Chapter 2

New York City: January 22, 22:20

Batman crouched on the roof where the Team had encountered, what they had at the time believed, Black Spider. The device in his hand chirped indicating it was detecting something. Looking at the readings Batman tapped his communicator in his cowl. "Batman to Watchtower,"

"Martian Manhunter, go ahead Batman."

"J'onn, I'm sending some readings to the Watchtower. Can you have them analyzed, priority one. I think the individual the Team encountered last night may be related to something larger I've been working on."

"Of course. The results will be ready when you return. Martian Manhunter out."

Batman stared at the readings. In his stomach he already knew what they meant but hunches could be wrong, though his rarely ever were.

The sound of air being displaced told Batman that someone was behind him. Without turning around Batman greeted the newcomer, "Superman,"

"Batman. Any luck with your new project?"

The Dark Knight turned to the Man of Steel and gave him a measuring look. "Wonder Woman asked you to speak with me." It wasn't a question.

Clark looked a bit guilty, "Yeah, she has been a bit annoyed that you are refusing to acknowledge that Captain Marvel is only a 10 year old boy."

"I knew his age before all of you did." Batman stated.

"Look don't shoot the messenger. She just thought with the last meeting to nominate new members we should have discussed his situation a bit more in-depth. You know how she feels about training children before they are even teenagers."

Batman turned back to his device and went back to work. "If Wonder Woman needs to talk to me she can do it by picking up a phone or at the next meeting." It was a clear sign the conversation was over.

Superman glared holes at his friend's back but careful not to glare actual holes. "You don't answer the phone when almost any of us call."

"Stop calling at night." The Batman said putting his device away into his belt. "I have work to do. Don't you have a patrol to get back to?"

Sighing Superman lifted off into the air. Batman turned to watch him leave then walked to the edge of the roof and disappeared over the edge.

QEENS: January 23, 05:55

As the sun was rising over the city Peter was starting to panic. "WHERE IS MY STREET?"

He hadn't been able to find where he stashed his backpack, cloths, and wallet either. Did I get hit in the head or something? His own voice in his head answered him with a deep "YEEEESSSS" than called him a dummy. "Beside the point."

Swinging he jumped onto a roof of one of the houses and tried to get his position for the 9th time. People were starting to come out of their homes and a paper boy had just gone down the block. Spider-Man swinging around Queens was kind of obvious so he was trying to stay out of sight.

"Oh man," He sat down on the roof obscured from most of the street traffic. "This is going to be bad. At this rate I'm going to be late for school, again and…OH MY GOD, what will Aunt May do?"

He flashed on Aunt May walking into his room to wake him up and noticing he wasn't there and that his bed hadn't been slept in. She'd call the cops, then the fire department. He saw her going hysterical with worry than running out side and slipping on a banana peal and then -

Peter pulled out his cell phone again and silently cursed when the bars said no reception…"Really, in the middle of Queens, no bars. Oh someone is getting an angry letter." He put it away.

"I got to get home."

Without any idea how to do that when he was lost Peter climbed down the side of the house and opened a window. "I don't normally break into peoples homes but this is a emergency." Climbing in he stayed on the ceiling looking for a phone. Finding one he picked it up and started dialing Harry's number.

Harry was his best friend and would at the very least give him a alibi and at best be able to tell him where he hell he was. Though maybe I don't want to tell him that I'm on some McAlister street, wherever that is. The phone rang…and rang, and rang. Finally a gruff voice answered. "What?"

Peter pulled his mask up off his mouth, "Uh, hi this is Peter Parker calling for Harry."

"Who?"

"Peter calling for Harry Osborn."

"Wrong number kid -" the line cut off.

"Rude." he dialed Harry's number again just incase he had made a mistake."

The same voice answered, "What?"

"Um, can you tell me what I just dialed?"

"KID CALL THIS NUMBER AGAIN AND ILL FIND YOU AND -" Peter ended the call. A little spider-man was on his shoulder - "Well its official, you have amnesia." Peter glared at his imaginary self then came back to reality. My fantasy life is taking on a mind of its own. Shut up - focus on the task at hand.

That became very easy to do when a heavy set woman with some kind of green cream on her face and curlers in her hair came in and saw him sitting on her ceiling. "AHHHHH! AAHHHH! FRED! RPOWLER, PROWLER."

"Okay, gott'a go! So-sorry. Just-had-to-use-the-phone!" As fast as he could he opened the closest window and dived out as who he figured must have been Fred came out with a baseball bat.

"WHAT IS GOING ON!"

MOUNT JUSTICE: January 23, 17:40

The Team was assembled in the main cavern. Batman stood in front of the holographic monitor giving them the briefing.

