******** THIS STORY TAKES PLACE AT THE END OF ENDGAME AND THUS HAS SPOILERS******
However, I refuse to accept the end of that movie as canon. Instead, I wrote this. This takes place during the Tiny Penny Parker series where Tony is Penny's biological dad. There are no major character deaths in this one (except Thanos. Screw Thanos.)
Trope: Biological Dad
"Penny." The girl opened her eyes at her name, staring up at what looked to be a pulsing yellow light. "Penny." Someone knelt beside her, and memories came back quickly.
"Doctor…" She coughed, blinking up at the man. "Doctor Strange?"
She'd been in her dad's arms...he'd been staring down at her in horror and so much fear. Looking around the strange desert where she lay on her back, she quickly found the others. Quill and the antenna lady and the...big one. With the tattoos. "It's time to get up. We've been sleeping long enough." He told her, holding out a hand, his smile surprisingly soft. "It's time to go help your dad."
Her dad. She'd been in his arms. He'd held her until she fell and his eyes had begged her not to leave him and then...she'd fallen asleep? Passed out? She didn't have time to think about it as she stood, letting him pull her to her feet. Looking around, she tried to find her dad...he would be there, right? He'd been with her when she'd passed out. When she'd gotten dusty and felt herself...disintegrate. She'd turned to dust! The thought made her shudder. Her dad had held her and then she'd turned to dust and...she'd left him. And she had no idea how long it had been.
She didn't see her father, but she also didn't see Thanos. Just the name made her shiver a little as she stared up at Doctor Strange who watched her with a strange look on his face. "Where is he?" She asked, voice shaking. "Where's my dad?"
"Wait...you're Stark's daughter?" Quill asked, pointing a finger at her, and she nodded, sniffing and crossing her arms over her chest, the thick metal of her suit reassuringly heavy. It made her feel solid. LIke she wasn't going to disappear again. Crumble away to dust.
I'm sorry.
Those had been her last words to her father. She'd known that he would blame himself over this. That he would worry over her...that he'd never forgive himself for this even though none of it was his fault. And still, he'd just stared down at her, as if his hand on her arm and his eyes locked on hers could keep her there. In the end, the last thing she remembered was looking just past him to the sky. An unfamiliar sky...filled with strange stars against a hazy orange sky. She might have cried...she couldn't remember. The last thing she'd seen was dust.
And then, a light. The light of a portal. Doctor Strange had started to make a portal. A golden light in a circle above the ground. "Are you ready?" He asked her.
"Ready for what?" She asked, not sure what was gone on. She'd been asleep and now she was awake and none of it made sense. But Doctor Strange was watching her, expectant.
"To fight him again. To help your father."
Was she ready to fight Thanos again? To face that monster? No. Of course not. How could she ever be ready? But her dad needed her. And she was Spidergirl...she was a hero. So she nodded. "Let's do it." She whispered, glancing up at Quill and the other two, a slight smile on her face, but she knew her lips were trembling. That something terrible and strange had happened the first time they'd faced Thanos, and now they would have to face him again.
The portal opened, and Penny couldn't believe her eyes. The ruins of a huge building that it took her a moment to recognize were the backdrop of a battle. The Avengers compound had been reduced to a giant pile of rubble, beams and glass laying everywhere. Gray and black were the only colors she could see...and bodies. Bodies of alien monsters and...Steve knelt on the ground, a shield that looked to be utterly destroyed on his arm, and when he met her eyes, his own widened in horror, then something like relief. It had been so long since she'd seen Steve. She wanted to run to him...to throw her arms around him like she had when she was little. But this was a battleground. Still, she smiled at him, lifting up a hand and waving with her fingers. He snorted, grinning at her just a little, eyes shining.
Penny looked around, watching as other portals appeared and more people stepped out of them. The Black Panther and an entire army. Sam and his wingsuit, along with Bucky and more sorcerers like Doctor Strange with magic coming from their hands. Then a woman on a horse, followed by others, all with swords and axes. And there were more...all around the terrible, gray battlefield filled with monsters like the ones on the first attack on New York were huge portals...filled with people ready to fight.
