Summary:The coming of age of Spider-Man, who is secretly the teenage Petra Parker. From the creator of "The Star-Spangled Gal" comes the latest experiment in swapped gender expectations and experiences for the iconic teenage superhero. She carries the same demons and baggage as Peter, but also contains the same power within her. How will she handle the strife thrown her than if she were a boy? How do the adults around her treat her differently? How does a tiny shy girl make a name for herself?
Notes:(See the end of the work for other works inspired by this one.)
Chapter 1: Meet Your IdolsChapter TextPetra squealed in her cheeks when she saw the discarded DVD player in the dumpster behind the barbershop. Luckily for her, most people on this block discarded and replaced their perfectly fixable electronics as soon as they stopped working. She snatched it up like treasure. With a screwdriver, extra parts, and a little elbow grease, she could repair it within the hour and be able to watch her movies.
She used to watch them on her PS3, but she sold that when she and her Aunt May moved into their apartment. While Aunt May insisted that Petra didn't have to make it her responsibility to pay any bills, Petra knew that Aunt May shouldn't have to do this alone. She already felt guilty for Uncle Ben's death as it is; she didn't want to make her aunt suffer too. May, however, didn't want to force Petra to grow up too quickly. Food and shelter were May's job and she would be damned before she made it her niece's too. So Petra used the extra cash to buy the things that she needed personally, like clothes and school supplies. Besides, she could always go to Ned's house to use his PS4.
The new apartment was a major downsize from the house obviously, but Petra took to it really quickly. If the old house could go from a strange new place to what she called home, then surely she could do the same for this apartment. As long as she had her Aunt May there, it was home.
As soon as she got through the front door, she set down her loot and her backpack and headed straight for the kitchen, as per her daily routine.
"Hey May." She greeted without taking her eyes off her path.
"Hey, how was school today?" Aunt May asked cheerily.
"Okay." Petra said as she pulled out her earbud, "There's this crazy car parked outside…"
Petra had to do a double take when she saw the man sitting on the couch to make sure she wasn't mistaking him for someone else. It could be an impersonator, or just another distinctly bearded visitor. She didn't confirm it was really THE Tony Stark until he spoke.
"Oh, Miss Parker." The man sounded just like he did in his press conferences.
"Hu...wha...haha…What are you doing he-" Petra didn't know what to do with her hands so shuffled them behind her back as she stammered, "H-Hi, I'm Petra…"
"Tony." He said in a friendly way. Petra wondered whether she died or was hallucinating because the most famous man she could ever imagine just met her three seconds ago and they were already on a first name basis. Or maybe she was assuming too much, and he was just being extra nice because she was such a loser and he could see it on her face.
"What are you...what are you...you doing here?" Petra tried to keep her cool and not scream.
"It's about time we met." Mr. Stark said while Aunt May mouthed her disbelief.
"You've been getting my emails right?" He continued and winked at her, but the eye he tried to wink with was bruised like hell and did more of a wince, so he switched to the normal eye. She was still confused, but now she knew whatever he had to discuss, it must have been a secret, and may have had to do with why he had a shiner, and she was secretly afraid that this had to do with her new powers.
"Yeah, yeah..." Petra played along, "...regarding the-" She left it open for Tony to fill in.
"You didn't tell me about the grant!" Aunt May said.
"About the grant." Petra followed.
"The September Foundation." Mr. Stark explained, "Remember when you applied?"
"Yeah…" Petra went with the lie, even though she thought that grant was only for college students.
"I approved, so now we're in business." He said as took a sip from the cup of the special tea set. He stared at her long and hard so Petra got the real message, since winking was apparently off the table for him now.
"But you didn't tell me anything. What's up with that? You're keeping secrets from me now?" Aunt May asked.
"W-Well I…" Petra bit her finger and she tried to come up with an immediate lie, "...I only applied because the career counselor told me to. I didn't think I actually stood a chance. I don't even remember which part I applied for. I think it was…?"
"That's what I'm here to hash out." Mr. Stark took over.
"Okay, h-hash it out, okay." Petra kept eating her fingers.
"It's so hard for me to believe that she's someone's aunt." He derailed for a bit.
"Well, we come in all shapes and sizes, you know." Aunt May said with a laugh.
"This walnut date loaf is exceptional." He complimented her.
"Let me just stop you there." Petra got back on track once the shock wore off, "Is this grant, got, like, money involved, or whatever? No?"
"Yeah, it's pretty well-funded. Look who you're talking to." Mr. Stark answered and then turned to Aunt May, "Can I have five minutes with her?"
Aunt May looked to Petra first to see if her niece was okay with that, and Petra nodded furiously, so she gave them the okay.
Petra ran to her room first and tried to clean as much clutter off of her desk and her bed before Mr. Stark walked in. When he entered the room, she heard the click of the lock from behind her as she shoved her laundry hamper under her bed.
"Hey." She jolted up and asserted, "Don't lock that. That's the rule."
He nodded and unlocked it. Then, he walked over to the trash can and spit out the rock hard tea treat he almost broke his tooth on.
"As walnut date loafs go, that wasn't bad." Mr. Stark said as he looked around her room and say the bulk of electronics on her desk, "Ohh, what do we have here? Retro tech, huh? Thrift store? Salvation Army?"
"Uh, the garbage actually." Petra said nervously, taking in the reality that her idol was in her room.
"You're a dumpster diver."
"Yeah, I was...Look, um...I definitely did not apply for your grant and-"
"Nuh-ah, me first. Quick question of the rhetorical variety..." Mr. Stark said as pulled out his phone and projected a hologram of the viral Youtube video that caught her swinging by on a web and stopping a car-jacker, "That's you, right?"
"Um, no. Wha-What are you…" Petra tried to interrupt him but couldn't get a word in.
He moved onto another one where she stopped a car from crashing into a bus. "Look at you go. Wow, nice catch. 3000 pounds at 40 miles an hour? That's not easy. You got mad skills."
