Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As soon as the bell had rung, Piper was running out of the chemistry lab and down the hall, exiting the school’s main entrance with a huff.

School had sucked way more than usual: Ned had the flu and MJ was skipping to join a protest somewhere in Brooklyn, so she had to endure the day's classes and Flash’s bullying all on her own. She even had to replace MJ during decathlon practice, so she couldn't even skip to go patrolling. The girl just shrugged and skated in the Daily Bugle’s headquarters' direction.

“Here you go.” said Piper as she wheeled into J. Jonah Jameson's office, not bothering to get off her skateboard as she tossed her baby pink flash drive on his desk. The man in question immediately grabbed the object, looking borderline maniacal as he inserted it in his laptop and looked through the various pictures of Spider-Man Piper had taken during the week.

“Yes, yes, yes!” exclaimed the deranged man, clearly in need to publish a successful article before his newspaper risked bankruptcy again. Not that anyone actually read the Bugle for its content, most people read it to make fun of the bullshit Jameson had his journalists write in it, “This is amazing, kid. I still wonder how you manage to get those shots! Good thing I hired you before anyone else got the chance to!” he mused, handing her seventy bucks. It wasn’t much but it was enough to get food for a few days and perhaps to order some things on Ebay to fix her half obliterated phone (courtesy of Flash).

After having to assist to another one of JJJ’s obsessive rants about Spider-Man, Piper was finally free to go. With her ears still ringing from the guy's monologue, she made a quick detour to toss her skateboard through ‘her’ bedroom window and then she slipped in an alley to throw her suit on. She proceeded to scruffingly stuff her civilian clothes in her backpack and webbed it to a dumpster before swinging away.

With Karen keeping her company, she spent a couple hours doing her usual thing. She stopped a few muggings, helped a lady who had gotten lost find her way and even caught a carjacker in the act. Eventually she decided to take a break and swung across her beloved neighborhood, perching down on a building in the vicinity of Ben and May’s old apartment complex.

She blinked back a few tears that were threatening to spill as she looked at her former bedroom window... It was crazy how quickly things could go from bad to worse in the span of a few months.

She had accepted her parent’s deaths, partially because she could barely even remember them, but Ben… every time she thought about him guilt pooled in her stomach like lava and made her feel so sick, so bad… and so… so guilty. She had her super powers at the time but was too scared to intervene, and because of that uncle Ben was dead. Because of her. Ever since that night she had decided she would do anything she could to help, she had the ability to intervene and therefore it was her duty: if she didn’t, it would make her just as bad as whoever committed the crime in the first place.

So she had created her first supersuit with some old clothes she had gotten at the thrift store next to Delmar’s, then she had built her first pair of web shooters with some scraps from her neighbor's trash and worked day and night on a web formula that was stretchy enough for her to swing around like Tarzan but resistant enough for the thing not to snap mid-swing.

And that’s how her superhero persona had been born.

At first she hadn't been sure on what to call herself, then the media had started referring to her as ‘The Spider-Man’ and she had decided to let them believe she was a boy– a man, since it would've make the chances of someone figuring out her identity even slimmer.

Everything had been going well for a while, then Ned had found out and had decided to become her self-proclaimed Guy In The Chair, which had turned out to be quite helpful with the whole Vulture guy situation, since the Avengers had been too busy to even notice a crazy old dude with wings selling chitauri weapons crafted with what was left from their battles.

Two days after Homecoming MJ had found out (apparently she had been sixty-seven percent sure, just needed confirmation) and she sure had had quite the choice of words to say regarding the public immediately assuming her to be a man. Michelle had also insisted on helping Piper with the creation of a way better looking and comfier suit, with padding that hid her feminine features, and made her body look somewhat masculine.

Everything had been good once again, but of course it hadn't lasted long.

A couple of months had passed since the whole Vulture fiasco when she had gotten that damned call:

”Hello? Am I speaking with Piper Parker?”
“Yes, who is this?”
”Hey dear, I’m Theresa and I’m from Child Protective Services… I’m so sorry you have to find out like this but your aunt was involved in a situation with an active shooter… she passed away on the way to the hospital.”

After that Piper had been jumping from foster home to foster home for a little over a year. No one ever seemed to want her or care enough about her to share as much as one kind word with, and she didn't last long with those who did.

Piper shook her head in a painfully pathetic attempt to keep her emotions in check: she wouldn’t cry, she couldn’t– she knew that if she were to start crying she wouldn’t be able to stop. She took a deep breath and swung towards the alley where she left her backpack. Crying was stupid anyways.

She went to get something from Delmar’s before returning to her foster home, knowing too well she wouldn’t get anything to eat back at the apartment. Maybe if she was lucky enough her foster guy (he didn’t remotely deserve the words ‘dad’ or ‘father’ placed anywhere in the vicinity of his name, so ‘foster guy’ it was) would be asleep. It was unlikely, but one could hope.

Piper made sure to be as quiet as possible when she entered the untidy apartment. Actually, untidy was a huge understatement, it looked like someone had dropped a grenade in there, but she was too focused on not stepping on any of the beer cans and bottles to worry about that landfill of a living room.

The infamous Parker Luck hit again and she slipped on a puddle of beer and fell face first on the floor, injuring her left hand by placing it on some glass shards in an attempt to push herself up. As if that wasn’t bad enough already, she heard those booming footsteps coming from the master bedroom. Great.

“Where’ve ya been, you little bitch?!” roared the balding, overweight man, slurring the words a little, “Your social worker came over today and you weren’t here, she waited by the door for an hour, you know how hard it was to keep her outta the house for that long before she finally left?!”

Piper flinched and shakily got up as the man took a few intimidating steps towards her, the disgusting scent of alcohol filling her nostrils and fear flooding her system and gluing her feet to the floor.

Mr. Smith grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her violently, “Ya hear me?! Nex’ time one of those fuckin’ assholes from the government wanna come over you’re gonna tell me!” he yelled in her face, making her oversensitive ears hurt, pushing her hard enough to make her fall before he grunted and wobbled away.

She hadn't even known her social worker was supposed to come over.

The teenager got up and made a beeline for her glorified closet of a bedroom, locking the door before letting her legs give up and collapsing in a trembling mess on the floor.

She couldn’t cry, crying was stupid. But why, why did this have to happen to her? What did she do to deserve to suffer like this? Why couldn’t she just exist without getting hurt? She had given up on happiness because it just wasn’t something she could achieve, but for once she wanted to be selfish and have the privilege of feeling okay. Just for once.

Piper took a deep breath to stop from burying herself in even more self pity and stood up and walked over to her suitcase; she didn’t even bother to organize her belongings anymore, she had been in the foster system for a few months and had been passed from home to home like some kind of damaged doll that no one really wanted or cared enough to fix, but everyone pitied too much to throw away, so who knew how long it took before Mr. Smith kicked her out as well. After searching around for a bit, she took the first-aid kit out and began bandaging her wound, doing so as fast as possible so she could plop down on her bed and take her phone out as soon as she was done.

Aside from a few notifications from Youtube, Twitter and Instagram, and a few texts from the group chat (Ned complaining about the flu and MJ sending pictures and articles about the protest as well as an announcement that her father had to pick her up from a police station again), the only other notification was a text from her social worker.

[Jennifer Millers]
This morning I received a call from the hospital. They said that while cleaning out your aunt’s locker, they found a letter addressed to you, it is specified on the envelope that you should be the one to receive the letter and no one else, therefore I couldn’t give it to your guardian. I don’t have the time to come back tomorrow, so I left it in the mailbox.

Piper scoffed at the lack of a greeting, it was pretty obvious Mrs. Millers didn’t like her but she could at least pretend. Anyhow, since it was a Friday night, Mr. Smith was probably going to the bar down the street, so she'd have the green light in a few hours’ time.

In the meantime she decided to check for any new leads on some missing people cases she was investigating with Ned and MJ.

For some reason, there was a series of disappearances the press was completely ignoring. Any police reports, articles, social media posts and so on would disappear within hours and the only reason Piper was even aware of said disappearances were MJ’s impeccable researching skills.

According to the few clues they had gathered over the past few weeks, most people that disappeared were either kids or women in their twenties and thirties; the victims were reported missing after coming upon or in close vicinity of a few specific areas of New York City. The teenagers had also tried hacking into the surveillance cameras, and they didn’t not find something… what they found was literally nothing; then, after further examining the footage and matching it up with some Snaps and Instagram photos taken in the same locations, they understood what was up: someone had deleted the actual recordings and replaced them with a looped video.

Overall it wasn’t much evidence, but it was enough to establish that all those cases were related. It made Piper sick to wonder what had happened to those poor people… she did her best to find more leads, but it was useless: she was getting the same results over and over again: deleted reports, removed tweets, Instagram posts and articles, looped camera footage, nothing, abso-fucking-lutely noth–

BANG!

The front door slamming shut broke her out of her thoughts, and she sighed in relief: the drunk bastard was finally gone.

She waited until she heard Mr. Smith leave the building before she got out of the apartment, through the hallway and down the ridiculous amount of stairs to get to the mailboxes. She used a hairpin to unlock the thing and pulled the slightly crumpled envelope out.

As she stuffed the precious paper in her pocket she looked at the entrance of the building and back at the staircase, and decided that she didn’t want to read the last thing she would ever receive from her aunt in that place, so she ran out and, after pulling her hood up, swung towards the building she was on earlier that day.

She took the letter out with shaky hands (which, her fucked up emotions aside, were probably caused by her only wearing a hoodie on a freezing January night, jackets were expensive and she couldn’t use her paycheck to buy one if she wanted to eat… as long as she didn’t hibernate it was fine) and carefully opened the crumpled up envelope.

Dear Piper,
If you’re reading this then it means I’m not there anymore to tell you in person… and I’m so so sorry about that sweetheart.
Writing this feels so stupid, but after Ben… maybe I’m being paranoyed, but if something were to happen to me there would be no one left to tell you this, and writing this letter is the only way I can think of.
You’re one of the strongest people I know… you never stopped smiling even after everything you’ve been through, you’re so strong, Piper, so strong. And you’ll grow to be one of the strongest and smartest women in the world, I have no doubts about that!
Remember that no matter what, you’ll always be a Parker, and that me, Ben and your parents will love you and watch over you forever and always.
Love,
May

By the time she was done reading the letter, Piper was sobbing so intensely it was painful. She missed May so so much and she’d do anything to have her back. To be able to talk with her one last time, just one. She shook her head and wiped the tears away; those thoughts were useless, May was gone and as much as it hurt she wasn’t coming back. And crying was stupid. So stupid.

Piper thought back to what her aunt had written and frowned; ”To tell you this.” what was she referring to? The confused girl flipped the paper around and her frown deepened:

+40.776886; -73.968376

“And whatever she wanted to tell you has to do with those random numbers she wrote on the back of the paper?” asked Ned, his voice still slightly nasal.

After reading the letter Piper had swung back to her guardian’s apartment, snuck in through her bedroom window, and as soon as she woke up in the morning she phoned her friends, and Ned somehow managed to convince his mother to let her and MJ visit him in the afternoon even though he was still a bit sick.

Piper nodded, “That’s right I guess, but they’re not random numbers–”

“They’re coordinates.” MJ interjected.

Piper nodded again, “Yes, I searched the location up and it says the place is somewhere in the middle of Central Park.”

MJ immediately stood up and sent an unamused look in response to their confused and slightly bewildered ones, “Well? What are we waiting for? Let’s go to Central Park.”

So they went to central park.

As soon as they got there they heard a loud explosion, then another one, and another one: there were people screaming and running everywhere. Great, another alien invasion, probably.

Piper grabbed her best friends by their wrists and dragged them back to the subway station, then began searching for an empty alley to suit up.

As it turned out, this time it wasn’t an alien invasion: from what she could see there were a bunch of very badly engineered drones trying to blow everything up, what was it with bored maniacs and their obsession with destroying New York City?

Right when her spider sense warned her of an incoming drone at six o’clock she saw a familiar circular shield flying overhead and heard it smashing into what must’ve been the drone. She lifted her head to see the shield returning to its owner (that thing did not avail to the laws of physics at all) and the man quickly went after another one of the machines.

After having a small freakout over having been in close vicinity of the Captain America, the girl hurried to get into her Spider-Man attire without taking her civilian clothes off first, and swung into action, turning her voice changer on as she landed on top of a building where a few stray drones looked ready to obliterate her.

As she began smashing the flying robots she heard her comms crackle to life and Ned’s voice filtered in soon after.

”Guy In The Chair’s on the line, I repeat, Guy In The Chair’s on the line, can you hear me?”

“Ned!” Piper exclaimed, dodging a few bullets and shooting a web at the attacking drone, pulling on the string to direct the object towards the side of the building she was currently standing on, causing it's imminent demise, “Yes I can hear you, are you guys okay?”

”We’re all good, we’re hiding in some bar’s restroom at the moment, I’m gonna hack into the public CCTV to get a better look at the situation. MJ’s looking up articles and live streams to figure out who’s causing this. How’s it goin’ on your side?”

“Nothing much–” she replied, kicking a drone away, causing it to plummet into another one and explode. “These drones are built so badly the only thing holding them together is luck with a pinch of willpower!” she added, grimacing as she examined the destroyed machines.

”Oof… well, I got into the cams and… MAYDAY THE AVENGERS ARE THERE OH MY GOSH YOU'RE GONNA FIGHT WITH THE AVENGERS OH MY THOR LITERALLY EVERYONE'S THERE!”

“Holy shit everyone as in literally every one?!”

”YES!”

“OH MY GOSH THIS IS SO COOL! I MEAN CAPTAIN AMERICA SAVED ME FROM BEING BLOWN UP BY A FLYING COMBAT ROBOT BUT FIGHTING WITH ALL THE AVENGERS–”

”CAPTAIN AMERICA SAVED YOU?!” screeched Ned, at the same time as MJ yelled: ”YOU WERE ALMOST BLOWN UP?!”

“YES AND… uh yes?” she quipped sheepishly, before the familiar sound of repulsors somewhere above her caught her attention, she looked up and her freakout came back at full force, “OH MY GOD IRON MAN’S HERE OH MY GOD I’M GONNA FIGHT ALONGSIDE TONY STARK AGAINST AN ARMY OF DRONES!”

”Why don’t you get off your ass and actually go fight? Don’t mean to burst your bubble but, as you said, there’s literally an army of drones trying to blow up the city.” came MJ’s exasperated and slightly amused voice.

“Oh uh, right. Yes of course, the drones, gotta take down the drones.” Piper mumbled almost to herself and with a running head start she began jumping from building to building, following the red and gold man in the sky, dodging the occasional bullet and shooting a few webs here and there. She really hoped her web shooters wouldn't betray her, the ones she had with her were an unfinished experimental verison she still needed to test out, and she had forgotten the other ones at the apartment.

“Guys?” the girl, sounding slightly out of breath, addressed her friends, “Found anything yet?”

”Yes.” they replied in unison.

”According to what I saw on the cameras, there’s a pattern: after detecting a moving body, all the drones shoot three bullets every five seconds, and when their bullet supply runs out they fly towards their target and explode when they come in contact with something solid, so watch out for that. Oh and this probably means that these things are controlled by a –if i may add, very badly programmed– AI.” said Ned.

“I don't think there’s an individual AI in every single one of these, whoever built them certainly doesn’t seem crafty enough –or industrious enough– to pull that off.”

”Yep, so that means–”

“We’re dealing with a centralized database that’s controlling all the drones somewhere in the vicinity.” interjected MJ, continuing to talk after a beat of silence, ”If you’re interested, those idiots from the Bugle are flying their helicopter over some sort of floating thing War Machine and the Vision are tryna take apart.”

“Where at?” Piper asked quickly.

“Times Square.”

The vigilante wasted no time and propelled herself off the building and zipped towards Times Square.

“Ned,” the superhero called when a thought occurred to her, “can you get a better view of the floating thing? We need to be sure it’s the actual switchboard and not just some random object used to lure us away from the real thing.” she shuddered at the memory of being lured into that damned warehouse by Toomes… she wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

After a few minutes of radio silence Ned spoke again, “Mayday,” what was it with her friends and addressing her with that nickname in these situations? “The closest view I can get is the Bugle’s helicopter, I don’t think the floating thing has cameras and looking at the drones, I doubt it’s even connected to the internet... which would increase the possibility of it being a decoy, now that I think about it.”

“Isn’t War Machine there? Can’t you hack into his suit?”

”ARE YOU CRAZY?! Piper, you’re literally asking me to hack Friday, the world’s most renowned and secure AI. I’m not saying that’s an impossible feat to pull off, but there’s no way I can do that from my laptop in a public restroom without a proper VPN and really good firewalls. Not to mention how dangerous it would be if the Avengers catch us messing with their tech. That would be really bad.”

“War Machine’s suit isn’t even connected to Friday–” she started, smashing two drones with a cane she had found, “remember that time we hacked into the Pentagon’s database to look for infos on the kidnappings? Well I snooped in Colonel Rhodes’ files and apparently his suit is powered by an AI that’s way less complex than Friday.”

”I’ll see what I can do.” Ned conceded, sounding exasperated but not surprised about his best friend’s confession.

“You’re the best!” Piper said, just as she landed on the side of the Empire State building and… oh boy what a mess.

There were drones and rubble everywhere and Piper could see all the Avengers there: like MJ said, War Machine and Vision were dealing with some kind of giant floating thing –it kinda looked like a bad knock-off version of the Avengers’ Quinjet– then there were the Black Widow, Hawkeye and Wanda, who were busy taking on drone after drone, never stopping, they looked badass. Everything about this was badass. Thor was throwing lightning at the machines and Captain America was doing the same but with his shield. The Hulk was jumping about, destroying everything he came across, the Falcon was flying around, trying to get as many drones as possible to follow him while the Winter Soldier looked like he was getting ready to punch said drones into another dimension, and right when she was about to look for him, Iron Man dashed past her, pointing his repulsor at the giant floating thing and blasting.

“Woah,” Piper, who had just reached the top of the building, breathed out in awe, “this is awesome!”

However her stupor was short lived, because the following moment there was an explosion which was quickly followed by a scream, and sure enough the Falcon, whose wings were producing a concerning amount of smoke, was plummeting at an astounding speed, all the drones speeding after him.

His teammates seemed to notice and they all began flying or running towards him, but it didn't look like they would manage to get to him on time. But maybe Piper could.

Ignoring Ned and MJ’s screams, the girl took a few steps back and plunged off the building.

The girl let herself free fall for a moment, then she activated her suit’s ‘wingsuit mode’ and zoomed towards the screaming man, crashing into him with a few words that would make Aunt May rather pissed.

The man struggled and attempted to push her off but she attached her hand to his back and shot a web at his arms to somewhat hold him still (which he didn't seem to find very amusing), looking around in search of a stable spot to shoot her web at, which turned out to be quite hard with the air smacking her in the face.

“GUYS THERE'S SOMETHING STICKING TO ME!” Sam screamed.

“Stay still,” demanded Hawkeye over the comms, “I can’t aim at it properly if you keep on moving.”

”Unfortunately your plan sounds quite useless, Clint. According to my calculations, regardless of the unidentified moving body attached to Sam’s person, our friend will reach an immediate –and if I may add– rather uneventful death in thirty seconds’ time. I’m sorry Sam.” said Vision, not sounding sorry at all.

As the Scarlet Witch scolded her boyfriend for his lack of tact, Tony’s panicked mumbling filtered in, “I gotcha birdy. Friday, engage all the energy we got… can anyone tell me what the hell that red– bug thing is?,”

“Hold on I’ll try to get a better look at it… what the hell is that?!” the Winter Soldier yawped, sounding completely baffled.

“That,” Piper drawled, “is the person who’s apparently gonna save your friend’s grumpy ass from –as your other friend put it– a very immediate and very uneventful death.” she said, sighing in relief as she finally located a good spot.

When they were mere feet away from the ground and panicked screeching filled Sam’s lungs and everyone's comms, Piper secured her hold on the man and brought her middle and ring fingers to press the button in the center of her palm, swinging herself and the freaking Falcon back into the sky, while all the drones that were flying after the latter collided with the pavement.

At the same time as Sam (and Ned) were screaming their heads off, a shocked silence filled the Avengers’ comms. Piper let the web go, letting out another whoop as she did a backflip, the Falcon still firm in her grip, and activated her web shooter again.

She swung a bit more until they slowed down enough and landed rather ungracefully on top of a residential building a few blocks away from the square.

”And by the way, Mr. Stark,” Piper said loudly, addressing the man who was now hovering above them, her heart hammering in her chest as if it wanted to run away and never come back, which was quite understandable, given the situation, “spiders are not bugs, they’re arachnids.”

Sam shared an incredulous look with the few Avengers who had already caught up, then looked back at her, using his webbed up hands to take off his mask to reveal two wide and very, very bewildered eyes.

“Oh shit, you good man?” the vigilante asked as she approached the man, pulling a vial of solvent out of her pocket (wich seemed to have caught Iron Man's attention, if the way the suit's faceplate was following all her actions was anything to go by) and offering a hand to pull the man up.

“Am I good?!” the grumpy superhero echoed, wincing as he got up on his own, completely ignoring Piper’s gesture and almost falling on his backside due to his hands being unavailable. Rude. “Dude! You literally just crashed into me while I was falling to my death and proceeded to zip us around the place like some kind of knock off Tarzan!”

“I know right?!” the young superhero screeched, bringing her hands up to her cheeks and hopping up and down in what some might consider a very childish demeanor. “I mean I’m used to swinging around since that’s kinda my thing but saving an Avenger by jumping off the Empire State Building while there’s evil drones all over the place, that– that was awesome!”

“Awesome isn’t exactly the adjective I would use, young man, but it was indeed a very heroic act, and hadn’t it been for you Sam would’ve gotten off way worse.” said the same voice that plagued every single one of her detentions and Piper quickly turned around, gasping when she found herself in front of all the Avengers… well, minus the Hulk, who she could hear roaring about two blocks away.

"I shall agree with the Captain," the Thor boomed, "your actions just now were very admirable and courageous, we shall host a feast in your honor, Mighty Warrior Of The Spiders!"

“Cap and Point Break are right: very heroic, noble blah, blah, blah.” came Tony Stark’s snarky voice, as he landed next to Captain America, who was rolling his eyes, “I find that whole shebang back there very impressive… especially those strings of yours-”

“Webs.”

“-webs of yours. So, you’re the Spider..ling… Crime Fighting Spider– you’re Spiderboy?” he queried, his faceplate lifting to reveal the face that she saw every day on the news, magazines, her twitter timeline and so on and… he looked a little older than he did on social media, that much was obvious, which meant she owed MJ five dollars. Great.

“Sp–Spiderman.” Piper stuttered out, her mask's white lenses comically wide.

“Sorry to interrupt your little moment, but the drones are still out there. How about we do the fighting now and leave the introductions for later?” said the Black Widow, sounding rather impatient.

Everyone seemed to come to some sort of silent agreement, and just went back to smashing drone after drone.

“Dude!” the Falcon shouted rather demandingly, bringing his webbed up hands up when Piper turne, "How do you take this off!

“Oh right, sorry.” she said, pouring the solvent over the man's hands, while he stared, his face pinched with disgust.

“Spiderling,” Tony Stark called as the Falcon took off, his gaze (or well, the faceplate's) focused on the puddle of melting webbing by her feet before he snapped up to look at her as he pointed to the sky somewhere behind him without turning, “See that flying disc? You go with Rhodey and Viz and try to find a place to– crawl inside or whatever, and once you’re in try to let me in so I can deactivate those flying atrocities.”

“Because you think that flying thingy controls all the drones, right?” at the billionaire’s nod she continued, “I was thinking about that too, but what if it’s only there to distract us from finding the real thing?”

“You mean a decoy?” the genius frowned, “Look, I know you probably know nothing about machines, but it doesn’t take much to recognise how badly these things are built–”

“Actually, I happen to know quite a bit about machines." Piper pointed out, annoyance lacing her voice, "And I know these thingies are reaally bad. But what if whoever built them wants us to think that since they’re bad at engineering they’re also too dumb to trick us?”

The man looked deep in thought for a moment, then he shook his head, his faceplate closed up and he started flying away. “Well even though it is a chance, I doubt this guy has the brain capacity to even think about a plan like that. So, flying disc it is.”

“Well, let's get going then.” said Colonel Rhodes, seemingly popping out of nowhere and, hadn't Piper's Spider Sense warned her of him and Vision approaching, she would've actually flinched.

Piper sighed, “Yeah, whatever.” This wasn't the first time the Avengers underestimated her and, if her Spider Sense screaming at her was anything to go by, last time wasn't the only time she was right.

When the others were far enough for Piper to have some privacy, she immediately addressed Ned, who had been way too silent in the past 5 minutes. When her friend didn't reply she quickly pulled out her phone, and immediately checked the group chat.

[MJ]
Place got blown up, we had to leave.

the laptop got smashed again

oh and Ned's freaking out but you know that already

We didn't manage to hack into War Machines suit but we found a weird drone. It doesn't behave like the other ones and it seems focused on Tony Stark.

it has a red propeller. It's probably the control center.

We'll be waiting at my place. Dad's at work until 3am and stepmom's out all week. Be careful.

Piper put her phone back in her pocket and sighed, if she were a drone with a red propeller where would she be hiding?

As she followed Mr. Stark's orders and went after the floating thing with Colonel Rhodes and Vision, Piper kept looking for that red propeller and... gotcha!

Just like MJ said, the drone was basically identical to all the others, except for its red propeller, its slightly smaller and more complex design (as complex as something as rudimental as that could be) and that blinking red light that was pointing at Iron Man and the fact that for some reason her Spider Sense particularly disliked it and– hold on…

“MISTER STARK WATCH OUT!” she yelled, launching herself off the decoy and shooting a web at a drone that was flying by, but at the contact the object exploded and Piper was plummeting down once again.

In between the pounding in her head and the pounding of the wind slapping her she spotted Iron Man, who was speeding towards her as he angrily yelled something she chose to ignore, focusing all her remaining energy on shooting a web at his foot, pulling him down and using the leverage to toss herself in the air, as she kicked another drone towards the switchboard, which had just fired a shot that was probably meant for the billionaire but hit Piper instead.

The two drones exploded among collision and everything went black.

Chapter Text

There was only one thought in Tony’s mind at that moment: what the fuck.

First of all, his morning was very rudely interrupted by an army of absolutely dreadful drones. It was an insult to drones to even call those abhorrenties by that name.

Then, that spider freak decided to join in on the fun, and frankly, thank God he did otherwise Sam would’ve been dead.

It’s not that he hated Spider-Man or anything. On the contrary, he found him pretty interesting: no one knew anything about the man, except that he ‘swinged‘ around in a hideous onesie and had some pretty impressive enhanced abilities (not to mention those webs of his, which Tony needed to get his hands on). The guy usually disappeared just as mysteriously as he appeared, and no matter how hard Tony had tried to figure out his identity, he had never managed to. He had tried everything over and over again, but nothing ever worked.

So, no, Tony didn’t have anything against the spiderling, he was just frustrated with his failed investigations and perhaps he felt a little bit bad about what had happened with Toomes... actually, he felt really bad about it and he wasn’t sure how to address the whole ordeal, so he kept his distance instead.

However, that guy had to go and take a hit for him, a hit that he most definitely would’ve survived, thanks to his suit of armor. So, this was the second time Spider-Man had gotten hurt because of Tony (and because of his own recklessness) and to top it off the hero’s limp form was currently plummeting towards the ground.

“Guys! Spider-Man’s down!” he screamed, “Can anyone clear me of those flying little bastards?”

”Tones, all the drones went down the moment the one that was aiming at you went down.” came Rhodey’s reply, “The disc really was just a decoy. The spider dude was right.” Great, another thing his guilt complex could leech off of.

The genius ordered Friday to put all the power he had left in the repulsors, and sped towards the hero.

When Spider-Man opened his eyes– or well, lenses, Tony let out a sigh of relief, at least the guy wasn’t dead. However he also wasn’t out of the woods yet: the vigilante didn’t seem in any shape to get himself out of that situation on his own, so it was up to Tony to save his arachnid ass.

What happened next caught Tony off guard just as much as it impressed him: with a lot of struggle, the spiderling lifted his uninjured arm and pointed his hand at him, he then activated some sort of mechanism by pressing a button on his palm and his webbing shot out and attached to his suit, then the vigilante went limp once again.

Tony immediately slowed down and carefully lowered the hero to the ground, hurrying to pick him up before dashing to the Tower, which was barely a few blocks away.

When Piper came to, everything felt weird and floaty. It took a moment for her to get her bearings, and when she did she immediately sat up, wincing as pain shot through her left shoulder, and… how did she end up in a bed? Where was she? Why was her injury bandaged? And, most importantly, why was she wearing only her civilian clothes and her mask? Where the fuck was the rest of her suit?

She closed her eyes and focused as much as she could: she heard a lot of heartbeats, people walking, breathing, talking, eating, listening to music, typing on their keyboards, tapping their phones, scribbling with a pen: nothing out of the ordinary, except for an unfamiliar pattern of footsteps getting closer and closer to her room, and her Spider Sense twitched.

“Oh, you’re awake,” said someone –a woman– as she walked in and turned the light on, making the teenager wince due to her sensible eyes, “you were out for a few hours. It’s almost eight in the evening, you’re currently in Avengers Tower’s medbay.” she said kindly.

Piper froze at the last statement and hastily got off the bed, the abrupt movement making her see stars for a split second as well as making her most recent injury throb, “A-Avengers Tower? Did you– did you guys take my mask off? Do you know who I am… like actually know who I am?”

The woman shook her head and a soft smile took over her face, before she went back to her almost icy expression, “Don’t worry, the Avengers were quite insistent on leaving your mask on while you were unconscious, so not even I am aware of the infamous Spider-Man’s identity… or should I say Spider-Woman?”

Piper audibly gasped and looked down at the dark purple sweater she was wearing: it was the skinny fitting, turtle neck type of sweater: there was no way she could play it off as puberty doing her (or well… ‘him’) dirty, so she just stared into nothingness for a moment, before muttering a panicked ”I can explain.” and lifting her head, only to gasp once again, because she was standing right in front of the Helen Cho, one of the most renowned doctors in the world, and she hadn’t even realized that until then. “Oh– oh my god! You–you’re Doctor Helen Cho, one of the most renowned doctors in the world– I-I read your paper on the alteration of genes to recreate human skin it’s– I’m– it’s such an honor to meet you, ma’am!” she blurted out.

The doctor looked surprised by Piper’s interest in her work, “I’m flattered by your compliment, and I can assure you I won’t say a word about your… secret to anyone, Mr. Stark had me sign so many NDAs I’d rather quit science than reveal anything I’ve witnessed in here.”

Piper nodded once, frowning, “This is random but… aren’t you even a bit weirded out by the fact that I’m secretly a gir– a woman?”

“Maybe a little, but I’ve seen weirder things in the two years I spent working in this place–” she replied, her phone suddenly ringing interrupting her, “I really have to take this, but it was a pleasure meeting you, Spider-Woman. Regarding your wound, I didn’t have the time nor the necessary authorisations to run tests on how your immune system and metabolism work, but by looking at how you have been doing these past few hours, it should be completely healed in a day at most. Also, regarding the surgery, the cost is on Mister Stark, so there will be no need to contact your insurance and put your identity at risk. Oh, and except for me and the nurses who assisted me, no one is aware that you’re a woman.” and with that she left.

Piper sighed and took in the room for the first time: it did indeed look like a hospital room, but it looked ridiculously fancy and expensive. The bed was the most comfortable thing she’d ever laid on, her suit was neatly folded on top of a wooden bedside table next to her battered phone, one of the walls was completely made of glass and there was a door that most likely led to a bathroom.

As her gaze drifted back to her suit a female, robotic, but kind voice spoke up, making her jump.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Spider-Man,” said the voice, “I am Friday and I am the AI that operates in the facilities and vehicles used by Boss. I have been instructed to guide you to Conference Room Number Six, where the Avengers have been waiting for you over the past hours.”

A look of pure admiration took over Piper’s features, “Hold on, Friday as in the most developed AI in the world?! It’s such an honor to meet you Miss Friday ma’am I–” she froze mid sentence as the excitement began to wear off and the rest of Friday’s words registered. “W-what? Th-the Avengers wanna meet me?! Like, actually meet me?!”

“That is correct.” supplied Friday, sounding amused.

“Oh crap.” the girl swore, “They must be so pissed at me for disobeying Mr. Stark’s orders… oh no, they’re gonna take my suit away and forbid me to be Spider–Man or– or– oh fuck what if they send me to the Raft?! I don’t wanna go to jail, I can’t possibly–”

“I am detecting the first symptoms of a panic attack, I have been instructed to notify Boss if said symptoms occur.”

“N-no don’t worry about it, please.” said Piper, sighing in defeat as she reached for her phone and stuffed it in her sweatpants’ pocket, and threw her suit over her uninjured shoulder, “Where’s Conference Room Number Six?”

Tony tapped his foot on the floor and sighed, he and the others were all seated in Conference Room Number Six, which looked more like a less homey version of their common room than a conference room, which was why they held most of their debriefs in there.

If he had to put things how they were, Spider–Man saved all their sorry asses earlier that day. Especially Tony’s. The guy somehow knew one of the drones was controlling all the other ones and –despite the painfully obvious awe he felt at the team’s mere presence– he still openly disobeyed Tony’s orders and thank the heavens he did, otherwise Tony would’ve been toast, since –as he had seen on Friday’s recording after the fight– the drone had a perfect aim on his arc reactor.

It had been five hours since the fight was over and the sun had already set. Since Helen declared that the Spiderling only needed rest, the team had decided to wait for the man so they could personally thank him… and also apologize.

Friday’s voice suddenly rang out, interrupting everyone’s thoughts. “Spider–Man has woken up and is currently in the private elevator.”

At this the occupants of the room sat up, except for Tony, who got to his feet, and excitedly waited for the elevator doors to open.

Ding!

They all froze, staring in complete dumbfoundment at the person who stood before them.

Piper was beyond mortified: Tony Stark was standing slack-jawed in the middle of Conference Room Number Six, Captain America, Hawkeye, Colonel Rhodes and Bruce Banner were openly gawking at her from a couch on the billionaire's left while, from the adjacent sofa, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier fixed her with matching expressions of complete and utter perplexion. Thor looked like a gaping hammer fish, the Scarlet Witch was frowning in bewilderment and the Vision just looked confused. Even the Black Widow seemed taken off guard.

The girl frowned. Was she not supposed to take the private elevator? No, that couldn’t be it, Friday was the one who had told her to use it in the first place. Maybe they were staring at the hole in her suit that was caused by the blast– what was she thinking? They were superheroes, they dealt with wounds on a daily basis!

Hold on.

The suit.

Piper recalled that she wasn’t in her suit, and just like that her plan to keep her real gender a secret from Earth’s Mightiest Heroes flew out of the window and auto-obliterated itself.

Her lenses widened a fraction and she spoke, her tone dry, “Oh fu–”

However, the elevator doors closing cut her off.

The vigilante quickly pushed the button to open the doors again and stepped out of the metal box, freezing when she realized everyone was still staring at her. There was an awkward beat of silence before the teenager began her word vomit: “I am so sorry for disobeying your orders, Mister Stark! But the drone was gonna shoot you and I really just had to stop it– those articles from the Bugle are a bunch of bullsh– crap, please, please, please, don’t send me to the Raft–”

“Woah, woah woah,” interrupted Tony, amused by the woman’s pathetic attempt at shifting the attention, which clearly didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the team, especially Clint, who scoffed, and Nat, who raised an eyebrow, “no one’s sending you to the Raft, and we’re also not pissed at you –quite the opposite actually– but for now why don’t we focus on your little… revelation here?”

At that moment Piper felt her soul leave her body, she was in the same room as all the Avengers and her ultimate idol was talking to her. And they knew Spider–Man wasn’t a man. They obviously hadn’t fallen for her blatant attempt at changing the subject so she began looking for an exit, which didn’t appear like a good idea, if the Black Widow, the Winter Soldier and Wanda immediately standing up were anything to go by.

“Yeah,” agreed the Black Widow, her ice cold tone sending shivers down Piper’s spine, “why don’t we focus on your little revelation for a while, huh?”

Piper took a deep breath and nodded once, she wasn’t getting out of this one anyways.

“Hooold up,” interjected the Falcon, his eyes saucer wide, “you’re telling me the spider dude is actually a spider dudette?! What the hell is this, one of those cheesy TV shows Wanda and Vision binge all night long or something?!”

Cap glared at Sam for his language, Wanda mirroring his expression, while everyone else’s attention was solely focused on the vigilante. Thor’s booming voice then proceeded to cut off whatever excuse Piper was planning on saying next, “Oh, Mighty Woman Of Spiders, I, Thor Odinson, am deeply honored to finally have the chance to converse with you out of the battlefield. I have viewed several of your exploits with my friends here and I have to admit that, though a portion of them are rather futile and your garments leave to be desired, your willpower is strong and I wholeheartedly admire that. I shall host a feast in your honor!”

“Yes, yes, Thor,” interrupted Natasha, while Rhodey facepalmed, “we can do that, but first why don’t we all sit down and have a talk? Would that be alright, ma’am?”

Piper hesitated for a moment before giving in, “Alright, here goes nothing.” she started, folding her arms in an attempt to look intimidating, wincing when the action put an unnecessary strain on the wound the drone had given her on her back, “Yes, I am a gir– woman and if you were wondering I’m using a voice changer and there’s a lot of padding in my suit. And no, I’m not telling you my secret identity… oh and thanks for taking care of my wound by the way, you really didn’t have to– oh gosh this is so cool, I can’t believe I’m in the same room as you guys, this is beyond awes–”

“Let me stop you right there,” interrupted Tony, holding a hand up, “first of all, getting you medical attention was the bare minimum, also I believe a ‘thank you’ and an apology on our behalf is in order. So, thank you for cleaning up our mess and sorry for underestimating you… more than once.”

“Well I– wait what?” the girl blurted out, out of all the possible scenarios she certainly wasn’t expecting to be on the receiving end of an apology.

“Tony’s right,” confirmed Steve somberly, “we will make an effort to listen to you in the future. Today we completely ignored you, which was very unprofessional of us, and you got hurt because of it.”

“Oh uh… thanks I guess.” mumbled Piper, plopping down in the empty loveseat she was standing close to.

“So,” Tony spoke in a teasing tone, “the Avengers finally get to meet the infamous ‘Spider–Menace’. Glad you got a new onesie by the way, looks way more fashionable than your old pijamas.”

“It’s not a onesie.” Piper pointed out.

“Whatever,” Nat chimed in, “as you can understand, we didn’t get the chance to properly speak with you until now, so we inevitably need to ask you a few questions.”

“Yeah uh… sure, ask ahead.”

“Why are you pretending to be a man?” the spy demanded without missing a beat.

“Well, I never really claimed to be a man– well not at first, at least… I just did my thing and people started calling me ‘Spider–Man’, and I didn’t correct them since there’s an extra layer of protection around my identity this way.” Piper responded truthfully, “It kinda made sense, y’know.”

“Funny how they immediately assumed she’s a man.” muttered Wanda.

“Quite the clever idea,” praised the assassin, ignoring the witch's remark, “where did you get your gear, and the abilities?” she added, and all the occupants of the room leaned forward in interest, especially Bruce and Tony, who were basically on the edge of their seats.

“Sorry, that’s a secret.” said Piper, shifting in her seat.

“Because it could lead back to your secret identity.” guessed Clint, to which Piper nodded.

“Let’s just avoid that part,” proposed Bruce, “just tell us what you can do and what enables it.”

“Well, my suit’s only purpose is concealing my identity, and for fashion purposes I guess.”

“Some fashion sense this chick's got.” muttered Sam at the same time as Tony asked: “What about the webbing?”

“What’s with the webbing?” inquired Piper.

“Does that– do you produce it? Like biologically I mean.”

“What?!” screeched the mortified girl, “Of course not! It’s made in a lab… with chemicals ‘n stuff.”

“Chemicals ‘n stuff.” echoed the billionaire, hiding his surprise with amusement.

“How?” questioned Bruce, looking like Christmas had come early.

“Yeah, how?” repeated Tony, “I analyzed a sample and the tensile strength is off the charts, Brucie Bear and I couldn’t even figure the formula out, so, how?”

“That’s a secret.” deadpanned Piper, though the thought of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner admiring a creation of hers did make her feel a bit warmer inside.

“Bruce sighed in defeat while Tony huffed, “Can you at least tell us how you uh... ‘shoot’ your webbing?”

Without saying a word Piper took off her left web shooter and threw it at Tony, who caught it easily and began examining it.

The genius inspected the object the girl had just thrown at him, the others leaning over from their seats. It was a bulky stripe bracelet and it was apparently fitted for the vigilante’s tiny wrist. The design was very minimalistic, it looked like it was made of stainless steel and it was covered in scratches and dents, aside from that there was a small spider shaped button made of… dried hot glue?

“Press it.” instructed Piper, nervously fumbling with her hands.

Tony did that and and actually struggled to hold back a very un-Tony Stark-like gasp, while Bruce didn’t even bother to hide his fascination as he stumbled to get out of his seat and almost ran towards his science bro to take a closer look at the object.

As soon as Tony pressed the button the bracelet began rearranging itself into a small contraption that vaguely resembled the mechanism of a gun, except it was clearly made to be worn on one’s wrist and it had a small dispenser containing what Tony assumed was Spider–Man’s famous web fluid.

“This is incredible!” howled Bruce, flailing his arms like a maniac, “It's nanotech, Tony’s been experimenting with it for months now!”

“This is… an engineering masterpiece,” breathed the billionaire, “even though it’s a little rudimental and the nanoparticles take their time to adjust themselves, it's still a ridiculously advanced device. Who manufactured this?”

“I did.” came Piper’s mumbled reply.

“Come again?” said Tony, who definitely wasn’t expecting that answer.

“I… manufactured the web shooters, sir. And the web fluid.”

Tony’s eyebrows met his hairline and Bruce’s jaw dropped.

Before any of the two geniuses could start ranting about science stuff, Natasha got the conversation back on track: “Impressive. What about your powers? We’ve seen you throw cars and bench press buses.”

“Yeah, I have super strength.”

“How much can you–”

“That’s a secret.” Piper supplied helpfully, causing Steve, who had asked the question, to groan in frustration.

“The wall crawling?” queried Bruce, “is it magnets?”

“Nope,” said Piper, popping the p, “that’s all me.”

“What?!” exclaimed Sam, looking a little dismayed, much like his teammates who were either mirroring his expression or sporting a frown.

Without a word, the teenager stood up and walked to the closest wall, kicking her shoes off as she reached it. She then placed a foot on it, then the other and, after taking a moment to adjust to the sudden change, walked until she was standing on the ceiling.

“See?” she chirped, jumping down and doing a double flip halfway to the floor, “that’s all me.”

Steve looked baffled, “That’s…”

“Freaky.” supplied Bucky.

“Says the dude with a metal arm.” muttered Rhodey, earning a glare from said super soldier.

“So I presume it is safe to say you’re a mutant.”

“Mutate.” corrected Piper, causing everyone to swivel their heads in her direction.

“What?” Rhodey asked sharply.

“I’m a mutate, Colonel Rhodes, not a mutant. I wasn’t born with my powers.” she explained, shuddering at the memory of her mutation.

Steve brought a hand up to rub his forehead and looked at her sympathetically, “How–”

“I’m not comfortable with talking about it sir,” Piper yawped, hurrying to continue talking when she caught the Black Widow raising an eyebrow, “but I made sure an accident like that won’t happen ever again.” and it was true, not long after the bite she had snuck into the Oscorp labs to euthanize all the genetically modified spiders and cleared the company’s database of any files related to them.

“Okay,” said Clint, elongating the y, “and how did you hear what we were saying on the comms?”

“Let’s just say my hearing’s pretty good.” said the girl.

“Great,” said Tony, clapping his hands as he got to his feet and began pacing, “before we can finally stop playing twenty questions I gotta ask you one last thing.” he announced, waiting for her to nod before continuing, “Why are you doing this? I gotta know, what’s your MO, what gets you outta your bed in the morning?”

“Because…” Piper began talking, taking a deep breath, “because I’ve been me my whole life and I’ve had these powers for like a year now… look, when you can do the things I can but you don’t, and then the bad things happen… they happen because of you.”

A cold silence befell upon the room as everyone processed the vigilante’s words. The pain and guilt in her tone, the tremble in her voice and that coat of determination… they knew that tone. It was the tone of someone who had been through some shit and was determined to do anything to stop any more shit from going down, and oh boy if they could relate to that.

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes exchanged a meaningful look and, at Steve’s nod, Tony spoke again: ”Well that settles it. Welcome to the team.”

Anything Piper was preparing to say came to a crashing stop and she was pretty certain her heart had blown itself up. Whilst she stood slack jawed in the middle of Conference Room Number Six, only one thought crossed her mind: Ned was gonna freak out.

Chapter Text

Ned did in fact freak out.

After Mr. Stark’s announcement it took a moment for Piper to regain her composure. At first she was skeptical to accept the offer, but the Avengers were quick to assure her that there was no need for her to reveal her identity if she wasn’t comfortable with it, as long as they had a way to contact her, and it seemed too good of an offer for Piper to decline.

And that’s how the teenage superhero found herself on MJ’s bedroom floor with her two best friends, the three of them sat in a circle around the burner phone the Black Widow had given her.

“This is the best day of my life!” exclaimed Ned, who said that same exact sentence at least twice a week, “My best friend’s an Avenger!”

“Honorary Avenger.” corrected Piper.

“What’s the difference?” asked MJ satirically.

“It’s kind of like an internship I guess, I don’t really have the job but I still get to help out.” she explained, rushing to continue speaking when MJ’s unimpressed expression deepened and Ned’s awed expression morphed into a frown, “At least that’s what Mister Stark said.”

“Well, I don’t give a shit. Now, onto the important stuff: what are we gonna do with this thing?” said the unimpressed girl, poking the phone.

“I checked it before swinging by,” explained Piper, “There’s no tracker in it, it looks like they actually trust me.”

MJ clicked her tongue, “Sounds kinda sketchy but I’ll allow it.”

“What are we gonna do about the thing in Central Park?” interjected Ned.

“Well,” drawled MJ, glancing at her watch, “we still got five hours before dad comes back.”

So they swung to Central Park, Piper having to carry MJ piggyback while Ned was slung like a potato sack over her aching shoulder.

“Okay, according to Google Maps this is it,” announced Ned as he looked at his phone screen.

“What are we waiting for then?” said MJ, waving the shovel they had found in a dumpster at them, “Let’s start digging.”

So they dug.

After almost an hour of fruitless labor they were about to call it quits, then the shovel hit a metal surface and the three teenagers were quick to pull the object out.

As it turned out, the mysterious thing was a tin cookie box. Piper examined the container, tuning out her friends who had started arguing about something irrelevant, and after a moment of hesitation she took the lid off.

The mutate frowned as she rummaged through the contents of the tin can: it contained various papers that were stapled and neatly folded together, some random magazine and newspaper cutouts, there was also a smashed camera and some crumpled pieces of paper. However, her attention was focused on the envelope at the very bottom of the box, which she grabbed after a moment of hesitation.

In the envelope there were two things: her birth certificate, which she discarded for the moment, and a handwritten letter.

Piper glanced at her friends, who had gone silent, and took a deep breath, then she began reading:

November 22 2004

Dear Ben and May,

How are things in New York? Here in D.C. everything’s alright, yesterday Richard and I came back really late and had to wake up early this morning, so we're quite tired.
This letter might seem a bit out of the blue, since I could just phone call you, but I’d rather avoid the risk of anyone listening in, given my job and the enemies that come with it.
Yesterday Richard and I were called in by SHIELD for a mission, and we went to rescue a bunch of people that were kidnapped. We managed to reunite everyone with their families, except for this one sweet little girl… she’s around three years old. Richard and I believe she has amnesia, given the conditions we found her in it’s not unrealistic that one of the blows those criminals landed on her hit her head. The poor thing almost died… she was full of cuts and bruises, but she’s stable for now.
We discussed it and decided to adopt her, since we can’t have kids of our own.
We got a coworker of ours to get us a birth certificate for her, we put a copy in the envelope in case anything ever happens to the original one. I can’t wait for you to meet Piper, you’ll love her!
See you soon!

Love, Mary

P.S. Richard says hi.

Piper hadn’t even realized she was hyperventilating until MJ was talking to her, grabbing her by the wrists.

“Piper,” called the girl, sounding gentler than Piper had ever heard her, “It’s MJ, Ned’s here as well,” she subconsciously glanced at said boy, meeting his wide eyed gaze, “it’s eleven thirty at night and we’re in Central Park. Can you follow my breathing?” she instructed, exaggerating her breaths so that the panicking teen could follow.

As soon as Piper had calmed down enough to be in control of her own emotions, the three kids hurried to close the hole they had dug, gathered all their things, including the shovel, and swung back to MJ’s apartment, where they proceeded to have a collective freakout that lasted roughly forty minutes.

“I can’t believe this!” cried Ned, from where he was looking through those stapled sheets by the desk.

Said sheets turned out to be a long list of people who went missing between the years 2002 and 2005. What they found curious was that those cases were very similar to the ones they had been looking into during the past weeks: the victims were mostly kids and females, they left no trace when they disappeared and there were no articles or social media posts regarding them online or in any database Karen had hacked into.

“First we can’t solve a bunch of identical cases because no one except for us seems to even know about their existence, then we find a list that basically proves that the same exact thing has been going on for years, then we find a letter that confirms our suspicions regarding the disappearances actually being abductions and them being related. AND PIPER’S APPARENTLY ONE OF THE VICTIMS!”

“You’re not helping Ned.” grumbled Piper from her spot on the floor, where she had been tinkering with the camera to keep herself busy, so that she could avoid thinking about how her entire existence had just been turned upside down.

She didn’t know what she was feeling. Sadness? No. Anger? Not quite. Shock? Maybe a little, but it was so much more than that, yet nothing at all… that was it: nothing. Emptiness. Cold and bland and heavy and burning raw emptiness.

And rightfully so, she had just found out her life was a lie. Sure, the love her fam– the Parkers felt for her was real, just like May had written, but what else was? She strained her mind to remember something, anything from before, but it was to no avail. Even if she hadn’t lost her memories that day, she still wouldn’t be able to recollect much, she was a toddler at the time after all. So she just shook her head and went back to tinkering, because if she kept on thinking about it she was going to cry, and crying was stupid.

