Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Penny grimaced at the sirens that blared from the police chase she was following. A blur of red and blue, she shot forward, using her webbing to slingshot onto the hood of the sedan.

“Hi! You’re my Uber right? Drop me off at Fifth and Broadway, it’s a grid system, you’ll figure it out.”

A buzz rang out in her head as one of the masked men swung out of the window and aimed a heavy black pistol at her.

Shots fired as she flipped over the roof of the car. Landing with a thump onto the cabin roof. The Robber growled and screamed something overtly homophobic at her as he dropped the empty magazine in his weapon.

“Okay, rude.”

Thwip thwip thwap!!

Two quick punches and a fwip of the young vigilante’s web-shooters and the man was covered in her thick webbing. She grabbed his shirt, shot a webline up towards a traffic light and waved cheekily when the man looked up and realized what she had done.

“Buh-bye.”

Physics did the rest as the bank robber was pulled, screaming, out of the car.

The tingle in her head started to scream at her as the getaway driver turned down a narrow street. A short distance up the road a New York Transit bus was making a slow turn to head towards them.

“Oh shit.” She flicked herself over and used her leverage to throw herself feet first through the window and out the other side. Pushing the get-away driver back and roughly yanking the wheel as far as her super strength would allow. The car roughly flipped as she jumped out of the same window she had entered, sticking herself to the front of the bus. She yelped in pain as all the weight of a car at 30 miles an hour used her as a landing cushion. The sound of metal creaking filled the air as she dug her fingers into the metal of the roof.

She also heard the sound of the driver screaming in fear.

She growled lightly and let the car drop, the damaged vehicle's suspension groaning and complaining. She reached into the window and webbed the terrified bank robber to the dash.

“Sorry buddy, wrong turn.”

A quick flick of her wrists and the young vigilante was on her way.

My name is Penelope Parker, and I think I’m cursed. It’s the only way I can explain some of the stuff that’s happened to me, between my parents dying when I was young (evidently they were SHIELD agents assassinated by HYDRA) , my aunt dying back in 2012 when aliens decided to turn Manhattan into a warzone, and my uncle getting murdered a few months back what else can I really say….

But that’s all aside from the point, the thing is that I’m not your average high school transgirl, man I wish that finding hormones was the worst thing on my plate anymore.

But anyway.

One day my junior high class took a trip to the Oscorp genetics research lab. Honestly, I was excited. The type of genetics research they’ve done at Oscorp is like curing cancer levels of wild.

Hey at least they aren’t turning people into dinosaurs.

Or at least I had joked about that.

But if anything like what happened to me was the standard? Then Oscorp was doing some extremely shady stuff. I guess I’m lucky they got cracked by the Avengers not soon after I went there.

But I think I may be getting a bit ahead of myself. After getting bit by some genetically altered super spider during that trip I had a bit of a problem, I wasn’t just normal down on her luck Penny Parker anymore.

I was something more.

More than what the foster system saw in me.

Of course this would have been grand without the whole two weeks of fevers and weird nightmares but I digress, Because afterwards I woke up different.

I woke up to something I hadn’t even dreamed of in my wildest daydreams.

My name is Penny Parker

And I’m going to be a Hero.

Penny zipped her bag shut, making sure her costume was hidden underneath her various books and homework. Slinging the tattered and ancient bag over her shoulder and rubbing her hands together to try and generate heat.

She hated cold weather nowadays, something about spiders not being able to thermoregulate was the only explanation she had for it being as cold as it was. It was only the first day of October.

She regretted not putting on something better underneath her costume.

She sighed softly and fumbled her key into the door. Keeping her earphones in so she didn’t hear every argument or every other sound on the rest of the street until she got into her foster home. If there was one good thing about them, at least the Westcotts could afford actual soundproofing in their Brownstone .

Her powers were great, and she wouldn’t change them for the world, but what she wouldn’t give for a chance to not overhear things she shouldn’t or be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of info her body was receiving.

It was just too much.

She was lucky that she managed to put together her mask and goggles to work like a blinder. Hell even when she wasn’t in her vigilante get up, she still wore her old glasses to keep from hyper focusing on the smallest detail.

She stepped through the door to the Wescott’s apartment and bit back a grimace when she heard a voice say.

“Put your hair up, you look like a girl with it in that Bob, you should get it cut.” The nasally voice of Jan Wescott reached her through the music of her headphones.

She pulled a hair bow out of her pocket and tied it back just annoyed by the situation.

“You're almost past curfew young man, you know what Skip said.”

“I know Ten PM on the dot, sorry, there was a crash and my bus got held up, Spider-girl stopped some car chase and it almost hit my bus.” Another twinge of discomfort passed through her at the mention of the woman's husband. the hairs on the back of her neck raised and she felt the alarms in her head start to ring, she clenched her fists involuntarily as panic burned at the back of her throat.

After she shook away the feeling of her spidey sense screaming at her she just sighed softly at the misgendering. She was lucky that Her and uncle Ben had managed to change her name before he passed, but the marker change had been a different story.It was also the reason why the Wescotts referred to her mostly by her last name or “ The Boy.”

It drove her up the wall to no end, at least they didn’t have any right to legally change her name and it wasn’t like she was going to tell them her dead name. Score one for Penny.

She stretched as she walked to her room, just wanting to fall into her mattress and let the day melt away.

Natasha watched quietly as the short Brunette girl got out of the bus. The nightlife of Manhattan was quiet in this part of town. She put it to the fact that Penny had been Lucky enough to get placed with a family that seemed well off enough

What really worried her was just how tired the girl looked these days. You could look up Listless in the dictionary and find a picture of the poor girl next to it. Natasha sighed softly with worry.

The sound of boots on the gravel of the roof behind her caused her to pull her sidearm, though a familiar voice caused her to slip it back into its place.

“Thought I’d find you here, Nat.”

She rolled her eyes softly and turned her head to stare at him. “You should know by now sneaking up on me is never a good idea Clint, remember Budapest?”

“Like you’d ever let me forget.” He chuckled lightly, stepping a foot onto the roof edge and watching the building that his partner had been occupied with. “The kid okay?” He asked after a moment.

“I was on patrol, just wanted to make sure she made it home.”

He sighed softly. “ Nat I don't understand why you didn't take her in? You obviously care about her.”

“You think she’d want anything to do with me after what I failed to do in Manhattan? The red in my ledger?” she scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Hell, we get tagged together and she becomes a target of, I don’t know, chuck a dart at our target list, bound to hit someone that hates me.”

“She’s a Parker isn’t she? I know a few folks SHIELD put away that might do that out of spite anyways.”

“And you wonder why I take time to keep an eye on her?”

“Nat, you're turning into a helicopter mom.” He cocked a cheeky smirk as he looked at the brownstone.

“Clint!” She growled with a smile, tossing a handful of gravel at him. He just laughed and swatted softly at the flung stones.

“Мудак! You’re worse than Laura sometimes.”

“Oh come on, you know she’s Much worse than I am. She keeps asking ‘When’s Nat bringing her girl, I wanna meet my niece, when she's going to bring her’ I have to stop her from planning for Christmases and Easter.

Natasha sighed softly, standing up “Let’s head back to the tower.”

“Alright. Race you there.” He cheekily saluted to her and took off

Pepper Potts raised an eyebrow as she read the file that had crossed her desk. Honestly this kid's grades were astronomical and from the look at her test scores, she wouldn’t be surprised if this Parker kid could give Tony a run for his shiny metal pants.

The CEO sighed softly, she knew this was Natasha’s way of trying to help this girl and keep herself at arm's length the entire time. She could almost commend her for sticking to her guns if it wasn’t for the fact that this reminded her too much of Tony picking some bullshit hill to stubbornly die on.

She rolled her eyes, Moms sometimes.

“Friday? Where is Natasha right now?”

“Miss Romanoff has just arrived with Clint Barton and is making her way to the former Avengers Commons, Boss Ma’am.” The soft Irish voice of Tony’s AI rang through the room.

“Thanks Friday.”

“Much obliged Boss Ma’am.”

Pepper took the file and made her way down to the commons area, just in time to see Natasha walk out towards one of the Kitchenettes.

She placed the File in front of the spy and walked over to a counter, pouring her a glass of wine. Natasha fixed her with a slow look as she made her way to the wine cabinet.

“I know that look, Nat.”

“Oh do you?”

“That’s a look that means ‘am I going to have to kill my friend to get my daughter a scholarship’ in international super-spy.”

Natasha rolled her eyes in exacerbation. “Oh my god, really pepper? You’re going the Clint route? I swear , Stark is rubbing off on you, soon enough both of you are going to be insufferable.”

The blonde laughed and leaned across the counter in front of her. “Soooo…”

“Just spit it out before you make me seriously consider re-enacting the Plot of Heathers except with a collateral damage cost higher than it took to get to the moon.”

Pepper just smiled and pushed the file towards her. “Your kid is smart Natasha, Truely.”

“She’s not…I…damn it Virginia, get to the point!”

“Oh, I’ll take her on a Science Internship, But you’re coming with me when I tell her.”

Natasha let her face slump onto the counter as she groaned.

Penny felt the shove coming miles before it happened, the chuckles of Flash and his goons as they called her an absolutely vile nickname that hurt more than the actual physical bullying.

Shy little Penny Parker hadn’t been strong enough to fight back before the bite so why would she be able to now.

She grabbed her physics textbook and sighed, shutting the door to reveal the lithe form of MJ looking at her with an upturned worry.

“I know, I know ‘I should do something about them’ it’s not going to help.”