"That's all on Youtube right? I mean, that's where you found that? Because you know that's all fake, it's all done on the computer?" Petra tried to explain as Tony Stark circled around her room and looked at the ceiling, "And besides, everyone's been calling him Spider-Man, and I don't know if you noticed but I'm a girl, so you should be looking for a boy. Not that it's real! It's so fake, like that video-"
"Yeah, yeah, oh you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?" He continued as he grabbed a pushbroom and pushed open the loose panel in front of the closet. A set of blue and red spider-decorated sweats fell from the panel, and Petra panicked and jumped to catch them and futilely keep them out of sight.
"What have we here?" Mr. Stark snickered.
"D-Don't you know better than to go poking around a girl's room?" Petra exclaimed defensively as she blushed and held her costume behind her.
"So…" Mr. Stark stood in front of her, "You're the Spider...ling. Crime-fighting Spider. Spider-Girl?"
Petra sighed and mumbled timidly, "S-Spider-Man."
She didn't change the gender on purpose. Her lack of curves in the hoodie and the ski mask hiding her short hair gave no clue that she was a girl, and once the first video posted called her Spider-Man, the media that followed was out of her control. Besides, at least it kept people off her trail, or so she thought.
"Not in that onesie, you're not." Mr. Stark said.
"It's not a onesie." She crossed her arms and walked away from it in defeat. She knew that Mr. Stark would be disappointed when he saw how unimpressive the girl behind Spider-Man really was, "I can't believe I was actually having a really good day today you know, Mr. Stark? Didn't miss my train, this perfectly good DVD player was just sitting there, and, algebra test, nailed it."
"Who else knows?" He asked as he held her rolled up suit, "Anybody?"
She shook her head, "Nobody."
"Not even your unusually attractive aunt?"
"No!" Petra insisted, "No, no, nonono, if she knew, she would freak out, and when she freaks out, I freak out-"
"You know what I think is really cool? This webbing." The genuine interest in his voice perked her ears up, and she caught the vial when he tossed it to her, "That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?"
Petra blushed and smiled a little as she told him, "I did."
"Climbing walls, how you doing that? Adhesive gloves?" He asked.
"It's a...long story." Petra leaned over her desk, "I was…"
"Lordy, can you even see in these?" He pulled the goggles out of their holes in the mask and looked through them, messing around like a child.
"Yes, I can." Petra truly adored Iron Man but she still didn't like him poking around her things, so she pulled it away from him and put in the closet, "I can see in those, okay? It's just...when whatever happened happened, it's like my senses have been dialed to 11. There's...there's way too much input, so they just kind of help me focus."
"You're in dire need of an upgrade. Systemic, top to bottom, hundred-point restoration." Mr. Stark gestured to all of her, "That's why I'm here."
Petra sat down on her bed, listening intently.
"Why are you doing this?" He asked. She was stunned and didn't know what to say.
"I gotta know, what's your MO? What gets you out of that twin bed in the morning?" He clarified.
She nervous pinched at her fingers and lowered her head. The real answer to that was too complicated, too personal, and too long. She opened her mouth to try and summarize what happened to her parents, her innocence, and her Uncle Ben, but all that came out was gurgled gibberish, so she shut her lips tight. She took a deep breath in, and started over.
"Because I've been me my whole life, and I've had these powers for six months. I read books, I build computers." She opened up more, "And yeah, I would love to be on the drill team, but I couldn't then, so I shouldn't now."
"Sure, because you're different." Mr. Stark followed.
"Exactly, but I can't tell anybody that, so I'm not." Petra continued, and moved her mouth painfully as she remembered how reckless she was with her powers when she first got them.
She was so excited to finally be able to fight for herself. She stayed out late just because she could. She told her aunt and uncle she was studying at Ned's house when she was really sneaking out to crash Flash Thompson's party in red lipstick and a hot midriff. She danced with every guy who came up to her, because what was the worst they could do to her now? She chugged beer in front of the football team just to see the look on their faces. For that night, she felt like the queen of the school.
And then Uncle Ben showed up because Ned squealed when he stopped by to drop off the textbook Petra forgot for their "study session." He ordered her to get in the car in front of everyone. And if that wasn't embarrassing enough, he called all the parents that he could and told them about all the underage drinking. So Petra went from being invisible, to the life of the party, to the loser who got everyone in trouble, all in one night. She was so humiliated, she told Uncle Ben she hated him. He tried to tell her that she was more responsible than this and that she didn't need to change who she was to get attention. She didn't want to listen. She jumped out of the car at the next red light, and ran faster than he could keep up. She decided that her night wasn't over and snuck into a seedy club through the back window. She danced and she drank like she was invincible.
She finally decided she had enough at 2 in the morning and snuck out the back. However, some stubbly creep followed her out to the alleyway. She thought he was going to try to get her to go home with him, so she ignored him. Then she felt the gun pressed to her back. She froze. He asked her for money. She went silent. She could have flipped out of the way, knocked the gun out of his hand and thrown him into the brick wall, but she didn't. She just froze.
Then, the bouncer came from the back of the club and yelled at the mugger, scaring him off. He came up to a shivering Petra and asked her if she was alright. She was still silent. The bouncer reprimanded her for being out here so late when she was so young, but offered to call her a cab. She just walked away.
She finally realized how stupid she was and tried to call Uncle Ben. It rang and went to voicemail as she walked down the block. She tried again. No answer. She walked to the edge of the club district, calling and calling, but he still didn't pick up. Then, as she turned the corner, she saw the police cars, the ambulance, the caution tape, and the blue and red lights. She walked closer to see the paramedics lifting someone onto the gurney. She recognized the jacket. She saw the peppered hair. She ran over just as they were loading Uncle Ben into the ambulance. She screamed and cried out that that was her uncle and was allowed to ride with him. They told her he had been shot by a mugger who usually showed up around that hour.
At the hospital, Petra met up with Aunt May, who was too distraught and terrified to be angry at her. Petra bawled and told Aunt May that Uncle Ben was only out there because he was looking for her. Aunt May just held her and told her everything was going to be okay and she was glad that she was safe.
