Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The light cut as a solid door slammed shut, a middle age woman checking the latches and double checking the chains.

“I’m sorry children... Gotham can be... rough at times, and for the utmost protection in the case of a villains attack this bus had to be blacked out and de-labelled.” She announced with a shaky smile, “If the route isn’t seeming too dangerous we can surely drop the blinds for some light!”

He shifted in his cheap stained bus seat, confused, but awake-ish now just from the absurd notion.

‘A safe Gotham yeah right’

His teeth itched. Why did he know that name? Tongue running along the edge. How did he know it wasn’t safe?

“When we arrive just wait for your name to be called out and quickly get situated, It’s best if we keep the process quick...” The Woman was their temporary minder, a fill in for the staff at the destination he couldn’t quite remember the name of.

‘hmmm...’

His name... was Peter probably Parker- The Peter he was sure of but the Parker felt like it was slowly floating into place in his mind, which is weird for what was definitely his name.

He wasn’t too sure why but- ‘itchy itchy itchy’ -everything was rather muddly at the moment. not something he was used to but he was very used to it... no absolutely used to it with all the crazy thing that he totally remembers experiencing.

Peter thought those thoughts must still be somewhere up there, floating down. A patience thing then, he could do that. Must have gotten a concussion, he has had enough over the year to recognise those.

...

Peter decided it probably was not a Problem that he couldn’t recall any of these concussions.

Probably

It was a surprisingly short ride- ‘We got on near city borders’ -or maybe Peter was still catching up with real-time but the bus stopped and doors opened as the rest of the kids- ‘27 heartbeats’ -were all funnelled out to an enclosed green (as green as Gotham could be really) free reign. Peters teeth were grinding.

*BRIGHT bright off Bright*

“I’ll be back in a moment kids, once all the paperwork has been filed.”

Some of them were distressed, either new to the system or just because this was Gotham. Peter chose to take the nearest cozy looking corner to crouch in as Gotham leached the light from the sky as you would expect a city made of things that go bump in the night would do at the terribly late time of seven pm.

Eight o’clock was where it was really at Peter thought, probably, he didn’t really notice it all take place. He had been - ‘Itchy itch bitey, need to find something biteable.’ -distracted , rather distracted as everything around him went wrong in a... small way Peter guessed, compared to what could have happened in this hellhole.

*off ofF OFF OFF*

Oh and his sense wasn’t screaming DANGER so it couldn’t be too life threatening.

The sky had not darkened nearly as much as Peter had thought apparently as most of the cover came from the huge man now standing in front of him spouting some nonsense Peter did not have the energy to deal with.

He was getting bitey again what a problem, what a problem-

He noticed something heading straight for his neck...

‘... oh well’

59 seconds earlier

“Get the door Ozzy!”

Two rough callused hands ripped the door open, breaking the lock as an other pair tossed a Molotov through the gap.

The young Caretaker watched in horror as the old oak floor was rapidly coated in angry flames, quickly spreading to fill every corner of the document room.

“Barricade it, now!” Ozzy shouted as two more heavily armed men ran up with a heavy crate they found in an old storage room.

He quickly made way down to the indoor green, ignoring the desperate begging coming from inside the room, it would burn out eventually, along with all the important documentation.

“Now with that blaze of glory the only documentation liking these kids to this Hellhole is officially gone, those bat fuckers should be out distracted so gather them all up and get them as far from here as you can within the next five minutes.” he called out to the rest of the men turning to the nearest one.

It was a young boy of probably ten years old, curled up in the shadows of the corner near the door. His hair was a rather messy brown nest.

“Hah, good you’re a quiet one!” Ozzy said, reaching in to grab him by the collar. “Welcome to your new-”

Faster than he could react, fast enough it looked like the kid teleported, his arms wrapped around Ozzy’s in a tight grip almost tight enough he thought it might break, before the damn thing bit down hard onto the exposed skin between glove and sleeve.

He couldn’t shake the thing off fast enough, grabbing a taser off his belt in desperation.

“Fucking Demon child!”

Before he could even turn the taser on Ozzy was knocked out with a strong kick to his face, a tall, obviously vigilante landing next to them. His outfit was form fitting, all red and black with a large black cape flowing around him, a black belt with a dozen pouches and strange straps across his chest and biceps completed the look.

Peter could respect it, well everything but the cape. The ability to hide in shadows was greatly undermined by how dangerous those things were in a fight.

