JLU Spiderverse


Chapter 3: Questions and Answers; a Piece of Home Dimension


2 Days Later

Watchtower

Medical Bay

Deep within what appeared to have been a SHIELD medical facility, someone stirred from his sleep. There, lying on a medical bed in a ward, was Spider-Man, half dressed from his costume. His shirt, gloves, webshooters, and mask were removed, as his abdomen and chest were bandaged up. The identity of the fellow was revealed as an eighteen year old Caucasian male, tight compact muscle frame, and had short messy brown hair on his head. This was Peter Parker, eighteen year old teenager and the secret identity of Spider-Man.

He wasn't aware of much at first then when Peter opened his eyes slightly he saw he was in some kind of metallic lined room. He was on what appeared to be a medical bed, and then noticed he had been stripped of his upper costume, had bandages on him and an IV in his right arm. His hand went to his face to confirm, and sighed, "Yep, the mask is missing. Yet again in my life."

"You wouldn't be the first that this has happened to." Peter immediately shot up in a sitting position from the voice. His body a little wracked with pain at the moment, as the voice to his left began again. "So you're finally awake." And sure enough: Tall, Dark, Menacing Man-Bat was there.

Peter sighed to himself. "So it wasn't a nightmare..." He muttered, but then blinked at Batman, as he reorted, "Though in this case, seeing you might be a nightmare." All Peter got was a silent staring glare at this guy, as Peter eyebrowed, "That was a joke."

"I don't do jokes," Batman retorted.

Peter raised an eyebrow, as he commented, "I have a feeling you're not much on socializing, much less a conversation." His body still hurt but the pain inside was killing him. The memories of last night at least by his accounts, he had no idea how long he'd been out, but that didn't matter to him. The only thing that mattered was that he knew this wasn't his world at all.

"So I take it I'm in some alternate universe, right," Peter asked as he was able to get out of bed a bit.

Batman considered his options, but from what Mainframe had briefed them all on, after this supposed but he decided that telling him would be most likely the best course of action. "That was confirmed when we retrieved you, as well as the wreckage of the station you were on. You're aboard the Watchtower. It's headquarters for the Justice League."

"Justice League," Peter asked.

"Yes. A group of heroes that defend Earth and even other worlds at times." He saw the confusion on Peter's face and decided to lay the bombshell on him, he knew it would be difficult but he deserved to know.

"I told J'onn, the big green man you met earlier, to use his telepathy to find out more about you Mr. Parker." He could see from the body language he didn't like that idea, and Batman could relate; he didn't like the idea of someone going through his mind either but it had to be done. "We figured you somehow crossed over from your reality to ours, from what Mainframe had told us."

Peter got up from his bed, and groaned, "And Mainframe?"

"He's currently with J'onn and Flash in the Main Telepod Deck," Batman answered, as Parker got dressed. "They're waiting for you there to see if we can find a way to get you back to your world."

"I wouldn't expect a quick answer yet," Peter replied as he put on a sweat jacket with a hood, replacing his costume's shirt, and grabbed his mask. "There was only two people who had the idea: Norman Osborn and Jonathan Ohm. The latter gone missing, and the first choice, too crazy and went missing when we both got pulled into the vortex. Only me, Mainframe…" Peter went silent for a moment, remembering what had happened.

"Your friend, the dead one," Batman filled in the blanks.

Peter sighed, as the moment was still fresh in his mind. He crossed his arms, and sighed heavily, "I still can't believe what happened. Or even where I am right now."

Peter took all of what he said and what had happened, and thought about it. Aside from Harry's death and the alternate universe he currently occupied, it kind of made sense; the station and how he had never heard of this Justice League or anything, but wasn't sure if that was a bad thing or a good thing. He didn't know what to think exactly or feel, at the moment, he was both numb and too mentally exhausted to even think about anything else right now. There was a long silence as Peter thought about it. Batman, even though he wasn't the exactly the most social hero of the group, decided he could use this to ask a few questions that Mainframe couldn't answer, and that he'd like to know about.

He went over to a table that had the shirt and mask of Peter's costume and gear in it. He took one of the wrist devices that made his 'webbing'. He hadn't had time to give it a proper examination, but the design intrigued him.

"Tell me, the files Mainframe carried with him stated that you started out at fifteen correct?" Peter merely nodded, and then he held up one of the web shooters. "Who gave you these?"

Peter felt a little angry that Batman had insinuated that he couldn't have done it himself. "No one. I made them myself. The formula was made by my father before he and my mom disappeared when I was five. But he didn't finish it and left it behind in my Aunt and Uncle's basement, so after ten years of reading it over and over again, I finished it and created the web fluid and the web shooters for them." He tapped his chin on for the moment, as he remembered the prototypes, "Took me a whole two weeks just to get the capsules, reloading, and even the nozzle settings were a pain in the butt to figure out. Before I got it right, I got webbing in my face and all over the basement."

