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: I am still on break, but this chapter was a blast to write and cracked me up so I decided to post it anyways. Plus, I have an ulterior motive, which you will figure out by the time you finish this chapter lol.

When I tell you I was *this* close, though, to inserting the meme somehow...

Anyways, as always, hope you enjoy,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~primis, omega, superhero, genius~

~somebody to love~

~chapter 9: keep yourself alive~

Penny was really starting to hate Valentine's Day.

On Valentine's Day two years ago, the last Valentine's Day she had enjoyed, Harry had come home from his Sunday internship with a bouquet of white lilies, red roses, and forget-me-nots in his hands. He had handed her the flowers, planting a thousand kisses into her hair as he'd swept her off of the couch of their apartment, taking her into their bedroom. He'd set her down on their bed, his breath hot against her ear as he'd whispered, "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

She'd laughed. "Only all the time."

"Good." He'd pressed a kiss onto her neck where her mating gland was, making her shudder with pleasure. "'Cause it's always a rainy day without you, you're the Love of My Life, I Was Born to Love You."

That had made her laugh harder. "Harry – !"

They'd had sex, and it'd been passionate and perfect.

Afterwards, they'd ordered in some Thai, and put on the movie Highlander. Perhaps it wasn't the most romantic of movies, but she'd been naïve enough to believe Connor and Heather's story was one purely of fiction. They'd snuggled on the couch during and afterwards, her and Harry, until she'd given her Valentine's Day gift, a homemade watch. Then he'd carried her back into the bedroom.

"I love you," she'd murmured to him in the darkness of that night while they were still locked together, her head resting on his chest.

"Love you more," he'd replied.

"Love you most."

Last Valentine's Day had been...difficult. It'd only been three months since he'd died, and it'd been one of her days off at the diner. Not to mention, there had been a snowstorm in the city, and although she could thermoregulate just like everyone else, that didn't mean she – anyone – could patrol in the cold for hours at a time, even with suit heaters. So she'd been stuck inside, alone with her thoughts, alone with her grief.

This Valentine's Day had started off slightly better. It wasn't as cold, and she'd had work today. Bridget had been her usual bubbly self during their overlap, which had served as somewhat of a balm. It hadn't made her forget that this was the second Valentine's Day without the love of her life, or that she had four soulmates out there she didn't want anything to do with on this day most of all, but it had made things easier. Breathable.

Then, around two hours into her patrol, right at sunset, giant vampire bats started attacking the city.

Now, alien invasions notwithstanding, Penny was used to some sort of monster-of-the-week. She'd fought more feral genetic experiments (like she wasn't one) and villainous mutates or mutants than she cared to count. But even this was new to her.

"Oh, come on!" she cried as she punched a bat in the face, sending it flying in the other way besides its wings. "You've got to be kidding me!"

The bats varied in size: the smallest of them were the size of flying foxes, while the largest of them were easily approaching her height without including their wingspan. They were ugly things, with their upturned noses and beady eyes.

And they didn't stay down for long.

The bat she'd punched went sailing down, but one of its friends she was pretty sure she'd done the same to earlier took its place. Backing up, she allowed herself to fall off the side of the building she was on, instinctively thwipping a web with one shooter towards another. With her other shooter, she shot a web over the bat's eyes, causing it to let out a miserable shriek as it started to fly around in circles.

Of course, that made more of its buddies start to follow her. Grimacing, she shot webs at as many of them as she could, but it didn't do nearly as much as she wanted it to.

Hearing a shriek, she looked down and saw that one of the largest of the bats had grabbed a woman by the shoulders in its talons – had she mentioned they'd taken to doing that, too? Penny ripped herself from her webbing, allowing herself to fall down from the air until she landed on the bat's back. Roughly.

"Hey, didn't your owner ever teach you manners?" she snarled, smashing her hands together and bringing the combined fist down on its head. The creature cried out, dropping the woman, who landed with emphasis on the ground. But since she'd been only twelve or so feet up, it wasn't too bad. It could've been worse. "You don't pick people up and spirit them away to wherever you're taking them! It's not nice!"

The bat landed on the ground not far away from the lady with a pitiful whine. She backed away from it while slapping her palms, idly wondering if she should get her rabies shots after all of this was said and done.

Oh, right. I can't get rabies. One of the perks to being a human arachnid.

"Spider-Woman!"

Fuck.

