Chapter Text
Piper’s day had not been too bad, honestly.
She could totally get over the fact that this was her 20th day taking care of herself; which she liked to believe she did anyways, but completely by herself was new. And it was the 20th day that she had gotten up, had a very lonely breakfast – maybe freaked out because she had forgotten about her homework while working an extra shift at work, and then ran to school. After surviving solely due to her friends, she then went to the hospital to visit her worsening aunt.
All in all, it was okay and she could handle it – she had been for twenty days. She sighed, looking at the time on her phone – and seven minutes.
The thing that her already anxious self couldn’t handle, was the fact that every night for the past week and a half-ish someone had been following her on patrol (also the fact that her rent was three days late, but other than that it was just the stalker thing).
Or at least that’s what she suspected, because she could never quite get a glimpse of them. The difference tonight, however, as she sat atop an ordinary brick building’s roof; was that she knew that someone was following her.
Much, much closer than usual - If she wasn’t going crazy.
As soon as the buzz from her Spidey-sense had gone hay-wire and began to pound against her head like a drum, she had taken a very random, and very dexterous tour around the city. Trying to drop them.
If there was a them.
And she was like 98% sure there was because her Spidey sense had dulled a teensy bit throughout her sprint across queens. But then it was back again – not a minute after she set foot on this roof – which meant they had caught up to her.
She stopped because they probably knew she was trying to lose them; which meant she couldn’t just play dumb and ignore them anymore.
Ignore the possible psycho-murders… probably trying to kill her… or…
Piper didn’t let her mind travel so far. Because she was still Spidergirl – a three month old superhero who’s actually a 14 (almost fifteen, okay?) year old girl in expensive red and blue spandex – and Spidergirl could handle one or two small-time criminals trying to kill her. Or whatever – two trained baddies was okay.
But that was where this day went from alright to twelve on a scale of one-ten. Where ten was I-think-I-might-jump-off-of-anything-high-enough-to-kill-me.
The roof was quiet and identical to all the others around it. Piper assumed these buildings surrounding her were going to be turned into apartments or government offices sometime soon, but for now they were empty. Hence why she stopped here of all places.
She looked around and breathed in the cool air, painfully aware of how tight her chest was. She wasn’t worn out or anything – maybe not physically – but the anxiety wanted to swallow her whole. Though, what did she expect from becoming a superhero? Of course something like this would happen: it was kind of in the job description.
“You know,” She quipped to the supposedly empty space around her –dark as any place at 12:08 in in the morning, “If you wanted to meet me so bad you could have just said so!”
And then she added – totally not because false bravado was the only thing keeping her alive, “I don’t bite! You know, because I’m a human and not actually a spider. Which would be real weird if I were a spider-human that bit people - But you get it!”
Piper took a breath; she was okay. She had this. She had to have this.
She waited a second more, not noticing the small whispers coming from 5 or six buildings away, “But, if you’re actually a humanoid-spider-mutant then I won’t judge. It is 2018, so you do you! And maybe not stalk me – though I know I am alluring.”
As if in reply, a plane-like noise spurred from her left and she whirled towards it. Only to be greeted by… Piper rubbed her eyes as the figure touched down in front of her.
“Ironman?”
Piper could only stand in shock as her childhood hero lowered his mask in front of her. Her guard fell a little, because it was ironman - not a humanoid spider thing – but her worry did not cease. Because, as much as she loved them, Piper tried to stay away from the Avengers. Not because she was scared – or, well – not of them. It was because they were the focus of media stations everywhere, not to mention famous organizations like SHIELD.
Who loved to find out people’s identities – or at least she assumed. And so she stayed away, because Spidergirl was low-key. And she liked it that way.
“Hiya, Spidey. It’s nice to finally meet the web-slinging hero of queens.” Ironman quipped coolly and walked up to the girl, surprised to see that the top of her head only reached his shoulder – just about.
She was small. Something the short videos he had seen hadn’t portrayed. Not that it mattered, Tony noted. Heck, Clint fought aliens with a bow and arrow. But that was beside the point – he couldn’t be soft about this. At least he didn’t think it was going to go that easily.
“Y-yeah,” She looked up at him, still completely shocked. And the buzzing in her head hadn’t gone away either – she looked around.
Tony blinked when she spoke, unable to drown his surprise at how young she sounded. The estimates SHIELD and FRIDAY had given him were in the mid-late twenties. Tony knew FRIDAY had done her calculation based off of skill level and public opinion. As for SHIELD, Tony assumed they had received their information in much the same way.
“I’m a huge fan of you – uh - Ironman, Sir! But… what?” Piper had so many questions, like why her head was still thumping.
“You’re… You’re not alone… are you…?”
Piper was confused. It was either he was alone or something else was going on here – and Ironman was the one to be afraid of. But that was unlikely, she decided. He was freaking ironman.
She relaxed despite the man’s own serious face, and let her hands drop to her sides. Whatever they - or maybe it was just him and she was crazy –were doing here, it couldn’t be bad. They we’re heroes after-all. Not to mention her role models. Which – by the way – still had her screaming inside that she was so close to Ironman. And as Spidergirl none the less.
Tony frowned at her question. Because he really hadn’t thought she could be able to tell. How was it that she knew about the others? If she knew someone was following her; logically she would assume it was only him when he came out of hiding. Advanced hearing? He supposed that was possible.