Batman then pressed a switched in the palm of the red web shooters, and out popped the hidden blade under the nozzle of the web shooter. He held it for Peter to see, as he asked, "And the blades, I had J'onn analyze the metal and found that it has no makeup, not even a mate of it on the Periodic Tables. I even had John Stewart analyze the Oa database, and there apparently isn't a metal like this."

"Well in my universe, my Earth, it's actually part of a meteor shower that fell to earth thousands of years ago," Peter explained, trying to ignore the questions in his head about this Oa database, and further explained. "During the Vietnam war, a military scientist named William Stryker had nearly the entire ore dug out from Africa, killing a village that found it sacred, and carted it out to a private research division called The Faculty. The alloy's called Adamantium, virtually and completely indestructible. Those blades were what I could scavenge from the Predator X battle when nearly all the Mutant Population were wiped out by the Faculty Branch of Osborne's campaign to do away with all heroes on the planet."

Aside from the sarcastic teenage attitude and occasional joke, Batman was fairly impressed. Though he didn't show it, and he wasn't easily impressed, but the fact that a fifteen year old had done something like creating devices this this was an accomplishment of their own. He could tell by the design of the shooters, and the blades, that they wer emade by someone very skilled in science, both chemical and mechanical. He would have to make mental notes on this boy, adding his known powers and his intelligence to the file forming in his mind. He would also have to copy the medical file they were starting on him. Which he was going to ask on right now about the boy's powers.

"I also have another question to ask," Batman continued to politely interrogate, as he explained. "When you first arrived, Wonder Woman had approached you earlier, hoping to reason with you. But considering you panicked, I won't hold that against you. But when you defended yourself against her, you merely palm punched her. But that alone couldn't have caused the paralyzing effect on her. Luckily, after thirty minutes it wore off. But what I'd like to know is what that was? From what Mainframe gathered about you, you possess the agility, strength, speed, and other attributes of a spider. Or in what you're A.I. companion told us, a genetically engineered 'Super Spider'."

Peter felt a bit sheepish on all that about him, as he shook his head and answered, "Yep, wall-crawling, jumping, craving of dark places, super strength, durability, acrobatics, a danger sense that causes me to act whenever danger's present, which I affectionately call Spider-Sense, and apparently tiny microscopic venom barbs in my palms."

As intrigued as he was about this Spider-Sense, Batman was a bit more concernced when he repeated, "Venom barbs?"

Peter scratched the back of his head, berating himself for saying it like that, "Uh, let me rephrase that: a few of the eggheads I teamed up with theorized that's how I can do it, but I just prefer to call it my Venom Strike. Basically I can 'zap' or temporarily paralyze my opponents by simply touching or striking them with my hands. It's a pretty useful technique when I'm taking out goon guards, or when I want to end a confrontation quickly with little damage. Though against foes that aren't organic, that's a pain in the butt."

That seemed to clear up any problems on some mysteries, though the explanation on this Ending Heroes Campaign seemed to bring great questioning on what had happened to this boy for three years. Parker had nearly as many scars as himself, which told a few things. Either before or during this Hero Wars, he faced some pretty nasty characters back in his world, or he was careless. But after evading the League, tying up Flash, and dodging Supergirl showed him this boy wasn't exactly careless, and filed that away in his head for later study. Though he didn't show any of this, as he placed the 'web shooter' back on the table. When Peter was ready and when he was relieved, he could examine one later in the labs for testing. He also decided to make an IQ test to see just how smart Parker was.

"Look, I'm not trying to be rude or ungrateful here, but why are you here," Peter asked. "Outer appearance pretty much reads you don't look like the caring type."

"While going through your mind, J'onn witnessed your past events. Some of them were pretty.. traumatic. I figured leaving you alone wouldn't have been the wiser course," Batman said coldly.

Peter grimaced, as he figured his past failures and tragedies would bring a lot of questions. He sighed, as he fumbled with his mask, looking at it face-to-face, "Believe me, after all I've gone through Osborne's insane war, who wouldn't want to jump or end their life with no hope. Everything I knew back home's gone; Manhattan's nothing but a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The people who were my driving force are gone. Uncle Ben, Aunt May, my friends: Robert, Flash, Eddie. Gwen…" he gripped his mask, like he wanted to tear it apart, but his grip relaxed, as he sighed sadly, "And now Harry, who was pretty much like my brother. But if I just died like that; if I gave up with nothing left… " and then faced Batman with a hardened resolve on his face, "I'm not sure those I cared about could face me on just giving up like that. That and then they would die, because nobody would be there to remember them."

