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Chapter 6

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Just as the armored van pulled in the robbers quickly surrounded it and knocked out the police men, it didn't take them long to get their hands on all the money. Penny felt bad that she wasn't getting these criminals right away, but she needed money, and this was the best way to get some while also keeping the streets safe. Once the camera was set, she placed it in the webs so it will stay in place then she quickly shot a web and swung down before the first photo shot. She swung toward the criminals and kicked one in the stomach and used the kick force to back flip around another criminal and as he turned around to face her, she swung a punch across his face making him spin in the air and hit the ground hard. Just then the first picture took which confused the remaining four criminals allowing Penny to shoot their guns with webbing keeping them from firing them. She managed to run up to them and do a spinning back kick, allowing her to knock out both the criminals in front of her, and with perfect timing too for the next picture was taken. However, her danger sense told her that one of the criminals behind her was getting up with his gun. She quickly turned around, shot a web at his shotgun, and swung it around at the two remaining criminals in front of her hitting one hard in the face. He was disoriented but not knocked out, so Penny finished the job with a front kick, knocking him out instantly.

Penny let her kicking foot fall on the ground and used it to balance her body as she raised her other leg and did a 180-degree spin kick, allowing her to knock out the other criminal. Just in time her danger sense kicked in again, she back flipped away from the knocked-out criminals allowing her to also dodge the bullets form the criminal she kicked in the stomach earlier. He was still in pain and leaning on the van as a result, thought this worked out in Penny's favor for as soon as he stopped shooting, she stopped backflipping and quicky shot several webs at him keeping him from firing him and trapping him. Finally, she ended the fight by landing one final and powerful kick on the last conscious criminal.

"Woohoo! I'm getting good at this!" She then quickly turned around and posed with both her hands raised in the peace sign gesture before the last picture was taken.

Penny ran to the Daily Bugle with a smile on her face as she held a folder filled with the pictures, she took during her exploits of stopping crime. It did take longer than she expected but she managed to get to the office and after signing in she was in front of James Jonah Jameson himself. He looked at the photos seemingly unimpressed, but Penny kept smiling as form what she saw they were much better than any of the photos they have gotten so far.

"... crap, it's all crap." Now Penny was shocked and confused.

"Wha- what? But I got clear shots of Spiderman!"

"Doesn't really matter if its crap. Now get out." Penny was confused but knew better than to waste time complaining so she got up and was just about to leave.

"Wait come back!" Penny looked back at Jameson in confusion but did as he asked and even gave him back the folder when he asked.

"Hm... I'll give you 50$ for all the photos." Penny then glared at Jameson as that was a lot less that what was advertised.

"Make it 200$."

"What?! Your insane! Done. Here, the amount take it to the girl up front. Ah! Robbie just the man." Penny then turned around to see Robbie enter the room in a rush.

"Put the best photo on the front page that screams this 'masked menace, attacks locals and steals money'!"

"Jameson, I told you he's not a menace!" Jameson then raised one of the photos from Penny's folder.

"Really? Look at this photo! Does this look like a hero to you?" Both Penny and Robbie looked at one another.

"Yes?" they both spoke at the same time.

"You blind or something? If he's a hero, then why does he wear a mask?"

"To keep his secret identity?" Both Jameson and Robbie looked at Penny in confusion.

"I mean, if he didn't wear a mask then everyone would know who he is, even the criminals. If that happened, then they would know where to find his family and kill them in order to get back at Spiderman." Robbie then looked at Jameson and raised an eyebrow, Jameson was silent in defeat, but he refused to give up the argument.

"Yeah well... where did you come to that little theory, princess?"

"I didn't need to make a theory because it's kinda common sense. I mean why do you think 95% of all comic book heroes have masks."

"... Well, that's comic books and this is real life, the two are different, I'm telling you here and now that guys a menace!"

"But he stopped those robbers from stealing all that cash."

"Yeah, probably after tipping them off, just like that building he set on fire!" Robbie then jumped back into the conversation.

"Jameson, he didn't set it on fire he just happened to be in the neighborhood and saved them! He's a hero!"

