In a darkened alleyway, a group of eight motley criminals were gathering up the last of their stolen goods together and prepared to escape awaiting transport. Even though they had been successful in their raid, a feeling of uncertainty hung over them over one certain superhero. For many of the gang members present, they were in fact all former members of Shocker's posse, but since he was defeated by Spider-Man and taken back to prison, they had been on their own ever since.

"It's not the same since the boss got taken in again," one of the masked gang members spoke to a fellow associate.

The other criminal, a tall and well-built character, who had become the unofficial leader of the pack since Shocker was defeated, looked over at the person who had just spoken to him, "We've gotta move on from him. Besides, we have more things to worry about...mostly that Spider freak."

All the gang members felt a shiver of discontent, they knew Spider-Man would be out there tracking down the last of Shocker's crew across the city and that it would be sooner than later that he would find them, though there had been more rumors to add to their fear of Spider-Man recently.

"Heard that Spidey has a sidekick now," another one of the criminals said to the mob. "Apparently it's that crazy cat lady who helped 'em take out Shocker."

The mob groaned at the thought of Spider-Man having a sidekick; that was the last thing any of them needed. Just then, the gang leader spoke out to crew. "Listen guys, the sooner the rest of our lot get here with our getaway van, we'll be out of this place quickly before—"

"Guys look!" One of them pointed over to the far top corner of the alleyway and all the group could see a giant web that couldn't have been done any normal spider. The gang of criminals looked around in fear, that giant web only could mean one thing...

"Keep sharp," the leader instructed. "Whatever you do, don't—ARGH!"

From above, two individuals leapt down on top of the unsuspecting posse and began to take them out.

"It's the web head!" Cried out of one of the criminals before he receiving a knock out punch to the face by the superhero in question. One of the individuals was dressed in red and blue spandex and one who was well known to the whole city and the other was a woman dressed in tight black leather who, while not that well know to many, was now starting to make a name for herself too. In just under a minute of the surprise attack, the gang of eight had all been beaten and lay around the alley all battered and bruised.

After webbing up one of the criminals, Spider-Man rubbed his hands in satisfaction. "Well, that's another of Shocker's goon taking care of, what'd you think Cat?"

His sidekick, or probably better known as a partner, Black cat sauntered up to him with a content grin. "Just another lot down and out, Spider." She looked up at the giant webbing near the top of the alleyway. "What'd you think of that idea using your webbing as a calling card? Am I'm a genius...or am I a genius?"

The spandex clad superhero chuckled and pulled up his mask up half way up before pulling Black cat close to him giving her a quick kiss. "Yes, you are a genius, just don't start flaunting it now."

The short white haired woman laughed. "Oh come on, I thought you said that I was both smart and sexy and that I should show my intelligent side more often."

"Oh yeah, point taken," Spider-Man admitted.

Despite enjoying the brief moment of banter and affection between them, the sound of the police car's sirens heading their way broke them out of their little moment. Black cat grinned at her superhero boyfriend, "Time to get out here...fancy enjoying a little race like we did before?"

"Don't mind if I do," Spider-Man replied as he pulled his mask down. "Though I'll give you a head start...just to enjoy the view."

The attractive black clad woman looked back on her butt and laughed at her partner's joke. "Already I'm starting to win you over that much since we got together? I'm doing better than I thought."

With a laugh from both, the superhero couple left the scene to start their fun race and left the battered and defeated group of criminals lying around to await the arrival of the police to take them away. Just another night in the lives of Spider-Man and Black cat.

XXX

A few hours later and Spider-Man and Black cat were taking time off from their patrol and now were relaxing on top of one of the taller skyscrapers while letting their legs hang over the edge. The couple had been together for two nights now, the night that Peter Parker had decided to be Spider-Man more often and settle on a relationship with Black cat. In recent months of the many problems he'd been facing of those being keeping a decent job, his social life and his poor timekeeping in getting to college and work were just some to name a few, this however had been one of the few exceptions that had gone well for him. Not so long ago, he had seriously considered in ditching the life of a hero in exchange for just a normal life, though Black cat had helped him to think again.

Thanks to her, he in fact began to find joy in the life of being a hero and now not only enjoyed it, he actually was relishing the superhero life more than he could remember. The two of them made a brilliant superhero duo in taking down New York's criminal population and of course teaming up to defeat Shocker not so long ago. Though with every good thing that happens, there were still some negatives in his life. The most notable was that Doctor Otto Octavius, better known now to the rest of the city as Doc Ock, was still at large and had proven to be a dangerous enemy to Peter and the city. Even with him now having Black cat by his side, he still was uncertain if the fallen scientist could be stopped. True he had beaten many villains from the likes of Vulture, Scorpion, Rhino, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio (who Peter found out with some amusement was none other than Quentin Beck, the man who tried and failed to make look like a fraud) and of course Shocker. However Doc Ock had proven to be more dangerous than all of the others, he was as villainous and cunning as the Green Goblin.

Peter sighed to himself as Black cat rested her head on his shoulder. Just thinking back to that battle two years ago when he witnessed Norman Osborne's glider accidently impaling and eventually killing him. The memory made Peter shudder, he really didn't know how to explain the truth to Harry as he only felt that it would make their uneasy friendship fall apart.

