Peter whimpered as an explosion of pain wracked through his body and propelled him into consciousness. Clenching his eyes shut, he allowed a heartbroken sob to escape his throat as he remembered that it was finally over. For six months he had been caught in a never-ending war with Norman Osborn, who had not only donned the mantle of Green Goblin once more, but had managed to get his hands on what had to have been the strongest symbiote Peter had ever encountered since the original alien slime had bonded with Eddie Brock to become Venom. In a horrific opening salvo, Osborn had used Peter's nineteenth birthday as a means to wipe out all those Peter loved in one fell swoop. Aunt May, MJ, even Harry… all of them, gone in an instant. After that, he had released information to the press pertaining to Peter's secret identity as Spider-Man, and staged the largest breakout in history before demolishing both Rykers and the Raft, robbing Peter and the police of a safe place to put all the escaped inmates.
His coup de grace, however, was to reveal that he had some sort of experimental bomb in his position that could easily wipe the entire state of New York off the map, and that he would use it if any superheroes other than Peter Parker was seen doing anything to help. For five long months, New York city had become a den of chaos and fear as the police were easily overpowered and Peter struggled frantically to defeat the captured baddies. It wasn't until his confrontation with Doc Ock, where he had to finally resort to using lethal measures, that he started to see any sort of significant headway, but that had been just as Norman had planned as well. He wanted people to fear Peter, to see him as a blood-thirsty monster, and as Peter's morals crumbled beneath the weight of his responsibilities, and he was forced to stain himself with more and more blood just to survive, he could tell that it was working. All of this came to a tipping point when, after Peter had disposed of the Scorpion, and the last of his super-powered enemies had been slain, Norman had issued the ultimatum that he would kill one person, at random, every day, until Peter had been killed.
Thirty days, and thirty bodies, Peter had finally cornered the Goblin atop the Oscorp Tower, where the bomb - which Peter had learned used gravity waves fueled by something called a Tesseract to literally destroy space-time within its blast-zone - had been set to detonate. Exhausted and wounded from a month of being hunted by every person in his beloved city, Osborn had toyed with him, every single bone in all four of Peter's limbs before dangling him over the edge of the building by his neck.
He was finally saved, however, by the one thing that had made Osborn nearly untouchable in a physical confrontation: the symbiote. Just as Peter was feeling the last of his life ebbing away, he felt a foreign presence in his mind, similar to original Venom symbiote he had bonded with three years ago. However, unlike Venom, who was nothing but unbridled aggression and rage, what he was currently feeling seemed shockingly similar to fear and, more surprisingly, remorse. Through a series of lightning fast images, Peter had been shown memories of Norman forcefully capturing and breeding symbiotes in order to create the most powerful one he could and bonding himself to it. While normally symbiotes had no problem with this as they would wear away at a host's will-power and slowly influence them, this particular one had not only been bred to reduce its ability to do this by removing the more aggressive traits within whatever it had for a mind, but also been subjected to the demented mind of the Green Goblin, something not easily bested in a battle of wills.
Feeling sorrow for the creature, Peter shared his own pain, and tried to project comfort for his last minutes of life. This seemed to affect the symbiote more than he anticipated, as before he knew it, Norman's strength was waning, and he watched in shock as the symbiote drew more and more from Osborn, sapping his life and leaving him as little more than a husk before slithering over Peter and bonding itself to him. While initially wary, Peter had accepted the creature when he felt its loneliness and figured he could use his last moments to give it company as he used his newfound strength to tear into the bomb. The last thing he remembered was punching into the bomb's power source and a bright flash of light before merciful darkness and soft voice whispering to him.
You have suffered much, champion, in the name of this world. You desire rest, understandably so, however you are still needed. A world of strangers, devoid of both friend and foe alike awaits, should you so choose.
Feeling a warm tingling in the back of his mind, Peter sat up and looked down at himself with surprise. His usual red and blue suit had been replaced by a slick, black one that covered him from head to toe.
"I guess I have you to thank for the fact that I'm still breathing," he muttered as he pushed himself to his feet. Warmth filled him as the symbiote gave off a feeling of relief. Taking a deep breath, Peter allowed his grief to wash over him once more as tears continued to pour down his cheeks. It was finally over, and while he had been perfectly content allowing himself to die on the rooftop before, he now felt like his sadness and exhaustion - which had felt overwhelming - were being pushed away and compartmentalized. It still felt like a part of him was grieving, but it felt separate, like a second Peter was sitting in a therapist's office while he stood on that rooftop. Looking down at his new wearable companion he raised an eyebrow.
"You're doing this, aren't you?" He asked rhetorically. To his surprise he received an affirmative from the symbiote along with what felt like a genuine desire to help him. "Well, thanks, I guess. As long as you're not forcing me to bottle it up or anything."
This time he received the mental equivalent of a shake of a head. He could still feel the unyielding pain tearing at his soul, but whatever the symbiote was doing with his mind seemed to be allowing him to deal with it while maintaining his rationality. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Peter shrugged and took a look around. Nothing about the city surrounding him looked familiar; large gothic buildings scraped the sky and the streets below made it look like the rough part of town was every part.
