Chapter Text
Peter Parker grinned as he easily dodged yet another fist. It was almost like fighting in slow motion with this guy. Peter told him so, which only served to further anger the big lug. Peter flipped over the thug’s back, and loosed a string of web at him. With another leap and a swift movement of his wrist the robber flew off his feet, hanging about twenty feet off the ground.
Peter stuck himself to the opposite wall to watch him struggle and curse.
“Yeah, I’d be careful with that. You’re only hanging on by a thread there pal, and it’s quite a long way down,” Peter whistled to better illustrate his point.
The would-be-robber instantly froze where he dangled as he realized just where he was. Peter wasn’t cruel though. He’d thoughtfully placed the robber over an open dumpster that way he’d have a nice soft place to land in the slim chance that he ended up falling before the police took him in. It also had the benefit of giving him something nice to smell while waiting for the police to pick him up.
“Maybe a little time out will help you learn your lesson about robbing nice old ladies,” Peter mimicked the way one would speak to a preschooler.
“When I get free, I’m going to kill you, you freak!” the thug roared.
“All right, buddy, good luck with that. Now, I have much better places to be than listen to your generic bad guy rant of causing my downfall. I’ve heard every variation these past few months, and its gotten old really quickly,” Peter muttered.
With that he climbed to the roof of the building. Peter leapt off the side of the building, and mid-fall he shot out a string of webbing at the nearest building. No matter how many times he did this the rush he experienced while web swinging never got old. He felt completely comfortable and in control while swinging through the air. There was no hesitation about his next move. He was free when he was swinging. All of Peter Parker’s worries, anxieties, and insecurities just fell away in the face of Spider-Man’s confidence.
He kept his senses on high alert even as he swung passed Avengers Tower. None of the Avengers were present at the moment. The Avengers were all off on some mission in Europe. Peter hadn’t been invited. The fifteen year old didn’t mind. He was only an unofficial Avenger, and it had been by his own choice. Peter still had a lot to learn, and there was plenty for him to do right here in New York City. New villains seemed to pop up every day.
Peter had just turned to start heading back home when he felt the telltale tingle at the back of his neck. It prompted him to land on the roof of the closest building. Peter’s eyes darted about trying to locate the danger his spidey-sense was desperately trying to warn him about. Normally he got a general sense of where the danger was coming from so he could avoid it. He rotated a full 360 degrees, and still there was nothing Peter could see to warrant the blaring warning signal going off in his head.
The feeling grew and grew until Peter actually had to grip the sides of his head in agony. His spidey-sense had never gone off like this before without the presence of impending physical harm. It was because he was so consumed by his spidey-sense that he didn’t notice what was going on beside him right away.
Taking a deep breath to try and calm himself he forced himself to open his eyes again when he heard a horrible noise like someone shredding metal.
“What the—?” Peter gaped at the glowing and churning hole that had suddenly appeared in the air. It looked like someone had just cut right through the very fabric of reality.
Peter slowly started to edge away from the swirling vortex. But the moment he took a step back he felt like something had hooked him just behind his bellybutton, and began to reel him towards the portal. Panicked, Peter shot out a string of web towards the chimney to halt the pull. It didn’t help as Peter was yanked right off his feet. The only thing keeping him from being sucked right through the split in reality was a string of web attached to a chimney.
But the chimney was not sturdy enough to counteract the strength of the pull of the vortex. The chimney cracked and broke. Peter tried to shoot out another string of web to a stronger anchor but everything was happening too quickly for even his enhanced senses to process.
Peter was sucked through the portal.
Peter couldn’t describe what happened next he only knew that he was absolutely terrified. He was so terrified he activated the Iron Spider protocol. Mr. Stark and he had worked together to build his suit. 90% of the time he didn’t need the added strength and protection that the Iron Spider suit afforded him. It felt like overkill wearing it when facing the everyday street thug.
But Mr. Stark had insisted that Peter needed it, as he never knew when he might find himself in a tricky situation. They had compromised by building a weaker version of the Iron Spider suit that could be incorporated into his other suit and could be activated with nanotech when Peter was facing an extreme danger.
