"Oh my god!"
"Kate, calm down—"
"Why is that counting down? And why is it only ten minutes long?!"
"It's okay!" Cat raised her voice, her ears were still buzzing. She tried to use her powers, but they were unresponsive. "Oh, shit."
Spider-man tensed. "What?"
Something cold slipped down Cat's back. "My inhibitor's been activated again."
"Then turn it off," Kate turned to Spidey. "Turn it off!"
Kurt coughed, he tried to get up but he fell, he was severely malnourished and beaten. They needed to get him treated as soon as possible.
"What's that noise?" He mumbled.
The use of his powers in such a weak state drained him for the rest of the night. Probably the rest of the week. Cat picked up her beeper and stared at it without knowing what to do.
"C..." Peter's voice was getting higher. "It doesn't turn off!"
"They must've made a backup... those assholes may be animals, but they have brains—"
"Cat if we don't do something, you're going to blow up the whole building, including us!" Kate urged her. "Think!"
Cat could feel their wide-eye gazes, and her body reacted before she could think it through. Peter's senses seemed to catch up, cause he tried to reach out for her at the last second.
"Don't—!"
The mutant kicked him away and got up, running as fast as she could in the opposite direction with the young man closely following behind. Kate screamed at her, but she wasn't running, the archer had stayed to help Kurt, and she hoped Spider-man could handle Copycat alone.
Peter tackled her, and Cat fought to get out of his grip. She realized then that they were on Midtown High's rooftop.
"STOP FOLLOWING ME!"
She snatched E.D.I.T.H. out of his face with one hand and punched his nose with the other, the hero lost balance and Cat crawled away from him. Back on her feet, she slid down the emergency ladder, jumping off and landing on the grass. She then put on the Stark glasses.
"Hi, C.C."
"Hi, babe," she panted, still running. "Russo's location?"
A map appeared in the lenses only for her to see, she could hear Spider-man still chasing her. Russo was moving fast, he was far, if only she could be faster... if she could have her powers back for just a second...
"Stop trying to die!" Peter said, swinging from a building.
"I promise this is the last time!" She yelled, rounding up a corner.
The beeper was still firmly in her hand, and it was making strange choppy static noises. Cat pressed the comm button and spoke close to the artefact.
"Hi, Webs three!" She stumbled but quickly gathered herself up. "If you're hearing this—" a big piece of junk flew over her head, she glanced over her shoulder. "Stop throwing stuff at me!" Cat turned back ahead, running straight to an open street. "Anyway, Parker, go back to your universe—!"
The collar was triggered and an electric shock made her lose her footing. She'd crossed the street without paying attention, and if Harley had seen her, he would've yelled "I told you so". A truck was about to run her over, Cat closed her eyes out of instinct...
Spider-man lifted her up just in time, he wrapped his arm firmly around her middle and she wrapped her legs around his hips, now he was swinging them forward following the street below. Cat gasped for air, and the cold filled her lungs without M.O.U.S.E. there to protect her.
"Listen!" She shouted, opening her eyes little by little so the air didn't hit them abruptly as well. Spider-man's logo was the first thing she came face to face with. "Peter..." she froze. That was spider-man's logo, just not the one from her world. Cat looked up with her mouth wide open. "Parker!"
The young man had his attention elsewhere. "Am I trippin' or is my other self chasing after you with a brick in his hand?"
The Stark glasses began to make noise, they were approaching her target. Russo's car was right ahead. "Let go."
"What?"
"Drop me!"
She hit him on the stomach, Parker loosened his grip but he was fast to seize her wrist just as quickly before she could fall any further. Cat hissed and scratched his forearm as hard as she could with her free hand. Parker yelped but he didn't release her, he kept swinging, and now they were right above Billy's car and about to leave it behind. She searched in her boots and found a pocket knife.
"I'm sorry!"
She stabbed his hand. Spidey let go of her shouting.
"Motherff—!"
Cat didn't hear the rest, she fell on the roof of a taxi.
"Jesus!" She grunted.