And so was she. She had to be. She was Spidergirl. And she would help her dad.
Leaping forward, she shot a web, jumping into action. "Karen? You with me?" She asked as her mask materialized over her face.
"Hello, Penny." Tears filled her eyes as she smiled. She didn't know how long she'd been away, nor did she remember any of it, but she had a feeling that it had been a long time.
"It's so good to hear from you again." She murmured, launching herself into the battle. Talking made it less scary somehow. "I missed you." Dodging under the arm of a...giant, monster alien thing, she shot another web at its leg, spinning around and tripping it up, just like in Star Wars.
"I missed you as well, Penny." So much was happening...so many armies swarming the battlefield. She did her best to focus on what was happening right in front of her...monsters. Aliens. Web. Punch. Duck. Jump. Remember to breathe. She wasn't afraid, she realized. No time. No fear. Just movement. Duck, lunge, web, punch, duck. Don't scream. Don't cry out. Fight. Remember everything and fight!
And then, from the corner of her eye, she saw the Iron Man suit go flying, a huge alien coming after it. She webbed it by the arm, pulling as hard as she could and knocking it to the ground. Then she scurried past it, shooting a web and flipping over another one of those monsters, landing on her toes and then hurrying over to the armor...to her father. "Dad!" She cried, racing up to him, and he turned, jaw dropping as he looked at her...looked at her like this could only be a dream. Like it couldn't be real. She knew that feeling. And so she spoke, forcing her voice to be light as she reached out her hands and pulled him to his feet.
"Hey, Dad! This is crazy, right? Remember when we went to space and I got all dusty? I must have passed out because the next thing I know, Doctor Strange was telling me that we'd been sleeping for long enough and that we had to help you…" He was moving toward her and before she could react, he was grabbing her, yanking her close and holding her, his hand on the back of her head as he shook.
"Penny." He whispered her name, one hand moving over her back as if to make sure she was solid. As if to make sure it was really her. She shuddered, sniffing and burying her face in his armor. And for just a moment, she let go, a sob shaking her body.
She was scared she was scared she was scared.
"Daddy…"
"I'm here. I've got you. Penny...my Penny. I'm here, baby. I've got you. I love you so much...I thought...thought I'd never…" She shook her head, well aware of the battle raging around them.
"I love you too." She whispered, smiling when he cupped her cheek.
But then there were aliens and fighting and screaming and she had to pull away...had to fight. Had to watch her father fight for his own life as she struggled to save her own, ordering Karen to reassemble her mask over her head. The goggles helped her focus a little, and Karen did a great job of filtering out some of the noise. It was going...okay. She couldn't see the bigger picture, but she guessed she didn't need to. Instead, she focused on what she could, trying to stick close to her dad so that she could keep an eye on him. He was doing the same, she could tell.
And then…"Pen! Catch!" Penny turned just in time to catch the gauntlet that Steve threw her, grabbing it and holding it to her chest.
"Go, Penny!" Rhodey ordered in her ear, the two of them standing ready to fight as Thanos seemed to regroup. Steve was looking a little worse for wear, and she worried that he would fall over at any moment. Still, he had dragged himself back to his feet. "Get it away from him!"
And she started to. She turned to run. Saw the eyes of Thanos on her, huge and furious as Steve struggled to stay on his feet. All around her was screaming and the cries of aliens dying and people dying and...and then there was Doctor Strange. He was doing something with his hands, holding back a wall of water. But he turned and caught her eyes, holding up a finger. Smiling just a little
He'd seen the future. All of the possible futures.
He'd seen one where they won.
This was the endgame.
"Penny, go!" Steve screamed, stumbling under a blow, his ruined shied barely covering him. There was screaming and fighting all around her, and she knew that if she survived, she was going to have nightmares about this. The thought almost made her smile. She'd deal with the nightmares if she could just survive. "Get it away from here. Go!"
"Penny!" She heard her father cry, just before Thanos knocked him out of the way, the suit colliding with a pile of rubble, and her heart practically stopped before she saw him get back up.
"Kid! Get the gauntlet away from here!" Rhodey ordered in his serious military voice.
