Chapter 2

A teenage Jack sat in her room working on one of her various projects, in front of her a TV displayed her father on the news at a press conference from yesterday. Jack mentally scoffed at the word father, Tony didn't act like a father should while she grew up living with him, there were occasional times when he would show affection towards her but for the most part he acted like she was just a permanent resident of his home rather that his daughter.

Jack's laptop then started beeping, warning her that someone was trying to contact her. Putting down her project Jack responded to the call.

"Hey, Pete, how are yah?" Jack said to the person on her screen.

The boy on the screen was the same age she was with brown hair and eyes hidden behind glasses, his name was Peter Parker and he was Jack's best friend.

"I'm fine, Jack." Peter answered. "How are things on your end?"

"As fine as they can be considering my recent almost kidnapping last week, Tony's got me locked up in the house right now." Jack complained.

"Well, at least it shows he cares, I'm sure that's what my aunt and uncle would do if I was almost kidnapped."

"I guess. Tony does have his moments. Though he's still Tony. Woke up this morning to find some reporter woman walking around in just her underwear and one of his shirts, this happens so often that I'm not even embarrassed about it anymore."

Peter then looked to his right. "Got to go, aunt May's calling."

"Bye." Jack said as he hung up.

Jack turned off her laptop and went back to her project, while working she briefly wondered what Tony's reaction would be if he found out that she was building small bombs in her room.

Jack franticly paced around her room, trying not to think about what had happened, that only a few hours ago that she had gotten the news that Tony had been taken while on a business trip in another county and couldn't be found. There was a knock at the door and Jack expected it to be Pepper coming to try and comfort her again, instead she saw Peter open the door.

"Peter!" Jack shouted, grabbing onto him like a lifeline.

"Pepper had me brought here." Peter explained. "I'm sure everything will work out in the end."

"But he was kidnapped by terrorists, who knows what they'll do to him. And it's not just that, I'm the heir to the company, if they decide he's dead what's going to happen to me? I don't want to deal with weapons."

Jack clutched at her hair, hyperventilating. Peter removed Jack's hand from her head and hugged her.

"It'll all be alright." Peter said to her.

"I hope so.

Three months later Jack got the news about Tony being found and rescued. At the airport she stood beside Pepper as the plane he was on landed and stepped out with his right arm in a sling, when Jack saw him she launched herself at him and gave him a hug but being careful of his arm.

"Dad!" she cried.

Tony was a little surprised at Jack's behaviour.

"You called me dad." He said.

Jack just nodded and carried on hugging Tony as he and Pepper had a conversation, she eventually let go of him and they all got into the car with Happy the driver.

In the weeks following Tony's return he acted more fatherly towards Jack despite still holing himself up in his lab most of the time, he told her that his experience as a captive had taught him to appreciate what he had; he didn't actually say that but that's what Jack picked up from his scattered explanations.

Then Jack had found out that her father was the recent hero Iron Man along with the rest of the world and was also surprised to find out that the man who took care of Tony for a long time and took all the weight off her shoulders about the company while Tony was missing had tried to kill him and was the one who actually set up the whole ordeal. If Jack didn't have a secret identity while going to school she would be very popular at the moment.

Jack decided that she had a weird life, with a thief for a mum, a superhero for a dad, and she made bombs in her spare time. But her life, along with her friends Peter's, was about to get weirder.

Jack and Peter were in his room, Jack was analysing his injuries while complaining.

"I thought I was meant to be the brash one of us, but then I find out that you decided to follow in dad's footsteps and got clawed, strangled, thrown around and shot for it." Jack said.

Jack's life had once again gotten strange when she discovered that Peter had gotten spider powers and used them to become the new vigilante Spider-Man. When Peter had gotten his powers he of course told Jack about them, what he didn't tell her was that he was using his new found powers to hunt down the guy that murdered his uncle and then moved onto taking out street crime, since Jack didn't live in New York she didn't find out about Spider-Man until the newscast about him saving the city from the Lizard, she then instantly worked out that Peter and Spider-Man were the same and she was mad about not being told. Peter allowed himself to be shouted at by Jack after she came to New York to see him shortly after seeing the newsreel, after calming down slightly Jack helped Peter with the wounds he had and comforted him about the death of Captain Stacy.

Jack stopped what she was saying before hitting upon an idea. "I'm going to join you."

"Jack, no." Peter protested.

"No, I'm going to help you, if you insist on endangering yourself them I'm going to help out, it's my choice. Besides, you're not the only one with powers."

To prove her point Jack started floating off the ground, flipping upside down and looking at Peter.

Peter was conflicted. "Fine, but only because I know you'll do it anyway." He said.

