Chapter 70: Arc Three. Chapter Seventy. Love Tap

“What I’m trying to tell you Peter is that without help I can’t do anything.” Felicia was exasperated with Peter. They’d written a list, and she had agreed to it until she found out exactly what it entailed.

Cleaning up Hell's Kitchen was number one, she’d already formed the Black Cats and began recruiting some of the more abused members of the streetwalkers. Not everyone liked having a pimp that expected sexual favours, not everyone liked having a pimp who’d beat them if a target wasn’t met, and soon enough she had classes running, teaching self-defence and more.

They were also making deals with the cleaner places, giving the streetwalkers a quiet palace to work if they wanted and making sure the more abusive pimps were warned at first, and then not given a second chance if they didn’t listen. The results were astounding. The streets were quieter again and Felicia felt she was making a difference.

It was great, she’d begun to clean out most of Hell's Kitchen's more obvious operations already and anyone who was in the know knew to stay quiet or risk the Huntress coming after them. The files Peter had taken from Alexsi were already paying off. Huntress was on a campaign of fear and it was making an impact.

It was item number two that irked her, while Peter tended to Liv she had to also find Curt Conners. While she was building the contacts, she didn’t have the time. 

Trudging from safe house to safe house took her away from her job, running the streets and right now, the delicate balance of loyalty and understanding towards a new boss was thinning. If she didn’t keep a presence in the streets they would gut her, and Peter didn’t seem to understand that.

“No, I get it, you need help,” he said, shaking his head, “so what do you need?”

Felicia thanked her maker and slipped a map down on the table, “sewers, all the hideouts we’ve checked capable of hiding him are clean, the only place we can’t go is the sewers.” Of course, it was the sewers. Living underground would be the perfect place to hide in New York as there were hundreds of miles of tunnels, even more once you started to get into the abandoned network of old train stations and subways. Peter shook his head at the enormity of the task.

“Sorry, I didn’t realise, yeah, of course, I can help, but uh, we need something better than one of us going down into the tunnels, even with better senses we’ll never find anyone down there.”

Peter stared at the map again, maybe Liv could help but he doubted Conners was stupid enough to go to any old hangouts. He sighed in frustration as he realised he might need to break his promise to Liv.

As he stared at the map, copied from the local library he saw nothing more than a jumbled mess of old tunnels, there were too many ways to hide underground that with an army he doubted they would find anything. But he had to come above ground at some point. The sewer might have a good supply of rodents but clean water? Curt had to make an appearance for food, to work to earn money and even if he had access to hidden bank accounts he still needed to come up to get to an ATM. They needed to catch Curt as he made his trips above ground.

“Uh Felicia, don’t get weird but um, could you come here a minute?” he asked, looking slightly worried,

Shrugging, “sure” and as she came closer to him he took her and pulled her into his lap, she giggled “uh I know it’s frustrating but, maybe later huh?” and he just smiled and grinned,

“Not what I’m after.” Taking her arm he took a deep breath at her wrist, lifted her arm and took another, kissed her neck before taking another deep breath at the nape of her neck. “Liv, come here a minute” and a frowning Liv wheeled herself from her home. She’d been getting ready for sleep after a particularly tiring session with Peter discussing the new CLS system.

“Oh dear, sorry I’m really too tired for that,” but he shook his head and motioned her over, “Arm.”

As she frowned and held out her arm he sniffed it. “Different, much different, I can smell the formula in your blood, it’s faint but mixed in with your symbiote.”

“Wait, you can smell my blood? What the hell Parker?” Felicia exclaimed.

“Oh shush. It’s not like you never thought about it before. I mean hell, you can smell my arousal, so why can’t I smell yours?” and Liv just smirked, 

“I bet a lot more too. I did tell you symbiotes are hyperstimulated. You know I trapped Peter with a  test tube of my own scent, the horny little devil he is,” and Felicia looked at Peter who shrugged and she laughed 

“Really? You got tricked by a bad guy cause you were horny?” and Felicia creased up laughing, explaining her thought to Liv. "You mean like one of those old cartoon wolves, love hearts for eyes, and a massive erection cutting a groove in the pavement?" and of course Liv found this hilarious as well, and the pair laughed as Peter grinned and shook his head.

“Fine fine, I don’t hear you all complaining though, but my point still stands, for-mu-la, it gives a person a specific scent that can be tracked.”

“Hmm, a spectrum analyser with an electronic nose might be able to pick up the scent. Maybe buy a carbon monoxide detector and rewire it to detect formula. Gwen might be able to synthesize a small amount for us to use as a pure test sample. Oh Peter dear, make sure you get one with an electrochemical sensor, the ones that just go off once they absorb the gas would be useless.”

Peter shrugged and knowing Gwen was at college right, now sent her a text, asking if on her way back she could pick one up for them. They had to wait for her to synthesize the formula anyway, so asking her to pick up the sensor wasn't an issue.