A scoff and an eye roll was the taller girl's response. “Whatever you say tiger, watching you get bullied is my favorite thing.” she responded sarcastically. “Remember to sign my textbook so I can sell it when you get your own documentary when you finally go apeshit.”

MJ batted her eyes softly and made a doe eyed expression, “She was always so quiet in school, I didn’t expect her to dismember those poor boys.”

Penny laughed and smacked her friend gently with her textbook “MJ I’m not going to be a serial killer!”

“Now that’s just what a serial killer would say!”

Penny turned softly with a wave, starting to head to her first period when the intercom went off. She did her best to hide a wince from the loud noise of it.

“Would Penelope Parker please report to the Robotics club room. Thank you.”

This caused the young teen to stop in confusion and turn back to MJ.

“You blow something up again?” Sha asked, a smile on her face.

“No! That was one time MJ!” Penny sighed softly before waving to her friend. “I’m going to make my way over, See you at Lunch then?”

“On the dot,Tiger”

Natasha sighed softly from behind her Holographic veil. Currently wearing the face and voice of one of Peppers accounting department. She thought it was distracting enough for Penny that Pepper Potts was coming around offering her a grant and internship, an avenger on top of it would definitely draw too much attention to the poor girl.

“You ready Vanessa, the principal made the call so she should get here soon.”

Nat groaned softly and rolled her eyes. Shooting a glare towards her “boss.” The snicker crossing Pepper’s face showed that she was really enjoying the teasing aspect of giving Penny an internship

“Hey Mr. Dell, you know I’m supposed to be in Physics right….now.”

The young brunette stopped in the doorway like a deer in the headlights. “I …wha…..guh….” Stammering enough that Natasha could see steam coming out of her ears.

Honestly it was kind of adorable.

She turned to Pepper as she slipped into the part she needed to play. As much as it was nice to see Penny closer than cross rooftop surveillance, it was still an uncomfortable thought to face her directly. Especially after what happened during the battle for New York.

The spy chewed the inside of her lip and pushed down on the memories, holding a tablet out to Pepper. “Miss Potts, the Internship prospect has arrived.

She could feel the look that Pepper gave her as she took the tablet and smiled at Penny. “Good afternoon Miss Parker, your file crossed my desk and I wanted to speak with you about some opportunities for your future.”

“File…crossed… I…what?” The girl shut the door and her eyes ran across the room like she was making sure of her exits. She pulled her shirtsleeves down to cover what seemed to be a pair of watches that she was wearing.

Odd.

“To- Mister Stark has recently established The September Foundation, which gives individuals of promise grants, and a potential internship. As CEO of Stark Industries I have a certain amount of control of this, and have set aside a few Internship slots for young students with potential, and I’d like to offer one of these to you.”

Penny looked on in shock, eyes fluttering between the other two women in the room. “Internship? Like ….like an internship with Tony Stark?” She put her hand against her forehead and took a wide eyed seat across from Pepper.

“Not directly, though with your work ethic,” she smiled and flipped through documentation of some of Penny’s work. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he took an interest.”

Natasha narrowed her eyes at Pepper. Filing away some sort of scare tactic in the back of her mind to make sure that Stark knew Penny was off limits.

After all, the last kid he had gotten his mitts on ended up in the middle of a firefight that destroyed half a small Tennessee town.

Penny didn’t need to be involved with some of the baggage that the Avengers got bogged up in.

Penny took the corner swing at lightning speed. Some Tourists gawking at her and snapping pictures as she trapezed overhead. She just couldn’t believe that she had really been offered a Stark Internship, she was just Penny Parker, local freak, who was she to get this out of nowhere?

She let go of her dragline on the upswing, closing her eyes as she spun with the momentum, her arms spread out as she reached the apex of her seven story swing.

A gunshot rang out like a beacon among the sounds of the city and her eyes jerked open. She shot out a fresh dragline and let herself fall, the dragline soon snapped taut and she rocketed off in the direction of Hell's Kitchen.

It didn’t take long to get from where she was in Midtown to where she heard the sound. It looked to her that a couple of goons were menacing a group of dancers. The looks of the groups involved didn’t paint a pretty picture of what was going on.

“Are you kidding me, neo-nazis?! Come on! I thought better of you New York.” As she webbed herself close she noticed a pride flag painted on the boombox, and a good number of the dancers were wearing pronoun pins.

This didn’t look good, especially since the two history channel rejects were brandishing pistols.

She flipped over the pair of racists and jerked the pistols from their hands with a pair of weblines.

“You know guys, it's not fair to take your own small-dicked envy out on others just for being more fabulous than you….we gonna have a problem here?”

“Shit! Phil, it's the daredevil!”

“That’s not the daredevil, it’s a wannabe toddler in a daredevil costume.”

“Actually I’m Spider-girl, wait, why am I introducing myself to literal nazis?!.”

“Shut the fuck up bitch, no one asked you!”

The two skinheads turned back to each other and started to have a whisper-yelling argument with each other.

Penny blinked.

Turning to the group of dancers, her mask mirroring the confused look on her face. “They…they do know I’m still here right? And don’t worry, I’m with you all, trans pride by the way.” She turned back to look at the pair of skinheads before turning back to the civilians.

“You know what, they look hungry, I’m just gonna serve them a couple of knuckle sandwiches.” The vigilante chuckled and whipped her wrists over the pair, pulling the weblines taught.

“Sorry fellas, Time to go night night.”

She jerked hard, causing the pair to yell before she clotheslined them both with a twirling kick to the jaws, The skinheads dropping in an unconscious pile like a ton of bricks. She webbed them up almost as an afterthought, the metallic hiss of her web shooters covering them in a thick layer of webbing,sticking the unfortunate duo firmly to the concrete of the lot.

“Oh! You all have two hours before that starts to biodegrade, so someone should probably dial the authorities.”

One of the dancers turned to another telling them to dial for the police before walking with a distinct limp over to the young vigilante.

“You said your name was Spider-Girl, right?”

“Yeah, just your friendly neighborhood vigilante here to keep people saaaaa-…” Penny trailed off when she saw the woman, absolutely stunned by her grace and aire. Nearly two heads taller than her and built like a warrior goddess.

“You handle yourself well In a fight, were you trained? You’ve a dancer’s grace.”

It took a few moments for Penny’s brain to reboot well enough to recognize the question she had been asked, a quick thought of ‘Wowser I’m gay.’ passed in her head before she replied.

“N-no I’m not trained, guess you could say I’m a Natural.”

The woman smiled. Her syrupy voice ringing in a laugh like bells. “I’m Thandiwe, though most around these parts call me Mama Thandi.” The woman smiled and slipped a note into the shorter Vigilante’s palm. “Stop by sometime, Maybe I’ll show you how to truly dance.”

Mama Thandi gave a soft wink that made Penny’s Heart skip a beat before she motioned with her head.

“On your way, Little Spider, you’ve others to save.”

Penny made a soft yelping noise before she jumped and flicked her wrist swinging away, lucky that her mask hid her blush.

She swore she heard the woman laughing as she did.

Chapter Text

Penny lurched into wakefulness with a yelp in the dark, her heart racing and her spider-sense screaming at her. Her eyes were darting around the room as she tried to get control of her breathing, one hand trying to keep her heart from leaping out of her ribcage.

She hated waking up from the nightmares.

Penny rolled out of bed and retched into her trash, bile burning her throat as she trembled over the metal receptacle. She clenched her fists on the edge, the light tin bucket crumpling slightly under her enhanced strength.

She stumbled to her feet and pulled the door of the guest room she was occupying open. She just couldn’t feel safe in it, let alone consider it her own, but at least it was upstairs and far enough away from the Westcotts sleeping area that her bouts of sleeplessness rarely, if ever, bothered them. At least not as much as other things that she did.

The young girl stepped over and turned the bathroom faucet on to wash the acidic taste out of her mouth, trying to ignore just how pale she looked in the mirror. She needed to clear her head. After all, it wasn’t like she was going to be able to sleep again tonight. She couldn’t risk slipping back into the memory of that.

She pulled her phone out of her hoodie pocket and felt a slightly crumpled piece of paper. She stared at the blinking time of 3:34 in the morning and groaned. Sighing softly and using her phone's backlight to illuminate what she was doing, she pulled out the note from Miss Thandiwe, having completely forgotten about it after her bout of vigilantism earlier this week.

“Well, what do we have here?” She murmured as she unfolded it. It looked like a set of directions leading underground somewhere in Hell’s Kitchen, along with a note.

“You done good by us, your welcome at our place anytime- Thandiwe”

Penny blinked slowly, surprised by how open they were being with her, even though she was just doing what was right.

She’d have to check it out sometime. Snapping a photo of the note just in case she forgot about the info on it she sighed at the time her phone was showing. It was 3:38 in the morning on a Saturday and she couldn’t even think about going back to bed. At least if she absolutely had to she could make up on her sleep later on in the day with a spider-nap.

She carded her fingers through her hair as she padded down the hall yawning. The prickle of fine hairs standing on end reignited her jangled nerves a mere few seconds before the scent of alcohol wafted through her nostrils. Penny turned slowly, fear running an electric tapdance down her spine.

The tall form of Skip Westcott stood silhouetted by the dim light of the bathroom. Penny took a soft step back, her eyes growing wide when she realized the awful intent in his gaze and what it meant for her...

He said something that just turned to white noise in Penny’s ears as her breath hitched.

He was coming for her, he was going to do it again.

She hadn’t even realised how far she had retreated on pure instinct until she felt his hands grab her wrists roughly and push her back against her bedroom door. This couldn’t be happening, not again. He whispered into her ear another short phrase that fell to dust on her ears as her spidey sense wailed with distress in the back of her mind.

