Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

it was a dark night in gotham, only the street lights were on. that however didn't mean that it was a good night. it was rarely a good night in gotham due to the rampant crime that was tearing the city of gotham apart. of course criminals were out tonight. they were always out no matter the time of day.

"come on boys! batman and robin are dealing with all the big boys from arkham tonight!" one of the crooks said to his three friends while they were breaking into the store. crook one busted the lock and opened the door. all four of them ran into the store, crook two ran to the cash register and started putting money in his pocket. crook 3 was looking at the pies and his stomach rumbled, he kicked his lips under his ski mask and grabbed the pies. "aw yeah this is a score!" called out crook four.

"you guys know this store is closed right?" 

they all looked around looking wondering where the voice was coming and then were blinded by a red light beaming down on them in the shape of a mask. "who's there?!" one of the crooks called out. with a blur a figure shot from by the door and landed on the shoulder of crook one and then he leaned back and threw the crook outside into a lamppost outside.  the person landed into a pose while staring down the crooks from behind his mask. "you're friendly neighborhood spider-man is here! who did you expect? the flash?" the vigilante asked the stunned crooks.

the crooks got over their shock and crook 2 pulled out a gun. "eat lead you freak!" but before he could even pulled the trigger a sticky white substance that looked like webs covered his hand. he was then pulled into a clothline and knocked out. crook 3 roared and threw the pies at spider-man, however with delicate feet the pies were kicked back at the crook and his face was covered in pie. "i can't see!" he called out while whipping the pie off his face. when he was finally able to see he was met with a mean jab to the face. "looks like humpty dumpty had a big fall." the hero quipped as the crook fell. 

the fourth crook picked up the crowbar that the first crook dropped and attempted to strike the spider powered male. "too slow!" spider-man taunted while he danced out of reach of the crook. he shot a web at the face of the crook and then flipped him on to another crook. 

he dragged all the crooks outside and webbed them to a lamp post. he reached into his costume and pulled out a card that read "from your friendly neighborhood spider-man." after he was done shot a web at a building and leaped up to a building and landed on the side of it's wall. he climbed up and grabbed a camera that he had webbed there before he stopped the crooks. "i hope these are good or jameson will have my head." 

sirens blared in the background and spider-man leapt from his spot on the building, tucked his camera into his costume and swung off. hopefully it wasn't late because aunt may had started putting him on a curfew after he started coming back home at odd hours of the night due to spider-man related actives. peter's phone started ringing as if it knew he was thinking about her. he pulled his mask up so that his mouth was free and answered her call.

"peter where are you at? it's almost 10:00. you know you can't be out past curfew." aunt may reminded him.

"i'm on my way from the library, aunt may. i'll be home soon." 

"see you when you get in." 

with a click of a button the call ended and spider-man head home.

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bruce sat in front of the batcomputer replaying camera footage that gordon at sent him. jason stood behind him and yawned. "is that the spider guy? i've been hearing rumors about him. the bugle thinks the guys a menace and only a freelance photographer has been able to get pictures of him."

bruce nodded and showed jason the card that gordon had gave him. jason took the card and looked it over.  

"apparently he leaves these at every crimes he stops and leaves criminals in webs." bruce said and then pulled up the villains and criminals that spider-man had stopped. "he's mainly gone up against common thugs, however he has beaten us to detaining kite man and also the enforcers." 

"so he's only gone against the small fry of gotham. do you think he'll be able to take down the heavy hitters if he encounters them?" jason inquired, wondering what his mentor was thinking about the new vigilante. bruce was the detective after all. he seemed to always have an answer for something. and when he didn't he eventually would have the answer.

"from the footage i've gotten from gordon it seems like he's a meta so he has that going for him. however i can tell he's an untrain fighter. his form isn't good. it seems like he's only relying on his instinct and powers to fight. maybe he would be able to defeat some of the more dangerous villains but without the proper skill he could end up getting himself killed." 

"so should we stop him from getting himself killed?" 

"we'll see." bruce got up from the batcomputer and turned towards jason. "it's a school night and it's after midnight. you should go get some sleep before it's time to get up." 

"oh alright." jason rolled his eyes and together the pair walked towards one of the entrances that led up to wayne manor. 

