Not Always the Hero; Rewritten // (Percy Jackson x Peter Parker)

How It All Started

When Peter was twelve he saw a national manhunt on the news for a boy his age, Percy Jackson. He watched it all unfold in real time, the conclusion being a kidnapping of the latter and two companions and a gun fight on the beach with said kidnapper, who escaped. He'd been living with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben for years now, his parents long since dead. He'd even stopped having nightmares about everything, mostly. Until that, until a boy his age was taken right from their city and had fought for his life to survive. He had nightmares during and for a few weeks after the event, afraid of getting taken just as the other boy had.

When Peter was thirteen (going on) fourteen he met Percy Jackson. Peter and his Aunt May had just moved into a new apartment complex at the end of his eighth grade year due to his Uncle Ben getting killed in an 'accident'. Percy and his mother Sally were his next door neighbors. It was so weird, meeting the boy who was on the news and his mom who'd been missing through the whole ordeal. It was so weird, because as far as he could tell, they were perfectly normal. He'd met Percy all of once, and very briefly. (before the other boy mysteriously disappeared for the whole summer). Peter didn't think much of it at first, he was going through his own issues and didn't initially notice when Percy didn't pass by Aunt May and Peter's apartment door getting to his own on the last day of school for the boarding school Percy went to. May noticed, and asked when they went to dinner at Sally's a few nights after the fact. According to Sally, he had apparently already gone off to summer camp with two friends. When May asked about the camp itself, Sally explained that it was a special camp Percy's father had wanted him to go to. All of that got pushed to the back of Peter's mind though and he genuinely forgot about the other boy for the rest of the summer.

When Peter was fourteen he was still dealing with the effects of his Uncle's untimely demise. He entered high school. His neighbor, Sally, started dating an English teacher at Goode High School and said teacher had actually gotten Percy a spot at the school for the next school year.. Peter and Percy didn't see a lot of each other, Percy was going to a different boarding school than the year prior and already didn't have an invitation to stay past finishing that academic year. They didn't even have the opportunity to be cordial with each other because the one time during the school year they would've seen each other Percy was gone. He was gone for nearly all of winter break instead of visiting his mom at home, and when he came back there was a gray streak in his hair and an invisible weight on his shoulders. Percy was different after that. Part of it could've been that him and Peter hadn't seen each other for months while Percy was at boarding school, but Peter was pretty sure whatever had happened to Percy had been more recent than that. He almost seemed more reclusive, and the whitish streak in his hair? It didn't look like a dye job, it looked like the hair had just lost all its color- that was impossible though, so Peter pushed the thought aside and tried to be nice to Percy before the boy disappeared once again, this time back to his boarding school to finish up the academic year.

When Peter was fifteen it's safe to say a lot happened. Percy's just come home to start school at Goode and has changed even more, just not on the surface, more reclusive, more burdened. Peter never has a chance to confront his neighbor about it though because one field trip accident later Peter found himself fighting petty criminals in a red hoodie, then a 'suit' he'd designed himself. He didn't even want to be, but he couldn't not. His Uncle Ben had given his life trying to stop a petty criminal. Peter would be lying if there wasn't a part of him that wasn't doing it to try and find his uncle's killer. He didn't have much luck at that though and gradually just began helping people, not just stopping convenience store robbers and car jackers. Of course, he still wanted to find his Uncle's killer, but after saving a little boy's life he was reminded of his Uncle's key phrase "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility'', put a few things into perspective for him. Didn't mean Peter wasn't bitter about it though. He was 15 and wanted nothing more than to be selfish like the rest of the population of the city he lived in. He had all this power and he still couldn't avenge his uncle...