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Back, shortly after Piper had been bitten by a radioactive spider, she’d been pretty decent at keeping her secret. At least she thought she had been, until the day came that her father—who had just been in Europe—called on her to join him at his penthouse in Avengers Tower.
Despite not being close at the time, May had urged her to go, so instead of hopping on the subway with Ned and MJ at the end of the school day, she parted ways and made her way up a few blocks to Stark Industries.
She’d visited the place only a handful of times. Each time, she hadn’t signed in or anything, just headed to the elevator and JARVIS, now FRIDAY, brought her to wherever her father was waiting. It seems that on this occasion, security had been beefed up. Upon entering the building, she was immediately stopped by security on her way to the elevator.
“May I help you, miss?”
She stared up at the tall, stern man, towering over her in a move of intimidation. He didn’t intimidate her much at all. He wasn’t the first large man to try and make her feel small. He certainly wouldn’t be the last.
“I have an appointment with Mr. Stark.”
“Mr. Stark has been dealing with an international incident for the last week. I highly doubt that he has an appointment with a twelve year old girl in the midst of that. Please see yourself out before I have you removed.”
Piper crossed her arms over her chest. She found it both a curse and a blessing that she lacked any resemblance to her father. It helped her keep her secret, but on the other hand, it impeded her ability to use it to her advantage.
“First of all, I’m fourteen. Second of all, if you don’t believe me, just ask FRIDAY.” Piper’s eyes flicked up to the ceiling, as if inviting FRIDAY to join in on the conversation.
“Miss Parker, Mr. Stark is waiting for you upstairs. Please proceed to the elevator.”
Piper smirked in victory, brushing past the speechless guard and moving to the elevator. As the doors shut behind her, she deflated. Her skin crawled at the thought of almost having to pull the “do you know who my father is,” card. She’d seen the entitlement in other kids. Kids like flash who wore it like a dunce cap and kids like Harry Osborn who adorned entitlement endearingly. Neither fit her very well. She didn’t like attempting to be entitled. She didn’t want any of the things she was technically entitled to by nature of her parentage.
Not ever knowing what to expect with her father, the doors swung open, and there he was, on the couch, in a suit, with a loosened tie, purple bags swooping below his shaded glasses, paler than normal. It looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
When he saw her, he didn’t stand. He didn’t move much, just leaned forward on his knees and folded his hands together.
“Piper, glad you could make it.” His tone didn’t sound glad about anything. In fact, it made her want to turn around and bail before he had a chance to tell her exactly why he’d asked her to come.
“Take a seat,” he said as she approached.
“I think I’ll stand.”
“Great, then I’ll stand too.”
He pushed off the couch and headed towards the bar cart. Piper winced as he poured himself a glass of whiskey. He didn’t notice. His eyes were downcast and distant.
“You know, I’m putting a team together,” he told her.
“Like The Avengers?” She eyed up the glass in his hand as he swirled the amber liquid. “Are you sure you’re in the right place to lead a fight right now?”
“No, not like The Avengers.” He took a sip from his glass, his lips pulling back over his gums, his nostrils flaring. He certainly wasn’t in the right place for anything, looking wild, unkempt, and slightly insane. “The Avengers are done. This is a new team—a tactical team with the skillset to detain a group of outlaws. You see, I have these files,” he flicks his wrist as though this is a small detail, “I keep track of small time heroes, vigilantes, things like that. I save them for a rainy day, and wouldn’t you know, recently it has just started pouring.”
Her eyes moved away, off to the distance, the window where she just wanted to fling herself through and swing home—away from this angry version of her dad. At least when he’d been using drugs and drinking in Malibu, he seemed to not care about anything.
This time, he was just angry. Angry before the first sip, and she didn’t care to find out how angry he’d be after the last.
“What does this have to do with me?”
“The spider,” he spat, straight to the point. “FRIDAY notified me a few months ago about a web-slinging do-gooder, masquerading around the boroughs of the city, helping people, and I told her to gather information.”
Piper’s breath caught in her throat.
“I made a suit for her, thinking Spider Bite can’t be as dangerous as that idiot J. Jonah Jameson thinks she is. She’s got real talent. A real knack for saving people. Imagine my surprise, when I found out who was under the mask.”
Piper breathes heavily. She found herself torn between wanting to apologize and needing to be angry. She chose the latter, finding it much easier than feeling the need to owe anything to her father, especially an apology.
“It’s really none of your business,” she seethes.
“None of my—“ his humorless laugh cuts the space between them, “You are my business, whether you like it or not. A fourteen year old kid cannot be running around in tights, risking their life. You could have been seriously hurt, Piper.”
“Whether I like it or not?” Piper snaps at him. “You continue to prove that you have no interest in being my dad. You stay out of all the other parts of my life. Since when have you ever cared if I got seriously hurt? You left me alone in that death trap of a mansion in Malibu so many times and never cared once if I got hurt.”
