Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everything hurts. Every breath is pieces of glass shredding his lungs. And ripping off his mask doesn’t give much if any relief. His ribs are broken while the rest of him is beaten. But he can’t stop, he needs to get home. Miles has to save his dad, he can’t let him die, as he did to his uncle. It can’t happen again, he can’t lose someone else. (Wasn’t losing his uncle and all the betrayal of people he thought were his friends enough?) So screw whatever suffering that everyone bitten by that cursed radioactive spider is destined to go through.

This is his story so he has to keep going to prove that. One step at a time, even if each one gets heavier as if he’s being shackled to the ground. Stumbling across rooftops is painful, but it’s a miracle he even still has the web fluid too. His heart is pounding so loud he may as well be at a concert and his shoulder still seeping bits of crimson even as his body so desperately tries to heal him with what little energy it can get. Stopping isn’t an option. With every second he doesn't make it to his dad, it means they could find him or his dad first, in order to ensure everything follows the canon. Besides, if he stops he’ll never get back up. A brief thought of someone seeing him like this goes as quickly as it comes. The rain and the night sky make everything barely visible. Even if someone did see him, his dad’s life is more important than some identity reveal. 

He’s almost there. To the apartment that is his home, where his family is. Until he’s tumbling down the roof he just landed on when he glitches. The glitch is all he needs to realize he isn’t home, he never was. (The machine must have messed up while Miguel was trying to rip him out of it.) There are no street lights or billboards lighting up the night. No trains speeding through tracks, no copious amount of taxis honking at one another, and no home. Instead there is a dark sky void of stars while the air reeks of ashy tastes. The sounds of crying children and blood splattering. The apartment that looked like home being morphed into reality as it becomes a building filled with cracks and dry of colour. The home he saw was just a delirious dream. Miles doesn’t notice his tears until he can’t see anything besides the water in his eyes and he’s choking on sobs. 

He’s almost drowning in them as he shoves the mask back on his face as his spider sense rings louder. (It hasn’t been quite since he followed Gwen. Since he messed up and gave Spot more power ) Footsteps are soon heard behind him. Sparing no time he bathes in the new rush of adrenaline and leaps. “Wait don’t jump—” Miles doesn’t give the call any mind. He keeps mustering the energy just to swing across the buildings. (Even if the voice sounds so warm and welcoming.) What if it’s just bait to catch him? He doesn’t know all the people Miguel sent after him. This man could be one of them. But then why did it sound like he cared? He doesn’t know their tactics or voices. He doesn’t even know what earth this is. (What if this is the earth that was supposed to get a spider-man but didn’t because of him? Is that why so many people cry?) 

The sound of a grapple interrupts his thoughts. It’s a sound that makes him realize the man is chasing after him. Run. Get away. Is all he can think. It was definitely a trap. Of course it was, if it wasn’t why is this guy chasing him. A glitch kills his momentum in a swing during his get away and he’s dropping out of the air heading straight to the ground. The pain kills his reaction time because in seconds he has landed onto a car and is scurrying away like a cat who touched water. By the time the person gets out of their car to confront him about smashing it, he has already used his burning arms to swing onto the next building he sees through his blurry vision. Shards of glass embed deeper into his skin when he reaches the rooftop and plants straight on the ground. 

Any energy he once had is gone. Small shards of glass are in the side of him that smashed onto the car. While the rest of him is covered in dried blood and dirt, maybe even some metal and bricks from the car and the walls he’s crashed through. The thought and impact is enough to make him take off his mask once more, as bile leave his mouth and he turns his head so he doesn’t choke. Miles’s legs feel like pins and needles while the rest if him aches and burns. But he has to find a way home, he fought so hard to escape the spider society. To get to the go home machine (that didn’t take him home) just so he could save his dad. Giving up now would be him accepting his dad’s fate, so he has to keep going. While he has nothing left in him to let him stand. He drags himself across the rooftop like a zombie coming out of it’s grave. Leaving smears of blood and dirt in it’s wake. 

By some chance he manages to drag himself to what seems like an abandoned apartment. His spider sense is still ringing but it’s not screaming at him so Miles just has to hope no one will stop by here. It’s filled with ants and cobwebs but he can’t bring himself to care. Miles is so tired. (His mami was right. They all tried to push him down. And pretty much no one but Hobie helped him. He doesn’t know if he can count Peter, he seemed so genuine about his speech but still lied to him. And he doesn’t want to think about Gwen.) 3 days. That’s all he has before his dad is officially swore in as captain. 3 days before the canon event happens. Now he can only hope 3 days gives him enough time. (that he can survive 3 days) As he glitches once more and lets the white flash of pain knock him out.

Chapter Text

Dick was on patrol tonight in Gotham and it was raining, he hates patrolling in the rain (for several reasons.) However, it was relatively uneventful until Killer Croc and Two Face were spotted roaming around by Oracle. It wasn’t enough to need all hands on deck so Red Robin and Red Hood were sent after Killer Croc while Batman and Robin set out after Two Face. Nightwing took the responsibility of being ready to provide backup to either party and watching out for any other rouges lurking about. (It was probably because his relationships with everyone but Alfred and Damian (his sweet Dami) were still rocky after Spyral, even if it was getting better. Because why would they need him anyway? )

“Are any of you finished wrapping up? I’m getting unusual energy reading right outside crime alley.”

“Hood and I will probably only be available in about 10 minutes. We managed to sedate Killer Croc but there’s a couple civilians that required medical treatment because of the collateral damage.  

“As soon as I’m done here ‘m going to teach whoever is fucking around my alley a lesson.”

“That is unnecessary Todd as we do not know if damage has even been done.”

“No names on field Robin.”

“Tt. Batman and I have secured Two Face, however we will be delayed until the commissioner arrives.” 