“Found it.” announced MJ, sticking her head out of the garret and throwing a dusty old cork board on the desk, almost hitting Ned with it in the process.

“Dude!” screamed the boy, who had barely managed to dodge the object.

The addressed girl just rolled her eyes as she descended the ladder and proceeded to pin all the papers they had found on the board.

They all worked separately for the following hour, Piper sulking as she toyed with the camera while her two best friends, with Karen’s help, searched up all the various names, finding exactly nothing each time.

Eventually, the quiet was disrupted by Ned suddenly letting out a shrill, high pitched gasp, and the two girls turned around to see him goggling at the list, his mouth opening and closing like a goldfish’s.

“What?” barked MJ, who was gradually getting more and more annoyed by the lack of results her research was providing.

“Oh shit!” shrieked the boy, his gaping expression morphing into one of complete and utter perplexity as he slammed his palms on the desk, pushed himself up with trembling arms, tossed the papers in the air and began trotting around the room like a raging elephant while he held onto his hair, almost ripping it out, and muttered a series of “No”s and “This isn’t possible”s. The scene was quite unsettling.

Piper was quick to get to her feet and grab her best friend by the shoulders, carefully shaking him in hopes of stopping his freakout. When that didn’t seem to work, MJ stepped in and smacked Ned square in the face, making him stumble but succeeding in her intent.

“What the fuck was that all about?!” she yelled, looking about as disturbed as Piper was feeling.

“Penelope Stark!” well that took them completely off guard.

“W-What?” croaked Piper.

“Penelope Stark!” roared Ned maniacally as he rushed to pick the discarded list up and held it out to her, “Penelope freaking Stark is on the freaking list we freaking found in the freaking box!”

Piper’s brain short circuited. MJ’s eyebrows shot up.

“What?!” the prior hissed, snatching the sheet and quickly skimming through its contents, until her gaze landed on a familiar name that was highlighted in bright yellow.

Penelope Jamie Stark

Well, Piper thought, at least this was better than emptiness.

“I knew it.” breathed MJ, waving her arm at the cork board, “Those articles are all about Penelope Stark, there’s even a copy of her kidnapping report– it was crumpled up and I was about to throw it away… I knew it was suspicious, but I wanted to believe it wasn’t what I was thinking… I guess my gut wasn’t too wrong after all, huh.”

“Piper,” said Ned, who was trying hard to regain his cool, “was there a memory card in the camera?”

The girl, understanding her friend’s intentions, dug through the remains of the device and quickly retrieved the SD card, which she then inserted in MJ’s laptop.

“Here we go.” she mumbled, tapping her fingers on the desk while she waited for the files to load.

To Piper and Ned’s disappointment, the only two photos on the card were a grainy photo of a street, where some random blonde dude could be seen walking his dog in the distance, and an equally grainy photo of a red and gold beaded bracelet.

The two nerds sighed, while MJ stood up abruptly and addressed Piper’s AI: “Karen, can you read out everything you have on the last time Penelope Stark was seen?”

“Researching…” chirped Karen, “Penelope Jamie Stark was last seen on November twenty-first two thousand and four, in a playground in the vicinity of her father’s mansion in Malibu, California, where her nanny, Melinda Brown, had taken her to play. After several hours Mrs. Brown’s corpse was found by a passerby in a dumpster several miles away from the park. The Stark heiress was nowhere to be found.
"At the moment of her disappearance, Penelope was wearing a gray Gucci onesie, a pink wind jacket and a pair of custom made pink Armani sneakers and a red and gold elastic beaded bracelet."

As soon as Karen uttered the last part, the three kids' gazes simultaneously turned to the second picture.

"I think," Ned voiced breathlessly, "I think we might be dealing with something way bigger than we thought."

"Ned, for once in your life you might be right." breathed MJ, before she turned back to the pin board, completely ignoring Ned's glare.

"By the way, there's more coordinates over there– on the crumpled sticky note." she added, and sure enough there was a yellow sticky note with some numbers scribbled on it… and a random doodle.

"Alright, lemme type 'em up real quick." stated Ned, immediately beginning to type out the digits.

"Why?" asked Piper out of the blue, "Why me? Like, what does all this… Penelope Stark… have to do with me?"

"Well, for one it has a lot to do with you, since you're one of those victims," MJ promptly replied, to which Ned nodded in agreement, "regarding this box and all the infos we just found– I think it's pretty safe to say that your parents were some sort of secret agents and apparently they were working on this case, and since everything is related they just stuffed it all together– if they were the ones to bury the box, that is… as far as we know it could also have been May who wanted to leave you something to prove your mom's letter was saying the truth, since –knowing you– you would've never believed it without solid evidence to back it up."

"Got it!" Ned notified them, "It's an abandoned warehouse in the California desert, a couple miles away from the Arizona border."

A sudden thought struck Piper, and a pit began to form in her stomach, "When my parents' plane crashed they were on their way to Palm Springs for a meeting…"

Her friends grimaced, and there was a somber silence as they processed what their fellow teenager was implying.

Then the burner phone rang.

“Hello?” Piper nearly yelled, having almost dropped the phone in her rush to pick up the call while putting the mask on and activating the voice changer.

“Still awake?”

“M-Miss Romanoff– Black Widow ma’am, what can I do for you?” MJ inhaled sharply, Ned fell off the chair.

“What was that?”

“It was my uh– my cat– actually it doesn’t matter,” the girl replied quickly, “what’s up?”

“Tony and I figured out where the drones came from… an ex employee of Tony’s got fired and decided to hold a grudge.” explained the assassin, sounding like she didn't believe a word of what Piper was saying.

“That guy worked for Stark Industries?! I didn’t know the standards were that low.” Piper teased.

“For the record,” came Tony’s distant voice, “there’s a reason he doesn’t work for us anymore– he wasn’t even an employee in the first place, he was an intern for fuck’s sake!”

“Oh hey Mister Stark!” chirped Piper, and Ned seemed to start convulsing on the floor or something, “Hold on… why aren’t you guys asleep?”

“I could ask the same thing.” came Natasha’s monotone reply.

“Whatever.” interjected Tony, his voice way less distant than it was before, “Fri, be a dear and transfer the call to the speakers– thanks. Anyways, we’re raiding the drone guy’s base next week, wanna join us?”

“What! You want me to join you on a mission?!” it looked like Ned had fainted, “That… that’s insane! Uhm… when’s it gonna be?”

“Departure’s on Tuesday at seven a.m., we expect you to be here at least ten minutes earlier. We should be back on Thursday night, perhaps even on Wednesday if everything goes well.” Natasha explained.

“Okay… where are we going exactly?”

“About thirty miles West of Vegas.” Piper glanced at the cork board, that wasn’t too far from the warehouse.

“It’s going to be me, Tony, Clint, Thor, Cap and Bruce, the others are attending a press conference in Tokyo.” Natasha added when Piper didn’t say anything.

“Count me in.”

This was so much better than emptiness.

Chapter Text

“Mhm five more minutes, May.” mumbled Piper, tucking her head under the pillow when she felt someone tapping her shoulder in an attempt to pull her out of the slumber she had barely just fallen in.

“Nuh uh.” came MJ’s adamant reply, “You gotta be at Tony Stark’s joke of a skyscraper in like forty minutes, get yo sleepy ass outta my bed.”

Piper hummed, the words taking a while to register, when they did she shot up and ran into the bathroom, rushing to get ready.

Ten minutes later, after a very much needed ice cold shower, Piper stepped into the living room and tiptoed past Ned (who was snoring on the couch) and grabbed her backpack.

She was about to turn the door handle when she felt someone seizing her shoulder, and she turned around to find herself face to face with a very unimpressed looking MJ, who was holding a pack of granola bars and a travel mug that was filled with coffee, judging by the smell.

“Here” said the girl, handing her the objects with a glare that dared her to refuse, “you barely slept these past few days, you’ll need all the energy you can get.”

Piper smiled as she accepted the objects and stuffed them in her backpack, “Thanks Em, you’re the best.”

“I know.” scoffed the other girl, urging her out of the apartment, “Now go, we don’t want the world’s richest drama queen to throw a temper tantrum over his playdate starting late because of your lingering.”

Piper wasted no more time and put her mask on, hurrying to get out of the building.

As she was swinging towards Manhattan she could barely hold her enthusiasm under control: she was going on a mission with the Avengers, she was so excited she wanted to scream.

Her elation, however, was cut short by a series of outcries and the familiar rancid smell of smoke and, after further inspection, her eyes caught a burning building in the distance.

Piper sighed, it looked like the Avengers were going to have to wait.

After almost two hours Piper was finally done saving lives and found herself in an alley, wincing as she carefully peeled off her half destroyed suit (MJ was gonna have to fix that-- again) from the burns that covered her limbs, leaving only her mask on as she got into a pair of spare sweatpants and Ned’s hoodie, and fastly zipped towards Avengers Tower. She reached the building in record time, clumsily perching on the landing zone with a pained gasp, her heart hammering in her chest as Captain America, who looked thunderous, trudged towards her.

“You’re late.” spat the man.

“I… I’m so sorry, sir– something came up.” she mumbled, feeling nauseous; after the prior week’s discoveries, the sleep deprivation and Mr. Smith being a dick added to everything that went down in the previous months she definitely didn’t need Captain America chewing her out as well, she was miserable enough as it was.

Steve sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, “Sorry,” he said darkly, and Piper had to bite her lip to stop herself from breaking down right then and there, under all the og Avengers’ gazes “doesn’t cut it, I would’ve understood if you were ten, twenty– heck, thirty minutes late, but two hours–”

“Oh cut her some slack, Capsicle!” teased Tony, strutting out of the quinjet like he owned the place- which he kind of did, “this is what I call being fashionably late- though you kinda overdid it, Underoos, we’ll have to work on that.” he finished with a smirk, though he too sent her a scrutinizing glance.

“Yeah,” Piper snarked back, her idol’s mocking tone and dubious expression making her wretched state all the more unbearable, “I’ll make sure to keep that in mind next time, Mister Stark.”

The vigilante got a few raised eyebrows and irritated frowns as she stomped into the Quinjet, walking past Thor’s sleeping form and opting to settle down at the very far back, putting her modified earphones on to tone down at least some of the surrounding sounds, in hopes of preventing her oncoming sensory overload.

The following hour was occupied by an awkward silence, Thor’s snoring and the radio playing in the background being the only audible sounds as everyone occasionally glanced at Spider–Man, whose gaze never left the window.

“What’s up with her?” Clint eventually asked, thinking she wouldn’t be able to hear him. However, even though the earphones did help a little, they were no match for Piper’s hearing, so the girl tried to look as clueless as possible as she listened to what they were saying.

“I don’t know,” replied Steve, still bitter about the vigilante’s behavior but also a little guilty about how he handled it, “but she better have a good rea–”

The Captain never managed to finish his sentence, because the radio suddenly mentioned Spider–Man, catching everyone’s attention and causing Nat to promptly rush to increase the volume as Piper froze in dismay.

“...connect us to our correspondent from New York City, Laurel Yanny. Hello, Laurel.”

“Yes, hello Josh. I’m here in Queens, in front of a building that caught fire earlier this morning... the local Police Department is still looking into what happened, but it appears that an accidental kitchen fire has snowballed out of control- someone definitely needs to take some cooking classes! Thanks to the Spider–Man there have been no casualties, the vigilante seemed to be ‘swinging’ by when he caught sight of the situation and stepped in to help the Fire Department save all the residents. It looked like he was injured though, on a video taken by a passerby he appears to have some pretty serious wounds and burns. We can only hope he’s getting the proper medical attentio–”

The reporter was cut short by Natasha switching the radio off and silence washed over the aircraft, the only noise being Thor’s snoring, as everyone turned to stare at Spider–Man in alarm.

Piper acted as though nothing had happened, maybe if she pretended to be okay they would brush it off, after all, they were heroes too- getting hurt was in the job description.

“What?” hissed Steve, who was beginning to feel sick because he'd been so focused on yelling at his teammate he hadn’t even realized she was hurt.

Piper kept her gaze on the window, which didn't seem to work, since everyone had apparently figured out she could hear them perfectly well and it was clear they weren't just gonna ignore what the reporter had said.

“Spidey,” said Tony, in a tone so serious it made the vigilante cringe, “is there anything you need to tell us?”

“Uh nope.” the teenager blurted out, earning a few raised eyebrows, “Look it’s no big deal, I promise! Nothing to worry about, just a few third degree burns that’ll be gone by–”

“JUST A FEW THIRD DEGREE BURNS?!” screeched Bruce as everyone stared aghast, completely taken aback by Piper's lack of self preservation.

The aforementioned winced at Bruce’s loud voice, her overloading senses definitely didn’t need the extra strain, “I have a healing factor, I’ll be fine.”

“Kid–” Tony sighed in exasperation as he pinched the bridge of his nose, “Just because you’ll ‘be fine’ doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get medical attention. That must hurt like a bitch…”

“Well,” drawled Piper, who was quickly losing her composure, “it’s not like I had the time to fix myself up, considering that as soon as I got here I was yelled at without even getting the chance to explain myself.”

Steve had the decency to shoot her an apologetic and guilty look, while Natasha spoke up.

“You’ll let Bruce check your wounds,” she declared, in a tone that made it clear she didn't have a choice.

“Fine.” the vigilante conceded, sounding about as defeated as she was feeling, and reached to pull her sweatpants’ left leg up, the gruesome state of her leg drawing various gasps.

Bruce immediately started rummaging through his medical kit, mumbling about careless heroes and troublesome billionaires setting bad examples, while his fellow teammates looked between the scientist and the vigilante.

“No big deal, huh?” Natasha said dully.

“I mean, I’ve had worse… compared to that this isn’t too big of a deal–”

What that was, she had no intention of disclosing and she tried to make it clear with her clipped tone.

“Worse?” echoed Clint, his tone rather astonished, “What could possibly be worse than being full of burns? How aren’t you keeling over in pain?”

“As I said,” snapped Piper, “I’ve had worse.” she shivered as her thoughts went back to homecoming... that night not only had she been covered in burns, bruises and wounds caused by the plane crash, she had also had a building dropped on her and Toomes had stabbed her with those wings of his- not to mention the injuries she got from that ‘shocker’ guy when she tried to get out of the school. She still got nightmares about that whole ordeal.

The Avengers seemed to get the message and stopped questioning her. Not long after, Bruce finally found the lotion and bandages he had been looking for and Piper insisted on applying them on her own in the bathroom.

Less than an hour later (it was crazy how fast the Quinjet could fly) they landed in Las Vegas, at a house Mister Stark had rented, and they spent the rest of the day settling in, save for Hawkeye, who complained the whole time about having to share a room with Thor, whose snores were ‘like thunder’, according to the spy. Piper herself wasn’t too happy with how the rooms were arranged, considering she had to share one with the Black Widow, and that was definitely going to make sneaking out even harder than she predicted.

As the sun began to set, all the heroes gathered in the living room for a quick (and very much unneeded, in Tony’s opinion) debrief to discuss the plan.

“So,” started Steve, as he glared at Tony, who was about to fall asleep, “this is the guy’s house,” he explained, pointing at the map on the coffee table, “Fury has some people keeping an eye on it–”

“Fury?” interrupted Piper, “I thought Shield wasn’t a thing anymore?”

Tony snorted, “That’s what Captain Blackbeard wants you to believe.”

Thor nodded, looking affronted, “Tony’s right, he had us fooled too for a while, that strange man.”

“Shield’s supposed to be a secret organization, Fury didn’t like the idea of the general public knowing about its existence.” Bruce elaborated, “Nat and Steve taking Shield down was the perfect scenario to convince everyone –except the world’s governments– it was gone… in reality they just took down the Hydra infested parts of Shield, what remains of it is tryna keep under the radar.”

Steve cleared his throat “Now that we cleared that up, can I continue? Good... as I was saying, there’s agents watching over the place. As soon as we take the drones down and tackle the guy they’re gonna take him away. I’m pretty sure there are gonna be drones– so, the plan is that me, Spider–Man, Tony and Thor keep them busy, while the two of you,” he gestured at Natasha and Clint, “sneak in and look for the guy. Bruce, you’re gonna stay on the jet, be ready in case anyone needs immediate medical attention,” at the man’s nod he continued, “If things go south we might need the other guy.”

“If things go south, bring the other guy out.” rhymed Clint, earning various snickers and a glare from the Captain.

Once the laughter had died down, to Tony’s eternal dismay, Steve decided to go over the plan once more. However, halfway through his blabbering, a yodeling tune echoed through the large living room, and Piper wanted to keel over and perish because Ned was calling her in the middle of a meeting with the Avengers and she had forgotten to turn her phone on silent.

After a moment of stunned (and amused, in Tony’s case) silence, Piper reached in her pocket to decline the call and swallowed thickly, feeling like she was going to faint from embarrassment, “Sorry, you can contin–”

Her phone started ringing once again, and she was certain Ned had messed with it, because the yodeling was blasting at full volume now. She declined again.

She looked apologetically at her idols and fellow heroes, who were looking at her in confusion, except for Captain America, who looked really annoyed, and Mr. Stark, who looked like he was trying his hardest not to laugh.

On cue, the yodeling started blasting again, even louder this time, and Mr. Stark burst into laughter, followed by Hawkeye and Thor.

The Captain brought a hand up to massage his temples and sighed, “Just– just answer it.”

The teen didn’t hesitate, quickly getting to her feet and bringing the phone to her ears as she power walked towards the door, “Dude! I’m in a meeting with the Avengers! What the hell!” she hissed, almost tripping over her own feet as she slammed the door shut.

“So someone does know her identity after all.” noted Natasha, staring at the seat the vigilante had just vacated.

”We finally found something!” screeched Ned, “hold on– did you just say you were in a meeting with the Avengers?! Oh my gosh this is the best day of my l–”

“Hold up, did you just say you got something?!” Piper exclaimed, her eyes widening in relief and triumph at the first clue –save for the box– they had found since the beginning of their investigation, “What is it?”

”Oh right… some old lady posted something on Facebook and Karen caught it before it was taken down– it was about her daughter going missing back in 2003– MJ’s on her way to her place, she’s gonna pretend to be a journalist and try to get something out of her.”

“Is it safe? Are you sure it’s not an ambush?” Piper asked sharply.

“Don’t worry about it, I ran a background check and MJ has her taser with her, and a can of pepper spray for good measure. She also has her earpiece on which, as you already know, since you built it, has a tracker. Everything’s under control.”

The evening went by in a blur, the anticipation for the mission keeping Piper on her toes the whole time, and soon enough it was midnight. After ensuring the Black Widow was asleep, she carefully organized her equipment, ignoring her Spider Sense tingling (it was probably just the general anxiety caused by the situation). She pocketed her fully charged phone (after making sure it was on silent mode), and tossed some extra web formula, the burner phone, her laptop, a USB cable and her pink flash drive in her school bag, leaving the random school supplies and assorted garbage that littered the bottom of the bag, not having the time to throw all that out.

Finally, her worn down backpack slung over her shoulder, she reached for the door handle, when a hand suddenly grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around, and Piper (who was pretty sure she had almost experienced what being frightened to death felt like) swore to never ignore her sixth sense ever again, because she found herself face to face with none other than the Black Widow, who –by the way– was looking at her as if she was one beat away from dismembering her or something, which couldn’t be a good thing.

Ah crap, that must've looked very suspicious.

“Where are you going?” demanded the assassin, “And I suggest you not to lie, if you know what’s good for you.”

The vigilante gulped, the woman’s threat feeling like someone had just dumped her in liquid nitrogen, causing her to freeze up and her throat to turn dry with a new wave of panic that felt really similar to drowning, “I– um– I’m going on a walk… I can’t sleep.” she blurted out, chuckling to hide her freaked out state.

Ms. Romanoff eyed her, then glanced at her backpack and raised an eyebrow, she then looked back at her and nodded, patting her on the shoulder in a way that made her Sense freak because there was absolutely no way she –one of the best spies in the world– had just bought that blatant lie, “Well then,” she said dully, “have fun on your ‘walk’. We’re gonna get going at the crack of dawn, I'll text you the coordinates. See you tomorrow.”

Piper nodded once and stiffly walked out.

As soon as she was outside she let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding and pulled her phone out, instructing Karen to lead her to the warehouse as she tried to suppress her shivers- she needed to look into investing in a jacket sometime soon, the warmer thing she owned was a denim jacket she had left in her suitcase at Mister Smith's. All her other jackets had been stolen while she was out Spidermanning. Once Karen found the fastest route, the girl proceeded to leap towards the closest highway to catch a ride.

After jumping from car to car for hours, the kid found herself on top of a very suspicious white van that had been headed towards her final destination for over ten minutes, which caused a bad feeling to form in her stomach, given the various slow heartbeats she could hear from inside the vehicle that, in her experience, sounded remarkably like people who were asleep– or knocked out.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the van turned into a street that led only to the warehouse and nowhere else, and she felt like she was gonna throw up because she was standing right above a bunch of unconscious human trafficking victims.

She quickly pulled herself together and looked through her backpack for anything useful, thanking the heavens that she hadn't thrown away the 'assorted litter' when she found a half empty bottle of nail glue she had borrowed from MJ for homecoming and had yet to return.

She quickly removed her bright red, unicorn themed phone case, put her phone in low power mode and glued it to the top of the van, emptying the entire bottle in the process. She then used some tape she had also found to cover it, in order to somewhat protect it from any eventual rain or snow.

As the vehicle reached the rundown warehouse, Piper discreetly jumped off and hid behind some dumpsters, waiting for the right moment to enter the building.

She didn’t have to wait long, since the guy was quick to drive into some sort of underground parking lot, and she speedily approached the nearest wall, hesitating for a moment– all those people down there… she had to save them, but doing that in that exact moment would have most definitely gotten her caught, which would’ve blown everything she and her best friends had been working on for months. The fifteen year old sighed and climbed up the wall, finding a broken window on the first floor she snuck through, and began scouting the premises.

Aside of the general uneasiness that came with warehouses ever since homecoming, the place was spooky, and that was putting it lightly. The doors were either broken down or ajar, leading to large, empty rooms whose walls were more often than not covered in what looked like blood, dents, knife marks… bullets. She examined the building with bile rising in her throat, but found nothing significant, until she reached the top floor and seriously hoped to find something, because she didn’t want to have to go into the basement area any sooner than she had to.

To her disappointment, the floor was once again empty. She sighed in defeat as she reached for the last door’s handle and, to her surprise, it didn’t open– it was locked! That’s when she noticed that this door looked fairly different from all the others: for one, it was made out of metal, rather than plastic or rotting wood, and it was full of scratches, though one scratch in particular stood out to her, because it looked remarkably similar to the doodle on the sticky note with the coordinates.

She ran back to the first floor and flung herself out of the broken window, climbing up to the locked room’s minuscule one and unlocking it with a trick MJ had taught her. When she got into the tiny room, the first thing she noticed was a camera stuck to the ceiling- great, just what she needed on top of everything else. Looking around she noticed a desk with a few loose papers laying on top of it– and a computer– a fairly old looking one. If her knowledge in crappy espionage movies was anything to go by, this was the secret studio where all the important files were stored.

She didn’t waste another second and quickly turned the vintage machine on, connecting her laptop and the flash drivewhile she waited for it to start up. With some initial struggle (it looked like these guys had some talented programmers on their side– which made sense, given the whole deleting posts thing) she got into the system and transferred all the data she could find to her flash drive (thank Thor she had decided to go hungry for some time and invest into 1TB of storage, rather than 128GB, as she had originally planned to do).

While she waited for the download to complete, she used her laptop to get into the cloud–based storage program (honestly, one would think an organization as 'sophisticated' as that would use something less interceptable than the likes of Google Drive and Mega), and deleted all the camera footage. It would have raised suspicion, but she definitely didn’t have the time to edit the clip.

Just as the download on the old screen reached 78%, her hearing picked up on a car drawing closer in the distance and her Sense began sending chills up her spine not too long after. She was ready to bet on her web formula that whoever had just arrived was someone very important in this operation, and that they were headed for the very room she was standing in.

With a panicked gasp of air she slammed her laptop shut, wincing at the excessive force she put into the action, ripped the cable and the flash drive out of the computer, accidentally sending the latter flying across the office, and stuffed everything in her backpack, tossing it under the desk while she switched the computer off and, in a final bout of adrenaline, she managed to haul herself on the ceiling at the very moment the door opened with a click.

She held her breath as two men strutted in: one was short, bald and had a graying mustache, while the second one (who looked way better dressed than the first) was tall, thin and blonde, though he too was graying and it looked like his hairdresser had messed up when applying the hair dye. Piper recognized him at once: it was the guy who was walking his dog in the photo she found in the smashed camera. Even though the picture was grainy, there was no mistaking it: the body shape, the posture, that abnormally large nose... it was him.

“Boss,” said the bald man, looking sheepish. Piper frowned, so this guy was the head of the operation, huh. “I don’t get why we gotta move all of a sudden, and at nighttime too… can’t this wait at least until the morning?”

“Because,” began the boss in a thick Florida accent, and Piper gulped when he almost stepped on the flash drive, “the Avengers were spotted in Vegas, and we don’t want those assholes messing with our work, now, do we?”

The prior shook his head while the latter unplugged the computer and placed it into a box, following with all the documents that were scattered across the room. Once he was done, he handed the now sealed packet to his– ‘employee’, who accepted it with a huff.

“Which means,” he continued, drawing out the words, “we gotta get outta here as soon as possible. For all we know they might be in the building already.” He grabbed a bunch of folders from a shelf above the desk and turned back to his accomplice, “C’mon, let’s get outta here.”

“Sure, Mister Jefferson.”

Piper stayed on the ceiling for a good ten minutes before she felt safe enough to get down. As soon as she got down she grabbed the flash drive and stuffed it in her pocket, however, just as she was reaching for her backpack, she heard two engines roar to life and her stomach clenched: she had completely forgotten about the victims.

She ran towards the tiny window and let out a single horrified hiccup as her gaze met the sight of a white van and a bright red Porsche leaving towards the sunrise. It was such a pretty sight for such a sickening event.

And to think if she hadn’t lost her focus she could’ve at least had a chance at saving those people. She really was a failure.

Piper didn’t know how long she actually stood there, just staring into the horizon with a trembling lip and eyes wet with unspilled tears; what she did know was that when she finally regained her cool it was way past the crack of dawn.

When she spotted the drone dude’s house in the distance, and the battle that was going on, Piper was beyond exhausted. She had run for miles upon miles, and she hadn’t even known she could run like that. As she approached the building, she ducked behind a black SUV that was parked by the entrance and, through bated breaths, she strained her ears to listen in on what the Avengers were saying.

“Nat? Clint? Found anything yet?” questioned Tony as he aimed his gauntlet at a large drone that was attempting to decapitate Thor, who was too busy frying dozens of the machines with his thunder to notice.

”Nope.” replied Natasha, sounding annoyed.

”Nat! Get over here, I think I found the switchboard!” announced Clint.

“Ah finally!” cheered Tony sardonically, “Just– be quick and turn these flying little shits off, will ya? And– where the hell is Spider–Man?!”

There was a collective groan as Natasha’s irritated voice filtered in once again, ”I already told you a dozen times, she went on ‘a walk’ -with her whole backpack, if I may add- and never came back.”

“What if she has been abducted?!” asked Thor, sounding genuinely worried.

“She better have been abducted,” spat Steve in a tone so disappointed it made Piper physically sick, “because if she ditched us for absolutely no reason she will be facing the consequences.”

Maybe it was because she forced herself to avert her attention, or maybe it was because of her Spider Sense alerting her once again, but she came to notice a very close-by heartbeat, that seemed to come from somewhere behind her. A sudden thought struck her and she looked inside the SUV, and locked gazes with a long haired, balding guy in his mid thirties, who looked like a deranged hippy who was aging really badly: it was the drone dude.

The teenager yelped in startelement as the guy quickly turned the car on and began zooming away, acting on impulse when she shot a web at the vehicle and let out a pained scream as the vehicle dragged her across the ground, attracting the Avengers’ attention. The guy didn’t even manage to get one mile away before Thor came falling from the sky and smashed his hammer on the car’s hood, successfully breaking the engine.

With the newly found relief washing over her, Piper let her legs give up, Thor barely managing to catch her before she hit the ground, pulling her up as he asked her various panicked questions that she carelessly ignored, all the bottled up exhaustion finally creeping up on her and everything fading into darkness.

Chapter Text

When Piper regained consciousness she felt really groggy.

Everything was sort of floaty and her eyelids were heavy. When she managed to open her 'bambi eyes', as aunt May had often called them, her gaze was met with the familiar sight of Stark Tower’s Medbay’s ceiling and, pushing herself up in a seating position, she noted that she was in the same room as last time and, by looking at the window, she saw the sunset… just how long had she been out?

She frowned as she stared at New York's colorful skyline– she could feel bandages covering her legs and arms, and smell the faint scent of antibiotic lotion, but aside from that her senses seemed almost identical to what they were like before the bite: she couldn't hear anyone's heartbeats, or smell anyone's coffee from the neighboring room… which meant they had probably given her some sort of sedative to keep her asleep.

Even her Spider Sense seemed to be a little off, which would've explained her actions when she was completely taken by surprise by the entirety of the Avengers bursting through the door less than a minute later, resulting in her jumping on the ceiling by reflex.

“Jesus,” breathed Sam, clutching his chest, “did you have to do that?”

“Oh my gosh,” gasped Piper, “you guys scared me–”

“I thought you had enhanced senses, didn’t you hear us coming?” inquired Natasha, her stoic expression showing some irritation.

“They’re not working right– did you guys dose me with something?”

“We did.” explained Bruce, frowning in confusion, “You really needed the rest and you mentioned having enhanced healing –and therefore an enhanced metabolism– so I told Doctor Cho to give you Cap and Bucky’s anesthetics– you should have been out for three more hours at the very least, though.”

“Just how enhanced is your metabolism?” questioned Tony, trying to mask his stupor.

“Well, as far as I know, I should be consuming around fifteen thousand calories per day– if I’m not doing any physical activity, that is… Which means that my metabolism–” she paused for a moment, assuming a standing position and tapping her chin, “works about 750 percent– so seven point five times faster than the average human being’s.”

Bruce’s jaw dropped, and Tony looked mildly impressed by how fast she had calculated that.

Steve frowned, looking equally amazed, “Bruce said mine’s four times faster… no wonder the sedatives barely worked on you, huh.”

Natasha cleared her throat, looking wary, “That’s all very interesting, but why don’t you explain how your little walk went? Because last time I checked midnight strolls don’t include disappearing for twelve hours.”

At this the mood turned serious and Piper found herself under the Avengers' scrutinizing gazes.

"I heard gunshots." she blurted out, sounding very panicked.

"Hmm okay," drawled Nat, "let's pretend you're telling the truth–"

"Which I am–"

"Why would you need your backpack to go on a walk?" She questioned, looking smug– well, as smug as a trained spy with an everlasting stone cold expression could look.

"I'm paranoid."

"Sure." Said the woman, drawing the word out, "So, what happened after you allegedly heard the gunshots you previously mentioned?"

Piper gulped, “Uhm… so, when I was on my way back I heard those gunshots and went to take a look…” she frowned, trying to think of a way to switch the subject, then her mental lightbulb lit up… it was going to be embarrassing, but she’d rather embarrass herself in front of the Avengers than have them interrogate her again, “I– got stuck in a van and knocked myself out… again.”

“Again?” echoed Clint, Wanda, Bucky and Steve, while Natasha raised an eyebrow.

“Uhm… do you remember the vulture guy?”

Tony frowned, “The vulture guy?”

“The vulture guy.” Piper confirmed, “Adrian Toomes– his suit sort of looks like a vulture– whatever… Long story short, when I was trying to take him down I got stuck in a van and knocked myself out by slamming my head on its ceiling… and then I woke up and found out I was locked in a Damage Control vault in Maryland.”

A short silence filled the room, then everyone burst into laughter.

“This–is–priceless!” said Sam through his giggles as he held himself up on Vision’s shoulder.

“And I thought I had it bad with Tony,” Rhodey gasped out, earning a glare from said man, “you’re just like him– maybe even worse!”

Piper’s heart fluttered through the mortification at being compared to Tony Stark by his very best friend, then her mind actually registered the meaning of the man’s words and she glared, even though it wasn’t very visible through her mask, “Hey, watch it, I was scared outta my wits that day. And it wasn’t even my fault that time–”

“Okay, okay this is all very interesting, but can you please get off the ceiling?” demanded Bucky, looking a little disturbed as he stared at her from below.

“Oh right…” muttered Piper, getting down with a flip, which wasn’t a very good idea, she decided as she gripped the bed’s headboard to hold herself up when her head began to spin.

Bruce seemed to agree with her, “Be careful, you’re still not completely healed yet– you were extremely exhausted, not to mention the injuries you were sporting… and how long has it been since you last ate a– ‘Spider-Man sized’ meal? I strongly believe your powers have something to do with you not being as thin as a rail, ‘cause if you were, uh, ‘normal’ you would probably be.”

“If I were normal” Piper spat, “Spider-Man wouldn’t exist, I wouldn’t have my powers, ” I would still have a family remained unsaid, “and therefore no enhanced metabolism, which –for your information– not everyone can afford. Heck, some can’t even afford a regular metabolism… not everyone is a secret agent, or a renowned scientist or a billionaire or whatever.” se finished venomously.

The Avengers watched silently as the vigilante strode across the room to get a hold of her backpack, which was hanging from a clothing hanger by the bathroom door.

They never really thought about it that way– all of them either were really successful in one way or another, or were thriving thanks to Shield paying them for their missions. It never really occurred to them that not everyone was as lucky as they were, and it was probably really insensitive to assume that everyone had it as good as they did.

“I’m going,” mumbled Piper, “thanks for everything and sorry for the inconvenience…”

And with that she was gone, leaving a somber atmosphere behind.

Piper mentally smacked herself as she entered the apartment complex: what was she thinking?! Snapping at the Avengers, who weren’t only pissed at her for ditching them, but also worried about her health (as if it mattered in the first place), and revealing to them that she could barely afford to eat… Her cheeks tinged pink and she was sure the cold had nothing to do with it, as shame bubbled up in her stomach and almost made her dizzy.

As she inserted the key in Mr. Smith’s door’s lock, she tried to make as little noise as possible, which turned out to be useless because the man himself had been waiting for her by the entrance.

She cried out when sausage-like fingers wrapped tightly around her wrist and pulled her inside, slamming the door shut and tossing her on the floor, from which she attempted to get up only to get pushed back down.

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!” roared Mr. Smith, slurring the words as usual, ”Yesterday your school called 'cause you didn't show up, then they called again today! What did I say about not wanting to be bothered by any assholes, let alone any that have something to do with you?! I'm warning you, pull something like this again and you'll pay." He threathened, emphasizing the last word with a right hook to her left eye before he walked away and disappeared into his bedroom.

Piper stayed glued in place for a moment, eyes glossy and mouth partially open as she brought a trembling hand to her injured eye, which was already starting to swell.

After what felt both like an eternity and a couple of seconds, she slowly made her way towards her bedroom, locking the door before collapsing on her squeaky bed.

This was new, she thought as she tried to get her erratic breathing under control. Sure, Mr. Smith had never been nice to her, he always insulted her, threatened her, and even occasionally pushed and dragged her around, but never had he directly hit her like he had just done.

Piper really hoped this would be a one time occurrence, but even she knew better than that, therefore she opted to stop dwelling on it and instead keep her mind busy with something else, so she reached for the flash drive in her pocket, breathing in sharply when she didn’t find it and, looking almost maniacal, ripped her backpack open and flipped it upside down, letting its contents scatter all over the floor as she skimmed through them with bated breath and wide eyes.

The flash drive was gone.

Chapter Text

“...And then when I looked for it it was gone– I must've dropped it on the Quinjet or something… maybe it fell out of my pocket when I was unconscious.” Piper rambled to her best friends, who were sitting in front of her, groaning and slamming her forehead on the table.

“Well, that's too bad.” deadpanned MJ, glaring at the vigilante and ushering her to start eating her neglected lunch, "We'll figure out a way to get it back later– let's focus on the stuff we do have at our disposal for now; how'd the mission go and what did you find out?"

"And why were you unconscious in the first place?" Questioned Ned, looking worried.

Piper gulped. She didn't think she was ready to talk about everything she had witnessed, she had yet to process all the guilt she was feeling.

"Well–"

“Shh!” Ned interrupted, placing his pointer finger in front of his pursed lips, staring solemnly somewhere behind her.

“Looks like we have company.” drawled MJ, looking like she had just swallowed a very sour lemon.

Piper wheeled around to take a look at the guardian angel who had saved her from that situation, and she almost gagged.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Penis Parker and her freaky sidekicks.”

Piper rolled her eyes, after everything she had recently been through Flash was the last person she wanted to see. She would’ve rather had another building dropped on her.

“Speak for yourself,” quipped back an unimpressed MJ, “at least Piper’s ‘freaky sidekicks’ care for her, and not for her parent’s money.”

The girl in question winced, predicting the bully’s reply to that.

“Well, at least I still have parents.”

As the boy snickered as if he had just said the funniest thing in history, Ned and MJ stood up menacingly, “That was low, even for you.” spat the prior, while the latter went to stand in front of Piper, whose gaze was fixated on the floor.

“I suggest you get out of here before things turn nasty.” threatened MJ, glaring daggers at him.

Even Flash knew better than picking fights with MJ, who not only had taken judo lessons throughout her childhood, but also had a knack for twisting situations in her favor, so (for once in his life) the guy made a smart decision and strutted back to his table.

Once they were out of earshot again, the three of them opted to further discuss the matter at MJ’s place in the late afternoon, and they just went on with their days as usual.

Piper huffed as she swung through Queen’s busy streets in her old suit, her old one being damaged by Tuesday’s fire. Not only had Flash said that despicable thing to her at lunch, he had also kept on taunting her with similar insults throughout the remaining school hours, and she would’ve been lying if she said she wasn’t hurt.

Not that Flash’s words really mattered, but it was hard to ignore him when he spoke out loud every single thought that plagued her mind.

”It was your fault!”
“You’re so pathetic even your loved ones would rather die than have to deal with you!”

“What are you, a curse? Everyone around you keeps hitting the bucket, who’s gonna be next? Oh right, you don’t have anyone left!”

“I’d get away from those friends of yours before your curse affects them too–”

“Help!” someone screamed, pulling Piper out of her thoughts and making her wheel her head in the noise’s general direction, where she spotted a terrified looking elderly woman, who was shaking in terror before the gun that was pointed at her face.

She swallowed, looking grim. This was exactly how Ben had died.

Piper had to admit she had been more violent than needed, but all the piled up stress and grief, and Flash’s merciless bullying were starting to get to her, and seeing that man (who was now sporting two black eyes, on top of being tied up and unconscious on the floor) point a gun at that old lady in that fashion had triggered some nasty memories that Piper preferred to keep locked up in a box at the very back of her mind.

“Thank you so much!” cried the woman, who was still shaking like a leaf.

“It’s no big deal ma’am, just doin’ my duty as the local superhero.” she replied smoothly, picking up the distant sound of sirens.

“Oh and you’re so selfless too, God bless you, young man!”

A faint blush tinged Piper’s cheeks and she chuckled awkwardly as a police car pulled up and two policemen came out. Piper, who was somewhat used to interacting with policemen, recognized one of them: he was a rather unlikeable man in his late fifties or early sixties who often looked like he had accidentally drunk sour milk (today was one of those days), however, the other guy, who looked no older than twenty five, was new to Piper– if his demeanor was anything to go by, this was his first week as a cop or something of the likes.

“Good afternoon,” grunted the sour-milk-guy, approaching the unconscious criminal and grimacing as he prodded the spiderweb.

“That’ll dissolve in around two hours, sir.” explained Piper, approaching him, “I can get him in the car for you, if that’s okay.”

The officer grunted and Piper took that as a yes, so, while the officers were interviewing the old lady, she threw the mugger over her shoulder and tossed him in the back of the car, making sure to fasten his seatbelt (she might’ve had a thing against criminals, but that didn’t mean they didn’t deserve safety).

When she approached the officers and the woman again, she was pleased to see that the latter had finally stopped trembling and was looking a bit calmer, and when she left the sour man asked her for her own version of events, looking dismayed by having to talk with her.

When they were finally done, the younger cop spoke for the first time and handed her– a fine?!

“You’re a vigilante,” he pointed out, trying to make his squeaky voice sound as confident as possible (he wasn’t doing a very good job), “that’s illegal.”

His colleague raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t interject, and the two of them left shortly after, leaving a flabbergasted Spider-Man staring at the ticket in her hand, but the amount she allegedly had to pay had nothing to do with her astonishment.

They’re glossing over kidnappings and dismissing them as runaways. Watch out, they have people everywhere.

“Soo,” elongated Ned from where he was laying on the floor while he scrolled through Twitter, as soon as she had read the note, Piper had called her friends immediately, so now they were locked up in MJ’s bedroom working on another one of their ‘group projects’, as they had told her parents, “that confirms our suspicions of them having connections in the big leagues– I mean, how else would they be able to mess with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter’s algorithms so easily? Realistically speaking, it would be easier and more convenient to pull the strings from behind the curtains rather than from the audience– ew that metaphor was horrible, but you get what I mean.”

MJ hummed, keeping her gaze focused on Piper’s suit as she patched it up, “That does make sense Ned, but if they can get the news to do what they want,” she spat, emphasizing how much she detested people messing with the freedom of the press, “ and a cop had to pretend to give you a fine just to ask for help, because he didn’t feel like he could talk about it in front of his own coworker… and if this whole thing really does involve Penelope Stark, whose father is an Avenger and Tony Stark nonetheless… I really don’t think their connections stop at Facebook.” she finished darkly.

Piper, who had been pacing for the past ten minutes, stopped and groaned,“If I just hadn’t lost the flash drive– all the information we need is probably on there! Ughhh why didn’t I put it in my backpa–”

“You stop beating yourself up right this instant, Piper May Parker.” ordered MJ with a serious look, “We get it, you lost the flash drive and you feel bad about it. Yes, it might’ve been useful but it’s not the end of the world– frankly, we have found more things on this case in the past week than in the two months we have been looking into it, so I can’t really bring myself to be pissed for a flash drive when we already have so much material to work with. I get that you’re a perfectionist and you want to get to the bottom of this since it involves you personally, but you need to understand that everyone makes mistakes and that fucking up every once in a while doesn’t make you any less worthy as a superhero. Got it?”

Ned looked up from his phone in a silent nod, and Piper had to blink back tears. Gosh, what was going on with her emotions these days?

“Got it?” her friend insisted.

“Got it.” she repeated, her voice quivering miserably.

“Good. Now, let’s get down to business,” stated MJ with fake enthusiasm, closing her sewing kit and tossing the repaired supersuit at Piper’s face, “the Facebook lady… Ned get the corkboard– it’s in the closet, if you mess it up I’ll murder you in your sleep.”

“Oh that’s right,” spoke Piper, removing the suit from where it had landed on her head while Ned scrambled up from the floor, “what did you guys find out?”

“She said her daughter –seventeen at the time– went out to get groceries back in February 2003 and never came back… they called 911 and the cops found her purse and her hair tie in some alleyway, but the case was dismissed less than a week later because, and I quote, ‘this was clearly a rebellious teenager who faked her own kidnapping’.” she paused for a moment to let her words take effect, “What I think is interesting is the pattern of those ‘teenage rebellions’– you see, after I spoke with Mrs. and Mr. Lee –the girl’s parents– Ned hacked the NYPD’s servers just to make sure they weren’t bluffing and– care to share your discoveries with the class while I sort our clues out, Ned?” she suggested as the boy in question handed her the corkboard.

“Alright,” started Ned, clapping his hands and rubbing them together to accentuate, “first of all, they weren’t lying, what they told MJ really did happen… more than once actually– dozens– no, hundreds of times throughout New York City, in every case we’re talking about kids and women no older than thirty and every time all the security cameras were either out of order or the footage was looped, which matches perfectly with what we’ve been investigating… oh, and we couldn’t find anything about those people online: no posts, no articles, nothing.” he added as an afterthought.

“Also, Karen looked through all the reports and she found out a few things,” he continued, while MJ pinned the fine to the corkboard, using a red thread to link it to the names’ list they had found in the box, “First of all, all the people on the list who went missing in the New York area are in the database, and they are all dismissed cases. Also, these things always happen in the same places and the responding officers that wrote the reports are always the same ones.” he spoke, waving his hand at a newly added list on the upper right corner of the corkboard.

“I also hacked other police departments’ servers,” he declared, “same thing’s happening in LA, Phoenix, Chicago, Jersey, and even some smaller towns no one knows– and all the people from the list match… there’s more obviously, but the list does report all of those abductions from 2002 to 2005… including Penelope Stark’s.”

“Damn.” breathed Piper, who was already getting a headache.

“Enough about us,” said MJ suddenly, making the other two jump, “what about you? What did you find at the warehouse? How’d you get the data on the flash drive?”

Piper froze, her eyes widening a fraction and her face paling, drawing two confused frowns.

“Spit it out.” deadpanned MJ.

“Okay so… the warehouse was a base–” Ned gasped, “their headquarters probably–” Ned gasped again, earning an elbow to his ribs by a glaring MJ, “But they moved– they were scared about the Avengers being in the vicinity.”

“And you know this because..?” MJ pressed on.

“Because I overheard their conversation–” Piper replied before gasping, “Oh my gosh that’s right, I have the boss’ name!”

“YOU WHAT?!” screeched her friends in unison.

“The guy– there was a studio, right? That’s where I got the data… there was a computer and a bunch of documents lying about… anyways, at some point two guys came in, one was bald and ugly and the other one was blond and even uglier –I recognised him as the dude who’s walking his dog in the photo we found in the camera– and the bald guy called him ‘Boss’ and ‘Mister Jefferson’, and they were talking about leaving as soon as possible to avoid getting busted… oh and he has a Florida accent.”

MJ wasted no more time and tipped away on her laptop, “Anything else?” she queried, knowing too well how forgetful Piper could be.

“Uhm… he drives a red Porsche, and the bald guy was driving a van.” she grimaced as she thought back to all the faint heartbeats she had to listen to while gluing her phone to the vehicle, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her friends about it, if she could've never forgiven herself, what were the chances of her friends doing so? It w– Hold on… the van… and her phone.

Piper actually screamed. She shot up from where she was seated on MJ’s bed and let out a screech.

“OH MY GOD WE CAN TRACK IT! I STUCK MY PHONE TO THE VAN WITH YOUR NAIL GLUE!”

“YOU WHAT?!” yelled Ned, getting to his feet and fishing his laptop out of his backpack, “Oh my gosh, this is perfect! I just need to track your phone and it’s done– did you put it on battery saving mode?”

“Yes– and on silent.” she added, sending a pointed glare his way when she remembered the predicament he had put her in during the debrief with the Avengers.

As it turned out, the blonde guy’s full name was Roland Jefferson, and he was a sixty-five year old man from Miami who was chairman and CEO of his private moving company called M&R (‘Move and Rejoice’), which the three teenagers suspected to be nothing more than a cover-up for his actual ‘business’. M&R’s signature appliance were its white vans and trucks with green backdoors, which was a perfect thing to have at your disposal when you abducted (and probably trafficked) a bunch of humans.

Speaking about vans, Ned managed to track her phone, which seemed to currently be in a small town in Missouri and the three of them decided to keep an eye on it in the upcoming week, before calling it a day.

Piper sighed heavily: she had been tossing and turning in her bed since she had returned from MJ's place, which had been almost two hours ago, the only thing, aside from her venomous thoughts, she could focus on being Mr. Smith's loud snoring from where he was passed out on the couch in the living room area of the apartment.

The girl sighed again. Was it so impossible to have a normal life? She didn't want to change anything about her life, because she had MJ and Ned who she really cared about, and even though Ben, May and her parents were dead, their love for her was not, and so wasn't hers for them. And Spider-Man… as stressful as the vigilante lifestyle was, she didn't think she could live without 'him' at that point.

However, sometimes she couldn't help but let her mind wander… What if things were different? What if she had still been living with someone who loved and cared for her? What if she didn't have to be scared to be hurt or kicked out every time she did something wrong? What if she didn't have to provide for herself and could just focus on being a kid?

She smirked bitterly, even she knew better than to hope for such unreachable things.

Sighing once again she reached for her Spider-Man mask under the pillow and slipped it on.

"Karen?" She called, after all she had created the AI for this very purpose, having someone to keep her company when she was alone– no matter if that was during patrol or in her bedroom at 1:00am.

"Hello Piper," greeted Karen warmly, "shouldn't you be asleep?"

The girl faintly smiled at her AI's worried tone; Karen was by no means perfect, but the way she could sound genuinely worried was really amazing. After the Vulture had been dealt with, developing her had been Piper's main focus: she had rewritten her code (which had previously been a mix of Python and JavaScript) in the programming language Ned and her had created (which they had yet to name) and she put all her energy in making her sound as close to a human as possible, she actually took the time to explain to Karen what having emotions was like and what situations to associate with what emotions.

It had been a useful distraction when May had died, Piper had to admit.

"Yeah I probably should, but I really can't." she eventually replied, "Can't stop thinking about stuff."

"Do you want to talk about it?" the AI asked.

"Not really…" the girl admitted, "maybe it's not the right thing to do but, to be honest, I just want to ignore all the stress and the pain that I'm feeling, cause when I actually think about all that stuff I just get so sad and depressed… or I get really jealous, or angry, or anything like that– it doesn't feel good… it also doesn't feel bad. It feels… dangerous. Yes, very dangerous– like, if I were to let one thing out, everything else would come crashing down as well and I wouldn't be able to stop… I'm not even sure I would want to stop, to be honest."

"I can't say I understand Piper," said Karen slowly, "but if you ever need to 'let everything out' you can always count on me, though I suggest you confide in another human rather than a robot, since they're more prone to actually understand your feelings."

"Thanks Karen, you're awesome." smiles Piper, her eyes beginning to droop, "Wha–"

Whatever the girl was planning on saying next was interrupted by 'Hung Up', which she recognized as MJ's ringtone, blasting through her phone.

Piper grabbed the object, almost dropping it in her rush to pick up before the noise awoke Mr. Smith.

"Hello?" she rasped, annoyed by being disturbed when she had finally started to get sleepy.

"Piper!" hissed MJ in a way that made the hair at the back of her neck stand up.

