The night was quiet in the fair city. Businesses closed, streets empty and blinds drawn to keep privacy inside instead of out. A long figure moved through the streets, a woman in all black walked down the street, a small bag over her shoulder. No police were called, no one knew and she was feeling a bit arrogant was she skipped along the empty streets. the women in the hooded mask moved with a grace unlike others, her body swerving as if she was dancing which, she was a little. "Diamonds and Emeralds and Rubies oh my." She whispered to herself. The police were following a false lead on the other side of the town, a lead that said someone was going to rob the jewelry store but simple is as simple does, the robber took the other jewelry store across town.

As a hooded figure she looked good, the skin tight black body suite she wore hugged every curve of her womanly form and the material was silk yet strong. Allowing her body to breathe yet preventing any scrapes as she crawled through vent or skidded across concrete. There was a wonderful fabric company in China that made the material she used on her costume and it always seemed to work her advantage. Even her face mask was made from the same things. Why? Simple, she didn't want to scar her pretty face. Though people didn't know what a pretty face she had and the false canine teeth she wore made her look as though she had fangs. Yes, life was fun when you were a robber.

Her hands clinked together as she touched the small pieces of something sticking out of her gloves. The 'something' was her trade mark. The clever woman created claws out of jewelry, since diamonds were the hardest material in the world, it made cutting open glass very easy, which was her main problem. Hacking into computer systems, simple; she learned how to do that as a day job, being a computer technician it's kind of a given. So far there has yet to be a security system she couldn't crack. It also helped that she worked in the computer section of the biggest company in town and they created most, if not all, the security systems used in town. Aw tonight was a good night and she even did a little skip jump as she walked down the street; so full of happiness that nothing could ruin her mood.

It was normal for Jake to be out on patrol during a week night, but this evening felt a little different than the others. Instead of the normal cool crisp air there was an almost muggy warmth to the breeze. Thankfully instead of having to seek out some air conditioned space Jake had the best answer in town. Moving closer to the edge of the apartment building he leaned forward and fell off the edge of the 50 story high rise. As he fell he reached out and with a flick of his write activated his webbing which latched onto a nearby building and propelled him into a swinging arc down the street. The speed brought the muggy breeze into the world of brisk chill. The whole thing accompanied by a rather energetic outburst from Jake.

Moving through the streets at an unprecedented speed considering the traffic Jake had already mapped out his route and within ten minutes was across downtown in the diamond district. A series of crimes had made this area top the charts of possible crime areas according to his computer assistant as well as also became a likely place to be hit by a new player. The newspapers had half a dozen different names for the thief, but most of the city was just calling her the modern day Robin Hood. Normally a hero the thefts the perpetrator had been doing involved some highly skilled hacking as well as several other skills that M.A.R.Y. deemed a possible threat to her and the local police services.

'Basically I am taking orders from a microwave.' Jake whispered to himself. The problem was that he wasn't by himself which was obvious after his earpiece began to talk back with a nearly feminine mechanical voice.

"Jake I assure you I have you on multiple cameras. I am with you." the voice said. Her name was M.A.R.Y. Jake had heard it explained to him what the letters stood for, but could never remember them. Plus he doubted he had enough breath to say the name quick enough. Either way she was more or less the brains of the whole operation he had cooked up. Which was good considering he was nowhere near smart enough to have dived into DNA splicing which resulted in his superhuman abilities.

"You have no idea how comfortable that makes me MARY." Jake said with a sarcastic tone. Thankfully it was something she couldn't recognize yet so she simply reassured him again and then fell silent. As he continued to swing from building to building he ordered his mp3 to start playing music. He rarely patrolled without some musical assistance. Tonight he decided on a Dance / Latin Pop playlist he found on the internet. It put a kick in his swing as he reached his destination. MARY also interrupted him singing along to play GPS assistance to the obvious.

"You are looking for violent crimes or a hooded figure with black themed attire." MARY added.

