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Chapter Text

     Spider-Man hung by a web upside down watching Tony Stark fiddle with a machine that was almost double his size. “Soooo what’s this thing supposed to do again?” He saw, what could only be described as, some giant type of gate or portal machine with its doors closed.

     Tony, reaching for a blueberry in a bowl that was next to him, turned around to face the wall crawler. “Well Peter, you’ve introduced us to dimensional travel. You and your- “

     “Spiderverse?”

     “-creepy crawly spiderlings, were quite the story around the Avengers for a bit.  Reed was beside himself trying to figure out this “web of destiny” and how you all were able to locate each other and he started doing his own experiments HOWEVER -“ Tony dramatically slapped the side of the machine, “I, as humble as I am smart, have already finished my first dimensional travel prototype. The Transdimensional Active Pacer Expedition Device”

      “Ah yes, the most scientific and accurate of all acronyms. TAPED” Snickering to himself, Spider-Man flipped down onto his feet next to Tony. He nudged Tony teasingly, “it’s lame, well the name, not the ability to travel to different dimensions that parallel our own in ways that we couldn’t fathom with technology the common civilian couldn’t even believe existed, that’s cool.  But the name?  Could use some work.”  

     Scowling, Tony walked towards a large technical interface, pressing some buttons and typing away at it.  He occasionally wiped away an error screen or caution screen, visibly frustrated. 

     Spider-man, amused by Tony’s frustration, walked toward TAPED and began to lean on it. “You know, I’m sure Reed wouldn’t mind helping you with this” Tony’s only response was frustrated groans and curses. Spider–Man took off his mask to reveal the boy underneath.  Peter Parker, a boy who was bitten by a radioactive spider in the beginning of his high school career, was now 17 and in his Junior year. He may have been young but he was a genius when it came to technology and mechanical engineering, computer science and some bits and pieces of hacking that he learned from good ol Hank Pym. That’s one of the ways he met Tony Stark, his literal Idol and super hero mentor. Peter slinked around the machine and laughed to himself as he saw an open panel and some loose wires.  

     Cracking his knuckles Peter fumbled around inside the machine. “Tony is a pretty organized guy so it’s safe to say that these wires are both color coded and alphabetized,” Peter thought to himself.  He connected the loose wires and flipped on a couple appropriate switches and voila. Tech god Peter Parker had surpassed his master.

      Peter meandered back to the front of the machine and leaned on the door of the machine and watched as Tony pressed another set of keys as the machine came rumbling to life.

      GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT

      Peter’s Spidey-sense flared as the door crumbled inside itself and Peter fell and was sucked in. The last thing he saw as he fell was Tony’s wide eyed face and him screaming before passing out.

Chapter Text

     Peter groaned as he woke up in what seemed to be an alleyway. His head throbbed as his heart beat hard in his chest, each beat a cannon in his head. His Spidey-sense softly hummed with dull warnings as he pushed himself up from the ground. He wobbled to his feet leaning against a trash can to help himself. Looking around, all he saw was a couple dumpsters and stray cats looking his way hesitantly. Clicking his tongue as he realized that he couldn’t tell where he was in the alley.

    Spider-Man patted around his suit looking for his mask, finding it in the same murky puddle that he had also apparently landed in. “Ewwwww,” Spidey said, trying to get the dirty water off of his mask and costume. He donned the new sopping wet mask and jumped on the nearest wall in the alley.  Avoiding windows, and the occasional opening of doors, an all too familiar forest of skyscrapers greeted him. The sun glinted off the windows and metal of distant skyscrapers. The hustle and bustle of the streets rang through the air and comforted the wall-crawler.

     “HELLO NEW YORK! I guess Tony got it wrong?”  Spider-man paced the rooftop rubbing his head as his Spidey-sense’s constant buzzing worried him. “Well if this IS New York, then the Baxter Building should be right over. . .  there!“ Spider-Man pointed to a skyscraper that looked nothing like the Baxter Building.  Instead in its place was a tower, the tallest one around in fact. “Oh uh ok, not the Baxter Building. . . Maybe I forgot where it was?  B-But the Avengers tower is always in the center of New York right? Drumroll please?” Spidey began patting his thighs half jokingly, half praying, and pointed to what he remembered to be the center of the city to a building that definitely NOT sporting the giant A on the side of the building. 

     Crouching down, Peter put his head in his hand as he struggled to stay positive. He felt his mask and costume stick to his skin as his anxiety rushed into his brain along with thoughts with no answers. “Where am I? The machine worked? How do I get home? Where is home?” Struggling to breath, Peter ripped his mask off and began to hyperventilate. He then remembered how he had fought the inheritors with other Spider Men and Woman across the multiverse, how many had died, how the others depended on him, how Miles and Aunt May depended on him. His mantra given to him by Uncle Ben repeating in his head, “With great power comes great responsibility.” It filled him with a newfound confidence, slowing his breathing and clearing his mind.  

     Spider-man lowered himself to the ground, mingling in with the civilians on the ground. He got some weird stares but they ignored him after a moment. Spider-Man, against his better judgement, went through an open market and stole some clothes; sweat pants, shoes, a hat, and a WayneTech sweatshirt and disappeared back into the crowd. As he hurriedly put the new clothes over his costume and his mask in his pocket he came up with a plan.  “Ok step 1. Find out where I am, step 2. Get a home base step 3.-” Peter’s stomach growled, “get some food. . . this is gonna suck for a while.

     Aimlessly walking, Peter took in his surroundings to see all the familiar bits and pieces of his world in this very unfamiliar place until an idea struck him. Long ago, when he was a child, Aunt May and Uncle Ben told Peter that if he ever got lost in the neighborhood, that he could go to the police station or the city Library to get help. “Hey excuse me?  Where is the city Library?” Peter asked an incoming person and was surprised when they scowled at him and made an arc around him. “Uhhhh ok.” Peter tried to ask another person and they didn’t even glance his way.
A gruff laugh from his left side surprised Peter, especially when he turned to see a homeless man giggling to himself. “No one here is gon’ help you boy. You smell clean and fresh. You’re not from Gotham are you?” Peter looked over the homeless man before slowly approaching him. The man was sitting on a dirty blanket, leaning against the wall. He was missing a leg, a rusty metal crutch laid on his lap along with a bowl that had his meager earnings for the day. 

     Peter putting his best Spider-Man smile said cheerfully, “Was it that obvious? I’m from a city a ways from here. I’m still trying to figure out where everything is and trying to get to the library.”

     The homeless man giggled to himself again and looked through his dirty hair up at Peter. “No one here would tell you anything. Staying still here gets you killed,” He patted his missing leg, “or worse.” The man started to giggle to himself again as Peter tried to remain unnerved by the man's demeanor. “What’s your name kid?” 

     Before he could come up with a decent alias, Peter came up with, “Oh uh Stephenopolis,” before mentally kicking himself for coming up with possibly the worst fake name of all fake names. He could see Natasha shaking her head and Fury being, well, furious. The man tilted his head to the side and stared into Peter’s eyes as if to chastise Mr. Stephenopolis with his eyes.

     “Well Stephenopo- Stevie the name’s Davis. Remember the things I tell you, got it?” Peter knelt down in front of Davis and nodded his head in preparation for an insane man’s rambling but was surprised to find actual advice leave his mouth. “Gotham ain’t a friendly place, no one will place nice here, no one wants to help either.  They have their own crap to worry about.” David pointed a finger at Peter, “if someone wants to help you that don't look like a rich playboy, they’re not here to help you. I would tell you to go to a homeless center to stay a night or three, but recently there's been some kidnappings happening around them so I wouldn’t stick around at night. An’ be careful of all those good looking restaurants.  They’re something fishy bout em. I don’t know what, but they could be a mask for something. Maybe one of the local gangs use em as a drop spot.”

    Peter smiled sweetly as Davis scowled at him some more. “Awwww Davie you Do care! I knew you liked me”

    Davis clicked his tongue in reply, “I just don’t want my sidewalk dirty with freshly squeezed boonie blood in the next couple days. Especially from that man bat or whatever. He and his birds will beat you black and blue and leave you to die. 

    “Uhhh huh” Peter sighed. This guy lost it mid conversation. “Thanks Davie, and one last thing, do you know where the Library is?” Peter batted his eyes at Davie.

     With his signature scowl, Davie grunted and pointed his chin towards the street behind Peter. “Go down that street, pass 2 lights, take a right a left, and it will be right there. Gotham Library in all it’s glory.  Now get out of here kid, and find somewhere safe to stay before dark. You got a good head on your shoulders, don’t lose it Stevie. 

     Peter stood and nodded to Davie and shot a few finger guns at him, “I’ll try Davie! I do lose a lot of things after all.”  Watching Davie roll his eyes, Peter walked down the street on his way to the Library cheerily in the dreary crowd he disappeared in on the busy street.

     As he walked. Peter thought about the things Davie had warned him about. He may be in “Gotham” (wherever that is) but he is still a hero. If he had the time he’ll check it out himself but for now. Peter walked up to the 3 pillared marble building in astonishment. “This is the Library? It’s huge, like way waaaay bigger than I thought it would be” Peter thought to himself. Putting on his hood, he walked in the building, avoiding the front desk and sliding behind various bookcases. Spotting the open pc lab, he slinked into the empty room and turned on a pc to be unsurprised when he saw Password Needed . 

     Peter took out a repurposed tracer and put it on the side of the pc. He had been tinkering with a spider tracer to give it more functionality and managed to get the tracer to upload his hacking program, WEAVER, into other tech as an end result. Sliding his sleeve back, Peter’s web-shooter brought up an interface and with a couple of clicks and a well placed mini-game, Peter was in. “First, let’s read more on this ‘Gotham’” opening the browser, Peter scrunched up his face at the main browser being “Macrosoft Blade” and the default search engine being gaggle. Trying to ignore the obvious avoidance of dimensional copyright infringement, Peter began his deep dive into the City of Gotham.

     Barbara Gordon rubbed her back as she sat down in front of the service desk in the Gotham Library. It still ached from the surgery she had received to help her walk again. She still wasn’t 100% but she could at least walk around now with little to no pain and discomfort. Bruce still nagged her about not doing anything too physical before they knew her limits to not cause any unwanted side effects, but she was just grateful she could stand again. Pushing a cart of history books, she passed the pc lab and was surprised to see someone in the far corner typing away.

     Curious about how she didn’t see them she kept pushing her cart to the history section, grabbing a bottle of water and a couple granola bars from the service desk. Walking back to the pc lab to offer the snacks, Barbara had noticed that the person was now walking towards the door and called out to him. “Hey, wait!” The man slowed to a stop in front of the door, visibly sighing before turning around to meet Barbara’s gaze with a smile. 

     Barbara tried to suppress her annoyance at the man’s visible disdain for her, taking in his face. “I was going to give you some water and some snacks since you were working so hard but now that I look at you, I don’t think I’ve seen you around the library before.”

    The man gave a slight chuckle, “Yea, I’m new to the area. The library in my last place was my favorite hangout spot and I had to see how Gotham’s stacked up to it.”

    “Well how do we stack up Mr?”

    “Just call me Stevie, and the library is nice. It’s pretty nice looking, marble walls, more Pcs than we had, and quieter. That might just be from the lack of people but hey, every building has its off day.”

     Barbara shrugged, “Not a lot of people come to the library these days. Sometimes a lost kid, or someone in need but not really people who actually want to use the library for its intended purpose. Well I don’t want to stop you but would you still like the snacks I brought?” 

     Stevie hesitated, before trotting towards Barbara and taking the granola bars and water. “Uh thanks, I appreciate it.” He nodded towards her and left the library sheepishly.

     Barbara watched him go before digging her phone out her pocket.

BatFam

     BatMom: We may have a slight problem

    OGRobin: ?

    CoffeeFiend: ?

    DayWalker: ?

    Brownie: ?

Chapter Text

BatMom: A kid came into the library today

BatMom: He has to be the same age as Tim and Duke

CoffeeFiend: I’m failing to see the problem so far

BatMom: I’m getting there

BatMom: I saw him in the pc lab but I’ve never seen him before

OGRobin: Ok? So he doesn’t come around often?