“Nightwing can go to the energy source and report any findings.” He follows orders without snarling back that Batman can’t order him around, because that’s what he's been beaten into doing taught. 

“You got it B. So O, where am I heading?”

“About 5 blocks down where you’ll turn left then just keep going 3 blocks down. That’s where the massive amounts of energy came from, as it seems to have died down. Your ETA to your destination should be about 4 minutes.”

“Thanks on my way now.” Nightwing gracefully leaps into the air (ignoring he’s not given the ‘anytime boy wonder’ response anymore. Dick still gets pure silence as a response.) He soars—no flies across the rooftops as he goes to his instructed destination. It’s one of the things he does best that frees him. (It’s a part of him no one else can use. They can use his skills, love, even body but they can’t use his freedom. ) 

Once Nightwing reaches the rooftop he spots specs of blood along with fading footprints because of the rain. Taking out a swab he puts some blood in a vial to test it later. Dick hopes it’s not too diluted because of the rain. His hand reached up to his com to voice his findings. 

“There’s no one here but there is still a trail. I’m going to follow it before the rain completely washes it away.”

“Report back when you find something.” Dick hardly gives a hum in agreement as he’s already back in the sky using the infrared vision in his mask to give him a better trail to follow. It seems as the closer he gets the temperature drops bit by bit, which is unusual because it should be warmer as he gets closer. 

Eventually he stops right before the rooftop that shows a figure. Turning off the infrared vision he sees a kid who is standing too close to the edge for Dick’s comfort. Dick turns back on his com.

“There’s a kid here.”

“What’s he look like?” Batman’s demanding voice rings through his ear. 

“I can’t get any details of his face besides the dark skin and black hair, oh and some red lines on his clothes. I’m too far away to see anything else but he looks…beat up.”

“Oh if someone beat up a kid for fun I’ll be up to teaching ‘im a good lesson.” He can hear the anger in his brother’s voice. 

“Approach cautiously. We don’t know if this kid is a threat.”

“Classic Batman paranoia. Couldn’t you hear the part that said he looks beaten up?” Jason hisses into the comms. 

“B has a point. According to Oracle this was a pretty big power surge. How do we know he isn’t the cause?”

“Nightwing would not be bested by a mere child.”

“Thanks baby bat.” The corners of his mouth lift at the compliment.

“Yeah yeah we get it he’s the Golden child. Basically perfect. Don’t needa remind us.” Yeah…the Golden child…B’s supposed favourite.  

“Ok I’m going to approach the kid.” He gets nothing more than a grunt from Batman as the line falls into silence. Before he’s even landed on the roof, the kid tense in panic and puts on some sort of full face mask over his head. And as soon as Nightwing lands the kid is ready to jump off. 

“Wait, don't jump!” Dick is completely ignored as the kid leaps off the roof jumping higher than the average person would. He ignores the shouts in his ear as they question him on what’s happening. Nightwing doesn’t hesitate to follow the kid and he sees him swing to the next building using some sort of white rope. (Does that stuff come out of him?) Dick struggles to catch up with the kid because damn he is fast. But Dick has experience. So when it seems like Dick can finally catch up with the kid. He ends up watching in horror as the kid’s body looks like it’s tearing apart as he somehow seems to glitch. Suddenly this isn’t a chase anymore because the kid is falling down to the street below in mere seconds. No. No. No! This kid is going to die from that height. While Dick can’t save him, because while he’s already taken the leap to try to reach out for him, Nightwing can’t win this race against gravity. (He can’t do anything now. How is he still as helpless as all those years ago when his parents fell? ) The crash seems to be all he hears as the world around him is void of sound. The kid landed on a car with the bone crushing crunch eerily close to that of his parents. So imagine his shock when he sees the kid’s body sit up from the car and vanish like it was never there. 

Doing some acrobatic flips to the ground he’s greeted by an angry man who is spewing curses after getting his cars crushed. He takes a shard of glass from the car that’s drenched in blood (Not paying any mind to the man for the time being.) hoping it will give him a better blood sample than the diluted one he found earlier. Dick looks for any clues on where the kid has gone but even after he turns on infrared vision again there is no heat trail….no anything. A “Nightwing report.” jostles him out of his thoughts.

“I lost the kid, it's like he just vanished.”

“Hn. Report back to the cave immediately. Everyone is waiting.”  The tone Batman uses hurts and angers him at the same time, but his feelings don’t matter right now. So he gives a quick response. 

“On my way.” Ignoring the anger and hurt in his chest (like he does best) Dick soars through the sky getting ready for a long debrief.  

Gwen watches as her watch is stripped from her. And she yells and argues as she’s grabbed and put in the go home machine, while Miguel and his colleagues all hunt for Miles. She’s sent back home where she can only watch the wall and think about what she’s done. (The look of Miles' hurt, angered and betrayed face doesn’t leave her mind.) Even after she mended some of the shattered relationship she had with her dad (and the immense relief she felt when her dad said he quit being captain. She wouldn’t have to watch him die knowing she could have saved him.) Yet she’s still thinking at what cost. She basically threw away her friend to follow some stupid algorithm that makes it so everyone connected to it is destined to suffer. All because she was too caught up in how much she was hurting after her dad believed she killed her best friend on purpose and pointed a gun at her. She completely failed to realize she caused that exact pain onto her friend, after everything. (Gwen had been acting like she didn't care if her choices hurt someone else. She had been so naive to think that as long as she followed the algorithm it would all be fine. That they actually took her in for Gwen and not just some rule holding spider.) And she almost—no she left a man to die—who would have died if not for Miles. (Now that she thinks about it there would be no way she would have been able to listen to Pavitr cries if Inspector Singh died.) The worst part is she lied to him. Every word that came out of her mouth might as well have been a filthy lie coated in sugar that just hurt more once it’s eaten it. What has she done?

