Amazing Peter Parker
Ch.1
"Pass the jam".
A dark haired Greek beauty hands a jar of strawberry jam across the table. The red-haired gentleman to her left nimbly avoids her reach without opening his eyes as he stretches under her arms for the salt shaker. The brunette in front takes the jar with a grunt of thanks while he prepares his toast for his spread.
It's a surreal moment for 3 of New York's more interesting citizens.
"Mmm, perfect as usual Elektra", the red-head grins with his eyes closed.
"Meh pangaffs wah grea", the brunette attempts to speak around his breakfast.
Elektra glares at the two sharing her table. "Don't speak with your mouth full Peter", she addmonishes the younger man at the table. "More bacon Matt?", she asks trying to anticipate his answer. Matt nods while pushing what's left of his egg on his plate with his fork.
Peter finishes his toast to watch the two interact. It's been 3 weeks since his life fell apart, 3 weeks since he's been unable to show his face around on the street. And at least a week since Matt Murdoch and Elektra Natchios have opened up their guest bedroom to him.
Almost a month has passed since he's tried to ride out the last big change his crazy life has thrown at him. One of his most persistant and dangerous arch enemies, a Doctor Otto Octvaious, swapped bodies and left him to die in a rotting body. And he did. Die that is. But as it is in the hero business, it didn't stick. Peter beat the odds and somehow hung around long enough for Octavious to grow a heart. Peter was given his life back, but with changes he never expected. A doctorate in his name, his own company, and plenty of new toys to play with, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately it also brought suspicion and hard feelings from his closest friends and family.
"Peter?"
He looks up to see Elektra and Matt watching him, with concern he's somewhat happy to notice. Peter gets up and puts his plate in the sink. His roommates watch him move through the apartment back to his room. They let him go on, not pushing the issue. They know what has happened to him, and they have made it clear that he can come to them if he needed to.
Peter falls on his back to his bed, lost in thought. He'll talk to them when he's ready. There is too much on his mind lately for him to want to push on people. He's still not used to this, living with people he can talk to. Matt and Elektra, or Daredevil and... Elektra. She needs a codename. Where was he? Oh yeah, living with people who understand him. It was different with the Avengers. They were more co-workers for the most part. They were there for a guy when needed, but personal problems were left at the door.
Huffing, Peter turns onto his stomach and stares into nothing. He sure had his fair share of personal problems now. He couldn't run a company and he barely had a clue about his doctorial expertise. He tried, but it wasn't meant to be. Mistakes were made. A lot of mistakes. Parker Industries was so far in the red there wasn't much he could do. It got so bad he needed help. No one trusted him though. Octavious almost completely ruined his proffessional and personal reputations and no one wanted to be associated with Peter Parker or Spider-Man.
Then came Tony Stark, the Invincible Iron Man. Or as Peter thought of him now, the local neighborhood Doctor Doom in training.
It wasn't always like that. Tony used to be one of the best. One of the original Avengers, one of the smartest men on the planet, the love of a beautiful redhead, (Why is it always redheads?) and enough money to build an impressive sized money fort out of singles. Not that Peter spent an afternoon or two swinging around Manhattan doing the math or anything... cough cough...
Peter does a handstand on his bed and reaches over to the wall with his feet. Letting his paticular biology kick in, he adheres himself to the wall and starts to make his way to the ceiling with his hands behind his back. His brow furrows as he gets lost in his recent memories.
Tony Stark. Peter forgave him for the whole Civil War thing. Tensions were running high and the stress got to everybody. Politics would do that to a person, and Tony was over his shell plated head in the stuff. And Peter could have said no at any time, took his family and run. Could have refused to reveal his identity and stopped the ball from rolling. Could have kept Aunt May from getting shot, Mary Jane from cutting ties with him, and possibly prevented Octavius from getting his hands on everything that swapped their lives for a bit.
Tony friggen Stark. And yeah, ok, he did catch a lot of heat during that Secret Invasion thing and then the huge fight on Asgard. And he willingly deleted his memories to keep the bad guys from getting the information he had on all the other heroes. And by that time Peter had managed to talk a few people into wiping everyone's memories of his own identity, so things were amicable between them at the very least.
Peter resisted the urge to kick his ceiling fan out of frustration. Pacing on the ceiling was a bit therapeutic, but it did present its own unique problems.
