PureEvilOne: He will meet a certain someone later on in New York but I'm not saying who as for the romance...maybe later on.
Morlin: Yes but you forget just how tough Batman is, he's the only non-super powered person there yet he still holds his own, don't underestimate him.
Red Jeanie: Wow, glad you find it so good. The Titans will show up later on maybe abound chapter 12 or so.
android181: Awhile, but I'll make it worth the wait.
X-Over: Thanks for all the great suggestions, I'll try and do them all in this story since it's kind of open ended at the moment.
slickboy444: I'm glad you liked this so much. It will be revealed later on how he got there later on. I also figured it was time someone made wisecracks to Joker's face for once, kind of turn the tables on him for a change.
Casey: Unfortunately I can't have everyone in all the time, but I did plan on them showing up in this chapter and later on too. Teen Titans won't show up for awhile, sorry.
Booyah: At some point yes he will.
WDCain: I honestly don't think about style it just comes out of me like that. I feel the exactly same about Peter, except for the Ranma thing I don't get that reference if it's to that Ranma ½ thing well I've never seen it. But I actually like MJ especially in the Ultimate series. I remember Zoken he used to me on my favorites but he quit I think, plus he never finished anything. He will meet another girl too but later on.
Murdock: Nope, sorry he's not in this fic although technically he could be it was something else.
Jezrianna: Glad you liked that, and I figured it was time someone put Joker and Bullock in their places for once.
Star Lin: Yeah this chapter should be interesting to read, glad you loved the jokes Spider-Man used.
Urazz: Yeah I know but I needed him to reveal his identity and it was the only way. The abbreviations
was something I saw in the comics, since Batman's kind of paranoid he doesn't like them calling each other by name over radio in case someone is listening so I brought that in.
Thanks to: Nighthawk, The Uncanny R-Man, daveykins, Bumpkin, Kaliann, Dr. Evans, Edge, J. Erich Jay, Spyder616, Nighthawk, Winblades, Gyre, Aaron, Vegabond, ldypebsaby , Trecebo, Joseph McKinley, RangerH
JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE SPIDERCHAPTER 8: BACK TO NEW YORK
It was the old Oscorp building, the lab where it all started. How fitting this was where it would end. The place had been abandoned for six months since Oscorp had gone under that year. After he had seen his home and loved ones destroyed right in front of him he chased after Norman. Along the rooftops he chased him changing into his Spider-Man suit along the way.
Now in the ruined remains this was it, this was where it all would end tonight. This was the place where the spider was made that gave him his powers, this was the place where Norman turned himself into the goblin. Peter was thrown into a wall with extreme force.
They had been at it for a while now and he felt all the aches and pains, but he wasn't going to give up. Norman had crossed the line with him, he had nothing left to his life now and he was sick and tired of Norman Osborn in his life, and tonight either one or them or both of them wouldn't walk away from this fight. Either way was fine with him.
The Goblin grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall. Peter stared into the green face of the Green Goblin. "I don't see why you still fight Parker. You fail them all, they're all dead now and now you'll join them. Face it...you're a failure and you bring nothing but death and pain to those around you! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Peter was struggling in his sleep and felt something grab his shoulders and started to shake him. "Peter wake up." Peter snapped his eyes open and saw a green face in front of him.
"YOU!" He cried out and lunched himself at his 'attacker' and tried to fight him off, his face contorted in rage.
"Peter it's me! It's J'onn!"
Peter blinked and slowly came more alert and realized what he had done. It was J'onn, and he was holding his wrists trying not to hurt Peter. "Oh God...J'onn...I-I'm sorry I didn't..." Felt horrible and relaxed himself as J'onn released him and Peter sat on his bed. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, it's just that-"
J'onn raised his hand. "I understand." He looked at Peter as he hung his head in shame. "You still having the nightmares." He stated. Peter nodded he couldn't say anything at the moment, the nightmare still fresh in his mind of that terrible night and then what he had just done.
"Give it time." J'onn told him sitting down next to the young man. "All wounds need time in order to heal."
"I don't think there are some wounds that never truly heal, even with time." Peter said sadly.
J'onn couldn't argue with that, the death of his family, his world, his people his culture was something he would never get over. "No...some don't. But it does get better in time at least."
Peter sighed, he remembered just how long it took for the pain of his uncle's death to ease off enough so it that it didn't hurt so much all the time. He barely even remembered how he was when his parents died, he just remembered being real sad a lot during that year. "Yeah it does. Still I'm sorry about that. Was there something you guys needed?"
"Yes, we were wondering if you would join us for a meeting in a couple of hours. There are a few things we need to discuss." Peter got a little nervous feeling this was the moment they told him he had to go and find a place to live or something, kind of a time to leave the nest. J'onn could see the look on his face and smiled at him. "Don't worry I don't think this is what you're thinking it's going to be about."
"Okay then, well...I better get ready." J'onn left him as he got showered up and dressed. He managed to buy himself some new clothing and got on a new pair of jeans and a black T-shirt, actually he had a few articles of black clothing, he wasn't aware of it at the time but he guessed some part of him was doing this as a way of morning his loved ones that he lost.
