A/N: Well, here's the last chapter folks. Mark and I had a fabulous time doing this, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we did writing. Thanks to the great reviewers we've had on the story - we love you all. If we haven't responded to the last few chapters worth of reviews, you can blame me (and my Superman Returns story, Déjà Vu) for that, and not Mark! We will work hard to finish that up to show how much we appreciate you. :)

And this time, Mark let me run wild...

The Devil You Don't Know

Chapter 12: The Cat Comes Out to Play

Scrrrrreeeeeeeee! Felicia tore around the corner, and weaved through traffic the best she knew how. She winced as she almost sideswiped another car. God – how long has it been since you last drove a car, Felicia? This is why most New Yorkers take the subway!

But she'd had little choice. The present she had for Gargan in the back seat weighed at least 50 pounds. There was no way she was going to be able to swing across New York with that thing strapped to her back. Luckily, some double-parked idiot made it easy to get on the road right away. She only hoped she'd be in time.

Felicia turned another corner, narrowly avoiding a pedestrian, and peered down the road. She thought she was close to the location on the GPS trace, but everything appeared so differently from a street level perspective. So she kept the accelerator pressed down, not hesitating to run stoplights when she had to.

As she approached the danger zone, her eyes widened slightly, and then she chuckled. Before her, she saw such a swath of destruction that she knew they must be around here somewhere. "Boys, boys," she chided them facetiously to herself. "I leave you alone for a few minutes, and look what happens?"

She stopped the car, caring little where she left it, and hefted the "present" out of the back seat. Before she could even wonder which building to search, she heard a low rumbling sound and watched, one of the condemned buildings nearby imploded inward with a deafening crash. The falling walls radiated shockwaves in all directions, shaking the buildings and crumbling the walls around her.

Suddenly, a piercing scream rang out above her. She looked up in time to see two figures clinging to the fire escape of the building above. One of them, a woman with long hair, was dangling precariously by one hand. The other, an older woman, was reaching out toward her companion.

She squinted upward, and realized with a jolt, Mary Jane? May?

Dropping the machinery quickly on the pavement, she shot a grappling hook to snag the ledge and sprang toward them. At that moment, Mary Jane's fingers slipped from the railing. Please, God, let me not be too late. Peter will never forgive me…

She tried to time her swing just so… and grabbed the falling woman around the waist. Mary Jane looked into Felicia's eyes with surprise. Clearly she had not expected her husband's ex-girlfriend to show up out of nowhere to save her.

"Uh…" Mary Jane began, and then her surprise turned to warm gratitude. "Thanks, Felicia."

The Black Cat smiled. "No problem."

Before the inevitable awkward silence could ensue, the vigilante shot her hook again toward the fire escape, retrieving Peter's aunt with little trouble. But there was no time for small talk.

"You guys see that car over there?" the Black Cat pointed out. "The red sports car?" They nodded. "Follow this street away from the war zone and you should be able to get to some help." Mary Jane grabbed May's hand and led her through the rubble to the car. "Oh, and Red?"

Mary Jane looked back at her, amused. "The car's 'borrowed.' You might want to ditch it as soon as possible."

May looked a little offended, but Mary Jane let out a short laugh. "Okay, Cat." She started to open the car door, but paused. "Go and kick some symbiotic ass."

Felicia hoisted the weapon she had brought along onto her back. "You know it, girl."

Crash! Glass rained down on the street several yards away. As the sports car peeled away in a tight U-turn, Felicia smiled grimly. All right, she thought, Show time.

She climbed slowly, carefully, up the side of the building. The weight on her back made it impossible to go much faster. She could hear shouts and crashes as the two men battled somewhere above her. Another window shattered directly above. She protected her face with one arm as glass splintered in all directions. She looked up. Venom held Spider-Man's neck against the window frame, his head sticking out into the open air.

"Your little tentacles don't seem to be helping you now, Parker. Tsk, tsk. All that state of the art technology, just gone to waste." Venom's tongue lolled out around his grotesque teeth.

What happened with the sonic disruptors in the waldoes? she thought. Why in hell didn't they . . . uh oh!

Venom suddenly caught sight of her. "Ah, kitty cat," he laughed harshly. "Come to play?"

"Yes, honey," she called back. "I'm here to get you between my claws…"

Just as Cat finished her arduous ascent, Spider-Man broke free of Venom's grip and nailed him hard, driving him backward with a single punch to the symbiote's grotesque jaw. She clambered through the jagged edges of the window, watching the arch-adversaries circle each other, trying to find a way to break the stalemate.

