Ten Years Later

"I'm Conner Roberts, and I'm coming to you live from outside Tony Stark's mansion. The billionaire has not left his mansion in a few days, but he still refuses to hand over the Iron Man suit. Authorities are giving Mr Stark one week to give up the suit, and after that they will take action to forcibly remove the suit from his possession."

"And so they should."

Penny looked up from her cereal and glanced at her mother, who was watching the news on the couch. It had become a daily ritual of her mother's to watch the news in the morning and complain. Her mother had become so engrossed in the television that she hadn't even put up her long brown hair into the boring bun she wore every day.

"Doesn't he realise that the sooner he gives the suit over, the sooner everyone will leave him alone?" her mother asked.

Penny's father had a way of ignoring his wife's constant complaining, so it was up to Penny to reply.

"They won't leave him alone once he gives up the suit. They'll continue harassing him," Penny said, finishing her cereal and taking the bowl into the kitchen.

The TV turned off and shoes clicked on the tiles as Penny's mother exited the lounge room.

"The time for superheroes is over, Penny," her mother said. "We don't need them anymore."

Penny watched as her mother walked off to her bedroom to continue getting ready, rolling her eyes. She was nothing like her mother. Her mother hated superheroes, whereas Penny loved them and looked up to them. They helped save Manhattan from destruction. Who knew when they would be needed again?

Penny was a bit more like her father, but not that much. Her father was a mild man, and Penny was far from mild. She was loud and that seemed to attract people to her. She was popular in school, and her father hadn't been. Penny had many of the same views as her father, and she disagreed with every single view of her mothers.

Penny didn't even look like them. Her mother had dark brown hair and brown eyes and her father had blonde hair and blue eyes. Penny had a head of thick, wavy, dark red hair and green eyes. Penny had asked her parents about it numerous times, but they always told her that it was just a recessive gene.

Grabbing her bag off the bench, Penny headed to her room to get dressed and pack her stuff for school. The walls of her room were covered with posters of the Avengers, some dating back as far as 2012, when the public first became aware of their existence. Penny even had the article that had been published when Tony Stark revealed that he was Iron Man. She didn't want the world to not need superheroes anymore.

"I'm leaving now," Penny called as she put her lunch into her bag. Her parents came out of their room, both fully dressed and ready to go.

Her mother eyed her bag, annoyed. "You're nearly 16 years old, Penelope. Why are you still using a bag like that?"

There's nothing wrong with my bag, Penny thought, annoyed. Her Avengers bag was a classic, and everyone still had superhero bags. Especially all the people she hung out with.

"Everyone has bags like this."

Her mother rolled her eyes and pecked her on the cheek. "I'll see you later," she said, squeezing Penny tightly in a hug. Penny hugged her mother and then her father. She walked out the front door and waved to them as she walked off.

"She's leaving, sir."

Nick nodded and handed the manila folder to the agent in the backseat. In his opinion, Penny was old enough to know the truth about her parents. Ten years later, and they still hadn't found Barton. Nick had a faint inkling as to where the man could be, but he thought it best that he didn't go looking.

"Block off the street. Get the rest of the pedestrian traffic off that path. We don't want someone else picking up the file," Nick said into the walkie-talkie.

There was a pause and then a voice came back over the walkie-talkie. "You're good to go, sir."

The agent in the backseat, Charles Spinner, opened the door and stepped out. He was only a man of 45, yet the outfit and makeup he was wearing aged him about 25 years. That was what they wanted. Who'd suspect an old man?

Penny could never walk to school without her head buried in a book. She always thought it was the best way to read. She was currently reading an old book, one her mother read when she was a child. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone it was called. First in a series of seven, and Penny loved it. She was just getting to a good part (there was a troll in the dungeon!) when someone collided violently with her. Penny dropped her book and nearly fell over.

"I'm so sorry!" she gasped when she realised she'd knocked over an old man.

"It's fine," the old man said, getting to his feet and brushing himself off.

"Are you alright?" Penny asked, mortified.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. Have a good day now." The old man began to wander off at a slow pace.

Penny looked down at the ground to locate her book and realised there was a folder laying on the path beside it. She picked both up, and turned around to call to the old man.

"Mister, wait, you for-" Penny stopped short when she realised the old man was gone. She was confused. There was nowhere the man could have gone, nowhere he could have hidden. Surely he was too slow to have walked all the way to the corner in that short period of time?

Penny shook her head and tucked the book under her arm so she had both hands free to look at the folder. Maybe she could find some form of ID in the folder so she could return it to the old man.

She took another quick look around, in case the old man had come back. When he hadn't, she flipped open the folder.

Nothing could have prepared her for what was inside.

A photo of her.

A/N: Now Penny thinks an old man is stalking her. Yay.

I realise that this chapter didn't really do much in the story. I just wanted to introduce Penny back into it.

I hope you guys likey. :)

p.s. Don't be angry because I skipped ten years. Pleaseeee.