So when her dad gives her the gift that a friend left her, she’s filled with suspicion. Until she opens it and sees the homemade watch with a note written by Hobie. Hope of being able to fix her mistakes blooms in her chest because she knows what she has to do. 

When she gets wind of Miles not returning home, Gwen gets the instant realization he’s in the wrong place. (Part of her knows this is her fault because she wasn’t the friend he needed. She just stayed in the shadows while he fought.) The guilt chews her stomach when she watches his parents frantically try to reach him just to make sure he’s ok. Not even to find him in person yet. Miles’s parents just want to make sure he’s alive , before they start begging him to come back. It chews her out even more as she has to tell his parents it’s her fault their kid has yet to come home, (their faces show all their anger and betrayal. Just like Miles’s did) but she doesn’t leave them until promising to find him. Because this is her mistake, she has to own it and fix it. 

There’s no way for her to know which universe he landed himself in at the moment. And since there are no bands that got what she’s looking for. Gwen will just have to make her own, with a couple new and old friends. 

Which is why she stands ready beside her seven (eight if you count Mayday) band members, to do whatever it takes to fix her mistake. And maybe even mend broken ties. 

Waking up, Miles is greeted with throbbing and aches all over his body. The first thing he wants to do is go right back to sleep. Until he realizes that he hardly has time, he only has three days until his father is going to be appointed captain and die. If he wants to even try to make it home on time, he has to get up now. Getting up Miles slowly peels off whatever is left of his suit that’s filled with dirt and basically coated with dried blood. Once he gets his suit off, Miles has the pleasure in removing the glass shards from his skin. Some are already healed over which means he has to cut the wounds open again to get the glass out…great. Removing the ones that have yet to heal over first he’s greeted with stabbing pains – which make no sense because he’s not stabbing himself – while removing them. 

Before cutting himself open to extract the glass embedded under his skin he finds a semi–clean cloth to bite down on. Slowly he begins to slice his dark skin open using a piece of glass he took out earlier. Miles doesn’t remember how long it takes. Only remembering the exhaustion deep within his bones and the metallic smell that grew with each shard taken out. Right now he wants nothing more than to succumb to the dark spots that dance around his vision, but Miles has wasted enough time. He has to start looking for a way home. Donning his torn apart spider suit once more, he leaves from the abandoned apartment to search for things that will let him survive.

Chapter Text

When Dick finally arrives at the cave he is confident any discomfort from his earlier experience has been successfully washed off his face. (Stopping some small time criminals did help.) Anger threatens to take over his features as all he’s greeted with is a swift “Report.” from Batman. (of course the mission always comes first doesn’t it.) Dick resists the urge to grit his teeth.

“Why hello to you too B.” He says while flashing a classic smile. Before he gets a reply back he speaks up again. 

“I got footage on my mask so I need to connect it to the Bat-computer. That way you all can see what happened." 

“Don’t bother explaining it yourself?” Jason scoffs 

“Well I could but showing is easier. Also that way I know I wasn’t seeing things.” Dick walks over to Tim who’s seated in front of the Bat-computer.

“Can you connect the footage from tonight to the Bat-computer?”

“Yeah sure.” It’s all he gets while the mask is snatched from his hands. (He pretends Tim’s hardened eyes don’t hurt. But he guesses at least they’re not as cold as before.)

“Grayson, you mentioned that this person jumped from the roof correct?” Well he didn’t exactly say that but when you say “don’t jump” it’s basically implied.

“Yup, he gave me a scare but he is still alive, baby bat.” Grinning as he reaches to ruffle Damian’s hair. Damian give resistance but not actually enough to try to move or get away from his hand.  

“But I fail to comprehend how they did not fall to their demise unless they completely jumped to the other roof or obtained some sort of grapple.”

“Well he had these white ropes–that now that I think about it looked pretty similar to webs–come out of his wrist.”

“So we are potentially handling a meta-human.”

“Probably.” 

“Wait, he?” Jason questions. 

“Yeah I’m pretty sure this is a guy based on what I could see of his face.”

Tim clears his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Well we’re about to find out.” he says as  he presses play. It starts right as he says he’s going to approach the kid. They watch as the kid tenses and shoves his mask right back on.

“Based on his reaction it seems like he knew you were there before you even landed.” 

“So this kid is either a highly trained hopefully not assassin or has some sort of sense ability.”

“Do not rule out the possibility of him being both, Todd.”

“Yeah whatever Demon spawn.”

“I am no–”

“Pay attention.” Batman’s rough voice is enough to get his brothers to snap their mouths shut and focus their eyes on the screen. 

Dick sees Batman squint his eyes while Tim looks fascinated the moment the white rope (web..?) seems to leave this kid’s wrist and stick perfectly onto the next building. Even with the rain coating everything is water. 

“So do those white strings come out of his wrists? Because if they do it’s fucking disgusting and badass.”

“Well I can’t make it out with this footage alone, but since there are no signs of any grappling gun or any visible device for that matter. It means he either produces the white stuff organically or there’s some sort of gadget we can’t see.” 

“It would also seem that he possesses adequate strength as maneuvers such as those require quite formidable strength at least in the upper extremities.” 

Dick quips in “Sooo potential enhanced strength along with a sensing ability or just a really trained person.”

“Either option is a possibility. We must be prepared to handle both.”

“Hate to ruin the fun conversation going on but, WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING TO HIS BODY!” Dick turns back to the screen to see the kid's body basically glitch (again) and fall from the sky. His brother’s have expressions of shock and vague horror as it looks like at any moment that glitch would cause the kid’s body to tear into pieces.  If the fall didn’t kill him first. (it doesn’t miraculously but Dick only knows that because he was there, the rest of them don’t know that.) Even Batman’s eyes widened in shock before returning back to their stoic expression. 

