Story Eight - Five Powers Penny gained following the Spider-Bite and One that was already there all along

One: Incredible hearing

Why did it always have to be some kind of underground lair? Why not for once a nice penthouse/loft type situation or just a regular old house?
Why did they have to be sneaking through an underground tunnel system with no clear path or structure and that was probably, at least judging by the smell, also part sewer system?
Those were the thoughts going through Tony's mind as he let a small group of their team through said tunnels in search of some mad scientist.
With him were Clint, Sam and of course Penny. If the girl had to join them on Avenger’s level missions, she’d have to stay by his side at the very least.
Clint was guarding their rear, arrow nocked in his bow and ready for action while his eyes were scanning the darkness beyond the bubble of light in which they travelled.
Tony did the same at the front, gauntlet raised, repulsor charged, ready to fire.
Every now and then there’d be doors to their sides, leading to labs or storage rooms or cells or just down another seemingly endless corridor.
But right now, all were empty and mostly in a state of disuse.
“FRIDAY, do another scan.” Tony ordered through gritted teeth. He didn’t like the quiet. Quiet always meant that something would happen soon.
‘Sorry boss’ she said in his ear ‘But I am currently unable to scan the structure. Something is blocking my sensors. Dr. Banner and I are attempting to take down the firewall but it might take a few more minutes.’
“Great. Well, keep up the work guys, call in if you need help.” he grumbled. “Cap, FRIDAY cannot scan the tunnels so we’re kinda on our own here. Any luck on your end?” he asked into the coms.
“Negative” came Steve’s answer a second or so later “This place seems pretty much abandoned.”
“Should we call it a day?” Clint asked.
Tony could almost feel Steve’s hesitancy, even though he was far away in some other part of this underground maze.
“If those guys are still here and we do not bring them in, many more people will suffer at their hand.” Nat pointed out from her end of the coms.
“We can’t leave yet.” Steve agreed. “But maybe we can begin to circle back, check again…” he continued but trailed off.
“What good will do that? We checked, there’s no one…” Tony began to oppose but was interrupted by Penny shushing him.
Tony stared at her.
“Did you just shush me?” he asked perplexed and annoyed.
She held up her hand, her masked face partly obscured by long shadows.
“What’s going on?” Wanda asked through her com.
“Penny just shushed me.” Tony complained, still looking at the teenager in disbelieve.
“Why would she do that?” Wanda asked.
Again, Penny help up a hand and louder this time she again shushed them.
“Oh no, you did not just shush me again young lady! I refuse to acknowledge that!”
“I think she did.” Sam said with a grin.
“Keep going kid, I like the red colour his face is turning.” Clint teased. “Hot-rod-red, just like he likes it…”
“You do not…” Tony began but again he was interrupted by the spider-kid.
“Mr. Stark, shut up, I hear something. Everybody shut up and stop moving! It’s distracting.” Penny muttered.
“What do you mean, you hear something? There’s nothing to hear.” Sam grumbled.
Penny's mask melted away and revealed her face, tight and creased with concentration.
“You don’t have enhanced senses Sam but I do and I hear something, shut up, so I can listen!”
“It’s probably just the others.” Clint offered.
Penny shook her head. “No…I hear footsteps and they don’t sound like Steve’s or Nat’s’ at all!”
“Yeah right…they’re steps…” Sam snorted.
But Tony saw something in Penny’s eyes, in the way they focused and unfocused.
“Everyone shut up. And stop moving. You too Cap.” he commanded. “Penny, go ahead, what do you hear?”
Everybody fell quiet.
“Footsteps.” she whispered, face scrunching up in concentration.
“Fast footsteps, running almost. And... something being dragged across the floor.”
“Where?” Steve asked quietly through the comms.
“Stop walking and I might be able to tell you.” she grumbled.
“You can hear that?” Steve asked astonished.
Instead of answering, Penny knelt down and lay flat on the ground, her ear pressed to the stone, eyes closed in concentration.
“What is this? Are you taking a nap?” Sam asked.
“I think she is channelling her inner Aragorn. Quick, tell me kid, where are they taking the hobbits?”
Thwip-thwip.
A second later both Clints and Sam's mouth were covered by webbing.
Penny hadn’t moved from where she was pressing her ear to the ground but her right wrist was angled up and the web-shooter gleamed in the low light.
“Bruce…” she said softly “Stop typing please…I can hear it through the coms.”
Tony didn’t hear any change but it must have helped Penny because the frown on her face lifted slightly.
“Like seven or eight stories down from where we are, a good two miles ahead, heading east. I can feel the vibrations of their steps. At least three people. I can hear them talking but it's really muffled.” She exclaimed after a few tense seconds.
She got up and looked at the indignant looking Clint and Sam with their mouths taped shut.
They knew better than to touch the webbing, least they wanted their hands glued to their faces. Instead, Clint had his hands on his hips and Sam had them crossed over his chest.
Both were glaring at Penny.
Tony had never felt so proud before in his life. He could almost forgive her for shushing him so rudely.
“And FYI...those were good movies and that was Legolas telling them about the hobbits you uncultured swine.” she told them.
“Good work Spider-Girl. Everyone, you heard her, let's go.” Steve announced.
“I’m redirecting Iron Legion suits there in case they make it out before you so they can intercept them.” Bruce announced over the coms.
Tony offered Penny a hand so she could climb on his back so they could fly ahead, while Sam offered Clint a ride.
“You should probably un-web their mouths.” He pointed out.
“I may or may not have forgotten the dissolvent-solution in the Quinjet.” she whispered cheekily.
Tony laughed.
.
An hour and an epic underground battle later that ended with the lair collapsing in on itself, Steve threw the last of the baddies into the cell inside the Quinjet, while Penny applied the dissolvent still stuck to the webbing on Cint’s and Sam’s faces.
“You know...this was probably the most pleasant fights I’ve ever been in. No dumb chatter, just blessed quiet.” Natascha observed from where she cleaned her gun.
The webbing came off Sam's face.
“Oh, this kid talked plenty.” he grumbled, pointing his thumb at Penny.
“Why didn’t you leave it on for the flight home, now we’ll have to listen to Sam complain the whole journey back.” Bucky whined, looking at Penny mournfully.
“I thought about it but I don’t want the chemicals in the webs melting the top layer of their skin off.”
Sam stared at her horrified while Clint rushed to the nearest mirror.
“It’s a joke you dumb chickens.” Penny stated dryly.
Clint grumbled something about teenagers before taking his seat in the pilot chair and got the jet started.
“Well done today Penny, without you we wouldn’t have caught them in time.” Steve said loudly, clasping her shoulder and smiled fondly at her.
“Thanks.” she said with a small smile and a blush. “But all I did was listen real closely and that was it.”
“Still impressive.” Natasha pointed out.
Penny shrugged. “It’s a spider-thing. They’re really good at picking up vibrations because of all the hairs on their body.” She explained lightly.
“Do you always hear so well? That must be exhausting. I mean, sometimes it’s too loud for me and I have normal hearing.” Wanda asked, plopping down next to Penny.
“Good question. Is that something we need to do something about?” Tony asked, already designing the best noise-cancellation headphones in the world in his mind.
Penny shrugged.
“Yes and no. I have really good hearing. Like...on a normal level I can like always hear what's going on in the penthouse and two to three floors up and down. But I can control it or...well, it’s not turning it on and off but rather...when I pay really close attention to it, I can hear as well as today. But I usually don't focus that much on it, so it’s okay. But yeah, in really full and crowded places or where there is a lot of happening, it can get overwhelming at times. Or when I’m stressed or scared. It’s why I don’t like big parties indoors or huge gatherings in general. Makes it hard to focus on the important noises.”
Tony frowned, remembering the huge Christmas Gala the Avenger had attended a few weeks ago and to which Penny had only hesitantly agreed. He remembered how she had looked pained and annoyed all evening. He had written it off to her being a teenager. But now...
“Why didn’t you say something before?” he asked softly.
“Honestly...I don’t mind it, usually. And it’s not like we do a lot of parties so it’s no big deal.”
“Still…” Steve said, obviously sharing Tony's thoughts.
“No... you really don’t get it. I can hear your heartbeats, all of them right now and I know exactly where you are.” Penny said, closing her eyes.
“I can hear all of your individual breathing patterns. But they don’t distract me. They have become just part of every-day-life. I know who’s coming to tell me dinner is ready by their steps, I already know who is coming to pick me up from school before the car turns around the corner by your heartbeat, the sound your clothes make when you walk is so distinct that I can always tell who is sneaking into the kitchen to steal cookies or something. It is very comforting and it eases my anxiety so that even when we're separated, I always know where you are and if you’re alright. When one of you is not around something is missing. And I can immediately tell who is not there. When I wake up at night because I have a nightmare, I can listen to May’s heartbeat and I’m instantly calm. Or...whenever I see Morgan...or rather Morgan sees me...her heart makes a little jump and beats faster because she is always happy to see me. And hearing that is the most beautiful thing…” she trailed off, opened her eyes again and looked straight at Tony.