"You basically described probable cause in fashion terms." Jake said with a laugh. "She must be a heck of a looker..." He muttered which once again prompted her to speak.

"Several people in multiple reports have described the persons body as likely female with..." The pause made it possible to practically hear calculations going through the processors. "Several have possibly confirmed she was very attractive...Will this be a problem?" Jake laughed a little before asking her to clarify what she meant. "I saw in your online journal that 10 years ago you repeatably stated that you would do anything to be with a beautiful woman."

"I was 14 years old!" Jake shouted. He was about to continue to voice a defense; however, he was cut short by MARY who stated she had detected a security system disabling software attack.She gave Jake directions to blocks north and he jumped into action shooting a web and swinging the two blocks silently. When he reached the roof he spotted a body walking down the street. MARY confirmed that there was an over 90 percent possibility that it was the person who had hacked some of the diamond exchange security.

Swinging down and landing on the sidewalk he wasn't sure how to approach the person so with a somewhat awkward clearing of the throat he stood there. "You know wearing all black makes you hard to see right?" He finally said after he looked her up and down. He stood somewhat confident even though he was wearing a very similar outfit only it was black and red instead with his hero logo of a extended spider on his chest.

Did Amanda Kissinger ever guess that she would stoop this low? Robbing people who were supposed to be on her parents’ side because they didn’t support their choices? No, she never pegged herself for doing something like this. But it was the only way she could see fit to help get her parents back up to where they used to be in their high society standards. She used to never have to work, even though she was 23, her parents covered everything for her and wanted her to get an amazing education. Hence her being at Yale (she thought of Harvard but changed her mind); for anyone unaware of this, Yale is an expensive school to go to and now that her parents were both working and so was she; they only had enough to get by and all the fun things, family trips, going to their beach house (which they had to sell) and just being a dorky family.

Now her father was stuck as a sale’s associate making enough to help the family scrap by on bills; her mother is one of six secretaries for Big Corp, who makes a whole bunch of mechanical devices around the city and Amanda was a low level employee at the Allstone Security Company. Probably the worst place for her to be employed since she is a computer genius who had turned to theft to help keep her family out of the poorhouse. Though a few good things are still functioning her life, the house was paid off, so they didn’t have any fear of losing it; her grades reflected her intelligence with high As in all of her courses and she had a very caring best friend, Jake Allstone. The good looking muscular guy had kept her company throughout her parents’ tragic loss to the scam that caused them to lose all their money. The worst of the situation being everyone in town who had a lot of money were trying to get into the deal that her parents got into, and once it bit them in the butt; a lot of people turned their backs to the Kissinger family and that… that didn’t sit well with her. And for that, she didn’t feel guilty stealing from them.

She was getting referred to as a Modern Day Robin Hood, only female. Why? Because she didn’t just steal for her family, she showed pity on the lower end of society in the city because now she knew what it was like to be in their shoes. It’s not as though the young woman looked down upon the when she was up on her pedestal but she never understood what it was like to be at the bottom until she found herself there with her parents. Money would appear in random bank accounts from an unknown source, people would find bundles of cash in mail boxes, homeless people would say their pillow felt weird and would open up the case to find money awaiting their acceptance. But that still didn’t make up for the fact that she was a thief, something none of her family’s friends seemed to enjoy and something that her parents did frown upon. The few people that had stuck with them, like the Allstones’ were getting annoyed with the thief but they had to leave it to the authorities to catch the person. Or so she assumed was the situation.

Amanda was smart about it though, she kept her voice with a device around her neck that looked like a black cat collar. Why? Because it looked good and made her voice sound different, higher than her normal voice and if she screamed she’d sound like a cat hissy, something that wouldn’t draw attention. Normally Amanda had a deep, almost seductive woman voice; her voice typically held some form of sensuality to it without her even trying. She wasn’t sure why but her mom had the same tone to her voice. It ran in the family.