And then, Uncle Ben died. And then the cops arrived and showed Petra a picture of the mugger, and she recognized him as the one who cornered her in the alley. And she knew that had she done something, anything at all instead of freezing, Uncle Ben would still be alive.
"When you can do the things that I can…" Petra returned back to her current place and time with Mr. Stark, "...but you don't...and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you."
Tony leaned forward, realizing the girl in front of him had been through some horrible things in her life, which forced her to mature beyond her years. He also realized that she was just what he was looking for.
"So you want to look out for the little guy, you want to do your part, make the world a better place, all that, right?" He asked.
"Yeah, yeah...just looking out for the little guy." Petra bit her lip, "That's what it is."
Tony Stark got up from his seat and moved towards the bed where she was sitting, "I'm going to sit here, so you move the leg."
She drew her leg back into criss-cross and let him sit next to her. He hesitantly patted her shoulder.
"You got a passport?" He asked.
"No, I don't even have a driver's license." She quietly laughed.
"You ever been to Germany?"
"No." She replied at how ridiculous the idea was. Did she look like she could afford to travel?
"Oh, you'll love it." Mr. Stark insisted.
"I can't go to Germany!"
"Why?"
"I got homework!"
Mr. Stark rolled his eyes like he had genuinely forgotten the structure of high school life, "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."
"I'm being serious, I can't just drop out of school!" Petra protested.
"Might be a little dangerous. Better tell Aunt Hottie that I'm taking you on a field trip-"
Petra shot her webs out of her shooter she was hiding under her jacket sleeve. The white net trapped Mr. Stark's hand to the door knob.
"Don't tell Aunt May." Petra asserted.
Tony Stark, the Iron Man, looked at her, noticeably impressed, "Alright, Spider-Man."
She felt a warmth grow inside her when he called her that.
"Get me out of this thing."
"Sorry!" She came out of the moment and scrambled to find the X-acto knife.
Chapter 2: Super Secret MissionChapter Text"New York...Queens...It's a rough borough, but hey, it's home." Petra gruffed her voice as she recorded the highway on her way out of the city. Just the day before, the real life Tony Stark came to her apartment and invited her, or Spider-Man at least, to Germany for a super secret mission. To get Aunt May to go along with it, they told her that as a new recipient of the September Foundation, she had to attend the mandatory retreat over the weekend. They chalked up the super short notice to rushed scheduling on the foundation's part.
"Who are you talking to?" The driver, Happy Hogan, asked from the front of the car. Mr. Stark had to go to Germany ahead of time, so Happy was her contact to take her there. She felt like a cool spy, and her heart raced with excitement.
"No one. Just making a little video of the trip." Petra explained in her normal voice.
"You know you can't show that to anyone." Happy said unenthusiastically. Obviously, he had reservations about sneaking a 15-year-old girl to Europe, but he didn't have to be so rude to her about it.
"Yeah, I know." Petra said.
"Then why are you narrating in that voice?" He asked.
"Mmm, because it's fun!" She replied, "And I'm testing out my guy voices so that no one will hear that I'm a girl when I'm Spider-Man."
"Your normal voice is fine." Happy said as he put on his sunglasses.
She pouted. So maybe her voice wasn't super high-pitched and it was a little scratchy, but she didn't think it made her sound boyish. Ned said it was velvety, but maybe he was kidding.
"...So why do they call you Happy?" She asked. He raised the window divider between them.
Instead of driving to the main airport, he took her to a jet in its own separate field. Of course Mr. Stark had a private plane, but she never dreamed she'd actually get to ride in it.
"Hey, should I go to the bathroom before?" She asked.
"There's a bathroom on it."
"Woah! No pilot? That's awesome!" She kept the video going as she boarded and saw the empty cockpit. There was so many seats spread around, and so many compartments for snacks and beverages. She dropped her bag and plopped down in the comfy seat across from Happy. He was so lucky to work for Mr. Stark and get to ride in this all the time.
"Is that where you're gonna sit?" Happy asked her.
"Yeah."
"Is this your first time on a private plane?"
"My first time on any plane." She said. Her heart raced even faster during takeoff. It always looked so smooth in the movies, but there was a rumble as the wheels rolled against the gravel.
"S-Should it be making that noise?" She asked as rumbling engines got louder, but Happy didn't answer. He just picked himself up and chose a new seat farther away from her. At least it didn't sound like a problem to him. She looked out the window and watched the ground get farther away and the trees get smaller until they looked like plastic toys, and the city below looked like Lego bricks.
One of the first things Petra did when she got her powers was check out the amazing views of the city from all the landmarks like the Empire State Building or the Brooklyn Bridge. It was like getting the different viewpoints in an Assassin's Creed game, but she was doing it for real. Now this was a view that not even Spider-Man could get on their own, the view from above the clouds.
After a good hour in the flight, she realized that she still know any details about her mission. How could she figure out what to do if she didn't know what exactly she was going to be doing? She was going to ask Happy, but he was sound asleep, snoring. She got curious as to just how deep of a sleeper he was and approached him slowly with the camera still rolling. She was only inches in front of his face before he snorted awake and she ran back to her seat, giggling. When she tried to ask him about the mission, he refused to answer completely. She had to piece together the few bits she managed to trick out of him.
"No one has actually told me why I'm in Berlin...or what I'm doing" Even when they landed in Berlin, she still didn't have a whole answer, so she confided in her camera, "Something about Captain America going crazy?"
She already knew from the news that someone blew up the U.N building in Vienna, and that they suspected James Barnes, and every true Captain America fan knew that that was Bucky and he was Cap's best friend in World War II. The news also talked about how Bucky had been a Russian spy for all these years? So was Cap somehow involved in it, too? She saw how Bucky was being crazy but what exactly was Cap doing that was so crazy?
She was so full of questions, but also ecstatic to take in all the culture around her as they walked to the hotel. She saw the actual Brandenburg Gate and ate an actual German soft pretzel. She waved at the locals who were nice enough to wave back. The hotel Mr. Stark booked for them was classy beyond her belief. She felt like a movie star with all the special treatment.