"What is it?" she asked, suddenly feeling wide awake.

"Toomes broke out of jail."

Chapter Text

”Toomes broke out of jail.”

“What?!” shouted Piper, bile rising in her throat.

”It’s all over the news… and Twitter– my moots are freaking out… apparently he had help from one of his old cronies.” MJ explained, her frantic typing audible in the background.

“The Shocker.” Piper hissed with disdain, she had tried to track him down, but with no success.

”Huh?”

“That’s the dude who tried to uhm… kill me– when I left school during Homecoming.” Piper clarified with a grimace. That gun-thingy of his had hurt like a bitch.

She could basically hear MJ's glowering frown… in fact she might’ve somewhat downplayed the gravity of the event when her friend had forced her to report what had happened, after the aforementioned had figured her identity out a week after everything had gone down.

“You never told me he tried to kill you.”

“Yeah well… hold up,” she said suddenly, just then noticing that the phone she had been holding wasn’t her own phone (since that one was on the van, her mind supplied) but the burner the Black Widow had given her, “did you and Ned mess with my burner phone?!”

“Well you didn’t really expect us to believe that thing was safe based on Natasha Romanoff, the most renowned spy and deadliest assassin on the planet – after the Winter Soldier – and Tony Stark’s words, did you? Of course we ‘messed’ with it, we’re not amateurs, duh.”

Piper facepalmed, “What did you do to it? And when?”

”Ah, nothing much. It was really easy to be fair. No sketchy programs or anything… seems like they really are trustworthy– at the time at least. Anyways, the thing is an average StarkPhone, latest edition too – don’t let Flash get his hands on it…" she explained calmly, "We didn’t really do anything to it, Ned raised some firewalls, and installed his tracking program– you can add Karen to it too by the way… I added mine and Ned’s phone numbers to the contact list as well. As for when, we took it when you were asleep the night before the Las Vegas mission.”

“Oh."

“Yeah– oh crap dad’s home, I gotta go… just keep in mind that you got me and Ned on your side and that we're gonna help you out with everything. Good night."

"Good night." came Piper's mumbled reply, as she hung up and got to her feet, something was telling her she wasn't going to get any sleep that ni–

Coincidentally, before she was even standing properly, the phone rang again, but it wasn't the yodeling tune or Hung Up, it was the ringing sound she had learned to associate with the Black Widow's calls.

"Hello?" she promptly spoke, trying to mask her perturbed tone.

"You've seen the news?" came the spy's stony voice.

"Something like that." she choked out almost breathlessly.

"I assumed that much." said Natasha, and Piper could hear her emotionless smirk, "Cap called for an emergency meeting in Conference Room Number Six, be here asap."

Piper gulped, "Okay, I'll be there in ten."

That said, she hung up, ran to the bathroom and threw up.

When she touched down on the landing zone and rushed towards the elevator, Piper was proud to note that she had reached the Tower in a little over six minutes. Perhaps it was to ignore the bubbling anxiety rising inside of her, but she decided to focus on that fact while the elevator descended to the 76th floor.

As she got closer she started to pick up the Avengers’ muffled voices, noting that there were three new ones she couldn’t really place, though they sounded familiar.
They got gradually louder, until the elevator dinged and a hush befell upon the room.

When she stepped out she was met with many serious gazes, that she matched with an equally stony look– as stony as her mask would allow, that is.

The first thing she noticed were the owners of the three new voices: Nick Fury, Pepper Potts and a surly looking dude she recognized as Tony Stark’s bodyguard, Harold Hogan. It made sense that the three of them were also present, Piper thought, since Fury was sort of the Avenger’s boss (and liked to meddle with these things, as Mister Stark had grumbled about during their flight to Las Vegas) and Miss Potts and Mister Hogan were also involved, since the plane the Vulture had tried to hijack belonged to Stark Industries, and Mr. Hogan had been the one tasked to supervise that entire operation– perhaps that's why he had stepped down from the asset manager position not long after (she could still remember MJ's rants on that issue).

“Uhm… good evening y'all.” she greeted with a sigh, freezing when the voice that echoed in the silent room wasn’t the deep, slightly robotic tune people associated with Spider-Man, but Piper Parker's signature nasal and high-pitched mumble.

…Of all the times she could've forgotten to turn the voice changer on.

She fumbled to activate it and cleared her throat, “I mean,” she spoke, purposely making her voice even deeper, “good evening ya’ll.”

If Fury, Pepper Potts and Hogan’s slacked jaws and everyone else’s raised eyebrows (save for Vision, who just glanced at her curiously) were anything to go by, her little (gigantic*) slip up didn't go unnoticed.

“Well,” commented Tony, quickly regaining his snarky composure, “I was definitely not expecting any more surprises this evening, let alone a voice reveal, Spider-Girl.”

“Spider-Man.” Piper corrected, resting her hands on her hips in an attempt to look nonchalant.

The billionaire smirked, "Uh huh, Spider-Man"

"Hold up, let's backtrack real quick," interjected Fury, looking like someone had just pulled the rag from under his feet, "you're a girl."

"Uh… yeah? I- I mean, a woman yes, I'm a woman, sir…" I thought you knew about that?" she questioned as Mr. Hogan muttered "And I thought I had seen it all." under his breath.

Fury was quick to reply: "It seems like my informants," he pointedly glared at Tony, Natasha, Clint and Steve, "happened to omit this little detail when they told me about the newest addition to the team– not that you're on the team yet–"

"Yeah yeah I know, I'm not on the team because of all the paperwork and stuff and 'cause I would have to reveal my identity– which I have no intention of doing by the way–"

"As lovely as it is to talk about these things," Pepper interrupted in a tone that was the definition of professional, though she was looking rather annoyed, "I believe we have more serious matters at hand."

The Vulture's escape came crashing back down on Piper like a collapsing building and suddenly she found it hard to breathe.

"Ah right," came Thor's loud voice, "before we start discussing the escape of this midgardian man-bird, shall we take a seat? The Woman Of Spiders isn't looking too well."

Piper ignored the worried glances shot her way as she awkwardly walked towards a beige armchair on the opposite side of the room, plopping down with a sigh and crossing her legs.

"What do you want to know?" she knew very well they had called her in because she was the only one who knew anything about Toomes aside from his identity, she was the one who had been left to deal with him after all.

To say the Avengers were surprised by her bluntness was an understatement, she was usually the one who asked all kinds of questions and rambled on before getting to the point of the conversation, but she really wasn't feeling like rambling that day, Toomes’ escape was bad.

Everyone nodded and the girl cleared her throat, trying hard to push away the flashbacks that were plaguing her mind and making her lungs close up: there was an awkward moment of silence as the vigilante sorted her thoughts out, then she began talking with a clipped voice.

“As you already know, Adrian Toomes is a fifty something year old guy who disguised his illegal weapons business as a damage control one– which is actually quite ironic and I’ll explain why in a sec… anyways, he has a wife and a daughter, and as far as I know he started his gig after Mr. Stark took charge of the damage control back in 2012, after the alien invasion."

Pepper winced and glanced at Tony who was looking grave, he was definitely going to blame himself for this one.

"I'm pretty sure he started it to financially support his family – at least that's what he told me – then the whole thing snowballed and it got to his head and yeah…”

“Do you know anything about his weapons?” asked Rhodey, straightening his shoulders and folding his arms.

Piper nodded, assuming a more relaxed position, “I’m pretty sure all of them are powered by chitauri cores–”

“CHITAURI CORES?!” came the collective screech.

“Keep it down, will ya?” hissed Piper, wincing in pain as she reached for her ears, “Super hearing, remember? And yes, you heard me right, he– they use chitauri cores and other leftover tech from ya’ll’s fights that they steal from the Department of Damage Control or whatever it's called– the fucker had me locked in one of their deposits somewhere in Maryland once.”

A few amused glances were shared, but the atmosphere was too somber for anyone to comment, though a sudden thought occurred to Tony.

“They’re explosive,” he said quickly, “I analyzed one after the i-invasion–”

“I know, they don’t react well with radiation and stuff.” said Piper promptly, continuing at the questioning looks she got, “The DC monument? What do you think caused it to blow up back in September?”

“Oh my god,” gasped Pepper, remembering that day’s news reports, “there were kids on that elevator…”

“How did a bunch of highschoolers get their slimy hands on a chitauri core?” demanded Fury, and Nat (who was clearly about to ask the same thing) raised a suspicious eyebrow as Piper gulped, squeezing her brain for a plausible lie.

“Uhh that’s on me,” she admitted with faux guilt, “back then I managed to get one of those guns and took it apart, but I dropped the core somewhere and one of those kids found it.” she internally smirked, her lying skills were getting better.

Steve and Thor looked at her in disapproval while Wanda, who was standing next to them, raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing the lie but letting it slide.

Natasha looked like she had something to say, but Piper beat her to it, “Moving on– I already told ya how his gig has gotten to his head, right? Well, in other words he’s completely deranged by now, he threatened me with a gun once, while I was sitting in his backseat in a place that was packed with people– and his daughter was right outside the car too!" she said in outrage, waving her arm about for emphasis, while the adults shared meaningful looks, just how had she ended up in Toomes' backseat?

"Oh and his wingsuit’s also powered by chitauri cores– when he tried to hijack your plane those things blew up and I had to save him,” at this point she was just vomiting out anything that came to her mind, “last thing, his lair used to be his warehouse, but it’s probably not anymore, since the thing collapsed on homec– on the night he went after your stuff."

As Piper took in great huffs of air, the adults looked at her in various states of shock, amusement, confusion, dread and so on– in all reality, it was a weird and diverse palette of emotions, though the one that stood out the most was curiosity.

“And how do you know all this?” inquired Natasha.

“I mean, you guys literally left me to fend for myself back then," she said sheepishly, wincing at the Avengers' guilty looks, "'know your enemy', as they say, right? Plus, I know the guy– like I know know him– outside of superheroing stuff.”

Tony gaped, this spider chick sure was full of surprises, “Ah… well, what more can you tell us about him?”

“He’s evil.” sneered Piper, gripping the armrests tightly, “I’ve already said this, but let me make it clear. He’s nuts. Completely nuts. He doesn’t care who he has to hurt or k-kill in order to succeed in his intents, and I’m pretty sure his family cut him off– they moved after he got arrested… this means he doesn’t have anything holding him back anymore– and if he had the guts to do w-what he did last time, now that he doesn’t have anything left to lose… if he was dangerous before, he’s even more dangerous now.”

There was an apprehensive silence as everyone processed Piper’s words, the latter merely studied the ceiling in an attempt to calm herself down from her oncoming panic attack, which didn’t go unnoticed by Bucky, who approached her with an uncomfortable but gentle smile and rested his hand on her shoulder, having to lean down a bit because of the girl’s seated position. Piper was grateful of the supersoldier’s action but couldn’t help but cringe at its awkwardness.

“Rest assured my friends,” Thor announced solemnly, “we are the almighty Avengers and we shall succeed, for no one dares to defy us and live to tell the tale.”

“I mean… your brother’s still alive.” Clint pointed out.

“Oh come on Clint!” moaned the god, throwing his arms in the air, “I did not mean it literally, it was just an attempt to raise our spirits– which you had to tamper with because of your dim witted mind.”

“Did you just call me stupid?!” Clint demanded in outrage, squinting at him.

“I sure did. Dimwit.” Thor retorted, crossing his arms in front of his chest as Pepper facepalmed.

Piper smiled sadly at the scene, even though the situation and the context (and just about everything, really) were entirely unusual and the two men were literally arguing, she could hear the fondness in their voices, she could see the well hidden affection in their and all the others' eyes, and she could feel how domestic and homey and family-like this all was and how out of place she was.

It made her heart hurt so much because she had known what it felt like to have a family, and she had known what it felt like to be loved and held and looked after, but it had been ripped away from her by falling planes and escaped robbers and stray bullets, and it hurt so so much.

It hurt so much having to witness everyone have someone, even people who had strange powers, metal arms, a glowy blue thing in their chest, the ability to turn green whenever they got angry, or who had murdered dozens of people and so on, but she was alone. Yes, she had her friends and she loved them like a brother and a sister, but it wasn’t the same thing, was it? At the end of the day even Ned and MJ had their own families to go back to, and Piper wanted to refer to them as family, but it just wasn’t the same thing.

Yes, she loved her friends, but could they care for her like her parents, and aunt and uncle had? They could care for her like a friend, hell, like a sister, and she was grateful for that, she really was, but she just wanted to have someone greet her with a big hug when she got back from school and listen to her rambling about the latest nerdy things or whatever, she wanted to have someone looking after her when she was sick (not that she could easily get sick with her powers, but still), who helped her with homework, packed her lunch in the mornings and so on... she just wanted a parent, was it so much to ask for?

Steve clearing his throat shook Piper out of her thoughts and she noticed that the man was standing between his two teammates who had previously been arguing.

“Well,” he started, some motivation shining through his uneasy expression, “at least he doesn't have the upper hand– we know his identity, how he gets his supplies, where he gets them from and why he does what he does– not to mention we're literally the Avengers, while he’s outnumbered and he doesn’t have anything to use to his advantage–"

"Actually," Piper interrupted somberly, causing everyone to turn to her as she straightened up in the armchair, only now noticing that she was the only one sitting, "sorry to burst your bubble, Mister Rogers, but as it turns out he kinda does have something to hold over our heads – or over mine, at least – that he can use to his advantage, and oh trust me, he definitely will."

"And what would that be?" demanded Tony, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"My identity." Piper replied after a beat of silence, and Tony had to do a double take as his eyebrows slowly reached his hairline, everyone else being in a similar state of disbelief.

There was a pregnant silence and Piper sighed as she relaxed into the armchair once again, bracing herself for the massive meltdown she was about to witness.

“What?” hissed Steve, looking nothing short of incredulous.

“He knows my identity,” repeated Piper, “I told you he threatened me with a gun, right? Well, he had just figured out my identity and he said he would kill me and all of my loved ones if I messed with him again– I mean to be fair this doesn’t have anything to do with you, but I still thought it was a pretty important detail so–”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with us?!” echoed Steve scandalized.

“I mean, you’re a team and I’m–”

“Also on the team.” said Natasha matter of factly, holding a hand up when Fury looked like he was about to say something, “You might not be an Avenger, but you still help us in fights from time to time, why shouldn’t we have your back when we trust you with ours?”

“I…”

“Nuh uh, Nat’s right,” interjected Tony, “We’re like stray cats, once we become attached we’ll follow you anywhere and you won’t be able to get rid of us.”

“But you kick us once and we’ll never trust you again.” continued Natasha ominously, looking at her suspiciously and making her Spider Sense buzz.

“Don’t mind her, she acts all vicious but she’s actually a huge teddy bear,” stage whispered Tony, earning a glare from said spy, as he approached Bruce and swung his arm around his neck, “anyways, you’re one of us –that’s non debatable by the way– and we’ll beat the bird guy without having him mess with you one bit: as soon as he tries something, he’s done. Right, Brucie?” and the addressed man nodded with a smirk.

Piper smiled softly and she felt tears building in her eyes. It had been a long time since an adult had cared about her like this– or cared about her at all, “Thanks guys, it really means a lot.”

“Don’t worry about it,” gloated Clint with faux arrogance, “we’re awesome like that.”

“If that’s all,” spoke Fury, “I should get going, I have some officials to alert and some agents to deploy.” and without another word he strutted out of the room, closing the door with an audible bang.

“Man, do I hate that guy.” grumbled Tony, letting himself dramatically fall on one of the couches as Pepper rolled her eyes and mumbled something about petty men and their dramatics, “Honestly he acts like he owns the place –which he doesn’t– because, as a matter of fact, I do and I demand resp–”

“I’ll be going.” announced Wanda, grabbing Vision’s hand and completely ignoring the billionaire’s rant as she left, dragging her boyfriend with her and all the others followed soon after, leaving only Piper, Tony, Thor and Pepper in the room.

“Tony, I think we should get going too,” said Pepper, roughly pulling her boyfriend up by his arm, causing him to stumble and almost fall, and turning to the two other people present, “good night.” she added gently before leaving with a sulking Tony in tow.

With a sigh Piper stood up from the armchair she had spent the past hour or so in, wincing as she felt pins and needles in her legs, and walked towards the glass wall as she asked Friday to open one of the huge windows for her.

She was about to turn around to bid farewell to Thor when the latter placed his hand on her shoulder making her jump in surprise, she had been so caught up with her thoughts that she hadn’t even realized the man had approached her.

“Woman Of Spiders.” started the god, and Piper would’ve been lying if she said she wasn’t feeling a bit overwhelmed by being in his presence, “My comrades and I will be hosting a uh– what was the word you Midgardians use to refer to feasts? Ah yes, a party! We will be hosting a party in one day’s time at eight in the evening, perhaps it shall brighten our moods and raise our spirits, given the latest events.”

“You’re inviting me to your party?” asked Piper in disbelief, all the thoughts about Toomes temporarily leaving her mind.

“Why of course, my friend,” boomed the god before yawning, “I shall head to my sleeping quarters now, have a good night’s rest.”

“Thanks Mister Thor, you too.”

As was swinging back to the apartment, a sudden thought struck Piper’s mind, and her pout turned into a triumphant smirk.

Now she just needed to figure out a way to get to the Quinjet without getting caught and the flash drive would be back in her possession in less than twenty-four hours.

Chapter Text

Mr. Harrington was halfway through explaining the stages of mitosis when Piper barged in.

“I’m – so sorry – Mr. Harrington” she apologized, clutching her chest as she breathed in great puffs, “the traffic – was – absolutely craz–”

“I’ll let it slide this one time, Piper, just take a seat– I’ll email you the notes later so you can catch up with what you missed.” he allowed, gesturing at the back of the class, where Piper spotted an empty seat between Ned and MJ.

As she tiredly dragged her legs across the room, barely acknowledging the teacher's words, she met her friends’ worried gazes and sighed. She had spent the entire night researching blueprints of Stark Tower and had fallen asleep on her desk around five am.

She would’ve probably slept longer, hadn’t Mr. Smith woken her up by smacking her so hard she had fallen off the chair, yelling about skipping school to ‘tamper with his reputation’, and on top of that she had had to run all the way to school because her subway pass had expired.

As she plopped down in the squeaky chair she was relieved to remember that Flash wasn’t in her science class, that made her feel somewhat better.

“Dude!” Ned whisper-yelled, “You look horrible.”

“Wow, thanks Ned.” she commented in mock offense.

“I mean, you kind of do and honestly no wonder… are you alright?”

“Yeah,” added MJ, leaning over from Piper’s left, “did you sleep at all last night?”

“I mean, I did get some sleep, but no– I didn’t really sleep… I was busy looking up blueprints of Stark Tower.”

“YOU WHAT?!” screeched Ned, slamming his palms on the desk.

“Ned, Michelle and Piper,” Mr. Harrington admonished, “can you keep quiet please? Good, back to what I was saying– so, at the end of the metaphase we can see that every centromere has doubled and…”

“You really had to do that, huh?” questioned MJ, raising an eyebrow at her sheepish looking friend who shrugged in response, before bringing her gaze to Piper, "Why in the world were you looking up Stark Tower's blueprints? What are you up to now? And did you at least use a VPN or something?”

“Of course I used a VPN, I'm not crazy! And… last night you called me, right? Well, as soon as you hung up the Black Widow called me too, because Captain America called for an emergency meeting–”

“HE WHAT?!” Ned screeched again, causing MJ to smack him as everyone (including Mr. Harrington, who was very openly glaring) turned to stare at the trio once again.

“He called for an emergency meeting,” Piper continued in a whisper as soon as the attention was back on the whiteboard, “So I went there and they asked he a bunch of questions about Toomes and stuff– then Thor invited me to their party–”

“THOR DID WHAT?!"

“Alright that's it, you three!” scolded the teacher, who had finally had enough, “Not only are you almost twenty minutes late to class, Piper, but you, Ned and MJ also interrupt my lesson so many times after I've specifically asked you to stop it– I'm sorry but I'll have to give you detention for this… I don't want to hear another peep from you three or I'll have Piper sit in the front for the rest of the school year.”

The three kids shared apologetic looks but didn't say anything, and each did their own thing until the end of the lesson, MJ drawing Ned's sulking face as he doodled a really ugly version of Captain America on his notebook, and Piper trying to catch up on some much needed sleep.

As the bell rang, Mr. Harrington waited to dismiss the students, clearing his throat in anticipation: “One last thing before I dismiss you guys, we'll be going on a field trip to a lab specialized in human skin cells next week, make sure to take a permission slip on your way out– have a great day!”

Piper sighed as she fumbled with her web shooter, the only other sounds in the classroom being Ned's grumbles of boredom, MJ frantically scraping her pencil on her sketchbook and Mr. Wilson's loud snoring: she absolutely loathed detention.

Eventually, the quiet was interrupted by Ned’s loud gasp, which drew his friends’ attention.

“Shh!” shushed MJ, “You’ll wake him up!”

“What is it?” Piper asked at the same time.

“Here, look.” he answered, handing her his phone that displayed what Piper recognized as his self made tracking app.

“What's this?” she asked, zooming in on the red dot at the center of the screen.

“The van– it's in the city!” exclaimed Ned, drawing MJ's attention and causing her to lean over from her desk to take a closer look.

“Hold up,” said MJ, snatching the phone and zooming out on the map as her mouth turned into a triumphant smirk.

At her friends' bewildered looks she began to elaborate: “This building right here,” she pointed at a tiny building two blocks away from the red dot, “is where our field trip is taking place next week.”

“Really?” Piper perked up, taking the phone and zooming in on the building, “How do you even know this?”

“Remember when I left you in charge of the Decathlon team last week? Sorry about that by the way,” she apologized, continuing after Piper waved her off, “Well, I skipped because I went to a protest in that same street, and the building's covered in graffitis of cells and stuff like that, so it wasn't really hard to notice.”

Piper and Ned nodded in understanding, “So, that's Jefferson's new lair?” the latter asked.

“It probably is… it could be one of his companies' 'stores', but we'll look into it some other time– we still have a whole week to plan that out, let's focus on preparing for the party for now.”

And with that, and Mr. Wilson’s loud snores in the background, they started planning.

Piper entered Stark Tower’s main lobby with butterflies in her stomach, and overall feeling anxious to the point of dizziness.

She and her friends had planned out everything, she thought as she felt for the earpiece she was keeping in her suit’s pocket, but they had overlooked one thing: Piper didn’t know how parties worked, she had never been invited to any, and the only party she had ever been to had ended with her being thrown in a lake by a crazy guy with wings, after she had left said event not even ten minutes after her arrival.

“You here for the party?” Happy asked gruffly, startling Piper out of her thoughts.

“Uhm yeah… are you too?”

The head of security almost looked offended, “Don’t be ridiculous, I was asked to wait for the guests so that I can give them instructions on where to go… and to make sure the place isn’t broken in again.”

“Oh okay.” the girl said awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck, “So uhh… where do I have to go?”

“Enter that elevator,” he supplied, nodding towards the mentioned appliance, “and Friday’ll do the rest.”

With a nod and a muttered ‘thank you’ the girl did as she had been instructed.

As she opened the door that separated the pristine corridor from the ‘Party Room’ (as was written on the door), Piper’s jaw literally dropped.

She wouldn’t have been surprised if the floor’s sole purpose was holding parties because, as far as she could see, the place was huge and the number of people was equally as large.

At the same time as she popped in her noise canceling earbuds (aka a pair of tinkered-with earphones from which she'd severed the cable), Piper took a moment to glance around the room.

Nick Fury was chatting with Maria Hill and some government officials by the buffet, which was being targeted by Thor and Hawkeye, who looked like they were arguing over the last piece of some sort of fancy finger food, while not too far from them stood Pepper Potts, seeming like she was having a pretty heated discussion with some important looking men.

On the other side of the room, by the window, Bruce Banner was having a conversation with some other scientists, whose work Piper had gone over multiple times on the days she had spent in the library to avoid her former foster parents (they hadn’t hit her, but they had been just as bad as Mr. Smith was).

Her sense suddenly buzzed and she whipped her head around to meet the Black Widow’s searching gaze, gulping as she nodded in greeting. The woman nodded back from where she was standing by the bar area, where Captain America, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier were laughing about something her hearing couldn’t pick up due to the music and the earphones' combination of auditory hindrances.

What her ears could pick up though, were the Scarlet Witch’s loud giggles as the Vision attempted to dance, and Piper couldn’t help the snort she let out at the ridiculous sight.

Closer to her stood Colonel Rhodes, who was surrounded by a small group of people as he spoke in an unusually excited manner.

“So I take the tank, fly it right up to the general’s palace, drop it at his feet and I’m like– boom you lookin’ for th–”

“What’s with the suit?” a sudden voice came from behind her, making her jump at the same time as the Colonel's crowd roared with laughter.

“Mr. Stark! I uh,” she felt her cheeks heating up as she looked around the room once again, only then noticing that literally everyone else was wearing fancy clothes, and who wasn’t was at least somewhat dressed up (even the Vision was wearing a bow tie, for Thor's sake!), “secret identity, y-you know?”

She mentally smacked herself for stuttering, but Tony Stark’s presence, especially since he was looking every bit of the billionaire he was in that expensive as hell looking suit, was a pretty reasonable excuse for her nervousness.

However the man didn’t seem to notice, and if he did he had chosen not to show it, opting to frown instead, “What’s with the voice?”

“Oh uh– well, since y'all already heard my voice I figured I didn’t need to keep the voice changer on anymore– well, that was when I thought it was only gonna be us–”

Tony snorted, the mere idea seeming ridiculous in his mind, “Only us? Pfft– in my entire life I have never seen, nor heard of a party with only eleven participants– have you ever even been to a party before?”

“Once, but it ended with me almost being vaporized, then being dropped in a lake and almost drowning to death.” she deadpanned, causing the billionaire's sassy smirk to drop.

“Ah,” he said eloquently, in truth he had meant the question to be sarcastic, “well, care for a drink?”

“Yeah thanks, a glass of water would be really nice right now.”

At this Tony exploded in a fit of laughter and Piper quickly realized her mistake.

“Ah you meant that kind of drink– of course uhm let’s go get drunk or something!” she knew all too well that she couldn’t get drunk, she had tried– once when some guy had stabbed her with a machete (how the man even gotten hold of a machete was beyond her) and MJ had had to give her stitches and Ned had suggested alcohol as some sort of makeshift anesthetic… she had downed two bottles of Jack Daniel’s and had barely felt any difference.

So she and a still giggling Tony approached the counter where Natasha, Steve, Sam and Bucky were sitting.

“Hey bartender– heyy– I’ll have a Scotch on the rocks and sh– he’ll have a… what are you getting, Underoos?”

“Are you even old enough to drink?” mocked Sam, leaning over, “Would you prefer some juice boxes?”

“Actually a Capri Sun sounds nice.” she replied impassively, trying to think of a way to get back at the man.

As the party went on Piper had to admit that she was having fun. After her initial bad impression Mr. Stark had gotten the bartender to prepare her some sort of alcohol free cocktail and it had been pretty good, and she also spent some time chatting with the man about engineering (he had done most of the talking, and Piper didn’t mind at all, two years ago she would’ve sold her soul to even be within twenty feet of the man).

Then she had beaten the Falcon at poker (props to uncle Ben for teaching her how to play) and Bruce Banner had even introduced his friends to her!

However as the clock struck 2:00am and people began to leave a horrible sense of dread creeped up on Piper, as she slowly remembered what she was there for in the first place– not that she had forgotten, her Spider Sense tingling the entire evening had made sure of that.

She sighed as she got up from the white leather couch she had been sitting on and turned to face her fellow heroes, Nick Fury, Maria Hill and Miss Potts– the only people left.

“I uh– I gotta go… to the bathroom.”

She didn’t even wait for their response as she stormed out with a muttered ‘be right back’, not wasting any more time as she put her earpiece on.

“Pssst! Ned, MJ! Can you hear me?!”

”It was about damn time!” came MJ’s annoyed voice and Ned could be heard yawning in the background, ”I was about to fall asleep– he did fall asleep.”

“Sorry guys, I got a bit caught up… and the Avengers were around me the whole time…”

”I still can’t believe you got to party with the Avengers, you have to tell us all the details when you come back!”

“How did you even get away from them?” questioned MJ, sounding like she thought something fishy was going on.

“I told them I was going to the bathroom.”

”Oh well, let’s just get this over with, I’m tired.”

Piper hummed as she further explored the corridor, her frustration rising at every passing second, “Damnit, this would be so much easier with a map of the place, I should’ve tried to hack Shield’s databases after all– where in the world is the goddamn staircase?!”

MJ snorted, ”Like Stark would give them his Tower’s blueprints–”

“I mean, there are enhanced people living here– and it’s literally the Avengers’ headquarters, so he probably kinda had to at some point.”

”If Shield does have any blueprints of the tower, they’re probably fake. Stark doesn’t look like he’d trust someone enough to give them a map of his house– especially Nick Fury, if what you told me about his little rants is true.”

“Hold up,” Ned’s distant voice filtered in, ”Why aren’t you taking the elevator? I thought you said the Tower’s full of elevators.”

“Friday would tell on me in a heartbeat if I were to use that elevator… I’m pretty sure there’s cameras and st– hah! I found the stairs!” she said, flinching when her sense buzzed yet again.

”What are you waiting for, then? Just go.”

“Hold up– something’s not right… my sense has been bugging me ever since I arrived.” she whispered, frowning, why was she even whispering?

”I mean, what you’re doing is pretty damn dangerous… you're sneaking around the Avengers’ house, hell, you you could get arrested for this– scratch that, you could get kill–”

“Thanks Ned, you’re helping me a bunch,” she remarked sarcastically, before finally opening the door and stopping in her tracks.

“Ugh great, the stairs end here.” she grumbled as she looked down the dark stairwell.

”You must be close then… the top floors are definitely the Avenger’s private quarters, so it makes sense for them not to be accessible via a simple staircase that connects to all the other areas… unfortunately for you that’s also where the landing zone is.” MJ supplied.

“So that means I have to climb up.”

”Yeah,” her friends confirmed apologetically.

“Alright,” sighed the vigilante, reaching for her left ear, “that’ll be risky though, I think it’s better to take the earpiece off– I’ll need both my ears to hear properly.”

Her friends agreed with her statement and logged out of the comms, reminding her to ring them up if anything went south.

By the time Piper reached the landing zone she was beyond freaking out.

Her Spider Sense wasn't a dull buzz anymore, it was full on screaming at her, yet as soon as she laid her eyes on the Quinjet, she couldn't help but let out a small squeal of happiness.

Had she been any less distracted and any less tired, she would've realized how suspicious it was for the same Quinjet to be there after numerous days, and how suspicious it was for it to be unlocked on top of that.

Anyhow, the sudden relief she felt as the thought of getting her flash drive back was enough to overrule any warning her senses were giving her and she entered without as much as a second thought.

She searched and searched and searched, until she had passed by every corner at least thrice but, as a cold, frustrated wave of nausea hit her, she came to the conclusion that the flash drive was nowhere to be found.

“Looking for this?” came the Black Widow's frigid voice from right outside the aircraft.

Chapter Text

Piper swallowed as she slowly got up from where she was crouched down on the floor and prayed that she was just hallucinating, because if she had heard what she had heard she was beyond fu–

She gasped.

As soon as she exited the Quinjet she actually gasped in horror.

Before her, surrounded by all the Avengers, who were all geared up and in various battle stances, stood the Black Widow in all of her terrifying might, holding a very familiar pink flash drive. Behind the group also stood Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Nick Fury and Maria Hill (who all had guns pointed at her, even Ms. Potts).

“Well, well, well,” said Tony Stark's robotic voice as he pointed his repulsor at her, and his tone was so cold it made Piper want to throw up, “I gotta say, I'm impressed. Not many have managed to befriend any of us and betray us in a single week. And you got all of us– almost all of us – at once. Congratulations," he waved in faux cheerfulness with the arm that wasn't aiming at her face, "you beat the record, Spider-Man.”

What was just as painful as her idol's coldness was the hurt in Thor's eyes. The god had been the only one who had actually trusted Piper since the very beginning, and his dismay hurt worse than the Shocker's gun had.

“I– I can explain.” she choked out. She didn't want them to hate her. She was scared and alone and this was bad. This was so bad. She didn't want them to hate her. Spider-Man was supposed to be different from Piper. Piper was hateful and disguisting and Spider-Man was everything that Piper was not. No one but criminals should've hated Spider-Man, and for the Avengers to do so–

“Save your lies for when you're rotting away in the Raft.” spat Steve, “We trusted you, treachery is one of the worst crimes one could commit back in the army. How dare you stab us in the back?!”

For a moment Piper was pretty certain her lungs had stopped functioning, “T-t-the R-Raft?”

“What did you expect?” questioned Tony, “Aside from the fact that Friday doesn't have eyes only in the elevators –as you told your little sidekick over your comms– did you really think we fell for all the blatant lies you've been spitting out?”

Piper swallowed back bile. Not only was she in serious trouble, but the Avengers knew she had help from behind the scenes… this was bad, this was really bad.

The girl shook her head, at the moment there was nothing she could do about that but she really needed to get that flash drive back, so she did something very dangerous, and very very stupid.

She lunged at the Black Widow.

What happened next was a blur: bullets, arrows, lightings, shields, punches and spiderwebs flew in all directions, and at some point Piper found herself pinned to the ground with a knife at her neck and the Black Widow's dark gaze staring right at her.

She could've given up, she should've given up, but by then she was in too deep and the only thing on her mind was getting that damned flash drive back so she could find out what had happened to her and all those other people… and maybe figure out who her biological family was.

It was a very far-fetched goal and it made her feel like she was delusional, heck maybe she was delusional, but she didn't really care… she felt an immense amount of guilt for wanting to find her blood relatives, she loved the Parkers and would forever consider them her family and, in all truth, even if she were to find her biological family, she wasn't going to try and meet them. She had already cursed the Parkers, she didn't want to put anyone else through that.

However she wanted to at least know that she belonged somewhere…. She had spent so many months being tossed around like some useless object that no one wanted to keep and mistreated as they preferred, and it was starting to get to her. She just wanted to know that, somewhere out there, there still was someone who had wanted her at some point.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and gulped before she pushed the Black Widow off with more force than needed, but the woman seemed to be one step ahead regardless and tossed the flash drive over to War Machine, who threw it at Hawkeye who, after letting the vigilante chase him for a bit, passed it over to Vision. Piper couldn't believe it, what was this?! We're they– what? Toying with her? Ridiculing her?

She didn't know what this was, but she knew that it was making her feel sick to her stomach.

This went on for a few minutes, the heroes throwing in a few mean comments here and there as they proceeded in their endeavors, then Piper finally managed to web up the Falcon's wings, causing him to drop and chuck the USB drive away as he activated his parachute and Piper watched in horror as the storage unit flew past the Winter Soldier's outstretched arm and down the building, she lunged after it but was stopped in mid-air by the Scarlet Witch's magic and she watched, blinking back tears, as the pink object shattered at its impact with the street's asphalt and a car finished the job by driving over it.

“Well, that's too bad,” drawled the Black Widow as the Witch released her, “I didn't even get to have a look at what was in it– you have some pretty good encrypting skills I must say… such a pity that Tony refused to help.”

“Well most of us weren't exactly fond of the idea of violating the privacy of someone we thought we had mutual trust with.” defended the billionaire, “Not to mention that we were clearly wrong.”

As various people muttered their agreement Piper couldn't really feel anything other than numb. She felt so numb and so betrayed, and the fact that it was her idol who had spoken those words just added fuel to the fire that was just threatening to flare up inside of her. That was happening quite often in recent times, she really needed to get a grip on her emotions. But not today, she'd let it slide just once more. Just this once.

“Thankfully Nat and Wanda saw right through you, or else we would be toast right now.” the man continued.

Wanda nodded, “I knew there was something fishy about you...I could sense you were hiding something.”

Natasha studied her coldly, “And it’s ridiculous how easy it is to read you– you’re an open book, even while wearing a mask. And your imprudence is even more ridiculous… remember when you went on your little midnight walk? I put a tracker on you before you left– I don't just pat people's shoulders.” she explained with a set expression, though a flash of something akin to disappointment passed through her eyes for a split second, “It fell off somewhere on the highway, but that was enough to prove you were indeed up to something… and the fact that you lied to us about it made it all the more suspicious.”

Piper clenched her fists.

“And you can't imagine how thrilled I was when that flash drive fell out of your pocket… too bad it's gone now.” she finished, her eyes narrowed. Her teammates glanced at her, they knew exactly that she was trying to get a rise out of the younger woman.

“We were skeptical to believe her,” explained Colonel Rhodes, “so Natasha proposed holding a party to see what you would do–”

“And we caught you red handed,” spat Iron Man, his faceplate lifting to show his glaring expression.

Piper's nails dug through the cloth of her suit and in the palms of her hands to the point of drawing blood. She couldn't believe how stupid she had been, to think these people had trusted her, to think that they had wanted her– heck, even the party was nothing more than a staged event, a lie… and it hurt so bad. For once she had thought that someone other than her two friends had wanted something to do with her, but of course it was too good to be true.

“So you never trusted me?” she asked, her voice no louder than a broken whisper.

“Hah! Trust you? How are we supposed to trust someone who won't even show us her face?” demanded the billionaire, taking a few steps forward from where he was standing by the entrance, “Don't be ridiculous, had you wanted anything to do with us for real, you would've at least told us your name, 'Spider-Man'. Do tell us though, what are you up to?”

“You sure have a lot of audacity for someone who would be done for without me.” she spat with faux venom, she needed to avert the course of the conversation now.

“Excuse me?”

“Well let's see,” she drew out, trying her best to stay collected as she began to pace, waving a hand out when the heroes pointed their weapons at her.

“Hadn't it been for me interfering with the vulture guy's deal on that ferry back then, dozens of alien weapons would've been sold to some random criminal squad– which would've caused all of you, Mr. Fury included, a bunch of trouble, since those weapons were built almost entirely with materials that you failed to protect from the general public.” she stated, waiting a moment before continuing.

“And since y'all were oh so busy arguing and trying to dismantle the Accords back then, that wouldn't have looked too good for your cause, huh?” she shot them a look, trying to push back her own guilt as memories of that day flashed before her eyes, she hadn't meant for the ferry to split in half.

“Aand That's one.” she said after a moment of silence, raising a finger.

“Okay b–”

“I'm not done, Mr. Barton– ah right, then there is the night he tried to hijack your plane." She spoke with more disdain than needed. "Again, I was left in the shadows, dealing with your shit while you were so busy arguing with each other– I don't wanna hear it, Ms. Maximoff, I know as a fact you were busy arguing, everyone saw what happened in Vienna." she was so pissed that she didn't even care when Bucky winced and looked away in shame, “So, I had to stop a crazy guy with wings from hijacking your plane, which was completely filled with your gear, that I was kind enough to guard while I waited for y'all to get there–”

Sam snorted, “You're talking as if you crashing the plane didn't cause a mess.”

“And what do you think would've happened if I had just let Toomes do his thing, huh?” Piper hollered back, her voice was gradually getting louder, "I'm sure that Ross guy would've been ecstatic to have something like that to hold over your heads at the same time as you were working on dismantling the Accords, am I right?" she added, snorting when no one replied, "That's two."

“Now that you're done,” spoke Fury irritably, “you better–”

“Who said I was done?” she snarled, “Because I'm not.”

After a short beat of silence during which Fury pinched his nose bridge, she went back to pacing, fumbling with her two raised fingers.

“Then, when those drones attacked,” Tony sighed, he knew where this was going, “I saved your” she nodded in Sam's direction, “ungrateful bird ass from falling to your death while also destroying about forty percent of the drones... and I had to yeet myself–”

“Yeet?” muttered Steve as multiple people frowned.

“–and I had to throw myself off the Empire State Building to do that, too! That's no easy feat!” she continued, nodding at Tony, who was grimacing, “oh and I also saved your metal ass from potential death as well, or potential major injury at the very least– I took a hit for you, wearing nothing but a Spandex fucking piece of fabric. That's three and four.” She added, raising two more fingers.

“Then there was the mission.” she started, folding her arms, “Yes, I did disappear for hours and you have all the right to be pissed at me for that, but I did come back in time to find out where the drone guy was hiding… and I had my legs scraped raw when he tried to drive off. I didn't backstab you at all, Mr. Rogers. That's five.” she finished, holding up her outstretched hand.

“I have helped you guys so often– yes, I have been weird and suspicious once, but did I harm you in any way? I fucking told you all I knew about Toomes including that he knows who I am– which puts my secret identity at risk, since you could just ask him and he would probably tell you out of spite… I took a bullet for you, Mr. Stark… and to be honest I would do it again, for any of you.” she admitted, her voice breaking, ”But apparently that's still not enough to be worthy of your trust!”

By now the girl was full on shouting, and she didn't care, “Please do tell me when you'll see me as someone reliable enough to be at least treated fairly, because at this point it just feels like y'all are trolling me!”

Steve and a few others questioned the meaning of 'trolling', but Piper was too caught up in her rant to notice, so she went on, not even trying to mask how hurt she was anymore. "Why didn't you just fucking ask me? Did you really have to set me up?! Last night you said we were a team and that you would have my back, but it doesn't really look like you do... I wasn't even doing anything bad…”

By then Piper had had enough of the Avengers' bullshit and their butthurt faces were not helping her seething temper in the slightest, all the hurt and betrayal she was feeling finally caught up to her and she kept ranting, careless of the consequences.

“You wanna know what I'm up to, Mr. Stark? Do you really want to?” she yelled, “A criminal ring that's been active since 2001 and has never been stopped, THAT'S WHAT I'M UP TO!” she yelled, stomping down hard enough to crack the ground and shake the building, “And everything I needed to figure out who's behind it and what they're up to was in that flash drive. AND NOW IT'S GONE!” she stomped down again, “And do you wanna know something else, Mr. Stark? THEY ARE THE ONES WHO TOOK YOUR DAUGHTER FOR FUCK'S SAKE!”

Tony staggered back as though he had just been struck in the face, the only reason he hadn't fallen over being his suit which was holding him up, Pepper and Happy gasped and Rhodey stood aghast with his mouth slightly parted, and everyone else stared at her wide eyed.

They had clearly been expecting anything, anything but that.

Piper took a few steps back as she breathed heavily. Oh, now she'd done it.

“You… what?” gasped Tony in complete shock.

“I… that came out wrong– forget I ever said anything–”

“Oh hell no.” interrupted Rhodey as Happy, who was standing beside him, nodded seriously, “Now you tell us word by word what you meant and what you know about my niece's whereabouts.”

“I uh… it's a long story.”

“We have time.” assured Pepper as she reached for Tony's trembling hand.

So they went to Conference Room Number Six.

Piper sat down on her usual armchair and watched as everyone else filtered into the room and took a seat, accepting the glass of water Pepper gently handed her with a mumbled ‘thank you’.

“I think it's better if I do the talking.” proposed Rhodey, shooting a worried look at Tony, who was sitting next to Pepper on the couch opposite Piper looking paler than she'd ever seen him.

“Should we leave?” asked Bucky as he and the other Avengers started to stand up, not meaning to intrude, and sat back down when Tony waved them off, never averting his gaze from Piper's… it was starting to feel a bit unsettling.

“First of all… how?” asked Rhodey, trying but failing to hide the pain this topic was causing him.

“We– I've been looking into this case for months, but never found anything… until last week,” she sighed, “I found something that led me to a bunch of clues and one of them led me to a place.”

“Is that where you went when you left Las Vegas?”

Piper nodded, “And where I loaded up the f-flash drive.”

Natasha glanced at her, she didn't feel bad about going behind her back, the vigilante had been at fault for acting suspicious after all, but she did feel bad about playing a major role in causing the flash drive to break since it turned out to be an important clue in Tony's daughter's case.

“...And how do you know this involves Penny?”

“The thing is… I'm not one hundred percent sure… the list– I-I mean, one of the things we found pointed in that direction, and before reaching any conclusions we checked it–”

“'We'? It's not the first time you speak in plural,” Natasha pointed out, “is there someone working with you?”

When Piper hesitated Steve sat forward and met her eyes, “You can trust us.”

“Can I?” she bit back and he didn't even bother masking his struck look, they had it coming after what they had pulled.

“Yeah whatever, I have a… a team but– back to that thing… it's legit… that lis– that thing confirmed that she's one of the victims–”

Tony's breath caught in his throat, and there were many sharp inhales around the room.

“V-victims?” Pepper choked out, squeezing Tony's hand.

“What exactly is this 'ring' involved in?” asked Fury before Piper could respond.

“H-human trafficking.” mumbled Piper, looking at the floor.

Pepper clasped a hand over her mouth and turned to look at Tony, who had paled further, while Rhodey swore under his breath and Happy clenched his fists. They had all expected something like that, but thinking it and having it confirmed were two different things.

“When I snuck out I went to their hideout –they moved out that very night tho– and hacked their records and downloaded them on that flash drive… I'm not one hundred percent sure that they have something to do with your daughter or if the clues are real– or if those guys are only involved in human trafficking.”

“You're being vague.” said Vision, earning Fury, Maria, Nat and Clint's nods, “You're telling us so many details without actually giving up any real information. You have almost said the word 'list' twice but stopped and corrected yourself each time.”

“That's true, why aren't you giving us anything?” asked Maria, raising a questioning eyebrow.

Piper glanced around and sighed, leaning back in the armchair as her irritation was threatening to return, “Two reasons. One, 'they have people everywhere'– that's what I was told by someone who reached out… for now I don't know what they meant by 'everywhere' and I'd rather be safe than sorry. You getting involved is not an option– what we need for this operation is an outsider, and that's what I am…”

“So you think Shield and Stark Industries have been infiltrated.” stated Fury and Tony's grip on the armrest tightened.

“It's a possibility and I'm not gonna risk it.”

“Okay… what about the other reason?” Clint pressed on.

Piper swallowed, “This thing could jeopardize my identity if I'm not careful… I'm personally involved.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Natasha, her eyes narrowing.

“I'm…” she knew telling them at least one thing was necessary if she wanted them to trust her, which still was unfair but she didn't have time to dwell on that at the moment, “I'm one of the victims... let's say I sort of managed to get out.”

There was a stunned silence as various pairs of eyes widened.

Bucky looked at her hesitantly, though he also looked a little sick, “Did they… are they the ones who gave you your pow–”

“Okay that's it, no more questions.” she announced as she stood up and strutted towards the elevator, “I'll let you know if I find anything but you need to trust me with this. Peace out.”

Steve got to his feet, suddenly feeling very sorry for everything that had gone down in the past hour, “Spider-M–”

“Save it.” she said as she stepped into the elevator, “Peace out.”

As soon as the elevator doors closed Tony shot up and stormed out, Rhodey running after him.

The door to the penthouse burst open and Tony, who was hyperventilating, stumbled inside, crashing into the coffee table and knocking it and himself over.

He couldn't breathe, he couldn't hear, he couldn't see. He could only toss around on the floor calling his daughter's name in vain until he suddenly felt someone grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him, but Tony was too far gone by now. He could barely even stay conscious anymore.

Hiring a nanny for Penny.

Going over the dos and don'ts a dozen times.

Leaving for that business trip with Obadiah.

His phone ringing.

“…Penny…”

“...gone…”

“...kidnapped…”

Had he canceled the trip Penny would still be there.

It was his fault.

His fault.

His.

Fault.

His fault.

His fault, his fault, his fault, his fault, his fau–

“–ony, Tony! Can you hear me?” Rhodey's voice called and Tony could feel his biceps being gripped hard, “I need you to breathe okay? Can you follow my br– yeah just like that, follow my breathing– you're at the tower, it's almost four am… Can you open your eyes for me?”

After a very long moment the billionaire's eyes opened and the man pushed himself in a seated position.

“Penny…” he breathed.

“I know Tones, Spider-Man found something.”

“B-But how I– I did everything I could I– I never stopped looking, I never stopped, not even when the fucking FBI gave up on her I– hold up,” he shot up, his panicked eyes darkening, “she said that they have people everywhere… does that mean–”

“I don't know what that means, Tones– you heard the woman, she herself has no idea what's going on… look, I get this was a shock, but you need to rest. ” said Rhodey seriously, “Freaking out is gonna do you no good and it's not gonna help solving Penny's case either… just try to get some sleep now and we'll deal with everything tomorrow.” he finished, leaving no room for argument as he got back to a standing position and held his arm out, which Tony accepted shakily.

“If you need anything just ring me up… Pepper's talking with Fury, she'll be here in ten.” he added before hugging him and leaving.

Barely holding himself up, the billionaire dragged his legs across the living room and kitchen area and down the hallway, until he reached the closed door at the very end and, after a moment of hesitation, opened it.

He stood in the doorway for what felt like ages, just breathing and blinking back tears as he observed the room he had set up for his daughter in hopes of her return. He had lost most of her things when the Mandarin had blown up his mansion in Malibu, but the few things he had managed to retrieve were all in there.

Penny had been a surprise. For the first few months of her life Tony hadn't even been aware of her existence, then, on a rainy October afternoon, someone had rung his doorbell and the housekeeper had found the crying baby in a tiny bundle of blankets, with nothing more than a note.

She's yours, I don't want her and I can't afford her.

He slowly stepped inside the room and glanced at the picture on the wall, she had been such a cute baby.

Back then Tony had obviously done a paternity test and when it had come back positive he had found himself at a loss for words.

Obadiah had too, in fact the man had done his best to convince Tony to give her up but the billionaire wouldn't hear any of it.

He had been clueless about parenting, his own father never having been a good example, but he had done his best because he had owed it to Penny: his little angel had appeared out of nowhere when he was in a really bad spot… his parents' tenth death anniversary had been nearing and he had been deep into his 'playboy' years, as the press referred to them, which certainly weren't a pretty era– and his situation would've gotten worse, hadn't it been for her.

So, he had showered the girl with all the love in the world and dedicated all of his time to her– it was crazy how much one could love their kid.
Happy and Rhodey had been ecstatic when they had first found out about the kid, they had been the best uncles one could ask for.

Everything had gone beautifully for a couple years, then that terrible November twenty-first had come and his entire life had fallen apart.

When Obadiah had asked Tony to join him on a business trip he had tried everything to avoid it, but at last he had ended up going anyways.

And he would regret that choice for the rest of his life.

They had just landed in DC when Happy, more shaken than Tony had ever heard him, had called him and he was sure that at that moment his heart had actually broken.

“Penny's g-gone.”

“Wha– what do you mean gone?!”