BatMom: When I checked, the pc was still on with the user being “WEAVER” 

BatMom: That’s not a library username

BatMom: The kid hacked into the network!! MY NETWORK!!!

JayBird: Get better ig

Brownie: Losing your touch babs?

BatMom: I don’t think yall understand how bad this is

BatMom: I have personally encrypted everything we have and I work out of the Library as Oracle

BatMom: He hacked INTO OUR SYSTEMS

CoffeeFiend: Ohhh that's not good

DayWalker: Give me a description and I’ll stay in the lookout

OGRobin: Wait how do we know HE knows who we are?

BatMom: All he did was search up a bunch of things about Gotham

BatMom: He searched up a lot about Bruce AND Batman and the Bats

BMan: Find out more about who he is. We’ll go from there. 

BatMom: He called himself Stevie and he came into the Library with a WayneTech sweatshirt

Brownie: Tim?

DayWalker: Tim??

CoffeeFiend: We don’t have a Stevie at WayneTech. He could've got the shirt from anywhere. I’ll start tracking him down.

BatMom: No I’LL track him down, you focus on your school work with Steph and Duke

CoffeeFiend: I’ll be quicker

OGRobin: No

DayWalker: No

JayBird: No

BMan: No 

BatMom: No

Komi_IRL:👎

     Peter hurried out of the library holding a new birth certificate, ID and other stuff that he made for himself in this new world TOTALLY legally with his hacking skills. “I gotta give Hank a hug when I get back.” Peter said to himself. With a newly printed map and asking some nicer homeless people directions, he ventured to a homeless shelter who gave him dinner for the night.

     Peter sat on the roof swinging his legs over the roof he was sitting on, looking over the Gotham Skyline while eating his filling (but not very tasty) bean burrito the homeless shelter had provided him. He scribbled notes in his notepad that he kept in his waistband while he was Spider-Man. He reread everything a couple times, especially things about the notable people in Gotham. “It’s good to know that it’s heroes in this world but these guys are-” Peter thought about the blurry picture of Batman he saw while he was in the Library’s computer lab. “A man dressed up as a bat who has other batlings and stops crime around the city while also being in a community of other crime fighters. I’m surprised someone like Superman or Wonder Woman haven’t done anything to stop this lunatic” Peter sighing took another bite out of his burrito and took more notes about the other heroes and how he should approach them if need be.

     BEHIND YOU BEHIND YOU BEHIND YOU

     Peter’s Spider sense went off before he heard the heavy footsteps behind him. His mind raced as he ate his burrito, pretending no one was around. “Crap, I'm in Crime Alley. Why was the most comfortable and easily accessible roof in Crime Alley? Do I have any sense of self preservation?” As the steps drummed closer, Peter’s muscles tensed in his legs as he prepared for a quick getaway.

     “Hey, you!” Peter jumped and turned in mock surprise, facing a man that was easily a couple feet taller than him in a sandy leather Jacket and a Red colored Helmet. He had his hands up, about 10 steps away from Peter. The Red Hood. “Lets just step away from the edge buddy, ok?”

     Peter froze, mouth mid-bite and turned around to face the skyline and then back to the man again. Widening his eyes, Peter finished his bite, and swallowed. “Oh you meant me?!” Peter chuckled internally as he wondered about how to mess with this would be vigilante.

     The man, not moving an inch, spoke through his altered voice. “Yes, you. Let’s not do anything that we would regret.” Peter could see the man’s muscles tense in his arms and simply stared at him.

     “So I can’t finish my burrito?” Peter said with a frown. Sighing, Peter swung his legs around onto the roof to face the man. “So who are you? Some kind of human dodgeball?” Peter swore he heard muffled laughter from the man’s helmet with his heightened senses, but he decided to ignore it.

     The man, still with his hands up, said, “I can tell you all about who I am if you step away from the edge of the roof.” The man took a step forward while Peter shrugged and walked towards the stairway that led into the building and leaned against the bricks.  It was completely opposite of Red Hood. He continued eating his burrito and faced the skyline again, ignoring the masked man’s obvious stature of annoyance. “So why are you here kid?”

     Peter swallowed and looked back at the man. “Well when a boy and a girl love each other very much-”

     Exasperated, Hood placed 2 hands on his helmet which caused it to release a slight hissing sound. Moments later, the helmet came off his head to reveal a black domino mask coupled with a head of black hair with an uncanny tuft of white in the middle of it all. “Alright smart ass, I meant the roof, THE ROOF, don’t you have school or something?”

     Peter hit his palm against his head, “You know what? That does make sense that you wanted to talk about why I’m on the roof and not about the birds and the bees.” Finishing his burrito, Peter shot the wrapper in a nearby trash can and faced the domino man again. “Well I like the roof Mr?”

     “You must be new to Gotham if you don’t have a single inkling of who I am. Let's get you home” The man said walking towards Peter. As he reached out for Peter’s shoulder, Peter sidestepped his hand and lightly skipped to the edge of the roof again. Peering over the side Peter smirked before the domino man grabbed for Peter again. Peter nimbly jumped over his hands and took a step on the edge.

     “You know Mr. dodgeball guy, you never told me your name,” Peter said as he balanced on the edge with one foot. “My name is uhh Stevie and your name is?”

      The domino man cursed under his breath and said, “Hood. Red Hood.”

      Peter looked back in surprise and grimaced. “That’s a lame name dontcha think? Kinda on the nose. I like 'Dodgeball Man' more. OO OO Or 'The Amazing Zit'.” More muffled laughter and Peter could tell that it was coming from his helmet.  This conversation was being listened to.  Peter, thrilled to have an audience, giggled to himself before planting both feet on the edge of the roof, his back to the skyline.

     Red hood froze watching Peter, slowly reaching behind him, but before he could react, Peter said, “I’ll get out of your hair, Zitty. I’ll avoid this part of the city and do me a favor and let’s not meet again” Before leaning back and falling off the side of the building into streets below.

      Hood ran to the edge of the roof preparing himself to dive. Red Hood looked over the edge of the building and saw nothing but civilians. He couldn't see any panicked civilians or a corpse anywhere whether it be sudden or subtle.

     “JASON! WHAT HAPPENED”

     Red Hood, putting his helmet back on, sighed and tapped the side of his helmet, “He jumped”

Chapter Text

     Peter, true to his word, stayed out of Crime alley over the next couple days and settled in Midtown near the park. His current routine was exploring familiarizing himself with Gotham and its people, trying to find a way to get some lab equipment to make some web-fluid and attending a new job at a local Coffee shop called “Mudd’s Coffee,” which had set him up in a spare room above the coffee shop. 

     He often talked to Davie and other homeless people, gathering more information through what he dubbed, “The Cardboard TedTalk” when he had the time, he helped them out with different things, increasing his standing amongst the homeless people in Gotham. At some point, normal citizens would greet Peter on the street and kids would ask to play with him.

     After another tiring day, Peter took off his hand me down clothes from the homeless shelters and laid on his temporary bed. Closing his eyes, familiar faces danced under his eyelids. Tony, Aunt May, MJ, all his friends and family’s faces and voices danced into his mind as he drifted off to sleep.

     “So run me through that story again” Tim said, sitting on a rail in the BatCave. The rail was the only thing that kept Tim from falling into the cavern below but Tim showed no nervousness as he sat impatiently for Red Hood to explain for the 4th time that day. Barbara, sitting nearby on the BatComputer, running searches on Stevie and including facial recognition.

     “I don’t know,” Red Hood said, taking off his domino mask, helmet in hand. “It’s like he didn’t know who I was but he wasn’t afraid either. He even teased me. When I tried to grab him to get him to safety, he ducked under me, and basically jumped off the building. No body, no traces of him. It’s like he disappeared.”

     A boy stalked into the room, looking discontentedly at Red Hood. “You lost an untrained child? Pathetic, Jason Todd”

     Jason rolled his eyes onto the brooding pre-teen who had entered the room. “Oh great, it’s the Demon Spawn.”

     The boy began to draw the sword on his back. “I’ll gut you To-”

     A hand suddenly rested on the hilt of the sword, pushing it back into its sheath. Dick Grayson, followed by Stephanie Brown and Batman, took his hand off of the sheath ruffled his younger brother's hair. “Now, now Dami, no killing your brother in the cave.  Alfred won’t keep cleaning up after you.” 

     “Get your hands off me Grayson!” Damian punched up at Dick while he nimbly dodged. Dick shuffled up to Jason up to lean on his shoulder.

     “So our Stevie boy is what? Some kind of meta?” Dick smiled. “Maybe someone who uses shadows? Or maybe super speed? OO OO or maybe he can make portals!”

     Steph grinned and joined in, “Do you think he can portal us some food? I could SERIOUSLY go for some BatBurger right now”

     Tim, put his elbow on his knee and rested his chin on his hand. “B disappears all the time, doesn’t mean he has powers right?” As if to prove his point, Cassandra Cain blew a little puff of air into Tim’s ear, making him jump and scuttled away from the railing and close to Barbara. “Not cool Cass, keep your air to yourself!”

     Cass simply shrugged with a smirk and sat on the railing where Tim had been. Batman, taking off his cowl and revealing himself as the millionaire that ruled high society in Gotham, Bruce Wayne. “So Stevie is a possible meta who may or may not know that Barbara is associated with us vigilantes INCLUDING our identities, and someone who has incredible hacking skills. That’s all we have?”

     Barbara ran her hands through her hair and looked over at Bruce, revealing her dark eye circles. She pushed herself up off the computer before pointing to the screen. “He’s a ghost.  Even if Stevie isn’t his real name, his face is nowhere in Gotham, Star City, OR Metropolis. I can’t find a trace of him anywhere!” Tim, now more afraid of Barbara then he was of Cass, scooted his way next to Stephanie.

     “Scaredy cat” Steph said to him while she punched his shoulder. Tim rubbed his 100% bruised arm and scowled. He watched the computer run through database after database, photo after photo. 

     “Well, I guess I’m up.” Tim said smugly.

     “NO” Barbara roared. “I’m gonna figure out who this little brat is and make these sleepless nights worth it!”

     “Stevie! Can you get the almond milk order for me?” Called Lance, the owner of Mudd’s Coffee.
   

  “No problem Lance!” With a practiced expertise, Stevie, A.K.A Peter, flipped an empty cup over his shoulder, rolling it down his arm and into his outstretched hand. A couple girls giggled as he winked at them. He filled the cup with two-thirds pour over coffee, and finished the cup off by making a goofy smiley face in the cup with the almond milk. “An almond milk smiley for a. . . Cassandra?” A short asian girl walked up to the counter with a smile. She tilted her head a little and grabbed for the cup. “Oh, uh here you are, Miss Cassandra. It’s a little hot so please don’t burn yourself” Peter nodded at her. Cassandra gave a curt nod and proceeded to sit down at a nearby table, looking out the window.

     Peter couldn’t help but stare at her. He has seen many attractive people as Spider-Man. Hell Natasha’s job was to literally seduce people half the time but he had never seen such a natural beauty before. Running a gloved hand through his hair he gave a half-hearted sigh as his feelings took hold.  Lance was the one who took him out of his captivation.

     “Make sure you change those gloves Stevie. No one wants Gotham Lice in their desserts”

     Peter shook his head and gave a mock salute, “Yes sir! The bugs shall only go in the coffee sir!” before Lance through a box of gloves at Peter’s head. As the coffee shop’s rush died down, Peter made himself his own cup of coffee and leaned on the tabletop. Cassandra still hadn’t left her seat and had long finished her coffee. She still sat alone, looking at the window, folding a napkin in many triangles, before unfolding it and doin it again. 

     Lance leaned on the tabletop next to Peter and followed his gaze towards the focused woman. “You know, unless you're an esper, I don’t think she’ll know you’re into her,” Lance said, taking a sip from his own cup of coffee.