"This is you." Happy pointed to her room.
"Oh, we're neighbors?" She asked cheerily.
"We're not roommates." He shot back, "Suit up."
She rushed into her room and threw her bag down and launched herself onto the bed. It was so incredibly cozy that she remained there as she pulled off her pants. The hoodie could go over whatever shirt she was wearing, but the bottoms required red pantyhose and sweatpants. She attached her web shooters to each of her arms. She stuffed her hair into the ski-mask and looked at the suit in the mirror. It was good enough to make a decent first impression.
"Okay Petra, you got this...you got this…" She tried to get herself pumped in her reflection.
"What are you wearing?" Happy asked as he came through the door she accidentally forgot to shut.
"It's my suit?"
"Where's the case?" Happy sounded frustrated as they were getting pressed for time.
"What case?" She asked. She didn't see any case when she came in and she couldn't see one now.
Happy rolled his eyes and opened the door to the side.
"That's not my- What?" She saw the door open up to a hallway and more rooms, "I thought that was a closet! This is still my room?"
"Go, please!"
"My room is way bigger than I-" Happy shoved her into the other room to hurry her up.
"Alright, I found the case, I found the case. Jeez!" She griped at being pushed. The case in question was a metal suitcase on the coffee table with a note on it that read "A minor upgrade. -TS."
She unlocked the case and in true Iron Man fashion, it flipped open on its own and revealed a bunch of holographic screens showing the functions of the suit inside.
"Oh my God…" She freaked out and turned to Happy in shock. The spanking new suit had a sleeker design with webbing actually incorporated in it and covered cameras built into the mask as eyes and more than she could ever dream of.
With a dull expression, he just ordered, "Put it on."
"Da-Uh-This is the coolest thing I've ever seen in my-!"
"Let's go!"
"Ah-buh-but I don't understand! Is it for me?" She asked, afraid to touch it since it looked really expensive. Happy just walked away no matter how many times she called his name and asked him to wait.
She pulled off her mask and exclaimed, "This is insane! INSANE! Look at this thing. Look at the eyes! This is the greatest day of my life!"
Happy gave her one last warning to get moving before leaving her to change into the new suit.
Chapter 3: First DayChapter TextHappy dropped Petra off at the Liepzig-Halle airport near the runways, where she was least likely to be seen. As soon as Happy opened the door for her, she saw Mr. Stark standing and waiting for her. He still looked magnificently professional, but also like he hadn't gotten any sleep since she last saw him.
"Miss Parker." He nodded, looking at her, or at least the suit, up and down, "Looking very spiffy today, all thanks to me."
"It's so great, Mr. Stark. I can't thank you enough. This is the best thing I've ever-" She was still overwhelmed by all of this.
"Okay, okay, you're welcome, but I'm going to need you to calm down, because it's mission time." Mr. Stark lowered his sunglasses.
"Okay, sorry." She quieted down but still breathed heavily in excitement.
"So in about two minutes, the warnings are going to go off to evacuate the airport. Cap and his band of renegades are going to try to escape with that helicopter on that pad over there." Mr. Stark started to actually sound like Iron Man.
"So why are we fighting Captain America?" She finally asked.
Mr. Stark hissed and closed his eyes, "It's a long tragic tale, but the gist of it is that Cap is wrong, but he thinks he's right. Normally I admire that about him, but in this case, that makes him dangerous. Now he's gonna try to tell you that there's a lot about this that you don't understand, but that's okay. I just need you to stop him from making things worse than they already are. Got it?"
"Yeah…" She said with a nod, even though she still didn't really get it, but she trusted Iron Man's word on this.
"Your initial position will be behind those luggage carriers. So when he comes out, I'm going to try to talk some sense into him. If it doesn't work, and I really hope it doesn't come to that, I'm going to give the signal, and that's when you're going to come in and do your thing. And remember, these guys are pros, don't try to go toe-to-toe with them. Just keep your distance and web them up, okay?"
"Yes!" She said confidently as that part she got.
"Great." He said as he walked away and all the pieces of his Iron Man suit flew on and put themselves together on his body. Then, the alarm went off.
"Woah…" Petra was in awe to see the Mark XLVI in person. Before he could fly away, she called out, "Wait! What's the signal?!"
"You'll know it." He turned to her just as his mask covered his face and the eyes lit up, "Also, go for Cap's legs."
Petra's heart fluttered as she watched him take off. How did all of this happen? Yesterday, she was just a regular student trying to balance homework and extracurricular activities and barely tapping into street-level vigilantism. At best, she was hoping to cross paths with the Devil of Hell's Kitchen one day. Today, she was on a mission with Iron Man himself and he expected her to use her webs on Captain America? She pulled out her phone and started recording again when she hid in her designated spot and waited for the signal. She was recapping everything Iron Man said to her when she heard a loud zapping sound. She peeked her head out and saw the helicopter sparking and sizzling.
Then, she saw Captain America in all his costumed glory. He had the shield and everything. Then Iron Man confronted him with War Machine by his side. They were too far away for Petra to hear exactly what they were saying, but if it was enough for Iron Man to have his mask off, then it must have been pretty serious. She covered her mouth to squeal as more Avengers showed up.
"Okay, there's Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow…" She kept recording as she tried to keep track of everyone, especially the unfamiliar full black suit, "...woah, who's that new guy?"
"Underoos!"
Petra gasped, "That's me! I gotta go, I gotta go!"
She left the phone in place and flipped into action. Since her task was to hinder Cap, she knew the first thing that would throw him off guard would be to steal his shield. It was just an impulsive thought, she didn't believe she could actually bring herself to do it, and yet next thing she knew, she was kneeling on top of a vehicle, Captain America's shield in her hands while his were webbed together at the wrist. It all happened so fast, she surprised herself and just kept her pose.
"Nice job, kid." Iron Man told her.