"He's a hero huh? Then uh... um... Oh! Why doesn't he donate to charity huh? Why doesn't he help those why actually can't defend themselves! Banks have security, buildings have direct lines to the fire department! What about the homeless huh? I bet you he just swings by and laughs as their left in their cardboard boxes to die!" Robbie and Jameson started arguing over the subject and worst-off other employees started coming in needing Jameson's opinion on certain things. Penny wanted to argue for Spiderman as well, but she then realized that he was probably right, there was probably more that she could be doing and simply wasn't because she only focused on the big things like bank heists and wildfires. She never focused on the little people that probably needed more help, as such Penny just looked at Jameson with a calm expression.

"Your right." Everyone in the room then went silent as they all looked at Penny confusion.

"Wha- What?"

"Your right, Spider Man, doesn't do enough. Maybe it's time he started doing more."

"Ah... well, it's good that you figured that out, hopefully you'll keep that in-mind when you get me more photos."

"Of course, Mr. Jame- wait what?"

"What you deaf or something? I'm giving you a job, you're a photographer for the Daily Bugle! You in are out?"

"Are you serious?!"

"Yes or no, little princess."

"Uh, yes sir but can you please stop calling me-"

"Perfect! You got the job, now go get more pictures and make sure this time to show the more villainous side of Spider Man." Penny then smirked at Jameson because she knew exactly what her pictures were going to show the moment, she gave them to Jameson; but of course, he didn't need to know that.

"Of course, Mr. Jameson I will show you everything you need to know about Spider Man."

"Glad to hear it! See Betty, this is how a girl does her job, you should be more submissive like her." Suddenly everyone was quiet as they were looking at Jameson in either shock, disgust, or horror. Penny was also speechless that Jameson just said that about her.

"I... I'm sorry what?" Jameson then became wide-eyed as he realized what he just said.

"Uh... I mean... You know... uh... when a man says... he actually... Okay, you know what, get out of my office." Penny who was still uncomfortable just got up silently and walked out of the office leaving the room in an awkward silence. Everyone was staring at Penny as she walked away and as soon as she was gone, they looked back at with the same concerned looks on their faces.

"... What the hell are you all looking at get back to work!" They all then rushed out of the office and back to their tasks.

"And for the record I'm not a misogynist or whatever! I'm just old fashioned! There's a difference!"

The Unity Day Street Fair was happening, and Penny was in the middle of the crowd getting as many pictures as she could. She did want to have pictures of Spider Man helping the common people as soon as possible one because it was the right thing to do but also to get the satisfaction of annoying Jameson. But since it was a street fair she decided to just relax for now and take some nice pictures of all the cool stuff and of people having fun at the fair. However, her smile died when she looked up to the balcony where the board of directors for Oscorp were. She was expecting to take a picture of them both before and during their big announcement but instead she saw Harry with Mary Jane. Penny already knew that they were dating after Harry explained it to his father in that awkward moment back at the apartment complex, but it still hurt to see it. Penny just took a deep breath as she knew that continuing to be negative over it would just make her petty and that's the last think she wanted. Spider Man needs to be a hero of justice for the people, Penny thought to herself, Penny Parker should be no different. Penny then took a deep breath and let it all out softly, she then opened her eyes ready to get back to work.

However as soon as she looked in the sky, she saw something strange floating in the air and getting closer to the fair. It quickly got close enough to be seen by everyone, it was someone in a man in a green suit ridding a hover glider of some sort. Penny wondered if this was the thing Oscorp was planning on revealing as they were a big company on all forms of science, technology, chemistry, biology, and even weapon's manufacturing for the military. Therefore, something like this wasn't unheard of and everyone else seemed to think so as well as the crowd started cheering. However, before Penny joined in, she looked again to the Balcony and saw the board of Oscorp looking at the glider in confusion, she then looked at Harry just in case and sure enough he was just as confused.

