Chapter Text
“Hey” a watery voice said to Dick. Dick had had this dream for years, ever since his parents died all those years ago. In the beginning it happened every single time he tried to sleep. But as he got older it subsided, unless he fell asleep after midnight. Which wasn’t very calming for the vigilante of Gotham. But tonight he had just been so tired, Joker was up to his own shit, and seemed to have Clayface & The Croc working with him this time around, so he decided to deal with the dream.
Dick looked over from where the voice had come from. And was met with deep brown eyes. The dream was interesting in the sense that voices were all muffled, and unlike other repeating dreams of Dick’s (The Joker Torture Chamber, or Jason Dying) it wasn’t the same.
“It’s been a while,” The boy with brown eyes said.
The boy was what was different. He acted as if he lived in this dreamscape. Or could come and go from it as he pleased. Dick didn’t bother to respond.
“I’ve been doing pretty good myself. My Uncle is still dead. And it’s still weird, trying to get used to that.” The boy began, but just as quickly it had stopped. And Dick woke with a start. Gasping for breath. He pulled the covers off of him. Placing his feet on the plush carpet his four poster bed sat on. Dick wiped his eyes and pushed his hair back, having been covered in a thin layer of sweat. Sitting up he went to his bathroom. The black tiled floor and walls are almost a comfort to him. Flicking on the light we stared at himself in the mirror. For a second he thought his eyes had turned brown. But the bright blue was still there.
Dick had told Alfred about the dream years ago. About six months after he started living at the manor. He urged Dick to tell Bruce about it. But he didn’t for another six months. Once that happened, Bruce brought up the dream to Dick’s therapist. That Bruce had gotten him when he was first adopted. Ms. Anderson was a nice enough lady. Took a few weeks for Dick to actually listen to her advice though. She had theorized that the dream was a way for stopping Dick from really and truly getting through the ‘trauma’ he had gone through. By bottling it up. And after that Dick didn’t talk to the boy at all. Despite his pleas. It was all just a trick of the mind.
Walking out of the bathroom Dick sighed. Stripping his bed and walking down the hall. Tip-toeing past Tim, Steph, Duke, & Damien’s room. To the laundry chute and linen closet. He grabbed new sheets. Opting for a dark purple set this time around.
Haley was sitting in her circus tent dog bed Damien had gotten Dick for his birthday the previous year. And she was not very happy at all about this impromptu changing of the sheets. Dick knelt down and scratched her head for a few seconds. Muttering out a small ‘I’m sorry’ before continuing to put on the new sheets.
After putting the sheets on and remaking the bed. Dick turned the lights off and walked out of the room. Down the grand staircase and into the kitchen. Where he grabbed a packet of Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate, the kind with marshmallows in it and heated up some water in the microwave. Dick had had much better hot chocolate over the years. Made by some of the best chef’s in the world. But something about the packaged chocolate powder and dehydrated marshmallows had a special place in his heart.
Peter
“Hey” Peter had said, in the dreamscape. The boy had looked at him. With his bright blue eyes. “It’s been a while.” The boy hadn’t spoken for years, granted Peter hadn’t gotten this dream as often as he used to. For a while it was every night. He would be alone in a starkly white room. And then one day the other boy showed up. They had gotten to know each other. But sounds were always really muffled, like he was underwater, so some of the words couldn’t be heard very well. But he had learned that the boys parents had also died. So they were similar in some aspects. But much unlike Peter he the boy wasn’t sent to live with his aunt & uncle, but was adopted by a rich guy, and became the sole heir to some kind of company.
Peter of course knew this guy was a figment of his imagination. Peter had theorized for years that he was what Peter wanted to be. Last time they interacted they were standing instead of sitting, and he was just a little taller, definitely over six foot. Ripped, and had really bright blue eyes, which Peter had always found attractive. But above all else, he was rich. Don’t get him wrong, Peter loved Ben & May. A lot. He cared deeply for them, but they couldn’t always buy the greatest things. His phones were always a few generations old, had never bought new clothes at all. Except underwear, but those were the packs of twenty pairs, that had been made really poorly. It just would’ve been nice to have some money.
