Author's Note: A note about the height thing, I'm considering Tony to be RDJ's actual height, He as to wear heels to be nearly the same height as Gwyneth Paltrow. Look it up it's actually cute. So yes Tony is shorter than Pepper, he and Piper are almost the same size, he's got a few inches on her but she hasn't finished growing. I own nothing.

38. Aware

Piper followed Harry to school, they were both gonna be late. Harry had slept well through his alarm, his limo driver was breaking several traffic laws to try and get them there on time. She was still in costume. She wasn't planning on actually going to school today. Once Harry was safe in the SHEILD enforced walls of the building she was going Goblin hunting. Well relatively safe she supposed. She still didn't trust SHEILD, but nothing had happened since she'd received the message yesterday. But she trusted Natasha like she trusted no one else, the woman had never lied to her, never minced words, never sugar coated. It had to have been her who had sent the message. If Auntie Tasha thought SHEILD was rotten she wasn't going to trust it. But she had no where else that Harry would be even relatively safe.

She couldn't take him to Stark Tower, not when her father knew the truth. She kept looking over her shoulder, half expecting to see the iron man armor behind her, chasing her down. She glanced down at the newspapers in the stand she was hiding behind as the Osborn Limo pulled to a stop at a red light. She winced at the headlines.

GREEN GOBLIN RUNS RAMPANT AT OSCORP! NORMAN OSBORN MISSING!

A blurry picture of the Green Goblin accompanied the article. The limo took back off and Spidergirl swung after it. They arrived at Midtown High well after the tardy bell and Harry began to grab his bag. Eddie had a free period first and was out on the lawn reading a book. He waved at Harry and frowned as he spotted Piper, still in full costume, clinging to the underside of the bridge. Harry reached for the door handle when Piper's spider sense went ballistic. The Goblin dropped from the top of a nearby building and smashed into the front of the car ripping the engine free one handed. He smacked the car and it spun, he stopped it one handed and dug a hand into the door, ready to rip it from its hinges. Piper swung in and kicked him with all her strength, sending him stumbling away from the inoperable limo. Eddie ran forwards and yanked open the other door. He grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him out of the Limo as the Goblin roared in frustration.

"What is that thing?" Eddie shook his head as Piper kicked the goblin again sending him further away from the two boys. The hulking figure snatched up the discarded engine and threw it at the two teens. Spidergirl lunged and tackled them to the ground, the engine sailing over their heads. The Goblin grabbed her by her foot and made to throw her. A blast of white light startled him into dropping her back to the pavement. She swept her legs into his knocking him off his feet.

"I had that Nova." The hero floated into view.

"Sure you did web head." He glared at her from under his helmet, she couldn't bring herself to look at him. Her spidey sense went crazy and she shoved Harry and Eddie out of the way as a fist came down where her head had just been. Powerman, one arm in a cast and sling, dropped down from the bridge and raced forwards placing himself between the Goblin and his quarry. Iron Fist soon joined them, followed closely by White Tiger. Piper took her chance to grab both boys by the hand and drag them to relative safety under the bridge. She paused to catch her breath, her ribs weren't as healed as she'd thought she realized as they gave a particularly painful twinge. Eddie reached forwards and put his hand on her shoulder.

"You ok Spidergirl?" He knew she wasn't, even with the mask on he could read Piper like a book. There were dark stains on her mask, he couldn't tell if it was blood, sweat or tears. The top of her costume was torn, once at the shoulder, where pale slightly bruised skin was making itself know, and once at the exact center of her spine where he could see what looked like bandages. She nodded. Harry stepped forwards.

"What is that thing?" Spidey sighed glancing over at where her team, were they hers anymore she didn't honestly know, had engaged the Goblin.

"Harry I really hate to be the bearer of bad news but that thing is your father." Harry and Eddie stared at her. Harry shook his head.

"That cant be. My dad isn't a freak! He's normal." Piper pulled the boys away from the bridge as her spidey sense went off again and the remains of the limo came sailing their way. She ushered them away from the fight, into the front lawn of the school.

"Yeah at this point I'm pretty sure you can say goodbye to normal." Harry looked devastated. Piper glanced over at the team again, they were doing alright corralling the Goblin, keeping him on the street. The bell behind them was shrill as it cut through the sound of the fight. Piper kept herself between them and the Goblin.

"Hey sounds like someone called a half day." Harry looked at her incredulously.

"Do you always make jokes when other peoples lives are falling apart?" She shrugged slightly.

"Force of habit at this point." The intercom crackled to life and Piper recognized Agent Coulson's voice.

"This is not a drill all students and staff report to the gymnasium until further notified. I repeat all students and staff report to the gymnasium until otherwise instructed." She nearly let out a sigh but caught herself. She still didn't know if Coulson was on her side or not. But the Gym had more protection than any other room in the school.

