Now this version of Spider-man's going to be a tad bit different than your standard With Great Power and all that jazz. This is more of what I think Peter, Spider-man, would've ended up as if he continued to go that whole commercialized route like he almost did at the very beginning of his career until the whole Uncle Ben dying thing. Well that and Vought kinda commercializes most of the heroes in this universe soo...
And on that note, this universe's superhero thing is going to be a tad different compared to the comics and show. Generally it's largely the same in that Vought International more or less controls most of it, but it's more of on the Super hero side they control things where's the super villains' have more or less grown out of even Vought's control. Now that doesn't mean the Seven are gonna be actual heroes as a response to this, if anything, it just means that there's twice as many fucked up people running around with super powers in this bitch XD.
Also the Seven are gonna start off as heroic because this story is from Peter's point of view and he isn't aware of some of his teammates less than noble qualities. I mean we all know because we've read the comics and seen the show, but even we can see that the members of the Seven keep secrets and hide some of their darker personalities from one another. So it'll in a way be kind of tragic for Peter to start to realize just how screwed up some of the people he thought he knew really are. Now that's not to say that Peter here doesn't have some demons himself, but when compared to the likes of Homelander whose just all kinds of fucked up, or the Deep who was more or less a sexual predator, and Translucent being a asshole in his own right, he's pretty descent in comparison and just happened to make a few mistakes along the way.
Now whether or not that'll matter to the likes of Billy Butcher and the Boys... well that there's the million dollar question, eh?
Oh also, in this alternate universe of the Amazon's The Boys, Peter has replaced Translucent's place on The Seven who in turn had replaced Jack from Jupiter in the comics version of the Seven.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or The Boys characters seen, mentioned or used.
When Peter was younger, he used to dream of being a superhero.
Fighting bag guys, saving the day, getting the girl, standing up for truth and justice, the whole shebang. But after he discovered that he really did have actual super powers when he was around nine, and became an actual superhero a few years later, and joined a team made of similar people, that dream had slowly died. He still got to fight super villains, who were a lot more terrifying than he thought they'd be when he was younger, and he still got to save the day and even the world on one occasion, but most of that was vastly overshadowed by the constant meetings he had to do as a member of the Seven.
There seemed to be a meeting for just about everything it seemed.
Meetings for press tours, which sucked beyond belief, meetings on potential team ups with other members of the Seven, which also sucked though the ones he had with Black Noir were entertaining enough to make up for it. Than there's the meetings on his image's use in movies, comics, toys, shows and more forms of media than he cares to even name on top of what he can post on his own social media page.
Leave growing up and becoming an adult to completely ruin the image of being a superhero like just about everything else.
'The one thing that could be spared and it isn't' Peter thought with a sigh as he listened the Seven's pseudo manager, Madelyn Stillwell, go on and on about something related to their current public image.
"Spider-man, are you paying attention?"
Peter thanked whatever God was out there that he didn't jump at the sound of Madelyn's voice anymore. He blinked and looked to see that she was staring right at him with a less than pleased look on her face. He could hear A-Train snicker, little speedy punk, and Homelander was giving him that 'disappointed big brother' look that he only ever seems to use on Peter for some reason. Which was kind of ridiculous given that out of just about everyone on the team, present and past, he's screwed up the least.
Well, maybe Black Noir's screwed up less than Peter but that was besides the point.
"Spider-man!" Madelyn said, her voice not quite angry but not quite happy either.
"I'm paying attention" Peter said with a small wave of his hand.
"Oh really?" Madelyn said as she folded her arms across her chest and gave Peter a scrutinizing look "You wanna know why I find that hard to believe?"
"Well I think its because you don't think very highly of me-" Peter began before he was cut off by the woman.
"There, right there" she pointed at Peter with a displeased glare on her face "Your mouth isn't moving. That's how I know your not paying attention"
Peter frowned at this "Well maybe I'm just super focused on what you had to say is all"
"Oh really, what was I talking about than?" Madelyn asked.
Peter again thanked whatever higher power was out there that his outfit included a full head covering mask so no one, especially Madelyn could see him paling at being called out like this. Without moving his head, Peter's eyes used the fact they were covered by polarized lenses to scan his fellow superheroes faces for any sort of clue as to what part of Madelyn's speech she was on. Homelander was still giving him that disappointed look, Maeve looked amused at Peter being called out as per usual, A-Train was smirking at him like a punk still while the Deep seemed to be as amused as Maeve did and Black Noir looked like he was asleep but had positioned his body so that it seemed he was awake when in reality he wasn't.
