Hijacked

Penny Parker's phone rang for a sixth time, then a seventh, before finally going to voicemail, her recorded voice asking him to leave a message…or better yet, just text her.

It was a message Tony had listened to four times now, and this time, he waited for the tone, then left his message.

"Hey, Penny. It's me. Tony. You, uh…kind of sent me a text about finding the Vulture and now you aren't answering your phone so, uh…I'm not saying you have to answer your phone because you sure as hell don't owe me anything but, uh…I'd really appreciate if you could call me back. I'm kind of freaking out here."

He had texted her, in fact. That's what he'd tried first, responding the moment he'd seen her message.

'It's Tony. I'm on my way. Where are you?'

'Kid? When you get a second, can you text me back? I'm on my way to the city.'

'Penny?'

Nothing. No response. According to the tiny 'delivered' under each of his messages, she hadn't even read them.

Ever since he'd given Penny his number, he'd been waiting on her call. He told himself that he wasn't. That the kid didn't owe him anything. That just because she was biologically his didn't mean they were ever going to have any kind of relationship. Especially considering the way she'd found out about all of this. And the transcript she'd listened to. And the fact that he'd taken her suit away and hadn't spoken to her since…at least, until the gala, and that had been a surprise. He hadn't planned on talking to her again after taking her suit. Honestly, he'd thought that he'd made a mistake. She'd been fourteen when he'd first seen her on Youtube and figured out who she was, and was only fifteen now. Fifteen-year-olds were too young to be superheroes. Their brains weren't even developed yet! He'd told himself that taking her suit was the best thing he could do…the best way to keep her safe. She was just a kid.

But as it turned out, she wasn't just a kid. She was his kid. Biologically speaking, anyway.

Did that matter? Should that make a difference?

Because not only had she made her own suit without him, she'd done a damn good job. And she was still patrolling, completely on her own now. No backup. No reports to Happy who he couldn't help his frustration with. He understood not wanting to take on another project…he understood not wanting to listen to progress reports about giving directions to tourists and stopping petty criminals from stealing a bicycle.

But…she was just a kid! It wasn't like he'd asked his friend to…

No.

Tony couldn't be mad at Happy. He had been the one to offer her help. He'd been the one to give her the suit. He should have been her contact person, no matter how busy he'd been with the Accords and the other Avengers and getting the Tower ready to sell. He should have kept in touch with her and he should have talked to her when he'd called the FBI. He should have been better when she'd told him who she was…who he was to her. He should have reached out sooner instead of waiting to find her on that rooftop weeks later.

There were so many things he should have done…so many things he wished he could redo. But there was no going back now. All he could do was be better now. Starting with helping Penny take down the Vulture.

"Friday, more power to the thrusters! And call her again!"

He had been trying. He'd reached out to her, giving her his phone number. His actual cellphone number, not Happy's or a company line. He'd told Pepper that he wanted to start a real Internship program at Stark Industries…not that he thought she'd ever want to come back, but if Norman Fucking Osborn had an internship program, he could have one too. Hell, a better one! He'd even pay them! He'd done a deep dive on how much Norman paid his interns (just above minimum wage, as it turned out) and told Pepper that they should double it.

He also might have been designing a special guest room.

It was stupid. He knew it was stupid. Even Pepper, who had done her best to support him in this whole 'finding out he had a biological daughter who was also a superhero he'd tried to help but then took away her suit and cut off contact with her' thing, had tried gently suggesting that maybe he was getting ahead of himself. But it wasn't like the guest room was specifically for Penny. It was just a room. WIth an XBox and some LEGO sets because he'd seen those in her room when he'd first recruited her…but anyone could use those. Hell, he might even open one of the kits and build it.

Besides, it wasn't like they had a shortage of space at the Avengers Compound or anything. It was fine. He'd already ordered the linens for the bed. He didn't want to make a thing about it…which was what he'd told Pepper when she'd caught him shopping online for spider-themed plush toys. It's not like he'd actually bought any.