Falling through the rip in reality was definitely a time Peter felt the need for a little extra protection. The suit had quickly formed around him but there was nothing else he could do but continue to hurtle through the darkness. He felt like he falling through space at incredible speeds, and he was afraid that he was going to be falling forever. Darkness and small bursts of color blurred around him for an unidentifiable amount of time until he eventually lost consciousness.
Peter woke to the sounds of a fight. His body ached all over, and his spidey-sense was still going haywire at the back of his skull. It was a supreme effort for him to roll over so that he wasn’t just laying face down in dirty concrete.
His rolling over a success he stared upwards at the ceiling of what he thought was a warehouse, an abandoned warehouse. Peter should know he’d spent enough time in abandoned warehouses since becoming Spider-Man. They were often the first choice of thugs and villains to conduct their nefarious activities, and for some reason there was always a plethora of them.
His strength slowly returning to him Peter lifted his head to see what sort of trouble he’d found himself in.
People in dark, ninja-esque clothing were fighting with a large caped figure in black and gray body armor, and another slightly smaller figure in black body armor with what looked like a blue bird on the chest. Peter didn’t recognize a single one of them.
“Oh, this is just wonderful. How do you always find yourself in situations like this, Spider-man?” he groaned but pulled himself up to his feet.
Peter didn’t understand what was going on here. He just knew he had to get far away from the fighting unfamiliar people, and regroup so he could figure out just what had happened.
Peter shook himself out. His aches and pains were quickly dispersing thanks to his healing ability.
“Time to blow this Popsicle stand,” Peter muttered.
Peter extended his wrist to shoot out a string of web so he could do just that.
“Stop him!” a female voice shouted.
Not willing to remain on the ground he followed through and shot out a string of web to one of the rafters. Peter easily swung himself upwards. Only once he had removed himself a short distance did he take a quick peek down.
The woman in the black body suit who had been fighting the largest caped figure was sprinting towards Peter’s location. With surprising dexterity she began to scale the side of the warehouse. The gray suited figure with the black bat symbol was hot on her tail.
The large man shot a grappling hook into the beam Peter was crouched on. Peter didn’t want to wait around for the two figures to converge on him. He leapt upwards and stuck himself to roof. Peter nimbly climbed across the underside of the roof to a hole in the metal. It was a small hole but Peter was leanly built, and flexible beyond the norms of a human being. He easily slipped himself through.
Free of the warehouse he took quick stock of his surroundings. Choosing a direction Peter sprinted across the roof and leapt to the next building. He was cutting a path across the rows of abandoned warehouses towards the skyscrapers in the distance. Peter would have the advantage there. He had a greater chance of losing his unknown pursuers, and regrouping to figure out just what was going on.
It did make his stomach churn to realize he didn’t recognize the cityscape. He knew for a fact he wasn’t in New York City anymore. Peter needed to find a place to hide himself, and call Mr. Stark. He needed backup because a quick look back showed the man in the bat suit and the woman in the black body suit with the plunging neckline were still chasing him.
But Peter was faster, and soon he made it to the end of the warehouse district. He shot off a string of web at the closest building. Then Peter was off swinging through the streets. He quickly shook off his pursuers. But Peter quickly became lost himself. The further he swung the more aware he became that he had no idea where he was. There wasn’t a single recognizable landmark to aid him in figuring out what city he’d ended up in.
Eventually Peter settled into an abandoned home. There seemed to be plenty of them in this crumbling city.
He quickly fished out his StarkPhone and called Mr. Stark only for his phone to tell him the call could not connect.
“What? This can’t be right,” Peter hissed in confusion.
Mr. Stark had given Peter his own personal StarkPhone model. It was the advanced model that Stark Industries didn’t sell to the public. Peter’s phone had an exclusive connection to Mr. Stark’s personal cellphone towers, and satellites. Peter should have been able to call Mr. Stark from anywhere on the planet and within a certain distance from the Earth.