“The babysitter took her to the playground this morning but they didn't come back, so I went to check and the whole place was packed with cops– the sitter's dead and Penny's nowhere to be found… they think she's been kidnapped.”

“...”

“I already called the FBI– they're on their way here. I'll call Rhodes too.”

“... good, I'm flying back.”

“Tony?”

“Yes?”

“We'll find her. I promise.”

Tony had done everything in his power to look for her but it was as though Penny had vanished the same way she had appeared. There were no traces, no leads, no clues, nothing. Absolutely nothing, and it was so fucking painful.

The authorities had dropped the case not long after but Tony, despite falling back into his bad habits, had relentlessly kept looking. There wasn't a single day he didn't think about Penny, and he didn't have any intention of giving up on her as long as he was still alive.

“Oh Penny,” he said, his voice breaking, “what I would do to see you again.”

Chapter Text

Piper was not having a good day.

Scratch that, she was not having a good week.

The girl sighed as she stared at the passing cars from the school bus' window. Next to her sat an overexcited chattering Ned and behind her sat a very focused MJ, who was absorbed in her latest work of art: a sketch of the driver's sulking face.

However, she was too caught up with her thoughts to pay attention to any of that. As a matter of fact, she hadn't even wanted to go on the field trip in the first place– hadn't it been for the mission, she would've spent the whole morning spidermanning.

She frowned as she rubbed her aching left arm, asking Mr. Smith to sign the permission slip had been a huge mistake, if the beating she had gotten out of it was anything to go by, she should've forged his signature from the start.

Piper huffed, that horrid man obviously had to bother her too. As if everything else going on in her life wasn't enough already.

The Avengers had tried to reach out to her all day every day for the past four days and it was seriously starting to get irritating, so irritating that she had ended up turning the burner phone off for the sake of her sanity.

Perhaps she was overreacting, but they sure were an insistent bunch. And their audacity, honestly. Yes, she understood that they must've been pretty engrossed by the news she had told them the previous week, but that didn't mean Piper didn't have the right to be pissed at them: what they had done had hurt her, and she could be quite petty when she wanted to.

And she had told them that she would let them know as soon as she found something that concerned them, so they really had no reason to bother her.

Not to mention the trouble they had caused her by breaking her flash drive. Not only were they the cause for the whole operation retrogressing and Ned, MJ and Piper's hard work going to waste, but they had also broken one terabyte worth of storage, which was not cheap.

Speaking of which, she also needed that flash drive to give Jameson the Spider-Man pictures. The issue was that she barely had any money left, and it was just enough to afford some food and a thirty-two gigabyte storage unit, if she was lucky enough to get her hands on one of the cheap ones before they were sold out, that was.

Piper was stuck in a daze for the remainder of the drive and the first half of the lab tour. She blindly followed her two friends without really paying attention to anything but her thoughts, which were a bit too loud to ignore that day.

Soon enough Mr. Harrington announced that the students had a thirty minute lunch break and the trio immediately sprang into action.

The three of them were quick to find a tiny storage room with a small window and, as Piper got out of the hoodie and sweatpants she was wearing over her suit, MJ grabbed a paper from her backpack and handed it to her.

“What's this?” asked Piper, eyeing the sheet.

“I did some digging and found the blueprints of the building.” she explained, “It's supposed to be an average warehouse –it's pretty tiny compared to the other one, actually– but look here,” she pointed at a spot on the paper, “there's a small room, that's probably where they keep the computer and all the files.”

Piper nodded as she folded the paper and put it in her pocket. “Thanks, MJ– and you too Ned… I don't know what I would do without you.”

“You'd probably be dead.” MJ said casually, earning a nod from Ned and an eye roll from Piper, “Go now– try to be quick please, we'll try to cover for you but there's only so much we can do.”

Piper pulled her mask over her face and, with a nod, flung herself out of the window.

Piper slowly strutted across the warehouse. It had been fairly easy to get in, she had just had to knock out two men who had been guarding the entrance... when she thought about it, those two hadn't put up much of a fight… probably because they had been caught by surprise or something.

She looked at all the white vans that were parked in the middle of the large room, skimming over them until her gaze landed on the one her phone was on.

She quickly walked over and ripped it off the rooftop, relief engulfing her as soon as the object was back in her grasp, it hadn't been easy to part from the device.

As she resumed walking towards the little room she heard a cry and froze.

Then she heard it again.

And again.

There were people in there– victims… and they were stuck in one of the vans.

“Help! Is anyone there?!”

“Please help!”

As the muffled pleas echoed in the vacant building Piper focused her senses on the direction they were coming from, and soon she was frantically tearing one of the vans' backdoor off and helping a small group of girls out.

Two of them looked like they were in their late teens or early twenties, one looked about thirty and there were also two little girls who couldn't be a day older than ten, and they looked absolutely terrified.

“Oh my gosh,” gasped Piper, “are you guys okay?!”

A few of them nodded slightly, though they looked everything but okay.

After comforting them for a few more minutes, she spoke, her voice serious, “I know this is a terrible situation but right now I really need you to cooperate.” she waited for them to nod before continuing, “There's something really bad going on here and right now we can't involve the police, or any of the authorities for that matter. It's not safe– is anyone here from New York?“

The thirty year old woman nodded, “Yeah, Brooklyn.”

“Good, uhm…” she hesitated before whipping out her wallet and handing over her last twenty dollars, “This should be enough– now go, there's a subway station nearby… don't stop, when you reach your place I want all of you to lock yourselves in and do not call the cops. Right now we don't know who can be trusted and who can't– I almost got this sorted out… give me a week. Now go!”

As soon as they were gone Piper strolled across the space and knocked the door down, being met with an office that slightly resembled the other one, and she immediately noticed a familiar outdated computer.

She wasted no time and immediately accessed the device's files, taking her time to scroll through the various folders until she found one named “Stark” and clicked on it.

In the folder there wasn't much, aside from a short email exchange between Jefferson and Obadiah Stane, Tony Stark's former business partner. Hm, suspicious.

She opened the files with no hesitation, skimming through various trivial conversations before finding something… interesting to say the least.

Stane,
There has been a mishap with the operation. Some spies intercepted the van and brought all the women back to their families. Stark's kid is gone though, nowhere to be found.

Jefferson,
How is it that your 'super efficient' services couldn't even keep hold of Stark's daughter for twenty-four hours before losing her?
I paid you good money to get rid of that menace, you better make sure that no one finds her ever again. I'm already going through enough trouble with my attempts of getting rid of her father, I don't want to worry about the latest Stark spawn as well.

“Oh my gosh,”
Ned screeched for the 105th time, “I can't believe we actually found out who took Penelope Stark… this– this is huge! Like, really huge!”

“What I find more concerning than that,” came MJ's impassive voice from where she was pinning to the corkboard the pictures of the emails Piper had managed to take moments before her phone died, “is that according to these emails Penelope Stark might be alive.”

“But this doesn't make any sense,” Piper frowned as she paced on the ceiling, “why would they lose her? She was– is one of the richest men in the world's daughter…”

“Let's go over everything we found so far,” said MJ, putting the corkboard in a propped up position so that her friends could see it, “first of all we come across a bunch of cases that match each other's profile down to the most specific detail.” she pointed at some sticky notes on the upper left corner of the board.

“We don't find anything for months and then you get a letter from your aunt that leads us to finding a box full of clues, which –as far as we know– was left by your parents, who were secret agents or something like that.” Piper nodded sadly at the mention of her family.

“In the box,” continued MJ while Ned almost fell off the bed in an attempt to scoot closer, “we find the list of all the people who are potentially involved with this case, including a bunch of things that prove that you,” she nodded at Piper, “and Penelope Stark are personally involved in this. There are also coordinates that lead us to the ring's lair, and a camera with a picture of a bracelet which most likely belonged to Stark's daughter, and one of the ring's leader, who disguises this operation as his moving company. Oh and we also find out that this guy has minions pretty much everywhere.” she continued, pointing at each clue as she mentioned it.

“Then, we learn that Obadiah Stane was a bad guy and that he paid Jefferson to make Penelope disappear… I always thought there was something fishy about his death,” she muttered conspiratorially, “the media said he was on vacation and his plane crashed when that whole shitshow with Iron Man went down in 2008… him being the 'rogue prototype' Stark allegedly fought makes sense. Especially given that the paparazzi took pictures of Stane on the day prior to that, when he was already supposed to be on his 'vacation'.”

“This is nuts.” breathed Ned in awe, while Piper looked somewhat dizzy, “Absolutely nuts.”

“Another thing,” MJ added hesitantly, glancing at Piper, “according to your mom's letter, they found you on November twenty-first… that's the day Penelope went missing.”

There was an unsettling silence as MJ's words sank in, then Piper piped up, not liking where this was going, “...Didn't the letter say that I was the only one left? Like, everyone else got reunited with their fam– biological families except for me…”

“They could've mixed you up with someone else.” proposed Ned and MJ looked like she was itching to facepalm, “Maybe they made a mistake and accidentally mixed y'all up or something like that– I can't believe you were in the same room as Penelope Stark, Piper… I can't believe any of this– it's just so…”

“Bizarre.” muttered the girl, her stomach sinking horribly. She didn't even let that thought linger in her mind for a second, there was no way a… a mess like her could possibly be–

“Yeah,” drawled MJ, fixing Piper with a deep look, “very bizarre indeed.”

“I have an idea,” said Ned unsurely, earning his friends' attention, “we could edit a picture of Penelope– Tony Stark was really careful in keeping her out of the spotlight, but paparazzi still caught a few shots of her sometimes… we could use those to create aged up pictures to see what she might look like now.”

MJ hummed, “No one knows who her mother is, and fifty percent of her genetic heritage comes from her, so it'll be hard to get an accurate aged up version, but we can still try… I'm pretty good with Photoshop.”

Ned nodded, “I can create a program that could do the same– you know, it's better to have multiple sources.”

MJ reached out to high five him, “It's a plan.”

“And what do I do?” asked Piper, jumping down from the ceiling, “I also wanna help, it's not fair if you do everything.”

MJ looked thoughtful for a moment before replying, “At some point we'll need to run a DNA test for… Penelope.” she said, and Piper didn't like the way she was looking at her, “Figure out a way to get some of Stark's hair or something… also, he probably keeps something with Penelope's DNA on it somewhere in his laughingstock of a building, like hair or a toy or a pacifier or something– or maybe he keeps her infos in his computer or something… figure out a way to get a hold of that.”

Ned's eyebrows shot up, “You want her to sneak into Stark Tower and steal something?” his head snapped toward Piper, who had that determined look on her face, “Do you have a death wish?! You can't just sneak in there– last time you almost got thrown in the Raft!”

Piper rubbed her chin, her lips slowly curving upwards, “Well, I could sneak in there pretty easily, we just need to make sure no eyes are watching… or that those eyes are loyal to us.”

Ned looked confused for a moment before toppling off the bed and shrieking at the top of his lungs.

“You– ARE YOU SAYING THAT YOU WANT TO HACK FRIDAY?! This– that's like climbing a mountain barefoot– a really high mountain!”

Piper rolled her eyes, “Ned, you're literally the best hacker I know… I literally created an AI which is close to being almost as well developed as Friday herself– and you are the one who taught me. You literally fixed the majority of the bugs in her code… you hack databases and softwares and literally anything that's hackable on a daily basis as if it were nothing. If there's anyone who can hack Friday that's you– and MJ and I will help you.”

“I suck at coding but I can be there for emotional support.” offered MJ.

After a moment of consideration Ned met his friends' eyes and their mouths slowly turned into grins.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, in an upscale apartment's living room, Roland Jefferson studied the security camera footage on his iPad, which displayed a certain web slinging vigilante in red and blue in the midst of breaking into his new warehouse.

“Seems like someone got himself caught in a web that's way bigger than he could ever imagine… he'll just have to be squished like the nasty little bug he is.”

Chapter Text

Ned and MJ chattered on as Piper poked her stale pizza with a plastic fork.

After the previous day's discovery the trio had spent the entirety of the afternoon and part of the evening planning their next step and they had come to the decision of staying in the school after classes to use the computer lab for their operation.

They had considered doing the hacking from MJ's bedroom, but Ned had feared that his impeccable firewalls still wouldn't be enough to keep Friday from tracing their IP address in the event of a mishap, so they had opted for their school's lab instead.

Also, Piper had had to spend the whole night awake again– some rich ninth grader had offered to pay her fifty bucks to have a three page physics essay written by her and it was too good of an offer to let go.

“There's still an issue,” Ned blurted out, “just how are we supposed to do this?”

“I thought we already went over that.” groaned MJ, banging her forehead on the table, “We hide in the air vents, wait for everyone to leave, turn the security cameras off and get rid of all the incriminating footage, then we break into the computer lab and spend the entire weekend in there if we must– we'll just tell our parents slash guardians that the sleepover got extended.”

Piper snorted, “Smith wouldn't give a shit either way.”

While MJ side eyed her, Ned shook his head, “That's not what I meant– I meant how are we gonna make it past those firewalls? We need an actual course of action for this, it's no easy thing to pull off– in fact the people who have managed to get past Tony Stark's security system can be counted with the fingers of one hand, and that was before he switched to Friday– so, how?”

MJ shrugged, “That's your field of expertise, not mine.”

Piper put the fork down and sighed, “I think we can rule out phishing emails.”

“That much is obvious.” Ned said flatly, “Do you think they inspect the outgoing data traffic as much as the incoming?”

“Of course they do– this isn't Oscorp we're talking about.” muttered Piper.

Ned rapped his fingers on the table, looking deep in thought, “I think the safest way to do this would be to connect to the same WiFi Friday's connected to and–”

“Ned, we're hacking Friday in order to break into the Tower– not the other way around…”

“Hold up,” interrupted MJ, perking up, “could you also do… that but like… indirectly? Like what if an SI employee who has access to Stark's WiFi were to connect to a public one–”

“That would be possible,” mused Ned, “but even if we do succeed in doing that and by some miracle make it past the landmine of firewalls Tony Stark most definitely set up, Friday's still gonna detect us– there's no way she won't, she's way too advanced.”

“And that's when Karen comes in play.” said Piper.

“You– are you saying you want Karen to persuade Friday into joining our side?! Piper Friday isn't a person– we can't just ask her to pull an Anakin Skywalker and join us!”

Piper frowned, “Are you saying we're the bad guys?”

MJ slammed her face on the table again and Ned cocked his head, “I mean, we sure don't sound like the good guys right now– but that's not the issue–”

“Ultron did it and he was a murderous psychopath, what makes you think Karen can't do it?”

“I'm pretty sure the murderous psychopath thing was part of why he succeeded in the first place.” said MJ, “Also, he literally had direct access to Stark's tech, since the man himself created him.”

“I'm sorry Piper but there's no way this is gonna work– even if Karen manages to corrupt Friday –I can't believe we're talking about softwares as if they were people, this is so cool– she's still gonna snitch on us. This is Tony Stark we're talking about, he's always one step ahead in the security department– he's literally one of the smartest men alive and an Avenger.”

MJ turned her head to face them, never lifting up from where she was resting on the tabletop, “What if we figure out a way to shut off the city's electricity for a while? That way Friday wouldn't be able to snitch.”

Piper shook her head, “The Tower's self-sufficient, and if Friday shuts off we'll be disconnected as well.”

“We just need to figure out a way to trick them then.” she said thoughtfully.

Ned's eyes widened in disbelief, “What part of 'this is the Avengers we're talking about' didn't you understand, MJ?”

“Chill out dude, you're acting like they're gods or something– don't look at me like that, there's only one god on the team and I doubt he knows how softwares work.”

Piper tilted her head to the side, “What do you have in mind?”

“You know those phone scammers that steal from old people?” she started, waiting for her friends to nod before elaborating, “We could send an uh… one of those weird links– like the ones you use to grab people's IP… that look like legit links but are not–”

“Masked URLs?” supplied Ned, who looked like he didn't like where MJ was going with this.

“Yeah those– I'm pretty sure quite a few of the Avengers aren't too familiar with technology, including those fake links...”

“I overheard Captain America talking about giving up on looking for a place in Brooklyn cause he can't afford it.” said Piper reflectively while Ned groaned and buried his face in his hands.

MJ shook her head in disgust, “You know things are fucked up when a man who has saved the world more times than I can count can't afford to pay rent…” she sighed, “Unfairnesses aside… we could send a link like that to him with the caption 'cheap apartments in Brooklyn' or something like that, so that if Friday tells on us Stark's gonna think it was just caused by that… this sounds like a solid plan to me.”

Piper nodded, suddenly feeling confident, “That– holy shit that might actually work.”

Ned made a weird choking noise, “How are we gonna get Captain fucking America's phone number?”

“Piper's burner phone, duh.” said MJ, speaking like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Piper bit her lip, “I can't view the Avengers' numbers– I they're saved in the contact list but their actual information won't show.”

MJ snorted, “You two can get past that– you've done the same with those scammers back in January, they all had private numbers too but you guys figured them out anyways.”

Ned sighed, “Yeah we can do that… and we might have a good plan, but you're forgetting something– I'm pretty sure Tony Stark won't connect his AI to just any random WiFi–”

“Yeah we just need to find an employee who–”

“Ah yes because Tony Stark definitely grants access to his personal WiFi to all SI employees– he probably has a different router on each floor of the building! There is no way a random employee has access to the same WiFi Friday uses.”

“But we're not talking about a random employee.” MJ said mysteriously, sliding her phone across the table so that her friends could see a picture of a certain Harold Joseph 'Happy' Hogan eating a burger in a McDonald's.

“You see,” she began elaborating, looking at Piper, “ever since the Avengers recruited you I started keeping tabs on them and their associates. Mr. Hogan here– his daily routine never changes… I won't be bugging you with all the useless details but just know that every evening at eight forty he leaves the Tower and before returning to his condo in Long Island he stops at a McDonald's along the way to get a Big Mac with a diet coke and a side of fries and chicken nuggets, ketchup and sweet and sour sauce that he puts on the salad part of the burger. He then spends up to forty minutes scrolling on his phone before he goes home.”

“That's… an awful lot of information you can get on someone in barely two weeks,” commented Piper somewhat creeped out while Ned gaped, looking outright disturbed.

“Yeah whatever– the point is that not only is this guy Stark's head of security, former personal bodyguard and former asset manager, he's also his best friend. They have dinner together sometimes.”

Piper spoke, frowning at that random detail, “Yeah, that guy probably has his WiFi password…”

“There's no way this is gonna work,” sputtered Ned, “I'm not saying he's a tech genius but he must have at least some sort of knowledge in the department.”

“We're talking about a man nearing his fifties who has made a career out of punching people in the face.” deadpanned MJ.

“Still, there's no way Tony Stark's head of security is dense enough to connect his phone to some public WiFi.”

As it turned out, Happy Hogan was indeed dense enough.

“Do you see him?” asked MJ, who had decided to stay in the school while Piper and Ned went to the McDonald's, on the intercom.

“Yeah,” whispered Piper as she sipped on her Fanta, “he just walked in– he's waiting in line.”

“That suit looks expensive.” Ned commented casually, never averting his gaze from the grumpy man as he attempted to dip a chicken nugget in the ketchup and tipped the container over, splotching the sauce all over the table and barely missing his laptop's keyboard.

“MJ, did you get the link? I sent it to the burner phone we got at Mr. Delmar's.” said Piper, glaring at Ned as she helped him clean the ketchup up.

“Yeah I got it, I'll just forward it to Captain America.”.

“Let's hope this works.” mumbled Ned as he looked at his computer's screen in dismay. He scrolled through the list of devices connected to the WiFi until he saw the words 'Happy's StarkPhone', and began typing frantically.

After a couple minutes Piper gasped, resulting in Ned glancing at her and MJ asking what was up.

“He's coming towards us.”

And sure enough Happy was menacingly stomping towards them, a tray in his hands and a firm glare on his face.

“Don't tell me you're sitting at the table by the window– the one near the staff room.”

There was a long silence and, as the scowling man strutted past them and plopped down at the closest table, MJ groaned.

“I knew I shouldn't have spared the detai– OH MY GOSH CAPTAIN AMERICA CLICKED ON THE LINK!”

“GET RID OF THAT DAMN PHONE– SHRED IT OR SOMETHING!” yelled Piper, gulping when she realized everyone in the restaurant, Happy included, was now staring at her, “Uh– I meant… you should totally get a new phone, Ned, by now yours is an antique.”

Just when everyone had gone back to their food, Ned shot to his feet and began squealing madly.

“I GOT IN! I GOT IN! OH MY GOSH I'M IN!!”

Apparently the other customers had taken this as him celebrating a college acceptance letter and had started clapping, cheering and congratulating him excitedly.

When the uproar and MJ's cackles in the intercom didn't seem like they were going to subside, Piper noticed Happy letting out something similar to a growl and storming out of the diner.

Meanwhile in Stark Tower hell was breaking loose.

“I can't– how many times have I told you not to click on any sketchy links, Cap?” demanded Tony, running a hand over his face in exasperation.

“It looked pretty legit to me.” replied Steve matter of factly, causing Sam to burst into giggles.

“Pretty legit,” echoed the billionaire incredulously, “What about 'cheap apartments in Brooklyn, click link below for more infos' sounds legit to you?!”

Bruce shook his head in exasperation, “Tony's right, you need to be more careful… this could've ended badly– did you manage to track down whoever sent that?”

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose, “No, whoever orchestrated this was smart enough to shut off their device before I could track them– not that they managed to do any real damage, my firewalls are too impeccable to be breached.”

“I can't believe those firewalls were so easy to breach.” said Ned as he rolled around the computer lab on one of the chairs, “I mean, it was the hardest thing I've ever hacked– I was literally sweating, but still… whoa.”

“Yeah,” Piper agreed, “whoa.”

“So,” said MJ through a mouthful of fries (Piper and Ned had gotten her some food on the way back) as she tapped her iPad's screen with her Apple Pencil, “while Karen looks for useful stuff in Friday's servers I'll finish working on Penelope's aged up face– what about your software Ned? Is it ready?”

Ned nodded proudly, “I actually already had it ready –some months back I wanted to see what I would look like as an eighty year old– I just perfected some codes last night and yeah… the process should take a couple minutes though.”

Piper jumped off the ceiling and looked at her friends, feeling drowsy, “I'll go to the bathroom, ya know– stretch my legs and stuff.”

The walk to the bathroom was long and quiet– Piper had purposely taken the long way there. Her lack of sleep over the past few weeks was starting to get to her, so she made sure to splash her face with cold water before going back.

When she re-entered the computer lab all drowsiness seemed to leave her body and she breathed in sharply, her stomach sinking terribly.

On the opposite side of the room stood her friends: MJ was eyeing her in shock, but her expression also held something akin to denial, and Ned stood stock still, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted as he looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time.

The edits were ready, and both looked almost identical to her.

Chapter Text

Tony woke up choking on a sob and, as he struggled to get his erratic breathing under control, he felt Pepper move next to him.

“Tony! Oh my God, can you hear me?!” asked the panicking woman, grabbing him by the shoulders.

“I– I'm good.” he gasped out, somehow managing to calm down enough to speak, “Just– just another nightmare.”

“Oh Tony,” said Pepper sadly, “was it about–”

“Penny.” whispered the man, blinking back tears, he didn't think he'd ever forget the day he lost her– everything was a blur, but it was also so… so vivid.

Throughout the years the nightmares had subsided… well, until 2008 he drowned the pain with alcohol and parties, then the nightmares about Penny had been replaced by ones about Afghanistan and Iron Man and the Avengers' shenanigans– actually, they had never been entirely replaced, he still saw Penny's Bambi eyes every time he closed his own, but at least those nightmares hadn't been as frequent anymore.

However, after Spider-Man's revelation, they had come back at full force and Tony hadn't slept properly in days. Not that he was too pissed about that part, Penelope's kidnapping could've been avoided had he refused to go on that trip, so he probably deserved this.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Pepper asked gently.

Tony shook his head no and pushed himself up, “Jar– Friday, what's the time?”

“It is currently half past six in the morning, Boss.”

“Alright… I'll– I'm just gonna go to the lab.” he announced, looking at Pepper, who nodded sadly, before walking out.

Tony didn't immediately go to his workshop though, he instead opted to walk around the building and just… think. Yeah, he needed to think for a little bit because his thoughts were starting to get too loud to ignore.

He clenched his teeth as he walked across some hallway– he recognised the floor as one of the biological research ones, though he didn't really know which floor it was… he had simply let his feet lead him for the past two hours as he dwelled on all the painful things that plagued his mind.

Tony was an envious man. He liked to act like the most self obsessed person on the planet, but deep down he felt very very envious.

One of the things he envied the most was how Clint got to brag about his kids. Ever since Ultron Clint hadn't avoided talking about his family and he had every right to do so, but Tony couldn't help but ache inside every time the archer got that proud look on his face as he recounted his kid's latest accomplishments, because Tony had that too at one point, he could've been bragging about his Penny as well but he had been an idiot and had allowed her to be taken away from him, and he would never forgive himself for that.

Speaking of guilt, he really needed to apologize to Spider-Man for everything he and the others had put her through, they really should've taken a different approach with her but had made the same mistake over and over again, and now the vigilante was ghosting them.

He sighed, he and the others had tried to call her every day but it was to no avail.

And as though that wasn't enough, he still didn't have any Infos on where his daughter was– or if she was at least alive… he shook his head, bile rising in his throat.

The web-slinger had said that she would let him know if she found anything new, but so far he still had nothing. Hell, he didn't even know what his daughter looked like.

Ever since Penny had gone missing, Tony hadn't dared to look at any aged up pictures of her. He had failed her and forbidding himself from looking at what his kid might've looked like was his way to sort of punish himself– he always left the editing to the agents in charge and after the case had been dismissed he had left it to the private investigators he had hired.

As scientists and interns started populating the floor he was on, shooting him surprised and weirded out looks as they passed, the man decided to retreat to his workshop.

He turned, putting his signature smirk on, and began strutting towards the elevator, colliding against someone not even half a minute later.

Piper swore under her breath as she walked into Stark Tower.

While she had been busy having a two day long emotional breakdown, MJ and Ned had organized a plan to get her into Stark Tower to run some DNA tests to prove once and for all that she was Penelope Stark.

Which was ridiculous, Piper thought, how could she be Penelope Stark? Tony Stark was one of the coolest people on the planet, while Piper was just… a mess. Her being related to him in any way, let alone being his daughter… It was ridiculous.

What was even more ridiculous was the plan her friends had come up with.

Her fellow teenagers had decided it was a good idea to have Piper enter the Tower disguised as a college intern: over the weekend they had added her in the database under a fake name, given her full clearance and everything– and they even got Friday to send them a falsified badge.

The thing was, Piper did not look like a college student, in fact she barely looked sixteen, and her height (or rather, lack thereof) did not help her case in the slightest. Therefore, in addition to a very professional looking outfit they had stolen from Ned's brother's closet and a ridiculous pair of high heels they had borrowed from the boy's mother, MJ had had the brilliant idea to bedeck her face with a thick layer of makeup to hide her youthful features.

As it turned out, Michelle was quite handy with makeup, she had literally changed the shape of Piper's nose and cheekbones with nothing more than a contouring stick and some highlighter, if Piper didn't know any better, she would've suspected her of witchcraft or someth–

“Miss,” called a familiar gruff voice, breaking her out of her thoughts, “where's your bagde?”

“Ah,” said Piper eloquently, taking the object out of her pocket and showing it to an extremely grumpy looking Happy Hogan, who snatched it from her grip, scanned it, and scrutinized the girl from head to toe before handing it back and nodding once, letting out some sort of hum that resembled uncle Vernon from Harry Potter.

As the pissed off man went on to harass other employees, Piper proceeded to walk towards the private elevator, stopping with her finger half way to the button as she realized that some random intern would definitely not have access to Tony Stark's private elevator.

“New here?” asked some important looking dude as he approached her.

“Uhhh yeah, yep!” stuttered Piper, fidgeting with her cracked wristwatch.

“I feel ya, this is Stark's private elevator– I heard it's run by Friday and she only lets people approved by Stark himself in, that's why it won't open.”

The girl sighed in relief, the man thought she had attempted and failed to enter, “Ah… thanks for the info.”

The man shook his head and offered her a polite smile as he pointed to the opposite side of the lobby, where Piper could see several elevators, “It's alright, the employees' elevators are over there.”

The girl thanked the man and proceeded to rush towards the lifts cursing under her breath.

“Pssst!” whispered Piper as soon as everyone had left the elevator she was in, “Friday! Can you hear me?!”

“I can in fact hear you very well,” came Friday's unimpressed voice, “and your accomplice has made sure to soundproof every room in the building for, and I quote, 'mission purposes', thefore I see no purpose in your whispering.”

Piper sighed, frowning a second later, “His name is Ned– but whatever… could you tell me where I can run a DNA test?”

“I will take you to the upper biological research labs on floor sixty-five.” replied Friday, suddenly sounding ominously cheerful, “there should be an empty laboratory on the left at the end of the hallway.”

“Alright, thanks Friday!” chirped Piper feeling hopeful. She had to count on herself this time because Ned and MJ were at school, but if she was going to be quick enough she could still make it to third period.

Piper cheerfully hopped out of the elevator and took in the sight before her.

The hallway– there was no other word to describe it, it looked so cool. It also looked very white, the floor was white, the walls were white and even the led lights that lit the whole floor up were white.

Through the glass doors on either side of the corridor she could see multiple scientists who were working or getting ready to do so. A few people were walking down the hallway, focused on their StarkPads or on their folders, and at the very bottom of the corridor… stood some scruffy looking guy who was– wearing pajamas?? Was this some sort of work event like meme day at school?

Piper shrugged and, as she walked towards the lab Friday had mentioned, pulled out her phone to let MJ and Ned know she was almost there.

This was perfect, now she just needed to compare her DNA with Penelope and Tony Stark's, which were both saved in Friday's database, and the fact that apparently the AI could do in thirty minutes what took most labs over two days was absolutely perf–

Whack!

Piper had been so distracted by her internal celebration that she had completely forgotten to watch where she was going and ended up slamming face first into somebody's chest.

It was the pajama guy's chest.

And the pajama guy…

Tony Stark.

The pajama guy was Tony Stark.

She internally swore, Friday had tricked her.

The two of them spent approximately thirty seconds staring into each other's eyes in bewilderment, before Piper took a step back and gasped in horror at what she saw.

MJ had utterly exaggerated with the makeup, she decided, because half of it was now on Tony Stark's shirt.

It was an almost perfect copy of her face stamped right in the middle of the man's chest, where his arc reactor used to be, and Piper suddenly felt a strong desire to spontaneously combust.

The billionaire just frowned and slowly followed her gaze then looked back at her mortified face and burst into laughter.

Piper did not see what was so funny about this situation, in fact she just wished to keel over and perish because that had absolutely vaporized all her previous bad impressions. This was the bad impression.

Tony for his part was just confused, he had been so lost in his brooding he hadn't even noticed this woman walking towards him, and her leaving half her face on his t-shirt (he hadn't even realized he was still in his pajamas– so that was why everyone had been staring at him) was so unexpected that he couldn't help but laugh at the peculiarity of it all.

Meanwhile Piper was starting to hyperventilate, not only was the man in front of her Tony Stark, aka genius, billionaire, superhero and the coolest man in the whole world, but he was also the man she had been ghosting for over two weeks and her potential fath–

She mentally smacked herself, there was no way in hell she was Penelope Stark.

But what if she was? What if due to some weird twist of fate she really was Tony Stark’s daughter? No. No, No, No. No. She refused to even think about that, it was too good to be true and there was absolutely no way.

Tony Stark seemed to notice her state and stopped laughing.

“Of all the reactions I’ve gotten out of the people I met, I have to say that panic’s a first.” he commented casually, though he was feeling very awkward inside.

Piper let out an exaggerated snort and waved her hand about, “Who’s panicking?” she questioned, purposely making her voice an octave higher, “I certainly am not– I mean, you are Tony Stark so it makes sense for me to be at least somewhat surpr–”

“Hold up,” interrupted Tony, studying the girl with narrowed eyes, “you look familiar, have we met before?”

The girl froze and her eyes widened a fraction, “Uhm… no? Well I am an intern here so maybe you’ve seen me around or something?”

The billionaire hummed, “An intern?”

Piper nodded stiffly, extending a shaky arm, “M-Mary Richards, sir, so nice to meet you.”

“Tony.” curtly greeted the man as he shook her hand with a raised eyebrow, “Friday?”

“According to my databases Ms. Richards interns here, Boss.”

Tony nodded once, satisfied with the AI’s confirmation, “Alright then, I’ll leave you to your… intern things.”

And with that he left, leaving a very bewildered Piper standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at his retreating form.

After the confusion wore off the girl entered the aforementioned laboratory and, after checking that there was no one in the immediate vicinity, got to work.

She rubbed the inside of her cheek with a cotton swab for about a minute before putting it in a vial and letting Friday run her DNA with Penelope's and, just for the heck of it, she asked her to run a paternity test as well.

The thirty minutes that followed ended up being the longest wait of Piper's life.

After staring into space with bated breath and barely contained anxiety for what felt like an eternity, Friday's voice echoed across the room and Piper didn't like how… surprised she sounded.

“Though several of your genes appear to have been modified, the unaltered part of your genetic code matches the genetic code of Penelope Jamie Stark's, and the paternity test is positive with a 99.99999999% probability of paternity… it's good to have you back, Mini Boss.”

And just like that Piper's world fell apart once again.

No.

No, no, no, no, no. No.

This was impossible.

How– how could she, lame and dorky Piper Parker, be Tony Stark's daughter? This made absolutely no sense.

Then she thought.

She thought about the weird sense of familiarity she got every time she looked at pictures and clips of Tony Stark, and how oddly familiar he… and his eyes looked... that was because she saw the very same eyes staring back at her every time she looked in the mirror.

A series of visions suddenly flashed before her eyes, she recognized them as dreams she used to have all the time when she was younger.

Flashes of clumsy robots with fire extinguishers and matching red and gold bracelets and the smell of motor oil and… and a man with a goatee in a slightly worn down t-shirt… Tony Stark.

And just like that she realized that maybe, just maybe, it did make sense after all.

“Oh my God,” she gasped, “I'm Penelope Stark.”

“I'm afraid I'll have to report your discovery to Boss.” informed Friday.

“NO!” her da– Tony Stark could not know any of this… Piper was a curse to anyone who got too close, and she didn't think she could stand it if he or anyone close to him got hurt because of her… and what terrified her even more was the man's foreseeable reaction to whatever she had turned out to be… her last living relative (and her idol nonetheless)'s disappointment would've hurt worse than a bullet to the heart, “Please, you can't tell him!”

“I'm sorry Mini Boss,” said the AI, “but even though you have full clearance I can't follow your orders this time. I've been given specific instructions in the event of a situation like this taking place, not even Boss can overrule this protocol.”

“Hold up,” croaked the girl, a plan forming in her head, “your main purpose is to protect Mr. Stark, right?”

“All of Boss's AIs' main objective is to keep you safe, actually.”

Piper would've been lying if she said that this didn't make her feel a bit warm inside, it had been a long time since someone had made her feel protected and loved, but at the moment there were other issues at hand, and the imaginary lightbulb in her head had just lit up.

“Well… me being Penelope Stark puts a huge bull's eye on the back of my head, especially considering that I'm Spider-Man and the one villain who knows my identity has recently broken out of jail.”

“I see,” said Friday, sounding so done with her, “so you're suggesting I keep your secret until it is safe enough to reveal yourself.”

“Yep.” confirmed the distressed teenager, “You can't say anything about Penelope Stark or Piper Parker– actually, if anyone asks you about Piper Parker just say she doesn't exist.”

“I can do that.” the AI conceded.

“Do you promise?” urged Piper.

“...I promise.” replied Friday, letting out a sound that remarkably resembled a groan.

Piper sighed in relief before a horrible feeling of dread took over her system and the realization slowly downed on her.

She was Penelope Stark.

Chapter Text

As soon as the shock died down enough to allow her to stand, Piper was running.

She ran all the way through the upper labs, down the stairs, through the lobby and down the street.

She ran and ran and ran, never stopping to get as much as a breath.

She ran through crowds and busy roads and more crowds, clasping the two papers with the test results like a lifeline, until she finally stormed through her school's main entrance and bolted down the hallway towards the physics lab.

When she barged in the classroom everyone's eyes, including Mrs. Warren, Ned, MJ and Flash's turned to stare at her gasping form.

She didn't let the teacher utter as much as a word before she trudged towards her friends, looked at them with wide, panicked eyes and dragged them both out of the room and down the hallway towards the girl's bathroom at the very back that no one used, paying zero attention to Mrs. Warren's distant screams.

She slammed the door shut and leaned her back on it, gasping and choking on barely contained sobs, while her very confused and panicked friends did everything they could to calm her down.

“Piper!” hissed MJ, shaking her by the shoulders, “What the hell is going on?!”

“I– I–” Piper choked again, profusely shaking her head and burying her face in her hands.

“Shit,” muttered MJ, realization downing on her despite her sudden state of denial, “Ned, turn on the faucet.”

Ned startled at the sudden barked order but complied and they wasted no time in peeling Piper's hands away from her face and dunking them in the cold water that was beginning to pool in the sink.

“You're alright,” whispered Ned unsurely, he had never been good at this– his go-to tactic was distraction, but he couldn't really do that given his friend's too far gone state, “we're at school, in the bathroom and– and the weather's pretty nice– well it's as nice as January can get, well technically tomorrow February starts… holy shit it's February already– hold up where's your jacket–” he cut himself off at MJ's head shake, “I– I mean uh… it's a very fine Monday and uh–”

“You're alright,” comforted MJ as she glowered at Ned, “we can't help you if you don't tell us what's up, okay? Follow my breathing, alright?” she added, purposely taking deeper breaths to allow Piper to copy her.

When she was calm enough to look at her friends without breaking down, Piper gulped and wordlessly pointed at the two crumpled papers on the floor.

Her friends took this as a cue to check them and, as soon as they did, they froze as though someone had poured liquid nitrogen on them.

Ned stared at her, his eyes wide and his jaw on the floor. MJ stared too, but her gaze contained less shock and more… Concern? Wonder? Doubt? Worry? Maybe all of those together, she couldn't really tell at that moment.

Before anyone could say anything Piper heard the thundering of Mrs. Warren's and Mr. Morita's heavy steps on the distance and shot a worried look at the door, MJ seemed to get the hint and quickly stuffed the papers in her friend's pocket, crumpling them even further.

Not even a minute later the door opened with a loud bang and her physics teacher and the principal's angry eyes met the three teenagers' cowering gazes.

Piper ended up having to spend roughly forty minutes being told off by Morita while she was one breath away from another panic attack. She had somehow managed to get her friends to be let off with a warning, but ended up with a three day suspension and detention after school for the following two weeks and, as if she wasn't miserable enough already, the school also called Mr. Smith to pick her up, so now she was walking next to the seething man in absolute terror, the man looked like he was ready to murder her.

As soon as they were inside the apartment slaps and kicks and screams and insults and whimpers echoed across the walls and, as the man stormed out of the apartment after beating the shit out of her, a quivering and sniffling Piper was left with her legs drawn to her chest in a corner of the messy living room.

How could she be so pathetic? She was a superhero yet she couldn't even defend herself from some drunk bully… was she a superhero though? She certainly didn't feel like one at that moment: putting aside the ridiculous stunts she had pulled in the previous two weeks, she couldn't even save her own loved ones– she couldn't even save herself, for fuck's sake.

Then her phone rang and Piper picked up with a grimace, it was J. Jonah Jameson.

“Parker!” barked the man on the other side of the line, “It's been over two weeks! Where are my new pictures!”

“Mr. Jameson I– I'm so sorry,” she tried to defend, “something came up–”

“I DON'T CARE! If you don't get me some decent pictures in twenty-four hours you're fired!”

“You know what?” she suddenly snapped, everything was starting to become a little bit too overwhelming, “Fuck you. You're an asshole who cyberbullies people for profit and treats his employees like shit and underpays them. Oh and, by the way, you don't have to fire me because I quit.” and then she hung up and blocked his number.

Piper let out a laugh, it was dark and humourless. Mr. Smith and Flash were right.

She really was pathetic.

She didn't know how long she sat there, staring at the brown glass shards that reflected the light peering in from the courtains that separated the outside view from the inside, but it must've been a long while because when she snapped back to reality the sun was starting to set and MJ was calling her, which meant school was over.

“Yes?”

“Get to my house asap. No time to talk– you know why.” Ah right, ‘they have people everywhere’... so this was about Jefferson.

“I'll be there in ten.”

So, after getting out of the suit and heels (she opted to leave the makeup on, it did a good job at hiding the black eye Mr. Smith had most definitely given her) she swung towards MJ's dad's apartment.

As it turned out, MJ had spotted Jefferson in a live news report and Ned had tracked the location down, so they had ended up finding his penthouse, which was located in downtown Manhattan.

“This is it,” breathed Ned, “You'll sneak in the penthouse, download the data, then you'll give it to me and I'll create a folder with all the other stuff we have –except for your mom and aunt's letters– and I'll also include Karen's bodycam footage from when you raided the new lair and then we'll leak it.” he said excitedly, “I already created over a thousand accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube and Snapchat to spam the files all over the platforms and I could also hack Google AdSense so that all the ads on Google and YouTube will link the users directly to the files.”

“I have connections, I'll get every major news broadcast and podcast talking about this, as well as the newspapers and blogs and… we could also create a QR code that people can scan to get access to the data… we could print it out and drop flyers all over the city– you know what? I'll go buy some more printer paper.” announced MJ, smashing her piggy bank and taking two fifty dollar bills.

“You guys are forgetting something.” sighed Piper, “The Avengers broke my flash drive, and your flash drives can only contain a maximum of 32 and 180 gigabytes… that might not be enough.”

They were all silent for a moment before Ned gasped, looking like he had just discovered a new element, “We could use your burner phone– it's a StarkPhone, those have like 500 gigabytes of storage… and I could install Karen in there so she could send the data directly to us as she downloads it.”

“That's… holy shit Ned, you're a genius!” gasped Piper, pulling the burner phone out and switching it on.

Almost as soon as the phone was on, the Black Widow's ringtone started blasting and Piper groaned when in her hurry to decline the call she accidentally picked up instead.

“Spider-Man.” came the woman's cold and clipped voice.

“Holy shit,” mouthed Ned without actually using his voice, “she sounds pissed.”

MJ nodded solemnly as she gathered the remains of her piggy bank.

“Ms. Black Widow.” said Piper uncertainly, “What is it?”

“We want you at the Tower right now.” she almost barked and Piper's blood ran cold, perhaps ghosting the Avengers hadn't been a very good idea.

“I'm kind of in the middle of something right now. I'll be there when I'm done.” and promptly hung up.

“Dude!” hissed Ned and even MJ was looking at her like she was crazy, “What the hell!”

“Look, I just wanna get this over with.” she pleaded, handing him the phone, “Please.”

“Alright,” allowed MJ, taking the crumpled test results out of her pocket and handing them to Piper with a look that clearly said that they would be talking about those and the meltdown she had just witnessed, “let's get to work.”

As soon as Piper entered Jefferson's penthouse through the living room window, the hair at the back of her neck shot up and her sense started screaming at her.

She looked around, the place was– it was the fanciest place she had ever been in outside of the Tower, the wooden floor contrasted perfectly with the cream color of the walls and matched really well the darkness of the furniture.

Speaking of which, she noticed that Jefferson was in the room, fast asleep on the leather couch with his laptop rested in his lap. Fuck.

Well, at least he wasn't awake.

She tried to be as quiet as possible as she peeled the computer away from the man's clutches and scurried off to the kitchen area and began fumbling with the burner phone and the USB cable.

She had just connected the two devices when her sense buzzed and she found herself with a familiar glowy gun pointed at her head.

Chapter Text

“Well, well,” drawled Jefferson, “look who got caught in my web.”

Piper didn't move a muscle but she still snarled at him, that man was even more unlikeable up close. And his breath stank, ew.

“What? Not so impulsive anymore, are we?” he mocked, flexing the chitauri gun he was holding at her temple, “I suggest you remove that mask of yours, if you know what's good for ya.”

Piper didn't even slightly move though panic started building up in her, adding itself to her screaming sixth sense and before she could even think of an escape plan Jefferson yanked the mask off.

Hadn't Piper been absolutely terrified she would've savored the man's reaction a tiny bit more: his eyes were saucer wide, he had staggered back a fraction and dropped the gun in his shock.

This gave her enough time to kick the gun, causing it to slide all the way into the living room– which Jefferson didn't seem to like, if the decorative katana he had ripped off the wall and was now wielding was anything to go by.

She proceeded to spring on the ceiling, barely avoiding the sharp blade, and shot a web at the man's face, pulling and making him fall on one of the chairs.

“Karen?” she called as she dodged the katana a second time– and a third one.

“Fifty-seven percent.” replied Karen, catching Jefferson's attention.

“Oh no you don't!” the girl muttered as she webbed his back and threw him into the living room, webbing the door shut and tossing the katana out of the window.

She barely had the time to catch her breath before the door got blasted off its hinges… ah right, the chitauri gun had been in the living room.

Speaking of chitauri guns, she thought as she dodged a series of blasts by jumping around the room, she only knew one guy who made this kind of weapons– she recognized that specific weapon because the one that had almost vaporized her on the night of Liz's party had been identical.

She shook her head, throwing a vase at the man which caused him to fall and accidentally blow up some expensive looking painting. There was only one person who sold those guns and if a guy who lived in New York City had one… that meant Toomes was in the area as well.

Piper cursed under her breath, jumping on the man's back when he scrambled to blow the burner phone up, “Karen, how long?!”

“Ninety-seven percent, keep that fucker busy for another minute and we're good.” chirped her AI.

One minute, she could do that, she mused as she avoided another blast that ended up obliterating the TV. It had been a nice TV.

Piper managed to aim a well placed kick at the man's chest, which sent him flying to the other side of the room just as Karen announced that the download was complete.

Piper let out a breath, but her relief was short lived because soon after Jefferson was back and this time he managed to blow up the burner phone, his laptop and the table for good measure.

He seemed pretty content with his deed but Piper knew Ned and MJ probably had all the files already. Sometimes she just loved how oblivious evil people could be–

ZAP!

Piper's shrill scream echoed across the penthouse as Jefferson shot her in the back and she fell. She had managed to move aside at the last moment thanks to her Spider Sense but the laser beam had still grazed her below her left shoulder– at least she hadn't taken the blast at full force.

Taking a shuddering breath she scrambled back up and continued dodging as she bit back her pained hisses.

The fight went on for a while and moved throughout the entire apartment until the two enemies ended up in the kitchen again, where Piper finally managed to kick the gun out of Jefferson's hands and slam a frying pan on his head, knocking him out.

“Oh shit,” she gasped, clutching her chest, “fucking shit! We should've learned his daily routine before doing this.”

She quickly dialed Ned's phone number as she limped towards the living room (well, what was left of it anyways) and pulled her mask back on, not bothering with the voice changer.

“Ned did you get the data? Jefferson blew the burner phone up.”

“Yes we got it!” chirped Ned at the same time as MJ asked “What do you mean he blew it up?”

“Good and– uh turns out he sort of caught me in the act and tried to vaporize me with an alien gun.”

There were two sharp inhales.

“What? Are you saying that–”

“Yeah Ned, Toomes.” Piper said grimly.

This time there were two groans.

“I can't believe this!” moaned Ned, “We get rid of one guy and another guy pops up!”

There was a sound that resembled MJ hitting him in the face with a plastic bottle.

“Are you okay though? You didn't get hurt, right?” asked the girl in question.

“Don't worry,” assured Piper solemnly, “I'm perfectly fine.”

“Hm,” said MJ, sounding like she didn't believe a single word of what she had said, “alright, then go to the Tower and we'll sort everything out in the meantime, then when you're back we'll leak it.”

Piper frowned, “Why not do it while I'm at the Tower?”

MJ scoffed, “You have to be there too, duh.”

“Exactly,” Ned agreed, “we started this together and we're finishing this together.”

Piper smiled softly, she really had the best of friends, “Alright, see you later.”

She hung up, grabbed the weapon and clumsily swung towards Stark Tower.

Piper drummed her foot on the elevator's floor as she fumbled with the chitauri gun, she had a very bad feeling about this meeting and she didn't think she was ready to meet her d– Tony Stark yet. It hadn't even been twelve hours since she had found out the man was her f-father.

And Friday certainly wasn't helping.

“You're in deep shit this time,” informed the AI helpfully.

Piper scoffed, “Watch it, I'm still your Boss's daught– I mean– you still have to pay respect!”

“In order to keep your identity safe I mustn't treat you like I normally would, Mini Boss.”

“Don't call me that!” she hissed.

“Sure, Mini Boss.”

Whatever reply Piper had in store died on her lips when the elevator doors slid open and she found herself in Conference Room Number Six, in front of the entirety of the Avengers plus Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan.

To say they looked pissed was putting it mildly.

None of them looked relaxed in the slightest, in fact none of them were relaxed in the slightest. Almost nobody was even sitting, they were all on their feet looking as menacing as Toomes had looked when he had dunked her in that lake.

Piper had to suppress a shiver. Friday had been right, she was in deep shit.

On the opposite side of the room Pepper Potts was fixing her with one of the meanest glares Piper had ever had the misfortune of seeing, the Falcon, Vision, the Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye looked ready to apprehend her if she tried to run, Thor just looked betrayed, similar to Bruce Banner who was also looking a little green, Hogan had his hand over his pocket where he was unsuccessfully hiding a gun, the Black Widow was twirling a knife in her hand as he studied her darkly, Captain America was looking at her with narrowed eyes and flaring nostrils, the Winter Soldier was glowering as he flexed his metal arm and Colonel Rhodes, who was the only one who was sitting, was fixing her with a mean stare as he ensured his repulsor clad arm was visible.

However, no one was even close to looking as terrifying as Tony Stark.

Said man was standing in front of them all and he looked absolutely ready to strangle her.

Piper had to suppress another shiver, that look shouldn't have hurt as much as it did.

It had been a good idea to keep Penelope a secret, she thought, if the man looked so angry at her without even knowing her who knew how he'd react to her true self.

“Uhm sorry for taking so long… I got caught up with… something.” she said uneasily, putting the gun on the floor and lightly kicking it to make it slide towards the heroes.

“Chitauri weapons.” she elaborated as Steve picked up the object and inspected it.

