Chapter Text
“what the fuckkk” Nightwing said looking at the screen, where he saw a literal copy of him.
It’s been a few hours they all grouped up in the cave to debrief and make their reports. All of them were there expect Jason who had ‘better shit to do’
All that to call Barbara later to update him.
All of them made their reports: what they saw, who they saw, what they found.But there was still something missing. The kid. The one fighting that night.
Looking at Stephanie’s body camera, Bruce didn’t know what to expect, an overpowered kid maybe. But he wasn’t expecting a kid with his oldest face. Not one bit.
When the video played on the wide screen of the batcomputer, nobody noticed. The kid was way too fast. A speedster ? Then Damian faced shifted in a twist. Eyes squinting.
“He looks so much like Grayson.”
Nobody spoke, nobody even moved. Damian is pretty sure Dick stopped breathing. And, only when his little brother mentioned it. He noticed it, the kid really looked like him. The way his eyes plissed, how he bit his lips. All the little manners that made dick who he was.
“ A clone ?” Tim said ,he was the first one to say something. Bruce only looked at the screen, he didn’t say a word since Damian pointed it out.
“Eye and hair color don’t match, but maybe he could be like a bad clone, Bruce have you got the files Boyle had ?” Tim said, continuing his thoughts.
“Man what is this shit again, I thought we were done with cloning shit.” Steph said pitching the bridge of her nose. “I’m going to sleep, my body is so soreee. I’m sleeping here by the way.” She said while leaving the cave, waving her hands.
“So do you have the files ?” Tim said, looking at Bruce. He started lifting papers to-he thoughts- find them, after only a couple of seconds he pulled a very thick folder.
“It’s all of their information, are you okay Dick ?” Bruce said turning to his oldest son, making the rest of them- Tim,Cass,Damian and Alfred ( who nobody noticed coming down)- all of their eyes of the first Robin
“Uh-yeah i think, i don’t really..” his eyes haven’t left the screen once, still locked on somebody who has his face.
Tim took the thick folder from Bruce’s hand, page after page, meta after meta.
“Found it.” He said after a while. Everyone turned to him.
“What?” He said while reading, eyebrows frowning.
“ His name is …. Seven ? There isn’t one single thing about him.” While he said that he looked at the other pages. “There isn’t a single thing about any of them. Only fucking numbers to differentiate them. The only information about them is their ability and their mutations.” Turning back to the mystery boy’s pages.
After a little while he finally said. Eyebrow shot up
“Congratulations Dick, it’s a spider.”
“WHAT??” They all shot up, Bruce raising from his seat to take a look. Dick followed soon after.
“Should I call Clark ?” Tim said,looking up at Bruce.
“Look here, Frank wrote the location where he all found them. If you compare with the others, most of them were homeless. But him,he was at the old laboratory from Crowne Hills.
Dick froze up. “He was where ? Holy shit I really have a fifteen years old clone.”
Bruce is still reading the kid report, his ability. Sticking, enhanced strength, webs (??). What happened to this kid.
“We need to find him.” He finally said looking up at Dick.
“ Richard, you need to tell yourself, he could be dangerous, he could be here to hurt you.” Damian ended up saying after a long silence.
For a little while nobody spoke, awkward silence monopolizing the space.
“He might be homeless, the lack of address is a give away, on patrol be aware of him. Look for any signs of him or anything. Don’t engage.” Bruce said in a tone that leaves no place for negotiation.
Well this situation sucks ass doesn’t it ??
Having no idea where he was, and nobody answering his calls. He was alone. He still has absolutely no idea of how he got here. That part is worrying him the most. What have they done to Spider-Man to make him have temporary amnesia ?
So yeah he didn’t get a good night sleep, having nowhere to go he roamed around the city. She still felt dangerous. His spider-senses clearly didn’t like it. Always on the edge, ringing in his hears.
