Hero

Penny lay on Harry's bed, her head resting on his pillow, one bare foot hanging off the side and swinging back and forth. Her dress was in a special garment bag hanging from a hook on the back of Harry's bedroom door, and an almost identical bag held his suit. She stared at the two bags, wondering how much they had cost. She wouldn't be expected to pay Norman back for them, she knew that much. He'd even told her to keep the dress, along with the pajamas he'd given her, left folded on a guest room bed.

The sweatpants some maid had left for her were plain gray sweatpants…nothing fancy. Nothing embarrassing like the Hello Kitty pants she'd thrown away. But they were also somehow the softest pants she'd ever touched in her life. The shirt had a picture of a sleeping sloth on the front, and as soon as she'd cleared sleeping over at Harry's with May, Penny had changed into them and knocked on Harry's door, dropping her backpack on the floor and promptly dropping onto his bed while he showered in his own personal bathroom.

They hadn't left the gala until after nine, which wasn't all that late, but despite the fact that all she'd done after leaving Tony Stark in the lab was stand around with Harry listening to his father speak and eating finger foods, she still felt exhausted. When she'd gone to the lab, she hadn't really been thinking…hadn't been planning on confronting Mr. Stark. Quite the opposite…all she'd wanted was to get away from him for a little while. And, hoping he'd take the hint, she'd gone to the furthest place she could think of while still staying in the building.

But he'd followed her. Somehow. The elevator required an ID badge, but she guessed that wasn't a problem for tech genius billionaire Tony Stark. He'd tried to make small talk. Like just having a chat and sweeping everything under the rug could make any of this better. But of course it couldn't. Because she was angry with him. She didn't want to be. She didn't think of herself as the kind of person that held a grudge. She never had been. But this felt different.

Harry had noticed that she was upset when she'd come back from what she'd told him was the bathroom. Of course he had…Harry could read her better than just about anyone. But they hadn't been able to talk about it…not in front of all of those people, and not in the car with his father when their driver had taken them back to Norman's house. His dad hadn't noticed their odd silence…he'd been too busy staring down at his phone, which he'd pulled out the moment they'd gotten in the car. So, following suit, Penny and Harry had both pulled out their own phones for the entirety of the car ride.

When Harry came out of the bathroom, dropping onto the bed beside her with damp hair, dressed in pajamas that probably cost more than her laptop, she spoke before he could even start to ask what was going on.

"I didn't go to the bathroom. During the party. I went to our lab. "

He rolled over so he was facing her, but she just started at the ceiling.

They had eventually found some science people willing to talk to them during the gala, and that had been fun. She'd almost forgotten about Tony Stark sitting in their lab…had almost forgotten about the parting shot she'd left him with. Why had she said that? Had she really meant it? She'd thought that it would feel good to hurt him the way he'd hurt her. But it hadn't. She'd just felt sad, watching his face blanche…watching him flinch like she'd slapped him.

But for the rest of the evening, Penny had played the part of Harry's girlfriend to the best of her ability, smiling at the other rich people who asked her questions about where she went to school and how long her and Harry had been dating and about the internship at Oscorp. She'd sipped at the glasses of champagne Harry had snuck them, wincing at the taste but glad for the little rush of lightness they'd given her. With her metabolism, she didn't think she could get drunk unless she actually put some effort into it, but it had still been fun to sneak drinks with Harry.

The whole evening could have been fun if it hadn't been for Mr. Stark.

"I ran into Mr. Stark."

"You ran into him? In our lab?" Harry was rightly dubious.

"He followed me."

"Why?"

"I don't know." She shrugged, bringing her foot back up onto the bed and slipping it under the blanket. "I asked him if he knew that he was my father."

Harry sat up then, eyes wide. "Seriously?"

Penny nodded.

"Why?"

She shrugged again, feeling empty and sad and other things she couldn't put a name to. But when he just waited, she tried. "I don't know. I just…I wanted to get it over with. Like…I thought that if I could just talk to him about it, I might feel better."

Part of her had thought that…part of her had wondered if they could fix this somehow. But maybe the bigger part of her had just wanted to get to the inevitable.

"Do you?"

She shook her head.

"It's true, though?"

"Yeah."

He dropped back onto the pillow. "Did he know who left you that envelope?"

"He didn't know anything about it." She sighed, shifting and resting her head on his shoulder, and he squeezed her in a hug. "I don't know what to do," Penny admitted. "I was really mean and….I told him I didn't want him either."

"Yeah?"

