History Main / HeroOfAnotherStory

** Blake also has various foreign allies who do the same thing in their respective countries that he does in the U.K. The most notable ones are Commissioner Pradier of the DST in France, Colonel Mitsu of the KCK in Japan, Agent Calloway of the FBI in Japan, and most especially, Agent Nasir of the IB in India. The last one started out as a comrade-in-arms of Blake and Mortimer who disappeared after the first few novels; the revival stories explained this as him having gone back to India after decolonization to continue in the same line of work for his newly independent country.
* ''ComicBook/BuckDanny'': Slim Holden. He's not a main character like the trio, but he crosses paths with them regularly, having a knack for ending up involved in the same shady and high-risk operations as them. This continues even after he leaves the Navy: in the latest story arcs, he's become a civilian and started working for a private security contractor, but quickly discovers that it's involved in criminal activities (exactly the same thing that happened to the heroes the one time they left the military), at which point he covertly leaves clue for military investigators to follow and discover the conspiracy.

* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'': Built into the very premise. The comic is an AffectionateParody of the entire [[TheWestern Classic Western]] genre and mythology: as such, any number of books will have the hero cross paths with another legend of the wild west, usually ending with the two parting ways amicably and going on their separate adventures. The other hero is usually a HistoricalDomainCharacter, like Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill, Bass Reeves, or Isaac Parker, but some of them will be parodies are fictional characters, like ''Literature/Zorro''.

* ''Fanfic/TheresNoRuleThatSaysAWolfCantBeAJedi'': Swift runs into Anakin several times, enough that they consider each other friends, and they're even deployed together at one point, but it's clear that while Swift is investigating archaeological sites and keeping his clone soldiers alive and training a Padawan, most of the canonical Star Wars plot is happening off-screen. [[ForWantOfANail With a few adjustments due to Swift's presence...]]

** ''ComicBook/MaximumCarnage'' shows this trope too, as both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four are specifically mentioned as being away. At one point, Spidey and Characters/{{Venom|EddieBrock}} break into the FF's headquarters while they're away to steal a sonic weapon to fight Characters/{{Carnage|CletusKasady}}. Later, [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]] shows up to lend a hand, and the rest of the Avengers finally return just in time to mop up after Carnage is defeated.

->''"Everyone’s the lead in their own story, Administrator. Some roles are bigger, some smaller, but none are more '''important''', understand?"''

* In the ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' fan fiction ''Fanfic/{{Trouble}}'', Harkness encounters the Lone Wanderer, the protagonist of the game, who goes through in-game quests off-screen while the story takes place.

[[folder:Literature]]
!!! By Author
* Happens frequently in books by Creator/StephenKing, particularly the ones where there are lots of characters. For instance, Sue and the other women that Stu and his group saved from the rape gang, or [[ActionGirl Dayna Jurgens]], from ''Literature/TheStand''. Any of the side stories in ''Literature/TheShining'', or the stories about the town in Literature/{{IT}} would also be interesting.
* Creator/MatthewReilly:
** Many of the people targeted by TheConspiracy in ''Scarecrow''.
*** Israeli soldier Simon Zemir has spent a lot of time training to stop the villains and working out their plans on his own, showing up out of nowhere during the finale and nearly managing to stop the EvilPlan by himself.
*** British spy Alec Christie and Mossad agent Benjamin Rosenthal spent a lot of time undercover, independently spying on the BigBad.
*** CIA agent Damien Polanski stole all kinds of documents from the Soviets and aided various cold war defectors before becoming a BrokenAce.
*** General Weitzman [[ProperlyParanoid foresaw the possibility of the country's missile system being compromised]] and pushed through a program [[spoiler: to test soldiers for their ability to manually take control of the missiles while they were in mid-flight]].
** Both [[spoiler: Trent]] in the first ''Shane Schofield'' book and [[spoiler: Knight]] in the third have had long, cat and mouse games with [=ICG=] killers which remain largely off-screen.
* Creator/RickRiordan: As the [[TheVerse "Riordanverse"]] grows, Rick likes having his characters have brief appearances in crossovers more and more.
** ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'', Rick's "main" series:
*** ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': Thalia and Nico start out as side characters, but head off in their own direction after a while. They come back occasionally, and as they ''are'' demigods (and children of the other two-thirds of the "Big Three") no matter what, they often hint at their own ripe share of brushes with death. Nico even [[spoiler:gets kidnapped off-screen in what we presume to be an epic and never-to-be-known quest]].
*** ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'': Retroactively, Jason Grace. We know that while Percy was fighting Kronos, he was fighting the Titan Krios, and that he's been on quite a few quests-- enough for him to start rehabilitating the reputation of the Fifth Cohort and be elected praetor. After he regains his memory, Riordan sprinkles in little references (such as going to Charleston with Reyna and having some kind of experience with the dead of the Civil War), but fleshes nothing out.
** ''Literature/MagnusChaseAndTheGodsOfAsgard'': Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase (the protagonists of ''The Camp Half-Blood Series'') show up, with Annabeth being the title character Magnus's cousin. Percy and Annabeth show up in ''The Ship of the Dead'' to help train Magnus and Alex on their journey.
* ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheRedKing'': Benjamin's private investigator parents occasionally reference being involved in interesting cases unrelated to the magical war between good and evil that dominates the plot (although this also causes them to neglect their son at times). In ''Midnight for Charlie Bone'', Mrs. Brown mentions how an investigation into the disappearance of a window washer who later turned up in a cave in Scotland. In the third and fourth books, they take their son to Hong Kong while spending several months on the trial of a stolen necklace.
* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'':
** Creator/JRRTolkien did this several times in his Middle-Earth stories. He was creating a mythology, and he knew that mythologies are never perfect records, and there are always gaps which leave tantalizing hints of other stories.
** ''Literature/TheFallOfGondolin'': As Tuor and Voronwë are travelling towards Gondolin, they briefly cross paths with "a tall man clothed in black and holding a long black sword then appeared and came towards them, calling out a name as if he were searching for one who was lost. But without any speech he passed them by." Tuor will never know who that person was, as they've never met before, but he is his own first cousin Túrin, fleeing from the ruin of Nargothrond as told in ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin''.
** In ''Literature/TheHobbit'', while Gandalf is certainly involved in the main plot, he also spends much of the novel attending to "other matters," This turns out to be destroying the Mirkwood stronghold of the Necromancer, otherwise known as Sauron.
** In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', there are hints of adventures that the other members of the Fellowship had before meeting the hobbits at Rivendell, such as Aragorn's capture of Gollum, or Gandalf's escape from the Ringwraiths. At one point, Sam wonders if Gollum thinks he's the hero of his own story.
** Both stories focus on the exploits of Gandalf, who is only one of five wizards who were sent into the world by the PowersThatBe, each with missions of great importance to all of Middle-earth. Little is known of what Saruman did before he became evil, and Radagast is only mentioned fleetingly. The other two wizards, Alatar and Pallando, are not even named in the main story but it is mentioned elsewhere that their actions in the East were crucial in weakening Sauron's forces.
** There's also the battles at Lothlórien and Dale, which are briefly mentioned and correspond closely with the battles at Minas Tirith. The latter one beneath the Lonely Mountain is stated to be the largest one of them all because of its close proximity to Sauron's Easterling forces.
** Overall, the entire northern arm of the War of the Ring is only briefly described in the books, despite its importance in diverting a very large portion of Sauron's strength from Lórien, Rivendell, and Gondor. The Men of Dale and the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain gave their southern allies the time that they needed to fight off Sauron's primary forces and destroy the One Ring.

