Chapter Text
It was Wednesday morning, and Ivy was busy preparing herself for what could ultimately be her death. For some scary reason, it didn’t bother her all that much. She assumed most people would be losing their minds if they were in her situation, but instead, an overwhelming sense of calm took over her, and she stayed in that protective bubble of warmth until school ended.
Her uncle hadn’t been able to afford for her to continue her self-defense lessons, which she understood, and she was saving her Dad’s money to be able to afford to go to college, so those were out of the question right now. Arriving home, she ducked into her bedroom with a quick afternoon snack to gain some energy before the fight.
She felt betrayed, once again by Spiderman, but also by Tony. He was meant to help her once he found out she was a kid, but instead he had just failed to believe her when she actually needed help.
Having a few hours remaining before she needed to suit up, she decided to head down to the local library and check out some books on the unit of physics that she’d be studying next semester to distract herself.
Putting on her warmest coat and tying up her boots, she headed out the door of her apartment and down the escalator, clutching her tote bag as she walked. Finding the non-fiction section, her head turned sideways as she read the names of the books in front of her, trying to find one she wanted. Focused on the book she had just picked out and was flicking through, she jumped when a familiar voice said ‘Funny seeing you here,’ behind her.
Her immediate thought was, ‘why would Webs be in a library?’, before she turned around and saw Peter smiling at her.
Then the pieces fit themselves together in her head instantly.
Same height, same voice, same mannerisms. ‘Intern’ of Tony Stark, and allowed to work on Spidey’s web shooters. Except, nobody had ‘allowed’ him to work on Spidey’s web shooters, because they were his.
Oh boy.
‘Peter,’ she croaked out. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Oh, just having a look at this chemistry book that Mr Stark wants me to check out. How about you?’
‘Physics,’ she managed to get out as she held up the book she had been flicking through.
‘Cool! Physics, is… cool. I like physics.’
It was so obvious now that she had realised it. Despite the utter lack of confidence in Peter’s personality in comparison to Spiderman’s, the rambling, the stuttering, and the awkwardness clearly presented themselves in both.
Which meant that if Peter was as smart as Tony Stark claimed he was, it was only a matter of time until he figured out the same about her. But she had a much better cover than him, right? There was no chance he could. Paranoia still invaded her mind, so she decided she needed out. Now.
‘I gotta…’ she pointed out the door, lips pursed in a line.
‘Right, yeah! Me too, I gotta head home. As well. I’ll see you around?’
She nodded, despite praying the opposite. ‘Yeah, see you around, Peter.’
She felt Peter’s eyes following her as she walked out the library door. Looks like she had a new problem to add to her list, and his name was Peter Parker.
-
Her stubborn nature caused her to choose her old suit to wear for the mission, to prove to Tony that she could take down a murderer without his help – in any way at all. Her old suit didn't provide quite as much protection, and she’d miss having Neo talk to her as she patrolled, but it was worth it.
It was around quarter to nine when she pulled up the map on her phone to help her get to the coordinates. It was somewhere in Queens, not too close to her apartment, but more towards the Eastern part of the city.
Arriving with five minutes to spare, she blended in with the shadows, trying to mentally prepare herself to meet her father’s killer. She couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t kill him tonight, although she wanted him to rot in jail for the rest of his life.
She was curious as to why the killer wanted anything to do with Spiderman. And what had she done to ruin his life?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar cackling sound, one that filled made the hairs on her arms stand on end, and freeze.
The green goblin was… alive?
The last time she’d heard of the green goblin attacking New York, she had only recently become a vigilante. In fact, it was her first team up with Spiderman. The battle had left her shattered for weeks, as not only had the goblin torn both Spidey and her to shreds, but she had been the reason Norman died, accidentally deflecting one of his grenades back into him. She had felt horribly guilty, but it wasn’t as if she’d done it on purpose. She’d been trying to save Webs from getting hit, and the goblin had gotten in the way.
So if he was dead, then how on earth was the man standing on his hovercraft, flying directly towards her?
Her instincts kicked in, and she leaped out of the way, sprinting up a fire escape to stand on a building. She was starting to regret not wearing Tony’s suit, and she was also starting to regret not trying harder to convince Spidey – or Peter – to help her.
‘Norman! Thought I killed you?’ She yelled as she jumped across the buildings, sending lightning towards the hovercraft.
‘Oh, I’m not… Norman,’ the goblin said, as he lifted his mask to reveal the face of Harry Osborn, current owner of Oscorp, also known as Stark Industries’ biggest rival.
Oh shit.
She smirked, trying to hide her terror from the man. ‘Guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh?’
Harry flew towards her and picked her up by her neck, causing her to claw against his arm, gasping for air as her eyes widened.