A figure dropped down nearby but she paid no mind to it, her attention was finally drawn to it as the thing coughed. She stopped, her body language screaming that she was annoyed as she turned to look in the direction of the cloaked figure. “That’s the point.” She said sharply, her body shape was completely different in her suite; she had her waist pulled in to be as thin as possible and her normally round butt pushed against her and her chest flattened down as tightly as she could. Why? Have you ever tried to crawl through an air duct with a bubble butt and a chest? It’s very difficult! So flatten everything was a time cruncher but when you build it into your suite, it works to your advantage. She rolled her contact green eyes at him before giving him a little wave, her diamond tipped gloves reflecting in the street light. “Good bye.” With that she kept walking, not even giving it a thought that he might be out to stop her. Stupid moron running around playing hero, she had been doing this for a while and was trained in a lot of hand to hand combat; he should know better than to mess with a kitten who has claws.

What the heck? Jake thought to himself after the woman's response. Since he dawned the whole superhero outfit he had never been talked to so normally or for lack of a better word crassly. Rude, sarcastic, mean, and downright uncalled for tones were used, but never anything so standard. The whole this disarmed him more than a taser and he had learned the hard way just how much those things suck. Several times in fact. Regardless she had thrown the only attack at him that he wasn't ready for so he was pretty much caught flat footed. The only thin that woke him up was the fact that he was half a sentence behind her. So while she was saying his goodbyes he had just heard her talk about how being hard to see was the whole point of the outfit.

"Wait a minute your the thief that has been pilfering jewels!" He shot his web slinger at the street light above him and yanked the web causing him to launch up into the air. While airborne he shot a webbing towards her which snagged a part of her jacket. It wasn't enough to immobalize her, in fact he mostly missed. Still new to the whole aim from the waist swinging deal. He then landed a few feet from her and started to talk. "I'm going to have to ask you to..." All at once the world was upside down and he was the only thing seeing that. The woman had put her arm around his and then launched herself around him in some sort of counterweight throw. The response was faster than his spider-sense and above all very nearly could have dislocated his shoulder if he hadn't been able to rotate in response.

"HEY!" Was all he could say as he felt her roll away. He was lucky he was used to the rough treatment. Long before any of the thugs he dealt with on a nightly bases he was the punching bag of choice for one Amanda Kissinger. She was an old dear friend of his. Her recent family troubles had been a stress inducer to say the least and it had been weighing him down. Considering his family now employed her he had taken to the internet to get advice on how to handle that whole situation. Needless to say everyone's remarks were in the running for worst lines even when they went up against the thugs words of choice.

The woman had rolled away and already on her feet when Jake pushed off from the ground and was now latched on and crawling against the building's wall. "You are not doing that again. Return what you stole and you can go. You don't need those things there is too much blood on them." He was then interrupted by MARY who began to speak in his ear.

"You are correct Jake. From my understanding she stole from the second Willman deposit. There have been several grand jury transcrips that would indicate that family is heavily involved in the blood diamond trade. It would be to our advantage to capture this woman and then allow the police to apprehend the diamonds. Once they are put into evidence their origins will become public record and the state can begin to search into other parts of the Willman Diamond corporation."

"Wait you mean they are actual blood diamonds from Africa?" Jake asked aloud. The context most likely lost to the thief. This was the one big problem with MARY. As interesting as she was no one else could hear her so it would always seem to an outside that Jake was just talking to himself while fighting crime. This was terrible for his PR since everyone was under the impression that he was some sort of escaped loony from a psych ward. Jake was pulled back as he saw the thief start to turn. "Don't run. I can catch up in a single jump. Just hand the diamonds over." He crawled a little closer and then jumped down again. This time he kept himself out of her reach. After all Jake wasn't interested in another kiss with the sidewalk.

There was nothing more annoying than coming face to face with some form of ‘hero’. Hero ha! The word itself was a joke. Why someone would actually want to be stand up for the low down dirty people of the city. A long sigh left her, a sigh of annoyance and irritation when his web-stuff hit her jacket. Freaking lovely, now she’d spend all night cleaning his disgusting white stuff off of her jacket; but as of this moment, it was time to show the clown who was boss.

