Gotham despite all it's street lights still managed to be a rather dark city. Though standing at the top of a building stood a man that saw through all the darkness. Batman watched over his city as he did every night but this night was a defining one. Had he decided to instead be Bruce Wayne this night he may have been a very different man. But he wasn't and he would meet a boy this night that would alter his life, for better or worse.
In a dark ally way a gang of five chased a boy into a dead end. The boy was about sixteen, clothed in the rattiest cloths you could imagine and his hair went below his shoulders in a tattered and greasy way.
"We got you now you little shit!" One of the gang members yelled in victory at the teen.
"Really boys isn't this a little much over a little misunderstanding?" The teen asked with a hint of mocking in his voice.
"You blew up our cars you shit!" Another yelled.
"Oh! Yeah, I did that! No misunderstanding about that!" The boy said with a wide grin on his face.
"Yeah well guess what!" The first thug yelled again. "We got you trapped you little bitch!" The Batman was about to make his move until he saw the smile spread wide across the boys face. The boy then leapt into the air at a hight that no human could possibly match and landed on the other side of the thugs trapping them in the ally.
"Don't be so sure about that." The boy said. The next few moments were a blur to the thugs as the boy dashed at them. The first two went down down quick enough with a blow to the stomach and a blow to the face. He then went to tackle the third and slammed him into the nearest wall. He wasn't done with the thug just yet, he grabbed the man by the belt and though him at another nocking them both to the ground. He was about to finish off the last but only found a gun pointed at his head.
"Eat lead you-!" The gunman was cut short as a dark gloved hand crashed into his jaw, knocking him out. The boy took a long moment to look at the tall figure in the black suit and cape.
"Well... This is strange." The boy stated dumbly.
"Who are you?" The figure asked.
"Better question. Who are you?" The boy countered. The boy took another moment to examine the figure before his eyes widened. "Wait! Are you...? Batman!?"
"Who are you?!"
"Whoa! You are aren't you!? I thought you were just a myth!" There was a long silence before Batman turned and walked down the ally way.
"Follow."
"What? Why?" The boy asked but followed none the less.
"Get in the car."
"What ca-" The boy stopped as he saw the Batmobile. "Ok now that is a car." They both climbed into the car and sped off. "So... Got any good tunes? Any James Brown? No? Yeah I didn't think so..."
"Your not very smart are you." The Batman spoke after a long while.
"And you have a weird fission spence, what's your point?" The boy returned with an edge tone.
"You get into a car with a stranger not knowing what they want. For all you know I could be about to kill you."
"A killer that saves people? Weird method of murder wouldn't you say?"
"It is still an unnecessary risk."
"No risk." The boy spoke bluntly. "I can tell."
"How?"
"You tell me where you got this car and I'll tell you how I know your not a danger to me." The boy's offer was met by a long silence. "You are no fun."
"Look at this." Batman said as he held something close to the boys face. As soon as the boy turned a small amount of gas went into his face effectively knocking him out. Batman hen drove to the bat cave in blissful silence.
Alfred had grown to expect the unexpected in the two years that his master had become the batman, but he had never been expecting a young teen to be brought back to the cave.
"A friend of yours master Bruce?" Alfred asked as Batman carried the teen in his arms and over to a table.
"I found him on my patrol fighting a gang of of men."
"Most admirable for such a young man but..."
"He jumped nearly twenty feet into the air without even trying." Alfred paused and pointed at the young man.
"Him?"
"Yes."
"Well that is... Peculiar." Batman took a small needle and took a sample of the boys blood.
"I'm going to run this though the Batcomputer and see if it can find a match. Feed him something when he wakes up. I don't think he has eaten in a while."
"Are you sure that is wise sir?"
"He isn't dangerous. And as long as he says down here he won't find any hints towards my identity."
"Very good sir. I will be back soon with some food." With that Alfred turned and walked away.
The boy woke quickly when he smelt the food. He took a minute to examine his surroundings. He appeared to be in some sort of cave filled with weird bits of tech, some he recognised as a computer, the car he came in, a weird looking single person jet, a motorbike and a boat-submarine-thingy. This must be the Batman's layer, cool. But far more importantly, food! He watched as a man in his early to mid sixties walked up to him with a tray with food on it. There was garlic bread, pasta, soup and a tall glass of water.
"Thought you might be hungry." The man spoke in a British accent. He put the tray next to the boy on the table. It didn't take a second before the boy was on it. Alfred had seen hyenas eat and it suddenly appeared to be an elegant process. When the boy had finished he gulped down the water and let out a heavy sigh. "You appear to have needed that."
"You have no idea." The boy laughed. The sound of the boys laughter spread a warmth through the older man in a way that hadn't happened since he had heard his master laugh in his days of innocence.