Penny couldn’t stand it happening again, it won’t happen again. Instincts that for most of her life had been timidly cowering in the realm of flight roared to life and into angry, protective fight. Her head slammed forward, her forehead smashing against the softer targets of his nose and mouth. She felt more than heard the crunch on impact as Skip recoiled backwards, hands going to his face and writhing in pain as he hit the polished hardwood floor.

She felt something warm and wet start to drip down her face, she knew what it was, she didn’t want to know what it was, oh god, there was no way this wasn’t going to not have consequences. She jerked her door open and rushed inside, locking it behind her. Her hands were shaking as she tried to think of something to do.

She heard Mrs. Westcott ask Skip what was going on from downstairs, right as the door knob began to rattle.

“Open this door right now you little bastard!” Skip roared through the wood as he began to pound on the door. Penny let out a soft squeak and yanked her dresser across the front of the door, another barrier between herself and the world in that general direction.

“What am I gonna do? I…I’m….oh god this isn’t good!” She pressed her hands against her temples in a panic, pulling messy hair out of her line of vision, and bringing her bed into focus. She darted across the room and flipped her bed up. With little thought grabbed her costume, throwing the hoodie and her web shooters on and stuffing the rest into her duffle bag. She raced around her room frantically, tearing it apart to try and take everything she couldn’t live without.

Penny grimaced as she looked back at the door, Skip still yelling angrily at her and Jan having come up, shouting her concern. She felt hollow when she opened the window, this event cementing something that she had felt was true for months.

Penny Parker was alone.

She pulled her mask over her head and sighed as she looked out of the window and into the cold morning air

Thwip. She flicked her wrist and pulled herself out of the window, letting gravity give her momentum for a swing as she left the Westcotts behind for good. Tears staining the fabric of her mask.

At 4 in the morning, a faint sob echoed through otherwise empty streets.

Penny Parker was alone.

Penny landed softly outside of the tunnel, pulling her hoodie over her web shooters and shivering. It had started to rain earlier, a cloying, soaking mist that seeped through her clothes and aided the frigid morning air in its unspoken quest to chill her to the bone with slushy, half-formed snowflakes.

She silently prayed to whichever deity would listen that somebody was here and that it was warm wherever the note was leading her, or else she may end up as a spideycicle. Her fingers trembled stiffly as she slid her mask off and into her pocket. She slipped her Hoodie up to cover her face and blew into her hands and rubbed them together, trying to get some life back into them. With a slight lurch, she slung her duffel off her shoulder and hugged it to her chest, both for warmth and comfort as she set off into the tunnel before her.

Suspicious eyes flickered across the gloomy walls. How could anyone stand to stay down here for long? A flickering light beckoned ahead with the dubious but welcome promise of fire. A white speckled beard stood sentinel over the fire, a few paces more and the deeply contrasting pitch coloured skin of its owner came into focus, his clothing threadbare and filthy.

“It’s too cold, come sit by the fire.” His voice was deep and hoarse as Penny side eyed him, thankful of the heat of the flames but still wary of the stranger that had taken residence inside a tunnel.

She silently hoped that Thandiwe hadn’t led her on, even if she may be asking a little too much of strangers by showing up unannounced with plans to ask for somewhere to stay.

“You come looking for the underground girl? Hell of a cold day you picked.” The man smiled through a scraggly salt and pepper beard.

“Not like I had much choice….”

“Hardly ever do Youngblood, Hardly ever do.”

Penny stepped around the fire trying to warm up, the cold had been seeping into her bones for far too long for her liking. She felt absolutely exhausted. The man stood up slowly, causing her to jerk back her shaking hands held in a defensive pose.

“I don’t intend to hurt you girl, just to open the door.” He smiled softly and tapped a brick on the corner of the tunnel wall. Penny watched in confused awe as a part of the wall folded away entirely, a light purple shimmer at the edge.

“Is…is that nanotech…I’m so confused.”

“What are you waiting for, much warmer inside, ask for Mama Thandi once you see someone. She’ll make sure you get some food in you, look like you need it.”

Penny stepped forward with a look of awe on her face, passing by the man.

“Welcome to the underground, young blood.”

Natasha sighed as she stepped into the kitchen, a soft click of the button setting the coffee maker running, her other hand slipping one of the expensive mugs that Tony had furnished the place with from its spot in the cabinet.The blare of an alert on her phone pulled her mind out of the early morning daze.

Penelope May Parker wanted for questioning in relation to Felony Assault, Robbery, Property Damage. Last seen: Manhattan, New York.

She barely noticed as the mug shattered on the floor next to her feet, she couldn’t believe what she was reading, confusion crossing her face as she started to skim the files that had been flagged by one of the SHIELD Clearance algorithms she had managed to siphon from the fall of the organization.

She had to go through the file four times before she could really process it, it smelled seven layers of fishy, and the way this Westcott man was describing her in his witness statement wasn’t Penny. Aside from the fact that he was lying, very poorly at that, she could hear it in his voice.

She had gotten very good at pinpointing when someone was changing details and withholding information over the years and this man was almost a textbook case.

Her right hand went on auto-pilot, quickly scrolling to Clint's contact, and tapping the dial button, before setting the phone on speaker.

Penny was out on the streets, with a snow storm already raging through the city. She couldn't care less about perjury at the moment, not at the expense of the girl’s life.

The marksman fumbled with his hearing aid as he was woken up by a vibrating pad that was linked to his phone vibrating against his arm from beneath his covers. He cracked a bleary eye open to look at the screen and gave a low groan as he clicked the phone onto speaker and tried to bury his face back in his pillow.

“Nat it’s five in the morning, someone better be dead or dying.”

“Penny’s gone.” Even with those two words, her voice quavered slightly, betraying her worry even to Clint’s wooden ear.

That scared Clint. In ten years of having dealt with her, and eventually considering her the sister he had never once had he seen true fear break the professional facade that the red room’s training had instilled in her.

“I’m on my way, should I get some of the guys? More boots on the ground and the air for that matter, with Tony and Rhodey.”

“N-no! This is a family matter Clint…”

“Right, I’m there.”

The receiver clicked and Natasha let the phone drop from her shaking hands, turning to sprint towards her equipment room.

“Ah David, brought a newcomer, have you?” A tall and dark haired man said smiling as he waved

“Hey Mr. Obademi! It’s good to see you, want some porridge? Community kitchen made cinnamon and brown sugar this morning.” A younger Hispanic woman yelled out from her position sitting on a bench a steaming bowl in her hands

“Miss Thandiwe was getting worried with you on look-out for so long, good that you came inside David.” A dark skinned young man in some sort of uniform said, clapping a hand on David’s shoulder and smiling as he leaned on a cane. When he caught a look at Penny’s blood stained face beneath her hoodie, he winced in sympathy. He pulled a rag from his pocket and held it out to her.

“You’re gonna be safe here, guarantee it,” he confided in her with a slightly roguish wink.

When she took the rag, he touched two fingers to his forehead in salute and hobbled away.

The call outs to the older man escorting her started to blend together as he walked her through what Penny could only describe as an underground town center.

The bluish hue of the lights illuminated the area well, a number of people walking about what looked to be a small town built into an abandoned tunnel. Bits of shimmering purple metal shoring up the tunnel and running lights and power through the area.

Penny watched the area around her in wonder. The people looked happy and content as they entered and exited small apartments and went about their early mornings. With her expanded senses, she even spotted a few same sex couples smiling to each other or cuddling in doorways. A young kid slipped on a punk jacket with a non-binary flag freshly stitched into the back, smiling at the woman that had given it to them.

“Who…who made all of this.” Penny said, her surprise and admiration leaking into her voice.

David let out a mirthful and deep laugh. “Retired engineers from Wakanda, and a number of retired soldiers for protection, Miss Thandiwe saw the problems that several communities were having in the big apple and brought a number of her old contacts to help. Funded with the Blessing of Prince T’challa. A warm bed and a full belly goes a long way to helping people who are estranged find a new way in their life.”

As soon as he mentioned food, the spider girl’s stomach growled traitorously. She quietly cursed her metabolism in her own mind.

“Speaking of a full belly, let’s get some food in you, no?”

Penny sheepishly nodded, feeling absolutely ravenous. She followed David down the roadway taking in the sights of this new area of the city. Surprised at the concept of an entire town built in the tunnels underneath Hell’s Kitchen

“AAAH!” He screamed as he all but flew down one concrete tunnel after another, cursing every choice that he had made that had led him there. He should have stayed home, his sister had told him meeting with Jimmy’s crew for a dose was gonna kill him one day.

Little did either of them know how right she had been.

Something long and hard whipped across his shins causing him to wince in pain and go tumbling forward. He rolled to a stop and grabbed his legs, gasping in pain. Scrambling back to his feet he looked down the hallways of the abandoned water tunnel trying to get his bearings and figure out exactly where he was.

The man growled and took off running again choosing a tunnel at random, hoping and praying for a surface level exit.

Stopping to catch his breath, the man slowly looked around the tunnel, trying to find any sign of the creature that had been chasing him.

He smiled and sighed, slumping against the brick of the tunnel wall with a heaving chest and a relieved smile on his face.

“I can’t believe I got away…”

He felt something wet and slimy drip on his head and run down into his eyes. Jumping lightly, he stepped to the side, away from the leak and wiped the fluid out of his face with a disgusted noise, Why did this crud remind … him… of… drool… Oh no. As if on autopilot, his neck tilted his gaze upwards.

Right into the burning yellow eyes of the creature that had been chasing him.

“‘Ello Poppet.”

The wicked teeth curled into a smile that signaled nothing but pain and death as it’s voice sent fear down to his very soul.