     “That may be true but someone like her has to have some kind of boyfriend right? Maybe a girlfriend? Maybe both?” Hearing a familiar ding, Lance and Peter both looked up to see a tired and young man, a bright and giggly blonde entered the shop and waved at Cassandra. Cassandra beamed as the blonde sat next her and the young man sank into the seat across from them.

     Peter could hear Lance try not to burst into laughter as he said, “Well if you’re not esper, you might be a crack fortune teller” Lance giggled to himself, punching Peter’s arm and setting his cup down.

     Peter cringed, “Maybe if I work hard enough I can get hired by Mr. Millionaire himself”

     “Mr. Millionaire?” A voice said. As Peter straightened, he saw the young man was in front of the counter, wallet out, with a hard to read expression on his face. “Do you mean Bruce Wayne?”

     Peter, giving his best customer service smile, said, “The one and only. You think he’ll hire me as an assistant? Maybe a janitor. Hell, I’d take being a dog if I could.”

     The man chuckled to himself as he said, “Who knows, I’ll go ask him the next time I see him.” Ordering his coffee the boy sat down with the girls and drummed his fingers on the table. Peter, working for his dollar, made a large iced coffee, with 7 extra shots of espresso, 1 sugar and a pinch of love. He personally walked to coffee to the man so he didn’t have to get up again which was met with a polite thank you.

     When Peter got back from behind the counter, Lance pulled him to the back of the shop by his arm and stared wide eyed at Peter, AKA, Stevie. “Stevie, do you know who you just served coffee to?”

     “A moving corpse that’s only fueled by coffee? Seriously, who takes 7 shots of espresso. What is that?”

     “Focus Stevie. That was Tim Drake, THE Tim Drake. ‘Mr. Millionaire’s’ Millionaire son and Wayne corp. Heir! And he’s in MY shop!” Peter tried to act surprised but honestly, he was out of surprise considering that he knew a; Man out of time, multiple spies, an actual god, like 7 rich people, just to name a few. 

     Patting Lance on the back, he said,” Well I’m gonna grab my coffee and head to the sink to finish the dishes. Goodluck with your . . . um . . Wayne.” Before Lance could get a word out, Peter turned on his heels back into the front of the shop. Tim and company’s heads all turned to Peter as he walked back in. “Sorry guys, my boss was uhhh . . Fangirling”

     Tim put his head in his hands while the blonde smirked and took a twenty out of Tim’s wallet. Skipping, she leaned over the front of the checkout counter and asked, “What pastry would you recommend that’s kinda big and would feed two people?”

     “Hmmm” Peter thought to himself while finishing his own coffee. “I like the apple pie, but brownies here are good too and are much easier to share. Lance makes them in house so I could just cut you a slice if you wanted to split it.”

     “Ok but like, how much would this twenty get me?” The blonde said, hopping in place and waving the twenty.

     “For twenty? An easy 4 pieces” Peter shrugged apathetically as he brought out the baking dish that held the giant uncut brownie and sat it on the countertop behind him.

     The Blonde smiled and said excitedly, “Great! One for you, Me, Cass and Timmy!” Peter looked back at the blonde, eyebrow raised. The blonde once again smirked and said, “Ok so Tim and I, Stephanie by the way, made a bet to see why you and that other guy went to the back in such a hurry. I said it was because of Tim and he said it was probably work related.” Stephanie held up her 20$ dollar bill in triumph, “Thanks to you, I won that bet! So we’re all eating some brownies!”

     Peter plated 3 brownies, giving one of the plates another slice of a brownie, and sat it on the checkout counter. “While I do appreciate the gesture, my boss wouldn’t like it if I ate with the customers, especially if I’m currently working. It’s both a bad look on me and the business as a whole.” 

     Stephanie pouted and handed Peter the twenty. “C’monnnnn Mr. uhhhhh ummmm, really cool coffee shop guy! Don’t you wanna know what victory tastes like!?”

     “Go ahead kid,” Lance, now in workout gear, walked from the back of the shop. “We can close up early, and it’s not like you do anything besides work and walk around anyway. Maybe you can make some new friends.” Lance put a hand on his shoulder before glancing at Cassandra who was comforting Tim with a pat. “Maybe even a little more than a friend,” Lance finished, whispering in Peter’s ear.

     Peter couldn’t help it as he felt his cheeks warm and his hands sweat a little. He hurriedly pushed Lance to the door as Lance cackled. “I’ll be back in a couple hours. Just make sure you clean up before you go to bed! NICE TO SERVE YOU MR. WAYNE!” Lance said before flipping the open sign to closed, and shutting the door.

     As Peter turned, he met Stephanie’s outstretched hand and gave him a warm smile. My name is Stephanie, the boy who needs a coffee intervention is Tim and the other girl is Cassandra.

     Peter, not as flustered, looked at Stephanie’s hand, before looking to her eyes and then her hand again. “My friends call me Stevie”

Chapter Text

     Stephanie forced herself to remain as giddy and excited as she had been (which wasn’t that hard considering how excited she already was) and exclaimed, “Well it’s nice to meet you Stevie! C’mon let’s go eat!” Stephanie pulled Stevie’s hand to the table that Cass and Tim were already sitting in. Cass scooted to the empty seat beside her and Stephanie pushed him into it. The plated brownies were already on the table with forks. The plate with the two brownies sat in front of Stevie and Cass. Stephanie couldn’t lie to herself and say that she didn’t see Stevie ogling Cass and as Cass’s best friend and the self proclaimed, love guru, she wanted to see how this panned out. For science of course. No other reason.

     Stevie’s face reddened as he said, “I can just get another plate.” But Stephanie held fast, keeping Stevie in his seat.

     “The less plates to clean, the better right?” Stephanie smiled, pushing Tim to the empty seat next to him. Sitting in front of Stevie, Stephanie licked her lips as she looked at the brownie in front of her.

     Taking a bite out of his own brownie, Tim scoffed, “better eat that quick, we can’t feed you food after midnight you gremlin” 

     Stevie fiddled with his fork in the plate, doing his best to avoid Cass’s as she leaned into him to eat. Stephanie smirked, watching the man’s face get red as he tried to look anywhere else but Cass’s face. “So Stevie, what are you into?” Stephanie asked.

     “O-Oh, uh, well I like tinkering with things and I’m pretty good with chemistry and stuff” Stevie said sheepishly.

     Tim’s ears perked up a little. “Tinkering? Made anything from scratch? Or do you take stuff apart and repurpose it?”

     Stevie, apparently not expecting the follow up question, stared at Tim for a bit before pressing his lips together and giving a slight nod and said, “Give me a quick second” before getting up and rushing to the back of the shop.

     Stephanie gave a wide eyed look to Cass and Tim. Tim replied with a nod while Cass continued to eat her part of the brownie. Stevie returned, carrying in his hands a cube of metal the size of a basketball before proudly patting the top of it. 

     “May I introduce my child, born from my blood, sweat, and tears. Charlotte.” At the mention of the name, the cube began to lightly rumble, bringing the full attention of the group to it. Rigid square feet detached from the cubes side, its joints made of large ball bearings. Cylindrical metal rods came out of the cube and made up the legs. Little slit-like eyes appeared in what could be assumed to be the front of the spider-like robot and a door opened and protruded to look like chelicerae. Tim stared in fascination in fascination at the little bot, getting up and bending down to get a better look at it in excitement.

     “Woah! Look at this little thing!” Tim was almost vibrating with curiosity. “What can it do?”

     Stevie smugly gave a look to Tim, “Well my caffeine poisoned friend, Check this out” Stevie crossed his arms, “Charlotte, it’s closing time” The little bot seemed to shake and whirred into action. It skittered across the floor, walking up the side of the counter to the top. It’s hind leg, hitting the faucet lever and turning on the hot water. It knocked all the available dishes in the sink, squatting over it. Producing a liquid agent that immediately foamed up the water. Charlotte continued over the counters, spraying them with a liquid out of its eyes which filled the air with the distinct smell of alcohol. It sprayed the glass displays and went from table to table doing the same.  To the dismay of the onlookers, it sprayed the occupied table as well. With Cass’s quick reflexes, she managed to save her’s and Stevie’s brownies. Tim’s and Stephanie’s? Not so much. 

     Stevie, scratching his head, sheepishly smiled and joked, “Well your brownies are definitely devoid of germs and pathogens” Stevie, picked up Charlotte who struggled in his arms. Pushing a button, the bot’s arms retracted back into its body, remaking itself into its original box-like shape. Despite the small hiccup, Stevie beamed with pride and Tim was ecstatic.

     Tim almost shouted, “THAT WAS AMAZING! A fully automatic robot that can disinfect surfaces while also scaling nearly vertical walls! And what did you use for the water? It’s no way that regular soap right? It foamed up way too fast for it to be regular soap so what was it?” Stevie smugly smiled at Tim. Setting Charlotte down, Stevie gripped Tim’s shoulder.

     “Timbo my boy,” Stevie began “I can’t just give you this information for free. Ya see, I’m a businessman at heart” The hairs on Stephanie’s neck rose and she glanced at Cass who was already reaching into her pockets. “If you do the dishes and wipe down the counter, I’ll tell you how I made Charlotte and what I did for the sink water too!” As if he could feel Cass’s and Stephanie’s hostility, he rushed through his sentence. Tim hesitated before checking his watch and looking at the small pile of dishes.

     “Fine!” Tim said, running over to the sink and rolling up his sleeves. Stevie chuckled to himself and sat down next to Cass again, sinking into the seat. 

     Cass, back to being relaxed, signed to Stephanie, “ We should leave as soon as Tim is done. Bruce won’t be happy if we’re late” Stephanie put her fingers to her temples, thinking about a time effective path they could take before giving up and shrugging. Cass audibly sighed before directing her attention back to the brownie. Her fork hit Stevie’s as he had inhaled his entire part of his brownie. Looking up at him, Cass could see the crumbs around his face and scoffed. She took a napkin and began to hand it to him, however, Stevie wasn’t paying attention as he talked to Tim from across the room about engineering, chemistry, and biology. Cass, frankly, was annoyed by how messy Stevie was. Sharply poking his side, Stevie jumped, turning around to find a napkin in his face from a frowning Cass. 

     Stevie, very confused and surprised, took the napkin and sat it on his laugh which made Stephanie laugh out loud. Cass whipped her head around at Stephanie frantically signing at her. Stephanie smirked to Stevie and signed back at Cass who immediately flushed red. Stevie looked between the two girls before saying, “I don’t know if this would be rude but, is Cass deaf? Did I do something to offend them?” Stevie, turning to completely face Cassandra. “Um, hopefully you can read lips. I'm sorry I don’t know sign language, but I apologize if I offended you somehow.” Cass blushed even harder and this time Tim was the one who laughed out loud while Stephanie frantically types on her phone. 

     Cass, phenomenally embarrassed, said at a barely audible level, “I can hear you” Stevie, bending down with his ear to Cass’s mouth. Straining to hear Cass ,she simply tugged at Stevie’s earlobe and said again, a little louder, “I can hear you. I’m not deaf, I don’t talk a lot”  

     When Cass let go of Stevie, he nodded and turned to face Cass, and she could feel his breath on her nose. As they both realized the distance between them, their faces matched in the same shade as red before they heard a sound. 

     * CLICK CLICK CLICK*

     Both Cass and Stevie whipped their heads around to see Tim and Stephanie giggling to themselves with their phones in their hands. Cass tried to run around the table to grab Stephanie and Tim but they were already splitting up and running away.

BatChat

Brownie: WE FOUND STEVIE AND CASS HAS A CRUSH

Komi_Irl: NO I DON’T

Brownie sent 4 Images

Komi_Irl: DELETE THAT

OGRobin: Oh my god

JayBird: WHY ARE YOU SO RED?

DayWalker: RED? WHY ARE THEY SO CLOSE

CoffeeFiend sent a video

BMan: . . .

Komi_Irl: 😥

Batmom: YOU FOUND STEVIE

CoffeeFiend: He works and lives at Mudd’s coffee

CoffeeFiend: He’s a crazy good engineer 

CoffeeFiend: AND he makes good coffee

Brownie: He didn’t give anything away about if he knows who we are or not

CoffeeFiend: Let’s tail him for a couple days

OGRobin: You think Jason should talk to him again?

