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Penny swung through the air, cold wind rushing past her hair. Her Spider-Girl eyes narrowed.
”I see the target,” she murmured into the comms.
”Nice job,” Tony answered (also through comms of course). “Don’t get too close, we’re not sure what he’s capable of.”
The team had been hunting a new wannabe supervillain for a week now. He may have been dumb, but he sure was slippery. This was the first shot they’d gotten at him since day three.
Penny landed on the roof gracefully and flashed a grin that he probably didn’t see through her mask. The Educator (very original name), who had a very specific, very creepy interest in torture (all forms), turned to greet her. The smile he wore was… unpleasant, but probably rather charming at parties.
”So I was correct,” he began. Penny titled her head at a odd angle, but it didn’t seem to weird him out, no, if anything he seemed more fascinated.
”I’ve been tracking you and I knew you’d arrive first,” Educator continued. “That’s perfect, all according to plan.” Penny could see a small device in his hand, but she figured it couldn’t do much and instead focused more on the person himself. He didn’t seem to favor either leg or side or arm, so they hadn’t hurt him much the first time they fought or the second, and his body posture was at ease, so he clearly thought he had nothing to worry about from Penny.
”I’ve always wondered, ever since I saw you on the news, how you worked, you spidery little thing. I also wondered just how the Avengers would feel if their golden baby got hurt.”
Don't get close.
The words echoed in her mind. Penny knew Tony didn’t want her to get hurt, but how could she? The Educator was standing pretty far away.
”I’m five minutes out,” Tony’s staticky voice said through the comms. Penny hummed in acknowledgement.
The Educator flashed her a wicked grin and pressed the button on his machine.
Instantly a sharp, searing noise engulfed Penny from all sides. She dropped to her knees with a cry and clamped her hands over her ears. It did little to help.
The Educator laughed, sharp, harsh, and short. “Enhanced hearing, eh?” He circled around her, prattling on, uncaring of her distress. “That sound frequency can only be heard by spiders. You really are a spider.” As an afterthought, he kicked her. “Freak.” He muttered distastefully. Penny didn’t cry out. The kick felt like a breeze compared to the pain in her ears. She could vaguely hear Tony saying something about being very close but her brain didn’t register it.
The next thing Penny knew was darkness.
—————
Penny came to with a groan. The bright lights of the medbay burned. Penny let out a indignant noise. It probably sounded more like a squeak, but she couldn’t tell because she didn’t hear it.
Opening her eyes was a effort. When she was able to do so, she realized FRIDAY had dimmed the lights. She also realized Bruce was standing right over here. He opened and closed his mouth as though he was talking, but no sound came out. Funny.
Penny strained to hear him. He was watching her with a concerned look. It was the she realized that she literally couldn’t hear a thing. It was as if her ears had decided to go on vacation.
Penny tried making noise, but she couldn’t hear. The absence of sound was terrifying and the fact that she couldn’t hear it made her feel trapped and-
And Penny was spiraling.
Bruce tried to walk her through breathing techniques as her breathing quickened, but how do you calm a teenager who can’t hear you? It was pretty much impossible.
Penny nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt something sharp and cold being pressed onto her neck. Didn’t the offending ice cube know she couldn’t thermoregulate? And sure, that was annoying. But what was worse was the fact that she hadn’t heard Bruce leave to get the ice. Hadn’t heard the freezer open and shut. Hadn’t heard his heavy footsteps.
Penny relied on that. On her hearing. And now it was just - just gone.
When she looked up, she realized Clint had come in, and that just sent her into even more of a spiral. She freaked out, nearly falling off the bed. It was like he just teleported in. But Clint couldn’t teleport.
...Right?
Then she realized he was signing to her. It made sense. Clint was, unfortunately, the only Avenger who could sign. And even then it was minimal. Penny herself only knew the bare minimum. She could make out the sign for ‘okay’ and figured he was asking if she was okay. She shrugged. Clint frowned, then signed ’Hear’. Penny glanced at him, confused. He repeated the motion, and he made another sign that she didn’t know the meaning of.
Oh.
Suddenly it came to Penny. He was asking if she could hear.
’No’ she signed back.
’Okay’
And then Penny realized, faintly, that she still felt exhausted. Probably the result of her panic attack. She signed the word, ‘tired’, hoped he understood, then laid back down.
She was out like a light.
—————
Penny flinched when someone bumped shoulders with her while she was reading a book in the kitchen. It had been two days, and she still wasn’t used to being freaking deaf. Bruce had figured that she would start re-gaining her hearing in about three days, maybe two because of her advanced healing. How he thought Penny would survive until then, she didn’t know.
Penny was really, really sick and tired of being deaf. Spider-Girl was out of question, and she was extremely bored in the Tower. She also knew she would never get used to people popping up out of nowhere. They had the decency to look apologetic, but they all startled her more often than not.
She was getting better at signing, but most of the time they just texted her. Penny could also read lips, but not that well. She missed being included in dinner conversations, and she admitted (to herself) that it hurt when the team laughed around the dinner table and she had no clue what was so funny.
Natasha noticed. She always did. It seemed like her and Clint basically lived around her. They were always nearby. She didn’t get it, but it was whatever.
The one good thing that came out of not being able to hear was that Penny was getting better at reading people’s subtle body language. That she could use to her advantage. Penny noticed that Clint was typically on edge for most of the day, save when he was reading. She noticed that Tony’s hands would shake just slightly when he lied about sleeping. She noticed that, despite being kind of standoffish, Bucky secretly did like touch and immensely enjoyed when someone sat by him (specifically if that somebody was Steve). She noticed that Steve’s eyes would lose some of their guarded look whenever he was happy or thoughtful, but the look would come back if he was feeling upset or distressed.
Penny quickly learned the quieter signs of panic attacks, too.
And speaking of panic attacks, she had her fair share. Like when Steve accidentally bumped her and she was sent into hysteria thinking she was back with Skip.
Penny never dwelled on that thought for longer than ten seconds.
Another good thing about this whole… situation was training. Whenever Natasha had a spare moment she’d take her to the training room and they’d work on Penny interpreting her opponent’s moves by sight only. Penny was pretty good at that game.
Another bad thing was the movie night the team had. Sam had turned the captions on, but it wasn’t nearly as much fun as when there was sound.
And yet another bad thing was Penny couldn’t cry herself to sleep without knowing the volume of noise she made. She resorted to letting tears go in the shower instead. And if she bottled some up, well, who was gonna know?
—————
It was day four Penny started getting her hearing back. She caught a noise, but it was so faint she pushed her hope away. She did that for the rest of the day. It wasn’t doing her much good.
On day five, Penny could hear normal things. She could the sounds happening inside the room she was in. She couldn’t hear outside of the Tower, but a break from the outside noise was okay with her. The best part of the day was supper time, when Clint cracked a cocaine joke (Tony had something dusted on his shirt) that Penny thought was funny. Nobody else laughed, but the incredulous, happy looks she received warmed her heart.
Finally, on day nine she was allowed to go back to Spider-Girl-ing. She was ecstatic. Her hearing wasn’t 100%, but she was well enough for the field.
Penny no longer cried herself to sleep at night.