"Might I ask your name?" The boy hesitated.
"Peter... Peter Parker."
"Alfred Pennyworth." Alfred said holding out his hand for the boy to shake. The boy accepted the gesture quickly.
"Nice to meet you and thanks for the food."
"Your most welcome. But might I ask..."
"Hm?"
"How did you come to be fighting crooks in alleyways." Peter scratched the back of his head.
"I kind of blew up their cars." Alfred looked a little taken back.
"And why would you do this?"
"Their cars were full of drug, drugs are bad, so by the powers of deduction, cars bad, cars go boom good." Peter smiled at Alfred.
"And how, pray tell, did you make the cars go 'boom'?" Peter shrugged.
"Their engines were simple enough so it was just a matter of moving stuff around."
"Your experienced with engines?" Peter shrugged again.
"Not particularly but the science is simple enough. Hey, can I ask you something?"
"What is it?" Peter looked him straight in the eye.
"You got anymore food?"
Batman sat in his lab, a separate part of the Batcave in which he could do deeper scientific studying. In this particular case the study was going poorly, the DNA came up with no matches, except from one strange match with spider DNA.
"Peter Parker." Bruce turned with his cowl down to look at his oldest friend.
"What?"
"The boys name. It's Peter Parker." Bruce ran it through the data base and a match came up.
"How did you get him to tell you?"
"I asked nicely. Not all answers must be found through intimidation you know." Bruce ignored the last part as he read over the file. "What does it say?"
"The important parts: Science prodigy, parents disappeared at age five, his uncle was shot and bleed out in his arms at age fifteen, he dropped out of school to work, his aunt died soon after of a heart attack, then he disappeared, considered dead."
"My word..." Was all that Alfred could muster. The boy seemed so... Warm. How could he have been though so much and still have a smile. Bruce reclined in his chair and felt a mixture of things towards Peter, mostly 'respect'. Bruce pulled his cowl back over his face and made his way back to the boy in question.
"Why did you bring him here master Bruce?" Alfred asked suddenly. Bruce stopped.
"At first, to simply find out the cause of his powers."
"And now?"
"... He's like me Alfred."
"What do you mean sir?" Batman turned to him.
"He fights for the same reason I do. To protect people so that they do not have to suffer the same way he has suffered. I think now he deserves to know just how to do that, don't you?"
Peter sat on the table he had woken up on patiently waiting. In all honesty he wasn't to sure what he had been expecting. He went with the Batman because he believe he might be able to meet others like him, and he had hadn't he? He met Batman, that was something. But all this waiting made him nervous but he took comfort in the fact that his spider-sense didn't go off so he was in no danger, right? Peter heard foot steps and looked up to see the Batman walking towards him. He used humour to hide his fear but this guy was pretty intimidating, but still no spider-sense.
"Peter Parker." Batman spoke. Peter felt a moment of surprise hearing his name come from the caped crusader.
How does he know my- Oh yeah Alfred. Duh! Peter smiled to hide his nervousness. He got the feeling that Batman saw through it. "Yes?"
"I know who you are, and I know your history or at least everything on record." Peter was taken back, there was no doubt in the mans tone. How the hell did he find out his 'history' with all his tech a computer that could trace a detailed report on a person wouldn't be too hard. "But my question to you is this. Where have you been the last year and what have you been up to." Peter lost his smile and looked down at his hands. He wondered if he should lie or just straight out refuse but he didn't see a point.
"The last year I've been living on the streets. I know the statistics, too many children that go into the Gotham welfare system end up disappearing. The streets were the safer option. At first I was just trying to survive but then there was an incident with a mugger and I stopped him. After that I stopped more odd felony's, nothing big I never took on more that ten guys, less if they had guns. But about two months ago I began to recognize patterns in their activities and I could sometimes tell where they were going to be and what they were going to do... So I started doing more, making guns disappear into the river, burning meth labs, making enforcers turn up with cracked ribs, you know that sort of thing." Bruce was surprised by just how similar the boys development was similar to his own. Another similarity between the two, was that good or bad Batman couldn't tell.
"And your power?" Peter was a again surprised by that part, he must have seen him jump and realise that that was not the feet of a normal human.
"I got them from a genetically engineered spider bite. After it bit me all my physical abilities increased greatly, I can now stick to solid objects and I gained something that I call my spider-sense."
"'Spider-sense'?"
"Yeah. It pretty much tells me when I'm in danger and where it is coming from. It's how I knew you weren't a threat to me when you told me to get in the car. Apart from the bit where you used knock out gas on me, that was a bitch move." There was a long silence and Peter worried that he had take that 'bitch move' comment personally.
"Do you know why I brought you here?"
