date, Spider. Longshot, that was cute but I'm going to need my bag back. I did appreciate the cardio, though."

Ben Reilly "Sorry Kitty Cat...but those weren't yours...just like that last piece of jewelry the cops think I have," he said stepping up to the woman. Dressed in tight black leather or not, she wasn't going to pull the fast one she did last time...hopefully. For all Scarlet knew this could have been a ruse. Longshot could have been a double-agent of sorts.

"We can still have fun...I just don't want to see your pretty face got shot," he tried to caress her face affectionately. Smiling, "Besides...I'm sure you got things...I don't want to know about that will leave you well off...Why do you need all of these diamonds, Kitty Cat?"

Starring at the woman he smiled underneath the costume, "You like the thrill...the caper, I get it. Legally speaking...I can't let you do that beautiful...Sorry...thems the bricks."

Black Cat reached forward to pull up the Scarlet Spider's Mask as a distraction while she flipped over him to jump towards Longshot. She was attracted to the Spider, there was no question about that. But self-righteous heroes? Not exactly her type. Black Cat nearly knocked Longshot off of the chimney when she landed, she asked breathily, "WHERE is my take, hun? Momma needs to start her retirement plan.one day. Not today. But still!"

A "thwp" cut through the air and webbing clung to Longshot's back and a second later he was flung toward Scarlet as the Spider pulled the blond toward him. Jumping toward Black Cat, Scarlet didn't bother pulling downt he exposed mask...yet. With half of his lower face exposed it was time to go for broke. He kissed her hard then before she could retaliate, jumped over her like she had done to him.

Midjump Scarlet pulled down the mask and he grinned underneath, "Can't blame a guy for trying, right?" A few shots of webbing went toward the cat. The kiss was meant to confuse and well...Scarlet thought any possible...whatever heroes and villains did when they weren't playing cat and mouse, probably just went out the window. His face told the story of someone young but still legal. Apparently Villains hated it when you teamed up with roommates he could have been boyfriends, to get back the diamonds you stole from somebody.

Longshot really didn't know how he was going to come down on this. On one hand. Black Cat was hot. And they fit together in a lot of ways, some physical, some not.

On the other hand, the Spider was nice enough to tell him that he was doing wrong things, and he was rather funny to boot.

Then again the Spider really did remind him of the monsters he fought. But then, Black Cat did a bit too. She was just nicer about it than the Spider.

This was a hard decision. Who to side with in all of this. He was going to have to think. So he sat down on the side edge of the building and folded his arms across his chest and started to wonder. Who's side was he on?

Black Cat had her trusty bad luck powers do the trick, as one of the Spider's web shooter's temporarily jam out. And with that Black Cat was able to dodge the majority of the stream. He was a good kisser, but at the current moment she was on her guard. She landed on all fours on the ground, she let out a purr, "Ooh. /This/ spider plays it dirty. Well. Clearly you boys have made nice, and that's great! I'm not one to get in the middle of a blooming broship."

She glanced back at Longshot, who seemed to be benched at the moment, "I'd rather not get in the way."

Longshot rose to his feet looking every bit the action star he was born and breed for. He pulled one of his throwing knives from his arms. He smiled for a second as he looked at the blade and then at his target and then he frowned, "I'm so sorry," He said as his eye began to glow white hot as his luck powers flared to life. He threw the blade.

Not knowing who to trust, or what anyone was doing the second the eye did the glowstick tric, Scarlet became on pins and needles thanks to the spider-senses going off. Just incase he hurried pulled up a sleeve and began to fiddle with the webshooter that mysteriously broke for whatever reason.

And that would be when Scarlet Spider's spider-sense went even harder as the blade went right for his other wrist to hit the still functional webshooter, "I believe you and all, Mr. The Spider. But she's still Black Cat and honestly, I'm starting to think I was just extremly wrong in thinking she's not a good person."

He rushed forward, jumped in the air and threw the bag over to Black Cat shouting, "Catch, lover!"

Black Cat took a large handful and tossed them to the Spider, "Yourself. Charity. Some kid on the street. My treat hun."

She blew a kiss at the spider and then winked at Longshot, "Thanks! But you are too unpredictable, cutie. I hope you know that."

