New York City
The sun blazed over Manhattan like a spotlight on a stage, glass towers gleaming as if the city itself were showing off. Stark Tower cut into the sky like a polished blade. Oscorp's green-tinted windows reflected the clouds. The Baxter Building stood proud and pristine. Even an A.I.M. research facility, tucked between steel giants, hummed with secretive energy.
But the spotlight shifted.
A thunderous boom shattered the morning calm.
Smoke and concrete dust billowed from the front of First National Bank, alarms screaming as shattered glass rained onto the sidewalk. Civilians scattered, some ducking behind cars, others sprinting down the block. From the wrecked entrance burst a man clad in quilted yellow and brown armor, a heavy sack slung over his shoulder. His gauntlets glowed with a rising amber light, humming like angry hornets.
Shocker.
He skidded to a stop when he saw the wall of police cruisers screeching into formation ahead of him. Officers poured out, weapons drawn but hands trembling. Sirens wailed, echoing between the buildings like panicked birds.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY, PIGS!" Shocker roared.
He thrust both gauntlets forward. Energy surged across their ridged surfaces, crackling, swelling then boom. A concussive wave exploded outward, the air itself rippling. The nearest police cars lifted off the ground like toys, flipping and slamming into the pavement. One spun on its hood, tires squealing uselessly.
Cops dove for cover.
All except one.
The youngest officer stood frozen in the street, eyes wide, legs locked. The shadow of a tumbling cruiser loomed over him and suddenly he wasn't there.
A red-and-blue blur snapped him out of existence.
The officer gasped as he reappeared twenty feet away, gently set down beside a mailbox. He blinked in shock and looked up.
Standing above him, crouched like a spring about to launch, was a figure in red and blue spandex, white eye lenses narrowing playfully.
"Herman," Spider-Man said casually, tilting his head, "we've been doing this all summer. Don't you ever get tired of prison food? I hear Thursdays are meatloaf. Or… legally speaking, 'meat-adjacent product.'"
Shocker's mask twitched with rage. "YOU DAMN BUG, SPIDER-MAN!"
He fired.
A blast of vibrating force screamed toward the hero. Spider-Man's body moved before thought with his spider-sense flared like fireworks in his skull. He flipped backward, the shockwave ripping the asphalt where he'd stood. In one smooth motion he shot a webline, swung in an arc, and drove both feet forward and his kick smashed into Shocker's chest, sending the villain hurtling into a parked sedan. Metal crunched as the car dented inward.
Spider-Man landed lightly, dusting his hands.
"Herman, I know it's been a while since you've been in school," he said, "but spiders are arachnids, not bugs. Totally different branch of the family tree. If we were at Thanksgiving, I'd sit at the cool table."
Shocker growled and shoved himself out of the crumpled car. "I'm gonna flatten you!"
"Wow," Spidey replied, "straight to violence. Have you tried journaling?"
Shocker fired again but in rapid pulses this time. The street erupted in bursts of shattered pavement as Spider-Man twisted and flipped between blasts, each movement precise, almost playful. A shockwave clipped a streetlight, snapping it in half. It toppled toward pedestrians but a webline snagged it mid-fall. Spider-Man yanked, redirecting the pole so it slammed harmlessly against a brick wall instead.
"Property damage is not covered by my insurance plan!" Spidey called. "Mostly because I don't have insurance."
Another blast. Spider-Man cartwheeled over it, landing on a traffic light. He perched there upside down, hands folded.
"You know, Herman, most guys your age take up golf."
"I HATE GOLF!"
"That tracks."
Shocker roared and unleashed a full-power blast. The air distorted as the shockwave thundered toward the pole. Spider-Man shot upward at the last second, the traffic light exploding beneath him. He flipped high above the street, somersaulting once, twice, then fired twin webs.
They splattered across Shocker's gauntlets.
The villain jerked, trying to aim but Spider-Man yanked hard, pulling Shocker's arms upward just as he fired. The blast shot harmlessly into the sky, scattering pigeons in a feathery explosion.
"Finger safety rule number one," Spidey quipped. "Don't point death cannons at your face."
Shocker snarled and flexed his arms. The vibration from his gauntlets intensified, shredding the webbing like tissue paper. He lunged forward, swinging a charged fist. Spider-Man ducked under it, slid between his legs, and popped up behind him.
"Missed me!"
He tapped Shocker on the shoulder and the villain spun but a web-coated fist met his mask.
Shocker staggered but retaliated instantly, slamming his gauntlets into the pavement. A radial shockwave burst outward. The ground cracked, sending Spider-Man flying backward. He flipped midair and stuck to the side of a building, clinging there like a living decal.
"Okay," he muttered, shaking his hand. "Note to self: padded gloves do not equal pillow fight."
Below, Shocker panted, armor humming hotter now. "Stay still!"
"No can do," Spider-Man replied. "I'm contractually obligated to be annoying."
He launched himself off the wall. Mid-flight, his spider-sense shrieked. He twisted just in time for a blast to graze his side, shredding fabric and sending him spinning. He hit the pavement in a roll, sliding across gravel.
"Ow. Definitely felt that one."
Shocker advanced, gauntlets glowing brighter, the air around them trembling. "End of the line, bug."
Spider-Man rose slowly, brushing dust from his suit. "First: arachnid. Second: you really need a hobby. Knitting, maybe. You've already got the quilted look going."
Shocker fired but Spider-Man didn't dodge but ran straight at it.
At the last instant he leapt, planting one foot on the shockwave itself as it passed beneath him. Using the force like a springboard, he vaulted high over Shocker's head. Two webs shot out mid-flip, wrapping around a street sign behind the villain.
