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Tony Stark never liked Norman Osborn.
The two men have always seen things differently from various perspectives. Frequent encounters—and clashes—with Osborn at conferences, private parties, and ceremonies fueled a surging desire to hit the bottle. That desire was often satisfied.
Although their intellects had always led them down different paths of science and invention, they would seize any excuse to get under each other's skin. Pepper Potts could recount—to anyone willing to listen—at least three occasions when she was certain her partner and Norman were on the verge of coming to blows.
One of the most frequently debated topics between the two millionaires was the succession. Norman had a son, Harry, whom he intended to teach everything he knew and to whom he would hand over control of Oscorp once he retired.
Tony had frequently and involuntarily overheard the praises the father heaped upon his son: Harry Osborn and his perfect grades, Harry Osborn and his impeccable style, Harry Osborn and his charm that captivated even young heiresses.
But that was the past. Now Tony has Penny.
Well, no, Tony doesn’t have Penny. She’s just… the closer thing he has as a daughter.
Two years have passed since Tony discovered Spider-Girl’s secret identity—a superhero vigilante from Queens who goes around in a bodysuit saving people about to get run over or kittens stuck in trees.
Penny turned out to be a young girl with an iron moral compass and a good heart. She’d been helpful to Tony during that run-in with Steve Rogers in Germany, and later amazed him by managing to stop alien arms traffickers all on her own. Small, but tough girl.
Penny has now just turned sixteen. Sweet, innocent and gentle Penny who never utters a harsh word, not even against the criminals she confronts every day in her alter ego.
NY loves Spider-Girl and Tony couldn’t be prouder.
Today, Tony’s at Avengers Tower—which he bought back after deciding to use it for research now that the Avengers were a thing of the past—and, together with his fiancée and his best friend, he’s trying to convince Norman Osborn—Pepper’s idea; he absolutely didn’t want to do it—to join a collaborative project.
Tony’s face is starting to hurt from the amount of time he’s spent faking a smile at the man who has more wrinkles than compassion, while that nosy son of his wanders the building, escorted by a guide, to check on the work in progress at Stark Industries.
Fortunately, this torture of ‘Be nice, or Pepper will make you regret it’ was coming to an end. Soon, the two Osborns would leave, and he could spend the afternoon with his protégé. Happy had texted him just minutes earlier to say they were on their way. Who knows what the girl would ramble on about this time—school or vigilante adventures?
The last thing Tony wants is for pure Penny to run into that leech, Norman Osborn. He might notice her scientific aptitude, convince her that an internship at Oscorp—rather than SI—is a good idea, or order Harry Osborn to flirt with her.
Norman will have to step over his dead body before he can sink his poisonous claws into smart, kind…
“Penelope?”
Tony looks in bewilderment at Norman Osborn, whose eyes are wide and who is pointing at something behind Stark.
Happy and Penny have just stepped out of the elevator; the girl is holding her thick, dark hair, perhaps in the process of undoing a hairstyle.
She lets her school backpack drop to the floor, her face registering shock as she stares at the man standing with her mentor in the center of the tower’s top-floor living room. “Mr. Osborn?”
Tony’s speechless and can see that Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy didn’t expect this either. “You two know each other?”
How does a girl from the Queens suburbs meet a tycoon—other than Tony—who has the sense of humor of a honey badger?
Happy Hogan looked back and forth, eyeing Penny and Norman, who hadn’t stopped staring at each other, lost in who knows what thoughts.
A smile spreads across Norman’s face—a genuine one, not one of those mocking grins he reserves for Iron Man—and he’s about to say something.
“Hey, Dad! You should take a look at their research and information center; it’s spectacular, something that…” Osborn Junior is walking up the stairs with his companion, and—just like his father—he freezes in his tracks, jaw dropping, when he spots the girl. Then he smiles. “Penny?”
“Harry!” She runs toward him, he meets her halfway, and the two of them embrace, laughing and swaying as they hold each other close.
He looks at her face. “Oh, my God, it’s really you!”
“It’s been so long!” She cries.
“Look at you, you’re gorgeous.”
“I’ve missed you so much.”
Right now, Tony’s brain is doing the same thing a television does when there’s no signal and the screen turns gray, emitting an annoying noise.
Norman chuckles and pats him on the shoulder. “Well, Stark, it looks like we’ll be seeing each other more often from now on. That’s great, isn’t it? When you told me your internist’s name was Penny, the idea that it might be my Penny never even crossed my mind. Teenagers, huh? With the way they get along, maybe one day we’ll become... co-in-laws, don’t you think?”