The beast lunged.

The man's dying screams could be heard echoing throughout the tunnels.

Penelope sighed softly as she walked through the large, well lit cafeteria, her eyes scanning the room for anything that looked remotely out of place - well as out of place as something could be in a secret underground village. David turned a raised eyebrow, before pointing out a familiar woman in the distance.

The tall and muscular Thandiwe laughed softly as she ate with a group of teens. Penny recognized a few of them from the incident with the white supremicists earlier this week. She turned and looked up at Mr. Obademi, His salt and pepper beard fluffed outwards as he smiled broadly. “Go on Youngblood, go introduce yourself.” She swallowed stiffly and walked over, weaving through the people making their way to get their breakfast.

“Uh… Hi, You’re Miss Thandiwe right? I’m new and Mr Obademi told me to find you to get acquainted with ….whatever this place is.”

As the tall dark and athletic woman turned to face her, some of the dancers were smiling and muttering about “when they were newbies.”

“Ah, someone new to town, come this way then, and we’ll get some food in you. Once you’ve eaten, we can get you cleaned up and we can talk some things out. Get you situated with a roof over your head and warm bed. Now you mind telling me how you got that gash on your forehead?”

She blinked in surprise bringing a hand up to touch her head and wincing when she touched it. Surprised by its existence. She stared at the glisten of red that came away from her forehead in a staggered confoundment, a soft cold filling her mind. Just more evidence of how alone she was in the world

I…I think I did this myself,I….I ran from my foster home…”

“Now that’s a sight, you find yourself in the foster system and instead of worrying about yourself you decide to protect the people of this city.”

Her eyes went wide, she took a step back from the taller woman and eyed the room around her trying to find a way out. How could she tell? She can’t have given herself away that easily.

“W-what! No…I’m not Spider-girl! I…shit...How did you notice?”

Penny felt a numbing panic start to creep up her spine, being Spider-girl was all she had left, but being outed as her would ruin any chances at a normal life, at coming back from this pit that she had found herself in.

“You’re wearing half of her costume, and her web Gadgets, besides, I can recognize your voice. Don’t worry though we can get you a change of clothes and no one will be the wiser here, unless you wish to make yourself known, the choice is up to you. Whichever decision you make I will make sure is honoured.”

Penny had a brief flash in her mind, imagining herself in front of a press conference, outing herself as Tony Stark had done a few years beforehand. No. She mentally shook her head, that was not her style at all.

“I….I need to hide it….n-no one should know.”

A soft look of understanding crossed Thandiwe’s face as she nodded and waved toward the kitchen. “That is an understandable choice dear, You can put your mask back on once we’re in the kitchen if that would make you feel better.” Penny nodded meekly, a soft feeling of catharsis filling her chest. She had always felt like she had to sleep with an eye open her entire life, and now it was weird to not have that constant buzzing in her head. Not bad, just weird. It was.... a bit unsettling for her that she actually felt safe somewhere. It was like someone had taken the weight of the entire world off her shoulders, and she had never known that she was carrying it.

“ Now is there a specific name that you wish for me to call you? Pronouns?” The muscular woman led the young vigilante into a modern and expensive looking kitchen area.

“Parker….Penny Parker, She/Her, But… Please just call me Spider-Girl when I’m in costume.”

Thandiwe nodded with a slight smile turning away to prepare a plate of food for her. Her face dropping slightly into a worried frown as soon as it was hidden from view.

This kid was way too young to have that much pain in her eyes.

Chapter Text

Penny felt the air pull on her hoodie as she let go of her dragline. She loved this feeling, her body in motion and her eyes closed, navigating the New York skyline by instinct at this point. She let out a gleeful scream as she turned the corner with a thwip of her web shooters, catching the side of an office building in a dead sprint. The vigilante was in her element when she jumped, rotating her body, spinning in the air to redirect herself, sending off her newest dragline into the city skyline.

Her stomach growled lightly, causing her to slingshot to a nearby rooftop and perch on the edge.

Mama Thandi had handed her a few crisp bills when she was heading out on patrol with a firm “Make sure you eat, girl!”After some of the sparring lessons she had been through with the woman, she wasn’t about to disappoint her.

She stretched, arching a hand behind her neck and lifting her arm up, trying to pop her back. The shuffling of a boot on the rooftop caused her to startle, somersaulting back onto her outstretched hand, her off hand outstretched and ready to web a perceived threat.

The tall blonde man raised his hands defensively. “Careful there kiddo, just dropping by. Not looking to get webbed to a street lamp, I’m almost retired. Please don’t scratch spider themed mishap off my bucket list.”

Penny dropped out of her handstand, kind of confused. What did Hawkeye want with her? Her body tensed lightly, her weight shifting to the balls of her feet as she weighed her options, her eyes tracking his hands and feet, confused by the fact that he didn’t have a bow on him.

He raised his hands up trying to appear unassuming. Well, as unassuming as a super spy Avenger can be.

Her Spider-Sense was being relatively quiet. Of course it would, Hawkeye is an Avenger! He wouldn’t be out to hurt her, right?

“Right? So is there anything you need from your friendly neighbourhood Spider-girl?” Penny furrowed her brow under her mask, causing the servos of her goggles to whir as they pantomime the confused look on her face. She slipped into a soft crouch, letting herself rest slightly, yet still wanting to be mobile enough to make a move if she needed to. “I’m on patrol right now, keeping the streets as safe as I can. May not be an Avenger, but I can still make sure the criminals you all don’t have time for serve some time.”

Clint looked impressed.

Winding up with super powers all by a freak accident, with her life story? There are worse things she could have ended up as instead of a vigilante during her free time

Hell, he’s had to fight people who turned to super-powered terrorism for less.

“Right, honestly I wanted to stop by and ask a few questions, Spider-kid. See I’ve got a close…friend, she’s had someone she’s been worried about go missing, and I wanted to see if you had seen anything since you’re boots on the ground,” he snickered lightly. “More like boots on the brick wall, but I digress.”

Clint sighed, softly crouching down so he was at eye level with the young vigilante. “The kid’s on the run from a pretty bad situation, and as far as we know, she’s on her own on the streets of New York. That’s a scary proposition on the best of days.”

Penny perked up softly, intrigued that a member of the Avengers had sought her out of all people. “So you want me to help the Avengers find a missing person? Why me? What makes me special? I'm just your friendly neighbourhood Spider-girl, I web bank robbers to street signs, I stop car jackers.... And the occasional bike thief.”

Clint had to stop himself from shaking his head and smiling. This kid, he swore she was the sweetest thing. “Yeah that's the thing Spiderling, a street level hero is just what we need. Meet me at Stark Tower in a couple of hours, the flight deck. I’m sure that you’ll figure out how to get up there.”

Penny hopped up excitedly. “Will do, Mr. Hawkeye, Sir! You won’t regret calling on me for help! I’ll do my best to help find your missing friend! I'm gonna finish up my Patrol and then I’ll get right to it!”. A quick flick of her wrist, and the young vigilante was off like a flash, waving a hasty two-fingered salute as she left.

Clint sighed softly as he watched her swing away, the agent shaking his head slightly at his best friend’s anxiousness over Penny. “She’s a good kid, Nat… I just don’t know why you’re scared of how she’ll think of you.”

Penny smiled under her mask as she waited in line, bobbing her head softly to the song playing over the radio of Delmar’s and humming along as she waited for her order to finish. She was caught off guard by a familiar voice sounding out, Her Spider-Sense flared from the sudden introduction of new stimuli. “You know what..”

The young vigilante startled and ended up flipping up onto the ceiling, clutching her chest in surprise. The familiar curly haired form of MJ raised an eyebrow sarcastically up at her. Penny looked over as Mr.Delmar sighed, exasperated.

“Oi! Araña, off the ceiling! Come on, I just cleaned it!” She sheepishly dropped down waving her hand softly “Ah Crud! Lo siento señor Delmar!”

The vigilante straightened her gear. Looking around softly, she tried to think of a way out of the situation she had found herself in “Uh….Hello Citizen, how can I help you?” She struck a pose worthy of Captain America and tried to put on her best “Superhero” voice

MJ just rolled her eyes, a soft smile on her face before she leaned in close to her ear.

The vigilante was suddenly very glad for her mask because she was certain that she had lit up like a Christmas tree. She was so caught up in trying not to drop into a gay panic that she almost didn’t catch what MJ whispered into her ear.

“Face it, tiger….” The hazel eyed girl leaned away from her with a knowing smile. “You can’t hide from me. Dork.”

Penny made a soft squeaking noise. “I...um… I think I hear some…villains…attacking...an orphanagegottagobye!” There was a loud FWIP and she slingshotted out the door faster than a bullet, swinging down the street and out of view almost faster than MJ could blink. Delmar came out of the kitchen holding a bag and just groaned, muttering something in Spanish about cobwebs. MJ giggled softly. “Welp, that absolutely tells me who Spider-girl is,” the dark haired teen whispered with a smile.

Penny slung herself upwards, letting go of the dragline to swing herself higher up Avengers Tower. Her mind was running a million miles a minute, but mostly it was just full of worry and regret. She shouldn’t have run away.

She flipped in the air, swinging her arm out to cast another drag line up the tower. She should have been exhilarated she was swinging up so high. Up Avenger’s Tower! With an Invitation no less! This was nuts. But her mind was still focused heavily on all the regrets she had over the past couple of weeks. She could have handled talking with MJ better. She closed her eyes as she pendulumed herself up and over the massive letter on the side of Avengers tower.

