warning: anxiety attack, language

(Eliza's POV)

"So my presumably dead dad is the guy who also killed my mom, escaped the hands of the cops twice, and now runs a gang who makes alien weapons?" I asked and everyone nodded.

"Coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool," I said. Peter's phone rang and he excused himself from the meeting to take it.

A few minutes later, he came back in and said, "Um I gotta go. I had plans to go see a movie with Liz," I looked down at the floor, "so um..."

"Bye." Mr. Stark said, not looking up from his papers. Peter smiled at me before he left and I gave him a fake smile back. He walked out the door and I sighed.

"You gotta go get him," Nat said. I shot my head up to look at her.

"Nonono."

"Yesyesyes," Nat mocked me.

I sighed once more, "You know how usually, people meet, date, then fall in love?" I asked and they all nodded, "Well I fell in love with someone I'm not even dating, and he's in love with someone else."

There was a moment of silence while a few of them gave me looks of pity.

"Wow. That was deep. chile- anyways so-" I said, getting up and walking over to the bullet hologram.

(~time skip~)

October 3rd 1:15 am

Click. Bang. Crack.

I woke up panting, drops of sweat trailing down from my temples. 

I knew what my brain was trying to do by showing me this dream, over and over again. It was trying to get me to doubt myself as Spiderwoman. But I wouldn't let it. I knew that the city was safer with me fighting the crime for them, and just because of my own problems, doesn't mean that the people of Queens have to suffer. 

I gulped back some air and threw the covers off of me. I planted my feet on floor, flinching because of its coldness. I stood up and walked over to the dresser, to put on fresh clothes.

When I got dressed, it was completely silent, except for the quiet rustling of the bushes outside my window and the quiet pattering of my feet, making their way to the door.

I turned the handle and peeked my head outside, checking to see if anyone was there. When I saw no one, I walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water. The water was really refreshing, especially since my throat was dry from gasping for air.

After about ten minutes of just standing in the kitchen, looking out the window at the peaceful night, I knew I wasn't going to fall back asleep, so I decided to explore the compound a little, and as quietly as possible. Even though I had been living there for three and a half months, the building was huge, and I hadn't had time to see it all.

I walked up to a door that was labeled: 'Stark's Lab'. I didn't know how I hadn't seen it before, considering it was right by the front door. I opened the door and stepped through the threshold, looking around the lab.

One wall had thirty Iron Man suits on it, strategically placed so that they could all fit. I gasped quietly when I saw a separate locked door that had two compartments, each labeled, 'Iron Spider suits'. I looked around the room some more and saw two large workbenches, a u-shaped desk with six monitors, a glass wall looking outside, and a robot that had white letters on it that said: 'DUM-E'.

"Welcome Miss. Porter," a female voice said and I jumped.

"Hello?? Hello??" I said, looking around for a person.

"I am FRIDAY, Mr. Stark's virtual assistant. I can help you with anything you need. According to my database, you have access to all divisions regarding Spiderwoman and Spiderman. You also own an artificial intelligence system that you have named Andy," FRIDAY said.

"I-um I- hi?" I furrowed my eyebrows, "Wait did you say I have access to something?"

"Yes." All of the lights turned on in the lab, illuminating the tops of the work benches, making them a bright white. Above them, a blue hologram projected a with two files in it.

"Huh." I said, walking over to the files. "Um, can I open these?"

"Yes, you can. One of the files is named Eliza Porter and the other is named Peter Parker. These are high security files, but you do have access to them granted by Mr. Stark. Would you like to open them?" FRIDAY said.

"Uh, sure!"

FRIDAY opened Peter's file. There were a bunch of video recordings. I clicked on one of them from a few months ago. Peter came up, wearing his Spiderman mask and a hammer in his hand.

"iT iS i, tHoR sOn oF oDiN!" he said, flexing his muscles a little. I wheezed and downloaded the video onto my phone. "and my hammer...mew mew? or maybe was it...jonathan? I can't remember." 

I sighed, "I love him so much."