“Hey kid, how about a trade?” he smiled, “A lollipop if you stop chewing this guys wrist, and your name if that’s okay?”

Peter hesitates a moment, biting down one more time before relenting.

His rather hairy arm wasn’t very tasty anyway.

“...Peter”

“Well Peter, my teammates and I are going to clean up the rest of these crooks, just stay safe for a moment, k?”

Behind him a smaller, probably younger vigilante inflicted great bodily harm onto a group of crooks. This one had a more colourful outfit, bright yellow lining the inside of his cape.

“Get moving Red! We are not letting any escape!”

He also had a whole katana strapped to his belt which was cool...

“On it, Robin!”

Okay so the little one is Robin and the big one is Red something, or something Red. Peter refused to believe there was just a vigilante going around called Red.

The clean-up was surprisingly... well, clean, especially because he couldn’t tell for sure if they had any powers. Like He might be able to pull off some crazy moves but how hard they were for a normal human was usually hard to tell.

‘Robin just Flipped through gunfire that has to be an enhancement of some sort’ Peter thought, although from the looks Red was giving him he wasn’t sure all the rounds had actually been dodged.

“Oh B is going to kill us.”

Well that answers that, B was probably their leader, and Peter has gotten enough reprimands over his career to share in that pain.

They moved all the totally not dead just very close to it bodies out of sight to calm the kids down, which worked almost as well as the candy they handed out afterwards. A short piece to each kid that the ‘bad guys couldn’t hurt them now’ stopped the beginning of a few panic attacks while Peter contemplated why anyone would commit such obvious crimes if they usually had this many broken bones by the end of it.

“It’s alright! Your all safe here, no big bad crooks can get past us.” Red announced, clapping to get everyone’s attention “But... they may have burnt all the your identifying documents before we could stop them. We just need fingerprint and probably a DNA sample and you’ll be back in the Gotham registry in no time!”

*Get away! Get away! Get away!*

‘Oh no no no‘ The lollipop shattered as his jaw clenched.

The moment Peters DNA goes through whatever analysis they have he’d be marked as a mutant, no family, no relations, no history here or anywhere else in this world. Wasn’t even a choice, he had to escape before they got to him and his spidy sense was in agreement which usually means it’s going to be extra bad.

Peter didn’t know this place, but if it was anything like New York he’d be shunned at best for being a ‘mutant’. If his DNA showed no relations It would draw too much attention to him, though Peter supposed that any relations that did show would also be a problem as he wouldn’t be able to answer any questions about them.

He would hate to pretend to be some poor couples child.

Escape seems harder than expected, most obvious routes draw too much attention.

Move while they are looking and they would get curious or start with him, climb the walls and one of the other kids would inevitably point at Peter or call out in shock.

No, the only way to escape them was to get closer.

Peter obviously looked like a kid with how he’s been treated so far but his current age was for a safe Peter to figure out. Acting like a kid would be the ticket out.

“I need to use the restroom...” Peter asked, biting back a growl with flush cheeks at how humiliating it was. Sure, he’s like twelve years old right now, but Peter swears that he was older before. Actually he wondered how a full puberty with spider genes would affect his powers, he originally got bit near the end and his growth shot up and-

‘Not now! Existential problems can wait!’

Red barely looked from where he was drawing small drops of blood. “Robin can guide you there to keep you safe!”

“Ugh, fine lets get this over with.” Robin did not sound too happy, and he walked next to Peter the height difference became apparent.

‘I knew I was small but somehow being a head shorter than a teen vigilante really pushes that to the forefront...’ He wasn’t too sure how that made him feel but it was probably somewhere along the lines of vulnerable.

Peter totally wasn’t scared or anything he just did not know how much strength he had currently and the height difference was disadvantages and his sword looked sharp and cool but mostly sharp and- “We are here. I will stand guard in case any of those lowlifes had tried to hide.”

Robins voice broke Peter out of his spiralling thoughts.

Thankfully the room had a window and said window could open wide enough to fit through. It was rather high up on the wall, but thankfully Peter still seemed to have his Setules so sticking to walls was still within his move-set.

He was methodical, silently shifting down the outer wall in case Robin was listening in, his spidy sense had been quiet the whole time but that only meant he was not in any danger. It is only when Robin tries to check on him that that would be an issue.

