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 linking 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...’