Tony f #$%^g Stark! Everything got back to normal after Asgard. Tony was rich and successful, and Peter was still hated by a majority of New York. That kinda calmed down after the Spider Island thing though, so things looked up for a little bit anyway. And Peter did get to show off a little during the "Ends of the Earth". But after all that, things went down hill quick.
Stopping his circuit around the ceiling, Peter looked out the window of his room. He's tried so hard to save all those people walking the streets. Time and time again he's given everything he could to ensure a better tomorrow. He's long since stopped expecting to be rewarded for doing the right thing, but he wouldn't say no to a little karmic compensation heading his way. Knowing his luck, they'd tally up everything he did wrong before they got to his decent accomplishments, and isn't THAT list a couple of miles long...
Shaking his head clear, he continues his trip down memory lane and his circle route on his, SURPRISINGLY dusty ceiling. He'll have to get around to cleaning that soon.
So Otto happened... Taking over his body, living his life, wrecking his rep. It wasn't as bad at first. Otto did make a decent Spider-Man. Made some interesting developments with his spider tech. Was a bit too aggressive with the criminals, but he didn't kill anyone so that was a plus. At first anyway. But Peter will have nightmares till the end of his days of Spider-Man executing a thug in cold blood in front of dozens of terrified civillians.
Peter stops, clenching his fists. That was not the worst he experienced as an invisible observer of Spider-Ock, not even close. But it won't help dwelling on these things now. Besides, they'll slip into his unconscience when he'll least expect it so he's got plenty of time to have a breakdown about it later. Right now he'll have a breakdown over the latest curve ball his life took to the shin.
He stops his unorthodox walk around his room and drops to the floor, as silent as any ninja he has faced in the past and believe it, there have been a lot. Sitting on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands, the last month or so slowly spins in his mind.
So Otto eventually left, Peter inherited his own company, and all was right with the world. Or at least it should have been. But holding his own company with no idea how to run it was a very bad situation. The sudden mood change made the people he regularly interacted with suspicious and having a suddenly friendly boss after dealing with Octo-jerk, people just thought he was two faced. Or on something. Neither rumor helped his credibility.
So no idea what to do, or how to deal with the people, Peter just tried to make the best out of the situation. But it was a bit too little, too late. Left with no options, Peter could only take what was presented. An armored hand of what could only be Mephisto's earthly avatar. Tony Jerk-Ass Stark swooped in and offered Peter's only hope. Sell everything to him and he would take care of his problem. Peter didn't need his Spider-Sense to know that he was in danger, but he didn't see any other option. And from the deal sealed with a shake of the hands, Peter's low point was made that much deeper.
Plopping backwards Peter laid his hands behind his head and stared unfocused as if looking for some sign that everything would make some kind of sense.
Taking the money made, Peter paid everyone back who Otto borrowed from to start Parker Industries. What tiny bit was left was used to pay off some late bills and things Otto either didn't know about, or more likely just ignored. So Pete was penniless but at least he was his own man again. That man just happened to be a magnet for bad luck.
So, apparently those old cartoon instances where a strange ray will turn people good or evil actually can happen. Nothing is creepier than Carnage when he tries to be legitimately nice. But most of the people got returned to normal so another massive team up was successfully accomplished. So most people contiued on with thier days. Most people... So, Extra Spicy Tony failed to return back to Original Recipe Tony. Not "evil" per say, but extra jerk-ass-ish. Who apparently decided that good old Peter Parker needed a little extra help in covering his secret life.
Ben Reily. A name with just enough of a paper trail that it could be easily manipulated and still look legit. So in Iron Pants UNLIMITED wisdom, a plan to cover Spider-Man was formed. A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent by the name of "Ben", who bears a striking resemblance to Peter Parker somehow went renegade and kidnapped Peter and took over his life. Using a sophisticated L.M.D. (Life Model Decoy, a robot used for infiltration) Ben takes out Spider-Man and replaces him with his Spider-Robot. And that was the questionable story that Stark managed to sell.
An evil jerk "Peter" took over the real one's life and used his connection with Spider-Man to take him out too. Then proceeded to use the real Peter's other connections to start a fairly successful business, after completing Peter's college courses and recieving a doctorate... Close enough to what really happened that Stark barely had to make anything up off the top of his shell plated head.
A fake Peter Parker look alike, and a Spider-Man robot. Still wouldn't have been the most rediculous thing to happen in his life, but definetly in the top 10.