Either way, Tony had a feeling their mission wasn’t going to go as planned. Especially since Spidergirl had neglected contacting The Avengers a while ago (As most new super heroes try to do) – which meant that she probably didn’t want anything to do with them, and hence, their assignment. Which, really, Tony was kind of excited to do just because he found the new Spider hero intriguing. That and none of them had any say in the matter.
It was more the latter. In fact, he kind of admired the quick witted and joyful hero. From the small bits he had seen.
“Uh,” He wondered if he should lie, “It’s just me, Spidey.”
Piper wasn’t sure what to think.
“Anyways, enough with the chit-chat. I’m here hoping you’ll make a deal with me.”
Piper blinked. “What?”
And Tony braced himself accordingly.
“I’m gonna’ need you to come with me to The Avengers tower.”
Piper didn’t like where this was going. Her shoulders tensed. In no way was this what she expected. Dread started to grow vines in the pit of her stomach.
“Why?”
Tony wondered if there was any favorable way to put this. Really, it didn’t sound great, but it wasn’t all that bad. Vigilantes are criminals after all – though literally none of the Avengers or the citizens of New York saw Spidergirl as one. But orders were orders and the law was the law. They had to be safe.
“You’re strong and that’s cool, Spidey. Unfortunately, it also means you could be dangerous – so SHIELD and The Avengers just want to sit down, “ Maybe fight you in our training bay, “and talk. You know, make sure you won’t go savage and kill a bunch of people. The norm.” Tony thought it was a valid point, because he had seen the woman in front of him move trains. Fucking trains.
Piper took a step back, bracing herself. She was smart, and she knew that “talk” in this case meant get way up in your personal life. And she couldn’t have that. She didn’t want that. A secret is best kept with one person (excluding her friends but Piper was see through anyways). Any more than that and it got risky.
As in, endangering her friends and last living relative risky. Which meant everything about this was a threat.
From Ironman. And the Avengers. And SHIELD.
Piper wondered just how her heroes had gone from awesome to terrifying in the span of sixty seconds.
What would they do if she said no? When she said no. I mean, she had rights - right?
“Is a pinky promise good? Because I pinky promise to never go bat-shit insane and kill a bunch of people.” She held out her pinky, completely serious. Her promises were worth more than anything else she could offer. Anyone who knew Piper could testify to it.
Tony paused. “Yeah… I don’t think Shield will be good with that. Let’s not make this hard, Spidergirl.”
Piper paled - he was serious.
She could outrun Ironman. She could totally outrun Ironman. No sweat. Nooooo problem. Her body began to shake.
“I-I’ve never hurt anyone.”
Tony only blinked at the pleading voice, kind of irritated. The pinky promise had to have been a joke. Surely she understood at least a little bit.
“Listen, we’re both adults here,” Piper almost laughed, “and regardless of whether you’ve hurt anyone or not, the legal aspects have to be sorted out. You’re lucky SHIELD hasn’t come after you already.”
“I,” Piper had to go, she had to leave, “I can’t.”
And then she ran.
And she dodged, a lot. The next two or so minutes of her life passed in blur of her swooping into alley ways to escape the iron hands of the person chasing her. And she felt hopeful - Not to mention, she could hear him cursing. Which, yeah, was pretty satisfying. Until it wasn’t. Because he was in fact cursing to someone.
Multiple people actually.
Midair Tony managed to grab her arm, though his triumph was short lived.
Piper brought her foot up and under the joint in the arm holding onto her. Then, with immense grace and flexibility, proceeded to kick down on the suits joint – opening it, and flip over his head. Webbing to another roof top.
“Shit, what the hell kind of steroids do you think she takes? Steve, a little help?”
Steve, who was watching from below in one of the empty building’s alley ways hesitated, “Are you sure you can’t handle it? You know the harder this gets…”
Tony knew very well. The harder it was to bring in the Spidergirl, the warier SHIELD became of her. But this wasn’t the time for pity. She had only brought this upon herself by not coming easily. They had offered her the easy route. Though that kind of sucked, too. She should have just taken it.
“Yes,” He hissed bounding after her, “I’m positive – this isn’t as easy as it looks. The girl’s like a damn piece of rubber or something.”
“Alright, but Nat, “he called to the red-headed woman over his shoulder, “help us out a little bit.”
She nodded, and Steve watched Piper leap across roof tops, away from a flying Tony, and almost straight above his readying form.
Piper, now, had forgotten all about her previous worries of other people being out to get her. Because dodging Ironman was more emotionally draining than anything. Because, she had definitely imagined meeting Ironman – actually meeting him (not being saved by him at a con). Who hadn’t? It’s just her fantasies never involved the man chasing after her like a cheetah chases a gazelle. With the intent to capture.
And maybe above all else Piper felt wronged. Because she actually worked really hard not to hurt anyone, and they just assumed that she would.
She understood the logic, she did. Just not the way they were acting on it. Couldn’t she just sign a contract, file some reports, or literally anything other than be interrogated? She didn’t get it, and she didn’t think she wanted to.
Right now, her only goal was to run. Keep running, until maybe he gave up for today. She had tried webbing her hero with what little time she had to reach her arm back and aim, but it hadn’t held. And piper had already been on patrol for upwards of five hours – meaning she didn’t have much web fluid to spare.
So, she ran.
She ran over countless roof tops – and seriously, how big was this neighborhood?
She ran as if her heart wasn’t threatening to fall out of her throat from panic.
And then,
She ran face first into Captain America.