"Thanks! I could have stuck the landing a little better, it's just...new suit, but it's nothing, Mr. Stark! It's perfect, thank you!" She blabbered on in her anxiousness.
"Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation." Mr. Stark stopped her, which let her know she needed to dial it back a bit.
"Okay…" She tried to relax her breathing, but her heart stopped altogether when her eyes met Captain America's.
"Cap-Captain…" She awkwardly saluted, hoping he was as nice as he seemed on TV and wouldn't try to kill her for this later, "Big fan. I'm Spider-Man."
"Yeah, we'll talk about it later." Mr. Stark tried to quiet her down again, but as she said her own hero name, she realized she hadn't been watching her voice. Did it come out too girly? Or was Happy right and it was mannish enough already?
"Hey everyone." She said one last thing in a lower tone to keep up the charade.
"Good job." Mr. Stark gave her a last warning, and with that she was silent, blushing and sweating under her costume already.
This time, Petra was within earshot of their argument. Apparently, whatever Cap was doing, he brought Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch into it. Iron Man was pleading with him that he was trying to keep him from tearing the Avengers apart, but Cap said Iron Man had already done that himself when he signed. Petra knew from the news that the Avengers were being made to sign something called the Sokovia Accords before the UN building blew up, but she didn't know the details of it. It must have been pretty complicated if the Avengers were splitting up because of it.
"Alright, we're done. You're gonna turn Barnes over and you're going to come with us now because it's us or a squad of J-SOC guys with no compunction about being polite!" Iron Man shouted at Cap.
So this did have to do with Bucky, or the Winter Soldier, or whatever they were calling him these days. Well, no wonder Cap wasn't budging, but still, she didn't know why Cap didn't even look like he was listening to Iron Man. Weren't they were supposed to be good friends? She knew that the Avengers couldn't be perfect, but she was still shocked to see what was going on behind the scenes.
Captain America stood in silence as Iron Man waited for his answer, and then he lifted his bound hands as an arrow tore through her webbing. That must have been Hawkeye! Then, she saw something small and metallic crawling on the shield.
"Hey guys, someth-" She tried to warn them, but the thing suddenly grew to a normal-sized man and kicked her in the jaw as he stole the shield back.
She figured she wouldn't be able to hold it forever, but it was still awesome to have touched it at all.
"I believe this is yours, Captain America." The guy handed it back. Petra didn't recognize this one either, but she had to admit the shrinking and growing was kind of cool, even if her jaw was throbbing now. Also, since that was technically the first punch, the air got riotous and things went out of control from there, with Iron Man and War Machine splitting up to take down different guys hiding throughout the airport.
"Hey Mr. Stark, what should I do?" Petra asked in the confusion.
"What we discussed! Keep your distance, web 'em up."
"Okay, copy that." She said as she ran towards the terminal, where she heard War Machine say that Wilson and Barnes were at. She knew that Wilson was Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon, AKA totally on Cap's team, and she was surprised to hear that Bucky was here, too. While it sucked that everyone was fighting, it was still exciting for her to see even more of the Avengers and their pals.
She leaped up to the top floor of the terminal and crawled along the glass windows as she followed them. She saw them notice her, so now she had no choice but to attack them before they attacked her first. If Bucky was as dangerous as the news said he was, she definitely didn't want to let him get the first blow.
She webbed up a rope and swung in through the window feet first, landing a nice kick on Falcon. While he was down, she went after Bucky with a solid punch, but quickly caught that he was trying to punch even harder with a shining arm. Rather than risk breaking her knuckles, she opened her hand to catch the punch instead, and inspected what the news neglected show. His face was definitely that of the Bucky from her trading cards, but his hair was long and messy, and most importantly, he had a new feature.
"You have a metal arm?!" She gushed, "That is awesome, dude!"
Getting distracted was a big rookie mistake, and she paid for it when Falcon carried her off on his wings. It was not like how she dreamed it would be, with her trying to elbow him in the face yelling, "You have the right to remain silent!"
She was able to wiggle herself free and swing around to follow him and evade his shots. However, a shiver tingled throughout her as she realized she wasn't keeping track of Bucky.
"Oh God." She said to herself as she barely dodged a flying piece of debris that he had thrown at her. She caught it with her web and swung it right back at him, "Hey buddy, I think you lost this!"
She was pretty sure she nailed him, but when her back was turned Falcon swung back and kicked her off her perch. Before she could hit the ground, she fired a web that would allow her to swing from under him and face his back and shoot for his wings. The webbing stuck to the gears which made him unable to fly. He crashed into a kiosk which gave her the chance to web his hands to the railing.
"Those wings carbon fiber?" She asked him while she had the chance.
"Is this stuff coming out of you?" Falcon asked. She was delighted that he was at least looking at her handiwork.
"That would explain the rigidity-flexibility ratio, which, gotta say, that's awesome, man."
"I don't know if you've been in a fight before, but there's usually not this much talking." Falcon said irritated, which was understandable considering she immobilized him.
"Alright, sorry. My bad." She stopped, especially since now Bucky was running up to join him. When they were close together she kicked them both to the level below and shot all the webs she needed to keep Falcon wrapped up and Bucky's metal arm pinned to the ground.
"Guys, look, I'd love to keep this up, but I've only got one job here today and I gotta impress Mr. Stark, so I'm really sorry."
She tried to shoot one more web to keep Bucky down, but it was caught by a small drone which it carried it off and took Petra with it. She bonked her head on the metal framing on her way out the window, and couldn't help but let out a high-pitched scream as it released her to fall to the pavement. For her first official fight, it could have been a lot worse, but she still felt like she embarrassed herself. So much for first impressions.
Chapter 4: Toe to ToeChapter TextPetra picked herself off the ground and saw the the fight concentrating into one big group. The Vision flew above them all as Iron Man's team gathered behind him. She swung in to join them, and immediately thought that Vision looked much cooler than he did on TV. She was still curious as to whether he was just a robot or something more, since the Avengers hadn't said much about him since his debut in Sokovia last year.