And Tony’s own heart made a little jump.
Like it always did when he saw Pepper, Morgan or Rhodey or...Penny.
She stared at him adoring eyes and he was sure he stared right back at her with the same emoji heart eyes.
So of course, leave it to Clint to ruin such a sweet moment.
“Wait...does that mean you can hear it when have to take really loud shit?”

Two: Super Strength

Penny was biting her nails.
She always did that when she was nervous, anxious or stressed.
So, she was doing it pretty much all the time.
But right now, she was in the process of biting them bloody.
Gently, Tony reached over to her and gently guided her hand away from her mouth.
She flinched, a sign that she had been so deep in thought that she hadn’t noticed him at all.
“It’ll be fine, Pen.” he assured her.
“I’m just...if we don’t find them all…”
He nodded.
She didn’t have to elaborate at all.
A crazed woman by the name Kora Andernawa had planted eighty-seven powerful bombs on random timers strategically throughout Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn and New Jersey. In a video-message directed at the mayor of New York, she had told him all about it.
Her motive? The US’s most recent civilian bombing of the middle east.
“Let’s see how you like it. Walking down a random street on a random day, minding your own business and out of nowhere the world around is torn to bits. You see your fellow man evaporating into red mist because they stood so close to the blast-centre. Nothing remains of them to be buried or to identify them. Let’s see how you like walking in constant fear, never knowing if death is waiting for you around the next corner.”
Those had been her closing words.
Six bombs had already blown up by the time the Avengers had been mobilized (thank you Accords for taking so long…) and already a combined total of four city blocks had been all but destroyed, rendering thousands of people homeless, hundreds wounded and already thirteen dead.
Now the combined efforts of Avengers, Police, Fire Department, Homeland security and US Army were scouring the city from top to bottom, searching for the remaining eighty-one bombs. People were told to keep their eyes open, to call in anything suspicious at all. To try and not panic (what a joke).
Tony had wanted Penny to stay as far away from all of this as possible but as soon as the first bomb went off in Queens, Penny was on scene a second later, carrying the injured out of the rubble, escorting people to safety and kicking open fire hydrants to douse fires. And she had been very reluctant to come and help him, instead of joining the other Avengers on the ground.
And then a second bomb had gone off half a mile further down.
And then another one.
And then one in Brooklyn.
And Manhattan.
And Manhattan again.
And Penny had agreed to come to the Tower.
.
With that random timer there was no way of knowing when or where the next one would blow up.
Tony assumed that Ms. Andernawa oversaw all of this from somewhere safe but still close enough to see her plan come to life. He also assumed that the bombs must share the same radio-frequency because of said random timer. It could be their way of stopping them. But he wouldn’t know that until their found their first intact bomb.
As per protocol, the first places that got evacuated were government buildings and important sights, such as Grand Central Station, The Empire State Building, Fifth Avenue, Fifth Avenue and the One World Trade Centre and Avengers Tower itself. Places that would have huge fatalities when attacked.
But both Tony and Penny had come to the same conclusion.
Evacuating those areas was dumb and only cost them time and resources.
Andernawa was not interested in blowing up huge important landmarks or strategically important places.
No, her intention had been in her closing statement.
Walking down a random street, minding your own business.
That's what she had said.
Referring to the most recent drone strike in Yemen that had killed mostly civilians.
Tony was no stranger to the happening in the middle east, having been a victim of the terror there himself. The Ten Rings, ISIS and other demonic terrorist organisations were still going strong, not counting the dictators that ruled there ‘rightfully’ but were just as brutal.
And while he agreed that they had to be dealt with he did not agree with the president's choice of bombing just random places, hoping they’d hit the right people. For god's sake, he had suggested bombing cultural and religious significant sights. Which was a WAR CRIME!
Tony shook his head, focusing on the presence.
So yeah, he understood Andernawa’s unhappiness about the situation in the middle east but that was no reason to go blow up all of New York.
Or was it? It probably was in her eyes.
Anyway, the conclusion both he and Penny had come to was that the big and important buildings with all the big and important people in it, were not the target.
Everyday New York and New Yorkers were.
People, who had nothing to do with the strife.
Like those civilians in Yemen.
.
The two of them had tried to explain that to the president (boy, that had been a disaster) and then then the governor (not as much of a disaster but still not good) and then, when all that had failed to Steve, who had tried to tell the independent council that was overseeing the Avengers activities at the moment (no time to get into all of that…) which had gone good until Ross had caught wind of it and put in a veto (how that man was still out and about was a problem for another day but one that would have to be addressed) and now, instead of looking in the right places, the Avengers were forced to look in the wrong places, wasting valuable time.
Which brought them to right now.
Another explosion rocked the city.
Penny raced to the huge glass wall that was the south side of the Penthouse.
“That’s Brooklyn.” she whispered.
Tony closed his eyes as the holographic screens around them lit up with incoming distress calls and the barking of orders.
“How many more people will have to die before they realize that we were right?” Penny asked seething. “I have to go.” she muttered, turning on her heel.
“What, no, absolutely not!” Tony objected, blocking her path.
“Not right now Mr. Stark. Please, I cannot deal with that right now.” she growled through clenched teeth.
“I need you to help me locate the bombs from here. And if we can, Andernawa as well. If we get to her, we can most likely stop all of this at once. I need you to help me with the calculations and the maps. You know the city and all the boroughs better than anyone else. You swing through them every day, protecting their citizens. You know good places where she should have hidden a bomb. I need you here.”
She closed her eyes, letting out a shaky breath.
“But my people need me more out there.”
“They need Spider-Girl, yes. She is important and a huge help. But they need Penny Parker more right now. Because she can help me punch the numbers and put-up possible sights and possibly save thousands more. And…when you’ve done that, then…” he swallowed not believing he was about to say this “you can go out there and search for the bombs as Spider-Girl as well. See if we were right. Because if we are, we can use it as an argument to sway the council and get the others to follow our lead instead of the governments.”
She hesitated.
“Please Penny. It’s our only way.”
.
Tony had never taken Penny to get officially tested and neither had May and Ben or her parents at any point.
It was no secret that she was smart, gifted in fact.
But nobody really knew how smart she was.
Tony had done a few sneaky tests every now and then and his estimate was that her IQ lay at 250 round- about.
And right now, it showed.
Penny's fingers flew over keyboards and tapped holographic screens left and right as she calculated possible areas.
Every few seconds she would cross off a different city block or street from the huge map of New York City that was projected against the main living room wall.
Tony walked alongside her, crossing off unlikely sights as well while running his search algorithms to find Andernawa.
.
It was another hour before another blast echoed through the city.
“Where is that coming in from?” Penny asked urgently, eyes focused on where the smoke rose into the bright blue morning sky.
Tony swirled around, checking the incoming reports.
“New Jersey, Union City, 45th and Smith Avenue.” he shot back.
“That was one I predicted!” Penny shouted, tapping their own map of New York. Right there, off by only a couple of streets, was a red dot she had marked earlier.
She turned to him.
“We were right!” she whispered.
“We have fifty-five possible locations. Not all of them will be as spot on as that one but you’re right. We’re getting there.”
“FRIDAY! Show me the Avengers positions on the map!” Penny ordered.
Different coloured dots appeared, spread across the city.
“Steve is close to another sight you marked.” Penny muttered, reaching for her com.
“Steve, it’s Penny, do you copy?” she called out, eyes fixed on the hologram.
“Receiving you loud and clear, what’s going on?” came his reply almost instantly.
“Steve, Tony and I are triangulating possible sites where the bombs could have been placed. The one that just blew up was one we predicted. Not 100% accurate but within the margin of error. Listen closely. We have another possible sight close to you. You need to check it out so we can see if our algorithms are correct.”
“Where?” he asked, voice hard and determined.
“Clinton Hill, Intersection of Lafayette Avenue and Tompkins Avenue by Herbert von Kings Park.” she explained.
“When you get there let FRIDAY do a scan of the area. She can detect explosives like that better the closer she is. And once we know what type of explosives Andernawa uses; I can search our locations for matches. Making our predictions more accurate.” Tony chimed in.
“Copy that. I’ll get in contact with you as soon as I can. Leading my group there now.” Steve replied curtly.
The com went quiet again and neither Tony nor Penny were able to get back to working the numbers.
They stared at the screen, at the little blue dot that was Steve nearing the described area.
.
Andernawa had done many things right in her plan. But one mistake she had made was showing them what her bombs looked like.
They were all stowed in the same type of wooden box with a big red X on each side.
So, identifying them would be easy.
.
Steve’s dot reached the park.
Penny was biting her nails again.
Gently Tony walked over to her and pried her hand away.
She didn’t take her eyes off the screen but she held on to his hand.
.