Chapter Text

"peter get up, you don't want to be late for school." aunt may called from behind his door. peter groaned and got up from his bed and stretched. he looked around for his scattered costume and then grabbed the clothes he was going to wear for the day. ever since he got his powers his fashion changed a bit due to his new found confidence that even flash thompson his former bully but still occasional antagonist didn't know where it came from. peter looked into his closet and grabbed a red and black flannel shirt, black jeans, a gray sweater, and to complete the look a blue jean jacket. 

looking around the room he found his web-shooters that he finally made resemble a watch and he even found a way to program it's face to resemble a watch face when he wasn't in costume after an intense youtube binge . the old model web-shooters were too big and clunky to hide under his sleeves. these new ones were lightweight and could incorporate more web-fluid then the previous model.

he tucked his costume into his messager bag and hurried off to the bathroom to shower and get dressed for the school day. after his shower he dressed went to his room and grabbed his messenger bag. he started walking downstairs when he heard a voice from the kitchen. 

"anna, these bills just keep pileing up. ben's life insurance isn't going to cover all these bills. peter's been trying to help out by getting pictures of that dreadful spider-man. maybe i should get a job. peter may not like it but he's only a freelancer at the bugle." aunt may whispered into the phone while looking at bills. they were behind on the bills yet again. this had been happening more frequently after uncle ben's death. they thought his life insurance was going to cover it but it was just barely covering all the bills.

'maybe i should see if i can become a the staff photographer at the bugle. we need the money to pay bills. but aunt may won't all of it. that's just the type of person she is. i could put aside a small percentage of money for my spidey activities. who knew being a hero was expensive?' peter though to himself as he started marching in the same place as if he was just coming down the stairs. 

"gotta go anna my nephew's coming down now." aunt may hung up the phone and reached up into the cabinet and grabbed a plate and began plating peter's food as peter entered the kitchen. 

"how's my favorite aunt?" peter asked taking the food and kissing may's cheek.

he sat down on the table and started eating her famous wheat cakes. they were his absolute favorite breakfast food. aunt may say down on the opposite side of him and folded her hands watching him eat. "peter, i'm thinking about getting a job."

peter looked up at her in surprised and swallowed. "but aunt may i have a job! you don't need to work. plus what about your medical condition?" 

aunt may had a heart condition so she couldn't do things that strained her body. she had to retire from work early on and uncle ben had became the breadwinner of the family. 

"i won't do anything that'll strain myself but peter we do need the extra income." aunt may thought about the bills they had to pay. "plus you could keep more of your money. i know about how you've been trying to save up to get a new camera."

"i could get a paid internship or something aunt may!" peter thought about the internships that he was offered but had turned down due being spider-man. "i think dr.connors offers a internship at gotham state university. i could apply for that."

"you could still get an internship, it would help you get into a good college. getting a job would also give me something to do during the day." aunt may replied. "i already have something in mind. i'm going to start volunteering at FEAST."

"the shelter? be careful aunt may ok? bad things happen to good people sometimes." peter warned, thinking about his late uncle ben who was a good person who ended up gunned down because a burglar invaded the parker house.

"you too peter. you've been out later than usual getting pictures of that spider-man fellow." 

" i will aunt may."

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spider-man swung through the city, almost like he was flying and soaring with the birds. he landed behind the dumpsters by gotham city high school, he hid behind the dumpsters, changing into his civilian clothes over his spider-man suit. 'hope i'm not late' he thought to himself and ran off to the entrance. his teachers had really been coming down on him for being late to class. 

as soon as he walked in he had to duck his head due to a stray football. "well good morning to you too flash." sarcasm laced in peter's voice as the stared flash down. "whoops my bad puny parker. forgot you can't catch." flash taunted causing everyone to laugh at peter. 

"ha ha ha flash. at least my nickname didn't come from flashing everyone in kindergarten." peter shot back glaring at flash. "oh i forgot, you made everyone here think it's cause you're fast. looks like they got you confused with the scarlet speedster." peter shot back.

the people around them went so silent that you could hear a pen drop. then laughter broke out around them. flash's face was red and he opened his mouth and closed it a few times. he walked towards peter and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. " you're a dead man parker! " 

"is there a problem?" a voice called out and everyone turned and saw a teacher walking towards the group that had gathered. flash let peter go and then wrapped his arm around peter's shoulder. "there isn't one sir, just playing around with pete ." 

"mhm hmm. thompson you better watch yourself, you don't want to get kicked off the football team. now why are you all still here? go to class!" the crowd slowly dispersed and when the teacher left peter shoved flash's arm off of him. 

"you better watch your back parker!" flash warned and then stomped off towards his class which was the same class peter was going to. 

' good going peter! you lost your cool and now you have to deal with flash all day! i have almost all my classes with him and knowing him he's gonna try and make today a living hell .' peter chastised himself while walking to his first period which was chemistry. he walked into the class and headed to the back and sat down next to table mates carrie kelly, phill urich, sally avril, and jason todd.

