Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Marvel Studios, Disney, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hello, everyone! Welcome to another story of mine!

This story is first in a series of mine, Into the Spiderverse. It's not labelled as such on FFN because of how the series works, and can be read completely as a standalone.

Timeline for this story is a little weird. I'm calling it post-NWH, but if NWH was in 2011 instead of 2024. Appearance of Penny is also weird. Idk, when I started planning this story I saw her as a blonde, and that just be how it be. Reminder that Chris Pine's Spider-Man was blonde in the 2018 movie, so I won't be accepting any comments saying how it's not accurate. Also, no anti-ship comments. You have a back button, use it unless you want the block. :)

Title comes from Somebody to Love by Queen. Chapter title comes from another song of theirs, The Miracle.

Aiming for updates to be every week, we'll see how that goes.

Regardless, hope you enjoy,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~somebody to love~

~chapter 1: the miracle~

The dream began as it always did.

She was swinging around the Statue of Liberty, the cure for Dr. Connors in her hands while all around her dust, ash, and smoke swirled. The scaffolding around the sculpture was creaking dangerously with all the action that was going on, but she had no time to think about that. She could only make sure MJ, Ned, Gwen, and...him were fine out of the corner of her eyes, her breath coming out in hot pants.

She'd already dealt with Dr. Octavius and Flint. The only ones she had left were Dr. Connors, Max, and Norman. She could do this.

No, she would do this.

"Do you know what you are asking for, Penelope Parker?"

Narrowly avoiding an arc of lightning which came down at her from the sky, she landed on a piece of scaffolding several "floors" beneath her friends. Almost too perfectly, her former mentor was there. He glared at her with his reptilian eyes as he grabbed her by the neck, pinning her to the ground. "Hello, Penny," he growled menacingly.

His hold was tight, but not so tight that she couldn't breathe...or speak. "I'm sorry, Dr. Connors," she said. "This is all my fault. But, I'm going to fix it."

Then, before he could say or do anything else, she sprayed him in the face with the cure. He fell back, his form already shrinking and his green scales turning back into human skin as he inhaled the mist. She scrambled to her feet with a sigh of relief.

Three down, two more to go.

Thwipping back up to the statue, she found her friends. Gwen handed her the modulator for Max's powers, while he gave her a stupid grin. "You're doing great out there!" he yelled over the near-constant roar of electricity. Max and Dr. Octavius must've been getting into it. "Wish I could do more!"

"Same here!" exclaimed MJ.

"No, you don't!" she shouted back at them. "You guys need to get out of here! Go back to Midtown, I've got this!"

"How are we supposed to do that?" asked Gwen.

She pointed at her best friend. "Ned, use one of your portals! Seriously, guys, this isn't – "

"No! There's no chance in hell I'm doing that," he retorted. "I'm not leaving you or my father!"

"Harry, there's nothing more you can do for him! He's my responsibility!"

"Again, he's my father!" he repeated, his tone unyielding. She knew she wasn't going to be able to talk him out of this. "And you're my – "

"Do you truly understand the consequences of this path?"

Once more like always, that was where the dream sped up. One moment, she was holding the modulator in her hands, the next it was gone. Max was somewhere, the modulator...not rendering him useless, but at the very least no longer a problem.

Dr. Octavius was grinning down at her, the alpha's eyes alight with mischief and her teeth gleaming wickedly in the light of the fire and moon. "Being on the good side for once," she said, "it's thrilling!"

She laughed. "Yeah, I've tried to tell you a million times, Doc Ock! But you never listened to – "

Abruptly, she cut off.

A maniacal laugh was in the air, one which sent shivers down her spine. Turning around, she saw the Green Goblin flying at her and the other scientist, an orange pumpkin bomb in his hands. "We took you into our house, and this is how you repay the favor? By trying to separate us?" he cackled. "Well, my dear, I think it's time we did the same!"

Then, he threw the bomb at her.

Except...no, he didn't throw it at her.

"Once you go down it, there is no going back."

At first, she could only watch with wide eyes as the bomb went sailing through the air, past her and Dr. Octavius. It went towards the scaffolding where her friends were, trying to get back to their school through Ned's portal. Her best friend, MJ, and Gwen were already on the other side, but he, he was –

Too late, she activated her web-shooters. She threw herself towards him, disbelief flashing through her system, because no, she couldn't believe Norman had done this. Regardless of who was in control, Norman doing this was the antithesis to who he was as a proud, loving father. He couldn't have done this. Why would he have done – ?

