In for a Penny...

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Penny Parker, Spider-Girl, Fantastic Spider-Girl, Spidey, Amazing Spider-Girl, Iron Spider, Ultimate Spider-Girl, Webs, Web-Head, Wall-Crawler, Spiderling, Underroos..

She had a lot of different names..

Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Agents of S.M.A.S.H., League of Realms..

She was a part of several different superhero teams..

She had done a lot, been a lot, in her short life..

She was twenty-two-years-old..

And she was about to die a horrible death..

None of the powers she normally had as Spider-Girl could save her..

Because she had been sick for days.. Her regeneration factor was crap because the temperatures in New York had dropped to below freezing and it had started snowing while she had been out in it..

Spiders are sensitive to extreme cold temperatures and since her powers came from a spider..

Penny can't thermalregulate very well..

When it gets too cold Penny's spider powers go on the fritz, her ability to know when danger is nearby (her spidey-sense) gets turned into constant white noise, her superstrength completely disappears, her ability to crawl up walls and use her organic webbing becomes intermittent and can't be depended upon and again her regeneration factor was crap, meaning she healed slower than even a normal person would..

She wishes her best friend Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool wasn't out of The U.S. for weeks.. But, Wade is a busy person who is on four different teams of superheroes (five if one counts what Wade dubs as "Team Red") alongside his work as a Mercenary-Slash-Assassin For Hire..

Penny wants more than anything to be able to tell the people she loves goodbye.. And .. That crush she had been long harboring for Wade had one day bloomed into something more without her realizing.. She is in love with Wade Wilson and he will never know because she won't ever be able to say those three little words.. She won't be able to tell anyone she loves, goodbye... She won't be able to say goodbye to Aunt May or to Pepper or to Morgan or to Bruce or to Happy.. ..

Her mind drifts as screams tear from her abused throat .. Fight or fight.. Scream and scream and claw and fight and kick and hit and bite.. It's all mostly instincts.. Fire fighting to stay burning even as it is deprived of oxygen.. Instincts laced with woven thoughts of friends, family.. Love.. Things she will miss....

Grief .. Grief weighs heavily in her soul as she mourns all the things she won't live to see.. Aunt May and Happy getting married.. Morgan growing up.. Pepper finding love again with Bruce.. Mister Stark would approve..

Her body is a torn, battered shell....

The men hurting her won't stop no matter how much she cries or begs or screams.. No matter how hard she tries to fight.. They just keep ravaging her.. Attacking her.. Beating her.. She's lost track of how many there are... Of how many have.. Taken her..

Her stomach is a pit of nauseous bile.. She hadn't had breakfast or lunch, working straight through the day until her boss at The Daily Bugle, Mister Jameson, had ordered her to take over an assignment for a reporter that had to miss work for a family thing.. It didn't matter that Penny had never done anything for The Daily Bugle aside from photography J. Jonah Jameson didn't care he just needed the work done and Penny was just the unlucky one to be picked..

Mister Jameson had sent Penny to "Little Jamaica" near Queens .. Not the best of neighborhoods..

The informant Penny was supposed to meet and interview hadn't been at the rendezvous when Penny got there and she had promptly called Mister Jameson using a Bluetooth sport earbuds with microphone when thirty minutes in and the person she was supposed to meet still didn't show..

She had been leaving the rendezvous .. Which.. An abandoned building surrounded by alleys in a bad neighborhood.. Is not a good mix for any sort of meeting place..

She still had a ranting Jameson on the line..

She made it to the mouth of an alley and was just steps away from civilisation..

"Hello, pretty thing.. Where you running off to?" A man asked as he blocked her path from out of nowhere.. He was with a group of similarly aged men.. They had matching colors and matching tattoos..

A gang..

New York and surrounding areas were riddled with gang activity.. It was hard for her to keep up with which gang was which, even as Spider-Girl it was hard for her to keep up with the gang activity.. She had no idea if she'd ever come across any of these guys while she was in costume.. She didn't know if they were the bark is worse than their bite type of gang or if they were the real deal and might gut her where she stood if she didn't tread carefully..

She tried not to visibly or audibly gulp.. She failed..

"Work.." She replied as bravely as possible.. She was wearing black slacks, a blue long sleeve button down covered by a black vest and a gray blazer.. ".. And I have to go before I'm late.. My boss is already mad at me.."