As she rolled away from the encounter, she bounced back up to her feet and kept her free hand tightly around the bag of jewels. A smirk across her full luscious bright red lips; this bat boy had become her punching bag recently, unable to catch her completely but sometimes he would take whatever she had stolen. Right now, these diamonds meant a lot; they meant more security to her family and a life for a homeless family she wanted to help. Was she really such a bad person wanting to help people in need? Her family was in need! The people on the streets were in need and she seemed like the only person who gave a damn. Again, another annoyed look moving across her face, Her full lips pushed together and moved side to side, a treat she developed specifically to express the annoyance of her alter-ego, as the ‘hero’ climbed himself against the wall of a building.

When he suddenly spoke aloud her head jerked back in surprise, her green contact eyes blinked at him a couple times before she threw her head back in a sarcastic laugh. “And people call me crazy while you talk to yourself like a nut-job!” She shook her head as he moved from the wall to the ground again but kept himself out of her reach. It was interesting, their fighting styles. He was always a distance person, smacking her around from a far while she fought up close and personal. This made their fights very interesting because if he pulled her close, he knew he’d kiss the pavement multiple times but if she kept her distance he could corner her and get her tied up without her actually realizing it; which had happened a few times but she wiggled free before she could be taken in or her identity could be revealed.

He seemed to have learned his lesson by keeping his distance and his aim had gotten better with his web-stuff, if she wasn’t careful, he could encase her without her even realizing she was surrounded by the shit and not even noticed. Holding up the bag she began with what she could do. “Tell me bug-brain, do you feel it’s fair for people to starve along the streets of our fair city while others live in luxury not even giving a shit that people can’t eat. The bodies of helpless people fill the streets and no one is willing to reach out and help them… no one except me! Does it make me a bad person from taking from those who should be giving and giving it to those who are in true need? Does the Willman family really need all these diamonds? What are they going to do it with them? Just keep them sitting in a safe when they could be sold to help others get off their feet and into jobs No one’s going to hire someone who doesn’t look like they could make a living. This is the problem with our society!”

During her talk, free arm went behind her back, her fingers typing on a small black keypad that blended in with her suite. At the word ‘society’ all the alarms in the surrounding buildings exploded into action all at once, echoing through the street and a sarcastic look of surprise moved across her face as she looked around. “Well, isn’t that ironic!? The alarms got set off somehow. That means the police will be here soon. So the way I see it is you have two choices.” A sarcastic smirk moved across her full lips. “You can wait here to explain to the cops why a crazy guy in a suite is jumping around chasing after a beautiful innocent by-standard in black who just so happens to be taking her jewelry for a walk. Or we can part ways before the police even get here….”

The echoing of the sirens made their way through the city and reached the two in their little standoff. “Oh well, looks like it’s too late to let you make the choice. Typical men take forever to choose what they want.” She rolled her green contact colored eyes before reaching into the bag and pulling out a diamond. She loved her gloves, because of the material she had made them out of; they never left a single smug on things. Looking at it she pulled her arm back and threw it at the ‘hero’. “Here’s a tip for you. Enjoy your time with the cops.” With that she disappeared into the darkness of the alleyway.

---

The next morning was an achy one, why did Amanda choose to do that on a Thursday night?! Well it as less to deal with when it comes to people staying late but she didn’t expect the web-head to show back up. Climbing out of her bed, the blonde stretched her arms above her head and yawned. Her parents still owned the large house and she enjoyed the comforts of home but with how much they work now and how much she works, they really don’t get to spend that much time together.

An anonymous bidder bought her jewels and after tracking the IP address of the individual she found they were a real, legitimate person; some people don’t know how easy it is to hack into a webcam but she didn’t recognize the face and knew he was someone the town wouldn’t know. After the money was wired through countless accounts and landed in hers in small amounts on top of paychecks she boxed up the jewels and sent them off in an un-trackable packaging system. Oh yeah, she’s been in the game for a while so she knew how this stuff rolled.