"Based off of what you were able to observe, Intergang has began resuming their illegal arms business." Several pictures came up. "So far they are selling weapons to three major new york gangs ranging from common hand weapons to advanced anti aircraft. Your mission will be to - "

"Why are we talking about a few gun shipments?" Superboy interrupted.

"Ew!" Wally whispered to Robin, "Never good to interrupt Batman." Robin elbowed him to shut-up.

"You haven't told us anything about the guy in the Red and Blue costume. He made fools of us. When do we go after him?"

Batman waited unperturbed by the outburst. When Superboy was done he resumed speaking. "You don't. The individual you encountered last night will be a league priority. Your's is to resume the Intergang operation and stop the weapons from being sold . With weapons like these being used on the streets of a heavily populated area like Manhattan, the possibility for loss of life will be unacceptably high.

The hologram deactivated. "Aqualad, I will leave the rest of the mission specifics with you. Brief your team. You move out in two hours."

NEW YORK CITY: January 23, 17:40

Cheshire waited impatiently in the abandoned building. During her tenure with the league of shadows she was used to not knowing what a mission was till right before it started but it didn't mean she had to like it. The door to the apartment opened and a man in a long trench coat came in.

Cheshire took one look then threw three ninja stars at him while diving forward pulling a shuriken then stopping just before rolling into the point of a K-Bar knife. "Don't waist my time," a icily cold voice said.

Slowly Cheshire got up and stepped away. The figure came further into the room and dropped her stars at her feet. "Did Daddy teach you that? Pathetic."

Behind her cat mask Jade bit her tongue. "You're the client?"

"Sure am. Now be a professional and cut the sarcasm." Deathstroke took off the coat. He was dressed in his signature battle armor and half black half orange mask. And he was loaded with weapons: two swords on his back, with pistils in various places and other straps of ammunition and other assorted bladed weapons. He was a walking armory.

"You're coming?"

Deathstroke glared at her from the visible eye. "Ask one more dumb question." She didn't.

Spider-Man leaned against the roof mounted vent giving off heat. Normally web slinging kept him warm but after a full day of it he was tired, and was starting to run low on the cartridges he currently was using. Only to spares left so he had to conserve. His stomach growled loudly. He could have stolen something to eat or stolen some money to buy something but he couldn't bring himself to that…not yet anyway.

He took his mask off and felt the air on his face. Nothing made sense. The Daily Bugle was gone. Every newspaper he got his hands on didn't mention anything about him, at all. Not that he was vain but there was always someone either blaming him or praising him, even in the tabloids at least. But what threw him was there wasn't any news about anything he recognized. No SHIELD or Avengers mentioned at all. No HULK running around the mid-west. In there place were articles about SUPERMAN and THE JUSTICE LEAGUE.

Did new costumed heroes just appear over night? It didn't make sense. None of it. And the streets were different. The main ones were the same, the layout of the city but the side streets and alleys were different. One ways were two or had been blocked off. Middletown high didn't exist but a Upton high did. His street didn't exist and non of the numbers he knew called the people they were supposed to call. It was like he had stepped into a alternate dimension were everything was the same but at the same time different.

In over a year of being Spider-Man Peter had learned what it was like to feel fear, real honest to god fear. Life and death, loss of limbs kind of stuff happened to him a lot. But always they were something right in front of him. Something he could deal with. But what was this. He was lost, literally lost. How do you fight that? When nothing made any sense how do you figure out how to get where you know you are safe?

He leaned his head against the vent and closed his eyes. He just wanted to sleep in his own bed but after swinging around all day and never being able to relax this spot would do.

The goon went flying over the chair. Cheshire guarded the door. A task that was beneath her but hey, it was the job. Deathstroke stood over the groveling Intergang punk. "So why don't you explain to me what happened."

"It…it wasn't my fault," The guy tried to say. Deathstroke took out a collapsible baton and extended it. "The boss wanted to know what was inside it so, he opened it. I don't know what happened. There was this light and then boom, you know. It was gone."

Without warning Deathstroke slammed the baton down right next to the man's ear. "Gone. Explain gone. Where did it go?"

"I…I don't know - AH!" Deathstroke hit down again this time right next to his other ear.

Silently Deathstroke stood up and walked past Cheshire into the hall. Falling they walked past the heaps of bodies of the Intergang operatives that they had beat and or killed when they had arrived.

"What's next, or was that it?" Cheshire asked.

"Not it." Deathstroke answered. "If whatever was in that case is gone than the next best thing will have to do."

"And what's that?"