After some time he was tired, so damn tired. He wondered how much he slept the last few days. Probably not a lot, what did they taught him if he was in a place alone?Find shelters or something. well duh. But something tells him to not trust any homeless shelter here. Yeah sounds about right, this city sounds rotten like that.
Was he desperate enough to sleep outside ? Yes, yes he was. Maybe he could find a building or something like that. The more he walked, the more he saw of this city, mugging everywhere, shooting everywhere. People screaming and crying. Heart beating so fast. And some not beating at all.
How Peter never heard of this city before with how much crime it seemed to have drove him insane.
New Jersey-ew- wasn’t THAT far from New-york and mostly he would have heard about their heroes? Nothing made sense. His mind was fussing about every little detail. Everything was still blurry, he can’t seem to concentrate on anything. Everything is blurry.
And suddenly every little sound decided to be loud. So loud. The footsteps of people made him wince, the muttering from two streets over seemed to be right in his hears.
!GO UP!SAFE!UP!
For once since he first got here he was thankful for the spider inside him. Making a turn, from an old alley he webbed himself to the top of the building. There was no heartbeat in this building. At least from the five last floor. He pushed himself to the ground. Taking the air, he felt like he hasn’t breathed in forever. For absolutely no reason at all:he was shaking. Trembling so much, he couldn’t stop. Maybe it’s the fear of this unknown place, the incertitude of tomorrow.
Tears were falling from his eyes. It wasn’t sad tears, well maybe a little bit, but mostly tired. He thought he was better, he thought he was making a change, for himself, for the other. Why was he alone again. He never felt this lonely in his whole life than he did right now. The tears turned into uncontrollable sobs.
He couldn’t stop himself. He missed May so much. Why was he alone here ?
His pity party was interrupted by his spider-senses, which was very rude if you ask him, who bothers a crying teenager ?
!BEHIND!SAFE?FRIEND?
as he was about to look, he heard grappling sounds from behind him, footsteps followed soon after, they were deliberately loud. This person didn’t want him to be scared.
“Hey kid, you okay, mind backing up a little bit” the voice said. He looked and saw a tall man, black hair wearing a domino mask, white lenses hiding his eyes. The man was wearing a black skin suit with a blue bird on his chest.
“Kid you good ?” Okay, don’t throw tomatoes at him. When Nightwing first saw a kid on the edge of the building he just wanted to make sure he was okay. He didn’t know it was his clone -7- god he didn’t even know his name, only a number. Not that he was looking for him tonight if anyone asked him.
The kid looked rough, like really bad,he was crying, eyes so red and swollen, he was also shaking, why was he crying ? And the fact the kid wasn’t backing up made his heart race.
He took two steps forward the kid, he seemed out of it, was he dissociating ? No his eyes were following his mouvement, trying to calm himself.
“Can you please come to me ? I promise I won’t hurt you” he understood where all his family came from, you can’t survive this long being a vigilante without paranoia. But he was just a kid, a terrified one on top of that.He felt like he kinda owned Peter for what,his clone, went through because of him.God if Damian saw him right now, he would tear dick open for being careless. He wasn’t. He definitely knew what he was doing.
He took two steps further, trying to make himself look friendly.
“Y-yeah, yeah I’m good don’t worry” he finally said, voice rough from sobbing, his heart swelled.
“Are you sure, you don’t seem fine, you know it’s okay to cry,you wanna talk about it” he swears he saw more tears in the kid’s eyes.
“No it’s fine” he tried to chuckle “you can go back to whatever crime you have to fight, i swear I’m good, just overreacting you know” he said trying to laugh. But yeah no. The kid sat back down. Dick sat next to him.
“What’s your name kid ?”
“Peter” Peter. He liked that name
“Suit you” he finally said after a silence, he heard the kid-Peter- snort
“And you ? What’s your hero name ?” What? Maybe he was more at Bludhaven than he thought.
“You don’t know me ?” He said smirking, looking at Peter.