The coms crackled and came alive.
“We got it. It was hidden in a trash-can.”
Penny's shoulder sacked in relief.
“Can you dismantle it?” Tony asked.
“One of the women in my team is a trained professional. She's taking a look at it as we speak.”
“I’m sending a suit out so I can have eyes on the situation myself. Maybe together we can find a way.” Tony assured him, already deploying one of the Iron Legion to head to Brooklyn.
He turned to Penny.
“Go get the last locations and see who of our people is closest and send them there. I will fine-tune our algorithm, see if we can get it even more accurate.”
Penny nodded, already back at her work station.
Tony took a second to appreciate just how amazing she was doing. There was a national crisis on their hands and they were quite literally responsible for a lot of lives here. And yet she was so calm and collected...she had come a long way since he’d first met her.
Then he forced himself to focus and on they went.
.
Because she had to make eighty-seven bombs in a rather short span of time with the goal of causing as much destruction as possible, Andernawa’s bombs weren’t too complicated and easily dismantled.
Tony sent the council a message, telling them about their success in creating a locating algorithm and beginning to dismantle the first bomb.
Their work was good enough that the council granted them temporarily the power to orchestrate the search and rescue teams themselves, even though Ross protested.
Seeing him be overruled, might just have been the best thing all day.
Then again it was a shitty day….
By the time Tony had finished with the council and directed more groups towards marked locations on the map, Penny had identified the remaining possible bomb sites.
Suddenly he remembered the deal they had made a few hours ago.
He muted his coms and stepped towards her, putting both hands on her shoulders.
“I know we made a deal. I won’t back out of it. You held up your end and...as much as I hate it, I will hold up mine. Go on kid. Go help the others. I’ve got it covered here. And Pepper should get here soon, she can help me then.”
Penny nodded.
“Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, stay safe and ask for help when you need it!” he begged her.
“I will.”
They hugged. It was quick but tight, just like Tony’s heartbeat.
He watched her leave.
Then he turned the come back on and immediately her voice filled the channel.
“This is Spider-Girl, reporting back in the field. Where do you need me to go?”
.
With every mark they ticked off the map, with every bomb found and dismantled, the heaviness on Tony’s shoulder grew lighter and lighter.
But they couldn’t get them all.
So far, since Penny had left, six more had gone off.
One of them in Queens again.
Penny had been on scene almost immediately, helping survivors and injured alike to get out and securing the bomb sight.
News Feeds from all over the city flooded Tony's workspace and while the situation was beginning to look better, they were by no means safe yet.
So, Tony continued to work.
And the clock ticked on.
.
It all went to shit when it should have gone right.
The satellite he had been searching for the origin of the radio frequency that set off the bombs and which would most likely be where Ms. Andernawa was as well, chimed loudly, announcing it had found something.
Tony was on it a second later, running the image on the screen against the one from the video message.
No doubt, it was a 100% match.
“Where is she?” he muttered, frantically tapping the keys to find her location on the map.
A second later he had it.
“I got Andernawas location, I’m going to take her in.” he barked into the coms.
Almost immediately it was filled with objections.
“Tony, you can’t go alone. She is dangerous.” Steve pointed out.
“Besides, you are still healing. You haven’t been inside a suit in like eight months!” Rhodey reminded him.
“Give us her location and we’ll take care of it.” Natasha agreed.
“Tony, there are still many bombs left. We shouldn’t do anything that would make her set them off all at once! If you get there and she sees you and panics...it could cause a lot more destruction!” Steve added.
“Or prevent it.” Tony shot back.
He turned around to Pepper, who had arrived an hour ago, helping him organize the troops.
She was biting her lip.
Just like Penny bit her nails, Pepper tended to chew on her lower lip.
“You got my back?” he asked her softly.
She hesitated, then nodded. “Always.” she promised.
Tony smirked. Then, reaching back for his coms he said loudly: “Go get the rest of the bombs. Pepper and I are taking her in.”
He could almost sense their displeasure but eventually the team agreed.
.
Being back in the suit for the first time in so long was weird and Tony knew he didn’t really have time to process it, what with the world being in danger and all that.
It was both exhilarating and terrifying.
It was like riding a bike, he didn’t forget how to do it, yet also felt completely alien.
But he didn't have time to think about it.
He let FRIDAY do the piloting and landing and the suit melted off him as soon as he touched the ground.
Pepper landed next to him, the RESCUE armour gleaming brightly in the low evening sun.
“Are you sure she’s here?” she asked, looking around.
“Oh...she’s here alright. Look.”
.
Together they approached the huge glass pavilion.
Despite usually being closed this time of the day, Jane’s Carousel on the banks of the East River was slowly turning round-and-round.
The lights flashed gently and music played in the background.
But seeing it completely empty and before the background of a smoke-covered New York with sirens and alarms blaring all across the island, it seemed rather surreal and in slightly bad taste.
.
Ms. Andernawa sat in one of the two carriages. In her lap a tablet. A STARK tablet, as Tony noticed with disdain. What was it with villains and using his own technology against him?
She looked up as they approached and nodded at them.
“I see you found my bombs.” she said, as they stepped onto the slow turning platform, weaving their way carefully through the three rows of intricate carved horses.
“Put down the tablet.” Tony called out, not in the mood for Smalltalk. “This ends now. You’ve made your point.” To underline his point he raised this hand, gauntlet forming and charging as he did.
She shook her head.
“No... I really don’t think I have.” she muttered.
She pressed the screen of her tablet just as Tony fired the repulsor.
As she fell to the ground and the tablet with her, one last explosion rocked through Queens.
.
.
“Andernawa is down and in custody.” Tony said into the comms as the suit took him up and towards Queens.
“What about the bombs?” came Rhodeys concerned voice over the speakers.
“Hacked into her tablet and disconnected them from the radio-frequency she was broadcasting to them. Their offline but still, be careful, they can still explode!” he explained.
“Good job Tony. You and Penny both.” Rhodey said and there was a chorus of agreements from the others on their line.
“Yeah, well, we’re not done yet. I’m headed over to the new bomb site. Is anyone already there? Was anyone close?” he asked, clearing his throat slightly.
“Widow and Spider-Girl were on scene last we heard. They haven’t come in a few minutes though...” came Wanda’s quiet response in his ear.
He froze mid-stride, hand flying to his ear.
“What? How long? Penny? Natasha? Come in!”
“Black Widow, Spider-Girl, come in.” Steve added, ever the professional.
Only silence came back to them.
“I’m on my way.” Tony said, already blasting off.
“Ten minutes out.” Sam confirmed.
“Meet you there.” Bucky agreed.
FRIDAY had already plotted the fastest route to the most recent bomb site.
The plume of smoke rising from there was big and black and looked so much worse than all the others.
Maybe it was just because the girl he considered his daughter was somewhere close to there, not answering her damn coms.
Whatever the reason, Tony urged the thrusters to go faster and when he slammed into the ground close to where the explosion had gone off, the sight that greeted him took his breath away.
It wasn’t the carnage or the complete obliteration of the house and the burning wracks of cars that greeted his sight that made his blood freeze over but the image of Penny, dressed in her Spider-Girl suit.
Penny, who was the only thing keeping the destroyed building from completely collapsing in on itself.
There she was, crouched down like Atlas holding the sky, pushing up against tons and tons of concrete and rubble, keeping it from falling.
Keeping it from crushing Nat, who was pulling children out of the rubble, ushering them to safety.
Even underneath her mask, Tony could tell that Penny was struggling to hold the weight.
He was vaguely aware of the arrival of Bucky, Steve and Sam, who all gave similar horrified exclamations when they saw Penny.
“Please! Help Nat!” Penny shouted, her voice strained and pained.
Tony unfroze, leaped forward and hoisted two kids Nat was pulling up from…somewhere and handed them on to Steve before grabbing Nat’s extended hand and pulled her out as well.
“We got them. Tony, get out of there! Spider-Girl you too!” Steve commanded.
Tony didn’t know where Penny took the strength from but she pushed upwards and then dashed forward, throwing herself into Tony's outstretched arms and just far enough to not get crushed by tons of rubble coming down on them.
Tony embraced her, shielding her from the new cloud of smoke that washed over them.
He stayed like that until he felt something tap against the outside of his mask.
He hadn't noticed that he had clenched his eyes shut as the building had come tumbling down.
Carefully he opened them and saw Penny, tugged away underneath his arms with his upper body covering her protectively, tapping his mask.
“You can let me go now Mr. Stark. I’m fine.” she whispered and then coughed.
She was covered head to toe in a thin layer of dust, musting the vibrant colours of her suit.
“I know I can. I’ve just chosen not to.” He admitted.
He scooped her up, carrying her over to where the other Avengers had taken cover.
“I can walk.” she insisted.
“Yeah, I know but I’d rather you not.”
“Why?”
“Because you might walk into something stupid like that again and at least like this I can try and stop you.”