!!! By Work
* ''Literature/OneHundredCupboards'': The first book describes how only two people on Earth (neither of whom actually appears in the series) would recognize a piece of wood from another dimension. One lives in a bad part of Orlando, Florida and "very much wanted to believe that most of his childhood had not actually happened." The other is the widow of a French WWI soldier whose husband came home "with some very strange stories and a small sapling in a tin cup," having been given that unique tree as a gift by someone from that dimension.
* ''Literature/TwentySixSixtySix'': Lola Amalfitano’s exploits abroad serve as a counterpoint to Oscar’s story.
* Possible UrExample: many warriors -- particularly Trojan ones -- of Literature/TheTrojanCycle are only fleetingly mentioned, and could well have had other adventures before or after the war. Creator/{{Vergil}} took a brief appearance by the Trojan Aeneas as free rein to cast him as literally the hero of another story: ''Literature/TheAeneid''.
* Not dissimilarly, a number of well-known characters from the Arthurian cycle - Percivale, Tristram, Merlin and quite possibly Lancelot - appear to have started out as the heroes of stories of their own that were gradually absorbed into Arthur's.
* ''Literature/AToZMysteries'':
** In ''The Ninth Nugget,'' Thumbs is implied to have lost his thumb in a bear attack that he walked away from otherwise unscratched, but no details are given.
** As the kids investigate a case at their school in ''The School Skeleton'', they briefly encounter another group of kids doing the same thing, who have solved some of the same clues they did. It only affects the plot to show that the mystery is one that the whole student body is being encouraged to solve.
* ''Literature/AnotherNote'''s Beyond Birthday. Except he's more properly [[VillainProtagonist the villain]] of another story. His case was mentioned briefly in ''Manga/DeathNote.''
* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in one of the Literature/AubreyMaturin books by [[ThePhilosopher Stephen Maturin]] and [[BoisterousBruiser Jagiello]], right after Jagiello loses his grip on a ship's mast, narrowly avoids the deck, plunges into the sea, and is pulled out roaring with laughter: in a bit of metafictional humor, Jagiello jokingly says that the hero of the story never dies in such a unspectacular fashion, and that he considers himself to be the hero of his own story.
* ''Literature/AvalonWebOfMagic'''s main plot is about the forces of darkness trying to conquer ''all'' the worlds and corrupt their inhabitants. However, our protagonists run a refugee camp on Earth, so the narrative is centered there.
** Zach is the last human on Aldenmor and an orphan raised by a mistwolf pack, which he was later exiled from. Although embittered by this, he remains committed to fighting the Sorceress with the help of his bonded dragon. We know this because he was the deuteragonist of one book and played only bit parts in the others.
** Lorelei is one of the web's unicorn protectors and a teacher at [[ExtranormalInstitute Dalriada Academy]]. She shows up in the fourth book so [[TheEmpath Emily]] can heal the trauma of having her horn cut off, helps Emily to defeat a siren, and then...basically goes off to do her own thing.
* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Evander is the main protagonist of ''The Wizard and the Floating City'' side story, unrelated to the main ''Bazil Broketail'' series apart from the fact that it's taking place in the same setting. Serena is the deuteragonist of the story.
* At the end of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', there's a passing-of-the-torch moment between the title character and the young warrior Wiglaf after they kill a dragon together, and Beowulf lies dying of his wounds. It's implied that Wiglaf would go on his own grand adventures, but if anyone ever chronicled them, that poem has been lost.
* The William Johnstone novel ''Brotherhood of the Gun.'' After the heroes win a shootout a local deputy named Lars shows up, having heard the gunfire as he returned from pursuing a pair of cattle rustlers. When it's commented that the local undertaker has six new bodies to bury, Lars says it's eight bodies, as he caught up to the rustlers and brought them back draped over their saddles.
* Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}:
** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
*** In ''Spike & Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row'': Ariana describes Watchers Council director Trevor Kensington as "the oldest man she had ever seen" as well as "the most powerful." He has magical talents unmatched by most characters and [[BigBad Skrymir]] knows him by sight and asks "Will you ever die?" during their duel. All of this implies that Kensington has had his share of heroic exploits that the readers never learn about.
*** In ''The Gatekeeper Trilogy'', Buffy and her friends are busy globe-trotting to deal with an apocalyptic threat which is causing Sunnydale to be even more dangerous and plagued by monsters than usual. Willow's fellow teenaged witch Amy Madison finds herself stepping into the Scooby Gang's role to try and protect the people of the town and does a good job at it, even though her efforts are only shown in two chapters of the {{Doorstopper}} trilogy.
** ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In ''Stranger to the Sun'', once VoiceWithAnInternetConnection character Franklin Ayers-Bishop gets an inkling about the true nature of the EvilPlan, he quickly organizes many wizards in different countries to respond to the ritual the BigBad is doing to permanently shroud the Earth in darkness, all without ever meeting another named character in person.
* In ''Literature/CastleHangnail'', two of the castle's minions are a talking goldfish and an animate voodoo doll named Pins. The goldfish reflects on Pins's heroic journey crossing the desert and fighting monsters, all carrying the goldfish in a plastic bag. The narrator observes that it shows that minor characters can also have been heroes.
* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', where the protagonists from our world might be TheOnlyOne for the brief time they are there, but Narnia exists for thousands of years without them and is said to have many adventures and heroes of its own that we never hear of (as well as many times where nothing exciting at all is happening). The (adult) Pevensie children become this in ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'' and Shasta is this to them (his being the story we get to see).
* In ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM):
** Amberly Vail clearly has lots of adventures fighting enemies of the Imperium in between those times when her path crosses with Cain's. Her footnotes occasionally make references to these.
** In stories when Cain is serving with the 597th Valhallan it's also usually mentioned that there are several other regiments on the same planet (most notably "Duty Calls", where he notices a young Commissar who shows enough signs of competence that he wonders how he did later on).
** Several minor characters wrote similar memoirs to Cain (that is similar to his "official" memoirs, not the candid ones that the stories consist of). Most notably [[PurpleProse Sulla]] (who's only a Lieutenant/Captain at the time of the books, but is Lady General by the time she wrote them). Other examples include the Medic (who was essentially a fictionalised Creator/JamesHerriot) from "Death or Glory" and Sgt. Tyber, who went on to write a book about the events of the same.
* Colin Lamb from Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/TheClocks''. Even though he's the (partial) narrator of the novel, whose written accounts of the murder investigation helped Literature/HerculePoirot reach the solution of the mystery, Colin himself contribute nothing to the investigation, as he's more concerned with his duties as a British Secret Service Agent.
* While Connie is TheChosenOne, she isn't the only adventurer out there thwarting disaster in the ''Constance Verity'' Trilogy. There's Professor Arthur Arcane (ghost-expert), Dr. Ishiro Hirata (the world's leading Kaiju expert and mech-pilot), Doctor Dynasty (Master of Mystic Arts), Eloise Purvis (leader of the World Crime League Task Force), Mariana Challenger (Explorer of the Unknown), Caligula Fox (World's Greatest Detective), Amun (an immortal mummy from Ancient Egypt), Peter Tachyon (Master of Time) and countless others.
* ''Literature/CoruscantNights'': The [[MageMarksman Gray Paladin Jedi sect]] spent years training themselves to become minimally reliant on the Force and use weapons besides lightsabers. Two dozen of their members on Coruscant alone survive Order 66 and play a major, offscreen, role in evacuating the survivors of the Jedi Temple. Those two dozen become the backbone of a resistance movement against the Empire on its capital planet. Jax Pavan notes that they have an advantage over their fellow Jedi in avoiding the notice of Palpatine and his Inquisitors due to being able to blend in better with ordinary civilians. Nonetheless, only one Gray Paladin, Laranth Tarak, appears in person or gets a name [[note]] Not just in this series, but in the whole EU.[[/note]].
* Two of colleagues of the anti-kidnapping expert protagonist in ''The Danger'' (by Creator/DickFrancis) are in South America, negotiating for the release of an oil executive whose kidnapping they believe was an inside job. [[AbortedArc It's never revealed who was behind that kidnapping or whether they get the executive back safely.]]
* In the ''Literature/DanielFaust'' series, FBI Special Agent Harmony Black is basically a classic urban fantasy heroine, veteran of many past adventures, squaring off against some evil bastards. Too bad for her, ''this'' series is about the evil bastards.
* Famously {{discussed|Trope}} in the opening lines to ''Literature/DavidCopperfield''.
-->"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."
* In ''Literature/DevilVenerableAlsoWantsToKnow'', it's shown that there exist books from other worlds that tell the same story but with different characters as the protagonist and point-of-view character. Wenren E, the protagonist of the main narrative, receives a copy of a book in which he's only a side character and Baili Qingmiao, a side female character in his own story, is the protagonist and there turns out to also exist [[spoiler:a book trilogy that has He Wenzhao, Baili Qingmiao's boyfriend, as the protagonist instead.]]
* ''Literature/{{Dortmunder}}'': In ''The Road to Ruin,'' Kelp buys a fake ID that previously belonged to a man named Harbin before he moved onto another alias. Very little is revealed about Harbin, but he is on the run from a European dictatorship and is one of the few people ever to escape their main assassin.
* ''Literature/DownToASunlessSea'': As the narrator and the passengers on his plane struggle to find a place to land, they sometimes talk to other people on the radio also struggling to survive and help people (although most to all of them are doomed to be killed by the fallout). Most notable are the Funchal airport staff, who are tirelessly coordinating with planes still in the air to help as many of them possible land before they run out of fuel.
* In the ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'' series, Menolly and Piemur are literally this; as well as appearing here and there in the books, they have their own trilogy that runs concurrently with the first three books. This in turn causes major characters from the first few books who appear in the Harper Hall books to themselves be heroes of another story.
* Any named character from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. Special credit goes to:
** Carlos Ramirez, professional badass and Harry's best friend on the Wardens. The regional commander of the Wardens on the West Coast, he gets into almost as much trouble as Harry.
** [[KnightInShiningArmor Michael Carpenter's]] exploits against the Denarians could make a fantastic series on their own.
** [[BoisterousBruiser Sanya]]. As of ''Literature/SmallFavor'', he is the only active Knight of the Cross, which means that he is single-handedly patrolling the world and putting down various supernatural threats. This is a normally a job for three people, but, as Harry notes, he seems to be handling it with aplomb.
** [[KnightTemplar Morgan]]. Come on, we get to hear the stories about how he ''nuked'' a shapeshifting demi-god of pure evil, and cut his way through the entire Red Court, fully intent on dueling a being that has ''Odin'' matched for metaphysical muscle.
** Karrin Murphy, and the rest of S.I. After the first few books Harry mentions that S.I. has gotten good enough at handling minor supernatural threats that they don't call him in as much.
** The Alphas. College kids turned werewolves, dealing with the troubles of young adulthood by day, wolf-shaped vigilantes by night.
** John Marcone counts as well. The short story "Even Hand" is told from his perspective, and lays ground for potential future narratives. "Aftermath" informs us that, [[spoiler:since the death of Harry Dresden]], Marcone and his people have repelled several attempts by the Fomor and other bad guys to infiltrate the city.
** Thomas Raith, [[spoiler:Harry's half brother]] provides vital back up on a number of occasions, but we eventually find that he's a member of the Venatori, and has been [[spoiler:fighting the Oblivion War]] off and on for years.
** Elaine Mallory, who starts up a similar Wizard for Hire business in Los Angeles.
** [[DarkActionGirl Molly Carpenter]], Harry's apprentice, whose ComingOfAgeStory is going on in the background. After she takes on more responsibilities it's implied her adventures get even stranger and more dangerous.
** Simon Pietrovich died off-screen before he could really do much of anything in the series. However, one might be interested in what a Senior Council Member who commanded a "brute squad" of combat mages who specialized in hunting down supernatural predators got up to earlier in his career. There ''has'' to be good adventures in there.
* ''Literature/DyingWithHerCheerPantsOn'': Several other teams, such as the Goblin Sharks, attend the cheerleading tournament and clearly have knowledge of the supernatural (and implicitly supernatural members) themselves. Unusually for the trope, at least some of them hate the heroes of the main story due to blaming them for having to compete in the tournament (where the lowest scoring squad never gets to go home).
* ''Literature/TheElderEmpire'': The whole point of splitting the universe into two parallel stories. ''Of Sea and Shadow'' is about Calder Martin, Captain of the Navigator's Guild, trying to raise up a new GodEmperor after the old one died, in order to help unite humanity and protect the species from the predations of the Elders; he is opposed by anarchic assassins who want to see the thousand-year Empire fractured since it will be more profitable for them. ''Of Shadow and Sea'' is about Shera, Gardener of the Consultant's Guild, trying to stop a Great Elder from resurrecting herself and destroying humanity, and to keep the Empire split so that humanity does not have a single point of failure in a GodEmperor; she is opposed by insane cultists and tyrants who think they can handle the power themselves.
* ''Literature/ElementalBlessings'': Ghyaneth's cousin is never seen, but he mentions that she and her husband have been working to counter his plans to kill her to avoid a SuccessionCrisis. Ghyaneth claims that she's not exactly a ''hero'' and is just as ruthless as he is, but the truth of this claim is debatable.
* ''Literature/{{Emberverse}}'': Although the PPA is an antagonist in the first part of the series, the citizens of Walla Walla regard them as heroes, as it was an expedition from Portland that rescued the city from convicts who had taken over after escaping the nearby state prison in the aftermath of the Change. This trope also applies to many characters the main cast encounter in their journeys. Abbott Dortje, the new Iowa civil government (and Ingolf's brother), the Senegalese pirates, Captain Wellman, the Last Eagle and his successors, and even Justin Gruber are just a few of the people who could become (or are already) heroes to their own people. The current tetrology introduces even more, including Reiko's grandmother and father and the Loyal Men who preserved the Nipponese royal line, King John of Darwin, and the leaders of Topanga and of the Mist Hills.
* ''Literature/TheEmpiriumTrilogy'': After Rielle and company split ways with Ilmaire and his companions, Ilmaire doesn't make a further reappearance but he isn't fully out of the picture; excerpts from the letters he sends to Audric, and from his journal, are placed at the beginning of several chapters in both ''Kingsbane'' and ''Lightbringer''. The excerpts show his own personal journey as he tries to fit into the crown his recently deceased father left, deal with Merovec, and eventually strike out on his own to find a way to aid Audric and his kingdom with the angelic threat.
* Bean, from ''Literature/EndersGame'', was made the "hero" of ''Literature/EndersShadow'', though it's technically the same story from a different perspective. There are also further novels (known as the ''Shadow'' saga) focused on other characters from the original story.
* ''Literature/ExHeroes'': Some if the MauveShirt DisasterScavengers such as Mark Larsen and Ilya, appear in flashback scenes as normal people who do a lot of work fighting off zombies and protecting people with them even before the superheroes show up to take them to the Mount at the tail end of their adventures.
* ''Literature/TheExilesViolin'': Serge went on many adventures with Jacquie's father and one of them involved finding treasure that is relevant to the main plot; [[spoiler: the key that unlocks the chest containing the Exile's violin.]] He made a lot of friends that look down on Jacquie for lacking his experience.
* This is discussed in ''Literature/FifthBusiness''. Dunstan Ramsay isn't even the hero of his ''own'' story; instead, he (according to Liesl) is destined to be the vital supporting character to everyone else. Strictly speaking, the hero of the story is the successful, handsome Boy Staunton, but the narration only checks in on him now and again.
* In ''Literature/ForWhomTheBellTolls'', the partisan leader El Sordo appears to be [[TheAce the best in the area, with many exciting battles under his belt]]. But the narration focuses on Pablo's band, and we only see Sordo in one conversation scene and one combat scene.
* ''Literature/{{Gate}}'' has the rest of the JSDF: Itami wasn't the only one making friendly contacts in the special region. The Third Recon team also serves as this when Itami is relieved of his command and the team is sent to Akusho.