"None of your business." Deathstroke pulled out a brown padded mail package. "As promised, you and the league did your jobs."

"You're done with me? Just for that?" Jade was outraged. "You hired the League of Shadows just to rough up Intergang! What is wrong with you?"

Deathstroke tossed the payment onto the ground and turned around; dismissing her. No one dismissed her. Lashing out with her collapsible katana she tried to make a clean cut at Deathstroke's head. Faster than she could see he stepped just out of range of the blade then was facing her. The next thing she knew she was on her back with the big man's boot on her neck. "That was a dumb thing to do."

The large mercenary stepped off of her and walked away. Cheshire didn't get up. One lesson her father had taught her was to admit when you were beaten. But then you got back up and got even.

WATCHTOWER: January 23, 23:20

Batman, was at the computer terminal when Black Canary, Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow came up behind him.

"You requested our assistance, Batman." Manhunter said.

"Yes," not looking away from the screen he hit a button and a hologram enlarging what he was looking at appeared on the wall just beyond him. It showed a strange tablet but the image was not clear. "This is a piece of a mosaic that was discovered in Egypt in the early 60s. The larger part was presumably destroyed but little information exists at this time. The tablet was in various private collections but has never been examined by any sort of scientific authority till last week when it was loaned out by Wayne Enterprises as part of a collection obtained through a recent buyout."

"Okay," Black Canary said. "Are there any clearer images of the lablet?"

"Not at this time. The tablet was slightly radioactive which was why it was loaned to Star Labs in Gotham. The lab had it for 24 hours before it was stolen by Intergang." That got everyone's' attention. "I had believed the tablet to be stolen for one of two reasons: its historical value as a collectors item and value on the black market, or for the unusual radiation it was giving off. Till yesterday evening I had believed the table to still be in Gotham but the same radiation was detected in New York."

"You believe this is related to the altercation the Team had with the unknown individual." Manhunter stated.

"Yes," the image changed. "This was taken by a security camera in a skyscraper adjacent to the building the Team had been observing." The resolution increased and four of the Team could be seen along with a figure in Red and Blue hovering in mid-air. "The resolution could not be enhanced any farther but the Red and Blue figure was reported by the Team to be a man with powers similar to Black Spider's."

"Could it have been Black Spider," Green Arrow asked.

"Unlikely since Black Spider is still being held in Belle Reve Penitentiary after you and Artemis captured him. Also from a report Robin made to me directly the individual seemed not to know who they were. If it had been Black Spider than why fain ignorance of the Team? There is also the testimony they all gave stating that there was a flash of light and the man just appeared as if out of no where."

"This is all interesting but what is your conclusion, Bruce? Why did you request the three of us come here?" Dinah asked.

Batman finally turned to the three other leaguers. "I believe the individual the Team encountered is from a parallel universe and that the tablet Intergang stole is somehow related to his arrival."

"That is a substantial hypothesis for you, Batman." The Martian said. "Is there more evidence that you can provide?"

If there was one thing that made Batman uncomfortable it was admitting he didn't have all the facts. "I don't but my gut is telling me I'm on the right track. As for why I asked the three of you here, I believe we need to apprehend this individual as soon as possible. At best he is a new super powered human that we have no current knowledge of or he could be a stranger to our world and in need of help."

"There is also another worst case," Manhunter pointed out. "He could be a new enemy who knows exactly why he is here and that we have no actual intel to go off of in order to catch him."

Batman nodded. "I did not want to state that but J'onn is correct. In either case apprehension should be a League priority. I believe the four of us have the necessary abilities to confront this individual. Will you help me?"

NEW YORK CITY: January 24, 01:14

Spider-Man landed on the roof. Looking around he saw the evidence of his fight with the freaky costumed commandos the night before. There was broken plaster and concrete and on a building just a swing away was the broken frame of the water-tower he had let Missile Girl douse herself with. "Missile Girl, got to remember that," He said to himself.

He looked around trying to see if anything was going to stand out. Crouching on the ledge he ran his fingers over the edge and looked at the dust. "What am I doing?" He said to himself. "Looking for clues" his mini voice in his head said. "Working the problem," Nick Fury's mini clone said. "Wasting your time, Web for Brains," Nova chimed in.

"Shut up, Bucket Head." Spider-Man told the imaginary Nova. I'm going crazy. "Focus, Spidey."

Keeping his eyes on the ground he looked over everything. When nothing came up he jumped to the next roof and then the other one where the tower's remains were. Nothing, at least nothing he could determine. It was worth a shot.