"Aw.. Come on.. You can't leave.. We haven't even had a chance to get acquainted yet.." The man's words sounded like a threat hidden under false civility..

Mister Jameson's anger had suddenly shifted to worry because he could hear the man's voice through the microphone connected to the earbuds hidden by Penny's hair "Penny?.. Penny is everything okay?"

"Well maybe some other time?" Penny said it in an as friendly and sincerely apologetic manner as possible "I really do have to go.. My boss.." She had been cautiously stepping, edging forwards towards the street little by little as she talked, trying to make her way sideways through the group of men whose bodies were all closed in around her..

"I said... You can't go.." The man stated menacingly and grabbed Penny's arm in a bruising grip..

"Let me go!" Penny shouted and tried to pull away as the hands of the other men pinned her in place and still more hands began roaming her body..

"Stop!.. Don't touch me!" She shrieked as a hand grasped one of her breasts and another hand was trying to force its way into the waistband of her slacks as she tried to kick or wriggle free..

Her pulse was hammering erratically in her ears and she could barely make out Mister Jameson's worried voice telling her he was calling the cops and to hang on he was going to stay on the line with her until she was safe... Mister Jameson's voice turned into a mantra of "It's okay, Penny.. It's okay.. I'm there with you.. I won't leave you alone.."

Even when the screaming, crying and begging started.. Mister Jameson didn't break his promise..

It was no secret what the men had done to her, were still doing to her.. Mister Jameson had heard it all.. Through all the hits she had taken to the head the earbuds still hadn't been knocked loose and they were small enough to stay hidden in her ear canal even as her hair was grabbed in a cruel grip and painfully pulled..

Her clothes had been stripped away leaving her naked but apparently her pants which had her phone in the pocket were still close enough for the earbuds to stay connected..

There had been glass bottles in the alley.. When they had tired if "just" repeatedly raping her.. The men had thrown bottle after bottle at her naked body as she had laid cowaring against an alley wall .. Then one had gotten another cruel idea.. The had used a broken bottle.. Jagged side up to.. Penetrate her..

She was a shaking, shivering, screaming, crying, begging.. Wreck..

And the men.. Still weren't done with her..

She laid staring almost listlessly into nothing as a man shoved his erect penis into her ass.. She could barely muster a hoarse yelp and whispered plea of "Stop.. Please.. Please.. No more.. No more .. Please.."

Then her sight began graying out .. Fading..

"I think I'm dying.." She whispered..

"No!.. Penny no!.. Help is on the way!!.. Penny!" Mister Jameson's voice shouted from the other end of the line..

It was the faint voice yelling from the other end of the line that eventually gave away the earbuds..

"Fucking NARK!" one of the men bellowed as he ripped away the earbuds and heard Jameson on the other end talking about cops being on the way..

The last thing Jameson heard right before the connection was lost was Penny's pained shrieks and the sound of a gunshot..

J. Jonah Jameson stared at the phone in his hand, his mouth open in shock and horror, his eyes rimmed with red, his cheeks stained with rivers of tears..

He let out one, two, three, heavy, panicked breath as it slowly began to truly register..

"She's just a kid.." He whispered with trembling lips .. "She's just a kid you sick fucking monsters.."

"She's JUST A KID!" he bellowed with a sad, angered, grieving sob..

"She's just a kid.." He whispered "Leave her alone.. Please... Let her go.." He begged no one because the call was disconnected "Don't let her die.. God please.. Don't let her be dead.."

His tears and grief turned to rage and he hurled the phone and flipped his desk .. Raging .. Bellowing to a god he was sure didn't exist.. Because he was pretty sure he had just listened to Penny Parker die and he felt helpless, useless and impotent because nine-one-one had put him on hold.. He hadn't been able to do anything to help her in the end..

God where was one of those freaks in red spandex when he actually needed them?.. When PENNY needed them?..

It made Jameson hate them.. Hate especially SPIDER-GIRL even more because those redclad freaks were always "saving people" all over New York all the time except when it was someone HE knew and cared about that was in mortal peril.. And SPIDER-GIRL .. Spider-Girl was supposed to be this big protector of everyone in New York.. The heart and pride of New York.. Almost everyone loved Spider-Girl except Jameson and Penny's death gave him even more reason to hate the webbed menace.. Where had SPIDER-GIRL been when Penny was being raped?.. When Penny was being MURDERED?..