* The ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000: Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novels make extensive use of other Imperial Guard regiments fighting alongside or in the same area as the Ghosts, with the commanders typically being named, likable individuals. Watch out, though, for the other commanders ever getting character development. If they do, bastardry will ensue at some point during the book.
* ''Literature/GoblinSlayer'' plays with this in that Goblin Slayer and his party ''are'' the "another story". While they clear out goblin dens, a battle against the Demon Lord for the fate of the world is occurring just offscreen, led by Hero, a young adventurer who has been crossing paths with Goblin Slayer since he saved her hometown from goblins.
* In 2013 novel ''Literature/TheGodsOfGuilt'', protagonist Literature/MickeyHaller has a brief encounter with his brother Harry Bosch in court; Harry says he's working on "a cold case from 'ninety-four." This is a reference to Harry Bosch short story "Switchblade", which was published the following year.
* ''Literature/TheHanSoloAdventures'': Gallandro has a ''very'' long and well-known list of accomplishments in his gunslinging career. Despite his overall villainous nature, he's actually the hero of another story several times over.
--> '''Badure:''' Gallandro? [[AffectionateNickname Slick]], you're talking about the guy who single-handedly hijacked the Quamar Messenger on her maiden run and took over that pirate's nest, Geedon V, all by himself. And he went to the gun against the Malorm family, drawing head bounty on all five of them. And no one has ever beaten the score he rolled up when he was flying a fighter with Marso's Demons. Besides which, he's the only man who ever forced the Assassins' Guild to default on a contract; he personally canceled half of their Elite Circle—one at a time—plus assorted journeymen and apprentices.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** The previous generation characters (Lily, Snape and the Marauders) had ''more'' than enough high drama to support their own series. Plus, the epilogue gives us the tantalizing hint of a whole new generation headed for Hogwarts. It's not surprising that novel-length Marauder-era and next-generation fanfics are so common.
** The Order of the Phoenix, a resistance group that fights Voldemort. Both the past Order (which disbanded before the beginning of the series) and the present incarnation are alluded to having many off-screen adventures that we never hear about.
** Albus Dumbledore was apparently the Harry Potter of his day -- his most famous feat was his defeat of the previous Dark Lord before Voldemort, PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald, in what is regarded as the greatest WizardDuel in history. Grindelwald also happened to be his EvilFormerFriend, FirstLove, and (since Dumbledore swore off love after him) [[SingleTargetSexuality the love of his life]]. ''Deathly Hallows'' briefly touches on his past, and the ''Film/FantasticBeasts'' films cover his conflicts with Grindelwald.
** In ''Deathly Hallows'', while Harry, Ron, and Hermione were on the run from the Death Eaters and hunting down Voldemort's Horcruxes, Neville, Ginny, and Luna formed an alternate trio of heroes at Hogwarts, turning the students of Dumbledore's Army into LaResistance and leading them in defying [[spoiler:Snape's and the Death Eaters' reign of terror at the school]].
* ''Literature/HelenAndTroysEpicRoadQuest'':
** According to Waechter, a random plumber in North Dakota pulled an enchanted mace from granite and was named King of the Djinn for it.
** At the battle arena in Gateway, Nevada, Helen and Troy meet Smith, a seasoned warrior who was promised a seat among the gods if he beats 77 monsters in his lifetime, Clifford the Cyclops being his 41st match.
** Pollux mentions a quester in Colorado -- a middle-manager -- who's quest involves procuring a golden fleece or else "you can kiss the Atlantic Ocean goodbye."
* ''Literature/HollowKingdom2019'':
** Many animals with their own focus chapters, such as a polar bear searching for her lost cub, only have small parts of their large stories shown.
** S.T. occasionally finds notes or graffiti left by people who avoided being infected and were trying to find loved ones, warn other people to [[spoiler:avoid technology]], or get to safer areas. A parrot acquaintance of S.T. also recalls people with farms in the countryside riding around on horseback in the final days of the outbreak, shouting offers of sanctuary. It doesn't appear that any of their efforts succeeded, as [[spoiler:the only confirmed human survivor is a baby several states away]].
* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
** Admiral Hamish Alexander, Earl of White Haven, is already an admiral when the series begins, and thus spends most of his time commanding large fleet actions that are analyzed in exhaustive detail by the main characters after the event. Probably the first notable instance of this is the Third Battle of Yeltsin, a spectacular Manticoran victory that was critical to the opening phases of the war -- [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome which we never see]].
** In ''Echoes of Honor'' several prisoners have spent years hiding in the bush after faking their deaths while receiving assistance from some of the prisoners who remained behind. After the prison revolt, they spend a lot of time capturing (or lynching) fugitive members of the StateSec garrison, relying on the years they spent learning the island's hiding places. They feel like they could have had their own book, but only get mentioned over about two pages.
* Since ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' are told entirely from Katniss's point of view, there's a lot of details and stories we miss out on because she is unaware of what's happening.
** Thresh and Foxface throughout the first novel are off having adventures completely separate from Katniss. Foxface and Katniss unknowingly cross each others paths a couple of times but Katniss only runs into Thresh once during the games. [[spoiler: Thresh is also apparently off having a major battle with Cato for several days while Katniss and Peeta are in the cave.]]
** In the first half of the first book, [[spoiler: Peeta could be considered this as he has some agenda and his own adventures with the Career Tributes. We find out about some of these actions later after he has revealed his true colors]].
** The Avox Girl, who apparently had an entire adventure before she ever crossed paths with Katniss.
** Bonnie and Twill. Katniss hears the first half of their story [[spoiler: but is left wondering what happened to them]].
** We also never find out what the [[spoiler:rebel movement was up to before Katniss came on the scene (it's way too big and organized to just be a reaction to one defiant act), or how and when Finnick, Johanna, Beatee, etc all joined it and their stories]].
** Nor do we see [[spoiler: Gale [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome evacuate what remains of District 12 after they are bombed]]]]. He is considered by many a literal hero.
* In the ''Literature/HyperionCantos'', Rachel Weintraub, who we see travel to the far future at the end of Fall of Hyperion, and then learn that she later returns to a (slightly less distant) the future. [[ItMakesSenseInContext Just read the books.]]
* ''Literature/InCryptid'' features the ghost Rose Marshall as a minor recurring character and HonoraryAunt of the protagonists. She's the main protagonist of the ''Literature/GhostRoads'' series by the same author.
* Roran Stronghammer of the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' is an example. He's technically a point of view character, but over the course of ''Brisingr'' he [[TheBerserker slaughters nearly one hundred men from atop an ever-growing mountain of their shattered corpses]], is summarily [[ATasteOfTheLash beaten to within an inch of his life]] for disobeying orders, immediately goes out and wrestles an Urgal chieftan into submission, and leads his new troops to several important victories over TheEmpire. And everyone completely forgets about him once Eragon gets back from his vacation, to the point that he ''isn't even mentioned'' during the FinalBattle.
** Saphira gives a blessing of sorts to an infant girl, later informing Eragon that the girl won't have an ordinary life after receiving it, and that what he just witnessed was the beginning of a whole new legend. And then it turns out that they screwed up and cursed her to suffer other people's problems. After they find out, they try to remove the curse, but only partially remove it, resulting in someone who is aware of other people's problems, but is not inclined to help. [[StartOfDarkness It's implied that she is now on a path to become a villain]].
** An even more blatant example comes in ''Brisingr'', when Angela asks Eragon to bless a mother and daughter whose fortunes she had just read. She even lampshades this later by refusing to tell Eragon anything about the two, and they only have one more brief appearance in the final battle in ''Inheritance''.
** Eragon's mentor [[spoiler:(and father)]] Brom has had a century's worth of adventures, which include founding the Varden (the rebel group opposing Galbatorix), including his lifelong vendetta against the Forsworn, the traitorous Dragon Riders serving Galbatorix. Special mention goes to how he met his friend Jeod, another supporting character who encounters Roran in the second book; Paolini has personally expressed interest in writing a prequel expanding on that topic.
* ''Literature/TheInkBlackHeart'': Jago's oldest daughter from his first marriage, Christabel, is TheGhost, but is repeatedly described as standing up to Jago when he abuses her sisters (only to get hit herself) and seeking online information to help her family get out from under Jago's thumb online.
* Myth/RobinHood as "Locksley" in ''{{Literature/Ivanhoe}}.'' One could argue that it led to the Legend of Robin Hood actually being a popular thing; like an ancient {{spinoff}}.
* ''Literature/JohnPutnamThatcher'':
** In ''Accounting for Murder'', NYPD accountant Fred Cohen has just wrapped up an investigation of a mobster who he helped get deported and casually mentions that he and his superior officer got shot at by a mobster during TheRoaringTwenties.
** Kate and Lorna, the archaeologists from ''When in Greece'', make some brief references to being part of the Greek Resistance in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
** In ''Double, Double, Oil and Trouble'', Thatcher gives his summation to two executives who missed the media coverage of the arrest due to briefly-mentioned interesting problems of their own (a CEO preventing a hostile takeover and an accounting expert and college professor thwarting her university's efforts to push her into retirement in favor of an unseasoned up-and comer. Although, given the CEO's "famous tolerance for bribery", he could qualify as the VillainOfAnotherStory instead.
* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'':
** Many members of the Dragon's Lair were hired to take part in the Starvation War. It took place pre-series and was fought between Latrot and Mithra. As part of his recovery from [[spoiler: mana mutation and monsanity]] Eric watches videos of a couple of their adventures.
** During the course of ''Literature/AMagesPower'' Sathel Aranid bodyguarded Abbott Tolis from Our Lady of Perpetual Mischief abbey and thwarted several attempts on his life. Between that book and ''Literature/LoomingShadow'' she hunted soulcrafters in Najica with her husband, Retina.
** Due to a reoccurring case of BlindJump, [[spoiler: Annala]] becomes one of these in ''Literature/TranscendingLimitations''. [[PowersThatBe Order speaks]] of how she is "bouncing around [[TheMultiverse Noitearc]] thwarting the plans of his other principal servants". She herself will make off-hand reference to her off-screen adventures whenever she pops into the main narrative.
* ''Literature/JudgeDee'': Several other stories feature secondary or minor characters who have been working heroically against the villains outside of Dee’s investigation. One minor but notable example is a pair of monks in ''The Chinese Bell Murder'', who have been taken prisoner by false monks who took over their abbey. One of the monks pretended to go along with the criminals but has been spying on them to gather evidence and help the authorities tell which ones are corrupt and which ones are {{Unwitting Pawn}}s.
* In two of the early stories from Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' series ("There is a Tide" and "Flatlander"), a Terran cop named Sigmund Ausfaller shows up as a minor recurring character, but its implied that this guy is an even more competent adventurer than Schaeffer is. We'd have to wait for nearly forty years before Niven would co-author a trio of novels featuring Ausfaller as the hero... and it turns out he's absolutely more competent than Schaeffer was.
* InspectorJavert from ''Literature/LesMiserables'' is off stopping real criminals when he's not trying to arrest Jean Valjean.
* The first ''Literature/LorienLegacies'' book mentions a man in Columbus, Ohio, who captures a [[AliensAreBastards Mog scout]] and tortures him into revealing the Mogs' plan to hunt down the Garde. Upon getting that information, [[NoNameGiven the man known only as the mysterious caller]] alerts a conspiracy magazine about it before disappearing from the story.
* ''Literature/MalgudiDays'': The Municipal Chairman from "Lawley Road". The Talkative Man mentions that the Chairman supplied blankets to the army during the war, before proceeding to say that "That's an epic by itself and does not concern us now", and resuming the tale about himself and the statue on Lawley Road.
* ''Literature/MaulLockdown:'' Artagan has spent decades on the run from the sinister Bando Gora cult working as an undefeated fighting champion and mentor to his son before becoming a DentedIron guy looking to escape from prison.
* A literal example in ''[[Literature/WingsOfFire Moon Rising]]''; Moon only learns about her mentor's DarkAndTroubledPast when she reads about it in a history book. Thousands of years ago, [[spoiler:Darkstalker]] was an incredibly powerful animus dragon who was (supposedly) executed by his lover and best friend when they felt he could no longer be trusted. However, [[spoiler:Darkstalker]] was not killed- simply bespelled to sleep eternally. A spell which broke eventually.
* ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' lives off this literally. It is maintained by dreams and stories and everyone has one. To quote the narrator [[ArcWords time and again throughout the novel]], ''“But that is another story and shall be told another time.”'' Specific examples include:
** Pyornrachzark, Blubb, Vooshvazool, and Gluckuk, the heralds that travel to warn of the Nothing early on in the novel. We lose track of them, but presumably they all go on to, at least, make the journey back home.
** Hynreck, the disgraced hero who left on his own while his comrades followed Bastian, went after a monster who kidnapped his love interest, and won, but we're spared the details and what happens next.
** Yikka, a mule who served as Bastian's mount for a while, is not exactly an example, but after being granted fertility and a faithful encounter with a pegasus stallion by Bastian, she has a son called Patalplan, a [[OxymoronicBeing half-mule, half pegasus hybrid]] that is himself an example, as he reportedly had many peculiar adventures.
** And then we have The City of [[IronicName Old Emperors]], where every single inhabitant qualifies. [[spoiler: Or rather, [[FallenHero was]]. The City is the final destination of every single human visitor to Fantastica who failed/refused to go back to the real world. They all inevitably attempted to [[GodhoodSeeker replace the Childlike Empress]], bringing [[VillainOfAnotherStory chaos and war to Fantastica]] before eventually wasting away all of their memories of the real world by abusing [[AmuletOfConcentratedAwesome Auryn]]. Once they lost all memories, they became [[EmptyShell blank husks of the people they were]] and ended up in the City.]]
** If Hykrion the Strong is to be believed, one of the many visitors to Fantastica from the real world was ''Creator/WilliamShakespeare himself''.
** The biggest one is Atreyu, because after Balthasar is told that he can't leave Fantastica until all the stories he set in motion are finished, Atreyu volunteers to finish all those stories in his place so Balthasar can go home.
* ''{{Literature/Nevermoor}}'': Fenestra, the housekeeper at the Hotel Deucalion, [[spoiler:has secretly been helping rescue Wunimals from persecution and violence in the Wintersea Republic by smuggling them into the Free State, immigration laws be damned. In doing so, she's undoubtedly saved many, many lives]].
* In the final stage of the ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}'', the last survivors of the besieged Burgundians are at last taken out by the retinue of the Gothic king Dietrich of Bern (not Bern in Switzerland, but Verona in Italy). Dietrich, the mythical version of king Theoderic the Great, and his followers Hildebrand ''et al''. literally are the heroes of a whole different cycle of legends and stories, so the decision to bring him in not only was an early example of a "cross-over", but also served to enhance the standing of Gunther and Hagen.
* ''Literature/{{Pact}}'' stars Blake and Rose Thorburn, [[DistaffCounterpart the same person born as different genders,]] who inherit their familial heritage of property, [[TheLegionsOfHell books on demon-summoning]], and [[KarmaHoudini the karmic debt of seven lifetimes worth of monstrous deeds]]. Early on they meet Maggie Holt, a teenaged [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblin binder]] who's dealing with a prophecy that demands she experience three rounds of "blood and darkness and fire" in return for her family's lives. Though they occasionally assist one another, Maggie feels compelled to deal with her problems her own way-after helping the Thorburns defeat the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Incarnation of Conquest]], she remarks that being the side character isn't really her thing.
* Literature/{{Piranesi}} is an OntologicalMystery with an AmnesiacHero, but late in the story he encounters [[spoiler:policewoman Sarah Raphael, who helps him escape his situation. When she explains how she came to be there, it becomes clear that from her point of view, this has been a slightly more straightforward supernatural mystery, and her success in solving it is impressive. One of her colleagues later describes another problem she dealt with, and clearly regards her with admiration]].