Landing softly on the tip of the symbol, she smiled. This feeling of freedom was like electricity coursing through her veins. She perched down on the edge, letting herself take in the city underneath her. She could see the routes through the city to different landmarks, like they were printing themselves onto a map in her mind. The speed she could gain by jumping off of this point would be astronomical, and the idea sent tingles up and down her body like the air before a thunderstorm.

She had never been this high up before! Iron Man landed here all the time! She was way higher than the top of Brooklyn Bridge and she wasn’t even getting yelled at by the Port Authority!

She shook her head softly. She couldn’t get distracted here by her thoughts, she had a job to do, and she couldn’t be late for the meeting with Hawkeye.

The girl flexed her calves and prepared to swing herself up to the landing pad when her phone rang loudly. She pulled it out of a zippered pocket and answered it.

“You’ve reached Spidey!”

“Girl, we’ve got a problem, Something’s attacked the entrances to the underground, we need your help…” Thandiwe said, a tone to her voice that betrayed the worry she was trying to hide.

Penny turned slightly to look at the Avengers tower, and felt her heart drop slightly. Meeting the Avengers and helping them find someone was just….a step up for her hero career, but Mama Thandi and the Underground was home for now.

“On my way.” She hung up before sighing softly, stepping off of the Avengers symbol and releasing in the air speeding past her before, she flicked her wrist and arched herself on a webline towards Hell’s Kitchen

Penny flipped as she let go of her web, landing roughly next to one of the entrances. Some of the guards that posed as the homeless camps that guarded the entrances were scattered, and several of them were wounded. She rushed over.

The worried vigilante looked down at the man on the ground, who was wincing and trying to apply pressure to a rough bite on his leg that was leaking blood rapidly.

“What happened?!?” She asked, doing her best to help with her limited first aid knowledge. A hiss filled the air as she weaved an adhesive bandage out of her webbing, tying it tightly around the man’s wounds to keep him from bleeding out.

“A…a monster attacked us, and then ran off deeper into the tunnels, some beast with yellow eyes.” The older man winced, grimacing as Spider-Girl tended to his wounds.

“A monster? What do you mean? Which way did it go?” She stammered, utterly confused by what he was saying. A monster? In the middle of New York?

“It was giant! I don’t fucking know what it was….but we didn’t get a good look at it,” the other guard said, leaning against the entrance to the Underground and holding a piece of his torn shirt to a bleeding gash on his head. He was younger than the man she had bandaged, tall, pale, lanky, and dark haired to the other man’s salt and pepper hair and olive complexion. “Some sort of lizard? Dinosaur? Thing? I don’t know man…”

“It went deeper into the tunnels…fuck….this bite burns….” The older man said, holding the bandage that she had made and hissing through clenched teeth.

Penny heard some distant clangs deeper in the tunnels, and a piercing sour smell drifting from a particular tunnel. She turned her head in its direction, and narrowed her eyes.

“Hey, can you get him inside and both of you get some medical help?”

“Yeah sure, but what are you going to do Spider-Girl?”

“I’m going to find out what tried to attack the underground.” She said before flinging herself down the pathway and deeper into the darkness.

Penny quickly found tunnels way too constrictive for her standard mode of transportation. She couldn’t get a good swing rhythm going to save her life, so she settled into a free run, like she had done for the first few days of vigilantism before her web shooters were fully developed.

A swift run across a wall and a smooth rolling landing brought her into a large, centralised room. It felt off being in here. Her Spider-Sense had started prickling almost as soon as she landed.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she looked around herself, taking in the sights of the dark and abandoned subway station. Every instinct she had gained since the spider bite was on high alert.

She stepped back a few paces. Her panicked mind urged her to place something heavy and solid behind her back, even if every other instinct in her head was telling her to bolt. The walls of the stations crept up in the corners of her vision.

Something was wrong here and she just couldn’t place it. The dust and smell of rot filled her nose, along with the smell of something else she couldn’t identify that made her want to gag as the heavy scent finally started to hit her in full force.

It was familiar, and almost reminded her of the things she had seen during the battle of New York, before she had been rescued…after aunt May had….

She shook her head as panic crept up her throat, taking a few more steps backwards

What she wasn't expecting was the squishy thing she stepped on.

Looking down she saw a human arm. Red and bloody, connected to a pile of bones and leftover viscera. Her breath hitched in her throat as panic screamed harder inside of her.

She heard clicks, like something hard grinding against the stone tiles of the empty abandoned station. A dark, thick voice rang out, causing her to whip her head around, trying to find the source in the echoing chamber.

“Look who walked into my parlour, a small Spider I do spy…”A mocking laugh filled the air, a rumbling hiss that threatened to consume her hearing

Penny jerked her head in the direction of the voice, and her heart jumped into her throat. What was standing there staring at her looked like something out of Jurassic Park. Large, probably 9 and a half foot tall, and nearly twice that in length, green scales glistening in the faint light, and nearly glowing yellow eyes

Its mouth moved, and a chuckle escaped it. “What’sss the matter little sssspider, never ssseen a Monster before? Some sssuper hero you are.”

The theropod turned its body towards her, and stretched its claws like it was preparing to pounce. “No matter, I was just thinking of Dinner!”

She felt the scream of her Spider-Sense before the beast was even part way through its lunge, her wrists flicking out to slam a double dose of web fluid into its mouth as she dived underneath it.

Penny didn’t stop to watch how effective her web muzzle had been as a distraction. Sprinting off the edge of the station and flinging her wrist out to throw a short dragline, trying to build up showy and quick swings within the tunnel proper, the angry hissing roar of the talking dinosaurs following out behind her as she sped away.

“I can’t build up speed like this!” She huffed out , panic in her voice “13.86 metres times height equals velocity doesn’t mean jank when there’s no height!!!” Her Spider-Sense screamed and she let go of her latest dragline and tumbled into a roll, sprinting as soon as her feet were underneath her and doing her best to ignore the clack of a toothy maw slamming shut mere inches behind her.

She grabbed an overhead pipe and swung herself further down the tunnel, passing an intersection that looked hauntingly familiar.

She was just leading him back to the Underground!

She swallowed hard and twirled on her feet, slingshotting her web past the creature. A hard yank, and her boot was slammed hard in its snout.

She landed in her fighting pose in front of the monster she had just sent sprawling. “Don’t know why I’m running from you, you’re just a big dumb lizard!” she taunted, doing her best to keep the fear out of her voice.

She rolled forward when her Spider-Sense went off. The shadow of the giant theropod flew overhead as it lunged for where she had just been.

She flicked her wrists, pulling hard on the creature when her webs connected, toppling it over.

With a quick leap over the downed creature, she aimed to splatter it heavily with webbing, intending to lock it down to the ground. Her Spider-sense didn’t flare until she was mid jump.

It was a move she had used hundreds of times against untrained goons, but those goons weren’t dinosaurs four times her size with knives strapped to all four limbs.

Pain blossomed across her back as she was kicked roughly into the ceiling.

Penny gasped as she landed, feeling something wet and warm coating her back and shirt, and groaned in pain. She struggled to push herself up, her instincts screaming at her that she was in danger .

The pain was just overwhelming.

Something slammed into her right shoulder and lifted her up, causing her entire arm to flare with burning pain.

The surprise of the creatures jaws wrapped around her shoulder sent a fear she hadn’t felt in a long while through her

A fear that she didn’t want to come to pass.

Screaming through the pain, she started to slam her free hand into the beast's head. Panic and adrenaline forced her past the limits she kept on herself to keep her from hurting people.

There came a crack from the side of the theropod's snout. The pop of something under her fist caused a wet feeling to gush over her hand as it roared into her wounds, and threw her roughly up

She slammed hard into a manhole cover and flew past, smacking painfully into the brick wall of a building.

Citizens of New York yelped and shrieked in surprise at the bloodied vigilante that stumbled to their feet, dripping an alarming amount of blood as she sluggishly swung away.

Bruce smiled back towards Steve Rogers. The doctor turned reluctant super powered tank buster was happy that he’d finally been able to clear out his lab at Avengers Tower himself. The promise of a much more self-contained location definitely suited him in the event the big guy upstairs decided to rear his ugly head, but it certainly made clearing house for the move itself an absolute pain.

“Thanks again, Steve, truly.” The tall blonde just smiled from behind the tower of boxes in his hands. “No problem, Doc. Besides, I asked to help. You just looked like you needed some fresh air out in the city. No need to thank me.”

The dark haired doctor just chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his head.

They both jumped when there was a loud crash in the dumpster behind them. At the soft groan of pain Steve hurriedly placed the boxes down next to their van and rushed over to take a look, surprised by what he saw.

“Doc! Over here, we’ve got a problem!” He said, waving an arm to Banner and gently pulling the small vigilante out of her precarious position inside of the now dented and caved in dumpster. Steve trusted that the doctor would be able to save the girl's life. The problem was if whatever was after her was still incoming.

Flicking his comms even as his eyes scanned the horizon, he saw no obvious threats. At least nothing that would've left those injuries. "Hill, it’s Rogers.” The direction that she fell from. Still nothing. She must've got here by her own power. “Get Doctor Cho to prep the medical bay, and tell the Avengers to meet at the compound." Paying extra attention to the unobstructed ear. Still no signs. "That spider girl we’ve been seeing about the city…She’s been injured. Badly."

Chapter Text

Natasha sighed as she swung her leg off of her Harley-Davidson. She didn’t want to be at the compound, and if it hadn’t been an emergency all hands call from Steve she wouldn’t have even bothered putting her search for Penny off.

It’s like the girl had disappeared into the New York underground.

The girls trail had gone cold inside of an Amtrak Tunnel Outlet and all she found when she looked there herself was the place being used as a homeless camp

They didn’t even spit up any information when she paid them, flashing some of the “salary” from Stark she never fucking used.