“He’s going to die from a fall at that height! Especially with all those injuries he has.” 

“How did he get so beat up anyway? This kid has pretty bad gashes in his left shoulder. It’s a surprise he’s not bleeding out”

“Do not be fools. If you recall, Grayson stated earlier that this person is still alive.” Damian states as if he did not wear an expression of shock seconds ago even if it went as quickly as it came.

“Thanks, that does so much to explain the beaten up part.” The sarcasm in Jason’s voice is evident as he rolls his eyes. 

“Whatever brat. But that doesn’t help us figure anything out besides that this guy is basically a guaranteed metahuman, because no normal human survives that fall.” 

“Tt.” They watch as the kid crashes onto a car and Dick resists the urge to flinch at the sound his body makes. And once more Dick watches as the kid sits up and vanishes once more. 

“Holy shit.”

“Definitely a meta-human, because that isn’t something you just sit up from.”

“So are we just ignoring the fact he just vanished.”

“He most likely possesses an ability that allows him to turn invisible, Todd."

“You’re probably right Dami but that is some useful ability because I couldn’t even see him with the infrared vision.” 

“Interesting, so this invisibility or camouflage even has the power to mask his heat signature and cover it with the temperature around him. I wonder if it’s because of the…” Dick risks a glance at Batman while Tim rambles who's been oddly quiet. (He isn’t Bruce until the cowl comes off, but it still covers his face even if patrol ended over an hour ago by this point.)

“Tim, run a facial analysis with the quick frame we get of his face, and run the video up for analysis too. Let’s see if we can get any more information.”

“On it B.” Tim's fingers speed through the keyboard as he types. An automatic voice starts. “Facial recognition and analysis software commencing. Running recognition and analysis now.” 

“Ok it will be about 10 minutes before we get a face and potentially a name. It’s taking a bit longer than usual because the photo isn’t very clear.” An awkward tension envelopes the cave.

“So are we going to talk about how this guy basically glitched out of thin air?” Tim says while tapping his finger on his knee.

“Yeah what was that shit about? I’ve never seen someone just glitch like a video game.” It’s true none of them have seen anything quite like it before. No matter how crazy their lives have been. 

“Wait I managed to snag two blood samples, but one is a bit diluted with rain water. They could show us why he was glitching though.”

“And you couldn’t have told us before?”

“I kind of forgot…” He sheepishly rubs the back of his neck as he grabs the vial and the bag with the glass in it. He opts to ignore his brother's faint “Classic Dickhead never telling us anything important.”

“I’ll go run this for testing.” 

“Yeah yeah whatever Timberlea.” Jason scoffs as Tim nearly springs out of his chair as he grabs the items from Dick’s hands and is off to some other machine to do the testing.

“What’s got you so quiet old man?”

“I’m attempting to run a scan on the spider symbol on the back of the suit. We hardly know anything so every lead counts.”

“So you think this kid is in some cult?”

“You can never be too cautious.”

“I doubt he’s in a cult, besides if he was it would be some sort of spider cult. Which is ew gross.”

“Spiders are not gross creatures, Grayson. They are in fact only misunderstood and are vital parts of many ecosystems.”

“Tell that to the one that gave birth in my helmet once. Those things are just menaces.” Jason shudders at the memory. He would’ve straight up burnt his helmet right then and there if it weren’t for the fact that it was already his 3rd helmet of the month. 

“Facial recognition and analysis completed. There are no records for this person on the database. Information based on photo scan and facial analysis will be displayed now.”

Name: Unknown

Date of birth: Unknown 

Statis: Alive 

Gender: Male

Age: Estimated to be around 15 years old

Height: Estimated to be 5,8 ft tall

Abilities: Potentially enhance strength along with heightened awareness and invisibility 

Hair colour: Black

Eye colour: Unknown, however there is a 78% chance of brown eyes 

Skin tone: Black

Dick basically absorbs the information with his eyes and he can see his family doing the same. Well until there is somewhat of a shriek that comes from Tim. They all turn to face him but before any of them can get a word out, Tim is speaking like the world is going to collapse in seconds. 

“Thisguysomehowhasnometagenebutisactuallypartspiderlikethere’sspiderDNAinhisDNAandforsomereasonhiscellsarejustvanishinglike–”

“Woah slow down replacement, because no one knows what the fuck you just said.” Tim flushes before clearing his throat and talking at an understandable pace. 

“Ok so apparently this guy somehow has spider DNA so he’s basically part spider.”

“How do you even get shit like that engraved in your DNA?”

“Human experimentation probably.” Everyone grimaces at the thought to an extent. 

“That theory would explain the lack of facial recognition.”

“Wait, you guys didn’t find anything with the facial recognition?”

“That is what I just mentioned, Drake.”

Dick puts a hand on Damian’s head not minding the (very weak) resistance as he smiles softly. “What he means is nothing came up. Only general info.”

“How bout we hold off on the test tube thing because we don’t need anymore tube babies.”

“Oh yeah I think the spider DNA has something to do with radiation because that’s in his blood as well.”

“What the heck?! Did he fall into some nuclear spider plant or something?”

“That is unusual.”

“How does that even happen? Was he bitten by some radioactive spider?” 

“That’s probably like the stupidest thing I’ve heard, dickhead.” Jason deadpans. 

“Explain.” Dick watches his brother straighten up at Batman’s voice. 

“I don’t know how but his blood has pretty high radiation levels. Like he should probably be dead high.” Tim says while shrugging his shoulders.

“Do you believe this could be the cause of any sort of abilities?” Batman asks.