At the same time she shot a web at him, the silk going and going and going, he spun around. A look of confusion appeared on his face, before it changed into horror as he glanced down and saw the pumpkin bomb land on the scaffolding two levels beneath him. He looked back up, his dark brown eyes locking onto her own light blue.

She saw him mouth her name.

BOOOOM!

"To everyone in the entire universe except for yourself, it would be as though..."

And then he was falling.

He was falling, and no matter what she'd done or was going to do, no matter how much of a head start she'd had, she wasn't going to be able to catch him in time. The laws of physics were acting against them.

No, they'd never been in their favor. She realized that now.

Because her mate, her husband was plummeting to the ground, falling to his death, already killed by his father.

He seemed to realize this. At the last possible millisecond, as time seemed – not seemed, in fact did, as she would later find out – to slow, she saw his lips move as he said something else. "I lo – "

"...you never existed."

Penny woke up with a start.

Gasping, she sat up in her bed, her pulse roaring in her ears as one of her hands clutched at her chest. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, hot and thick. For a moment, she had no idea of where she was, her eyes flitting about the room, wild and darting.

Then, from the flat above her, she heard a man's boot fall to the ground several times. This was followed by a harsh and demanding voice, saying, "Fucking beta bitch! God, it's every single night with you! Go get some fucking help!"

At once, everything clicked in her mind.

She sighed.

Pushing her covers off of herself, she got to her feet and briefly glanced at the time on the digital clock on her nightstand. It read 4:06 AM. "New world record," she muttered to herself, the barest trace of a smile curling at her lips. "For the first time in six months, Penny Parker managed to get more than four hours of sleep in one night."

Naturally, nobody congratulated her for the achievement, since no one was around to do that.

But, she was used to as much.

Walking into her bathroom, she turned the shower on to the highest setting and stripped off her clothes, an old Queen t-shirt and a ratty pair of flannels. She took off her necklace, too, a golden chain from which a pendant of ashes and a golden wedding ring hung, and placed it delicately on the gritty bathroom counter. Then, stepping into the tub, she stood underneath the shower head.

The water felt good on her skin, no matter how swiftly it turned her pink. However, she didn't let the feeling of it soothe her for long. As quickly as she could, she washed her curly dirty blonde hair and lathered her body with soap. Within six minutes, or so she counted down inside her mind, she was done, but even those felt like six minutes too many.

Out of the shower, she dried herself off with a towel and set about doing her morning routine: washing her face, taking the morning dose of her heat and scent suppressants, drying her hair and putting it up in a ponytail with a scrunchie (dark red today), and getting herself some breakfast. Her morning meal of a giant bowl of frosted mini-wheats and milk tasted like ash in her mouth as she watched the news on mute, but she didn't care.

It was the least of what she deserved.

With sunrise, she left her apartment and headed off to work. She took her time with her morning walk, admiring how the city looked in the morning light. After the events of six months ago, it seemed a miracle to her that all of the buildings were still standing and most of its residents were still alive, with no recollection of what had happened.

It was amazing, what magic could do, she thought with a wry twist of her features. Strange. Mesmerizing. Dangerous.

The place where Penny worked was a diner not far from where she lived now in Manhattan. Most days, she was out by one o'clock working there, if not sooner since she'd quickly become the opening waitress. This, combined with the large tips customers often gave, made it the perfect job for her, what with how she was Spider-Woman from late afternoon until eleven or twelve o'clock at night. It kept her day busy, her mind occupied on mundane work instead of...other things.

"'Morning, Penny," the opening manager, an unusually mild-mannered alpha named Jason, said as he opened the backdoor for her. "You're here early."

She tried to give him a smile in return, although she had a feeling it came out as more of a grimace. "'Morning, Jason. And aren't I always? It's why you guys put me on as the opening waitress."

"It is," he agreed. "But everybody needs sleep, and it never looks like you get any."

"That's because I don't. Sleep is for the weak."

He snorted. "Hey, just so you know, we're only going to be a five today. Bridget called off last night, she's in heat."

Now she did grimace. "Great."

"Yeah, I know. But, it could be worse: we could be a four. And you'll still be the first one off, as always."

"'As always,'" she echoed.