"He didn't even know but…I mean, it sucks, you know? He didn't want me and…and lots of people don't want kids so…that's not even…" Her voice wavered, but she tried to go on. "I just wanted to be good enough, you know? I thought that if could be good enough he'd let me be an Avenger and…and he'd teach me how to be a real superhero and…"

He squeezed her tighter, and she wiped at her eyes, hating herself for crying about this. Again. She already knew that Tony Stark didn't want to be her superhero mentor. She knew that he didn't want anything to do with her. So why did it keep hitting her over and over again?

Penny sat up, turning to look down at her friend, hands clenching into fists at her sides. She wasn't going to do this anymore. She wasn't going to let Tony Stark dictate who she could be. "How much longer until we finish the suit?"

He sat up too, eyes narrowing in confusion. "Um…Ned's almost done with the code. We don't have anything like an AI, but the webshooters are pretty much done. I'm almost done putting the actual fabric together so…not much longer. We lost some time last week when we got busy at the internship…"

"Could we finish it tonight?"

He hesitated. "You mean…finish sewing it?"

"Yeah."

"Sure…we're not done with the communication system but…"

"Doesn't matter. All I need is the suit." She was done waiting for Tony Stark…done mourning the fact that she would probably never be an Avenger. So what? Who needed the Avengers? Spider-Girl would have to be enough.

Harry nodded slowly, a slow smile growing on his face. "Yeah. Okay. Let's get to work."

And they did.

Norman had already gone to bed, but they still locked Harry's bedroom door while they worked. Harry pulled his sewing machine out from his closet, and together they started piecing things together. The fabric wasn't quite bulletproof…there was no way they would have been able to get bulletproof material in that quantity without anyone noticing. But it was flexible, and the dark blue and red fabric covered in a spiderweb pattern looked similar to the suit Mr. Stark had given her. But not identical. She didn't want an exact copy of that suit. The small black spider on her chest didn't shrink the suit to fit her, and there wasn't a drone. Or hundreds of web combinations.

That didn't matter. Harry was right. She was Spider-Girl. She didn't need a fancy suit to be who she was.

While Harry sewed, Penny took care of the webshooters. They'd both agreed that it was too risky to keep the materials at the lab, so Harry had been taking all of it home every night and storing it in a box in the back of his closet where, thankfully, no one ever looked. He'd even started cleaning his own room so their housekeeper wouldn't go in there.

Penny had told him that she really appreciated his sacrifice.

Their communication system was going to be simple. Cameras in the goggles that they'd designed to help her focus would be able to stream video to both Ned and Harry's phones. They were the only ones who'd have access. Ned wanted to figure out how to get her phone to connect to the mask too, so she could call them from the suit, but Penny didn't want to wait anymore. She'd let Mr. Stark's rejection keep her from being Spider-Girl for long enough. And in the meantime, the Vulture was still out there. Alien weapons were still on the streets. It was on her to do something about it.

It was past four in the morning when Penny and Harry finally managed to finish assembling the suit. She knew there would still be bugs that they'd need to work out. Plus the communication device needed to be finished. But for the moment, the two of them just barely managed to put the completed suit in a box and slide it into his closet before collapsing on his bed and falling asleep, not stirring until nearly noon.

A loud rapping of knuckles on Harry's bedroom door was what woke them, and Penny jerked awake first, followed quickly by Harry, the two of them sitting upright and looking around. The knuckles beat on the door again. "Harry? Is Penny in there?" Norman asked, and Harry jumped to his feet while Penny raced to the closet, shutting the door, then moved to sit on the bed again.

Harry opened the door, revealing his father already dressed in a suit. "Were you going to sleep all day?" he wondered, glancing past him and meeting Penny's eyes, his own eyebrows raising. "Hello, Penny. I'm glad you decided to stay over. I'm happy to have a car take you home as soon as you're ready."

"Thanks, Mr. Osborn."

He gave a tight nod. "Harry? Could I have a word?"

Her friend glanced back at her then nodded, following his father out of the room. Penny dashed back to the closet, grabbing her backpack from the corner and stuffing the suit inside. She hadn't even had a chance to try it on yet…they'd been too tired that morning when they'd finally called it a night, but she didn't feel safe trying it on at Norman's house.

Once the suit was safely stowed away, she went over to the door and pressed her ear to the wood, wincing when she heard Norman's harsh whispers.

"You know I approve of Penelope, but I certainly hope you're being careful."

"Dad…we're not…it's nothing like that. We were just watching TV and we fell asleep."

