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: Do I need to be starting a new story right now? No. Am I going to anyways? Yes.

This story is pretty accurate to what it says on the tin, although for those on FFN who can't see the tags I will be upfront and say that there are references to past rape/non-con and underage prostitution in this story. The first is directly talked about, the second less so, but they both happened. Penny also deals with some suicidal ideation, which is not as bad as compared to some of my other stories but yeah...still not great.

I'm not sure how many chapters this will be. Depends on how far I feel like going.

Story title comes from Hometown Glory by Adele, btw.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Until the next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~hometown glory~

~chapter 1~

Penny loved New York City.

Perhaps this wasn't too surprising. It wasn't like she had been anywhere else in her now fourteen years of life: the city was her home, all she ever really knew. But she loved it.

She loved the people. She loved seeing seeing them walk about the city, going about their lives. She loved seeing the families, the parents or aunts and uncles leading their children around and playing with them in Central Park (even if it made her heart hurt to see them), the doting adult son or daughter who lovingly took care of their elderly mother or father, and the businessmen who were always rushing to and fro. She loved the different styles of clothes that everyone wore, from the typical American getup to the traditional Hasidic garb to the women who wore their beautiful niqabs and burqas to more.

She loved the food. There were hardly any not good pizza shops to be found in the city, regardless of what type of pizza you preferred. The hotdog carts were amazing, a quick way to scarf down something hot and delicious as you were going about your way. Delmar's Deli & Grill was the best sandwich shop ever, and she always made sure to get the number five smushed down real flat and with extra pickles whenever she was in the neighborhood – which was often, since she "lived" very close to it.

...Then again, it wasn't like she'd had the opportunity to be picky in a long time.

Anyways, she loved the weather of the city, no matter what season it was. The morning fog in the spring and the fall, when the air was so thick and opaque, was her favorite type of weather, because it made the very breaths that she inhaled feel misty. But really, she wasn't picky, even when it was the dead of winter and there was six feet of snow on the ground and she was huddled in her "apartment" in front of her space heater with her weighted blanket wrapped around her shoulders, praying and praying beyond belief that she wouldn't catch hypothermia. Such had been her fate this past winter.

She loved the city. It was her hometown.

No, scratch that. It was her home, in a much realer and more tangible sense than it would be for most people.

Penny hummed as she looked at the people currently in Central Park as she sat on one its many bridges, her legs dangling over the edge and her sketchpad in her lap. It was because of her love for the city that she was doing what she was currently doing: documenting its people in the only way that she could.

If she could've, she would've been taking pictures instead. But alas, cameras were expensive even for ordinary people, so it basically went without saying that they were beyond her reach. Unless she wanted to nab one from the dumpster, that is, but unlike plenty of the other types of technology she'd acquired through that method, the cameras she'd found in the trash were never in any salvageable shape.

Oh, well. She was fine with making do with what she had.

Her tongue sticking out of her mouth slightly, she noted the time on her watch as she focused on the movement of her pencil. She had about another hour until she needed to start heading over to Columbia to attend that one college class she'd been "auditing" for the past semester.

She hadn't attended too many sessions of the class, just a few here and there a month. Just enough that she was able to keep up with the curriculum on her own, using the copy of the textbook at the one library she always went to. She had a copy of the syllabus, because she'd hacked into the class' Moodle page to get it. Really, she only attended the class when she had questions. Like with last Friday's homework.

A gust of cold wind blew into her front, causing her to shiver. It was a reminder that it was November, and thus the colder weather was coming in fast. It wouldn't be too much longer until the first snow of the season fell.

She'd need to make sure she fixed her heater before then.

"Dear, are you alright?"

Penny blinked as she looked away from her sketchpad. An older woman, maybe in her sixties or so, was smiling at her.

Instantly, the fourteen-year-old felt her hackles raise. Being noticed when she was out and about without her Spider-Girl costume wasn't something that was inherently bad; usually, however, it didn't result in anything good.

"Yes, ma'am, I'm fine," she said.

"Are you sure?" the woman pestered. "You've been out here for a while. You must be cold...and it is a school day..."

Penny stiffened.

