Annabeth hates spiders. But you don't need me to tell you that; it's a well-known fact. To clarify though, Annabeth's hate for spiders didn't simply pertain to just that - Hate. Oh no, she despised their very being, disdained their every movement. She hated the shape of the bloated creatures, and she was definitely not in love with their body. Last night a spider was in her room, and she had a massive panic attack. Percy had to go there in the middle of the night to execute it. If ever there was a reverse Ed Sheeran, it would be her (she? idk).

It was a sunny morning when her worst nightmare showed up. Annabeth was leaving the college campus when a figure clad in a red-suit dropped in front of her. She did feel a little startled by the sudden appearance of the superhero, but became completely paralysed with fear when she noticed the design on the outfit.

She hated feeling so useless. She was a warrior! But she was helpless when it came to spiders.

"Stay calm!" a muffled voice commanded from behind the mask. "You're in safe hands now, I promise."

A thudding sound came from the distance, followed by screams from the civilians. Yeah, it's the same old thing. An evil villain shows up with either a monster creation to terrorize the people, or they appear themselves to the do the job. In this case, it was the former.

"Guuugh," Annabeth said intelligently. She felt terrified with the spider suit so close to her, yet she couldn't look away or force her limbs to move.

The menace was still trying to reassure her. "I won't let that thing hurt you," it said.

Annabeth was still trying to make her voice work. "Pe...Pe...Pe..."

The spider started. How could she possibly know his real name? He hadn't even seen her before now.

"Percy!" she finally managed to squeak. How humiliating, she thought. She had been in two major wars and countless quests besides. The monsters she had defeated and killed were numerous, yet here she was, a mere damsel in distress. She really wished Percy was here. He was the most efficient spider exterminator she had ever seen, and he never made fun of her fear.

Spiderman breathed a sigh of relief. So she wasn't talking about him. His anonymity assured, he turned to more pressing matters at hand.

"I'm going to move you to a safe place, ok?"

"Get away from me," she groaned. In the distance, the stomping sounds continued and grew louder as the monster drew closer.

Spiderman was starting to feel a little agitated. "There's no time to lose! I have to get you out of here before the monster hurts you!" With that, he grabbed her arm. Annabeth swooned - not because she was in love with him, as the spider thought, but because she was ready to faint from shock.

He shot some spider silk into the air, and Annabeth cringed. Not only was she opposed to all things arachnid, but it also brought back some painful memories of Tartarus.

She was led to a park, where the red-suited hero set her down on a bench. "Stay here, alright? I'll be right back."

With the spider gone, Annabeth was feeling a lot better. "Whose idea was it anyway to create a superhero with the abilities of a spider?" Annabeth muttered. "It's terrible."

She stood up. No way was she going to let that creature defeat the monster on his own and claim all the glory. Not if she had anything to do with it.

She quickly tied her hair into a ponytail to keep it out of the way, then stalked off in the direction the superhero went.

Curse him and his quick way of transporting himself, she seethed as she broke into a run. She quickly caught sight of the monster.

It wasn't that large or scary, compared with some of the other creatures she had battled over the years. He was only eight feet tall; too short to cause damage to the higher levels in the buildings and too tall to swipe at the fleeing people. She could take him down, easy. And she could do this alone.

She bent down to grab her drakon-bone dagger from her ankle, where it was carefully concealed in her boots. She raised a hand to her throat, touching the necklace that Percy had given her for luck.

She needed to formulate a plan before she did anything rash. While Percy's tactic of rushing in and thinking later usually miraculously worked, she wasn't so reckless.

Dodging a fleeing woman who was screaming hysterically, she surveyed the area. The monster was approaching the college campus, and for the sake of her education she really didn't want her campus to be destroyed. Then she would have to transfer away from Percy.

She spotted a large pipe on the road(really convenient, isn't it?) and picked it up. Then she threw it with all her might at the giant's legs. It howled and fell to its knees. Annabeth quickly sank her dagger into its neck and watched it disintegrate.

"Never seen one do that before," someone next to her noted.

She spun around and had her dagger at his throat in a few seconds. Though she couldn't see his face, she knew his eyes had widened in shock and fear.

"Who are you? What are you? How did you..." he trailed off as her grip tightened.

"Shut up," Annabeth hissed. "I could so easily end your life right here." She watched his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed nervously. "But I have morals, and I'm not in the mood today. I won't be so lenient next time, so just try me." With that she threw him away from her and turned on her heel to leave when his voice stopped her.

He sounded a little sheepish. "I thought it was amazing how quickly and easily you were able to take him down. I haven't seen anyone do that before. Say, do you want to team up with me? We could go take down the evil mastermind together!"

"What?" Annabeth's head was starting to spin with new details. "You mean there's still someone out there we have to take care of?"

The spider smirked. "Oh, so there's a 'we' now?"

Annabeth growled. "I meant that in the general sense. Don't get your hopes up. There's no way I'm ever going to team up with you."

"Why not?" If Annabeth didn't know any better, she'd say that he sounded hurt.

She crossed her arms. "Well, for a start, I don't trust easily, especially someone whose face I can't even see. And also, if you haven't already noticed," Here she paused, suddenly looking very embarrassed, "I'm extremely arachnophobic."

She waited for the spider to make fun of her. She really wasn't sure why she was telling him something that he could use against her in the first place, but even though he was extremely annoying and blunt, he had tried to save her from the monster. Not that she needed any saving, but it was the thought that counted.

All he said was, "Oh" intelligently, which made Annabeth miss Percy with a pang. He was in the area, but he had some errands to run and she wasn't sure where he was now. She rarely ran into combat without him by her side.

"I can't take off my suit though," he continued, and Annabeth snapped back to reality. "I have to protect my real identity."

"Oh please," Annabeth scoffed. "Who will care if they know who you really are? They're too busy fleeing for their lives anyway to pay attention to you. Besides, the Mist will take care of that."

"Mist? What's that? Is it some sort of magical substance?"

Annabeth sighed. "Nevermind. I'm just gonna go now..."

"Wait!" Spiderman yelled. "I mean, you've got a point about the 'no one will notice I'm Spiderman' thing if I take off the suit. It's just, if I defeat the evil guy, I can't claim it as a victory by Spiderman."

"And therefore..." Annabeth prompted.

Spiderman sighed. "You really don't know anything about the superhero business, huh? Just give me a minute. I'll get out of my suit and then we'll go find the evil mastermind behind all this."

To be continued~