When nothing but silence and more mean stares met her, she kept speaking, resting her hands on her hips “So uh… what's up?”

“What's up, you say?” spat Tony, making her flinch, “let's see. First of all you ghost us for over a week and yeah, perhaps we have been assholes but perhaps we wanted to apologize and perhaps, we might've needed you for a mission or something like that– how do you think we could reach you with the burner phone switched off?!” Piper couldn't help but snort humourlessly, the burner phone was pretty much gone for good now, “Now, we could've turned a blind eye on that but then this morning Friday announced out of the blue that you had, and I quote, ‘just left the building’.” he took a step closer, looking absolutely terrifying as he towered over her, “What the fuck were you doing in my building and how did you get in?!”

Piper stood there, frozen yet trembling at the same time.

She had told Friday not to mention Piper Parker or Penelope Stark, she had never said anything about Spider-Man.

“I– I can explain.” she couldn't. Friday had tricked her again and she had no idea how to get out of this one, she really was in deep shit.

“Well then it better be one hell of an explanation!” shouted Rhodey, flexing his armored arm dangerously as Thor shifted behind him, holding his hammer menacingly.

“Hell yeah.” muttered Tony, narrowing his eyes at her.

She couldn't do this anymore.

This was too much.

Everything was too much and she was starting to hyperventilate again and she was trembling and she wanted to cry and scream a-and– and–

“I– I– Friday! You said you wouldn't say anything.” she croaked, not even thinking before letting her mouth run.

Everyone was disoriented for a moment before Friday spoke, “You never said anything about Spider-Man. You just told me not to say anything about Mini Boss' whereabouts.”

And just like that, it was as though all the air had been sucked out of the room.

In less than a second everyone had some sort of weapon pointed at her and Tony was gripping her shoulders tightly. He looked outright murderous.

“What?!” he hissed.

Piper tried to hold back a whine but failed, the man's hand was right on her wound.

Tony didn't relent even a bit, his hold just increased in strength as much as his glare intensified, “Where is she?!”

Piper merely shook her head, tears making her vision go blurry.

Steve's threatening voice cut through the quiet, “You better start talking.” the 'or else' remaining unsaid.

More silence.

“Looks like I wasn't wrong about her after all.” Natasha said casually.

And Piper snapped.

She pushed Tony hard, making him stumble backwards and, hadn't Wanda held him up with her powers, he probably would've fallen.

“I can't do this anymore!” she yelled, it was shrill and pathetic, “I'm so done, with all of this and with all of you and I– I just can't do this anymore!”

She stumbled away from the elevator and past the baffled (but still fuming) heroes, turning around to face them as she took a shuddering breath.

“It's too much, I– I can't, this is– please stop. I haven't slept right in weeks and I'm all alone, I don't have anyone and you– you kept bugging me over and over and over again and then I found out about Penelope and I was all alone and I got suspended and that asshole Mr. Sm– he hurt me and my boss fired me and the human trafficking guy tried to kill me and I'm holding everything in and I can't do it, I can't do it, I CAN'T DO IT.”

She stopped just a second, breathing in great huffs as she glared at them underneath her mask, her mind running a mile a minute, her lips speaking on impulse rather than conscious thought, as rage, pain, anger, sadness, desperation and frustration all welled up within her, bundling together in a horrible wave of wild emotion that came crashing down on them all, all at once.

"You wanna know where Penelope Stark is?!” She shrieked, so loudly that her voice nearly shattered, her fists clenching tightly and her breath gasping like a building hurricane, “Guess what! She's right in front of you, because I am Penelope Stark!”

The most shocked of all silences seemed to take over the room, sucking all kind of sound out, barring the gasps of horror that introduced it. Mjölnir hit the ground with a thud as Thor's mouth fell open, and next to him Bruce had gone stock still, studying the vigilante with an aghast expression. He still looked green, but now it was in an entirely different way.

Rhodey slowly rose from his seat, mouth slightly parted as he looked at her with a dumbstruck expression, Pepper covered her mouth with her hands, choking on a sob, and Happy, pale and wide eyed, staggered back like he had been hit.

On their far right Steve had straightened up, his expression a mix of horror and absolute incredulity, similarly to Bucky and Sam, who were gaping next to him.

Wanda's hands had dropped to her side and she stood there frozen, her face blank with shock. Next to her, even Vision was looking surprised.

Clint sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes widening and his arms going limp, similarly to Wanda's. Next to him Natasha was horribly pale, her eyes wide and her teeth clenching to keep her jaw from quivering.

And Tony… Tony stood stock still, unmoving, his eyes wide and his breath catching in his throat with a hiss. He looked like the entire universe had been violently ripped apart all around him and slammed in his face at the speed of light.

He simply stared as shock washed over him like a freezing river, his heart, which had seemed to stop, was now beating so violently against his rib cage that he felt as though he was having a heart attack in reverse.

Horror washed over him as he realised that he was still aiming his repulsor at her, yanking his arm back and sending the bit of tech flying away from his limb like it was the most disgusting thing he’d ever touched. He turned back to the vigilante— the kid…his kid, whom they had been antagonizing for the past week. Only then did he start to notice how small she really was. His heart clenched painfully as he recalled all the horrible injuries she had suffered and all the horrifying stories she had recounted (which, with this newfound knowledge, were even more horrifying). He studied her trembling form, she looked so terrified and so pained and he just wanted to wrap his arms around her, kiss her forehead and protect her for the rest of eternity.

His baby was there. His sweet dearest Penny was alive and she was there. She’d been around all this time. And she’d been risking her life all over the place for years. And she was looking absolutely terrified, and he couldn’t blame her one bit. He took a deep breath, bile rising in his throat, as he ran his eyes over her. She was in shock, frozen like a glass statue but trembling like she was being wrecked by the most violent earthquake. Her hands had flown to her mouth as soon as she’d uttered the words, and he would’ve bet that her eyes were wide behind those big white lenses, which used to conceal a whole identity, but now concealed so much more than that, so much more... Were her eyes still as big and as doey as they used to be? Had the mutation changed her physical appearance? Was her smile still as radiant as the brightest star in the sky? And her laughter like the sun in the daylight?

His attention went back to the present situation, and his eyes softened as they held the sight of her, his heart swelling with love.

"Are you?" he murmured, his voice a soft whisper as he took a few steps towards her.

"I–I..." she stuttered, backing into the wall and flinching when her injured back made contact.

“Are you?” Tony asked again, his gentle voice holding a slight sense of urgency, studying her trembling form in disbelief. No fucking way.

“I– I–” as she tried to reply her voice was tiny and fragile, and she had to attach her left hand to the wall to avoid sliding down, while her right hand inched towards her pocket, “I… I a-already told you about the human trafficking ring and how me and my fr– my friends found some leads and… and then we edited some aged up pictures and they looked like me and I didn't believe it so I snuck in and took some DNA tests– I have them here,” she mentally smacked herself as she held it out, why was she trying to prove it?! “Please, t-take them.”

Tony wordlessly approached her, keeping his soft, incredulous eyes on her mask, and took the papers and uncrumpled them, breathing in sharply as he inspected them.

“Th–they're legit, you can ask Friday about it– I mean they don't look legit because they're all ripped and crumpled and stuff but I promise you they're legit, I wouldn't be lying about this I swear and I can give you my hair or something but we don't have to I mean I don't wanna be a bother and–”

“Oh sweetheart,” Tony cut her off softly, doing his best to keep his voice from wobbling. His baby, his baby was really there, "is it really you?”

Piper hesitated, hugging herself, looking even smaller like that. She eventually shrugged.

"Were have you been all these years? Are you safe? You mentioned so many things... oh Penny, I'm so sorry. I will make it all okay, I promise." He said, his voice like the gentlest caress, as he took a step closer, which Piper matched with a step back, hitting the wall again and hissing in pain. Tony frowned.

“That's not my name…” mumbled Piper, avoiding his gaze, shrinking against the wall as she hugged herself tighter.

“What is your name then?” he prompted sadly, looking directly at the mask like he was gazing at the most wonderful thing he'd ever seen.

Piper ducked her head, biting her lower lip, which was quivering. "I don't think you wanna know, Mr. Stark... I'm not– I'm not the kind of person who deserves that kind of attention, I'm a little bit of a mess." She said with dark humour, her voice wavering towards the end.

Tony's expression soured, "You– how can you say something like that about yourself–" he noted her shaking shoulders and subsequently picked up on her small, soft sobs, "Oh honey. I'm so sorry about everything you've been through, you must've gone through so much. I'll make it right, I'll make it all right. I promise..."

“No.” she said suddenly, bringing her hands up to her face, “No, no, no, no, no– this is bad. You're not supposed to– oh my gosh this is so bad.”

Tony frowned, as did a few others, “Why not?” he asked, his voice still that gentle caress that made Piper want to curl up in a bundle and cry her eyes out because of how loving it felt.

“Because– because you– I– we… w-we can't.” her breath hitched and Tony stepped closer.

“Hey, hey, hey, honey. First of all I need you to calm down. Can you do that for me? Hm?” he murmured, his voice so soft he barely sounded like himself, “We'll discuss everything later, but right now you need to br–”

“There's nothing to discuss!” shouted the teenager, pushing herself off the wall and walking past as she rambled on, “This is bad,” she cried, burying her face in her hands, “right now I'm not even supposed to be here… this is so bad.”

When Piper was met by silence she looked up and, with growing dread, she realized that everyone was focused on the huge blood stain on the wall.

“Oh shit!” Tony cursed, ripping his eyes away from his blood stained hand and quite literally running over to her. Piper went rigid at his closeness, they had never been so close before. She could smell the blend of motor oil and cologne on him as he looked her over, hissing as he spotted the blasted gash on her back, “You're injured!”

“It's not too bad,” she mumbled, nodding at the gun in Steve's hand, “some guy tried to vaporize me with that thing, but I dodged–”

There were several sharp inhales and she grimaced.

“WHAT?!” yelled Tony sounding almost manic, “What do you mean— someone tried to vaporize you?!”

“I'm alright! I hit him in the head with a frying pan, he's out cold,” Steve and Rhodey's jaws dropped, the way she had said that so casually was fairly concerning, but Piper didn't notice and just waved her arm about for emphasis, “I've been in way worse situations!” Pepper made a weird choking noise, “Like once the Vulture guy dunked me in a lake after some other dude tried to vaporize while he was dragging me around on the road with his truck! This is nothing!”

Tony looked one second away from a heart attack, his face was ashen.

Sam winced, “Kid, I don't think you realize this, but you're not helping your case right now.”

Piper groaned, still shaking from head to toe, her voice equally shaky as she spoke, “Look, can we please just act like today never happened? I promise it's better for everyone's sake.”

Tony looked repulsed by the mere idea, “Sweetheart, that’s out of the question.” he said, his voice back to being gentle, but with a certain hardness to it.

“I don't think we can do that, kid.” Rhodey said almost at the same time, several Avengers nodding in agreement.

Piper gulped and took a step back, shaking her head as she almost backed into someone, she didn't quite register who it was in her panic.

Tony matched the action with a step forward, picking up on her rising panic, "Baby, please, just let me take care of you, I'm your–"

"I really am a mess." She mumbled, struggling to keep herself upright and to maintain a steady voice. "It's better for all involved if you just pretend that you never found out. Trust me, it's for your own good."

Tony looked like someone had punched him in the gut, but before he could even form a response, Piper squared her shoulders and shot a web at the ceiling, her eyes zeroing in on a very distinct point over his shoulders.

“TONY! THE WINDOW!” screamed Natasha, as Piper zipped through the air at breakneck speed, dodging Thor’s attempt to catch her leg, swinging towards the windows as she built her momentum and–

SMASH!

Pepper’s horrified screech bounced off the walls as glass shards flew in all directions, and not even a second later Tony was jumping out of the smashed window, yelling for Friday to deploy his suit as Cap's distant voice shouted a string of commands.

Hours and hours of relentless searching followed, but his kid was nowhere to be found.

A few minutes later a hyperventilating Piper fell through MJ's open window.

“Oh shit Piper! What happened?!” demanded Ned, grabbing her by the zip up hoodie she had thrown on to hide her injured back.

“He knows.” she hissed, “He knows I'm Penelope.”

“WHAT?!”

Piper ran a hand over her face and took a deep breath, “I told him I– I don't know what was up with me, I spoke without thinking I–”

“Why are you saying it like it's a bad thing?” asked MJ as she handed her a glass of water that she quickly gulped down, “Stark's your father. I might have my personal issues with the man's ethics but he seems like an okay guy, especially compared to that Smith dude– Nuh uh, I don't wanna hear it. Ned and I both know that this man is abusive, we don't know the extent but we know he's an asshole.”

Piper winced, “I need a while to process everything, so much happened and honestly I still haven't had the time to deal with it… please let's just focus on the data for now.”

Ned and MJ looked at each other knowingly, they were getting nowhere with that any time soon.

“Fine,” sighed MJ, “it's your choice after all, but I wholeheartedly disapprove.”

“Same…” Ned nodded, then shook his head, “Let's just get to work...”

MJ nodded and pointed to a section of the floor near the bed, where several ridiculously large piles of printer paper were, “I just finished printing them, you'll swing around the city and just drop them everywhere.”

Piper nodded, grabbing a small stack while MJ continued her speech, “Ned and Karen are gonna take care of the internet and I…” she smirked, “I have a few phone calls to make.”

In the meantime at the Tower everyone was going haywire.

“Tony!” screamed Rhodey, who still had some web residue on his face, stopping the man in question from punching the screen where yet another terribly smudged and unusable picture of a supposedly aged up Penny had just loaded, “You need to calm d–”

“How can I fucking calm down, Rhodey? My kid's the vigilante we've basically been antagonizing since the day we met her– she didn't even want me to know she's Penny and when we found out she had a massive meltdown and threw herself out of the window of one of the tallest fucking buildings on the planet and now she's nowhere to be found, the burner Nat gave her has apparently been destroyed and not even my omniscient fucking AI can do anything to help, look at that picture for fuck's sake!”

“I know, I know this is crazy but freaking out isn't gonna fix anything!”

“He's right, Tony,” said Steve, “we need to stay calm.”

“That's easy for you to say, Rogers! You haven't just found out the one person you've been searching for over a decade has been right in front of you all this time! And all those things she said! not being able to sleep and being hurt by some guy and being fired from her job– she fucking swings around in a spandex suit, risking her life every day!” the color drained from his face, “When we went to Vegas she– she was full of burns, she literally swung head first into a fire and then came with us anyways like it's a normal occurrence to have third degree burns all over her body... She–she's my fucking baby, Cap! My baby, for whom I've been looking for thirteen years! Do you have any idea how this feels as a parent?!” Clint grimaced understandingly, “And oh God, we pointed our weapons at her– I put my hand on her wound, a-and, oh god," he choked out, the word sounding almost like a gag, "we hurt her so much. I hurt her so, so much... This," he raised his blood-stained hand, "is her blood– my poor baby, that must've hurt so bad and she must've been so so scared... And Friday– FRIDAY! Why haven't you told me about this?!”

“I promised l wouldn't.”

“You pr–”

“Hold on, wasn't she born in 2001?” Bucky asked suddenly.

Wanda got a horrified look on her face “Stark, how old–”

“Sixteen.” the billionaire replied darkly.

“My God,” mumbled Natasha remorsefully, “she's a baby.”

“Stop that.” snapped Tony, noticing her tone, “You didn't know and you thought you were doing what was right.”

Thor nodded solemnly, “Tony is right, Natasha. You thought she had been plotting against us and did what you thought was best in order to ensure our safety. You had noble intentions.”

Natasha remained silent, while Happy groaned in frustration.

“There's nothing useful on the CCTV– it's like it has been wiped!”.

Sam snorted from where he was studying the city's skyline by the window, “I wouldn't put it past her, she is Stark's kid after all.”

Everyone was brought to a halt when the door to the common room slammed open and Fury, accompanied by Maria Hill and a few other agents, strutted in.

“Heard the news?” asked Clint, looking up from the camera footage he was inspecting with Happy.

The director stopped, looking at the group gravely, “Which news?”

“Which news?” echoed Tony as he ran a hand over his face, looking borderline hysterical, “the ones about my daughter being Spider-Man, dipshit!”

“Ah those.” Fury said simply.

“Did something else happen?” questioned Natasha, looking at him quizzically.

Fury simply sighed, suddenly looking ten years older, “You might wanna turn on the TV.”

“Friday?” called Bruce uncertainly and the AI obliged without a word.

The room was suddenly filled with dozens of holographic screens that displayed numerous social media posts, news broadcasts, articles, files, photos, videos and so on, and their contents caused several jaws to drop.

The larger screen displayed a live stream of Spider-Man swinging across Time's Square as she dropped hundreds of flyers in her passing.

On the other broadcasts the journalists were all freaking out over the ridiculous amount of data the vigilante had allegedly leaked, which exposed a human trafficking ring that had been active since the mid nineties and that had thousands of minions disguising as employees of thousands of different companies that included SI, Facebook, several newspapers and broadcasts, and even several FBI, CIA and SHIELD agents and cops had apparently been masking the actions of one Roland Jefferson, who they were happy to see being dragged out of his half destroyed penthouse sporting a scowl and a large bump on his head.

There were also several reports on Tony and on how Obadiah Stane had orchestrated Penny's disappearance all those years ago, causing countless journalists and people on social media to start wondering whether he had also been responsible for the shit show in 2008 and if Penelope was still alive.

A smaller screen showed a group of women and girls talking about how Spider-Man had saved them a week prior and another one showed two run down warehouses, one in the city and one in the middle of the desert.

“Holy shit,” breathed Pepper, voicing everyone's thoughts, “that's– that's–”

“Impressive to say the least.” said Fury, he himself looking faintly surprised, “She's even worse than you guys.” he added as he glanced at Steve, Natasha and Tony, his tone almost... proud?

Tony couldn't bring himself to utter a single word as amazed and startled mutters started breaking out.

He simply stared wide eyed at the plethora of screens, his heart filling with emotion. Everything else could wait for a moment, for now he just wanted a split second to bask in all the love and affection and pride he was feeling, his eyes gazing at the screen as though it were an oasis in the desert.

That was his kid.

Chapter Text

Needless to say that no one had slept that night.

Well, most of the Avengers had decided to take turns between searching the internet, searching the city and sleeping, but no one had gotten nearly enough rest.

Tony obviously hadn't gotten any rest at all. The only 'breaks' from his erratic searching had been the occasional panic attacks over his kid risking her life, potentially being tested on for years and the fact that, judging by what she had said, wherever she was now wasn't safe.

By the time noon rolled around they had gotten exactly nowhere.

They had tested the blood Spider-Man had left behind and even though there were some mutations (which Bruce would've been way more excited about, had the circumstances been different) her DNA was without any shadow of a doubt a match. However, except for that they had found nothing, nada.

Not even Friday had figured anything out. It was as though she was somehow blocked, but the Avengers knew that that was impossible, though a few of them were starting to have some doubts.

They were all caught up in their work, Thor having just returned from his flight over the city in hopes of spotting the red and blue vigilante, when the emergency alarm started ringing.

“The Vulture and his team have been spotted on 34th Street and are now in the midst of attacking buildings, vehicles and civilians in the area.” announced Friday.

They all shared a look.

“I think the best approach is to cover all bases.” supplied Steve.

“So we split?” asked Bruce, earning a nod in response.

“I'm going.” said Tony almost immediately, rushing out of the room to get his suit of armor before anyone could object. He had a bad feeling about this, given the villain's history with a certain vigilante.

On the other side of town Piper wasn't having a very good morning.

Since she couldn't go to school because of her suspension she had decided to spend the morning job hunting, which had turned out to be harder than expected.

Some interviewers had accepted a copy of her CV but she doubted they would be calling her back any time soon, if at all.

Also, the fact that the Avengers had been flying over the city all day and all night looking for her vexed her.

First of all it was anxiety inducing and did they really think she wouldn't notice them? Then again, the Avengers had never been known for being discreet… in fact they were infamous for the exact opposite.

As if she wasn't having it bad enough already, the media outlets (who had scarfed down the leaked data like starving wolves) were starting to catch up on the superheroes' strange behavior and therefore everyone who had access to the internet was coming up with all kinds of theories on the matter, Penelope Stark being in the center of them all.

She shook her head in exasperation and took a bite of her sandwich, then Mr. Delmar's radio announced that the vulture guy was attacking New York.

With an audible groan that caught several people's attention, she rewrapped the sandwich, slung her backpack over her shoulder and headed to the nearest alley to put her suit on, bidding Mr. Delmar goodbye on her way out.

Steve, Natasha, Tony, Vision, Sam and Wanda ended up taking part in the mission while the others stayed at the Tower, either on standby, sleeping or looking for any traces of Penny.

The Vulture, who was sporting his creepy wingsuit rather proudly, had brought a few lackeys with him and they had been in the midst of blowing up several cars when the Quinjet touched down.

The fight went on for a little over ten minutes before things got sour, Vision and Wanda doing their best to get rid of the consequences of some weird black hole grenades going off on the sidewalk while Sam and Tony circled the area, either taking civilians out of the way or trying to get a blow at the vulture guy, while Steve and Natasha engaged in hand on hand combat with his two lackeys, avoiding the laser beams and sonic blasts shot at them with some minor struggles.

Then the Vulture activated some sort of contraption that put Wanda, Steve and Vision out of action by releasing some sort of high frequency sound wave that messed with their enhanced abilities or systems (in Vision's case).

Suddenly a spider web shot through the air and stuck itself to the machine, pulling it away and smashing it against a wall.

Everyone whipped their head in the direction the web had come from and where Spider-Man was perched on top of a traffic light, pointedly avoiding the Avengers' stunned gazes as she raised her hands to cup her mouth.

“Hey birdy!” screamed the vigilante and, hadn't it been for his suit holding him in a standing position, Tony would've probably collapsed, “Didn't your mom teach ya that attacking some random civilians is rude?!”

One of the minions snarled and shot a laser beam at her, which she easily dodged as Tony (who was baffled beyond shock by his daughter causally chattering during a situation like that) shot the man's armor clad chest, knocking him over as the gun fell out of his reach.

“Well well,” drawled Toomes, ruffling his metal wings, “look who joined the party.”

Piper made a weird shrugging motion and webbed his arm, “Spoiler alert: your parties suck! I mean this is the worst party I've ever been to– woahhh!”

Tony's heart leapt in his throat as Toomes took off, dragging his kid along with him as he climbed up the atmosphere and, after a moment of stunned silence, he diverted all power to his repulsors and shot through the air, quickly catching up with the two ascending silhouettes as Vision and Sam flew after him, Steve and Nat continuing to fight the two lackeys in the meantime.

Meanwhile Piper was royally terrified. She hadn't signed up to do this dance again and this time the man had dragged her way higher than he had on the night the lake situation had taken place. And there was no lake this time, which meant that if he let her go there wouldn't be anything to cushion her fall that time.

“D-Dude let me go– ACTUALLY NO NEVERMIND DO NOT LET GO OH MY GOSH!”

Toomes simply kept flying.

When the sound of Iron Man's repulsors got closer the man finally spoke.

“We need to have a conversation. This afternoon at five, you know where.”

And then he expelled the part of his suit her web was attached to.

Piper shrieked as she free fell from the sky, picking up Tony's horrified scream as she shot past him.

“Oh shit! Shitshitshitshit! This is it, this is how I die!”

“Piper, you need to calm down!” Karen ordered suddenly through her earpiece, “Take a deep breath and shoot your webs at Iron Man and the Falcon, their distance and the angle should give you enough momentum to swing yourself towards the buildings. To avoid any major impacts you'll need to shoot your web and perfectly hit the grape graffiti on that building's wall and hit the parallel point on the opposite building as well.”

Piper frowned as she took in the spots Karen had mentioned, who in the world would spray paint grapes?

Meanwhile above her Tony, Sam and Vision were rushing through the air at a record breaking speed.

“FRIDAY DIVERT MORE POWER TO THE REPULSORS!”

“I'm sorry sir, the repulsors have reached maximum power capacity.”

He cursed loudly, barking commands over the intercom.

“Sam! Viz! Go faster, she's gonna hit the ground!”

“I can't go faster than this– uhmpf! What the hell–”

As Sam's surprised sputtering crackled in everyone's earpiece, Tony felt a sudden external force pull at his chest and he looked down to see that his kid had attached her web to his and Sam's chests and had swung herself down, using the momentum to change her trajectory.

Piper dived towards the grape building at a slower but still ridiculously fast speed and gritted her teeth as she aimed her web shooters at the spots Karen had indicated. This was gonna hurt.

Thwip!

She howled as she felt her shoulder blade pop out and she hit the ground ungracefully, several cries of worry following her impact.

She quickly looked up to see Tony, Vision, Sam, Nat and Steve closing in, the criminals forgotten and, as she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood she popped her shoulder back in place.

Taking a deep breath before swinging away rapidly, using her good arm to swing after securing her injured one to her side with some webbing.

When she reached the alley and put her clothes on over the suit she couldn't help but grimace, partially because of the excruciating pain she was in and partially because she knew exactly what location Toomes had meant.

“And then she just popped her shoulder back in place and left!” conveyed Tony in despair, running a hand over his forehead.

As soon as they had gotten back to the Tower they were dismayed to find out that nothing had changed, no new information at all had been found, so they had spent the entire afternoon looking for any traces of Penny with little to no success as Tony recounted that day's events over and over again with barely contained anxiety.

Speaking of anxiety, had he been any less horrified Tony would've been way more impressed by the stunt his kid had pulled to save herself, that had been no easy feat.

By now Rhodey was way past trying to calm the man down, especially considering that he himself was starting to panic (and he was also tired as fuck) so he just refrained from speaking as he nodded and pretended to listen to his best friend's rants.

“The Vulture's on the move.” announced Natasha as she studied her laptop's display causing everyone (except for Wanda, Sam, Bucky, Thor, Pepper, Happy and Bruce, who were either asleep or elsewhere) to per up in curiosity.

“How would you even know?” asked Steve, mildly concerned but not surprised.

“I shot a tracker at his shoe when everyone else was busy gaping at Spider-Man.” she said casually, “Looks like he's at some warehouse in Queens. According to the data I have found, this building collapsed on the night he attempted to hijack your plane.”

Tony hummed as dread began to pool in his stomach and the other occupants of the room shared knowing looks.

Cap got that righteous look on his face as he got to his feet, “Okay so–”

“I'm going!” announced Tony loudly, stopping when several concerned looks were sent his way, “Look, I have a bad feeling about this. Something's telling me I should go.”

Rhodey nodded in resignation, folding his arms, “Alright, I'll come too though.”

And that was how Tony, Rhodey, Natasha, Steve and Clint had ended up in front of a warehouse under reconstruction.

”You two shouldn't have come,” muttered Natasha as she glared at Tony and Rhodey, annoyance obvious in her tone, “your suits are way too noisy. We barely know how this guy fights, we need the element of surprise.”

“He might not even be in the building.” grumbled Rhodey.

She raised an imperious eyebrow, “How do we know that for certain?”

Tony cleared his throat, “Friday? Scan the area for any heat signatures, will ya?”

"No heat signatures have been detected in the immediate vicinity, Boss.”

The man's faceplate lifted and he flashed a cocky smile that earned him a scoff and several eye rolls.

“We still need to be discreet,” said Clint matter of factly, “this guy makes alien weapons for a living. I wouldn't put it past him to build an alien robot to guard the area for… intruders.”

Tony rolled his eyes, “Oh shut it, birdbrain–”

“No you shut it–”

“Stop it, all of you!” snapped Steve, “We're here to arrest a dangerous individual with enhanced gear, not to play around like preschoolers. C'mon, let's just get in.”

The duo huffed and followed their teammates inside.

The warehouse was rundown alright.

From the outside they could spot a few scaffolds and several suspicious marks, but it was nothing compared to the inside of the building.

The warehouse was almost completely empty, save for a few pieces of machinery that lay on a workbench on the opposite side of the large room. The floor was scorched and full of cracks and each of the four walls was covered by a lair of scaffolding.

Not far from the workbench the Vulture's suit was perched on some sort of landing pad with multiple mechanic claws similar to the ones Tony had used to assemble his earlier suits.

“C'mon,” ushered Natasha, “let's hide and see what happens.”

And so they did.

The sun had just set when a car pulling up in the parking lot could be heard and they all held their breath.

A minute later Adrian Toomes in all his criminal glory strutted in with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder which he emptied upon reaching the workbench, revealing several guns that he proceeded to leave there as he turned around to stare at the entrance, tapping his foot on the ground as he looked completely maniacal.

About half an hour later they heard the distinct sound of sneakers tapping on asphalt.

Toomes straightened up and got a terrifying grin on his face, waiting till the steps came to a stop before speaking.

“Piper Parker, it's so good to see you!”

The Avengers shared bewildered and dumbfounded looks as each studied the newest addition to the room: it was a girl, a really young one, and her presence had Tony's stomach doing a set of flips because there was only one girl on the planet who had any business in that place, especially looking as pissed as that one looked.

She was short and pale, her oversized hoodie and baggy jeans making her look even tinier, her big brown Bambi eyes looked so young yet so scarred and her pouty lips and chubby cheeks did absolutely nothing to make her look older, and her hair – a shoulder length chocolate brown mop of messy curls – it gave her such a childlike feel… there was no way this kid was a day older than sixteen.

Tony studied her attentively. Piper, huh? The name suited her.

If they were feeling uneasy before, the minute voice that replied hit them like a truck.

“Can't say the same. What do you want?”

Tony's breath caught in his throat as Rhodey mouthed a 'no fucking way', while Natasha and Steve tensed and Clint's hold on his bow tightened, their eyes widening drastically.

The voice was higher pitched and less muffled than the one they had come to associate with Spider-Man, but the similarities were blatantly obvious.

Hah, similarities, there were no similarities: it was the same fucking voice.

Tony shook his head when Steve motioned to intervene, he needed to be sure before they did anything.

Toomes giggled unsettlingly and clapped his hands, “My, my, someone's a bit irritated today.”

Piper rolled her eyes, it seemed like this man had gone completely crazy, “You almost killed me more times than I can count and you suddenly requested an audience in one of the very places you almost succeeded in doing that. Why would I be anything other than irritated?”

The girl frowned at the sound of several heartbeats in the vicinity and briefly looked around before meeting Toomes' gaze again.

“You brought backup?” she scoffed, cupping her ear as she pretended to strain her enhanced hearing, “Too wimpy to take me on by yourself? How many people is that– one, two– five people?”

This had Tony's heart rate picking up, Steve and Clint looking down, Nat narrowing her eyes and Rhodey swearing under his breath, a normal girl shouldn't have been able to hear that.

Toomes just laughed, “Damn kid, you really have gone crazy–”

“Look who's talking–”

“Seems like that stray bullet to your aunt's chest had you going loony, huh?”

This shut her up, her fists clenching and her arms shaking with unleashed rage as her brain began wrapping itself around the possible reasons why Toomes had so much knowledge on her aunt's death.

Meanwhile the Avengers were silent as they watched the scene unravel with bated breath.

“How do you know about that?!” she hissed venomously, panic and anger building inside of her, “You were in jail.”

Toomes tutted, “My, my, Piper. You don't actually believe her death was accidental, do you?” he took her silence as a cue to continue while she bared her teeth to keep herself from shaking, “I did warn you that night.”

Piper's breath hitched, and the dread Tony was feeling grew. Natasha, Clint and Steve shared a serious look while Rhodey just stared at her.

By now it was pretty obvious who she was, yet no one seemed to be able to believe it without solid proof.

Piper gulped back a shocked sob, “You– don't tell me that you–”

“I'm the one who killed May,” the man announced proudly, causing the girl's legs to almost give up and the Avengers to shift uneasily and somewhat apprehensively, though they were stiff with anticipation for Piper's reaction, they just needed proof, “well, I didn't directly kill her. I did pay someone to do it though.” he added smugly.

When the girl didn't say anything and just stayed rooted in place, trembling with rage and glaring with dark hatred at the man, he laughed.

“Aww, poor little Piper Parker doesn't know what to do,” he taunted, trying hard to get a reaction out of her, “her auntie's dead and poor orphan Parker is all alone and doesn't even know how to react!”

Steve's nostrils flared in obvious disgust at the man's horrible words, Clint's expression almost mirroring his, Natasha took hold of one of her widow bites as she frowned murderously and Rhodey did a double take as he held back a snarl. Tony just stood there wide eyed: had he just heard the word 'orphan'?

When the man's words finally registered through her barrier of pain and grief Piper saw red.

Right then and there she didn't know anything else, only rage. It was as though something deep inside of her had finally cracked and all the emotions she had bottled up in the past months came back to her like a hurricane and clawed at her insides like fire, and she knew nothing else. Just flaming, pure, angry rage.

There was a beat of silence and everyone held their breath, then a roar of fury echoed across the building as Piper lunged.

Rhodey gasped.

Tony's arc reactor flickered.

Chapter Text

Hadn't she been so blinded by rage perhaps Piper would've noticed the whirring of mechanisms and the shifting motions in the scaffoldings but she was too far gone to care about anything other than ripping Toomes apart limb by limb. She didn't even care about her throbbing shoulder, which hadn't fully healed yet, there was only one thing on her mind: rage.

The man rushed to his wingsuit but Piper's web got there first and the object was snatched away from him and tossed at the opposite wall, causing some of the scaffolds to collapse.

She slowly, menacingly, turned back around with narrowed eyes. She was shaking with fury and gritting her teeth so hard it almost hurt.

Almost.

The anger boiling inside of her hurt more… she couldn't believe what the man had done, he– he had killed her aunt May, he had put Piper in the misery she was in, he had caused her to end up all alone and he had taken the life of the person who had least deserved it. It was all his fault.

The couple of seconds it had taken her to muse cost her dearly, because in the time she had wasted with her ponderings, Toomes had pulled some sort of remote control out of his pocket: he pressed a button on it which made the suit start again.

Piper, who was still attached to it by her web, got yanked away and ended up being thrashed all over the room, into the scaffolds, on the floor, on the ceiling, on the desk (which broke with a big crash), all this while yelling at the top of her lungs. Then there was a sudden panicked shout and a familiar circular shield flew across the air and bounced off her web.

Had she been any less angry she would've stopped to react or at least to think, to process what had just happened and what it meant, to realize it was Tony Stark who had screamed and to understand whose shield that was, but there was no calming down. There was only anger and the man who had caused it and Piper had a feeling that said anger needed to be released before it tore her apart from the inside out.

They fought for a long time, or perhaps for just a few minutes, Piper didn't really know, she wasn't really registering anything but her own anger.

Everything from Toomes closing in, to the bullets and arrows zooming through the air, to the shouts and screams and whirring of mechanisms, to the sound of repulsors, to the webs she shot and jumps and acrobacies she made was a blur. It was as though her mind had checked out long ago and left the reins to her fury and her fury alone. Had she had any trace of lucidity she would've been scared of herself.

When her brain checked back in she found herself standing in the middle of the warehouse breathing hard and fast, her fists were clenched hard, her fingernails digging in her palms and drawing blood, she had several gashes on her arms and legs, there was a small trickle of blood flowing down the side of her head and she was pretty certain she had cracked a rib or two. Before her vision had completely gone back in focus she gasped at the sight of Toomes (who had at some point gotten back in his wingsuit) passed out on the ground before her.

Choking on a panicked sob she rushed to crouch next to him, placing two fingers on the side of his neck, desperately looking for a pulse as she muttered a series of “Pease don't be dead”s and “Oh my god I just killed someone”s.

When she found a pulse she let out a great sigh of relief and ran a shaky hand over her face. As her palm reached her forehead her sense finally alerted her of the presence of several people behind her and she quickly whirled around, toppling into a seated position as she gasped again.

In front of her, on the opposite side of the room, stood War Machine, the Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America and, most importantly, Iron Man.

The latter hovered for a moment before freezing and landing with a loud thud and lifting his faceplate.

Tony was flabbergasted. His kid, his– his angel had basically been beaten half to death by that monster of a man after finding out he had murdered someone she cared about and not only was she still able to put him out – while being heavily injured from precious events no less – but she even worried about his well being in the end. Just how good could that kid be?!

They held each other's gazes for a long, slow moment before Piper tore her eyes away from those that looked so much like hers and ran.

She ran and ran and ran, not even stopping for air. She didn't think she could stop without collapsing and breaking down.

She heard them closing in not far behind her as she sped up and disappeared in an alley a few blocks away from her school. She waited for them to pass by and then swung to Mr. Smith's apartment.

She stormed into the apartment and slammed the door shut behind her.

This time she had done it: the Avengers had her name, surname and they knew what she looked like, they were probably on their way there already.

Why did she even keep running? Up until a few days prior it had been her dream to be loved and wanted– no.

There was no way Stark would've wanted someone like her, especially once he saw what she was really like. And she wouldn't allow him to end up like the Parkers because of her, because in the end it was Piper who had caused them to die.

She backed into the wall and covered her eyes with her forearm, a mantra of my fault, my fault, my fault echoing in her head. It was all her fault.

"PARKER!" came the loud bellowing voice accompanied by the banging of Smith's bedroom door as the man stepped in sight and closed in menacingly.

Piper flinched violently as the first punch landed on her face, the pain, added to the agony she was already in, too great to take much notice of the disgusting smell of whiskey that accompanied his barks.

Smith didn't stop there, the blows kept coming and coming.

"I!" punch "NEVER!" kick "WANNA!" slap "SEE YOU AGAIN, YOU LITTLE FREAK!" he roared, grabbing her by the shoulders and yanking her across the room.

Piper whimpered as she crashed into a piece of furniture she couldn't see due to all the stars and black spots occupying her vision, and barely dodged a glass bottle that flew her way and exploded against the wall next to her head.

"You worthless waste of space!" Smith raged, stomping closer and grabbing her by the neck, squeezing hard, "Things would've been so much better if you were dead." he added, tightening his grip so much that Piper's vision swam.

Then it hit her.

Smith was killing her, he was going to strangle her to death and Piper would've let him do it. It was better for everyone that way, wasn't it?

Then flashes of Ned and MJ and the Avengers and her dad whooshed before her and she had to gulp down a sob. Here she was, too selfish and too attached to attention to die, she really was pathetic.

She gulped painfully and pushed her thoughts away, she might've been pathetic and selfish but she really didn't want to go, so, with a strangled cry, she grabbed the man's arms with a loud crunch as she felt his bones break under her hold and a pained shriek ran through the messy living room.

Piper managed to push Smith off just as the door flew off its hinges and several people dressed in black charged in, pointing their guns at him as they screamed various threats.

Tony, Natasha, Steve, Clint and Rhodey had rushed back to the tower as soon as they had lost sight of Piper.

“We found her!” shouted Tony as he, Natasha, Steve, Clint and Rhodey stormed into Conference Room Number Six, “We found my kid!"

The occupants shot to their feet and there were several gasps.

“What do you mean?!” demanded Happy, looking more stunned than anyone had ever seen him.

“We found my kid!” Tony shouted again, his expression a mix of shock, dread and raw joy, “Friday, give me everything you have on Piper Parker!”

Silence.

Bucky and Sam shared a bewildered look, their expressions much like the rest of their companions'.

“Huh?” croaked Tony with burning frustration, “Friday! Give me all you have on Piper Parker!”

Silence.

Rhodey frowned, “What the hell?”

Thor looked like he was going to say something but Tony rushing past him and flopping down in front of the nearest holographic screen, causing him to accidentally drop his hammer on his foot, shut him right up.

“Can someone please explain what's going on?!” demanded Pepper as Thor let out a string of sentences that made Steve glare at him.

Tony simply waved his arm about, never looking away from the screen, which he was studying with a stoney frown and a dark, frustrated gaze, so everyone rounded on Steve, Nat, Clint and Rhodey.

Pepper waved her hand as though to tell them to spill the beans, and the four heroes exchanged a quick glance.

Clint sighed and crossed his arms, “When we got to the warehouse no one was there – Toomes' wingsuit was there though – so we decided to hide and wait for him… after a while he came back and he… he seemed to be waiting for someone.” Clint glanced at Tony, who was still tipping about on the screen, frown firm in place.

Wanda's, Bucky's, Sam's and Pepper's eyes widened knowingly and the latter gulped, “D-Don't tell me…”

“He was waiting for Spider-Man.” confirmed Natasha ominously.

Several people cursed under their breaths.

“What happened then?” asked Happy impatiently, he had been showing more emotion in these past few days than in the entirety of the time they had known him.

Clint kept his gaze on Tony, he was a father too and he couldn't even imagine what his friend must've been feeling like at that moment, “We waited and eventually she got there… but she wasn't wearing her suit– or her mask.”

Pepper gasped and turned to look at Tony, who was still typing impassively.

“What has gone down following this revelation, Clint?” asked Thor uncertainly, glancing at Tony with compassion.

“We fought–”

“They fought, Clint,” corrected Natasha, drawing a few stunned looks, “Toomes taunted the girl – he called her ‘Piper Parker’ – he taunted her about her aunt whose death he allegedly caused and also about her status as an orphan.”

Steve, Rhodey and Wanda glared at the floor while Sam, Bucky and Clint scoffed hatefully. Vision looked mildly disapproving and Happy and Pepper looked outright murderous. Natasha's eyes were narrowed ominously and Bruce looked a little green.

Tony's head snapped up, “ORPHAN?!” in his haste he had completely forgotten about that part.

Natasha shrugged, a dark look in her eyes, “That's what Toomes said and your kid didn't seem to contradict his statement… if anything, her reaction to his taunts confirmed its truthfulness.”

Tony ran a shaky hand over his face, “If she's an ‘orphan’,” he spat, “and she knows her dad's still out there, why wouldn't she look for him?” he suddenly got a put out look on his face and his shoulders slumped slightly.

“Oh hell no,” retorted Rhodey, “I know what you're thinking and it's a bunch of bullshit.”

“But–” Tony glanced at his teammates, he wasn't used to showing this much emotion (and, judging by their uneasy expressions, they also didn't seem too used to it) but right now he was putting all his self control into not flying his suit into every single building in the city until he found his little girl, so his restrained emotions could go fuck themselves, “What if she doesn't want me as her dad? I mean, I wouldn't blame her, I wouldn't want me as my dad either.”

“Tony Stark you shut up right this instant!” shouted Pepper, cutting off Rhodey, Happy and Steve before they could say anything, “You're a good man and I'm sure Piper has her reasons as to why she's acting like this– you can ask her when we find her.” when, not if, “Now will you please tell us what you found about her?”

Tony sighed as everyone looked at him expectantly, “Nothing.”

“Nothing?!”

“Nada, rien, niente.” said Tony as he flailed his arms in the air, “It's as if Piper Parker doesn't even exist.”

“But how is that possible?” questioned Happy in disbelief.

Bruce frowned, suddenly remembering something the kid had said the day prior, “What if she somehow managed to trick Friday? Remember what she said yesterday?”

Tony leaned back on the couch he was perched on, the previous day's brief exchange between the AI and the girl coming back to him, it was impossible to trick Friday, but at that point he wouldn't put anything past the kid… he suddenly thought of the similarities between his daughter and a certain suspicious-behaving intern who had been caked in makeup…

“Friday… show me all the security footage you have of Spider-Man… without her mask on.”

At once the screens all around the room were filled by the girl he had seen in the warehouse and every single doubt about her being his daughter immediately vanished.

There was Piper Parker in all her glory, as she pulled her Spider-Man suit over her civilian clothes in some dark alley, as she walked to school with two other kids (he was proud to see that she was wearing a Midtown School Of Science And Technology hoodie), as she checked her phone on the subway… and there she was entering his building under the alias of Mary Richards and, finally, there she was bargaining with his own AI and somehow convincing her to keep her digital mouth shut.

The little shit.

The billionaire turned around to look at his teammates and friends and was pleased to see that their eyebrows were all raised in amazement. Or perhaps shock. Or both.

Before anyone could comment the door burst open and Fury, looking grim, strutted in.

“We found your kid, Stark.” he announced.

Tony's eyebrows climbed up his forehead and he shot to his feet, “Where is she?! And– hold up… how did you even know–”

“Natasha texted me while y'all were chasing her, I sent some agents to get Toomes back to the Raft and some to find Piper.” he said in a rushed tone, “What they found… isn't exactly what we were expecting.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” questioned Pepper as Tony paled, “She's okay, right?”

Fury scoffed darkly, “Well she is still alive… barely.”

Tony's head snapped up and Rhodey had to ground him by putting a hand on his shoulder, “What?!”

Everyone looked tense, except for Fury, who looked like he was ready to disembowel someone (which wasn't very reassuring because Fury never let his anger show).

The director sighed and crossed his arms, “I got word from my agents, you probably know all her info already so I'll just cut it short–”

“Actually we don't,” interrupted Natasha, “she figured out a way to keep Friday from showing us anything about her. We only managed to find some camera footage.” she added, gesturing at the screens.

Fury's eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened slightly as he glanced around and whistled, “Damn…”

“Yeah whatever, what were you saying? Toomes said something about a dead aunt and my kid being an orphan. What the hell is that about?” urged Tony.

Fury looked a little annoyed by the interruption but didn't seem to dwell on it, “The kid's full name is Piper May Parker, she's sixteen – coincidentally, her fake birthday actually matches her real one – and she has lost all her living relatives – well, her adoptive relatives, aka Mary and Richard Parker,” Tony, Wanda, Bruce, Sam and Steve cocked their heads, so that's where she had gotten the idea for her fake name. Natasha and Clint looked grim, they had worked with the two of them a couple times, “and Ben and May Parker.”

For some reason he sped his words up, “Coincidentally, Mary and Richard Parker used to occasionally work for Shield and, even more coincidentally, they were looking into several disappearances and I had specifically assigned them and a couple other agents to your daughter's case.” he shot them a meaningful look, “Perhaps this ‘lead’ that Piper has told us about was left by her adoptive parents.” he stopped to let his words sink in, “Anyhow, Mary and Richard ended up dying in a plane crash and Piper was left with her aunt and uncle, Ben and May Parker. Ben Parker passed away in a robbery gone wrong around two years ago and May Parker passed in similar fashion a little over a year ago. Piper has been in foster care ever since… she's currently staying with some dude named Ralph Smith..”

He glanced darkly at the group of people before him and met Tony's gaze, holding it as he spoke, “See, when my agents got there they walked in on Smith – who was clearly drunk – while he was strangling her after very evidently and viciously beating her up.”

There was a moment of silence as everyone processed what they had just heard before all hell broke loose.

As murderous bellows echoed all around him Tony heard nothing. His fists were clenched so hard they were shaking and his teeth were gritting hard, he would've very gladly killed the guy with his bare hands hadn't there been someone more important he needed to take care of.

“Where is she?” he whispered sharply and at once the room fell silent.

Everyone minus Tony startled when Friday's voice rang through the silence, reporting Ralph Smith's address.

“Friday, deploy Mark f–”

“No Tony, no suit!” said Pepper suddenly, drawing everyone's attention to herself, “The press has eyes all over the city, you flying to some random apartment to pick up a girl who matches the description of a grown up Penny will draw too many questions, the last thing Penny– I mean, the last thing Piper needs right now is the press messing with her.”

Tony stopped for a moment and ran a hand over his face, “You're right Pep.”

“When am I not?” she said weakly, “Also, how would you be able to get her home if you're gonna get there in the suit?”

“Right.”

“Now go,” she ushered, “go get your kid.”

Tony didn't need to be told twice.

Piper felt numb.

Emotionally, physically… just numb, that was it.

She had just finished giving her statement to some agent and Maria Hill was sitting next to her and she was holding her hand and another agent had just cuffed up Mr. Smith and taken him away and her breath caught in her throat because it was all too much.

Between sobs and choked gasps she pulled her hand away from Maria’s and brought it to her throat because she couldn’t breathe and it hurt, everything hurt so bad and Smith had almost killed her and images flashed before her eyes and suddenly she was being strangled again and punches and glass bottles were being thrown her way and everything was so loud and so silent and–

She froze.

Familiar running steps echoed down the hallway of the building and through the doorless doorway, the sound bouncing off the silent walls and right into the pit of anxiety that was forming at the bottom of Piper’s stomach.

The footsteps got louder and louder until they reached the doorframe and came to a stunned halt.

This was by far the shabbiest building Tony had ever set foot in. Perhaps he wouldn’t have cared that much, hadn’t this been the place his daughter had been living in for the past month.

He sighed bitterly, his poor baby. She had lost so much, she had suffered so much and– and the asshole that was supposed to care for her had beaten the shit out of her and had almost strangled her to death. He didn’t even want to think about how common such occurrences were in that disgusting household.

When the elevator doors got stuck as they were opening Tony sighed in exasperation and turned towards the staircase, hastily starting to make his way up to the fourth floor.

He could barely believe his kid was in the same building as him and that he was going to see her again after all those years. His beautiful little Penny– Piper.

He mentally (and almost physically) smacked himself, the last thing he wanted was getting his own daughter's name wrong on their first encounter.

He sighed bitterly as he passed the second to last landing, technically he wouldn't have been getting her name wrong but Piper had been called Piper basically all her life and he definitely didn't want to make her uncomfortable or to pressure her to change her own name, that would've been horrible of him… he was just going to have to get used to it.

His thoughts were interrupted by a series of distant, shrill and terrified cries that had him sprint up the last two flights of stairs.

As Maria Hills' attempts at calming his kid down echoed across the dimly lit hallway, Tony ran. Past the scratched, half open doors and the nosy neighbors who were sticking their heads out of them, he ran faster than he had ever run before.

He ignored the stunned gasps and hushed mutters as he passed, his lawyers would deal with it in the morning. Right now there was only one thing on his mind: getting to his baby.

When he finally reached Ralph Smith's doorway he froze.

His gaze landed immediately on the quivering girl perched on the edge of the shabby couch on the other side of the room.

There she was, and she was fucking perfect.

For the first time in over a decade he finally managed to look at her. To actually look at her, not through a computer screen or a picture frame or through a red mask with gaping white eyes or through the darkness of a half demolished warehouse. He was finally seeing her.

She was perfect and beautiful and so small, she was so tiny.

Even though she was sitting stock still, she was trembling from head to toe. Her big, dark brown eyes were wide and shiny with tears and the darkening bruises that surrounded them made his insides twist horribly.

Her pouty lips were quivering too, the bottom one split in the middle. Her rosy cheeks were tinged by scratches and red and blue blotches and (his stomach flipped nastily) two dark purple handprints stood out in contrast with the pale skin of her neck.

Everyone just stood there in silence, even the agents. Piper's eyes were staring right at him and after a few more seconds of studying her, Tony broke the silence.