Penny went through her usual pre-opening motions, making sure everything was clean, the sweetener containers and salt and pepper shakers were full, the coffee machines were on and brewing, and etcetera. She had her own morning cup fifteen minutes before the opening time of seven o'clock, sipping at it as she rapped her fingers against the counter impatiently.

Two minutes after Jason had unlocked the front doors, she got her first table. One minute after that, another. Soon, all she could focus on was taking customers' orders, getting them their food, and checking up on them afterwards, and that was just how she liked it.

Of course, there were a few exceptions. One man, an alpha probably in his late sixties, leered at her over his newspaper at one point. "Are you sure you're a beta?" he asked her. "With those hips, I'd almost swear you're an omega."

She plastered a smile on her face. "Just a beta, sir. Always been a beta."

He left her a dollar tip afterwards, as if his creepiness hadn't already been bad enough.

Around nine o'clock, she also got a five top consisting of an alpha and an omega, plus their three children. The kids ranged in age from four to one, and the omega looked to be pregnant again. Understandably, he looked exhausted, too. Her heart ached, seeing them, and for more reasons than one.

"Are you guys going to do anything fun later?" she asked when she came over for drink refills and the alpha was in the bathroom with the two older children.

The omega grimaced. "We're going to the park," he said, wrapping an arm around his abdomen. She winced in sympathy. "My husband's probably going to be keeping an eye on the kids, but..."

Before they left, she made sure to give the kids some extra crayons and straws to take home with them. Their omither looked visibly relieved at such a simple kindness.

When her relief came at twelve-thirty, she was cut from the floor. Penny started to work on her outs, refilling the sweeteners in her section and working on the salad case.

It was as she was doing the latter that one of the hosts, a kid fresh out of high school named Aziz, walked up to her. "Um, Penny, somebody up front's requesting you," he said.

"I'm cut, Aziz," she reminded him.

"I know, but – "

"I'm off the floor, no more tables for me. And I've got stuff I have to do in an hour."

Perhaps her words were rude of her, but though being a waitress was her only job that paid her bills, it wasn't her only one. She was itching to go back home and put on her suit, to swing through the streets of the city and pretend her life wasn't as miserable and nonexistent as it was.

A few minutes later, Jason appeared at the side of the salad case. "Penny, there's a man here to see you."

"Is it the same man Aziz was telling me about?"

"Yeah, it is. But – "

"Jason, I thought you said I was off?"

"You are, but this guy really wants to talk with you. I put him in your – well, Pascal's – section, the table in the far corner. He said he won't be long, just wants you to sit down and talk with him." He paused. "He also said he was a federal agent."

Immediately, she stiffened. "What division?"

Jason frowned. "What?"

"What division did he say he's from?"

"I don't know, it was a long name." Her manager shrugged. "Something like Strategic Homeland – wait, you're not in trouble, Penny, are you?"

Briefly, she turned around and looked at the table he'd been referring to. Sitting there was a man, an alpha with a black eyepatch over his left eye, like a memory come to life.

She swallowed.

"No, I don't think so. You said I could sit down with him, right?"

At his nod, she set down the salad dressing bottle she'd been filling and walked towards the table, which felt a lot like walking towards her doom. The man stared at her the entire time; he didn't touch his coffee, not even as she sat down across from him.

"I heard you wanted to speak with me," Penny said. "Who are you?"

"You know who I am," he replied.

"I'm afraid that I don't."

"I'm afraid that you do," he shot back. "I don't know how the hell you do, 'cause I swear I've never seen you before in my life, but that expression on your face tells me you do. But, just for posterity's sake," here, he took out his wallet and opened it up, showing her a card she'd seen for the first time five years ago, not that he would know it, "the name's Nick Fury. I'm the director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."

Her lips quirked. "That's a long name."

"So I've been told, Ms. Parker," he grunted, then momentarily paused. "That is the name you prefer, right? You wouldn't rather I called you by another alias, such as...Spider-Woman?"

Hastily, she looked around the restaurant for any sign someone had overheard him. Not seeing any, she gazed back at him, scowling. "I would really rather you didn't call me that here," she hissed under her breath. "And...the name Parker isn't an alias. It's mine, you can call me it."

...Well, that wasn't quite true. While her maiden name was Parker, it hadn't been her actual one for a long time.

But, he didn't need to know that.