The woman noticed. "Can I call your parents for you, dear?"

"No, thank you," Penny said, quickly closing her sketchpad and putting it and her pencil in her bag. "Really, I'm fine."

"Dear, I must insist – "

"Please, just stop!" Penny bit out, her voice going a full octave higher while she slung her bag over her shoulder. She wasn't looking at the woman anymore, and so she did not get the opportunity to look at her reaction.

Whatever it was, though, it wasn't like it mattered.

Hurriedly, she started to walk away. She could feel her breath coming out in hot pants, could feel her heartbeat picking up speed inside her chest, could feel the –

No. Better not think about that.

She was almost (read: extremely) worried that the woman was going to follow her, because that would make what Penny was trying to stave off even worse. But there were no sounds of footsteps behind her, and she was walking so fast, she knew that it would've taken a great effort for the woman to keep up with her, anyways.

Still, Penny didn't feel safe. Not until she had left Central Park completely.

It was only then that a tired sigh left her lips as she shook her head.

Since she was going to be heading to Columbia much earlier than planned, she decided to go ahead and get something to eat. Carefully counting out her money, making sure that she would have enough for dinner later after the class was over and before she went out as Spider-Girl, she went to one of those (kosher) aforementioned hotdog carts. She ordered two hotdogs with sauerkraut and mustard, and they tasted absolutely delicious as she scarfed them down.

Hot protein and carbs. What more could a girl ask for?

Of course, she still had way too much time to spare after that, especially since she'd been eating and walking at the same time. Not wanting to risk another incident like the one with the older woman, she simply sat down on one of the benches on the university campus. She watched as the college students walked past her, going about their lives, talking, laughing.

And even though she loved them as much as she loved the rest of the city, even though they were all at least four years older than her, she nevertheless felt the coiling of jealousy in her stomach.

It hadn't been too long ago that she'd been like them, after all. Living a good life, oblivious to how cruel the universe could be. Barely more than a year, really.

To this day, she wasn't really sure of how it had happened. All she knew was that, the day before, her class at school had gone on a field trip to Oscorp. Maybe this story was familiar to you – in fact, she had a feeling that it was, though for reasons that she couldn't explain.

At any rate, while at Oscorp, she'd gotten knocked into some fancy spider enclosure. She hadn't thought much of it when it had happened. No, it was only later, while she'd felt like she'd been burning from the inside-out that she'd acknowledged deliriously that maybe – maybe – something had...happened beyond what she'd simply thought at Oscorp.

Maybe a radioactive spider had bitten her.

That night had been bad on its own in many regards. Penny had never gone through so much pain before, nor since, though some of the things that she'd done in order to survive had come close. In the morning, there had been some reparations for this: she'd quickly discovered that all of her senses had been dialed to eleven (which was also bad, as her new sensory overloads could be severe, but she'd come to appreciate not needing glasses and everything tasting that much more delicious, among other things), she no longer needed her inhaler, she had super strength and reflexes, and oh, hey, look at that, she could stick to the walls and ceiling!

But she hadn't had time when she'd woken up to appreciate these changes. Because, as she'd quickly discovered, the spider bite (while she couldn't prove of it, she knew that they were connected) had come with an additional cost besides the pain of that night, one that was even higher:

It was as if all evidence of her had been erased from existence. Her birth records, photos of her, the journals that she'd kept – they were all gone.

Moreover, nobody remembered her. Not her uncle Ben. Not her aunt May. Not her best and only friend in the entire world, Ned. Not even her bully, Flash Thompson.

The realization of this had been traumatic, to say the least. She didn't really want to get into it. Trying to convince people that you knew them, that you were related to them and had lived with them for most of your life, when they had no concept of you was debilitating. So she'd had to leave. She'd been forced to end up on the streets.

There was a moment, a brief moment, when she'd thought that this wouldn't forever be her fate. When her uncle Ben had looked at her when she'd accidentally revealed that she, the girl he'd thought insane was Spider-Girl, and he'd said, "You know, that saying, my sister-in-law used to say it once. I swear, I've never heard it come out of anyone else's – "

But then –

BAM!

