I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT ANY OCs

Chapter 1

I never expected to be a superhero.

Even after being reincarnated into Edward "Ned" Leeds, I didn't expect to gain any superpowers. Before my foray into time-and-space, multiverse dimensional hopping, I was just a regular software developer working for a multinational company based in Singapore. After 40+ years of mundane life, a regular heart attack (probably brought on by my unhealthy and sedentary lifestyle) sent me skipping across the multiverse into a world of marvels.

It did not take me long to realise I was probably in a version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but that did not exactly help me. I mean, sure I watched all the movies and I knew basically what happens throughout, but I could not remember the specifics of all the events like the exact locations where any possible power boosting deus ex machina might be – so no super soldier serum or Sorcerer Supreme magic powers for me.

The problem was that I was always more interested in manga, novels and various fanfiction. The entire DC and Marvel universe in the comics was way too complex for me to get into, so I only ever watched the movies and some of the television shows. Of course, I regretted it now, since I only have some basic information beyond the MCU, but oh well…

Anyway, the only possible way I would be able to get any powers would be to take Peter's (who I met in elementary school) place as Spiderman, but there was no way I was doing that. Not only is he one of my favourite heroes, he had one of the biggest hearts out of everybody I know. I doubt I would be half as good a Spiderman as he will be. Hence, I resolved to just do my best to help him from the back as the Guy in the Chair. It was lucky that not only did I have experience in software development IT and hacking, it was like I had received some sort of IQ boost when I reincarnated (which makes sense considering how smart Ned was in the movies).

Due to the way I died in my past life, I started to exercise a lot in this one. I dragged Peter along with me as I picked up running and boxing. I know that boxing is not exactly one of the strongest combat arts like Krav Maga and Muay Thai but the boxing gym was the nearest one to our house and I felt he only really needed to know how to throw and take a punch with his natural (or unnatural) dexterity and strength in the future.

I managed to convince him by first getting him hooked on Hajime no Ippo of all things and now we went for classes 2 times a week. With his light and agile body, he was a classic out-boxer and relied a lot on his speed and counters. With my body type being naturally heavier, I gravitated more towards in-boxing, tanking hits while closing in and launching heavy blows to my opponents.

Additionally, despite my parents being well off in this lifetime, I was a grown-ass man (in my mind at least) and I wanted to earn my own money to buy things I wanted. Hence, I started a side business helping to develop websites for people online – mainly for small businesses and online blogshops – to help gain some spare cash and practice my computer skills on the slightly different computer systems in this world, along with some white-hat hacking along the way to gather what data I could on various people or events of interest (Stephen Strange, Luke Cage, Charles Xavier, Frank Castle etc). I mostly used a program I wrote to trawl through the internet looking for keywords and interesting data and automatically saving them onto a hard drive before anyone can delete – in case SHIELD is covering up information on the net.

Compared to my skills in IT, Peter mainly specialised in the sciences of Physics, Chemistry and Biology as well as being pretty good in engineering. It wasn't that I was bad in those areas, he was just that much more gifted in those fields. He was the one to fix our stuff like my PlayStation and computer when they broke, so I managed to get him to join me in another side venture that mixed our skills along with our love for anime and other geek fandoms. I knew his financial situation was not great which was why I wanted to help him have a way to earn some money to alleviate it, and for another reason I never told him. We started a costume and gadget making business targeted at cosplayers. I created the website and ran it while he did the armour building, gadget making (like fake lightsabres which were surprisingly popular) and videoing/photo-taking.

Meanwhile, I also picked up some sewing and costume design to work with the more cloth-based part of the costumes. Please don't ask how many Captain American costumes we have made…just don't… I had provided the initial capital to buy materials for the first few sets, but after building our online presence through Youtube which we used to showcase some of our designs and good reviews, it was turning around a profit.

***BREAK***

The problem with doing pretty much everything together and having such nerdy hobbies was that we had a pretty pathetic social circle which pretty much consisted of the both of us and some acquaintances. Despite not being scrawny (Peter) or chubby (me) like in the movies due to all our exercise, our isolation meant we did not know a lot of other people though we were lucky enough not to be bullied.

Once we entered Midtown High School, I was once again reminded that this might not totally match with the MCU that I knew. Our cohort not only included Gwen Stacy that I was certain did not appear in either Homecoming or Far from Home, it also included the Watson twins – both of whom had the initials MJ. They are fraternal twins and Mary Jane is a popular red head like in the old Spiderman movies and had started dating Flash Thompson within a few weeks of entering Midtown High. Michelle Jones on the other hand is a snarky dark haired, skinny girl who is undoubtedly the smarter twin.

And also, the subject of Peter's crush.

***BREAK***

"Hey, Ned, hurry up! Otherwise you're going to have to cycle to school!" My dad shouted from the ground floor. My father was born to Korean immigrants who came to America and started a Korean BBQ restaurant in search of the American dream. He grew up with the aspiration of wanting to make Korean food accessible and enjoyable to the people here, and when he took over the restaurant, he revamped the entire place and expanded it. Now, he had 5 Korean BBQ joints across New York and 4 chimaek places in New York and was still looking to expand. Chimaek is a pairing of Korean fried chicken and beer which goes extremely well together. They sold other food and drinks like soju as well, but the chimaek was what they are famous for ultimately.

I closed my laptop and stuffed it into my bag, not forgetting to bring along my charger as well. "Nah, its fine, I'll cycle over. Today's the field trip to Oscorp, remember? So, I will probably be back later then you end work anyway. I might as well cycle over, so I don't need to walk back!" I yelled back while I quickly put on a tee-shirt. I grabbed my bag, slung it over my shoulders and hurried downstairs.

"Remember to call to tell me if you are going to be eating dinner outside so I know whether to cook," my mother said as she intercepted me with a hug in the hallway.

"Ugh, yes ma," I quickly left her embrace and ran out the door, grabbing my bicycle on the way, "Bye!"

***BREAK***

"Hey Pete, excited for the field trip later?" A fist extended.

"Hell yeah." And another fist knocked against it.

I never expected to be a superhero. But I just might end up one anyway.

So, anyway, this is my attempt at an OC insert into Ned Leeds. The OC is only similar to me in that we both don't know much about the Marvel universe beyond the basics so I'm just going to consider this an AU for any changes I have made to the plot. Yes, Ned will be getting powers and no, Peter will still be Spiderman for the simple reason that he's one of my all-time favourite superheroes even including anime ones. Ned is going to get an adaptation of one of my favourite powers from another universe, so good luck guessing.

Btw, the 2 MJs thing is just for fun, I doubt it will affect the plot much.

Since I have literally thought up this idea and wrote it in less then a day, I do appreciate any reviews with suggestions. Who knows? I might find it interesting enough to put it into the story. Bye Bye.