Peter loved his new cousin! She was very sweet and made Hiro happy, what more could he ask for?
Speaking of the robotics genius, he was in his own little world scrolling down his phone. "Hey Hiro?"
He looked up. "Hm?"
"What's up?"
"The sky." He sarcastically replied.
Peter rolled his eyes. "Very funny. What are you looking at?"
"Just messaging my friends. In the local group chat." Hiro shrugged. "Fred is posting memes, again."
He could relate to that. "Reminds me of when Miles posts a lot of memes in the chat until Anya tells him to stop." Peter mostly watched the chaos unfold, especially when Peni got involved. "It's great that you're doing okay."
Hiro could only smile back at his cousin. "Yeah, me too."
Peni had noticed a few things about her new cousin so far.
Ari had a hard time adjusting to the fact she was accepted as part of the family despite Hiro reassuring her that she was.
And she would die in that long sleeved blue-striped black sweater of hers. New pair of pants and even a pair of shorts? Sure. New pairs of shoes? Of course! But try to get her to wear a crop top or a logo shirt, good luck.
She and Peter were to the side, watching as Hiro failed to get Ari to try something new.
"Oh come on Ari, I promise I won't steal your sweater!" Hiro was holding a dark blue t-shirt in his hand with a Linkin Park logo on the front.
"That's exactly what someone who wants to steal my sweater would say!"
"Ari! C'mon! You like it when I play this music and this is a cool t-shirt!"
"No I like my sweater, it's-"
"Cozy and easy to wear you've told me fifteen times."
"Hiro!"
"Ari!"
Peter chuckled. "I bet this is how all our friends see us."
"I doubt it." Peni smirked. "How do you feel about our new cousin? She was chatting with you a bit at breakfast."
Her brother hummed, bringing a hand to his chin as he thought over the question. "She's nice." Peter commented. "She wasn't really too nosy with her questions, and also she's really nice to Hiro. I'm glad."
"Even though he used to call us once a week and talked about her half of those times, you still were skeptical?" She raised an eyebrow. "Were you gonna try and give her the shovel talk?"
"No!" Peter denied. "Maybe... But people sometimes aren't who they appear to be. Hiro's a good person, he doesn't deserve to go through what I went through. Finding out you were lied to by a loved one."
Peni knew he was referring to the whole mess with Norman. 'Then again, how would you react to knowing the father of your best friend was a manipulative jerk who wanted to destroy your superhero identity for his own greed.' She heard Spyder chitter telepathically. 'Oh, wait.'
She just rolled her eyes at the spider. 'And what do you think about Ari?'
'I can tell she's been hurt.'
Peni frowned. 'Hurt?'
'Hurt like me.' She turned to Spyder, her red eyes staring at Ari who had finally caved in and was going to the dressing room. Hiro having a smug smirk on his face.
'So you're saying someone hurt Ari the same way Raymon-I mean The Jackal hurt you?' She raised an eyebrow. 'I mean she didn't look like a radioactive spider to me…' That caused the wolf spider to chitter with laughter.
'She's healing though. Like I did." Spyder purred. "Cousin is in good hands with Hiro. Probably better in his hands than you and Peter's.'
'Bite me.'
'Already did.'
'Your friend bit Peter first. And then when I rescued you from Oscorp how do you repay the favor? Doing the same.' Her inner voice was more teasing, she didn't regret allowing the spider to bite her so she could understand what was going on with Peter. But it annoyed her that the bite didn't give her the same superpowers Peter had. Well, telepathy beats wall climbing… sometimes.
Her brother tapping her shoulders brought her attention away from her telepathic conversation with Spyder. "Looks like Ari's back."
The girl was reluctantly wearing the t-shirt Hiro had shown her, her face screamed annoyance. "Looks good on you." Peni flashed her a thumbs up.
"Yeah!" Peter added.
Hiro grinned as she turned to Ari. "See? That wasn't so bad, you're welcome!"
Ari responded by tossing her sweater in his face. Which caused Peni and Spyder to chitter with laughter.
Until...
DANGER!
Peni felt her spider-sense shoot up with warning, Peter felt the same thing. "What the..?" He turned to the right wall of the store. "Guys!" He rushed over to their cousins, and dragged them to the front of the store.
"Hey hold up!" Ari huffed. "Still need to pay for the clothing we bought, remember?"
CRASH!
The entire right wall fell about as a large, green armored man burst through the walls. A bag of jewels in his hands. Everyone else in the clothing store store screamed and began running for cover as the man then turned to the cashier.
"What is that thing?!" Ari shrieked with horror.
"That." Peter raised one finger. "Is a New York supervillain called Scorpion. Avoid at all costs."
"There are supervillains here too?!" She stomped on the floor. "Nowhere is safe nowadays!"
Hiro dryly chuckled. "Tell me about it."
'Peter.' Peni focused her connection to her brother, who nodded. 'I'll get our cousins to safety. You handle Scorpion.' He flashed her a thumbs up and ran behind a few isles of thick clothes where no one else ran to.
Scorpion had grabbed the cashier, the poor man dangling in the air as the supervillain's claws gripped his sides. "Hand over the money, and no one gets hurt!"
Twip!
"Ow!" A ball of spiderwebs in the head caused him to drop the cashier and he booked it like the rest of the customers.
And a red and blue-costumed superhero dropped from the ceiling.
"Didn't anyone tell you that the extra, extra, extra large clothes don't fit your size Scorpion?" Peter landed on the counter, but to everyone else and Scorpion... Spiderman had finally arrived to save the day.