There was an army on one side of her, Thanos on the other. And people were yelling at her to go. To run. To get away.
But this was the endgame.
Penny took a deep breath, signaling for her mask to dematerialize, nanobots skittering over her face as it disappeared. But still, everything seemed to be on mute...the screaming and dying, the fire in the background, the water being held back by the wizards. Steve was on his knees, struggling to pull himself back to his feet. She could hear her father screaming her name in the background. She knew that Pepper was around...she'd seen her in the armor. But Penny was going to end this. Now. Before anyone else had to die.
She held up the gauntlet with her right hand, almost able to feel the stones humming. Doctor Strange had talked about them...they were too powerful for a human to use. But she wasn't fully human, was she? She didn't look at her father as she slipped her left hand into the golden metal glove that might have been heavy had she not been Spidergirl. It was huge and awkward on her hand, but somehow, it fit.
And immediately there was pain. The kind that raced up and down her arm and then through her body, surrounding her with a rainbow glow that would have been beautiful had it not felt like it was burning her from the inside. Despite the urge to drop, she stayed on her feet, aware in some part of her brain that she was screaming...that other people were screaming too. Her father was screaming her name...so was Steve, arm outstretched...but he was too far away to stop her. So was her dad. The two men reached for her, but before they could move, she lifted her arm, ignoring Thanos's roar of fury as he moved closer.
Her left arm shook as she held it up and she had to gasp for air, forcing her throat to stop the noise. If this was going to kill her, she wouldn't die screaming. Everything was hazy as she stared at Thanos, the one who had turned her to nothing...the one who had haunted her father's dreams and killed so many people even before this last battle. And it would be his last battle. She wanted to say something witty, if only to stall for time. Because he had to know that she was scared. Because she didn't want to die. But she knew that this was it...the future that Doctor Strange had seen.
"You're a child! You can't…"
Penny didn't let him finish. She didn't say anything witty or brave or snarky...didn't have the strength to withstand this kind of pain and banter. But she brought her fingers together and remembered. She remembered the first time she met her dad...the first time he came into her room when she was sick and held her. Remembered the first time he told her that he loved her. She thought back to dancing on his feet and being swept up in his arms. The first time she'd swung through the city alone, and the first time she'd swung through the city with Iron Man flying at her side.
Liz. Ned. MJ. Her mother. Uncle Rhodey and Auntie Nat and dancing with Steve in the living room and building LEGOs with Thor and…
A day in the lab. Working on her suit. Led Zeppelin playing in the background, her dad singing along at the top of his lungs. The way he smiled at her when she laughed, eyes going soft and so full of love for her that sometimes she wondered how he could contain it all.
She found her father and smiled, heart aching when she saw the tear falling down his cheek. "I love you, Dad."
And then, closing her eyes and holding onto that memory...holding onto her desire to protect everyone she loved, she snapped her fingers.
When Penny opened her eyes again, she was staggering, then sitting, the gauntlet laying at her side. In front of her, Thanos was staring, mouth open, as he faded away, the edges of his body turning to dust. She wanted to say something clever. Ask him how it felt to lose to a teenage girl. But she could barely lift her head from where it rested against a pile of what she hoped was just rubble. Everywhere, the aliens were turning to dust and scattering into the wind. Monsters were disappearing before her very eyes, and she couldn't keep them open. It was so, blessedly quiet.
"Penny!" Someone knelt in front of her. Her dad. Of course it was her dad. She smiled, tasting blood on her tongue as she forced her eyes open again. "Baby, look at me. You're okay...I'm right here, Pen. I'm here."
"We won." She choked out, and his smile lit up his whole face as he cupped her cheek.
"Yeah...yeah we won. Thanks to you." He was bleeding from his lip, and there was a gash above his eyebrow. But he was okay. He was alive, and so was she, and all she wanted was to take a shower and go to bed, preferably curled up next to him.
"Damn, kid." Someone said to her right, and she glanced over to find Sam and Steve right beside her. On her other side, someone was touching her arm, and she flinched, barely moving her head and gasping when that hurt more.
"Hold on, Penny. I'm almost done." Something was being sprayed on her arm then, and she screamed, throwing her head back and grinding her teeth together.
