The avengers were no more, that was something that was obvious to the world. It was a subtle change at first, the absolute silence in New York really made the citizens concerned. There was a distinct lack of property destruction and alien invasions. It didn't take long for News articles to be made questioning the status of the beloved heroes.
The worst part about the situation was that the team was split up, and the avengers no longer spent any time together. The team was practically disbanded, the government had Tony on a leash as they tried getting him to search for the 'rogues.'
Honestly, Tony didn't give a shit about what Steve and the other rogues did. He couldn't defend what Bucky did, he couldn't forgive that. Even if it wasn't technically him, he was the one to kill Tony's parents. He knew it wasn't completely right to be upset with Bucky (because it was really the winter soldier who did it), but he sure as hell could be upset at Steve for trying to protect that suicide bomb of a man. There was no telling when he'd turn around and go crazy again. Tony didn't want anyone else dead, was that too much to ask for?
And so what if Tony now spent all of his time drinking away his problems and working on new suits? Did it really matter what Tony did? In the end, he was always the guy who financially supported the team and provided tech for them. Sure, he was Iron Man too, but the media didn't really care about him when right next to him were cool heroes with superpowers. He was just a mere mortal wearing a metal costume to them.
"Another suit?"
He turned towards the doorway where a beautiful strawberry blonde stood. She smiled softly once their gazes met, but he quickly turned his attention back towards his new project.
"Not much else I can do right now. Rather do this than sit through another meeting anyways."
Pepper Potts sighed and entered the room, stopping at the chair he was sitting on and putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You could try and find out where Bruce went. I'm sure he's still off the radar?"
Bruce Banner was another issue. While he didn't participate in the fun little battle Tony had against Steve, he'd been missing for a while. Ever since the battle against Ultron, that is. It was like he just disappeared off the face of the earth. No trace of where he could've gone, and no texts or calls would be answered.
Tony had long given up on that search, without his team then there was no chance he could figure out the answer. Besides, sometimes people don't want to be found. Bruce was always an introvert, never one to enjoy the company of others. Sure, he was a friendly and smart guy, but he did best when his thoughts remained in his head.
He sighed, "No point. There's no way of tracking him."
"How about Thor? Have you heard from him lately?"
"No, last I checked he was busy with some Asgard shit." Thor was... well, he was Thor. Tony honestly didn't care what he was up to, as long as it wasn't going to endanger anyone.
"Well, what about Peter?"
Tony paused and looked over at her, "The kid?"
Pepper nodded.
"What's there to handle with him? He doesn't want to be an avenger."
"He only said no because he thought it was a test, if you asked him again then he'd accept!" Pepper frowned and stared into Tony's eyes. "But I know why you're hesitating, I know you see yourself in him and it's scaring you."
"It's not that," Tony set down a scrap piece of metal he was holding and turned his full attention to Pepper. "Right now, he's just helping New York, he's 'looking out for the little guy,' as he says. He wants to be part of this big hero world where he can do much more, but he doesn't realize how badly it'll impact him."
"Oh come on Tony, you know he looks up to you, and I know you care a lot about him. You've taken him under your wing, now you have to step up and involve yourself into his life."
He looked away and frowned, the notifications from missed calls still peeked through his phone screen. It was no doubt from either Peter or Happy- but probably both (if he were being realistic).
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Peter was more tired than he'd originally thought he was. He wasn't sure what gave it away, maybe it was him falling asleep during all his classes, or maybe just the fact that the bags under his eyes were quite defined. He only stayed up until one in the morning- nothing too bad at all! Sure, he woke up at five in the morning and only got four hours of sleep, but he could blame that on the American school system for making school start so early.
He always believed that being Spider-Man came first. It didn't matter the situation, if someone needed help, he was there to save the day. He'd get in trouble a lot at school for constantly being on his phone looking for any news of mayhem in Queens. Usually there'd be nothing the news stations deemed worthy to report, but he still liked checking anyways. He was quickly falling behind on his schoolwork, he'd kept forgetting to do his homework so he'd try to cram it all in during lunch. It usually didn't end well. He'd already dropped band, and he wanted to drop Decathlon too, so it wasn't like there was much else he could do. Aunt May would Murder him if he even thought about dropping out of high school, so he could be boring Peter Parker during the school hours, and then the wicked-awesome Spider-Man afterwards.