Batman remained as still as a statue. As he had predicted a little past one in the morning the masked man had returned to where he made his first appearance. Batman was surprised to see that he swung in on a web like line instead of jumping from building to building like many other super powered individuals did.

The masked man walked around like he was looking for something that he might have dropped. His head came up several times but because of the mask's large eye lenses he wasn't sure where the man was looking. But each time he went back to looking around.

From Robin's report Batman had wondered if there was a possibility that the individual had some sort of telepathy similar to Martian Manhunter's but the masked individual gave no hint that he knew he was being watched.

"Manhunter, do you sense anything?" - Batman

"No, I detect no psychic attempts to scan the area." - J'onn said. "Should I make contact?"

"No, hold on. Lets see what he does." - Batman

With the man closer Batman could now see the pattern along the reds of the suit. A kind of cross work. And there was a emblem on his chest. A spider. Gracefully the Spider-Man moved and jumped to another rooftop. Batman stepped out of the Shadows. Tapping his communicator he called Green Arrow. "Arrow, can you take aim at him."

"You sure?" Arrow asked.

"Yes."

"Alright." Oliver Queen said reluctantly

Batman watched as the Spider-Man landed on another roof then without warning changed direction and jumped off the roof.

"J'onn, it's a danger sense." Batman ran for the edge of the roof and shot it own line. "Oliver he's coming for you, be on guard."

"Where did he go?" Green Arrow asked Black Canary.

She looked out one window and then moved to another. They were in the building Intergang had been occupying and apparently cleaned out since last nights unexpected action. "I don't see him on this side."

"Green tights with a bow and arrow. I'm seeing a trend here." They both looked up at the red and blue suited figure who was staring back at them while clinging to the ceiling. "Made'ya look."

Before Green Arrow could say a word the man was down and shoved him away grabbing his bow and throwing it out the nearest window shattering the glass. "Sorry, but one person shooting pointing things at me was enough."

"Hey," Black Canary was about to say wait when her mouth was suddenly filled with a sour grey mass that spread up over her mouth and expanded. On reflex she shut her mouth and then couldn't open it.

"NO! I read the papers," the man jumped back up to crouch on the ceiling, "well, sometimes. You guys are that Justice League. And to think when I woke up I was actually considering coming to you people for help."

Black Canary reached up to tare the crud from her face and mouth but then her hand was stuck. The man turned his attention back to Green Arrow. "Let me take a guess, was that your niece or something that was shooting at me last night. The costume is a family thing right?"

Oliver got to his feet groaning. This guy was strong. "Hey, its not what you think. I was just…"

"Pointing a Bow and Arrow at me!" The man crawled over then stood up while still on the ceiling and grabbed Arrow lifting him off the floor so they were face to face. "There aren't many ways to interpret that."

Green Arrow realized that this wasn't going to go anywhere. This guy, this kid by the sound of his voice was not in the mind to listen. Oliver couldn't blame him but it didn't matter, he needed to get control of the situation or someone might get hurt. "Sorry," he said.

"Sorry?" the kid said before dropping Green Arrow and turning but not fast enough. Oliver's shock arrow was in his hand and smacked right into the kid's shoulder. "BLLLLLEWRERELLL!" The kid fell off the ceiling making a almost comical noise as electricity shot through his nerves-system. That was enough that should have put him down and keep him there but the kid rolled knocking the arrow off and coming to his feet. Canary was there however. She used her one arm to grab him by the back of the head and slam him back down to the floor.

"SARREATHEAREAEAAR" She tried to say but she couldn't through the grey stuff on her face. The kid's legs shot to either side and scooted him back in one motion straight into the splits and behind where she had positioned herself. Then he was up in the air.

Canary kicked just missing him as he came around in a flip. His landing wasn't as graceful when she also spun and used her trapped arm as a weapon clipping him with her elbow. The kid spun away grabbing his side where she must have made contact. Black Canary was one of the League's best hand to hand fighters, rivaled only by Batman and maybe Aquaman.

"We're not here to hurt you." Green Arrow stated.

"Yah, sure." the kid said sarcastically. "You know how many times I've heard that? Usually right before someone hurts me."

"WAIT!" The kid fell out the window that he had thrown Oliver's bow out of. Green Arrow's first thought was Oh My God he Jumped.

Batman burst in a second later. Without waiting he charged out and dived through the window as well.

Oliver ran to look out and saw the Dark Knight swinging up into an arc and disappearing. Manhunter phased through the wall. "Are you both alright?"

"Sure," Arrow said and went to Canary. "They went out the window." Manhunter nodded and then flew up and through the ceiling. "Aw I hate chases," he complained pulling a small knife and started trying to cut off the gray web like stuff.

