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Chapter 4

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Penny made it to the area for the final underground wrestling match, this time is was heavily crowded and there were lots of people. Penny quickly ran into a nearby closet and put on her costume, thought once she got out lots of people were staring at her. Penny never felt so uncomfortable, but she just kept telling herself that it will all be worth it in the end. Come on Penny, she thought to herself, you fought at ten fights already and won them all and now you have nearly ten thousand dollars! If you win just one more fight you can get another thirty grand and get a good apartment and a good car... and maybe show Mary Jane that she can rely on you more, Ah! Ahem but mainly focus on your future and... Penny then remembered how she yelled at Aunt May and left her crying in the car. Yeah, defiantly owe her some flowers and an apology.

"Your late kid." Penny snapped out of her deep thought when she realized she made it to the front desk for the wrestlers.

"Ah yes- Ahem! yes, sorry man." Penny quickly tried to make her voice deeper to make herself more masculine thought all it did was make the guy raise an eyebrow at her.

"Whatever, look kid you get the deal right? you last in the ring for three minutes and you'll get 30 grand."

"Yes!"

"Ok, the guy this time is called Bonecrusher and he's a pro."

"Ha, don't worry I've been training."

"... right, listen kid, I like your skills and clearly so does the crowd, you came a long way since your... interesting first fight but uh. Maybe try throwing more punches this time."

"I- what?"

"Ok don't take this the wrong way kid but... well there's no good way to say this but, you hit like a girl."

"Um."

"And you rely on dodging too much, which doesn't really do much since you always block with your face."

"Uh."

"Also, your name sucks! The Human Spider? What are you a kindergartener?"

"Well..."

"Alright, alright. look, hear me out kid, I want to introduce you as the Amazing Spiderman!"

"... What?"

"Oh come on kid! It makes sense, you move around like a spider and you're a man! Spiderman! It fits." Penny felt annoyed being called a man but as far as the front desk guy knew, she was indeed a guy. So instead, she just sighed deeply in annoyance and nodded her head.

"Good? Great, besides its not like you could say no anyways since I already told the guy announcing you. Now remember what I said and get your ass in there!" Penny sighed again and went in with the security team leading the way. She was led to an empty looking place with a large curtain, from the noise she could hear, it was quite obvious that on the other side was the crowd surrounding the wrestling ring. Penny took a deep breath to keep herself calm and shook her whole body as to loosen up, which apparently helps despite how ridiculous it looked.

"Now then! The last fighter here is a real amateur! You'd think he would suck but he holds a lot of heads! He's terrifying, he's unstoppable, he's the Incredible Spiderman!" The currant rose up and half of the crowd cheered while the other half booed. Penny once again sighed in annoyance, but she was used to this as she walked down the steps to the wrestling ring. Penny tired her best to ignore everyone who was booing at her and telling her that Bonecrusher was going to rip her to pieces, some of the hype girls for Bonecrusher even grabbed her face and mockingly threw her kisses. This greatly aggravated Penny but she continued walking while trying to ignore them. Finally, she made it to the wrestling ring, and she looked at Bonecrusher who was clearly proud of his muscles and was mocking her by showing off how much bigger than her he was. Penny just rolled her eyes under her mask as she was reminded of another reason as why she didn't find men attractive. Penny just crunched her knuckles thinking this was going to be another long but ultimately easy fight; however, the heart sank when a cage started lowering around her.

"That's right folks! We're spicing things up tonight and having a cage fight! Our prayers go out to the poor Spiderman and his soon to be grieving family!" The crowd started laughing to which Penny grunted with even greater anger and annoyance before. Thought she was actually kinda excited since she knew exactly how to express that anger and she was currently walking towards it. Bonecrusher was still hyping up the crowd while Penny was walking towards him, she quickly punched him in the back, but he proved to be stronger and more durable than she expected. He quickly turned around and swung his fist across her face making her spin and fall to the ground face first, causing the crowd to cheer in excitement. Bonecrusher was laughing as well as he was walking toward her and trying to grab her, but she quickly raised her legs and kicked him in the stomach and afterwards flipped herself back up. Bonecrusher was angry and tried to charge at her, but Penny jumped and did a spin kick at his face making him fall to the ground on his back and in pain. Penny expected the crowd to cheer after that or at least gasp in excitement but instead it was all boos.