* ''Literature/RuledBritannia:'': Peter Foster, a suspected petty thief and neighbor of Shakespeare, is arrested and then promptly breaks out of jail after bidding Shakespeare a cordial goodbye, without ever revealing exactly what got him arrested or how he escaped.
* ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'':
** Sidmarkian Archbishop Zagyrsk and his staff spend the civil war providing food and medical care for forced laborers, preventing the inquisitors from harming people under their jurisdiction, and smuggling hundreds of children out of concentration camps. However, none of this is mentioned until the end of the conflict, when they meet Green Valley and he reveals his knowledge of their actions and praises them when they except to be arrested or worse as enemy prelates.
** In the eighth and ninth books, soldiers assigned to at least four concentration camps mutiny to try to save the prisoners (two groups succeed, one fails, and one is wiped out but does save some prisoners) but only of one of these mutinies is shown.
* ''Literature/TheSagaOfGrettirTheStrong'':
** The life of the outlaw Hallmund is apparently quite a story not unlike that of Grettir himself. When Hallmund lies dying, he recites a poem commemorating his adventures, and "many exploits of his did Hallmund recount in the lay, for he had been in every land." Only a short piece of it is given, but it hints at a most extraordinary tale:
--->''The giant-kind and the grim rock-dwellers,\\
demons and blendings fell before me, \\
elves and devils have felt my hand.''
** The outlaw Grim who kills Hallmund goes on to become a famous adventurer himself: "Grim became a great traveller and there is a long saga about him."
* ''Literature/TheScholomance:'' Plenty of students at the BoardingSchoolOfHorrors who barely interact with El have interesting backstories and struggles. Notable examples are Luisa being stuck there without preparation due to being a MageBornOfMuggles, Clarita using a BeneathNotice strategy while working to become valedictorian, and Maya Wulandiri putting all of her efforts into trying to gain admission of herself and her family to the Toronto enclave.
* In ''[[Literature/{{Lensman}} Second Stage Lensmen]]'', [[StarfishAliens Nadreck of Palain VII]]. He goes on a solo mission to destroy an enemy base that no one has been able to touch. He does so by inciting the locals into a civil war. However, despite great urging, he absolutely refuses to tell anyone how he did it, because in his eyes the mission was an [[MyGreatestFailure unmitigated disaster]]. His shame comes from the fact that [[BlueAndOrangeMorality he comes from a race of cowards]], and he was forced at one point to kill three people directly to complete his mission, rather than causing them to kill each other. To make the point clearer, these people included the highest-ranking enemies at the base, and in a society where RankScalesWithAsskicking is taken to the extreme that means he had to personally fight the ''hardest'' targets.
* In ''Literature/TheSecretsOfDrearcliffGrangeSchool'', there are occasional reminders during the earlier parts of the book that the school has plenty of students and exciting events apart from Amy and her friends and their adventures. (Less so after the main plot kicks in and the school gets taken over as part of an AssimilationPlot, because then everything happening at the school becomes part of a single story.) There's also the case of Enid ffolliott, who dramatically appears in time to save Amy from a peril after being missing for two years; it's strongly suggested that what she was doing during those two years was adventurous and possibly world-saving, although we don't get many details.
* ''Literature/ShadowChildren'': Mr. Talbot is a high ranking government agent who secretly leads some sort of organized resistance, and usually helps out the kids. Another revolutionary shows up repeatedly to aid the heroes in book 5 and 6 rescuing them in the former and executing a gambit in the latter. We don't know what his name is, but he goes by Nedley and later Mike, and is implied to be working behind the scenes as a government officer.
* A meta example of this happens in Gregory Frost's ''Shadowbridge'' duology. The protagonist Leodora is collecting stories from all over the spans of Shadowbridge. While talking to a sailor she learns of a new story that's spreading for months from the southern spans where she had traveled from. Referring to it as the ''Navigator's Tale'', it's a morality story warning of a wicked whore who had broken many taboos on the island she's from - including riding one of the island's sacred krakens while nude. She tries to leave the island, but the kraken brings her back where the islanders stone her and the kraken and then they drown her in its ink as a purity rite. Leodora is horrified by this tale and vows never to perform it. The story is a combination of what happened that led to the fleeing of Leodora and years earlier - her mother Leonara, that's been corrupted by her uncle's sick fantasies and had some details altered. Leodora sadly notes that now she's become a character in a tale, just like the ones she tells.
* The eight and ninth Erast Fandorin novels, ''Literature/SheLoverOfDeath'' and ''Literature/HeLoverOfDeath'', are two completely separate mysteries being investigated by Fandorin in Moscow at the same time. Each book contains a few passing references to Fandorin's other case.
* ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes VS Literature/{{Dracula}}, or The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count'', basically makes Holmes and Watson this for Van Helsing’s team of vampire hunters in the original novel. The core theme of the novel is that Dracula was fighting Holmes and Watson when he wasn’t dealing with Van Helsing and his allies, Holmes thwarting Dracula’s attempt to travel to America after his efforts in London have come to an end before leaving Van Helsing to track him back to Transylvania.
* ''Literature/SirAproposOfNothing'' seems to be beset with many, many heroes of other stories. Whenever they try to regale him with their adventures, however, he ''always'' cuts them off...because he abhors such stories.
* ''Literature/{{Slacker}}'' Before the first book, Felicia Hochuli once engaged in some bold KidDetective antics to prove that Jordan was innocent of writing graffiti on the bulletin board, which is interesting but unrelated to the main plot.
* Due to the series' large cast, ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is full to the brim with these. Special mention should go to King Stannis (who survived a siege, later described as "They were down to rats and beets, horses and dogs have been eaten long ago"), Dolorous Edd (just about anything he says, but highlights include finding a dead brother of the Night Watch floating in the barrel of wine and being attacked by a bear!), Maester Aemon (the man was 102 years old when he died and has lived through most of the history known to main characters), Aegon the Fifth (A hero from ''Literature/TalesOfDunkAndEgg'', long dead in main novels), Barristan The Bold, Tormund Giantsbane, Theon's friend Cleftjaw, Mance Rayder and Lord Bloodraven... This list goes on and on.
* Dahlia Lynley-Chivers only appears once in ''Literature/TheSookieStackhouseMysteries'' in the book ''All Together Dead'' as a one of the vampire summit judges, but she's the main star of the various short stories and novellas that expand the supernatural universe of the books, often investigating threats to her vampire nest.
%%* Hawk between ''Literature/{{Spenser}}'' novels.
* In the Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse, each series could be considered this to the other ones. However, ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier'' '''really''' plays this role. Because Peter David has sole control over ''New Frontier'', any major events that the ''Excalibur'' cannot somehow be excused from, such as ''Literature/StarTrekDestiny'', are told through BroadStrokes by the other authors. Whether we actually get to read those stories depends on whether Peter David wants to write them.
** Two Diane Carey novels, ''Dreadnaught'' and ''Battlestations'', are something of {{Lower Deck Episode}}s in regards to the series. The main characters are younger Expys of the main Franchise/StarTrek characters. While they do perform acts to further the plot, when they cross paths with Kirk and company, it's clear for every thing the youngsters have done, the senior officers have done 5 or 6.
* In the ''Literature/StarTrekMereAnarchy'' series, the fourth tale attempts to give the impression that Starfleet captains across the board have noteworthy adventures, avoiding the implications that Kirk is the guy to which everything interesting happens. When Kirk mentions he was present at a particular event, the captain he's talking too responds with a casual "oh yeah, that was you", and it's mentioned that this captain was off having his own adventure at the time.
* ''Literature/StarWarsThePrincessAndTheScoundrel'':
** Amidst the hordes of callow BystanderSyndrome sufferers on the ship, Leia also notices two Rebel sympathizers who secretly provided the campaign against the Empire starship funding and information respectively, but neither of them interacts with her on page.
** A group of people on Madurs have spent some time [[spoiler:resisting the Imperial occupiers with bold and clever acts of sabotage (although they do little more than inconvenience the garrison) and preparing covert messages asking for help]]. However, the protagonists only learn of their existence in the last quarter of the book.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends''
** Wedge Antilles, outside of the Literature/XWingSeries, where he ''is'' TheHero. Outside of that series, he's rarely in focus, but almost always there, performing important tasks. In the ''X-Wing Series'', Luke, Leia, and Han Solo are the Heroes of Another Story to Wedge.
** ''Literature/RepublicCommando'':
*** ''Order 66''' has the main commandoes briefly run into several disguised Jedi apprentices who escaped the massacre at the Jedi Temple and are trying to get off-planet (with at least one of them escaping after they are discovered). However, most of the commandoes would object to calling those Jedi "heroes" part of the trope, since the Jedi accidentally kill some civilians while deflecting blaster bolts in a closed space and one of them [[spoiler:accidentally cuts down Etain when she tries to save a clone who reminds her of Darman.]]
*** Near the beginning of ''501st'', the Special Operations Brigade commandoes are given a list of clone troopers who deserted and ordered to remain on the lookout for them. While most of those commandoes are main or supporting characters who end up on Mandalore, the previously unmentioned Hyperion Squad is never seen or mentioned again. This suggests that Hyperion Squad is on the run from the Empire elsewhere in the galaxy, and that they have different motives for deserting than Clan Skirata.
** Several characters from ''[[Literature/TheCallistaTrilogy Children of the Jedi]]'' come across as people who were the protagonists of their own intense stories in the lead-up to the book.
*** Master Plett is (or was, as his present status is unclear) a ScienceWizard who used botany skills and his wide array of unusual Force powers to benefit the planet he watched over, helped dozens of young fugitivies hide from the Empire after the Great Jedi Purge, defeated attacking forces, and then somehow arranged for the only {{Honest Corporate Executive}}s in the region to set up shop on the planet he'd had to leave so it could continue prospering. He vanished long before the novels take place, but there is a strong impression that his exploits could have filled a book or two.
*** Cray Mingla is the descendant of Order 66 survivors who remained out of sight while studying under some of the people who were later recruited to work on the Death Star, fell in love with a fellow Force-sensitivie scientist, and tried to transfer his consciousness into a droid body to save him from a deadly disease shortly after they joined Luke's Jedi Order. However, during the main story, her role is rather limited.
*** Triv Pothman is the SoleSurvivor of a garrison that spent decades fighting Gammoreans and each other, was MadeASlave, somehow escaped, and transformed from a tough stormtrooper to a kindly gardner and embroiderer.
*** Han's friend Drub [=McKumb=] was a Rebel sympathizer and methodical treasure hunter who was kidnapped and brainwashed by the villains of the book but escaped in a moment of lucidity to warn Han about the danger they pose, kicking off the main plot in the opening chapter.
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Several. Hoid is a hero to the Cosmere as a whole (if not the BigGood), but his goals on Roshar only rarely intersect with everyone else. The interludes introduce a number of new characters who are running around on their own adventures, a few of whom are in the process of becoming Surgebinders. And of course, at the end of [[Literature/WordsOfRadiance the second book]] [[spoiler:Jasnah comes back, having escaped the ambush on the ''Wind's Pleasure'' by teleporting into Shadesmar, where she has been adventuring for months]].
* In the ''Literature/TairenSoul'' universe, fey compare fate to a musical concert. There are consecutive Dances, whole eras of time (TheChosenOne[=s=] are said to lead a Dance). Every Dance consists of smaller Songs and Harmonies; when TheHero sees that a human nobleman owns a LegendaryWeapon, he theorizes that the guy is marked out to lead one of the former.
* ''Literature/TheyThirst'': Vulkan's lieutenants tell him about large groups of humans fleeing the city via the Santa Monica Mountains, many of whom are getting past their patrols, but none of those people are shown, as the story remains focused on those survivors still in the city.
* ''Literature/TrashOfTheCountsFamily'' has a unique example in Choi Han; he's the protagonist of the story-within-the-story ''The Birth of a Hero''. However, the protagonist of ''this'' story is Cale, [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld who reincarnates into the world of ''The Birth of a Hero'']]. Choi Han remains a main character, however.
* ''Literature/TrueGrit'': ByTheBookCop LT Quinn and ScarilyCompetentTracker William Waters are [[TheGhost unseen]] marshals suggested as other candidates who could help Mattie chase Tom Chaney.
* Mikhail Tanner and his quest to locate and mercy kill his beloved Sonya Karp after she turned Strigoi in ''Literature/VampireAcademy''. The quest is briefly mentioned but never fully described.
* In ''Literature/TheWarGods'', [[TheArchmage the white wizard Wencit of Rūm]] often crosses paths with the main characters Bahzell and Brandark. More than once he gives them help with whatever adventure they're on at the moment, but he always goes his own way after a while. All that they (and the reader) ever know is that Wencit is working to some schedule of his own, seeking to prepare for the day when the evil Council of Carnadosa tries to conquer Norfressa.
* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', there are several times when characters other than the heroes are off on their own quests to save the Clans. There are several such as Yellowfang, who in the first book was organizing a resistance against [[StarterVillain Brokenstar]]; Stormfur, who was helping the Tribe become strong enough to defeat the Mountain Invaders; Tigerheart, who [[spoiler: spied on the Dark Forest so that he could protect the Clans]]; and even Jingo, a cat trying to protect her band of former kittypets after their lives were ruined by Sol.
* The protagonists of ''Literature/WatchersOfTheThrone'' occasionally cross paths with people who have their own stories going on off-page; often, this is tied to another ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' book or campaign. Among them is Tor Garadon, returning from his actions in ''Gathering Storm''; [[spoiler:Roboute Guilliman, who returns from ''Gathering Storm'' and then departs for ''Dawn of Fire'']]; and Navradaran, who has a more prominent role in ''Vaults of Terra'', but is also noted as suspiciously absent in second books of both ''Vaults'' and ''Watchers''.
* In ''Literature/TheWeeFreeMen'', the second {{Literature/Discworld}} YA novel but the first to be integrated into the adult novels' chronology, Miss Tick spends most of the novel off-page, seeking out Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg and convincing them to return to the Wold with her in order to begin Tiffany's training.
* An unusual example in that the character in question is actually a key ''villain'' of the main story: [[spoiler: Demandred]] in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' makes references to having had a series of adventures on the other side of the world in which he fulfilled a set of prophecies parallel to those of [[TheChosenOne the Dragon Reborn]] [[spoiler: ultimately leading him to become the ruler and DarkMessiah of TheEmpire of Shara]]. WordOfGod even notes that [[spoiler: Demandred]] was essentially the hero of his own parallel version of ''The Wheel of Time'' that the reader just barely gets to glimpse.
* ''Film/{{Willow}} the Movie Novelization'': Several years ago, MauveShirt Vohnkar went on a years' long adventure to see the splendor of Tir Asleen. He repeatedly clashed with Bavmorda's {{Mooks}} during that time and abandoned his quest upon realizing that people like him were needed to protect his home from Nockmaar.
* ''[[Literature/SpaceCaptainSmith Wrath of the Lemming Men]]'' has General Sir Florence Young (''sic''), who at the conclusion of the book is being knighted for winning a critical battle which (from the central characters' perspective) was fought completely off-stage.
* Many DefectorFromDecadence Confederate deserters and people who harbor deserters and/or escaped Union prisoners in the nonfiction book ''Literature/TheYankeePlague'' are clearly involved in lots of adventure and heroism that the book doesn't cover, much of which is lost to history due to how few of them left behind memoirs of their own.
[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/MalgudiDays'': The Municipal Chairman from "Lawley Road". The Talkative Man mentions that the Chairman supplied blankets to the army during the war, before proceeding to say that "That's an epic by itself and does not concern us now", and resuming the tale about what happened to himself and the statue on Lawley Road.