"Ms. Parker, then." He raised an eyebrow. "Do you know why I'm here?"

"I can guess." She stared down at his coffee mug. He hadn't touched it yet, or so she guessed from how she remembered him liking his coffee. "Are you gonna drink that?"

He pushed the mug across the table.

Greedily, she accepted it. Coffee was practically her life's blood these days.

He waited until she had set the mug back down to speak again. "Do you know what the Avengers Initiative is?"

A sense of déjà vu washed over her.

Fury must've taken her lack of response as a sign that she didn't. "The Avengers Initiative was an idea," he began, and her feeling of living this before intensified. His words were practically verbatim for the last time he'd spoken to her about the topic, "to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to fight – "

" – the battles we never could," she interjected, finishing for him. When one of the muscles in his face twitched in surprise, she smirked. "I know what it is, Fury. What happened?"

"Aliens," he answered baldly.

Penny took another sip from the mug. "Oh?"

He leaned back slightly in his seat. "You seem remarkably unsurprised about this for a kid who, by all accounts, only stops petty crime in Manhattan and formerly Queens," he noted.

"I'm twenty-one, not a kid," she retorted without much heat. "And let's just say I've seen things more terrifying than aliens." Like magic, or your friend who stops intergalactic crime, or other aliens who shape-shift.

"Even aliens who can control your mind?"

She blinked. "Do continue."

Rather than saying anything more, Fury pulled a file out from the inside of his jacket and set it on the table. Pulling it towards herself, she opened it and swiftly read its contents, her eyes scanning the words at a mile per minute. Words like "Thor," "Loki," "the Tesseract," and "extraterrestrial invasion."

Turning the pages, she saw a few more interesting things of note – and by things, she meant people. Pictures of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers – Captain America, back from the dead, apparently – stared back at her, as well as ones of the aforementioned Thor and SHIELD agent Clint Barton, a female alpha with curly red hair named Natasha Romanoff, and a male omega scientist named Bruce Banner.

"You're assembling quite the team here."

"I'd like for you to be a part of it."

She closed the file and pushed it back towards him. "No."

"What do you mean, 'no?'" he grunted.

"No is a complete answer."

She moved to stand up from the table.

Before she could get very far, she felt a hand on her wrist, pulling her back down. "The world is at stake, Ms. Parker," he said, his eye swirling dark like a storm. "Aren't you interested in saving it?"

She ripped her arm away from his hold. "I'm not much interested in the world anymore, Fury," she told him. "If you were to go through what I did, you wouldn't be either."

"Maybe," he allowed. "But with what's coming...the world's going to need hope, Ms. Parker. It's going to need a miracle."

"Find someone else to give it to you then," she replied through gritted teeth.

This time, he didn't move to stop her physically as she stood up from the table. But he did say something, the words barely above a murmur: "Whatever happened to 'with great power comes great responsibility?'"

Penny froze, the blood tangibly leaving from her face. "How did you – ?"

Now it was his turn to smirk. "You have your uncle's blonde hair and eyes, but everything else is your mother's. And I would never forget the face of Mary Parker. I don't know what happened to you, Ms. Parker, or why you have been wiped from everyone's memories and government files up until you hacked into them," the last part, she spluttered at, but he ignored her. "And frankly, I don't care. The world needs you and you're going to help it, whether you like it or not."

Chewing the inside of her cheek, she internally debated how easy it would be for her to run out of the restaurant and flee to another country...like Italy, perhaps, since she knew Italian. Maybe Russia, since she could also learn the country's language.

But, she knew it was no point: Fury would find her anyways. Wearily, she ran a hand over her face. "Fine, but I have conditions."

"Name them."

"First, this is a one and done deal. I'm not selling my soul away to the government, not like my parents did." At his nod, she continued. "And second, how many people know who I am?"

"Only myself, Phil Coulson, and Maria Hill. You know them?"

"Yeah, I do. Nobody else besides you or them finds out my actual identity. Not even these other people you've recruited."

Another nod. "I can do that."

"Good. I'm assuming that we need to leave now? I'll need to go to my apartment and get my suit."

"Already did that for you," Fury supplied. She wasn't that surprised by the information. "Go tell your boss that you're leaving and won't be back for a few days, family emergency."

"...Presuming that there will be anything to come back to, that is," she muttered.

He smiled grimly in response.

Word Count: 3,536

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