“Yes. I wouldn’t say it would be such a stretch to imagine they would be able to grant powers. This person’s DNA is basically mutated so he’s technically a mutant.”

“Anything else?”

“I think I found out why he seems to glitch.”

“Whatchu find out?” Dicks chimes in.

“Well his cells seem to decay. They just vanish for no reason. Even when I tried further testing to figure it out there’s no signs of illness or anything. It’s like he’s disintegrating just for existing.”

“So he’s going to turn into nothing at some point?” Dick says with a frown.

“Yes and no.”

“The hell you mean by yes and no?”

“While I was examining the phenomenon, the cells regenerated at an inhuman rate. Which means a healing factor is involved—a pretty good one at that. But the glitches seem to have absolutely no designated pattern and will most likely just get worse.” His brother moves his hand to tap his chin. (His brother does that a lot when he’s thinking—well when he doesn’t have a mug filled with coffee to tap on.)

“Then we have no certainty on how long he will live for.”

“Yup. It really depends on if his healing factor can fix the damage faster than he decays.”

“Is there a way we can help the kid?” Dick asks. 

“I can’t guarantee it can be cured by I may be able to create some sort of serum that at least slows down the progression.”

“We have to determine whether this person is a threat first.”

“Really B. It literally said that this kid is the demon brat’s age, you have to be kidding that you’re seriously going to see him as a threat while he’s dying .” Jason barked as his eyes started glowing a sick green. (the green that poisoned his brother, (even if it was part of the miracle that brought him back. Which he is so thankful for.) who now has to suffer its temptations.) 

“Hn.”

“Really that’s all you have to say. If that’s the case I’ll have to find him first.” Jason puts on his helmet hops on his motorcycle and is out of the cave. The night is still somewhat young which means Jason has time.

“Todd and his irrational choices.”

“I mean you know he has a point right? You can’t just see everyone as a threat, B. Yeah I know you have trust issues but you’ll never be open to anything if you keep seeing everything for its worst.”

“This is a potential threat.”

“Yeah but—” Dick drowns out the rest of the conversation as he stares at the spot Jason stood in mere moments before, because it hurts that his brother left while Dick is stuck watching. Maybe before he could’ve had a chance to convince Jason to not storm out. And stay in the cave till they figure something out. Yet those times are gone even if it’s slowly getting better. (He shattered what they built in years because of some stupid mission.) Because while he can still try his best to rebuild their relationship it won’t be the same. A hand lightly tugging his, stops his thoughts from going further. 

“Grayson are you well?” His precious Dami, who was once a little assassin filled with anger. The one who has grown up so much.

“Yeah I’m fine, no need to worry baby bat.” He pats Damian’s head not commenting on the way he leans into the touch.

“Father has confirmed the spider symbol possesses no meaning and contacted Gordon about the situation and has sent the information we gathered. She said she would read all the files once her shift at the library has ended and will inform us of any findings. Drake has been sent to bed by Pennyworth after attempting to get more coffee.” Wow Tim must have been exhausted to go to bed so earlier. (for him anyway. And did he really zone out for that long?) “ Tt. I bet he has been awake neglecting his body’s need for sleep. How shall he ever wish to perform adequately if he is in a constant sleep deprived state. ” Dick listens fondly to Damian’s rambling (he would deny and say it was ‘ relying information’ and ‘pointing out weaknesses’ ) He interrupts the rest by saying that Damian needed sleep too, which he denies saying he is no child and can stay up later. It was only around 8 o'clock but Damian is tired and Dick knows it based, off the way his eyes close for a millisecond longer and his posture not being quite as straight as he likes to keep it. (Things he only notices because he knows Damian so well.)

“Well you should go to bed. You don’t want to end up neglecting your body’s needs like Timmy do you?”

“Of course not, I sustain a much better sleep routine than Drake. So I suppose you are correct, Grayson. Goodnight Richard.” The last part is nothing more than a whisper but Dick manages to catch it and it makes him beam. 

“Night baby bat.” With that Damian is leaving the cave. And Dick is left wondering what the best way to look for a kid that can turn invisible at will is. 

Since no one can’t survive solely on air, Miles has to find supplies. When he gets out of the dusty apartment he realizes it’s darker than before. Which means he must have landed earlier in the day then he realized. (Does this city not know what the sun is, because damn that is depressing.) It also makes sense that it’s colder now too, which is not good. Miles like quite a few spider-men cannot thermoregulate—wait no that’s a lie, because he can thermoregulate his body temperature better than most of the spider-men. However , he can’t thermoregulate as well as a regular human. That means he will last longer in the cold than people like Peter, (he ignores the sting that comes with the name) but wouldn’t be able to keep his temperature up for long. This is because of his bio-electric energy. It helps regulate his temperature if he’s cold but that only works for so long. 

Miles has been thankful for his invisibility before but never to this extent. As it allows him to walk around without being seen with his spider suit. It does take a lot of concentration to maintain it while he’s glitching. (Which is kind of painful, but it is his cells decaying after all. How long until he disintegrates—yeah no, he’s not thinking about that.)  After wandering for a bit he comes across a donation bin filled with clothes and some other essentials. It’s beside some Wayne funded shelter but he doesn’t have time for pleasantries. Judging based off the moon still shining tomorrow is when his countdown starts. The countdown to the canon event. (Unless this universe runs on a completely different time spectrum and one day here is equal to three back home but he doesn’t want to believe that.)  It comes as a small relief that he has more time than he originally thought but there is still so much he must do with limited time. 