His Penny? Con-in-laws?
Tony’s threshold for rage was lower when they blew up his Malibu home. And the more Harry Osborn touches Penny Parker in that embrace of theirs—like young, lost lovers—the higher that threshold climbs…
Pepper notices and squeezes her man’s hand. “Breath, Tony.”
“If I die from lack of oxygen, I won’t have to deal with this.” Out of the corner of his eye, Tony sees that Rhodey finds all this very amusing. His friend has picked up on his irritation.
“What a lovely surprise!” Norman catches up with the two young people, who, thank goodness, had stopped gazing affectionately at each other. “Penelope, my dear, so much time has passed. You are as beautiful as your mother was.”
Penny blushes—blushes!—and smiles. “Thank you, Mr. Osborn. It’s good to see you again.”
“I see you haven't lost your innate courtesy. As I told you years ago, call me Norman.”
“You know I would never disrespect you.”
“Dad, leave her alone; we just found her again.”
Tony would have snapped those small, slimy arms that had wound themselves around the girl’s waist. “So!” He raises his voice to get attention. “If it’s not too much trouble—after all, you’re practically in my home—would you mind explaining how the three of you know each other?”
“Careful, Tony.” Pepper whispered.
Norman has a look in his eyes that Tony has never seen before. A look that proclaims his advantage. “Penny’s father worked at Oscorp. I was friends with him and his wife. Richard and Mary were wonderful people; they were there for us when Harry’s mother passed away. Then, unfortunately, there was that terrible plane crash. I tried to stay in touch several times, but work and other things kept me busy. We even had to leave New York at one point.”
“We lost touch, that’s all. Harry and I grew up together until I moved in with Aunt May and Uncle Ben.” Penny looks at Harry with adoring eyes, and Tony wishes he could gouge his own out. “Furthermore, Mr. Osborn is my godfather.”
Even better. “You don’t say.” Stark says through gritted teeth. “Well, touching as it all is, we’ve got work to do, Parker. You three can catch up another time.”
Tony feels the reproachful gazes of his friends and the woman he loves upon him. As for the young girl, she’s disappointed but accepts the situation.
Penny exchanges numbers with the two Osborns, promising to contact them soon, and when they leave, Tony approaches the young vigilante. “What was that?”
“Excuse me?”
“You never told me you knew Osborn. Or that he’s your godfather.”
Penny arches an eyebrow, not understanding where the problem lies. “Neither did you.”
Colonel James Rhodes sighs, heads toward one of the sofas, and drops onto it. “Forget about him, Penny. Getting between him and Osborn is like standing between two trenches.”
“You shut up. And you… Since when do you let guys touch you like that?”
Penny’s distraught face takes on an expression of embarrassment mixed with anger.
Happy shakes his head, already knowing it’s going to end badly. “Damn it, Tones.”
“Harry is a friend of mine; I hadn’t seen him in ages, and he just gave me a hug.”
“Oh, really? I’ve never seen Ted and D.J. hug you like that. Is that a new feature of the Parker package?”
In two years, Penny and Tony had never argued, but now the young woman feels anger rising within her toward the man. “Their names are Ned and M.J.”
“Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you could do better. That wasn’t a hug between friends. If I hugged Rhodey like that, I’d be betraying Pepper.”
Pepper takes a few steps back, reaching Rhodey. “Don’t drag us into this paranoia of yours. You’re on your own.”
“What are you talking about?” Penny can’t follow what Tony’s saying. “And why are you acting like a jealous father?”
Tony’s mouth drops open at this young girl’s audacity. “I’m not acting like a jealous father at all, and don’t you dare use that tone with me, young lady.”
Happy takes the third spot on the sofa, and the three of them watch the scene with concern. It was one thing to see Tony in trouble; it was quite another to see Penny Parker angry. She never got angry.
“Norman called you his Penny. His! The nerve—he doesn’t even know you anymore. He knows nothing about you anymore. Who makes your Spider-Girl suits, him or me?”
Penny’s irritation grows. Since when does Tony view her as property rather than someone to guide? She flashes a wicked smile—one she never shows. “Well, he did see me first…”
Pepper wants to disappear. Happy wants to crawl into a hole. Rhodey wants popcorn.
The flush on Tony’s face is nothing compared to the height his eyebrows reach. He points a finger at the young girl. “You take that back.”
The triumphant look on the sixteen-year-old’s face speaks volumes about how eager she is to eat her own words.
