The Avengers Weakness

Chapter Thirty-Eight

She paused, "...Oh I guess I did....is that okay?" she asked, looking up at him.

"More than okay, now I'd love to stay and chat with you about this; celebrate a little, but I gotta go. Need to kick some ass." he paused when he realized he cursed, "Don't tell your mother I said that." he replied, holding out an outstretched index finger in her direction.

She nodded, a small giggle escaping her lips, "Yes sir." she replied.

He tapped the reactor under his t-shirt, letting his suit take over him. Penny watched him walk over to a window at the very end of the hallway that had been opened by one of the other teens. He jumped out of it and started flying off.

"Stay safe!" she yelled after him.

He nodded his head to himself, knowing she probably couldn't see him, "JARV."

"Yes, sir?" the AI replied.

"Lock it down. No one gets in, no one gets out till I'm back. Got it?"

"Understood sir. The compound is on lockdown. I've taken the liberty of locking all news channels on every device inside to prevent Miss Parker from accessing content that will surely cause her to be in duress."

Tony nodded, knowing that the AI was right, "Good thinking. Let's kick some alien ass." he announced as he kicked his thrusters into overdrive.

Penny ran into the living room where the TV was; she knew that whatever was going on downtown would be on the news. She remembered watching the attacks when she was six, but instead of watching it from her home it was from an alleyway; she'd gotten lost during the fight from her aunt. Well, more like her aunt ran from her; she'd left her alone in the middle of the street, not caring what happened to her. She remembered a nice pink-haired teenager had kept her safe after she'd found her hiding in an alleyway. She often wondered what happened to that girl. After watching the avengers flying around the sky as a young girl, it made her want to be like them; to make things safer for everyone. Now that she knew them all, it made her want them to be more okay; she needed them to be okay. She wanted to watch them to see that they were okay. When she flipped to the news channel, she was met with a black screen. She frowned slightly and started flipping through the channels, every single news channel was a black screen.

"JARVIS?" she asked.

"Yes, Miss Parker?" the British sounding AI replied.

"Do you know what's wrong with the news channels? I can't see anything."

"I have barred access to all points of entry to the news for every device within the compound. It is felt that you will push yourself into a worried state and possibly have another panic attack if you were to watch the citation downtown."

She frowned a little more, "Oh...c-can you at least let me know what happens o-or just tell me that they are all okay?"

"Yes Miss Parker, I can do that. I recommend participating in an activity that will keep you distracted as well as to help pass the time it'll the others return. As of my current knowledge, everyone is currently in perfect health."

She nodded and pulled out a book from the backpack that was still over her shoulder. After a few minutes of sitting on the couch and being unable to concentrate, she shut her book. She looked around the room, feeling herself slipping into a worried state, her anxiety starting to take over her. She closed her eyes and took in a few deep breaths and started going through the motion of counting down. Five things she could see... she opened her eyes and looked around her. The pillow on the couch, her book, her hands...her phone...and the carpet sitting in front of the couch. She released the breath she was holding and took another deep one in... four things she can feel...the warmth of her sweater, the hair tickling her ears, the cool binding of the book in her hand...the way Lucky kept nudging her hand with his nose...breathe out...breathe in. Three things she can hear...the ticking of the clock in the dining room, Fanny barking at a bird outside the window...her steady heartbeat. She let out another steady breath and sucked in another one. Two things she can smell...Lucky's breath and the faint smell of Wanda's perfume that was left on her sweater...repeat....breathe out...breathe in...one thing she can taste...the watermelon sour patch kids from Kate. She released the last breath, feeling better; everything was okay, she told herself. She pulled her phone out of pocket and the headphones of her backpack that was sitting on the floor in front of her. She slipped the emerald green headphones over her ears and pressed the play button on her screen. She started reading her book once again as the relaxing sound of piano music cascaded over her. Over two hours later, she vaguely heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. She glanced up from her book and saw someone standing in front of her; when she looked up she saw it was Tony. He offered her a light wave.