Penny Marie Parker
Penny Marie Parker wasn't a hero.
Okay. That wasn't quite true as Penny was Spider-girl. A spider-themed vigilante who spends her nights swinging through Queens in a homemade suit that she'd sown together herself out of an old red hoodie and a pair of blue sweatpants that wouldn't be missed.
The hoodie never fit her anyways, it was a hand-me-down from one of her former fosters. She couldn't remember which one, but they'd had a son who was older than her. They hadn't been the nicest of people, but it was late November and her coat was thin and holey and she'd finally dug up the courage to ask for a new one. She remembered the way she has stuttered over her words. The way her foster mom had glared at her. Instead of buying her a new coat, Penny was given the ratty old hoodie that was much too big for her.
She didn't complain. It didn't have any holes and it did keep in warmth, so she took it and mumbled a passive 'thank you' and returned to her room. Those fosters hadn't wanted to see or hear her so Penny always made sure her presence was scarce.
When it came time for Penny to make a suit, the hoodie was the first item she'd chosen. She liked the idea of a red and blue costume, even if the red hoodie was heavily faded.
Penny Marie Parker wasn't supposed to be a hero.
That was Spider-girl.
The two facets of her identity were supposed to be independent from the other. Penny Parker wasn't a hero and Spider-girl wasn't a teenage orphan. They weren't the same.
Until they were.
...
Penny awoke to the blaring alarm clock screeching in her ear.
It was too early and the alarm was too loud. It was loud before she had super-hearing and now the repetitive blaring was just obnoxious and quite deafening. Penny only set it because of how late she stayed out on patrols. The last thing she needed was to catch the attention of Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll.
Her current fosters were an apathetic couple who had a lot of foster kids. Penny has been staying with them for three months now and was quite alright staying where she was. She wouldn't call them good foster parents, but they weren't bad ones either.
Compared to some of the fosters she's had before, they ranked quite high all things considered. They weren't drugs addicts or alcoholics. They didn't hit her or attempt to hit on her. Mr. Driscoll never tried to grope her to rub against her or suggest anything lewd. In fact, he actively avoided physical contact with all the girls he fostered. He took more interest in the football game on the TV then any of his foster kids.
Currently they had six. Judy is the oldest, she turns eighteen in a week. She's been saving up and plans to get an apartment on her birthday. Augustus is seventeen. He's on the football team, quarterback. Penny wasn't much of a sports fan but she'd heard he was pretty good. If Mr. Driscoll's praise was anything to go by.
Mr. Driscoll only liked Augustus because they shared a commonality. In his youth, her foster father had been on the football team himself. He'd planned to get into college on a full scholarship but Mrs. Driscoll ended up pregnant. He dropped out and got a job in a factory. They had a daughter together, she was born very frail and ill. The doctors had told them she wouldn't live to see adulthood.
Penny is sure that they originally began fostering to see if they could find a young girl who reminded them of the daughter they had lost. Apparently none of the children they'd foster ever lived up to the memory of their own child. Not that such a thing came a s surprise. No one can replace the deceased.
In some ways Penny sympathizes with the Driscoll's.
Richard and Mary Parker died in a plane crash when Penny was only a little girl. So young that she could hardly remember them. The only memory of her parents were flashes of moments with no context. All that she knew for certain was that they went down in a plane crash and she was sent to live with her father's brother Ben and his wife May.
Uncle Ben and Aunt May had done everything in their power to make Penny feel welcome in their small apartment in Queens. They'd turned their extra-bedroom, which had then been a storage room, into a space for her to live and grow. They were the closet thing she'd ever had to parents. She never mistakenly called Uncle Ben by a paternal title or Aunt May by a maternal one, but deep down she wished she could.
She had wished they were her parents. A feeling that created so much guilt for her at the time, because she did have parents. They were just no longer around. Uncle Ben had told her that it was okay to want to have parents and for her to feel that way. He told her it was natural considering how young she'd been when they passed.