She had begun running towards the building's edge.

Acting didn't require luck. Getting gigs required luck. To act just required someone to be convincing. When the blade cut through the good webshooter, flesh and barely missed an aertory this was Scarlet's cue.

Having a knife cut into you would have messed up any throw. So when it looked like he was going to toss something at either burglar...when he missed and the object went toward the ground...there was no need for luck, right? He was going after Black Cat either way. Maybe it was the hair. Maybe it was the fact she looked better in leather, in Scarlet's eyes. Maybe it was just because jealousy was a monster that made people bitter. Still the object went on the ground near her legs as she was approaching the edge.

Normally web cartridges did nothing. However, Scarlet's differed. He had a last resort shot, the ability to launch the cartidge, usually in a tiny ball, toward his advisary. If the target connected they would be cocooned in webbing. Well, the cartridges worked the same way upon impact...say with concrete...like that between Black Cat's feet. This created a type of sticky trap meant to ensare feet...and that's why he was picking the place where the cat burglar was running.

Sure the move was risky, it wasted a lot of webbing, but if you had a broken webshooter...an unpredictable advisary...you needed an ace in the hole. Scarlet's ace came with a little fiddling of the broken webshooter and taking out the cartridges. What was the point of them being in that device anyway. Now he just waited to see if the Cat was going to have a sticky situation under foot...

Black Cat was in the middle of her run when the webbing caught her feet and the ground. And as she did so the bag fell just out of her fingertips. Bad luck. When she saw that a cute blonde boy-toy after the same jewels she knew she needed to drop the job. But she didn't. Impromptu partners never ended well, even if they choose you in the end. The Black Cat had a feeling that this was going to be a very long stream of bad luck for her future. She strained against the webbing, "Bondage, so early? Normally that's a fifth date for me.normally."

She cursed silently to herself as the idea of rotting in prison like her father appeared in her mind. She had to get out of this, no matter what. Black Cat focused on bad luck in general, hoping it would pull though in any way. And either way. She could stand to break her ankles. Maybe. Yikes.

And that is where Longshot siding with her came in. She may be bad luck personified. But the truth was she was a good person. Better than even she knew. A few touches of a psychometic variety would reveal that. In more than a few ways, he probably knew more about her than she realized herself.

Without her, her cat would be dead somewhere. Without her the orphanage on something called 22nd Street would be closed. Without her father's imprisonment she wouldn't push herself to be more "good" than bad.

Selfish, oh yeah she was selfish. But she wasn't bad. She was worth saving! And thus when Longshot reached to his arms each hand pulling a few blades out of their sheaths. With a jump and a flip he lets them loose, slicing through the webbing around her feet and ankles perfectly.

"Really? Then why did you tie me up the other night. That was only our second time?" He said as he landed right between her and the Scarlet Spider.

"Shush Longshot!"

She ripped the feet of her costume, but was able wiggle out of the hard webbing. This Longshot guy was too much. Maybe he was legit all about the thrill. For the time being, she didn't have a chance to dwell on it. She swiped the bag before catching a backwards glance at the two current apples of her eyes, even if she wouldn't phrase it that way herself.

Physics were a bitch. Mastering physics was...well...easy...if you were the clone of a super-genius anyway. As Longshot was coming down, focusing on saving the girl that Scarlet though...he now no longer had a chance with...web cartridges worked on the rule of thress. One in the shooter, two in reserve. The last cartridge from the first broken web shooter went down moments before blonde came down.

Leaping right after the blonde came down Scarlet extended a foot trying to hit the guy as he dove down between the buildings, caught himself on brick then pushed off with the hopes of trying to catch Black Cat.

Without the webshooters chasing someone was...difficult at best...if not extremely hard. She was close though...so there was a chance...Hopefully...maybe...If the "Parker" Luck didn't kick in.

Longshot took one last look at Black Cat and mouthed the word "Go!" before getting kicked right in the face by Scarlet Spider. With a bit of a kip-up and a bit of a back flip he ended up right back infront of the Scarlet Spider, his eye glowing pure white as he did. He reached for his blades... only to pull the few that were left out and dropping them to the rooftop.