*Duck!*

Peter dropped quick, crouching behind a dumpster as sirens he somehow missed- (Hey he’s been stuck in thought since getting here) -blared loudly next to him. Firemen for sure, although the fire must be at the other end of the building as all the heartbeats quickly faded away, only the two maintaining the engines being a potential problem.

*run run!*

That was the sign that Robin was getting impatient.

The left not only had the fire-trucks (which would be cool to see) but lead to a better lit part of Gotham.

Straight ahead would involve climbing and running the rooftops out in the open which kinda ruined the whole not get found thing.

‘Into the dark alleys to my right it is.’

Probably 20 minutes later...

Peter passed progressively more worn buildings, carefully avoiding any trouble he sensed along the way. It must have only been about nine o’clock but he was already feeling sleepy.

‘Damn kids body, guess it’s a race for safe shelter then.” He sighed to himself, looking for a good spot to rest. The searching switched to sensing as his spidy sense would be much better at finding a truly safe spot.

*There! Up!*

Peter came to a sudden stop in a more industrial section of the alleys, looking up to what at first looked like a fake vent. It was directly overhead making it difficult for anyone not as sticky as he was to reach the opening, and after pulling the vent closed behind him, turned out to be fake after all.

The ‘Room’ it ended in seemed to be more of a construction over-site, perhaps from building off an older building that then got replaced itself, but it was small, dark, and made his spidy side very happy.

The vent shaft was short enough that a lack air flow would not choke him in his sleep, and with the vent entrance facing down cold winds should not be much of an issue. Unless Gotham had some creepy weather that rained upwards that was.

It was dusty and old, and Peter had no blankets or cushions to soften the hard brick as he curled into a corner, but the thick walls drowned out Gotham’s noisy streets enough that Peter felt himself drifting off to sleep anyway.

‘I’m sure a city like this has a shelter handing out blankets...’

Chapter Text

Day 1

The glass was tinted well enough to work like a mirror. The car held a sort of subtle fanciness about it, owned by some upper class kid no doubt, but they were not here to complain and Peter had his new body to checkout.

Peter looked about 11 maybe a bit younger, but if the mutations were just kicking in, and or he’s malnourished from the high metabolism then his body hasn’t caught up yet... He would just have to say he’s 12 if anyone asks.

His hair was still brown and so were his eyes, and with how similar he looked overall it was definably his body. Although it could be some sort of alternate world Peter he was dropped into, so things might be a bit different...

“...But no spider bite.” Peter whispered, checking the back of his hands.

Sure, it could be somewhere different, but something- ‘probably spidy sense’ -was telling him these powers had come along from his old world.

Peter certainly did not have the spinnerets that Other Peter had, at least not yet... might be a puberty thing.

He had woken up a bit too early for the public library here in Gotham, so this was as much of a way to kill time as it was a check up.

If Peter was going to be stuck here, he thought it would be best to learn where exactly here is, especially after last night. The incredible amount of gunshots alone clued Peter in that this might not be the best place to live for a mutant kid with a mouth faster than his brain.

There was this foreboding feeling that Gotham was an exaggerated Hell’s Kitchen stretched into a whole city, which was bad because lots of crime and stuff but also kinda good because it would be easier for a lost kid to hide from roaming vigilantes.

The library itself was rather grandiose on the outside, and bigger than expected especially with how little foot traffic it got. That might have more to do with how early it was into the day, but the lone young employee behind a rather large front desk told Peter that wasn’t probably the case.

Her name tag was worn down but clear enough to read Barbara Gordon.

“Hi Miss Barbara!” Peter might be laying low but Aunt May would kill him for forgetting his manners.

“Does this library have computers? Just for research purposes.”

“Call me Babs!”, She smiled, “Everyone does.”

“We have a handful working right now... but even then their internet runs slow or screens glitch and freeze... haah, really need to get them fixed some time.” She said rather exasperated. “Do you have a library card?”

“No it’s my first time here, sorry.”

“Not a problem. First and last name please?”

“Peter B. Parker” Peter B. Parker replied.

“I can print one out for you now... huh?” Barbara’s expression froze as her hands moved faster across the keyboard, “We... I can’t seem to find you on the registry...?”

‘Oh shit quick improvise!’

“We just moved in today! It was really sudden so it is probably still being processed or something...” Peter called out rather hastily, hoping she wouldn’t pick up on it

“Okay. I can issue a temporary card for the month, make sure you apply for a full ID once you’ve finished registration.”She seemed to buy it, probably, he didn’t feel in danger, and Babs would have to be heavily trained to hide such an intent from his spidy sense.

