Thick as Thieves Ch. 15 (Marvel) (Patreon)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Gwen decides to follow them back home…

-x-X-x-

The urge to confront them here and now is strong, but Gwen knows better. It would be one thing if they were in neutral territory, like back at the Met, but this is Wilson Fisk’s place. If things went awry, she definitely didn’t want to be caught on the Kingpin’s roof… nor did she want Cameron to be caught there either. Black Cat… she could take it or leave it.

That said, she definitely is going to confront them, that she decides almost immediately. Cameron was playing with fire and Black Cat needed to know she was leading him down the wrong path. Gwen would just have to tail them back to their place before she did so.

With that in mind, she watches the two of them finally leave the rooftop… and after a moment, she proceeds to follow them. The first thing she notices as the three of them all move across New York City’s skyline, is that Cameron is definitely faster and stronger than he was that other night at the Met.

Admittedly, Gwen hadn’t gotten to see much of him back then before Black Cat told him to run, but what little she had seen had told her he’d just been a normal thief in over his head. He’d been aided by Black Cat’s bad luck powers while Gwen had been hindered by them and that was the only reason he’d escaped being webbed.

Now, Gwen’s not so sure she would be able to catch him out quite so easily. The ease with which he moves across the rooftops is apparent, even more so when one considers that he never lets go of that horse-headed cane of his.

It wasn’t just a wardrobe change between the Met and now… no, something had happened to Cameron, something that had clearly given him powers. It eats at Gwen, because whatever it was, she imagined it probably cost him something. If only she’d known who he was immediately, she might have been able to stop him from falling into this life.

Eventually, they arrive on another rooftop entirely, this one the roof of a high-rise residential building. Rather than immediately descend inside however, Crow and Black Cat turn to regard one another once more.

“Well darling, let’s see what we both came away with, hm?”

Suddenly, Black Cat flashes her claws. Gwen tenses up, briefly thinking that she was attacking her ally for some ungodly reason… only to realize belatedly that she’s showing off. There, hidden until now, are a variety of gorgeous looking rings around each of Black Cat’s fingers. And around her neck is a necklace with a large jewel.

Basically, it looked like she’d raided the jewelry box of Fisk’s wife and made off with some seriously valuable pieces. Small items though they were, the cost they had to add up to was probably in the low millions.

“I had quite the productive evening once you were dragged away. Thanks so much for taking all of their attention off of little ole me~”

Gwen scowls on Cameron’s behalf, but he just grins, admiring the way the rings and necklace sparkle in the moonlight overhead.

“Gorgeous.”

That causes Black Cat to blush a little, much to Gwen’s surprise. Indeed, the cat burglar looks taken aback by the sincerity for a split second, though she rallies quickly enough.

“W-Well… what about you then? Still think you have me beat?”

Grinning crookedly, Cameron nods.

“Heh… I think I just might. Let me show you.”

Ugh, their flirting is making Gwen’s skill crawl. Black Cat was Peter’s age, she definitely shouldn’t be sniffing around Cameron like this, let alone seducing him!

It was about time she step in, wasn’t it? As Cameron offers Black Cat his hand and the femme fatale reaches out to take it, Gwen readies herself for what’s sure to be an explosive confrontation. Even though she isn’t there to arrest them, they’ll likely try to attack her at first anyways. But so long as she explains, she should get them to calm down.

Nothing for it… Gwen leaps from the shadows, doing a back flip in midair as she prepares for a three-point landing just a few yards away from them both.

Only… as she lands and looks up, much to her shock… there’s nobody there. The two of them have vanished completely, her eyes widening behind her mask in disbelief.

Straightening back up instantly, Gwen whips her head around the rooftop, trying to figure out where they could have gone. Then, she leans on her enhanced senses, trying to hear them. This was New York City, the epitome of the concrete jungle, and with just as much metal as there is concrete.

But besides all of the usual sounds, she hears nothing in the way of them fleeing the scene.

… So then where the fuck had they gone?!

-x-X-x-

Cameron grins as Felicia looks around Lady Loki’s demesne in disbelief. He had, of course, gotten permission from his patron ahead of time before bringing his mentor in here. Just as he’d got permission from Lady Loki to transport all of the other things he’d taken into this place as well.

“How the hell…”

Surrounding them are dozens of pieces of fancy furniture, along with artwork and sculptures galore. Basically, he’d taken everything not nailed down back at the Kingpin’s party and stored it here. All it took was permission and a single touch and he could literally take anything from the real world and bring it here.

Of course, Felicia wasn’t shocked by all of that. She was a very intelligent woman who could understand the mechanics behind his abilities fairly quickly. No, that part wasn’t tripping her up. It was the other bit.

“How did you get away with all of this without being caught? This is ridiculous!”

Smiling rather smugly, Cameron twirls his cane around and taps it on one of the nearby pieces of furniture. A moment later and the furniture replicates itself, an exact copy sitting next to it.

“Simple. I replaced them all with illusions as I stole them. Nobody noticed a single thing going missing.”

Felicia arches a brow at that and looks pointedly to the furniture, as he knew she would.

“And when someone tries to put a hand on one of these pieces or leans on them or sits on them?”

Rather than tell, Cameron decides to show her. Namely by conjuring up an illusion of one of the chairs he’s taken and promptly sitting down on it. Grinning as he runs his hands over the arms, Cameron winks.

“Solid illusions. They’ll last a week or two. All we have to do is make sure we have half-decent alibis for when they’re due to ‘go missing’ and we’ll be fine.”

Felicia stares for a long moment before letting out a bark of disbelieving laughter.