Yet.

Okay…maybe just one.

She didn't need plush toys, though. She was fifteen years old. It was his own fault he hadn't been there when she actually would have wanted plush toys. Mary had tried. She'd tried to get him to get involved in her life! She'd offered to share custody…to send photos.

And again and again, he'd said no.

There was no point in thinking about that. Going back wasn't an option. All he could do was move forward. Be better. Didn't he know that by now?

"Friday?" he barked, pushing more power to the thrusters. Why the hell didn't he have some kind of base in New York? He would need to do that…would need to be available if he was going to be…

There he went, getting ahead of himself. That girl barely wanted to speak to him, much less have weekly visits.

Maybe he could change that. Maybe not. But he hadn't been kidding when he'd told her he wanted to break the cycle. His own dad had never made any kind of effort to have a relationship with him. He'd been a brilliant, distant, abusive asshole. And Tony had no intention of being that person. Not anymore. Even if Penny didn't want anything to do with him, he was still going to be available. He wasn't going to abandon her.

Not again.

Thus the fourth phone call that, once again, went to voicemail.

"Hey kid. Me again. Tony. Stark. Um…can uh…could you call me back? Because I'm kind of freaking out here. I've got Friday tracking Adrian Toomes's car and I'm on my way to the city. But, uh…when you get a second, could you give me a call? Text? Hell, kid, I'll take a Snapchat. Is that still a thing? Anyway, call me, okay? Thanks."

Swearing under his breath as the call ended, he was about to tell Friday to try calling her again when his AI spoke up.

"Boss, you have an incoming call from an unknown number."

"Answer it!"

Half worried it was a telemarketer, he checked the display in his mask to see how much longer before he reached the city, barking out a distracted "hello?"

"Mr. Stark?" a sort of familiar voice asked…it wasn't Penny, though.

"Yeah, who's this?"

"Harry Osborn."

Right. Penny's boyfriend. Before he could ask how he'd gotten his number, the kid went on.

"Do you know where Penny is?"

"No…I got a text from her telling me that she found the Vulture and I'm on my way to the city."

"Yeah…Adrian Toomes. He's her friend's dad. We were tracking him and he stopped at this abandoned building and she hung up and went inside and now we can't reach her!"

Tony didn't let himself panic like the boy on the phone obviously was. Not yet. Penny was probably fine. She had to be. Kids didn't always answer their phones, right? "I'm maybe ten minutes from the city. What's the address?"

Another voice spoke up, reciting the address of a building that he immediately had Friday reroute him to.

"Alright. I'm headed there now."

Tony was glad the kids had hung up before he reached the building...there was no way he could have hidden the panic in his voice the second he laid eyes on it, heart stuttering in his chest as he landed beside the wreckage. The building was gone…flattened. The whole thing had collapsed, leaving behind only the huge chunks of concrete and glass and twisted metal. "Friday…scan! Look for…look for Spider-Girl. Look for Penny!" he barked, hands shaking as he half clawed his way out of the suit that took a few seconds too long to open for him. "Kid! Penny!" he called, racing towards the edge of the wreckage and listening for a moment.

Nothing.

"Penny!" Jaw so tight he thought his teeth might break, he started tossing bits of debris aside with his bare hands before climbing back into the suit and grabbing them with his gauntlets when all that did was cut up his hands. "Friday?"

"I'm not detecting any living humans within a half mile radius, boss."

Tony didn't remember dropping to his knees. One moment he was throwing pieces of concrete over his shoulder, the next he was kneeling amongst the rubble of the building that had apparently stood there just hours ago. "Scan again," he ordered, voice hoarse.

There was a short silence. "No life forms detected."

He stared, unseeing, at the dust still floating in a cloud over the wreckage. Then, "find me traffic cam footage. The last two hours."

Another pause while she searched.