“I’ve been doing pretty good myself. My Uncle is still dead. And it’s still weird, trying to get used to that.” Peter finished the sentence just before the other boy began to fade. Then Peter was left alone. It wasn’t so bad. Gave his ears a break. There wasn’t any noise in the room. Not even heartbeats. So he stayed a little longer, but not too long, because for whatever reason, when he woke up from this dream he was drenched in sweat.
Peter woke up a few minutes later. The first thing hitting his ears were three heartbeats. His own, May’s, & Bucky’s. Bucky & May had met when Peter had become Tony’s assistant. Peter often forgetting to bring his own backpack, or even a dinner May had packed. Although Tony & Pepper were always willing to have him join them for dinner. But even then she insisted on always bringing it to him herself. Two months after graduation Peter had found out he was getting into MIT. And May finally told him she & Bucky were dating. Now that Peter was back from his Junior year, Bucky & May were living together, but still hadn’t changed apartments, though there was talk about.
Peter had gotten up and tip-toed out of his room into the kitchen, so as to hopefully not wake either of them. He wasn’t in the mood to change his sheets so he had opened the window and they would hopefully get a little dry. While he waited he decided to make a cup of hot chocolate. He began the process for the overly complicated cup, getting one of the saucepans from the cupboard to the side of the oven and pouring in some milk.
By the time he was finished. He had (In Peter’s opinion) the best cup of hot chocolate you could find anywhere. It being topped of course with whipped cream, a caramel drizzle, and chocolate shavings. Peter had absolutely detested powdered hot chocolate, Always claiming it was too grainy and not smooth enough.
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The next morning Peter had been woken up by the sound of bacon cooking. Which made him spring out of bed, and run into the main living area. Thankfully Bucky was the one cooking.
“What’s wrong kid?” Bucky asked, questioning the sudden appearance.
“Nothing,” Peter said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thought May was cooking.” Bucky chuckled, but it earned Peter a light hit on the back of his head from May.
“I am capable of cooking.”
“I wouldn’t say cooking, it’s more burning.” Peter said, which earned another hit. At that moment, he had realized however, he was only wearing his underwear, so he quickly ran into his room getting dressed. And joined May & Bucky in the main room.
“Will you be joining us for breakfast?” Bucky asked.
“I will tomorrow. Harley is having all of us meet at Peter Pan’s.” He answered while tying his shoes, “And Mr. Stark is having me go over, help him out with something, he hasn’t quite told me about yet.”
“Okay well be safe.” May said, pulling Peter into a hug after he had stood up.
“I will. Love you May.” Peter said, over his shoulder, exiting the apartment.
“Love you!” She shouted, earning a stomp from the upstairs neighbor. The noise of New York amplified tenfold as Peter opened the doors to the apartment building. The walk to the donut shop was long, and for a while Peter considered activating the silver bracelets sitting on his wrists, but decided against it, as he only had two backup cartridges, and about half in each one already loaded in. And he didn’t know if he would get a chance to refill them during the day with Mr. Stark.
The city treated him well. He didn’t miss his train in any sense of the world, it wasn’t delayed at anypoint. AND at every other street he had to cross. It was already clear for him to cross. Things were really looking up.
Entering Peter Pan’s, it was as bleak as ever. Peter could hear the slight snoring in the back, from MJ’s old boss. Peter was the last person there. Johnny was regaling the group with a tale about his latest mission with the four, holding the hand of his boyfriend, Bobby, who was listening with rapt attention and a face that looked like worry, but also a hint of something else on his face.
MJ had her drawing pad propped up, and was leaning on the shoulder of her girlfriend, Gwen. Peter incidentally had had flings with both of them at different times.
Ned & Betty were both on opposite ends of the group. It was not a secret to anyone in the group that they had rekindled the relationship they started in Junior Year of highschool, but clearly they thought they were sneaky.