Jameson raged and cried, screaming and sobbing out his grief and anger and soon everyone at The Daily Bugle knew... That in spite of all his hotheaded ranting and griping.. J. Jonah Jameson did have a heart.. J. Jonah Jameson did care about his employees.. But they all would have rather gone their entire lives without that revealed if it meant not losing Penny Parker.. If it meant not losing one of their own.. They all mourned and cried with Jameson..

But hope burns eternal.. Betty Bryant, Mister Jameson's secretary promised to call and keep calling all area hospitals and shelters.. Just in case.. Just in case Penny survived and somehow made it to help.. Everyone dispersed from the offices and cubicals at The Daily Bugle.. It was a somber day.. And for once.. Work.. The news.. Could wait.. It could all .. just.. Wait.. Betty helped Jameson get home and stayed with him, making him tea and keeping him wrapped in blankets as the shock settled into the poor old man's bones..

"I killed her.." Mister Jameson whispered.. "I did this.. It's my fault.. I sent her on that assignment.."

"No.." Betty tried to reassure him.. "You didn't know this would happen.."

"No.. But I knew how bad the neighborhood is.. Damning it!.. I just didn't think!.. Wouldn't think of anything else but .. The story.. The damn work always matters more than anything.. Until it .. Takes.. Everything.. And now I let .. Work.. Take Penny.." Jameson blubbered messing "She was just a kid.. I could have sent someone else.. I .. SHOULD HAVE sent someone else!"

"There's nothing.. You.. We.. Can do now.. Except hope.. Hope that she survived.. Hope she got help.. It's all we can do.." Betty replied stoicly..

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Wade Wilson, Deadpool, The Merc With A Mouth, Regenerating Degenerate..

He had a lot of names..

Avengers, X-Men, X-Force, Alpha Flight, Team Red..

He was a part of several different superhero teams..

He had done a lot, been a lot, in his life..

He was forty-two-years-old..

And he was about to give about twenty guys a horrible death..

No one would be able to save them..

"I think I'm dying.." Penny Parker whispers.

A commotion follows.. ..

A gunshot rings out through the city.. ..

Wade Wilson carrying the rag doll limp form of a barely breathing Penny Parker comes bolting out of the alley just as a limousine screeches to a halt at the entrance of the alley....

Wade gently places the limp form of his best friend into the seat and climbs into the floorboard to sit close to her and brace her as the limousine speeds and careens through the city.. ..

"Why the hell didn't you call an ambulance?" Happy Hogan shouted .. ..

"Because I knew you were close by and the limo is faster than an ambulance!" Wade shouted back. ..

"How'd you know I was close by?" Happy asked. ..

"Hero Tracking App.." Wade replied "Programmed it myself so I know where everyone is just in case.. It's how I know where Penny is when we aren't able to sync up for patrols.. It also keeps track of heart rate.. It's how I knew where Penny was and how I knew she was in danger of some kind.. Her heart rate.. It only does that when she's terrified and she's only terrified when she's in danger .. Or someone she cares about is.." ..

Wade realized he was rambling....

"Wait.. You consider me a hero?" Happy asked as he sped into the underground parking of The Avengers Compound....

Wade shook his head "No.. Penny does.." .. And with that Wade gathered Penny back into his arms and bolted from the car meeting the medical team halfway and helping them delicately arrange Penny on the gurney.. ..

He ran with them into the elevator and stayed with them right up to the door of the operating room.. "Take care of her.." He said .. His voice pleading and his eyes full of tears.. ..

He turned to find Happy Hogan right behind him..

"She really considers me a hero?" He asked looking stunned and in shock as he plopped down in a chair in the hallway...

"You saved her in Holland... And again in London.. You saved her friends.."..

"All I did was show up.." Happy whispered.. ..

"Exactly.." Wade replied.. "Aside from Tony Stark and her Aunt May.. You're her biggest hero.." ..

Happy blew out a heavy shaking breath.. And broke down crying.. The man covered his face to try to hide it but the noise and the trembling gave it away....

"You killed them.. Right?.. Killed them all?" Happy asked Wade in a shaky voice.. ..

"Yeah.. I did..."..

"Good.."