Turning in place, he caught sight of a billboard depicting a man in a suit smiling charmingly at him with the words: Gotham's White Knight: Vote Harvey Dent for Gotham City's District Attorney.
"Gotham?" Peter read curiously. He had never heard of a place called Gotham, and as he continued to survey his surroundings, a deep sense of dread started to fill his gut. "Please let me be wrong," he muttered to himself as his mind tried to balance out Murphy's Law and Occam's Razor. His musings were interrupted, however, by a bright flash of light and an explosion not far from where he was standing. Sprinting to the edge of the roof, he looked out and saw that something had slammed into the ground near what looked like a harbor. Diving off the rooftop, Peter immediately began swinging towards the crash site, mentally thanking the symbiote for replacing his damaged web shooters. In a matter of minutes, Peter made it to the pier and perched himself on a nearby warehouse to survey the scene. It looked like some sort of meteor had crashed into the harbor, destroying the surrounding docks and vaporizing a massive amount of water. Something from the meteor must have mixed with the water vapour as the entire area was blanketed in a thick green fog.
"Help!"
Straining his ears, Peter listened as someone called out against the rushing water, and dove through the fog to land on a post sticking out of the water before locating the source of the voice and firing a web into the water and giving it a yank. He caught the would be drowning victim with ease, and leapt out of the fog towards dry land, where he placed his passenger on the ground gently, allowing him to get a good look at them.
Lying on the ground before him was a girl about his age with golden blonde hair and unnaturally blue eyes. She was dressed in a strange form-fitting suit with a large S inside of a diamond emblazoned on her chest.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
Rather than answer, the girl shot to her feet and started shouting. "Kal! Kal, are you out there?!"
"Is Kal someone who was with you?" Peter asked, approaching the girl slowly.
As if noticing him for the first time, the girl whirled around on Peter and stared at him wide-eyed. "Who are you?!" She demanded, her fists clenched.
"It's okay," he said soothingly. Making a snap decision, he willed his mask away to reveal his face. If he was right about where he thought he was, then odds were that nobody would know who he was. If not, then his name was already one of the most well known in the world, and it wasn't like he had much left to put at risk anyway. "My name is Peter. I want to help. Who's Kal?"
"Kal-El," the girl explained. "He's my cousin. We were supposed to come here together, but something happened and my pod was knocked off course."
Hang on, pod? Peter asked himself, forcing himself to take a deep breath. It's not like he hadn't dealt with aliens before - hell, he was wearing one, for God's sakes! "Does that mean you're not from this planet?" He asked carefully.
The girl shook her head. "I am Kara Zor-El, Last Daughter of the House of El, from the planet Krypton." Once she was finished, Kara immediately began swaying on the spot, and Peter rushed over to catch her before she could fall to the ground. He noticed how her breathing was becoming more and more ragged and deduced that whatever species Kara was, despite looking human, was not reacting well to the gas that was still curling through the air. Picking her up and holding her against him, Peter willed his mask to reform and fired a web and pulled himself to a nearby building, setting them both down on the rooftop. He rubbed her back as she coughed and hacked and waited patiently for her to finish.
"Kara," he said carefully, "how old are you and Kal?"
"I am nearly nine by kryptonian standards," Kara explained. "However Kal was just a newborn when we fled the death of our planet."
"Your planet died?" Peter repeated, aghast. Kara nodded and he could see her fighting back tears.
"I was supposed to protect Kal, but now I have no idea where he is, or how long he has been on this planet for, or if he even made it at all. What should I do?"
"Look," Peter said. "I know you feel alone, and that's okay, but you should know that you're not. If I can, I'll see if I can help you find Kal, okay?"
"You will?" Kara asked.
"Absolutely. First, though, we need to get you out of here before someone comes to investigate."
As if summoned by his words, Peter felt the familiar tingle at the back of his neck and flipped into the air, dodging a pair of sharp looking objects that spun through the air. Kara didn't react and he turned to warn her, only to see the blades bounce harmlessly off her.
I guess she's tougher than us squishy humans, Peter thought as his spider-sense went off once more and he leaned back to dodge more projectiles before using his webbing to grab them and throw them back where they came from. Two sharp clangs announced that the blades had been blocked and Peter had to dodge as a black form came barreling out of the shadows to attack him. Evading his attacker with ease, Peter caught a stray punch and used it to launch them over his shoulder only for them to flip in midair and land on their feet, giving him his first good look at his opponent.
Standing before him was a rather large man in a dark grey combat suit made from material not dissimilar to the one Captain America wore. On his chest was an insignia in the shape of a bat, and he had a dark cape and cowl that made him look like a human incarnation of his insignia. The man glared at Peter, sizing him up, and Peter did the same, though not quite as silently.
"So, who are you supposed to be," he asked. "Batman?"
"Yes," the man deadpanned before rushing at Peter with speed and skill the likes of which he had only seen from people such as Taskmaster and the Captain.
This time, Peter was ready, however, and between his own superhuman abilities and the enhancements granted to him by his newest symbiotic friend, he had no trouble keeping up with the man. He was surprised, however, when he had to jump back to avoid a kick to the temple and a golden blur zoomed under him and slammed into Batman, sending him rocketing into the wall of a taller building across the alley from him.