"Dam right I will." Jack said, flipping upright and landing on the floor.

Jack got her powers from her mum, Jess was a superhuman and passed that onto Jack whose powers manifested different to her mom's. Jack had the ability to change the density of her entire body, meaning she could change the hardness of her skin, organs and bones and that she could weigh anything she wanted, which allowed her to float any distance off the ground or become unmoveable from the ground. Jack had developed her powers with puberty and the only person besides herself that knew about them was Peter, she didn't have a good enough relationship with Tony yet to tell him.

"What are you going to wear then?" Peter asked.

"I have an idea, come on." Jack said, taking hold of Peter's hand and dragging him after her.

"Bye, aunt May!" Peter called as he was dragged out the front door.

"Be back no later than nine!" he heard aunt May call after him.

Using the fastest train they could Peter and Jack arrived at the Stark home, they then went to Jack's room, then to the secret room that Jack used to store all the different weapons she owned and made.

"Your dad would have a fit if he saw all this." Peter said, looking at some bombs in a box labelled 'flash bombs'.

"Well, they're going to finally have some use, I'll need some sort of weapon to help fight, nothing harmful like big explosions, but those flash bombs and smoke bombs will certainly come in handy." Jack said. She then picked up a dark-blue protective jacket that went down to her knees when she wore it and a black jumpsuit. "These'll have to be part of my outfit, they've survived the many explosions of my lab, so it should hold up in a fight."

Walking back into her room Jack gathered a few more things she saw as potential parts of her costume and took out the mannequin she used for when she made her own clothes, she then began dressing it in the jumpsuit and jacket then the other things she had gathered, she pulled on then pulled off many of the things she chose until she settled on a look.

"What do you think?" Jack asked Peter, presenting the dressed mannequin.

The costume consisted of a black hat, a pair of black-rimmed racing goggles, the jumpsuit and jacket, a black belt from the left shoulder to the right hip, a pair of black fingerless gloves, and some grey boots.

Peter shrugged. "Looks good, but is obviously just thrown together." He said.

"Well, this is just the prototype." Jack said. "I'm going to need to modify the jacket and such, maybe add a logo of my own, get better goggles, etc."

"A though just occurred to me, how are you going to help me when I'm Spiderman when you live here? You can't just visit every day."

"Well, you know the Stark tower that dad's built?"

Peter nodded.

"We're going to be moving there, I'm even joining your school."

"That's great."

"I know. Now, let's get to work on my modifications."

Peter and Jack were walking out of their school a few days after Jack had joined, she was in her identity of Jacqueline James and wore a long blond wig with green coloured contact lenses.

"It's finally ready, tonight I'll be joining you as the Imp." Jack said to Peter.

"You're sticking with that name?" Peter asked.

"Providing that one isn't made up before I can introduce myself." Jack said. "A name for me isn't as obvious as it was for you, I don't want to end up with some lame one that's linked to explosives or my goggles."

The two teens entered Stark tower through a secret entrance to avoid being spotted and took a private elevator straight to the living quarters, as soon as they were in Jack's new room she locked the door and pulled off her wig to reveal her spikey chin-length hair that had once been midway down her back and took out her contacts.

"You cut your hair?" Peter asked. "How'd your dad and Pepper react?"

"They don't know, I just wear a wig around them." Jack explained.

Jack went over to her wardrobe and open up a compartment to reveal some mannequin heads with wigs on, she put the blond wig on the only bare head.

"Why?"

"It's part of my costume, you'll see in a bit."

Jack went into her bathroom to change into her costume while Peter waited in her room. A little while later Jack emerged dressed in her costume.

"How do I look?" Jack asked.

Jack's goggles were different and looked like a band of black fabric with goggle lenses in it, her short black hair peeked out from under her hand and goggles, she had addad a lower face mask, the legs of her body suit were tucked under her boots, her jacket now had many pockets on them, her boots were replaced with mechanical boots, and her chest was bound.

"You look like a boy." Peter said.

"Good, that's what I was going for." Jack said, observing herself in her mirror. "The best secret identity is one that's the opposite sex."

"What's with the boots?" Peter asked.

"They're rocket boots like Tony has. My powers allow me to float but not fly, so these will take care of that aspect, and I won't need hand boosters like dad does."

"Let's go then." Peter said as he took off his clothes, revealing his spider suit underneath.

The two then jumped out through Jack's open window and flew/swung away from the tower to find some crime. Jack quickly got the hang of the whole saving people thing after the first few muggings and attempted rapes she and Peter stopped, they even managed to stop a shop robbery, at that place they left a note for the police to find.

'Just another service provided by your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man and Imp.'