As the teams formed two lines to face each other, Petra quickly took the spot between Black Widow and War Machine. She looked at the rest of the guys to see what they were doing, but everyone just stared ahead, so she did that as well. When Cap's team walked forward, so did Iron Man's. However, when Cap's team started running towards them, Petra got nervous.
"They're not stopping…" She said.
"Neither are we." Iron Man said.
When the two sides finally came head to head, she stopped just before the clash and backed up to watch for a good target. If this tactic worked in dodgeball, then it should work here. She shot her webs at different people, but they moved so fast, they evaded them each time. As she tried to swing around, Scarlet Witch was levitating debris around as projectiles to hit her. Finally, once she was distracted, Petra could swing towards Falcon for a rematch. However, she was stopped in her path by Captain America, whose shield sliced through her webs mid-swing. This time when she fell, she was able to roll and catch herself on the luggage conveyor belt.
"That thing does not obey the laws of physics at all!" She shouted as she noticed it had somehow flew all the way back to Cap's hand. Maybe he used magnetics.
"Look kid, there's a lot going on here that you don't understand." Cap said to her, almost word-for-word from what Iron Man said.
"Mr. Stark said you'd say that. Wow." She said as she webbed his shield and his legs this time, and pulled him towards her while she simultaneously accelerated towards him with a lunging kick. She landed her strike, and Cap fell back towards the trucks and the shield fell out of his hands.
She was so shocked that that worked that her pride swelled in her stomach, "He also said to go for your legs!"
Cap got up and ran for his shield, but before he could reach it, Petra shot two webs, one for each of his hands like puppet strings. She used all her strength to counter his pulls, and for a moment their efforts were matched. Then, Cap got clever and spun around to roll the webs around himself and throw her off balance.
When she got up, she aimed for the shield one more time. Surely, he would catch on, but it was one of her few moves that was at least semi-successful so far. When he grabbed the webbing and pulled her in to smack her in the face with the shield, she knew she had officially worn out that trick. She tried so hard not to cry out like a girl when the metal made hard contact with her face, but yelped out all the same. This time, she made a brief retreat to high ground on the luggage carriers.
"Stark tell you anything else?" Cap asked.
"That you're wrong...you think you're right…" She panted, "...that makes you dangerous."
She caught her breath and jumped off the carrier to swing around it, giving her the momentum to charge towards him with her webs ready to go. However, he'd caught on to all of her little tricks by now and evaded in time, and also jumped and landed a swift kick to her chest, knocking her back into the poles holding the loading platform.
"Guess he had a point," Cap said as he knocked the poled out of the way and made the platform drop down on her. She caught it in time and hoisted it up, demonstrated her enhanced strength. Hopefully, he had caught onto that power of hers or else she would have to Captain America tried to kill her.
"You got heart, kid. Where you from?" Captain America asked her personally, which made her instantly forgive him for all of this.
"Q-Queens…" She struggled out with a strained voice.
"Brooklyn." He smiled at her as he went on his way.
The smile is what really did her in. Her knees were quickly weakening, and it took a second wind to hurl the platform forward. Once her legs got the strength again, she rushed back to where she dropped her phone. She had to record this memory while it was fresh.
"Okay so the craziest thing just happened! I just had a fight with Captain America and I stole his shield and I threw it at him and I-" She was interrupted when she heard a loud monstrous thud behind her. She turned around and saw that the guy who could shrink was now as big as Godzilla.
"Holy SHIT!" She screamed, "What the hell, he's big now! I gotta go!"
She dropped the phone once again and ran back into the fight. The giant guy had grabbed War Machine by the heel and tossed him out of the way.
"I got him!" She yelled as she webbed his back and got carried away with him. Before he could hit a ground plane, she stopped herself on a truck and pulled in the opposite direction to stop him. He regained control just in time thanks to her help. As he flew back towards Giant Man, as she called him in her head, she held on for the ride.
She got just close enough to web herself to the Giant Man instead, and now she felt like a real spider as she crawled along his arm and pestered him with kicks and punches where she could. Then she crawled on his back in that spot that was just out of his reach. As he moved around, she crawled over his face to block his vision, but he knocked her off with an annoyed, "Get off."
When Vision knocked Giant Man into the plane, she had an idea. Knocking him off balance was the only way to take him down.
"Hey," she asked over the comm, "Did you guys ever see that really old movie, Empire Strikes Back?"
"Jesus, Tony, how old is this guy?"
"I don't know, I didn't carbon-date him, he's on the young side!"
Well, at least on the bright side, her cover was still intact.
"You know that part on the snow planet, with the walking thingies?!" She suggested as she swung around Giant-Man. She wrapped her webs tightly around his legs, hoping one of them would catch the hint.
"Maybe the kid's onto something."
"High now, Tony. Go high."
They actually listened to her! She swung around his legs a few more times as both Iron Man and War Machine uppercut the Giant Man and knocked him down.
"Yes!" She laughed in excitement and gave them a thumbs up, "That was awesome!"
However, her pride got the best of her and she lost her concentration. She didn't see the giant hand swinging back her way. The back of his hand knocked her whole body off her web and she flew backwards, breaking past wooden cargo and rolling on the cement. Her head hit the ground on the last roll, which made her fuzzy but she still remained conscious. She kept still and felt too woozy to get back up. Last time she felt this disoriented was not a good time.
"Hey kid, are you alright?" She heard a faded and distorted adult voice approach her. The noise scared her and she instinctively threw her fists defensively, but the man caught them. This made her even more terrified as she struggled and pulled harder.
"Whoa. Same side." His voice and face became clearer, "Guess who? Hi, it's me."
She finally recognized Mr. Stark and stopped struggling, "Oh...hey...hey, sir…"
"Yeah." He loosened his grip, but didn't let go of her wrists.
"That was scary." She panted.
"Yeah, you're done, all right?" He ordered sternly.
"What? I'm good, I'm fine." Petra said as tried to pull her wrists free.
"Good job. Stay down." He said calmly, "Stay down."