"Whoa there! I thought this was a fighting ring for wrestlers, not ninjas! Try keeping it together Spiderman!" Penny grunted and walked towards Bonecrusher who was still on the ground. Fine, you want wrestling I'll give you wrestling, Penny thought as she raised her elbow and jumped in the air to let her body fall to the ground and her elbow into the Bonecrushers chest. However, the Bonecrusher miraculously caught her before she landed on him and threw her, practically making her fly toward a wall of the cage. Penny grunted in pain, but she had no chance to catch her breath as Bonecrusher ran into her and punched her in the stomach. He then kept punching her to keep her pinned to the wall, all while the crowed was cheering louder than before. Finally, he left her alone and she fell to her knees, she was getting annoyed as this fight was actually a lot tougher than all her previous fights. She struggled to get up but before she could Bonecrusher hit her with a metal folding chair in the face, making her fall on her back. Since she was on the ground the referee tried starting the countdown, but she was able to do a kick up and stand back on her feet again.

"Oh, come on little boy, haven't you had enough?!"

"Call me little boy again and you'll regret it." Bonecrusher chuckled and then charged at her, but she quickly jumped up and spin-kicked him in the face, leaving him taking a few steps back and dazed. Penny then kicked him in the leg with all her might and in the next second kicked him in the other leg directly on the knee forcing him to fall to his knees. Afterwards she turned around and gave him a back kick right to the face forcing him to go down and stay down. The referee started the countdown and just like that Bonecrusher was down and Penny was declared the winner. Some of the crowd was still booing but most actually ended up cheering, Penny just stood there as the referee went to her and raised her fist while people kept cheering. She was glad she won but she didn't care about the praise right now she just wanted the money so she could be done with all this crap.

Penny kept her mask on but she was smiling the entire time as she was in the main office, the guy in the desk in front of her was counting the money he was to give to her.

"Alright here's your cut, take it and get out." Penny stopped smiling when she saw the amount of money she was actually given.

"Wait, what the hell? This is only 500, you promised me 30,000."

"That was only if you lasted for three minutes but you beat him in two."

"But that doesn't make any sense! If I beat him quicker than expected, shouldn't I get paid more?!"

"Listen kid! I only get more money when the people love the fight! But everyone here hates you! So how am I supposed to pay you when you can't even bring in a full house?"

"Full house? But there were so many people! And most of them were cheering when I won!"

"Yeah, but not all of them cheered now did they. Listen, you got your money, now get out, punk."

"No, you promised me more! Give me what is owed!" The guy then pulled out a gun and pointed it at her, Penny quickly raised her hands to show she surrendered.

"Please... I need that money."

"Yeah bitch? Sorry, but I missed the part where that's my problem!" Penny just grunted in frustration, there was nothing left to do so she just left. She should consider herself lucky the jerk didn't take the money back from her, still though that didn't do anything to quell her frustration about not getting what was owed. However, as she left another guy walked in and quickly pointed a gun at the desk guy who pulled out his own gun back.

"Shit, put the money in the bag!"

"Put the gun down asshole or I'll shoot!" Penny didn't want to get involved but at the same time her frustration was still building up, so she instead did something that was really stupid. She shot a web at the desk guy's gun and used the web to pull it back to her, she then threw the gun in the trash and left the office.

"Wha-?! What the hell?! What are you doing-?!" The robber then hit him in the head with the back of his gun and quickly put all the money in the bag thought Penny didn't stay to watch him finish. Instead, she just walked over to the elevator as if it was no big deal, then as she pressed the button, she heard the guy running down the hallway she simply stepped out of the way as he went for the elevator.

"Hey, thanks man, and here!" He threw her a bundle of a thousand dollars, still not what she wanted but she nodded to show her appreciation. She knew this was wrong, but it felt nice watching that jerk get robbed. Then the elevator closed, and the desk guy only got to hit the door of the elevator, Penny quickly hid the money as he then looked at her in anger.

"What the hell is wrong with you! You took my gun away and now that bastard got all my money!"

"Yeah bitch? Sorry, but I missed the part where that's my problem." The desk guy just looked at her in disbelief and walked away in frustration; Penny smiled, feeling satisfied by the look of his face. Penny then pressed the button on the elevator so that she can finally leave, well, today kinda sucked, she thought, but once I get Aunt May those flowers and properly apologize it will make things better. I still don't have the money, but I can find another ad that's offering a lot.

