The Kravinoff Manor wasn't a very suitable place for Spider-Man. Just as the detective agency's files had described, the entire manor was built inside a small nature park, surrounded by dense woods. There were no other buildings for several kilometers, and the trees were only about 5-9 meters tall, which made it almost impossible for him to use his high-mobility swinging.
Luckily, Peter also had a stealth suit.
"An old mansion, hiding an unknown secret. This place practically screams to Americans, 'Hey, this Russian's house is suspicious.' Maybe there's nothing wrong with it at all, and it's just a smokescreen. Venom, what do you think?"
[We'll tear it down.]
"Why do I even bother asking you?" Peter sighed and continued to observe. His tactical goggles immediately caught sight of a figure moving quickly through the forest. After zooming in on the image, Peter saw someone he hadn't expected to see, but perhaps should have.
Black Cat quickly approached Kravinoff Manor. Just like last year when she wasn't yet the Black Cat, the place looked gloomy and dark. She looked around, threw a stone over the wall, and when there was no resistance, she leapt over herself. There were actually more than one building in the manor, but Black Cat didn't check every one. Instead, she went directly to the front door of the main house and tried to pick the lock.
The feel of the lock pick told her the lock was open, but the door wouldn't budge, which meant the lock wasn't what was holding it shut. Black Cat scanned the door with her new goggles, then placed a small device on the door.
"You don't really believe that Sergei Kravinoff is the main buyer or seller behind Fisk's luxury animal smuggling, do you?"
Spider-Man's familiar voice came from behind her. Black Cat smiled, turned around with her hands behind her back, and looked at Spider-Man, who was hanging upside down from a web line attached to the eaves. She said with a hint of teasing, "Why not? Maybe a little boy can have some insight."
"If you really want my insight..." Peter flipped down and moved closer to Felicia. "...it's that you shouldn't get close to this place. What are your hands doing behind your back?"
"Avoiding being tied up in a web by a spider." Felicia said as she pressed herself against the door. "Since you're here, it means there's danger here, right? What is it?"
"It's..." Peter sighed helplessly. "This might be a former Soviet secret base. The Kravinoff family has been KGB agents for two generations."
Black Cat nodded thoughtfully but then asked with uncertainty, "Is that it? That shouldn't be a big deal for you, right? You could just go tell the CIA or the FBI."
"Sergei Kravinoff might have been injected with a Super-Soldier Serum."
"A Soviet Super-Soldier Serum?"
Hearing Black Cat's question, Peter seemed to realize something and quickly reached for Felicia, but she was fast. She opened the door, immediately slipped inside, and locked it securely behind her. Peter tried to open the door with no luck. He picked up the electronic device she had dropped on the ground and quickly analyzed it. It was a lock pick that used a momentary short circuit. He didn't have the equipment to repair it and use it again right away.
He had only remembered that Felicia's father was killed because of the Hydra Super-Soldier Serum, and he had forgotten that he was the one sent by the CIA to steal the Soviet version. The combination of the KGB and the Super-Soldier Serum was bound to affect her state of mind and make her want to investigate even more.
[We'll just break down the door.]
"What's the point of an infiltration then?" Peter complained about Venom's unreliable idea and looked around the mansion. There had to be another way in. If the front door wasn't an option, he would try somewhere else.
Inside the mansion, Black Cat adjusted the brightness on her tactical goggles and cautiously looked around. The entire mansion didn't seem to have anything special about it. A large central hall had a circular staircase leading to the second floor on each side. She walked quietly and stopped in front of a rug in the middle of the hall. Three shadows were cast on the rug.
Black Cat turned and looked above the door. Through a transparent domed window directly above the mansion's entrance, the faces of three Slavic warrior statues on horses, holding swords, were clearly visible in the moonlight. The shadows on the rug were from those three statues.
Felicia let out a sigh of relief and took a step forward.
She stopped and looked down at her feet, then took out her grappling hook and shot it at the ceiling. She quickly moved herself to the top of the ceiling, but the expected explosion or automated turret didn't happen. Instead, three consecutive shots of three rows of massive crossbow bolts each shot out from the walls on either side and embedded themselves in the opposite wall.
"Who still uses such old-fashioned mechanisms?"
Using her grappling hook to descend, Felicia looked around. It seemed the entire interior of the mansion was filled with such traps and mechanisms. But since the loud noise hadn't brought anyone out, it meant the place had been abandoned for a long time. The glass was high-strength, and the doors were essentially giant electronic mechanical locks, which explained why no homeless people could get in.
It seemed Peter Parker had overestimated this place.
But no matter what, this was a place for people to live. It was impossible for there to be too many traps in the living areas. If these traps were set by Kravinoff before he left America, there must be a safe route. If they were set afterward, it meant they were hiding something here.
The scan results showed that no one had walked on the surrounding floor for a long time, proving that no one was living in the manor. As for a safe route, the high-precision analysis device could also indicate where various mechanisms were hidden. Black Cat cautiously continued to move, following the trap-free circular staircase to the second floor.
On the rug in the central hall, the moonlight cast four shadows.
Black Cat initially thought it was Peter watching her from outside, but when the fourth person stood up, the muscular silhouette was clearly not Peter Parker. She instinctively rolled to dodge a pounce.
"It seems we have an unwelcome guest in the house."
The speaker was a Slavic man with no Slavic accent. He wore nothing on his upper body except for a jacket made of lion's skin. On his lower body, he seemed to be wearing a pair of shorts and shoes made from several lionesses' hides. He pulled a short spear from his back and smiled at Black Cat.
"Hello, miss. You can call me—"
"Kraven the Hunter."