“Look, Norman Osborn is a snake who recruits talent just to exploit them for his company. His son is no better. He might be your age, but I’ve seen his face in a hundred gossip columns, showing off whatever girl he was with at the time. Don't fall for it if Norman offers you a job. And if Harry hits on you, run. Right away. He doesn't deserve you; they don't deserve you. You’ve a brilliant future and a sharp, active mind. They can't understand what I see in you. Fortunately, the director at MIT understood it. Let's see if the great Norman can manage to get his son in there, where he won’t reach you.”
“What did you say?”
Penny’s cold tone brings Tony back to reality. “What did I say about what?”
“The director of MIT. Why did you talk to him about me?” The girl’s face is blank.
“I told you so. Remember that evening I fished you out of the lake? I promised I’d put in a good word for you with MIT, and I did. You’ll fit right in there.”
Penny stands motionless. Completely motionless. She looks like a statue, and her skin is turning redder and redder.
Tony loses his smile and moves a short distance away from her. “Kid? Why aren’t you blinking?”
Penny doesn’t say anything.
“Underoos, you’re scaring me. Are you even breathing? Pen-Pen?” Tony seeks help from his friends, who do not understand what is happening. Pepper, on the other hand, immediately grasped what the problem is. “She’s never done this, right? Is this normal?”
Pepper Potts scuffs. “You’re in so much trouble, Tony.”
“You didn’t ask.” Penny finally talks and her voice’s barely a whisper.
“Didn’t ask what?”
Slowly, Penny moves in on him, forcing him to step back. She points a finger at him and raises her voice higher and higher. “You didn’t even ask if I wanted your help. You didn’t ask if you could do something like that for me. You didn’t ask if I want to attend MIT. You didn’t even deign to ask if I want to go to college!”
Tony is practically backed against the wall when the girl stops advancing, and he swallows hard. What is happening? What has become of the sweet, compliant, and respectful Penny Parker?
“It didn’t seem necessary to ask you if you wanted to. You’ve an excellent future ahead of you, and if you don’t go to college, you’ll miss out on so many opportunities.”
Clearly, that was the wrong thing to say, because Penny’s eyes go wide—Tony is certain he saw them turn blood-red for a split second—then she squeezes them shut and screams at the top of her lungs.
The four adults cover their ears, and the two glass tumblers on the low coffee table shatter.
“Oh, my God! You’re impossible, you…!” Penny is still shouting as she goes to retrieve her backpack and slings it over her shoulder. She pulls her hoodie’s hood up over her head and heads toward the balcony. “You actually… oh, my God!” The young girl jumps down and uses her web-shooter to leave.
Tony’s ears are still ringing. He had never seen Penny so beside herself, not even when she was worked up over a mission in Queens that had gone wrong. “What just happened? Is this adolescence? I don’t like it.”
“You’ve just found out what happens when you don’t ask a woman for permission.” Pepper smiles.
“I thought I knew it already with you.”
“I’m not a sixteen-year-old with powers, Tony. You should talk to her, tell her you’re sorry.”
“Yeah, right… I’m sorry for what?”
Pepper, Rhodey and Happy sigh dejectedly and rub their heads or foreheads. “This is going to take a long time,” the head of security says.
Tony crosses his arms over his chest, smiling defiantly. “You make things so complicated. Don’t exaggerate; it’s nothing. C’mon, it’s Penny! We know her. You’ll see. She’ll be over it by tomorrow.”
And Penny didn’t get in touch for a month.
_
May Parker opens her apartment door to find Happy Hogan and Tony Stark waiting there. Before the Avenger can open his mouth, she speaks first. “Look who’s here. The so-called man who understands complex machines but knows nothing about teenage girls. I entrusted my niece to you a month ago, and you brought me back Godzilla.”
Tony’s forehead furrows. “What do you mean?”
“Check this out.” She whispers to him, then screams inside the apartment. “Sweetie! There’s Tony Stark here for you!”
The scream of a vile creature, something splitting apart. “Send him away!”
Tony starts.
“See? This is all your fault.” May grins.
“She told you, didn’t she?”
“Every single word. You’re a jerk.”
Tony gasps for air, and something else in the Parker house gets broken. “Come on, it’s been a month. Is she still that angry?”
May’s face darkens. “You have no idea what I’m going through with that girl. She didn’t even act like this when she was transitioning from a little girl to a young lady. She sleeps wherever she happens to be, at odd hours—even at school. I’ve caught her eating in the middle of the night. One moment she hates me, and the next she’s crying her eyes out. Not to mention her powers.”