Just to make sure it wasn’t Mr. Stark who was unavailable since he was on a covert mission, Peter called Ned. But still the call didn’t go through. The same was said for his Aunt May and MJ.
“Okay, what to do? What to do, Spider-Man?” Peter paced across the floor of the dusty old house, trying to think and come up with a plan of action. He had long since deactivated the Iron Spider suit.
He was being chased by strange ninja people who may or may not be responsible for teleporting him here intentionally or accidentally. Peter couldn’t see why it would be intentional. What could these strangers possibly want with him? Sure Spider-Man had some enemies but most of them liked to attack him personally. They didn’t hire other people to do it for them.
Sirens and a massive inhuman roar echoed through the streets and interrupted his chaotic thoughts. The sirens and roar were followed by the sound of shattering glass, and the reverberations of something heavy slamming into something else.
A sigh passed through his lips as he halted his pacing, and walked to the window.
“Just can’t catch a break tonight, Parker,” he grumbled to himself.
He would have ignored it if it had just been the sirens. Peter wasn’t exactly in top form, and the police were trained professionals. He’d learned over his time as Spider-Man that he couldn’t be everywhere at once. There were just some things he would have to let the police handle. But the inhuman roar pointed to something superhuman, and Peter didn’t feel comfortable leaving the police to deal with that on their own even if he was in a strange and unfamiliar city.
With great reluctance he left the safety of the abandoned house and headed towards the sounds of the ever-increasing roars and sirens, which were now accompanied by the sounds of gunfire. The further Peter swung through the streets the more he was struck by an overwhelming sense of wrongness. There was something off about the buildings around him. Admittedly he didn’t know the layouts of every city in America but still there should be some familiar landmark letting him know where he was.
Peter tried to shake away the feeling. He was about to get into a fight with a possible superhuman or maybe some villain’s monstrous creation. There wasn’t any time to analyze his surroundings as he was rapidly approaching his destination.
He came to rest on the edge of a nearby building to get a quick analysis of the situation. The scene in front of him revealed a couple of police cars blocking in a monstrous form in the middle of the street. One police car had crashed into a streetlamp. The being the police were facing off against had ripped the door off the crashed police car to use as a shield from the bullets flying through the air.
Peter could only catch glimpses of the creature’s appearance behind the car door. It was obviously larger than a normal man. It had to be at least seven and a half feet tall, and broad shouldered. Peter was also able to make out hints of green scales. There was only one person Peter knew who fit the bill.
“Dr. Connors? How’d you get here? More importantly how did you escape from SHIELD?” Peter frowned, scratching his head.
The last he knew Dr. Curt Connors, AKA the Lizard, had been locked up in some super secret SHIELD base. Peter should know he had been the one to take him into custody for trying to turn the people of New York City into giant lizard people…for the third time. Dr. Connors was a brilliant scientist. The Lizard on the other hand wasn’t exactly the most original of villains, and had yet to give up on his dream of turning everyone into giant sapient reptiles. But Peter shouldn’t complain. Predictability was a pretty decent trait for a super villain to have.
“Oh, well. I guess I have to stop you from trying to turn the good people into lizards for the fourth time,” Peter leapt from the building.
He swung around behind Dr. Connors to attack him from his blind spot. Peter didn’t hesitate to launch his attack, knowing just how hard he had to hit the Lizard to slow him down but not fatally wound him. Just before his feet connected with Dr. Connors’s back, Peter realized that something wasn’t quite right about him. Just like the buildings there was something that felt off about Dr. Connors.
But it was too late for further observation. Peter slammed feet first into the reptile man, and launched the man a good fifteen feet through the air. Dr. Connors skipped along the pavement like a flat stone across water still clutching the police car door, which aided him in his skidding.
Peter landed on the roof of the destroyed police car to try and process why exactly he had experienced that sense of wrongness just before making contact. The police had stopped firing so he was able to think without trying to dodge gunfire.
