Anything in Italic means the character is thinking to themselves
Homework and an opportunity
Well then, time to do some homework on this place before I pass Batman's next test, I still can't believe the guy tested my resolve like this, I'm lucky I was smart on this one. Spider-man thought as he jumped out of the tunnel-exit that Batgirl made him use, he ended up in some sort of alley and as soon as he was out he looked back to see the ground seemingly closing itself to conceal the hole.
Damn the guy must be as loaded as Tony Stark to have this stuff.
It was broad daylight and Peter quickly looked around before changing out of his costume in his normal clothes, as normal as dirty clothes can be. I really need to make some money to get some equipment and clothes, web-fluid won't last forever if I have to fight every day.
Peter walked out of the alley and picked up a newspaper in a trashcan.
It read on the front page: group of Penguin's thugs found in giant web, who is this new vigilante?
Peter smiled to himself, at least Spider-man was gaining reputation. Too bad Peter was not. He started to walk, asking directions along the way because of his minor knowledge of Gotham. He had to find a way to get money somehow, just enough to buy a camera and a new shirt.
As he passed a street almost devoid of life he saw a group of men walking out of an hotel together. His Spider-sense was going crazy by just their mere presence. He could not change right now but he could at least follow as an innocent and homeless 19 year-old.
Sometimes looking harmless has its perks. He thought while following the men from afar. The men looked like the most cliché criminals in the world: hoodies, hands in pocket, one of the five seemed almost made of muscle, not as much as Batman, but still.
He followed them, staying out of sight, sometimes hiding behind other people along the way, which was getting harder as the thugs were moving towards the outskirts of the city. As he was starting to wonder where on earth they were going, he suddenly saw on the horizon a big manor. As his common sense told him, he braced himself for the inevitable conflict. Which never came since they stopped at the gate leading to the manor and seemingly spoke through a cellphone one of the men got out. He leaned on the wall of a shop and focused to try and hear what they said, he only heard fragments.
"Not there…Wayne…all of them?...When…Done."
Even with just the parts he heard he could put two and two together: That Bruce Wayne really was a desired target. He only hoped he could somehow find him before they did. He left their trail and ran. Luckily by now he knew a little about this part of the city and he knew the best bet to find a rich guy: the commercial street closest to his manor.
He remembered the guy from their first "meeting" and since he had a strong build for a rich guy he would be easy to find in a street full of people that were almost skeleton in comparison. When he arrived to the street he saw that pretty much everyone seemed rich, some of them glancing at him in disdain. He closed his eyes and let his Spider-sense do the work, he needed eyes all around him in the mass of people walking around. He walked around and eventually, finding nothing, did the thing that seemed the stupidest but still the most direct: he walked to someone that seemed a little less rich than the rest and directly spoke to him.
"Hello, do you know where I could find Bruce Wayne by any chance? I have some important news." At least it gives me an excuse for searching for him. He thought as the man in front of him rolled his eyes.
"If you're searching for rich boy, search all the overpriced clothing shop you can find. And if you find him, tell him from everyone that he deserves nothing he's got. Now go annoy him and disappear like the rest of the low-life."
It took a pretty good amount of self-control not to become angry and he just smiled, turned around and while walking said:
"Well it's not with people like you that this city will have smarter citizens, thanks for the info by the way." He then disappeared in the crowd before the man could answer back.
Even if the guy was an idiot, I should have thought of it, he got interrupted last time. Bad Peter.
He started to go from store to store and he finally saw Wayne. Parker luck strikes again. He smiles and ran to him. He waited till Bruce was in another shop and went to him.
This is going to be hard, I look like a poor person and the guy is the richest in town.
"Mister Wayne?"
He turned around and when he saw Peter he had not the reaction he expected. Bruce lightly smiled.
"Yes?"
"This is going to sound very crazy, but there are people waiting for you to return to your house, bad people." He thought that he would completely disregard his words but he instead frowned and got what looked like to be the most expensive cell phone he ever saw out of his pocket. He pressed a button.
"Alfred? Yes, I just heard that someone could be waiting close to the manor. Take a look." A few seconds passed then Wayne suddenly frowned deeper and his angry expression reminded Peter of Batman a little. "Noted, tell the guest that I will be late."
He closed the phone and looked at Peter again.
"I am told that there is indeed five men just outside the gates of my property but they may just be guests, I am having a big evening convention with some of my associates. Why did you tell me this?" He asked with a tone of curiosity, not one of anger like Peter would have thought.
"You were attacked recently I did not want you to be in danger that's all."
"Not many people would warn me of danger, even less someone who obviously does not live in my circle."
"Not everyone thinks that you don't deserve what you have sir, I just wanted to warn you."
Wayne seemed in thought then left the store while making a sign to Peter, who followed.
This young man is not "everybody" indeed, no one warns Bruce Wayne of men potentially attacking him except maybe the police, and this boy is NOT in the police. Bruce thought, already thinking of the situation at hand, he already knew he was targeted by someone and he was convinced the men were not guests. He knew who to go to, but after he will need to speak to this young man he never saw before.