The fact that she could already hear Stark and Rogers having a roe only multiplied her annoyance at having to be here.

She could feel the migraine coming on.

The nerf arrow that bounced off her head didn’t help either.

“Clint, I will break your shooting finger.”

“Aw come on, Sis you love me,” The archer said, a soft smirk on his face as he stepped around the corner. “We need to talk.”

“Save it Clint, you know I don’t want to be here, I’m just going to do what I need to do. Make sure this kid that Banner and Rogers found isn’t dead or a threat and then I’m back to the city to look for Penny.”

“That’s what I want to talk abo-”

“I said save it Clint!” She hissed and walked past him.

“Listen, Cap. I know math didn’t exist back in the Stone Age, so let me dumb this down for you, capice? Three-thousand pounds of Ford Focus going Forty-five miles an hour, Seventy-two-point-four across the pond, brought to rest with the kids bare hands. Ninety-nine-thousand Newtons of force, just like that."

Tony Stark snapped his fingers for emphasis, before sending that hand back into his bag of potato chips "Do you know how much that is? I suppose not, no. Bottom Line, you brought a wanted-for-assault probable crackhead superhuman kid here. This is the kind of shit that goes to Ross.”

"What, rather me let a kid bleed out in a dumpster, Stark?"

"You really are a goldfish, huh? Did you forget what that 'kid' has done? I didn't know 'defending dangerous, wanted psychos' was part of the 'International Superhero' job description, but I'm happy to double check for-"

Natasha tossed her helmet onto the table loud enough to catch both of their attentions, “Are the two of you going to keep up this lovers spat or are you going to tell me why I have to be here?”

Tony snorted "What happens when a teenage boy with superpowers, anger management issues, and probably some drugs meets a caveman who escaped a museum? A-"

“To the chase, Stark."

Tony's mouth tightened for a second, his eyebrows rising slightly as his eyes rolled rapidly, before he continued "We've got a vigilante on our hands, and Capsicle over here wants to adopt them." He turned to the blonde man, who was staring at him with a furrowed brow, knuckles white as the table groaned slightly. "You know the kid's from queens, right? Not Brooklyn?"

"AS IF- As if-"

"Ooooooooh! I get it now! You feel bad that his parents named the guy Penelope May. Maybe you SHOULD adopt him, if just to fix that."

Natasha's eyes widened slightly, an instinct within her screaming a fact she really didn't want to believe, "Let me have that." she said neutrally, as her heart fought to race in her chest, snatching the holographic file from the billionaire.

Her soft hazel eyes. Her wide, innocent smile. Her curly unkempt brunette bob.

Without a doubt, it was Penny.

"Maybe you can go speak to Ross, and get the whole process expedited, hmm?" Tony furrowed his brow for a second "You do get what I mean by that, ri-"

The man was silenced by Natasha's fist cracking against his nose. "You let Ross touch her and you'll wish you'd never escaped that cave in afghanistan."

He blinked rapidly, groaning as he grabbed his nose "Fuck... Are we all suddenly pro-crackhead toda-"

Another punch met his face, and he howled in pain, grasping at his face, "Fuck! Romanov! The fuck-"

"Call her that again, and you'll wish I'd only cracked your head open." Her words were colder than ice, her eyes sharper than a razor as they bored into him.

Clint stepped up and grabbed her wrist. “Nat! Ease up, he didn’t know. This is what I wanted to talk about!”

"...What do we know?"

Tony snorted out a bit of blood as he sat up, still cupping his nose "Just gonna leave me here blee-"

His favourite coffee mug, that had been placed on the table next to his chips, shattered next to his head. Natasha lowered her arm, her eyes never having turned from Clint.

Tony nodded as he stood up and started stumbling to the door. "Point taken."

“Bruce and Helen have her in surgery, she was in bad shape, some kind of animal or animal like Metahuman.” Clint said, rubbing his temple.

“Penny….what have you gotten yourself into…” Natasha sunk into the closest chair, the look on her face was something that surprised nearly everyone in the room.

Sam stepped over and sat a steaming mug of coffee in front of her. The trauma counselor turned avenger was familiar with this type of response but in all honesty Natasha was the last person he ever expected it from.

“The kid’s going to be okay Nat, she’s with Bruce and Doctor Cho, you know she’s in good hands.”

“Really, when I came in you all were going to toss her in a jail cell.”

“That was Tony jumping to conclusions, you know how he gets when he thinks he’s right about something, Romanov,” Steve said with a soft sigh. “Something about Parker’s police report smells fishy to me. It doesn’t match up with her school record.”

“You're damn right it’s fishy, Wescotts hiding something and he’s using the fact she fought back to push shit onto her,” Natasha growled, clenching her hands hard around the coffee cup.

There was a soft ping as a medics report popped up on the holo screen. Natasha opened it without a second thought. Though she wished she hadn't once she read the damage.

3 Lacerations diagonally across back, no signs of expected spinal trauma. Largest laceration Approx 2in depth, 24 inch length. How is patient not paralyzed, little to no actual damage to the spine yet slash is deep enough to have killed or paralyzed a baseline human.

Surrounding cuts are superficial in nature, primary source of damage and blood loss is large single gash. Large primary blade? No fragments of instrument found. High durability claw assumed as weapon.

Multiple serrations in right shoulder, approx 1in depth, curve pattern and bruising indicative of animal bite. Species inconclusive possible reptile of some sort, bite pattern is jagged and hard to place down as one species or the other. Several serrations gouged out inches of flesh. Monitor for possible signs of blood infections from saliva still within the wound.

Shoulder showed signs of dislocation, and partial healing in wrong direction Ball Joint crushed and needing surgery to repair

All wounds display abnormal rate of healing, with observed rate indicating subject has 4-5 times the healing speed of baseline human.

Heals at rate faster than Steve, possible super soldier serum?

Wounds showing rate of healing of someone several weeks in recovery, shoulder needed to be rebroken and set in the correct manner during surgery. Deep tooth marks in collarbone, though only bone breaks are fractures within the socket joint.

Absence of spinal trauma indicative of reinforced skeletal structure preliminary blood test shows possible Super soldier serum connection though no signs of Vita or Gamma radiation in Patient’s system.

Patient lucky to be alive, possible increased durability overall. Damage received and loss of blood would have been lethal to Baseline 14 year old

Bed rest and recovery recommended before any action taken.

There was a crash as a small form stumbled through the door. The Avengers turned in response, decades of combat instincts between the team caused them to be extremely quick to react to any threat.

Though the small girl that had stopped and stood stunned as she clutched her hospital gown and a medical bed sheet to her caused the heroes to stare dumbfounded.

Though the soft bit of surprise seemed to dampen whatever adrenaline the girl was running on in her “escape” attempt. Her eyes rolled gently back and she slumped to the floor, Natasha and Clint rushing forward to catch her.

Though something tingled at the back of Natasha’s mind.

Her eyes were blue almost unearthly so, with the pupils inside of the almost glowing rings a light red.

‘When did her eye colour change?’ Was the first complete thought to go through her head as she checked the girls pulse.

‘And why?’

Penny rubbed her eyes softly grumbling as she stared at the unfamiliar ceiling. She had no idea what she was going to do now. The Avengers had seen her face, and knowing Stark tech, she had likely had her entire past bared for the world to see.

They had to be thinking of sending her back to the Wescotts, or worse. She was fairly sure she had Broken skips nose when she ran away, so she wouldn’t be surprised if he had pressed charges against her.

He was one of those hardcore conservative donate-to-the-police-gala crime and punishment types.

She covered her face with her hand and groaned.

Great, now The Avengers knew how much of a screw up she was.

Penny had collapsed again not long after rushing in on the avengers in a meeting. Her entire body hurt and her right arm was in a sling. Every minor movement of her upper body seemed to tug on some bandage or stitch.

She honestly didn’t know what was worse, how much she hurt or how hungry she was.

She groaned as she rolled over, stumbling to her feet and clutching the cold metal of the IV pole next to her bed for stability. She tugged the IV line hard and winced as it pulled out of its housing, clattering to the floor and promptly forgotten about as she stepped to the door.

To her surprise it was unlocked and she could smell something in the distance that caused her empty stomach to bare its fangs and growl.

She started walking towards it, running on what was basically autopilot and hunger at that point. Passing a few offices and hallways she opened a pair of free floating doors and was surprised by what she saw.

Iron man, War Machine, Hawkeye, Falcon, Vision and Scarlet Witch!!!

All just sitting around a table with pizza!

She stammered lightly not knowing what to say or even how to react to this when Hawkeye waved his hand and held up a slice of pizza.

“Spiderling! You must be starved, come on over. We got a couple different pizzas. What toppings you like?”

Did she just get invited to an Avengers pizza party?

She stood there, her mind reeling as to what to say or do. Clenching her fist tightly around the IV pole, crumpling impressions of her fingertips into the Thin titanium rod. They had to know what she did when she ran away, why weren’t they treating her like a threat?

Is it some sort of consolation before they take her to the police? Because of her work as Spider-Girl?

Tony Stark looked up, a sly camera ready smirk crossed his face as he spoke up. “Don’t take all day Little Miss Muffet, the pizza will get cold.”

She grit her teeth and swallowed, stepping forward to take an empty seat next to Wanda Maximoff. An small part of her was doing a dance inside. She was sitting with the Avengers!!!

That small little voice was drowned out by the warning peels of her Spider-Sense. A soft siren that was telling her that there were too many unknowns for it to be safe.

I mean, Tony Stark was cool, but Aunt May had alway brought up how he was an alcoholic playboy….