Neither of them paid any attention to her, so focused were they on trying to pound each other into oblivion.

Well, Cat thought as she brought the hose stub into position. Peter I can forgive, but Gargan… time to make him regret he ever laid eyes on me… Without further ado, she released the safety catch. Without giving either one of them a second's warning, she squeezed the trigger with a growl.

Sensing right away what was coming, Spider-Man quickly dove out of the way. Gargan looked up at Felicia just in time to get a face full of shooting flame.

His eerie double-scream peeled in the air, and he clutched his face and stumbled back. Felicia readjusted the flamethrower on her shoulder with a determined grimace. Before he could recover, she shot another jet of flame at him. The symbiote began to shrink away from his blistered skin in the spots the heat had touched, as Gargan panted in the corner of the room. Her aim had been perfect, but even so, the residual sparks had set a few tiny fires, which began to lick at the walls

Cat continued to stalk Gargan with the flamethrower, keeping the nozzle pointed squarely at his head. Spider-Man, thankfully, stayed back, ready to help if needed. He seemed to understand that she needed to burn this jackass to cinders.

"Just one thing before I boil that alien sludge off of you, and leave your naked body hanging upside-down from a street light…" Her green eyes flashed with rage. Her voice lowered to a snarl. "You could have done anything… why did you try to seduce me?"

By now, his head was uncovered. A sneer crept across his face, and he laughed hoarsely. "I know what kind of men you like… mysterious… noble… confident but soul-searching…" He nodded at Spider-Man. "Just like Parker over there." As he continued to talk, he grew more bold. "You know, you want people to think you are a tigress, but under all that, you're just a kitten."

With a burst of strength that seemed to surprise even Gargan, the symbiote smashed through the burning wall, and plummeted to the alley below. It slithered over his form as he put distance between himself and the fire.

Cat's lips quivered in annoyance. But at least she had her answer; and she could roast him with a clear conscience. "Peter," she stopped the webslinger before he could dash headlong after Venom, "Could you give me a lift?"

Her only answer was a strong arm around the waist. Together, they searched for Venom until they found him crawling up the side of a building, quite obviously on the run -- the only option left to the defeated symbiote.

Spider-Man shot a double dose of webbing at Gargan's retreating form, and tried to yank him down to the asphalt, only to see him break free. As he ripped the webbing from his arms, he barked scornfully, "You might as well forget it - out in the open air, I can leap higher than you can shoot that thing, Cat. And Spider-Man, now you see me…" He began to fade into the brickwork before their eyes.

She shot at him blindly, and his laughter echoed around them. But to her astonishment, Spider-Man's mechanical waldoes sprang from the holder on his back, and shot a piercing sonic burst in all directions. She flinched and brought her hands over her ears in pain. But Venom's form flickered in and out of view, and the waldoes trained on him. She fought past the distraction and added a jet of flame. Crippled by the combination of the heat and sonic blasts, Gargan curled up into a fetal ball.

The symbiote slid from his body, trying to escape. Spider-Man webbed his enemy from neck to foot, while she blasted the alien slime before it could get away. Bubbling and smoking, the substance became a disgusting smear.

She slinked over to Gargan, who looked up at her from his cocoon with something like terror, and gave him a seductive smile. "Asshole," she growled through her teeth, and kicked him in the mouth, hard. They both heard a sound like a penny dropping on the pavement… a tooth skittered several feet before coming to rest.

Spider-Man immediately used his waldoes to meticulously scrape up all of the symbiotic mess. When Felicia gave him a curious look, he replied matter-of-factly, "I know better than to leave this stuff lying around. It has more lives than you, Cat."

Epilogue:

Felicia watched Peter throw his arms around his wife. She and Peter had finally found Mary Jane in the Avengers' common room on the top floor. He spun her around, laughing deliriously.

Mary Jane laughed with him as he set her down. "I missed you, Tiger," she said, giving him a long kiss. Felicia thought maybe she should look away…

When the two finally came up for air, Peter replied, "And I you, sweetheart."

He touched his forehead to hers, and they looked into each other's eyes with a silly grin. Then the redhead shuddered and pulled back. "Even after all this time, Venom makes my skin crawl. It doesn't matter who is wearing that alien slime, I hate it."

"I know what you mean." Peter reassured Mary Jane by rubbing her back.