“This is different. I am different now.”
“Why? Because people call you a hero? Why are you the only person who gets to be a hero?”
“I’m the adult. You want to be a hero—you work for it, you earn it, you hope to god that nothing traumatic enough happens to you to make you good enough to keep up with The Avengers.”
Incredulous, she couldn’t bare to look at him. Hot, angry tears filled her eyes, but she’d be damned if they fell and got mistaken for shame or sadness. Pure white rage seeped out of her. “I haven’t experienced anything traumatic enough to warrant saving people? Not that I really think that trauma is a necessary quality in being good at helping people out, but I have plenty stored up, thanks to you.”
At the sight of his mouth opening to make a comeback in her periphery, she whipped her head around and raised a warning finger. “Don’t you dare.” She jabbed the same finger towards the center of her chest where her maroon heart wrenched with indignation. “Do you even know what it was like for me when you were kidnapped that first time? How about every time after that when you’d disappear or you’d be presumed dead? The times I’d sit on May’s phone, waiting for an alert or a text that you were alive—only for her to force me to save my tears and send me to school to keep up appearances while my classmates gossiped about whether or not you were alive or dead, terrified that I’d finally be an orphan. All that in just the last five years, not to mention losing my mom and Richard before that and being stuck with you. So if you’re reason to keep me from being a hero is that I don’t have enough trauma,” she spat out the word, “then find a better reason.”
He lowered his glass to the bar cart, the glass pinging against glass. With a resigned sigh, his fingers slid beneath his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I don’t have time to debate with you all the ways I’ve failed as a parent.” He dropped his arms to his side. “I have a flight to catch, and you’re grounded.”
“Grounded? You can’t ground me.”
He already moved on from the conversation. His steps thudded against the floor, moving around the room, towards the stairs. “I told May you’re spending the rest of the week here. When I get back, we’ll tell her about this Spider problem together.”
“This is insane,” she pleaded, “May will just worry. I’m not telling her.”
“Then I am.” He didn’t bother to look back at her, following him downstairs. “FRIDAY, tell Happy that his baby is ready to be sat.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Piper growled, feeling the heat rise to her face.
“I’ll believe that when you stop acting like a baby.”
Reaching his lab, Tony began to pack his belongings into a thick, bulletproof case. Piper hadn’t been in his lab in a while—not since Rhodey found Tony letting her play with a welding torch at age ten. She found it much more organized, lined with different versions of Iron Man’s suit. One display case for a suit was completely empty. It’s not the lack of suit that caught her attention though, it was the suit next to it—black, red, blue, a spider stretched across the chest. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he said he’d made her suit. It was the suit. One she’d always dreamed about.
He caught her staring.
“It’s getting incinerated when I get home.”
Piper pinched her lips together, her nostrils flaring as she glowered at her father.
“I’ll see you in a couple days Piper.”
She didn’t say goodbye—Only waited for him to turn around before sat down at his computer.
“I’m just going to my room, Happy—you don’t have to follow me.”
“I’d feel better about that if FRIDAY’s settings weren’t acting up.”
“Well it’s not like I’m going to escape out of a window that doesn’t open…” She raised her brow in question.
“Fair point, but I’ll be checking in every now and then, so no funny business.”
There was nothing funny about it. The second her bedroom door was closed, Piper had the new and improved suit on and was swinging herself up into the air vents. Luckily, the ventilation system was big enough for three Pipers, so she was able to crawl along it easily and soundlessly by the tips of her fingers and toes.
It hadn’t take more than a minute after her dad confronted her to put the pieces together that he had only found out her secret because he’d been trying to recruit her for something. Wherever he was going, he needed her help. When she got there, she’d prove just how wrong he was. She was a good hero.
She counted the floors as she dropped down just enough to get to one she knew well enough. The research and development lab had a window in the break room that was south facing. Easy exit, not too noticeable.
Just before she climbed out the window onto the side of the building, she closed the mask over her head. Her eyes lit up with an array of tech she didn’t have time to learn. Of course her dad would install a number of unnecessary programs on her suit. She flung her first web and began slinging herself around the city towards the airport.
After a few blocks, she had to admit that the targeting system, the lenses, the monitors and surveillance links were all helpful—though she wouldn’t admit that to her dad. Not any time soon. Not while she stewed in the anger of their last conversation.
When she finally arrived at the airport, she found that his plane was only beginning to take off. She latched onto the plane above the wheel, out of sight of the window and held on for dear life, shooting webs to the tail, the underbelly, the wing, whatever she could use to strap herself to the structure.
When it started to take off, she thought she might die—that she’d be ripped apart by the velocity of the plane and prove her dad right before they’d even left U.S. air space.
