Chapter Text
Metas weren't allowed in Gotham.
It's just one of the thousand unspoken rules of Gotham, really, like: don't go out at night, don't walk alone, if you see Batman, run away to the other side, stay away from trouble, Bruce Wayne is Batman. Okay. Maybe the last one isn't so much of an unspoken agreement, more like the Wayne family knew it, a few of the Justice League members and a nosy 12 year old, soon to be 13. Anyway, the point is: Tim has been feeling weird since yesterday at... birdwatching. He was bitten by a spider, a completely normal Latrodectus hasselti. Or, for the people who don’t get scientific terms, a Redback Spider. Tim panicked a bit, because that fucking spider should be in Australia. So the weirdest thing ever, Tim almost fell off the rooftop because he was dizzy, and then his suddenly super enhanced reflexes made him catch himself before falling. By sticking to a wall. God. He knew Gotham was cursed, he had no idea It’s spiders were too.
So, when he woke up in the middle of the night, the blankets wet with sweat, feverish, Tim was ready to write his own obituary. He couldn’t even think of getting up, since his head was hurting a lot. Well. He hoped Mrs. Mac would be able to invite his parents to the funeral.
But he was feeling surprisingly well in the next day.
Contrary to popular belief (suck that, Ives), Tim is really okay with his life and he has no desire for putting himself in danger. Right, he sometimes goes out at night to watch a man in his middle 30's dressed as a flying rodent and a teenager in traffic lights, but that's not dangerous! He can take care of himself! But, he has been testing his new... powers (could he call them powers? Abilities? Danger?) for a few hours, he even skipped school today; he got dangerously stronger. Tim hopes his bat stuffed toy will forgive him for beheading it. He didn't mean to. Tim should report that to Batman. And he would... If he had no desire for living. Okay, maybe too harsh, but God knows what he does with metas! Will he kick Tim out? He can't, right? He's not the mayor. But he's Bruce Freaking Wayne, so it's close enough. His second option is laying low, ignoring it and stay calm. He's not a Meta if he ignores it, right? He sighs. He needs to learn how to control whatever is happening with him, make sure this is not deadly and... Well, he wants to test it out too.
Anyways, his parents will be home next week, so tonight is one of the last nights he can go birdwatching, before they leave. He wonders if he could help with those powers. Hm. He'll see that. His anxiety has been higher since he got his powers, so maybe his pictures will get kinda shaky. Who cares? Tonight Nightwing is in town! He dresses up with a hoodie and comfortable pants (it's freezing outside), and jumps out the window to sneak through the tree beside his room. Technically, Tim could walk through the front door, it's not like anyone will see him, he has a talent for staying invisible, but he will admit the whole sneaking through the window thing makes him feel cool. Ugh, he would skip Batwatching today if it wasn't for Dick, he has a essay to deliver tomorrow and he's running on exact 4 hours and 21 minutes of sleep, but, well... Nightwing.
It's 3:00 AM. God, he should go home. He's yawning like crazy and fighting to stay awake, but suddenly feels very awake when he hears a scream coming from an alley. Childlike. He takes a look, there's a guy pointing a gun at the kid (genuinely, what's the need for this?) and the kid is crying. Oh, no, this is bad. The bats are taking care of other stuff down the street, they won't notice this. What should he do? What should he- He has powers! Oh my gosh. Okay. Okay. Breathe, Tim. You go down there, punch the guy, take the child somewhere safe and run. This is it. Good.
So he walks in the alley. And everything goes smoothly wrong. First, the guy was now aiming at him and holding the child, and then a lot of things happened. The gun fired, Tim somehow dodged that (that's so cool, oh my), the guy shot again and again and Tim dodged again and again, then he pushed the guy, who hit and broke the wall behind him. Okay. He... was aware he was strong, but Wow. He checks on the kid, who looks to be a boy, but who is he to assume gender? The kid looks okay, just shaky, so he walks the kid to the shelter for abandoned kids, since the small human informed he lived here.
"What's your name?" The kid asks, voice teary.
"I'm... Tim. What's your name, kid?" Tim asks, tilting his head.
"My name is Lucas." Lucas mumbles. "Thanks, mister. You're very kind.”
Tim nods and the kid runs to the inside of the shelter. He feels warm inside, is that how Batman feels? Now Tim understands why he does what he does. Okaaay. He still has no desire for putting himself in danger, but, technically, he isn’t, right? He has powers and he is, like, super strong. Batman doesn’t patrol much Crime Alley, if Tim is mindful enough of Robin running around, he can help some kids in the area. That’s it!