"...Captain Rogers," she said, pivoting on her foot.

The alpha in question was jogging up to her. Romanoff and Barton weren't running after him, but now if she thought about it she was pretty sure she could hear the Iron Man suit flying around somewhere in the distance. That, and the roar of the Hulk.

Rogers immediately went to the point. She was glad for it. "Have you seen what released these things?"

"No, I've been trying not to get turned by them," she deadpanned anyways. He didn't really deserve it, but Penny couldn't help herself. "I've already been bitten once, I'd really rather not become part-bat on top of part-spider."

He didn't look amused by her sarcasm, but he didn't comment on it. "Here, you need an earpiece," he said, tossing her the item. With her quick reflexes, she didn't have to think about catching it. "We need somebody else in the air besides Stark."

"Oh, so now this is an Avengers problem?"

He ignored her, running back from whence he'd come from.

She waved her arms in the air, frustrated. The other Avengers had been doing fuck-all for the past several months, excluding the Stark fiasco. Well, Rogers had been doing cultural research, Banner probably scientific research, and Thor...God knew what since he was still off-world, but undoubtedly something. It figured that the one time in a while something flashy happened, they showed up.

Heroes though they were, they weren't the kind that got into the grittiness of it. Not like her, or Murdock, or Wilson. She'd rather be teaming up with them right now.

Alas, she'd made her bed.

Forcing the earpiece under her mask and into her ear, she tapped at it and asked without any prompting, "What do you guys already know?"

"Spider-Woman, nice of you to join us," snarked Stark.

She rolled her eyes, firing another web at a bat coming after her as she ran into an alley, using a building's fire escape as her leverage back towards the rooftops. "I've been at this for the past half-hour, you guys just showed up. I don't want to hear it. Rogers said you don't know where the bats are coming from?"

"No, we know the location, just not the perpetrator," answered Romanoff.

Penny ducked as a bat came flying at her. She half-expected it to come around for a second swing, however it kept on flying. "Coordinates? Address?"

Romanoff rattled them off to her.

She paused in her step. "You're shitting me."

"You know who's doing this?" asked Barton.

Penny cracked her neck. She clenched her hands into fists. "Yeah, I've got a pretty good idea."

"You gonna share with the class?" That was Stark.

Just for that, she decided to be petty. "Nope."

Taking off into a sprint, she hopped the rooftops of the buildings, until the low-rises gave way into high ones. Soon enough, her destination appeared before her: a sleek black building with white lettering along its side. Oscorp.

Fate had to be mocking her at this point.

The swarm of bats here was worse than it was where she'd been. She dipped below them, landing back on the ground. Not to her surprise, the creatures here seemed to ignore her: they were focused on keeping the person in charge of them safe, and she hadn't exactly been a threat. Not before.

She walked into the building without much difficulty, putting a hand on her hip as she surveyed the damage. The lobby was covered with shards of glass. People were cowering in one corner, while the man himself stood in the center of the room, his eyes red, his nose turned into a snout.

She resisted the urge to sigh. "Morbius, you've gotta stop doing this."

"Spider-Woman," he hissed. His face was drawn up into a sneer. "Come to stop me?"

She shrugged. "You know what they say: 'You're not you when you're hungry.'"

Honestly, she should've been expecting this. Morbius was supposed to have been released in June, however there was such a thing as early release for good behavior. And obviously, the government wasn't going to supply him with the blood substitute she'd (secretly) developed for him, because of...reasons. Probably so they could shove him back into solitary confinement.

Let it never be said she was a fan of the government when it came to their treatment of mutates and mutants. In that sense, they were a necessary evil, because the ones that were too dangerous to be in society had to go somewhere.

Morbius wasn't one of those dangerous mutates, though.

Not when he was in control of his hunger.

Penny's eyes darted over to where the cowering people were. None of them had bite marks on their necks, which was good. If Morbius drained one of them, he would turn them, and she knew the doctor beneath the gauze of his instincts was very much against that. He'd seen what happened when people like his former friend became pseudo-vampires.

She couldn't let him bite any of them.

"Okay, here's how this is going to go," she said. "You gotta let these people go, Dr. Morbius."

"I need food!" he growled.

"I get that. But you remember what the sharks said in Finding Nemo, right? 'People are friends, not food.'"

"The government won't give me the substitute they gave me in prison," Morbius spat, not to her surprise. He started to pace the center of the lobby, prowling, like a predator. One of the captive men looked like he was going to pass out. "They won't even give me its formula! What choice do I have?"