He watched closely as the reptile-man slowly climbed back to his feet. His clawed hands rubbing at his back where Peter had kicked him. It struck Peter like a lightning bolt. He knew what was off about the Lizard. This green-scaled man didn’t have a tail. Maybe Dr. Connors had gotten sick of it, and decided to tweak his serum? But no, that strong, prehensile tail had provided him with a great advantage during their fights.
The tingling sensation at the back of his skull went off before he could consider it further. Automatically, Peter jumped ten feet in the air completing a neat flip all while a car door tore through the space he had just occupied.
“Come on, Dr. Connors, can’t we at least be civil?” Peter cajoled as he webbed up the flying car door and flung it back towards the scientist before swinging up to land on the street lamp directly above the lizard-man.
“Who’s Dr. Connors?” the lizard-man in question growled as he deftly dodged the door.
Peter’s mouth dropped open as he got his first close up look of the reptile man’s face. Dr. Connors was completely green with smooth scales, and the slightest of snouts that made his face more reptilian than human.
This man was covered with spikey scales that were a mix of green, gray, and a patch of white on the underside of his neck and chest. His face was more human-like, however, the corners of his mouth stretched nearly to side of his head with curved teeth peeking over the lips. He was also more muscular than Dr. Connors was. Peter was given an up close look of his musculature since the man was only wearing orange cargo pants that read Arkham Asylum Inmate on one of the pant legs.
All in all he created a much more menacing picture than Dr. Connors did in his ripped lab coat. But at least he didn’t have a tail. Peter could definitely work with a lack of tail.
“Not you apparently. My mistake my good fellow. Honestly, I have no idea how I ever made the mistake. You obviously belong more to the crocodile genus then the lizard,” Peter then proceeded to shoot a string of web into the face of his new reptilian friend without warning.
The web did its job of clamping Not-Dr. Connor’s fearsome jaws together. Peter didn’t want to run the risk of a bite from those chompers. Obviously, the crocodile man didn’t like having his mouth covered, and immediately tried to claw off the webbing with his impressive claws. Peter responded by webbing his hand to his face since he was going to be so cooperative in putting them in the same place.
Peter told him so, and the muffled roar he received in reply made him grin.
The new reptile villain was so enraged he gave up trying to get free of the webbing. Croc Man made the brilliant decision to just launch himself at where Peter was perched above him on the street lamp. His one free hand was outstretched and ready to tear out Peter’s throat. Peter flipped clear just as the Croc ferociously slammed into the pole. The poor pole was completely uprooted, and crashed onto the ground destroying the sidewalk beneath it. The crocodile guy also crashed, breaking the pavement with his face.
But it didn’t keep him down for long. Growling the crocodile man pushed himself back to his feet. One hand still webbed to his face, and the other clenching as if imagining crushing Peter’s throat. He was familiar with the action, Spider-Man tended to get that reaction quite a lot. Angry growls were rumbling from Croc’s chest. He was clearly very pissed off now. Not that he wasn’t before, but now he was eyeing Peter with a little more caution. Peter couldn’t have that.
“Well? You just gonna stand there and stare at me all night or are you gonna fight me? Or maybe you’re scared of little old me. I would be too. Spiders are quite the vicious predators. Smarter too,” Peter prompted, adding more than a hint of cockiness to his voice.
He knew it would further anger the Croc Man. Cockiness always pissed the bad guys off, and it would lead to them trying something stupid to get back at him. Not that Croc Man had proven to have an astounding strategic mind or anything. But Peter needed him angry enough to charge him again so that Peter could wrap up this fight and finally get back to figuring out just what was going on.
Peter didn’t have to wait long before his plan came to fruition. The crocodile man couldn’t take his taunting, and despite his better judgment, charged the spider-themed hero. Now that the large reptilian man had committed all of his energy into a charge he wouldn’t be as focused on dodging. Peter shot several blasts of webbing at the croc’s legs in rapid succession, covering his orange clad legs. Finally he fired a long string he held on to, and gave hard yank. It sent the big, reptile man crashing into the pavement.
