Chapter I

Restoration

"Booyah! New high score!"

Cyborg's triumphant yell was heard throughout Titan's Tower. Beast Boy could only stare in shock and horror as his name was moved to the second place slot, and Cyborg's replaced his at the top. Underneath his was Robin's at 2,000,000 points, Starfire's 56 points, and Raven's at 0 points. They had often wondered why Raven even had her own profile on the game, other than that she was a Teen Titan.

"No way!" Beast Boy protested, trying to hold on to the last vestige of honor and glory he had in this life, even though it was now set in store. "You cheated!"

"Can't cheat on Galactic Warfare Three!" Cyborg said gleefully. "You just got Cyborged!"

"That's not even a real word!" BB argued. Raven glanced up from her horror novel.

"If you had won," she said in her gravelly low voice, her eyebrow slightly raised, "you'd be saying that Cyborg had been 'Beast Boyed.'"

"Please, friend," Starfire said, her voice sounding confused, "what does the word Cyborged mean?"

"It means I just won!" Cyborg said, pumping his fist in the air. "Nothing like a nice victory round to start the-,"

Alarm klaxons cut into Cyborg's victory rant. The Titans all looked up, surprised. Robin came running into the room.

"Titans!" he yelled. "Trouble! Sector Eight!"

Stars... lights... galaxies and universes of immense form... he was traveling through them all... unable to move... unable to breathe... unable to think...

M V DC

FIRE AND ICE

LIFE AND DEATH

Oz...

Osborne...

What am I...?

Where...?

How did...?

MARY JANE!

He was lying. Upon opening them, he discovered he had eyes.

He blinked. There was a small light, but it hurt his eyes nonetheless. He heard voices, and that confirmed that he had ears.

"... outta nowhere..."

"... think we should wake him up...?"

"Hang on, he's awake."

He groaned. He heard a gasp. He sat up, rubbing his head. And then he gasped.

He wasn't in Queens anymore.

"Where am I?" the boy asked, his voice hoarse, as if he had forgotten to use it. The Titans just stared at him. "Who are you?"

"Uh, erm, my name's Robin," Robin introduced himself. "This is Cyborg," he continued, pointing to each of the team members as he said their names, "Starfire, Beast Boy, and Raven. We're the Teen Titans. You're safe, you're in Titan's Tower."

"That must have been a nasty fall," Cyborg said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Fall?" the boy asked, feeling his forehead.

"Yes!" Starfire burst in. "Such a meteor of power has not been sighted since the great Glatscor of Schoonan!"

"Uh, what?" he asked, trying to get up, but looking nauseous. Raven softly pushed him back down.

"You're not going anywhere," she said. "Besides, you're not wearing anything, so it would be a little awkward."

"Whoa, what?" he asked, stunned. "What happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," Robin said, trying to sound friendly. "What's your name?"

The boy remained silent for a moment. He seemed to consider his answer carefully. He looked to be about sixteen years old. He touched his face carefully.

"My name's... Peter. Peter Parker."

"Nice to meet you Peter," Beast Boy interjected. "So how did you fall out of the sky?"

"Out of the sky?" Peter repeated. "What?"

"Do you remember anything that happened to you?" Raven asked, impatiently.

"Uh, no," he said, unperturbed by the look she was giving him.

"Okay," she said, closing her eyes. "Azarath Metrion ZYNTHOS!"

Black magic flew from her hands and forehead into Peter's eyes. He yelled, not from pain, but from anger.

Raven began to play his memories back in view of the other Titans. They saw him falling, unconscious. Then they saw a great black veil. Then a blinding white light, and a middle-aged man was standing before them, saying "you did good, kid."

They saw Peter dressed in a red and blue costume with spider symbols on the front and back, fighting a big green monster who threw flame at him. They saw him being shot by a man with a white skull on his chest...

"STOP IT!"

At Peter's bellow, the vision ceased. Raven stumbled back, looking shaken. The other Titans were amazed.

"You are a superhero?" Robin asked, impressed. "That's awesome!"

"And an animal themed superhero!" BB put in.

"I like that web thing, what kinda tech do you use?" Cyborg asked.

"You truly are heroic in the face of evil!" Starfire said, her eyes gleaming.

Peter, however, was livid. He turned to Raven.

"How... dare... you..." he breathed. "How dare you look into my mind?!"

Raven, for once in her life, looked scared by what she had seen. No, not scared... awed.

"No one's been able to push me out of their mind," she said. "The things you've done..."

There was a long silence. Peter glared at Raven, the others stared at Peter.

"So..." Beast Boy said, breaking the silence, "you're Spider-Boy?"

"Spider-Man," Peter corrected. "And I think I'm dead."

"So you're from an alternate dimension?"

"I don't know. Am I?"

"I still remember Larry..."

Cyborg was running diagnostics on Peter's DNA. He also ran a scan for otherworldly biomatter. Nothing came up.