“Hey Pip.”

He wasn’t exactly sure what the desired effect of his words was, but it definitely wasn’t the one that went down because (after coming out of her stupor with a violent flinch) the kid shot to her feet and propelled herself out of the window and onto the fire escape.

Tony wasted no time and flung himself out as well, running after her up the stairwell as he shouted for Friday to deploy his suit. Thankfully he hadn’t forgotten to take his sunglasses with him.

Piper was running.

She didn’t even know why she was running, at that point she was just letting her panic take the lead; she was so tired.

She cried out when her already badly injured foot slipped and she crashed on the staircase, bumping her left knee hard on the edge of a step and getting right back up as Tony’s worried scream echoed in the near distance, along with the further away sound of his suit’s repulsors.

When she reached the rooftop she immediately whirled around to face the top of the emergency stairs, where her wide scared eyes met Tony’s equally wide ones and time seemed to slow down for a moment.

“Hey kid,” he said, his voice hushed and shaky.

Piper’s already erratic breathing sped up as she began to slowly, subconsciously, limp backwards.

“Ima need you to get away from that edge.” he added, outstretching his hand, “Can you do that for me?”

Piper didn’t even have the time to process his words before she tripped over it and started plummeting towards the ground.

Tony let out a horrified shout as he jumped off after her, his heart felt like it had stopped until he began regaining some ease in his chest when his suit caught up with him and began assembling around his body.

When Piper’s vision stopped swimming Iron Man materialized above her and the sudden realization that she was falling (most likely to her death) hit her.

She quickly brought her good arm (well, the least injured of the two) up and aimed at Iron Man’s chestplate.

However, no webbing came out of the web shooter.

She tried the other arm, wincing as she moved it, only a small drop of fluid came out. Shit.

Piper’s brain short circuited and a sharp flash of panic bit through her insides. Her senses were going haywire and nothing was making sense anymore and the air was smacking her in the face because she was falling and she was gonna die and she wanted May and Ben and she wanted it all to just be a bad dream and to wake up and be okay, but she knew this was no dream: the wind, the pain, the fear... it was all real and she was gonna die.

So, by impulse more than will, she did the one thing her Sense had been screaming at her to do for the past minute. She reached out to Tony with her good arm and screamed.

“DAD!”

Tony felt his heart explode.

As time seemed to slow down once again he got a terrible sense of dejavu and suddenly he was back at the sites of the drone guy and Toomes’ attacks and Spider-Man was falling and shooting her webbing at him to save herself.

His kid had always had to save herself in one way or the other, this time it was his turn to save her, to catch her, and he promised himself that from then on he would be there to catch her every single time.

Her scream brought him back to the present and he didn’t get to ponder on the fact that she had called him ‘dad’ as he ordered Friday to divert all the power he had to the repulsors, the arc reactor's too if she needed to (he had completely forgotten the thing wasn’t stuck in his chest anymore), and with a powerful bang he sped up and, at long last, wrapped his arms around Piper, shifting her in a princess style sort of carry, careful not to cause any further damage to her injured body as he changed his trajectory and slowed down, slowly descending into the alley below them.

He met her wide eyed gaze with one that was soft and full of love, though Piper couldn’t see that through the faceplate.

“Gotcha.”

Chapter Text

Tony slowly descended towards the alley behind the building, his gaze never leaving Piper’s as he let Friday guide his suit.

“No more running,” he added softly but with an unwavering firmness as he touched down, he didn’t think he’d be able to let her go ever again.

Neither of them spoke as they reached the ground and then, once they had touched down, Tony took a deep stabilizing breath.

“Is it okay if I put you down to get out of my suit?” he asked softly, worriedly glancing at her bloody legs. Piper tensed up ever so slightly and nodded in response, she didn’t think she’d be able to talk even if she wanted to.

The man carefully lowered her to the ground and helped her balance herself on her good leg before taking a few steps back to allow his armor to open up.

The air in Piper's lungs did a flip when she met his eyes – actually met them – for the first time and soon it was getting harder and harder to push back the sobs that were building up at the back of her throat.

“Hey Pip,” he said, looking at her small and trembling form with sad eyes. The obvious (physical and emotional) pain she was in made him sick, that kid deserved nothing but the absolute best and Tony would’ve been damned if he didn’t make up for all the shit she had been put through.

“H-Hey.” Piper managed to choke out, taking a subconscious step back and crying out when her bad leg throbbed and buckled under the sudden shift in the pressure it was subjected to.

Tony immediately rushed forward and kept her from falling by placing a hand on her back and one on her uninjured shoulder, memories of her dislocating the other one earlier that day coming back to him.

“Careful,” he muttered gently, holding her teary gaze for a long moment before speaking again.

As he helped her find her balance he cleared his throat which was feeling rather scratchy, much like his eyes were misty, “Is it okay if I hug you?”

Before he could even finish enunciating his question Piper threw her arms around him and, as Tony hastily reciprocated the action, the dam she had built around her emotions broke and her feelings began streaming out like a waterfall, the most violent of waterfalls.

She cried and cried and cried, her father murmuring reassurances and comforting words in her ear as he rubbed awkward circles on her back (Tony wasn’t very good with the whole feelings shebang but for her he’d do nothing short of his best).

The man held her as she wailed, the sobs sounding as though they were physically painful (which they probably were).

“I-I’m so s-sorry!” she whimpered, her voice muffled by her burying her face in his chest, “I-I’m so sorry I– I-I didn’t think– it’s not safe– I-I-mean we couldn’t just– I’m not– I–”

“Shh, it’s all good, I’m not mad at you– I don’t think I’m even capable of being mad at you.” he reassured comfortingly.

Piper shook her head, more sobs ringing out of her, “I– I caused y'all so much trouble and– and when you arrived you looked so upset and Maria Hills said you were all looking for me a-and that no one slept for days and– and oh God May… it was all my…” she choked on a horrified sob, “I-I’m such a horrible person!”

“No you’re not.” Tony stated in a resolute tone that left no room for argument, his voice softening as her sobs grew stronger, “You’re good, you’re so good, so so good, the best person in the world.”

Tony kept comforting her as Piper cried into his chest and she didn’t feel like she’d be able to stop: it was all coming back to her, all the pain she had kept locked up in that dark little corner at the very back of her mind and all the guilt and Ben and May and Flash’s taunts and Smith and the suspension and J. Jonah Jameson firing her and the Avengers' disappointment and the trouble she had caused them and all her recent discoveries that she didn’t have time to process and everything that had happened that far that she couldn’t even fathom to think about because of how overwhelming it all was. It was all coming back.

And it was all her fault.

Her fault. All her fault.

Herfaultherfaultherfaultherfault.

As soon as she detected her oncoming panic attack she forced herself to swallow the lump in her throat and bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted the coppery taste of blood. Eventually she looked up, avoiding her father’s gaze as she frantically rubbed the tears away from her face.

Before she could mentally beat up herself a hand appeared under her chin and pushed her up to meet her father’s gentle smile – and she was surprised to see that his eyes were a bit watery as well.

Tony took another moment to just look at his kid, she was so perfect and so beautiful and so tiny and his heart throbbed from how warm he was feeling inside, was it even possible to love somebody that much?

The moment was broken by Piper shivering and it suddenly dawned on Tony that she was only wearing a hoodie in that horrible February cold.

“Oh shit!” the billionaire cursed, pulling away from the hug to tear off his Armani suit jacket and wrapping it around Piper, who didn’t even have time to protest from how quick he had moved, “You’re freezing! Crap– let’s get you to the car, c’mon– Friday tell Maria I found the kid!” he said offhandedly, guiding said kid around the building as he made a mental note to buy her the warmest jacket on the market and the entire winter collection of every major fashion brand, his suit trailing after them.

As they reached the car Tony opened the passenger’s door and gestured for Piper to get in, then he waited for his suit to turn itself into a suitcase and placed it in the trunk before plopping down in the driver’s seat.

The drive to the tower was silent and awkward, the only noise poking through the quiet being the Audi’s roaring engine. Tony kept his gaze on the road, internally swinging from seething at all those who had wronged his kid to stressing over the serious amount of emotional and physical damage his child was without any doubt experiencing, meanwhile Piper just sat there, staring out of the window and looking like a kicked puppy.

Waiting for them in Tony’s private garage were Dr. Cho and two nurses. They helped Piper onto a gurney and – with Tony in tow – propelled her into the elevator, leaving her no time to fawn over the billionaire’s ridiculously large car collection.

Tony, noticing her frown as the elevator doors closed, shot her a kind smile, “We have time to check those out and you might also have a shot at driving them – you’re sixteen, might as well start practicing, right?”

Piper just grinned awkwardly and went back to staring at the now closed doors, her stomach fluttering with warmth. She was still fairly delirious about that day’s events and she still hadn’t quite wrapped her head around the fact that Tony Stark was her dad.

It was surprising to her just how kind the man was behind his metal mask of arrogance and loftiness, she of course had figured long before that it was a facade he had been keeping up for the tabloids and the media but it was so weird to actually see said facade coming apart.

After the medical checkup, which – between disinfecting, stitches, bandaging, injections, several nutrient and antibiotic IVs, CT scans and so on – had left Tony with a pale, aghast face and Dr. Cho with a seemingly everlasting frown, the father-daughter duo went back to the private elevator and started making their way up to the penthouse.

“I am glad to welcome you home, Mini Boss.” chirped Friday from the lift’s speakers.

Piper couldn’t help but glare at the ceiling as her hold on the crutches Dr. Cho had given her tightened a little, “How often have I told you not to call me–”

“I don’t have a choice, Mini Boss, you have forbidden me from saying the names Penelope Stark and Piper Parker, the only other choice would be calling you Spider-Man, but your Chair-Friend has forbidden me from saying out loud that you are Spider-Man, and your other friend who – and I quote – ‘is not in the chair but will gladly throw one at me and remorselessly murder me in my sleep if I let anything get out’ has threatened my existence several times in support of said command.”

The awkwardness in the air thickened as Piper’s eyes widened and her mouth clicked shut; meanwhile Tony opened and closed his own several times, seemingly at a loss of words.

“Your– chair friend?” he eventually asked, deciding to momentarily go back to forgetting about his daughter being Spider-Man.

“He’s my Guy In The Chair and my best friend, not my ‘chair friend’, Friday just likes to mess up his name because she has a personal vendetta against him.”

“Damn right I do.”

“Your ‘Guy In The Chair’?” Tony repeated, his lips quivering into a mirthy grin.

“You– you know how in movies there’s always that one guy with the computer– like the dude in the dark room with the headphones and stuff? That’s him.” she explained, and Tony’s heart melted at her sudden professional demeanor.

“Ah huh, yeah squirt – he’s the guy who helped you hack my AI I presume?” he inquired with zero anger in his tone.

At once Piper’s whole body went rigid and her eyes widened, she seemed to be torn somewhere between rushing to find an excuse and fainting so Tony rushed to add on: “Don’t worry I’m not pissed at you, you did what you thought was right and you must’ve been scared shitless with all the stuff you were going through,” he reassured, placing a comforting hand on her uninjured shoulder, “I have to say that I’m damn impressed though, what you pulled is no easy feat.” He smiled at her and she uncertainly beamed back right as the elevator dinged.

The doors opened and Piper’s jaw dropped.

There was absolutely no word to describe how cool the penthouse was: it was huge and the design screamed ‘billionaire’ from every corner but at the same time it looked really cozy and welcoming.

The elevator left them in the living room, whose floor was made of black marble which was covered by a black carpet towards the center of the room, said carpet lay at the foot of a gorgeous white leather couch (Piper was pretty sure that same couch had been the main character of one of MJ’s Twitter threads at some point the previous year) which stood opposite of the biggest flatscreen TV Piper had ever set her eyes upon, the two objects separated midway by a glass coffee table that displayed a holographic screen.

On her left, past a few vases and plants and paintings, which were scattered across the floor and walls, was a glass wall that cast a breathtaking view of the city lights and that had Piper wondering how pretty it must’ve looked at dawn. The adjacent wall was hidden behind a ridiculously tall bookshelf which extended from the blotchy black of the floor to the pristine ivory white of the ceiling.

Where the bookshelf ended the large doorless doorway to the kitchen started and from where she was standing Piper managed to get a small view of the equally fancy and equally large kitchen.

Piper’s stupor was interrupted by Tony clearing his throat and the girl clicked her mouth (which must’ve fallen open sometime during her internal freakout) shut.

“You like it?” he asked hopefully, his mind already sorting out which companies to call in order to give the whole place a makeover in case she didn’t.

“A-Are you kidding? This is so cool!” she breathed, still staring at her surroundings with wide eyes (she couldn’t believe that was the place she was going to live at from then on).

Tony smiled before taking a glance at his smartwatch and mentally smacking himself as he read through Pepper’s latest text messages.

I had dinner with the others, I’m going to bed early. Don’t wanna steal any of your time with Piper :)

Dinner.

He had completely forgotten about dinner.

He looked at the time (02:34 am) and mentally smacked himself again, the medical checkup had taken over four hours and he had barely even realized.

“Shit– I mean crap– what do you wanna eat kid?”

“Oh uhm… I-I don’t mind uhm… you don’t have to– I mean I don’t wanna be a bother–”

“Piper,” he spoke tightly, causing her to stop talking immediately, “you’re not a bother and this definitely isn’t a bother… you’re my kid, it’s my duty to make sure you’re taken care of– that includes feeding you.” he added softly, looking at her sadly, she shouldn’t have felt like a bother and it hurt so much to know that she did feel that way about herself, “So… what would you like to eat?”

Piper gulped, tears beginning to build up in her eyes again, it had been so so long since someone had last cared for her like that, and since she had felt loved and wanted, “Cheeseburgers please.”

Tony’s mouth quirked into a smirk, “Cheeseburgers it is, got that Fri?”

“Sure did Boss.”

“Thanks–” Piper cut herself off, what was she supposed to call the man?

“Tony.” said the billionaire gently, catching up with what was probably going on in her head, “I don’t want you to feel forced to call me dad – you can call me that too of course – but please call me at least Tony, no ‘Mr. Stark’s or ‘Sir’s.”

Piper nodded with a small smile, “Okay, thanks…. thanks Tony– and thanks to you too Friday.”

“I’m just doing my job, Mini Boss.”

Tony fondly shook his head as Piper went back to glaring.

After eating, Tony accompanied Piper to her bedroom, which had her jaw dropping one again.

Similarly to the living room, the floor (which was partially covered by a fluffy, pink carpet) was made of black marble, which contrasted beautifully with the white of the walls.

Her bedroom was large, probably larger than her and May’s bedrooms combined. In the middle, with its black headboard against the wall on Piper’s right, stood a queen sized bed which was covered with neat pink covers and pink and white pillows, an Iron Man stuffed plushie and a familiar looking old and battered teddy bear. On each of the two sides of the bed stood a small bedside table with a led lamp on top.

On Piper’s left was a door which led to a walk-in closet. Next to said door was another door which probably led to a bathroom.

There was also a huge desk, a bookshelf (which, like the one in the living room, reached the ceiling) and several frames (and a TV!!) hanging from the wall.

“That’s you– and us and– that’s also us… with Rhodey and Happy.” explained Tony, waving his hand at the photos Piper was inspecting and then at the teddy bear, "That was pretty much the only thing I managed to save when the mansion in Malibu got blown up, you loved it... I set this all up when Pepper and I moved in and obviously I still need to get you some new stuff and some clothes and if you don’t like something we can change it and–”

“I love it Mr. St– Tony. I really do, thank you.” said Piper as she reached out to hug him.

Tony smiled as he reciprocated the hug, for the first time in over a decade feeling wholeheartedly at ease. There was still a bunch of stuff to sort out and a bunch of issues to deal with but things were okay because Piper was home.

His kid was finally home.

Chapter Text

Piper woke up with a scream and a pained gasp as she fell off the bed and onto the ground, her legs tangled up in the duvet.

It took a moment for her to get her bearings and when she did she startled, because the room she was in wasn’t the glorified closet at Mr. Smith’s, nor was it MJ’s bedroom or Ned’s. Then, with a shiver that shook her entire body, the previous day’s events came crashing down on her.

Scratch that, the previous three weeks’ events came crashing down on her. If she had to be sincere, Piper hadn’t had a single second to stop and process what was going on, she had just been doing her best to get past it as unscathed as possible.

She chose not to deal with the previous day’s painful discovery for the time being, otherwise the guilt was going to kill her, so she decided to focus on the fact that Tony Stark was her dad and she was currently in the same building as the Avengers.

Who knew her secret identity.

Piper grimaced and ran a hand over her face before reaching for her pocket (she awkwardly noted that she had fallen asleep in her clothes, which was understandable given the circumstances) and pulling out her phone which had been damaged (even more than it already was) during the fight with Toomes.

Great, how was she supposed to let her friends know that she was alive? When she had left to meet Toomes she had promised them that she would've called them as soon as the ‘meeting’ was over. They were probably freaking out (and rightfully so).

She stared at the object for another moment before dropping it in surprise when the elevator on the other side of the penthouse dinged.

Tony awoke when something hit his head with an audible dong and he whipped around (almost falling off his chair in the process) to glare at Dum-E who was dangerously wielding a fire extinguisher.

After he had ensured that his kid was fast asleep he had gone downstairs to his lab since he hadn’t been able to rest (not that he had even triedl) and that was how he had ended up spending the entire night arguing with Friday as he attempted to fix her code.

It had been one of the hardest feats he had ever had the displeasure to undertake, the tampered part of the code had been rewritten in such a complex and annoying manner that even the tiniest typo would’ve caused the whole software to implode.

The bewildering thing was that Tony hadn’t left a single loophole in Friday’s code, which meant that whoever had done it had had to create their own loophole, which, frankly, was impossible.

Whoever had done it was on par with him when it came to coding and Tony would’ve been lying if he were to say that he didn’t want to meet the person who was responsible for that. The previous night Piper and Friday had mentioned some chair guy, but Tony doubted that said guy alone had been responsible for that massive breach.

His thoughts were interrupted by Dum-E slamming the fire extinguisher in his head again.

Before Tony could do as much as utter a single swear word the door flew open and Pepper strode in menacingly, followed by a thunderous looking Rhodey and a very unhappy looking Happy.

“YOU!” screeched Pepper, pointing a finger at the man who backed away in his chair and raised his arms in a showcase of innocence.

“Me.” remarked the billionaire, glancing at his fiancé and friends, the latter two looking back at him stonily.

Pepper straightened up before speaking, her voice suddenly eerily calm, “I tell you not to do one thing, Tony. One thing. And what do you do? That one thing. This is about your daughter’s safety, I can’t believe you would be so careless–”

“Hold up,” interrupted the genius as he stood up, suddenly looking tense, “what’s up with my kid’s safety?”

Pepper’s eyebrows quirked up as though she had expected him to know already while Happy ran a hand over his forehead and Rhodey handed him his phone with an exasperated and worryingly concerned glance.

When Tony saw what it was about, his blood ran cold.

Someone had taken a video of the previous night’s incident, more specifically of the part where Piper was falling from the building and he was suiting up mid-air to save her.

That clip had his stomach lurching, both because it felt like reliving the second worst moment of his life (the first one being the day Pen– Piper had been kidnapped) and because that video had been uploaded onto all the major social media platforms and was counting half a billion views on YouTube alone. Not to mention that it was on the cover of every newspaper and magazine as well as being pretty much the single thing every single news broadcast was talking about.

Sure, they could (and would) do their best to protect Piper from the media, but everyone was certain that the kid he had saved was his long lost daughter and there was no way around it.

Because even though the video was extremely grainy and Piper’s face wasn’t recogniseable in the slightest, it had audio.

So the entire world had heard how the kid had called Tony ‘dad’.

Tony, who had gotten up to accept the phone, fell back into his hair and brought a hand to his face, letting out a string of words that had Dum-E beeping indignantly.

“I already have the entire PR, legal and comms teams working on damage control,” supplied Pepper who had seemingly calmed down, “what happened?”

“Yeah,” Rhodey agreed, sounding way less patient than Pepper, “what happened and why was the kid falling off a building?”

Tony looked up solemnly and sighed before dropping his head again, “She ran.”

“What?” asked Happy, sounding thoroughly bewildered.

“She ran.” Tony repeated, sounding even more tired, “She panicked and ran, I ran after her, she jumped out of the window, I jumped after her and followed her up the fire escape, we got to the rooftop, she tripped and fell, you know the rest.” he finished, waving an arm at Rhodey’s phone.

“Damn…” breathed said man.

“Sounds like something your daughter would do.” huffed Happy in an unusual attempt to lighten the atmosphere.

Tony huffed out a strained laugh, the others following suit, though it was quite short lived because no one really felt like laughing.

“How is she?” asked Pepper, breaking the awkward silence that had been settling in the room and causing the two men on either side of her to perk up.

A fond smile took over Tony’s features, “She’s–”

A thump resonated on the floor above, causing everyone’s gaze to snap to the ceiling.

“Awake apparently.” the man finished, his face pinching with concern, “Fri?”

“Mini Boss seems to have awoken from a nightmare and fallen off her bed. She’s currently experiencing the first stages of a panic attack.” supplied the AI, the information she had supplied causing everyone’s concern to grow.

“Friday, let me know if this ever happens again.” said Tony as he shot to his feet and headed to the door, turning to the other three occupants of the room, “I–”

“Don’t worry about it.” assured Pepper, “We’ll deal with the vultures, you go take care of your kid.”

With one last nod Tony headed to the elevator.

Piper frowned as footsteps resonated through the penthouse, the pattern sounding familiar but not familiar enough for her to recognize it immediately. She did recognize the absence of the buzz at the back of her head though, which was weird and mildly concerning.

Her musings were interrupted by an extremely gentle knock, more gentle than she had ever heard. Especially in the past year.

“Piper?” came Tony Stark’s unusually tender voice, “Is it okay if I come in?”

“U-Uh yes! Yes of course sir!” she squeaked and tensed a little when the door started to open, attempting to get up but tripping over her legs (which were still tangled up in the duvet) and falling face first to the floor, hissing as the impact caused her sore body to flare up with pain.

“Shit– I mean crap, kid!” shouted the billionaire as he quickly approached her, kneeling down next to her as he helped her free herself from the offending blanket. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking at the child with concern.

Piper could only stare up at the man who was now kneeling next to her. His hands lay gently, almost imperceptibly upon her shoulders and he studied her shell shocked expression, his eyes slightly dilated with worry looking into hers, which were as wide as dinner plates.

“You’re Tony Stark.” she blurted out.

Tony shot her an amused look, “In the flesh.”

When Piper registered what she had said she flushed crimson and looked down, mumbling something about embarrassing herself already.

“Nuh uh.” said Tony, putting a hand under her chin and tipping her head up, “I've gone enough years without seeing those gorgeous baby browns of yours.”

Piper bit the inside of her cheek, her chest filling with a warmth she hadn't felt in a long time.

Tony glanced where she was clutching her ribs with her arm, which was almost entirely wrapped in bandages, “Are you okay?”

Piper nodded almost immediately, being used to replying like that when asked that question.

“Yeah right.” drawled Tony, who wasn’t buying it, “C’mon I'll help you up.”

When they were both seated on the bed next to each other, the duvet still sprawled across the floor, a horribly awkward silence settled.

“Not a woman of many words, huh?” said Tony casually, though he felt about as mortified as Piper looked.

The girl shot him a panicked look, “No, no, it's not that Mr. Stark! Not at all! It's just…”

Tony clicked his tongue, “What have I said about the honorifics? And don't think I didn't notice you calling me ‘sir’ when I knocked.” Piper glanced away sheepishly, “You were saying? It's just…” he pressed on gently.

Piper shrugged, “I don't know, everything that happened in the past days is crazy, like three days ago I was just some unwanted freak and now you're here and– and… I dunno, it's pretty awesome I guess, but also pretty weird.”

Tony frowned, not liking the way the kid was talking about herself, “You’re not a freak. And you’re definitely not unwanted.”

Piper looked at him with a broken expression that made his heart clench and soon her bottom lip was quivering and tears were forming in her eyes.

“Oh baby,” murmured Tony, wrapping his arms around the girl as she began furiously rubbing at her eyes, an action that the man stopped by slowly, carefully pulling her arms away and resting a hand at the back of her head, gently bringing her to press her face against his shoulder, “shh, you’re okay now, you can cry as much as you want.”

Piper shook her head, though she was sobbing uncontrollably by that point, Tony just held her tight as he muttered reassurances in her ear.

Eventually the sobs subsided and they just stayed that way for a couple more minutes, Piper focusing on Tony’s heartbeat as he ran a comforting hand through her hair.

Eventually Piper’s mortification caught up with her and she pulled away, resuming to rub her tears away, “I-I’m sorry– gosh this is so dumb…”

“What’s dumb?” Tony asked, beginning to pull his hand away from her curls and stopping when the kid leaned in ever so slightly, resuming the comforting motion instead.

Piper made a face, “Crying.”

“Is it now?” retorted the man, furrowing his brows when the kid looked down, “Because I don’t think it is, heck, I cry too sometimes– don’t tell Cap though, he has the impression that I’m icier than him.”

Piper’s pout turned into a small smile and she huffed, “That’s easy for you to say, you’re like the coolest man in the world.”

The girl froze like she had just said something forbidden.

Tony’s eyebrows went up and his smirk grew, “So I got myself a fan, huh? Rhodey’s never gonna hear the end of it. Damn, 'the coolest man in the world', I gotta add that to my job description.”

He ruffled her hair to emphasize.

Tony suddenly turned somber, deciding to address the thing that had been plaguing him for the past two-and-a-half days: “Pip?”

Piper hummed, turning around and stiffening a little at his tone, “Yes?”

“I owe you one heck of an apology.” he announced, holding a hand up when the girl was about to interject, “These past few weeks… I’ve been an asshole. There’s no way around it… the way we treated you as Spidey was not okay– don’t think I forgot about that by the way, we will be talking about how half of your genetic code has been rewritten.”

“Apology accepted,” Piper gulped, choosing to ignore the second part of that statement, “and I kinda have to apologize too… I was being a little sketchy now that I think about it.” she admitted as she dropped her gaze to her phone which was laying at her feet.

With a hum Tony followed her line of view and grimaced when he spotted the pitiful object.

“I’ll get you a new one,” he offered, rushing to correct himself when Piper’s face contorted into the tiniest frown, “or I can fix it for you– we can go down to my workshop later.”

The girl whipped her head around so fast it didn’t seem natural, “Your workshop?!”

Tony smirked, “Hell yeah.”

The moment was interrupted by Piper’s stomach grumbling and the girl in question turned bright red as she ducked her head.

Tony clapped his hand and stood up rather dramatically, “Perhaps we should get something to eat first.”

Piper gaped as she entered Tony's lab.

Said man strutted in after her (she had pointedly refused to let him help her walk, insisting that she could do so on her own) with a big smirk on his face, “You like it?”

Piper wordlessly nodded as she admired the room with wide eyes.

The workshop took up almost the entire floor below the penthouse and it was awesome. It was beyond anything imaginable, she knew Tony Stark's infamous lab (that, according to the tabloids, only the man himself and an extremely restricted group of people had access to) was super cool, but the room she was standing in went far beyond that.

After admiring the place for a few more seconds she frowned: near what must've been Tony's workbench stood a robot that was waving around a fire extinguisher and… it? He? Whatever, the robot seemed to stare at her and all of a sudden it began beeping madly and soon after a second robot joined him.

“That's Dum-E,” explained Tony with obvious fondness as he pointed at the respective bots, “and that’s U. I think they recognize you.”

“Dummy?” echoed Piper, as Dum-E kept beeping.

“Dum-E.” corrected Tony, spelling the name out.

“Oh okay…” said Piper, limping towards the bot, “nice to meet you, Mr. Dum-E. And you too, Mr. U.”

Dum-E let out a confused beep while Tony snorted.

“‘Mr. Dum-E and Mr. U’, oh kid, only you could call them ‘Misters’.” he said fondly before prancing over to his workbench, “Anyways, lemme have a look at that… phone… of yours.” he uttered, eyeing said object as though it had personally offended him.

“You’re not gonna need that,” said Piper as the engineer was about to grab the heat gun, “it's an older version, the back pops right off.”

Tony hummed, choosing not to comment on that as he used his fingernail to take the battery cover off, also choosing to ignore the dried up substance that was smeared over its entire surface (which remarkably looked like the glue from those weird plastic nails Wanda had bought a few months back) as he made a mental note to get his kid a new phone whether she wanted it or not, only to stop in his tracks at what the now removed casing unit revealed.

He took a moment to study the insides of that phone… if he could even call it that, because he had never seen something like that ever before.

Aside from the fact that none of the device's parts were its original components, they were completely disarranged, like someone had completely taken the phone apart and rebuilt it in a completely different way, yet the ensemble looked like it somehow worked.

Tony slowly turned to stare with raised eyebrows at his kid.

“I dropped it a couple times and some parts broke so I replaced them…” she explained nervously, “And then this one time when I was swinging through Brooklyn it fell down and basically exploded… I managed to fix it with some parts I found in the trash – do you believe that someone just threw away perfectly good phone parts?!”

Tony didn't even know what to say to all that so he chose to focus on the last part of the word vomit he had just assisted to.

“You're a dumpster diver.” he deadpanned.

Piper nodded sheepishly and looked down.

“I-I mean, not that there's anything wrong with dumpster diving, I personally think it's pretty… nice.” he added, sounding like it physically pained him to say that, “So, you built this?”

Piper's eyes widened, staring at the man whose opinion mattered the most to her, “Yeah, kinda.” she mumbled, bringing her left hand up to push her overgrown bangs behind her ears.

Tony followed the action and spotted a familiar bracelet. He then proceeded to mentally kick himself for forgetting how much of a genius his kid actually was.

Piper, who had followed his gaze, quickly put her arm down, hiding her hand behind her back.

“Can I have a look?” asked Tony hopefully.

Piper hesitated for a moment before outstretching her arm and allowing the engineer to take her hand (which looked so small compared to his and that made his heart clench, considering all the stuff she had been through). He gently turned it around, his eyes going over the contraption and focusing on a minuscule, full-looking vial in the middle of her wrist.

“Is that–”

“Web fluid,” supplied Piper, looking rather embarrassed.

“But I thought you ran out, I mean last night you couldn’t–”

“They’re jammed.” interrupted Piper, sounding even more embarrassed, “This is just a prototype – a pretty bad one too – I only wore it twice: when the drone dude attacked and yesterday because my actual web shooters got damaged when the Vulture dropped me from the sky.” she added, wincing when the memory reminded her of her throbbing shoulder, which hadn’t fully healed yet.

Tony opened and closed his mouth several times, unsure whether to state how impressive said prototype actually was, or whether to comment on how casually she had mentioned being dropped from the sky.

Before the man could make up his mind, the girl continued speaking.

“For some reason the nanotech web shooter isn’t compatible with my web cartridges… the cartridges are pressurized and airtight, obviously.” she frowned, “Maybe the nanoparticles just keep trying to assemble themselves and once there’s enough space they manage to do that on the inside of the cartridges, breaking the seal and causing the upper layer of fluid to solidify upon contact with the oxygen in the air… I mean, the cartridge looks full, but I know that it isn’t, which means that an incredibly small amount of fluid must’ve expanded, which fits with my hypothesis. Huh, I guess that would make sense.”

The girl fumbled with the bracelet while Tony raised an impressed eyebrow, apparently his kid wasn’t only good at engineering, but at chemistry too.

Before he could say anything Piper activated her web shooters and Tony found himself at a loss of words once again as he admired the contraptions assembling around the kid’s hands.

Piper aimed her hand at the wall, glancing at Tony to ask for permission. Said man simply waved her on and crossed his arms, bracing himself for whatever was coming.

Piper pressed the button at the center of her palm with her ring and middle fingers but nothing happened. She tried several times but to no avail.

Eventually she began tapping at the cartridge, her taps gradually increasing in strength, until one particularly strong hit caused it to smash and Piper, Tony and Dum-E found themselves covered by Spider-Webs. U (who seemed to find this very funny) beeped from the opposite side of the room where he had been filming the entire time.

“Oh crap,” muttered Tony as he tried to peel the substance away and didn’t even manage to make it budge.

“Shit! I mean– crap! I’m so sorry!” apologized Piper who was now panicking and breathing heavily, “It was an accident Mr. St–”

“Mini Boss appears to be experiencing the first stages of a panic attack.” informed Friday, causing Piper to pale and Tony to spring into action.

“Hey, hey it’s okay, I’m not mad at you, I promise.” he said gently, “Can you take a few deep breaths for me, kiddie? Yeahh, just like that.”

After a couple of minutes Piper gulped, her ears turning red in mortification, “Sorry… I don’t know what happened, I didn’t mean to overreact,I’m sorr–”

“Piper,” said Tony sternly, causing her to click her mouth shut, “I’m not mad at you, not for this,” he said, using his free arm to wave at the two of them and at the workbench (where his other arm was stuck), “and not for your reaction. You don’t have to feel ashamed, you’ve been through some shit and the way you reacted was completely understandable and I’m so so sorry you went through whatever it is that you went through – I know it’ll be a tough conversation to have but at some point we will need to talk about that too, m’kay?”

Piper nodded, wiping her eyes with her shoulder as she ripped the webbing apart like it was paper, doing the same for Tony and Dum-E.

“I forgot the solvent… the webbing’s gonna dissolve in two hours.” she mumbled as she turned to Tony, who was openly gaping.

“You just ripped that stuff apart like it was nothing.”

“Yeah… super strength, remember?” she clarified sheepishly.

“Yeah, that’s another conversation we're gonna have.” the man informed, frowning when Piper’s head whipped around.

“Someone’s coming.” she said suddenly, “I can hear footsteps.”

“You can hear–”

“Tony, I just got word from comms– what the hell happened here?!” said Pepper, freezing in the doorway as she glared at him incredulously, before her eyes snapped to Piper.

“You’re Pepper Potts.” blurted out Piper, causing Tony to snort.

“Is that what you’re gonna say every time you meet someone new, Pip?” the billionaire commented casually, ruffling her hair.

Pepper shot a look at the man and then walked further into the room, careful not to step on any of the webbing, and smiled kindly at the kid one she was standing in front of her across the workbench, “It’s nice to finally meet you, Piper. I’m Pepper.”

Piper wordlessly went to shake her hand, freezing upon realization that it was covered in webbing, “Uhh… I’m sorry Ms. Potts, I’d love to shake your hand but we’re having a bit of a situation right now.”

“Just call me Pepper, sweetheart,” she said kindly, glancing at Tony before looking back at her, “I wonder where you got your knack for trouble from.”

Someone in the doorway snorted and the three of them turned to see Happy and Rhodey standing there, both with their gazes fixed on Piper, who felt quite uneasy under their scrutiny (especially Happy’s, who was staring at her with his head cocked to the side).

“I wonder that too,” said Rhodey, advancing in the room as he scrunched his nose at the substance that covered the vast majority of the floor, “Tony, I take back what I said about you being the worst case of self endangerment in the world, we clearly found someone who beats you." He turned to Piper with a grin, "I’m Rhodey, you can call me Uncle Rhodey.”

Piper stared at the man, unsure whether to take what he'd said a compliment or an insult, while Tony scowled next to her.

“I’m Piper, Colonel Rhodes Sir, you can call me… Piper.”

Rhodey shook his head and waved a hand in a ‘no’ motion, “Nope, don’t you dare call me that. I’ll accept nothing but ‘Uncle Rhodey’ from you, or at least ‘Rhodey’.” he added as an afterthought, not wanting the kid to feel too pressured.

Piper was stunned by how likable the colonel was, on TV and on the few occasions she had met him he had seemed like a very serious guy… perhaps this was a special attitude he reserved for the people he was closest to, “But– but I can’t possibly… isn’t that kinda disrespectful?”

“Of course not, kiddo.” said Rhodey in outrage, before cheering up once again, “Look at her Tones, she’s like a miniature sized, more polite and way more likable version of you,” stated the colonel, causing the man in question to glare while Pepper and Happy snorted, silently agreeing with the statement, “Lunch’s on me by the way, I just ordered Chinese. You fine with that kid?”

Piper’s mouth suddenly morphed into a shit eating grin, “That sounds good, thanks Mr. Uncle Colonel James Rhodey Rhodes War Machine Iron Patriot Sir.”

There was a moment of stunned silence in which Rhodey’s face went blank, Pepper looked mildly amused and Happy just covered his face with his hands. Then Tony exploded, full on belly laughing as he collapsed in his chair and leaned on his knees with his arms, his entire body trembling with mirth.

“I take that back, you little shit.” said Rhodey, though he was smiling, “You’re just as bad as your old man.”

When Tony’s chortles subsided to small giggles Happy stepped forward, looking about as awkward as Piper was feeling.

“It’s good to have you back, kid.” he voiced, looking like he meant every word, “I’m Happy… you can call me Uncle Happy too if you want.”

Piper smiled at him, though inside she wanted to cry because there was no way he hadn’t recognized her, “Glad to be back, I’m Piper.”

Sure enough, Happy’s eyes suddenly flashed with recognition.

“Hold up, I remember you.” he said, causing Piper to wince and the other adults to frown, “You and that friend of yours were screaming your heads off in the McDonald’s I go to after work… what were you even doing in Long Island, aren’t you from Queens?

Tony looked suspiciously at Piper who seemed to find the ceiling very interesting at that specific moment in time.

“Well,” said Rhodey, glancing at his phone, “the food’s almost here. Wanna head up?”

Piper sighed as she trailed after Tony, Rhodey, Pepper and Happy, shooting one final glance at her phone that was covered in webbing (much like the rest of the workshop).

It looked like Ned and MJ were going to have to wait.

Chapter Text

Lunch ended up being very awkward for Piper.

The adults did most of the talking, since Piper, who felt incredibly out of place, focused on poking her fried noodles and avoiding everyone's eye contact out of shame.

After eating (and waiting for the web fluid to dissolve) Piper and Tony went back to the workshop to finally fix the prior's phone.

“Done,” said Piper, looking up from her now fixed cell phone, “I... I need to charge it though.”

Tony, who had been studying her through the entire process, met her eyes and smiled gently. He was incredibly impressed by his daughter's engineering abilities. Even though fixing a cell phone was a pretty simple task, for some unknown reason he couldn't help but feel himself swelling up with pride at the very sight of his little girl tinkering in his workshop.

Piper, however, took her father's silence as a negative reaction, remembering that the guardian she'd had right before Mr. Smith had the tendency of keeping very quiet before exploding with anger.

Hence the girl started panicking: "Sorry! I–I mean... It's no big d-deal if you don't have a... a cable or–” she choked, feeling her lungs closing up, “or don't want to give one to me, sorry I–"

“Boss–” Friday started.

“Hey, hey, kid” interrupted Tony, his tone harsher than he would've liked, causing Piper to flinch and squeeze her eyes shut as she let out an involuntary whimper.

He mentally smacked himself, then he walked around the workbench and approached the trembling girl, taking her hands in a gentle grip, kneeling down and looking up at her, “Pipey, can you look at me? Please?” he murmured softly, rubbing his thumbs in circles over the top of her hands.

Hesitantly, Piper gulped and opened her eyes, shame flooding her system as her breaths turned even more erratic.

“You're doing so well, sweetie,” praised Tony, shooting her a small smile even though inside he was feeling like throwing up. His child shouldn't have had to suffer like that, “can you copy my breaths?”

Piper's face scrunched up and her knees buckled, causing her to fall forward as her barely mantained facade of calm crumbled apart and dissolved into absolute panic. Tony caught her trembling form and hugged her tight, murmuring reassurances through her sobs and gasps as he rubbed her back in a comforting motion.

Eventually Piper's sobs and gasps turned into long, heavy intakes of breath but she nonetheless kept her forehead pressed against her dad's shoulder as he held and gently rocked her.

“You're okay, honey,” soothed Tony as he continued rocking her, “And you're safe, I'll keep you safe.”

After a few more minutes Piper's breathing evened out completely and the two remained like that for a while longer. The kid, who was suddenly feeling too weak to stand, let out a long exhale.

It wasn't until Tony spoke that Piper realized her eyes had begun to droop: “Hmm, how about I take you back to your room? You look like you could use a nap.”

Piper wanted to get up in protest, but found that she could only huff and lift her head before knocking back into her father's chest in an exhausted bundle.

“Oh baby,” he cooed, adjusting her in his arms in a bridal style carry before standing up, “c'mon, let's get you to bed. It's been a long day.”

An unknown amount of time later, Piper woke up to her head throbbing as it always did when she fell asleep after crying.

Again, recollection of the past days events slammed back to her like a tsunami and she shot up in her queen sized back, sending the duvet flying and startling Tony Stark, who had apparently been sitting on her studio chair at her bedside.

“Oh, you're awake,” he said as some sort of greeting as he placed his StarkPad on the bedside table, “how are you feeling?”

Piper shrugged in response, then frowned at the window-wall that showcased the setting sun, “How long have I...”

Tony was quick to reply: “Been asleep? About two hours. Want some water, kid?”

Piper nodded, suddenly realizing how dry her throat was feeling and accepting the glass the billionaire handed her, gulping it down greedily.

She handed the glass back to the man, who was suddenly sporting an expression Piper couldn't quite place.

“The team wants to meet you.” he eventually blurted out, causing Piper's brain to short circuit.

“Y-You mean...”

“The Avengers,” Tony clarified, “they organized a team dinner. You don't have to feel forced to go if you don't feel like it though... these past few days have been... a lot. They'll totally get it if you'd rather wait.”

Meanwhile Piper was already getting out of bed: “No, no, no, I'm totally fine! When do we meet them?”

Tony studied her with amusement before looking down at his custom Rolex watch, “In about twenty minutes. C'mon, go get changed, Pipey.”

Piper grimaced: “Pipey?”

Tony clapped his hands and stood up dramatically, “Yep, now chop chop. We have a bunch of super-losers waiting for us upstairs. Steve even put on his best dress shirt. Don't tell him I told you though.”

Piper wrung her hands together as she stepped into the elevator with her father.

She was about to meet The Avengers and not only was she looking like a battered up puppy, in her rush she had also forgotten to brush her hair, which now lay atop her head like a particularly messy and electrocuted-looking mop.

She frowned at her reflection in the lift's mirror as she nervously ran her fingers through her frizzed up curls in an attempt to smooth them out but her actions were cut short by Tony's hands guiding her own away from her head and meeting her gaze in the mirror.

"You'll be fine. They haven't even officially met you yet and they already adore you.” he reassured her right as the elevator dinged.

When the doors opened Piper's mouth fell open.

There, right in front of her, stood the Avengers in all their mighty glory. They all looked so cool, and so awesome and so... overdressed.

This felt like the party all over again, Piper felt severely underdressed as she stared at the superheroes before her. The only one who wasn't wearing anything fancy was her father, who had already exited the elevator and was wearing some grease-stained jeans and an old MIT T-Shirt. But he was Tony Stark, he could've been wearing a trash bag and he would still have been super cool.

Piper glanced at her own outfit and then back at Earth's Mightiest Heroes, even Vision was wearing that ridiculous bow tie from the party.

She was about to say something when the elevator doors closed on her in a way that horribly reminisced their first encounter.

Piper rushed to open the doors and stumble out, almost tripping over her own two feet.

She looked back at the heroes, noting that among them stood also Pepper, Rhodey and Happy. She held everyone's gaze for another moment and then–

“You're the Avengers!”

There was a moment of silence during which Piper's eyes widened comically and her face turned bright red, then several people's eyebrows climbed up their foreheads and a few amused smirks made their way across the Avengers' expressions, Tony's being the most prominent.

“No shit.” said Sam softly, trying to ease the air for the clearly distressed girl and earning a smirk from Bucky and Wanda.

“Language!” hissed Steve, elbowing him in the ribs, “There's a child in the room, Sam! You need to tone it down with the sw–”

“Piper Starksdottir!” boomed Thor, causing her to flinch and offering his large hand to her to shake, which she accepted with her jaw on the floor. Ned was going to explode. Everyone else was looking at her expression amusedly while Thor was beaming at her with one of the warmest smiles she'd ever received, “It is an honor to finally make your acquaintance!”

“Uh... same here, Mr. Thor,” she said, shooting him with finger guns, “you're cool.” she then added as an afterthought.

“Did you ingrates hear what she said?! I'm 'cool'!" Roared Thor proudly at the same time as Clint, Sam, Natasha and Tony snorted: “Mr. Thor.”

“No need for the honorifics, young maiden,” assured the god as he turned back to her, “you may call me by my name... or you may refer to me as 'uncle Thor' if you please.”

“Whoah, this is nuts,” whispered Piper, causing Steve to look like he'd just swallowed a gallon of lemon juice and Tony to snort, “Ned is going to freak!” she then realized that everyone was staring at her and she paled, “I-I mean... sorry sirs and ma'ams... It's really cool to meet you guys– like really cool... I'm Piper.”

Natasha raised an amused eyebrow, “Didn't we already meet though, little spider?”

Piper's eyes widened again while Clint, Rhodey, Sam and Bucky (who had apparently forgot about that for the time being) seemingly choked on air.

“I mean... That was as Spider-Man, not as Piper.” she defended, her voice small, the spy's statement had caused all her memories to rush back to her through the screen of excitement.

“Understandable.” nodded the spy as Steve stepped forward.

“Regarding that,” started the aforementioned supersoldier, “I believe we owe you an apology, kid. We shouldn't have–”

“It's... it's okay–”

Steve was quick to interrupt, “Kid, it's not okay–”

“No really, I-I know you guys were just doing what you thought was best. I was acting really suspiciously, I had it coming. No hard feelings, Mr. America.”

Anything anyone wanted to say in response was thrown out of the window as the entire room burst into laughter.

“Mister– Mis– Mister– Mister America!” cackled Clint who had thrown himself on the couch amidst his laughs.

“Sorry kid, but this is priceless!” gasped Tony, wiping away tears of mirth, “Friday! Change Capsicle's name to 'Mr. America' on my contact list!”

“Changing 'Captain Get Off My Lawn' to 'Mr. America'...”

Steve groaned and buried his face in his hands.

Shortly after, the laughter subsided and the occupants of the room made their way towards the large, beautifully set, glass table.

Piper sat down next to her da– father and looked half amused half astonished as Clint, Thor and Rhodey started arguing over the seat on her left, smiling sheepishly when the latter, looking victorious, sat down next to her half a minute later.

Eventually everyone had sat down and Piper turned away from Rhodey and Clint (who had sat down next to him).

And her jaw dropped.

The others seemed to notice this and shot questioning looks at Bruce, who was at the receiving end of Piper's awe and who also looked rather unsettled by said display of emotion.

“You're...” breathed Piper in absolute wonder as the heroes shared a look and glanced at Bruce, who suddenly looked bitter, “You're–”

Bruce, seemingly having decided to just get it over with, tried to hide is bitterness and pain in an attempt to look nonchalant, “Yeah, I'm the H–”

“You're Bruce Banner!” she squealed as she shot to her feet, “You're one of the most renowned scientists and physicists in the world! You're so so so cool! I've read all your books and your papers on gamma radiation and your discoveries are absolutely revolutionary! You're like so awesome and– and...” Piper froze, realizing that everyone's eyes were on her. Some were looking at her with raised eyebrows, some looked confused, Tony looked proud and smug and some were shooting worried glances at Bruce, who looked like he was about to cry.

“And... yeah. You're cool.” finished the girl (who had once again turned crimson) before awkwardly plopping back in her seat as she shot a worried glance at the distressed scientist, “Dr. Banner... I'm sorry if I said anything that offended you, I didn't mean–”

“No, no! I'm not offended!” shouted a suddenly panicked (and slightly flustered) Bruce, causing Piper to involuntarily flinch, which had Natasha, Bucky, Clint and Wanda narrowing their eyes at her and several others exchanging dark looks. Tony's fingers tightened around his fork.

Piper frowned as she noticed this and thought back to when she had first entered the room.

Perhaps in her initial awe she hadn't noticed but now it was obvious, they'd been paying very close attention to her injuries and demeanor. Thor had been extremely gentle when he'd shook her hand and Piper knew that Thor's demeanor was generally not that gentle, if the bone-crushing embrace he had enveloped her in when he was drunk at the party was anything to go by.

Dread pooled in her stomach as her spider sense buzzed and she noticed Clint, Pepper, Natasha, Steve, Sam, Bucky and Happy studying her left eye, which was still surrounded by a nasty purple bruise (unlike the right one, which had suffered a lighter blow compared to its counterpart and had already begun to somewhat heal).

“I'm just surprised that you know my work,” continued Bruce as Piper brought her overgrown bangs to cover her left eye, causing everyone to avert their gaze, “people usually know me for being the Hulk.”

“Oh well, the Hulk is really cool too... but he's kinda like a different person? Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? That probably doesn't make much sense... anyways, in the end the Hulk is still a result of your work. Even if he was an accident. Which brings us back to you being awesome.” she ranted, her cheeks heating up once again.

“Well,” said Tony, poking Bruce (who had been rendered speechless again) from across the table, “looks like Brucie-Bear's gotten himself a fan.”

This time it was Bruce's turn to turn crimson as several people snickered and Piper covered her face with her hands in embarrassment.

“But,” the billionaire continued dramatically, “Sadly you're all second best, as I have been dubbed as the 'coolest man in the world',“ all the people in the room rolled their eyes in unison while Tony clicked his fingers: “Friday! Add that to my biography on all social media platforms!”

“On it Boss.” said Friday, sounding amused.

Piper couldn't help but groan from where she was covering her face with her hands, “Dad!”

She froze, as did the rest of the room.

The girl slowly looked up from her now trembling hands and slowly turned to Tony, who looked torn between gaping, screaming in joy and crying.

She gulped, glancing around at the other adults. In her line of view she could see Steve, Pepper and Happy, who looked happy for Tony as well as a little surprised, Natasha, who was looking at her as though to say 'it's okay', Sam and Bucky who just looked extremely awkward and Clint, who was looking at Tony with the biggest smile ever.

Piper looked back at her father and gulped, “I– I mean... uhm...”

“Let's dig in, shall we?” said Pepper, saving them from the pit of awkwardness they were about to plummet into.

The dinner was a blur for Piper, who had done her best to avoid Tony's gaze for the remainder of the evening. Including during the short elevator ride that brought Pepper, Tony and herself back to the penthouse.