I looked around his file a little more, watching a few videos, just because I missed him at that particular moment.

Then I went to my file. There were the blueprints for two suits, my regular one, and the iron suit. I went to the iron suit blueprints and saw that Mr. Stark used nanotech to make it. 

"Wow, you really overdid yourself this time Mr. Stark," I muttered. I looked closer at the blueprints, studying it further and saw four metal legs sticking out of the back. They looked to be really sharp on the ends, probably used to stab enemies or something.

Behind those two prototype files, there was a blank one. It had the regular model theme, with specifically shaped eye lenses. I decided to play around with the blank model. Putting the file flat on the workbench, I sat down on a stool in front of it. I brought my hand to the model, raising it up so it was a blue 3D hologram about two feet high.

I sat back in the chair, crossing one of my arms over my chest, the other propping up my head. I got an idea for a suit, out of the blue. I bit my knuckle and uncrossed my arms, looking around for a notebook.

"Um...Friday? Do you happen to have any graph notebooks?" I asked.

"Yes, the cabinet by the door," FRIDAY said.

"Thanks. You're really helpful," I said.

"Anytime Miss. Porter."

"Oh, y-you can call me Eliza." I said and walked over to the notebooks. I found a blank one next to one that said, 'Mark 15-30'. I shrugged and picked up the other one, walking it back to the hologram.

I drew a diagram of a new suit. It was mostly black, with some blue accents. To keep the webbing design in play, I put some red webbing around the head, collar, and calf areas. The back of the suit had a large blue spider, that wrapped slightly around the torso area. The small spider emblem on the chest would be blue as well.

Once I was done with the drawing, I put it up to the blank hologram, making it 3D. I brought my hands to the hologram and picked it up to bring it to the middle of the room. I expanded my arms and made it become life sized. A smile crept up on my lips as I looked at it.

Now that I had the design, I needed to work on the little things. Such as, web shooters, the mask, and special powers.

I got to work to make a stronger web fluid. Now, the polymer would knit together five times faster than the original, so there would only be a millisecond between pressing the web shooter button, and the webs coming out. 

Also, after two hours when the webs dissolve, instead of turning into a powder, it's now biodegradable. So, there won't just be piles of powder around the city that people will try to take as drugs. True story, Peter told me. Now, it would dissolve into the earth because save the planet y'all.

For the mask, I made it so that all the wires were near the back of the head, covered with a light fabric, so they didn't get caught in my hair. That was always bugging me. Now, if I put a hand to my ear, it would turn the camera on and off, so that Mr. Stark wouldn't see all of the stuff that I do. 

Also I'm pretty sure that Peter has access to that camera, and I don't want him to somehow hear me ranting to Andy about how amazing he is.

I wanted to make something about this suit different from the others, so I added a feature. On the forearm, or activated by voice, there is a button that will detonate a large blast that will take out attackers on all sides and stun some near-by enemies. It will also render guns useless for a period of time, making it so that I won't have to worry about getting shot. Again.

I added all these features to the hologram and blueprints. Now all I had to do was actually make it.

"Hey Friday? Where do I-" I started.

"Where do you what? Make that high tech suit that you just designed with my tools that could be worth millions of dollars?" a voice asked and I flinched, turning around in the stool.

"H-hi Mr. Stark." I expected him to have a scowl on his face, but he was smiling slightly.

"Hey kid." He came closer to me and looked at the diagram that I had made. "So...how long you been working on this?"

I squinted my eyes and looked around the room for a clock.

"6 and a half hours," I said plainly.

"Ok then. How you gonna make that suit?" he asked and I shrugged.

"I don't really know, I was just about to ask Friday," I said. Mr. Stark tapped the watch on his wrist and there was a beep from across the room. I looked up and saw what I thought was a blank wall, open up to reveal several machines, used for making his iron suits.

I looked at him, as if granting permission and he smiled, gesturing for me to go over. 

"Sure, play around with it a little. I don't really have anything else to do, so I can help you if you want," he said. I smiled at him and ran over to it with my diagram in hand. 