"hey pete!" carrie welcomed him with a smile and pushed her glasses up her nose peter returned her smile and said "hey" back

"yo peter." jason greeted and extended his hand for a fist bump that peter returned.

phill simply just nodded in peter's direction while sally completely ignored his presence and stared at the front of the class, occasionally making a bubble with the gum that she was chewing. she was still mad that peter wouldn't let her meet spider-man after learning that he was the young vigilante's photographer and tried to blackmail him by saying she'd tell everyone about his job. it didn't work though because peter came forward and made a project out of the pictures he took as spider-man and earned an A. 

"good morning!" their teacher mr.spencer asked while the teacher assistant mr.king walked around handing out worksheets for their latest assignment which was covering the the periodic table since they started learning about the different elements. 

the lesson ended up being a bit boring for peter who had already learned about the periodic table years prior due to being a science nerd and interested in science as a kid after finding out his long dead father was once a scientist from his uncle ben. the next night after uncle ben came back from a shift from work he revealed that he had bought a chemistry set for peter. peter still had it and put it to good use to make his web fluid. 

peter spent the majority of the period helping sally who ended up caving in and breaking her  silent treatment that she had been giving him for the past week. carrie was correcting some of jason's answers and phill was erasing his answers because he had copied off of jason and was mumbling under his breath about how he should have "copied off of peter or carrie."

"thank you" sally huffed out like it was causing her pain to even say those two words. she was still fuming about the situation with her blackmailing peter.

"you're welcome." peter replied back with a laugh and he stood up and grabbed everyone's worksheets and handed them over to mr.spencer who nodded and started looking over their worksheets. "excellent work mister parker and miss kelly." mr.spencer praised and marked both of their papers with a 100%. 

"mister todd, mister urich, and miss avril you all seemed to hit the jackpot by being sat at the same table as mister parker and miss kelly." mr.spencer smiled at them and returned back to grading their papers. 

the bell rang and peter grabbed his belongings and started headed to another class. his spider sense started to tingle but he knew he couldn't do anything to avoid the blow that was coming to him because people would question him. 'stupid secret identity' peter thought as he was shoulder checked by flash who was grinning. peter fell to the floor. 

"yo! what the fuck are you doing?" jason yelled out at flash and pushed flash into the wall. he helped peter up and advanced on flash and soon they stood face to chest with flash. "stay out of this jason. my beef is with peter." 

"and my beef is with you or are you too stupid to understand" jason glared at flash with angry in his eyes, his hands balled up and ready to swing at flash at any moment however peter pulled jason back. "it's fine jason! let's just go. we all know flash is too stupid to communicate with anything other than his fist." 

peter pulled jason along when they were away from flash and in the hallway jason pulled his arm away and huffed. "you don't have to take that type of shit from him!"

"yeah but remember you only have so many warnings before principal kane tries to kick you out again. i can deal with flash alright?" 

jason crossed his arm and let out a sigh. he wondered why peter let himself get bullied. he knew that peter and flash had some type of history with each other and knew each other for years. but seeing flash bully people reminded jason too much of the gangs on the streets of gotham he encountered as a kid. flash wasn't as bad as them because he knew how to stop but that didn't stop the anger jason felt surge through him whenever he saw flash bully someone. 

"fine if you ever need help with him just let me know." jason cracked his knuckles signifying that he meant that. 

"you'll be the first one i tell. i gotta get to class before i'm late. you know how strict ms.pichelli is." he waved jason goodbye and headed to ms.pichelli's photography class. 

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the rest of his morning classes flew by like superman going after a criminal and soon it was lunch time. peter went outside to football field and sat on the bleachers. while he did know people at school that didn't mean that he was friendly enough (despite his title as the friendly neighborhood spider-man) with everyone. he unpacked his sandwich that aunt may had packed for him and ate in silence.

he was halfway done when his phone buzzed from a notification and he pulled it out and saw a notification from the crime app he downloaded and saw something about a bank robbery. he jumped to his feet and looked around. he grabbed his bag and ran from the football field to the back of the school. he stayed out of the view of the camera that he knew the school had. he jumped and climbed up the wall. when he reached the top he pulled his costume out of his bag and changed into it. he placed his clothes neatly into his bag.

he placed his bag behind a vent on the roof, he turned and with a running start he leapt off the building and headed to the bank robbery. he zipped through the air with his webs, occasionally climbing up the web to gain more speed. he saw cops outside the bank with a microphone. he webbed the camera to the ledge and watched before he decide to engage so the can learn more about the situation.

" we've got you surrounded jackson!" the cop with the microphone called. 