* ''Literature/MalgudiDays'': The Municipal Chairman from "Lawley Road", . The Talkative Man mentions that the Chairman supplied blankets to the army during the war, before proceeding to say that "That's an epic by itself and does not concern us now", and resuming the tale about what happened to himself and the statue on Lawley Road.

* ''WebAnimation/{{Anon}}'': Dani and Mia were originally the main characters in another series by the creator, called Faux, before crossing over to the main show.

* ''[[Fanfic/TheChangelingSequence The Guardian]]'' is unfolding in the background of ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'', so the reader gets to see Jason and Dick having a road trip while Bruce is busy investigating a SerialKiller.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
** Spider-Man's first encounter with the Sinister Six had ComicBook/IronMan playing this role; also subverted, when he encounters the ComicBook/XMen [[spoiler:and they turn out to be android duplicates programmed to try and kill him]].
** It was once a common occurrence that every time the Sinister Six showed up, Spider-Man would call the [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]] and ComicBook/FantasticFour, only to find out that they were on other missions. Other superheroes would eventually come to his aid, however.
** The first Spider-Man Annual is full of this. He couldn't go two pages without crossing paths with another superhero who is off on his own adventure (while the narrator points out that you can follow said hero's adventures in his respective comic).
** ''ComicBook/MaximumCarnage'' shows this trope too, as both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four are specifically mentioned as being away. At one point, Spidey and Characters/{{Venom|EddieBrock}} break into the FF's headquarters while they're away to steal a sonic weapon to fight Characters/{{Carnage|CletusKasady}}. Later, [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]] shows up to lend a hand, and the rest of the Avengers finally return just in time to mop up after Carnage is defeated.
* In a ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' Halloween story parodying ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'', Homer runs from the pod people and, a little outside Springfield, crosses paths with a man from Shelbyville who is fleeing a horde of zombies. The two chat for a while about their respective predicaments before the Shelbyvillean gets to his turn, saying it was nice to meet Homer; Homer returns the compliment, wishing him luck with the undead.
* ''ComicBook/SinCity'' will do this to the point where actual stories will intersect. For instance, in ''Yellow Bastard'' we see Marv in the background in the scene where Nancy runs off with Hartigan. They go off and have their own adventure. In ''Just Another Saturday Night'', we see this scene from Marv's viewpoint, lamenting that "Nancy ran off with some old guy" before going off to have his own adventure.
** In the short story "Blue Eyes," Jim is on the run from the mob (and shows a bit of resourcefulness in the process). It's never revealed why The Colonel and Manute are after him, and his narrative significance is merely to be killed by Delia for her InitiationCeremony into the mob.
** In "The Babe Wore Red," PrivateInvestigator Bernard G. Zimmer becomes a PosthumousCharacter due to being brave enough to investigate a drug ring that the mayor and district attorney are involved with.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'': John Constantine started out this way, back when he was still just a [[SpotlightStealingSquad supporting character]] in ''ComicBook/SwampThing''. Once he got his own series, a few characters from other series' in the DC/Vertigo continuity appeared prior to his series gaining effectively its own continuity, most notably Morpheus from ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989''.