"I swear you are in danger…"
"I believe you, I am going to the police right now to tell them, you should go home. What is your name young man?"
"Peter Parker, and I actually have no home to go to."
Bruce stopped and looked at him. There is no way someone this young and homeless would be responsible and compassionate enough to warn a rich man in this corrupted city. I have to know more about him.
Wayne got a little card from his pocket and gave it to Peter, when he looked at it he saw it was some sort of guest card.
"Don't come to the police with me, they may not believe it if they know it's coming from you. Come to my manor in one hour with this card and knock on the door. Thank you young man." With these word he shook his hand and then he climbed in a limo parked on the other side of the street.
Peter was astonished, every rich person…correction, every person in this city looked at him almost with disgust. Bruce Wayne not only believed him, but he gave him a freaking invitation to his house.
How messed up is that!? How can he be so different from the others? You would think he'd be even worse, being even richer, but he talked to me almost normally. Parker luck strikes AGAIN!
He smiled for a while then started to go back to the manor, he was going to let the police do their work, but he had no intention of not watching it happen. He ran back and on the way changed to his "work uniform".
A few minutes later Spider-man was on a roof looking at the five men that were still there. They're not very smart, waiting in the open like that, I mean anyone can see them waiting in front of the gate leading to the big ass manor owned by the richest man in town.
When he heard police sirens coming he saw the men standing up and start to run. He started to follow them by jumping from roof to roof, staying out of sight. The men stopped when they reached a dead end and turned back to see several policemen aiming their weapons at them. Among them he saw the commissioner who talked to him the last time. The police gave their usual warning and four men fell to their knees with their hand on their head. One stayed up and stared at the police force, looking completely unfazed by the weapons trained on him, he had some sort of mask on.
"It's too bad you had to involve yourselves in this, I would have preferred not to kill more than one man today." He said while looking briefly at his comrades who had given up without a fight. He slowly opened his jacket to reveal a large belt of explosive.
"Get out of our way or all of us along with the entire block goes boom." He said calmly but with an evil tone.
The police all backed up on the sight of the belt. From a brief look from Peter, that thing was no bluff, he had seen his fair share of bombs and this one was a big one. He knew what to do but it was risky with such limited space.
"You know possessing this kind of thing IS illegal right?" He said from the roof then immediately jumped at him.
The man had no time to react and Spider-man's feet connected with the belt, triggering a beeping sound.
"AH! We now have 15 seconds to…"
Spider-man ripped the belt from him and jumped while saying one last thing as he punched the man, knocking him down.
"Thank you idiot now I know how much time I have."
This thing is powerful enough to wipe an entire block, I won't find any empty spaces here, there's only one victimless option: the sky, let's hope for the best. Spider-man thought when he landed on the roof and started swinging the belt like a sling and then, with all his strength, threw it towards the sky while the cops looked at it in fear.
In Wayne Manor…
I knew he would show up, he seems to know where the police is going. Although I did not anticipate an assassination attempt of this scale. Bruce thought as he watched the event from remote cameras at the cave. What kind of assassins don't cover the back door? Who is targeting me to the point of sending bombed henchmen?
Back with Spider-man…
The belt launched towards the sky at incredible speed while Spidey threw webs on the men who were still down and then yelled down to the policemen that were frozen.
"GET DOWN!"
Everyone hid in their car or jumped on the ground without hesitation, the yell bringing them back to reality.
Then the belt exploded.
Even with height, the explosion's wind was felt and the sound was felt, but nothing else. He had succeeded. He got down of the roof and saw everyone looking at him.
"Everyone okay?" He asked to the policemen. The commissioner made a brief look then nodded, almost every police officers did not know what to do. The ones who wanted to arrest him for being a vigilante were either scared of him or were grateful enough not to try this time.
"That's the second time you saved lives, ours included." An officer said while walking toward him and stopping in front of him. "I am forced to say that, without your help today, I doubt anyone here would be having this conversation. Thanks Spider-man."
"No problemo, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Spider-man, Behind you quick!"
Everyone turned in fear, when they saw nothing most of them did not even bother to look back, knowing he was gone.
From an adjacent roof, Spider-man panted a little while rubbing his hurt shoulder that he recklessly used to throw the bomb.
"Well at least I'll be going at a place where I can finally have some sort of rest." Peter mumbled to himself.
A few minutes later, after he quickly changed clothing in another alley, he walked back to the manor with his card in hand. He arrived and he saw the police leaving with the men, leaving a few policemen behind to search for anything. As he walked towards the open gate, he was stopped by a cop.
"Hey, where do you think you're going young man?"
"Uh…I have a meeting with Bruce Wayne, he invited me." He showed his card, which the cop inspected then gave back. "You are one lucky young man, I hope you know that."
"Yeah I figured that when he gave it to me."
The cop raised a brow but still made a "go away" sign and then went back to the crime scene. Peter continued his way after trying to understand what happened. Why was he so lucky?
When he arrived at the giant wooden door he almost feared the door would eat him. He knocked then Bruce himself answered.