“Now, if you've finished sniffing me, can I get some sleep?” Peter laughed and kissed the hand he still had a hold of and kissed Felicia as well he wheeled Liv back to her home and helped her get into bed. Her home had become more personal. At first, when she thought the group would eventually turn on her she had very little, too afraid to settle and make plans but now, with free time she was painting, doodling new designs over the ones Peter gave her and had several pictures on the wall, all her own work.

Liv slid a hand over Peter's cheek and he leant forwards and kissed her, “be careful dear, the lizard formula was one of the most unstable things Osborn had created, Curt might be a rational man but as a beast, he’ll be a monster.” Peter kissed her again

“Aren't we all?” and Liv chuckled and shook her head, “Now, shoo, I’ll be a mess if I don't get some sleep.” Peter pulled the blanket up, letting Liv grab it and making herself comfortable she took off her glasses and snuggled into the bed. Switching off the light Peter quietly closed the door of her home and headed back to the table with Felicia.

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She was sending and receiving text messages over several burner phones, the Black Cat network let anyone talk to anyone else, getting help where needed. The girls found that being able to talk to each other about bad marks or suspicious customers was making their lives easier.

One current topic of conversation was that the streets had been quieting down recently. A rival, and prominent, faction had gone to ground, girls found themselves without handlers and several brothels just shut their doors. Felicia had tried to find out if there was a reason for this other than Venom but so far there was nothing. Everyone was unwilling, or too scared to talk and Felicia was worried. 

She knew from her father that this only happened right before a gang war, and with her Black Cats being the latest faction to emerge, she could put money it was a sure thing they were coming for her.

“Pete, I really don't like this. If you want my gut feeling, something coming, Flash did say they are sending a heavy hitter after you, this might be it.”

“But why the underworld though, I figured Flash meant one of those other guys, not a hitman. Wait, ask if anyone has been asking after you or Venom?”

Felicia tapped on her phone a few times and nodded, “yup, a brothel out in the Kitchen reported that one of the higher up enforcers, Aaron, was snooping around, seems he’s been shutting down places all day.”

Felicia wrote down the address she had asked for and as she compared it to the list that she and Peter had made, most of the places closing were on their list to hit and shut down. Someone was preparing, and it was most likely for them.

As Peter stared at the two lists he sighed “Any idea who he works for?”

“Nope, some of the bosses like it that way though, we’re not the only ones who wear masks, even if they aren’t literal ones.” Felicia knew a lot of the bosses only worked through intermediaries and the biggest faction in Hell's Kitchen was run by someone she could only find out was called Kingpin. There was nothing else. Whoever he or she was, kept their identity so secret that only the most loyal, and tightlipped, knew their real identity.

“Do we go after him? Or stay away and let him clear out the last few places we’d shut down anyway?”

“It comes down to one of two things. Do we head into a trap or do we wait until he’s prepared and finds us here?”

“I say we go after him, I’d rather keep the warehouse out of it, Liv can't defend herself if anyone attacks here and it draws a link between us and the symbiotes.” Peter shook his head, “either way we’ve got no choice. If he’s being this blatant then he knows, and if he knows it's a trap. If it's a trap we either wait and he gets more time, or we attack and walk into it. It's not really a choice” and Felicia nodded and tapped on her phone, “I’ll find out what places he’s been, and see if we can find out where he’s going next.” and Peter nodded and opened a cupboard to see what food they had.

“So, I guess, uh, burgers or chocolate? I think we’ve still got some of those protein bars left.”

“Both?” Felicia bit her lip though and stared at Peters groin, and he laughed, 

“No, that kind of protein might be good for you but not for me.” 

she fake pouted “maybe after?”

He nodded and kissed her forehead, “as if you even need to ask.”

Peter and Felicia both ate a pack of burgers each, and finished the last box of protein bars between them, before slipping out of the warehouse. Felicia could blend in but Peter still hadn't figured out how she did it. He knew the science behind it, just not how to actually make him symbskin do it.

“Cheater,” he muttered, and Felicia giggled above him as he walked down the street out of the warehouse district and headed towards Hell's Kitchen.

Aaron had been making his rounds, trying to get the word on the street that someone was onto them. He’d planned and had every minor detail he could think of worked out, all he needed now was the problematic pair to show up and he could lead them in his favourite dance. He checked his wrist launchers one more time, clicking the rounds in and out of the chamber to make sure nothing went wrong.

The trap had been set, he made himself known to hopefully drag the Huntress and Venom out of whatever hole they hid in and then into the jaws of death. 

Everything had been prepared, and as Aaron looked over his equipment one last time he also added in one last thing. A smooth and small injector gun hung by his belt, the last resort. He knew what the pale blue liquid inside could do to him, and he knew that unless he had no choice he would never use it.

~

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