JayBird: I need to talk to him

JayBird: Big Bro has to scope out the new Boyfriend

BMan: Maybe I should see him instead

Komi_Irl: STOP

     Peter laid in his bed, looking up at his ceiling. Peter covered his face in embarrassment thinking about how Tim and Stephanie made fun of him for another 30 minutes before going home. Peter couldn’t even think of sleeping right now with Cassandra’s voice replaying in his mind. And Peter did what he always did when he got restless.  With 2 full web cartridges to his name and another set of experimental web fluid he was working on, Peter swung out Mudd’s Coffee’s window.

Chapter Text

     Spider-man swung through the streets of Gotham, enjoying the wind through mask. He had long memorized the main, side and back streets of Gotham but it was nice to pretend that he didn't. It was like a whole new city at night. Red light districts, flashing lights, MORE homeless people. Spider-Man truly was a little awestruck about it all.

     “Let go of me!” Spider-Man heard the screams of a young woman and flung a web at a nearby skyscraper to pull himself to the direction of the scream. Sticking to the wall he crawled in the darkness, crouching on the railing of the fire escape, watching three men tug at one woman on the street below. They probably thought they were safe, but Spider-Man thought otherwise. 

     The woman kicked at the men, kicking one of them in their thighs. The same man raised his hand ready to strike her before a light Thwip stuck the man's fist to the man's face.

     “Sorry man, I thought I saw a mosquito!” The surprised men flipped around to see Spider-Man hanging upside down by his web. “Ah Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum and Bob! Nice seeing you guys here.”

     The man on the left brought out a knife and pointed it to Spider-Man. “W-What are you? A bat?”

     Landing on his feet, Spider-Man masked eyes squinted at the man with the knife. “Bob, do I look dark and brooding and batlike?” Bob looked at the man before nodding to the other man. The other man picked up a glass rod and stalked towards Spider-Man. 

     “Woah guys, It's Batman!” Spider-Man pointed to the roof above and both of the men whipped around to an empty space. Spider-Man scoffed as he flung a web at the glass rod and pulled it to Steve’s face, shattering it. “Cmonnn, how did you fall for the old ‘vigilante on the roof’ trick?” The other man, without his glass rod, ran at Spider-Man.  Wildly punching, the man gave a warcry that was swiftly halted by a clean left heel kick to the chin.

Duck!

     As his Spider sense screamed, Spider-Man ducked a knife stab, and grabbed Bob's outstretched hand. “That's not nice Bobby, now you have to chill with your boy Tweedle Dee” Spider-Man tugged at Bob’s arm, lifting him into the air before slamming him into Tweedle Dee on the floor. 

     “Hold it!” Spider-Man turned behind him to see that Tweedle Dum had cut the webbing off of his face and hands and now held the woman at gunpoint. Spider-Man raised his hands in surrender. “All you heroes are the same. Get one hostage and it's easy!” Tweedle dum laughed to himself. 

     “Hey! I cannot be tha-a-ACHOO” Spider-Man sneezed into his hands. Using the subtle movement, he flung his webs onto Tweedle Dum’s face and hand that held the gun, before using another web to propel himself onto Tweedle Dum, knocking him down. “Ughh, you got a tissue?” Spider-Man sniffled. 

     After webbing the 3 men together and hanging them from a light pole, he helped the woman, Amber, get back to her apartment safely. Amber was a little spooked at first but with a couple of jokes, she was comfortable enough to let him walk her home. This is how Spider-Man’s impromptu patrol went. A couple of baddies here, a few robberies there and Spider-Man was ready to call it a night. Well until he saw Tim Drake, bound and gagged, being thrown into the back of a van and speeding off towards Crime Alley.

     Tim stretched his legs as far as they could go within his rope bindings.  “Soooooo guys, how long are you going to keep me here?  I got school in the morning” 

     A figure in all black took off his ski mask and pointed his gun at Tim’s head. “SHUT UP!  You’re gonna stay with us until daddy dearest pays us the money for your life!”

     Tim cringed and repeated, “‘Daddy dearest? Dude ew,” before he was quiet. Well only until he was bored out of his mind again. He started a game every time he was kidnapped on who would come to his rescue. He had bet on Dick but he might already be halfway to Bludhaven before he was told that Tim had gone missing. He thought maybe even Bruce would do it. . . Nah doubt it. Tim eyed his captor pacing in front of him.  Tim knew he wouldn’t hit him, well if he’s smart. He palmed a Birdarang that was attached to his sleeve before opting to annoy his vict- captor again. “How much is my life worth anyway? Are you gonna send some back to the folks back home?” 

     Before the man could say anything, the door behind him opened and in came a man who looked like he was goalie on the Gotham Knights Hockey team and another crook.  Tim could see two others outside which he assumed were guarding the door. The man lifted his hockey mask exposing a pretty average face underneath.  “Well well, Timothy Drake, son of Bruce Wayne. For such a rich kid, you were way too easy to find”

     Tim shrugged “Well, I mean, I have a pretty set routine of school, coffee shop, library, home, coffee shop, coffee shop, coffee shop, and home again. It’s even on the Wayne Wiki page ya know?” 

     The goalie twirled a hockey stick, “Joke while you can kid! With this kidnapping, I’ll debut in the crime world as a world class criminal!  Me! Puck!”

     The henchman who wore the ski mask cheered, “Yea go boss!”

     “Shut up Jerry” Jerry groaned, kicking a rock

     Tim’s face visibly contorted at the name. “All the names in the world and you chose “Puck?” Really?”

     A vein popped into view on Puck’s head, “NOW YOU LISTE-”

*knock knock*

     The group in the room all looked at the door. Puck nodded to Jerry and then to the door, the other henchman sneaked to the corner that was to the right of the door. Jerry stalked quietly to the door and asked “Who is it?” Tim wondered what trick Nightwing was planning to pull. Only he would do something as stupid as knocking on the door first before entering a hostage situation. But to his surprise, a voice not belonging to anyone he recognized answered instead.

     “Uhhhh a pizza delivery for . . . Bad guys?”

     Jerry, ever the forward thinker, grinned happily and opened the door. “Nice to know that our work is finally recognized," he said , sticking his head out the door and before Puck could get a word out, Jerry was pulled out into the hallway and into the darkness.

Chapter Text

     Tim waited for the inevitable sounds of muffled screaming or a fight but it was dead silent. Puck readied his hockey stick trembling. “H-Hello!? I know you’re out there! I have a hostage so come in with your hands up! O-or I’ll kill him! Y-yea I’ll kill him!!” The smarter henchman had stayed in the corner, readying his own hockey stick, his knees shaking slightly.

     “Woah, woah ok bud” said a voice in the hallway, “I’ll come in, just don’t shoot him“ A lean man entered the doorway. He wore (In Tim’s humble opinion) a tacky blue and red jumpsuit that was webbed at the fingers and had a spider insignia on the chest. His face, well his mask, had no mouth but 2 large white eyes with a black outline on the rim. The eyes squinted into the room. “Is that. . . You chose a hockey stick? As a weapon?” The man started to giggle which turned into bent over, hands on knees, belly laughing. Tim watched the man wipe an imaginary tear from his eye before Puck’s henchman  realized that the laughing man was unarmed. The crook charged from the right of the laughing man, swinging his hockey stick down toward his head.

     Tim screamed, “Hey! Pay attention! Bug, thing, guy!” 

     As the hockey stick came down onto the bug man, the man effortlessly side stepped it. “Swing and a miss!” With a slick flicking motion of his wrist, some kind of white rope spread out, wrapping around his body en masse. The momentum of his swing and the newfound lack of balance cause the man to tumble to the left side of the room.

     The henchman groaned, struggling against the binds that held him. He desperately clawed at the rope screaming out, “What is this!? Some kind of glue? It feels like grabbing at concrete! AHHH! MY HANDS ARE STUCK!” 

     The bug man paused before saying, “Good to know! Didn’t get a chance to test these new webs yet so your feedback is appreciated. Would you like to fill out the survey?” Puck’s attempt to fight the man wasn’t any better. Puck had discreetly pulled out a hockey puck and pressed a button on it. Smiling, he threw it at the masked man who appeared to be gloating. The masked man caught it effortlessly, spinning the puck in his hands. “Oooo free souvenir?”

     “Wait! It’s a-” Tim started.

     “A Bomb? Yea I know, and it’s already disarmed” the masked man said, tossing the puck onto the webbed crook still on the ground. “Now it’s your turn buddy”

     Puck, shocked, backed away from Tim in his chair. “How did- You didn’t even do anything! I watched you!”

     The masked man shrugged at Puck, “Sticky fingers?” 

     “That doesn’t ma-“ Tim couldn’t see what happened, but he saw the masked man’s arms punch towards Puck. Tim saw globs of white fly behind him, Silencing him. Only the familiar sound of a body hitting the floor and muffled noises could be heard behind Tim.

     Tim sat there slack jawed at the entire interaction. The fight couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes. Could you even call this a fight? This guy had no wasted movement, as if he had years of practice doing this. He was good, scary, good. And the tech he used, disarming a bomb with a touch? That alone could save hundreds of lives. His mouth stayed open as the bug man casually circled around the back of his chair to undo the bindings on his hands and feet.  

     “How did- When did- Who are you?” Tim stuttered. The man chuckled, tossing the undone rope on the ground. He gave Tim a once over, presumably checking for injuries that need attention before answering Tim.

     “I’m just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” Spider-Man shot Tim some finger guns and began to lead him to the hallway. Tim, expected to see knocked out baddies, instead, was shocked to see that the two guards that were by the door had been glued to the wall, webbing adhering them slightly off the ground. Jerry dangled right above the doorway, mouth covered, kicking his feet wildly.  

     How did Tim not hear the struggle?  He’s trained for stuff like this. He’s fought monsters, assassins, super powered beings, but he didn’t hear the bodies hit the wall or- This guy was definitely trained. An elite of elites. Tim thought to himself, fingering the R shaped blade under his sleeve. Imagining the countless moves he would need to make to win in a fight against Spider-Man or at least survive. Tim failed to notice that Spider-Man was guiding him near a window. “Hold on!” Spider-Man took Tim by his waist and ran towards the window. It took only a second before Tim realized what this guy was doing. 

     “HEY WAIT!” Spider-man jumped outside the window with Tim and shot a strand of his rope to a building outside and swung to a roof above them. Tim, surprised by the sudden action but familiar with grappling to and from buildings, landed on his feet and pushed himself away from Spider-Man, preparing to fight. However Tim was unimpressed as he watched Spider-Man fall dramatically on his side and looked and feigned pain.

     “Ugh, how could you push me?  My poor leg, now I’m injured!  How could I take care of my swarm of pet arachnids now?” Spider-Man looked back at Tim, and Tim could almost see a sparkly aura around him.

     Tim scoffed and corrected Spider-Man, “a group of spiders are called a clutter or cluster.” Subtly touching his pocket and felt the tracker that every member of Wayne’s children had still intact. This man, while an unwanted savior, was definitely some kind of meta and could be dangerous if left on his own.  “Time to stall” Tim Thought to himself. “How did you know I was there? Unless . . . are you a cop?”

     Spider-man sat upright and tilted his head at Tim. “You know cops dressed like me?” Tim, folded his arms and Spider-Man shrugged in response. “Well, if I’m honest, carrying a hockey stick isn’t necessarily normal in the middle of spring while being nowhere near a hockey rink. That AND he and two of his other goons said pretty loudly, ‘ Woah I can’t believe that we got a Wayne kid!  We’re gonna be rich! ” Spider-Man mocked Puck and his gang by deepening his voice.  “It’s kinda hard to ignore that, wouldn't you say?” Tim slowly put his head in his hands realizing that he got kidnapped by some of the dumbest people alive.

     “Well thanks I guess. I haven’t seen you around though. So who are you? I doubt that you’re some kind of new Bat or Robin,” Tim said, pointing to Spider-Man’s chest.

