A/N: People with super powers, all throughout history haves been viewed as bad, different, evil. They were called monsters, and the name stuck. But slowly things we're changing with the rise of superheros, like the avengers. But unfortunately, not all monsters know, they're more than a monster. And not all monsters think things have changed.
______
"Peter. You're different from the other children. You will always be bad. You're a monster."
Peter looked up at his mom. He was only five years old when she had told him he was a monster.
"What do you mean? I want to be nice!" Peter said.
"No Peter. It's not who you were born to be. Mommy and Daddy and Aunty are all monsters." Peter's mom said.
"But monsters have powers ma. You don't have to be a monster." Peter cried.
"Peter, monsters don't cry. You'll be getting your powers any day now. I got my powers when I was five to."
"What are your powers?" Peter asked.
"I can disappear into the shadows." Peter's mom smiled cruely. She then demonstrated by disappearing into a shadow on the ground in their backyard.
Peter gasped, looking around, "Mommy! Come back, Mommy, please!" Peter looked around.
"Peter look down. I'm in the shadow of the tree. Don't worry I'll come back." And just like that Peter's mom was back.
Peter felt on edge as his mom crept closer, "Do you believe me now Peter? You are a monster. And once you get your evil powers, you'll be a real monster, and you can start doing evil with mommy and daddy."
"I hope I never get powers." Peter whispered under his breath. He was scared. In his class, he learned on Halloween that monsters are bad, and people don't like them. That's why we have super heros. The super heros take down the monsters. Did Iron Man want to take him down?
But just two days later Peter started showing signs of his powers.
"Peter how did you lift that up- it's so heavy- Wait... Is this your evil power?" His mom looked over to his dad.
"Okay Peter, go lift up our car." Peter's dad bent down and said to Peter.
Peter reluctantly went over, and picked up the end of the car, lifting it off the ground.
"Ah, Peter! That's it, that's your power!" Peter's mom said, sounding proud of Peter, for the first time in his life.
He couldn't help but smiling for a second before remembering, people didn't like monsters. Monsters only did bad.
Peter, and Peter's parents were satisfied with Peter's one power, but slowly they began to realize Peter was not a normal monster. Peter could sense danger before it came, he had super strength, and above all, he could stick to walls and the ceiling.
"Peter, this is every good. Maybe, your mom and I will take you to the National Convention for Evil Beings next year. You aren't quite ready for this year's but next year... I'm sure we can train you well." Peter's dad said one day at dinner.
Peter looked down at his plate, "Why can't we be good?"
Peter's mom and dad both stopped their eating and looked at Peter.
"Peter!" His mom snapped, "Why would you think like that?!"
"Peter, we are evil. It's who we are. Society will always think of you as evil anyway. There's nothing else for you to be." Peter's dad said.
Later that night Peter could hear his parents talking about him.
"Richard, he wants to be good! He won't even rob a convenience store!"
"Mary, Mary, listen. He's just starting out. If he isn't turned evil by his sixth birthday, we'll kick him out okay. You know I would never have a son of mine being good. But just give him time to adjust. You know school rots it into children that monsters are bad."
"Yeah, that's why I said we should send him to Hellsworth's school. Now that's a proper school for monsters." Peter's mother said.
"Just give him a year to adjust Mary. If he still isn't bad, we'll kick him out or something." His dad said.
Peter looked down at the floor. He didn't want to get kicked out.
Maybe they were right. Maybe he could only be bad.
The next day, when Peter got back from school, he made a decision. He left for the gas station that was a few blocks away.
He had grabbed a dark hoodie, and had the hood up as he looked down on the ground, like he'd seen on TV.
When he got into the store, he went to the candy isle and got a candy bar off the shelf. With his heart beating faster than the hooves of a thousand stallions, he stuffed the candy bar in his shirt, and left quickly back to his house.
When he got back he went to his mom, "Mom, look what I got!" He said, not feeling proud, but trying to act like it.
"Peter where did you get that from?" Peter's mother sighed looking at the candy bar.
Peter looked his mom in the eyes, wondering if she wouldn't like that he stole, but still he said, "I stole it."
And just like that, Peter saw his mom's eyes light up, "Good job Peter! That's very good! Now see, you can eat your candy bar without paying anything. Now run along and have your snack. That's very good Peter, keep it up."
So Peter left to the kitchen where he ate the candy bar, struggling to hold back tears with every bite.
But then he would remember his mom's words, "You're not the same as the other children. You will always be bad."
And Peter swallowed the last of the candy, pushing down his fears and regrets, and he just enjoyed it. He enjoyed his candy bar. That he got for free.