Penny then felt her nerves freeze up as a cold chill flowed over her body, she knew what this meant, something dangerous was about to happened. Penny quickly ran to the nearest alleyway and got out her backpack and already started unzipping it for inside it was her costume. Unfortunately, Penny wasn't fast enough as the Green Goblin already started firing missiles at the balcony trapping the Board members as well as Harry and Mary Jane. Once Penny found a place secluded enough, she started putting on her costume and quickly went to action, she shot webs into the air to grab a building and swung around back to the street fair. Unfortunately, it was already chaos as the Green Goblin was flying everywhere knocking down large fair decorations, causing them to fall on people. Penny noticed a kid who was about to be crushed and swung down to grab him and gently let him to the ground. Thankfully his mother was close by and quickly took him so Penny could now focus on saving the Board, Harry, and Mary Jane. Or at least she thought that's what was going to happen, but the Green Goblin threw a grenade at them incinerating the entire Board of Oscorp. Penny wanted to throw up but right now she needed to focus on the fact that the explosion made more debris fall to the ground and was about to crush innocent civilians.

Penny quickly let go of her web, rolled onto the ground, and started shooting as many webs onto the falling debris as possible. When the remaining debris she didn't get was getting too close to the she quickly surveyed the ground to see who still hadn't gotten out of the way and when she saw someone, she quickly shot out webs at them and once it caught them, she pulled them away before the debris crushed them. Now that everyone on the ground was safe Penny then focused on the balcony, where Harry and Mary Jane were. Penny used her webs to swing upward to get there faster before the Green Goblin could kill more people, or at least that was the plan before the Green Goblin hit her with his glider.

She ended up being flung off and rammed into a wall causing her to fall to the ground hard, it was only thanks to her strength and fast recovery that she was able to get back up. She saw the Green Goblin circling around trying to hit her again, but thankfully she was able to predict where he was going to be, so she was able to shoot a web at his face causing him to fall of his glider and crash. Thankfully he handed on a tent where no one was in so nobody got hurt, though neither was he as he quickly got up and was clearly enraged.

"Spider Man! You dare get in my way! Fine, I'll show you why-" Penny just shot him in the face with webbings again and kept shooting at him to bind his hands and legs together. Thought he was clearly struggling due to webs sticking to one another and therefore increasing in durability. Once the Green Goblin was somewhat caught Penny just walked up to him thinking this was going to be easy from here on out, however she was proven wrong when the glider came in and started shooting at her automatically. She had to back flip to dodge it but that wasn't the end, the glider kept shooting and was getting dangerously close to hitting civilians. So, Penny quickly shot out a web connecting to the glider and swung it down stopping it from further shooting it while also badly damaging it.

"No!" Green Goblin finally got out of all the webs and ran towards Penny, because of her spider senses she could sense him coming and quickly jumped, spun around and kicked him in the neck. However, her leg ended up hurting due to the durability of the armor, worst off the Green Goblin laughed as he grabbed her leg lifted her up and forced her to fall down. Once she was one the ground the Green Goblin raised his fist to punch her, she only managed to roll away by the last second, and good thing too, for his punch left a hole in the ground. Penny quickly got back up only for the Green Goblin to pull his fist out of the ground and slap her across the face, actually making her whole body spin in the process. Penny landed hard on the ground but forced herself to get up, or at least she would have if the Green Goblin hadn't grabbed her by the throat.

"You pathetic bug! Did you really think you can beat me?!" Penny could only barely focus as she was getting choaked however she then looked up and saw that the balcony where Harry and Mary Jane were. It was continuing to fall apart by the second and the sight of seeing them both close to death and her being able to do nothing filled her with anger and adrenalin.

"I don't want to defeat you! I want to save my friends!" Penny then punched the Green Goblin in the stomach hard enough to actually force him to let go and pushed him back a few feet. Now that she had some distance between them, she used both her hands to shoot as much webbing on his face as possible, once he was blind, she did a high front kick, hitting him on his chin and actually forcing him to flip back. He ended up landing on the Glider which malfunctioned and started flying off forcing him to go away.