The sound of a car exhaust going off as it went past, so similar to the sound of a gun, startled her. Penny nearly fell off the bench, drawing more than a few looks her way.

...Although, people had already been looking at her. It wasn't like fourteen-year-olds were common on college campuses, most of all when they were by themselves.

She'd gotten lost in her head again. Y'know, she had a tendency to do that a lot.

Glancing down at her watch, she saw that it was close enough to the start of the class and figured she might as well go to it.

There was a bit of commotion, nervous chatter when she got to the lecture room. Penny heard the names "Tony Stark"and "Iron Man" being thrown around by the students, which made her pause and frown, but she didn't listen further to them. She thought that it was just because of something Avengers-related that had happened in the news. Or maybe Stark Industries-related, albeit at this point they were practically the same thing.

Or personal. Maybe he and Captain America had finally gotten engaged.

Shaking her head at her own antics, she went into the room. It was one of those huge lecture rooms, the kind that sat hundreds of students. Not a whole lot of people sat in the very back like she did, so she was able to sit, listen, and take notes without being noticed, especially in the seclusion of the one corner that she'd chosen. She knew that the students in the back with her had to know that she wasn't actually a student, but they never said anything about it. They never talked to her.

Probably, they just didn't care. After all, how was she affecting their education and tuition with her mere presence?

("Not at all" was the answer.)

She sat down and got out her notebook and pen. Doodles were drawn onto the current page of her notebook as she waited for the professor to start talking and the lecture to begin. Absentmindedly, she thought about what her patrol was going to look like later, once she went out as Spider-Girl. It was probably going to be much of the same-old, same-old: webbing up petty thieves, helping old ladies across the street or tourists with directions in exchange for food and/or money (it was her secondary source of income, as her first was repairing phones for people or technology and re-selling the latter at this one shop that always gave her a good deal), and etcetera.

...Not that she minded. The same-old, same-old was worlds better than aliens invading the city or robots who had gained sentience trying to kill everybody. There was something special in sticking close to the ground (pun intended), being the everyday, friendly, neighborhood Spider-Girl.

Finally, after a few minutes, the lecture began.

But nothing could have prepared her for what the professor said as he began to speak, or who was about to come out and stand with him on the stage:

"Alright, everyone, as you know from a couple weeks ago, I wanted to have a guest speaker today but I wasn't sure if it was going to pan out, hence why I did not update the syllabus. But fortunately, it did, as our guest was able to keep his schedule clear for today. Today's lecture will therefore be postponed until Friday. Now, if you would all join me in welcoming our guest...Dr. Tony Stark!"

"Thank you, thank you, Dr. Varela, and all of you," Tony Stark – the Tony Stark – said after getting the microphone from the professor. He gave them all one of his signature smiles. "I'm very lucky to be here today. Don't tell MIT this, but they're very unfortunate to not have a professor like Dr. Varela among their faculty. You've all got the upper hand there."

Laughter broke out in the room. Everyone was properly amused by his joke; it wasn't often that you heard him diss his own alma mater.

Everyone except for her, that is.

Penny's mouth had quite literally dropped open at the announcement and sight of him. Never in her dreams could she have imagined seeing Tony Stark in-person for another time after the 2010 Stark Expo when he'd swooped in and saved the day by preventing her from being obliterated by one of the Hammer drones. That had been one of her most cherished memories in her entire existence, up until the spider bite.

He and the other Avengers were, like, her personal heroes. Sure, that was something a lot of kids who had been in NYC during the Chitauri Invasion could say, along with kids all around the world, really. But it was different with her. She was a vigilante now, Spider-Girl. A lot of her work ethic there was based in how she thought the Avengers would act if they were in her shoes, even though she knew most of that was idolization speaking and less of what they would actually do.

But while she maybe would've liked to see him in almost any other context, such as her helping out the Avengers with some mission in the city (oh, how she had daydreamed of that), it was something else to see him here! She didn't really belong in this classroom! She wasn't an actual student of Columbia! If it was found out now that she was technically trespassing, when the one and only Dr. Stark was in the room, then she would –

Die. She would absolutely die.

And not in the way that she sometimes fantasized about, either.