“What about her powers?”
“She… Wait a second.” The woman turned around. “Penelope Maybelle Parker! Break another one of your grandparents’ plates and you’ll have to answer to me!”
A screech that sounds to Tony like a cross between a pissed-off eagle and a spiteful monkey. “I hate you!”
Tony and Happy exchange a worried glance.
Mary smiles desperately. “Maybe it’s better if I show you.” She lets them in.
When Tony enters the apartment, this is certainly not what he expects. The furniture is half-destroyed, bearing cracks or punch marks, but what is truly worrying are the cobwebs. Huge ones, everywhere.
“For Charlotte’s Web...” Hogan gasps.
“I know. They come out of her wrists. It just happens—suddenly—ever since she got back from that last visit to you, Stark. No matter how many times I remove them, new ones always appear.”
Tony is aghast. Organic webs. In Penny’s wrists. Good God. “Is she alright?”
“Why don’t you ask her?” May leads the guests into the kitchen, where her niece has made herself a sandwich with mayonnaise, pickles, and lettuce.
“Her sense of taste is messed up too, isn’t it?”
Happy elbows him for that, and he can’t blame him. The kid’s freaking out because he opened his damn mouth.
Penny doesn’t even sit down to eat. She devours the sandwich in a few seconds—teeth fierce and voracious—then realizes she isn’t alone.
Tony struggles to recognize her. She’s wearing an oversized sweatshirt—despite the heat—that’s stained with various sauces. Her hair’s a disaster; it looks like a bird’s nest. Her skin’s covered in red blotches, as if she’d been in a fight.
Her dark eyes fix on her mentor, a smudge of mayonnaise staining the corner of her mouth. “Anthony” she greets him.
Really? Where was the girl in the nerd T-shirts—the one who used to stutter and gaze at him with admiration? Even her voice seemed different—deeper.
“Penelope” he says with apparent calm.
“Why are you here?”
“I wanted to see for myself why you aren’t answering messages or calls from me and Happy. Even Spider-Girl hasn't been around lately. It’s good to see you’re alive—if by ‘alive’ you mean going through a budding, pint-sized midlife crisis.”
Tony regrets it immediately.
“How dare you say that to me?!”
Such a dumbass.
“We’ll leave you two alone; you’ve to sort this out yourselves. Don’t wreck my apartment!” May pushes Happy out and closes the door. Now Tony’s alone with the beast.
Penny wastes no time and throws whatever comes to hand at him. First a glass, then a knife. “You’re a jerk! A real boor!”
On the other side of the table, Tony fends off the blows. “Alright, alright, listen to me! I didn’t mean to offend you, if I did.”
A few strands of Penny's hair fall across her face; her mouth is open and her eyes are wide. “If?!” The girl taps her foot on the ground, and a web shoots from her wrist, embedding itself in the wall a meter from Tony’s head.
Oops. “Fine, I offended you! I admit it. I’m sorry I offended you; I didn’t mean to. But don’t you think you’re overreacting a bit?”
“Overreacting? I’m overreacting?!” Penny runs to catch up with him. Tony runs away, and they both circle the table.
Tony Stark never thought he’d one day be afraid of a teenage girl with mood swings. Yet here he is.
He ducks just before a book hits him in the face. “It can’t be that serious! Instead, can we talk about the fact that your body produces webs and you seem stronger than before? You shattered two glasses with just your voice last time.”
“You dared to speak about matters in my life that are none of your business! My godfather—the only friend of my late parents whom I actually know. The boy who was my first childhood crush. My future, about which I’m still uncertain! You acted behind my back without a second thought, without asking, as if everything were already decided—while I’m still trying to figure out who I am! You don’t get to decide for me; you’re not my dad!”
Tony runs into the living room, and the wild young girl follows him, hurling every sofa cushion at him. “Okay, okay, stay calm! Breath. C’mon, kid, breath!”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Another web’s shot unintentionally, hitting the ceiling and knocking down a lamp.
Tony’s out of aces up his sleeve. He might as well try a desperate move.
He lunges toward her and grabs her by the wrists. His fingers touch a sticky substance. He holds her tight against him.
“You know what, Pen? I’m still trying to figure out who you are too, ‘cause right I can’t even recognize you!”
The girl’s eyes, which until that moment had been veiled by a sort of red fluid, return to normal. Penny blinks, her cheeks wet with tears and her breathing heavy. She clutches the pillow she’s holding between them and bows her head. “I… I’m sorry…”
Tony exhales. Finally, it seems to be over. “I know.”