"And that's the superhero of New York, Spiderman." She heard Hiro whisper to Ari, her wide eyes staring at Peter with fascination. "There are two other spider superheroes, Kid Arachnid and Sp/dr, I'm personally a fan of Sp/dr because they're a spider mech." Hiro winked at her, she just shook her head in amusement. "It's all good Ari."
"Spiderman!" Scorpion addressed Peter. "Must you always ruin my day?"
"Well maybe if you got out less, you wouldn't see me as much." Peter fired back. "Then again I never visit jail so maybe you should get a room there!"
Scorpion roared with anger and swung his claws at Peter. "Missed me!" He taunted, leaping into the air and firing more shots at Scorpion. He tumbled and fell to the ground, but swung another one of his claws which clipped Peter.
"Ha!" Scorpion cackled when seeing her cousin fall on some of the clothing racks. Peni winced in sympathy. Ouch..
But he got back to his feet and threw a good punch at Scorpion. The supervillain crashed into the wall and Peter took the chance to web him to the wall. Scorpion roared and tried to burst out from the webs, so Peter kept webbing until Scorpion was too tightly trapped to break free.
"Hey since we're in a clothing store, can you point me to the section where you bought your outfit?" Peter asked him. "Because something that atrocious has to be cheap."
Scorpion merely growled in response, he tried yelling something vile and he got his mouth webbed shut.
"Ouch!" Hiro called out, Peni snickered in response.
Peter then pretended to notice them and jumped right to where they were. Ari squealed with excitement. "Oh my gosh, you're a superhero! Hi!" She shyly waved her hand.
"Hey." She bit back a laugh when her cousin deepened his voice to try and disguise himself.
'Shame you didn't get to show off.' Spyder pouted.
'Sounds like someone's jealous.' Peni teased.
Peter had quickly left and returned to the group in his normal clothing. "Glad you guys are okay." He told them. "I was just... Calling the police."
Hiro flashed him a thumbs up. "Good call." He grinned.
"Does that normally happen to you guys?" Ari raised an eyebrow. "Like, you just casually go shopping and all of a sudden a villain attacks?!"
"That usually happens to Peter." Peni gestured a thumb to her cousin, who curled his lip.
"Hey!"
Hiro snickered. "Well, at least New York has heroes like back home does."
"Oh, like Big Hero 6!" Peter exclaimed. "I am such a huge fan of them. My favorite is their leader, Captain Cutie!"
Peni and Ari howled with laughter as Hiro turned red with embarrassment. "Where did you get that name?"
"Ari showed me this fic on the bus ride here, it was a popular story so..."
"Oh course." Hiro narrowed his eyes at her. "Thanks Ari."
"You're welcome! Can I have my sweater back now?"
As they headed back home, Ari went to Cass and May to spend time with the adults. Peter decided to sneak out for a patrol around the city in case of any other supervillain attacks.
Which just left Peni and Hiro, chilling in her room. By themselves.
'Now's a good time to ask about his new sister.' Well, Spyder was back in her terrarium, eating some grasshoppers.
"So, Ari." Peni decided to ask Hiro. "What happened to her?"
"Amnesia. I told you this." He replied. "We think that someone might have caused her amnesia..."
"Like wiped her memories?"
"Yep."
"...That's messed up."
"I know." Hiro bowed his head down. "She doesn't want to go poking for evidence, but if you find anything on your end, let me know okay?"
Peni nodded. "She seems to be doing well, her presence is making Peter a lot better."
Hiro flashed a look of concern. "Is Peter okay?"
The programmer frowned. "He uh… well honestly he hasn't been doing well with his depression since Uncle Ben died and she…" Peni paused, perhaps thinking of a previous incident that happened during Peter's first year at Horizon. "Norman's abuse to Harry didn't help either."
"Abuse?"
Her gaze darkened. "Well, Peter missed the warning signs once. And this time he wasn't going to miss them. Norman was manipulating Harry and while I don't know all the details, let's just say a guy willing to stage his son's own expulsion and willing to marry him off just to improve his family name isn't a good father."
His eyes widened in horror. He was aware that Peter was going through a lot himself but to witness a friend getting hurt like that… "Are they okay now?"
"Mhm. Norman's gone now, and Harry and Peter are both recovering." Peni reassured him. "And I of course am glad that jerk isn't tearing them apart."
Hiro nodded. "Yeah." He then pulled his cousin into a hug since she needed one, Peni just returned the hug back.
"Now that we got that out of the way." She smiled. "Do you want to hear the time Peter got pranked a lot by this one youtuber?"
"Do I? I'd love to!"
AN: Some action happens! It was my attempt at writing Spiderman fights. And also writing my hcs of Peni's spider powers, I 100% think she's telepathic.
I LOVED writing the cousin bonding some chapter :3
See you guys next week, I don't have much to say. And remember you can send the characters a question in the comments
SPEAKING of that! More questions from the amazing AgentOfAngst!
To Ari: What's your favorite movie?
"I haven't watched a whole lot besides Kentucky Kaiju films Fred has me watch with him. My favorite installment is the fourth movie, the whole army of monsters plot is sick!"
To Fred: What have you been up to since Ari and Hiro are in New York?
"Obviously being Fredzilla and protecting the city in their absence! And hanging with Baymax. I hope they're enjoying their vacation because the action is gonna come back with them!"
To Karmi: What's your favorite fanfiction trope?
"In the words of a great writer... there was only one bed!"