"I'm sure we can work this out," she tried to reason.

Morbius pinned her with a glare of his ruby red eyes. "You, what can you do? You're just a teenaged vigilante!"

...Huh.

She hadn't expected him to remember that about her.

(He wasn't supposed to remember anything about her at all.)

"I'm not a teenager anymore, Mike," she retorted smoothly. "And I can do more than you think."

Without further ado, she activated her comms again. "How fast can I get ESU and maybe a few ambulances to Oscorp? I have a slight hostage situation going on here, but Morbius is willing to trade."

"Morbius? As in the former Oscorp scientist who turned himself into a vampire?" questioned Barton.

"Pseudo-vampire," she corrected him absentmindedly. "And yes, the one and only."

"And what is he willing to trade?" That was Fury.

Penny didn't answer him.

"Spider-Woman."

"Just get ESU and the ambulances over here. Let me know when they're in position," she said.

Then she set the comms device on the mostly-silent setting.

"That was the director of SHIELD," Morbius observed a few moments later. He didn't look as feral now.

"Yes."

Silence.

"You really think he is a man of his word?"

"Probably not, but I am a woman of mine," she said. She inched closer to him, and noted with satisfaction how he didn't immediately shy away or try to attack her. Some part of him must have still trusted her. "What's with the bats? Those are new."

He continued to pace. "I made them using the research of a former colleague's."

"Dr. Connors?" she guessed.

He nodded.

"And you didn't think using the research of a man who turned himself into a giant, psychotic lizard was a bad idea?"

No answer.

Now, she did sigh.

Morbius must've been hungrier than she'd thought.

"When did you get released from prison?"

"Three months ago."

Well...that tracked. Three months ago, almost exactly to the day, was the anniversary of Harry's death. No wonder she hadn't realized Morbius had been released from prison. She'd been a mess.

About forty-five minutes later, her comms vibrated. "ESU is in position," Fury informed her.

"Alright, good." She waved to the people huddled together. "Come on, guys. Time for you to go."

Penny helped one of the people, a male omega who'd sprained his ankle, to the main entrance of the building. The giant bats continued to fly overhead, but they weren't attacking anybody as the people ran towards ESU, who led them over to the ambulances and triage area. Morbius had to be controlling the creatures somehow.

She didn't leave the building. When the last of the people had exited, she saluted ESU. "Everybody's out, Fury," she told the man. "Except for me and Morbius."

"What does he want, Spider-Woman?" he asked her.

"What do you think? He hasn't had a proper meal in months, and there's only one person he can suck almost dry without turning them," she responded.

He spluttered. "Spider-Woman – "

"Relax, Fury, I've done this before. I know what I'm doing. Don't come in. Morbius will bring me out when he's done."

"Spider-Woman, I don't think that's a good – " Romanoff began.

Penny didn't let her finish. Backing up, she used the rest of one of her web cartridges to barricade the doors of the main entrance shut. There were other entrances, of course, but she was counting on Morbius having blocked them off as well.

Taking off her mask, she fished the comms out of her ear and threw it on the ground, stomping her foot on it even as she heard protests from Fury and the other Avengers. It shattered into a million pieces, and then it was only her and Morbius.

When she looked up at him, he seemed...perplexed. "I don't remember feeding from you," he stated.

"You wouldn't," she agreed. "Nobody remembers who I am."

She could see the scientist in him trying to shine forth. "Why?"

"A story for another time." She reached up to the zipper of her suit, pulling it down some so her entire neck was exposed. "Now, are we going to do this or not?"

In the blink of an eye, he was on her. His arms wrapped around her waist, and his teeth grazed her neck. She shuddered, but not with pleasure. "Not that side, please."

He paused. "You're an omega," he said, his chest rumbling.

"Yes," she murmured.

"You hide it with suppressants," he pressed on. His fingers traced her mating gland, and she flinched at the feeling. "I can smell them. You were mated before, too. But not anymore."

"What are you trying to do, Mike?" she mumbled. "Flirt with me?"

"No," he said. "Just observing."

And then his teeth punctured the other side of her neck.

Having had her blood sucked by him before, Penny braced herself for the sensation. It wasn't entirely unpleasant, as despite the feeling of her life force leaving her they both released pheromones as he drained her. The pheromones made her insides twist and coil, albeit not with the same intensity as Harry's or her four soulmates'.