      “Nah, I’m a little too happy to be a Bat and I’m a little too old to be a Robin. I guess you could say I’m here to sightsee for a little while” Flicking a finger at Tim, Spider-Man’s eyes squinted inquisitively at Tim. “Now Mr. Drake, is there a reason you’re asking me so many questions? Planning to make me a page in the Gotham Wiki? Do you need a picture?” Spider-Man tossed his head back and put a hand behind his head. “Get my good side.”

     Tim couldn’t believe it. This guy may actually be worse than Impulse and the Joker. Maybe even combined. Tim rubbed his temples with his fingers. “Dude what are you talking about? Nevermind, just sit me on the ground and I’ll call for a cab or something”

     “They Puck and Co. didn’t take your phone?” Spider-Man asked?

     Tim patted his pockets and silently cursed, “How can they fail so miserably at everything else but still remember to take my phone away. How did I get kidnapped by the dumbest and decently capable crooks in Gotham. I’m never going to live this down. My family is going to have a field day with this”  

     “Oh well I can get you back-” Spider-Man paused before flipping himself in front of Tim and pushing him back. Where Spider-man had been now sat a large man with a sandy bomber jacket. His Red Helmet gleamed in the light, the eyes seeming to glow yellow in the darkness. The stranger’s dual pistols brandished menacingly in front of him pointed towards Spider-Man and Tim. Tim’s brother, Red Hood, had made an entrance.

Chapter Text

     Red Hood kept his pistols trained on the freak holding Tim captive. He was already annoyed that he was the one who had to rescue his brother seeing as they were in crime alley, Hood’s personal playground, but what really pissed him off is that this freak of nature somehow figured out that he was trying to get the drop on him. How did he do that flip in a sitting position?  What were his muscles made of? It’s like he was fighting another Dick with his stupid acrobatics. He felt the Lazarus rage stalking on the border of his subconscious, waiting for a chance to be released.

     “Give me the kid,” Red Hood growled.  His mask distorted his voice into a much deeper, more menacing tone. Instead of complying, he freak pushed Tim even further behind him, obscuring Hood’s view of Tim. 

     The man stayed in front of Tim with a hand outstretched behind him. His mask’s eyes squinted at Jason, “Sorry but stranger danger, I’m sure there's another rich kid somewhere in Gotham you can get your hands on, this one is taken” 

     “I’ll give you a single chance since I don’t recognize you” Red Hood’s fingers flicked off the safety on his guns and rested on the trigger.  “1. I run Crime Alley, No exceptions. What I say goes, which means the only crime that happens in my Alley are the ones I approve of and I don’t remember giving some white eyed, masked Meta the go ahead on kidnapping Bruce Wayne’s kid. So again,” Hood trained his guns on the man's legs and arm that was exposed, “Give. Me. The. Kid.”

     “I don’t think I will,” the man said before pushing Tim on the ground and flicking his hands at Jason and covering his face with some kind of goop.  Red Hood, in surprise,  pulled the trigger of the gun trained on the man's arm. He tried to pull the substance off of his face but the material wasn’t a regular glue, he doesn’t know what it was, but he did know that now his hands are stuck to his mask.  He felt his legs get swept out from under him, followed by quiet,

      Thwip Thwip Thwip

     Now Jason was completely stuck to the ground struggling to move as the Lazarus rage filled his head making his scream ferally with a pure hatred and rage.

     “Hood? Jason! What happened?” A voice in his mask buzzed loudly in his ear.

     “Oracle, some masked meta took me down and took Tim!” 

     After Spider-Man had landed quite a ways away from the building Tim was held captive at, Tim tried to collect his thoughts. Honestly,Tim didn't know if he should laugh at how soundly his brother got beaten or terrified at Spider-Man’s Prowess. He could barely see all of Spider-Man’s movements after he was pushed down by him. With a flick of his wrist Spider-Man had covered Jason’s face, blinding him, before flipping out of the way of a bullet. Landing next to Jason, Spider-Man kicked Jason’s legs out from under him and webbed him to the roof like he did Puck and the others.

     “Helmet head must’ve been the actual mastermind behind your abduction” Spider-Man said, spraying more white stuff from his wrists. “Are you ok?  You didn’t get hurt did you?  No Swiss rich kid?”  Spider-Man put his hand out towards Tim, looking over Tim’s body in concern.

     Tim stared at Spider-Man’s hands to Spider-Man himself and then back to his hands again before finally nodding. “Yea i’m fine. No Swiss anything.” Tim dusted himself off trying to sound calm ignoring Jason’s screams of anger that echoed across the buildings.  

     Spider-Man nodded to Tim and took took his waist again. “Obviously a place called ‘Crime Alley’ is not the safest place to be so I’m going to swing you out of here ok?” Tim nodded, putting an arm around Spider-Man’s neck.

     Tim waved at Spider-Man as he swung away from the front of the Library before taking out his phone. A red R blinked on the map that was on his phone, moving at a steady pace along the streets. Tim smiled smugly to himself before calling Alfred for a pickup.

     “Come in Black Bat” Black Bat overlooked the city below. She watched the cars pass by with the occasional shout by a pedestrian. She pushed her comm link to allow Oracle to keep speaking. “A meta named “Spider-Man” is on the streets. He can produce some type of sticky web from his wrists, and has superhuman agility. Not much is known about him but Tim did manage to get a tracker on him and luckily for us it finally stopped. Go see what you can find out but be careful”

     Black Bat was already swinging down the street before she gave a positive grunt in her comm. Oracle led her down the street until they made it on top of the Wayne building. “Black Bat, he should be somewhere on the tower. Report back when you have a visual” Fading into the shadows, Black Bat stalked on top of Wayne building. They followed their mask's interface, guiding her to Tim’s tracker until she was directly on it. Confused Black Bat looked around, their eyes landing on something that was drastically out of play. A sticky note stuck to an antenna and the familiar Red tracker webbed to the antenna as well. 

     “No Spider-Man” Black Bat said in her comm. She scanned the sticky note while avoiding the webbing. The sticky note simply said You lost this! Hope it wasn’t important! The web dissolves in 6 hours! Black Bat couldn’t help to be amused by this childishness but kept it to herself as she could hear Tim curse in Oracle’s Mic. “Keep searching?” Black Bat asked, certain of the answer but wanting to make sure anyway.

     “Negative Black Bat” Oracle sighed in the comm, “continue your patrol and head back when you’re done unless further orders are given” Black Bat turned her comm off, surveilling the note one more time. Flipping it over, she noticed a little spider had been crudely doodled on the back. An oval with 8 lines coming out of the oval to form legs. Pocketing the not Black Bat continued to look over the sector of Gotham that she was to watch over that night.

     After stopping a would-be mugger, Black Bat settled on a roof that overlooked the little coffee shop where Stevie worked at. They sat back in the shadows, taking a breather, watching the night sky above her. They liked coming to this roof. It had the least amount of light pollution in the city besides the park and they could watch the stars. And while they may not mention it outwardly, Black Bat loved the smell of coffee and baked goods that rolled out of Mudd’s coffee shop. Even when it had long been closed, she could still detect the smallest hints of muffins and cocoa in the air.

     Thwip thwip thump

     The sudden and unfamiliar noise snapped Black Bat back into reality as a shadowy figure now stood on the fire escape of Mudd’s Coffee. They leaned on the wall next to the half open window. Black bat scooted closer to the edge of the shadow, barely breathing, their muscles tense, ready to spring into action in a moment's notice. The figure stepped a little closer to the edge of the fire escape, the dim light revealing clothed hands taking off a mask that covered the figure's face. Black Bat tapped the side of her mask and a night vision mode came on full display. While they could only see as far as her human guys could across the street, they saw the figure shake out their hair. The light reflecting off the sweat that was wrung out from each swing of their head. The figure leaned on the railing of the fire escape and Black Bat watched as the figure’s shoulders slouched over, a deep sadness emanating from the movement. Wiping their face, the figure heads inside of Mudd’s Coffee shop through the window.

     Who are you Stranger? Black Bat couldn’t help thinking to themself

Chapter Text

     “Stevie!” Lance called from below Peter’s (Stevie) little room above Mudd’s Coffee. Peter had fully immersed himself into his Stevie persona but it did sometimes catch him off guard like when he was woken up by the rabid screaming of Lance. Grumbling, Peter rolled out of the bed and stared at the ceiling before throwing a mini tantrum. “Stevie! Come here!” Peter threw on some spare jogging pants and a shirt. He ran his hands through his hair, slowly walking down the stairs to meet Lance.  A large man with glasses sat in a booth and across from him sat Lance. A goofy smile plastered to his face as both men stood. “There you are! Stevie, please say hello to Clark Kent. He’s a reporter with the Daily Planet in Metropolis!” 

     Clark smiled sheepishly at Peter and stuck out a hand.

HOT HOT HOT

     Peter watched Clark knock over his cup of coffee all over the floor. Peter forced a smile before sticking his hand out to meet Clark’s ignoring the coffee that now claimed the floor. Clark looked down in terror, “I’m so sorry, I’ll clean it up right away”

     Peter shook his head, forcing a smile and hoping his annoyance didn’t show. “Don’t worry Mr. Kent. I’ll deal with it. It’s no big deal” 

     Lance continued to talk at Peter, while Peter reached for a rag in the sink. “Stevie, Mr. Kent wants to interview us for an article! Turns out that people have taken notice of you and your coffee tricks and you went viral!”

     Peter wiped the floor without looking up, “Not really interested” Lance sputtered a bit but Peter raised his hand while getting up with a coffee drenched towel. “If it was for the coffee shop as a whole, maybe then I’d take an interview but I don’t care about getting personal publicity. Not my thing.” Peter tossed the rag into the sink. Clark looked at Peter thoughtfully, as if to choose his next words carefully.

     “What if,” he began, “I write an article on Mudd’s coffee shop and give a couple lines to you? Enough to drum up interest in the shop but not enough to give you a major celebrity boost. How does that sound?”

     Peter glanced up at Lance, who he could tell was pleading with him, and let out a defeated sigh. “Fine, but since you’re a reporter can you possibly do me a favor? Clark raises an eyebrow,

     Thanks to Clark, Peter got himself a new DSLR camera. It had been delivered to Mudd's Coffee’s P.O. box the next day when Clark had left to go back to Metropolis. Peter walked through the streets, looking through the viewfinder and taking test shots. He remembered interning at the Daily Bugle with J Jonah Jameson. A part of him missed the man, the other half punched the half that missed him in annoyance. 

     Peter had made his way to Robinson Park, catching some photos of wildlife and passersby. He rested on a bench, taking a much needed break from his thoughts. He’s been investigating ways to get home but so far this world has not even come close to dimensional travel. Well at least not in the public’s eyes. Hence Peter’s new hobby. If he can get a job as a photographer again, just like the Daily Bugle, he can go to science events and try to make notable connections. 

     A soft nudge into his side, made Peter jump. Whipping his head around he saw Cassandra, the girl who had been in the coffee shop just a couple of days ago. She gave him a small smile and a little wave. She wore a dark sweater that extended a little past her arms with slightly baggy pants. A thin yellow headband held her hair back, valiantly fighting against the breeze. Unbeknownst to her, Peter had a little surprise of his own. 

     “ Hi ” Peter said and signed to Cassandra. Her eyes widened as she looked at his hands. “ I have. . . been . . . learning ” Peter signed. His movements were stiff but he tried to remember all the hand signs he had read up on. It didn’t feel right to force someone into an uncomfortable way of communication when he had the chance to fix it himself. Cassandra clapped her hands together excitedly, which seemed to both surprise her and Peter. She blushed a little as her hands made a flurry of movements. Peter, unable to keep up, could only sign back, “ slower.”

     Cassandra nodded, signing each word while attempting to speak them aloud. Her voice is so quiet that the wind seemingly takes the sound away. Peter, against his better judgement, leans in to hear Cassandra better as he watches her sign. 