Penny takes a step back and a deep breath. Then she hits Tony with the pillow in retaliation. “It’s your fault.” She collapses, huddling on the sofa and weeping. She picks up a blanket and wraps it around herself.
Tony stares in shock at the young girl’s back. “All right, I can understand that your anger’s my fault, but if you would just listen to me…”
“No!” She screams. “I’m not talking about my anger. I’m talking about my powers.”
Okay, he wasn’t expecting that.
Tony sits on the sofa, even though she insists on turning her back on him. “What do you mean?”
“I think it’s like a… biological thing. But it’s so embarrassing.”
Oh. Oh.
“I can call you May if it’s to do with your hormo…”
Penny’s shoulders stiffen. “You’d better not finish that sentence!”
Ugh. What a complicated situation. Exhausted, the man runs a hand over his face. “All right, I… I’ll listen to you. Whatever it is, I promise not to judge or make inappropriate comments.”
After long, silent seconds, Penny turns around without letting go of her knees. Her tearful, flushed face breaks Tony’s heart. “You know how… a girl’s body reacts when… the guy she likes is around? Her heart pounds, she breaks into a sweat, her mouth goes dry? Something similar happened to me last month with my powers, and I can’t make it stop.”
Tony has always hated other people’s speeches—long and boring. This is the kind of speech he doesn't want to listen to for other reasons. “Oh. Uhm… It-it-it’s normal” he stammers. “It’s perfectly normal. Like you said, Osborn Junior was your first crush. It makes sense—the feelings came back, and your powers reacted accordingly.”
If possible, Penny blushes even more and struggles to look him in the face. “It wasn’t… Harry’s presence that made me react this way.” She looks him in the eyes, full of shame. “It was your jealousy.”
Tony’s going to have a stroke. He indicates himself. “Me? It-it was me? I caused all of this?” He looks around, surrounded by mutant cobwebs. “How?”
Penny swallows with difficulty. “When I was little, the only other father figure I’d besides my dad was Mr. Osborn. Then my parents died, and he vanished along with Harry. Later came Ben, and as you know, I lost him too. I haven’t felt this way since his death. Back then, I’d only been Spider-Girl for a few days. When you made me angry last time, I felt… well… I think like a girl feels when she’s arguing with her father. Even though you were spouting a lot of nonsense that made me furious, I understood what you meant. You were warning me about a boy; you told me I deserve better because you want the best for me, and I know that’s also why you want me to go to MIT.” Her eyes sparkle. “I felt like a father’s daughter again. Even though it’s a nice feeling, I got scared and feel guilty.”
Tony softens as he listens to her and finally recognizes his girl. He tucks her hair behind her ear and rubs his thumb over the smudge on her lip to clean it off. “Pen-Pen, you don’t need to feel embarrassed. Do you wanna know why? You’re exactly the kind of daughter I’d want. You stir something up inside me, too. It might not look that way—since I don’t feel the urge to smash everything up like you do—but it’s true. You make me happy, you make me angry when you get into trouble, and I feel like I’m dying when you get hurt. You make me feel like a father. And you shouldn't feel guilty. I'm sure your father and uncle would be very happy to know that you can still feel for someone what you felt for them. They loved you. I don’t want to take their place… but I love you too, Spidey.”
Penny feels so small. She could bring down a building if she wanted to, yet her feelings are crushing her.
“Come here.” Tony can’t bear to see her cry anymore, and they both shuffle across the sofa to hold each other in an embrace. “Forgive me for everything, piccola mia.”
“I will” she whispers. “Sorry for saying that you’re not my dad.”
“It’s okay. You’re grounded, by the way.”
He’s joking. Almost.
Tony runs one hand over her back and holds the other in her hair. “Penny?”
“Mmh?”
“You need a shower, baby girl.”
She laughs and Tony’s heart comes back to live. “I know.”
“You won’t win over Harry Osborn smelling like this.”
“Can you just shut up, please?”
“Okay, I’ll stop. And don't worry—we'll find a solution together to help you control your enhanced powers.” Tony rests his cheek against the top of her head, holding her close and swaying slightly. “Did you throw a cookbook at me?”
“I’m sorry.”
“How does your aunt manage to have a cookbook and still be a terrible cook?”
She hits him on the arm. “Stop it, she’s not so bad.”
“You’re only saying that because your sense of taste is completely shot right now. Don’t worry, kiddo. Come over to my place tonight and we’ll share a pizza.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
Tony Stark would buy every pizza place in New York if it made his daughter happy.