Chapter Text
Peter was falling.
He was falling and barely alive. Moments ago he and Tony had been testing one of their new inventions, a teleporting machine, but it began to glow a weird color and it suddenly exploded. Next thing he knew he was falling from the sky.
The ground was getting closer and closer and then he hit the ground with a SPLAT!
His blood pooled at his head as his vision blurred and the last thing he saw as darkness took over was a man in a purple suit with green hair and a disfigured grin.
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The Joker was moving again.
Tim had been keeping an eye out from the Joker since that green flash in the sky a couple of weeks ago. He knew he shouldn’t be here since this is Jason’s turf and because Bruce had banned people from going off on their own in Crime Alley, but this was too important to ignore. Joker’s new goon has been causing them some problems. Tim has had little encounters with the guy, but he knew that he’s stronger than he looked.
“What are you doing here?” Jason said behind him.
“Scouting Joker’s new base.” Tim replied without turning around.
Jason was now beside him, his eyes glaring down at the building through his mask.
“What are you doing here?” Tim asked, glancing at his older brother.
“I'm going to have a ‘talk’ with Joker’s new goon.”
He stood up and started moving towards the warehouse until he disappeared into the building. Tim stayed where he was for a moment knowing that he should call the other Bats for backup, but curiosity won him over as he followed Jason into the building.
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Jason scouted the inside of the warehouse as he spotted Joker but his goon wasn’t with him. Which was a surprise because the guy barely left the Joker’s side.
“Weird.” Jason muttered.
As Jason continued to look for the goon Tim jumped down beside him.
Jason turned sharply, “What are you doing here?!”
“Helping you.” Tim sharply replied.
Jason scoffed and went back to looking for the goon, but out of the corner of his eye he spotted a cage where a familiar figure sat.
“Is that him?” Tim asked.
“Looks like it.” Jason turned back to Tim, “I need you to alert Bruce.”
“Are you sure? We could just grab him-”
“Just do it.” Jason interrupted.
“Fine.” Tim scoffed.
With that Jason was off heading towards the cage. Thankfully there was a place behind the cage where he could land without getting spotted. He looked inside the cage, the goon was sitting on his knees and was completely still, not moving at all. His eyes were unfocused and Pit green; Jason didn’t like that, notably the green chemical looked like it was dripping from his eyes and it looked like it had stained his skin. He was completely pale as well and looked like he was 15 or 16.
“Hey.” Jason whispered and the boy turned around to face him, but he didn’t say a word.
Above Jason could see that Batman and the others had arrived and he focused himself into picking the lock to the cage, but one thing kept repeating in his head.
Why did the Joker put one of his best-if not the best-goons in a cage?
“Hey! Who’s over there?!” A goon wearing a clown mask shouted, drawing the attention of all the other goons and Joker.
“Well, well, well!” Joker grinned, “If it isn’t one of Batsy’s finest, Red Hood!”
Joker stepped closer to Red Hood unaware that the others were watching from above.
“Do you like my new toy?” He gestured to the boy, “I found him dead in an alley not long ago after falling from the sky.”
Jason's blood boiled, but he stayed quiet.
Joker continued, “Thankfully I injected him with some of that Pit chemical and was able to save him. See, I’m capable of having a heart too.” His grin grew wide as he was clearly provoking Jason.
“Bullshit!” Jason spat.
Batman jumped down from the catwalk and the others followed.
“It’s over, Joker, turn yourself in.” Red Robin said.
Joker’s stance faltered. Clearly he wasn’t thinking that all the Bats would be here.
“Get them!” Joker snarled before he started running towards the back exit.
As the others were dealing with the goons around him-And Batman going after Joker-Jason was able to focus back to picking the lock of the cage. Once the lock finally gave away he swung open the cage door and grabbed the boy, pulling him out of the cage.
“Hey,” He said softly, trying not to scare the boy, “Are you okay?”
What he was kidding the boy was clearly not okay.
But before he could do anything the boy rested his head against Jason and passed out right in his arms, and he carried the boy right out of the warehouse and into the night.
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Peter has woken up on a metal table with bright sterile lights shining down on his face. He tried to move his limbs but they were sluggish and were held down by leather straps.
Where the hell was he?
Just then a man entered the room and his spider senses went crazy, whoever this man was he wasn’t here to help Peter.
“Ahh, so you’re awake!” The voice shrilled.
The man with green hair and a disfigured grin appeared in front of him.
“How do you feel? It took quite a while for you to come back.” The man’s grin grew wider.
“W-where am I?” Peter rasped.