She kept hold, though, braved it out until the plane settled at it’s height and rested on the clouds. It wasn’t any more comfortable, but she was able to move a little easier, releasing some of her ties and finding the under plane compartment. With a great deal of force, she shoved herself up and closed the compartment door under her. She found, even though she was cold from the wind, her new suit kept her nearly completely dry.
Among the suitcases and armored packages, she found herself a safe spot where nothing could hit her on the chance of turbulence. It was then she decided to try and get some rest. She needed to save her energy for whatever fight lay ahead.
Tony and Steve faced off. Piper sat so far away that she couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but she had to stay far away enough that no one detected her presence. She should have anticipated Natasha Romanov being there, and that meant she had to be extra stealth. She’d met the agent a few times and was seriously intimidated by her ability to detect even the most undetectable traces of a person.
It wasn’t until the fighting broke out that she amped herself up to swoop in. Her dad and Steve were in close combat, red metallic fists sparking against the red white and blue shield. Her dad’s suit was just metal, but Steve’s shield was vibranium. She didn’t think that was quite a fair fight. Shooting out a web from her wrist, she swung down onto the scene. With her free arm, she shot another web, this one on the shield, pulling it from the action.
“How about we make this a fair fight,” she teased, swinging back out of the way towards the structure of the airport.
Static filled her ears as she darted across the glass ceiling at the sight of a winged assailant at her tail. “Pie—Spider Bite, retreat now,” her dad ordered through the comms on her suit.
“Make me,” she challenged.
On the ground, Tony took a step back from Steve and held his hand up to pause the fight, leaving Steve confused.
“Tony,” Nat’s voice entered his ear, “please tell me that’s not who I think it is.”
“It’s exactly who you think it is,” he grumbled. He turned to Steve. “We need to call a truce, tell your guys to back down.”
“Whatever trick this is, I’m not falling for it.”
Piper’s laugh sounded out in his ear followed by the grunt of taking a blow. “Spider Bite,” he repeats himself, “retreat now.” He wasn’t sure if he was more angry at Piper for sneaking her way all the way to Germany or terrified that he’d seen The Winter Soldier take off towards the fight his fourteen year old daughter was engaged in.
“It’s not a trick, Steve.” He directed his attention back to his comms. “War Machine, I need you on Spider Bite.”
“It looked like the kid was on our side. You sure about that?”
Natasha answered for him. “Considering the kid is your god daughter, he’s pretty sure.”
Tony turned to see Nat approaching him and Steve. She’d abandoned her fight with Clint who was making his way towards the hanger holding the quinjet. Tony couldn’t care about that anymore. He was no longer worried about detaining The Winter Soldier, or forcing Steve to see his perspective. All that mattered was stopping Piper from getting hurt.
Rhodey cursed and flew back from Ant-Man who spun in confusion, looking for his opponent.
Tony’s repellers lit up, pushing him off the ground. “Do what you gotta do Cap.” He took off towards the airport himself.
He spotted Nat running behind him, next to her Steve joined in. The sound of his voice could be heard over Nat’s comms. “That’s really Piper?”
“I guess so,” said Nat.
On the floor of the airport, Bucky and Sam took turns regaining the shield from Piper. Every other second they were getting hit with the shield or thrown to the side or unsticking part of their anatomy webbed to the wall. In between those moments, they were landing hits on Piper. The people she normally fought off were common criminals. Sam and Bucky were not that.
One hit from Bucky’s metal arm was enough to have her seeing stars, but she kept going, dragging the shield with her, flying to the support beams along the ceiling, trying to avoid getting caught again.
As she stepped out of the way, a black suit took her place, swiping claws at Bucky’s chest. The two began to engage in close combat, and Piper took it as an opportunity to get the upper hand. She joined in the fight, swinging down, shooting a web at Bucky as The Black Panther took a swing. Unfortunately, she misdirected and ended up sticking The Black Panther to the wall. As he turned his gaze to her, she darted out of the way, back to the rafters.
“Stop!”
She was shocked to see Steve Rogers, standing in front of The Winter Soldier, chest to chest. “Sam, stand down.”
The Falcon landed beside his friend.
“The spider has your shield, Cap.”
“The spider is a fourteen year old kid.” His eyes flicked up to where Piper rested on the ceiling. “We’re not fighting her.”
The fabric on the neck of her suit pulled up and plucked her out from her hiding spot. She craned her chin up to find her dad’s suit, hovering overhead, holding her up as he descended to the ground.
“What were you thinking?” He turned on her. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”
Piper dropped the shield to the ground. “I was thinking I could prove you wrong and I did. I did a good job.”
“A good…” his breath hissed, his mask retracted so that she could see his eyes glassy. “This is not about whether or not you’re good at it.”
Nat cleared her throat. “Tony, we have bigger things, right now.” She nodded her head in the direction of Steve and the crew gathering around him. Notably absent was Wanda. She had disappeared when the fight had died down. Vision still lingered outside.