“Thanks Miss Barbara!”

“Babs! Call me Babs.”

The computers immediately answered the other world theory as not only was google not really google, but many of the websites bookmarked were named just slightly off. Ao3 was Tales of Our Own instead which really just proves fan fiction is a universals constant if anything.

Peter fell rather quickly down the vigilante rabbit hole, focused mostly on Red Robin as his name and Robin’s suggested that there might be more Robins, and there were, as the best source he could find theorised, theorised, that there has been at least 4 over the years.

Red Robin was obviously a Robin, and the current Robin makes two, but along with Nightwing probably being a Robin due to chronology, and a short period of rumours of a girl Robin lasting roughly 2 weeks it was almost like a factory of sassy sidekicks for the Batman.

One of the more interesting aspects was the severe lack of recognisable pictures of said vigilantes, like phones did seem to be early 2010’s tech but surely someone had managed to take at least a low quality pic of one of them.

‘I mean, there’s 8, 8 of them! And that is just in Batman’s line-up. I did the whole of Queens alone!...”

“...”

It had already been two hours of research and Peter was already done with this city. Gotham was a hellhole of crime unlike any he had seen before, with killer clowns that the public were convinced died a couple of times.

So yeah, Gotham is corrupt and satanic.

Problem is... it is also probably the only place he has a chance escaping CPS, or staying off their radar entirely.

Batman does have a no meta rule though so gotta keep his skills in check or the man who fist fought a Dark God would be after him.

So no pressure right?

Babs was right about the computers, Peter ended up choosing one that froze over slow internet as the instant gratification of Tik Tok had done irreparable damage to his attention span. Thankfully he finally could log off and leave the library...

Peter stopped a moment to stare at the row of PC’s like they were hiding something.

“...I mean there’s nothing else to do today..”

Barbara Gordon was not enjoying her afternoon.

She had spent the last 2 days straight tracking down a rumour of The Clown Prince of Crime’s return and the bat family was not making it easy. There seemed to be twice as many interruptions for rather mundane things just when Babs finally get into it.

“...Three all nighters before hallucinations Babs, 3 nights...” She sighed, massaging her forehead while a migraine wreaked her brain. Speaking of distractions, she connected to Red Robin from her computer.

”Hey RR? You had that side-quest yesterday where you lost a whole kid right?”

-Wha- I didn’t!- What about it Babs!-

”Yeah wellll pretty sure he just walked through the door.”

-PETER!? Is he okay? What’s he doing at the library?!-

”Uhhh... reading? Just some basic research on Gotham and a lot of searching for photos of your brothers but...”

“...Hang on- What are you doing there Peter?” She muted her side for a moment, looking across the desks where Peter was deep in concentration surrounded by pieces of what used to be the libraries PC’s.

“Oh I am just repairing the computers Miss Barbara!”

“Wait really?”

“Yeah well most of the issues are just wear and tear and misalignment, and using two of them as parts got the rest all up and running clean. I’d need better tools to re-solder a chip and stuff for a third but two of them are now just scrap piles so you should probably check if the library could buy new ones.”

“...” Babs really did not have the energy to deal with this, but the kid looked so proud of his work she didn’t want to upset him.

“Well the library does not get many visitors so we can live with just five I suppose.”

-Babs?- RR said impatiently.

Barbara quickly unmuted to update RR before he kicked down the library doors, “Yeah Peters fine, took all the PC’s apart and fixed any issues he could, but there are no obvious injuries.”

-What? You are saying he just got bored and stared tearing into them?-

“Reminds me of someone... You of all people know those systems are isolated well enough that there is nothing he could steal that wasn’t already available online.”

-Haha very funny.-

“...Soo do I just let the small orphan child into the deadly streets of Gotham, or?...”

He sighed, an alarm blaring somewhere in his skyline, -You of all people know how thinly stretched we are right now, especially with Nightwing in Bludhaven, B on League cleanup and Signal helping Superman-

-Just... make sure he gets the pamphlet of Wayne subsidised charity centres m’kay?-

Barbara had just ended the call when Peter runs up to the front desk, arms full of various parts, mostly hard drives and a couple cables it seemed. He was shifting a bit on the balls of his feet nervously.

“Could I, uh... takesomeofthescrapbitswithmeifthatisokwiththelibrary...?” Peter asked timidly.