࣪𖤐.ᐟ
The week and a half his parents spend around is boring, Tim’s parents are mostly at Drake Industries, because they’re in town for only a few days once a few months, and there’s Sooo much meetings. His dad wants Tim to join some, watch, observe, whatever. He follows it, though, because he wants to keep his parents happy for the time they’re around. Good news: they brought him a new laptop! One of the greatest out there! So if his parents scold him for staying up all night playing Genshin Impact, that’s their fault, really. But they won’t notice.
After a dinner together, his parents leave for the airport to go to Azerbaijan for a dig. Tim gives himself a total of 3 minutes and 45 seconds to mourn their absence, before running to his room to finish his suit. Look, he’s not looking forward to being a meta vigilante in Gotham by any means, but he has powers, he has to help. Tim isn’t good with designs by any means, but he tried to make something inspired by the spider that bit him. He wondered for a while if he should use a mask like the other vigilantes, but in the end, he decided to use a cowl like Batman. His suit is black (because it’s Gotham and night, he can’t go all shiny like Robin, because his abilities aren't nearly as good. And he couldn’t risk Robin thinking he wanted to replace the boy) with red details. He has a brass knuckle and a strap to carry his skateboard. This certainly ain’t enough for Gotham, and he will definitely end up being shot. And he doesn’t want to be shot…
Except that he kinda wants to. Ives would call him insane, and maybe he is, but he’s curious! His healing factor got a 1000x times stronger ever since he got these powers, a scratch has no effect on him and a cut heals in 5 seconds, so a bullet wound wouldn’t hurt as much… Right? Anyway, if he does get shot, he’ll call it scientific research.
ִ 𖤐.ᐟ
His first week patrolling is great, really. He’s laying low, staying out of Batman’s radar, helping people, beating low level criminals, so why is Robin running after him right now?
“Come on, stop!” Robin’s — Jason’s — voice calls after him. “I just wanna talk!”
Tim keeps skating, because, honestly, he’s not dumb. He isn’t allowed to be here, so he definitely won’t let Robin capture him and put him in a Bat-Jail™, how annoying would it be to explain to his parents? “Oh, actually, mom and dad that work all the time to keep me safe and happy, I was bitten by a radioactive spider that makes me a non-human freak and have been spending my nights running around Gotham and now Batman wants us out of his city!” wouldn’t work. Shucks for him, must keep skating. But unfortunately, Jason’s training as Robin is better than Tim’s karate classes and self-taught parkour, so when Tim’s skateboard eventually can’t keep up with the pace, Jason takes the chance and lunges after Tim.
“Ha! Caught you, Spider-kid!” Robin yells, cheering. And, seriously, Spider-kid? That’s cringe. Tim didn’t pick a name for himself, mostly because he has been trying to avoid Batman and making a name would make him more recognizable, so it’s a no-no. He guesses Gothamites gave him a name anyway. He did hear about Spiderman on Twitter, but he genuinely thought it was a new villain in Metropolis or something and went with his day.
Tim dodges Jason, but he knows he can’t keep this up for long. He has to think about it. Robin shouldn’t be in Park Row, actually, he knows Jason shouldn’t even be patrolling tonight, because he’s from the same class as Jason and he knows they have a science test tomorrow. Maybe he can use that against Robin.
…Okay, maybe not the last part. Revealing he knows Jason’s schedule would imply that he knows Robin’s secret identity and is a stalker, that would get him out of the Bat-Jail and put him in the Justice League Jail, or worse, the Green Lantern prison.
“Get off me!” Tim yells when Robin grabs his arm, which makes the bird grin.
“So now you’re talking? That’s progress!” Robin throws Tim on the floor, Tim gets to push Jason away, but his skateboard breaks. Great. Suicide today. Okay, no, focus on getting out, then mourn the skateboard and buy a new one tomorrow. He dodges Jason’s attack, thank God his… spider-senses (he doesn’t know what that is, but his reflexes became hella enhanced since the bite, so he blames on the spider).
“You shouldn’t even be here!” Tim says, kicking Robin in the stomach (he’s so going to hell because of this. But it feels funny).
“What the fuck d’ya even mean?” Jason asks, and Tim doesn’t answer because he’s too busy bolting the hell out of there.
Well.
That was eventful.
Now he has a broken skate and a sore back. Screw Robin, really.
The next day, he wakes up tired, so instead of waking up at a normal time, he decides to sacrifice his breakfast to sleep for 30 more minutes. And then he wakes up at 8 AM instead of 7:30 AM. Why does god hate him? He jumps out of the bed, dresses the uniform quickly and grabs his not-broken skateboard to go to school, because the bus isn’t available so late. And, yes, he has two skateboards. One really old that he’s using now and the one that used to be for his hero persona. He can’t risk people recognizing his skateboard, but what’s the chances of Jason Todd associating a kid the same height of “Spider-man” riding a skateboard just like said hero? Sigh, Maybe he’ll have to abandon his skate. But not today.