Penny couldn't be dead. She couldn't be. She was fifteen and he'd…he'd tried to keep her out of the dangerous parts of being a superhero and that hadn't worked so he'd taken her suit away and that hadn't worked either…

So he'd given her his number. She'd texted him.

And he still hadn't gotten there in time.

Tony had wanted his kid to have a life…a better one than he ever could have given them. He hadn't wanted to screw them up. He hadn't wanted to hurt them.

And now…

He'd sat his phone down. He'd been pouring over those stupid documents that Ross had given him and trying to figure out how to make any of this better and then, almost a half hour after she'd sent the text, he'd finally seen it. It had only taken ten seconds for his suit to materialize around him. Eight for him to shout instructions for Friday to inform Pepper.

And almost thirty five minutes for him to get to this god-forsaken rubble heap that had recently been a building…a building that his daughter had walked into.

Friday, on the other hand, only took three minutes to get him the footage, playing it on his screen. For a moment, he stared blankly at the image of the building in front of him, perfectly still apart from the occasional bird.

"Fast forward until Penny shows up," he ordered.

Friday did, and in the jerky video, Tony watched as a car pulled in, and a man walked into the building. Adrian Toomes. It had to be.

Then, a few seconds later, it went back to regular speed as Penny appeared, swinging onto the scene and landing on a nearby lamppost. She hesitated for a moment before hanging up her phone, pocketing it, and climbing in through a window. She wasn't wearing her suit…not her new one, anyway. Judging from the pixelated image, it looked like she was in the old hoodie she'd been wearing when he'd first seen her on Youtube.

Why wasn't she in her suit?

Friday sped up the footage again, but Tony held up a hand when, less than ten minutes later, someone stepped out from around the back of the building. He narrowed his eyes, heart sinking as the person approached the street camera. "Fri…tell me that's not…"

"Norman Osborn, sir."

Three seconds later, the building came down.

He averted his eyes as best he could, swallowing hard and trying to make his hands stop shaking. His kid…the best thing he'd ever done with his life…and he'd barely had anything to do with her. He'd never get to make it right now. Just the latest in a long line of Tony Stark fuck-ups. How was he supposed to face her aunt and tell her? How was he supposed to go back to the Avengers compound and look at the room that was supposed to be hers?

His breath came in shaking gasps and he had to fight to get himself under control. Norman Osborn. Norman. Fucking. Osborn. Why hadn't he suspected his old nemesis of having something to do with this? Why hadn't he spent more time looking into the Vulture himself? Hell, why hadn't he started doing his own patrols? Maybe Penny would have trusted him if he'd actually been out there, helping her stop this guy instead of just leaving her to it!

He'd been busy. He'd been swamped with meetings and had buried himself in the work of trying to figure out how to fix what felt unfixable. But more than that, he hadn't wanted to push her. He hadn't wanted to try and force her to accept his presence in her life, especially not after he'd opted out of it twice now.

Now…now she was…

"Boss?"

Tony blinked hard, wishing he could wipe his face as tears and sweat ran down his cheeks and down his temples. "Yeah?" he asked, short and clipped, closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at that goddamned building anymore.

"You might want to watch this."

He lifted his eyes back to the screen…watched the absolute stillness of the rubble where the daughter he'd barely had had died…except it wasn't quite still. There was a shifting…pieces of concrete moving and falling aside. Smaller pieces rolling away.

And then…

And then…

She stood up.

Penny pulled herself to her feet, shoving the pieces of concrete off of her in a move that should have been impossible but Tony didn't care because she wasn't dead. His kid, the girl he didn't even have the right to call his kid, wasn't dead.

"Holy shit," he whispered. "Friday…are you seeing this?"

"Yes, boss."

And then, only limping a little, she shot a web and disappeared from the frame..

"Track…track her! Now! Friday…find her!" He stuttered, shooting into the air, leaving the ruins of the office building behind and scanning the city like he might see her around somewhere.