     “ Thank you for learning for me. I’m sorry for troubling you ” 

     Peter shook his head at Cassandra. “It’s no trouble, Cassandra. I mean it’s only fair” This time it was Cassandra who shook her head. She pointed to herself and said something, but the wind took her voice away yet again. When Peter did not react, this seemed to visibly frustrate Cassandra, so she motioned for him to come closer. She leaned over and cupped a hand around Peter’s ear.

     “Cass” Cass’s voice made a pleasant hum in Peter’s ears that wouldn’t be so easily forgotten. The soft aroma of vanilla and coconut danced on her skin which seemed to match her tone of voice well. Peter’s face grew hot but he ignored it as he nodded his head.

     Cass slowly signed, “You can talk, what were you doing? ” 

     Peter, in that moment, forgot all about his infatuation with Cass and brought out his new camera. “I was taking pictures! I was thinking about applying to the Gotham Gazette and needed to fill out my portfolio before I, you know, ‘ shoot my shot ’” Peter shrugged. Cass listened intently, nodding along. As Peter turned to look at Cass, her gaze steadied into his. They shared the same milky, carmel brown eyes, the same inquisitive curiosity that drove them both to learn more, to be more. 

     Cass looked away first, turning her attention to Peter’s camera in his lap. Taking the camera, she peered at the screen that Peter had shown her while ranting. A thin spider with a black body and yellow markings on its abdomen was shown in the midst of spinning a web. Switching the gallery off, Cass pointed the viewfinder at Peter, taking a picture of him. She looked back at the image and giggled to herself. Turning the camera, she showed Peter himself in all his half blink, open mouth glory. Cass leaned back on the bench’s armrest and pointed the camera at Peter again. She happily snapped even more pictures. Peter started posing for Cass’s photos; making goofy faces, flexing muscles, making peace signs. Cass loves every moment of it.

     Amidst her giggling, Peter took the camera from her and pointed it at Cass. Cass began her own set of colorful poses. Flicking her hair, puffing out her cheeks, looking over her shoulder; Peter took all the pictures of Cass he could until the memory was full.

     Huddling close together they looked at the photos, pointing at the different poses and laughing at each other. Peter enjoyed Cass’s company. It made him not miss home a bit. Just a bit. They kept going through the pictures, failing to notice the quiet steps sneaking up on them behind. Well Peter noticed, his spider sense tingling slightly, Cass noticed too, her hearing and senses as an assassin making her well aware. Both are careful not to notify the other. 

     “Well, look at the love birds” a voice cooed. Cass’s head whipped around, her expression changing from shocked, to angry, to embarrassed. Peter, while amused with Cass’s reactions, turned to also look at where the voice had come from. He saw an astonishingly fit and handsome man, standing over them. His deep blue eyes twinkled with both curiosity and mischievousness. 

     Cass quickly got up and tackled the man who barely moved an inch, digging her face in his chest, her ears getting redder by the second. Peter watched the exchange smiling but inside felt a little empty. This man was way more attractive then Peter was in his opinion. Looking up at him, he couldn’t help but feel a little insecure. The man hugged Cass back, ruffling her hair.

     “Nice to meet you, Cass’s friend! I’m Dick, Cass’s brother” Dick held out a hand which Peter took shyly.

     “Um I’m Pe- Stevie. People call me Stevie” Peter silently cursed himself while trying to maintain a neutral face. A slight change in expression flashed on Dick’s face. Peter couldn’t tell what he was thinking but he certainly did not feel comfortable sticking around anymore then he had to. “Well Cass, I’ll see you later. I should, um, get going.” Peter picked up his camera and quickly started to walk down the park towards Mudd’s. 

     “Wait! Stevie!” Dick called out to him, but Peter was already gone.

Chapter Text

Hi uh sooooo I'm still like writing and stuff, don't get me wrong but let me give you a slight life update.

For starters, I'm currently sick LMAO. Got some throat bug. Hopefully that'll go away in a bit

Secondly, in a community I frequent someone kinda got eviscerated and now the whole community hates them. THEN said eviscerated person tried to blame their manager/boyfriend and throw him under the bus and it got even worse. (if you are part of this community you can hit me with a dm but otherwise shhhh

Thirdly I got a gorlfriend :3

Between this and work and new adhd and anxiety meds im torn a little thin for my mind to be thinking about ol Spider man and friends. DW I will 100% complete this story. I would like to have chapter 10 out soon! You'll be meeting the teen titans/young justice members and I'll try to write longer chapters as well!

I wish you all happy days and that you don't get sick like me

Chapter Text

     “-and before I knew it, Stevie was already hauling his butt down the street,” Dick held his head in his hands, the lights of his pc screen illuminating his hands. A snicker came from his screen followed by a harsh shush. Dick didn’t even have to guess who was finding his predicament entertaining. Rubbing his hands down his face, Dick looked into his screen. A man with a mess of red hair held his hand over his mouth, wide eyed. Fierce green eyes frowned on the screen with both annoyance and concern. The eye’s owners were sporting their own long curly red hair that felt more crimson than the other man’s hair. Lastly two other men sat side by side, peering out of the screen. One wore a black shirt, in the center a familiar Diamond and S was plastered on it. The other man wore a sweatshirt that covered most of his body, his head a mix between cybernetics and human features. 

     The green eyed girl was the first to speak, “Could you not have chased after him? You do have superior athleticism compared to most, yes?” She used her index finger to twirl a strand of hair between her fingers in thought. “I doubt he would have gotten away from you.”

     “Star, the kid’s a meta with an undetermined power set. Not really the type of situation where you can chase him down safely” the robot man said. He fiddled with a small remote controlled car. Moving wires and screws while he continued. “Also, Dick the famous rich civilian chasing down a random kid with a camera is just asking to be misunderstood in all the wrong ways.”

     “Gonna have to agree with Cyborg on this one,” the redheaded man took a bite of his anchovy and olive pizza before finishing his thought. “It would’ve been funny to see Dicky on the news though. ‘ This just in! To be or not to be? Dick Grayson’s new lover is seen fleeing from him!’ Dick and the others gave a slight chuckle at the joke.

     Dick ruffled his own hair before addressing all the faces looking back at him. “Wally,” the red headed man grinned at him, “Vic,” the half robot man’s car revved in his hand, as the man himself glances up, “Connor,” the man with the S on his chance grunted in response, “Kori,” the green eyed woman smiled warmly at Dick, “how would you all like a trip to Gotham for a little mission?”

     Wally grimaced, “I feel like I don’t have a choice.”

     Spider-Man clung to the side of a tall skyscraper overlooking Gotham’s wet, dirty streets. He laid back on the cool glass with his arms crossed, deep in thought. “I need a good picture, something that only I could get. That way the newspaper company will definitely hire me!” His expressive lenses squinted as he smiled to himself. “Let’s catch ourselves a bat!”

     Spider-Man leaned forward, allowing himself to unstick to the glass and began to plummet to the ground for a few seconds before flicking his wrist at a sign overhead. The webbing strained under Spider-Man’s weight but held fast as it swung him through the air. “Thank god” Spider-Man sighed to himself as he launched himself forward and threw out another web. This had been his final test for his new webs to see if they were strong enough to swing him around. Without proper chemistry equipment and chemicals, Spider-Man couldn’t make his usual formula of webs but through some guesswork and a lot of errors, he managed to make some functional web-fluid that quickly dried, and dissolved over 3 hours. It wasn’t the best webbing but it was enough.

     Spider-Man continued to swing to the one place where he always seemed to see his favorite victim bat no matter what he tried. His Spider-sense hummed a little harsher as he flung himself at a wall of a building. Crime Alley, the last place Spider-Man wanted to be, but the easiest place to find a familiar red helmeted friend.

     Spider-Man heard him before he spotted him. Gunshots rang out down the street, echoing along the glass and foundations of the buildings and windows. Spider-Man flipped into action and swung towards the gunshots. Turning a corner, Spider-Man was just in time to witness Red Hood hit a wall hard and somehow stay on his feet. He wasn’t still for long. Hood dove to the side, firing rounds of bullets into a huge mud, person, thing. Cursing, he took cover behind a corner and began to reload his handguns.

     “Hoody, where’s The Bat?” The blob gurgled. Its form shrank to a size barely taller than Red Hood. Shifting its face to mimic what Spider-Man could only assume was Batman’s masked face. A sly grotesque smile split the man’s face in half. Producing a voice much different than before. “C’mon partner, tell me where he is.”

     Spider-Man watched the deformed man stalk closer to Red Hood. As it took a step in a murky puddle, part of its foot seemed to partly give way while it simultaneously regrew the part that dissolved. Spider-Man was, in a word, fascinated by this thing. It was kind of like Flint Marco's, a.k.a Sandman's, relationship with water. Noted.

     Spider-Man slowly crept up into the shadows carefully watching the battle below him. Attaching the camera to the wall beside him, he positioned the it into place, overlooking the mud man’s attacks on Red Hood. Red Hood threw a small gas canister at the mud man, and took a shot with his gun. The bullet pierced the canister’s small metal frame and exploded directly in front of the mud man. Smoke and fire overtook him as its gurgled muddy voice rang out into the night. “Serves you right, Clayface!” Red Hood called out to the mud man.

     Spider-Man clicked a little remote that came out of his glove, and the camera took a picture. Unfortunately, he had forgotten about the flash. Both Red Hood and Clayface, with a newly regenerated face, snapped up to the light to see Spider-Man clinging to the side of the wall, wide eyed. “Oh haha hey guys, fancy meeting you here” Spider-Man barely had the time to drop down before Clayface launched an arm of mud at the spot Spider-Man had just been sticking to. Landing at a corner opposite of Red Hood, he pressed himself to the wall. Looking at Red Hood, he could almost make out a scowl under the red helmet. Spider-Man could only sheepishly wave before a wave of mud came in between them. The wave spread throughout the alley, washing both the men into the open street. Red Hood, already on his feet, unhooked another canister from his utility belt. With a shake, Hood tossed the canister in the mud. The mud around began to quickly dry and harden rapidly. Spider-Man, still face down in the mud, flipped over, his mask caked in dirt “This is so not fun” Spider-Man muttered aloud, weakly making snow mud Angels. 

     BELOW YOU! BELOW YOU!

     Spider-Man flicked webbing towards the wall and pulled himself to it, narrowly avoiding muddy spikes that had protruded where he had just been. “Woah! That was my best work, ya know!?”  The mud gurgled and started to combine together. Clayface materialized as a man that was easily over 10 feet tall. Its eyes were glowing yellow with no pupils, its teeth were ragged and uneven. Raising two muddy hands together, they combined into a spiky ball. Spider-Man didn’t need his senses to tell him that getting hit by that would NOT feel good. 

     Clayface brought down his arms, its arms elongating to bring even greater force down on the Spider. Unfortunately for them, Spider-Man avoided attacks like this easily and with finesse. As the wrecking ball collided with the wall, Spider-Man jumped onto Clayface’s arm and raced up it, delivering a swift jump kick to Clayface’s head. The mud gave way and Spider-Man barreled through. 

     With a roar, parts of Clayface’s body twirled together making tendrils of mud. They attacked both Red Hood on the ground and Spider-Man in the air. Spider-Man nimbly dodged the tendrils, using his web to propel him through the air and between the tendrils of mud. In between dodges, he shot his webbing at Clayface, but it was just absorbed into his body.

Red Hood shot at the tendrils, his bullets causing mini explosions within them. “Any ideas Spider guy!?” Red Hood growled out. He dove to the side as another tendril whipped the air towards him.

     “Well, we could ask them to stop really nicely?” Spider-Man half joked, “I mean he would never hurt little ol me!” Red Hood stared incredulously at Spider-Man. Clayface, as if agreeing with Hood’s sentiment, shot a glob of mud at wall crawler. The mud met his chest, launching him into the side of a building. The bricks gave way and he laid in the freshly made hole groaning.

     “Wow fantastic plan buddy, wanna talk about his childhood next?” Red Hood sneered. Running towards cover, Red Hood fired round after round into Clayface with no real damage.

