Hi, guys. RNC, back with another story. This is How to Be a Hero, a superhero AU. Hiccup's origin story is based on the Flash, yes, as well as some of the elements of the Story. This is a mass crossover of DC and Marvel as well, including heroes from both universes as superhumans. Consider this an alternate universe of Marvel and DC alike. You can expect to see people like various X-Men, Avengers, members of the Justice League and many, many more as superhumans. Yes, I am a massive superhero fan, and I can't wait for Avengers Age of Ultron. Anyway, here's the story!

Can I tell you something? You listening well and good? Well, um, here's a good story for you. May name is Hiccup Haddock. I'm twenty, I, uh, I have a degree in engineering... And the reality I live in is a lot different from yours. While some stories have, demons, or dragons, we have superhumans.

A superhuman is a alternate species of humans. We have these, these powers and abilities. Common ones include super-speed, teleportation, pyrokenisis and superstrengh. But there are more. A lot more.

And I am one of them. But we're... Not well loved. But anyway, the story I'm about to tell you is mine. I made a lot of mistakes, and lost some stuff along the way, but now my kind is on the brink of a new event.

But here's the story of how it all came about. And this is where it starts... For me, anyway.

Eight Years Ago:

I curled up in my bedsheets, trying to sleep. Something was happening to me, to my body, though my dad said I should survive. I didn't feel like it though. I felt like I was about to explode, like my bones were about to shoot into splinters and my body was about to rip itself apart. Sweat coated my forehead, which, like the rest of my skin, had become black and hard and bumpy. There were growths on my back, and the back of my waist.

I hissed in pain and sat up. The room was pitch black, almost. The only light came from the cracks between the window shudders. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. There was a kind of thickly sensation behind my eyelids, and I squeezed them shut, rubbing them a bit before shaking my head.

When I reopened my eyes, everything seemed... Clearer. Not exactly full blown vision, as if it were daytime, but I could clearly see all the outlines, and most of the details, of everything around me, though they seemed to be a bit of a greenish tint. I looked at the mirror on my door and jumped back a bit, startled.

My eyes had become catlike, leaving no whites and shifting from the usual grass shade to an intense acid green that kind of scared me a little. I shook and clenched my teeth as another bout of pain rocked through me.

Then, without warning, was the moment my life was changed forever. A loud roar ripped through the house, like an angry animal. I bolted to my feet, and, being the curious kid I was dashed straight for the door, ignoring the immense amount of pain I was in.

When I got down there, my now-freakish eyes widened in shock. I couldn't see it in full clarity, but in the bedroom, circling my mother, was a monster. It had enormous wings and a long, thick tail. It's legs were thick and so was its head, and a large pair of eyes, dis colored by the green tint in my vision, were stark against the dark background.

And then I noticed something else. It was prowling around something like a jungle cat. Standing in the middle of the living room, with the creature circling it, was-

"Mom!" I yelled, and the thing turned at the sound of my voice. I supported myself against the railing of the stairs and groaned as the ridges in my back grew another couple of inches. Mom was looking like a deer in the headlights, completely frozen and glued to the spot, as if she had been hoping to convince it she wasn't there, or that she wasn't a threat.

But that ended when I had opened my big mouth. The thing started to stomp towards me, snarling and hissing, wings starting to get splayed out. I screamed, and Mom rushed forward, throwing her full weight against its side.

My Dad came running down the stairs, his eyes widening in shock when he saw me, then the monster. It had refocused its attentions on my mother, who started backing up, a terrified look on her face. It pounced, and Dad ran to help her, yelling something incomprehensible.

I would have gone next, but my body was spiked with another wave of pain. I groaned, and fell to my knees, blackness creeping over my vision. The world dissolved into a mess of colors, sounds and smells. Dad yelling, Mom screaming. The beast roaring. And I can only remember feeling one thing:

Terror. Terror of what was happening to me, and what was happening to my mother. My sort-of-night vision was flickering on and off, and my eyes went cloudy as pain rocketed up my bones, across my skin, and through my mind, all the while my body was changing. I had wings and a tail of my own. My head was huge, and there were these dorsal fin things in my back. My chubby seven-year-old fingers had become curved, though slightly dull, claws.