In hindsight, how did no one figure things out sooner?
Flopping back onto his bed, Peter let out a puff of air in an angry sigh. Even his closest friends and family hadn't suspected anything. Wolverine, Aunt May, Cap, MJ... In the end, it took his ex-girlfriend Carlie Cooper to get the ball rolling and expose Ock in his body.
And thus, the "Superior" Iron-Man "found" the "evidence" of "Peter's" "mood swings" and "bizarre behavior" and "arrested" the "look-a-like" and "freed" the real Peter. The Web-Head's head started hurting from mentally adding all the snark and "quote marks".
It didn't end there though. When people began doing the math and figuring when Iron-Man said he exposed the switches , questions were asked. Peter was freed weeks ago, why didn't he say anything sooner? Was he just playing the boss? Playing with a company that someone else made with his name, then quit when it got too hard for him?
Peter cracked a sad smirk, "yeah, I guess I was". He did think he could do it. He did try and take these amazing gifts that were left to him and tried to do better. He hadn't meant to hurt anyone, and paid everyone back when things inevitably broke down around him.
But, with this little bit of "evidence" that Tony "found", (ugh, quotation pains), what was left of his life fell apart. Everyone not in the know of the truth had poor opinions of the kid from Queens. Peter was thought to have cheated the system, lied in an outrageous situation for money and power. Even Aunt May and Jameson Sr. were dissapointed and refused to listen to Peter try and explain himself.
"You should have told someone", Aunt May told him with tears in her eyes. She continued to tear him down, telling him how dissapointed she was. "You shouldn't have played with people's lives", Jay followed up, commenting that he didn't think Ben Parker raised him that way. They eventually left him in his appartment that he was being kicked out of later that day, and refused to answer any of his calls to apologize and explain his side.
Even the ones who knew of Octavius' role in things seemed to avoid him. Carlie left New York, and MJ was too busy partying and dating some fireman to have a conversation. The Avengers quietly fazed him out. No missions, no meetings, not even a "sup?" head nod when passed in the hallways. So he left. They didn't trust him anymore, and he wasn't doing any good sitting around some mansion all day.
The FF, thankfully, were the closest thing he had to family in the hero biz, and they always had a room open for him. But he couldn't do it, not now. Not with the eyes of the entire world judging him, he wouldn't put them through that.
Betty, Flash, Harry, Liz, even Michelle, who he thought still may have had a thing for him, would not take his calls. Word had gotten around, and it seemed that Peter Parker was more hated than Spider-Man.
He had spent a little under a week living in his costume on the streets, sleeping in door ways and on top of roofs. His web supplies long gone. Everything he owned either strapped to his back or sold for food. He was squatting in a busted water tower eating some old bread when Matt had found him.
They talked for a bit when Matt offered a room and a bit of help to get Peter back on his feet. The last of Peter's pride had been washed away with yesterday's rain, and he accepted his hand. Matt brought him back to a small 2 bedroom apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Peter assumed that he would be sleeping on the couch, figuring that Matt's old friend Foggy Nelson had claim on the other room. Imagine his surprise when Matt and him slipped through the window and a Greek beauty was practicing her sai work.
They both imediately tried to make Peter feel at home. Elektra made a huge dinner that Peter ate 4ths of, having not filled his stomach that well in a week. Matt prepared the guest bedroom and got some spare clothes and toiletries to clean up a bit.
Peter broke down that first day and told them that Ock swapped bodies with him and after returning, his life went down hill. He didn't feel the need to elaborate on anything at that time and they merely shook their heads in acceptence. They didn't ask, they didn't pry or judge. The blind lawyer knew the hard knocks of hero life better than most, and Elektra had her fair share of horrors in her life as well. They just told him to take his time and when he's ready, they'd help him figure something out.
Peter covered his face with and arm and let silent tears flow down his cheeks.
This was the lowest low that he could ever remember being. Just the Future Foundation, and Daredevil and Elektra even giving him the time of day. Peter Parker and Spider-Man black listed from pretty much all of New York. No tech, no webs, and a torn, ratty, spider suit.
No where to go but up. "But if there's one thing about me," Peter sobbed out a chuckle, "with webs or my bare hands, I know how to go up."
Outside his room sitting at the kitchen table, Matt Murdock's ear twitched slightly and he broke out into a confident grin. "He's gonna be alright."