Harry’s head was on Felicia’s shoulder, his eyelids fluttering open and closed, clearly not all the way awake. But Felicia didn’t seem to really care, running her hand up and down his back, seeming to try and soothe him to sleep
America & Kate were really the only two other than Bobby that were actually listening with attention. Their hands intertwined, sitting in Kate’s lap. They weren’t an official couple, at least they hadn’t said to anyone that they were official. But there was about a 50/50 chance Peter was just being oblivious, it took him two years to realize that MJ & Gwen were together.
And of course the man that had called everyone there, Harley, wasn’t actually paying attention to Johnny, choosing to stare into the eyes of Cindy, who he had been with since Senior year.
“Finally he shows up.” Johnny said, having noticed Peter.
“Not my fault I wanted eight hours.” Peter said, taking a seat in between Ned & Harley.
“Well you just got here for the end of the story, so I might as well restart.”
“No.” The group said in a monotone chorus.
“Fine.” Johnny pouted, “Anyway, I ended up NOT going supernova and because Sue stopped him herself. So we captured him and loaded him into a cell.” Johnny finished the story, sitting on Bobby’s leg. The group had fallen silent, looking over at Harley & Cindy. During the silence MJ tore a piece of paper out of her drawing pad before taking a picture and sliding the paper over to Bobby & Johnny. Johnny had to stifle a laugh.
Peter had to elbow Harley to get his attention.
“Wha- Oh great story Johnny. Anyway,” Harley started, before clearing his throat, his eyes flashing over to Cindy. “You guys are probably wondering why I wanted you here.
“No dip.” Kate said, which earned a little pat on her shoulder from America.
“Well. Cindy & I have some pretty big news.”
“We’re engaged!” They had said. She thrust her left hand into the middle of the group, and on her finger was a silver band with a fairly big, teardrop shaped diamond on it.
“And MJ before you ask, it's a lab grown diamond, but the silver was from my mothers ring, so I don’t know where that was from.” Harley said, as MJ’s mouth began to open.
“I was going to say congrats.” She said, “And then I was going to ask where it was from.” MJ said under her breath. The group erupted though. Everyone wanting a look at the ring, and asking questions, where Harley had asked, (Top of the Empire State Building) when the wedding was gonna be, (They weren’t sure yet, but definitely after Harley had his masters in Engineering & after Cindy had her Law Degree), and of course, if they had an idea of where they were going to have the wedding, (They weren’t set on anything, But the roof of Stark Tower seemed to be the leading contender).
The group didn’t quiet down for about three hours. They had gotten three dozen donuts and a bunch of coffee. They had all ended up going to different colleges, and none of their breaks really matched up, so summer was really the only time they got to see each other.
Peter, Ned, MJ, Harley, & Harry all went to MIT. While Cindy & Betty attended Harvard. Gwen, Felicia, & Kate all attended ESU. With Bobby being the only one at NYU. Johnny didn’t bother with school because ‘I’m already an astronaut technically, so I don’t need a degree.’ America was the only one that didn’t attend, because she was the only one that didn’t technically exist.
Peter checked his watch, and realized he needed to get to the tower. The rest of the group all had other things they were doing, some had dates to go on, or family plans. But thankfully Harley & Cindy were also headed to the tower, along with America. And Peter got a ride from them. Along with America.
Once the four had arrived at the tower, Cindy & Harley went to the 90th floor. Where Mr. Stark & his family lived, when they weren’t at the lakeside cabin, or the compound. While Peter and America went to the 86th floor. Which was one of Mr. Stark’s personal labs.
“Peter, America, you’re here!” Mr. Stark said, pulling a welder’s mask up off of his face. Behind him was a big ass metal frame, in the shape of a star.
“I don’t know how much help I’ll be.” America stated, as Tony took his gloves off. “Don’t know a lot about silence.”
“Well it’s a little bit of science, a lot a bit of magic.” At this Peter noticed, Dr. Strange, Wanda, & Billy in the corner of the room. Billy had had a growth spurt since Peter last saw him. Now he was assumedly seventeen, if Wanda’s Instagram was anything to go by.