(You couldn't blame her for that. Living on your own, with no one remembering you or there being any proof of your existence, was a lonely and haunting life.)

Hurriedly, as Dr. Stark talked about how he knew Dr. Varela or something like that, she packed up her things. After slinging her bag back over her shoulders, she stood up and started to walk towards the nearest door.

Before she could get very far, however, she heard Dr. Stark say, "Now, I know some of you might not be big fans of me. Some of you may even be leaving this room right now because you don't."

. . .

. . .

Penny froze, her hand hovering over the door handle.

Slowly, she turned her head so that it was parallel to her shoulder and looked at him.

It was like Dr. Stark was staring into her very soul, despite the distance that was separating them. Many of the college students in the room were doing the same. Whispers broke out.

"And that's okay," he continued. "I respect that. Life's not about being the most popular person in the room. Life is about learning, even when it's from sources that you might not otherwise expect to learn from, and not letting an opportunity to learn pass you by."

He seriously didn't think – ?

The problem wasn't that she didn't like him at all! She did!

But how else would he know that?

He's right, sort of, a voice in the back of her mind whispered. What other chance will you ever get to see Dr. Stark? To listen to him give a college lecture, whether or not you were meant to hear it?

Unsteadily, Penny moved away from the door. She went back to her seat and sat down. Robotically, she got back out her notebook and pen.

The students quickly lost interest in her, going back to focusing on Dr. Stark. Dr. Varela did the same, though not without a confused glance her way, like he was trying to make sense of who she was, trying to put a name to her face.

...Shit.

Well, if this was to be her last time attending the class, she indeed might as well make the most of it.

Dr. Stark didn't acknowledge her again. He went back to the lecture that he had prepared, which was related to what Dr. Varela's lecture today would have been on. Penny took notes diligently – she wrote what he said practically verbatim, her left and dominant hand flying across the pages of her notebook so fast even to her it hardly seemed real.

It was a product of her adrenaline – she felt like she was on the cusp of a panic attack once more, though this time for a whole other reason.

But the adrenaline suppressed her emotions, too, made it easier for her to focus, so she wasn't going to complain too much about that. Things could be worse.

Throughout his lecture, Dr. Stark asked the class some questions. Only the ones upfront answered him, although that was to be expected. The acoustics of the room weren't exactly the best for somebody to ask or answer something far away from the stage.

There was a long, complex problem that he gave them first five minutes to work on, then another two because nobody else in the room had figured it out by the time was up. They still hadn't by those two minutes were over.

Penny had. She'd figured out the question just under the five minutes. It was complex, but to her it wasn't overly difficult. She'd looked up at the stage for the first time besides looking at the PowerPoint that Dr. Stark had been using for his lecture, biting her bottom lip. Dr. Stark hadn't been looking at her then. As soon as his head had turned, she'd made sure to drop her gaze so he wouldn't notice her. She'd known she was right in her answer, and was proven correct when he went to the next slide, but she gave no external reaction to the confirmation besides a slight smile.

Doing otherwise would have been too dangerous.

Dr. Stark switched to a slide with a QR code on it in the last few minutes of the class. Apparently, it was part of Columbia University's policy for students to fill out a survey for guest lectures. The students got out their phones or typed in the link underneath the QR code on their laptops; Penny didn't have either of these things.

It wasn't because she couldn't, in theory. It would be easy for her to fix a phone or a computer and rig it up for herself. But a phone and/or a computer would be a liability for her as Spider-Girl: she was afraid that if somebody wanted to find her, they would use one or both to track down where she lived. That would be bad, even without her having an identity anymore.

So as they all filled out the survey, Penny repacked her things and left the room. She made sure not to look at Dr. Stark as she did, too afraid of what she would see.

When she got out of the building, tears filled her eyes, because she knew that she wouldn't be able to go back to the class after this. It was stupid to get upset over it, but she'd liked the class. She grieved over how she wouldn't be able to (sporadically) attend it anymore.

It felt like the universe was screwing over her again, as if all the other times it had done it weren't bad enough.

But she didn't allow herself to fall apart properly, not until she got back to her "apartment" in Queens.

Such was the fate of a human arachnid.

Word Count: 3,642