'Looks like I'm on my own again' Peter thought with a mental sigh before he focused his attention back on Madelyn before he cleared his throat "You were talking about... our image. About how the public sees us..."
Several moments passed as Madelyn seemed to stare into Peter's very soul with those cold calculating business eyes of her's before she smiled softly. It was a bit surreal in Peter's opinion, she for once actually seemed pleased with him instead of the usual barely held together tolerance that just covered the outright dislike she had for him. Hell, she made Jameson's hate for him back in his early days seem like outright love in comparison.
"I was..." she said.
Peter nodded in satisfaction as he leaned back in his chair "See, told you I was paying att-"
"Five minutes ago" Madelyn finished, her smile gone, the typical dislike she had for him back in full force.
'Dammit' Peter thought with a scowl 'So close'
"You know 'Web Head'" Madelyn said a common nickname for Peter's alter ego as Spider-man with obvious disdain "If you payed nearly as much attention in these meetings as you do making witty remarks for the press and on your blogs, maybe these things would go by a little smoother and quicker"
"Or we can just not have them" Peter remarked with a shrug as he gestured out towards the city of Manhattan, his city he might add, outside "You know, let us go be heroes. Do our jobs maybe?"
Madelyn opened her mouth, likely to give him yet another verbal beat down about stocks, profits and a whole other bunch of boring business stuff when Homelander loudly cleared his throat and drew the woman's attention to himself.
"Madelyn, we truly appreciate what your doing, and we know how much work you put into these meetings with us" the man said with that ever charming smile that always seemed to clam everyone down and make the super powered man seem like their best friend "And Spider-man does too, and he is right to a degree. We are superheroes, and it would make sense for us to be doing more of that instead of... these meetings"
Madelyn's eyes narrowed as she turned fully towards the leader of the Seven "Is that so?"
"It is" Homelander said with a nod, that smile never once faltering "Now he could've worded it in a much more tactful way, but than he wouldn't be the Spider-man we all know and love. The man that makes things up on the fly"
"I can be tactful if I want" Peter whined, causing Maeve to snort in response.
"Please, your as tactful as a bull in a china shop" the super powered woman said as she gave Peter a wink along with a smirk "Or a Rhino in your case. Actually, that'd be a disservice to Rhino, he's far more capable than I think most people give him credit for compared to you"
"And your as lovely as ever your majesty" Peter said with obvious sarcasm in his voice "Really, it's a wonder that you've never sweet talked a bad guy into submission before. Or wait, you did, it's called nagging. Hell of a super power there my 'Queen'"
Maeve's smirk dropped at this as she began to stand up, her hands slapping the table and leaving cracks in it's surface "Oh I'll show you nagging you little sh-"
"Oh my god just fuck and get it over with already" A-Train said with a groan as his head into his arms "I have a meeting with the producers on my movie in half an hour!"
"From what I've been hearing about it, it's gonna flop" the Deep said with a self confident little smirk, causing A-Train to give him a scowl.
"Bet you ten grand it'll gross more than your movie did you Merman looking hooker" the speedster snapped.
"Gentlemen-" Madelyn stared, seeing that the meeting was getting off track... again.
"At least I got a movie, all you ever got was a shit Netflix cartoon that lasted six episodes before it was canceled" the Deep replied as he held up his hand and three fingers "Where's I have a movie that's grossed over one point nine billion, a spin off and a sequel coming out next year"
Soon the meeting came down to a pissing contest between the Deep and A-Train with Madelyn trying to corral the two's argument while most of the other members of the Seven looked on with looks varying from annoyance in Maeve's case, to sort of amusement but tryin to hide in Homelander's. The only one that didn't seem bothered by the whole thing was Black Noir who Peter was certain was asleep by this point given how his head seemed to have drooped a little.
'You know, I'm starting to see why Lamplighter is retiring' Peter thought with a shake of his head as he gazed at the one chair that was unoccupied at the Seven's table.
To this day Peter still wasn't sure why Lamplighter was retiring from the business, in fact it seemed no one on the team knew. One day the man seemed all 'fired up' and ready to help take on the world and the next, talking of leaving the team and settling down somewhere quiet to live in peace.
"Spider-man!" Homelander's voice suddenly cut through A-Train and the Deep's argument, causing both men to back down and settle back in their seats.
Peter turned towards the powerful hero with a raised brow under his mask "Uh, yeah?"
"To answer Ms. Stillwell's question from earlier, she was asking us what we think of adding a new member to the team in light of Lamplighter's departure" the man said with interested look on his face "So, how bout it buddy? Any say in whether we should stay the 'Seven' in number or only in name for the time being?"