Amanda Kissinger was a kind and gentle soul, which would explain why she gave away a lot of the money she stole and the only time her sarcasm and wit really showed itself, was when she was her alter ego. The curvy blonde moved through the crowded streets, her hourglass figure shifting through the crowd as she went. She was tall for a woman, five foot eight with long toned tan legs sticking out of a white thigh length skirt as her gold heeled sandals clicked along the pavement. Her top off half in a gold tank top allowing her to enjoy the toasty warm sun against her tan skin, and her caramel colored eyes scanned the streets as she pushed her way through the people and arrived on the college campus. A long sigh left her as she walked to the food court and got in line for a coffee. As much as she’d love a mocha coffee, she knew she couldn’t afford it. So simple black coffee with sugar and creamer would have to do; being broke sucks!

The conversation went like it always did with the thief claiming Robin Hood as her character witness. It wasn't that Jake didn't sympathize with the fight she was waging; however, he saw the shortsightedness of it as well as the danger. As much as he was about protecting people he saw how breaking the law opened the door to everyone breaking the law. In a land where law doesn't matter the one with money and power would always win. This thief didn't have either and that meant she was playing a losing game.

The sirens were a new gambit she was forcing in him as well. The sound along was nearly crippling as five cars within ten feet began screaming wolf to the world. Had he been wall crawling Jake was sure he would have lost his balance and fallen over from the sheer volume and tone of the whole situation. They also left him in what was now the most desired bit of territory in the whole city for the police. The chance to stop a high profile thief usually earned a beat cop a big promotion and more than a few extra dollars as a thank you or reward from the company.

Jake watched as the thief began to exit stage left. He deeply desired to follow her, but knew that if he did he would likely draw them both into some sort of obstacle course which would mean both of them would be spotted. More than anything Jake knew he couldn't be seen leaving the scene of a burglary. Especially one as high profile as this looked to be. The last thing he needed was another photo of him near a crime scene with ‘Criminal?’ as the headline. The more the people connected him to bad acts the further away from the good fight he would have to be.

The two left using their own methods which meant it was another loss for Jake. He wasn't one to keep count, but he wasn't happy being down three wins to five. He continued to web swing away from the diamond district until he was sure he was far enough away to not really cause a stir with any badges on patrol. All the same he figured it would be best to head home. Until MARY once again chimed in.

“Jake I just listened to a domestic assault situation over the police scanner. The nearest police force is over 15 minutes away due to the all hands call to the diamond district.” Her voice may never change, but Jake could swear he could hear concern sometimes. He figured it was just his own mind doing it. Either way he always swung faster afterwards.

---

The morning was the only true villain Jake had never found a way to win against. It always struck when he was at his weakest and had no vulnerable points. It rose above the city vigilante like an impending doomsday clock. The worst thing about this vile villainous fiend was that it never finished the job and just killed Jake. It would leave him sore, bloody, and bruised and yet it never took the kill shot. This morning was the same.

After the whole episode with the thief Jake seemed to need a distraction and the city welcomed the opportunity. Three brawls and more than a handful of muggings took their toll on the young man who was clearly sporting a body that had been worked over by a two by four. Still he finally got out of bed after hitting the snooze button three times and made his way to the shower. He cleaning himself as well as his tense body could and clothed himself slowly so he didn't hurt his ribs. One was easily fractured while the headache he was sporting might have been due to the kiss he had with the sidewalk.

He left his apartment and took the subway to school where he was welcomed with a wonderful sight. A calm campus with little to no stress inducers in sight. He had his messenger bag tossed over his left shoulder and his classic white t-shirt thankfully hid the bruise on his ribs. The tan cargo shorts completed the outfit and showed the world just how much the college student loved summer. The reason was one part the weather the other part what the weather brought.