Batman studied him and was wondering if he was telling the truth or not. All the regular signs of someone lying weren't there, it also helped that he could see his vitals in a nearby machine so he could see that his heart rate didn't go up. "I'll leave you alone then." He picked up one of the web shooters and walked to the door, "When you're feeling well enough, you can walk around freely. Though we'll be keeping a close eye on you. Your A.I. is still with J'onn on the Main Holo-deck, like I said before."

"Thanks," Peter nodded, but then asked, "And Harry's body…?"

"In the Watch Tower's medical bay for cold storage," Batman answered. "When you're feeling better, we'll make arrangements however you feel need to be done with him." And left the boy in the room, to stare at the stars in thought.

As the door closed behind him, Batman saw Wonder Woman walking over. Apparently, she was his relieve to look after the new guy. Once the door closed, Batman explained the situation, "He's awake right now, but I doubt he'll try anything."

"But you're still going to monitor him with the night vision camera," Diana finished, and half-smirked as she noticed the ever-stone face of his. But then she got serious, as she asked, "So, how is he?"

Batman thought about the answer for a moment, until he finally answered, "Physically… he's recovering rather fast… Mentally… strong… emotionally… that might be another story." And then left her behind.

As she took her post, she mumbled, "And I'm doing fine by the way."

"Never doubted that," Batman replied, slightly surprising her.

Even though he was treading off, he thought about what Parker's situation was now. No current way to get back, no friend to take back with him save for the A.I. he had iwht him. And even if he did get back, there wouldn't be anything waiting for him. He knew better than most of this kind of pain and situation that the boy was slightly hiding. It had been years since he had witnessed the murder of his own parents. Peter's past was similar, considering he had lost his Uncle Benjamin Parker in a similar fashion, though he felt the boy was fortunate considering he wasn't there to bear witness. However, he could tell the boy blamed himself for not doing it. Even though the pain wasn't as bad as it was before… it was still lingering.


The Next Day

Hangar Bay

Peter walked around the remains of the Triskelion, or at least the section that had tagged along with him. The Justice League had decided to keep it long enough for study, and keep whatever was needed, or available to Spider-Man. So far, Peter was dressed in sneakers, jeans, a blue and red sweater hoodie jacket on loan; just a normal look for him considering everyone on this satellite knew who he was. Everyone being the League itself, its current six members. Right now, he and Mainframe, now back on his right wrist, were currently looking through the wreckage.

Peter pushed a piece of metal off as he dug through what appeared to be an armory. "You sure there's one here," Peter asked the A.I., as he scavenged through the debris, "We've been looking around this place for over an hour now. And so far, nothing."

"It's got to be here," Mainframe insisted as his holo-eyes looked around as well. "Before the War started, Tony and Rhodie stored a few of the armors that were placed in emergency storage."

Peter didn't seem all that assured, as he mumbled, "Unless Osborne found them during his 'hostile takeover' of the Triskelion." He sat down as he sighed in exhaustion, brushing his hair back from the sweat. "You sure we can refit them to house an A.I. brain via wireless remote?"

"Hey, you're the genius," Mainframe quipped.

Peter retorted, "Yeah, but you're the artificial intelligence built from the best robotics and mecha science expert, Tony Stark."

Touché."

"Hello," a female voice spoke up, causing Peter to jump up. Luckily his spider sense didn't go off, but he was deeply surprised as to what… or who… he saw.

There, hovering ten feet from him and Mainframe, was a green-skinned female humanoid, fifteen years old in appearance, a slender figure befitting of cheerleader fitness, with amber eyes and shoulder-length red hair swept to the left, and with freckles on her cheeks. She wore a short-sleeved skin tight white top with a red X on it, along with blue skirt, a blue mini-cape with a turtleneck and a gold button brouche in the center of it, blue gloves, and blue ankle high boots.

Peter blinked as he asked, "Martian Manhunter?"

The girl giggled, as she shook her head with a smile, "Nah, I'm not my uncle J'onn J'onzz. I'm M'gann M'orzz, his niece."

Peter blinked, almost remembering what Mainframe had told him about the members of the Justice League. J'onn J'onzz especially, considering he was the most intriguing member of the group. Being an alien of Mars, or rather, the last survivor of Mars. Considering that notion popped up, this girl was an enigma, as he asked, "I thought the Martian Manhunter was the only Martian alive."

"Yeah, um, let me explain that," Mainframe started to explain. "After the Thanagarian Invasion of Earth, J'onn read through their ship files and discovered that there were colonies that were posted after the White Martians ravaged Earth. Apparently this girl's only one out of a hundred of J'onn's nieces and nephews."

"Yeah, pretty much. I stowed away on a freighter ship into this galaxy, and me and my ship got here the rest of the way," M'gann replied with a smile.