     A low laugh rumbled out of Clayface as he turned to face Red Hood. “Seems that even the bat has trouble finding good talent these days” Lumbering towards Red Hood, Clayface’s arms morphed into muddy blades. “Last chance Hood, you tell me where Batman is and you can at least hop out of here.” Red Hood open fired on Clayface while taking hesitant steps back. When his back hit the wall, Red Hood cursed under his breath. Red Hood's mind raced, trying to find a way out of being an amputee before noticing a flash of red and blue..

     A loud alarm went off behind Clayface. Red Hood barely had time to take cover before a torrent of water engulfed the street. A wave of water hit Clayface’s legs, washing a majority of it away. Buckling to his knees, Clayface turned back to witness a battered Spider-Man using a firehose from inside the building he had crashed in. “Spider-Man used Water Gun!” The water washed over Clayface taking various chunks and parts of his body with him.

     After turning off the hose, Spider-Man used a web to slowly propel himself down, his left hand holding his shoulder. Clayface’s body, now reduced to the size of a small doll, lay on the asphalt looking as pitiful as a murderous, mud monster could look. Red Hood, took a small plastic can out of one of his belt’s pouches and picked up the mini Clayface and pocketed him. His head was throbbing with a solid headache. At best that’s all it was and at worst, the onset of a concussion. Hood looked over to Spider-Man who had fastened a makeshift sling out of webs. His costume was ripped in some places and A tuft of brown hair stuck out the side of his head, soaked with blood. He took the worst from the fight, and he needed medical attention.

     Red hood wiped off debris and mud from his helmet, discreetly turning on his coms in the process. “So, hospital?” Hood questioned, fully expecting a yes because of the extent of Spider-Man’s injuries. “It’s one on 53rd that I go to. No questions asked”

     Spider-Man’s eyes squinted making Hood reflexively reach for his gun. “Not a chance, you walking dodgeball. I’m not hanging out with some crime lord.” Putting a hand on his hip and facepalming his helmet, Red Hood sighed in aggravation. “I’ll be fine anyway, no need for you to worry your pretty little helmeted head. Now if you excuse me.” With a slight bow, Spider-Man limped to the building nearest him and began to walk up it. Red Hood could only stammer in surprise as he watched. After detaching something from the wall near the roof, Spider-Man turned back to Red Hood, gave a slight wave, and swung into the night.

Chapter Text

     No Metas in Gotham. It was Batman’s ironclad rule. Well, except when it wasn’t. The Flash zipped throughout the Batcave touching any and everything between “Oos” and “Ahhhs.” Cyborg was integrated into the Batcomputer with Red Robin nursing a coffee mug nearby. Starfire, Nightwing, Superboy and a very bored Red Hood all sat around a long table. In the center was a virtual display of Spider-Man.

     “Are we sure that’s just not Black Spider in a different costume?" Super Boy said, rocking back and forth in his chair. 

     Nightwing shook his head, “Impossible. He died taking out some crime boss via-“

     Red Hood made an explosion sound with his mouth as he twirled his knife between his fingers. The three other heroes looked at Red Hood who simply shrugged back in response. “Well am I wrong? Besides this Spider-Man guy is a meta for sure. Black Spider may use an enhanced suit and grappling hooks, but our guy can literally stick to walls. If it’s tech, it’s advanced but hey, Red over there is the tech guy. We could ask him about the likelihood along with Cy.” Hood’s free hand pointed a thumb towards the Batcomputer where the two aforementioned heroes were bickering with each other.

     Nightwing crossed his arms, and peered at the holographic Spider-Man on the table. “So far he’s also been pretty heroic. Stopping muggers, saving civis, dealing with Clayface, but you know B.” 

     “No Metas in Gotham ” the table said in unison. Wally skidded to a stop, hands slamming on the table his friends sat at. “Except like it’s always metas here. Like how is Man Bat Not a meta? Also The Signal exists too! And Barry stops here all the time to talk to Bats and what about Crocodile and Killer Shark and Grundy and Freeze and Penguin? Well Penguin might just be a little person with an abnormally long nose, honestly pretty mean to call him the Penguin, we should check him into therapy. Oo! Oo! What abou-“

     “WALLY” Starfire shouted, ending the speedster’s barrage of words. 

     The Flash pouted slightly, “Mannnn, I'm right though.”

     Nightwing cleared his throat, getting the attention of the people at the table. “I’ll be leaving for Bludhaven for a month. Hood, check out what you can find about this guy using your connections. Even if Black Spider is dead, maybe this guy took up his mantle. He has to get his gear from somewhere, so find out where.”

     Red Hood holstered his knife, “Spider research aye? Yippee.”

     Nightwing looked at The Flash, “Flash, it’s this kid, Stevie, around Red Robin’s age. Can you-“

     “Look out for him on top of helping around Gotham? Sure no problem, no problem!”

     Nightwing nodded skeptically and looked at Starfire. “You have the most important job Kori. You’ll be Spider watching and working in tandem with the other Bats. Batman agreed to let you help because he respects your work ethic the most.”

     Starfire’s hair glowed a bright orange before dimming just as fast. “I get to work with your Dad? He won’t “suck the fluids” from me will he?”

     “Star, he’s not a vampire” He’s just a guy. . . Well a very rich guy” Superboy shrugged. “Don’t tell him I said that though.”

     Chuckling, Nightwing rested his eyes on Superboy. “You, my not so human friend, have an equally important job”

     Lance was less than thrilled when he saw a very injured Stevie walk down the stairs into the cafe. Even less thrilled when he learned that Stevie got this badly beaten up for not giving up his camera. And then Lance was surely pissed once he realized that Stevie hadn’t received any real medical attention. Just shoddy first aid that a one armed, very injured person, could manage.

     “Why are you mad? It’s not like I got shot!” Stevie argued. His arm lay in a fresh sling that a Doctor at St. Luke’s had set for him. Stevie’s feet rested on his backpack that he had thrifted quite a while ago. He stared daggers at Lance as they drove back to the cafe in near silence. “I didn’t need to go to the hospital! We can’t even afford that. It was just dislocated, and I had already popped it into place!”

     Lance made a hard turn into the Mudd’s Coffee parking lot. Peter gripped the car’s door handle, feeling the physics at work with his own body. “Stevie!” Lance’s head whipped around, “You’re an idiot! You would almost give your life for a camera? Just buy another one! I would have bought you another one!”

     S̶t̶e̶v̶i̶e̶ Peter’s face scrunched up, staring silently into Lance’s. A tense silence that was only filled by Lance’s heavy breathing. Peter, instead of replying, kicked open his door with his bag in tow. “Whatever Lance, you’re not gonna understand even if I explained it in 5 different languages!” Peter slammed the door, his fingers leaving a slight dent in the door. Trudging off down the street, he didn’t bother looking back as Lance called after him.

      Wally stared at the closed sign on Mudd’s Cafe in shock. “Wasn’t the cafe supposed to be open?”  Wally’s stomach growled with complaints as his meal plan had been disrupted. Running his hands through his hair, it stuck up with static electricity. A bad habit he had when he was frustrated that was made worse by his powers. 

     “Can I help you?” A man’s voice called out from above Wally. Wally looked up, his eyes meeting a man 's eyes through a window screen.  Definitely not young enough to be Stevie. His hair was a mess and he wore a beat up tracksuit. His salt and pepper stubble littered his face as his tired eyes stared at Wally. “The cafe is closed, we’re taking a break on account of an injury on one of my staff”

     Wally snapped his fingers and pointed at the man, "You're Lance!” Wally had remembered what Tim and Stephanie had told him about Stevie and his apparent caretaker, Lance. “You own the cafe right? I was gonna buy some food but I’m really here for Stevie” Lance’s eyes narrowed on Wally, which put Wally on edge. Not “O h no! I'm in danger, ” edge, more like “H urry up, I have places to be, food to eat, a kid to bother, ” edge. “I mean if he’s not here, I’ll just come another day when he is, no problem for me at all!” 

     Lance rose an eyebrow before his body had released all the tension it was storing. “Just. . . Just wait there” Lance’s window shut with a snap before he disappeared deeper inside the 2 story building. A couple agonizingly minutes later, Lance came into view, making his way to the door. Wally had already cased out the building in the meantime. His impatient nature prevented him from staying still longer than a couple of seconds at a time. 

     Lance unlocked the door, holding it open for Wally to shuffle through, sitting in a nearby booth and tapping his feet. The booth seat wasn’t particularly comfortable, Wally thought to himself. But really was ANYTHING really comfortable in Gotham? Even Solomon Grundy, the literal Zombie, would prefer to shuffle through the streets then to lay inside a grave

     “So” Lance started, sitting a mug of coffee in front of Wally, “how do you know Stevie?” Wally’s inner philosophical thoughts halted as he took in the question. “You obviously aren’t a Gothamite, but neither is Stevie. Did you know from his home in New York?”

     Wally's index finger danced on the edge of the mug as he answered. “No I don’t know him personally, I’m a friend of Tim and Stephanie and Cassidy! The Wayne’s kids? They were talking about Stevie and I wanted to meet him too.” Lance choked on his coffee. “Woah are you ok!”

     “How does this idiot keep meeting all these rich kids?”

Chapter Text

I WANT TO PREFACE THIS THAT THIS CHAPTER HAS A SENTENCE THAT STARTS WITH "Whenever she thought of the Joker-" I HAVE LEFT IT OPEN ENDED FOR YOU TO IMPLY WHATEVER YOU WANT. LET THIS BE KNOWN THAT I DO NOT PLAN ON FLESHING THAT OUT BUT SOME MAY FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE WITH JUST THE LINE ITSELF SO IM GIVING YOU THIS SO YOU CAN COMPLETELY SKIP THE SENTENCE. 

     Bruce Wayne sat at the head of the table surrounded by his board members. They were all bickering about the Gotham Gazette’s possible new directions. Some wanted to further the business’s reputation with the rich and famous, supporting politicians behind the scenes to the highest bitter. Others wanted to pursue advances in technology and science to gain a profit solely for WayneTech’s benefit. Bruce feigned smiles and pleasantries but on the inside, all he could do was roll his eyes in annoyance. 

     As if the Gods themselves were listening, a secretary burst through the doors holding the Gazette’s morning paper. The room instantly silenced from the disruption. The secretary froze and fidgeted from all the attention and glanced up at Bruce. He smiled at her and nodded to her, giving her a boost of courage. “Miss Beckett, please, continue”

     Secretary Beckett nodded and stuttered out, “T-The Gotham Gazette’s front page has a clear p-picture of one of the Bats.”

     One of the chairmen, Walter,  scoffed at Beckett, “You mean the infamous crime lord? The one who deletes all footage taken of him from news outlets? Please Beckett, this prank is far from funny let alone believable.”

     Beckett just looked down at the ground while the chairman berated her, holding back the tears that gripped the corner of her eyes. Bruce silently got up from his seat, putting a hand on the secretary’s shoulder. “Go take the rest of the week off Miss Beckett,” Bruce said as he took the paper from her. “Don’t worry, you’ll still be paid for this small vacation.”

     The meek secretary could only squeak out a thank you and quickly shuffled out of the room. A silent and dissatisfied gaze was placed on Walter from the rest of the room. Bruce opened the paper and in crystal clear view, a man with a red helmet, aimed his guns at a giant sludge-like monster. 

     “This meeting is adjourned,” Bruce flatly said, “I have a couple calls to make”

     Peter’s shoulder throbbed as he sat, on a fire escape that looked over Gotham’s Uptown streets. His legs were hanging through the bars of the railing and his cast, gently pressing against the rusted iron. He watched the people move below him, umbrella’s drawn to shield them from the drizzle that steadily got harder. Each on their own journey, each with a path, a purpose. But what was Peter’s? 

     “I wonder what MJ is doing right now? And Gwen too. Hell, I wonder if Flash found another victim after I’ve disappeared.” A little chuckle echoed through the metal and raindrops, disguising the quiet sobs of a lost and overwhelmed child. The anxiety and stress hitting him all at once making the soft sobs louder as the drizzle turned into a full downpour, masking the quiet pair of footsteps that tracked up the steps.