* ''ComicBook/{{Birthright}}'' establishes the five mages as heroes born of Terrenos -- except for Sameal, who was born on another world. This means he somehow developed mage powers, jumped worlds alone, became a top-ten mage in a magic-using world, volunteered to fight God King Lore for years, and led the five to seal Lore away from Earth.

* ''ComicBook/MediEvilFatesArrow'': Kiya [[spoiler:ended up back in ancient Egypt after her and Dan's separation, where she defeated a warlock bent on summoning Anubis before having her high priest return her to her eternal rest. Dan only finds this out upon returning to her tomb and finding a letter in her sarcophagus' hands]].

* At one point in ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}'' volume 4, Richard encounters the Luminals, a team of alien superheroes stated to be their world's equivalent of the Avengers. They've come to the edge of the universe to get rid of their archenemy Abyss, who keeps coming back no matter how many times they defeat and imprison him. Unfortunately for them, Abyss gets out and [[ZombifyTheLiving turns them all into zombies]], forcing Richard to deal with both Abyss and these undead Luminals.
* ''ComicBook/{{Pathfinder|DynamiteComics}}'': Other characters of the Characters/PathfinderIconics routinely pass through the party's storyline amidst their own adventures, particularly in ''Origins'': Valeros fought together with Iconic Barbarian Amiri once upon a time, while Kyra hunted vampires with Iconic Paladin Seelah, who later headed to Mendev to join the Crusades against the demons of the Worldwound.
* ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'' has the Mighty Mutanimals, a group of mutants ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and an alien duo]]) from different walks of life that dedicated themselves to fighting crime and protecting the Earth. Any adventures that didn't concern the Turtles at all were even covered in their own (rather brief) spin-off title.
* Happens to just about every super-being at one time or another in ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', since the stories typically take the big, planet-shaking battles of traditional superhero comics and reduce them to background color. Instead, the focus is usually on the ordinary citizens and peripheral characters of those events as they try to handle their own, comparatively minor issues.

* ''Fanfic/TiberiumWars'' features this in the form of several officers and commanders fighting other battles. As with the main characters of the story, though, AnyoneCanDie is in ''full'' force.
* ''Fanfic/TheSunSoul'' has a few of these. [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Ash Ketchum]] leads his core party of intrepid heroes all over the place, but along they meet up with a number of recurring individuals who work towards similarly heroic ends off-screen. So far, not many of these have been KilledOffForReal, but given the author's willingness to kill ''[[AnyoneCanDie anyone]]''...
* In the ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' fan fiction ''Fanfic/{{Trouble}}'', Harkness encounters the Lone Wanderer, the protagonist of the game, who goes through in-game quests off-screen while the story takes place.
* The other mercenaries count in ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/81159/racer-and-the-geek Racer And The Geek,]]'' especially Keffiyeh and Goggles.
* The Hunter is one of these in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached''. The four are unfortunately sucked into some of his adventures... and he is fortunately sucked into theirs.
* ''AudioPlay/DoctorWhoovesAndAssistant'' works a lot like this. The Doctor and Ditzy Doo's adventures run side by side with those of the main cast of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. For example, while the mane cast was heading off to fight Nightmare Moon, the Doctor and Ditzy went that way before them and fought the Manticore first. The mane cast is seen at some points, but only from the view of the Doctor and Ditzy.
* [[spoiler: The Arbiter]] in ''Fanfic/TheLastSpartan'' has been [[spoiler: investigating Cerberus]] at least a month before the story began, and even tells The Chief he went on several missions lifted directly from [[Franchise/MassEffect the game]] relating to them before they had met again.
* In ''[[Fanfic/DeliverUsFromEvilSeries Mortality]]'', Inspector Patterson is defined as this from his first appearance, introduced as the man who's been undercover in Professor Moriarty's [[TheSyndicate criminal empire]] for the past several years.

* ''Fanfic/ReimaginedEnterprise'' (a fan prose remake of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'') has all the ones of ''Enterprise'' (if at times heavily modified) as well as repeatedly showing that other (non-NX-class) UESPA starships do in fact get involved in important matters, as well. The episode "Of Another Story" takes it to the point of not even having the main characters appear for a cameo, being instead entirely about the ''Daedalus'' and a historic event the ship and her crew is involved in.

* Luigi and his team of heroes get the spotlight in ''[[Fanfic/PaperMarioX Paper Luigi X]]''. While Team Mario is busy rescuing Team ZAP from the clutches of the X-Nauts, Team Luigi is busy rescuing Princess Eclair.
* Recurring characters Dr. Kit Bennett, ''alias'' [[spoiler:Kathy Watson]] and retired D.I. Michael Lestrade in ''Fanfic/ChildrenOfTime''.
* "[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/3726/chapters/4744 Nor Hell a Fury]]" is essentially a sequel to ''Literature/{{Christine}}'' set in the world of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', where Dennis Guilder has become a hunter while tracking Christine's reappearances across the country, dealing with other ghosts or monsters as he encounters them, although he notes in private that he doesn't consider himself a "lifetime" hunter as he would stop if he defeated Christine. [[spoiler:After the Winchesters help him find a ritual to destroy the car for good, Dennis appears content with his plans to return home.]]

* In ''Fanfic/AvengersInfiniteWars'', this likely applies to Hope van Dyne, Natasha Romanoff and Matt Murdock in particular, as they spent some time operating solo before the other Avengers found them (of the rest of the displaced heroes, either their activities have been clearly documented or they didn’t do much more than meet new cultures before the others found them).
* ''Fanfic/HorseshoesAndHandGrenades'' has many adventures running parallel to the Kyoto Arc:
** ''Month of Sundays'': A group of Amanogawa High students fight off against Foundation X and a strange serpent who can transform people into dolls.
** ''[=SplitxEnd=]'': Yayoi Tokuda, a college student and former Zodiarts, teams up with Haruto Souma to uncover the truth about Gentaro's past.
** ''Wheel of Fortune:'' Mei Shirakawa tries to determine fate with her tarot cards while looking up the origins on [[SmallRoleBigImpact Yamada Tatsumori.]]
** ''Fanfic/QuickToTheTrigger'' is a fanfic regarding a comment Owner made way back in ''Horseshoes'', telling on what Ryotaro, Kotaro, and Yuto are doing that has Power Rangers and Kamen Riders teaming up against a future threat.
* In [[Fanfic/LifeInManehattan The Manehattanverse]], Twilight was sent to Manehattan instead of Ponyville; a lot of the events that occurred there still happened, but were resolved in different manners by the remaining members of the Mane Six offscreen.
* There is a FandomSpecificPlot in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' fandoms where the Calamity Trio from the first show briefly meets the Hexsquad from the second. Usually, the Calamity Trio are potrayed as older, having already gone through their adventure in Amphibia while the hexsquad are still in the middle of theirs.

* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''/''Film/StarshipTroopers'' crossover fic ''[[http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-29944/batzulger+Garbed+in+Steel.htm Garbed in Steel]]'', Johnny Rico himself, the hero of ''Starship Troopers'' is this to Sergeant Buffy Summers of the Mobile Infantry.
* Idol Hooves, the [[ShapeShifter changeling]] [[TheProtagonist protagonist]] of ''FanFic/TheChangelingOfTheGuard'', will eventually run into the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Mane 6]] during the events of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E25ACanterlotWeddingPart1 A Canterlot Wedding]] while posing as one of Celestia's Royal Guards, [[WordOfGod according to the author]].

* In ''Fanfic/RobbReturns'', there is a hint that something similar to what is going on beyond the Wall is going in the Grey Wastes [[spoiler:and the Dothraki are being "called" East, just as the descendants of the First Men are being called North]]. And many people are also being pulled to [[spoiler:the Isle of Faces, so as to help protect it from the threat of the resurgent Faith Militant]].
* ''Fanfic/TheresNoRuleThatSaysAWolfCantBeAJedi'': Swift runs into Anakin several times, enough that they consider each other friends, and they're even deployed together at one point, but it's clear that while Swift is investigating archaeological sites and keeping his clone soldiers alive and training a Padawan, most of the canonical Star Wars plot is happening off-screen. [[ForWantOfANail With a few adjustments due to Swift's presence...]]
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'' SelfInsertFic ''Fanfic/ThisBites'', it seems that some of the anime filler-arc adventures that this story is skipping over are still happening, just to other crews. For example, Bartolomeo has Apis from the Warship Island arc as a member of his crew. Just about all of the Super Rookies have their own battles during the Straw Hats' assault on Enies Lobby.
** This also applies to some of the movie adventures, as the Kid Pirates are the ones who get involved in the [[Anime/DeadEndAdventure Dead End race]] and Hawkins' crew are the ones who go to [[Anime/TheCursedHolySword Asuka Island]].
* Pinkie Pie in ''Fanfic/MyLittleAnimaniacs'', who goes on a quest to cure herself and [[spoiler:ends up getting possessed by a BodySnatcher somewhere along the way]]. Also, Chicken Boo, who becomes a famous DJ mixer offscreen.
* Frisk Dreemurr trails Harry Potter by about two years in ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheUndergroundsSaviour'', but still has to deal with repercussions of the main plot, like Neville getting a Howler from his grandmother while already depressed.
* ''Fanfic/NewTamaran'': During the events of ''WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans|2003}}'', the Justice League was off-planet to aid in the war effort against Darkseid, while ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and Wonder Girl had their own adventures as a BattleCouple, and Oracle kept tabs on Lex Corp. Also, Static and Shazam are both briefly mentioned as the defenders of Dakota City and Fawcett City respectively.
* As ''Roleplay/LordsAmongTheAshes'' is composed of two quests run on separate sites, both [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} Jaune and Ruby]] are this to each other. While Jaune is conquering [[DeathWorld the Dark Continent]], discovering LostTechnology, and fighting [[{{Kaiju}} Titans]], Ruby is [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen clearing the seas of piracy]], [[Fiction500 becoming an economic superpower]], and [[GadgeteerGenius inventing Mechashift weapons hundreds of years ahead of schedule]]. Their stories rarely intersect with each other even though they are both rather important.
* ''[[Fanfic/TheChangelingSequence The Guardian]]'' is unfolding in the background of ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'', so the reader gets to see Jason and Dick having a road trip while Bruce is busy investigating a SerialKiller.
* ''Fanfic/ThePiecesLieWhereTheyFell'': Literal example with Reel the omake character - he originates from a fanfic that Anon e Mouse Jr. has in development, in which he ended up in an alternate version of Equestria that he now calls home. He now pops into A.R. versions of other universes from time to time.
* ''Fanfic/HalfPastAdventure'': Cash Daniels, [[PrivateInvestigator P.I.]] appears to be the hero of her own noir parody that [[NoirEpisode occasionally intersects the main plot]].
* ''Fanfic/RWBYEpicOfRemnant'': Gudako, Angra Mainyu, EMIYA Alter, Lancelot, and Hassan of the Cursed Arm become stranded in the world of [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} Remnant]]. Though they are unable to contact [[VideoGame/FateGrandOrder Chaldea]], they have faith that Ritsuka and Mash are still there fighting the good fight in the Singularities.
* A now excised chapter of ''Fanfic/OriginStory'' featured how Characters/PowerGirl's mind, inside [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander Harris's]] body, ends up in the Franchise/StarTrek universe. The writer of the story received literally ''hundreds'' of requests for a story featuring that character.
* In ''Fanfic/RisingOfTheSleepingSoldier'', when King Aultcray demands to know who he is when Alucard demands he sends him back, questioning how saving their world from the Waves is treated as trivial to him, Alucard gives a complete and comprehensive rundown as to why.
--> '''Alucard''': I am Adrian Fahrenheit Tepés, Known to the Wallachians as Alucard, the sleeping soldier, and defender of humanity. Age 19. My world is already under constant threat from all manner of monsters and demons. They wish to snuff out the entire human race or turn what's left of them after mass slaughter into nothing but slaves. The people have no means to defend themselves as all those who could have fought back have long since passed except for me and my companions. We are the last line of defense for humanity and I know they cannot fight without me as I cannot without them. That is why I cannot fight for you. Without my presence, my world will suffer.
* ''[[Fanfic/TheVictorsProject The Lumberjack and the Tree-Elf]]'': Mayor Lourdes got District 7 through a harsh winter by going against the Capitol and then managed to make it look like he was acting out of loyalty toward them. He's also a leader of the rebellion, but only has a handful of scenes.
* ''Fanfic/TheManyDatesOfDannyFenton'': [[WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom Danny]]'s blind dates, each one can become his girlfriend in different timelines, include but not limited to WesternAnimation/KimPossible, Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}}, [[Franchise/TheIncredibles Violet Parr]], [[Franchise/SailorMoon Sailor Jupiter]] and [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003 Starfire]], all amazing heroines who have adventures and fight evil before being involved with him.
* ''Fanfic/PrehistoricParkReturnedFromExtinction'': Tiberius Saurus is the official owner of the Park, and is implied to have gone on a few adventures of his own, but so far, he's only shown up once in the story, where he has a conversation with his son which ends with him watching dumbfoundedly as a ''[[FeatheredFiend Paracrax]]'' rams its head into a feeder to snatch a piece of meat. Unlike most examples, though, we actually get to see these adventures as more than just ADayInTheLimelight - said chapter reveals he's actually Wyatt Arthur Thompson (full name Wyatt Arthur Tiberius Thompson Saurus), one of the protagonists of ''Fanfic/PrimevalParadox''.

