Penelope Parker
It wasn’t every day she smuggled alien technology home.
She knew it wasn’t legal, and somewhat stupid, and completely irresponsible, but really, the stuff was just sitting there. How could she resist? If the government was taking in Chitauri technology, and they were, why couldn’t she? She probably had better intentions with it than they did anyway.
And how it would help her...
Penelope Parker hadn’t been there for the Chitauri invasion — she hadn’t had a suit then and was still mourning Uncle Ben — but it showed more than anything that New York could use another superhero. Her strength already surpassed that of Captain freaking America’s (Google), and she was only fourteen. She could only imagine how powerful she’d be when she fully grew up.
And while, yes, she was fourteen, and sure, her current suit was practically just sweatpants, a hoodie, and a dumb mask with even dumber goggles. But that was what this new tech was for! She’d be able to improve nearly everything if she could just reverse engineer the Chitauri weaponry.
She entered her apartment and made to go to her room.
“What’s in the bag?”
“Hm?” Penelope said absentmindedly, turning to look at Aunt May, who was on the couch watching TV. “Oh, just some science equipment.”
As if she’d tell Aunt May she was a superpowered girl who could probably punch Captain America’s lights out. No, this whole thing would have to remain a secret. From everybody.
“Yeah?” Aunt May said. “Got a project?”
“Mhm!” Penelope said. “I’ve gotta go put it up — I might get started on it now, actually. It’s a surprise. They’re still talking about the Avengers?”
Aunt May looked back to the TV and sighed. “Yeah, it’s all they’ve talked about for the last few weeks. Aliens, magic, gods... the world’s going crazy... Penelope?”
But Penelope had already left the room, still hearing Aunt May’s mutters with her advanced hearing. The world had changed. They had already known about Iron Man and the Hulk and the existence of something down in New Mexico, but this had been a whole new step. Aliens. The space and science community, including her, had gone completely mad with the knowledge that they weren’t alone in the universe.
It was time she changed too.
Well, more than she already had. She was practically somewhere in between Captain America and the Hulk, so really, she had already changed. Whatever.
She shook her head to clear the mess of thoughts, settled down in her chair, and took out a small piece of Chitauri tech. It was time to reverse engineer it.
Two hours later she accepted that she had absolutely no idea how to do such a thing.
Three hours later she seriously considered telling Ned about her powers. She had always been good with technology, but she could never top Ned at it. She now doubted even Ned would be able to reverse engineer such things, not anytime soon, but given enough time and motivation (the motivation being that he’d be helping out a superhero), Penelope was confident he’d be able to do it.
But no, she’d tell him as a last resort. Sure though she was in Ned’s tech skills, he wasn’t exactly the best at keeping secrets. But... couldn’t he know about the Chitauri stuff without knowing about the superhero stuff? Speaking of, she really needed to come up with a name for herself.
Spider-Girl would become unsuitable when she got older and Spider-Woman didn’t exactly fit her now — though perhaps it would be best if the world thought her to be a woman, not a girl.
Or a man.
Double the deception.
But this would require certain additions to the suit. Fourteen though she was, her body had grown enough that it was distinguishable as a female body. A chest binder, padding around the waist, and... and perhaps a hoodie to hide the bulge her hair might make under a mask, at the back of her neck.
Penelope spun her chair in circles, beaming her elation at the expectations of the future.
Then her Spider-Sense buzzed in the back of her head and she stood up.
The doorbell rang.
She rushed out the door, down the stairs, and to the front door, ready to defend her Aunt May from any danger — but it was not danger, not in the traditional sense. At her door, in front of a dumbstruck Aunt May, stood Tony Stark.
Looking both amused and impressed, he stared down Penelope. “Hello, thief. Well, technically, can’t consider you a thief if the owners are dead — you’re welcome, by the way — but you know what I mean.” He alternated his gaze from Penelope to Aunt May and back again. “Can I come in?”
Penelope gulped and Aunt May only turned an open-mouthed stare toward her.
“I’m going to come in,” Stark said, stepping in and closing the door. “So a little camera caught a little you —” he pointed at Penelope “— finding a little tech, taking it, and then coming here to your little home.” He gave the slightest of grimaces. “Not that your home is little. Look, I’m here for the Chitauri tech your kid found and decided to take.” As he spoke, he gestured quite often with his hands.
Aunt May looked at her disbelievingly. “Penny?”
Penelope couldn’t take her eyes off of Tony Stark. Iron Man. Here, in her home, looking for her, because — oh, shit. She opened her mouth to speak and nothing came out. Stark gave her a small moment more before he nodded and moved past her.
“Where’s her room? You’re lucky I came here — lucky I saw the footage before the real enforcers of this stuff showed up. I wouldn’t have come if I hadn’t seen you tinkering with it in the alleyway.” Stark spun in place, looking around, before zoning in on Penelope. “Penny, was it?”
“Penelope,” the said girl said feebly.
“Right. Penny. So — where’s the stuff? In your room? Come on, show me.”
While he spoke, his voice had a hint of curiosity in it. Penelope didn’t look at Aunt May as she led Tony Stark to her messy room. He hadn’t sounded angry and she doubted she’d face any legal trouble, but his comment about her tinkering with the stuff in the alleyway (why hadn’t her Spider-Sense warned her about the camera?) made her feel suddenly very nervous, as though she was about to be graded on her performance. Her performance in messing about with alien technology.
“This is it?” Stark asked when they entered her room. He immediately spotted the alien tech on her desk. “This is it.” He walked to the desk, confident and self-assured, as though this was his room. “So, Penny — sorry, Penelope is too long — you’re a techie, are you?”
Penelope swallowed the lump in her throat. “N-not really, no. I mean, I know quite a bit — more than most girls do — at my age, I guess — all ages, really — but I’m best at biology and chemistry and all that — not that I’m not good with technology — I am — but I’ve been at that for a few hours now and I can’t really... get it.”
Stark looked at her from above his sunglasses. “Can’t get it? Seriously? It looks like you fixed one of these anti-gravity things. Or so your notes say.”
“Well, yeah,” Penelope said, scratching her head, “but I had another as a, you know, guide — an example of how it should work — but I couldn’t reverse engineer it — not fully, at least —”
“Yeah, listen,” he interrupted, taking off his sunglasses and looking at her with a penetrating stare. “This? This right here? Kids don’t repair alien technology like this, much less reverse engineer it. That’s —” he gave her a bewildered look “— you know, insane. How old are you, kid?”
Penelope was sure her cheeks would burst from burning. “Fourteen...”
“Hmm.” Stark looked at her for a long moment. “You do this kind of stuff regularly? Did you have help with this? Your unusually attractive aunt, maybe?”
“My what? No,” Penelope said, flustered. “It was just me.”
Stark nodded and continued looking at her. After another stretch of silence, he finally said, “You wanna intern for me?”
Penelope blinked. “I — what?” Outside her room, Penelope heard Aunt May’s heartbeat increase with Tony Stark’s words, just as her own had. He had to be joking.
“It’s gotta take some real genius to be able to repair alien technology in a few hours,” he continued as though she didn’t speak. “Pepper’s been pushing me to become a mentor or something, something ‘ healthy ’ to keep myself occupied with, said it’d be good for me — whatever. I don’t have all day for an answer. And if this is a fluke,” he added, pointing at the Chitauri tech, “you’re out — I find someone else.” Tony Stark waved a hand in front of her face when she was unable to respond. “Uh, hello?”
Penelope said yes before she really thought about it.