Cat pushed herself up with difficulty and looked around, tightly holding onto the top of the moving vehicle. E.D.I.T.H. guided her attention to a limousine a few cars ahead. The taxi driver was yelling, she'd ruined his car but she didn't have time or interest in apologizing.
The mutant jumped from one moving car to another, her knee pulsed horribly but she did her best to ignore it. One of Russo's men pointed their gun at her, but she threw the knife before he could shoot, stabbing him in the forehead.
Copycat reached the black vehicle and looked upside down through the passenger seat, she pulled the man's body out the window to have a clear view, she'd run out of weapons, but she was so angry that it didn't matter. She hated when things didn't go the way she wanted them to. Even more, if it was a man's fault.
"What's up!" Cat said in a wildly invigorated voice, stealing the corpse's gun.
Her collar got activated a second time. Cat pushed herself up on time even though she could barely control her twitching muscles, a blast of bullets missed her by only a few inches, and a piece of her hair was cut clean by one of the projectiles, she watched it fly away in the frigid wind.
The mutant entered feet first through the car's window, Cat bent a little and used the man's gun to shoot at the other two companions on each side of Russo. Once she was seated, she shot the driver in the head, before he could pull out his weapon.
They started to move erratically, Cat shot at the windshield and kicked it out of the way. She crawled up on the headboard to get out but a bullet grazed her thigh, and another one went past her ear.
"Fine! I'll stay a bit longer!" She huffed, pointing her gun at Russo.
He didn't try to shoot again, Cat was in a terrible mood: Kraven wasn't there.
"You didn't think I'd go without saying goodbye, right?"
She raised her voice so he could hear her above the traffic noises. Cat kept the steering wheel steady so they didn't crash yet. Billy was pale, and the scars on his face had never looked as red and bulky as now.
"You have one minute left," he announced, trying to look unbothered. "Is this really how you wish to end things?"
"Yeah, not a big deal."
Russo smiled at something over her shoulder, and she frowned.
"I'll tell your friends you said hi," he said.
The roaring of an engine startled her, the mutant looked back in the direction Billy had been staring at a second before: Kraven was riding a large motorcycle a few spots ahead, and he was pointing at Cat with her own spear. He threw it so fast she could only see a swirl of colors as it flew through the traffic.
"CAT!"
Parker picked her up a second time, saving her from getting impaled. Her inhibitor started blinking repeatedly, beeping so loudly it was wounding her already hurting eardrums.
Sparks started to come out from around her, for a brief second she had the impression the explosion had somehow come from outside, given that she could still see Spider-man in the middle of the cloud of fire and dust... but that wasn't a normal explosion.
A blur of colors and noises confused her. Parker held onto her tighter, she could no longer tell which way was down and which was up. There was no skyline, suddenly everything took form again and Cat was thrown out of the young man's embrace.
She rolled across the street in a haze, she wasn't in pain, which is what one would expect after blowing up. In alarm, she got up and ran away from the busy street, Parker shouted at her to come back but she didn't listen.
"Where are we, Edith?" She asked, but the glasses didn't reply to her.
She spotted the Brooklyn bridge ahead and Cat kept on running, not even stopping to consider she wasn't so close to that area a second ago. Russo was out of sight and so was Kraven, at least she could try and get away from the city so no one could get hurt by the explosion.
Out of desperation, Cat tried to teleport forgetting she couldn't... and it worked.
She slipped and put her hands forward to stop her face from meeting the pavement, Cat saw her claws come out as she landed. Slowly, she reached up and seized the collar around her throat, pulling as hard as she could. The inhibitor broke in two, no longer making noises.
Cat looked around, the cars had slightly altered designs than the ones she would usually see in her city. The mutant teleported again to a random street and walked deeper into town. There was no sight of hero propaganda.
Where the Stark tower had been for more years than she could remember, was now a tall, dark building. Cat took off the E.D.I.T.H. glasses with a horror-struck gaze. A logo could be seen at the very top, right in between two pointy ends resembling cat ears... or a goblin's:
OSCORP