Am I Peter Parker?

Chapter 8: Kitten II

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The sound of guards echoed through the halls, interspersed with warning shouts and the metallic echo of boots running towards the intruder. I watched from the security panel in Connors' office, my eyes fixed on the cameras. The figure that had appeared on the recordings was agile, moving like a feline through the Oscorp complex. Her suit imitated the fur of a cat, in a black and white that shone under the artificial light of the building. The mask that covered her face only added to the mystery of the scene, and with each movement, the guards stumbled, as if they were under a spell of bad luck.

Black Cat, I thought, although I had never heard of her on this Earth. However, that speed, that supernatural agility, and the way she slipped between obstacles, all pointed to her being trained in something far beyond the ordinary. And now, that woman was stealing a backpack full of Oscorp experiments and data, something I couldn't allow.

As I watched the chaos in the chambers, Connors, in a fit of desperation, grabbed his stump where he once had an arm. He was writhing in pain or frustration, maybe both, as if he was struggling to contain something inside him. But instead of staying, he left the office in a hurry, leaving me alone.

I have no time to waste, I thought, and hurried to the nearby elevator. As I entered, I almost crashed into a familiar figure: the supposed intern I had seen minutes before. But something in her posture, in the way she moved, made me realize that she was not just an intern. She was Black Cat. It had been a disguise, a perfect facade to get in without raising suspicion.

"You?" I murmured, surprised.

"Me," she replied, a feline smile drawing on her lips. Her gaze was cunning, as if she had been planning this all along.

Without thinking, I threw my arm towards the backpack she was carrying, trying to rip it from her hands. I knew that inside that backpack there could be dangerous experiments, something that Oscorp was trying to hide from the world. But she was fast, even faster than I imagined. In our struggle, one of the containers inside the backpack broke, releasing a liquid that spread across the floor.

"Let that go!" I shouted, trying to contain the strength that the lizard serum had given me.

But Black Cat was not only fast, but cunning as well. With one touch of her hands, I felt as if the ground became treacherous beneath my feet. I stumbled, falling flat on my face. Every time I tried to get up, something invisible seemed to push me back to the ground. It was as if fate itself had turned against me, a kind of curse that she controlled with ease.

"What...?" "I muttered, not being able to understand how she was submitting to me like that.

"You like it?" she laughed. "A little touch of bad luck. Makes things more interesting."

As much as I tried to move, Black Cat was already out of my reach, gliding down the hallway with inhuman grace. Stepping out of her range of effect, I was finally able to get up, albeit with difficulty. I could feel the blood running down my arm, a mark of her claws that she had left on me during the fight.

I stared as the wound on my arm began to regenerate, but this time, the process was slower. The lizard serum was still working, albeit imperfectly. Something inside me wasn't right, and I knew it. As I tried to steady myself, my sight fell on one of my sneakers. There was a black substance clinging to it, sticky and slimy. I tried to wipe it off, but it wouldn't come off with anything. It was like a tick that had stuck to my skin and wouldn't let go.

"What the hell is this?" I muttered, trying to understand what was happening.

The black substance didn't seem to be simple debris. It had life, or at least, it moved as if it did. Oscorp had been playing with forces that even I couldn't understand, and now, that thing, whatever it was, was with me.

Still shaken by the encounter with Black Cat and the strange substance, I knew that this couldn't stop here. Connors had fled for some reason, and Black Cat had something important in that backpack. Miles Warren was still a threat. Everything was intertwining in a web of chaos that I didn't fully understand, but it was clear that something much bigger was afoot.

My senses, still amplified by the serum, told me that this was just the beginning.

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End of Chapter 8