"To find the cause of my powers." It was an easy enough deduction and it was the most reasonable answer.
"Correct. But now I have a proposition for you." Peter frowned.
"What kind of 'proposition'." Batman straitened slightly.
"I am willing to train you and teach you how to fight crime. And if need be supply you any equipment you might need." It sounded way too good to be true.
"What's the catch?"
"No catch." Assured Batman. "But you do things on my rules and my terms." Peter thought about this for a moment before smiling and holding out his hand.
"Deal." Batman took his hand in his own.
"Deal."
Two weeks later
Batman was impressed. The boys problem wasn't so much needing to build up strength but more learning how to control it. He tested Peters full strength and he could lift a full ten tons. How Peter managed to not kill those thugs when they first met was beyond a miracle. He found his new students problem was either being too strong or holding back too much in fear of hurting his opponent.
But Peter was a quick study and his scientific genius had come in quite handy. In Peters time there he had developed something he called his 'web-shooters'. These gadgets were designed to be attached to his wrists and shoot out webbing when he made a particular hand sign. Right now they shot out two types of webbing on that was more elastic and designed for traveling, the other a thicker fluid that was designed to trap enemy's.
"And how is the young master Peter doing?" Alfred asked.
"Good, soon his training will be sufficient for him to survive on his own."
"Then I suppose that means that he won't have much reason to stay soon." Bruce shrunk away a little at the though. He found it hard to admit but he had grown fond of the young man. It was hard to describe the relationship they had. With only six years age difference his relationship with Peter managed to be Parental, brotherly, mentor-ish, friendship and in a weird sort of way partnership. He wasn't the only one who would miss him. Having Peter around brought about a brightness and warmth that hadn't been there since the death of Bruce's parent, and it had been surly missed. And whilst Batman might not have noticed, Alfred had noticed that Peters personality brought out more of Bruce Wayne and seemed to stop him from drowning in being the Batman.
-Alert-Alert-Alert-
Batman pushed all other thoughts aside and made his way towards the Batcomputer followed closely by Peter (now wearing a tank top and a pair of short, courtesy of Alfred) who had been lifting eight ton weights. A large map appeared on the screen and a small red dot appeared.
"What's that?" Peter asked indicating towards the dot.
"I have recently been tracking some of the minor crime lord's but I have been waiting for them to gather so that they could show me any criminals in the related area that I did not know of."
"Cool, let's go!" Peter cheered as he headed towards the bat-mobile.
"No." Peter practically tripped over himself as he came to a stop.
"'No'? What do you mean 'no'? Aren't we going?" Batman then began to stride towards the bat-mobile.
"No 'we' are not. 'I' am." Peter looked like he had just been slapped.
"Wait!? What!? Your screwing with me right? What was the point of training me if you were going to leave me behind?!" Batman ignored his outrage.
"I trained you to fight. Not to be my partner." Batman spoke coolly as he climbed into the bat-mobile. Peter was for lack of better words hurt. He knew he wasn't promised anything besides training and equipment but over the time he had been there with him and Alfred he had began to believe that he was somewhere he could maybe call 'home'. But that declaration from batman cut down hopes for that too. He was only there to learn. He didn't even know who the Batman was for fuck's sake.
"Sir!" Alfred yelled after his master but the bat-mobile was already zooming off. Alfred knew Bruce was only trying to protect Peter from the real danger but that was too harsh, there was no need to hurt the boy. Peter was still for the longest moment, fists clenched, body shaking. Then he was off, grabbing a hoody and his web-shooters. "Master Peter wait!" But before he could say anything Peter pulled the hood over his head hiding his face and jumped into the air using his web-shooters to swing out of the cave. And like that Alfred could swear the cave got bigger and colder.
Batman drove full speed to the meeting place, this was a big chance to take out multiple large hitters in the crime world at once. The phone in the bat-mobile rang but he ignored it. It was probably just Peter about to demand an answer as to why he wasn't aloud to come. The reason was simple, he was scared, the batman was scared that he might lose him because he was put at risk recklessly.
Batman pulled up around the corner of the meeting place and got out. He fired his grasping hook and shot up to the roof. He opened a roof window and snuck in. He watched as men gathered around a table. Twelve men sat, nine that he recognised three he didn't. Each man had a personal body guard, none were carrying their weapons as this was a peaceful meeting, the guns were guarded by five men carrying AK-47's. When he made his move he would have to take them down first.
"Good evening gentlemen." Spoke a skinny man with a receiving hair line wearing a dark striped suit. "We are here to discuss our 'little problem'. The Bat." There was a collective groan from the other men at the table.
"There is no proof that the Bat is real." A taller man spoke.
"And yet we are all here." The first man said.
"We know we have a problem that doesn't mean the Bat." A third man spoke.