Peter went to bed that night, feeling content, learning to embrace his evil roots.
But everything changed a week later, when Peter's parents never came back from their work conference. Their plane had crashed.
After Peter's aunt made it clear she didn't want him, he was sent off to foster care.
For years, Peter ran from foster home to foster home, only remembering what his mom had told him, "You will always be evil."
Now Peter was fourteen. His hobbies consisted of stealing from second rate grocery stores and the art of graffiti.
And he didn't mind. Or he convinced himself he didn't. This was who he was. He liked to walk up sides of buildings to graffiti places the cops would never find. He enjoyed always having whatever food he wanted from whatever store was nearest. He knew where to find all the most wanted drugs, and how to scam people into over paying for them.
Peter himself didn't take any of the drugs. He figured it would make his work sloppier, and he had already been caught by the cops one to many times.
Now, there was always a voice in the back of his head, telling him this wasn't fun, and it wasn't good, but he learned to push it away.
One day, when Peter had planned an exciting night out, stealing and vandalizing, not planning on going back to his foster home of the week, he ran into someone.
Someone he had idolized as a young kid. Now, Peter looked back on that time, and wondered how he could have idolized someone who hated him.
Peter was clinging to the side of a building, in a back alley way, when someone said, "What's going on here?"
Peter looked up quickly.
Ironman.
Peter crawled off the side of the building and started running. Something he had grown good at.
Finally Peter stopped running once he had lost Ironman. He found himself in another alleyway.
"Kid, stop running."
Somehow Ironman had cornered Peter in the alleyway.
"Are you gonna call the cops?" Peter asked.
Tony Stark, stepped out of his suit, "Nah."
When Peter looked up at the man in shock Tony explained, "It's not like you're going to change after spending a night with the police. I'm sure you've been through that process many times before, and it hasn't stopped you, has it?"
Peter looked at Tony confused. This had never happened before.
"No. Being bad is the only thing I can do, so how could I do anything else." Peter stated.
"You have powers." Tony said, "I saw you clinging to the wall."
"I'm a monster." Peter said.
"No, you have powers." Tony retorted.
"You know, when I was young, you used to be my idol. Until I found out you hated people like me." Peter said, wondering why he was still talking to this guy.
"People like you?" Tony asked.
"A monster. Born with powers." Peter said.
"Ah. Do your parents tell you you have to be like this?" Tony said, seeming to now understand everything.
Peter looked away, "My parents are dead. But yes, when they were alive, that's all they told me. Do crime, like the rest of the family, or get left alone."
"You know your parents were raised in a different age. No one calls people with powers monsters anymore. It's rare to have powers, you're a minority. But people don't see you as monsters. Most people view you as gifted. A superhero. Ever heard of hulk? Dr. Strange? They have powers, and so many more heros."
Peter shook his head, "People want to research me."
"That's why heros hide there identities. Unfortunately, that still happens... But you have to make the best of it kid."
Peter stayed silent.
"You're talented. You could do a lot with your life. I'd hate to see you waste it on graffiti." Tony said.
Peter stayed quiet.
"You can be so much more than evil. You can be a hero."
Peter now looked up to Tony, "You're the first person who has ever told me that."
Tony smiled a bit, "It's true kid. Please. Stop doing this. You have a lot of talent. Your whole life ahead of you... Okay, here. What if I offered you an internship at Stark Industries. As my personal assistant. And I can help you become a hero if you want? Instead of whatever you're doing now."
Peter looked at Tony, "Do you really believe in me?" He said, surprised.
"Of course." Tony said back without hesitation.
"...Okay. I'll take the internship. Thank you sir. I'll... I'll stop stealing and doing graffiti too, by the way."
"Good... Now you said you were in foster care. Do you like the family you're living with?" Tony asked.
Peter made a face, "Nah, those bitches?"
Tony frowned, "Don't swear."
"Right."
"I'll give you a room in Stark tower." Tony said, wondering how Pepper would react when he brought a rebel kid home to live with them.
A few days later, to Peter's disbelief, Tony actually showed up at Peter's house ready to take him. And Peter's foster parents were ready to get rid of him.
And the rest is history.
Peter moved into Stark tower. Turned his life around, became a superhero, started getting his grades up, even got a few good friends, and finally, to top it off he got a family.
A/N: Okay so, this is unlike anything I've done before, but I thought the concept was really interesting. Also, I don't hate Peter's birth family, I just had to make them bad for this particular fic. Okay that's all, I hope you enjoyed the story :))
Later my Gators 🐊