* ''Fanfic/OogwaysLittleOwl'': While Taylor and Oogway are sailing to Japan, the ship is suddenly attacked by a pirate gang whose captain is the estranged brother of the ferry ship's captain. The brothers proceed to have a fierce and very personal battle while Taylor and Oogway are left dealing with the mooks.
-->'''Taylor:''' I feel like we just wandered into someone else's story, Master.\\
'''Master Oogway:''' It happens. I’ve lost count of how many times it’s happened to me.
* ''Fanfic/SixesAndSevens'': While Emily and Michael were dealing with their own adventure in the story's opening, Edith Harker had cut off all contact with her and the class of '38 to deal with her own villains. She gives sparse details to Emily, only telling her that [[spoiler: she lost a man she loved and had to give up the child they had together]].
* ''Fanfic/TheCrownOfNeverwinter'' opens with Nodoka Saotome confessing she's actually a princess from another dimension. Why does the Tendo household learn this? Well, a wizard knocked on their door -- he searched for her in the whole multiverse over three decades.
* ''Fanfic/ACertainDrollHivemind'':
** Throughout the fic, there are hints that [[spoiler:Abe Eiko]] is more than she seems. Near the end, it's revealed she was a Dark Side assassin who got herself benched by pretending to flub a mission. She teams up with Misaka-11111 to fight off the armed assailants after them... only to find out that the men are after someone entirely different and it has nothing to do with them.
** Speaking of, Touma shows up during the incident with very little explanation and helps fend off the armed men. [[spoiler:Abe Eiko]] also mentions having fought him before, and being annoyed that he got in the way of a "perfectly ordinary assassination."
** Misaka Mikoto and Shirai Kuroko show up because of the assailants as well. They both reference recent incidents that 11111 has nothing to do with. She's a little confused, and wishes they would use full names when speaking so that she knew who they were talking about.

* In the ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' books by Edward Packard, one gets the impression that recurring guest character Dr. Nera Vivaldi doesn't just show up only in adventures that happen to involve you.
* The ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' book ''The Crimson Tide'' tells the story of a child who was orphaned in the war that drives the plot of ''Black Vein Prophecy''.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In ''Stranger to the Sun'', once VoiceWithAnInternetConnection character Franklin Ayers-Bishop gets an inkling about the true nature of the EvilPlan, he quickly organizes many wizards in different countries to respond to the ritual the BigBad is doing to permanently shroud the Earth in darkness, all without ever meeting another named character in person.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In ''Spike & Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row'': Ariana describes Watchers Council director Trevor Kensington as "the oldest man she had ever seen" as well as "the most powerful." He has magical talents unmatched by most characters and [[BigBad Skrymir]] knows him by sight and asks "Will you ever die?" during their duel. All of this implies that Kensington has had his share of heroic exploits that the readers never learn about.
** In ''The Gatekeeper Trilogy'', Buffy and her friends are busy globe-trotting to deal with an apocalyptic threat which is causing Sunnydale to be even more dangerous and plagued by monsters than usual. Willow's fellow teenaged witch Amy Madison finds herself stepping into the Scooby Gang's role to try and protect the people of the town and does a good job at it, even though her efforts are only shown in two chapters of the {{Doorstopper}} trilogy.

** [[BoisterousBruiser Sanya]]. As of ''Small Favor'', he is the only active Knight of the Cross, which means that he is single-handedly patrolling the world and putting down various supernatural threats. This is a normally a job for three people, but, as Harry notes, he seems to be handling it with aplomb.

** Due to a reoccurring case of RandomTeleportation, [[spoiler: Annala]] becomes one of these in ''Literature/TranscendingLimitations''. [[PowersThatBe Order speaks]] of how she is "bouncing around [[TheMultiverse Noitearc]] thwarting the plans of his other principal servants". She herself will make off-hand reference to her off-screen adventures whenever she pops into the main narrative.

* Hawk between ''Literature/{{Spenser}}'' novels.

* Literature/{{Piranesi}} is an OntologicalMystery with an AmnesiacHero, but late in the story he encounters [[spoiler:policewoman Sarah Raphael, who helps him escape his situation. When she explains how she came to be there, it becomes clear that from her point of view, this has been a slightly more straightforward supernatural mystery, and her success in solving it is impressive. One of her colleagues later describes another problem she dealt with, and clearly regards her with admiration]].
* ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'':
** Sidmarkian Archbishop Zagyrsk and his staff spend the civil war providing food and medical care for forced laborers, preventing the inquisitors from harming people under their jurisdiction, and smuggling hundreds of children out of concentration camps. However, none of this is mentioned until the end of the conflict, when they meet Green Valley and he reveals his knowledge of their actions and praises them when they except to be arrested or worse as enemy prelates.
** In the eighth and ninth books, soldiers assigned to at least four concentration camps mutiny to try to save the prisoners (two groups succeed, one fails, and one is wiped out but does save some prisoners) but only of one of these mutinies is shown.

* ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' has various examples, the most memorable being Dana, who gets lost in the [[EldritchLocation Dog Park]], and Tamika Flynn, child leader of the revolution against Strexcorp.

* ''Podcast/MomCantCook'': A RunningGag is that in the films under review, side characters often seem to have far more interesting (or, at least, worrying) home lives than the main characters.

* ''Roleplay/FireEmblemOnForums'':
** ''[[Roleplay/FireEmblemOnForumsWonderfulBlessing Wonderful Blessing]]'': Kazuto's adventuring group, Great Grandee, is comprised of these. They have brief segments in the epilogue of each chapter catching up with them, painting them as barely a step behind (or ahead) of Team F, the protagonists. They begin to avert this later on when they end up joining Team F on their journey, however.

* Theatre/{{Hamlet}} in ''Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead''.

** The original ''NW2'' also applies, from the party members (such as Shandra, who even has a similar background to the Knight-Captain's) to [[spoiler: all of the major antagonists]].

* In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' SpinOff ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', the Chaotix are seen working toward figuring out something pivotal to the games plot, which involves collecting bits of data that prove pivotal to the Final Story of the game.

* In ''VideoGame/YuGiOhTheFalseboundKingdom'', there's sort of an In-Universe example. [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Trivia:Moisture_Creature Moisture Creature]] is included as a HiddenCharacter, and he claims to be an alien that got trapped inside the game and was identified as a monster character. (Not technically true, because Moisture Creature is a real card in the actually card game.)
* In ''VideoGames/Left4Dead2 '', throught the the stories of both games, messages made by other survivors can be found in the safe room, along with the sounds of distant gunfire and even a helicopter can be seen picking up survivors from one of the locations before the player can get to it. this is also seen with the uncommon infected "the fallen survivor".

* ''WebAnimation/{{Anon}}'': Dani and Mia were originally the main characters in another series by the creator, called Faux, before crossing over to the main show.

* On the cast page of ''Webcomic/{{Precocious}}'', Kaitlyn is described as "the central character in another strip". She literally became the Hero of Another Story later, with the introduction of the Precocious spinoff strip, [[http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/copperroad/index.html Copper Road]].
* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'':
** Othar Trygvassen (GentlemanAdventurer!) for much of the comic (as chronicled on his Twitter feed) until his story crosses with the main plot. And in his mind, he's still TheHero even when it does.
** Jiminez Hoffmann apparently spends a large chunk of his time getting into various adventures in order to [[NoodleIncident complete extra credit projects to improve his grade]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' has [[TwoLinesNoWaiting two groups of main characters]] in a [[RolePlayingGame RPG]] setting, one [[InUniverse as if it were a real world]] (the titular Goblins) and another who act like a group of RPG players, [[NoFourthWall making meta comments all the time]]. Then there's another RPG player group that fares poorly and seems only to show up to complain about their previous characters dying before dying again, yet reference adventures that aren't shown.
* ''Webcomic/LovelyLovecraft'': Randolph Carter. Armitage briefly touches on Carter's investigations with Warren (a story drawn directly from The Statement of Randolph Carter), and Iranon summarizes portions of Carter's adventures from Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath. However, Carter has not physically appeared in the main storyline of Webcomic/LovelyLovecraft.
* The Webcomic/{{Walkyverse}}, spanning as it does [[Webcomic/DieselSweeties at least]] [[Webcomic/GirlsWithSlingshots half]] [[Webcomic/QuestionableContent a dozen]] [[Webcomic/SomethingPositive different]] [[Webcomic/PennyAndAggie authors]], is a tangled, continuity-challenged rat's nest of this trope.
* ''Webcomic/MagickChicks'' inverts the trope with Melissa Hellrune. She was originally from ''Webcomic/EerieCuties'', where she was an antagonist to [[AloofDarkhairedGirl Layla]] [[LovableAlphaBitch Delacroix.]] But her popularity with the readers lead to her being given her own SpinOff comic, where she became the protagonist, who's gradually being reformed into a heroine -- though [[BeingGoodSucks she's reluctant to change her ways.]]
* ''Webcomic/MenageA3'' did the same with Dillon and Sandra, who were both given starring roles in their own spin-off comics: ''Webcomic/StickyDillyBuns'' (which shows Dillon's life in his own apartment in Montreal, and actually ends up spending a lot of time on his roommates) and ''Webcomic/SandraOnTheRocks'' (which follows Sandra's misadventures as a model in Paris, again with a fair amount of digression onto the rest of the cast).
* ''Webcomic/ExterminatusNow'' occasionally features Inquisitor Damien's hyper-competent B-Team and Inquisitor Deket's hyper-destructive C-Team. Inquisitor Brisbane also appears in numerous background and flashback shots and Schaefer was shown having his own adventures once.