     “Ugh another homeless kid is on the steps again.” A woman's cold, harsh voice said. “Not even an umbrella or jacket this time either.”

     “C’mon Ives, you don’t know if he’s a kid or homeless.” Another woman’s voice rang out. Her playful, Boston accent in complete dissonance with her companion’s rough and uncaring demeanor. Peter heard a scoff before footsteps continued up the fire escape. Out of the corner of his eye, Peter could see pale legs slip through the bars, tall black boots with red laces swung from the owners. “Jeepahs that’s cold.” She complained softly. Peter didn’t bother wiping the tears from his face or the mess or wet hair that littered his face. He just kept his face down towards the streets and people below with the Boston woman’s legs occasionally kicking into view. 

     They sat like that for a while, nothing but the rain filling the silence in between them before the Boston woman spoke again. “You know, ah know a guy who does the ol’ quiet brooding thing. Big, rich, dresses like a weirdo, only active at night.” Peter only listened as she rambled on. “He always puts all this work on ‘emself. Thinking he has to take the world solo. He even has a whole family of crazies that think like em and support em too. Can you believe that? A bunch of people willin’ to help? But ol moody rarely shares his prah’lems” Peter glanced up at the woman. Her outfit was a chaotic mix between red and black, seemingly randomly split down the middle which made her pale skin stand out even more. Her makeup was done the same, Red eyeshadow on her left eye and black on the left. A pair of black tattooed hearts was under her left eye. The outside edges of her lips were colored black and moving towards the inside of her lips faded into a maroon red. Her blonde, now soaked, hair followed her coloring motif at the tips. Her face was scrunched up, deep in thought, “It seems like every year, some new guy gets brought into his pack. Like a buntcha stray dogs ah tells ya.”

     “What’s your point?” Peter mumbled.

     “ A point? ” The woman mocked.

     An unfamiliar anger coursed through Peter. He tensed, the metal warping under his grip. “Yea, a point. If all you’re going to do is go on and on about some rich guy, then do it to someone else, I don’t want to hear it. I just want to be left alone.”

     “Don’t be like that,” the woman said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Ah’m just tryna help”

     “Yea? Well don’t!” Peter shrugged off the woman’s hand, “Don’t act like you know me! You don’t know anything about me or what I can do!” Peter’s hands squeezed the metal in his hands further, completely distorting its original shape as if it was a Salvador Dali painting. 

     The woman nodded her head and swung her legs in between the bars absentmindedly. Peter hardly noticed the decrease of rain on himself and the woman before a large amount of water covered his head. Surprised and speechless, Peter looked up to find a gigantic leaf looming over him. A woman, her skin a forest green that couldn’t have been natural and hair so red and vibrant that it practically glowed, glared at him over the railing a couple of floors above them. The green woman vaulted the railing and the leaf, as if it had a mind of its own, rose to catch her. The leaf swiftly lowered itself, putting Peter face to face with green eyes. Well all of her eyes were green in fact her pupils were the only part of her eyes that weren’t some tint of green. 

     “You ungrateful brat! Is that how you treat someone who was just trying to help you?” The woman seethed. Her eyes glowing slightly as the vines and weeds that hadn’t seemed so apparent before, crept up all around them. 

     “Knock it off Ives,” said the woman next to Peter. “It was mah fault anyways." She gave a look to the green woman and asked, "However, I would appreciate it if you could help me with something?”

MOVE MOVE MOVE

     Peter’s Spider-sense wailed at him to move, but in the position that Peter was in, it was almost impossible to dodge anything let alone something that he didn’t directly see. Vines wrapped around Peter’s leg, intertwining with each other, curling around his torso and arms. Peter, wide eyed, tugged at the vines with his uninjured hand. The plants quickly replaced each piece that was ripped off, making layers upon layers on each other. “What is this! Who are you peo-“ Peter’s voice was cut off by a vine wrapping around his mouth and a foul tasting liquid being secreted directly into his mouth. He didn’t want to swallow it but between drowning and breathing, Peter didn’t have much of a choice. 

     Peter was groggy. Not tired, groggy. More like a coma for 5 months groggy. He slowly opened his eyes and was blinded by the lights above him. Moving his hands around him, Peter was surprised to feel what felt like a quilted blanket on top of him. Warm, well made and most importantly, soft. He soaked in the familiar comfort of a homemade quilt while his eyes adjusted to the lights around him. A soft repeated breeze brushed against his face. Steady and even, as if it were breathing. Peter could only make out a blurry form that was slumped over next to him. It was the girl with the tattooed hearts on her cheek. 

     Trying to form words, Peter’s mouth didn’t work the way he wanted, and all he could do was silently curse to himself as he lost consciousness again.

     Harley stared at the unconscious boy in worry. “Ives, isn’t he supposed tah wake up by now? What did ya hit him with? Ya didn’t kill him didja?” 

     Poison Ivy, or ‘Ives’ as Harley liked to call her, rolled her eyes in frustration, “For the 58th time NO! Harley, I mixed a batch of eucalyptus, lemon balm, and micro doses of Oleander. Just enough to put him under like an anesthetic. Maybe I should’ve just killed him, so you could stop worrying about this brat. Harley spared a glance at Ivy. Harley knew she was joking. Well probably. Hopefully. But she trusted Ivy’s words. She knew that look that he had in his eyes. It was the one she used to wear back when Mr. J- The Joker had abandoned her. Tossed her aside after getting his fill. Her nails dug into her arm, little drops of blood pooling at the pricks. Whenever she thought of the Joker, the things he did to people, the things he did to her- 

     A vine crept around Harley’s waist and down her arm. The end of the green tentacles producing her favorite flowers. Red and Blue roses, whose colors swirled and mixed together in the center of each bulb to make a vibrant violet. It was a flower that only Ivy could make, one that she created just for Harley. 

     Harley took the flower and sniffed it, falling backwards into Ivy’s waiting arms. “I know that look,” Ivy said softly, “You see something in the bra- kid” Ivy’s hands brushed against Harley’s face, clearing the hair out of her eyes. They silently watched Peter on the couch they had sat him on. His head hung facing his legs and was drooling on the quilt they gave him. Ivy grimaced, “did we have to let him use that quilt though?” Harley’s eyebrow quivered in amusement. “What? It’s my favorite quilt!”

Chapter Text

     Peter awoke to the smell of eggs, burnt bacon, and cheap coffee. His shoulder giving a dull pain similar to an overused muscle was quickly followed by his stomach’s animalistic growl. Peter couldn’t help but think that his healing factor was a blessing but also a very gluttonous curse. Peter’s eyes slowly fluttered open staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. The light that filtered in green through the fauna in the room, still managed to be too much for Peter as he quickly shielded his eyes with his left arm. Careful to not lean on his right injured side, Peter slowly and groggily swung his legs out to the front of what he discovered was a couch. . . A very not Lance-like couch. Looking around the room, plants of all kinds littered the space. Vines, flytraps, tulips, all different plants from vastly different climates lived harmoniously in this little room. Peter softly touched the petals of a bright pink Plumeria, admiring its beauty, its delicateness.

     Light footsteps echoed down the hall. Peter had assumed it was Lance on his way to wake him in whatever greenhouse he was in. Soft knocks made Peter look up in confusion. Has Lance ever knocked before he entered? The door opened showing a familiar pale woman wearing an oversized t-shirt that barely reached the middle of her thighs. Behind her followed a green woman wearing a sweatshirt and shorts, her skin covered in intricate designs of leaves and curly stems and her hair was a fiery red that was tied back in a ponytail. “Heya kiddo! You’re finally awake!” The pale girl said cheerfully, her Boston accent thick in her throat. 

     Peter jumped to his feet and both a massive headache and all the previous memories of the pair of women hit Peter all at once. “Either Jolly Green Giant’s daughter and Casper’s sister are having a crossover episode in the rainforest or I’m having a helluva good trip right now.“ Peter struggled to keep his footing as his control over his body felt less attuned than before.

     The pale woman giggled while the green woman rolled her eyes behind her. “My name’s Harleen Quinzel but folks call me Harley! And this,” Harley pointed to the green woman behind her, “Is the lovely Pamela Isley. You may also know her as Poison Ivy!” Harley beamed at Peter, as if he was supposed to be impressed, but Peter was only looking for an exit plan in case things got hairy very fast. 

     Pamela sighed heavily while putting her hands on her hip. “We made food. Vegetarian and regular waffles with eggs and bacon. Refried beans if you don’t like bacon or eggs. It’s some coffee but I couldn’t vouch for its taste.”

     Harley stuck out her hand expectantly. Peter stared at it, eyes shuffling between Harley, “Poison Ivy” and back to Harley’s hand. Trusting his dull but active senses, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and took a hesitant step forward. ”Lead the way”

     Ivy just watched the kid as he inhaled both the Vegetarian and normal waffles, eggs, bacon, refried beans, and multiple fruits that laid around the table. Harley was more than amused by his appetite and made it a point to nickname him Vacuum or “Vacc” for short.

     After a loud half hour, "Vacc" leaned back in his chair and patted his now protruding stomach. “It feels like I haven’t eaten in a decade,” he said dramatically. “What year is it? Have the robots taken over? Is anime still around?”

     Ivy rolled her eyes from her seat by the island counter. Harley’s legs rested on Ivy’s as she leaned her stool back. Harley precariously balanced the stool on a single leg as she giggled at the young boy’s antics. Ivy herself preferred her own vine made seating in comparison to the ill made metal seating that Harley preferred. 

      “Well, uhhh, kid, you were sleeping for almost a week. Harley thought I had,” Ivy paused as she tried to choose her words carefully, “gave you too strong a dose of sleeping poison”

     The boy flatly said in response, "You thought she killed me”

     Harley parroted in affirmation, “I thought she killed you”

     An annoying flush invaded Ivy’s cheeks as she said a little louder than needed, “Too strong a dose” Peter and Harley giggled at each other as Ivy’s green cheeks visibly darkened a shade greener. The kid abruptly stopped laughing as a mix of confusion and shock showed on his face.

     “Wait, I’ve been here for a week!?” Panic set in his face. “I need to leave, Lance is probably worried or throwing out my things or worriedly throwing out my things!” 

     Harley, as easily influenced as ever, also panicked like the kid did. The “kid,” Ivy’s brain seemed to finally recognize that they don’t know the boy who has been in their house for an entire week’s name. Ivy consciously controlled nearby foliage in the house, caressing Harley with a leaf and gripping the kid’s ankle with a vine which spooked him more than it should’ve.

     “First things first, I’m tired of calling you kid. What am I calling you?” 

     The kid looked between Ivy and Harley and his face contorted into a range of different emotions before settling. “You can call me Stevie. I work at a coffee shop” Stevie said a little too fast. Like he was unsure if he should be talking right now. Ivy eyed Stevie expectantly, Harley soon following suit. “What? Something on my face?”

     “Is that all you do Stevie?” Ivy pointed her chin at Stevie’s open hands. This caused Stevie’s face to scrunch up in confusion even more so than it had already been. 

     “You bent the metal fencin’ we had on tha’ fire escape!” Harley exclaimed. Ivy noticed Stevie’s fingers trembling before he stilled them under his arms. “We put uh couple uh dings in the railing so it’d be hahder for the typical joe shmoe to be able to tell the difference,” Harley leaned forward in her chair which caused it to slam down into the floor. She used the momentum to launch herself to her feet, leaning over the table and toward Stevie, which he strangely didn’t react to. “So are ya being chased? People always kidnap metas, ya know?”

     Ivy shook her head, once again surprised at how Harley’s tact was the exact opposite of a particular detective’s. As a vine wrapped around Harley’s mouth, Ivy turned her full attention to “Stevie.” “Listen, as Harley was saying, we know you’re a meta, and we both know that people would love to do to people like you” Ivy, pointed to her skin, “Like . . . us”  Stevie slowly nodded, a look of understanding dawning on his face before whipping his head towards the window behind him. Ivy only had a glance to look up at the window before it shattered.