‘Listen here, Ivy. You destroyed my life, and I will destroy you, and everyone you know and love. Do you understand?’
Ivy nodded her head desperately, praying he would let her go before she passed out.
The green goblin snarled at her. ‘That includes Spiderman, and all of your little Avenger friends,’ he said, throwing her into a wall, causing her to drop like a dead weight to the floor, still clawing at her throat for oxygen. ‘Would you like to know how?’
‘Piss off,’ Ivy wheezed out.
‘Here, I’ll tell you anyway. See this little device?’ He shoved the gadget in front of her face. ‘This connects to precisely twenty-six bombs which are currently hidden within the walls of the Avengers Tower. I press this,’ he said, pointing to a switch on the side of the device, ‘and all your friends die. Understand?’
Ivy nodded her head again as she tried to process the plan. She had two questions;
1. How on earth was she going to stop this?
2. Why would he tell her?
Her second question was quickly answered for her.
‘Now, before they die, they get to see the exciting event of watching you die. How’s that sound?’
Cameras flickered to life around her in the alleyway, at the same time that all the televisions in Avengers Tower began to play the feed, live.
‘That sounds like a terrible idea, and I absolutely, one-hundred percent, cannot let that happen, I’m afraid.’
Hurricane jumped into action, using a lightning bolt to make his hovercraft crash to the floor, as he jumped on him, hitting him repeatedly as she reached for the device.
The goblin threw her on to the ground and hovered over her as he threw a grenade in her direction, before flying towards one of the cameras.
Shielding her face, Ivy was unable to get out of the way in time and consequentially was thrown against a window, glass shards attacking her skin as her head hit the wall, leaving her with a nasty concussion.
Back at the Avengers Tower, Tony entered the common room to see Nat and Bruce staring in confusion at the television. ‘What’s going on? FRIDAY isn’t listening to me. Which is incredibly rude, actually. Considering I programmed her.’ The response he received was the sound of screaming coming from the television. He could see Hurricane as the force from a bomb caused her body to fly through a window, and then the green goblin came into view.
‘Isn’t he dead?’ Bruce and Tony both said in sync. More Avengers entered the common room as the commotion became louder.
‘Hey, guys, what’s going on? My phone’s playing this weird movie. Not sure how to turn it off,’ Wanda said, her eyebrows knitted in confusion.
‘It isn’t a movie,’ Nat replied, folding her arms.
‘Avengers, I know you’re a little confused right now. Don’t worry, I have it all under control. Your little friend, Hurricane, is just gonna go for a little spin down to hell, that’s all.’
His speech was interrupted as Hurricane grabbed on to the glider and used wind to smash it against a wall, the goblin going flying in the opposite direction. He retaliated by sending three blades towards her stomach, which she almost managed to avoid. Unfortunately, her dodging skills weren’t quite as impressive as Spiderman’s, so she hissed as one dug it’s way into her left arm.
Yanking it out, she continued her mission to take the device.
‘Hey Mr Stark, Dum-E keeps using the fire extinguisher on things that aren’t on-‘
‘Peter, sit,’ Tony interrupted.
Peter obediently sat down, sending confused looks as he watched his friends’ eyes widen in horror at the television. Then, he look forward just in time to see Hurricane yanking a knife out of his leg and jumping at the green goblin, as Tony ran into the lab to grab something.
He gaped at the screen. This is what Hurricane had been talking about? No, no, no, this was not good. Not good at all.
Jumping up, Peter sprinted towards the balcony. But the door wouldn’t open. He tried punching it, using all his strength, but tower was built to keep out enemies. Therefore, keeping in the Avengers.
‘Peter, I told you to sit down!’ He heard from behind him as he turned around to see Tony frantically pushing buttons on the elevator. ‘It’s not working, WHY IS IT NOT WORKING.’
Both of their heads snapped towards the television as they heard Hurricane trying to scream something at the camera, while the goblin punched her repeatedly in the gut.
‘Bo- there – bomb, tower – twenty, twenty – please stop,’ Hurricane whimpered, causing Natasha’s heart to break as she watched the girl be destroyed, inside and out.
‘Tony, why isn’t the tower working? We need to get to her, NOW,’ Nat screamed at him.
‘I don’t know,’ Tony said, panicking. ‘The override controls are down, everything, is down!’
That’s when they saw Hurricane grab at the camera, bringing it down with her as she landed on the ground.
‘Bombs, there’s bombs in the Avengers Tower,’ she panted, gasping for air as blood ran down her face and mixed with the tears. ‘He’s gonna, he’s gonna press the button. Right after he kills me. You need- you have to leave.’
Then, the Avengers heard another scream as Hurricane was torn away from the camera.