"What are you gonna do? If that really is my dad you can't just attack him. He needs help." Piper nodded.

"Believe me I know. And he will get the best help we can get him, I promise you that. He was injected with a toxic compound by a wackjob employee. As far as I can tell it mutated his DNA, I have some experience in that. But he's not himself right now. He's a mindless creature right now. But I promise you I'm going to do everything I can to help him." Harry shook his head and let Eddie pull him into a side hug. He missed the look that passed between the two. Eddie was confused and worried about both of his friends, he could practiacally feel the guilt rolling off of Piper there was more to the story than that, he could tell. But they didn't have time to get into it right now. Not in front of Harry.

"This is impossible." Piper shook her head.

"Impossible? Three words. You. Were. Venom." Harry flinched slightly, Eddie glancing at Piper reproachfully. She shook her head.

"You two go, get to the gym with the others." A voice stopped them as they turned to head that way.

"No, Mr. Osborn needs to come with us." It was Agent Coulson, decked out in SHEILD SWAT gear, complete with helmet and visor that covered his face.

"SHEILD? It's that serious?" Piper leapt over them tossing a web to her left, catching Iron Fist before he could slam into the school wall and plummet two stories.

"Yes, it's that serious. Go with Agent C Harry. Eddie you head to the Gym. No arguments." She made to rejoin the fight but Harry grabbed her arm.

"If that really is my dad, promise me you wont hurt him." Piper laid her gloved hand on his shoulder.

"Harry I promise I… Look out!" She shoved him to the ground as the Goblin smacked Nova out of the air sending him hurtling towards them. Nova slammed into Spidey and the two of them smacked into the ground. Piper felt her nose, which wasn't fully healed either, bones and cartilage took longer to knit back together than muscular damage, start to bleed again.

Nova took back off and Piper swung after him between Harry and Coulson.

"You're not supposed to be here Nova." Nova practically growled at her as she slapped a web across the Goblin's eyes letting Iron Fist and Powerman get a few free hits in while he fought with it.

"Oh you're welcome for saving your ass, again!" She tensed, normally she would shoot back a comment about his less than stellar leadership skills but she couldn't. She couldn't blame them for being angry with her. Hell if she was them she'd be pissed. Iron Fist dodged backwards and landed near her.

"Two are stronger than one Spider." Luke nodded yanking up a fire hydrant one handed. Water rained.

"And three is even better! This is for breaking my arm Goblin!" He flung the hydrant into the Goblins face. He stumbled and turned back to the group a large grin on his face. Piper leapt at him and slammed her fist into his face. He toppled and groaned.

"I told you I would handle this, you didn't listen." White Tiger snorted.

"Yeah we picked that little habit up from this Spider we know. She's really bad at listening to orders too. And she seems to think that everything rests on her shoulders." Danny nodded at Ava's words.

"We know there is something you are not telling us Spider. You can not carry the weight of the world alone." Nova landed next to Danny.

"Yeah plus everything at SHEILD's gone off kilter since Fury." Piper's eyes narrowed. White Tiger nodded.

"But they're the best we've got right now." She tapped her communicator. "White Tiger to Exfil team 1. Mean Green is down. Awaiting extraction at Midtown High." Piper shook her head.

"I told you guys to stay out of it." Luke rolled his eyes behind his shades.

"Yeah, yeah yeah. You don't want us getting hurt for you, but see we decided that's not really your call." Danny nodded.

"For someone as aware of the world around you as you are you are…" He left off his sentence seemingly trying to think of the right word. Nova supplied it.

"Emotionally constipated." White Tiger stepped forwards, between Nova and Spidey.

"Look whatever happened between you two dorks we're still a team. We know you care, you're shit at hiding it. You need to tell us what's going on." Piper stared at her feet for a moment.

"I…" She was moments away from spilling everything. That her father had discovered her secret identity, that the Goblin and Venom had both technically been her fault, and that she suspected that SHEILD was just as rotten as Oscorp when her spider sense went off like a klaxon in her brain.

"Move!" She shouted leaping out of the puddle water the broken hydrant had caused. The others were a second too late though and electricity arced around the puddle and through them, pulling screams from each of them. They dropped like rocks and Piper landed between them and the Goblin.

"Nobody hurts them!" She roared it at the goblin and fired a web at his forehead, it struck and a low creepy chuckle sounded from his lips. She lunged at him and, using the soaked pavement to her advantage, dove between his legs pulling the web hard, forcing him to faceplant to the pavement. She emptied two cartridges of webbing, weaving them together to try and hold him down. She flicked the empty cartridges aside, clicking new ones into place as she leapt over the struggling pile of webbing. Her team was pulling themselves to their feet.

"That's not gonna hold him long. We need to get Harry out of here now." They nodded and raced into the school building.