Spider-Man landed, yanked and the metal pole whipped forward like a bat.
It smacked Shocker across the back of the helmet, sending him face-first into the asphalt. His gauntlets discharged wildly, blasts firing in random directions before sputtering out.
Silence fell.
Spider-Man approached cautiously, crouching beside the groaning villain. He tapped the helmet.
"Knock knock."
Shocker groaned.
"Good," Spidey said. "You're conscious. That means you can hear me explain why crime is bad, consequences are real, and also you owe the city about… let's call it six cars."
Sirens grew louder as police rushed back in. Officers surrounded the scene, weapons lowered now in relief.
Spider-Man stood and gave them a small salute. "All yours, gentlemen. Try not to let him redecorate the squad cars again."
An officer nodded gratefully as they cuffed the dazed criminal.
As Spider-Man turned to leave, Shocker muttered weakly, "I'll get you next time…"
Spidey paused, looking back over his shoulder.
"Probably," he admitted cheerfully. "But hey same time next week?"
With that, he fired a webline, swung upward, and vanished between the sunlit skyscrapers.
Timeskip
Spider-Man lands lightly on the edge of a rooftop water tower.
Spider-Man straightened, chest rising and falling from the adrenaline that still hummed through his veins after the fight. The city stretched out before him. For a moment, he just stood there, letting the wind brush against his suit.
Then he reached up and peeled off his mask and underneath wasn't a hardened vigilante or a scarred veteran hero.
It was a kid.
Messy black hair flattened on one side from the mask. Bright green eyes still carrying the spark of excitement that hadn't dulled yet. Fifteen years old, sitting cross-legged on a rooftop like he'd just finished a pickup game instead of stopping a supervillain.
He turned the mask over in his hands, studying the lenses.
"It's been a crazy two months," he muttered quietly, "since my freshman year in high school ended."
The wind tugged at his hair as he leaned back on his palms, staring up at the first stars poking through the violet sky.
"My name is Percy Jackson." he thought, a small grin tugging at his lips. "And I am fifteen years old… and I am the spectacular, sensational, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."
He snorted softly.
"I know, I know. I'm awesome. But it didn't start that way."
His eyes drifted across the skyline, unfocused now as memories replayed behind them.
"It started on the last day of freshman year. Oscorp field trip. Everyone else was goofing off, taking selfies, pretending they cared about science… and I got bit by a spider."
He rubbed the back of his neck at the memory.
"Not exactly the heroic origin story I would've picked.He could still remember how sick he'd felt afterward like his bones were filled with lava and ice at the same time. He'd gone home early, collapsed into bed, convinced he'd caught the world's worst flu.Then I woke up the next morning built like a Greek god."
Percy flexed his fingers, smirking faintly.
"Seriously. Muscles I didn't even know existed. Vision sharper. Reflexes faster. I thought I was dreaming… until I accidentally ripped my sink out of the wall."
He winced.
"Mom was not thrilled," he said aloud.
The memory made him chuckle under his breath.
"That's when I figured out I had powers. Which is a wild sentence, by the way. Like who just wakes up one day and goes, 'Oh cool, I'm superhuman now'?"
He tilted his head back against the water tower.
"So I did what any totally responsible teenager would do… I snuck out to an abandoned warehouse and started messing around."
His grin widened, pride creeping into it.
"Turns out I'm super strong. Super fast. And I've got these little slits in my wrists that shoot webs. Actual webs. Like thwip and boom, Spider stuff. "
He lifted one wrist, inspecting it like he still couldn't quite believe it.
"I didn't know what to do with my powers at first. I mean, it's not like there's a handbook. "So You've Been Bitten by a Radioactive Spider: Now What?""
His gaze drifted toward the distant glow of Stark Tower.
"Then I saw Tony Stark on TV. Standing there like it was no big deal, telling the whole world he was Iron Man. No fear. No hiding. Just… owning it."
Percy's expression softened, admiration shining through.
"He's one of my idols. Genius, hero, billionaire, probably has a closet bigger than my apartment. And when I saw that… I knew."
His hand tightened slightly around the mask.
"I had to become something too."
The city breeze fluttered the loose edge of his suit sleeve.
"So I made a suit. Not high-tech. Not fancy. Just fabric, thread, and a lot of YouTube sewing tutorials. And for the last two months… during summer break… I've been Spider-Man."
Sirens wailed faintly somewhere downtown, like punctuation at the end of his thought.
"Tomorrow's my first day of sophomore year."
That sentence lingered longer than the others.
Percy stared out over the city, expression caught somewhere between excitement and nerves. "Hero stuff? Easy. Fighting criminals? Fun, mostly. But high school? That was terrifying."
He exhaled slowly, then slipped the mask back over his face. The lenses settled into place with a soft thip, hiding the kid and revealing the hero again.
He rose to his feet and looked out across Manhattan, shoulders squaring.
"I am Spider-Man," he said quietly, voice firmer now, like he was reminding himself as much as declaring it to the skyline.
A beat.
Then his body froze.
"…Wait."
His head snapped upward.
"SHIT!"
He slapped his forehead.
"I FORGOT TO PULL THE CHICKEN OUT MY MOM IS GONNA KILL ME!"
Panic replaced heroism instantly.
He shot a webline off the roof and launched himself into the night, swinging wildly between buildings, legs kicking as he rushed home at top speed.
Somewhere far below, a pedestrian glanced up just in time to see a red-and-blue blur streak overhead, muttering frantically:
"Okay okay okay maybe if I say it's a science experiment she won't…..nope she'll definitely kill me."
And just like that, the city's newest hero vanished into the maze of lights, racing not toward danger but toward dinner.