"I'm afraid I am unable to track her, as her phone is not currently on."

Right…her phone had probably been crushed when that building collapsed.

"Order her a new phone," he ordered, only half paying attention to the words as he said them.

Penny was alive. Somehow. But he had to find her before she got herself killed trying to fight the Vulture.

Norman Osborn and the Vulture were working together. Why? The Vulture was selling alien weapons. That meant he was accessing alien technology somehow. Where was he getting alien technology?

And then it hit him.

His plane.

Moving day.

"Friday, the plane with the Avengers tech…give me the coordinates."

His phone rang just as he spoke, Happy's name flashing in the corner of the display as Friday spoke up. "It appears as though your plane has veered off course."

He swore under his breath. "What do you mean? Where is it?"

"Incoming call from Happy…"

"Ignore it…tell him I'll call him back. Where's the plane?"

There was a pause. "Your plane is currently on the beach about a half mile away from Coney Island."

"What the hell is it doing there?"

"It seems to have crashed."

He swore under his breath. "Okay…take me there."

Tony didn't need her to navigate for him for the last few miles…he could see the flames just fine from the air. He knew that important, top-secret Avengers tech was in that plane. He knew that the Vulture, or Norman Osborn, who was apparently in on all this, couldn't get their hands on said tech. He knew that those weapons needed to be his top priority.

But Penny was probably down there. He couldn't tell for sure until he got closer, but if he knew that kid, and he felt like he at least kind of did, then he knew that she'd be down there too. She'd already had a building dropped on her. He couldn't let her get hurt again. Hell, she probably needed medical attention now! What if she was hurt? What if…

Tony's thoughts cut off the second he landed on the beach.

It looked like the plane had broken into at least five pieces, and every one of them was on fire. There were some crates that he recognized as the ones holding the Avengers tech all piled together, held together with webbing, and in the middle of all of it, far enough away from the fire that he would be in any danger, was the Vulture.

The man didn't exactly look like a dangerous weapons dealer, but Tony knew better than anyone that looks didn't count for much. "Adrian Toomes?" he asked, a master of sounding unbothered while mid-panic attack. He was glad for the suit…glad it hid how his hands shook, and how tears had probably dried on his face.

The guy nodded, looking exhausted and irritated in equal measure.

"You crash my plane?" Good, he thought. Nonchalant. Don't let this guy know what actually mattered to him..

"Nope. That was the Spider-Girl."

Tony shook his head. "Right. You were just trying to steal everything inside. Why are you working with Osborn?"

Apparently figuring that there was no point in lying to Iron Man, especially while tied up at the scene of his attempted crime, Toomes sighed. "He offered to help with a little funding problem in exchange for some of the weapons."

He was sure that Osborn's announcement that he was running for office had something to do with all this, but he couldn't make himself care just then. Not until he knew the kid was safe. "Where is Spider-Girl, anyway?"

Toomes gave him a long look. "You know, I never took you for the deadbeat dad type but according to Osborn…"

Tony held up one repulsor, letting it charge inches from the man's bloody face. So Norman had known somehow…was he the one who'd left that envelope for Penny? That was another thing he'd have to figure out later. "Where is she?"

The Vulture jerked his head toward the distant outline of Coney Island. "She went that way."

Tony found Penny sitting on top of a roller coaster, half laying against a support post, her makeshift mask held limply in her hand. Her eyes were closed, but the moment he landed, they snapped open, and she jerked like she'd been sleeping. She followed his movements as he climbed out of the suit, approaching carefully and keeping an eye on the drop just inchest to his left. He didn't know what to say. Asking if she was okay felt stupid but not asking felt cruel. In the end, he dropped to his knees in front of her, heart twisting when she gave him a weak smile.

"I found the Vulture."

He nodded, shocked that his voice could be so steady. "Yeah. I got that."

"He was trying to hijack your plane. I crashed it…sorry."

