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21. Full Of Darkness

Penny fought the blond boy over and over that day. In the boxing ring. With the lights turned off. In a tiny, enclosed room the size of the one she slept in, the two of them locked in until the fight was over...until one of them was knocked down. Never before had she been forced to fight the same person over and over until it was time for lunch, once more in her room in the dim light coming from a single bulb in the ceiling. Despite repeated attempts to speak with him, to get his name, the boy had refused to speak to her, instead, focusing with everything he had on the fight.

It hadn't been enough.

The people in white coats had nodded approvingly over and over, and Penny had felt herself getting ready to scream every time. To demand to know why they were doing this! Why they were making her hurt the boy she only knew as 116. Again and again she knocked him to the mat, and she knew that the two of them were bleeding and bruised, just like she'd always been before. Tony would be upset. But, she reminded herself, he'd be glad that she was fighting back. He'd want her to fight back...wouldn't want her to let herself be hurt.

No part of her wanted to fight him. No part of her took pleasure in knocking him down over and over. But she knew what would happen if she refused to fight. She knew what they would do to her if they suspected her of going easy on him. So she fought. She kicked and punched and remembered sparring with Steve and her lifetime of training for this. And she hated herself for it.

And then, when the training was finally over and it would have been time to go to class, she was instead taken back to her room and locked in. For hours.

Penny managed to last for three days. For three days she did exactly as she was told. She fought. She trained. She paced all evening in her tiny cell, feeling her mind start to unravel. She tried to focus on her memories of outside and of Tony, of being safe in her room or of laying on top of the tower, one foot hanging over the side as she watched the sky. And for three days, it worked. Each day she would fight the same boy, his face bloody and bruised, and she tried not to hurt him too much. Tried to talk to him.

Every day he refused.

And then, on the fourth day when the lights came up and her door opened, the same guard stepping inside with her smoothie, something in her snapped. Taking it in a shaking hand, she turned, pulled her arm back, and threw it at the wall, keeping eye contact with the guard as the glass shattered the green smoothie dripped down the wall. The guard pulled out his gun, about to step forward, and, not caring that what she was doing was stupid, Penny grabbed it, crushing the metal in her fingers, then bringing back a fist. Her fist made contact with his nose, just like it had the blond boy's more than once, and the man dropped to his knees. Bringing up her own knee, she got him in the nose again, then slammed a fist into his temple, watching with satisfaction as he hit the ground.

And then she was running, moving in the opposite direction of the training room and where the cafeteria had been before. There were cameras, of course...she knew that there were cameras in this place, but maybe no one was watching. Maybe she could get out! For a moment, she thought she should have grabbed his gun, or searched him for another one, but she knew that she'd never be able to shoot someone...to kill them like that.

Bare feet slapping against the white and black marbled tile she ran, arms pumping, turning the corner and pausing when she found herself at a dead end, doors all around her. Panting, she looked up and around, finally spotting the vent cover. Pressing her hands against the wall, Penny hoisted herself up, trying to be silent as she pulled the vent cover off, slipped into the vent shaft, then carefully replaced it. And then she crawled, trying to be quiet and praying that no one had noticed yet. The guard had been in her room. He'd been hidden from view in the hallway...so maybe it would take a minute for the others to notice. They were understaffed compared to before...not nearly as many guards as before. So she had a chance. There was a chance!

Penny didn't have her watch. She didn't have her phone. She had nothing to lead Tony to her. And so, she thought as she crawled forward, heart pounding, she would escape. She would get out and find him and she could live in the tower and go to school and she would never think about Susie again! She'd never wander off. She'd never break the rules. She would be the best kid in the whole world if only she could get out of this godforsaken place!

Practically holding her breath, Penny crawled forward. She needed to find a way out. Needed to find...something. Some way out. Or some way to communicate with Tony. That would work too. She crawled as quickly as she could, looking down as she did so and peering through the vent covers into the rooms. Most that she passed were empty and she kept moving, her heart pounding in her ears. This was her one chance...and she hadn't even planned it! Why hadn't she planned it?

Just as she was starting to despair, taking rights and lefts and random and trying to make it as hard as possible to follow her while praying that there were no cameras in the vents, she saw it. Below her was a room. A room filled with filing cabinets and a single desk. And on that desk was a phone. It was beige, with push buttons unlike the phone that Tony had given her, but she had seen pictures of phones like this. Could Tony track it? She had no idea. But she knew his cellphone number. It had been something he'd insisted she memorize, along with the address of the tower, just in case. In case she was ever lost. In case she ever needed him.

She couldn't afford to hesitate. Couldn't afford to let them catch her before she at least tried to get out.

So she removed the vent cover, trying to be quiet, then leapt down to the floor, immediately looking for a door. There was one to her right, a normal wooden door so unlike the door to her room, and it was almost all the way shut. Racing over, she gently pulled it shut, then clicked the lock before running back over to the phone. All around her were filing cabinets, all with drawers shut tight, but she paid them no mind as she dialed the number, listening with her heart in her throat as it rang.

And then he picked up, his voice as haggard as she felt.

"Hello? Who is this?"

The tears immediately flooded her vision but she spoke through them, not letting herself waste a single second. "Tony...Tony it's me. It's Penny," she whispered, her voice barely a hiss. "I'm at the school….a school...not the same one. Norman Osborn...he's here and…"

"Penny? Oh god, Penny!" he cried, sounding like he, too, was crying, and she gripped the edge of the desk in a grip so tight she felt the wood splinter. "It's okay. You're okay, honey. I'm tracing the call. Friday, trace it!" She blinked hard, lips trembling as she fought the tears. "Where are you? Are you hurt?"