"Be that as it may, I will not have you fathering a child at your age. Think of what that would do to your reputation? Not to mention hers."

Flushing, she backed away from the door, not wanting to hear anymore. Instead, she looked around his room, making sure they hadn't missed anything. They'd put the sewing machine away, along with all of their notes, but she scanned his desk one more time to make double sure. Then she sent a text to Ned, letting her know that the suit was done and that she'd call him when she got home.

Immediately he texted her back, a string of surprised emojis, and she grinned. It wasn't safe to talk about it with Norman right outside the door, but she did text him again, thumbs flying over her screen as she gave him the highlights.

"I saw Mr. Stark at the gala last night. When Harry and I got back to his place, we finished my suit. How much longer before the communication device is ready?"

"Wait…are you going out as Spider-Girl today?"

Penny hadn't realized that she'd already made the decision before she texted him back, but as she typed the word, she knew it was the right choice.

"Yes."

Back at her apartment, Penny went straight to her room. May had texted her earlier, letting her know that she'd be home around eight, so she'd bring home food for them to have a late dinner together. Which meant she had some time to go on patrols. Practically vibrating with excitement, she pulled all of her blinds, then pulled her new suit out of her backpack.

It wasn't as fancy as the one Mr. Stark had made for her. It didn't pop out of a special suitcase, and there wasn't an AI she could talk to. The goggles weren't as advanced, and there wasn't even a way for her to communicate using the mask. But as she pulled the suit on over her clothes, she couldn't stop smiling, heart pounding in her chest. It didn't matter that this suit hadn't cost millions of dollars. It didn't matter that they'd made it out of questionably acquired materials and that they'd done most of the work in secret, or that it wasn't technically finished yet.

Because when she looked at herself in the mirror, she saw Spider-Girl.

She risked a photo, taking a selfie and texting it to Ned, then wasted no time in jumping out of her window. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching, them climbed to the roof of her building, perching on the ledge and grinning behind her mask when she looked down.

Penny didn't need Mr. Stark or his suit. She was Spider-Girl. And Spider-Girl was going to catch the Vulture.

Ned called seconds after she sent the picture, and she answered it with a grin.

"It looks so good!" he cried, and she laughed, excitement bubbling over.

"I know, right!"

"You're Spider-Girl again!"

"And you're my guy in the chair."

"You have to send more pictures. Oh! You should make an Instagram for Spider-Girl! Or a Twitter! I could do it! I could be your social media manager!"

"Go for it," she laughed. "I'll send you more pictures."

He hesitated then. "But…what if Mr. Stark sees?"

Her heart dropped for just a second, but she shook it off. "Who cares? It's not his suit. He's not my boss. He can't stop me."

Ned very kindly didn't point out that Iron Man probably could stop her if he wanted to. But she wasn't sure why he would. So he was her biological father…so what? He hadn't wanted her. He didn't want to mentor her or make her an Avenger. So as far as she was concerned, he could mind his own business and she'd mind hers.

"Penny? Are you sure about this?" he asked softly.

For a moment, she thought about it. Was she sure? Did she want to risk making him even angrier?

He hadn't cared about her feelings. So why should she care about his? Why would he care if she was Spider-Girl? It wasn't like he was responsible for her.

"Yeah. I'm sure."

And she was. She had to catch the Vulture before he did any more damage. No one else was going to help her, but that didn't matter. She had Ned and Harry. And she was Spider-Girl. What other help did she need?

"Okay…okay. So…we're doing this?"

"Yeah. We're doing this." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to patrol for a few hours. Think you could search online for mentions of the Vulture? Or alien weapons in the city? See if we can find any leads?"

"You got it. I'll call if I find anything."

"Thanks, Ned."

Hanging up the phone, Penny leaned over and stared down at the ground below, her mouth pulling into an exhilarated grin she couldn't hide if she'd wanted to. Spider-Girl was back.

Aiming her web shooter, Penny jumped.

The wind whipped around her, roaring in her ear as she fell, and she whooped in excitement, catching herself with a web and swinging, shooting another web and another and propelling herself through down the street. She'd missed this…more than she'd realized. She'd missed leaping from rooftops and hearing the occasional person shout in recognition.

"It's Spider-Girl!"

"Did you see that?"

"Spider-Girl!"

She laughed aloud, pulling herself up over the rooftops and doing a flip before shooting another web. She didn't know how she was going to find the Vulture, or what would happen if Mr. Stark tried to make her stop.

But all that mattered was that she was back.