“What’s going on?”
“Well. Capey boy & I were talking. After Thanos had almost gotten the best of all of us, before Thor thankfully killed him. We realized we needed a much more secure place to dispose of people.”
“Especially after that escape of the RAFT. We definitely needed a place, or places, to trap people.”
“And with the help of Billy & myself.” Wanda said, pinching Billy’s cheeks, “We discovered and deduced that there would have to be a universe or dimension that is just nothing. No light, no oxygen, just blank.”
“With America’s unique ability to travel the Multiverse, we knew she would have the ability to open this place. But As Mr. Stark pointed out, we needed a more permanent place to open these kind of cells.”
“I swear to God kid I couldn’t get this kid,” Tony pointed at Peter, “To call me Tony, but I will get you to do it.” Peter winked at Billy behind Tony’s back and he chuckled.
“Only issue with this plan is I can’t really control my powers. Only until recently could I control the ability to just not teleport out of this universe.”
“Hence the frame.” Peter said.
“Exactly, as I learned the mystic arts, and Wanda learned witchcraft, we figured studying the product of what you make, the portal itself may help any three of us figure out how to help you control where you portal too.”
“So why exactly am I here?”
“Need your brain. I’ve run simulations using FRIDAY and everytime the frame either doesn’t hold it, or falls into the portal.” Tony said, showing Peter a projection of the frame and the simulation going. He walked over and began clicking on a few things pressing a button or two each time. Before one of them was finally stable.
“Ah, the tension was too much on point’s 3, 4, and 5. But the tension on the inverse points number 4 & 5 weren’t enough.” Peter & Tony immediately got to work. Putting on protective gear they began fixing it, and using a bit of webfluid. The simulations worked every single time.
“We’re ready on our end.” Tony had said to the group of magic users. Who all walked over scribbling symbols onto the frame itself, and the floor surrounding it. They were quick, about two minutes in total of scribbling the symbols. During this, Mr. Stark explained that they were going to hopefully use these runes, to stop anything from getting back. Too many stories about dimensions that were just paint, or just monsters, from America immediately sprung to Peter’s mind. But the symbols were also to help strengthen the frame even more.
The three magic users sat around the frame. Hands resting on their knees, palms up. Dr. Strange used his powers, a circle of orange magic going around the frame, and outlining the symbols on the floor. Wanda’s hands turned red and the symbols she had written on the frame had reacted, then Billy’s blue magic took effect. His symbols glowing next.
The three magic users rose a few inches off the ground. Dr. Strange & Wanda muttering some things under their breath, while Billy just seemed to be focusing really hard, his eyes shut as tight as possible.
“You’re up Merica.” Tony said, hitting America on the shoulder. She walked forward and measured the distance of her punch, before winding back and punching. The portal landed perfectly in the frame. And suddenly Wong appeared. With a pen and paper writing down as much as he could, but it certainly wasn’t english he was writing it in. It wasn’t any language as far as Peter was concerned. Tony began taking pictures, even though the camera’s would probably have been sufficient. No one had noticed the little girl sneaking into the room.
Peter studied what was on the other side of the portal. It wasn’t a paint or monster dimension. America’s descriptions would’ve been very obvious to recognize. It was open on a beach, a really dark beach, wherever it was it was nighttime. Or extremely overcast. Peter checked the otherside of the portal and was met with a big ass city. Tall skyscrapers, little lights of office buildings and apartments blinking at Peter from the otherside of the portal.
Then his spider sense went off. He was way too slow. He moved to the other side, back where America was standing. In an instant. Morgan was running from behind a chair, right into the star. Peter did the only thing he could think of, and that was to run after her. One of his shoes had smudged a symbol on the floor. And Billy seemed to be losing control.
“Morgan!” Peter yelled.
“Morgan! Peter!” Tony yelled. Morgan was in Peter’s grasp and he turned around, seeing Tony & America looking concerned. Just as Peter was about to step back through the portal it closed. The last thing Peter saw was Billy faltering, falling down only a few centimeters. Just before it disappeared.