"Pssst," Ned whispered, he was sitting right next to him. "Are you gonna go to see Tony Stark after school again?"
Peter nodded, though he hadn't actually asked Mr. Stark if it were alright. Ever since homecoming, the guy had grown used to Peter just stopping by sometimes. It made for an interesting day, plus they both were incredibly smart so they'd bounce ideas off each other.
"I'm so jealous, I wish I could be you!" Ned looked over at the clock and noticed the time. He put his notes away into a green folder (because chemistry was a science class, which meant that the folder choice was green) and he stuffed it into his bag. "Do you think he'd ever want to meet me one day??"
"Ah, you know I'm not too sure about that." As nice as Mr. Stark could be, he wasn't a people person. At all. Plus, Ned would just fanboy over him the entire time and that wasn't exactly a fun thing to deal with.
"Oh, ok. That's fine, I had stuff to do anyways!" Ned smiled and stood up, the bell ringing at the exact same time. "I'll see you tomorrow then!"
Peter smiled, "Yeah, see you tomorrow!"
He parted ways with his friend, his mind immediately planning on how his patrol will go. He'd usually follow the same routine of the same areas, but he knew that the criminals would catch on. He had to change it up sometimes, so he wasted no time running out of the school and finding his favorite alleyway. It was one of the only alleyways that nothing ever happens at, he didn't know any exact reasons but he didn't care enough to look into it.
He opened the front pocket of his bag and pulled out his spider suit, putting it on and hiding his bag on the roof of one of the buildings so that he didn't have to ask for a new one again.
He swung through the city, watching as some people raised their phones to record him. He didn't really mind all that much, usually just meant more publicity. As long as his identity remained hidden, then he was fine.
The time flew by, before he knew it the sun had set and he sat atop one of the buildings in Queens. He stared out at the city, watching as the streets were still as busy as ever. Sometimes he wished he were able to patrol all night, because he knew that crime didn't end when he took the suit off. He wasn't always there to save the day, he wasn't always there for those who needed it. He sighed, taking out his phone and staring at the Lock Screen full of notifications. Ned had texted a few times, even one from MJ asking what he got on a homework problem. Nothing from Tony Stark.
Mr. Stark never returned Peter's calls, it was always Happy telling Peter about how Tony is proud of him, or whatever he thinks will make Peter happy. Peter just wanted to help Mr. Stark, they both knew that the end of the avengers was impacting Mr. Stark more than he showed.
Peter frowned as he clicked the call button and listened to the dialing noise. He eventually heard the familiar sound of the voicemail greeting. Peter listened to the full thing, then smiled as the voicemail began recording.
"Hey Mr. Stark! It's me- Peter- but, you probably saved my contact so you know that... haha, anyways I just wanted to tell you about tonight's patrol! Nothing too much, I mostly helped old ladies cross the street, saved a few animals from running in the road, stopped a few people from getting mugged.. oh, and you'll never guess what happened! I stopped a kidnapping! I'm so proud of myself actually, because it was hard to tell at first, y'know? I just saw this creepy guy following this girl everywhere, she was a few years older than me, nineteen I think? Anyways, I noticed him and my spider senses went all crazy! So I approached her when he wasn't too close, and at first she was scared of me! I mean, I would be too! I'm in the suit so she calmed down after she recognized me! Anyways, I asked her if she knew him, and she didn't! So I helped her get away from him and then when he was trying to look for her, I caught him and took him to the police!"
Peter smiled genuinely for a moment, then frowned as the voicemail kept recording, "Well, that's all for today. I'll- Umm, I'll let you know what happens tomorrow!"
He ended the voicemail, staring down at all the unanswered calls he'd left Tony. Part of him wondered if the guy ever listened to them, if he cared enough to. Maybe Peter was old news, only needed to help break the Avengers team apart. Either way, it was starting to get lonely.
He stood up and looked for something to sling a web at, finding a stable street light and swinging down to get to his favorite alleyway. He was almost there when he lost balance and began toppling down. He glanced around, looking for a way to not crash into the ground, but he couldn't act fast enough. He was able to sling a web onto a fire escape ladder, but he still landed shakily. He landed on his back, trying to ignore the fact that he'd have some nasty bruises later. He tried sitting up, wincing as he barely was able to, then looked around. He was in the alleyway he'd wanted to go to, but he wasn't alone.