"Leave him alone!" Kara yelled, glaring at Batman as she stood next to Peter, turning to him. "Are you okay -"
"Spider-Man," Peter cut her off. "I don't normally let guys dressed as bats who are trying to beat me up learn my real name."
Kara nodded and they turned back to where Batman had been, only to find him missing. Peter's spider-sense went off at that moment and he pushed Kara to the side as Batman came plummeting towards them, an eerie green glow shining through the knuckles of his gloves. Rolling out of the way, Peter launched himself at Batman and pinned his arm to the ground with webs as he kicked him in the jaw, forcing him onto his back where his other arm was pinned, followed by the rest of his body.
"Cool costume," he said as he crouched over the man's head. "What's up with the glow-sticks in your gloves?"
"Could ask you the same thing," Batman growled, and Peter raised an unseen eyebrow before looking down at his own suit and noticing that the usual white spider motif and trimmings were glowing a similar shade of green, though his somehow looked much less sickly.
Is this your doing? Peter thought to the symbiote bonded to him. In response, the symbiote sent him flashes of the green smoke circling around where he had found Kara. So you bonded with it? He asked receiving a mental nod.
"You know, you're not the first bad guy to try to get answers out of me after I've beaten him," Peter remarked, poking Batman on the forehead. "But you are the most confidant. Unfortunately for you, I've been at this long enough to go with my gut when something like that happens." Reaching down, Peter detached the heavy duty belt around the man's waist, and casually tossed it to Kara, who was standing as far away from them as she could. "Can you do me a favour and toss that into the water?"
Kara nodded, and gently threw the belt as hard as she could, sending it flying well over the water where she had crashed and far away into the horizon. Peter gaped at her extraordinary strength as she spun in place and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry," she mumbled. "My… My parents told me I would be stronger on this planet than on Krypton, but I didn't think it would be that much.
"That's alright," Peter said, trying to distract her before she got lost in what looked like some painful memories. "Let's focus back on finding out why rodent-head here attacked us out of nowhere." Reaching down, he grabbed the bottom of Batman's cowl and watched as a bolt of electricity lit up in the night. "Clever, but I learned to insulate my suit a long time ago." With a flourish, Peter ripped off Batman's mask, mentally apologizing to the symbiote as it let out a slight hiss of pain from the electricity, and was met with the glaring face of a man in his early thirties with short, black hair and cold, brown eyes. "So, why not start with who you are and why you're after me and my new friend here."
The man's face remained impassive as ever as he looked Peter up and down in a manner frighteningly similar to how he remembered Doc Ock would analyze him for potential weaknesses. Sighing, Peter leaned back and scratched the back of his head.
"Look, buddy, I'm gonna be handing you over to the police regardless, so why not make both our lives easier and answer my questions?"
"You're not the only one who has experience with interrogation," Batman said darkly. "So why not spare me the boredom and move right on to the torture."
Peter's eyes widened as images began flashing through his mind faster than he could process - memories from the last six months and the things he had been forced to do - before the symbiote stepped in and suppressed the episode so that he could focus on the task at hand. Lowering his head sadly, Peter took a deep, calming breath, before replying.
"Look, man, I know the news coming out of New York about me probably hasn't been the most flattering -"
"What news out of New York?" Batman asked, making the dread Peter had felt earlier return with a vengeance.
"I-In the last six months," Peter asked haltingly, drawing on the comfort the symbiote was sending him like a river in a desert. "Has New York City been under any sort of state of emergency?"
"No."
"Huh." Leaning back, Peter forced himself to work through the panic before it overwhelmed him. Somehow, the bomb had blasted him all the way to another Earth entirely, leaving him stranded in a reality that was so vastly different, there were metropolitan cities he had never heard of within what he guessed was the northern United States. He was alone, completely and utterly.
Really, though, how is that any different than before? He thought to himself bitterly, before a stab of irritation from the symbiote reminded him of its presence. You're right. At least we have each other.
"Sp-Spider-Man?" Peter looked up and saw Kara approaching him cautiously, her face pale as she looked between him and Batman. "Are you alright?"
"Not really," Peter sighed, standing up. "Look, why don't we get out of here, and find some place to regroup before we start looking for your cousin? Tall, dark, and grouchy over there is starting to get on my nerves."
Kara nodded shyly, and Peter walked over to her, waiting patiently for her to nod her consent before wrapping an arm around her waist and firing a web at a nearby building and swinging off into this brand new world.
Devoid of friends and foes alike? I guess if anyone could use a second chance, it's me.
A/N: So, I know that the whole Spidey is launched to the DCU thing has been done before, as well as harems being a cliche that's rarely, if ever, well done, but, to be frank, I didn't start writing this to make an original masterpiece. I just had the idea while reading Justice League: Spider, and decided to indulge myself. Also, the whole symbiote thing is so that Peter can stand up to some of the overpowered individuals in the DCU when they inevitably butt head as well as keeping him from being a mess of angst right off the bat. That being said, he understandably won't be unaffected by the trauma of his past. I just don't want him to become a wall-crawling version of Batman.