Was he like Skip?

No he couldn’t be an avenger wouldn’t….

He had problems with it though and he had this kind of stilted air to him.

Then there was the fact that Captain America was from the forties! People like her weren’t exactly accepted back then.

It took her a moment to realise that she was being spoken too.

“Spidey, earth to Spidey, you in there? What kind of pizza do you like? We got standard Pep, a double cheese, Clint ordered a weird ass Barbecue chicken pizza, and Vision ordered the total abomination that is a Pineapple and anchovy sin against pizza.”

“I find that I enjoy the Dichotomy.”

“You enjoy a pizza crime.”

“Uh…just the cheese will be fine,” Penny said quietly. Still at a loss for what to say, or even if she should say anything.

A hand placed a pizza box in front of her and she looked up. Her breath stilled for a moment as Tony Stark was sitting in front of her, a smile on his face as he held up her web shooters.

“So quick question, trade ya info for pizza, who makes your tech? It’s garbage chic but it’s fascinating.”

The sirens of her spidey sense screamed causing her to clench her wounded fist against her thigh. She pursed her lips, practically forcing herself to breathe steadily as her eyes jumped to the faces of the other avengers at the table.

Was this a trap? A test? Why would Tony fucking Stark want to know about tech she made with leftovers from dumpster diving behind tech stores. She stammered slightly trying to formulate a response.

“I…uh…I made it. Well…them, both the shooters and the web fluid.”

“Wait, you made the formula for it too? How? It’s been one aspect of production that people have been trying to work out for years and you made it in your Garage?”

“I…yeah? Sorry? I think?”

She looked around the room, not wanting to be here anymore

“Stark back away. You're scaring her!” Wanda said forcibly using her magic to push the billionaire back a few steps

“Hey! What is it with the women on this team today ganging up on ….”

Penny didn’t hear the rest of his complaint. Her breath coming out ragged and her Spider-Sense screaming in her head.

A danger all around. One she couldn’t escape.

She clutched her head and scrambled back, hitting her head against something, she didn't know what. Tears streaming from her clenched eyes.

“Penny, look at me.”

She blinked tears out of her unfocused eyes and found herself staring into a pair of serious green eyes.

Her own eyes being wiped by the spy’s callused hands she stared into eyes she hadn’t seen since after the Battle of New York.

“M-Miss Romanoff?”

“Didn’t I tell you to call me Nat? You earned it Маленький Паук. It’s going to be okay, you’re safe here, you’re always going to be safe here.”

Penny’s breath hitched softly and she just buried her face against Natasha’s chest. The young transwoman clutching herself to the spy and clenching her hands in the fabric of Natasha’s riding jacket. The screaming of her spidey-sense dying down as she practically melted into the close contact.

Clint let out a laugh and bounced a nerf dart off the spy’s ginger hair causing her to glare back at him.

“I Told you Nat, y’all are family, just how it is.”

She was going to send a biting remark back at the archer but was cut off by the growl of Penny’s stomach. Rolling her eyes she helped the girl back onto her feet

“Just shut up and feed her clint, Stop hogging all of the Pizza.”

“Hey! BBQ Chicken is Mine!”

“Just feed her dammit.”

Penny couldn’t help but laugh. She felt at home here, and she hadn’t felt like this is a long time. It just felt like home, But unlike the Wescott’s brownstone she actually felt safe here. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her medical clothing and sat down next to Clint and Natasha.

Safe at last.

Chapter Text

It had been days since she had finally woken up for good. Evidently she had been out for a few days and the others back at the underground had to be worried about her.

From the brand new Stark Tech laptop that had been given to her (the fastest she had ever been able to work with!) some of the gossip sites were wondering if New York’s neighbourhood Spider-Girl was dead.

She just didn’t know what to do with all this downtime. So she tinkered with her webshooters in the labs. But once she had finished with upgrading them to the best she could without a total redesign she didn’t know what else to do.

So she found herself jogging on one of the fancy Stark Tech Treadmills in the massive Gym.

Clint and Natasha had been taking care of her, making sure she slept, ate, generally checking up on her and how she was healing.

She had even fallen asleep against Natasha’s shoulder.

She hadn’t done that since aunt May and uncle Ben p-…

Penny shook her head and turned the treadmill up faster.

“Exceeding peak human speeds, would you like me to unlock protocol “CAPSICLE” for your profile, Miss Parker?”

The mechanical voice of Tony Stark’s AI Friday jerked her out of her thoughts causing her to stumble and have to hop onto the edges of the treadmill so she didn’t send herself flying.

“Uh sure, but is there anything else I can do? Like an obstacle course or something?”

“Certainly, Miss Parker, follow the dotted lights to the starting line if you would.”

“Alright then.” Penny did as she was told, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Calibrating obstacle course, CAPSICLE Tier 1.”

Penny could feel the edges of a tingle at the back of her neck and in her fingertips as she slipped on her new upgraded webshooters. Looking a bit more like proper wrist bracers than the thick ones she had been using made of disassembled BiC lighters and airsoft green gas canisters stitched into a pair of archery bracers.

They were properly fabricated functional pieces of tech now.

She was proud of them.

“Are you ready to start, Miss Parker?”

“Sure thing! Hey, Friday? Do me a solid and play ‘I Ran’ by bowling for soup then could you cycle into the first punk playlist that has it in it?”

“Absolutely.”

The riffs of the guitars started up in time to Friday announcing the start of the course.

She took off sprinting down the track, wondering slightly why she wasn’t really seeing any obstacles,when she felt her spider sense blair and she was rolling forwards. A massive cushioned arm had swung out of the floor and passed right through where she had been.

She almost laughed at how absurd it was before she had to slingshot herself forward to dodge a foam tipped nerf sword that had pushed through the floor where she had just been.

She was loving it, it was the Wipeout course from hell and it was going to do wonders to keep her from going stir crazy.

What it didn’t stop was her mind wandering to the city, and all the people who relied on spider-girls protection. She dodged and hopped around on autopilot before finally she landed and stood straight.

“Friday, stop the course.”

“Of course.” The machines that had been whirring around to strike at Penny all shut down and slid into their slots in the floors and ceiling.

“Is there something the matter, Miss Parker?”

“Uh, not really, do you know where my spider-girl costume is?”

“The last I tracked the mask and webshooters were given back to you. Your clothing was practically destroyed, it had to be cut off of you.”

“Shit. Uh, do you think Mr. Stark would get angry if I fabricated a suit? Kind of like what Natasha wears?”

“The boss has not placed any restrictions on those activities for you.”

“Good, I’m heading to the lab, can you start up the fabricator for me?”

“Of course.”

Penny stepped into the Fabrication lab as the lights flickered into a brightness. Her eyes went wide at the amount of toys that were there to play with on a Stark Industries budget.

The man may give her red flags but he certainly knew how to fill out a fabrication lab.

“Hey Fri? Can you play The Cardboard Castles Album by wattsky? Start with sloppy seconds.”

3D printers, textile weavers, industrial fabricators, there was everything here and so many different fabrics and materials she could probably make dozens of suits and not even use everything in this lab or make a dent in the materials budget.

Penny smiled as the music started to fill the air and she ran a soft hand across a 3D printer and she found herself thinking back to Uncle Ben and her and their old Makerbot gen1.

She roughly wiped tears from her eyes.

Ben wouldn’t want her to wallow over herself in front of all this tech. She could hear him now.

‘Come on Pens! What are you gonna make?’

She smirked softly, running over to a wall that was holding several bolts of fabric, she ran her fingers across a few of them finding one that seemed to be a Kevlar blend and whispered to herself.

“Something great Uncle Ben ……Something great.”

Penny smiled in happiness. Her wounds may still be a bit sore after “hitching” a ride on the highway via a semi heading towards NYC, and then the subsequent swing through the city towards MJ’s but it had been worth it.

The stop by one of her stashes to grab a bag and a change of clothes had also been worth it. MJ may already have her suspicions but she didn't want to outright confirm them by showing up to her place in Spider-girls New suit.

She shuffled her bag on her shoulder and hoped she didn’t look too ratty, the clothes had been older and left in the bag for a few months so while they didn’t smell dirty per se they did smell dusty.

The door opened a few moments later to a middle aged woman with her dark curls pulled into a tight Afro bun “It’s a little early for the mail call, Ram-“

Miss Jones-Watson stared at the short girl, gaping for a moment before she pulled her into a hug.

“Where have you been? Don’t you know that you’ve worried my baby girl sick?!?”

“I…I’m sorry, I just couldn’t stay with the Wescotts anymore…” she looked down in shame.

“None of that now, go on and sit in the kitchen and I’ll call Michelle down, I’ll make some sweet tea and sandwiches.”

Penny started to turn down Miss Jones’ offer of food but her stomach growling audibly cut off any chance to do so.

That’s right.

MJ and her mother prolly thought she had been homeless the past couple months, she had just sort of disappeared from the face of the planet as Penny Parker. She sighed softly as she stepped into the familiar Jones’ kitchen. It was always Homely and well used. A far cry from the kitchen at the Wescotts that had to be spotless at all times for “Presentation reasons”.

Here this kitchen actually felt like an actual home, dishes still sat in a drainer from the last time they had been washed, a loaf of wheat bread sat on the counter, tie discarded and opening folded underneath it instead.

Penny always loved spending time here. “Mom, I’m going to grab some leftovers!” a familiar voice said behind her, causing Penny to smile as she turned. She saw MJ standing in the doorway staring mouth agape, the phone she had just been pausing her music on clattering to the tile of the kitchen floor.

