Chapter Text
Felicia Hardy, she was a young up and coming burglar, young and with natural beauty, all her talent and power gone to waste by working for Roxxon and TCRI “Doctor Stockman, I understand that Spider-man and his group of vigilantes are after us, but is it really necessary to speed up the tests and on Anton and Steranko?”
The doctor laughed “Oh this is just a side project that I have been refining for years” the doctor was pressing a few buttons on a big control panel, Felicia had no idea what any of these was but she couldn’t lie about how fascinating this all was “In fact, if you volunteer you might be the next test subject”
The small glass container in which both Anton Zeck and Ivan Steranko were contained would slowly fill up with a green looking substance, Anton was of average height, not physically imposing at all but he was great at tracking while his partner Ivan was physically imposing, tall and imposing.
“You see, by utilizing these mutagens, exposure to vita rays, animal DNA and a tiny bit of blank X-Genes you are able to bring forth the natural potential of any human” The doctor couldn’t help but smile as he saw his work starting to work, rubbing his hands together before pushing on a lever.
Felicia looked in both shock and awe as the two men inside the test tubes screamed in pain, their bodies shifting and transforming into what she could only describe as humanoid animals. Anton now turned into a boar with his height and tracking abilities enhanced while Ivan was now twice as tall, he was now a bipedal rhinoceros “Are you sure this is safe? Doctor?”
The short man would nod, clapping his hands as he turned towards her “It is pretty safe, my formula enhances what's there, after years of research I managed to perfect it a few months ago” he rubbed his hands together as he opened their containment units, his laugh almost maniacal.
“Oh boy, look at us Rocksteady!” The big boar man laughed in amazement, he took a moment to steady himself by putting an arm on a wall “Oh boy I can smell everything, her perfume, his deodorant and your ass” the man laughed and snorted.
“Calm yourself Bebop, I know it’s exciting but we have to focus on tracking both that Spider-man and stealing the assets the boss asked for” Ivan cracked his fists as he would pat Anton on the shoulder, pulling him onto the dressing room.
Felicia would slowly step out of the room, going towards the small armory that the TCRI had lent them, she wasn’t particularly interested in any of the weapons after all she had her claws but she saw a few smoke bombs, grappling hooks and other gadgets that she thought would look nice along her belt as well as being useful incase she saw either Spider-man and his friends.
Beetle turned towards Baxter “Do you think our contractors will keep their word?” He had slightly upgraded his gauntlets and jetpack, his suit had a greater amount of silver and purple, a hand on Baxter’s shoulder as he looked outside at the armory.
“Not at all, the things they want me to do with the mutagen… it all seems way more concerning than anything Roxxon ever asked me to do” He stretched as he got up, grabbing a few disks from a table handing them over to beetle “Make sure they don’t get killed, they would be wonderful allies once the time comes”
Bebop and Rocksteady grabbed a few big guns from the armory, a grin on Bebop’s mouth as he got on the copilot seat of a truck throwing the weapons back while Rocksteady got on the driver’s seat. Their weight noticeably shifted the vehicle as they were preparing for seemingly something big.
Black Cat got on her motorcycle, grabbing a helmet as she zipped up her leather outfit. Getting on the vehicle making the engine rev telling the other three that she’s ready, she had already had to wait for too long and her patience was wearing thin.
Beetle got onto the back of the truck “Remember, we distract the guards while the kitten steals the data” he said through the comms as he opened up a few crates in the truck revealing a bunch of mouser robots in them.
Baxter opens up the door for them, the truck and bike driving off, closing the door behind them. He runs up to his computer before putting on a headset “Alright crew, we have at least 10 minutes before any of their hired guns can arrive”
“That sounds more than sufficient” Beetle was standing inside the truck, looking out the driver window, his helmet giving him information directly from the feed of the mauser robots with their location on a map on the corner of his display.
“You guys make sure to make it convincing that you are going after the other things they have, their prototypes, anything you can steal is worth it, I don’t want them to notice what we actually stole months after we have done so” Black Cat said as she took an alternate route towards their location, her bike moving fast through the city.
Once at the location, Bebop and Rocksteady looked at each other with a grin as they backed up the truck as they saw the back entrance to the warehouse of Oscorpt tower before pressing the pedal and going through it parking it dramatically as they got off the car and started to point at the guards and shoot “Beetle activate the robot thingies!” Bebop said as moved towards an important looking box, grabbing a handle with one hand as he started to move towards the cargo hold of the truck.
The Beetle jumped out of the truck through the front window, shooting lasers at the incoming guards, covering both brutes as the mausers started to run towards the other guards and into the building, biting any armed persons as they made sure to cause as big of a distraction as they could.
Black Cat waited for a few seconds on the rooftop of another building before using her new grappling hook to swing into the building, smiling as she moved towards the security room, she made sure to be as quiet as possible as she made her way through the corridors of Oscorp tower.
