The Avengers Weakness

Chapter Four

Penny slowly turned around to see her cousin Brad standing there behind her, his large arms crossed over his chest as he looked her up and down, a slightly amused smirk on his face. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at the cousin who'd teased and bullied her for the last eight years of her life.

"H-Hey Brad. What do-do you want?" she asked, trying to sound like she wasn't scared of him anymore since she no longer had to go home with him.

He laughed at her false sense of confidence, "Nothing little cousin, just saw you and thought I'd say hello."

"Okay," she replied, her voice shaking as she watched her cousin and how he moved towards her.

"Don't be rude cousin, come give me a hug." he asked, opening his arms up, inviting her in for a hug.

She shocked her head, she knew better than that, "I-I-I'm okay," she responded as she slowly started to move away from him, hoping he didn't notice the action.

Brad realized her movement and started to walk closer to her, closing in the space that she'd created in between them. When she tried to turn to run to another part of the store or even out of the store to get away from him, he roughly grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the wall. She tried to fight him as he pinned her against the wall, her arms thrashing in his grip as she tried to wriggle her way free, the feeling of being suffocated starting to set in again.

"L-let me go Brad." she squeaked.

"Why would I do that cousin? Tell me?" he asked, sarcastically, a cruel mocking tone dropping from his words.

"Pl-Please let go."

Brad squeezed her arm harder as he pushed her against the wall with more force, ignoring the fearful expression of the younger teenager who was staring up at him, "You know what, after everything we have done for you. You leave? Mom and Dad are furious!" he hissed.

"I'm so-sorry. I-I didn't know he was c-coming. PLEASE LET ME GO!" she begged, almost yelling out the last part of her response, she tried to pull herself out of his grip, whimpering a little at the amount of force he was using to hold onto her, "You-You're hurting me Brad. S-s-stop."

"Shut Up!" he loudly hissed in her ear as he slapped her across the face, much like his parents had done in the past.

Tears started to run down her cheeks as she remembered her uncle and aunt and their reactions to when she acted like this; when she did anything really. She started shaking harder as he raised his voice even more, the venom in his tone growing with every word. She could see the look in his eyes and see how angry he was, and she hated it when she ended up on the receiving end of his barely controlled anger.

"Please let me go Brad," she cried, "I-I won't tell...pr-promise."

"I told you to shut up." he snapped, shaking her by her arms, the back of her head almost hitting the wall, "You're so ungrateful, we took care of you for years and that is how you repay us?!"

"I-I'm sorry...." she whispered, her voice shaking why did she agree to leave Peter?

Natasha came out of the room after hearing the sounds of Penny's voice and the commotion outside of the dressing room. She quickly walked out with the clothes in her hand, looking around for the teenager who sounded terrified by the tone of her voice and like she was in pain. Upon walking out, she heard the conversation more, it made her blood boil; Penny's scared voice rang in her ears as she kept walking towards where she was hearing the voices from. She listened to a boy yell and degrade Penny as he held her against a wall, she was about to interfere with the situation when a store clerk came up to her, offering her assistance. Natasha quickly gave the woman Tony's card with the instructions to pay for Penny's clothes and cash to pay for her own clothes, trying to get the woman to leave before she did something illegal to the boy. When the store clerk left, she quickly ran over to Penny and the boy.