Peter rubbed Black cat's back in which she moaned softly in comfort. To anyone, many would claim that Black cat was more suitable for him than perhaps MJ would ever be to him, after all, Black cat was not only just a good fighter, she was really attractive, funny and above all, very outgoing, totally the opposite of Spider-Man in many ways. Then again the old saying of 'opposites attract' seemed really fitting for them.

That said, Peter did think that if she really were the woman for him, when would be the best time to reveal each other's identities to each other? He knew the dangers of unmasking to others and that those closest to him would be at risk, Peter had thought that perhaps once Doc Ock had been stopped and things were more calm, he'd consider that being the better time to revealing himself to Black Cat.

Finally and probably most personal of all to Peter was his unresolved relationship with Mary Jane Watson. In recent months of course, they had rarely seen each other due to Peter's time as Spider-Man and that very soon, Mary Jane was about to get married and was unlikely to return to New York anytime soon after her marriage, not to mention that Peter hadn't receive an invite to the wedding (though thankfully his Aunt May had received one).

Before he began to find an attraction in Black Cat, he had been pining for MJ despite her being engaged, now that he had Black Cat and looking back in hindsight, he felt foolish to think that he could attempt to rekindle a relationship with the red haired woman. Even so, he had to make the attempt to see her one last time to make sure they would bid farewell to each other on a high note.

"Hey Cat," Spider-Man said softly in Black cat's ear.

Black cat raised her head up from his shoulder and looked at him, "yeah what is it?"

Spider-Man paused thinking how he was going to explain this to her. "Well you see...it's about Mary Jane."

Not surprisingly, Black cat gave him a questioning look. "Huh? Her? Isn't she getting married soon?"

"No, no I don't mean it like that!" Spider-Man raised his arms up joshing. "I'm just saying that once she's married I'll never see her again, so I have to see her just one more time before she's out off New York, like see her tonight. Nothing to do with you I might add."

Thankfully, Black cat sighed and nodded now understanding what the spandex clad superhero was meaning. "Alright then, I suppose we can call it a night seeing that there hasn't been any crime reported." The two superheroes stood up and Black cat pulled up Spider-Man's mask half way and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "See you around next morning Spider...and don't get any funny ideas now with her."

"Why would I get any ideas with any other lady with you around?" Spider-Man joked before giving her another kiss. "Take care, Cat!"

Black cat quickly leapt of the side of the building and into the night. Spider-Man grinned under his mask knowing that such an incredible woman was now his partner. "Yep, she is pretty amazing," he said to himself before he leapt of the building too and headed off to Mary Jane's apartment.

XXX

Thankfully, it wasn't far from Mary Jane's apartment from where he left Black cat back there. After quickly changing back into his civilian gear, he arrived at the apartment block and pressed the buzzer in the hope that MJ would be in. Peter felt a sense of trepidation as he waited, turning his back to the door. He didn't know what to expect of how she'd react seeing him again after sometime, especially after him missing her play. His train of thought however was interrupted when the door opened and he heard a familiar voice.

"Peter?" The aforementioned man turned to face a rather surprised looking MJ, clearly not expecting him this very night.

"Hey MJ," Peter replied. "Sorry about calling you up this late but...we need to talk."

The redhead woman had her arm's crossed not knowing what her old friend had to say to her. "Go on."

Peter sighed as he thought of what to say. "Look, I know I haven't been a loyal friend over the last few months, no, years in fact, no need to remind me about missing your play. And as you're getting married soon and you being out of the city then and...I just want to say congratulations and take care."

Mary Jane really didn't expect that from Peter, though she did find it a nice gesture from her friend that he was willing to give her a final farewell before her big day. "T-thank you...I really appreciate that. But what are you going to do after I'm gone?"

Peter shrugged. "Just get with life I guess, though I have been seeing a girl just lately."

MJ's eyes widened and she smiled. "Really? I'm glad to hear that you have someone for you, Peter! Who is she and what have you two been doing?"

The young man suddenly realised that he didn't know what to say, he didn't know how to explain his night-time patrols with Black cat, let alone him being Spider-Man, and to top it all, he didn't really knew Black cat's true identity.

"Um well...she is smart, funny and pretty amazing." Peter noticed that May Jane was interested in hearing more, this led for Peter's newly found cocky side to come in. "She is also quite a capable fighter and sometimes we go out and attempt to stop crime—wait, no I don't mean that!"

"Wait what?" Mary Jane asked in surprise as Peter cursed himself for letting his tongue slip.

Peter looked around in alarm in trying to think of a way out of this situation, but he couldn't and had now dug himself into a hole with no chance of getting out in that moment. "Um, yeah...take care MJ, have a good wedding!" And he raced off before MJ had chance to call him back.

Mary Jane could only stand there in the doorframe as she tried to figure out what Peter meant by what he had been doing with this new girl and why he looked so alarmed like that. MJ knew she would have find out more about what was going on, unknown to her though, she would find out sooner that later.

So there's the end of this chapter, next one will be mostly with Doc Ock and Harry...yeah, I think you might know what scene is coming up next. Look out for the next update!