Shaking his head to get out of his thoughts, Miles grabs a small (kind of beat up) black backpack, a long sleeve black shirt , a pair of beaten up shoes, a blue hoodie with some sort of ‘S’ symbol in the corner and a pair of gray sweatpants. He manages to find some food items (three granola bars and two cans of pineapple.) which he stuffs into the backpack. It's not nearly enough, especially with his healing factor needing quite a bit of energy but he’s already taken so much stuff. Dread slowly fills him as he wonders if he’s taking from someone else who needs it more, but he pushes the feeling away because he doesn’t have the time to overthink. He needs a plan if he wants any hope in getting back home. Which he will think about as soon as he puts the newfound clothes over his suit, while making…somewhat of a plan in his head.

Miles’s go home plan

• Find out where he is

• Check if there are any Spider people here that work with Miguel

• Research for any potential heroes..that can help him (If he can get past his newly developed trust issues.)

• See if there’s any technology or colliders he can use to get back

• Most importantly don’t die, because the plan would go to waste and so would his dad’s life

It’s a relatively simple plan but he’s on a time limit which means he has to fit all of this into  3 days. Which makes it…a bit (a lot) harder. It feels near impossible but he has to succeed, the fate of his dad’s life (and potentially breaking the cycle of suffering) lies in if he succeeds. But first he has to find some sort of watch or device to tell the time, because if he spends too long here all his efforts will be in vain. So he wanders around and eventually finds the “Gotham library”. Gotham must be the name of whatever city he’s in because why would you name something ‘Gotham’? He assumes it’s still open based on the lights inside so he enters. Stepping inside he realizes the library is much bigger and nicer than he expected. The city is full of sketchy stuff and he doesn’t even need his spider sense to know that! 

So the only reason he doesn’t jump when someone approaches him is because his senses warned him earlier. “Hi, how can I help you?” The lady speaking to him is in a wheelchair, she's wearing glasses and has pretty long red hair. She’s wearing a name tag that says Barbara Gordon so that must be her name. 

“Oh um hi, I’m Miles and I was wondering if you have any brochures about this place or any computers I can do some research on.” 

“Well Miles lucky for you the library has both.” He’s handed a brochure that says ‘welcome to Gotham’ even if the cover doesn’t look too friendly. “This will tell you everything you need to survive Gotham. It even has some information about the Bats.”

“The Bats?” Miles asks with confusion.

“I figured you weren’t from here but I hadn’t expected you to be this new.” Miles sheepishly rubs his neck. 

“Heh, what gave it away?”

“Your accent. Anyway the Bats are just the vigilantes that watch over Gotham. There are a few of them so be sure to keep your eye out because they’re quite sneaky.”

“Wow, that's pretty cool. Is one named Batman or something?”

“Yup, how’d you make that guess?”

“I mean they’re called the Bats so at least one of them has to have a bat in their name. Does he have any bat powers or something.” If he did it would make sense that he’s named Batman. Miles is called spider-man because he got bitten by a radioactive spider, so he wouldn’t be too surprised if Batman was bitten by a radioactive bat.

“Nope he’s as human as us.” Technically Miles isn’t 100% human at least not anymore but he doesn’t say that out loud.

“So he’s just a man dressed as a bat?”

“Pretty much”

“Wow that’s…”

“Kind of unusual but I can assure you he’s very good at what he does. Also you said you wanted to use the computers?” Oh. Right, he almost forgot about that.

“Yeah if that’s ok.”

“It’s no problem, I just need to get you a library card. Follow me.”

Once they get to the receptionist table she hands him a form. “You can hand fill out this form here. All it needs is your name, an email or phone number and proof of identity.” Uh oh. This is a problem because none of Miles’s information works here because this is a completely different universe. He may not even exist here at all .

“Is there any way I can do it with just my name? You could say I don’t have anything else at the moment. I’m just really far from home and I don’t really have a way back at the moment." Barbara watches as Miles’s eyes grow a bit distant and his expression morphs into a solemn one. 

“I could make an exception and do that for you. I'll just have to let you know that you won’t be able to borrow any books since we have no way to contact you.” Something in his expression brightens a bit and Barbara feels glad she can do something to help. 

“Thanks, that means a lot.” it really does mean a lot especially after it feels as if everyone has been against him lately. So he spares no time in filling out his name on the form. 

“It’s no problem.” She takes the form that has the name ‘Miles Morales’ written out in some unique handwriting. Barbara suspects this kid may be an artist. “I’ll just take this to the back to be printed out, it should be done in about 5 minutes. You can go wait by the computers over there and I'll bring it to you once it’s ready.”

“Thank you Ms. Gordon.”

“Please Barbara is just fine.”

“Sorry no can do Ms. Gordon my parents would kill me if they could hear me be too informal.” His expressions drop again the mention of his parents which Barbara takes note of. As he walks to the computers he glitches again and does his best to not grunt with the pain it bring jostling his injury while praying Ms. Gordon didn’t see anything, because no matter where you are some person glitching out of nowhere is not normal. He decides to turn on the computer even if he can’t login into it yet because he has no card. The time reads 8:24pm which means he’s still a bit ahead before the real countdown starts. 

Chapter Text

Miguel has to stop this Miles kid from destroying what he's worked so hard to keep together. The system he spent countless hours on recruiting people for. All the trial and error that came about when he was perfecting the watch so he could do his best to keep the canon intact. He doesn’t understand the true weight of the burden Miguel carries. Every. Single. Time, a very bad canon event happens. He has to watch his comrades suffer as if they haven't gone through enough. All he can do is simply watch as more people die when he knows he could stop it. But he’s long given up that hope of trying to find another way, because there isn’t one. People could argue that he hasn’t tried hard enough, when all he did was try . Miguel tried to live a nice life in a universe where his daughter didn’t die and all that gave him was another chance to watch his daughter die in his arms. When all he wanted was to be there for her. Instead he only caused her demise. He tried to find a way where people wouldn’t have to follow the canon. Earth-199999’s Spider-man gave and crushed all his hope. He had been monitoring Spider-man from Earth-199999 because he saw that there was a Peter Parker who never had an uncle Ben or any uncle for that matter. One that lived happily with his aunt May. Even with the struggles he was happy.