"i told you that the name is shocker!" the man roared as he stepped out from the bank and dropped the bags of money at his feet. he then aimed his gauntlet at a cop car and let out a shockwave that destroyed the car. the car went up in the air and was about to land on some cops but a web caught it. spider-man leapt from the building he was on and landed in front of shocker.

"you again?!" jackson exclaimed at the appearance of spider-man. he aimed his gauntlets at spider-man but before he could press the button on the side of his gauntlets his hands were covered in web. "you sound disappointed to see me jackson! aren't we buddies? i mean i watched you grow from enforcer thug 'montana' to the 'fearsome' shocker." spider-man air quoted with his hands.

shocker ignored him and using his shit he vibrated the webs off of him and punched the ground, his gauntlets making the ground shake from the vibrations. building were starting to come apart and fall.

 "oh shit!" spider-man shoot a web and threw himself towards a cop who was about to be crushed by fallen debry. he started shooting webs and webbed up all the falling debry he could to the buildings that hadn't fallen. spidey turned back to see shocker trying to escape by  using his shockwaves to blast himself in the air. 

"leaving so soon!" spider-man yelled out and shot a web at shocker, but he ended up missing it. shocker turned to look down at spider-man and stuck his middle finger up at him. 

"you know you should pay attention to where you're going!" a new voice called out and the shocker turned and was kicked in the face by the new arrival. shocker fell onto a cop car and the figure landed next to spider-man.

"robin?!" 

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Chapter Text

"first i had to deal with the bug! now i gotta deal with a bird! who's gonna show up next? catwoman?" shocker yelled out in annoyance. he shot shockwave after shockwave at the two young heroes but they kept dancing around them. they would be in one spot one second and then be somewhere else. "you know what?! screw this i'm out!" shocker slammed both hands down on the ground, the ground shaking from the shockwave his gauntlets released.

"maybe you offended the animal kingdom!" spider-man quipped as he jumped into the air, his arm around robin's waist to avoid the shockwave that shocker had sent through the ground. when they landed robin threw a bunch of batarangs at a building that shocker had damaged with his shockwaves.

"uh...you know you missed him right?" spider-man questioned.

"nah, i didn't." robin smirked as the batarangs exploded and rubble began to fall on top of shocker. "do you think that's going to hold him? i mean you've fought him before."

peter's spider sense answered the question for them and he barely had time to yell out "get down!" before the rubble that was once on on shocker got blasted off of him and flying in different directions. "we would have to bury him with an entire building or a chandelier!"

"looks like we're going to have to force him back into the bank then. that should be nice." the sarcasm in robin's voice was obvious. he let out a sigh and cracked his knuckles. "we've never worked together so how are we gonna do this?"

"i go high you go low? i take the front you take the back? you watch my back and i watch yours." spider-man jumped into the air, he shot two web lines behind shocker and with using his momentum and the pull of the webs he slingshot himself into shocker. the two went through the door of the bank and spider-man landed with a roll and was back on his feet. "and the crowd goes wild! spider-man has stuck the landing! a perfect 10 out of 10!"

before shocker could even get up robin jumped on to his back and with an amazing flip he landed right next to spider-man. when shocker stood back up he was met webs to the face. "is that the only move you know?" shocker vibrated the webs off and then released shockwaves at the two young heroes.

"what are you aiming at? the wall?" robin taunted as he flipped through the air, dodging the shockwaves. the shockwave hit a pillar behind robin causing it to crumble and fall down where he was about to land.

spider-man attempted to shoot a web but instead of a web coming out all spider-man heard was a 'dee-dee-dee' noise that meant his web-shooters were low on fluid. 'why now of all place?' peter thought to himself as he pushed robin down to the ground as the rubble fell down on them. spider-man did his best to cover robin from the rubble since he was taller than the other male and stronger. 'can't believe we let shocker dupe his like this' spidey thought bitterly.

"like i would let you beat me with the same trick twice bug." shocker laughed and then with a shockwave he destroyed more of the bank causing more rubble to drop on the heroes. they were effectively buried alive under all the rubble. shocker walked outside back to his money bags and grabbed them. with a powerful shockwave he was leaping through the air and fleeing the scene.