Spider-Man scrambled to the roof. Okay, now I know I'm in trouble. The Justice League is after me. Gosh that's a stupid name. His side was throbbing. Man did everyone have super strength or something.

"You're fast." a deep voice said from behind him.

Spider-Man leapt away spinning around to face the speaker…and then peed himself. Not literally, in-fact he was probably dehydrated. The demonic figure loomed out of the shadows and became a man in a black on black costume with pointy ears and a long leather cape.

Spider-Man gulped. He hadn't sensed a thing. Oh thanks, Spider-Sense, epic fail.

"Don't be afraid." The man said stepping forward as Spider-Man stepped back mirroring him. "We're with the Justice League."

"Yeah, I figured that." Spider-Man said. For once his spider-sense wasn't going off but everything else was telling him to run for the hills. Maybe this guy was telling the truth…but if he was one of the good guys than why did he look like a bat from hell.

"You don't belong here." The man walked closer…

Spider-Man stopped. "What do you know about it? Tell me!"

"Not much. I'm trying to put the pieces together. It might have been an accident, maybe not. I don't know yet. We're not your enemies."

"Well the super teens seemed to think so. And last I checked your guy in the green had me in his cross hairs."

"That was my fault." The Batman said in a unapologetic voice. "I needed to gather more information before I tried to approach you. I didn't count on you being able to confront Green Arrow and Black Canary so quickly." His mouth which was the only thing visible curved, just slightly at the ends. "You took them unawares, even after I told them you were coming. Not bad."

"Yah, thanks." Spider-Man didn't know how to react to this info. Should he attack. Did he even stand a chance.

SPIDER-SENSE - "BATMAN WATCH OUT!" a voice said. They both spun around. Something hit the floor and exploded.

Spider-Man jumped not able to avoid the concussive force. He landed in a crouch at one corner of the building dangerously close to the edge…well dangerous for someone else.

A new figure in black with a green head and red eyes was there…Did he come out of the ground?

There were more things flying through the air. Spider-Man turned to see where they were coming from. A person in some kind of bazaar mask and a ninja gig was diving towards them. No, she was diving at the Green faced guy.

He watched as she pulled some kind of ninja gear and started hacking and slashing at the alien like guy. He became see-through and she ran right through him. After only a few moments she was right in front of him. Spider-Man braced for the hit ready to throw her over the edge when she stopped. Behind the mask with this huge grin he heard her voice. "You want answers. Come with me now."

Notes: Well I hope that was exciting. This took a while to come up with. The first draft was set in Mitropolis and Spider-Man ended up crashing Wally's house confronting 3 generations of Flashes. I also had him facing off with the Team again but none of those really worked. Problem with him starting in Mitropolis was - why be there if New York still existed in the DC world and I wanted to keep this in the realm of what Spider-Man was capable of. So jumping states while being in a new dimension and having no money seemed a bit of a stretch.

Anyway, I've been asked which Spider-Man am I using for this story: Good question because there is so much Spider-Man media out there. I'll walk you through it.

This story was inspired by the new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon showing on Disney DX. The show has many problems that I fear will lead to its cancellation but I enjoy aspects of it. The main thing that I like about this Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon is we get to see how Spider-Man is a bit off his rocker. If you compare what we know of Peter - solemn, geeky, thinks things through it is in confrontation with SPIDER-MAN who is impulsive and cheeky not to mention strong and powerful. I like the moments we get to see what's going on in Spider-Man's head without having to rely on him talking to himself.

I like to think that if Superman is the real Clark Kent, and Batman is the real Bruce Wayne than it's the opposite for Spider-Man. Peter is the real person and Spider-Man is the ideal he gets to be when he puts on the mask. If I had to say Peter would grow up to be a combination of himself and the traits he let shine through spider-man but at the Teen age period of his development he isn't that mature yet.

Also the cartoon shows Spider-Man being Spider-Man without a lot of Peter Parker which fits with the story because Peter is in a world where he didn't exist as himself and Spider-Man is the image everyone sees. Also in this cartoon Spidey works with other super heroes which is ultimately what Young Justice is about - working together.

Anyway, this cartoon was the inspiration but I draw a lot from the Spectacular Spider-Man because they did such a good job showing the angst of Peter-Parker being Spider-Man. Just so you know my opinion - Spectacular Spider-Man was the single best Spider-Man adaptation to TV and trumps all others as far as showing the best complete image of spider-man from his quirks, to his faults, to his gifts.

If you read my other Spider-Man crossover that one is the Ultimate Comic Spider-Man which I also read and will in no way be influenced by the cartoons, movies or Amazing canon.