golden | peter parker

thirty seven

Penny briskly walked through the humid nighttime air. What would normally take her 45 minutes to get home, she was trying to make in 30. The plane that crashed into the tower had really shaken her up. Sirens were blaring from everywhere, trying to clean up the wreckage.

While she was rushing home, Peter was sat on the top of Cyclone, watching as Happy and his men patrolled the damage. He leaned his head back on the sign, extremely tired. His fight with Vulture drained him of all his energy, and to know he was fighting Liz's dad put him in a bad state mentally.

He sighed, both pride and exhaustion taking over his every thought. Peter had no idea how long he sat there, but it felt like an eternity. In reality it was only five minutes. Peter stood up and began to swing his way through the streets wanting to go home, using his webs in reserve because they were almost out of fluid.

Penny had made it to the same cut through she always took, and she fiddled with the straps on her mini backpack. It was just as creepy as all those weeks ago when she got scared by a rat and Spiderman saved her from a drunk driver.

"Nothing bad happened last time, there's no need to worry," Penny reassured herself as she ventured off down the dark alley. Every step she made, the sound was amplified, causing her to scare herself.

She got halfway down the alley, and felt slightly relieved as she saw a group of people pass by. At least someone would be around if something were to happen. She kept going and finally made it out.

As Penny rounded the corner she bumped into someone, causing her to fall on her butt.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," Penny said as she stood up and dusted herself off.

The man looked her up and down, swaying slightly. He was clearly intoxicated. His eyes focused on her backpack. He quickly grabbed her by the arm and dragged her back into the alleyway, clamping a hand over her mouth so she couldn't scream.

"Sorry little girly, I need that bag," He hiccuped, trying to force her backpack off her shoulders. Her shouts were muffled, and she was wriggling around in his grip, trying her hardest to get away.

"Stop making this difficult!" The man barked as he wrapped his arm around her neck to get her to stand still.

"Help! Someone, please!" Penny shouted while he was distracted. He immediately put his hand back over her mouth. She used her heels to stomp down on his foot, causing him to scream out in pain. She then bit down on his hand, causing him to let go slightly, and she took this opportunity to break away.

"You bitch!" He shouted, lunging at her. He caught the handle of her backpack, and yanked Penny so hard she hit the brick wall. She groaned in pain.

"Gimme the fucking bag!" He shouted, trying to pull it from her hands.

"Anyone please, help me!" She cried out as he dragged her across the ground, Penny holding onto her bag tightly. She stood up, and planted her feet firmly on the ground, but her heels were making it impossible to get a good grip, even though the man was drunk.

Peter heard the struggle from a few blocks away and quickly swung over to where the sounds were coming from. He entered the alleyway, still tired from his fight with the Vulture.

The mugger hadn't noticed Spiderman yet, but he grew tired of Penny's resistance. He took her head and slammed it against the wall. She slid down the wall, only half conscience.

"Hey man! Don't you know it's not polite to go through a lady's bag?" Peter asked as he hopped down in front of the man.

The mugger took a knife out of his pocket, still swaying slightly. But Peter finally noticed that the body was Penny's, and his tiredness was replaced with adrenaline. How dare he hurt her?

He tried webbing the man up, but he dodged it and slammed his body into Peter's. The breath was knocked from his lungs, as he landed on the floor. The man punched him in the face, and Peter tried to push him off.

Penny looked up through her blurry vision and saw Spiderman getting beaten by this drunk man. She made her way to her feet and staggered over, jumping on the mans back. He stood up and backed up hard into a wall, causing Penny to fall to the floor again, clutching her head in pain.

"Penny!" Peter shouted, jumping to his feet and webbing the man's left arm to his body. The mugger swung a punch at Spiderman, and it connected with his cheek, sending Peter backwards.

The man used his knife to cut the webbing off, and ran at Spiderman. Peter kicked him in the chest, but not before the knife was planted firmly in his stomach. The man stood up, charged at Peter one last time and body slammed them both into the wall. He grasped the handle of the knife, pulled it out and ran to the other side of the alley, it was too much trouble for one lousy backpack.

Peter found it getting to be increasingly harder to keep his eyes open, he hadn't even registered that he'd been stabbed. He stumbled over to Penny.

"Pen-Penny, are you okay?" He mumbled out, trying his hardest to stay awake and keep her safe. Unfortunately, the adrenaline had been drained from his body, leaving him 10 times more exhausted than he was previously; coupled with his stab wound, it was extremely hard to focus.

She groaned in response, and opened her eyes in time to see Peter pass out.

"Spiderman!" She cried out, crawling over to him. She noticed the knife wound bleeding profusely. "Holy shit," Her hands trembled as she tried to put pressure on it, his blood soaking through the gaps in her fingers..

He was bleeding out, and Penny tried using her limited Grey's Anatomy knowledge to help her out in the situation.

"Okay, I need to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. That sounds medical-ly, it has to be right," Penny mumbled as she tore off a long piece of her dress.

"Alright, if you're conscious at all I'm sorry. I have to take your sweatshirt off so that it can stop the bleeding better," Penny unzipped his hoodie and luckily found a t-shirt underneath. She wrapped the cloth around his torso and tied it tightly.

Her hands were soaked with his blood, but the bleeding was lessening. She had applied enough pressure for it to slow down. Penny sighed in relief, zipping his hoodie back up. She pushed her hair out of her face, smearing blood on her forehead and cheeks.

She then noticed that she didn't really see his chest moving, "Spidey, I'm so sorry, but I need to take your mask off to make sure you're still breathing. I am so so sorry, please don't hate me," Penny said as she removed his hood, and then pulled the mask off.

Her hands flew to her mouth as the realization sunk in. Peter Parker was Spiderman.