When my vision cleared from the pain, I looked around, barely making out anything in the weary haze of exaustion. All I knew was that I could smell blood, and that my body was different. I let myself fall to the ground, too weak mentally and physically to stay awake any longer.

When I woke up a pair of small but strong hands were keeping me upright, one of the arms around my shoulders in a hug. I groaned and weakly tried to open my eyes. I was human again, that much I knew. I could feel my arms and legs against and the wings and tail were gone.

When I finally managed to open my eyes, I saw who was holding me. A girl, about six or seven, like me, with braided blond hair and big blue eyes. She was sitting next to me and keeping me upright, a sad look on her face.

She was Astrid Hofferson, my best friend at school, and the toughest little girl around. She wasn't normal, and I wasn't normal, so we made a pretty good match. But that wasn't what I was worried about. Astrid was crying- and Astrid never cried. She had thicker skin then me, and that's saying something.

"Astrid?" I questioned, still sleepy, and she started, apparently not realizing I was awake until that moment. Once she saw my confused expression, though, she panicked. "Hiccup," she said. "I'm so, so sorry."

And that was when my gut iced over completely. She never said sorry either. Not out of pity, or regret. But now she was spouting like she couldn't think of anything else to possibly say. I moved away from her a little, but her grip on me only tightened, pulling me closer and looking at me with deep regret.

We were outside, on the bench in the garden of my house. We lived a ways out of town, in an older house near the woods, with a big garden and no neighbors. The street leading to the house was filled with squad cars and an ambulance. I looked around as a body under a sheet was loaded into the emergency vehicle.

Somebody was dead.

"Astrid," I looked at her. "Astrid, what's going on?" She bit her lip, and to my horror, little tears started to gather around her eyes. She swallowed, and shook her head. Her father was standing with the other police officers as my Dad was led to one of the cars, arms cuffed behind his back.

I looked at her, panicking. "Astrid, tell me, what's going on?!"

That as the worst night of my life. The beast had killed my mother, a single stab to the gut with its claw. Dad had somehow ended up with a bloody knife in his hands by the time the police had gotten there, and no clue how it happened.

He ended up jailed and convicted for life. There was no one around for miles to hear the beast roaring and only me and Dad's word to go on, and how likely was it that they would believe either one of us? They already had problems with each other, this was common knowledge. Yes, they butted heads occasionally, but my parents would never raise a hand against each other.

Me, on the other hand, I ended up going to live with Astrid and her dad, Quentin. They were a surrogate family to me anyways. I moved into the room right across from Ast, and the two of us kinda grew up together. I wasn't adopted, or in foster care, or anything, I just lived in the house. Technically, legally, my guardians were the Jourgensons, my cousins on my Dad's side, but in all honesty, they didn't want me, I didn't want them, so it was either be miserable or have a permanent sleepover with Astrid. It was a great system for everyone, no party had to deal with someone they couldn't stand, I got to be around my best friend, everything worked out great.

So, that's most of my life's story, up until I turned fifteen and went into the Guardian Academy.

Ok, at this point there is some explaining to be done. Fifty years ago, the world was rocked by some kind of event no ones been able to figure out. It wasn't a nuclear bomb, or planet-wide radiation poisoning or anything. It was just... A flash. Something happened, roughly the same immediate effect as everyone on Earth getting a bop in the nose.

But 0.5 of the population of Earth (which is a lot more than it sounds) became more than human. Superhumans. We grew into human society, but with... Complications. People don't like our existance. They don't like that we have powers. Many of us tried to be heroes, and others just made our PR worse.

Times are bad for us. The government isn't happy when there's a chance that any random average civilian could be hiding the fact that they can lift a building with their mind. There is public prejudice against us, and the criminals of our kind go to Arkham Asylum under the feeblest of excuses.

But now I start the journey to find out exactly what happens. To do that, I'll need to learn to harness my power, to control it and use it to the best of my ability, at the Guardian Academy, the school for superhumans to use their powers freely. And once that is done, I will find the creature that was in my house that night.

My name is Hiccup Haddock, and this is the story of how I learned to be a hero.