Miguel watched as there was never a police captain he interacted with. Yet he still watched that life go up in flames the moment the Iron-man of that world died. Peter Parker’s first devastating canon event. It was that death that showed him someone must always die, because the hardest part about their jobs is they can’t save everyone. So he then watches as that Peter Parker messes up and causes a small rift in dimensions, when trying to save his identity Then loses his aunt May to a Green Goblin who isn’t even from his universe. There is nothing he could have done to prevent these events. After all, Miguel can only monitor other universes. He can’t just jump in to try to save someone. He saw glimpses of what would’ve happened if he prevented this event. Especially with Earth-199999 already being unstable due to the number of anomalies it already had. (That lesson was learned the moment his daughter vanished from his arms.) 

Only that the very thing he was trying to prevent happened when Peter 3 saved Peter 1’s MJ from falling to her death. There was almost an entire breach and collapse of their dimension. It wouldn’t have happened if Michelle Jones wasn’t saved. If the events played out as they were supposed to they could have simply sent all the anomalies home and that world would have returned to almost normal stability levels. 

It’s true that they would have had to deal with a couple anomalies but those were still happening all over the Arachno-Humanoid Poly-Multiverse, because of the collider incident originating from Earth-1610— which Miguel is still trying to control —However that whole fiasco showed him one thing and it’s that, there’s a price to pay when a canon event is stopped. And that Peter paid the price. Now he can only make sure that doesn’t happen elsewhere by letting the canon play out as it needs to. Which means he’ll do whatever it takes so it all doesn’t crumble to the ground. 

Barbara watches as an unfamiliar kid comes into the library. One could argue that most people that go to the library are unfamiliar however Barbara has been here long enough to recognize all the faces she sees. Her vigilante work may also be a part of it as she’s constantly reviewing camera footage, but it gives the same point. By further looking at the kid it’s apparent that he’s relatively new here, based on the way he looks around in wonder and slight confusion while he’s wandering around the library. 

If she had any doubts about him not being native to Gotham they all vanish the moment he hears his accent. She’s guessing Miles is probably from New York because of his accent, it’s not guaranteed but Barbara thinks that it’s a solid guess because he is definitely not native to Gotham. Now it’s not a very obvious accent as you could probably only hear it if you were paying close attention or if you’re a trained detective like her. 

When he tells her about needing to research Gotham Barbara takes it as a chance to learn more about him. Only to end up being given a lack of information because Miles has no form of digital contact or a location at a home or shelter. She watches him closely with every word that leaves his mouth and his mood drops whenever he mentions his home. There may be a chance of an abusive household he could be running from, or maybe his family has passed. Both options are quite morbid but unfortunately hardly anyone comes to Gotham if they have a life put together. Noting down scenarios in her head for the reason Miles came to Gotham. She offers to give him a card as long as he gives her his name, he just wouldn’t be able to borrow any book—since he has no other information.   

The moment she takes the form once he’s written out the name ‘Miles Morales’ she takes a second to look at the hand writing. There is a very sharp yet smooth look to the letters. It looks like quite the unique writing style, and judging the little doodle around his name Miles may just be some sort of art kid like Damian. 

Barbara explains that she just needs to print out the card and shouldn’t be too long, so he’s free to look around a bit while he waits. While she leaves she hears a grunt of pain and looks back only to see Miles walking over to the computers. It’s unusual because Barbara is sure she heard something. If she was a privacy invader like most of the Bats she would have probably checked the security cameras later to investigate Miles, considering that she’s never seen him on any sort of Gotham cameras and the way he looks beaten. However she does respect something called boundaries because by digging too deep she risks pushing him away—which is something she would like to avoid. 

A buzz comes from her “work” phone that includes some sort of files. Another detective case for her. She sends a quick message that she’ll look over them later because Barbara promised to cover for Sarah who couldn’t make it for her shift today because she had gotten sick. Checking the time she sees that she only has a bit more than an hour before her shift ends at 9:30. It wasn’t labeled as an urgent message so they should be good with waiting a bit. The beep of the machine lets her know that the card is printed. Putting her phone away, Barbara wheels herself to the machine and grabs the card. Now she has to give this to Miles and review this new case file. Something tells her she might be having a long night, after her late shift. 

Chapter Text

“Gwen, Peni and I have managed to get some information on where Miles ended up based on the energy readings the machine let off, but we still can’t pinpoint a location.” Spider-byte or as Gwen has recently learned, Margo says, while dusting off the table. They managed to find an abandoned warehouse in Gwen’s universe to meet up in. They didn’t want to risk the rest of the spider-society somehow finding out Gwen got another watch, their plan to rescue Miles, etc.  Peni had a lot of portable tech for them to use which made tracking Miles doable. Right now Spider-noir, Peter B parker and Peter Porker are all doing a quick patrol just to be certain no people from the Spider-society are actively looking for any of them. Lastly Hobie and Pavitr are working on ideas on how to get Miles once they find him. 

“It’s better than nothing. So what did you girls find?” 

“He’s not in the spider-verse anymore. He’s travelled outside of it.”

Gwen’s feet stop in their tracks. “He what?” 

“He’s travelled outside the Spider-verse”

“But how? That shouldn’t be possible, he went to the go home machine. At worst it should have sent him to the universe where the spider that bit him was from.” This is much worse than she thought. How did this happen? Can they even find Miles now? Will she never be able to apologize? She pinches herself to lose her thoughts and pay attention to Peni. Freaking out won’t do any good. 