"Wha?! Huh?! Gah! We'll meet again Spider Man!" Penny grunted but now wasn't the time to be worried about first she looked around and thankfully no one else was in danger so she quickly shot a web at the highest point at the building her web could reach, ran off, and swung as high as she could towards the broken balcony where harry and Mary Jane were. Thankfully she made it just in time as Mary Jane was just about to fall but Penny caught her in time and managed to grab Harry by shooting another web. Holding both of them was heavy but Penny made it work with Mary Jane holding onto her and Harry being carried by the web that Penny was holding with her free hand while the other hand to swing them both to safety.

"Aaah! What are you doing?!"

"Ah! Sorry Harry! I'll put you down soon! Just wait for me to find a good roof top!"

"What the hell?! How do you know my name!"

"Uh... Because of your father owns Oscorp right?" Harry just scoffed at Penny to which Penny felt bad as she knew Harry hated it when people would talk about him but always have the sentence end with his dad. Finally, Penny found a good place to land, she swung over it, descended gently and let Harry down first then Mary Jane. Once they were able to stand on their own Penny sighed in relief.

"I'm glad you two are okay, I'm sorry about the late save, I wish I could help more but right now I need to ensure everyone back at the fair is still okay." Penny was then about to run off, but Mary Jane stopped her by grabbing her hand. Penny blushed under her mask but managed to keep her composure just enough so that no one could tell how much she was freaking out right now.

"Wait please! Tell me, who are you?"

"Uh... you know who I am!"

"I do?" Penny instantly regrated saying that but thankfully after inhaling and exhaling she was able to calm down a little more and then faced Mary Jane and Harry with the confident aura of a hero.

"Of course! I'm your friendly neighborhood Spiderman! Who else? Be safe now!" Penny then jumped of the roof and swung away after shooting anther web, Harry and Mary Jane were left there on the roof looking at Penny swinging away.

"Woah... he's amazing." Harry then looked at Mary Jane shocked and with a hint of envy.

"What do you mean he's amazing." Mary Jane then looked at Harry confused.

"Harry, he just saved us form that psycho. How is that not amazing?"

"Oh... right... Got it."

Penny had just made it back to her apartment and just as she did Harry was there too looking annoyed. Penny already knew he was okay since she was the one that saved him but of course he didn't know that, so she had to keep up the act.

"Harry!" Penny jumped and him and hugged him tightly to make it seem like she was worried, Harry was surprised at how strong she was but was quite delighted by her hug.

"I heard what happened! Are you okay?!"

"Oh, come on Penny, of course I'm alright."

"Oh right, I heard Spiderman saved you." Penny smiled trying to show herself as relieved, but she was surprised to see Harry looking at her with disappointment because of that.

"Well, I mean, I didn't really need him to save me." Harry just walked over to his apartment in annoyance while Penny looked at him with disappointment. She did agree that as Spiderman she could be doing more but she was really starting to get annoyed with everyone's bad attitude with Spiderman overall. However now was not a good time to be talking about that so Penny just sighed and followed harry.

"You should take it easy, Harry. I heard that it was very traumatic."

"Yeah, don't worry Penny I'm going to get some rest, and Mary Jane is fine too by the way, I already took her to the hospital."

"She was hurt!" Penny grabbed Harry's shoulder in shock but quickly backed off as it was clear doing so hurt him. Also, Harry did end up looking at her confused which made her blush in embarrassment.

"Uh... no she wasn't hurt I just took her there just in case, I'm her boyfriend after all." Penny felt a dagger stab her heart when she heard that, she knew this was Mary Jane's choice to date Harry, so she had to respect it, but it still hurt none the less.

"Right... Sorry for overreacting." Harry was about to enter his apartment but then saw how disappointed and hurt she looked; it was almost like she was jealous.

"Penny, I appreciate you worrying about me, but you know I have a girlfriend, right?" Penny then looked at Harry shocked while he started to smirk.

"Look, I know I said I liked you in the past but I'm with MJ now, you had your chance you know? If you liked me, you should have said so earlier." Penny was now glaring at Harry which was now the reaction he was expecting making him nervous.

"... Harry... no. I was just worried, that's all. But since your fine I'll just see you later." Penny silently walked over to her apartment leaving Harry frustrated as he entered his own apartment. Well that sucks because I only dated MJ to make you jealous, Harry thought as he closed the door.