Before he saw her he could see the other men’s heads turning. He could see it in their eyes and didn't even need the hint of clicking sandals to warn him what was about to come up alongside him. He could hear a comment here and there, but the most noticeable thing was the silence that seemed to follow a beauty like Amanda Kissinger. She walked right up to Jake and took a sip from her to-go coffee cup. “Morning Amanda.” Jake said with a sheepish smile. “Anything special happen on that date last night?”

The two chatted as they walked through campus. They had been friends for several years dating back to high school. The rumor mill would throw something out about the two of them dating or hooking up at a party. These were largely ignored by the two unless there was something especially wrong with the story. Though there was a time when Jake would have admitted that he had a crush on Amanda, even if it was her who had asked. Still that had ebbed away into a treasured friendship that others saw as something more.

Her outfit was to be admired as Jake's eyes went from north to south on her. He darted away in case the look went too long and returned to the conversation they were having. When they reached the Archaeology building where Jake spent nearly all his student time in. Friends would sometimes joke that when Archaeologist find Jake’s body it will be during an excavation of the Archaeology library.

“Good morning Jake.” Amanda said in her classic cheery voice as she approached her friend, her cup of coffee cradled in her delicate hands, though she was hanging onto it for dear life as if it was nectar from the tree of life and if she didn’t have it she was going to die. At least that’s how it felt. She ran into bug-brain on almost a consistent basis which drove her crazy considering all she wanted to do was get some money for herself and for the people who actually needed it. But nnnnoooo, the jerk couldn’t see her end of everything and couldn’t even just let her have a night of peace. Her adventure took her twice as long as she had planned, she spent most of the night waiting for a buyer and after three hours of sleep, she was finally somewhat moving and clinging onto her coffee. Do you understand now why she needs it so much?

She was in the middle of drinking her coffee when he asked her how her date went. A small look of surprise moved across her face when she realized he had actually remembered that she was supposed to have had a date last night, in fact, he was supposed to have had a date as well. A small smile moved across her full lips as she pulled the cup away from her lips and adjusted the book bag on her right shoulder. “Well, he showed up late, just wanted to talk, sometimes he’d even talk to himself which was just weird, then he’d jumped around like a kid on a sugar high and I had no choice but to run. It just turned out to be another weirdo who wouldn’t take no for an answer.” She lifted her small shoulders in a shrug. As much as she hated to admit it, she did find the super-hero guy attractive. He was physically pleasing to look at and that was a huge plus for Amanda and the fact that he could throw her around and take a hit was all the more sex. Not that she’d go out of her way to hit him but someone who could take a punch was always hot in her book.

A simple shrug lifted her small shoulders as she took another drink. “Maybe I’m just looking for the wrong guy.” She muttered into her cup as she finished the contents with a disappointed sigh and threw away the cardboard cup into the nearby trashcan they had passed. The chat was nice; in fact their chats were never bad. She found an unexplainable comfort with Jake that she couldn’t have with anyone else, they had been friends for a long time and while rumors would spread that the two were dating, she never really thought much of it; why? Because he never asked her out on a date and when it came to men actually wanting to date her and putting quote ‘moves’ on her, she never really caught on.

The Archaeology library was thick with books, Jake’s favorite place; surprise surprise for the archeology major. While Amanda felt right at home in the computer lab but she did enjoy looking at some of the things. “Oh I need to return this book!” She said putting down her bag once they got to the proper section and started up the stairs. She wasn’t stupid, she always wore shorts under her skirt just because, how often do you know if you’re going to have to run or not. Better safe than sorry and anyone who knew her knew that she normally did. Climbing up the ladder, she was still talking with Jake about some random topic before she slid the book into place at the top of the ladder. On her way down she made some comment that she found funny, apparently it was funny enough to make her foot miss the step on the ladder and she tumbled backwards falling off the ladder and heading towards the ground with a scared shriek as she fell, surely to land on her back and injure herself… great just great, just what her and her parents need…