Tony shook his head. "I don't care about the plane, kid." He dropped his eyes to the tracks that were digging into his knees, wincing at the feeling but not wanting to get up. "I saw the building…I thought…I thought you were in there."

She sat up a little, wincing when that must have hurt. "I got out."

"Are you alright?"

It was the question he should have asked her so many times now…after that fight in Germany and after DC and when he'd found her holding that ferry together…he hadn't wanted to get close to her, though…hadn't wanted to risk it.

Penny nodded, looking distant and professional and like she wanted him to leave. "Yeah. I'm fine. All of your stuff is down there, and I've got the Vulture tied up."

"I don't care about the stuff either."

She narrowed her eyes, tilting her head in confusion. "But...isn't that the Avengers tech?"

"Penny, I thought you were dead," he told her softly, enunciating every word. He didn't know how to say it any plainer…didn't know how to make something that was so obvious to him clear to her. Still, she just stared at him in possibly concussed confusion. "I'm glad my stuff is safe. I'm glad we don't have to track down the Vulture, and that he doesn't have access to that tech. But I'm more concerned about you being okay."

The girl shook her head, closing her eyes. "I'm fine. You should get your stuff," she told him, her tone a clear dismissal.

"I want to take you to the Compound."

"What?" she asked, sounding both exhausted and baffled. "Why?"

"I have a doctor there. One you can trust. I want her to look at you and make sure…"

Penny shook her head again, sighing softly and cutting him off."Look…Mr. Stark, I appreciate you coming but you don't have to do this."

"Do what?"

"Act like…like it matters to you! You don't have to pretend to care what happens to me." She was speaking gently, like she was letting him down easy, but her words hit him like a slap in the face.

"I'm not pretending to care." He did his best to keep his voice level, but it was hard, and he wondered if she could see his hands shaking in the dark.

"So just because I'm…" She cut herself off, closing her head and dropping it against the railing behind her. Then she went on, not opening her eyes. "Look, just because you're…biologically…you know…I don't want anything from you. You don't have to worry about me telling anyone. I mean, Harry and my friend already know, but…other than them, I haven't told anyone. And I won't. So…don't worry. You aren't on the hook for me or anything."

"Kid…"

"You aren't responsible for me. And I didn't tell you about that envelope because I wanted something from you."

"Kid…" he tried again, but she went on, opening her eyes only to stare past him at the night sky, eyes hard and older than they should have been considering she was only fifteen.

"I don't. Want anything," she clarified flatly. "You didn't want a kid. And that's fine. Like, nobody should be forced into being a parent. I get that."

"Penny."

Her mouth shut so fast her teeth clacked softly in the sudden silence between them, and she did look at him then, eyes wide and startled. His eyes? Her mother's? It didn't matter.

"I don't care if you tell people. I'm not ashamed to have you as a kid." He hesitated, wishing he'd thought this little speech through before starting, but knowing that he was just going to have to do his best. He had a feeling that he didn't have many more chances when it came to Penny Parker, and he wasn't going to waste this one. "And I know…I know I wasn't ever there and you didn't even know…I mean…I didn't either but…I…I fucked up, Penny."

If possible, her eyes got even wider, and he felt bad for a second before pressing on.

"I fucked up. A lot. I mean, I'm sure you know this, but I was a barely functioning alcoholic and I would have been a shitty father. But I could have done better. I could have tried. I was a coward and I…I was so afraid of becoming my own father that I wasn't even willing to…to think about being involving in a kid's life."

Her expression was shuttered. Guarded. But at least she hadn't interrupted, so he went on.

"And with the ferry…look, you scared the ever loving shit out of me. I was responsible for you and I'd given you that suit and…and all I could think about was you getting hurt or killed and then having to live with that. With… with knowing that I was the reason a teenage girl died. I have so much blood on my hands Penny. I couldn't stand the thought of yours being there too."