As soon as the elevator had opened Piper half-stumbled and half-limped out, walking as fast as she could to her bedroom as she bid goodnight to the two adults, shutting and locking the door behind herself as she went straight to her bathroom. She was in desperate need of a long, hot shower.

Several hours later Piper woke with a terrified scream ripping from her throat.

She brought her legs to her chest, trying and failing to get her erratic breaths under control.

She was used to her nightmares being a pain, but in the recent few days they had been horrible–

Her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle knock and Tony's voice.

“Piper, can you let me in please?”

Piper gulped and slowly walked towards the door, hesitating for a brief moment before unlocking it.

Upon opening it she found herself in front of Tony, who looked like he had just fallen off his own bed and raced to her bedroom (which was probably exactly what had happened).

Tony looked sadly at his daughter's tear stained face and sighed: “Kiddie, I think we need to talk.” Piper immediately tensed up but he was quick to add on: “You're not in trouble, but I think we can't put this off much longer... I want to help you, I really do. But to do that I need to know what I'm going to help you with.”

Piper pondered for a moment before giving one sharp nod.

Tony offered her a small smile, “Can I come in?”

Piper moved aside to let the man in and closed the door while Tony walked over to the bed and sat down at the edge, patting the spot next to him, urging her to sit next to him and she did so, awkwardness and dread flowing through all her veins and arteries.

Tony sighed, opting to address the elephant in the room first: “You called me 'dad' at dinner.”

Piper hummed in agreement, keeping her gaze focused on a particularly interesting part of the ceiling.

“How do you feel about it, hun?” asked Tony.

Piper shrugged.

“Are you going to speak at all?” he insisted.

The kid shrugged again: “I really don't know, Mr. St– Sir– Tony– I mean–”

Tony gently grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him, though she was still pointedly avoiding his gaze, “Piper–”

“Can we not do this right now?” Piper was quick to interrupt, “I really don't feel like talking about it.”

Tony stopped for a moment before agreeing with a nod, “How about we talk about those nightmares you've been having then? What are they about?”

“Stuff.” she mumbled.

“Ah,” said Tony, “care to share what kind of 'stuff' in particular?”

Piper looked up and met his eyes, there was no way she could tell him about Mr. Smith and the other foster people, or Ben, or May, or Toomes. Especially Toomes... however that led her to a completely different issue altogether.

“Please don't take Spider-Man away from me.” she blurted out.

Tony seemed a little taken aback by the sudden change of subjects but he didn't mention it, opting to focus on the topic at hand, “Take him away from you?”

“Like... stop me from being Spider-Man,” Piper elaborated, “Please, I can't just stop– the people need me.”

Tony sighed and ran a hand over his face, “Kid, you're putting yourself in really dangerous situations... As your father I can't just let you continue endangering yourself like that.”

Piper stood up, her eyes filling with tears and her stomach flooding with panic, “Please, I'll be careful, I promise! I can't just stop... with great power comes great responsibility!”

The girl choked on a sob and wiped her face with her sleeve, proceeding to cover herself from view, overcome with shame. She had known it was a bad idea to open up in the first place, yet there she was doing the very thing she'd promised herself not to do and crying for the umpteenth time in front of Tony Stark.

Tony, for his part, sat frozen in place, studying the small, trembling figure of his daughter while his heart swelled up with pride and simultaneously cracked into bits. He knew how strong the urge to intervene was, being Iron Man and all that, and he knew he didn't have the heart to do something like that to his kid.

Slowly, he got up and approached Piper, urging her to remove her forearm from where it was covering her tear-stained face and meet his gaze: "I'm not taking Spider-Man away from you."

Piper's reaction was immediate and her entire demeanor changed up at once.

“Really?” she asked urgently, to which Tony nodded and she immediately flung herself in his arms, hugging him tight, “Thank you.”

“Don't mention it, kiddo.” he replied, hugging her back, “How about you go back to bed?”

Piper pulled away from the hug and reluctantly nodded, letting Tony take her hand and guide her back to the bed before he stopped in his tracks and looked back at her.

“Oh right,” he muttered as he pulled Piper's phone and a charger out of his pocket and handed them to her, “you left this in the workshop. I also got a compatible charger. Lemme know if you need anything else, okay?”

Piper nodded as she accepted the objects, “Thank you... good night.”

“Good night, Pip.” responded the billionaire as he left the room and closed the door.

Piper looked at her phone, then at her bed and then she promptly decided to charge the device overnight without turning it on. She was way too tired to deal with Ned and MJ at that moment.

Chapter Text

On the common floor, Tony, Natasha, Steve and Clint were awaiting Piper's arrival for breakfast.

“How's it been?” asked Clint, eyeing Tony who sighed.

“Hard,” replied Tony sadly, “she's been through a lot.”

Clint nodded with sad understanding, Natasha's gaze turned dark and revengeful, while Steve scowled bitterly.

“Which should've never happened,” the latter said angrily, then his expression saddened, “her face, Tony... she was so hurt.”

“No shit, Cap,” scoffed Tony before turning to Natasha, who was ominously studying a butter knife, “did you hear anything from Shield?”

Natasha put the knife down, “Everyone involved in the human trafficking ring is either arrested or being actively hunted down. Ralph Smith is in custody... Shield's trying to keep things low-key.”

“Well they're doing a damn great job, aren't they?” commented the billionaire as he scrolled through all the tweets about the rooftop incident on his StarkPad.

“A damn great job at what?” Piper asked hesitantly as the elevator doors screeched open, startling everyone.

There was silence as the adults shared serious looks and Rhodey nodded at Tony, who sighed and ushered his kid to sit down.

Piper did so, dropping her phone on the couch as she passed it, and accepted the StarkPad when Tony handed it to her, gasping at what she saw.

It was a good thing she was sitting down, she decided, because had she been standing she would've probably collapsed.

The screen showcased the day's top Twitter trends:

#1 Penelope Stark
#2 Tony Stark
#3 THEY FOUND HER
#4 #thecoolestmanintheworld
#5 DAD

She hastily put the tablet down and took a shaky breath. The adults eyed her carefully as she turned around and spoke quietly: “Do they know who I am?”

Tony shook his head, “No, they just know that we found you.”

Piper took a shaky breath before speaking, "How?"

Tony shared a quick look with Rhodey, “Someone took a video of us when... you were falling from the building the other day.”

Piper's head snapped up and she could feel her breaths coming in shorter. If she hadn't freaked out, if she hadn't run this wouldn't have happened. It was her fau–

“Don't.” said Natasha, eyeing her and earning a stunned glance from said girl and confused looks from the men at the table, “This isn't your fault.”

Piper's expression perfectly resembled a deer in headlights when Tony rounded on her.

"Nope. Nuh-uh.” he said, moving his index finger in a 'no' gesture, “You were freaked out and rightfully so, the jackass that posted it shouldn't have been filming people without their consent.”.

Piper just shrugged.

Steve chose that moment to clear his throat, “How about we eat something?” he began, piling a ridiculous amount of pancakes on a plate, “You know, back in the day–”

Clint groaned, “Oh no, here he goes again with his old man stories!”

Steve glared at him as he continued piling the pancakes on top of each other.

“Back in the day what?” asked Piper who was genuinely interested in the matter, she hadn't ever had a grandpa or an elderly figure in her life to tell her about the past, she'd only read about it in books.

Steve looked like he was about to cry in happiness while Tony, Clint and Natasha did their best to suppress their groans of annoyance.

“Back in the day, during the great depression,” started the supersoldier, stacking one last pancake on the plate and pushing it over to Piper, continuing his tale before she could protest, “we used to boil everything. Would you like some maple syrup?”

“Mr. Rogers I can't possibly eat all this–”

“Yeah, you're right,” said Clint, getting up and walking towards the fridge, “you need some fruit too! Vitamins are important!”

“Piper, come on, dig in.” insisted Steve.

Tony too ushered her to eat her food while Natasha remained strangely quiet.

“It's not that I don't want to,” said Piper in shame, “I just can't.

“Why not?” drawled Natasha dangerously, “I thought your metabolism was faster than Steve's. That's his average pancake portion, if anything you should eat even more.”

Piper gulped and looked down, her bottom lip trembling a little, “A prolonged period of starvation leads to refeeding syndrome,” she mumbled, speaking in a way that resembled an AI repeating a definition, “it's a metabolic disturbance that causes the body to reject food, particularly in large amounts, because it's not used to digesting it anymore.”

There was a moment of silence during which the adults evidently stilled, looking murderous.

“He starved you!” roared Tony, shooting up and causing Piper to flinch.

Clint put a comforting hand on her shoulder, looking at her sadly while Steve stared on with pursed lips and Natasha gripped her butter knife again.

“He– he didn't like, starve me or anything... he just didn't like spending money on me.” Piper mumbled.

Tony let out a heartbroken sigh and ran a hand over his face in dismay.

“Kid, he is– was your guardian. It was his job to look after you.” said Clint softly, rubbing her shoulder in a comforting motion.

Tony, who'd been pacing, suddenly turned towards Piper and crouched down in front of her, met her eyes and took her hands that had been gripping her chair, “How did you afford...”

“Food and stuff?” she deduced, “I have... had a small job... last Monday I quit and told my boss to screw himself though.”

Tony felt so sad. He should've been there for his kid, she shouldn't have had to fend for herself at sixteen because of ger guardian's neglect. He vowed to make it up to her in any way he could.

“Why did you... flip him off?” asked Steve, “You don't seem like the kind of person to do that.”

Piper scoffed, “I'd like to see how long your patience lasts with J. Jonah Jameson.”

Everyone's heads whipped back to her and Tony stood back up.

“You worked for the Daily Bugle?!” he demanded incredulously, “The newspaper that's dead set on shunning Spider-Man every chance they get?!”

Steve pursed his lips again.

Piper shrugged in shame, bringing a hand to rub at the back of her neck.

“Look, it was either that or starvation, and with my metabolism I really can't afford that. The Bugle needed good pictures of Spider-Man, I am Spider-Man and I have a camera. It was convenient for me and for them.” she said, looking down as tears began forming in her eyes. She was so ashamed to be on the brink of crying in front of no one other than Tony Stark, Captain America, Hawkeye and the Black Widow. They were still her idols, no matter her relation to them.

Clint glared murderously at Tony who quickly dialed down his anger, replacing it with a fresh wave of worry.

“I'm sorry, kid,” he apologized, sitting down next to her again, “I shouldn't have reacted like that, but knowing what he did to you... you have no idea how much it hurts.”

Had it been any other situation, Tony would've been mortified by that display of emotion in front of his teammates, but in that moment he found that he didn't really care, there were more important matters at hand.

Piper brought her chin to her neck and the billionaire inched closer and cupped her face with his hands, tilting her head up and wiping her tears with his thumbs.

“How many pancakes do you think you can handle? Three? Four?” he asked softly, choosing to change the subject.

Piper shrugged, “Can I start with two?”

Before Tony could do anything Steve was already handing her another plate with 2 pancakes.

“Here,” said the supersoldier, “you can always have seconds if you don't feel full enough.”

Piper smiled kindly at him and looked down at the plates, having seconds wasn't something she was used to, not even with Aunt May and Uncle Ben, since they hadn't had much money to afford more than the food that was strictly necessary.

After they'd all eaten in silence Natasha's phone dinged and she looked up from it after reading the texts.

“Fury said Smith's being evicted.” she announced.

Piper snorted, she couldn't find it in herself to feel bad about him. She then froze and felt her eyes widen a little bit.

“My stuff is still at the apartment.” she said with a stiff voice.

“How much time do we have left?” asked Tony sharply.

“Till tomorrow at noon.” replied Natasha, shooting a worried glance at Piper who got a determined look on her face.

“Can we go get my stuff today, please?” she asked hesitantly, “I-I mean, if you can't I can like... get an uber or something–”

Tony scoffed, like what she'd said had personally offended him, “Like hell I'm letting my kid go around with an uber,” he spat with a shudder, before turning worried once again, “are you sure you want to go there? I can have someone take all your stuff to the Tower instead if you'd prefer.”

Piper shook her head sharply, she definitely didn't want someone accidentally having a run-in with her booby trapped closet, “N-No, no I can totally do this... l-let's go...”

And so they went.

“So,” started Tony as they stopped at a red light, a bit grumpy at not being able to drive his kid around in his flashiest car, given that they were trying to keep low-key, “Pepper suggested going out sometime next week... she'd like to get to know you better and I'd like to as well.”

Piper whipped her head away from the car window and looked at him wide eyed, “You guys wanna hang out with me? That's so cool!”

Tony smiled at her before looking back at the now green light and scoffing at someone that honked at him as he started the car again, “Of course, we can decide what we wanna do later, see if it fits with your school schedule– oh right, we need to sort out school things too. I wonder why they haven't tried calling... anyone yet, seeing as you haven't been to school in days. You go to Midtown Tech, right?”

Piper grimaced and looked at her worn Converses, “Yeah... and they probably don't care because I'm not supposed to be in school anyways, since they suspended me for three days.”

The car jumped slightly as Tony almost slammed his foot on the brake, instead he parked the car and turned to look at her with raised eyebrows: “You got suspended?”

Piper shrugged, biting the inside of her cheek and trying to make herself as small as possible.

“How?” said Tony, his voice more gentle, as he took his sunglasses off.

“Monday.” she said tightly.

It took Tony a moment before he realized that last Monday, which was exactly three days prior, was the day Piper had broken into his upper labs and found out about their relation.

Tony winced, the poor kid must've gone back to school afterwards and she must've been totally freaked out. He almost growled at the thought of her teachers punishing his clearly distressed daughter instead of questioning her panic or, pray tell, help her.

“Oh, Pip.” he sighed sadly as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a half-hug.

She sighed too, it sounded so pained, and looked up “I'm supposed to go back to school tomorrow... my social assistant probably told them about–”

“Actually she didn't, I told her to screw herself and she didn't seem too keen on going up against Tony Stark. Especially with the Avengers and Nick Fury on his side.” he said smugly.

Piper did her best not to comment on how awesome that was on his part and chose to nod instead, her unease about Morita and her teachers' reactions growing and replacing her previous thought.

“This leads us to another issue,” said Tony, breaking her out of her thoughts and looking at her seriously, “your name.”

Piper froze, she had totally overlooked the fact that technically Piper Parker didn't even exist. She was Penelope Stark, but even the thought of giving up her name and her surname felt so painful–

Tony groaned and ran a hand over his face, “I'm so sorry kid, I'm really bad at this. This definitely isn't the right time and place to have this conversation.” he sighed dejectedly, looking at her once again, “Whatever, since I started this rodeo let's just get it over with. I don't want to pressure you but we gotta sort this out at some point... I can understand if you want to keep your name and surname, what the Parkers did for you... I'm so grateful that they were there and it sucks that I can't make it up to them,” he looked down sadly and Piper felt like she'd just been punched in the gut at the reminder, “the only way I can think of is letting you keep the surname, they deserve it. I wouldn't have done half a good job as they did with you, I owe it to them. And to you.” he looked up, “But I also want you to know that you are my kid and that even though we didn't get to spend much time together I love you to pieces… heck, I didn't even know it was possible to love someone this much – and that I'd be honored if you were to add 'Stark' to your name.”

Piper, who once again had tears dripping down her face, threw herself at him and hugged him. Tony smiled down at her and hugged her back, putting one hand on her back and one in her hair.

“Can we hyphenate them?” she asked, her voice muffled in Tony's shoulder.

“Huh?” asked Tony, looking down at his daughter's head.

Piper pulled away, not breaking the hug, and looked up at him, “Piper Parker-Stark. It sounds nice, doesn't it?”

Tony looked at her stunned for a moment before grinning, his eyes shiny, “Yes, it does.”

Piper frowned, “What about my other names? Like, Piper, May, Penelope and... Jamie, was it?”

Tony huffed amusedly, “Yeah, you were named after Rhodey. He was my roommate back at MIT and has been my best friend ever since.”

“Yeah, I know.” said Piper automatically, freezing when her words registered.

Tony raised an eyebrow, “Right, you're a fan.” he teased, “About the names... I don't want you to feel like you have to change your name. You grew up being called Piper, I can totally understand you wanting to keep that name. As well as May, she was your aunt, right?”

Piper nodded sadly, the reminder of her aunt another pang to the gut, “Yeah...”

“What do you wanna do?” asked Tony after a brief, awkward silence.

“Can't I just keep them all? Like Albus Dumbledore – from Harry Potter, you know? – his full name is Albus Wulfric Percival Brian Dumbledore.”

Tony couldn't help but grin at that, “I mean, we could do that. Also, you like Harry Potter?”

Piper adamantly nodded and for some reason she really didn't like the way Tony looked like he was making a mental note of that particular fact.

“Anyways,” said the man who'd suddenly turned somber, “let's go in, shall we?”

Piper's breath caught in her lungs as she turned her head and realized that they were parked right outside of Mr. Smith's apartment complex.

Tony was the first one to get out and as soon as he did so her sense started buzzing. Before she could pay it any mind, her father opened the passenger door and dramatically gestured at her to get out with a half bow.

They walked up the chipped, humid stairs and Piper, clutching her father's hand, was reliving every single horrible time she'd had to climb them. Especially the day she'd found Aunt May's letter. The letter that had started it all.

Eventually, they got to the apartment, whose crappy, broken down door had been replaced with an equally crappy one and they stepped in.

Piper flinched as the disgusting smell of dried beer hit her nostrils and Tony grimaced as well, seemingly noticing the stench despite not having any enhanced senses of his own.

The girl pointedly ignored the blood stained wall and the broken beer bottles and rushed towards her former bedroom. However, Tony stood to look at the entire living room aghast for a moment, before following her.

“I-I'm sorry for the mess...” she apologized as they entered the glorified closet, “with everything that was going on I didn't really have time to tidy up...” she grimaced at her suitcase on the floor, “and I didn't think Smith would've kept me long enough for it to be worth unpacking. Heh, turns out I was right.”

While Tony looked at her with a pained, sad glance, Piper walked up to the ruddy desk, grabbed all the papers and books that cluttered it and tossed them in the suitcase.

The girl proceeded to crawl under her bed and the billionaire shot a look at the suitcase, sadness and rage building up in him as he noticed the scarcity of clothes that Piper owned. And the few clothes that she did own were all in horrible shape.

“We're gonna do some very intensive shopping one of these days.” he announced, causing Piper to stiffen under the bed.

“Mr. Stark,” she said, moving backwards and looking up at him, “you've been so nice to me... I don't want to be a hindrance or– or a burden, I already have enough stuff and you already got me so many nice things, my closet at the Tower is already half full.”

“Kid,” started Tony sadly, “I'm your father, it's my duty to take care of you. And please, stop it with the 'Mr. Stark's'. You don't deserve anything less than the best, and those things in your closet are mostly things I picked up through the years during trips and outings to cope with your loss.”

Piper blinked back tears. She wasn't gonna cry that day, she'd already had enough close calls and it wasn't even noon.

“Okay, dad.” she said offhandedly and promptly froze once again, her eyes widening.

Tony sighed sadly and stepped close to her, crouching down next to where she was kneeling by the bed, and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Look, Piper,” he started softly, “I know this whole situation is weird and awkward for you, but I need you to know that I have nothing against you calling me dad. I'd love you to, however I do understand that it might be too early, that's why I said what I said the other day. But please, if it feels easier to call me that then just do so. Please.”

“Okay d-dad.” she said, her voice breaking a little and she began rubbing her eyes that wouldn't stop leaking tears.

“Oh baby,” murmured Tony as he wrapped her in a big hug, and ran a hand through her hair, “you can cry, crying isn't bad or dumb. It's fine and you can totally do so if you need to.”

At that Piper couldn't hold it in anymore and wept.

“Ye-es, sweetheart, just like that. You've been through so so much,” he spoke softly while she sobbed in his arms as he held her protectively, “I gotcha now, everything's gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay.”

After some more crying on Piper's part and comforting on Tony's, the girl looked up.

“Think you're ready to tell me what happened this past year?” Tony asked carefully.

And the dam Piper had built around herself broke.

She once again exploded in tears and told him.

How her first foster family had been nice but had given her up after two weeks because of her sneaking out at night, how her second one had been nice and then they'd gotten pregnant and dumped her like an old newspaper, how every single foster parent after that had just gotten gradually worse until Mr. Smith came along. And how horrible he'd been.

She told him about how he'd always drink, how he'd refused to get her food and utilities and how she'd been forced to find a job to feed herself. And how horrible her time at the Bugle had been too. Then she told him about how as days passed Smith gradually got more and more violent until he'd eventually tried to kill her.

By the end of it Piper was a mess, she'd cried so much her head was throbbing and her eyes were blurry, and at some point she'd ended up curled up half in her dad's lap as he ran his hands through her hair and softly muttered comforting words, though inside he was aching with rage.

After she'd calmed down and drank some water from a questionable water bottle she'd found under her bed, which was probably weeks old, the two resumed packing, Tony helping her to throw everything into her suitcase and into the spare one they'd brought and, eventually, the only part of the room that was left was her closet.

Tony went to open it but Piper was quick to stop him, urging him to stand by the bed as she stepped next to the closet, slightly off to the left.

The billionaire was about to voice his confusion but, before he could, Piper opened the door and a fire extinguisher shot out and smashed into the desk, absolutely demolishing it.

Tony turned to gape at his daughter before glancing at the now open closet and gaping even more.

Said piece of furniture contained what seemed to be several jars of web fluid as well as numerous web shooter prototypes and nanotech prototypes.

He was so immersed in studying all those things he almost didn't notice the Iron Man poster on the inside of the closet's door, which Piper was standing in front of in a poor attempt to hide it.

He walked closer and gently pushed his kid aside, smirking at the poster, then noticing some smaller pictures and magazine cutouts of himself, as well as Pepper and his teammates. And some random celebrities and movie characters that he made a mental note of.

He turned to his daughter with a big grin, “I can't believe you are – or well, were – a fan of mine.”

“It's more than that.” mumbled Piper, causing him to look curious, “Growing up I've been through a bunch of stuff... and I used to get these weird dreams and you were in them a lot, I always felt really drawn to you– like I actually knew you... And when I was like seven some stuff happened and I wouldn't take this stupid plastic mask off,” she pointed at an Iron Man mask on one of the lower shelves of the closet, “it made me feel safe.”

Tony furiously blinked back tears as he wrapped the kid in yet another hug, his heart aching horribly but also beating warmly at the thought of his daughter finding comfort and familiarity in him during her hardships. He pulled away and looked at her.

“Wanna know something?” he asked and, at Piper's nod, pulled up his right sleeve, revealing a familiar bracelet with worn off, red and yellowish beads which had some golden residue on them.

“You made this bracelet shortly before you... before I l-lost you... you had an identical one, but yours was smaller. It was the only thing they found when you went missing.” he sighed sadly, pulling said small bracelet out of his pocket and studying it. That bracelet was even more worn than the one on his wrist, due to all the times he'd held it in his hands, beating himself up over the loss of his kid.

“You probably know this, but after losing you I went down a dark path. Then Afghanistan happened and I became Iron Man.” he halted and looked at the poster for a long moment, then he turned back to her as he spoke, “why do you think my suit is red and gold, Piper?”

Piper glanced at the poster, then at the bracelets, then at her father and she burst into tears.

Tony himself looked on the verge of a crying session, so he wrapped her in a hug and the two of them just stood like that for a while.

Eventually they pulled apart and Piper crouched down to pick up MJ's corkboard from the bottom of the closet.

“Well, that explains this picture, I guess.” she said, eyeing the picture of the bracelet.

Tony walked up behind her, studying the contents of the board intently, “Is this...”

“Everything we found.” elaborated the girl.

“You're amazing, kid.” said Tony after a moment of shocked silence, feeling incredibly proud.

Piper smiled at him and went back to packing her stuff.

“How did you develop the nanotech?” questioned Tony, “Where'd you get all the supplies?”

“Well, I procured what I could with my paycheck from the Bugle,” her dad frowned in disapproval at that, knowing full well that the paycheck already wasn't nearly enough to feed her freaky metabolism, “as for the more fancy equipment... the Oscorp labs are really easy to break into.”

Tony's eyebrows climbed up his forehead and his mouth began breaking into a grin, “You didn't...”

Piper shrugged, “They had it coming after the crap they put me through, plus, it's their fault for not knowing how to lock doors properly.”

Tony raised an adamant eyebrow at that, “And what exactly does this crap they put you through consist of?”

Piper sighed as she plopped down on the bed, “Back in freshman year there was this field trip at Oscorp,” Tony grimaced at the horrible location choice, “I got lost and ended up in this sketchy lab that was full of spiders... they were subjecting these spiders to some pretty crazy amounts of radiation and they somehow managed to create a formula similar to the supersoldier serum but more concentrated... They were feeding it to the spiders. Anyways, one of them had gotten out and yeah.” she concluded, showing him the bite mark on her palm.

Tony felt a horrible feeling of anger almost overtake him as he hissed: “Osborn.”

Before he could set the whole team after his rival, he sat down next to his kid and took her hand, gently turning it around, “Steve told me his... transition hurt, I can't imagine...”

“How mine was?” said Piper, standing up, “Oh it was terrible, to be honest I thought I was dying. But then I didn't. I guess my will to live was a bit stronger than whatever Osborn pumped his pet spiders with. I still don't exactly know what the bite did to me, the metabolism thing is just a hunch, based on how fast I've healed in the past. However we also have to consider that I haven't ever really eaten nearly as much as I should so I don't really know my super-healing's full potential. The only things I am certain of are my enhanced senses. Ned, MJ and I thought about the way my DNA merged with the spider's, but then we realized that the spider itself was modified through the serum. And the spiders were long gone by then, considering that I blew the lab up after breaking into Oscorp's labs and obliterating their database.”

Tony decided to put aside all the questions his daughter's rant had raised and focused on the last thing she said.

“You're the one who blew up the Oscorp labs and decimated their database?!” he said in astonishment, “They tried blaming it on SI, saying that one of our people infiltrated the company!”

“Well, turns out they weren't all that wrong.” mumbled Piper, focusing her eyes on the crusty floor tiles.

Tony stopped for a moment and then barked out a laugh, clapping a hand on her back, “You're great, kid. I can't wait for Rhodey, Pepper and Happy to hear about this. And Clint and Nat. They'll go crazy!”

Piper tried holding back a smile but found that she couldn't.

Chapter Text

Once Piper and Tony returned to the Tower, everyone reunited for lunch.

“So,” started Natasha as everyone else inhaled the lasagnas they'd ordered, “when are we getting started on your training, little spider?”

Piper choked, “T-Training?”

“I'm letting you continue being Spider-Man, but you're gonna be training with us before that happens.” elaborated Tony, as several people nodded.

Piper's mouth fell open, “This is awesome! When do we start?”

Clint, Steve, Wanda and Thor grinned at her excitement and Natasha's lips quirked up a little.

“I don't know, I asked you.” said the latter with obvious amusement.

“Helen said that you're good to go ,” supplied Pepper, looking impressed by her super healing abilities, “however she'd like you to take it easy at first, especially until we get your little metabolism situation under control.”

Piper nodded understandingly, not mentioning that she was still aching all over.

“So,” started Rhodey as he brought his hands together and leaned his chin on them, “tell us about yourself kid. You barely let out a peep these past few days.”

Piper shot a hesitant look at Tony, who nodded at her encouragingly.

“Well... I don't really know what to say.” she said awkwardly.

“You like physics and you go to Midtown Tech, right?” said Bruce, “What do you want to do after graduating?”

“Well, I really like physics but I'm more into biochemical engineering. I already was interested in it before, but after I got my powers I really realized how much I like it.” she explained.

“That makes sense,” commented Bruce, “how do you even make those webs of yours? They're extremely impressive.”

Piper blushed at the compliment, especially since it was coming from none other than Bruce Banner, “Well, my chemistry teacher isn't the most alert person... and everything I need is in the chemistry lab at school, so...” she trailed off sheepishly, shrinking in her seat at Steve and Pepper's disapproving looks.

Tony just ran a hand over his face and chose not to comment. Mostly because that would result in Pepper and Steve's glares turning to him.

Bruce himself was a little speechless so no one said anything for a short moment, then Piper, who'd overheard something that was being said on another floor, snorted.

She turned bright red as everyone shot her confused and bewildered looks and rushed to explain.

“Ah sorry,” she apologized, rubbing the back of her head, “the receptionist was complaining about her salad and then someone walked by and slipped on the wet floor and dunked his coffee on her and now she's cussing him out.”

Several pairs of eyebrows climbed up several respective foreheads.

“You... you can hear what they're saying in the reception?” questioned Happy astounded.

Piper looked at him and slowly nodded.

“That's like... ninety floors below us!” said Clint, looking about as surprised as everyone else.

“Damn, not even Steve and I can hear that far.” said Bucky as Steve glared at him for his language.

“Oh,” said Piper awkwardly, “well, pretty much all my senses got dialed to eleven after the bite... didn't I mention it already?”

“The bite?” asked Sam in alarm

Tony ran a face over his face again and sighed tiredly, “Somehow Piper here managed to get herself bitten by some radioactive superspider during a field trip at Oscorp.”

Thor, Wanda, Steve, Bucky, Sam, Clint and Happy paled while Pepper, Natasha and Rhodey shared suspicious glances with Tony. Even Vision looked pensive.

“Fascinating.” breathed Bruce, rushing to elaborate when he received many odd looks, “I mean, what happened to you must've been horrible, but I can't deny that it's a scientific miracle... like many other individuals in this room.” he glanced at his fellow heroes before looking back at Piper and Tony, “Do you know what those spiders were subjected to?”

“A bunch of radiation and a concentrated replica of the supersoldier serum.” said Piper, causing several heads to snap up.

Steve and Bucky looked at her apprehensively, knowing all too well how painful their own transformations had been.

“I wonder how Osborn got a hold of that formula.” mused Natasha darkly.

“You think Hydra's got something to do with this?” asked Clint.

“Either way we should talk to Fury about this... and probably some people that are a bit higher up that him,” said Rhodey carefully, “why would Osborn need an army of radioactive spiders?” he mused on.

“It was for a spider silk farm. At least that's what it said in his database when we hacked it.” explained Piper conversationally.

“You were the one who wiped the Oscorp database?!” screeched Pepper at the same time as Natasha said: “Who's we?”

Before Piper could reply to either one of the questions an unnaturally loud yodeling tune started blasting from the couch and she shot to her feet, almost tripping over in her rush to reach her blaring phone.

“PIPER PARKER!” came two loud screeching voices before Piper could even reach the device.

“Hey Ned, hey MJ.” she said sheepishly, picking up the phone and keeping it at a distance from her face because of the loud volume.

Everyone else sat up, interested to hear what this was about and who these people were, as some of them recognized the ringtone from the Las Vegas mission (and remembered that whoever that tune was associated with knew about Piper's secret identity. And possibly her other secret identity too).

Tony and Happy were the most curious, since Tony remembered hearing Piper mention 'Ned' and 'MJ' earlier that day, and Happy recognized Ned's voice from the McDonald's incident.

Meanwhile Piper frowned, “Did you hack my phone again? And why are your voices so loud–”

“To hell with that!” roared MJ, “Where the fuck are you?!”

Guilt flooded Piper's system, but before she could say anything Ned started hollering again.

“You went radio silent for three days after leaving to ‘talk’ with the vulture guy– do you have any idea how worried we were?!” he said, his voice loud and shaky.

“Ned, guys, I'm so s–”

“And then the video trending on Twitter– and we recognized the voice, Piper.” he continued, his voice breaking through his almost incoherent and disbelieving yells, “That was you! Karen analyzed it and everything! What the hell is going on and where are you?!”

MJ stayed quiet, but Piper could hear her deep breaths synch with Ned's erratic ones.

Piper gulped and glanced at the adults, who were looking at the scene intently, before turning her attention back to the phone.

“I'm at the Tower.” she said after a moment.

There was a loud crashing sound and several sequences of curse words.

Piper winced, “Please don't tell me that was the Lego Death Star.” she mumbled in an attempt to lift the mood.

Sam, Rhodey and Happy's eyebrows shot up in disbelief while Thor frowned in confusion and Steve smirked smugly, understanding the reference (he'd watched the Star Wars Saga a few months prior).

Tony made a mental note of the fact that his daughter liked Star Wars and Legos.

Pepper shook her head slowly, sighing in defeat as she shot a half fond and half exasperated glance first at the kid and then at Tony.

“YOU'RE AT AVENGERS TOWER?!” howled Ned as he, by the sound of it, climbed out of the remains of the Lego Death Star.

“Yeah...” said Piper.

“So I guess the rumours are true then.” Muttered MJ. “Is he treating you well?” she continued, her tone turning sharp.

Tony huffed, looking offended, but internally he was relieved, happy to know that his daughter had such caring friends. Several others seemed to share his feelings.

“MJ!” screamed Ned before Piper could say anything, “This is Tony Stark we're talking about!”

“It could be the president for all I care. Is he treating you well?” she insisted, her tone sharpening further.

“Yes,” said Piper sincerely, avoiding her dad's gaze, “he's been great, really great.” Tony grinned, “We, uhm. He showed me his lab and stuff.”

“HE SHOWED YOU HIS LAB?!” shouted Ned.

Piper winced, “Tone it down. Sensitive hearing, remember? I really don't feel like getting a sensory overload right after healing from the injuries Toomes and Smith gave me.”

She realized her mistake when the temperature in the room seemed to drop a little and two sharp gasps echoed over the line.

“I knew it.” said MJ, sounding like she was about to cry, “I knew there was something going on. I should've told Mr. Harrington when I had the chance.”

Piper grimaced and glanced apologetically at the adults, who'd all sombered up, their expressions varying in several degrees of pain, pity and anger. She plopped down on the couch, “Look guys, I really can't talk right now, and this wasn't your fault–”

“Oh no, after what you pulled these past few days there's no way I'm letting you hang up,” said Ned with a shaky voice, seemingly realizing that Piper didn't feel like talking about Smith at that moment, “the Vulture was arrested by the way. It said so on the news.”

“Yeah he tried to drop another– an... other... an other thing– a building on me but I stopped him.”

“That's awesome.” commented Ned.

Natasha was the only one to notice Piper's slip-up, while everyone else was too busy frowning at Ned's commentary.

“Yeah, I beat the shit out of him and then boom.” she said, gesturing wildly with her hand that wasn't holding her phone, “The Avengers were standing behind me.”

Ned squeaked, though he still seemed a bit off-put by the previous subject of the conversation, “All of them?”

Piper shook her head, then she remembered that they couldn't see her, “No–”

“You didn't have your suit.” interrupted MJ, causing the adults in the room to wonder how she knew that.

“Yeah, and Toomes said my name. That's how they found me.” said Piper.

“Good.” said MJ matter of factly while Tony gave an agreeing nod, “I fixed it by the way, I'll give it to you at school – are you coming tomorrow?”

Piper frowned and glanced at Tony who shook his head, while some of the heroes looked impressed at the iconic Spider-Man suit being the work of a teenager, “Probably not.”

“How did they even manage to find you?” asked Ned, “Like, I get that they knew what you looked like and stuff, but when we hacked Friday we told her not to show anything that had to do with you.”

Piper's eyes widened and the adults were back to giving their full attention to the exchange, especially Tony, who'd been trying to find out the mysterious Chair Guy's identity for days.

“They must've gotten that Fury guy involved.” commented MJ and several eyebrows shot up because the general public wasn't supposed to know that Fury was still out and about doing his usual business.

Meanwhile Piper was starting to panic.

"Guys–”

“Maybe,” said Ned, “I can't believe it was so easy to hack Friday though. It took us less than an hour.”

Tony's eyes narrowed, Pepper and Rhodey raised an eyebrow, Happy was frowning, Natasha and Clint where listening attentively and everyone else just looked astonished.

Now Piper was really freaking out.

“Guys–”

MJ scoffed, “To be fair it was all thanks to that idiot head of security.”

Every head in the room turned to Happy, who'd gone very pale, while Piper's hands trembled in horror.

“Connecting to public McDonald's wifis – it's a miracle no one's hacked SI before.” continued MJ.

Now Happy found himself at the end of a dozen glares, while his own was directed at the phone in Piper's hands. Pepper, Tony and Rhodey too were looking at the device. So that's what Piper and that other kid had been doing in the McDonald's. However, it was still impossible for them to singlehandedly hack Friday with all the firewalls, so how did they–

“Well, as much as it pains me to say this, it was also Captain America's fault.” admitted Ned rather dramatically.

Now the glares turned to Steve as Tony, Bruce and Sam remembered a certain message he'd received, as did everyone else, having been told of the event by a certain giggling billionaire. The captain himself looked guilty, even though he didn't know what he'd done.

“Honestly, cheap houses in Brooklyn, click here for more infos.” continued the boy, confirming the aforementioned people's hypothesis, and causing Steve's jaw to drop in understanding, “Who would even click on that?!”

“An old man, which is what he technically is. No matter how hot he looks.” said MJ, causing Piper to choke in horror, Steve to turn bright red, Clint to snicker and Tony, Bucky and Sam to smirk in amusement as the latter smacked the supersoldier on the shoulder.

“Oh,” said Ned as Piper shrank further in the couch, “we also have to thank Karen.”

Tony perked up at that, wondering if this Karen was another one of Piper's classmates.

Piper tried to speak but Ned interrupted her again, sounding newly excited, “Did you meet the Avengers?”

“Did you meet Pepper Potts?” asked MJ right after.

Piper could almost hear Ned's eyeroll as he spoke, “MJ, are you serious right n–”

“No Ned, I don't wanna hear it. Pepper Potts is the best thing that's happened to the stock market and she's an absolute queen.” said MJ, causing Pepper to crack a smile and Tony to nod proudly as several others raised their eyebrow or whistled at the huge praise that was sent to their roommate.

Ned was quick to reply, “I thought you wanted to take down capitalism and instate a socialist regime.”

This had several people stopping and frowning, Tony and Pepper among them.

“Yeah and I will, but Pepper Potts is the goat and you have to admit it.”

“Nah, Captain America is the goat.” countered Ned.

“Shut up.”

Being 'the goat' meant being the best, but, judging by their bewildered, offended and (in Tony's case, amused) faces, the adults didn't seem to know that.

“Hold up– PIPER DID YOU MEET THEM?!” screeched Ned suddenly, causing everyone save for Natasha (who was always impassive) and Piper (who'd been friends with Ned for many years) to flinch.

“Yes, they're cool.” said Piper in resignment.

The Avengers looked smug, especially Thor, Rhodey and Clint. Bruce sent a small smile over to Piper while Tony grinned widely next to him.

“Holy shit, this is the best day of my life!”

Piper facepalmed.

Ned kept talking, the sound of his typing registering in the background, “How are they– PIPER THEY FOUND US! I JUST CHECKED MY PC AND THEY RESTORED FRIDAYS ENTIRE CODE!”

Piper turned sharply to Tony, who met her panicked gaze with a smirk, “O-Oh... oof.”

Pepper frowned, not liking that some random kid was trying to mess with Friday in real time.

“I still have access to the mainframe though.” said Ned, somehow calming down quickly.

Tony frowned, took his StarkPad and a moment later Ned seemed to fall off his studio chair again.

“I JUST GOT KICKED OUT! THIS IS IT, WE'RE ALL GOING TO THE RAFT!”

"Oh this is priceless.” muttered Rhodey who seemed to be enjoying the situation a lot. Sam and Clint nodded in agreement while Bruce stared on in perplexion next to them.

Piper shot a terrified look at Tony, whose gaze softened and he slowly shook his head.

The girl let out a shaky breath and looked back at the phone, “I don't think we will.”

“Maybe not you, but what about MJ and I–”

Ned was cut short by what sounded like MJ smacking him with an empty water bottle. Piper sighed and Steve frowned, kids these days were so strange.

“The Raft's a high security prison for people like the Vulture or Loki,” said MJ, causing Thor to roll his eyes. Midgardian dungeons weren't even nearly capable of containing his menace of a brother, “they're not locking us in there. Especially since we're Penelope Stark's best friends.”

Ned gasped, “Penelope Stark's my best friend! This is the best day of my life!”

Bucky and Sam frowned, that Ned character was weird and he sure liked that phrase a lot.

“Hold up, should I start calling you Penelope?” asked Ned and Piper braced herself, recognizing the tone of voice he always spoke in when he was about to ask a bunch of questions.

“No,” she sighed, “dad and I decided to just keep all my names and to hyphen my surnames.”

Tony's grin grew as his daughter addressed him.

“Dear Thor,” Thor looked confused while Clint, Rhodes, Wanda, Pepper and Bruce looked amused, “I can't believe you just called Tony Stark dad, do you have any idea how cool that is – hold up, like Dumbledore?”

“Exactly like Dumbledore.” nodded Piper, smug that they'd thought about the same thing.

“Did you meet Thor?” squeaked Ned, causing Wanda, Bucky, Sam, Bruce and Happy to frown at the lack of coherence between his question and the rest of the conversation.

“Yes, he likes pop tarts.” said Piper, causing even more confusion.

Ned shrieked, “Oh my gosh! Piper, I swear on my Captain America cardboard cutout, this is the best day of my life!”

Piper facepalmed again, while Steve frowned and turned crimson, Tony raised an amused eyebrow, Bucky whistled and Sam frowned at the repetition of the phrase.

“What flavor?” asked MJ, adding fuel to the fire of bewilderment.

Piper frowned and turned to Thor who mouthed the word 'cherry'.

“Cherry.” she replied slowly as she internally exploded. It was her favorite flavor too.

“That's awesome.” said Ned, “what does the Hulk smell like?”

Bruce choked and the others seemed to struggle to stop themselves from laughing, especially Tony who was starting to turn red.

Piper groaned, there was no stopping him now, “Ned–”

“Did you touch Thor's hammer?”

“Ned–”

MJ groaned, “Please never say that again–”

“Does Hawkeye snore?”

"How am I supposed to know–”

“Is it true that Tony Stark dyes his hair because he's going gray?”

“Ned,” said Piper at the same time as MJ said: “Yes.” which caused Tony to frown, Clint and Sam to snicker, Steve to raise an eyebrow at him while Pepper just looked at him.

“Is Captain America cool or is he like a mean old grandpa?”

Piper sighed while Tony muttered: “A mean old grandpa.” causing said mean old grandpa to glare at him.

“Does the Vision brush his teeth? Does he even have teeth?” Vision frowned and Wanda and Sam looked at his mouth curiously.

Piper groaned but she turned to look at Vision's mouth too, “Ned–”

“Are Captain America and the Winter Soldier in a relationship?” now it was Steve and Bucky's turn to choke and Sam seemed to struggle to hold his laughter, while Tony was shaking with silent giggles and Natasha and Clint were starting at them in amusement. Thor didn't seem to think that their personalities would match well romantically, if his frown was anything to go by.

“Is the Black Widow really going out with Flash?”

“Of course she isn't.” said MJ and Piper in unison while Natasha narrowed her eyes and everyone else wondered who this Flash guy was.

“Does the Falcon put whipped cream on pizza like the Daily Bugle said?” Clint turned to look at Sam in disappointment and said man glared like he'd just been accused of treason.

Suddenly Ned went very silent and everyone in the room grew concerned, save for Piper who just sighed dejectedly.

“Piper,” he said slowly, sounding extremely worried, “you did tell them you don't lay eggs, right?”

That was too much and the whole room exploded in laughter as Piper disappeared into the couch, feeling utterly and completely mortified.

“What was that?” asked Ned with worry once the laughter had subsided and the adults were wiping tears from their eyes.

“Let me guess,” started MJ, “the Avengers are in the same room as you and they heard the entire conversation.”

Piper hesitated for a moment, while the adults looked stunned by MJ's deduction skills, save for Natasha who was impressed, “Well, Pepper and Happy are here too.”

There was a loud bang.

“What was that?” Piper asked quickly.

“I think Ned passed out.” said MJ, causing Steve, Clint, Wanda, Bucky, Pepper and Tony to look worried, while the remaining members of the team frowned at the calmness of the girl's voice and Piper's eyeroll.

“D-Don't worry, it happens sometimes.” she mumbled as she caught the adults staring at her.

“No shit, Sherlock.” said MJ.

“I wasn't talking to you...” mumbled Piper again.

“Oh, right.” muttered MJ, “So, Stark, you hear me?”

“Yes ma'am,” said Tony in his signature sassy tone as he stepped closer and sat down next to Piper's stiff form, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, “what's this thing about overthrowing capitalism I heard?”

“Good,” said MJ, completely ignoring the second part of what the billionaire said, “treat her well.”

Tony was a little bit astounded by the darkening of her tone and found his own voice sobering up.

“Of course.” he said, his voice lacking any of his usual snark.

“Good, because if any of you hurt her I'll find you and I'll murder you in your sleep.” she threathened, sounding completely serious and causing everyone's eyebrows to shoot up. They definitely hadn't been expecting a teenage girl to he threatening them.

“I'll call you later, Piper.”

“Bye, MJ.” mumbled Piper as MJ ended the call.

There was a moment of stunned silence during which Piper, trembling slightly, slowly looked up from her cracked phone screen.

“That was by far the most bizarre phone conversation I've ever witnessed.” said Vision matter of factly while next to him Steve looked like he was about to short circuit.

All the other adults found themselves agreeing with the android.

“How about we just go back to eating?” begged Bruce who was looking a bit green in the sick way.

“That's a good idea,” said Tony, shooting Piper a worried look when she flinched.

Tony wasn't the only one who'd picked up on the action, as the whole room had been looking at the girl.

“Hey, you're not in trouble,” he said softly, “remember what I said yesterday?”

Piper blinked, her head rushing to figure out a way to switch the subject: “Please don't fire Happy and Steve.”

That caused those who had already forgotten to remember what had been revealed during the phone conversation and several glares were shot in the men's direction. Piper winced, she knew they weren't going to get fired, but she felt bad for throwing them under the bus.

“I'm not firing them.” announced Tony, causing Happy to slump in relief and Steve to narrow his eyes and flare his nostrils.

“To be fair you're not my boss.” came the Captain's comment, which went completely ignored as Tony dramatically stood up from the couch and offered his hand to his daughter, who hesitated for a moment before taking it.

“Were those your friends?” asked Pepper after they'd all gotten back to inhaling the lasagnas.

Piper nodded as she gulped down a mouthful of the delicious dish, “Yeah... I'm sorry about their... comments.”

Sam snorted, “Comments,”

“I understand you told them about your powers?” asked Steve cheerfully.

Piper sniffed, “I wish. Ned walked in on me– well, technically I was the one who walked in... or well, crawled in,” at the confused looks she rushed to elaborate, gesturing wildly with her arms, “it was crazy! So I just got home after some dudes blew up Mr. Delmar's bodega and that bank–” several eyebrows shot up at that and most occupants of the room felt a pang of guilt at their neglect of the situation, “–and then I get in through the window and crawl on the ceiling,” a few people paled, especially Tony. They weren't used to Piper's wall crawling and they had a feeling they wouldn't be any time soon, “I close the door and take my mask off and then I jump down and I turn around and... and Ned's sitting on my bed.”

There was a short moment before snorts resonated through the room, that definitely wasn't what they expected but for some reason they weren't surprised.

“And what about the girl?” asked Wanda curiously.

Piper shrugged, “She just came up to me and told me she knew. Said something about being sixty-seven percent sure.”

“I like that girl,” said Natasha, “not many have the guts to threaten the Avengers.”

“I wonder why...” muttered Clint, earning himself a kick in the shin.

“She's a good friend. They both are.” said Natasha.

Piper nodded, Ned and MJ really were good friends and she felt sorry for not being the same for them.

“I understand they're your mighty companions?” asked Thor with a big grin, despite their youth, they sounded like loyal and ingenious allies.

Piper frowned, “I guess we can call them that.”

“And who's this lady Karen they've mentioned?” asked the God.

“Yeah, who is she, Piper?” insisted Tony nosily, scooting closer.

Piper's eyebrows raised slightly, “Oh, she's not a person... she's my AI.”

Tony found himself speechless for a moment and physically backed up in disbelief, “Your what?”

“My AI.” repeated Piper, taking her phone out of her pocket and placing it on the table in front of her, “Karen, are you there?”

The other people at the table leaned forward slightly, curiously studying the phone. Pepper and Rhodey frowned at the pitiful state of the device.

“Hello Piper, I see you've finally accepted the truth.” came Karen's slightly bitter voice.

Piper looked guilty, she had kind of ignored Karen because of everything that was going on, not to mention she'd gone radio silent on her too, not just Ned and MJ.

Tony and Bruce were stunned by how human the AI sounded.

“I'm sorry...” apologized the girl.

“I forgive you,” said the AI, her tone turning kind, “I can't say I understand how you feel but I can picture the stress you must've felt in these days. I'm not mad at you– not that I could be anyways.”

Piper smiled kindly, meanwhile Tony's eyebrows met his hairline and Bruce's jaw was halfway to the floor.

“It's nice to meet you all. It'd be nice to have some more time but it looks as though Piper's phone is dying–”

Piper looked down at the screen as it turned black, “Oh.”

“Who programmed that?” asked Tony quickly.

“I did...” mumbled Piper almost unintelligibly.

Tony seemed to lose the ability to speak for a moment, then his mouth grew into a big grin, “You have to show me her code. She's a masterpiece... Damn, I'm so proud of you kid.”

Piper felt her eyes widen a little and her cheeks heat up. Her dad, not just Tony Stark, her dad had told her he was proud of her, and for some reason that felt like the best prize she could've ever gotten.

Chapter Text

After lunch Pepper and Happy headed back to the prior's office, where an in-depth lecture about cyber security was about to take place. Meanwhile, everyone else went to the medbay to get Piper cleared and then headed to the gym.

Piper couldn’t help but goggle when the elevator doors revealed the training room, which occupied a whole floor. It was huge and awesome and the equipment was so cool!

“How about we start by seeing what you can do?” proposed Steve, to which Bruce got an interested and excited glint in his eyes and Natasha perked up, slighly narrowing her eyes at Piper's forlorn expression.

Similarly to his daughter, Tony didn't seem too fond of the idea, not liking the thought of his kid putting herself in danger, regardless of the facility having safety measures. It was something subconscious he couldn't control, no matter what he'd probably always be worrying for his kid.

“Crap!” Piper muttered, causing Steve to frown, “I forgot my web shooters upstairs.” she hoped that would buy her enough time to make up a plan to avoid the session. Training with the Avengers was a dream come true, but Piper didn't want to reveal too much about herself yet. She'd been through enough because of people finding out what she could do.

And she didn't fully trust them yet, they may have been Mr St– her fa-father’s family… or something like that, but they weren't really hers. And it was hard to forget what they’d put her through before finding out. Stark included.