* ''Webcomic/BuggedRun'' follows the plot of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen]]'' by about 15 minutes, with the main character routinely arriving at locations from the game just in time to deal with the fallout of the game's player character's actions.
* Murai in ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}''. She is A Hero and TheChosenOne. She has a Great, Heroic Destiny in front of her. She is also a mentally broken teenager, and not ''the'' hero; the story of ''Digger'' is not ''her'' story. As a result, her future heroic destiny and chosen-ness is not at all related to solving the issues of the story at all, and Murai spends much of it vacillating between feeling like TheLoad towards their current goals and [[ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne feeling crushed by her future destiny]]. Digger at one point opines that she hopes Murai [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere just ran away]] because it would be good for her to leave all that Destiny behind. [[spoiler:Murai does end up aiding Digger in a small but vital way near the end, and the Statue of Ganesh implies the events of the comic formed a vital part of her CharacterDevelopment for when it is her turn to become The Hero.]]
* ''All of us are dead'' while the main survivor group hide in the rooftop, Ha-ri spots 2 groups of 3 survivors trying to sneak their way out of school grounds using the rainy weather and fog, she and the others are able to help the group flee the school though their ultimate fates are left unkown.

* In ''Literature/PayMeBug'', there's some kind of coup in progress against Baron Minerva Tyrelos. [[TheCaptain Grif]] stumbles into the middle of it, and nearly gets himself killed. We never find out who's behind it, what their ultimate plan is, or whether the Baron's plan to [[spoiler:have her brother publicly take the blame]] ever worked.

* In ''Literature/ChronoHustle'' there are several TRD agents who are briefly shown or mentioned, who are often dealing with other issues than the main cast. Special mention goes to Elliot Bishop who joins up with the main characters at one point, and then later goes back to his previous mission. In addition there are the characters in the various time periods who have their own things going on, such as the crew of the Space Station Oracle in 2347, or the Neanderthal tribe in the stone age.
* ''Literature/TheTalesOfPaulTwister'' has two examples:
** [[ThePaladin Aylwyn]] is always off on Paladin business doing important things for the kingdom; her path just tends to cross with Paul's from time to time.
** In [[Literature/TheFateOfPaulTwister the second book,]] towards the end of the story Sarah leaves the narrative to lead a party of her own, to [[spoiler: rescue the captive princess from a dragon's agents]]. In the third book, we find out she was successful, but no details. In his narration, [[InvokedTrope Paul says that it's not his story to tell and he'll leave it to Sarah to maybe explain what happened some day.]]
* ''Literature/VoidDomain'' has something of an EnsembleCast. Tons of characters who all get their own chapters, each doing their own thing. Even with that, some characters never get a chapter but can still be seen doing things in the background.

* Former ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'' character Iron Liz was shown to be this when Linkara's MirrorUniverse double came looking for her.
-->'''Linkara:''' She's around, just doing her own thing.
* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': After Tary leaves Vox Machina, he returns to Wildemount and starts his own adventuring party, the Darrington Brigade. Background references imply that the Darrington Brigade is still active twenty years later during the Mighty Nein campaign. Additionally, most of the guest characters are going on adventures in their own right, and Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein detour to help them with their adventures about as often as they help the party with their ongoing goals.
* ''WebVideo/ThePerfectCastlevaniaTimeline'': Even though the series mostly focuses on the heroic exploits of the Belmont clan and their successors against Dracula, brief portions of the episodes are dedicated to those who fought the night in their own way, ranging from allies such as [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse Grant DaNasty]] and [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Maria Renard]], to wayward Belmonts such as [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaResurrection Victor]] and, of all people, [[VideoGame/{{Otomedius}} Kokoro]].

* In the pilot to ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Martha Kent mentions [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries "that nut in Gotham City"]]. The two heroes met later, setting the stage for the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse. There were multiple guest appearances of several DC heroes and villains in both [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries Superman]] and [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Batman]] (the former more than the latter); many of them went on to make appearances in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': Speedy might've gotten the shaft (no pun intended) on ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' but he was set up as a recurring hero on ''Teen Titans'' as a rival for Robin, eventually forming Titans East along with other heroes who had previous appearances.
* The future Justice League in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''.
* ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'': Rubberband Man became this after his HeelFaceTurn. Anansi is an active superhero in West Africa. Soul Power and Sparky are the RetiredBadass variety of this trope.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' has had a couple appearances by John Mind, a quadruple amputee whose limbs weren't blown off, but "blown ''in'', into his mind," giving him [[MindOverMatter telekinetic powers]]. He never has more than the most minimal effect on an episode's plot, but he apparently [[WalkingTheEarth walks the Earth]], having adventures as "[[DisabilitySuperpower Mind Quad]]."
* ''ComicBook/BuckyOHareAndTheToadWars'' had Commander Dogstar, commander of the sister ship of the ''Righteous Indignation'', the ''Indefatigable'', and his crew.
* The Justice League in ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice|2010}}.'' At one point, Professor Ivo escapes from the team, but appears in prison for most of the rest of the series. We're expected to assume that the Justice League caught him.
* ConversationalTroping in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''; when Bart loses his girlfriend to a rich [[TheAce Ace]], he fails to win her back at the end of the episode. When Bart protests that the protagonist of the story is supposed to get the girl, her new boyfriend counters that in this case, ''he'' is the protagonist.
* Elise in ''WesternAnimation/DanVs.'' She's a highly skilled spy who is almost always caught up in her own assignments, and it just so happens that these can often cross paths with Dan when he's on whatever his newest tirade is.
* Subverted with Zapp Brannigan on ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'', who has many off-screen adventures that are referred to briefly and treated as heroic by characters in-universe, but is actually a VillainWithGoodPublicity who mostly just leads hilariously one-sided battles against peaceful "foes" or exploits WeHaveReserves.

* The Scotsman of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack''. When he meets Jack (and is unaware of his fame) he regales how he's the most wanted man on the planet.
* [[spoiler: Simon Petrikov]] on ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' was a BadassBookworm who survived a nuclear apocalypse, became a ParentalSubstitute to a half-demon little girl in the aftermath of said apocalypse (instilling in her the desire to be a protector of humanity for years to come), and fought a constant mental battle to resist the [[WIthGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity corrupting influence]] of the [[ArtifactOfDoom enchanted crown]] that [[PowerAtAPrice allowed him to survive.]] Unfortunately, the show takes place centuries after [[DownerEnding he eventually lost that fight]], so most of the cast only knows him as the rather crazy and pathetic Ice King.

* Miyamoto Usagi of ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' is treated this way during his crossovers with the ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''. This is most apparent in ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'', where his guest episodes are told from his perspective with the turtles dropping in on his mission.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' has a minor character named Clare Cooper, who is the opposite of the show's actual main character in every way. Where Gumball is a hyperactive [[TheNewTens New Tens]]-era TalkingAnimal starring in a zany FantasticComedy, Clare is the TokenHuman of Anais's class, and seems to be the star of an angsty [[TheNineties Nineties]] TeenDrama called ''The So-Called World of Clare''. Her main gag is a not-so-InnerMonologue and the inability to recognize the fact that her mundane teen problems (like her father losing her job and having to move to Detroit) have a multitude of wacky and fantastical solutions in the world of Elmore (like getting her dad a job at the rainbow factory and buying her house back with a pot of leprechaun gold. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yes, really]]).
* The final arc of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersCyberverse'' features a number characters whose backstories and adventures have no connection to the Autobot-Decepticon War that drives most of the series.
* A good portion of the supporting cast from ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' were implied to be having their own adventures and stories going on outside of their encounters with the main characters.
* To say that Norman, immortal bodyguard supreme to ''WesternAnimation/MightyMax'', has led an interesting life would be an understatement. It seems he has actually been the basis of most of the heroic folktales and myths on Earth, canonically having been Thor, Hercules, and Gilgamesh at various points (though whether he was the actual hero or a stand-in when said hero was doing something else was left open for debate). Odds are if an episode's BigBad's scheme involves reviving some ancient destructive evil, Norman had a hand in putting them down the first time, and said creature tend to view this as "Round 2."
* ''WesternAnimation/SolarOpposites'':
** Yumyulack opted out of the gender-based plots in "The P.A.T.R.I.C.I.A. Device" and ended up having to return a bunch of koalas to the zoo after accidentally freeing them.
** In "Terry and Korvo Steal a Bear", we only see brief glimpses of the family's adventure, as the focus is mainly on the residents of the wall.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderman'': Frederick Fosswell has done Pulitzer Prize winning pieces of investigative journalism in the past and occasionally shows up in an undercover persona, investigating a villain independently of Peter.
* Season 4 of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' revealed that in the past Jameson used to be an IntrepidReporter known as "Jigsaw Jameson" with his own supporting cast, including a friend on the police force and an old flame, along with personal enemies of his own. He proves he's still got it when he decides to investigate who framed his friend Robbie Robertson, and is able to discover evidence all on his own without any help from Spider-Man.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': The show is about the USS ''Cerritos'', a service ship in Starfleet assigned with tasks such as courier duty, diplomatic services and second contact missions, but occasionally shows glimpses into the much more exciting things that the A-list ships and crews are getting up to.
** "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E07MuchAdoAboutBoimler Much Ado About Boimler]]" introduces the ''Oakland'', captained by Mariner's old friend Ramsey, who has made Captain rank at a young age, leads a crew who could make for the cast of a spinoff show of their own, and mentions a number of high-stakes adventures and incidents that they've been part of.
** William Riker (formerly Jean-Luc Picard's XO on the ''Enterprise'', now TheCaptain of the ''Titan'') has his own ongoing plotline in which he takes point in the recently-declared war against the Pakleds.
* ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'': The pilot and "Jumping the Guns" make it clear that the cliff gunners have thwarted several of Karnage's attempts to sneak into the city or attack it by force without any help from Baloo. In the latter episode, two guards playing checkers easily see through Karnage's latest disguise (covering his airship in smoke to seem like a cloud) and casually load their cannon to drive him off while laughing about a NoodleIncident where Karnage tried to sneak past them disguised as a parade float.

* In ''Literature/TheWarGods'', [[TheArchmage the white wizard Wencit of Rūm]] often crosses paths with the main characters Bahzell and Brandark. More than once he gives them help with whatever adventure they're on at the moment, but he always goes his own way after a while. Alll that they (and the reader) ever know is that Wencit is working to some schedule of his own, seeking to prepare for the day when the evil Council of Carnadosa tries to conquer Norfressa.

** ''Literature/TheFallOfGondolin'': As Tuor and Voronwë are travelling towards Gondolin, they briefly cross paths with "a tall man clothed in black and holding a long black sword then appeared and came towards them, calling out a name as if he were searching for
one who was lost. But without any speech he passed them by." Tuor will never know who that person was, as they've never met before, but he is his own first cousin Túrin, fleeing from the ruin of Nargothrond as told in ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin''.
** In ''Literature/TheHobbit'', while he's certainly involved in the main plot, Gandalf spends much of the novel attending to other matters, which turn out to be destroying the Mirkwood stronghold of the Necromancer, otherwise known as Sauron.

* When the ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' group meets the ''VideoGame/Left4Dead group'' in ''The Passing'', each group is this to the other group.

* In ''VideoGames/ Left 4 Dead 2 '', throught the the stories of both games, messages made by other survivors can be found in the safe room, along with the sounds of distant gunfire and even a helicopter can be seen picking up survivors from one of the locations before the player can get to it. this is also seen with the uncommon infected "the fallen survivor".

* In ''VideoGames/ Left 4 Dead '', throught the the stories of both games, messages made by other survivors can be found in the safe room, along with the sounds of distant gunfire and even a helicopter can be seen picking up survivors from one of the locations before the player can get to it. this is especially seen with the uncommon infected "the fallen survivor".

* ''Webcomic/All of us are dead'' while the main survivor group hide in the rooftop, Ha-ri spots 2 groups of 3 survivors trying to sneak their way out of school grounds using the rainy weather and fog, she and the others are able to help the group flee the school though their ultimate fates are left unkown.