Penny and Marcus successfully finish the crib before Ned and MJ get back. Marcus decided to get some work done and heads to his room, so Penny and May wait for her friends to get back on the couch.
When they arrive, it's with a few bags. MJ pulls out the hair dye, and it's a good color - not too dark, just enough to hopefully make her look different. That plus the haircut should be enough for now, Penny thinks. She's not exactly planning on going out much.
MJ helps Penny die her hair first, brushing through the long strands before trying it into a bun on top of her head and putting a shower cap over it. After setting the timer, they head to the living room to wait for the timer to go off.
"I wish we could get you a perm or something, too," MJ says.
"Yeah, I got my dad's straight hair," Penny says. "My mom's was super curly."
"Was he brunette too?"
"No, blonde."
"Wait," Ned interjects. "Your mom had red hair, your dad had blonde hair, where did your brown hair come from?"
"Uncle Ben had brown hair, and hazel eyes like me too. And he's my dad's bio brother. I don't remember the details, cause they died before I was born, but apparently my grandparents each had a 'clone' in their sons. I don't remember which was which, but I took after that grandparent."
"Huh," says MJ. "So you took after one of your grandparents, and May took after her grandmother… Genetics are weird as fuck, aren't they?"
"Totally," says Penny. "Though the fact that May and I look so different should help hide her a little. It'll be easy to sell her as like, a niece or baby cousin or something if I'm ever out with her."
"True," says MJ. "Can I like, call her my niece?"
"Totally," Penny confirms. "You too, Ned, and MJ tell Marcus and Malcolm they're the same."
"I'm not telling Malcolm, he doesn't know anything about the situation yet. He went with friend for Spring Break this year so he hasn't been home since this whole thing started."
"That's gonna be a shock for him," Ned comments. "Can I be there for that conversation? I feel like it'll be really entertaining." Penny snorts.
The timer goes off right about then, so Penny heads back to the bathroom. She takes a shower, washes out the extra dye, conditions her hair, and then dries herself off and puts on new pajamas (still borrowed from MJ - Penny's beginning to think she and MJ will just share clothes for the most part). When she walks back into the living room, MJ's taken a stool from the kitchen and placed it over a bunch of towels. She throws another towel around Penny's shoulders and clips it in front, before setting Penny on the stool. Ned watches while holding May; they'd all agreed MJ should do the haircut, because no one trusted Ned to, Ned included.
When everything's done, Penny has a dark brown bob that hovers just above her shoulders. MJ jokes that it's the bisexual haircut, to which Penny replies, "But I'm not bi! I'm ace! Ned's the bi one!"
"And I'm a lesbian, but I still think the haircut is called the bisexual bob," MJ replies.
"Is everyone we know queer?" Penny asks offhand.
"Nah," says MJ. "Marcus is our token straight guy."
Ned bursts out laughing. "I dare you to say that to his face."
"No need," MJ says casually. "I already have."
This time Penny starts laughing.
Once Penny's hair has been dried and styled (once again by MJ, who it turns out is a pretty good hairdresser), Penny looks in the mirror. She can recognize herself, but she looks different enough she's pretty sure only people who know her will be able to match her to her old photos.
"Now you can go out if you need to," MJ says.
"I mean, I'm not exactly planning on going out much. I can't go to school, I have to keep my head down as much as possible, and I have to keep May a secret. I'll be spending a lot of time here alone, probably," Penny replies.
"Speaking of school," MJ says, glancing at Ned, who nods. "We talked about it while you were asleep this morning, since we now know you can't go back to school, so we came up with a plan. We'll give you all our work from the past semester, and going forward we'll copy all out homework so you can do it alongside us. We can't do that for tests, unfortunately, but they should still be good study guides. I'm sure you'll be able to keep up, anyway."
"You guys would really do that for me?" Penny asks, tearing up a little.
"Of course," Ned says gently. "We love you, and we want what's best for you. You want an education but can't get a traditional one at the moment. We can give you something close-ish, which is better than nothing."
Since Ned is still holding May, Penny throws her arms around MJ instead. Unlike when she used to hug MJ, where MJ would go slightly stiff before accepting but not returning the hug, MJ now hugs back immediately.
Once Penny has calmed back down, she says "I still can't go out much, though. Unless I'm in a mask or something, I guess, but that would be weird. And noticeable."
"Actually…" Ned says, sounding very thoughtful. "Maybe you can?"
Penny and MJ stare at him, Penny baffled and Mj judging.
"Hear me out!" He exclaims. "Penny, you said you're not a superhero this morning, because you stole and you don't save people. But now that you have MJ and Marcus to help support you and May, you don't need to steal anymore, and you could always, you know, start saving people."
MJ still looks unconvinced, but Penny turns thoughtful.
"We would have to come up with a name and stuff, like, I dunno, Spider Woman? Since, you know, you have spider powers. And we'd have to make some sort of suit or something, with a mask of course, and we'd have to plan around our schedules so someone's with May when you're out, so you probably couldn't go out during school hours, but like… it would be possible."
MJ turns to Penny. "Don't tell me you're actually considering this," she says bluntly.
Penny bites her lip. "I mean, is it a bit of a dumb idea to bring that sort of attention? Maybe, but Ned's right about the mask being able to keep me safe. Vigilante's keep their identities secret all the time, just cause Tony Stark decided to announce himself to the world doesn't mean I have to."
MJ continues looking skeptical.
"And…" Penny hesitates, before continuing quietly. "Ben had this thing he used to say. 'With great power, comes great responsibility'. I have great power. I didn't chose to have it, but I do, so I have a responsibility to do something with it. I was using it to protect May, but she's safe now. I could help protect other people instead. I mean," she sniffles slightly, "I couldn't have saved May, even I know that, but… I got my powers before Ben died. Not after. And, well, you know I was there. I… could have stopped it. I could have saved him if I hadn't been selfish and stupid and scared. I didn't save him, but… I could try to save someone else."
MJ looks between Penny, who's nearly in tears, and Ned, who's a weird mix of sympathetic and excited.
Finally, she blows a huge breath. "Fine! Fine. But on one condition. You won't be Spider Woman. You'll be Spiderman. You might have superpowers, Penny, but you're still a fourteen year old girl!"
"They won't know I'm fourteen!" Penny argues.
"But they'll know you're a girl. You're about to put a giant target on your back. If people think you're a dude, anyone who's against you will still try to fight you, but if they knew you were a girl… they would react very differently, Penny. And… you don't know how you'll react in that situation."
"She's got a good point," Ned admits reluctantly. "As much as I would love to be all feminist and shit, we have to think about your safety first. Pretending to be a dude will be safer in the long run."
"Besides, just because you're Spiderman now, doesn't mean you can't become Spider Woman later," MJ points out.
Penny nods. "Okay. Okay. Spiderman it is."
They all look at each other, then MJ says tiredly, "We're really doing this, aren't we?"
Penny and Ned nod.
"Fine. But we're telling Marcus. And I'm running PR for Spiderman! We want you to have a good reputation, so people trust you when you try to save them. And Ned, you need to be the computer guy."
"Guy in the chair! Yes!"
MJ sighs again. "Marcus is going to kill us."
And that's how Spiderman is born