Peter stepped out of Gotham Library as the sun began to dip, electronically richer and reading a charity pamphlet Babs had handed him. He had probably spent too long in the library but it’s not like Peter had any other plans.

The pamphlet marked the nearest Wayne funded charity handout as being down south at Barr Town near, which was helpfully close to The Bowery, apparently the name of the area Peter had found that base of his.

It was supposedly focused more on the bare essentials like blankets, hygiene products, and light clothing over being a shelter or a food bank.

While more clothes was never a bad thing the blanket was the real prize. Gotham is a lot colder than Peter was used to and he had been having thermoregulation issues from when he first woke up here.

Unfortunately Peter found out he really should not have spent his hours fixing up the libraries computers, because by the time he strolled up to the temporary stands all the workers had almost finished packing everything away.

And by almost he meant arriving just in time to watch the last table folded up and packed in to the back of a large Wayne Industries van.

‘Quite a lot of armour for a charity van... What the hell is this city?’

He was about to leave when something was draped over his shoulders, causing Peter to jump, letting out a yelp in both panic and frustration because his spidy sense was meant to warn him of these kind of things.

He would address that issue later.

When he turned round, recognising that it was a green blanket now resting around his shoulders, there was absolute wall of a man standing arms crossed with an amused smirk. His eyes were an emerald green that almost seemed to glow in the low light, some front tufts of hair seemed bleached white with a strange scar on his left cheek.

He was wearing a dark red and black biker jacket with matching gloves.

He was the coolest person Peter had ever met, looking 7ft tall- ‘or maybe I am just that short now’ -and made of pure muscle.

His spidy sense purred.

‘Okay can my daddy issues just cool it for a bit?!?’ Peter thought, exasperated that this was what his broken spidy sense decided was an important issue. Like sure he had problems but this cannot be the best moment to deal with them.

“You good kid?”

It took a moment for Peters brain to reboot before replying, “Y-yeah.. thanks for the blanket?”

“No problem! I saw you arrive late and grabbed one from the back.” He smiled. “Name’s Jason.”

“I’m Peter... I should probably go before it gets too dark.”

“Smart, there will be a soup kitchen by Roberson Park tomorrow, stay out of shadows and stay safe!”

Rain rhythmically crashed against the roof.

Peter was laying his new blanket out, his spoils from the library now sitting in a damaged backpack he found on the way back. A light skittering sound pulling him from his thoughts just as he was shutting his eyes.

Over in the opposite corner of the crook was a large spider weaving the beginnings of a web.

It was nonchalantly trying to claim a part of Peters territory and he was not going to let an insult like that stand, hissing at it as it turned to stare at him.

It ignored him pretty quickly, continuing its web building crimes while Perter watched, his spidy sense protesting the the little intruders presence.

“So its like that huh?” Peter whispered, pulling one arm back, “Try Ignore THIS!”

His hand slapped the wall where the little bastard was, ruining the web. When Peter checked his palm it was clean though, the spider starting a new web unbothered nearby.

Every time Peter tried to squash the intruder it would somehow evade, showing up unscathed in some other corner, even as he increased the speed and strength, holding back less and less until dust was flying off the walls with every hit.

The intruder had stopped making webs, entirely focused on not dying and hissing back in challenge when Peter tried to intimidate it.

It below him now, or Peter thought it was, he had being climbing over the identical walls enough that he wasn’t sure which way was down and too focused to really check.

“Got you!!” He shouted, raising both arms above him like a hammer.

Peter had stopped holding back, his fists hitting the wall like a sledge hammer and shaking the room, the dust clearing to show the intruder missing a back leg.

“Ha! HA-” His laughs were cut off as something wet hit his face, looking down to see a web of cracks covering what he now realised was the roof, water pouring up through the gaps that seemed to be widening dangerously.

Peter dropped to the floor as the the whole roof moved, giving only a moments warning where he could grab the blanket and bag before he watched with heightened perception as it fell out. It looked like it was moving through molasses to Peter as he was still high strung with his powers flowing freely as he made his escape back to the streets of Gotham

He landed easily, knees barely bending as some debris flowed out in the water now pouring from the vent.

Peters hands were cupped, blanket wrapped around his shoulders and backpack on his back.

When he was confident in his relative safety, Peter opened his hands, the spider that he blamed 70% for this crawled out unharmed.

“Haah... what am I going to do with you then?”