When he gets to school, he is late. Of course. This class is with Jason Todd, the last thing he wants is to embarrass himself in front of Robin, but, well, he dug his grave, he might as well lie in it.
“Mr. Drake, may I know why you're so late?” Mrs. Washington asks, sternly. God, Tim hates this woman. She's like the monster in his nightmares, even when his nightmares are the Graysons dying, she manages to find a way to sneak in.
“I woke up late, Mrs. Washington, I apologize.” Tim tries his most obedient kid tone. It works, because she just nods and tells him to sit besides… p>Jason Todd. Oh my God. Freaking Robin. The Robin that he kicked yesterday. God might as well strike him down right now. Jason smiles at him.
“Hi. I guess we're doing the exam together.” Jason mutters.
“I guess.” Tim mumbles back, dreading everything. He's sure Robin will recognize him and tell Batman, and while Batman won’t kill him, his parents certainly will. There you go, champ, ruining everything again. Tim sighs, he will play innocent until there’s proof he’s guilty.
‧₊˚♪ 𝄞₊˚⊹
Timmy is a nice kid, Jason thinks as he dresses up for tonight’s patrol. Like, they never talked much, and it’s more of Jason paying attention to him than actually interacting, but they’re friends! Kinda. Recently Bruce was, as usual, nagging Jason about making friends. He said the Titans are his friends, Bruce said he needed civilian friends and Dick told him to stop stealing his friends, so, no friends, he guesses. Well. Tim is technically Wayne’s neighbour, and, as far as Jason can remember, Tim has no friends in the classes they share, so it’s a good thing for both!
Tim seems kinda shy close to older people. While the kid is not, by any means, antisocial like Jason, Tim mostly sticks closer to his close friends and treats older people with an insane amount of politeness. Jason could never. Anyway, they met a few times at galas and in school halls, Tim is really the only nice rich kid, and Jason was a bit worried he would become an asshole as he grew up, but he’s still nice!
Now, he really wanna catch the SpiderHero around, because B is obsessed with the new vigilante and it’s bearing borderline insanity. He’s been hearing nonstop about Spiderman.
They know few things about the vigilante: they’re short, they might be a man, the popular name is Spiderman (without the hyphen, Bruce complained) but they don’t really know why, they patrol around Crime Alley. That was all Bruce gathered, and Jason didn’t get much from his little adventure yesterday, just that Spidey is strong, seems to hold back a lot and still got Jason’s stomach aching like crazy, so very strong; they (he? Jason will assume it’s a boy based on the voice) use a skateboard, one that Jason broke and he’s sure he saw the immediate grief in Spidey’s face. Well. Jason’s not so sorry for that; he is really fast, but Jason’s not sure if he’s as good in martial arts, so slight advantage for the time being. Yay.
Jason thinks Spidey is scared, because there’s a common thought around that Batman doesn’t allow Metas in Gotham, which is dumb, because Clark and Diana are literally Bruce’s best friends, and that rule would make B slightly racist. Jason asked Bruce to make an announcement as Batman, so Spiderkid would come around and ask for help, but that would require for Batman to talk with the media or anyone that isn’t Alfred, Jason or Dick. So. Maybe Robin will do something about it. Not that he forgave the little delinquent for kicking him, but it’s clear Spidey just wants to help.
The plan for today was: Robin patrol normally, Batman goes after Spiderman. Jason hated the plan, because he wants to find Spiderkid himself! But it seems like lady luck is on his side, not Bruce’s, because he just found Spiderman sitting on a rooftop, eating fries and drinking soda. Okay. He won’t run, right? Still, Jason approaches quietly.
“It’s rude to disturb a spider while it eats,” Spiderman says, turning to him. Oh-uh. Maybe he wasn’t so quiet, after all.
“You’re not an actual spider,” Is what Jason goes with.
“I am… partially a spider. I think. I don’t really know.” Spidey takes a sip of his drink. “Are you here to… what? Take me to the Bat?”
“No. I’m mad at him. May I sit down?” Jason asks, Spidey nods and nudges the fries in his direction. Jason takes some. He’s hungry. “So… how do your powers work?”
“I’m not telling you that.” Spidey decides. “You’ll definitely use it against me.”
“Jeez, you’re as paranoid as B. Not everyone is your enemy, buddy.” Jason mutters.
“I’m cautious,” Spidey says, finishing his drink. “And I have work to do.” He gets up.
“You suck.” Jason also gets up. “See you around, Spidey.”
“If I’m lucky, nope.”