Penny got a cheap flower bouquet and was walking to where Aunt May dropped her off, expecting to see here there, however Penny quickly noticed that there were lots of police cars heading to the same direction. As she got close, she saw that in front of the car there was an ambulance, which made her heart sink out of fear. Then just like an horrific nightmare Penny saw paramedics put Aunt May on a trolley bed and getting her into the Ambulance. Penny saw Aunt May and could see the blood around her chest, she was shot in the heart, she was dead. Penny quickly ran to Aunt May as fast as she could, she wasn't thinking, she didn't even know what to do, all she knew was that she needed to reach Aunt May. However, before she could get to Aunt May the police stopped her.

"Hey little girl what are you doing? Get back!"

"Please that's my aunt!"

"Sorry but she's dead, now get back!"

"Please just let me see her!"

"I said get back!" The police officer then punched her in the face making people in the crowd gasp, thought the cop had no remorse.

"Stupid bitch! When a cop tells you to do something, you do it!" Penny didn't get up, instead she just sat there on the ground and started crying. She tried to shut everyone out of her head not wanting to focus on anything. She was just so full of anger, sadness, and regret, she wanted nothing more than to go back in time and help Aunt May. However, before she could zone everything out, she heard one of the cops on the radio talking about how they have people on the trail of the guy who did it. Now there was only one thing on Penny's mind and that was revenge, she was so overwhelmed by emotions she couldn't think of anything else let alone anything rational. This was stupid, immoral, and Uncle Ben nor Aunt May would approve but she didn't care, she wanted blood.

It took quite a while, but Penny was able to find where the place they guy was held up, it wasn't hard since the place was surrounded by police. It was a large and abandoned building, perfect for hiding or getting away from trouble, thought that all falls apart when I come in, Penny thought to herself. Penny shot a web to a nearby building and swung towards the one where the crook was in, she normally didn't like swinging on webs after the last incident but right now she didn't care. She made it to the roof of the building and quickly made her way down, she really wasn't sure how she was even going to find him but once she made it to a certain floor, she felt a presence. It was like something in her head was telling her there was danger in the area, kinda similar to how she felt the need to avoid Flash's punch back when they fought. Penny smiled as she knew what this meant, Aunt May's killer was here, and now was the time for revenge. Penny was sticking to crawling on the ceiling while searching for the guy that killed Aunt May, she was trying her best to be as quiet as possible.

"What the hell?!" However, that proved to be a fruitless effort as the criminal ended up being the one spotting her first, he quickly started firing at her forcing her to quickly fall to the ground and started dodging. thanks to her heightened senses she was able to absorb her surroundings even after just barely looking and even when the lighting in there was bad. Sure, as she moved around the crook, he almost shot her a few times, but they were close calls and nothing more. However, he stopped after a while, but Penny kept crawling around him making him look around in horror as if he was being stalked by a monster.

"Uh... Hey! Are you a cop?! L- Listen! Let's just talk ok! How about this! I- If you let me go, I'll give you a cut of the cash I stole! I got a lot so it's a sweet deal, right?!" Penny then shot a web at the crook's gun and used it to take it away from him. She then dropped down, walked up to him, and punched him in the stomach, making him fly toward the wall as he screamed in terror. Once he impacted hard Penny ran up to him and grabbed him by the neck and raised him up so that she could see his face, she was shocked when she saw it was the thief she let go.

"Wha- wait, you. you're the guy at the wrestling place! Why- Why are you doing this to me? You helped me back there-!" Penny tightened her grip on his throat, she really wanted to kill him but first she wanted him to know why he should die.

"You killed her. My Aunt May."

"Wha- what?!"

"The old lady you dumb jackass! You shot her in the heart!"

"Ah-! Ok! Ok! I did shoot her but I didn't know she was your aunt! I swear!"

"That doesn't matter! You still shouldn't have killed her!"

"She had her hands on my partner! I thought she was attacking him!"

"Attacking him?! You thought my Aunt May was attacking someone?! My Aunt May would never hurt a fly! What is wrong with you!" Now Penny's rage was uncontrollable she started punching him in the stomach repeatedly. As a response he tried begging her for mercy which ended up only aggravating her more so instead she started punching his face and she didn't stop even when he started bleeding. The entire time she was just remembering Aunt May's face, her gentle smile, her loving words, but what hurt Penny the most was the fact that the last thing she said to Aunt May was that she didn't need her anymore. Penny then cried out in anger and was about to deliver a killing blow on the crook, but she stopped when he placed one of his hands on her face. She quickly slapped it away out of anger but then she saw how messed up, puffy, and bloody his face was, he was seemingly crying thought it was hard to tell since his eyes were so badly swollen. He was holding his hands out, he was mumbling and begging her to stop, once she did stop, he curled up into a ball and kept on crying. Penny then looked at her hands and was horrified at how bloody they were, she knew what she was doing was horrible but this... this was unforgivable. Penny quickly pulled out the money the crook gave her, threw it on the ground next to him, and quickly got out of the building. Just in time too as the cops were starting to storm in.