Penny groaned and purposely went limp in his arms to annoy him.
“That’s like…nothing! I held heavier stuff than that!” she grumbled.
“See… this is what I mean.” He shot back, adjusting her grip on her floppy body.
The joke was on her though, the suit was doing the heavy lifting, not Tony.
Steve watched them approach.
“Is she alright?” he asked warily.
“She is.” Penny assured him, still limp like a bag of potatoes.
“Okay….” Bucky muttered.
“Oh, she is more than fine. She is grounded.” Tony agreed.
Penny sat up in his arms.
“What?” she shrieked. “Why? I helped save the day!”
“Yes, and then you did something stupid.”
“That is so not fair.” she pouted, flopping back down overly dramatic in his arms.
He hoisted her over his shoulder, boosting up the engines.
“We can talk about it during dinner.” he assured her, flying her back towards the Tower.

Three: Incredible flexibility

“What...on God’s green earth...are you wearing?”
It wasn’t so much the words as the completely shocked and disbelieving tone of voice that made Tony look up from his book.
Sam stood in the middle of the room, facing the elevator with a bowl of popcorn in one hand and a beer in the other.
And exiting from said elevator was Penny, fresh out of school and still dressed in the green-and gold uniform of her school's Cheerleading team.
It was still a relatively new thing but Tony had known about it of course.
The state of New York had passed a new law regarding STEM schools. According to this new law, all students attending STEM schools were now required to attend one extracurricular activity, that was not related to STEM-subjects. As such Penny’s involvement in the Academic Decathlon or the Robotics Club didn’t count. So, she had to drop the Robotics club at the beginning of the semester and instead enrolled in the girl’s gymnastics team. Who in turn had become a cheerleading-team.
It was all very complicated.
The point was...Penny was wearing a cheer uniform.
And Sam had no idea what to do with that information.
Tony watched with scarcely concealed glee as she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms demonstratively over her chest.
“It’s called a cheer-uniform, Sam. Of course, you wouldn’t know because when you went to high school, no cheerleader would be caught dead near you. So, you couldn’t possibly know.”
Sam narrowed his eyes. “I know what a god-dam cheerleader is, you little turd. What I don’t know is why you are dressed like one. It’s not Halloween yet! Oh, and you call that a uniform? No honey, that is a disgrace! The colour-scheme alone is atrocious!”
“Please, it’s the same as in ‘Bring it on’ and that movie is a cultural classic!” she shot back, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
“It’s a school thing Sam, she has to take part in a non-science thing according to the new state law.” Tony tried to explain.
“Isn’t that cheating though? She’s already a freaky little acrobat in a shitty-coloured outfit.” Sam pointed out.
“Hey, I don’t say anything about your gimmick.” Penny complained.
Sam raised his hands defensively. “Just saying.”
“It’s not cheating, I’m using my natural talents to exceed in a certain field. That's what everybody does.”
“There is literally nothing natural about your powers. You were bitten by a god-damn radioactive spider.”
She shrugged, making her way towards her room. “It’s an easy A. Give me a break. This whole law is stupid I mean, what is the point of a STEM school when you still have to partake in the Arts?” she grumbled.
“Since when is cheerleading an art?” Sam scoffed.
“You’d know if you’d try. It’s actually really hard.” she said defensively.
“Sure, waving around pom-poms is so hard.”
She rolled her eyes. “You know, I’m going to make you eat your words one day. I promise.” she just said, before disappearing down the hallway.
.
The call to assemble came during dinner.
One minute they were shovelling garlic bread and pasta alfredo into their mouths, the next second FRIDAY was sounding the alarm and everybody was up and running.
They usually never had these on-call situations but in this case, they’d been waiting for a Hydra-cell to make a move so they could intercept them.
Now every minute counted.
As Tony strolled onto the Quinjet with Penny hot on his heels, the others were already there, getting into their gear while Clint was firing up the engines.
Sam narrowed his eyes when he saw Penny activate the Iron Spider and the nanites formed the suit, encasing her from head to toe in the blink of an eye.
“Why is the kid here?” he asked sceptically.
“Because we’re short a few hands with Wanda, Vision and Nat in DC and we cannot wait for them to join us. Penny is coming as backup.” Steve explained quickly.
“Fine.” Sam grumbled and turned back to check his wings.
.
Of course, things didn’t go as planned.
The facility they had wanted to storm was booby-trapped from top to bottom.
Floors that opened up underfoot, guns hidden in the walls, lots of turns and dead ends, randomly collapsing parts of the ceiling and much more.
Tony was beginning to think that maybe this was a trap.
His suspicions were confirmed when they rounded the corner and entered a hallway much longer and wider and higher than any other in this place.
And there, at the opposite end, stood a man in a familiar Hydra-uniform, holding a small remote in one hand and obviously waiting for them.
As soon as he saw them, he pressed a button on said remote and the entire hallway filled with hundreds of wildly criss-crossing laser beams, stopping their approach mid step, while at the same time behind them the ceiling opened and a heavy metal gate fell down, blocking their way back.
They were indeed trapped.
“Welcome, Avengers. We’ve been expecting you. Thank you for coming.” the Nazi grinned at them.
“Surrender now, tell us where you keep your weapons and we won’t attack.” Steve called out.
Around him the others readied their weapons.
Tony too raised his repulsors but from the corner of his eyes he noticed that Penny was glancing around, her shoulders raised and tense.
“I’m afraid Captain you are in no position to bargain or make any kind of demands. No, sadly this will be the end of the Avengers. I had hoped more of you would show up but...oh well, we’ll take care of them another way. Goodbye.”
The guy dropped the remote teasingly to the ground, turned around and vanished. At the same time a robotic voice announced over the intercom: “Self-destructive protocol activated. T minus ten minutes.”
Great, now things were going to blow up around them as well. This day couldn’t get any worse.
“Right, we’re not staying here. Ideas, go.” Steve commanded, obviously having similar thoughts.
“FRIDAY, analysis.” Tony barked.
He listened and watched as FRIDAY ran her findings across his HUD.
“Yeah, bad news. Don’t touch those lasers or they will fry you instantly. Dismantling would also take more time than we have and I’m not even sure it’s entirely possible.”
“What about the wall?” Steve asked, rapping his knuckles against the wall that cut off the way they’d come from.
“No good either. It’s not mechanical. They just dropped it. There is no way of raising it other than lifting it with brute strength or punching our way through. Neither of which is an option.” Tony explained through gritted teeth.
“We could certainly try the punching. My arm is made of Vibranium, it can take on this piece of metal.” Bucky said confidently.
“It’s nine feet thick. Even if you could do it, it would take hours. We don’t have that kind of time. Also…the rest of your body would feel it.” Tony objected.
“What about lifting? Penny, Bucky and I could try.” Steve suggested.
“Probably our only chance. It should be possible for you three.” Tony sighed.
“Then let’s try.” Steve said confidently. “Bucky, Penny?”
Bucky was by his side within a second, metal hand gliding over the metal wall.
The three Enhanced crouched down and attempted to lift the wall blocking their way back.
But they didn’t get far when their hands slid off the metal.
“What the hell?” Penny muttered.
“What is it?” Tony asked.
“It’s smooth…like really smooth! Even my hands can’t find any purchase!” she explained.
Tony frowned. Because of her spider-bite there was almost no surface Penny couldn’t climb. Little microscopic hairs on her fingers an all that…
“Friday, analysis.”
“It’s a nearly perfect mirror. A lead coating on a silicone surface on a heavy iron base.” She informed him. “The smoothest surface in the world.”
“Oaky, not what I expected…right then, what do we do?” Tony muttered.
“Maybe if I punched through the lead and silicone layer, creating handholds for us to grab on the iron?” Bucky suggested.
“Maybe but like I said, your arm might take it but the body attached to it…might be tough.” Tony pointed out.
“I’m a super-soldier. I can take it.”
“You hand will probably glance off the surface if you try and punch it.” Penny pointed out.
“Oh yeah, there’s also that.” Tony agreed.
“I can try. Punching has always got me out of tight situations in the past.” Steve pointed out.
“That explains so much about you.” Tony grumbled.
Above them the robotic voice announced: “T minus five minutes.”
“We’re running out of time. There has to be a smarter way.” Sam called out, crossing his arms.
“Don’t hurt yourself trying to think of one.” Penny said with faked kindness.
He flipped her the middle finger.
“Rude…” she said dryly.
“If that all is out, what about the lasers. What about turning them off?” Cint asked.
“We’d need the remote for that.” Steve said, his brow creased in concentration.
“Maybe we can deflect them with Cap’s shield? Like a mirror?” Sam suggested.
Tony rolled his eyes.
“That's not how anything works pigeon-brain. There is no way of knowing if the shield can take it and we’d have no way of controlling where the laser could get redirected too. It could hit one of us. Too risky.”