“I can’t let you take him,” Steve said, beginning to sound a bit repetitive to Tony.
Only this time, Tony would break the cycle. “Take him. I owe you that much. You didn’t have to stop the fight.”
“Neither did you, but it’s what we do for family…Right?”
“What are you doing?” T'Challa’s claws ripped through Piper’s webbing. “You cannot possibly let them go.”
“Vision, erase any security footage and turn off all the surrounding cameras. No one can know that Spider Bite was here. No one can know what happened today.”
“I will, Tony,” Vision obliged.
T'Challa lunged at Bucky again, but this time, both Steve and Tony stepped between them.
“He didn’t kill your father,” Steve tells T'Challa. “I will find the man that did and I will bring him to justice.”
T'Challa looks to Tony. “I thought you wanted justice.”
“Yeah, but I’m partial to the punishment meeting the crime. If this guy,” he thumbed towards Bucky, “is in the wrong hands, he might not get that. Give the good soldier a few days. He’s a man of his word.” Honorable is the word that came to mind, thinking of how Steve jumped in to save his kid at a moments notice. He doesn’t say it because he didn’t want to inflate Captain America’s ego too much.
“Go,” he turned to Steve, “before I change my mind.”
Steve glimpsed at Bucky in consideration, weighing out his options. “If I let you do this, take the risk for us, knowing how pissed Ross is going to be, there’s something you should know.”
“Whatever it is, it can wait.”
“It can’t.” Then Steve finds Piper and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up being under his focus. He turns his gaze back to Tony, but Piper is still on high alert, listening closely as Steve lowers his voice. “There were Hydra files I never told you about—with targets. Murders meant to look like accidents over the years—“
“Stop,” Tony said.
“No, you have to know. The Winter Soldier was responsible for most of those accidents. Scientists, government employees, important people.”
A chill ran down Piper’s spine.
“You told me that it wasn’t him, right? That Hydra turned him into someone he's not? That he regrets the things he did when he wasn't in control?”
Steve’s lips pressed into a thin line. His head twitched in a nod.
“Go.”
With another nod, Steve retreated. He Bucky and Sam jogged off towards the quinjet, leaving the rest of them, both rogue and not, in their wake.
“Well, what do we do now?” Natasha asked Tony.
“We go home and hope we’re not arrested for treason.”
On the plane, Piper was glad to have an actual seat this time. Rhodey sat across from her, disinfecting her cuts and bandaging her gashes. The bruising around one of her eyes would heal quickly but not fast enough to hide the damage from May.
Tony sat down in the seat beside Rhodey. “I don’t think you’re incapable. I am scared.”
Piper glimpsed him out of the side of her eye but remained silent as Rhodey shook out an icepack for her to rest on the lump on her head.
“You’re going to keep doing this spider thing even if I lock you in a tower on a remote island, aren’t you?”
Piper took the icepack and leaned back in her seat. “I love it, dad. I love being Spider Bite. I love helping people. Nothing you can say or do is going to stop me.”
“Then there are going to be some rules.”
Piper’s eyes rolled to the ceiling of the plane.
“You tell me when you’re going out as Spider Bite. You tell me where you’re going to be. If you get hurt, you will tell me immediately. Is that understood?”
She bites the inside of her lip.
“If you want to keep that suit, I want a verbal confirmation.”
Her face softened. “You’re letting me keep the suit?”
“I’ll be damned if you go back out to fight crime in your pajamas.”
“Then yes, I understand,” she assured him. “I will follow those rules.”
“I’m not done with the rules.”
“Of course you’re not.”
“Small, petty crimes only. You’re not chasing after bombers or serial killers. If you stumble into one of those, you tell me immediately. If you encounter someone with a weapon and you can’t disarm them in under thirty seconds, you retreat. Still with me?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Last set of rules…” he leaned back in his own seat, mirroring Piper, “Two nights a week at my place. We’ll work on your suit and debrief about your week, crime fighting and school and all that. Then, every other weekend upstate with me at The Avengers Compound so that Natasha can give you some combat training.”
Piper felt herself rise, her shoulders leading her upward, her cheeks unable to stay down. “Are you serious?”
“Does that sound fair?”
“It sounds more than fair.” She located Natasha on the other side of the plane. She gave her a knowing grin and a nod, before laying her head down and closing her eyes. She’d be training with Black Widow. Nothing could have excited her more.
“I must have really proven myself today,” she gleamed smugly.
Tony chuckled. “All you proved is that I’d be naive to think I could tell my teenager not to do something and have her listen to me.” He turned towards the window, his smile falling. “You also made me realize, I needed to come up with rules and a plan before we tell your aunt about all of this.”
“Please, don’t tell May.” Piper feared that a lot more than jumping into battle with The Winter Soldier.
“Trust me, kiddo, I’m as frightened for that as you are.”