It all depends on luck

      Reasonably assuming that some enthusiast might still be guarding the entrance, or that one of the Parkers' neighbors might happen to notice her, Felicia did not enter from the front door. Instead, she waited until darkness fell and, when there were fewer passersby on the street, climbed up the fire escape to the floor of the apartment building where the Parkers were registered.       Further action was risky because of the darkness. Fortunately, Felicia always carried her favorite glasses, a special souvenir she had taken from Oscorp when Harry had wreaked havoc there. The glasses provided her with night vision, but they could display the world in infrared and ultraviolet ranges of light if needed. Just in case, Felicia looked over the roofs and walls of nearby buildings. Among other things, the goggles gave adjustable magnification with high-quality images, far beyond the capabilities of the normal human eye. It was empty, though she wouldn’t mind seeing Spider-Man.       Felicia threw off her shoes and stowed them in the backpack she’d bought at the local store along with more comfortable clothes. She wore special gloves on her hands, a couple more souvenirs from Oscorp. If anyone asked, Felicia would say that she needed those clawed gloves just for self-defense. And that would be the pure truth, albeit with some reservations. Felicia did feel much safer with them, even if sometimes the situation called for striking first. But more than that, the gloves helped in her professional activities. Their special polymer microstructured coating allowed them to stick to flat surfaces (almost like Spider-Man, though not as deftly), and their sharp yet strong claws could be used to cling to stone, concrete or masonry. The main thing is to have good muscles in your hands and to keep your feet firmly planted against the wall, which is extremely difficult to do in shoes with heels.       Digging her claws deep into the brick wall, Felicia climbed to the nearest window of the Parkers' apartment. The windows that faced the fire escape almost always had a lock on the inside, unlike those near the bare walls.       Crazy easy work compared to what she sometimes had to do. It wasn’t often that the right window was located near a fire escape. And sometimes, because of the customer’s demands, it was necessary to climb several floors slowly through the glass building like a handsome Tom Cruise. The only difference was that no one could see her, because that was the point of her job.       Continuing to hold onto the wall with her right hand, Felicia straightened her fingers on her left one and the claws on her glove retracted inward. With the same hand, Felicia pushed the window frame up and climbed into the apartment.       Once inside, Felicia dropped her backpack and looked around. The Parkers' apartment was spacious, though smaller than the Parkers' private home in her dimension. The local Parkers had either moved out in a hurry or hadn’t expected to be gone for long, so they’d left a lot of stuff behind.       In order not to give away her presence, Felicia kept the lights off and, wearing her glasses as she was, scrutinized the apartment. This time no one had hired her for surveillance. Jewelry, antiques, or expensive gadgets, like the usual housebreakers, did not interest her either. Felicia was driven by something more than money. This was Spider-Man’s apartment, and its owner might have left something interesting behind. At least a personal diary or a set of photographs, if this Peter was into those, too.       After searching the living room and kitchen, Felicia went into the room she had identified from personal effects as Peter’s bedroom. Felicia scrutinized the desk, shelves, the space under the bed, and the closet, finding lots of dust, all sorts of junk, LEGO parts, study notes, and all sorts of old rags. Behind the desk, Felicia found a dark glass vial labeled “web fluid.”       “Lucky,” Felicia smiled. Searching the closet, Felicia came across a box forgotten in a far corner under a pile of old clothes.       “Very lucky,” Felicia said, anticipating her victory.       Using the flashlight built into her glasses, Felicia examined her find. Inside were some badly worn clothes: a blue sweatshirt, sweatpants, high socks, and a red sleeveless hoodie. Apparently, Felicia had stumbled upon an old Spidey costume. There was also a mask with ridiculous bulging glasses.       Felicia decided to take a chance. Drawing the curtains, she turned on the television, set it to low brightness, and found the Daily Bugle news channel, which, though it had a dubious reputation, followed Spider-Man relentlessly. Spidey could provide answers to her questions, but finding him was a separate problem. Felicia could visit him at the school, but she doubted Peter would want to be there on his day off. On the other hand Felicia could set a dangerous precedent to lure Spider-Man out, but that wasn’t her style. Plus there was the risk of attracting the so-called Avengers or other local heroes like Daredevil or the girl with the glowing katana. Felicia could make her presence known in the Parkers' apartment, but then she’d be more likely to be visited by Spider-Man fans and haters, or even the cops.       Felicia’s eyesight was naturally good, so the dim light from the TV was enough to study the old Spider-Man costume. Felicia found two heavy wristbands in the pockets of the hoodie and tried on one of them, correctly assuming that the small stem with the sensor plate should be on the palm side. There was also a small cover on the body of the wristband, and upon unscrewing it, Felicia found a small flask of white liquid inside. Felicia slid the flask back into place, closed the lid, and in a trademark Spider-Man gesture, bent her middle and ring fingers, touching the sensor plate. The bracelet shot out an adhesive thread, the end of which caught on the nearest wall.       “Convenient,” Felicia thought aloud.       She could use equipment like that when she was hired to stake out or break into someone’s home or office. Or if instead of a spider’s web, she had some kind of rope with a small winch and a stubby hook at the end.       Out of curiosity, Felicia tried on the Spider mask.       “Lordy! Can he even see in these?”       Felicia looked at the TV through Spider’s glasses, but saw only a patch of barely discernible light. Felicia squinted, but it only got darker. Then she opened her eyes wider and, to her surprise, the light became unnaturally brighter and the picture clearer. Felicia experimented some more and discovered that the Spider’s lenses could adjust the amount of light transmitted at will. She removed the mask and discovered that the lenses had sensors on the back side that apparently touched the skin around her eyes and thus allowed her to adjust the amount of light transmitted. Handy if Spider-Man’s eyesight is much more sensitive than human eyesight. Felicia’s glasses can do this too, by the way. It’s a very useful device, and probably the most expensive thing Felicia has ever stolen and kept.       Felicia spent another hour and a half on her stolen laptop (it cost too much to pay), continuing to study the local Spider-Man and his dimension. It turned out to be very strange. People with superpowers are literally everywhere. A few years ago, there was even a kind of “pandemic”: ordinary people were covered with a stone crust, and when it fell off, those already had different abilities.       Spider-Man, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen (as Daredevil was nicknamed) and the girl with the katana were not the only living sights in New York. There was also a black man from Harlem with impenetrable skin, and a super-powered woman from Hell’s Kitchen who runs her own detective agency — with high efficiency and a terrible attitude toward her clients.       Felicia yawned tiredly. She still needed to rest, and the Daily Bugle wasn’t showing anything interesting. She turned off the television. Tomorrow morning she would continue with a fresh head.       Felicia felt strange. She had slept in other people’s empty apartments many times before, but this was the first time she had ever fallen asleep at Spider-Man’s house, much less on his bed.