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'push peter! push!' peter thought as he tried to lifted the rubble off of him and robin. his body was aching in pain, it felt like his arms was going to snap off his body. "can't give up…" he muttered to himself as he tried to lift the rubble again but just like the last time he couldn't lift it off of himself. if only he were as strong as the hulk or even superman! peter bowed his head down in submission. he couldn't possibly get the rubble! he just wasn't strong enough.

looking down at the boy underneath him, peter started to feel shame. how could he even think about giving up? robin was depending on him after all! he was buried under the rubble too! peter attempted lifting the rubble again, his vision was getting spotty, his arms and legs felt wobbly but he pushed on. the rubble was slowly getting lifted off of them! "gotta keep going! i can do it!" peter gasped out and soon the rubble was above his head. with a yell he threw the rubble over his back, scooped up robin and leapt to the entrance of the bank.

if anybody could peter's face under his mask they would see that his eyes were widened at the sight he was seeing. standing right in front of him was gotham's very own gotham dark knight the batman! spider-man stood in awe, he soaked up the hero's appearance.

"i'll take it from here spider-man." batman reached out and helped robin stand up, the boy groaned and rubbed his head. he grabbed onto batman's arm and leaned against him.

"thanks...just let's not do the whole rubble fall on us ever again ok?" robin nodded towards spider-man and with help from batman, he turned and started walking towards the batmobile.

"yeah, next time we team up i'll make sure we don't get buried." spider-man waved at them as he jumped into the air and swung out of sight. he headed back to the building he webbed and grabbed his camera. he went through the pictures and decided which ones jameson was going to like the most. jameson always did tend to like the pictures were spider-man was getting his ass kicked more than the ones were he was coming out on top.

he pulled out his phone to check how much time he had before he would have to make his way back to the school. he couldn't risk being late to class again or else aunt may would be called. then he would have to make up an excuse on why he was late and then possibly be put on punishment again. he had 20 more minutes before lunch was over. he could get to the bugle in record time plus he had some clothes in a websack in a vent!

spider-man was again off swinging towards another destination! the daily bugle!

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peter arrived at the bugle in record timing and hurriedly changed from his spider-man costume into an outfit that consisted of a blue button up shirt that he decided not to button up with a white t-shirt underneath and some blue jeans. he also wore a pair of black and white vans. after looking himself over and deciding that he looked decent he walked into the daily bugle from the entrance on the roof.

"PARKER!" bellowed j.jonah jameson and be motioned for the boy to come into his office. peter walked into the office, photos of the team-up he had did only moments before he reached the daily bugle. "do you have pictures from the bank robbery that spider-man and robin fail to stop? i would have expected robin to stop it but from what i heard apparently they were trapped under rubble! how unfortunate that he had to deal with spider-man's incompetence!"

peter had to hold back a scowl and handed the pictures over to jameson. "i was there jameson! they were both working together to take down shocker and spider-man actually had to save robin!" peter protested defending himself, but jameson didn't know that because secret identities are secret after all.

"of course you would say that parker! anyways get your check from miss brant and go back to class! you better not be ditching class to get pictures of spider-man either or i'll fire you! you're education is important kid!" jameson lectured peter and shoved him out of his office and then slammed the door to presumably smoke his cigar that he always carried with him.

peter sighed and made his way over to betty brant's desk. she smiled kindly up at him and started to write him a check. "hello peter. how are you today?"

"i'm alright betty." he smiled down at her and leaned over her desk. "jameson been treating you alright?" peter asked with a chuckle.

"oh you know i can handle him peter." she handed him his check and he waved at her goodbye and when nobody was looking he snuck his way back up the way that he came into the building. he changed back into his costume and then swung back. he hurried up and put his clothes on over his suit and put his shoes back on. making sure nobody was looking he jumped down from the top of the school and walked back into the building and headed towards his afternoon classes.

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after making sure that he wasn't followed by police, the criminal shocker headed back to his base of operations. the base of the fearsome gangster hammerhead. he walked in and dropped the money bags onto the table in front of hammerhead who smirked at the sight of it.

"i knew i could count on you shocker! big man is going to be pleased." hammerhead examined the money and started counting it. all of the bills were hundreds in clippings. he took out a few thousand and tossed them to shocker. "that's your pay. you should lay low montana, the cops will be looking for you. any plans after this?"

shocker pocketed the money and sat down at the table. "maybe get the boys back together! with this money i could get the tinker to make them some suits. then we could could hit up all the banks in gotham and take their money!"

"mhm that sounds like an alright plan but the big man wants me to make you a proposal. you know ever since batman & robin came on the scene more and more supervillains been popping up. freaks with powers. driving us old gangs into hiding and having to get high tech weapons. you also know big man runs all the crime in this city right? well big man wants to start up a ang of super powered thugs. it's why we had you to get all this money so we can fund it."

shocker nodded and folded his hands. "yeah but what's in it for me hammerhead? are we gonna be powerful enough to take down batman & robin or what about that annoying pest spider-man."