"When...when the guard...he came to my room...I'm...I'm back in that room…" She broke off with a sob but did her best to soldier on. "I just...I hit him and I ran. I climbed into the vents like before…" She pressed a hand to her mouth and glanced back at the door, listening. How many guards were there? She'd only seen four at the most. How many scientists? How many people with guns. "He had a gun...but I grabbed it…"

"Okay, you're okay. You did good. What happened then?" he asked, his voice gentle despite what sounded like tears. Her heart was beating too fast and she couldn't stop staring at the door, waiting for guards to burst in with guns.

"I found a room with a phone," she whispered. "You said I had to memorize your number."

"I did. And I'm really glad I did, honey. Are you alone?"

"Yeah. But...they're going to find me."

As if her words had summoned them, she heard footsteps, and she knew suddenly that this could be it. This could be the last time she ever spoke to Tony.

"Okay, just hang tight. I'm having Friday trace the call and…"

"Tony," she interrupted, wiping at the tears still falling down her face. She wanted to tell him what it was like...how scared she was and how they were making her fight and it was all as if she'd never left this place. But she didn't have time. The footsteps were coming closer.

"What, sweetheart? What's wrong?" he demanded, voice urgent.

"I…" She swallowed. "I love you so much. You saved me...you saved me and you...you're my dad. You're the only dad I remember and I love you."

"Penny…"

"I love you. I love you." She whispered it again, two, three times, ignoring his increasingly anxious voice before she pulled the phone away from her ear. Picking up the cradle, she placed it on the back of the desk, then placed the receiver gently down on the desk beside it. On the other end of the table was a stack of folders and she slid them over, blocking the phone from sight, not bothering to read them. She could still hear him yelling, but hopefully they couldn't...not without her enhanced hearing.

Moving over to the door, she pressed herself to the wall beside it, climbing up above the doorframe, waiting and listening for guards as Tony screamed her name, his voice far away and almost too soft to hear. She didn't have to wait long. In seconds, there was a body slamming against the door, then another, the wood splintering and the door flying open. As soon as the guard stepped inside, she reached down and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, yanking him up as hard as she could and slamming his head into the ceiling before letting him drop. Dropping, she hit him hard enough to knock him out...maybe enough to kill him.

Either way, he went down.

She lunged for the second one, ducking under a punch and grabbing him by the throat, then delivering a punch that would have knocked Steve out had she ever managed to land a blow to his temple...and had she ever wanted to. Ducking down, she dodged a punch that wasn't a punch...the man was holding a syringe. In the background, Tony kept yelling for her and she wished that he would hurry up and trace her! And that he would be quiet.

She needed to concentrate. Moving instinctually, she dodged the syringe again, grabbing the man's hand, twisting it, then grabbing the needle he dropped as she snapped the bone in his arm. Shooting a hand out, she stuck him in the shoulder with it and depressed the plunger, then dodged another guard with a syringe. It was a small room, and they only had so much room to maneuver...and there were three more guards.

One picked up his gun and aimed it, ignoring the shouts of the other guard. "We can't harm the subject!"

"We have to contain it!"

Penny jumped, landing on the ceiling and scurrying forward. She needed to lead them away from the phone. They couldn't know that Tony was still on the line...she needed to give him as much time as possible. So she headed for the vent once more, climbing inside as quickly as she could just as a 'boom' filled the air...and her leg exploded in pain. She screamed, the sound echoing in the vents, but she didn't stop. Couldn't stop. Her heart was pounding and as she forced her hands and one working knee to propel her forward, taking a left at the first fork, then a right, leaving a trail of blood in her wake, she kept her lips pressed together hard, doing her best not to let a sound out.

Finally, listening to shouts and footsteps below, Penny eased herself to a stop, turning over to sit and take a look at her knee, but all she could see in the darkness was that it was covered in blood. With a shaky hand, she pulled the fabric of her jumpsuit away, wincing at the smell of blood that was quickly becoming overwhelming in the tiny space, then ripped part of her sleeve off to press against it. She couldn't tell if the bullet was still inside, but either way, she hoped her healing would take care of it soon. Pressing her head gently against the metal behind her, she took a deep breath, then another. She had to stay calm. She had to trust that Tony would find her.

And then she heard movement.

Opening her eyes, she watched a figure crawl toward her, moving quickly, the entire vent shaft shrouded in darkness. But then, as they got closer, moving with one hand in front of the other, she knew...she knew exactly who was coming.

"Susie," she whispered, tears running down her cheeks. Had she been crying the whole time. "You have to help me."

The girl paused, and in the dim light, Penny watched her blank face falter a little, eyes narrowing. "What?"

"Susie. It's me. It's Penny!"

The girl shook her head. "You're out of bounds, 024. I've been instructed to bring you back using whatever means necessary."

"Susie! You know me. Don't you remember?"

"You're out of bounds, 024. I've been…"

"Stop!" Penny cried, lip wobbling as she took a gasping breath. "This isn't you. Please...what they did to us was wrong! I've been outside! You have too! I lived with the Avengers and they're not bad, Susie! I even met The Black Widow! Remember...the spy! You always loved spy novels. She's a real spy, and she taught me how to swim, and I ate different food and...and I went to a real school!" The girl just stared at her, puzzled but not upset as far as Penny could tell, so she went on, tears pouring down her cheeks. "Tony Stark adopted me. He's my dad. And you could stay with him! He could adopt you too, or find you a family! You can go to school and meet my friends, please...please if you help me, we can get out!"

The girl that Penny had known for years, who had been her only friend for so long, stared at her, and for just a second, her eyes softened. "Penny," she started, and Penny reached out for her hand. They could hold hands. No one could stop them. Susie took it, eyes conflicted for just a moment...and then there was a prick against Penny's skin and she looked down, watching the plunger press forward under Susie's thumb.

"You're out of bounds. I've been instructed to bring you back through whatever means necessary."

Thank you for reading!