Gradually she came to understand these feelings and realize that she could still want to have parents that were alive while also missing the parents she'd lost. Everything had finally seemed to settle down, and then Uncle Ben was shot. He was shot and she'd done nothing.
The man who was the closet thing to a father was bleeding to death, and she froze. She'd been useless and watched as he collapsed. She'd had the power to stop the shooter before he'd fired that gun. She hadn't wanted to deal with whatever sense was warning her. She'd been mad at Uncle Ben and they'd had a horrible fight before she'd stormed out.
He'd only been there because of her. He died because of her.
And she'd did nothing.
Penny promised herself she'd never let anything like that happen to someone she loved again. Aunt May had slipped into an inconsolable depression. Penny tried to keep her company as much as she could, but she had school. She couldn't be at the apartment all the time. It was natural to grieve after the death of a loved one, Penny was also grieving.
Aunt May ended her life while Penny was at school.
She can still recall the hordes of police cars outside her apartment building, the red and blue lights strobing against the building. Then there was the sudden shiver of chill that shot down her spine. She knew the minute she saw those police cars. She didn't know how she knew, but she did.
The rest was a blur as the police asked if she was Penny Parker. To tell her what her aunt had done, that she would be placed in the foster system, for her to give them a list of things for them to grab for her from inside the apartment. She remembers the warm hand on her back as they guided her to the back of a stalled police cruiser.
The police didn't depart with her soon enough. Penny is sure she will always be haunted by the image of the paramedics wheeling out the gurney with the black body back zipped up. Her deceased aunt inside.
Emily is seventeen, the same age as Augustus, and is really into theater. She's been talking nonstop about an upcoming play where she's playing the lead role of Elizabeth Bennett. It's of Pride and Prejudice.
Liam is sixteen and quite honestly, Penny is sure he's a stoner. While she's never seen him smoke, he always seemed a bit out of it. He was always easy going and nothing ever seemed to bother him, he was the best of the bunch if she ever needed someone to talk too.
Sadie was the final, and youngest foster kid living here. She was only nine and wanted to be a princess when she grows up. Penny is enamored by her infectious positivity. Penny wishes she could be as bright, bubbly and hopeful and Sadie always seems to be.
That was the curse of being older. Penny knew that becoming a princess was a child's imagination going like a runaway train. Reality didn't work the same way as fantasy did. Happy endings weren't always the most probably outcome, they were quite rare.
Penny would never say such things to Sadie though. Penny wouldn't crush the young girls dreams. The fact that she is still so happy despite everything was admirable. When she was younger, Penny was a lot like Sadie. She was inquisitive and only saw the good in the world.
Then she lost Uncle Ben.
Aunt May.
Her Home.
Her identity.
She forged a new path for herself.
Penny had gotten into Midtown School of Science and Technology on a scholarship. Uncle Ben and Aunt May had been so proud of her. Then a spider had gotten lose on her fieldtrip as Oscorp. She was bitten by the spider and spent a few days bedridden and sick.
She'd been given powers.
Penny had failed to protect Uncle Ben with the powers that were bestowed upon her. Penny Parker was unable to save her Aunt May from herself and her grief. Just because she had these powers didn't make her a hero. She didn't do anything heroic back them.
She neglected using her abilities for the true purpose and paid the price for it. She lost everything, but just because she lost her family didn't mean everyone else had too. Penny had the power to help others.
What kind of person would she be if she refused to abide by her Uncle Ben's final words. With great power comes great responsibilities.
She had the power to make the lives of other's better.
If she has the power and refuses to do anything, then that puts those bad things on her. Another weight upon her soul. Those things will happen because of her if she stands idly by and does nothing. Spider-girl is a superhero. She's the embodiment or goodness and justices. Spider-girl was her outlet, to make amends for her mistakes.
To live the life her Uncle Ben would want her too.
To do the right thing no matter what.
Penny Parker wasn't a superhero, but that doesn't mean she's not willing to try.