Penny drove the car back home all-be-it sloppily, one reason was because she still wasn't good at driving and the second was that she was still shocked by everything that happened. The money she got wasn't worth it, the crook she helped ended up stabbing her in the back, she ended up beating him to the point that he'll be traumatized for life, and worst off... Aunt May was dead. Penny wanted to scream but she couldn't even do that, she felt so numb that all she did was take off her costume put on her jeans and hoody, then left to car to go inside. However, as she took each step it was like she was being crushed by the gravity of everything she wasn't sure what to do after that or what to say to Uncle Ben.

After what felt like an eternity, she finally made it to the front door and entered the house. Penny then saw Uncle Ben sitting there on the couch with tears in his eyes and the home phone in his hand, he already knew everything. Uncle Ben then looked at Penny and instantly his face was filled with more sadness and regret, he quickly got up and slowly walked over to Penny. In response, Penny finally stopped feeling numb, she then started crying waterworks and ran toward Uncle Ben and hugged him as tightly as she could. Uncle Ben hugged her back as gently as possible and gently pat her head, meanwhile Penny was whaleling and sobbing in overwhelming sadness and pain.

"Sssh, sssh, I'm here Penny... I'm so sorry, I should have been there... I should have been with you... Both of you." Penny managed to calm down a little as she listened to Uncle Ben's words, she couldn't help but feel guilty. It wasn't your fault, she thought, it was me, I left her alone while I did some stupid wrestling for some stupid money, I left her alone... I left her to die. Penny couldn't really verbalize any of it, instead she just started crying heavily again and nearly collapsed to the ground but didn't when Uncle Ben kept holding her up. The two of them ended up staying in the living room and hugging each other while grieving for most of the night.

Penny ended up taking some of the money she saved up from the wrestling and used it to pay of Aunt May's funeral, she didn't care about the car or apartment anymore. She just wanted to give Aunt May everything she owed her, though it didn't really feel like it was enough. Thankfully Uncle Ben didn't ask where the money came from and just used it to pay the funeral expenses.

When the funeral finally came, she remained silent for most of the time, she didn't say anything to anyone not to Harry or Mary Jane who both attended the funeral. She only moved around and followed Uncle Ben when he went around thanking people for coming. Then finally came time to say their goodbyes, and again Penny just clung to Uncle Ben the entire time like a little kid, she just didn't have the will to do anything else. But as the pastor was saying the goodbye Penny quickly started breaking down and crying again, to which Uncle Ben had to hold her and hug her while she kept crying. Penny did feel ashamed, but she also just couldn't do anything else but keep crying as the funeral went on.

When it was over Penny and Uncle Ben went home, as they got inside both were silent at first but then Uncle Ben tried to say something to Penny. Unfortunately, before he could finish Penny punched a hole in the wall and then kicked the couch breaking the arm rest.

"Whoa! Penny! Penny stop!" Penny then ran to the kitchen, grabbed a chair, and bashed in onto the ground she didn't even stop after it was practically into pieces. But then after that she just back up into a wall and let herself slide to the ground and just sat there in silence. Penny didn't cry or do anything anymore she just remained silent as Uncle Ben walked up to her, got on one knee, and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Penny... talk to me, please." Penny then looked at Uncle Ben with an emotionless and broken expression.

"The last thing I said to her was that I didn't need her... I practically yelled it to her face. I didn't even apologize, I... I just left her there alone." Uncle Ben then sighed and then sat cross-legged on the ground next to Penny.

"Penny... she was there because she wanted to be there for you."

"Yeah, exactly because of me-"

"AND she wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. Me and your Aunt May only wanted to be there for you. Penny, if it were me, I know that I would have been glad it was me and not you. Now, there's nothing in my mind telling me that Aunt May wasn't thinking the same thing that night. So, listen to me, you have no reason to blame yourself for this, ok? It was that... that bastard's fault, and the police already got him. Now I don't condom how they beat him like an animal but... frankly I don't care about him enough to feel pity, I'm just glad that he won't be able to ever do it again." Uncle Ben then reached out and gently grabbed Penny's hand.