They continued debating the pros and cons of various ideas, knowing very well that every second the bad guys slipped further away from their grasp and they were closer to getting crushed by the building when it blew up.
A few minutes in, Tony noticed that a certain spider-kid was uncommonly quiet.
He turned around to check on her.
Penny stood by the laser web, a thoughtful expression on her face.
He knew that look.
“What are you thinking Pen?” he asked in a low voice.
“The easiest way would be to get the remote.” she muttered, more to herself.
“Yeah, the only problem is that it is on the other side of a fifty-meter-long laser-web that will incinerate you if you touch it.” Sam drawled. “Unless you plan on going all Oceans-Eight on that thing and shimmy your way through there…no chance.”
“That was Oceans Twelve and that scene was a gift from God. Also, this will be easier because these lasers don’t move.” Penny said with an eye roll.
“No one is shimming their way through the lasers.” Tony exclaimed loudly.
“I can get it.” Penny said confidently, turning around and walking towards the metal wall blocking their other way out.
There she turned back around, eyes focusing on the hundreds of laser beams, how they crossed and the spaces left between them.
“Get it? What did I just say?” Tony growled, stalking towards her.
Penny didn’t answer him. Instead, she said: “Karen, play the Kim Possible theme song as loud as you can.”
“What the…” Client began but was interrupted by the music blasting from the speakers in Penny’s suit.
“I’m your basic average girl, and I’m here to save the world…”
Penny broke into a full sprint, running right at the laser!
Tony wasn’t the only one shouting but all their shouts broke off, when they watched Penny twist forwards and down into a flick-flack and propelled herself upwards again and into the laser-web!
Tony stopped breathing.
But Penny didn’t touch a single laser. Instead, with music blasting loudly as she went, she wove her way tumbling and twisting through the open spaces between the laser-beams, using her incredible strength, agility and heightened senses to weave through them like...well unlike anything Tony had ever seen, really.
She flipped and tucked and rolled and arced gracefully over deadly lasers, going up the walls, rolling over the ground and spinning ever so gracefully.
She cleared the last of the lasers, sticking the landing.
She bent down, picked up the control and a second later the lasers were gone.
The music cut off.
They all stared at her with open mouths.
Steve was the first who found his voice. “Penny...that was...by God, that was absolutely incredible.”
She shrugged. “Easy-peasy. I’ve done way more challenging tumbling passes before in practice.”
Then she turned to Sam. “Bet you never thought my cheerleading would actually save our lives, did you?”
Sam, never one too proud to admit when he was wrong, raised his hands in surrender.
“I take everything I said earlier back. That was pretty dope.”
Penny grin could have lit up a Christmas Tree.
Tony shook his head.
“Come on, we still have some bad guys to catch and this thing will blow up in like three minutes, I’d like to be far away from here by then.” he reminded them.
But he couldn’t help but proudly squeeze Penny's shoulder when he walked past her.
“Well done kiddo. Music was a nice touch as well.”

Four: Spider Sense

Ned liked to call it ‘some kind of clairvoyance’ or her ‘premonitions’, but Penny objected strongly to him calling it that. Firstly, because it wasn’t and secondly it had never helped her win any sort of bet so there was no way it was an actual tool to help her look into the future.
But nonetheless her Spider-Sense had helped her out a lot since acquiring it.
From warning her of incoming punches and kicks to notifying her about ambushes, it had saved her life, and that of others, quite a lot in the past three years.
But it wasn’t fool-proof and tended to go nuts every now and then.
For example, it still got triggered by the school cafeteria food. And yes, while Penny agreed that the food there was a health hazard and should not be served, it was not bad enough to put her on edge that much.
Also, if there was a lot happening at once, like in a fight or during a mission, it tended to go off every few seconds, giving Penny hardly a chance to make out one danger, before another one took its place.
So, it was a matter of filtering out the immediate dangers and prioritizing. Which didn’t always go well…
In short: It wasn’t always reliable and Penny had no idea how to use it to her advantage. So she and Ned came up with a brilliant idea.
Simply train her spider-sense.
That was how the two of them found themselves in the gym at Stark Tower after school on a Tuesday afternoon with sixteen modified tennis-ball-cannons standing alone the four sides, as well as the ceiling, their cannons trained at Penny in the middle of the room, while Ned sat on a stack of gym-matts high above it all and out of range like some sort of evil overlord. Which, in this case, he was.
“I feel like I’m in that scene in Star Wars, when Obi Wan and Anakin when and Padme were trapped by Count Dooku. You know, when Padme kicks monster-ass while Anakin and Obi Wan bicker around? You’re Dooku, watching my demise.” She muttered, stretching her arms lightly.
“Which one are you?” Ned asked, finishing the configurations of his tablet.
“Obviously Anakin with my tragic backstory and know-it-all mentor.” Penny snorted.
“Well, good thing is they lived through that fight so you should be fine as well.” Ned pointed out. “Alright, let’s check everything once more. Have you warmed up?” he added.
“Yes.” She nodded.
“Did you eat?”
“Yes.”
“Safety padding and protective gear in place and secured?”
In response Penny padded at her bike-helmet, oversized shoulder-knees-and-elbow pads as well as the three pillows she and Ned had secured around her torso with a belt loaned from Mr. Starks dresser. Without his knowledge though…
“Yes.” she exclaimed.
“Then go ahead and put on your black-out-glasses and plug up your ears. Remember, if you want me to stop just say so.”
“I know Ned. Now let’s do this!”
“FRIDAY, are you recording this?” Ned asked.
“Of course. I’m also ready to live-stream this onto every available screen in the Tower in case this goes sideways. Which, according to my calculations, it will.”
“We don’t need that kind of negative energy around here FRI.” Penny shouted before slipping on the glasses and earplugs.
“Yeah, vibe-check not passed.” Ned added. “Alright, Penny, can you hear me?”
The girl gave no visible reactions.
“Jar-Jar Bings is the best Star Wars character there is.”
Nothing.
“Star Trek is better.”
Not even a twitch.
“Jack wouldn’t have fit on that door.”
Nothing.
“The Mandalorian is overrated.”
Nada.
“Iron Man is the worst Avenger there is.”
Noth…
“Good to know the truth…Ted.” drawled the familiar voice of Tony Stark from the gyms entrance.
Ned flinched violently and scrambled to get to his feet.
“Mr. Stark…sir…it’s not…I didn’t mean…of course you’re not!” he stammered wildly.
“Relax kiddo. I get it…” the super-hero billionaire said before looking from him to Penny who still stood in the middle of the room, blind and deaf to the world.
“But what exactly are you two doing? Please tell me this is not some new kinky-teenage-sex thing.”
Ned blushed ferociously. “Oh my god, no Mr. Iron Man sir, no! We’re simply running an experiment on Penny’s powers!” he shrieked.
“And you need to drag my good name through the mud for that exactly why…?” Tony Stark asked, one eyebrow raised in confusion.
“I’m just trying to see if she can hear anything at all. I’m just taunting her. She cannot not step in to defend you. You should have seen her last week during AP Chemistry, I though she was going to rip Brad’s throat out.” Ned rambled.
Mr. Starks eyebrow lifted even further. “Right…”
They were interrupted by Penny asking very loudly: “Is Mr. Stark here? I think I smell his cologne.”
In response Ned tapped on his tablet and the message was sent to a bracelet on Penny wrist which then translated the message into morse code and transmitted it to her via vibrations.
“Yeah, he’s here.” He told her.
Penny waved, smiling brightly. “Hi Mr. Stark. Don’t worry, everything’s fine.” She all but shouted.
Tony Stark winced. “Why couldn’t you kids play outside like normal children?” he asked defeatedly.
“Because we’re not?” Ned offered hesitantly.
“Right…a mutant teenage vigilante-girl and her guy-in-the-chair-bestie. Forget I asked. I don’t even wanna know what you have planned” he looked warily at the various tennis-ball-cannons mounted along the ceiling and walls “Do try not break anything. And I’m including your best friend, the windows and my belt in this. I have a meeting to get to. FRIDAY, you are on babysitting duty.”
“Activating Spider-Baby Protocol. Protocol in place.” FRIDAY said automatically.
“Right, I’ll be off then. Good luck with…whatever this is.”
“Thank you, sir.” Ned called after him.
“Is he gone?” Penny asked, still rather loudly.
“Yeah, he just left.” He muttered, messaging her bracelet.
“Cool, then let’s start!” she cheered, pumping her fist in the air.
Ned took his safe place on the stack of gym matts and activated the first cannon at the lowest speed.
A tennis ball flew towards Penny but her left hand shot up just in time to prevent it from hitting her head.
She cheered, dropped the ball and caught the next one.
“This is too easy Ned! More cannons!” she laughed.
Ned activated two more on different ends of the room. He had configurated them so that he would have full control over speed, frequency of balls distributed and would also be able to change their position. They had also installed a tracking feature which was connected to the glasses Penny wore so even if she moved the cannons would follow her.