Peter raised an eyebrow and asked, "And J'onn is okay with trusting this, how?"

"Because I'm his sister's daughter," M'gann answered. "So, you are…?"

Peter wasn't really sure if he should've told this girl his real name. but considering that the six primary members knew who he was, and that this girl was related to one of the primary members. Plus, the fact that like her uncle, she was probably a telepath to boot. So deciding against his better judgment, he sighed and gave in, "I'm…"

"Peter Parker," M'gann answered, as she politely replied, "My uncle told me about you in case I ever met with you." She then smiled a little shyly, as her shirt and cape morphed into a sweater hoodie jacket, much like Peter's. "I like your jacket."

Peter blinked at that comment, and muttered, "Um… thanks, I guess."


Elsewhere

Superman went to get Batman for the meeting to discuss what they would do with their guest. When he entered the lab, he saw Batman looking over both the belt and web shooter he had borrowed from Peter. "You haven't been working all night on that have you?" He asked him although he wouldn't be surprised if he had.

"No." He simply said.

Clark couldn't help but shake his head at the answer. It was a typical Batman response. "The meeting is about to start. But before we go, I've been meaning to ask. Why the interests in those?"

Batman stopped his work and turned to face the Kryptonian. "To learn more about him. Did you know he made all of this himself at fifteen?" Superman was surprised by that he thought he got them from someone or had someone teach him how to build and make them. "The web fluid alone is a rather brilliant design, started off by his father, and later on finished by him. It's some kind of nylon-base substance with the strength of titanium steel. It also dissolves when it hits the air after an hour, but the composition of it suggest it can be altered to be stronger, weaker, or last even longer." He even pressed the switch, causing the Adamantium hidden blade to shoot out, "Not to mention the metal itself is of alien origin, yet he knows more about its properties than any metal urging."

Superman smirked. "If I didn't know any better Bruce I'd say you admired his work."

Batman was silent for a moment before answered, "I admire his intellect; it's not often you find someone that young with that kind of ability. Plus, he's smart. I wouldn't be surprised if he's smarter than some of the people I've hired in my science division at my company."

"You think he's that smart?" Superman asked him.

"Possibly...but I want to test him out and see for myself." He told him. Then he left the equipment on the desk and went to the exit. "Are you coming? You said the meeting was starting." Superman had to let out a smirk at that comment, and followed him towards the meeting room.


JL Watchtower Meeting Room

When they all had gathered around they were starting to discuss what to do with their new guest. "Well any ideas?" Superman asked.

"I say we let him stay." Flash said.

"We can't just let him stay here," GL told him sternly. "The Watchtower's not a hotel."

"But here else will he go?" Diana asked him. "He has no home here, and he's alone in the world." She could relate to that too, ever since she was exiled from her home, but she had found a new home here with her friends, and wasn't alone in that regard.

"I agree with Wonder Woman." J'onn said. "We have no way of sending him back to his world, since no one knows how he crossed over to ours. The only one who understands the technology is either dead or missing, considering that Mainframe theorized the Triskelion was torn apart and scattered around the earth."

That part was proven true due to the reports. The day that Spider-Man had appeared to them, the earth had received an unlikely meteor shower. Different points around the planet were struck by what appeared to be meteors. However, the Justice League knew better, considering that they could have been the components. If there was any evidence that this Green Goblin had been on one of those parts and survived, there was none at the moment, thinking this villain was lying low until he got his bearings. And even if they caught him and forced him to tell how the device would work, there was no telling of he would secretly backstab them. Parker's files from Mainframe were proof of that.

"And then there's the other problem. Even if we did send him back...there isn't anything back there for him." He said, saddened by it. He too knew the pain of losing your home, since his world was now a dead planet.

"Yeah I mean, maybe he was sent here for a reason, did ya think of that," Flash asked everyone. "Okay, I know that sounds corny, but it's all I got."

"Whatever the case, I don't think we can just dump him off somewhere." Superman told the group. "For the time being, I think it best if he stays here where he can get the help he'll need."

"And there may be more to this than even Parker might know of," Batman stated, gaining everyone's attention. "From what J'onn and I gathered from Mainframe and the Triskelion's computers, this Green Goblin had something planned once he found a New Earth to settle in. the details were sketchy, but whatever it involved, it had to do with the cyro-prison located in the Triskelion's brig, the Big House."

"Any idea what it was," GL asked.

"I'm afraid we've found nothing conclusive," J'onn concluded. "But until the time being, we might need to keep this from Spider-Man, until he's ready."

The debate didn't go on for long as they voted to keep him with them for the time being. They also voted to try and keep him up to date with whatever they found from the salvaged Triskelion's files on the missing Goblin's schemes.


Next Chapter: New Friendships, New Homes, and New Families