"Okay...it's okay, honey. It's okay." Her dad murmured, a thumb wiping under her eye. "Just a second. Fri? Scan her." He ordered. She didn't hear her reply, but she didn't need to. Everything hurt, her arm worst of all, and she had a splitting headache. She didn't think she'd ever been in quite this much pain. But already her cells were putting themselves back together.
"Okay. That was just an antibacterial spray. I can do more when we get you to the sanctum."
"Huh?" She asked, recognizing Stephen Strange's voice.
"We're going to the sanctum to get everyone patched up. Well...not everyone. They're opening up portals to Wakanda too. But we're going to take you back to the sanctum." Her father was rambling and she flipped her left hand over, holding it out. Immediately, he took her hand, closing his eyes and pressing his lips together. "You're going to be fine, kiddo. You've got the best doctor on the planet here. And he can make you a balloon animal." Doctor Strange rolled his eyes as he stood, making a portal a few feet away. Past him, she could see why looked like dozens of portals opening everywhere.
"I want a giraffe, Doctor Strange." The man sighed, shaking his head and almost smiling.
"I can offer you a balloon snake, a balloon worm, or a balloon hotdog sans bun." The doctor told her, waving his hand as a portal to what looked like someone's bedroom opened.
"Giraffe or nothing at all." She insisted, ignoring how her voice barely worked...how every word made her headache worse.
"As if there were any doubt about her being your daughter." The doctor muttered, but he didn't really look upset. "Alright. Let's get back to the sanctum. Wong is already there, preparing medical supplies.
Wong...she sort of remembered him being mentioned...maybe. She guessed that she'd find out who he was soon. In the meantime, she had a more pressing problem. "Dad?"
Her father, who hadn't once taken his eyes off of her, jumped to attention, moving closer. "Yeah, baby?"
"I don't think I can walk." Penny admitted, hating to admit to the weakness, but also well aware that she felt like she might pass out at any moment.
"I'll carry you, young Penny." The voice startled her, and she looked past her father to find Thor...but he looked different. One of his eyes was a different color, and his hair was long and matted, blood dripping from a wound on his temple and into his hair. And he looked….tired. So tired. And sad. Pained.
He looked like her dad had looked after the wormhole.
"Thor…" She whispered as he knelt beside her, lifting her easily into his arms. It had been so long...he'd been gone for such a long time. And he looked so much older.
"Yes, I know. I look...different." He told her, wry, almost embarrassed smile turning the corners of his mouth. She remembered the gentle, smiling man who'd sat with her on Christmas eve, building with LEGOS and then holding her in his arms for hours while she'd been sick, and shook her head.
"I missed you so much." She whispered, wrapping her good arm around his neck as best she could and hiding her face in his shoulder, tears soaking into his shirt. "You were gone forever...you promised you'd visit!"
"I know...I'm very sorry." He murmured, holding her just as tightly for a moment, then moved toward the portal, her father only a half step behind. "Apparently I've missed a lot...when did you become Spidergirl, a woman formidable enough to wield the infinity stones?"
"When did you get a different eye?" She countered, making her voice light. "Is that something Asgardians do sometimes? Can you just change your eye color whenever you want?" It took every ounce of energy to keep up the banter, and he seemed to realize even as he chuckled, shifting her so that she could lean her head on his shoulder, her burned arm bent painfully and resting on her stomach. She tried not to look at it...at the burned, blistered skin.
"That is a story for another time, young Penny." He told her, laying her gently on a bed in what looked to be a large bedroom. She couldn't take much of it in, though, as her vision was fading at the edges. Eyes struggling to take in the people who'd come, she tried to count. To find everyone. But she could barely focus...she was so tired.
"Just rest, baby. The doc's going to look you over, and if you're lucky, when you wake up, he'll pull a rabbit out of his hat." She had to giggle at that, about to tell him that Doctor Strange didn't have a hat, but she didn't have the energy. Instead, she closed her eyes as someone poked her in the arm with a needle, and someone else released her suit. She was fine...her dad was with her. Thanos was gone. Thor was back, and everyone was safe.
Everything was going to be okay.