He changed the settings slightly and a fourth cannon opened fire.
Penny ducked the first and sidestepped the next before swatting a third away with her arm.
“This is so cool!” she laughed. “More!”
Ned, getting a little giddy and excited himself, upped the speed and activated three more cannons.
Now this was getting interesting.
Penny ducked, rolled and twisted like she was doing some abstract dancing, catching a ball here and there and once even kicked it away before it could reach her.
“FRIDAY, are you getting all this?” Ned asked ecstatically.
“Yes Mr. Leeds. I am recording the session and uploading it to your laptop as we speak.”
“Awesome.”
“Ned, put on more, I can take it!” Penny called out, if slightly out of breath.
He sent her an OK and activated two more cannons.
Penny was whirlwind down on the floor, evading tennis balls as if her life depended on it.
“Next time we play dodgeball she is on my team.” Ned muttered, analysing the data coming in.
The black-out glasses had a camera on the inside so Ned could see Penny’s eyes. They were open and the pupils were dilating and shrinking wildly and shaking like she had nystagmus but the vitals coming in from the tracker on her wrist indicated that she was more than fine.
The ear-plugs, while mostly cancelling out and outside noise and overlapping it with a slight static sound, also transmitted brainwaves and Penny’s readings were off the charts. She was ultra-aware and it showed. Her spider-sense was obviously not some sort of radioactive magic, but real thing with physical manifestations! Incredible!
Ned was so absorbed in the data that he didn’t notice the sudden movement by the door until it was too late.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
The sudden yell startled Ned once more but this time his hand slipped and hit the tablet screen, activating all ball-cannons and putting them on high speed. Now… Penny was good and fast but even she was not prepared for the sudden and heavy onset of tennis balls.
One such tennis ball came flying at maximal velocity and she reacted too late. It crashed right into her nose and the glasses she was wearing. With a pained yell she stumbled backwards, hands going up to stem the flow of blood falling from her nose but stepped on a tennis ball on the ground and slipped, falling backwards onto the ground.
Ned scrambled, hitting the tablet until finally the cannons turned off.
Slipping off the gym mats he raced towards his friends’ side but Happy, the one who had startled him, was faster.
Penny had already yanked off the glasses and thrown it aside together with the earbuds while still pinching her nose.
“Oh my god Penny, are you alright?” Ned asked frantically, falling down beside her. Blood was gushing down steadily, staining her shirt and the cushions.
“Of course, she’s not alright, look at her face!” Happy grunted, pulling Penny to her feet and tipping her head forwards gently.
She groaned. “What the hell Ned, I wasn’t ready.”
Blood splattered onto the floor.
“Sorry but Happy startled me. I didn’t mean to turn them all on!” Ned sobbed hysterically.
“What were you even doing?” Happy growled, producing a cloth-tissue from somewhere and gave it to Penny to press against her nose.
Penny winced when she did but kept the cloth on.
“Science.” She mumbled.
“Science…what kind of science chucks objects at high speed at your face?” Happy asked, no more exasperated than angry.
“Spider science. Did we get good data at least Ned?” Penny replied, looking over to him.
“Off the charts readings for brain activity. It’s definitely some sort of activity in the extra-pyramidal system and most likely originates somewhere in the brain stem. It’s an automatic reaction! And your eyes…” Ned began excitedly recounting what he had seen but Happy interrupted them.
“What the hell…Was there no safer way to test…whatever you were testing?”
“I’m prepared to make sacrifices for the sake for science.” Penny said solemnly. “Also, I heal like really good. It’s fine Happy.”
“Whatever. We’ll get you some ice to cool that and have Bruce look you over.”
“He’s not that kind of Doctor.” Ned pointed out.
“Yeah well…the other option is the Med Bay.” Happy snapped.
“Bruce it is.” Penny sighed.
.
When Tony walked into the kitchen not much later with Steve and Rhodey by his side, he found a still slightly disgruntled Happy stress-baking crème brulee while Ned and Penny sat at the kitchen island, bend over Ned’s tablet and talking excitedly amongst themselves.
“Like…yes, I could feel the tingling sensation that normally comes with my spider sense but I don’t think we can write off that I could also feel the disturbances in the air made by the travelling ball. The hairs on my arms picked that up too…” Penny said just then, scribbling on her note pad.
But she was also pressing a cold-compression to her left eye and there were suspicious amounts of blood on her shirt.
“Let me guess…the experiments didn’t go as planned?” he asked with a long-suffering sigh, walking up to the spider-kid, gently pulling away the cold-compression to examine the damage.
He winced slightly.
Her entire left eye was swollen and bruised and the white of the eyeball was tinted red with blood. The bruise was especially dark and vivid right around her inner eyes, forming a perfect crescent where the edges of the glasses had buried themselves into the skin and her nose looked red and swollen as well.
“What’s the damage?” he asked Happy, who had taken a break from baking and was watching them.
“Broken Nose, broken cheekbone, cracked orbit from where the ball hit the glasses and the glasses pressed into the orbit. Heavy bruises overall and a sprained ankle. But Bruce was here, reset her nose and said she’d be alright by tomorrow.”
“Hello, I’m right here.” complained Penny, though her voice was muffled as though she had a cold.
Tony ignored her, turning instead to Ned.
“I thought I told you to not break her?” he asked more resigned than angry.
“Well…yeah but you also told me not break any of the windows or your belt so…That’s two out of three…I consider that success.” The boy replied.
“Also, if it weren’t for Happy interrupting, nothing would have happened.” Penny added.
“I’m sorry, are you blaming me for this?” Happy asked grumpily. “That’s it, no desert for you.”
Penny’s face fell. “No! Please Happy, I’m sorry! Of course, it wasn’t your fault, it was Ned!”
“Wow…betrayed by my best friend…” Ned said dryly, shaking his head.
“Told you I’m Anakin...” Penny shot back, winking at him.
Tony didn’t get it but judging by Neds laughter it was fine.
Penny winced when her laughing provoked her injuries.
“But maybe some more test and a bit more training are in order…” She admitted.

Five: Healing ability

Penny gets kidnapped fairly often.
That’s a fact. A sad fact and one she will never mention out loud to Tony or aunt May.
But yeah, it’s a regular occurrence that comes with the territory of being a vigilante in New York.
It happens often enough that it doesn’t bother her as much as it probably should.
It’s just that most times when she gets kidnapped it’s by someone who always underestimates her and her abilities, drones on and on about their evil plan for forever, leaving her with enough time to bust her chains, beat then up and foil their plan. And deliver them to the police if it’s a good day.
So, when she blinks her eyes open and her head swims and her thoughts are all scrambled up, it’s a familiar feeling and she immediately takes stock of her surroundings while trying to remember what happened.
That’s always the worst. It’s like your memory of the past few hours is one gigantic jig-saw-puzzle and you are drunk trying to piece it together. It usually takes her a moment or two.
She can her heartbeats. Several, more that five probably but her senses are still trying to organize themselves so she can’t be sure. There is also a low hum of electricity coming from…somewhere.
She can hear steps too, people pacing. Low conversations but the words don’t make sense to her.
The floor on which she is lying is hard and cold. Probably cement judging by the smell.
She blinks a bit more, her eyes finally managing to focus and she sees a non-descript ceiling.
Right.
Okay.
She rolls onto her side and is rewarded with a new wave of vertigo.
She groans and pushes herself up on one arm.
“Sleeping Beauty awakes.” Someone says to her left.
It’s Sam, she recognizes his voice.
“Spider-Girl?”
That’s Tony. He sounds worried. Then again, he always worries so really this is nothing new or noteworthy.
He’s next to Sam.
But they are all separated by…what looks like…
“Is that laser-induced plasma?” she mumbles, staring at the green walls of high voltage plasma that will surely either severely injure whoever touches it or kill whoever tries to walk through it, for that matter.
“With a little magnetic confinement, yeah. So, your brain works, that’s good to know. You’ve been out for a while Spidey.” Tony says, the worry lessening ever so slightly.
Spidey…okay…so it’s made-up-name time. Cool.
Why?
She forces her brain to put the puzzle pieces together.
Something about a mission and the Quinjet.
“The jet went down?” she asks, looking around.
There are several cells like the one she, Sam and Tony are in. And they’re all made of laser-induced plasma spanning between heavy metal beams.
There are other Avengers present as well.
Steve and Bucky are opposite of her and Clint is squatting in the cell on her other side looking furiously at the laser.
“Jet went down.” Tony confirms. “EMP blast to the thrusters. As soon as we get home, I’m reconfiguring the power supply so that can never happen again. And I’m sending Fury the bill while I’m at it!”
“So…what’s the plan?” she asks.
She is wearing her mask but Karen is not online. In fact, her entire suit is offline. Nothing working except her web shooters.
Great.
“So far they just threw us in here and we haven’t seen anybody since. We don’t know what their plan is.” Sam grumbles.