“Should i ?” He said teasingly “not very humble of you”
Nightwing laughed. “ yeah you’re right sorry, I’m Nightwing” he said smiling, the same smile Peter had.
“I’m Nightwing” god even his hero name was cool. When Nightwing first approached him, he tried to calm himself down, to not embarrass himself in front of a hero,vigilante whatever Nightwing was.
The way he talked was smoothing, he reminded him of May in a way, making him want to cry even more.
Now he realizes Nightwing probably thought he was going to jump from the building, he just needs to convince the vigilante he was fine and hop he goes!
Kinda hard to do when he can’t stop crying. He probably looks like shit. Talk about an aura, green aura with flies.
“So, Peter, were you going to jump?” Nightwing said, damn he was blunt.
“NO-i mean no, I just wanted peace, it’s so loud here. I just wanted to take a breath. Only for a few minutes and I was gonna come down I swear !” He said fast
“Why are you crying? ” he saw nightwing eyebrows frown. But the tone of his voice was soft
“Is this an interrogation ?” He said jokingly through one sobs
“It might be, so what got you so worked up?”
Peter only shrugged, what is there to say ? He woke up in a bad place, no idea where and he was alone. Wait,maybe Nightwing could help him. He’s a vigilante right ? And until now his spider-senses trusted the man, Peter learned to trust his senses more than himself.
He opened his mouth then, he heard something in nightwing’s hears, something static.
‘Wing, they need you in the Bowery scarecrow leaked fear toxin in the streets, and be aware of the spider-meta we still don’t know if he’s dangerous or not.’ A feminine voice said through a comm,
Spider-meta. Dangerous.
They think he’s dangerous?
“Shit- I need to go Pete. Stay here I will be back and you can talk to me” he said while grappling away.
He didn’t move until nightwing’s heartbeat was out of range.
Scarecrow? Who was that?
Suddenly he heard screaming everywhere. He quickly got up and got down to see what was going on.
!NO!BAD!GO!
Well it isn’t an option now is it ? Spider-man isn’t here but it doesn’t mean Peter Parker can’t help.
As he went towards the screams, running faster than a civilian probably should. The screams and trashing sounds were more and more present.
The scene in front of him was a nightmare, people tearing into each other, children crying, other people hurting themselves. The transparent-green fog was everywhere.
Peter tried to locate where the leak was coming from. He saw an old truck knocked on the ground,most of the fog was coming out of it. It was worth a shot.
He ran over there, his plan was simple really, whatever was leaking from it-fear toxin- he reminded himself. And web it up. Easy enough right? And if he got intoxicated with it his metabolism would just burn it through. Yeah that was a good plan.
Running towards the truck, he was other vigilante, nightwing’s co-workers maybe. One was trying to calm the civilian, and another, oh he remember this one, the big bat dude,terrifying. He was beating a, what even was that, a human scarecrow?? what IS WRONG with this city. Someone GET HIM OUT OF HERE.
As he was in front of the truck, he put the collar of his black hoodie on his nose, he knew it wasn’t going to do anything, but let him dream a little.
In the back of the truck there was at least a dozen barrels, all of them leaking out the gas. He checked his wrist and put his webs to work.
He started to web the barrel from the back, he webbed them up quickly, but the more he started to web, the harder it was to breath, black sport intruding his vision, it was harder to see, to think, to do anything.
He webbed the last barrel and quickly got away, he only made two steps, then he crashed into someone, the person said something but he couldn’t make out the words. His mind was filled with other voices, sounds, sounds he was sure wasn’t there. He started to run, run where? Why was he running ? Hallucination started to be omnipresent in his vision, dead corpse, all the people he couldn’t save as Spider-Man, aunt may.
He got in a dirty alley to hide, hide from who ? Himself ?
he didn’t even hears the footsteps of the same man from earlier, following him
‘Dammit’ kid what did ya do’ was the last thing he heard before falling into unconsciousness.