"Penny, I know you're going to keep thinking you could have saved Aunt May, and things are going to be hard without her... believe me. But please know I'm still here, and true, with great power comes great responsibility, but even the greatest heroes can't always save the day alone."

"... I'm not a hero Uncle Ben."

"No? Well, you'll never be if you keep thinking that way. I do hope you'll eventually consider it, Penny. It would be a nice change of pace from all that awful wrestling." Penny chuckled at Uncle Ben's joke but once she fully processed it she looked at him in shock.

"I really hope you'll stop going to them." Uncle Ben then got up and walked to the stairs, Penny then quickly got up as well to stop him.

"You knew?!" Uncle Ben did stop before he reached the stairs and turned around with a gentle smile on his face.

"To be fair, you were very bad at hiding it. I'm not going to hold it against you Penny nor am I going to actually stop you, I'm just asking you to stop, its up to you to listen to me. You're growing up and you're within your rights to make your own choices. Me and your Aunt May, we just want to be there to help catch you if you fall." Penny then looked to the ground in shame.

"... That's basically what Aunt May told me."

"Then you know that it wasn't your fault. you couldn't have known that, that bastard would have-"

"But I let him get away!" Uncle Ben then looked at Penny in confusion as tears started falling form her eyes again.

"He was there, at the place where I fought... I could have stopped him but... the desk guy... he didn't give me what was owed so I got angry and... I let the guy go... if I stopped him he... he wouldn't have." Penny covered her face as she started crying harder than before, all she could hear was Uncle Ben slowly approaching her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and Penny looked at him to see a look of disappointment.

"Did you know that he was going to kill your Aunt May?"

"... No."

"Would you have stopped him if you did?"

"... Yes."

"From now on? Are you ever going to let a criminal get away with crime?"

"Never."

"Good. That's how you make up for it, you never let it happen again."

"You- you don't hate me?"

"Hate you? No, disappointed though, yes definingly. But that's because you let a robber go and just because you weren't given what was owed, shame on you Penny. But like you said you didn't know it was going to happen, so its not your fault Penny. You can blame yourself all you want but it doesn't change the fact that you couldn't have known what was going to happen." Uncle Ben gently wiped the tears off of Penny's face and gently lifted her head so they could be face to face. Penny was still sad even though she stopped crying, while Uncle Ben looked at her with a gentle smile.

"Penny, you are a Parker, you know what that means? When you fall, you get back up. Now this whole thing... that's you falling, and you fell hard. So, I ask you, Penny Parker, are you going keep lying down or get back up?" Penny looked at her hands unsure of herself, there was still so much that Uncle Ben didn't know so she felt that it what he was saying wasn't really fare. However, that didn't mean he was wrong, she made a lot of mistakes that night but dwelling and crying about it wasn't going to make things better. Penny had new strength, she was faster, she could crawl on walls, she could walk on ceilings, she could even shoot webs out of her wrist and had a intelligent pet spider named Peter. Penny then managed to smile and raised her fist to show Uncle Ben that she was determined to make up for her mistakes and do better form here on out.

"Heh, good, hang on that determination and keep what I said in mind, but also keep your studies in mind too, graduation is just around the corner, and like you said, Finals waits for no one. As for me, I'm going to bed, today has been exhausting." Uncle Ben then walked up the stairs but stopped halfway to look at Penny one last time.

"Hey, that money you gave me for your Aunt May's funeral, was it the same money you won form your wrestling?"

"Yeah..."

"... Hehe, you really are a Parker, and I'm glad you were willing to use the money for that. Because you're going to be using the rest to fix everything you broke today!"

"Ah, haha, yeah I'll do that Uncle Ben and I'll be up in a minute to get back to studying for finals."

"Oh, there's no rush Penny, I don't think anyone will hold it against you if you decide to take a break for today. There's always tomorrow after all." Penny smiled as Uncle Ben continued up the stairs, Penny then took a deep breath finally smiled proudly with her newfound determination. I'm really sorry Aunt May, she thought, I'm sorry that I contributed to your death, but I'm going to do everything I can to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again, after all its like you said, with great power comes great responsibility. Penny then walked up the stairs and went to her room to start preparing for her future.