Penny rolls her eyes. “I asked what our plan is.”
“No plan so far. We wanted to make sure you were okay before we tried anything. You really have been out a long time Spidey. We were really worried there for a while.” Steve explains, a fond smile playing around the corners of his mouth.
Good thing she’s wearing her mask because she is blushing hard right now.
“You didn’t have to do that…” she muttered.
“Yes, we did, because I’m sure as hell not carrying your unconscious ass anywhere when you have to perfectly good legs to do that for you.” Sam interrupts her.
She gives him her her best middle finger before approaching the laser induced plasma and examining it.
“Careful kid.” Tony warns her unnecessarily.
“So…Plan?” she asks.
Tony gestured at the iron beams that make up the corners of each cell and from where the laser seems to come.
“I’ve been trying to get in there, see what we’re dealing with but the EMP fried my nanites. So, they’re useless. As is most of our tech.” he explains rather annoyed.
Penny nods. That would explain why they’re all in their suits and gear but still stuck here.
She examines the iron. Knocks on it carefully.
It makes a hollow sound, as expected.
“Think if we can get to mechanics behind it, we can hotwire it and turn this lightshow off?” she asks Tony, running her hand up and down the metal, knocking against it every now and then, assessing the sound it makes while also checking out the ceiling for any hidden cables.
She only sees one security camera but judging by the angle she won’t be in its line of sight.
“That’s the idea but I’m a bit stuck on my end since I can’t get into it. And those of us with super-strength who do are useless when it comes to mechanical engineering.” Tony agrees, throwing a pointed look at Steve and Bucky.
“Come on man, really?” Steve asks, clearly exasperated.
“Yes, Mr. ‘It-seems-to-run-on-some-kind-of-electricity’, really. Now, Penny, if you wouldn’t mind…”
She grins and nods.
And then punches the metal beam.
“What the hell?” Sam exclaims, jumping slightly.
The metal caves in under her knuckles and while being careful not to accidentally touch the laser, she begins pealing it away like the peel of a banana.
“God, I always forget how freakily strong the kid is.” Clint whispers.
“What can you see Spidey?” Tony asks over him.
Penny examines the construction inside the beam, peeling more and more of the metal away, revealing the entire thing.
“We’ve built more complicated circuits at school.” She says confidently. “A subtle disruption of the electric flow, bumping up the resistance and voila, we have too much voltage and the whole thing short-circuits.”
“English?” Bucky asks from the other side of the room.
Penny rolls her eyes. “I can turn it off.”
“How quick?” Steve asks.
“No idea. But you can use that time to formulate a real plan to get us out here.” She shoots back, crouching down to work.
“Need help?” Tony asks, pacing up and down the length of his cell.
She can tell he hates that he can’t do anything.
“I need copper to redirect the electric charge and fry it. But all the wires here are live, I don’t think touching them would be a good idea.” She explains her findings.
“Where the hell do you want us to get copper from?” Sam asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
She glares up at him. “I wasn’t talking to you.” She grumbles.
Tony seems to be thinking intently.
A jolt of electricity runs up Penny’s arm as she accidently touches one of the wires.
“Ouch!” she shrieks, flinching away slightly.
“You okay?” Tony asks concerned.
“Yeah, fine. Like I said, live wires, it’s a no-no.”
More careful this time Penny set to work, isolating the important components, managing to find the main electricity source.
“I got it but that still doesn’t solve my copper problem.” She exclaims.
She looks over to Tony, hands falling into her lap.
Her web shooter presses against the palm of her wrist.
But then inspiration strikes her.
“Oh my god, I’m such an idiot!” she exclaims, tearing them off and smashing them against the ground.
“Okay, Spidey’s lost it everybody. Kid, what are you doing?” Clint asks dryly.
“Getting us out of here.” She mutters, prying the electric charger of her taser webs lose from its housing unit.
“Brilliant kiddo. I’ll make you new ones as soon as we’re home.” Tony promises cheerfully.
“Yeah, but it’s still not enough copper. Really sorry for wat I have to do Mr. Stark. And for the record: I wouldn’t if this wasn’t serious. I mean no disrespect.” She mutters.
Tony frowns. “What do you mean kid?”
In response Penny presses the spider-symbol on her chest and her suit deflates, falling from her shoulder’s ad pooling around her ankles.
“What the…” she hears Sam mutter but the rest of his exclamation is lost in the sound of Penny ripping open her suit and Tony’s horrified strangles gasp.
Her suit is a mechanical wonder, considering all the tech that is in there while still being as flexible as it is. It pains Penny more than anything to break it but this situation warrants a few sacrifices.
Using her fingernails as pliers she extracts the copper wires and twists them around each other until they make up one longer and slightly thicker wire.
She kneels back down before the metal pole, ignoring the cold concrete on her bare knees.
All she wears under the suit is under-armour like bike-shorts and a skin tight shirt that encircles her upper chest and upper arms, leaving her limbs and mid-riff bare.
It’s not that she’s self-conscious (okay, yes, she is a little bit – she’s basically standing here in her underwear) but it still feels rather vulnerable.
She tries not to think about it, wrapping the copper wire around the main electricity source before connecting both electric chargers.
For a few seconds nothing happens and Penny wonders if she miscalculated this but then smoke starts rising and the chargers become hot in her fingers. Very hot.
But she knows she can’t drop them yet.
Then there is the ‘Bang’ she’d been hoping for, only it’s more of a ‘BANG’ that not only blows out the laser but all electricity and the pushback sends her flying into the hard concrete ground.
“Ow…” she moans as the resulting impact shakes up all her bones and forces the air out of her lungs.
Without the lights on the ceiling or the light coming from the laser-walls it is rather gloomy here, wherever here is, but she can still see just fine.
Then Mr. Stark is by her side.
“Penny, are you okay?”
He pulls her to her feet.
“Nice work kiddo. You good?”
“Yeah. Sure. Let’s go. I help up my end. What’s the rest of the plan?” she shoots back, looking around.
“Run like hell?” Clint suggests.
Nobody objects and Bucky has already torn the door of its hinges.
He and Steve take up point, taking down the guards rushing their way with ease and taking their weapons for themselves.
Penny hangs to the back, aware of how exposed she is. She keeps the balled up remains of her suit close to her chest. Sure, her suit is not bulletproof but it is reenforced. Also, she doesn’t have her web shooters so she’ll have to rely on her hand-to-hand combat skills should it come to further confrontation.
But Tony is there, guarding her, even if his suit is basically useless it’s still armour.
As they make their way towards freedom, Penny can’t help but feel proud. Whatever she did, it took out the electricity to this whole place! The baddies had probably rerouted all the power supply towards the cells to keep the lasers up. But when she had overcharged the system, it all had come crushing down. Typical beginners mistake.
Shots being fired towards them tear her form her thoughts and she barely registers Tony pushing her against the wall, covering her with his own body.
For the second time this day the air is violently pressed from her lungs and she gasps, struggling to catch her breath.
“Are you hit? Penny, are you hit, did he get you?” Tony shouts in her ear.
“I’m fine. Just…wasn’t prepared…” she explains.
Clint, who just finished disposing of their attacker gestures for them to go on.
Penny doesn’t argue. She’s done with this place anyway.
They reach a staircase and Steve is leading them upstairs, when from behind them guards in black uniform appear, opening fire.
Clint curses, ducking away.
Tony tries to push himself between her and the bullets but Penny is running on autopilot by now and jumps onto the ceiling, evading the hail of bullets.
She drops from the ceiling into the first guy, using one of Natasha’s moves to bring him down by twisting her body around him, forcing him down and knocking him out cold.
Her teammates have recovered by then are next to her, pushing the men back.
Adrenalin is running high in Penny veins.
She feels like she could throw the Hulk halfway across America.
She is so high on her bodies own chemicals that when the bullet hits her and tears right through her bare and unprotected midriff, she doesn’t feel a thing.
“KID!”
“SPIDEY!”
The others obviously see the blood gushing out but Penny doesn’t miss a step, sliding across the ground baseballs style (vaguely realizing that maybe rough cement ground is not the best place for such a move) and between the shooter’s legs, kicking them away while grabbing his rifle and slamming the butt of it right into the bridge of his nose.
He’s out cold before he fully hits the ground and she tosses the gun aside, getting up right away.
Suddenly it’s rather quite on the stairs.
Everybody is looking at her.
“What?” she asks, her voice shaking from the overflow of chemicals. She’s almost sure she can taste the gunpowder residue in the air on her tongue.
“Kid…Spidey…you…you okay?” Steve asks carefully.
“Of course not, she was shot!” Tony argues, pushing forwards towards her.
“Sure doesn’t look like that anymore.” Bucky points out.
“Hu?” Penny asks. “What do you mean?”
“Penny…you were shot…in the side…” Clint reminds her.
“I’m…I’m fine.” She assures him, bouncing on the spot.