The reference brought Felicia back in time for a few moments. She and Peter had been deep into their relationship when he had first begun wearing the symbiote. At the time, he had been quite enamored with the thing, and its ability to produce webbing on its own. And it didn't hurt that it could change to any appearance with a thought.

But not long after Mary Jane had come back into his life, he had realized that the suit was something more than just a suit. Remembering that Reed Richards had offered to examine it, Peter took him up on his offer. During the examination, both Reed and Peter found out that the suit was alive and wanted to bond with him. Using a sonic blaster, Mr. Fantastic was able to separate Peter from the alien symbiote and contain it, but the symbiote somehow managed later to escape. Peter had no end of trouble with it from that moment on.

It seemed that they all were remembering the same thing, and everyone was quiet for several seconds. May, who had just come in behind them, spoke up. "Peter!"

Realizing that he had forgotten her, Peter said, "I'm sorry Aunt May. I'm glad you're all right, too." Peter went over to his aunt and gave her a warm hug.

"Thanks to you, my dear." The older woman buried her face in his broad chest for a moment, closing her eyes. Then her perky gray head shot up, and she asked cheerfully, "Anyone for some tea?"

"Now, May," Jarvis clucked at her, "You have been through a traumatic experience. It's my job, I will go get the tea." He appeared relieved that she was out of harm's way again.

As she watched the two couples interact, Felicia felt like an outsider. Was she meant to always make bad choices? Always be alone?

Peter and Mary Jane held hands, murmuring to each other as they sat at the table. I should just go, Felicia thought. I don't belong here…

She suddenly felt a touch on her arm, and she looked down to see Peter's aunt standing beside her. "Felicia, dear, thank you for your help today."

"It was the least I could doPeter has helped me more times than I can count." As she talked to the kind older woman, she kept sending glances over to her ex-boyfriend.

May seemed to realize this, for she gently asked, "Please, have a seat next to me on the couch." She let May lead her over to the sofa to sit. Then May took her hand into her soft wrinkled one, and continued, "I know it must be hard to see that. But it will get better, you know."

Felicia gave a short, mirthless laugh. "How do you know that?"

"Oh, honey, it took me a long time to get over my dear Ben. And between then and now, I dated some real doozies." She chuckled. "Did Peter ever tell you how I almost married Otto Octavius?"

"Doctor Octopus?" Felicia asked, aghast.

"The very same." She smiled a knowing smile, and squeezed her hand tighter. "The Parker men are notoriously difficult to get over, my dear. But even an old girl like me knows you have to keep trying."

Felicia smiled warmly at the older lady. "I'll try to remember that." As she looked at Peter and Mary Jane again, she realized that the jealousy she was feeling was not that Peter was happily married to another woman. It was that she was not in a happy relationship herself. And something clicked inside. Maybe she should stop looking for 'Peter replacements' and just live her life. The right man would be there for her, someday.

Jarvis came back into the common room with a pot of tea and several cups. Felicia watched May assist Jarvis in passing out the cups and smiled when Jarvis placed a chaste kiss on May's cheek.

"Jeez," a gruff voice commented. "Why don't you two get a room or something." Logan, the man better known as Wolverine, stood there in the doorway.

"Mr. Logan, mind your manners," May scolded, bringing a chuckle from Peter, Mary Jane and Felicia.

"Logan," Peter drew her over toward his teammate. "You remember Felicia Hardy?"

"Should I?" Logan asked, shaking hands with Felicia.

"Sometime ago our paths crossed… and not in a pleasant way, I might add," she said, remembering that time painfully well. She also remembered being quite impressed with his prowess as a fighter. He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, either.

"I'm sorry darlin,' if I hurt you in any way. I've had my head screwed with so many times in the past, it's hard to remember certain things." Logan said brusquely, but sincerely.

"Apology accepted, then," Felicia said, taking his oddly smooth one in hers to shake again.

He directed his next comments to May. "I'm going out for a smoke since some people around here don't like me doing that inside. Catch you all later." Logan went out through the exit that led outside.

Peter cocked his head at Felicia. "So, what do you think of Logan?"

Felicia gazed through the windows, and saw his silhouette against the sunset, smoke from his cigar rising into the air. "He's all right, I guess, but I really doubt that we'll see each other again anytime soon," she remarked, and went back to her cup of tea.

A/N: The last part is a little nod to the limited series "Claws" – a Wolverine/Black Cat team-up which came out in August 2006.

Thanks to everyone who came along for the ride!