I admit to being to sole theif of Con Edison's experimental diamonds, and accept that I'm a 'Bad Boy, So what am I going to do when they come for me?' Longshot said holding his hands up in an entirely non-threatening way, ''Send me to the Jesery Shore and I will compete in trial by combat in the Ultimate Fighter Championship. If I die... I die.''

Black Cat was about to jump off of the ledge before she suddenly stopped. This wasn't the way to go. She looked down at the open bag of diamonds and blew them a kiss, "Bye my beautiful darlings." She tied up the bag and tossed them in to the Scarlet Spider's arms, "Return them back to their owners. But I'd perhaps do a bit of detective work to their tax schemes, at the /very/ least."

She raised her arms, "I'll even help you return them Spider. But I want to wipe my hands clean. That take wasn't worth jail time or Brad Pitt here doing hard time. He'd never survive prison. Besides, this sort of crime really isn't worth your time. Is it Spider?"

Staring at the bag in his hand Scarlet looked at Longshot. It was kind of funny...Scarlet had no intention of turning the blonde guy in. As far as he was concerned, Longshot was like the child told it was okay to steal by Mom or Dad, when they were only seven years old. The guy clearly watched too much television and wasn't around here.

"I've got no problems doing some research on crooked people...these just aren't yours," he said then looked between the two of them. "Have a good night," he said before walking away. Bondage jokes aside, Scarlet was having a bad night. A bleeding wrist and a LOT of repairs to do with his two web-shooters. Today was't happy nor pleasant. Add in the fact it looked like the Cat was picking Watches-Too-Much-TV Man...that was just salt in the wounds. "I'll catch you two later...maybe when I'm busting the owner of these on some uncooth things," he added in a low voice ocassionally shaking his wrist to fight the pain.

Longshot put his hands down and said, "You are a good man Mr. The Spider. I hope I never have to cut your veins like that again. It was nothing personaly, I just... I just knew what the right course of action was."

He grabbed Scarlet Spider's shoulder in a friendly gesture that didn't set of his spider sense. Longshot's eyes glowed and he said cryptically, "You're not worse than him, no matter what you think."

Black Cat stood just on the edge of the building, her heels hundreds of feet in the air above the pavement. She called out to Longshot who looked like he was having a "Bro moment with the Scarlet Spider" and said, "Longshot! It was fun but things got real, and you're a white knight! You two should be roommates! Until next time, guys!"

She pulled out her grapple hook and went off into the sunrise. Blondes and spiders. Never trust em.

Glaring at Longshot Scarlet jerked his arm away. Seeing all of the other strange and crazy things Longshot did, it did not surprise Scarlet that the blonde had telepathy. "Stay out of my head," he growled then started to leap off into the distance. There was only one man that Scarlet compared himself too and somehow TV Man knew it...that REALLY bothered Scarlet.

With a small frown Longshot, nodded. He understood. The last thing any person wants it to be told who they are going to be. That went doubly for Longshot who didn't even know who he was at all. Just vauge rememberances. But his 'roommate' didn't seem to totally understand him. So with a smile and a nod, Longshot said, "Wasn't in your head. Was in your future! Fun place! Can't wait to be there!"

With that he ran in the opposite direction that Black Cat had fled to and jumped. He caught a flag pole and flip to a clothesline. That did not break under his weight. While in flight he reached into his belt pouches and pulled a grappling hook out and threw it.

And then, with a swing and a flip, he was right in front of Black Cat. Three buildings away in random directions. Longshot... was lucky.

"Cat. I wanted to say I'm sorry. For doubting you, for not realizing that my insticts about you were right."

With a smile he opened one of the pockets on his jacket, "Sooooooo... these are for you."

As he held his four-fingered hand out he held atleast the top 10 most expensive diamonds... and their five cousins.

Black Cat lifted a brow, "Well. /You/ are an unpredictable one. I'll take somebut you take the others to get some housing. And some insecticide, I don't think you made any new friends tonight."

Longshot nodded, he realized he had betrayed her trust and that was too much for her. Ah well. He'd find someplace tonight. And tommorow was always another day.