"I'm good, I gotta get him back." She told him, "Hey, let go of me! Let go!"
"You're going home, or I'll call Aunt May." He commanded, and then he finally let go, "You're done."
"Wait, Mr. Stark...I'm not done, I-" She crawled back on her knees but found that her head was still too fuzzy to stand. Also, the adrenaline finally died down and her limbs felt like lead pipes, "Okay, I'm done...I'm done."
Iron Man and the rest of his crew took off after Cap, who had escaped in a quinjet. Petra was left to scramble and find her phone again and call Happy for a ride back to the hotel.
The first thing she did when she got back to her room was take a nice hot shower and change into her nightgown, with the memories from the fight still reeling in her head. She grabbed her phone and recorded one more story.
"It was the most amazing thing that's ever happened! So Mr. Stark is like 'Hey underoos!' and I just sorta flipped in and I stole Cap's shield and I was like 'Hey what's up everybody' and then-"
A knock interrupted her, so she told them to give her a second as she put her phone down and put on a robe before flipping over the bed and answering the door. It was Happy in his own bathrobe.
"Hey…" She said casually.
"...We have thin walls here."
Chapter 5: Petra's Daily LifeChapter TextPetra packed up her clothes and souvenirs the next morning, taking extra care to fold her new Spider-Man suit neatly back into its suitcase. She walked out of the hotel, following behind Happy with a hop in her step. Yesterday had truly been the greatest day of her life, and she was so excited to imagine what it meant for the rest of it. Now that she had held her own against the other Avengers, she hoped that they would take her on more missions, when they were on better terms of course.
She was disappointed to see that Mr. Stark wasn't there for the flight back to New York, but then again, his suit could travel faster than airplanes. However, he surprised her when he was waiting on the strip in a limousine when the private jet landed.
"Hey Mr. Stark! Did you catch Captain America?" She asked as she scooted next to him in the back seat.
He smiled weakly and dropped his blue sunglasses down, "Not quite, but it's fine. It's handled."
"What about the other Avengers?" She asked.
"They're okay. Everyone's fine." He said and left it at that.
As they sat quietly on the ride back to her apartment, she tried to be sneaky with her camera to record Mr. Stark, but he caught her trying to hide the phone light with her finger.
He tilted the phone up with a poke, "What, are you making a little video diary?"
She blushed in embarrassment, "...Yeah…"
"It's alright, I'd probably have done the same thing." Mr. Stark smiled.
"I told her not to do it. She was filming everything. I'm gonna go ahead and wipe the chip." Happy explain.
"Hey hey hey hey, you know what? We should actually make an alibi video for your aunt anyway. You ready?" Mr. Stark pulled off his sunglasses and faced the camera, "You rolling? Get in the frame."
Petra scooted closer with excitement and held the camera in front of them, switching it to selfie mode.
"Hey May! How you doing? What are you wearing? Something skimpy I hope." Stark jested, but it caught Petra off guard. She glared at him as he was laughing.
"That's inappropriate." He shook his head and patted her shoulder, "Let's start over you can edit that later. 3, 2, 1- Hey May! Gosh, I, uh, want to tell you what an incredible job your niece did this weekend at the Stark Internship Retreat. Everyone was impressed, she really leaned in-"
"C'mon!" Happy yelled from the driver's seat as horns honked, "It's a freaking merge, I'm sorry."
"This is because you're not on Queen's Boulevard." Stark told him before turning back to the camera, "See, Happy is hoping to get pumped up to Asset Management, he was Forehead of Security and before that he was just a driver-"
"That's a private conversation." Happy groaned, and Petra turned the camera to him, "I don't like joking about this. It was hard for me to talk to you for a while."
"No, seriously though, was he snoring a bunch in the hotel room-"
"Okay, here we are." Happy cut off as he swerved alongside the curb.
Petra sat awkwardly as Stark laughed at him before telling him, "Happy, could you give us a moment?"
"You want me to leave the car?" Happy asked in disbelief.
"Why don't you grab Peter's case out of the trunk?" Stark told him.
Petra thought he misspoke and tried to correct him, "Oh my stuff is in the duffle bag, the case is for the suit."
"That's right, the suit is yours." Mr. Stark said casually, as if he hadn't just shaken her whole world then and there. Petra's ears drowned out the rest of his words as her heartbeat overtook the sound.
She slowly lowered her phone, "I...I can keep the suit?"
"Yeah, we were just talking about it." Stark said as he replaced his blue glasses, "Do me a favor though. Happy's kind of your point guy in this. Don't stress him out. Don't do anything stupid. I've seen his cardiogram. Alright?"
"Yes!" She said nodding gleefully.
"Don't do anything I would do, and definitely don't do anything I wouldn't do." He tried to explain, "There's a little grey area in there, and that's where you operate."
"What- Does that mean that I'm an Avenger?" She asked hopefully.
Before Stark could explain the details, Happy knocked on the window holding the metallic case, "This it?"
"7th floor."
"I can take that up, you don't have to take it." She said, cutting Happy a break for once.
"You gonna take it? Thank you." Happy said and plopped it right outside the door.
"So, uh, when's our next 'retreat,' you know?" Petra asked, rubbing her legs together eagerly.
"What, next mission?" Tony said.
"Y-Yeah, missions, the missions…" Petra stammered, but tried to act cool.
"We'll call you."
"Do you have my numbers?" She had her phone ready to add new contacts.
"No, I mean 'we'll call you' like someone will call you." He clarified.
"Oh," She nodded, "From your team."
When Mr. Stark leaned towards her, her heart skipped a beat as she was dumbfounded. Was this what she thought this was? She followed her instinct and hugged him.
"That's not a hug, I'm just grabbing the door for you." He pushed the car door open and pulled away, "We're not there yet. We're really not there yet."
She quickly pulled away as well and blushed even harder than before. She wanted to smack herself for being so weird. She quickly got out of the car to escape the suffocating air, so fast that she almost missed Mr. Stark's quick bye to her.