Peter didn’t waste any more time in observing his newest enemy. He jumped and landed squarely on the Croc’s chest. A quick punch to the jaw knocked the Croc back, disorienting him but not completely knocking him out. Peter didn’t want to hit him as hard as he could, not knowing just how durable the man was. Croc Man did take a kick from him earlier but Peter wanted to be careful when he had the opportunity to be.
So instead of knocking him into unconsciousness Peter set about wrapping him securely in a cocoon of webbing before Croc Man could gather his wits about him, and try to escape. His legs were already pretty secured but Peter wasn’t sure how strong this guy was so Peter didn’t think another dose would hurt him.
Then he scooped the big lug up and dropped him off in front of the stunned police officers. An older officer with graying red hair stepped forward, and the others followed his lead.
“That should hold him for the next two hours then the webbing will start to dissolve. So you should make sure you get him somewhere more secure before then,” Peter informed them.
“Thank you, for stopping him. Things have been crazy since the breakout. You did a great job. What’s your name?” the red haired officer asked. His name was apparently Bullock according to his uniform.
Peter winced, glad that these people couldn’t actually see his face. He may not be on the Avengers’ level but he thought he was at least recognizable. But glancing around at these curious officer’s faces told him that they honestly had no idea who he was.
“Spider-Man? Is that name ringing any bells?” Peter asked, his heart was racing, and he was feeling strangely nauseous.
“Sorry, never heard the name before,” Bullock glanced at his fellow officers for confirmation.
They all shook their heads in the negative.
Peter’s heart dropped. His eyes traced quickly over the scene before him. Part of him was waiting for Iron Man to jump out from behind one of the police cars yelling ‘gotcha’ and laughing about how he’d tricked Peter.
But that didn’t happen; instead his eyes caught on the side of one the police cars. It read Gotham City Police Department.
“Gotham City? Where’s Gotham City exactly?” he murmured.
“Uh, this is Gotham,” Bullock waved a vague hand around them. The man’s brows were crinkled in confusion.
“And Gotham is in which state?”
“New Jersey…” Bullock now looked completely bewildered.
“Right, I should probably go now,” Peter didn’t wait for a response.
He crouched and leapt straight upward, easily clearing twenty feet in a single jump. He shot out a string of web, and swung away as fast as he possibly could from the situation.
But the more he swung through the city the more his panic set in. Gotham City didn’t exist. Peter was absolutely certain of that. But here was proof all around him that he was in fact in Gotham City.
Eventually Peter collapsed on a rooftop clutching a newspaper in his shaking hands. The paper was titled the Gotham Gazette. He’d pilfered it from the trash in his desperation to figure out where he was. He quickly scanned through the pages of the wrinkled newspaper. There were a few coffee stains making some of it illegible but Peter was able to get the general gist.
He set the newspaper aside once he’d read it all the way through, and fumbled to pull his phone out once more. Once more none of his calls went through. Peter couldn’t get ahold of anyone.
Peter hunched forward as his panic set in. This couldn’t be possible.
What was going on? What was he going to do?
He was stuck here on a random rooftop in a city that shouldn’t exist without any way to contact anyone he knew for help.
Peter had no idea what to do next.
The Gotham Gazette had articles about billion dollar companies he’d never heard of before. Luthor Corp, Wayne Enterprises, and Queen Incorporated were all complete unknowns. There were a couple articles about global incidents that Peter definitely would have heard about if they had actually happened. Giant, talking gorillas attacking a city was definitely something he would have remembered. The names of the heroes involved in the incident were also completely unfamiliar to Peter. Flash and Kid Flash seemed to have powers similar to Quicksilver but Peter had certainly never heard of them before.
The local heroes and villains of Gotham were also mentioned. There had been a break out from the local asylum, Arkham Asylum like on the croc guy’s pants, and a bunch of super crazed, super villains had escaped into the streets of Gotham. The article mentioned that the entire Bat Clan was out in force to try and round up all the crazed super villains. Whoever the Bat Clan was. The article hadn’t talked much about them beyond listing their names meaning they assumed their readers already knew everything about them.