"Nope, you're from around here," he said, pressing a few more keys. "Except here is San Fran. I don't think you know that."

"I'm from New York," Peter said, standing up and stretching. "I feel fine, even though I'm pretty sure I died."

"Dude..." BB said, scratching his head. "That's messed up."

"Well, you saw my memories," Peter said, casting a dark look at the ground, since Raven wasn't in the room. "Do I look alive to you?"

"Alternate dimension is all I can come up with," Cyborg said, shrugging. "I guess when you... died, you somehow came here, so this universe. But I guess the geography is the same. America, New York... what year is it over there?"

"Uh, 2011," Peter said, looking around. "This is a really nice lab..."

"Thanks," Cyborg said, grinning slightly. The grin vanished. "But it's 2012 now."

"Really?" Peter asked. "A year? Wow... what happened?"

"Well, you can't seem to answer that," BB said. "We sure can't."

"Maybe the Justice League can," Cyborg reasoned. "Yeah, maybe someone like Green Lantern."

"Who, who, and who?" Peter asked, shaking his head in confusion. Cyborg and BB looked at him.

"Are you serious?" BB asked, shocked. "You don't know who the Justice League are?"

"Alternate universe," Peter answered, shaking his head again. "In my world, there's a team called the Ultimates. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor..."

Now everyone was confused.

"Who's Captain America?" Cyborg asked. Peter's jaw dropped.

"I'm not in Kansas anymore."

The alarms sounded again.

"Another problem?" BB asked, rolling his eyes. "Not another alternate dude..."

"Can I come?" Peter asked, looking around. "Do you guys have an extra costume?"

"Uh, yeah, I think Robin has one that'll fit you," Cyborg said, pointing down the hallway. "On your left, second door. Uniform room."

"Be right back."

Peter stumbled into the changing room, closing the door behind him. His careful façade of calm evaporated when he was alone. He felt tears roll down his face.

Gone... they're all gone...

No. I'm gone from them. I'm dead. And now I'm stuck here. For how long? But I died. Maybe I have to stay here forever.

He began to rifle through the suits hanging up, blinking rapidly. The Teen Titans... he couldn't help thinking that they were a joke, but they had some pretty state of the art technology.

I could make some more web fluid. Build a new set of web shooters.

Finally, he found what a costume that wasn't garish or over the top. It was a nondescript black suit with a domino mask. No markings or symbols on it. He felt it would do until he could try to remake his costume.

But why? Do I want to be Spider-Man here? Maybe there already is. It doesn't matter.

I'd rather be Spider-Man here than Peter Parker.

The Titans traversed the streets, making their way to the source of the trouble. Robin kept glancing at Spider-Man, noting that he had chosen his black training outfit instead of an actual costume.

That's odd. It might be that he didn't want any symbol. But he doesn't seem to have realized that it's not an actual costume.

It was Cinderblock. He had decided that the Bank of Perez was the perfect spot to be robbed and burned.

"Titans, GO!"

BB turned into a hawk, screeching as he went. Starfire and Raven flew high above the rest, raining down blasts of energy. Cyborg opened up with his arm canon. Spider-Man seemed distracted by all of this.

"Spider-Man!" Robin called. "Just hang back and observe! We don't want you getting hurt."

"It's cool," he replied, standing still in the middle of the street.

"No, find cover!" Robin yelled, a little annoyed.

"Just do what you guys have to do," Spider-Man called back. "I'm fine here."

Robin muttered under his breath, but continued forward, pulling out his extendable bo staff.

Cinderblock appeared to have been expecting the Titans. He had adapted his powers to fight all of them and exploit their weakest points. He launched a blast of fire, not at Raven and Starfire, but at a building a few feet off. Before they could react, they had slammed into the falling building. Robin turned to see Cyborg go flying back, smashing into BB as he did so. Robin growled, turning to face Cinderblock.

WHAM.

Stars appeared in Robin's vision as he was punched in the face by Cinderblock's concrete fists. He flew back, landing in a heap next to the others.

"All the Titans combined!" Cinderblock laughed. "None is left to face me!"

"Is it my turn?"

The Titans, stunned, stared at Spider-Man as he walked up to Cinderblock. He was 5' 8" to Cinderblock's 10'. It looked comical if it weren't so deadly.

"And who is this?" Cinderblock laughed. "Some trainee sent to make the rest of you look good?"

"Wow," Spider-Man said. "That really makes me feel good. You need to work on your supervillain rants."

Cinderblock raised a fist, and brought it smashing down on Spider-Man's...

... upraised hand, which caught the concrete monster and held it up.

"I have actual superhero credentials," he said, tossing Cinderblock high in the air. "I need to end this quickly out of principle."

As Cinderblock came crashing down, Spider-Man punched him. He really was superstrong. Cinderblock's jaw cracked with the power, and he lay on the ground, unconscious.

Spider-Man stood there, with his back turned to the Titans. He turned around.

"Is that the best you guys can do?"