"Oh... um..." Peter sounded as he tired to think of a response "Well... I guess we can have auditions maybe?"
Homelander nodded at this "Auditions... hmmm, I like the sound of that"
He than turned his gaze towards Madelyn and gave her that famed smile that always seemed to sway others into agreeing with him, like it was some kind of super power.
"Well, what do you think Madelyn?" he said with a shrug "We can put the word out that we're looking for someone to take up Lamplighter's place in the team, get some new blood flowing in this machine"
"That's a rather disturbing machine if it runs off blood" Peter said with a visible shiver "That sounds like something a Nazi would probably come up with"
"Yeah, it would..." A-Train said with a thoughtful look on his face before he snapped his fingers "Oooh, I think I just figured out who the bad guy can be for my movie!"
"A Nazi?" Maeve said in a bored tone.
"No- well, yeah, kind of" A-Trian said with a wave of his hand "I meant a machine that runs on blood or something. Can turn my movie into a sort of horror film. Cross genre is all the rage now with Supe movies isn't it?"
"We'll talk about it" Madelyn said with brief glance at A-Train before she took a deep breath and gestured towards a monitor that projected current profits margin in the Seven's video gaming franchise "Now as we can see here, Spider-man and Black Noir games are currently the most profitable while the game we made for Homelander was rather lack luster..."
Two hours and forty minutes later the meeting finally drew to a close, Peter was certain that even Homelander, the man that never seems to run out of patience, seemed just as relieved. A-Train and the Deep still seemed rather pissed at one another based on the glares they keep shooting one another and Black Noir was left sleeping at the Seven's table, no one was quite brave enough to wake the near silent ninja, not even Homelander.
"Why should I have to di it though?" Peter asked with a frown aimed at the blond haired as the last of the Vought media analysts and members of the Seven left the room.
"Because your spider-sense will be able to let you know if he's gonna attack if you wake him up, letting you didge him before he can" Homelander said as he folded his arms across his chest and used his head to gesture towards the still sleeping Black Noir "Now get to it"
"Your the one with super speed and durability" Peter scowled at the slightly taller hero "He tries to stab you, the knife will just break or something"
"Probably yeah, it might" Homelander nodded in agreement before he gave Peter a look "Or it could pierce my heart and kill me"
"I've seen you survive atomic explosions with at worse a few first degree burns" Peter said with a deadpanned expression under his mask.
"Yes but Black Noir would be the kind of guy to find a way to stab me with some magical knife that he found or made" Homelander said with a shiver "I swear he has knives for just about everything"
"He's a ninja, what'd you expect? He has knives for days..." Peter said with a sigh as he gazed at the still sleeping man with unease "Can't we have Maeve wake him up? He's always nice to her"
"You wanna ask her? After your two's little back and forth earlier? If that's the case, Black Noir's gonna be sleeping there all night while you and her... figure things out" Homelander said with a knowing smirk, causing Peter to scowl at him.
"I hate you sometimes" Peter said as he very, very reluctantly approached the sleeping Black Noir.
"Hate to love me, love to hate me" Homelander said with a laugh "Story of my life"
"Yeah, sure" Peter said as he very slowly reached out to gently shake Black Noir on the shoulder.
He could've tried using his webbing, Peter will later realize, but at the time all he could focus on was the slightest warning from his spider-sense. While Black Noir may have been the 'weakest' member of the Seven in terms of raw physical strength, he was without a doubt the most deadly. Trained in over a dozen known martial arts, use of melee weaponry and improvisation of anything that can be made into a makeshift weapon, the man was like the John Wick of the team.
And Homelander wanted Peter to wake the man up!
'I've faced down a guy in a giant robotic Rhino suit, a guy in a scorpion suit, a guy in some weird vulture inspired flight suit, and a guy that shoots concussive blasts dressed in a quilt suit and lived, but it's the guy dressed like a cross between a ninja and some kind of spec ops guy that'll do me in' Peter thought as he slowly rested his hand on Black Noir's shoulder and gave it a small shake "Uh, Black Noir, buddy? Uh, meeting's over no-"
Peter was cut off by Black Noir jumping slightly before he slowly looked around until his gaze landed on Peter.
"Uhhh, heheheh, heeey Noir" Peter said as he very slowly released the man's shoulder and backed away with his hands up "Sorry to wake you but the meeting is o-"
Black Noir suddenly stood, causing Peter to jump back as the black clad man stared him down for a moment before silently nodding in thanks and headed for the door. Homelander, who was busy trying not to laugh, stepped out of the way and allowed Noir to pas before he glanced at Peter and gave him a thumbs up.