“You’re utterly ridiculous. Oh, this has utility to it. This has implications.”

Yeah, Cameron could agree with that. Imagine if they’d used this at an art gallery instead? Heck, they probably would at some point. All it would take was a few taps of his cane against some frames and they’d have an entire collection.

Feeling quite pleased with himself, Cameron raises a brow of his own in Felicia’s direction.

“Well? Do you concede defeat?”

Turning away from his haul to look at him, Felicia narrows her eyes.

“Oh? Do you think you have me beat so easily? You do know the value of a good set of jewels, don’t you?”

He knew enough to know that Felicia was wearing a small fortune between the rings and the necklace she’d stolen. But surely all of that wasn’t enough to be worth everything he’d taken, right? He’d gotten some great art pieces, as well as really expensive-looking furniture. Surely he had her beat…

The problem was that he was still a bit too new to this whole job to be able to correctly appraise everything at a glance. Felicia was the one with all of the experience necessary. As she looks around them, hands planted on her hips, she grins wickedly while her eyes dance back and forth. It’s clear she’s cataloging everything and doing math in her head.

Cameron sits tensely in the ensuing silence, watching Felicia closely. Which is why he sees when her grin starts to falter just a little bit. And then… its replaced by a scowl as the cat burglar crosses her arms over her ample chest and huffs.

“Seriously…”

“Oh? Did my Champion prove your better after all?”

Funnily enough, it’s not Cameron who responds to Felicia’s irritation. Rather, Lady Loki finally interjects, having been present all along but content to sit back and watch them talk with an amused glint in her eyes and the slightest smile on her face.

She’d been quite pleased when Cameron asked for permission to use her demesne as storage. He’d honestly expected her to balk at the idea, but she hadn’t been thrilled with how Fisk had talked down to him and was more than ready to make the big bald man pay a little bit for the disrespect. Not to mention, she was a Goddess of Mischief at the end of the day. And this certainly counted for that.

Now, she leans forward, pinning Felicia with her emerald gaze and grinning wickedly all the while. Felicia, meanwhile, just huffs again as she shrugs her shoulders.

“… Fine. Yes. You won by about fifty thousand dollars, Cameron.”

Cameron blinks. On the one hand, fifty thousand might sound like a lot of money to most people. On the other hand, based on his own rudimentary appraisal skills…

“That’s rather close, isn’t it?”

Felicia gives him a deadpan stare.

“It’s incredibly close, yes, considering we both stole upwards of approximately two million in value tonight.”

Cameron’s eyes bulge out of his skull at that, even as Felicia begins to pull rings off of her fingers and moves over to slip them and the necklace she’d taken into the top drawer of one of the ornate dressers he’d heisted. He’d hoped that he was getting a lot of value from the things he was stealing, but obviously he could only really guess at what they were worth and come away with ‘a shit ton’ as an answer.

Still, to know that Felicia had nearly beaten him with what was basically the contents of a single jewelry box really put things into perspective. Money was valuable to him solely because it paid for his brother’s care and maybe even his eventual treatment. But to people like Wilson Fisk, money was for status symbols. They flitted it all away on ridiculous purchases like the things around him, or on jewelry that they might wear to maybe one event per year… if that.

Honestly, it’s enough to make Cameron huff himself at the injustice of it all. It’s almost enough to ruin the moment of triumph over Felicia. Almost. Pushing aside all of the discontentment welling up inside of him, Cameron forces a grin on his face.

“So I guess when I asked for a fifty-fifty split, I wasn’t too far off was I? In the end, it was you who couldn’t keep up after all.”

Felicia pouts at him.

“Don’t be mean, Cameron. You did well… but don’t think that I won’t adapt for future wagers. A single ring more and I would have won. Now that I know what you can do, I won’t make the same mistake again.”

Tch, she wasn’t wrong about that. But at the same time, Cameron also knew more, right? He just had to steal a jewelry box on top of all of the art and furniture and he’d still have her beat every time.

“Besides, I just have to have a chat with your Goddess here and who’s to say you’ll even have access to this place the next time around?”

Lady Loki raises a brow as Cameron jolts and shoots her a concerned look. The Goddess scoffs.

“And why would I limit my champion’s resources?”

Planting her hands on her hips and grinning wickedly, Black Cat shrugs.

“Simple enough… how is he ever going to grow if you’re coddling him all the time? This place is basically one massive cheat code… a way for him to skip all the hard work of learning to do things with skill instead. I’ve taught Cameron a lot and in doing so I made him into someone worthy of being your Champion in the first place. Now imagine what more I can teach him if you give me the chance.”

Cameron doesn’t like the contemplative expression on Lady Loki’s face. Felicia was making way too much sense for his tastes. Before they can continue down that route, Cameron interjects.

“Hold on a second. Aren’t we getting a little bit ahead of ourselves here? First… haven’t I won whatever I want from you, Felicia?”

Smirking in a way that lets him know she knows exactly what he’s doing, Felicia nevertheless arches a brow at him, cocking out a hip.

“Oh? Going to claim your prize right here and now then? Go on Cameron. Tell me what you want~”

Cameron swallows, stealing a glance in Lady Loki’s direction. There was one thing he wanted above all else… but admittedly, it was a bit of a risky ask. So maybe he should lower his expectations a bit.

And yet…

-x-X-x-

A/N: Remember to Vote, leave a Like, and let me know what you think!

-x-X-x-

Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l9YABnjnpPDvfw_Vxn90AKnvsY7TyVZgGDM64dbd1UU/edit?tab=t.0