Adventures of Black Cat.

Part 6: An awkward revelation

After obtaining the location of Cassidy’s apartment, Felicia or “Black Cat” decides to leave the breakroom by exiting from the top of the roof to avoid being seen the parking lot. There are two sets of stairs: There is one that goes straight into the attic and there is another one that is behind a door titled “maintenance” near the attic door. As Felicia makes her way up the stairs and passes the attic door where she was held, she quickly peaks to see Ana awake but unable to kick at her bonds with much power due to the amount of tension on the ropes in her stretched position.

She then locks the attic door and notices a sign on the wall to her left written with permanent marker on a blank page saying “Warning: In-house holding place for thieves. If you want to enter ask Cassidy, Ana, or Abigail for permission”. Felicia leaves a claw mark on the sign as a signature of failure but then wonders about Cassidy’s overall motive saying:

Felicia: Hmmm, apparently I was not someone being placed under citizens arrest as a “thief” per se, but as a the first “in-house” prisoner as seen on the board. Damn, I am surprised she has that much ambition. I guess she thinks that I am her measuring stick for who is she capable of incarcerating-talk about pie-in-the-sky! Prisoners are only prisoners if you can hold them, blondie!

With that, Felicia departs from the door and ascends the short stair of metal steps leading to the top of the roof. Once she is at the top, she braces herself for a much longer walk to Cassidy’s place as she no longer has her gauntlets or her belt that contains many things from lock picks to smoke bombs to avoid detection. Without her gauntlets, jumping from roof-to-roof is more dangerous as she has no grappling or grip aid.

Without her belt, she can’t even a afford a taxi as her money is in there as well. She could take a few dollars out of the cash register, but she still might draw too much attention with her costume as a large portion of the public is familiar with her image as a vaguely recognizable figure on few newspaper clippings that, fortunately, find their way into the waste basket before anyone gets too curious.

She surveys the Plaza and sees a clothing store called “Winks” at the curved end of the strip that has the same roof access point as the pet store. The store is, as most things are at this time, closed and thus vulnerable to Felicia. She also doesn’t have to worry about timing her jumps as the roofs are connected in the typical strip plaza style. After breaking into the clothing store, she leaves wearing clothes that conceal her catsuit as she doesn’t look as shapely and strong. She is wearing a baggy black t-shirt, brown jacket, and ripped baggy jeans with her mask being covered by sunglasses and a black brimmed hat covering her white hair.

With this disguise, she easily walks to Cassidy’s place on the side walk and goes over cross-walks at a leisurely pace. This gives her legs a rest as there is still some remnant pain from being tased four times.

When she arrives at Cassidy’s apartment building, a building that looks recently built and is ideal for those who can’t yet afford a house, she sees the low story balcony that is, based on Cassidy’s social media pictures, the balcony that is a part of her residence.

Felicia climbs a nearby tree and is able to generate enough momentum to jump from the branch to the balcony and reach her destination. As soon as she lands on the balcony, she receives a WhatsApp video call from Cassidy who looks as though she is in the locker room at the gym, she answers the call and says:

Cassidy: Hello? Ana? Who is-

Felicia: Morning Cassidy, WHERE IS MY GEAR!

Cassidy: What the fuck!? How did you…….someone release you? Where are you?

Felicia: I am at your apartment and I will completely trash the place unless you tell me exactly where my gear is. So you be-

Cassidy: WHAT?! Don’t you dare touch anything or I swe-

Felicia: Swear to what? You can’t do anything with those weak arms. So, here is the deal, you either tell me the code to unlock this shiny new sliding door and where my gear is, or I kick the glass in. Simple.

Cassidy: You picked the wrong place to visit, cat-bitch, because I HAVE YOUR GEAR! *Holds her belt up* I carry it in my gym bag to make sure any friends of yours can’t break in and claim them on your behalf. So I sug-

Felicia: MEET me here now or I will come down there and drop a 300 lb barbell on you! You little-

Cassidy: Let me finish! If you don’t listen to my instructions, I will hand your gear into the police as items of suspected theft. Got it?

Felicia goes silent over the phone as her anger as been converted into concern. If Cassidy hands those items into police, a digital forensics team could trace the electronics to the same rogue product designer, a designer in violation of the Defense Production Act, that also helps mend Spiderman’s web shooters! “Damnit” she says as she doesn’t want to implicate her lover in any of this.

Cassidy: Hello? Cat got your tongue?

Felicia: Yes, yes……I got it.

Cassidy: You will follow my instructions? Great. Now, other than calling you “cat-bitch”, I never caught your name, what is it? And what happened to Ana?

Felicia: It’s….Felicia. Ana is safe but a bit bound.

Cassidy: Hmm, that is what I figured. Okay, here is what is going to happen Felicia: I was supposed to hold you until my mom was ready to pick you up, so I will arrange a plan for you to surrender to my mom. I will call you back.

Felicia sits on the nearby recliner in resignation but relief knowing that she dodged a bullet in the form of incriminating material evidence. She kicks herself for not texting Cassidy as Ana to check if she was at the gym, but she was surprised that Cassidy would take her gear with her. Even the great Black Cat can be tricked by the unexpected. 15 minutes later she receives a callback from Cassidy that she hesitates to answer.

Felicia: Yes?

Cassidy: My mom came back from her retreat yesterday and is leading a yoga class in a few minutes. You will surrender yourself to her at the studio named “Namaste Now”. I have texted you the address. We have also notified the receptionist, so just walk in and check-in at the desk. Also, take off that stupid disguise. Cassidy abruptly hangs up.

Felicia is stunned. She can’t believe she can’t believe that she has been reduced to this, but she has no other option. She scales down from the balcony using the tree and makes her way to the stipulated address. Within 20-30 minutes, she arrives. Her route being slow in that she needs to periodically hide under objects like dumpsters or cars to avoid being seen in her trademark catsuit.

Felicia arrives at the studio and hides in embarrassment in the alley way as yoga students pile into the modest studio that can hold 20-30 students. Will Felicia be able to find a way out of this?