"See, told you you'd be find" he said before he turned and followed Black Noir out, though mindful to keep a respectable distance to the man.
"Next tome your waking him up!" Peter called out to the departing hero before he shook his head and sighed "I'm starting to see why Lamplighter retired"
Well that and he and the Deep were always arguing on who was the better hero between the two.
"He left because he was getting tired of hearing your voice all the time"
Peter turned slightly to see Maeve was leaning against the doorway with a bored look on her face and her arms folded across her chest.
"Is that right?" Peter said with a raised brow aimed at the woman "And how would you know this? Some kind of mystical deduction skill of yours?"
"Maybe" Maeve said with a casual shrug as she pushed herself off the doorway and stepped into the room, allowing the doors to slowly slide shut behind her "Or maybe he got tired of sitting next to you at every meeting we had and having to hear your annoying voice day in and day out. I know I'd wanna retire if that was the case"
"Screw you" Peter scowled at the smirking woman as he sat on the edge of the Seven's table "I happen to provide colorful commentary in what would be a dull and bland affair. I know you saw Homelander was starting to crumble towards the end back there"
Maeve shook her head in amusement at this "I suppose even mister boy scout has his limits with these things. Least we know how Black Noir always seems to be up all the time, he gets his sleep time in with them"
"And is it me or are do we seem to be having these kinds of meetings more and more lately?" Peter asked with a sigh as he rubbed the back of his head "I mean, they used to be like a once every few months kind of thing. Now their like three times a week!"
"I've noticed" Maeve said with a small shrug as she sat down next to Peter and reached up to remove her tiara and set it down next to her before running a hand through her hair.
"Think we can convince Homelander to talk Madelyn into having these things less often?" Peter asked with a thoughtful look on his face "She seems to like him out of all of us"
"Honestly I think she's just using these meetings as an excuse to seem him more often" Maeve said with a chuckle "That woman was practically eye fucking him half the time she was looking at him"
Peter made a dramatic gasp at this "A woman that we work for and is in a position of power having impure thoughts of Homelander? Bite your tongue!"
"Hmm, I could..." Maeve said as she gave Peter a wink a she leaned closer to him and bumped her shoulder against his "Though I'd rather it's you that'd be biting it"
"I'd consider it, but mentioning that Stillwell was thinking of having sex with Homelander has kinda killed any sort of libido I may have had" Peter said with a laugh as he stood up from the table "For like, ever. Like the Deep will actually show up for those Save the Ocean things he says he does before my urge to have sex ever comes back"
"You sure?" Maeve said as she leaned back on the table and parted her legs slightly all the while giving him a coy grin "I am a superhero, I could help you with that. Its what we do, isn't it?"
"Actually as superheroes licensed by Vought International we're supposed to make sure that Vought's stock maintains a steady two and a half percent increase every quarter and help our assigned cities have a steady twelve percent margin of crime with a point one percent of media dubbed 'super villain crime'" Peter said in a dry tone as he slowly slipped in between Maeve's parted legs and rested his hands on her thighs "It's in the fine print, just under the article that details our image indorsement uses"
"You actually read those contracts?" Maeve said with a snicker as she reached up and wrapped her arms around Peter's neck "I'm starting to think that your the boy scout in this group"
"Please, we all know Black Nori is" Peter said with a smirk as he rested his forehead against Maeve's "No back talk, does what he's told, and offers deep silent insight on matters that could affect the quality of our work"
"And is a ninja" Maeve said with a grin before she planted a quick peck on Peter's covered nose.
"And a ninja" Peter agreed as one of his hands reached up to run through Maeve's hair "Have I ever mentioned how much I like your hair?"
"A few times, yeah" Maeve said with a giggle as she had one of her legs slowly wrap around Peter's hip, pulling him closer to her "Have I mentioned how much I enjoy your tongue wagging... even if it is wasted on crap jokes"
"A few times, yeah" Peter echoed Maeve's words with a grin before he reached up to lift his mask up past his mouth and went in to kiss Maeve before he paused just millimeters from her lips.
"What's wrong?" Maeve asked with a confused laugh as Peter pulled back and stared at her with a thoughtful look on his half covered face.
"There's a Mets game next week" Peter revealed.
"Well we are in New York and it is Baseball season" Maeve said with a eye roll "Saying the Mets are gonna play is like saying the sun is yellow or the ocean is wet"
"I bought two tickets" Peter said as he waited for Maeve's reaction.
"I didn't know Tonya was a Mets fan" Maeve said with an amused grin as she gave Peter a good hearted pat on the chest "Finally got her to convert huh?"
