"So, you're here to look for information on the Super Soldier Serum project? Why, because it involves human experimentation, and you're one of the victims?"
Peter tried his best not to reveal any clues or information he knew, to prevent Black Cat from discovering the connection between Spider-Man and Peter Parker. So, he had to ask some rather foolish questions. Surprisingly, Black Cat didn't immediately dismiss the question but instead looked around.
"We need to get out of here, out of Oscorp Technologies. Then, I might tell you."
Spider-Man narrowed the eyes on his mask, glanced at Black Cat, then snapped his fingers. The closed laboratory door immediately opened. Then, Spider-Man gestured for her to go first.
Black Cat rushed out ahead, seemingly not wanting to be caught by Spider-Man. Spider-Man shrugged, then followed. Even if she had superhuman physicality, she couldn't shake him. Besides, he had already attached a tracker to her boot when he caught her kick earlier.
So, Spider-Man dutifully shut down the system, closed the door, looked at the radiated spiders that Dr. Jonathan had researched for treating ALS, and as for who they were meant to cure, that was probably self-evident.
Peter just watched the computer completely shut down, then left the lab. According to the tracker's report, he found Black Cat—well, he didn't.
The tracker was discarded on the rooftop. As soon as Peter landed and picked up the tracker, another flashbang rolled to his feet. He backflipped off the building, avoiding the troublesome A1 high flash. He then returned to his original spot and saw Black Cat waiting for him.
"I noticed my boots were a few grams heavier, so I returned your little toy." Black Cat sat on the casing of a rooftop ventilation fan, smiling as she rested her chin on her hand, looking at Spider-Man, who had just executed a perfect backflip. "And... should we talk now?"
"Alright, first. Why are you cosplaying as Catwoman?"
"I'm not... I'm not wearing cat ears on my head!" Black Cat was speechless for a moment, then shook her head, finally dropping the topic. "This is just what my mentor looks like, okay?!"
"You mean Walter Hardy, the famous Prowler? How interesting, he has a seventeen-year-old daughter with the same hair color as you."
Black Cat gave a cold, "Haha," and said nothing more. Just as Spider-Man had said earlier, her disguise, if thoroughly investigated, would reveal her identity. Of course, that's assuming one could see Black Cat's full face.
Most people didn't have that ability.
"Walter Hardy was last seen in 2003, in Budapest, Hungary, and his daughter appeared in Budapest a few months ago. She has the same long silver hair as you, very beautiful."
Black Cat sighed, asking the question again.
"Are you always this annoying?"
Peter's answer was the same.
"Only criminals and supercriminals find me annoying, so, do you want to talk about why you want to investigate the Super Soldier Serum?"
Black Cat looked at Spider-Man. She was still unsure why he was so interested in her, or if she should trust him. But considering what Spider-Man had said earlier, she decided to take the initiative: "Then you first. You said the Avengers found an escaped Super Soldier human experiment survivor. What's that about?"
"On Ryker's Island, an escaped convict found a friend of mine. He said the US military forced him into human experiments, most people died, only he survived and became a Super Soldier." Spider-Man briefly explained the situation, then looked at the somewhat impatient Black Cat: "What's wrong?"
"You said nothing at all."
"Thanks for the compliment."
"I didn't compliment you."
A somewhat exasperated Felicia sighed, then asked the first question: "That survivor, did he simply gain enhanced physical abilities, or did he get other powers?"
Peter seemed to understand something upon hearing that question: "You mean... there's something wrong with the Super Soldiers?"
"The Super Soldier Serum had problems from the beginning. More accurately, the Erskine Super Soldier Serum that Steve Rogers was injected with had problems from the start." Black Cat gathered her thoughts and began from the beginning: "Almost everyone believes that Red Skull became Red Skull because the Erskine Serum he was injected with was a failed product, and Captain America was injected with an improved version. But that's not true; they were injected with the same serum."
"Makes the good better, makes the bad worse."
Peter recited what Dr. Erskine had historically said to Steve Rogers. Black Cat paused, then nodded.
"That wasn't just a description."
The true effect of the Erskine Serum wasn't to create Super Soldiers, but to "make the good better, make the bad worse." Red Skull became Red Skull because he yearned to become the next Führer, to replace Hitler and establish a Hydra empire rather than a Third Reich. As for why Captain became Captain, it was simply because he was a genuinely good person, who yearned to be a soldier capable of defeating evil enemies.
"That escaped convict became invulnerable, which means his inner desire was not to be harmed." Peter explained Luke Cage's changes to Felicia, simultaneously realizing: "In other words, the true effect of the Erskine Serum is to reshape users based on their inner thoughts. But because Captain's inner thought at the time was to become the best soldier, the US military concluded that the Erskine Serum's effect was to create Super Soldiers."
Therefore, all US military Super Soldier projects based on the Erskine Serum since the end of the war had failed—they either created substandard products or outright died. They could only develop severely diluted Super Soldier Serums, as any successful replicated product had too many side effects.
They had no idea that these side effects were the true effects of the Erskine Serum.
"And the Prowler appeared in Eastern Europe at the beginning of this century. He... he was there to steal Russia's Super Soldier Serum."
Peter understood completely. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union created its second successful Super Soldier, the Red Guardian, which greatly shook the US military. This meant that the Soviet Union had broken through the limitations of the Erskine Serum and could now recreate, or even mass-produce, Super Soldiers. Due to the KGB's strict lockdown, the US military only took action after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, at the beginning of this century.
They sent their best thief at the time, the Prowler.
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