The limo drove off as she picked up her bag and her case. She beamed to herself as she strolled into the apartment building.
"They're gonna call me." She squealed to herself with glee.
For the first few days, she texted nearly every hour.
"Hey, just got up. Tell Mr. Stark I'm ready for the day's mission!" She texted as soon as she woke up.
"On my way to school. If anything's happening on east of 19th, let me know because I'll totally be there ;D" She texted on the bus.
"Lunch break! If you need me to sneak out in the next 30 minutes, I'm so game." She texted in one hand as she held her lunch tray in the other.
"English class is soooo boring, rather be literally anywhere. Got any missions for me?" She texted from under the desk as she pretended to look up at the teacher.
When he didn't text back, she tried to tell herself that maybe his phone was glitching and not receiving her texts.
"Hey, I think my phone is being weird. If you get this message, text back 'Thwip!'" She waited, and waited, but all she got back was a Seen at 10:11pm. She had to accept that as proof he was ignoring her. She lay on her bed and stuffed her face into the pillow and screamed.
Maybe she scared him off by being clingy and annoying. By the second week, she promised herself no more texts. The last thing she wanted was for Happy to tell Mr. Stark that she was a crazy person. Spider-Man was supposed to be cool. So she had to play it cool. The next time Happy actually texted, she was going to wait two hours before she texted back, saying something like "Sorry, I was busy. You called?"
But that didn't happen. Two disappointing months passed, and not a single text from Happy. If she didn't have the actual suit in her backpack, she would have thought the whole thing was a dream. How stupid was she to think that Tony Stark would contact her on a daily basis? He was so busy doing billionaire things and Avenger things, that she probably didn't even cross his mind. As she walked to school, she had to accept that her horse-drawn carriage had turned back into a pumpkin, a rotting greasy pumpkin called Petra Parker's life. On the last street in front of the stairs, the car coming up didn't wait for her to cross and instead sped up towards her. She quickly leaped to the other side of the sidewalk and looked behind her.
"Sup, Penis Parker?" Flash Thompson called out to her loudly with a devious smile as if he didn't just try to run her over.
She rolled her eyes and ignored him. He'd be calling her that ever since his party. Yeah, she went more than a little crazy then, when her powers made her feel invincible, but she didn't suck anyone's dick in the bathroom like the rumors said. Still, when he called her that, it made her feel like all eyes were on her. She kept moving, keeping her head low and her shoulders scrunched close together as she made her way to her locker.
"Join me and together, we'll build my new Lego Death Star!" She heard Ned's voice from behind her and could feel the toy on her shoulder.
"What?" She turned around, "No way, that's awesome! How many pieces?"
"Three thousand, eight hundred and three." Ned boasted. Petra could see the cheerleaders behind them were mocking them, but she ignored them, too.
"That's insane!" She replied as she put her books away.
"I know. You want to build it tonight?" Ned asked.
"I can't tonight, I've got the Stark-" She said, but he knew what was coming.
"Mhm, Stark Internship." He finished.
"Yeah, exactly…" She mumbled shyly.
"Always got that internship." Ned said in disappointment.
"Yeah, well, hopefully it'll lead to a real job with him." She explained as they walked to class together.
"That would be so sweet." Ned thought about it, "He'd be all, 'good job on those spreadsheets, Petra. Here's a gold coin. Also, can you grab me a coffee before you leave? Thanks, toots."
"He's not that kind of boss, and no one says toots anymore." Petra insisted.
"Well, I don't know." Ned shrugged, "So I'll know the basic bones of the Death Star at my place, and then I'll come by afterwards because for the most part, the difficult thing would be the base of it. The top half we could knock out in two hours tops."
Petra zoned out as soon as she saw Liz walking down the hall, talking her friends. She was the kind of girl who could do anything. She was beautiful, fiercely intelligent, genuinely kind, and she had the confidence Petra could only dream of. Petra wanted to be her friend, and she kind of was. She first met Liz when she was still in middle school and Liz was just starting high school. Petra's school back then didn't have a lot of scientific clubs for her to join, so she signed up for a bunch of classes at the Boys and Girls Club of America. They were fun and she was able to make friends with kids of different ages who loved science as much as her. Liz was a volunteer there who helped her group with their projects. It was Liz who told her that she should apply for the magnet high school since she was a 'natural' engineer. She used to look forward to going so much, and she lit up every time she saw Liz.
And then, the summer before her freshman year...the thing happened. She stopped going to the BGCA meetings, and she tried to blackout all of her social media altogether. She still went to school, but afterwards, she would just come home and sleep. No TV and no video games. A week went by, and no one texted to ask where she was. It was like it didn't even matter she was gone. And then, Liz did. Liz texted her three simple words.
"Hey. You okay?"
When she woke up to those words on that cloudy Sunday morning, she burst into tears. Finally, someone had reached out, and even though that was what she wanted, she still wasn't ready to tell Liz what happened. It took her two days to finally text her back. She got the guts to text her all about it, and Liz listened. She encouraged her to tell her Aunt and Uncle about it, so she did. Liz did what she could to help Petra out in her hour of need. She got the thing handled at the BGCA so that Petra wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. As a gesture of good will, she invited Petra to her birthday slumber party that was usually only for high school girls.
Petra was so excited to go and be close to Liz, her protector, her hero. However, when the fun girly antics came to the inevitable game of Truth or Dare, Petra froze. The idea of sharing secrets terrified her, and she locked herself in the bathroom, trying to keep herself from crying. Eventually, she gave up and called her Uncle Ben to come take her home. She couldn't even face Liz to apologize before she left.
Once she started high school at the Midtown School of Science and Technology, she had a whole bunch of clubs to choose from, so she signed up for as many as possible to keep her mind occupied. She was shocked when she walked into that first Academic Decathlon meeting to find out that Liz was the captain. Liz also looked surprised when she saw her, but she never spoke to her about the slumber party, or the thing, not in the two years since it happened.
So Petra watched Liz as they met eyes for a brief moment in the hallway and shared a knowing look.