There was only one explanation to this situation, and it was an explanation that Peter wasn’t quite ready to accept just yet despite all of the evidence piling up in front of him.
He needed to sleep. Peter was exhausted, and maybe if he just got some rest it would help to recharge his brain. He could deal with whatever this situation was in the morning.
With that decision made his next course of action was finding a secure place for him to sleep. Peter was just about to launch himself from the roof when his spidey-sense went off.
His body automatically twisted to the left, and out of the path of danger. Peter’s ears picked up the sound of something small and fast speeding by as he dodged out of the way of the unknown projectile. He came to perch on the side of the roof facing the newest threat in this never-ending, awful night had decided to throw at him.
Behind him stood a dark haired teenager who was several inches shorter than Peter, and was probably a couple of years younger as well. He was dressed in a form fitting red and black suit with hints of yellow. He wore thick straps in an X across his chest, a black domino mask covered the top of his face, and he was wearing an honest to Thor cape.
In one gloved hand he was holding a small disk, which the red clad figure was in the midst of tossing at Peter. Spider-Man dodged that projectile as well but decided not to immediately attack. He was mentally and physically exhausted besides he didn’t exactly want to beat up someone clearly younger than himself. If at all possible he wanted to try and keep this from turning into a physical altercation.
“Listen, it’s been a really long night, and I’d love to stay and chat with you but I’m beat. So what do you say we reschedule this little meet and greet for another night,” Peter offered.
“I don’t think so. When someone just shows up out of the blue like that and takes out Killer Croc we kind of need to know about it,” the caped guy responded.
“His name was Killer Croc? So much more original than the Lizard,” Peter muttered.
“You didn’t even know who you were fighting? Great yet another reckless newbie running around as if we didn’t have enough problems right now,” Cape Guy groaned.
“Excuse you? Who are you calling a newbie? Aren’t you like thirteen?” Peter growled feeling more than a little irritated at having to deal with this guy’s attitude on top of his already confusing situation.
“I’m sure you’ve gained a lot of experience in your one night of patrolling Gotham. But I really need you to come with me,” Cape Guy pulled another disk from the pouch on his chest straps.
This time Peter didn’t give him a chance to throw it. He’d given this guy a chance to walk away, and now Spider-Man was tired and annoyed.
Peter shot out a string of web. The web hit his target, and latched on to the masked teenager’s chest. One hard yank snatched the guy off his feet. Cape Guy was surprisingly graceful, and succeeded in turning the fall into a roll that landed him right back on his feet.
Seeing a hint of the skill his opponent possessed Peter launched into a flurry of movement. He didn’t want to draw this out into a long fight, and he had no idea what other surprises this guy might have in those pouches. Peter struck the other masked person in rapid succession. He was careful not to hit too hard not knowing just how durable this guy was or how much his suit was capable of protecting him. Peter hit just hard enough to knock Cape Guy off his feet and disorient him so he could adhere him to the roof with webbing.
Feeling a little vindictive Peter crouched over Cape Guy.
“Who’s the newbie now?”
The red and black figure thrashed angrily in his webbing.
“Don’t worry it will dissolve in an hour or two,” Peter reassured him, and patted him on the head.
Peter didn’t wait around to hear the kid’s response. He launched himself off the side of the roof. He quickly put as much distance between himself and that particular rooftop as he could.
Peter halted his escape at the first abandoned warehouse he could find. He crafted himself a little hammock high up in the corner of the warehouse with the longer lasting webbing he kept for special occasions. Peter actually really enjoyed sleeping up off the ground. It must have been the spider DNA in him. When he was he having trouble sleeping at home he would weave himself a little hammock in the corner of his room, and he would go right to sleep.
Despite how comfy he was tucked away in his web, Peter had a difficult time falling asleep. His mind wouldn’t stop racing through the night’s events even though he was exhausted. He was worried about his Aunt May. What would his aunt think when she woke up in the morning and Peter wasn’t in his room? Peter always managed to make it home before she woke up no matter how banged up he got.