"we'll take care of that! see big man will create the big next supervillain and whenever they fight someone like spider-man or batman it'll give us leeway to do crime because they'll be so focused on the supervillains!"

" will i be on the supervillains team? spider-man has defeated me before and i was lucky i was able to escape from him this time!" shocker said as he pondered on what hammerhead said.

"nah you'll be back up for the regular gang. your gauntlets don't give you powers and it'll be good to have you as for the gang if there's a gang war or the cops show up. i've been hearing word that black mask wants to be the big man of crime. tensions in the street might break out so i wanted to recruit you before anyone else could."

"as long as i don't run into spider-man then i'll accept the big man's offer." the two men shamed each other hands to seal the deal. whenever batman, robin, or spider-man might be they better watch out! a powerful alliance was just formed!

Chapter Text

“do you like what you see boys?”the weapons dealer  asked the other group of criminals. they basking at the weapons that were being displayed to them. the weapons trader smirked at the expressions on some of the criminals faces. “these are beauties aren’t they?” the weapon dealer waved at the weapons.

“how do we know they really work? you could be tryna scam us.” one criminal shouted out. cries of ‘yeah he’s right’ were mimicked throughout the group of criminals. the dealer wasn’t surprised to hear this though. it was gotham after all and most people had to carry guns on their person to be safe. of course they were gonna be skeptic about the weapons.

the leader of the gang raised his hand and his fellow gang members fell silent. “my boys are right y’know. i think we need a little demonstration if you don’t mind.” the leader smirked and took a step back with his gang to give the weapons dealer some space to demonstrate. “we gotta make sure we ain’t wasting our time.”

“ tsk . this is gonna cost you more since i have to demonstrate what these babies can do!” the gang of criminals started shouting again at that. who was this guy to charge more? the weapons dealer grabbed one of the weapons which turned out to be a unique looking gun. all the criminals gasped when they realized what it was.

“is that a real freeze gun?” the leader said in awe at the weapon.  they were rare and freeze was awfully protective of his weaponry.  hell majority of the villains in gotham didn’t like their weapons being out on the streets unless they specifically put them out there. there had been several fights between the big bads of gotham because they had the other ones weapons and making bank from it. just a few years ago joker and black masked had a gang war because joker was pissed black mask got a hold of his weapons.

the weapons dealer smirked and aimed the gun at a wall and fired. the temperature dropped and they shuddered at the sudden drop. when the gun fired the wall was covered in ice and everyone started in awe that it worked.  they had expected it to backfire.

“how much you want for them?” the leader asked with glee in his voice. he was already getting ahead of himself thinking of what crimes his gang could commit with the freeze guns. maybe the gang could finally get some notoriety like how the big bads of gothams various gangs had a big rep.

unfortunately for him those thoughts were never going to become a reality because just as a fast as the thought came a large bat shaped shadow was seen gliding over them. a smaller shadow that had to be robin was also upon them and soon there will sounds of hits being landed upon flesh were heard. the dynamic duo were in sync with their moves. one would start a move and the other one would finish it. the leader tried to scramble away but was easily knocked out by a batarang to the back of his head by robin.

soon it was only just the weapons dealer who was still standing and he aimed the freeze gun at the dark knights chest. batman and robin just stared at him, daring him to freeze them. his hand shock has he held the gun up. eventually he realized that he was too scared to freeze them and dropped the gun on the ground and held his hands up in the air. “i give up! just send me back to jail it ain’t no use tryna fight both of you when it’s only me.”

the bat had to stop himself from laughing and robin just simply smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. “that’s a wise choice. now tell us who are mass producing these weapons.” batman didn’t even need to threaten the leader. both his and robin’s presence was enough to make the dealer squirm.

“i never actually met the guy but he calls himself the tinkerer! he usually only works with the big bads! that’s all i know!”

robin stepped forward and hit his fist into the palm of his hand.  a scowl on his face and his voice was filled with sarcasm when he spoke. “so you just magically got weapons that were made by him? cut the bullshit you aren’t fooling anyone.”

“you sent some guy with a glass dome to deliver the weapons for him! i’m telling you i don’t know.”

batman nodded and then stepped away from the crook. “i’m letting you go, tell your friends that the bat is cracking down on weapons trade. if you sell any weapons  we will know and we will find you.” he warned as the dealer scrambled to get away from the dynamic duo. robin raised a eyebrow underneath his domino mask but didn’t say anything as the dealer ran. “sometimes we have to let some criminals go so they can run back to their friends. they’ll talk and fear will spread.”

robin nodded and looked over at the weapons. “hey b these are genuine freeze guns. whoever this tinkerer dude is he’s really good at making tech. i have a bad feeling about all this. we need to hurry and get these weapons off the street.”

batman pressed a hand to his cowl to activate his coms. “gordon i have a bunch of freeze guns and incapacitated criminals. when you’re able to can you tell me what the gcpd knows about ‘the tinkerer.”