Once in there, she would make sure to disable and burn all of the camera footage for the day, a smirk on her face as she went back to moving towards the mainframe of the building. Her eyes looked around for anyone that could be in this area of the building.
“Everything alright up there cat? You are taking far longer than I would expect” Beetle said as he fought through hordes of guards with Bebop and Rocksteady, the two had already loaded a few crates into the truck.
“Yes Beetle, I’m just being careful, I wouldn’t want to get some unwanted attention” she saw spoke out as quietly as she could, her eyes getting bright as she saw the door to the room she needed, getting in and putting the USB Baxter had gave her she made sure to plug it into it.
“I would leave this job right now if I were you” she heard a voice coming from behind her and the sound of a gun cocking, a dark chuckle coming from the man as he was clearly aiming for her.
“Oh come on dear, you wouldn’t shoot a cat would you?” She turned around with a smile, her hands in the air as she looked at Deadshot, a tall man wearing a white outfit with only one visible through a red lens. He had a gun gauntlet pointed directly at her head.
“They pay me enough not to get too bothered about it” He pressed his trigger but found out that his gun had jammed, how unusual, he had swore he cleaned his guns before coming to talk with Norman. How could his gun jam when it had never happened before.
“Performance issues? It happens to every man at some point in their life” She smirked before kicking him away, her slender fingers now had claws on them as she lunged towards the mercenary.
“CAT GET THAT THING DONE” Bebop screamed through the comms as he tried to dodge blasts from a man wearing a yellow suit with weird gauntlets, who was dodging blasts from the Beetle.
“Having trouble with your little operation?” Deadshot was brawling with Black Cat, exchanging blows as he kept attempting to shoot at her. His gun gauntlets were smoking as each blast narrowly missed her, this was far too unusual, he never missed a shot and this just felt like a really bad string of bad luck.
“Oh no, honey, in fact I think my file transfer is ready” she did a backflip, kicking him on the chin as she retrieved the USB which has all the data, putting it right between her breasts as she dove out of a window, using her grappling hook to get on her bike “Bebop, Rocksteady, Beetle, good luck. I’d love to stay but I got someone behind my back” she drove off as she attempted to lose Deadshot from her tracks.
Bebop and Rocksteady got into the truck as the Beetle knocked the man with the gauntlets with a right hook, flying into it as they drove off.
“YOU THUGS WON'T ESCAPE FROM ME! I'M THE SHOCKER AND I'LL CHASE YOU ALL TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH" The man got up a few seconds after being knocked out, screaming at them in anger as he tried to run towards them unable to catch up.
The quartet of mercenaries felt content with their mission, they had successfully stolen the data and got a few toys out of the brawl, this was a good blow against Oscorp.
As they made sure no one was following them, they changed trucks in a parking lot, moving the boxes into the other truck.
Once they made their way back to the warehouse TCRI had located them at for this Operation, Bebop and Rocksteady got off the truck cheering as they unloaded the truck.
Black cat got off her bike, removing her helmet and placing it next to the bike, taking a deep breath as she pushed her white locks off her face “So Doctor what exactly did I steal"
“To put it simply, our employers want me to change my mutagen formula not to enhance what is there but to change it into something different" He said looking into a computer, the formula for the mutagen displayed clearly for them even if they couldn't understand.
Black Cat slowly moved her hands towards her breasts pulling out the USB and plugging it into the PC, unzipping her leather outfit slightly “Right, so they don't want it to be random" she scratched her head in confusion.
“That would be a way to put it. However the key to that we suspected was in Is Oscorp's medicine and genetics divisions, Doctor Grace Balin, Robert Kirkland and Curt Connors particularly" he pulled a few formulas onto the screen which had pictures of an Orca and a Lizard attached to them.
“Where is this going exactly, Doctor?" She sat down on a nearby chair as beetle slowly took off the pieces of armor, putting them on a table to clean them, staying only on his under suit.
“These two have created a theoretical way to mix specific animal DNA into a person. If I can grab their research and see what I am missing, I could turn any organism into another one" He seemed to be way too into this plot as far as she was concerned, she didn't trust TCRI especially with how cold the people who hired her seemed.
“That seems more dangerous than any weapon you have made yet" the beetle spoke out, under his helmet he had hazel hair and a light skin tone, scars all across his face from battles.
“Well, the mutagen on the wrong hands could turn an Epsilon threat to an Alpha or even Omega" Baxter tried to argue back as he looked into the research by his fellow scientists, going back to his investigation “You guys can go to a bar or whatever, I’m probably going to be occupied for a few days on integrating this”
Black cat took a deep breath, she went out of the lab area to turn to the two mutated humans “Bebop, Rocksteady, you guys know of a good bar around here?” she said, opening the door of one of the extra vehicles they had, not bothering to change her outfit because of who would be coming with her.