“Hey! How are you feeling? Miss me?” she shot her a cocky smile. Using the same defence she did when she was pretending to be brave as Spider-girl. Smile and crack a joke. She absolutely deserved the slap MJ hit her with. Not even putting any effort into dodging it. Though she was surprised when the taller girl pulled her close. “Penelope May Parker, don't you ever scare me like that again!” she cried out breathily, before pulling her into a kiss that caused her to short circuit slightly.

Penny sighed softly as she sat in MJ’s bedroom quietly, munching at the small pile of toasted ham and cheese sandwiches that had been piled onto a plate for the both of them. She didn’t even know where to start. Most of all she wanted to just tell her. She was tired of hiding it from her, MJ was just too important to her. A stability in her life that she just hadn’t had in quite some time. MJ was currently busy pulling clothes that she had grown out of from the back of her closet. She had said that winter was far too cold to not have extra layers. “Um…MJ?” she said quietly before hopping up to the girl’s ceiling. “ I’m Spider-Girl” The taller girl just turned holding a box and raised an eyebrow, looking profoundly unimpressed. “I know that, Tiger, why the hell do you think I’ve been fucking Panicking over where you’ve been!” Penny just blinked, “You what?” “I Knew.”

She dropped down, flipping gracefully in the air and landing on the floor below almost silently.

MJ just pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned. “Jesus fucking Christ, Penny, you're the smartest person I know, how can you be this dense.” She started counting off on her fingers as Penny kind of felt really small. “Spider-girl has that same dumbass joke style of yours, you know where you just ADHD blabber and it manages to piss off assholes, your supersuit was a pair of Pj's that I bought you, and I'd be one sad fucking Sapphic if I didn't notice my best friend being off sick for a few days and coming back with thighs blessed by the god of lesbians to crush watermelons.” “You… you want me to crush watermelons with my thighs?” Penny didn’t think she had seen MJ Ever blush like that. Normally it was her that was the blushing mess, not that she wasn’t covering the red that had taken over her pale cheeks.

Penny sighed softly, her eyes closed as MJ just slowly rain her fingers through her curls. “Girls, I’m coming in. Penny, your foster Mother is here.” Her eyes shot wide open as her spider sense blared alarms in her head. The Westcotts were here!?!? HOW!?!? Her head swam and she tensed, prepared to bolt for the window when MJ’s mom opened the door. Danger. She couldn’t go back to the Wescotts, she couldn’t. It would kill her. She felt MJ’s arm wrap protectively around her but when she looked at the woman behind Miss Jones-Watson. It was Nat. In a blonde wig and expensive looking pantsuit.

She had to stifle a small laugh at how out of place she looked. Even in a supposed “Foster Mom” Get up, Penny was having a very hard time separating Natasha from the Asskicking super spy avenger set up.

“N-Nat what are you doing here?”

“What do you think, Penny? You gave everyone a scare running off like that!”

She folded her legs underneath herself and looked down in embarrassment. “S-sorry, I just couldn’t sit still for so long aside I needed to let MJ know I was okay!”

“I apologise for the little mixup, Mrs. Rushman. I was under the assumption that Penny was still fostering with the Westcotts and they’re not the …nicest of people or I would have called someone. we love having Penny over and she’s always welcome.”

The older black woman then fixed her with a look that made Penny wither just a little bit more in embarrassment. “Though she should have let somebody know where she was. “

Penny looked sheepishly between Natasha and MJ as Miss Jones-Watson left the room.

“Sooo. Tiger, when were you gonna tell me that you weren’t at the Westcotts anymore?”

Penny squeaked softly, rubbing the back of her head.“I…I’m…uh…heheh…”

“She’s only been staying with my ….family… and I for a short time. My name is Natalie Rushman.” Natasha said taking on an air that wasn’t quite unlike a no nonsense business woman.

Mj ran a hand through her bushy hair and fixed Natasha with a look. “I don’t know you, Miss Rushman but I want you to know something. Penny has been through a lot.”

Penny could have sworn that Natasha looked as uncomfortable as she felt.

“Like, you don’t even know how much she’s been through. You hurt her? You aren’t gonna like the outcome.”

Penny blushed furiously before she reached up and grabbed Natasha’s arms “B-bye MJ, let’s go home, Nat!” She was pushing the superspy out of the Jones-Watson apartment before anyone else could say anything.

Penny knew Nat was gonna kill her, but she couldn’t just stand by.

Honestly she should have seen it coming. Her spider sense had been tingling since Natasha’s car had turned onto Brooklyn bridge.

Traffic had been stopped for a little bit and she just assumed that the buzz had been because they were stopped behind a police convoy.

NYPD’s “finest” had tried to apprehend her on several occasions while she stopped scattered robbers, muggers, kidnappers, and the like.

With their shoot first and ask questions in an “internal review” manner they often could be just as bad and just as dangerous as the criminals she dealt with on a daily basis.

She definitely felt they were often quicker to violence.

Her spider sense swelled up an alarm as gunshots rang out a few dozen car lengths in front of them, from the direction of the convoy.

She slipped into her new mask and bracers, Slingshotting herself out of the blacked out sedan faster than Natasha could finish a cry of “Penny stay he-Damnit!”

“We can help!” She yelled over her shoulder. She couldn’t just stand still when someone was starting a firefight on a crowded bridge during peak traffic, especially with innocent bystanders surrounding them.

Natasha swore loudly and pulled the wig off her head, grabbing the pistol holster in the dash and strapping it over her shoulder.

God damn it Penny was acting like a tiny Steve. Too heroic for her own damn good. They still didn’t even know how recovered she was from when she nearly died!

She stepped out of the car and could only stand in awe for a moment. Was that really her Penny?

The young woman had pulled three graceful swings and then promptly disarmed one of the masked assailants that had decided to attack the police convoy they had been stuck in traffic behind.

She sneered slightly. From the markings on their leather biker vests they appeared to be Aryan brotherhood. She had heard rumors that they were making moves, but they were small fry to the threats that the Avengers regularly faced. Though she had heard they had apparently run afoul of The Devil of Hell's Kitchen.

She rushed forward into the fray. The neofascist Gangbangers were easy fare compared to some of the threats she dealt with on a Daily basis with the team, and any of the thugs that weren’t dropped by her or the few NYPD convoy guards that were still standing were taken down by a mixture of Penny’s webs and quips.

The fighting had all but stopped, finally giving the spy enough time to call the incident in to the rest of the team

Just then it went to shit in an instant. One of the neofascists had ducked into a van to seemingly take cover, though he had instead pulled out an RPG-7.

Natasha had whipped her pistol up and pulled the trigger without a second thought. It was almost a textbook book centermass shot. Though unfortunately all it did was send the rocket he had fired careening off course. Right into a tanker truck near one of the major support beams of the bridge.

The explosion rocked the bridge and knocked Natasha off her feet.

The bridge rocked loudly and Penny’s senses screamed. It felt like time had slowed for her.

The support tower of the bridge swayed and started crumbling down.

Her body moved on its own.

“No!” She screamed, sprinting forward towards the collapsing tower. Hopping up into the air as the bridge shuddered, she cast a dragline from her shooters towards the largest chunk and swung underneath it, spraying webbing like a net as she went.

She landed high above on one of the middle towers, hoping and praying that the webbing held but her heart almost stopped at the telltale twangs of her weblines snapping under tension. She dived down for another pass.

Pain and exhaustion screamed in her limbs as she grabbed the final pair of drag lines and pulled, doing all she could to keep the massive block of broken tower from crashing down to the rest of the bridge. She could feel the bridge straining and groaning under the sudden transferral of weight.

Michelle stepped around the corner to see her mother watching MSNBC, she raised an eyebrow as she watched the breaking news banner scroll across the screen.

POSSIBLE TERROR ATTACK AT BROOKLYN BRIDGE, Spider-Girl stopping collapse.

What? She rushed forward to find a better view, leaning over the couch. “Mom, turn that up.”

Penny, what did you get involved in now?

She watched the camera focus on the tiny figure of “Spider-Girl”, her Penny, holding up a massive section of one of the bridge’s towers. Fear swam up the young woman’s spine as she clenched her hands in the fabric of the couch, and silently ordered whatever higher power that would listen for Penny to be okay.

Penny breath was ragged as she half whispered ramblings to keep herself from giving up and letting the weight fall.

Oh gods it hurt.

“Come on Penny…they’re counting…counting on you.”

She twisted the webbing around her hands. Ignoring the ache in her limbs and how much the cuts and burns on her body hurt

“Come on Spider-Girl” she whispered. “Come on Spider-Girl! They need you……They need you!”

Her back felt wet and pained but she ignored it. She had to. She had to keep this debris from slamming into the bridge deck. She screamed out in rage, pain, frustration, a need to keep the innocents safe.

It was too much, her body just gave out, she found herself slumping forward, unable to stand, let alone hold onto the strand of webbing that was keeping it all from collapsing.

She heard a familiar hissing and then spotted a flash of red and gold plant itself at the bottom of the massive chunk of brickwork.

“Nice Save, Spiderpunk, let me take it from here.” Penny smiled underneath her mask, at least someone could save the other people when she finally fell. She nodded to iron man as her knees buckled underneath her and her vision went dark

She felt strong arms catch her as she fell and when she opened her eyes again she was being carried by Captain America.

She chuckled weakly, her mask mimicking the half lidded smile on her face, the servos whirring gently. “You know….your shield doesn’t obey the laws of physics at all…”

Steve smiled down at her, but there was still worry in his eyes. “You know, you got a lotta heart kid, Where are you from?”

“…Queens….”

“That explains it.” He tapped the side of his helmet. “Brooklyn.”