“Normally yes it would have done that. However, Spider-byte and I think that all the events with Miguel trying to break into the machine, Miles having two different universes in his DNA and Spider-byte trying to shutdown the machine made it malfunction big time. Since it had too much information to process at once it “panicked” and sent him outside the spider-verse.” Peni replies. 

Gwen looks at Peni as she’s speaking and tries her best to ignore how tired her friend looks. How much older she looks from the 13 year old she meet 1 year ago. (She knows something happened after they all parted ways, and she’s almost certain it was a canon event, but she won’t push. She’s ruined enough friendships already.) 

“So why didn’t it send me there as well since I went in the machine right after Miles?” 

“It’s because you were the only one in the machine and it was a temporary overload of information. Also your coordinates were preset into the machine and the go home machine didn’t have to find your dimension for you.” 

“That makes sense. Do you think you could pinpoint where he ended up?” 

“Well we’d need to access the go home machine’s database to pinpoint his exact location since it’s the only thing that knows where Miles ended up. Since we can’t even track his day pass because Miguel took it. I’d need to hack the database remotely since there’s no Miguel will just let us back in especially after disabling some of our watches. Which meant we then had to bypass his controls. You’re lucky Hobie made you a watch.”

“Yeah but I don’t have any of your computer skills so I could’ve never reprogrammed the watch myself.” Suddenly she remembers something else. “We forgot about Spot!, his whole goal was to hurt Miles to prove he wasn’t a villain of the week. And we still have to make sure he doesn’t get anymore power than he already has. Or destroy a dimension” How did that slip her mind? Not only do they have to save Miles, they also must avoid Miguel, stop Spot and travel through the multi-verse now. 

“Peni do you think you can hack the database on your own?”

Peni gives a small smirk as she replies “Miguel might be quite tech savvy like me, but my universe is still 1047 years ahead of his.” Peni gives a small smirk as she continues “Give me 15 minutes.”

“Good.” Gwen turns to walk towards Margo again. “Margo can you start trying to track spot because we can’t just let him get anymore power than he’s already gotten.”. 

“Yeah I’m onto, I’ll to trace his energy signature. It should be pretty strong with how much he’s jump through dimensions.”

“Thanks.” Time to make a game plan Gwen thinks as she walks across the abandoned warehouse.  

Barbara wheels herself back into the the main room of the library with the library card in hand. It’s easy enough for her to find Miles since he’d stayed at the computers the entire time. Before she hands the card to him she takes a couple of seconds to see how he’s looking and prodding at the computer. He came in beaten up so she can assume he might be homeless or having struggles at home. Maybe he’s never gotten to use a computer before. Shaking her head she decides to give him the card and observe later. She still has to check out the files Bruce sent her, once she puts all the returned books back to their shelves and send messages to people who have yet to return their books. Barbara goes to Miles and taps his shoulder. 

“Here’s your card Miles, you should be able to use your name as your user name and your library number as your password.”

“Thank you so much.”

“It’s nothing. Feel free to find me if you need help with anything, I’ll just be shelving the books. Oh yeah we close in about half an hour but I’ll remind you again closer to closing time.” 

“Oh ok thanks again Ms. Gordon.” 

“I won’t be able to make you drop that huh?”

“Sorry no can do.”

Barbara lets out a fond sigh before heading towards the return pile. A long night indeed. 

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Ever since Barbara gave him the library card to let him login to the computer, (Which isn’t as advanced as his universe’s technology but not by that much.) he’s tried searching for any type of spider person and anyone that seems a bit familiar. But he’s found nothing. There’s nothing here. Nothing in common with his home. Nothing that could bring him back to his home or have any link to it. His hands gripping the table are turning paler ever second. Focus is the only thing keeping him from crushing it on accident. Miles hits his head on the desk in frustration and holds back a yell. He needs to calm down. After all he is only stuck in a dimension with no one he’s ever heard of. And probably outside of the Spider-Verse because there is no one who has been bitten by a radioactive spider. Hence the lack of any spider person. Maybe this is a good thing for him because now he doesn’t have to worry about one of them just grabbing him. But then how does he get home?

Is there a way for him to make it home? Will he ever see his mami? Is there even a way to save his papi? Can he do anything? Maybe this has been his fault from the very start. Isn’t that what Miguel said. It’s all his fault. If he wasn’t stupid all those years ago and walk into a fight maybe his Peter Parker would still be alive. His uncle wouldn’t have had to die. Spot wouldn’t exist. Every word that left his mouth wouldn’t have to be a lie to hide from his parents. He wouldn’t have the tearing feeling of betrayal engraved in his skin. There would be nothing to chose. He could just save his dad without risking the universe. 

Why is he here?  

Why him?

No one believes in him.

What’s the point?

There’s nothing here for him. 

There’a a burning in his lungs that can’t be put out. How can it be there’s no air reaching them. Every breath is a strangled choke, when he has nothing in his throat. The But it doesn’t matter he need to keep searching for a way home. As he reaches again for the keyboard his vision gets blurry. When he start crying anyway? It doesn’t matter because he can’t cry right now. It won’t help him do anything. Why is it so much harder to breathe now? Why can’t he be normal? Why can’t he just be at home hugging his parents. 

Why?

Why?

Why?

WHY?

Why can’t he be home?

Why is being Spider-Man such a sacrifice?

Something is calling him. Well not really, but there’s a feeling, a power. Something guiding him through his portals. Tugging him through different universes. Until he feels the tug stop. And he lands in the rain. He’s almost a shadow with his now black skin, if it weren’t for all those white spots he would be invisible here. There’s something here for him, he know’s it. And just like everything was taken from him, he’ll take anything from anyone so he can get it.