"Well what would you say it is? Gotham cops suddenly giving a shit?" That was met by a long silence.
"Some of my men have been talking about a street kid blowing up cars and what not!" One of the men spoke as if that might be the answer. He was met by a load of strange looks.
"Are you fucking retarded Masolin!" Another man barked.
"What the fuck!" The men at the table turned to see the gunmen in a panic.
"What's going on!" Demanded a mobster.
"Your guns sir! They just disappeared!" The men were quick on their feet.
"What do you mea-"
"Ahhh!" Two men yelled out as they flew off into the darkness in opposite directions. The remaining men pointed their guns randomly into the darkness but not firing in fear of shooting their friends. Seconds later the two remaining men flew up in the sky screaming out before going dead silent.
"It's the Bat!" Yelled a thug. Batman dropped from the ceiling and landed with a startling thud on the table. "No that's the Bat!" Batman worked fast throwing four bolos that trapped four of the guards. And then lunged at the others. He grabbed two of the remaining bodyguards and slammed their heads together. That left him open to be tackled and slammed into the table by another guard. Batman stifled a groan of pain and struck the man in the spine with his elbow. He was about to be met by a fist to the face until-
"Heads up!" The thug turned at a pair of feet slammed strait into his face knocking him clean off his feet. Peter then shot two webs out and stuck two of the mob bosses together.
"Hey!" Yelled out one.
"The hell is this!"
"I told you not to come." Batman scolded turning towards the remaining thugs. Peter smirked under his hood.
"Like I was going to listen to you." Peter mocked. "Now let's get to work!"
"You were stupid! Reckless! And nearly got yourself killed!" Batman yelled from within the bat-mobile.
"No! You were stupid! Reckless! And nearly got yourself killed!"
"I'm trained for this!"
"So am I!"
"Not well enough!"
"Kiss my ass! You'd be dead if it weren't for me!" Batman was silent for the longest moment.
"How did you follow me?"
"You were so out of it you didn't even notice me on the roofs and on the occasional web." Another long silence. "You know... This is the most emotion I have seen you show ever since we met."
"... I'm sorry." Peter blinked a few times.
"Come again?"
"What I said before... I'm sorry for the way I talked to you back in the cave." Peter was staring now. "I was... Scared." Peter was now going into full on shock. "I felt if you were around I would be too worried about your well being to think straight. And that could lead to me getting both of us killed."
"Then why bother training me to be your partner?"
"I did not train you to be my partner. I trained you so that you could control your strength!"
"Well tough! Cause that is what I am! From now on we are partners, discussion over!" There was a long silence.
"Fine then, partners." Peter smiled.
"I been thinking, if we are going to be partners I should have a superhero name."
"Like what? Bat-boy?"
"Oh good lord no! You know not all things need to begin with the word 'bat.' 'Batman', 'bat-mobile', 'bat-cave' ect. I'll come up with something on my own."
"You know Alfred if you ever give up being a butler you could always become someone's gran?" Peter complimented/mocked the older man as he spun in his red and black new costume. It had been two days since the incident with the gang meeting and that had been more than enough time for Peter and Alfred to construct a suit that aloud great amounts of maneuver ability.
"Very funny master Peter." The pair turned to see Batman walking up to them.
"Hey bats. What's u-" Batman pulled down his cowl to revile Bruce Wayne. If Peter wasn't wearing a full mask his jaw would have hit the floor.
"If we are going to be partners we might as well be completely honest with one another." Peter nodded slowly. "And I think you deserve a proper chance at life outside of being a vigilante. So I wish to adopt you into my family and give you that life."
"You're Bruce Wayne."
"Yes."
"That... Actually explains all the expensive tech and the Butler."
"Well? What do you say?" Peter gave his heart warming smile from beneath his mask.
"Yeah, I'd love to be your family. But my name stays Peter Benjamin Parker."
"Deal. So, you got the suit. Got the name?" Peter pulled off his masked and gave it a good look.
"Yeah. Just call me Spiderman."
wow, actually surprised that I wrote this much. Love coming up with stories but hate writing them. This story is going to show the development of Batman and Spider-Man's partnership. I am going to involve as many relevant characters as I can romantic or otherwise from the dc universe. There will be no appearances of any marvel characters mostly because complete crossovers are far too complicated (and dc villains are way better than marvel ones, go on prove me wrong). There will also be no Dick Grayson in my story simply because the path Peter Parker will be taking later in the story is far too similar to that of Nightwing. Peter will also get a bit OOC at some points so don't get mad.
this is not a guy on guy story. I thought about it and decided against it.
if you like stories that have regular updates I can promise you nothing. He'll look at my other stories their Delia's updates can be translated as hiatus.
but reviews are still participated.