Chapter Text

it seemed like absolutely nobody knew who the tinkerer actually was. the cops only had just the name to go by. every criminal that batman and robin stopped who was doing a weapons deal told almost the exact same story about how they were given the weapons by a guy in a glass dome helmet.  whoever this tinkerer person was they were good.

batman is a detective first and crime fighter second. it wouldn’t be long before the mystery of who the mysterious tinkerer was would be solved by him. batman’s borderline obsessive nature wouldn’t allow him to stop until he found out the identity of who the tinkerer was. especially when that person was making dangerous weapons and selling them to the gangs of gotham.

maybe this case didn’t need batman at the forefront of it though. it was spreading through the criminal underworld that batman and robin were looking for tinkerer. maybe this case needed someone with ties to the criminal underworld who could get the information.

the case needed matches malone. matches malone was a disguise that bruce had created for when he go in deep into the criminal underworld and needed information. criminals tend to look out for their selves or their gangs. luckily for bruce, matches was trusted by a lot of the small time thugs, thieves, and gang enforcers that lurked around the nights of gotham.

***

donning a fake mustache to go along with the few day old stubble that bruce hadn’t shave yet, a tailor made suit, that helped make up the look of matches malone. that wasn’t all that made up the matches malone persona however. bruce made sure to carefully groom his hair into the style that most small time criminals associated with matches, he also grabbed a pair of shades. everyone knew matches wore shades after all. the glasses were equipped with a camera so robin or oracle could watch from his lens. he also had a hidden ear piece in his ear to communicate with his partners.

traveling the world for years did tend to lead you to picking up a few skills. sometime during his travels bruce had learned to be able to mimic peoples voices and change his up. gone was the grunts and low but deep sounding voice that was batman’s. gone was the pompous upper class voice that was bruce wayne’s.  in the place of both of both of those voices was a nasly rugged crime alley accent like many of the common criminals from the aforementioned area.

***

matches made his way to the big sky lounge, a common place for criminals in gotham to hang out at. it also was a breeding place for information from the criminal underworld of gotham. one of the best place to look for information on the tinkerer.

“hey matches! you want your usual coke?” the manager and bookie of the lounge blackie gaxton asked when he spotted matches. blackie was one of matches main sources of information. if matches paid the right price of course. weather that be giving blackie something he wants or money. sometimes if blackie was feeling generous he’d just give the information up.

“that would be nice.” matches sat at the table next to blackie as he summoned the bartender, the bartender nodded at the order and came back with a glass of coke for matches.

“now what brings you here old friend? it’s been awhile since i’ve seen you.” blackie asked while matches took a sip of his drink. matches looked at the man in front of him and observed him for a moment. blackie wasn’t an unintelligent man when it came to the criminal world. how else would he have stayed in business so long if that was the case?

“i’ve been staying low for awhile just biding my time. you know gotham has been having alot more metas pop up in the crime scene lately so i’ve just been waiting for the perfect moment.” matches shrugged and went back to drinking his drink.

“plus all these heroes and masked vigilantes on top of that? we already had batman and his flock. now we got other vigilantes like spider-man and punisher.”

blackie nodded his head and clenched his fist at the mention of spider-man. matches took note of that, blackie must have had an encounter with spider-man before. or maybe just really dislike him.

“funny you mention vigilantes, that daredevil dude came in here before! he came and here and was whooping on my customers! he was looking for information! it took me awhile to get my business back up cause people were afraid he would come back!” blackie vented and slammed his hand down on the table.

“yeah times are changing, seems like everyone is getting their hands on some new tech nowadays.” matches said and leaned over the table to look at blackie better. “there’s been word on the streets that some new dude named tinkerer is making tech.”

“yeah even big names in the criminal world have gone to tinkerer for new tech.” blackie said clearly not surprised about the mention of tinkerer. “he’s been making quite a name for himself. he even got that mysterio guy to send him a droid so it can deliver the weapons without him having to come.”

before matches could say another thing a crash was heard and both men turned to look. spider-man had entered the lounge and was making quick work of the criminals who were trying to stop him. they were thrown over the bar. some were being webbed up to the wall and even one was thrown onto the pool table.

spider-man turned and spotted matches and blackie. with an amazing amount of speed he pushed matches down onto a seat and webbed his feet to the ground. then he jumped onto the ceiling and glared down at blackie. his expressive mask lens conveying that he wasn’t in a joking mood.