“Nowhere important.” The man replied and it looked like he was reaching for a syringe with a strange looking liquid inside.
He approached Peter, “Now don’t move.”
He lowered the syringe to Peter's neck and Peter’s attempt to squirm away was futile as the next thing that Peter was met with was a stabbing and searing pain.
The next thing Peter knew he was helping the man-the Joker he learns later-with many heists and the pain in his heart grew as he couldn’t do anything to help the people he was hurting. When Peter was finally able to gain control of his body weeks later he was in a cage facing a man with a red mask on. This man was Red Hood as the Joker called him. Peter guessed that he was one of the many protectors of this city that he learned was called ‘Gotham’.
“Hey. Are you okay?” Red Hood had said when he pulled Peter out of the cage, but Peter didn’t say anything; he just let his head rest on Red Hood’s chest and finally succumbed to his exhaustion.
Hopefully this time he didn’t wake up.
Peter woke up to light coming through a window, he was on a bed and he felt that he was covered in bandages. He heard voices coming from the other room.
“No, I’m not letting him go to the Manor!” He sounded like Red Hood.
“Jason, this boy could be dangerous!” The other person said, “He needs to be under strict supervision.”
“He’s a kid and I’m not letting you guys treat him like he is some kind of weapon that’s going to explode any second!”
“Jason…”
Peter stopped himself from listening to the rest of the conversation and focused on a way to get out of this place. That’s when he turned his attention to the window and slowly and steadily-as much as he could be steady in his condition-walked towards the window and silently opened it and jumped down with a THUMP.
God his entire body was burning with pain, whatever that Joker guy did to him wasn’t any good.
Now he had to find out where he was.
Not far away he spotted a library and he slowly headed towards the building. On the way there people kept giving him weird looks probably because he looked like he had just come back from the dead which he did.
Once in the library he headed to the front desk where a lady with ginger hair and glasses sat.
“Hello?” Peter rasped.
The lady looked up from her computer.
“Do I need a library card to use the computers?” He asked, ignoring the lady’s horrified look.
“Yes,” She answered, “But are you alright? You don’t look very well.”
“I’m fine, Miss-” He paused.
“Barbara.” She said,
“Oh. Well, thank you, Miss Barbara.” Peter said as he headed towards the computers.
“It's just Barbara!” She called after him.
Once at the computers Peter looked at the guest password tapped beside the computer and logged in. Once he did that he started searching what he could find out about this place. First thing he learned is that there was no such thing as the Avengers and that the Battle of New York never happened. Instead he learned that there was a group of heroes called Teen Titans that protected and watched over New York. The second thing he learned was that he was in a completely different time period than he was at home. The date was June 12th, 2018; which meant that he had a bit over a month to find out how to apply for a school to avoid getting the attention of the cops-if they aren’t already crooked.
He sighed and that was when he realized that he still had Karen.
“Karen?” He whispered, “Are you there?”
[Powering on from emergency save]
[Hello, Peter. Where are we?]
“That's the thing, Karen, I don't know.” Peter whispered. A few people were looking around at him like he was crazy which probably was normal for this city.
[I've hacked into some nearby satellites to access information and this world is pretty strange to me.]
“What do you mean?” Peter asked.
[It seems that everyone here has something called a soulmate or soulmates. They are usually identified by markings on the body that are called soul markings. If a person has the other half of your mark; they are your soulmate.]
“What if someone doesn't have a soulmate?” Peter questioned, thinking how awkward it would be if someone questioned why he didn't have a soulmate.
[That's the thing it is almost unheard of for someone not to have a soulmate.]
“Damnit.” Peter muttered.
[Language, Peter.]
“Sorry, Karen.”
Right now Karen was a bracelet on his wrist (which he was still surprised that the Joker never thought to take it off), but that would be a problem for if he needed to talk to Karen without drawing attention and talking to your bracelet was one way to get people's attention and for them to think that you are crazy.
“Hey, Karen, can you transform into hearing aids?” Peter quietly asked.
[Sure, Peter.]
Peter looked around to make sure no one was looking as the nanobots moved upward towards his head until they reached his ears and transformed into red hearing aids. Not only would this be great for when he was talking to Karen but it was great for when his hearing gets overwhelmed in crowded places though the smell might still overwhelm him.
“Thanks.” Peter said as he got up to wave goodbye to Miss Barbara and exited the library. Once he was out of the library his head began to feel a little clearer and Peter started his way down the road he came.
“Karen, do you have any idea which part of the city we are in?”
[We appear to be in the local Crime Alley, known for its very high crime rate.]