He swallowed hard, fighting the urge to drop his eyes from hers when she just stared at him. "But I…I messed that up too. I thought that taking away your suit would stop you from going out and putting your life in danger. I thought you would go back to being a normal teenager and that you'd be safe. And that was really fucking stupid because I should have know better. That suit didn't make you a superhero, kid. You just…are one. I knew that. And I'm sorry. I'm…I'm so sorry, Penny. I was afraid of being anybody's…mentor or…anything, really. And I fucked up and I hurt you and I'm sorry."

The words that had been pouring out of him came to an abrupt halt and he watched the girl in front of him drop her eyes, lips trembling a little as she tightened her jaw. He knew what it looked like when someone was trying so hard to hold it together that it hurt, but he couldn't stop yet.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you that I was calling the FBI. I'm sorry I kept trying to keep you out of the loop. I was trying to protect you but that…that was a stupid way to try and do it. I'm sorry I took your suit. I gave that to you. It was a gift and it was yours. I should have talked to you. I should have tried to explain. Hell, I should have been the one taking your calls."

"You're just saying that because of that stupid envelope," she whispered, and he had to drop his eyes once more when a tear ran down her cheek.

He'd been her hero.

They did say to never meet your heroes. But she hadn't gotten a choice.

"I'm saying it because it's true. I'm not asking for you to come back to Stark Industries and take an internship with my company. Hell, I'm not even asking for you to forgive me. God knows I don't deserve to ask that of you. But I wanted you to know. I did a shitty job of mentoring you, especially considering I was the one that reached out to you, and I sure as hell don't deserve to call myself your father. But I am sorry. And if you ever need anything, I wanted you to know that you could ask."

The girl just stared at him for a long moment, lips still trembling, that tear dripping off her cheek before being followed by another one. Then, when she did speak, it was in a hoarse whisper that he only just caught. "Stark Industries doesn't have a real high school internship program."

"We do now. And we pay double what Oscorp pays."

Her lips twitched into a reluctant smile. "So it's true? You really hate Mr. Osborn?"

He snorted. "Kid, out of everything that's ever been reported on me, that's the one thing they always got right. And I hate him now more than ever."

"Because he was funding the Vulture," she whispered, nodding as if in understanding, but he shook his head.

"No. Because he dropped a building on my kid." He didn't realize what he'd called her until the words were already out of his mouth, but if she noticed, she didn't comment.

"That was the Vulture."

"Well then I hate him too. Call a press conference so I can tell everybody."

The smile grew, just a little, and another tear fell.

"You did a good job, kid. You messed up at the ferry, but you didn't let that, or me, stop you from helping people. You found the Vulture. You stopped him on your own. Hell, you had a building dropped on you but you didn't let it stop you. I don't deserve to call you my kid. I didn't earn that. But I'm proud of you, Penny. I'm proud that you're my daughter."

She dropped her head then, the guarded expression dropping from her face as it crumbled. She looked so small and so young…and so tired. Her shoulders shook as a sob seemed to burst out of her, then another, and she dropped her mask and covered her face as she cried, curling up in a miserable ball like she was trying to protect herself.

Tony moved carefully, torn between wanting to comfort her and not wanting to fall to his death, then came to sit beside her. He didn't have a choice…it was like his body moved without him telling it to. Slowly, letting her move away if she wanted, he draped an arm around her, and it only took a few seconds for her to rest her head on his shoulder, her whole body shaking with the sobs she couldn't seem to stop.

"I'm sorry, kid," he whispered, patting her on the back and feeling like a fraud. He had no idea what he was doing…no idea how to comfort this girl that was biologically his daughter but that he'd only spent maybe an hour with since he'd met her. He didn't know how to build a relationship with any kid, much less his own kid, especially considering how bad of a job he'd done so far.

But his father had never even tried. So maybe, he thought, just maybe, he really could break the cycle. He was at least going to try.

Thanks for reading!