Maybe it was because of the thought of Harry, or maybe it was because she was quickly going loopy at the rate Morbius was drinking, but she remembered what Harry's reaction had been the last time she'd let the pseudo-vampire suck her blood. He'd been so pissed. He'd pressed his hand against the bandage on her neck, a scowl on his face. "I can't believe you did this," he'd said. "You almost died."

"I almost die on a regular basis."

"He could've turned you."

"But he didn't. Because now we know he can't," she'd replied.

He hadn't liked that. "Please don't tell me you're thinking about letting him drink your blood again."

"If I'm the only one he can't turn, the next time he gets this thirsty there won't be much of a choice."

"Penny, he could kill you!"

"With my healing factor, unlikely." She'd pulled his hand away from her neck, bringing it to her lips. "Don't worry, Harry."

"I'm your husband," he'd muttered. "It's my job."

She opened her eyes at the memory, not having realized she'd closed them. Black spots appeared in her vision.

Shit.

She tapped Morbius' arm. "Mike," she said. "Mike, it's time to stop."

There was no response.

Double shit.

"Dr. Morbius," she tried again, her tongue starting to feel thick. "Come on."

Nothing.

Penny tensed. It looked like she was going to have to stop him herself. Which totally wouldn't be difficult, given that she was pretty sure they were quickly approaching the threshold of when even she would be in danger of losing her life from the blood loss.

BANG!

Startling, she lifted her head enough to look over Morbius' shoulder. It took almost all of her effort, and her eyes quickly widened at what they saw.

Stark, Rogers, and Romanoff were standing in the remains of the main entrance. The first alpha's arm was raised, and without warning he shot a blast of his repulser at Morbius. The energy caught the pseudo-vampire in the torso, and with a grunt he went flying, his teeth dragging slightly as they left her neck.

She fell to the floor. Immediately, she clamped a hand to her neck. She felt the blood seep through her fingers anyway, making her suit sticky. "Fu'," she whined to no one in particular. "Why'd you do that?"

Stark sauntered past her, heading over to where Morbius was getting up. His pheromones and eyes were swirling dark, dangerous like a storm. It was no wonder he was called the Merchant of Death, because when he was angry like this he exuded every ounce of the reputation, and then some.

Rogers and Romanoff rushed over to her. The super soldier went behind her, kneeling down and pulling her into his lap. Because it was taking energy to keep herself in a sitting position, and it was energy that she didn't have as her body began to shake.

He moved her hand away from her wound, replacing it with his own. Romanoff crouched down in front of her. Her eyes were dark, too.

The scents of the two alphas filtered in through her nose. Oak and honey. Patchouli and gunpowder.

Abruptly, she realized she wasn't wearing her mask. They could see her face, plain as day.

Penny struggled against Rogers. "Le' me go," she mewled. "R – Rogers, le' me go!"

"Stop struggling," Romanoff ordered.

It wasn't an order, yet in her weakened state it might as well have been. Penny's instincts rebelled against her, as her body stopped struggling.

This was bad.

Stark, Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton were never supposed to know her identity.

They were never supposed to have found out.

More people came into the lobby. ESU, she thought, if the way they were dressed was any indicator. Most of them hurried over to Morbius, grabbing him and putting what looked like a power-suppressing collar around his neck. They carried him off, out of the building as he groaned.

Some of the ESU officers, plus Stark, came over to her. "How is she?" the man asked.

"I can't stop her bleeding," Rogers said. "I think her vein got torn."

Stark's face blanched. "Are you sure it's not her artery?"

"I don't think so."

One of the ESU officers spoke into his radio, calling for the paramedics to come in.

Stark focused on her then. His eyes went from dark to fraught with concern. "Stay with us, kid."

Penny coughed. She felt drops of blood fly out of her mouth. "I...had...it."

"No you didn't," said Romanoff. "Stark's right. You need to stay with us."

The black spots in her vision were getting larger. Her vision was tunneling. "Don' think...I'm gon' be able to...do that," she slurred.

The last thing she saw as Stark and Romanoff hovered over her were the paramedics. They were running over to her as fast as they could, holding a stretcher and some sort of first-aid kit in their hands. Behind them was marching Fury, and the glare he was giving her told her one thing: she was in so much trouble.

Then everything went to black.

Word Count: 3,524

Next Chapter Title: what you want