(~time skip~)

October 3rd 11:00 am

Mr. Stark and I had been working on the suit for about three hours, and it was almost done. I designed the web shooters more thoroughly, and he worked on advancing the mask.

"So, anything new with you?" I asked him, a pen in my mouth while I focused.

A smile started to form on his face, "Yeah actually."

"Really? What's up?" I said and squinted my eyes at my work.

"Um, Pepper's pregnant," he said, not even trying to fight the smile anymore.

My mouth fell open and the pen fell out. I dropped the web shooters and ran over to him and engulfed him in a hug. He was a little surprised at first, but then hugged me back.

"That's so amazing. Congratulations! I can't believe this, it's so cool! Do you know how far along she is?" I asked, releasing him from the hug.

"Yeah, she's almost three months," he grinned.

"That's so great, I'm so happy for you two," I grinned back.

"And we find out the gender tomorrow, so I'll tell you then if you want. Actually, I wanted to name them after Pepper's eccentric uncle Morgan," he said and I laughed, turning back to my work.

"Morgan is a nice name, I like it. So what are you hoping for?" I said.

"Well, I'm kind of hoping for a girl because-" he started, but I cut him off.

"Because you already have a son."

"What? No I don't. At least I don't think I do," he said.

"Mr. Stark, Peter is basically your son already," I rolled my eyes.

"No he's not. It's just that evERYTHING HE DOES IS GREAT AND I'M SO PROUD OF HIM." 

"Ok, you're yelling nice things and it's confusing," I said.

There were a few moments of silence before Mr. Stark said, "You know, I'm proud of you too. Peter is really missing out, I mean you're working like a fucking machine on this little project that you started just a few hours ago. Spiderboy over there's been slacking and hanging out with his little girlfriend while you're working your ass off on keeping the city safe and I just-" he sighed, "it's not right."

I looked down at my lap and said quietly, "Thanks Mr. Stark."

He was about to say something, but he was interrupted by a knock on the glass wall. We turned around and saw an old man with a package in his hands.

"Hi. I have a package for...tOnY sTaNk?" the man said.

I snickered and said, "Yes, this is Mr. Stank. Right here." He glared at me while the man still smiled.

"This is the second time this guy has come here you know," Mr. Stank said while going to get the package. 

-----------------------------------------------

October 3rd 7:00 pm

Mr. Stark and I worked on the suit all day and finished it right before dinner time. After the dinner that I didn't eat, I rushed to the lab to change and go out into the city. The new suit felt really nice, the fabric was a lot softer and the mask's wires didn't get caught in my hair anymore.

Crime was down a lot today, so mostly I just enjoyed the fresh air and watched the sun go down. I sat on top of a building and sighed.

I looked down at the ground and studied a couple that was crossing the street hand-in-hand. They both had wide smiles on their faces and were skipping. I started to smile at them, until I saw who they were.

It was Peter and Liz that were holding hands and skipping across the street. Into this building. My lenses widened and I looked at my surroundings, realizing that I was at my old apartment building. They got closer to the lobby and I decided to go back to my old room because I had been meaning to go there anyways to get some stuff.

I climbed down the side of the building. I looked into Peter's window and saw Liz and Peter starting to kiss. I almost threw up right then and there, but mustered up enough strength to go one more story down and go through my window.

I shut the window and sighed. Then out of nowhere, I started to cry. Usually I cried in the shower or after watching Inside Out, but most of the time I kept it together. The tears started to pool in my eyes and I ripped my mask off, throwing it to the ground and running my hands through my hair. 

The tears streamed down my face and I paced around the room, a headache starting to form around the back of my head. My heart rate was off the charts, and my breathing was becoming faster by the second.

I grabbed onto the wall for support and stumbled down to the ground, clutching my chest. The lights were off and it was pitch black in the room, the only light coming from the faint glow of my alarm clock. 

The walls started to close around me and all I could hear was my fast breathing and occasional rustle of the trees outside. 

My window slid open and the last thing I heard was someone say, "Eliza?" 

Then everything was black.