"She's not" Peter answered as he continued to stare at Maeve "Hates baseball. Well, not so much the sport so much as the noise. It bothers her hearing a lot"
"Your Aunt than?" Maeve asked.
"No" Peter said with a shake of his head.
Maeve's grin slowly began to fall as the gears began to churn in her head "...Than who are you planning to go with?"
"Well..." Peter started as he backed away from Maeve and pulled his mask back down "I was wondering if you'd like to go. As... well as us"
"Us?" Maeve said with some confusion "What do you mean by that?"
"As... as Peter and Maggie" Peter said as he resisted the urge to rub the back of his head "Like, as an actual date, outing... thing. Stuff that people who are in relationships do aside from have sex all the time"
"Oh..." Maeve said as an unreadable expression grew on her face.
This set off the first set of alarms in Peter's head as he decided to push through "I mean, we've been seeing one another for a few months now. I just thought... well I figured that you mentioned that you liked Baseball and I happen to like it and there's a game coming up-"
Maeve sighed and shook her head at this "Peter..."
"I know you said that you wanted to keep things quiet because you didn't want the others making a big deal out of it" Peter said with a hint of agitation in his voice "And I know I agreed, but I'm not asking to go as Spider-man and Queen Maeve, I'm asking to go as Peter Parker and Maggie Shaw. Two people that work together and just happened to be seeing one another and want to go on an actual date for once instead of just fucking whenever we find ourselves alone in a room or something"
"It's never been a issue for us before" Maggie said with a frown as she leaned forward slightly and rested her elbows on her knees "In fact, you seemed to like the idea of being in a affair with me. Said it made everything more exciting"
"W-Well, yeah... at first I did" Peter stammered as he avoided Maggie's gaze and focused on one of the monitors that lined the walls of the meeting hall slash conference room "It's just... I just want a little more out of this thing we have other than awesome sex. Don't you?"
"Why?" Maggie asked as she hopped off the table and came to stand in front of Peter so that he would have to look at her "Why do you want that? All it'll do is showing everyone that you have a weakness. That they can exploit you if they just put a little pressure on that person"
"Well I like to think your stronger than that" Peter said in a dry tone.
"Who says it'll be me that they'll go after?" Maggie asked in a quiet voice "Who says it'll be me they hurt to force your cooperation?"
"Well, I can take care of myself too" Peter said with a frown "I may not be able to take a artillery barrage like Homelander can but I can take a hit too. That is, when people can actually land a hit on me"
With his spider-sense, Peter was near untouchable to the average joe and even the above average. Only people on his level in terms of speed or agility have been able to tag Peter or sue overwhelming force or wide spread methods of destruction. Now granted he's had to take a few hits here and there if it meant saving a person, but those were few and far in between.
"Really?" Maggie said as she folded her arms across her chest "And what if it's Scorpion that's gunning for you, hmm? If I recall correctly, he left you half dead in some fucking parking garage where you would've bleed out if it wasn't for A-Train getting you back here for medical attention"
"I had a cold that day, made me a little groggy, you know that" Peter said in his defense to very near brush with death.
"Oh really?" Maggie said with growing annoyance and anger in her voice "So I suppose that time you fought Kraven in the middle of the Amazon and were nearly killed was another cold, or were you just experiencing a fever?"
"First of all, I accidently touched one of those poison dart frogs which in turn pushed my healing factor and natural resilience to toxins to it's absolute max" Peter argued as his lenses narrowed to slits in anger "And second, you've taken a few hits in your time that left you in a less than stellar state. What about that time you went toe to toe with that gladiator guy, the one with a fucking miniaturized nuke installed in his mace that he used to send you flying across Miami? Or how about the Ebony Jaguar that tore open your stomach and left you and your intestines hanging out on the side of a road in Seattle?!"
"And both of them are still out there" Maggie responded with narrowed eyes, her voice as cold as ice "And if or when people that you've pissed off or scored over the years find out that you and me are official, their find those two and send them after me. And I can guarantee they won't let them leave me only half dead"
"You make it sound like I'm gonna leave you on your own to fight them or whoever the hell it is they do send" Peter stated.
"Oh so your just going to, what? Follow me around the whole time?" Maggie demanded with a scoff "Act like some kind of fucking little guardian angel for me?"
Peter blinked at this "Well... do you want me to?"
The red headed heroine stared at Peter with a mixture of disbelief and annoyance before she shook her head and brushed past him without another word.
"Guess that means no sex tonight?" Peter said as Maggie stormed out of the room, leaving him standing there as the lights began to dim "Guess not..."
Thirteen years a superhero and it seems he still can't get the girl, at least not all the way.
...
And done.
Next chapter, The reality of being a superhero...