"Ah you are here, I thought you were not going to come because of the commotion outside." Bruce said.
"Yeah one policeman tried to stop me until I showed him the card you gave me, does it have a mind-control chip on it or something?" Bruce lightly laughed at this question. Which surprised Peter as he was waiting to be scolded for not being serious.
"It's one of the perks of being very wealthy in a, sadly, very poor city." Wayne said. "While it does not control minds, the card is basically saying "Bruce Wayne is waiting for me." Which is a good argument, with the good people at least."
He opened the door and Peter froze: This place was so big he knew the bathroom alone had to be bigger than his old apartment. He just stood there, looking at the house of the only human he knew that could maybe rival Iron man in personal comfort.
"Whoa…" He just gawked while Wayne was smiling at the sight.
"Master Bruce, is this the young Peter?"
Peter turned back and froze, for another reason: He saw this man in the Batcave last night.
Gotta keep your cool Parker, don't mess it up yet, concentrate on the rich guy who invited you to his freaking manor.
"Yes Alfred, and he has something for you." He gave a brief look to Peter.
Peter nervously gave him the card and Alfred looked at it.
"Ah it seems Master Bruce would want to offer you a job."
"A…a…a…a..job?" Peter almost fainted from the offer.
"Yes Peter, when you told me you were homeless, and when I saw the state of your attire, I thought it would be a good occasion to give one of the few good people in this city an opportunity. There's not enough people in this city that are courageous and responsible enough like you, so I would want to offer you to be Alfred, and by extension my, assistant. You would be working and living here like Alfred.
Peter could not believe it, there was too much to digest, he had been in this world for a matter of days and he was offered a better job than he was ever offered in the last nineteen years. Even the fact about Alfred was slowly dissipating in his mind. He was starting to think that Wayne was like him, both of them were complete opposite of what you would think them to be.
The only problem in that offer was that Spider-man would basically become a night hero. Which was something he did not necessarily want because of the fact that there is more crime during the day in this place for some reason and he would not be there to stop it.
When he saw his hesitation, Bruce decided to speak more. He really is different, he's not jumping hungrily at the money possibilities, but it is still strange coming from someone who looks like he did not properly eat for a while. I need him here.
"If you worry about your family…"
"I don't have a family sir, they abandoned me when I was young and then died in a plane crash shortly after." He decided to say the truth, at least as much as possible. But since Alfred knew Spider-man, he had to be cautious of his backstory.
"I'm sorry Peter I did not know." Bruce was truly sorry for him, he knew what a life without parents was.
"It's all right, I was adopted by strangers and in a way, I had a family, I was homeschooled by a friend of my foster dad until a few days ago."
Alfred could not help but compare Bruce and Peter, both left alone and then caught by someone who raised them right.
"A few days ago? Where are they now?" Bruce asked, almost knowing the answer."
"Gone, they left me in an alley after we were robbed and could not stay in our home any longer. They did not have enough for all of us, so they left me what I had and left. I've been alone for the last few days."
If Bruce was an ordinary man he would have choked at the story, but he was Batman, and he knew something was off: he is aware of almost any robbery, a big enough robbery so that the family really had nothing left would not stay unnoticed for long. He nonetheless put on his most compassionate look.
"I'm sorry for you, deeply sorry. I know my offer won't give you what you lost. Is that why you're hesitating?"
Damn he saw that…
"No…it's just that I wouldn't want to abuse, I did not expect anything when I helped you…"
"Oh trust me young man when Master Bruce offers something, he offers it for a good reason, and you did save his life after all." Alfred assured.
"I think I know what's troubling you, do not worry about your freedom: you are not needed at the manor every day and every hour, of course when you are needed I will expect you to be present, but this is a home, not a prison."
This destroyed the doubts he had, he would still be able to be Spider-man. In any case, it would not be very different from before. If anything it would be better. He nodded to Bruce and the latter smiled.
"Very good, Alfred will first find you some suits and give you something to eat, then we will explain what the job is specifically. I have to go for a while, take care of him Alfred, he's one of us now."
So much for being solo here. Peter could not help but laugh internally at his sarcasm.
"Will do sir, follow me Mr. Parker you need to change and eat before you keel over. Afterward we will have to go over the details of the job, Master Bruce will take care of getting you in Gotham's system since I doubt you are, considering your almost non-existent social path."
Peter followed him, still not really believing that he had a job on technically his first few days of existence in this world.
Outside…
Bruce walked in the huge front yard of his manor while pondering Peter's very existence.
There's no one like him: his story, his personality, his qualities, and the complete lack of details about his family, no names, everything's off. And at the same time Peter shows up, a new costumed hero with little history appears, there's no coincidence. I have no doubt of his good intentions, but I must know my surroundings. At least the convention was reported because of the attack, which leaves me time to prepare Peter for his new job and get ready for tonight's test.
A/N: So there's the fifth chapter everyone. Thanks for the reviews so far, all of them helped.
Your reviews always help keeping the story going. So please leave a review. Hope you enjoyed.