“That’s just too freaky…” Sam mutters, throwing up his hands and turning around.
Penny frowns. “What?”
“Penny…kiddo…your side…I didn’t know you could heal that fast…” Tony says softly, redirecting her attention down.
Indeed…right there, where she had felt the bullet hit her and had gone through her, the flesh was mending itself before their eyes, as were eth superficial abrasions on her arms and legs form sliding on the ground.
It was like watching a time-laps video only in real time.
There was a lot of blood, still bright red, wet and fresh. But the wound sit should belong to were all but gone.
“Oh…neat…it doesn’t usually do that…” Penny muttered, just as fascinated as Tony.
“No, no it doesn’t…”
“Must be the adrenalin…” she muttered. “Or the electric shock…Maybe they supercharged my healing abilities…”
“Can we geek out about your freaky powers at a later point in time? We still have to get out of here!” Tony reminded her, taking her arm and pulling her along and up the stairs.
“Right…Priorities.” She agreed and followed him.
.
.
Later…much later really…on their flight back home, Penny lies on the field-cot on the Quinjet, hooked up to an IV but otherwise fine, if somewhat exhausted and hungry, debating with Tony whether or not her powers could be super-charged.
“I’m just saying, we should run so clinical trials before we throw that hypothesis aside…” she suggests, shrugging from where she lies.
He glares at her. “That last time you ran some ‘clinical trials’ you and Ted broke your face. And that was with tennis balls. Do you honestly think I will let you electrocute yourself?”
She grins. “Let’s just say you’re not always around and I have access to my own state-of-the-art lab!”
“Access I can restrict at any time.” He reminds her.
“I guess if the kid’s sassing and being annoying she’s alright?” Sam asks, walking over from the cockpit.
“She is fine.” Penny assures him, suppressing a yawn.
“Good. Had us worried there for a second Spidey. And that’s twice in one day! I didn’t sign up for that.” He reminds her, patting her shoulder lightly before walking over to Bucky.
She smiles, then yawns some more.
Tony pats her thigh gently.
“Catch some sleep kiddo, we’re still a few hours out.”
But she’s already asleep.

Plus One: Intelligence

Domesticity was not a word usually attributed to the Avengers.
Sure, they shared a sort-of second home at the Compound and at the Tower, trained together, went on countless missions together, but despite all that they still had separate individual lives that they would always go back too.
Tony would go home to the cabin with his wife and daughter, tinkering in the garage and enjoying retirement.
Bruce was busy with his own research but would join Tony from time to time for their old Science Bros days.
Rhodey, Sam and Bucky would go back to their work as military contractors and travel around the world for Black Ops.
Wanda and Vision would return to their lives of domestic bliss.
Natasha would disappear wherever.
Clint had his family and farm.
So did Scott, minus the farm but he would work with Hank Pym and Hope on extending their understanding of the Quantum realm and all that.
And Steve…well Steve would go on long drives on his motorcycle, go to art classes and freak children out at the museum.
And Penny…well…she would go back to Queens, back to patrolling as Spider-Girl, keeping her neighbourhood safe. And of course, it would be back to school for her as well. Back to AP classes and college prep courses and AcaDec practice, back to Flash and his taunting remarks and all the other mundane aspects of her private citizen life.
Until the next call to assemble came, that was…
So, it was a rare occasion that almost all of them would be gathered together in the Compound, let alone in the same room.
Yet here they were, reading, playing video-games, baking in the kitchen, debating new scientific discoveries or arguing about mundane things or in her case…doing homework.
Usually, Penny would find it hard to concentrate with all this going on in the background but not today.
She was just extremely happy to be a part of this, to around her teammates, who were like a second family to her.
She had missed them all very much.
The familiar opening music to Jeopardy reached her ears from where she sat at the kitchen island and she heard Clint excitedly rub his hands together.
“Right, get ready to be annihilated boys, I’ll show you how a master of this game does it.”
“You wish!” she heard Sam respond, obviously taking on the challenge.
“You’re so cute.” Snorted Natasha and Penny heard how she snapped her book shut and put it away. “This is my game boys.”
“Pietro and I used to watch re-runs in Sokovia. I know this by heart.” Wanda stated, sounding very excited.
“Let’s do teams!” Clint suggested.
“I take Vision.” Wanda said instantly.
“That’s not fair, he’s a living Computer, he’ll just google the answer!” Sam objected.
They continued to bicker as the board of the first round was announced.
Penny shook her head.
Bruce placed a plate of freshly baked cookies in front of her with a smile.
“Here you go, a little reward for all the hard studying.”
“Oh my god, Bruce, thank you so much!” she squealed excitedly. “These look delic….”
Only to be interrupted from the peanut gallery.
“Oi, shut it web-head, you made us miss the first question with your shrieking.” Sam yelled.
Penny rolled her eyes.
“It’s not like you could answer it anyway…” she shot back, turning on her chair and looking into the living room, where most occupants had gathered on the couch and around the TV.
“Is that a challenge bug?” Sam asked, spreading his arms like he was inviting her to fight him.
She rolled her eyes and turned back to her homework.
“Leave the kid be Wilson, she’s studying.” Tony called out, though not bothering to look up from his book.
Silence settled over the room and the host on the TV announced eth next Question. Or Answer, depending on how you wanted to look on it.
“Between 1912 and 1948 Olympic medals were awarded in this category, yet after some heated debates after the second World War, this category was scrapped from the register.”
Without thinking Penny said: “What is Competitive Arts?” before scribbling down another answer to one of her many math problems.
Behind her on the TV one of the participants echoed her answer and the host confirmed it.
“I knew that…” she heard Sam scoff under his breath.
“Yeah right…” snorted Bucky.
“This phrase was traced back to a British navy admiral in 1917.”
“What is OMG?” Penny muttered, tracing the finished outline of the graph on her paper.
“Correct again.” Bruce commented, eye the TV from where he stood.
She shrugged.
“This Chinese Grapefruit is a hybrid of tangerines and pomelo.”
“What is an Orange?”
“This occurs when drinking to much water and hypernatremia sets in, causing the notable death of 2002 Boston Marathon runner Cynthia Lucero.”
“What is water-poisoning?” Penny sighed, closing her algebra book and shoving in back into her bag before taking out her English assignment.
“This French word refers to both a flower, a type of wine and a bodily function.”
“Pissenlit.”
She examined the task at hand. It didn’t look to difficult and she had already read the required chapters last week so this should be an easy one.
“Are you going to be talking over the entire show or are you going to let us enjoy this?” Sam growled from the couch.
Penny looked up, confused.
“What? Why?”
“Ignore him Penny, he’s just sulking because he doesn’t know any of the answers.” Tony said, still not bothering to look up from his book.
“Yeah, well, I will get the next one if little Ms. Smarty-Pants over there would not be such a nerd and always give it away.” Sam tried to justify himself.
“Right, okay, if you want to have a chance, I will keep quiet Sam.” She promised him sweetly.
He huffed, then turned back to the TV. “I don’t need you to give me a chance…” he scoffed. “I can take you on anytime.”
“Don’t humiliate yourself Wilson. She is smarter than you. No shame in admitting it.” Tony sighed, turning over the next page in his book.
“We’ll see.” Sam promised.
The next category opened up on the TV show.
“A dark region on Pluto’s Moon shares the same name as a similar place in a fantasy novel.”
Penny waited patiently but when Sam said nothing and the buzzer on the TV rang, she said just as sweetly as before: “What is Mordor?”
Someone snickered.
“That’s nerd-knowledge. No normal person knows this shit…” Sam grumbled.
“Turritopsis dohrnii, the sea-creature that is able to revert to its adolescent stage after going through adulthood.”
Again, Penny waited for Sam to say something.
“What is a worm?” he stated confidently, then looked at Penny.
She smiled. “What is the immortal jellyfish?” she said and on TV the host confirmed her answer.
“I was close.” Sam argued.
“Not even remotely.” Bucky disagreed.
“Right, next question, come on Spidey.” Cheered Wanda.
“As stated in the Atlas Obscura: "Participants employed the timeless tools of provocation and perversion as well as satire, rhetoric, and early bathroom humour to publicly trounce opponents.".”
Sam stared blankly at the TV. “What?” he asked, frowning and crossing his arms over his chest.
“What is flyting?” Penny answered correctly
“Alright, that’s it, I give up. How can you possibly know something like that? They don’t cover that shit in school!”
“Told you.” Tony muttered, continuing to read his book.
Penny smiled at Sam, which seemed to infuriate him even more.
“Don’t beat yourself up too much Sam, if you want you can join the group of seventh graders I tutor on Wednesdays after school. I’m sure you’d fit right in.”
There was laughter all around.
Penny saw how Tony shook his head and heard how he whispered under his breath: “Good…I hate this family.” But there was no real bite to his words.
She shook her head as well.
I love this family, she thought happily.