"Uhh, you good?" A guy asked, he leaned against the building and had his hands shoved in his pockets.
Peter blinked, glad he hadn't taken his mask off. He didn't need some random guy to know his identity. "Umm, yeah, I'm great!" He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head.
"Mm, good." The guy replied. Peter only stared at him, finally taking in his features. He was a tall guy, maybe 5'10. He had sun-tanned skin with light freckling on his nose, his hair was a dark jet-black and his eyes were more like a teal or sea-green color. He was an attractive guy, Peter would give him that. His clothing style was more lazy, a hoodie and ripped jeans. He also had this strange necklace with different color beads on it, which Peter thought was a bit odd with a hoodie. Peter wasn't one to judge though, it wasn't like his own clothing choices are any better. He only wore stuff his Aunt got from thrift stores and any clothes that were his uncle Ben's that he could fit in. Nothing all that great.
"What're you doing in a random alley?" Peter couldn't help but ask, the guy was just standing there and seemed to have no intentions. It was odd.
"I could ask you the same. Not everyday you see a guy dressed in a red and blue spandex suit." The guy chuckled, "Kinda funny."
This was what really confused Peter, as anyone in Queens knew who Spider-Man was. The guy had to be from out of town.
"I'm Spider-Man, a superhero here in queens!" Peter smiled, though he realized the boy couldn't tell. "And who are you?"
"Spider-man? Superhero?" The guy seemed confused, but he only raised his brows, "Percy Jackson."
It was a nice name too, Peter was almost jealous of how perfect this guy's life seemed. Well, the basics of his life anyways. Peter's name wasn't anything special, he'd run into too many other Peter's in his life and always wished he'd have a less common name.
"You must not be from around here," Peter chuckled.
"Nah, born and raised in Manhattan. I'm just here to meet up with a friend."
Peter stared at him and furrowed his brows, "This friend of yours isn't a drug dealer, are they?"
Percy chuckled, he took one of his hands from his pocket and ran his fingers through his hair. "I guess this meeting place is pretty suspicious, but no. I just didn't want to meet up anywhere busy, I'm not too much of a people person."
"Really?" Peter was honestly surprised by that, but he didn't comment anything else on the matter. "Well, I guess I should head home now. Nice meeting you, Percy!"
Percy nodded, doing a two finger wave. "Yeah, nice meeting ya."
Peter quickly swung up the building and grabbed his bag, happy to see no one had somehow taken it. He made his way back home, sneaking in through the window. Aunt May was very aware of his status as Spider-man, and she didn't take to it very fondly, but she knew she couldn't stop him even if she tried. He still liked to sneak through the window though, it was better to be safe than sorry when it came to his identity.
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Tony replayed the voicemail, smiling as he heard the excitement in Peter's voice. It was always good to hear that the kid was doing well, that he was sticking to his idea of 'looking after the little guy' even if he sometimes seemed like he wanted more from his hero life. Tony didn't want the kid to die though, so he'd make Peter stay in the same spot for however long he needed to.
He didn't ever reply to the voicemails, maybe because he knew that no words could ever do him any good. He never knew what to say, just congratulate the kid on his daily patrols? It wasn't enough, so silence was his answer. One day he'd get the guts to call the kid and invite him over to the Avengers tower, but until then, he'd make do with listening from afar.
He chuckled as the voicemail ended, then saved the file to his phone and transferred it to a file on his database. He'd always save them, always. Sometimes he'd listen to them all as he tried figuring out a way to bring the Avengers back. Sometimes he wondered if he should just start from scratch, just recruit Peter and then somehow find another group of powerful people that could help protect New York. Maybe even the world of they were good enough.
Whatever, he had no answers. He'd given up on himself and never left the tower, he needed to get his shit together before everyone else gave up on him.
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A/N:
Some of you may know I've written two different crossovers of Avengers and Percy Jackson, but I wrote them back when I was 13/14 and they kinda suck. I'm 17 now and much more capable of writing this, so I decided why not? I haven't read any of these kinds of fics in a while so I'm hoping I don't steal anyone's plots or ideas, I want this to be as original as I can get it to be.
Anyways, enjoy the ride.