The mere reminder made her shiver. She was so scared of messing up and getting on their bad side again. And on Mr. Stark's. Especially on Mr. Stark's.

Maybe that's why it was so hard to call him ‘dad’. Maybe because if she let herself believe that this was actually real, if she let herself accept this new life… then it'd hurt more when ripped away from her.

And also, that whole situation was so cool… but also so weird. She'd had virtually no time to get used to any new situation, everything felt so detached since May's death. Nothing had been consistent and she'd kind of gotten used to it. Inconsistencies were so consistent that she'd just accepted them as normality.

And the thought that everything was going to settle down was terrifying.

Also… she was so happy to have a dad. To have Tony Stark as her dad. But… It was… with her track record when it came to family… it was hard.

And also foster care had left her scarred. She was so scared of being kicked out, it was almost irrational.

“That’s fine,” said Natasha, “today we want to focus solely on your physical abilities.”

“Oh okay,” said Piper, her shoulders tensing, “so… so you guys want me to, like, lift weights and stuff?”

“We wanted to see you in action before getting to the lifting weights and stuff part.” mocked Clint, ruffling her hair. She managed to suppress a flinch.

“Hey, leave my kid alone.” said Tony with no real venom in his voice.

Clint went on with a mocking tone, “Oh no! Iron-Dad’s getting all riled up!”

Tony aimed his repulsor at him with an unimpressed look.

“Don’t worry,” whispered Wanda in Piper’s ear, “they’re like this all the time.”

“As Clint said,” continued Natasha in a tone that had everyone’s attention snapping back to her, though hers was solely focused on Piper, whose sense was screaming “we want to see what you’re capable of. We’ll try to apprehend you and you have to avoid that for as long as possible. Tony, Wanda and Bruce will watch.”

Before Piper could even think about replying, her sense buzzed, warning her of an incoming blunt arrow which she almost dodged, but she managed to suppress the reflex and it hit her right in the face.

Tony shot up from the bench he'd literally just sat down on.

Piper moved to shoot her webs at Clint but quickly remembered that she didn’t have her shooters, meanwhile Bruce forced Tony back on the bench.

When she saw Steve, Bucky, Sam and Thor approach her, Piper did a backflip which she purposely messed up and clumsily landed on the wall, catching a tennis ball that Rhodey had thrown at her and throwing it back at him. She winced at how it knocked the colonel off his feet. Natasha, Wanda and Bruce narrowed their eyes but didn't comment.

Before Piper could apologize to Rhodey, her sense buzzed again and within a couple of seconds she found herself back on the floor, underneath Natasha who was trying to tackle her. She pushed the spy off and ungracefully got back up, leaping to the ceiling once again and letting herself dangle from her left arm. She swung herself a bit before dropping down.

And falling on top of Steve.

The supersoldier in question proceeded to tackle her to the ground, but before he could immobilize her completely Piper, without looking, reached for the closest thing and pulled.

Successfully knocking the bench, with Bruce, Wanda and Tony still on top of it, onto Steve, who she’d pushed off amid the confusion.

“Sorry!” she yelled, turning to look at him as she caught one of the blunt arrows with her hand and threw it at Bucky, who’d been running after her. Then she purposely let another one hit her.

Natasha's eyes narrowed further.

This went on for a while, Piper alternating numerous ungrateful and plainly embarrassing fails to very few acceptable moves.

Tony was too worried to pick up on any inconsistencies in her actions, but some people weren't.

Then Piper's sense buzzed and less than half a second later she slammed straight into Thor who wrapped his arms around her in a giant bear hug and lifted her off the ground.

“I CAUGHT THE SPIDER!” he roared proudly, getting closer to the others before letting her go.

“You avoided fighting us unless it was strictly necessary, and even then you just resorted to the least invasive self defense mechanisms possible. Your attacks were messy and non-existent.” said Natasha bluntly, while Tony looked a bit pale behind her.

The spy didn't mention the inconsistencies and Piper sighed in relief, though a bad feeling was brewing inside of her.

“Yeah, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?” mumbled Piper uncertainly.

Rhodey pinched his nose bridge in frustration, “No it isn’t kid.”

Piper frowned, ready to give him a full verbal essay on her views regarding using violence on criminals, and on people in general but Steve spoke before she could.

“We’ll discuss your questionable views on attacking – or rather, not attacking – criminals at a later date. Also, your dodging and overall performance needs work. Either way, you did pretty well.” he said, smiling warmly at her, while Natasha, who didn't agree with him, shot him a look from where she was standing behind the kid. “Let’s move on with the weight lifting. I’ll do this one with you for comparison purposes.”

Piper had a feeling Steve also didn't agree with himself, and that he was complimenting her just because he wanted to make her feel better. And probably because he felt bad about their past encounters and wanted her to like him.

Overall everyone looked relatively disappointed with her. Save for Natasha, who was still studying her, Tony, who just looked worried, and Rhodey who was looking at Tony in amusement.

Thor seemed to catch her dejected expression and clapped a hand on Piper's shoulder. Piper acted like it almost knocked her to the ground.

“Fear not, young Stark!” He said, “We shall help you become the mightiest and strongest one of us all. And then you'll die like a mighty warrior!”

Tony choked on air. Bruce facepalmed.

“Nope.” Tony rasped, “She may get to engage with those other insignificant things after we're done with her but this does not mean that she's becoming an Avenger.”

“What?!” Said Piper. Rhodey let himself fall back onto the bench.

“You heard me.” Said Tony with a protectiveness that had several eyebrows shooting up, “I just got you back, I'm not gonna risk losing you again.”

“I didn't mean that;.” She spat, Clint raised a brow. So did Tony. “Those crimes are not insignificant.”

There were several snorts.

Now Piper turned to everyone, her anger flaring, her fists clenching and her teeth baring, “Y'all's heads may be shoved too high up your asses,” Steve's nostrils flared, Tony's eyebrows shot up. Bruce's jaw dropped. Rhodey tried to suppress a snort, “to realize it but maybe, and just maybe not everything is a statistic.”

Tony, who looked relatively pissed, went to stay something but Piper pushed down her terror and spoke before he could.

“Yes, you guys save tons of lives on a daily basis but you don't get to say which crimes are important and which aren't. I remind you that my friends and I saved hundreds of people who were about to be sold on the black market. Yes you saved the whole planet more times than I can count but that does not mean that you get to brush off situations that impact on a smaller scale.”

She wiped her tearing up eyes, “My uncle was shot. And my aunt too. And it was my fault.”

Now everyone's expressions turned to ones of understanding, sadness and… ugh, pity.

“No, Mr. Stark, don't you say anything. It was my fault. With Ben I could've actually done something. But I didn't because I was a dumbass and I was scared. And with May… it was also my fault. I should've been more careful with my identity.” She took a series of heavy breaths, “Anyways, sorry that wasn’t an important detail. I shouldn’t have shared that.” the heroes collectively looked like they heavily disagreed” “Those, Mr. Stark, are examples of what you consider insignificant things. However, Aunt May and Uncle Ben were pretty significant to me.”

Tony had the decency to look ashamed of his words and his insides ached with guilt. The others had similar expressions too, some were looking at her with worry, understanding and compassion. And some were glaring at Tony. Rhodey’s face was in his hands, as he slowly shook his head. Like father like daughter.

“And the fact that you won't let me go Spidermanning is so dumb! It's literally what I've been doing for the past year and a half! Not doing anything is driving me crazy and I honestly can't stand it anymore.” she suddenly exploded, she'd been trying to ignore the thoughts and the urges but it was so so bad. She couldn't stand it anymore.

She paused, she probably looked miserable and she was heaving and sobbing and, oh shit, she had insulted the Avengers.

She took one glance around the room and then she bolted.

Well, at least she'd avoided the weight lifting session.

Chapter Text

This time she was done for.

Piper was a heaving mess as she stumbled and tripped her way up the stairs. She would’ve taken the elevator, had she been any more coherent and any less scared of getting locked up in there and having to face the entirety of the Avengers, whom she’d just insulted.

She let out a sob as she hit her knee hard on the edge of a step, hard enough to draw blood, and another one as she pushed herself up and bolted through the rest of the staircase and made a beeline for her closet, slamming both the bedroom door and the closet door shut before she finally let her throbbing legs give up and fell into the furthest, most hidden corner, hugging her legs to her chest as she sobbed into her bloody knees.

“PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE NO!” she screamed as tears flowed from her eyes. She brought her hands to her hair and grabbed, letting out a gut wrenching howl, “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!” she kept bawling, rocking herself back and forth.

She dug her nails into her legs as she threw her head back, hitting it hard against the wall, and letting out a scream so loud it left the room ringing afterwards. There was no way they’d forgive her. There was no way he’d forgive her.

She just kept on sobbing, her whole body shaking deliriously as she did so.

She didn’t want to be alone again.

Meanwhile downstairs everyone was somber.

“I’m such a jackass.” said Tony, Steve nodded in agreement, looking somber.

Bruce went to protest but Tony held a hand up, “Don’t. I fucked up.”

Several people, especially Steve and Rhodey, were incredibly surprised by the man’s self critique, but before anyone could comment on it Clint spoke.

“It happens man, we all make mistakes.” he knew the gig by now, being a father of three, “Go talk to her, apologize – and also make sure that she knows that she also did something wrong. No matter how pissed she might’ve been, that’s no way to talk to people… but I have a feeling that she already figured that out on her own.” he added, glancing at the door Piper had run out of.

“I need to make this right.” said Tony with newfound determination.

“Boss, Mini Boss appears to be experiencing a severe mental breakdown.” said Friday, causing the room to freeze up in horror. Tony looked sick.

“Any– any further details, Fri?” he choked out.

“She appears to be completely out of it… and she’s sporting several unconsciously self-inflicted wounds, namely: scratches and bruises on her arms and legs as well as several wounds on the knees caused by her falling several times while running up the stairs.”

Then they heard her scream. And it was gut wrenching.

Tony was already out the door, shouting at his teammates who were already on the move not to follow him. Piper definitely didn’t need the whole orchestra gaping at her.

When he’d made it to the penthouse Tony nothing short of barged into the room, the door bouncing on the wall with a bang and he heard a terrified whimper. Shit.

“Kid?” he asked, trying to keep his voice leveled.

No one spoke.

“Piper, baby?“ he called slowly, softly, “Where are you?”

He slowly closed the door and just stood there in silence.

Piper, who thought he'd left, went back to crying, her senses too messed up to pick up on his heartbeat.

Tony's head whipped towards the closet door at once. Oh god, her sobs were heart breaking.

He slowly went to the door, Piper's laments masking his footsteps, then he opened the door and Piper, who was bundled up in a corner, gave a full body flinch.

She looked terrible.

There were nail shaped dents, scratches and finger shaped bruises on her arms and legs. Her pants were pulled up over her bloody knees, that were making a mess even though they were already starting to heal, the whole scene looked sickening. But what was outright disturbing was the bump… the bloody bump in the wall which stood at the exact height of her head.

“Oh Piper.” Said Tony in shock.

Piper flinched again, making herself even smaller as she whimpered.

“Shit, honey? Can I approach you?” He tried, his voice softening. In all truth he wanted nothing more than to propel himself at her and drag her to the Medway, but that wouldn't work. If he wanted to make things right he'd have to do them this way.

Piper didn't say anything, nothing but sniffles coming from her quivering form.

Tony decided that he was going to approach. His kid was in no way capable of deciding what was best for her at that moment, if the state she was in was anything to go by.

As he approached, Piper pushed herself further into the wall, until he was crouching down in front of her.

Piper was absolutely terrified, her senses were going crazy. Having a sensory overload on top of… whatever that had been… was horrible. It was one of the worst things she'd ever experienced.

She felt new aches and small wounds over her body, whose origins she didn't even completely know, the back of her head throbbed and her ears could've been bleeding from how much they were ringing.

Then Mr. Stark had gotten there and she felt like she was beyond herself with fear. She was terrified.

Piper kept mumbling a series of “No, no, no, no”s and “Please, please, please”s and then Tony was crouching in front of her. Her head snapped up and when Tony saw her expression he felt his heart give out.

“Oh baby.” He said, his hand reaching for her face and cupping her cheek, which caused her to flinch violently, hitting the wall with her head again.

Piper felt frozen with terror. Her previous half a dozen guardians had done it too, so why wouldn't Tony Stark do it. He had way more important business to sort out than her shenanigans.

And therefore she started sobbing again.

Tony didn't waste a second to wrap her in an embrace, holding her as she protested with no real strength, and placed a hand at the back of her head so that she couldn't slam it at the wall anymore.

“I'M SORRY! I’M SO SORRY!” Piper screamed as she let her legs slide down, her voice muffled by Tony's chest.

“Shhhh, it's all good. I'm sorry too, baby.” He mumbled softly.

Piper shook her head, meanwhile Tony readjusted himself so that he was sitting next to her, still holding her as he pulled her onto his lap. He rocked her back and forth as she sobbed on.

“N-no! It… it was my fault I– I’m not– I don't… I don't wanna go back!” She let out a sob that wrecked her own body, “Please! I'm sorry, it won't happen again!”

Tony felt his heart stop and crack into a million pieces.

“Oh Piper. I'm so sorry if I made you think that. I'm not sending you away. Ever. Alright? Nothing you'll ever do is gonna be bad enough to cause me to leave you. Nothing. Got that? Hm?”

Piper slowly nodded, her sobs subsiding somewhat and turning back into small sniffles.

“And I'm also sorry. The way you acted may have been wrong, but I'm not completely innocent either. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said what I said.”

Piper nodded.

“And we will be having a talk about this guilt complex of yours.” he added softly but firmly.

Piper nodded, her sniffles also subsiding, though her body was still giving small spasms after… the thing she'd just experienced.

“How about we get you to bed so that I can look at your… injuries?” Tony proposed softly.

Piper reluctantly nodded, so he scooped her up and headed to bed, frowning at the mostly empty closet and the unpacked things they'd gotten that morning.

“It's barely been two full days. Actually– it's almost been two full days and you've already done so many things. Maybe I should've taken it slower. I'm sorry.” said Tony as he carefully set her onto the bed.

Piper shook her head, being active all the time was draining, but having to sit still and be locked away with her thoughts was worse. Plus, that wasn't even the reason of her freak-out. Oh god, Mr. Stark probably thought she was crazy.

Tony seemed to read her expression, or maybe she'd accidentally voiced it out loud, “I don't think you're crazy. I think you're a deeply hurt and incredibly strong kid who's been suppressing her emotions too much and for far too long. And we will be having a talk about that too.”

Piper would've cried, he’d hit the bullseye, but she was too exhausted so she just nodded.

Tony seemed to remember something and mentally smacked himself, “Shit, right! You're injured!”

Piper flinched as he shot to his feet.

Tony reached for the bedside table but then looked back at Piper, “Are you okay with me opening the drawer?”

“Yeah, um. Yes of course sir.“ She clicked her mouth shut and Tony sighed as he pulled out a pink med kit. Huh, well that was good to know.

“So we're back to the honorifics.“ said Tony with disappointment, but he understood her. He might've always been looking forward to it, but this was all new for her and she needed time.

“Can you lean your head forwards for me please?” he asked as he put on a pair of gloves, took out a pair of pliers, some cotton, some disinfectant and a bandage. He just hoped this wouldn't need stitches.

He pulled out the butterfly bandages just in case.

He disinfected the cut and applied some butterfly bandages just in case, though it was already half-healed. The smaller cuts and bruises were also healing so he just disinfected them and left Piper's healing factor to do its thing.

“Do you want me to leave you to rest?”

Piper shook her head quickly, “Can we do something?” she didn’t wanna be alone at that moment.

Tony looked uncertain for a moment but agreed anyway. He didn't wanna leave her alone at that moment.

“Alright then,” said Tony, pushing himself up, “Wanna sort out that luggage of yours?”

Piper hummed and stood up.

It was nice, tidying up with Tony and stopping to blabber on about every other thing they’d unpacked. It was a nice half an hour.

There hadn’t been much to unpack, at least when it came to that kind of baggage.

“Uhm,” started Tony, “tomorrow I’m gonna have to go to your school to… get some stuff with the teachers sorted out. The CPS lady said that the school tried reaching out to her about you not attending after your suspension was over.”

Piper hummed, grimacing at the reminder of Ms. Millers, then her attention was picked up by something else, “Can I come too?”

Tony halted, “To school?”

Piper started picking at her fingers, Tony, who’d been picking up on the action a lot recently, took one of her hands.

“Alright, but tomorrow’s Friday.” said Tony, “Wouldn’t it make more sense if you just started fresh on Monday?”

Piper shrugged, she just really wanted things to feel a little more normal– and she missed Ned and MJ, she had so much to tell them. Also… the Tower and its occupants were a bit too overwhelming to be around all the time. Maybe it’d all get easier eventually.

Tony studied her for a moment, “I really don't think that going back to school this quickly is a good idea. You can come with me to school tomorrow to talk with your principal but let's wait it out before going back to class, 'kay? Give it at least a weekend. Especially given that you're still very clearly sore and bruised up– no, I don't wanna hear it, I saw you wincing the entire time down there. You're not training for at least another month. Today was a mistake, you need to rest. Both physically and mentally. And you need a systemic upgrade, top to bottom. We're doing some major shopping tomorrow, and that's non negotiable.”

Maybe, just maybe.

Chapter Text

She was falling through some kind of weird mist.

Where was she? It didn’t seem important at that moment, she just let herself fall without too much worry, worrying was so tiring and she was way too tired to tire much more.

She didn’t even look around, just kept staring straight up. Or down? She didn’t know what direction she was facing, or even if she was falling or rising. She didn’t particularly care.

Suddenly, a nasty giggle echoed through the mist, and all at once she fell onto what felt like a rock hard platform of ice, and suddenly she was looking up at Flash’s nasty face.

“Puny Parker,” he mocked, looking scathingly at her trembling form on the ice, “you really think they’re gonna keep you around much longer?” He sing-songed, snatching her arm and yanking her up.

“No one wants you. No one.” He cackled, pushing her violently to the floor again, the force of her fall cracking the ice. “Everyone who wanted you is gone.”

Flash cackled, the ice cracked a little more. For some reason, it was as though Piper had lost the ability to speak.

She wasn’t sure she would’ve said something either way, it’s not like Flash was wrong.

“You’re nothing.” He scathed, “Nothing but a nuisance.”

Piper backed away, her lungs constricting and her breaths coming out raggedly, she heard her voice cry out as her back hit something. She turned around at once and Smith was towering over her.

She screeched and got back up, dodging as he swung a beer bottle at her and running further into the mist, then, suddenly, she rammed headfirst into somebody’s chest. Toomes, grinning like the madman that he was.

She screeched again and kept running, the three rushing after her, closing in, their speed making her effort seem useless. She ran on nonetheless.

Suddenly the dark fog grew, swallowing everything around her,but she kept running, and eventually, she stumbled upon – her heart leapt in her throat and her stomach churned nauseatingly – Aunt May.

“Aunt May!” she cried, “You gotta help me! We have to get out of here!”

“Oh but honey, you deserve this.” her voice, which echoed ominously, said, “Look what you’ve done to me. This is all your fault.”

It was then that, with growing horror, Piper realized that this May was… kind of transparent, and was sporting two bullet sized holes on her chest.

“You’re a curse, Parker. A curse to everyone who’s dumb enough to love you.” came Flash’s disembodied voice from somewhere within the darkness.

And at that moment the ice beneath her feet broke and she was falling once more, deep, deep down into that nightmarish abyss, not with the same lightness as before. This time she felt the entirety of gravity’s pull on her, making her fall into whatever void of horribleness this was at breathtaking speed.

So breathtaking she couldn’t even swallow any air anymore, her choked whimpers echoed in the void in very much the same way Flash’s manic guffaws did.

And then suddenly, another voice, one that was external to her nightmare, joined in.

“-iper, Piper, Piper,” it called, with a gentleness that was uncharacteristic in her mindscape.

Piper yelled out loud, her voice coming out in the form of a garbled shriek.

“Sweetie, you have to wake up, hm? You’re asleep, it’s just a bad dream, Love. I’m here, Dad— I mean, Tony’s here. I got you, kiddie.” Murmured the voice, somewhere close to her ear, and suddenly she was falling out of the mist and back into consciousness.

Piper gave another one of those guttural howls which shook her entire body, as well as Tony’s heart. He took a deep breath as he forced himself not to panic as well, and placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to gently shake her awake.

“Kiddo,” he murmured, his voice warm and tender, “wake. C’mon, baby. It’s okay, you’re okay, Sweetie.”

Piper gave another heart wrenching cry as she shot up, and Tony actually had to keep her from leaping off the bed entirely.

He quickly wrapped his arms around her and she gasped and whined and clawed at him with no real strength, her body shaking and spasming violently as he pressed her face into his shoulder.

“You’re okay. You’re okay, honey. I’m here, you’re safe. It wasn’t real, Munchkin. Just breathe, okay? Follow me. One, two, three… thaat’s right sweetheart, you’re doing so well. You’re doing a fantastic job, Lovely.”

They stayed like this for perhaps a few more minutes, Tony doing his best to comfort her as she gradually reemerged from the depths of her panic.

“You okay?” He asked into her hair, his voice almost a whisper, a little while after her whimpering had subsided.

Piper nodded, not trusting her voice enough to speak. And even if she could’ve, she wouldn’t have, a mortified sort of embarrassment creeping up her neck and manifesting in the form of a hot red blush that radiated from her cheeks onto her entire countenance.

Tony, unsure of what to do, started pulling away, but stopped, stunned, when Piper kept her bandaged arms wrapped firmly around him.

“P-Please… stay.” She mumbled, avoiding his eyes, her voice so small it was almost inaudible.

At that, Tony’s expression softened even more and he felt his heart melting.

“Alright, scoot over, Hun.” He said, nodding at the bed.

Piper glanced up at him incredulously, which was a dagger to the chest for Tony, who vowed to track down every single person who had fostered his kid and make their life a living hell. As he pondered on that, she made space for him to climb in bed next to her, and he adjusted himself so that he was half hugging her as they both stared up at the ceiling.

“Wanna talk about it?” Asked Tony after a beat, his tone gentle.

Piper hesitated.

Tony sighed and his heart broke a little more when the action made her tense up.

“I don't wanna force you to talk to me. I'd be honored if you chose to, but I understand– no, I know that trust takes a long time to build, and…” he ran a hand over his face, “Just– please talk to someone. Anyone. Preferably someone trustworthy. Just– you can't bottle everything up, kid.”

Piper fumbled with her fingers, picking at her cuticles and wincing when a bit of skin came off. Tony frowned and gently pried her hands apart, taking one in his own bigger hand and massaging his finger over the now inflamed spot.

Piper bit her lip, “It's… I had a nightmare.” She said, her mumble loud in the silence of the room. How could it be so silent in the first place? Had Tony soundproofed the walls?

In any other moment Tony would've replied with something along the lines of ‘no shit’, but that really didn't feel like the time and place for his usual snark, especially considering that Piper was giving him more than she'd given him in the past few days.

He hummed, “You wanna tell me what it was about?”

Piper quickly shook her head, then frowned as she picked up on the smell of motor oil mixed up with his cologne.

“What time is it?” She asked, trying to turn to face him, “Am I– are you busy? I don't mean to…”

“Hush.” Said Tony softly. “Don't worry about it.”

“But…”

“I said, hush.” He repeated, just as gently, brushing a few strands of hair away from her face and tucking them behind her ears, “Even if I had something to do, you're my top priority, always have been and always will be.”

Piper suddenly found it had to talk.

“Karen?” She called, gulping down a sob, “What time is it?”

“It's currently four in the morning.” Said the AI.

Piper groaned and covered her face with her hands.

“I’m so sorry.” She muttered, her voice muffled, “You’ve already done so much for me and now here I am keeping you up at frickin’ four am with my stupid tantrums.”

“Nuh, uh. Nope. You take that back.” Said Tony, pushing himself up.

Piper raised a brow.

“Piper,” he sighed, “You— I—“ he pinched the bridge of his nose before turning back to her, his eyes sad, “Those aren’t tantrums, they’re… you’ve gone through so much, Piper. So much. It’s normal that you have nightmares. It’s normal that you get triggered sometimes. It’s normal that on some days you feel better and on some worse. Trauma’s a bitch.”

Piper didn’t say anything, so he continued.

“And I know it hasn’t been easy for you, lord knows how much stored up trauma you have. I know that this opening up game is hard for you, you haven’t gotten to open up, to heal, in a long long time.”

He paused.

“I’m not the best dad on the block.” He eventually said, “Heck, I don’t even know if I’m a good dad in general, but I know that I would do anything for you. You’re my world, baby, and if you need anything, anything I’ll do it for you. I will tear the entire planet apart if you need me to. I promise.”

Piper swallowed, and Tony brought a calloused thumb up to her left cheek to wipe away a stray tear.

“As far as I’m concerned,” she said, her voice shaky, “you’re the best dad on the block.”

And then they hugged again.

They stayed like that for a while, just embracing each other silently, and then Piper, in a sudden burst of courage, or perhaps recklessness, spoke.

“Why do you hate Spider-Man?” She asked, catching Tony completely off guard.

“What?” Tony asked dumbly.

“Every time he– she— any time I come up you get all weird and try to evade the topic.” She mumbled, pulling away and avoiding his gaze.

Tony pulled away too, his heart clenching as he looked at the kid as she brought her knees to her chest, hugging her arms around her legs. He’d been so focused on doing his best to ignore that his child had been biologically modified with a tweaked version of the Supersoldier Serum that he hadn’t taken her feelings and literally the only thing she’d actually opened up to him about into account.

He was such an ass.

Tony sighed and sat up a little, “Listen, kid–”

“No you're right I'm sorry. I-I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry.” She rushed to say, her eyes a little wide.

“Oh god, kid. No. Don't apologize. I should be apologizing.”

“Huh?” Asked Piper, her brows pulled in a frown.

“I'm– it's just… takes a while to wrap my head around it. I just got you back after worrying for years that Hydra did who knows what to you and now I find out you were exposed to literal radiation that switched up the way your DNA works.” He sighed dejectedly, his expression lightening as he playfully raised an eyebrow, and shot her a half smirk, “And that you use said abilities to swing around town in your pajamas, risking your life every day. It's just– I worry about you, you're my kid.”

“O-Oh…” mumbled Piper, suddenly feeling guilty as hell, “I'm sorry.”

“No don't–” Tony winced, “Please don't apologize, you didn't do anything wrong, I promise.”

“Right. Sorry.” Said Piper, cringing a second later when she registered her words.

Tony sighed.

“Say what,” he said softly, “since neither of us are gonna be getting any sleep from the looks of it, how about we move this to the kitchen, I make us some food and meanwhile you tell me about those freaky powers of yours, hm?”

Piper thought it over and tentatively agreed.

“So,” Tony said as he grabbed a packet of spaghetti from one of the cabinets and dunked half of its contents in a pot of boiling water, “you already told me about the webs, which are really impressive, by the way. You'll have to show me how you make them. No one's ever replicated spider webs before, and you not only managed to do that, you also strengthened them. That's really, really impressive. Beyond impressive.”

He turned around to face her as he said so.

Piper, who was swinging her legs from where she sat on the island, went beet red.

“And I know that Brucie-Bear would loove to take a look as well.” He added with a wink.

Piper bit her lip and nodded in thanks.

“How about your other powers, did they affect your day-to day life as well?” He halted, a sudden thought dawning on him “They also helped you with your health problems, right? Your asthma and your eyesight…”

“Yeah, it sure looks like it.” Said Piper, “I haven't gotten an asthma attack in ages and all my senses have been dialed up to eleven. Even my eyesight, which is crazy! Like, I can see so, so well, it's like I have built in microscopes. Which is weird because I'm pretty sure spiders can't see shit, so whatever Osborn did to those spiders really messed them up.”

Tony hummed, turning around to stir the pasta.

“Also,” Piper added, to which Tony turned back around, “the first few days after the bite were crazy in general. I was getting stuck to everything… and I accidentally ripped so many doors off their hinges.”

Tony raised his eyebrows, “Just how strong are you?”

“Um,” said Piper pulling a face as she did some mental math, “most I've ever lifted was like twenty-ish tons I think?”

Tony choked on air, “What?! And how did that happen?!”

Piper looked away, wincing and intertwining her feet as their swinging subsided.

“Pip,” he said, his voice suddenly taking that gentle cadence from earlier again as he got closer to her, realization dawning behind his eyes as he thought back to a little slip-up of hers Nat had told him about, “when did you have to lift twenty tons?”

Piper didn't say anything, just focused on her feet.

Tony sighed, “Did you have a building dropped on you?”

Piper froze, then her head suddenly snapped to him.

“How did you know?” She croaked with some urgency.

“You think no one heard your little slip-up when you were talking with your friends?” He said gently.

“O-Oh,” she breathed, her face going pale, “oof.”

Tony looked at her expectantly, his eyes sad.

Piper sighed, “Yeah, Toomes dropped his warehouse on me on Homecoming night. It was a shit show. His daughter invited me over for dinner before the event. I was gonna be a normal kid that night, I really was. But then I got there, and he opened the door, then we were talking in the car and he figured out that I was Spider-Man.”

She jumped off the island and began to pace, hugging herself as she did so.

“And once Liz was out of the car, he threatened me with a gun, saying to stay out of it. So, I dropped my phone in there and got Ned to track it. I left Homecoming, stole Flash's car, crashed it, got there, found Toomes, we argued, I fought him, he dropped the building on me, took off with that wingsuit of his, hyjacked your plane, I lifted the building off of myself, followed him on that plane, fought him on the plane, crashed the plane, fought him on the beach, the beach caught fire, I saved him from the fire, and then I went home.”

She finished, just now realizing that she was on the wall, halfway to the ceiling.

“O-Oh sorry,” she muttered, dropping down, “I know that freaks you out.”

Before she could even look at him, she found herself wrapped in a tight embrace and a kiss was being planted on the top of her head.

“The only thing that freaks me out is how much you've been through.” He murmured, running a hand through her hair, “You're so brave, kiddo, so fucking brave.”

“Boss, you might wanna strain the pasta before the kitchen catches fire again.”

They enjoyed the pasta – which by far had been the best dish Piper had ever eaten – in relative silence, except for some occasional chatter on Tony’s part.

Tony, who made a mental note to page Dr. Cho for a proper meal plan for Piper, who was eating way too ravenously to be moved solely by the dish’s enjoyable flavour.

The silence was eventually interrupted by the clicking of heels and Tony froze, his face paling and his fork stopping halfway to his mouth.

On cue, Pepper, seemingly in a rush, walked in, not noticing them as she rushed by. Tony was about to let out a sigh of relief, but then the woman halted just in front of the elevator doors and turned around, her eyes slightly narrowed as they went from Tony’s face to Piper’s, both displaying the exact same deer-caught-in-headlights look, and then moving down to the half eaten plates of spaghetti, before settling on Tony’s face again.

“What,” she started, sounding like she was considering calling it a day, kicking off her Loubutin’s and going back to bed, “is going on here?”

“Heyy Pep,” said Tony cheerfully, making a show of getting to his feet and strutting towards her, “We uhm, made breakfast. You hungry?” he tried, flashing a bright smile.

Pepper didn’t look the slightest bit impressed.

“Breakfast.” She said slowly, drawing out the word as she inspected the absolute mess on the counter and then the ludicrous amount of pasta on the island, her eyes roaming over Piper’s lips which were framed with sauce.

She went back to looking at Tony, an eyebrow raised, “As in, spaghetti and meatballs. With the sauce having been made entirely from scratch by the looks of it.” She enunciated with that same slowness, “At six in the morning.”

“You want some?” He repeated, his cheerfulness sounding slightly manic, like he was trying not to cower.

Pepper glanced at Piper, who was biting back a grin at the exchange, and sighed.

“Grab me a plate.” She said in exasperation, “And some blueberries from the fridge. The kid needs some vitamins too.”

“As you wish, Boss.” Said Tony, rushing to the kitchen while Pepper walked to the island and settled on her usual spot at the head, with Tony and Piper on either side of her.

”Did you guys even sleep?” She questioned, frowning at Piper’s swollen eyes and looking at Tony. She’d been made aware of Piper’s nightmare by Friday, so she hadn’t marched down to the lab to retrieve Tony when he didn't come back to bed, rightfully assuming that he was tending to his kid.

Piper shrugged, “I tried.”

“Well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, right?” Said Tony, placing a plate in front of Pepper and a box of blueberries next to Piper’s plate, and ignoring his fiancée’s glare as he served her a generous portion of spaghetti.

“Have you had any water, Sweetheart?” Said Pepper, eyeing Piper, and pouring some in her glass before she could reply.

”Um, thanks, Miss Potts— I-I mean, Pepper.” she mumbled as she took the glass in her hand.

Pepper smiled kindly at her, “No worries, sweetheart.”

There was a brief silence as they all ate, then Tony spoke, addressing the ceiling.

“Fri, what have we got today?” He asked, not sounding like he wanted an answer.

“As per previous orders, your entire schedule has been cleared for the rest of the month, with your only obligation for the day being a meeting with Piper’s principal and homeroom teacher at 10:30am.”

“Right.” Said Tony, while Piper suddenly paled, her thoughts going to Flash and her dream.

“Is everything alright, Piper?” Asked Pepper, causing Tony’s head to snap up to look at his kid.

”You’re sure that you wanna go?” He asked carefully.

Piper shook her head a little too quickly. So much so that Tony and Pepper exchanged a glance.

“Well, how about this,” started Pepper, “Instead of going to school you stay here, Tony goes to the meeting and then you guys spend the day together.”

Piper shook her head, “No, I wanna go. I… I promised Ned and MJ I’d see them and we haven’t seen each other since, well… since before…” she lowered her gaze.

Tony sighed, “Fine, then. You can come with me to the meeting if you really want to, but first you gotta get some rest. You’re running on what? Two hours of sleep?”

”Three and a half.” Said Piper as though that made it any better.

“Still more than what you get in a week.” Said Pepper teasingly.

Tony looked at Pepper in mock offense, but before he could reply Piper spoke.

”Can Pepper come too?” She asked quickly, like she was trying to get the words out before someone could say no.

The adults stayed silent for a moment, Pepper trying to blink back tears as the words registered while Tony’s mouth broke out in a grin.

“Are you-“ said Pepper, choking up a little, “Are you sure?”

Piper nodded. She liked Pepper, she was nice, strong and she just generally felt safe around her.

“It’s okay, if you don’t want to,” said the girl quickly, her eyes a little wide, “you don’t have to say yes. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked… I-I, I’ll just g—“

”No, no,” Pepper interjected, a big smile on her lips, “I’d be honored to come. Friday? Clear my schedule for the day, will you.”

”Miss Boss, you have a meeting this at eight that can’t be—“

”Reschedule it.” Said Pepper, turning to the father-daughter duo, rushing to make a proposition before Piper could start garbling out apologies, “How about a movie? Piper’s choice.”

And thus, half an hour of cleaning later, the three were settled on the couch, the intro to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope rolling on the screen with the iconic theme song echoing throughout the penthouse, and Piper already dozing off against Tony’s shoulder.

Piper felt her stomach churn as she followed her dad and m- Tony and Pepper through the parking lot and into the school.

She frowned for a moment at her mental slip up, but that thought quickly went out the window when she slipped on a soda can and almost became one with the floor.

“Careful,” murmured Tony as he caught her and helped her stabilize back on her feet.

“Sorry…” mumbled Piper, shivering.

“Piper,” said Pepper sternly, “where is your jacket?”

Piper went very red in the face and pointedly avoided both of their gazes.

“Oh shit.” Muttered Tony as he pulled off his coat and placed it on Piper's shoulders.

“That bastard.” Muttered Pepper, thinking about Piper’s former guardian, as Piper tried shrugging off Tony's coat.

“No.” Said Tony in a tone that allowed no argument. “It’s cold.”

Piper pouted and looked away in shame.

“Nope, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s not your fault.” It was that bastard who’d been meant to take care of her’s, and of all those who came before him.

They would pay. Tony vowed to himself. They all would.

The rest of the walk to the entrance was silent, and Piper looked around three times before entering, and rushed through the entrance hall, past rows and rows of lockers, until she reached hers.

“This doesn’t look like the reception desk.” Mused Tony, raising a brow at her.

“Y-Yeah. Sorry, I just… I gotta get some stuff from here.” Mumbled Piper as she unlocked the locker and several objects fell out, causing her to curse under her breath as she rushed to pick one in particular up.

Tony, however, was faster, and he snatched it at once, inspecting it as his heart swelled up with something halfway between pride and wonder.

“Is this-“

“Oh my gosh. This is so embarrassing!” Groaned Piper, burying her face in her hands.

Tony inspected the arc reactor prototype, which his kid had clearly put a lot of effort into building, before holding it out to her.

“This is really impressive work, Pip, did you do it all by yourself?” He said, his voice gentle.

Piper peeked at him from between her fingers and hesitantly nodded.

“I’m so proud of you. Maybe one of these days I can show you how mine works.” He said.

Piper looked like Christmas had come early.

Pepper, looking apologetic, cleared her throat, snapping the two back to reality.

“Oh, right!” Exclaimed Piper, digging through the locker and fishing out a beige backpack that had writings and doodles all over, and was adorned with an Iron Man themed keychain as well as a Mjölnir one.

She proceeded to stuff a concerning amount of textbooks into it, as well as a little pink fuzzy pencil case and the prototype.

She went to swing the backpack over her shoulder but Tony stopped her, insisting to carry it for her.

“Are you sure?” She asked, “It’s pretty heavy.”

That, Tony figured out on his own as soon as his fingers had wrapped around one of the straps.

“What do you keep in here, bricks?!” He asked dramatically, to witch the girl shrugged, glancing sheepishly at the locker.

“Um, there’s something else.” She added in that same sheepish tone, scrunching up her face in a wince as she pulled out a whole skateboard.

“I’m not even gonna question how you managed to fit that in there. And why there was a skateboard in there in the first place. Or why you need it right now.” Said Tony, studying the object, which was also covered in drawings, before turning away and walking towards the stairs, slightly weighed down by the backpack.

As they reached the lobby Piper hugged her skateboard close to herself, focusing on the floor.

Pepper cleared her throat as she approached the desk.

The secretary hummed, not lifting her gaze from her phone, “Yeah?”

“We have an appointment with Principal Morita.” Said Tony, his signature smirk slightly less shiny and his tone slightly more cutting.

The woman finally looked up and, had Piper been looking at her, she would’ve probably witnessed her going very pale, or her jaw dropping in shock, or something of the likes.

For a moment it was very, very quiet, with the receptionist probably glancing from Tony, to Pepper, to Piper a couple times.

“Um,” she said, sounding a little breathless, “the office’s through there. P-Parker knows the way.”

The two adults followed the kid’s lead into the hallway the lady had gestured at, with Pepper halting briefly in front of the lady, and slapping an NDA in front of her.

“If any of this comes out, our lawyers will make your life a living hell.” She said, her voice sweet like venom.

“Um, this is it.” Said Piper as she halted in front of the principal’s office, awkwardly waving her hand in the door’s general direction, and ultimately settling on knocking because she was standing closest to the door, and pulling the handle down before the Principal’s reply even came.

As she entered, her face red and her eyes a little wide, Principal Morita, who was halfway through saying “Come in”, stood up and smiled welcomingly at her.

Piper smiled back, he’d always been somewhat lenient with her, she knew it was out of pity, but kindness wasn’t something she took for granted anymore, no matter the motive.

“Hey, Piper,” he said, “you’re here with your knew guardians I pr…”

Piper could see through Morita’s expression the exact moment Tony and Pepper crossed the door’s threshold. The way the entirety of his faux cheerfulness melted away from his countenance to leave space for the utter shock that took over was comical.

Then Morita seemed to do some mental math and at once he turned to Piper, his expression horrified.

“Okay.” He said breathlessly, glancing at Tony again, then at the files he’d left on his desk, then at Piper, clearly not knowing what to do.

“Okay.” Said Tony, to which Pepper glared at him.

Piper brought her attention to the tips of her Converse as she leaned her skateboard upright against one of the bookcases she was standing next to.

“Please, take a seat.” Said the principal eventually, gesturing at the two chairs in front of his desk and moving to get a third one, eyeing the way Tony was carrying Piper’s backpack.

“Nah, don’t worry—“ said Tony to the man, stopping him, then turning towards Piper who was dragging her feet towards the door, “And where do you think you’re going, Missy?”

“U-Uhm…” said Piper, who’d whipped around so fast she almost lost balance, “To, to get a chair?”

Tony scoffed, the mere thought of his daughter putting herself last nothing short of ridiculous, “You sit down, Kiddo.”

Piper was hesitant, “Are you—“

Tony raised a brow and pulled the chair back for her, “Sit. Please.”

Morita watched the exchange in silence, his face still a little pale as he studied Tony’s jacket which Piper was still wearing.

“I assume this… development comes as a surprise.” Said Pepper, who had sat down on Piper’ right.

“Well, Piper— I mean, uh…” started the principal.

“Piper’s fine.” Said the girl.

“Thank you.” Said Morita, “Well, Piper’s social assistant did inform the school that some guardianship changes had taken place again… but I think she left a thing or two out.”

He eyed the trio.

“My apologies for that, Mr. Morita, you have to understand that it’s been a hectic week and we were trying to keep things as concealed as possible for Piper’s sake.” Said Pepper.

“Also, we kinda wanted to deal with these things personally, since, well, the kid’s my kid.” Tony added.

“Right.” Said Morita, that sentence dawning on him like the confirmation he needed to believe whatever the hell was going on.

“We’re not here only to discuss eventual changes in her documentation, but also a few issues which have been brought to our attention.” Said Tony, his tone set.

“You’re talking about Piper’s suspension.” Said Morita.

Tony snapped his fingers and pointed at Morita, “Bingo.”

Piper began sliding down her chair, her heart pounding in her chest.

“You see, Piper here wasn’t doing too peachy that day.” He started, his tone icy cold, his smile holding the ability to inspire fear in the devil himself, “As a matter of fact, she wasn’t okay at all. Now, I’m not gonna get into the details but let’s just say that going to school right after finding out her true heritage wasn’t her brightest choice.”

Morita almost fell off his chair. Piper’s cheeks went hot and the wood of the chair was creaking under her grasp.

“Right. That suspension is going to be removed from her record.” Croaked the principal.

“I knew we’d see eye to eye.” Said Tony, glancing at Piper in worry, “Hey, you okay, kid?”

“Mh hm, never been better.” She ground out as she straightened up.

“I assume you want this kept under wraps?” Said Morita tentatively.

“That’s right, which is also why we’d prefer it if you didn’t change Piper’s name on the database.” Said Pepper.

“I don’t think that’s very legal…” said Morita.

Tony sighed and ran a hand over his face, “How about changing it but keeping it concealed from the teachers?”

“We can think of something. On that note, I really think at least Piper’s homeroom teacher should be made aware of the situation.” Said the principal.

Pepper turned to Tony, who turned to Piper, who went red in the face.

“U-Uhm… y-yeah. Sure. He’s fine.” Tony placed a hand over Piper’s and she took a deep breath, “I trust him.”

Morita smiled, and leaned towards his microphone, pressing the intercom button and calling Mr. Harrington to his office. Piper heard shuffling and hushed voices in the distance, a person or two silently cheered.

A little longer than a minute later she heard Mr. Harrington’s walking pattern down the hallway, and not ten seconds later he was knocking on the door. Morita invited him in, not getting up from his desk.

“Uhm, hello,” said Mr. Harrington nervously, “you said it was urgent? I was kinda in the middle of a—“

He stopped in his tracks as his eyes fell on Piper, Tony and Pepper, who had all turned to look at him, and his face got several shades paler, his expression morphing from shock, to understanding to horror.

“Oh god.” He said, horrified.

It took him less than a second to snap back to reality and rush forwards, pulling a chair up and almost falling over in his haste to reach the desk, and Piper, who had gotten to her feet.

“Oh my god.” He said again, his voice breathless.

Piper tried to smile apologetically at him, but it came out as more of a grimace.

“Um. I should sit, yeah. Ah right! I’m Roger Harrington, Mr. Stark and uh— a-and Ms. Potts, it’s a pleasure meeting you. I’m Piper’s biology and homeroom teacher.” He said, shaking the man’s hand and then the woman’s.

“And hey, Piper.” Said Mr. Harrington, his voice softening a little, “I’m so glad you’re okay. I– we were so worried.”

Piper smiled awkwardly at him as she rubbed her hand up and down her other arm, half hugging herself. Tony studied the scene, he suddenly decided that he really liked this Roger guy.

At once Harrington’s face morphed in worry, “You are okay, right?” He asked, tentatively, glancing at the bandages peeking out from under her sleeves.

Tony clapped his hands, making everyone else jump, getting to his feet, “About that, I was hoping that we could have a word ab—“

Suddenly, the door to the office swung open, hitting the bookshelf that stood next to it with a bang, revealing two wide eyed and pale faced kids, a girl and a boy, sporting similar expressions of shocked urgency.

At once both their gazes landed on Piper, whose eyes had also gone wide as they met theirs, and the two kids threw themselves at her, as she did too, the three crashing together halfway and wrapping their arms around each other in a very messy hug.

“Oh my gosh!” Said the boy choking up, Tony and Pepper recognizing him as the kid from the phone call, Ned, the one who had helped Piper hack Friday, “Holy shit! You’re okay!”

“I’m okay, Ned, I’m okay.” Said Piper, her voice wavering.

“Don’t ever worry us like that ever again.” Said MJ, her voice muffled by Piper’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry!” Cried Piper.

“Stop apologizing!” They both yelled out.

“Right.” Said Piper, wiping away a tear as she pulled back, smiling at them.

As her stoic mask fell back on, MJ noticed the bandages on Piper’s arm, where Tony’s coat sleeve had ridden up her arm. Her friend raised a questioning eyebrow and Ned frowned.

“Long story.” Said Piper dismissively, pulling down the sleeve completely, so that it fell way past her hand and made her feel like a cheap Ariana Grande impersonator.

Ned’s frown deepened and MJ didn’t lower her eyebrow, merely moved the look from Piper to Tony over Ned’s shoulder.

At once Ned froze and whirled around, his jaw dropping as soon as his line of view landed on Tony and Pepper.

The two smiled kindly at him, the billionaire’s smile nothing close to the fakeness of the ones he reserved for the general public, this one was real, nice, and reeked with gratitude, appreciation.

“Um, Ned, MJ.” Said Piper, waving in the adults’ general direction, “My da- fa- Ton- my dad. And his fiancé. Pepper.”

“Hey guys.” Said Pepper, smiling gently, “It’s a pleasure meeting you.”

“I’ll have to say the same.” Said Tony, his lofty façade returning ever so slightly, as he offered his hand to Ned who, goggling as he was, seemed to have forgotten what hands were, “Tony,” he introduced himself as MJ shook his hand instead, squeezing tightly enough to let him know that it was intentional, her eyes narrowed in warning, “and you two just climbed your way up to my top ten favourite people.”

Ned, who’d seemingly come back down from the cloud he’d been on, was yeeted back to it with the intensity of a nuclear explosion.

Pepper smiled, “How about you three go outside while we wrap things up?”

Tony snapped his fingers, “Right, go do whatever it is teenagers do these days while we hash out the boring adult stuff. C’mon go, go.” He said, ushering them out, his cheerful facade dropping from his face, revealing a dark look that had Morita straightening up.

“What do you think they’re gonna talk about?” Asked Piper as the door closed behind her, having noticed Tony’s expression.

“Hm, he’s probably gonna chew them out about ignoring the clear signs of abuse you were showing.” Said MJ casually, leaning against the wall.

At once Piper felt sick with anxiety, her heart beating faster as she picked up on her father’s deathly whisper from the other side of the door, his words confirming MJ’s theory.

“Piper. No.” Said MJ, causing Piper’s spiral to come to a crashing halt. “I know what you’re gonna say and he’s doing the right thing. Defending your rights and calling out people who wronged you. You were being abused and we all saw the signs. Do you think Ned and I never tried talking to Morita? Or the teachers? They always either dismissed us or — in Mr. Harrington’s case — tried to do something, didn’t conclude shit, and let it go.”

“At least he tried…” mumbled Piper.

“Not hard enough!” Shouted MJ, making her flinch.

Ned took Piper’s hand and squeezed, grounding her, but didn’t argue in her favour.

“Sorry.” Said MJ, her voice taking a gentler note, “But it’s true. What if you weren’t Tony Stark’s long lost kid, what if you were still under Smith’s care —- he tried to kill you, Piper. Would you even still be here if you— if you—” She cut herself off and looked away, blinking back tears.

“We love you Piper. And it’s right for your dad to give them hell.” Said Ned gently.

“I love you too, guys.” Mumbled Piper as she enveloped both her friends in a hug and buried her face in somebody’s shoulder, “I love you too.”

Chapter Text

Hello!!

How's everyone been? I hope well :))

I'll try to keep this short and sweet, I hope that works out haha.

As the title reads, this fic is pretty much under construction. Writing new chapters has gotten more and more tedious, and I feel like the past few chapters in particular have been kind of dragging on in a way that really doesn't resonate with what I originally wanted this story to be.

My point is: I was originally planning on adding some dialogue and fixing a few plot holes, but realized that I really don't like a good chunk of how this story went from chapter 14 onwards. It feels rushed, and it doesn't transmit the comfort that I was longing for when I started working on it.

Hence, I have decided that a few (a lot) of things need to be revised, added, changed or perhaps even deleted, or edited in a way that's more fitting. This strictly concerns the chapters from the reveal (ch. 14) onwards, so pretty much the comfort aisle of this story, haha.

I'm not a big fan of posting announcements as chapters, and I'll probably delete this in a day's time, but I just wanted to make you aware of this so that you, if you so desire, have a chance to save this fic, so that you have a copy of the old, unedited version, because I honestly don't know how much I'm going to change. I already altered some of the dialogue in chapter 14, and chapters 15-16 have been a handful, because I don't really like how rushed they are, so I might switch up a lot of stuff there, and perhaps even rewrite some scenes to make them more fitting with the point they're at in the story. I'm not sure how things will progress from there, but the story is not going to change THAT much. The overall plot is still the same, of course, I just don't like the kind of half assed way it's been developing, and I feel like I have the ability, and now the inspiration as well, to do better.

Thank you for your time and sorry for making you think that this was a chapter. Hope to hear from y'all!!