“Yeah, the usual merc place is in Gotham if you are fine with it taking like an hour or so to get there” Rocksteady gets in the car, on the copilot seat, yawning as he does so. Bebop getting on the back of the car, the two somehow could fit in the car with little issues.
Black Cat starts driving the car, going outside of New York and into Gotham, the engine of the vehicle purring as the car moves through the streets and bridge of the megalopolis of the state of New York. Felicia couldn’t help but admire how all these cities connected themselves through expansion yet were completely different from one another.
From South Town all the way to Metro city, it was amazing how each area could be unique yet so different from one another and the type of people that they attracted to. Gotham was a beautiful yet supernaturally dangerous city, she didn’t know why it was such an attractive city for her or other criminals and more importantly why Wayne Enterprises chose to keep its main headquarters in it despite countless attacks from criminals like the Joker or Black Mask.
She never paid too much attention to it, I mean it was just one of countless crime ridden cities connected to each other on the atlantic coast of the US, Metro City had the Mad Gear Gang, South Town had the Howard Connection, Gotham had Penguin and Two-face, New York had the Kingpin and so on. She could be on worse hands than the TCRI at least that’s what she thought.
“So Rocksteady, what did you guys do before getting hired by Baxter?” She tried to do some small banter, her eyes shifting towards the two mutants on her truck.
“Oh we used to do work for whoever paid more, you know, sometimes criminal organizations need a louder guns blazing approach than your stealth. That’s where we’d come from” Rocksteady puffed his chest proudly as he explained, turning back towards Bebop with a smile.
“Yeah, a lot of good times although that Deathstroke guy sure is a pain to work with. I mean we might be unprofessional but that does not mean he gets to bully us” Bebop said with an annoyed tone, his expressions might be those of a boar but he still looked angry at him. Laying back on his seat before smiling “But so far you and the Beetle guy have been some of the most fun mercenary companions we’d have” Bebop chuckled and nodded to himself.
“Bebop’s right, Beetle even joined in on the fun with his own explosives, the guy is a walking arsenal and he saved our skins a couple of times” Rocksteady said with his russian accent before turning towards Felicia, a grin on his face “But enough about us, what has the kittycat done before working with us”
Felicia had a smile on her face as the moon light hit the car, the bridge they were going through creating a really scenic view of the landscape “Oh nothing much, generally just some small robberies, I generally try to avoid confrontation through stealth” she said as they finally made their way into gotham city, the city had beautiful gothic architecture, she knew not to overstep her boundaries tonight as the Batman was most likely on the prowl.
Bebop scratched his head “So is that why we had not heard about you? You don’t seem like a small-time criminal” he felt pretty confused about the lack of notoriety she had among the criminal underworld, even that of the megalopolis of New York.
“Yeah, I try to keep myself clear of any big fights even if I can take them. I don’t want to gain the attention of the Kingpin” She said with a chuckle as she let Rocksteady now guide her towards the location, quietly driving as they made their way towards the small tavern in Gotham.
As the three mercenaries arrived at the place, three noted that the alley was relatively big, having a parking lot in it “You sure we can park here, big guy?” Felicia turned to Rocksteady with a raised eyebrow, her hands on the wheel.
“Yeah, Basil got this place specifically for this” he said as she parked the car, getting out and stretching as waited for the other two. Once they got out of the car they walked towards a wooden door that had some really beautiful carvings of crows along it.
Rocksteady would knock on the door three times, a man opening a small panel in the door that looked at him “Codeword?” the man said as he looked directly at the mutant with skepticism.
Bebop couldn’t help himself as he grinned “Caramel” he really found it funny that such a rough place would have such a sweet word as its password, he wanted to chuckle but he knew not to as he looked around.
“Very well, you may enter” a common thug sighed as he opened the door, he thought that he would have worked a more prestigious job with another criminal not opening the door all night at a bar.
Felicia was hesitant at first, she had heard of the Iceberg lounge at Gotham so she wasn’t expecting these two to take her to a small time bar “Hey, Bebop, Rockstead, are you two sure this is the place?”
“Yeah, most Gotham villains hang around here but that’s what makes it nice” Rocksteady said waving towards the bartender, a man who looked like he was melting. He was happily serving drinks in the warm looking bar while other supervillains drank and chatted.
There were so many criminals around, a man with a helmet like that of the beetle but wearing a black outfit with a backpack, she recognized him as the Firefly; then she saw a man wearing a bright yellow suit with green accents all over it, that was Mirror Master; a girl wearing a brown bunny girl outfit with bunny girls from her head, Felicia didn’t recognize her; and the last one was a sad looking man wearing a green suit.
Felicia paid them no mind as she sat on a stool with Bebop and Rocksteady sat besides her, the two yawning as they were pretty tired but down to accompany her “Hey Basil, give us the usual and get the girl a Pineapple Rum” Rocksteady said with a smile as she would pat her back.