“every two-bit criminal i’ve asked for information on shocker keeps bringing up the name “blackie gaxton”. they seem to think you know how to find him. so talk. ”

Chapter Text

spider-man lept down from the wall he was on and onto the table that blackie was sitting at. he grabbed the man by his collar and pulled him close so that the man was staring at the lens of his mask.

“get to talking. now .” spider-man demanded of the man. his grip tightening on the mans shirt.

“now why would shocker tell me where he is?” blackie asked the hero coyly.

“word on the streets this is one of his favorite spots. maybe you heard him talking.” spider-man said as he stood and dragged the man up with him.

“i ain’t a snitch boy. you don’t scare me.” blackie responded and grabbed on to spider-man’s arm and tried to get away but found himself no match for spider-man’s strong grip.

“stay here.” spider-man said to matches and swung to the exit of the lounge with blackie hollering. spider-man scaled up a tall building with ease due to his wall crawling abilities. he held blackie over the edge while the man held on to his arm.

“you….you wouldn’t! you don’t kill! everybody knows that!” blackie said shaking with fear. “you’re one of the good guys!”

and he was right. spider-man doesn’t kill and stops people from killing if he can. but he needed information so he can’t let blackie call his bluff out.

“oh no…my hand is slipping.” spider-man loosened his grip on blackie and watched as he began to slip out of his hand.

“okay okay! i’ll tell you what you wanna know!” blackie yelled out at spider-man. spider-man threw blackie back onto the roof and blackie watched as the hero stalked towards him.

“ talk!” spider-man demanded of the criminal, he squatted down in front of him so they’re were face to mask. criminals had often told him the lens of his mask creeped them out so he was counting on that for intimidation.

“shocker came into my lounge the other night, it’s where he usually plays pool and drinks. he was talking to some guys and was talking about getting the enforcers back together!” blackie explained and tried to back away from spider-man but hit a wall behind him. “said hammerhead was gonna find someone to make suits for them. that’s all i know!”

spider-man stood up and looked down at the manager. if what blackie was saying was true that was going to be a problem. especially if shocker is going to be getting his buds some suits. they were irritating enough before jackson was going by montana and leading the enforcers and that was before the special suits!

spider-man looked back at blackie and pondered something. “hey where’s hammerhead planning on getting those suits? it’s only a few people in gotham who sell high tech weaponry.”

“shocker never said. but there’s a new guy in the black market. calls himself tinkerer.” blackie offered up hoping that it was something spider-man would like to know.

“mhm i’ll have to look into that. alright let’s get you back to your friend.” spider-man grabbed blackie and leapt off the building while blackie screamed into his ear. “dude if you keep screaming i’m going to drop you!”

****

bruce or rather matches had finally found a way to get out of the webs that were trapping his legs. he had to use a batrang he kept hidden on his person to escape the webs. he walked out of the lounge and when he was a good distance from the lounge he reached and touched the communicator hidden in his ear. “did get all of that oracle?”

“of course i did b.” oracle voice rang in his ear while she was typing away on her computer. “i’m looking through camera feeds from cameras in gotham to see if i can find footage of mysterio. if we can find him we could lead back to tinkerer.”

“let me know what you find. batman out.” bruce said into the communicator. he turned and walked into an alleyway, making sure he wasn’t being followed by anyone.

he removed the sunglasses and the fake mustache and made his way to the batmobile.

***

“boys how are you enjoying the suit?” the tinkerer called out to the enforcers known as ox and fancy dan. the two were testing their suits out against their leader shocker in an abandoned warehouse. fancy dan was in a suit that allowed him to build up kinect energy and bounce around at fast speeds.

“i love this suit!” said fancy dan as he evaded one of shocker’s blast. he landed next to ox and nodded towards in. ox was also in a new suit that enhanced his strength and durability. fancy dan jumped onto his taller partners hand and was launched at shocker. fancy dan kicked off of shocker. ox followed up with a punch that sent shocker into a wall.

“i think that’s enough practice boys.” hammerhead said looking down at them from the platform he was on. his hands holding on to the railing. “tinkerer the suits do what you say they do. they’ll meet the big man’s expectations and then some.” the gangster praised the older man.

“pleasure doing business with you.” tinkerer said and turned to mysterio. mysterio let out some smoke and when the smoke cleared the two had vanished.

shocker turned to look at his partners and grinned under his mask. it was going to be like the old days. “looks like the enforcers are back in business boys!”