He decided to grab himself a quick breakfast and when he got to the main kitchen/dinning area he saw Hawkgirl poking at her meal and looking down. He had noticed how some of the League members had been a little...distant to her and when he asked Wally he got the whole story about how she had been working for her people gathering intelligence on Earth, and when they came instead of helping Earth they tried to conquer it. Although he also heard this was what caused to League to form at the beginning too, this time Hawkgirl's information was used against the League.
He grabbed a trey of cereal and toast and sat down next to her. "Penny for you thoughts?"
She looked up at him then back down at her meal. "It's not important."
Peter took a few bites before talking again. "Bull. Come on what's up? You and John didn't have a fight or anything did you?"
She actually cracked a smile at that. "I wish...I'm thinking of quitting the League before they vote me off." She saw Peter's surprised expression. "Do you know about the incident with my people?" Peter nodded. "Well...even though I was just doing my job I didn't think they would do what they did...I betrayed the trust in my friends...how can they ever trust me after that? Some of them like Batman may never trust me again I could try to save to world or them a hundred times and it might not be enough."
Peter thought about it for a moment. "Well...the answer is simple. If a hundred times doesn't work then try a hundred and one, if that still doesn't work then a hundred and two and you keep going until you finally do gain their trust back, it won't be easy but this is the best place for you to earn your own redemption if you will. We all make mistakes that we regret...I've made a few that still haunt me." Peter looked down as the memories of his uncle had died, and of agreeing to Dr. Connors' experiments with his blood created the Carnage creature that killed so many people including his friend Gwen.
"But we learn from those mistakes, and we have to become stronger for it or the weight of it will crush us. So I say you should stay here. This is were you can make the most difference and this is where you can start to earn their trust, their respect and their friendship again."
Hawkgirl just sat there in silence from Peter's words. It was strange hearing something like that come someone so young but then again he had thrown away his youth long ago for something more then his life and in that time she could see he had grown as a person and had seen hard truths that many don't. And above it all...she was touched by his words. John had tried to convince her to stay and she was thankful for that, but maybe Peter was right. Maybe this was where she needed to be to earn back her personal honor. "Thank you Peter...I'll think on it."
After his breakfast and talk with Hawkgirl he walked around for a bit killing some time before he went to the meeting room. The table was a newer one with a lot more chairs although he didn't know why. He picked out one next to Flash and as he sat down he saw Diana walked in followed by Green Lantern.
Superman was the one who spoke up. "Since we're all here there are a few items to be addressed. First is about Peter here." Peter shifted a little uncomfortably in the chair. Everyone was looking at him strangely and got the feeling this was a topic they all had talked about in great lengths. "Peter since you're time being here you've gone through a very personal and tremendous ordeal. But through all of that you've also helped us out, by little things like helping us around the station and you've even tangled with Metallo and the Joker so far, a couple of our deadliest enemies."
"We have all talked about this and we would like to give you a place in the League."
This stunned Peter. Everyone seeing him couldn't help but be amused by the look on his face, and it took a moment for Peter to find his voice. "T-thanks, yeah, sure, I accept."
Superman couldn't help the smile on his face, as did many of the others, Flash even patted him on the back. "Well we also decided to increase the ranks of the League so don't let it go to your head. You'll be a member but you're still relatively new and we've decided to make the more experienced members take charge of whatever missions or teams they will have."
Peter nodded. "Sounds fair, so who else is going to join up?"
"Pretty much everybody." Flash told him. "We've all talked about it and we've decided that we're opening the League to anyone that wants in. We could use all the help we can get and you know the old saying right? United we stand."
Batman was next to speak up. "Next...is about Hawkgirl." He turned to face her. "She betrayed us, for one I can't trust her, and I think we should vote on if she can stay or not."
"Now hold on!" John Steward shouted out and stood up, but Hawkgirl placed a hand on his arm in a silent way of saying this was okay with her. He looked at her and slowly sat down.
"Can I say something?" Peter asked. He knew that he should say something, anything in her defense, he wasn't sure how the others felt but he knew that someone should speak up and since he didn't have any axe to grind he knew he wasn't bias on any of this.
"Alright what?" Batman asked him in that even tone of his.
"Look I don't got anything against her, I wasn't here for when all that went down. But I do know her well enough to trust her. I know she screwed up, but she was a soldier fallowing orders, I know that's not an excuse, just a reason. I know she wants to make up for what she did, but I know that she didn't have to help you guys when she did."
"So because of this she's basically in exile now. She gave up her chance to go home to save this alien world. And yes she made mistakes, but then who here hasn't? Who here has done things that they regret?" Peter looked around. He looked to Batman. "Brianiac once took you over isn't that right?" Then he looked to Wonder Woman. "And weren't you force to steal certain objects to help your sisters who were turned to stone?" Wonder Woman remembered that, she was lucky that the museum had decided not to charge her for that theft.
Then Peter looked to Superman. "I was told about how Darkseid took control of you. Can you say you don't regret what you did under his control?" Peter was thankful that he had spent too much time looking over the old missions of the League and that Kara had told him about that incident with Superman. Superman looked like Peter had just slapped him in the face.
"Look I'm sorry to bring it up...but sometimes things happen...sometimes we do things that we don't want to do, that we hate to do...things happen to us that we either can't control. But let me ask you this...were you given a second chance?" Peter sat back in his chair the mood of the room had changed.
It was Batman that broke the silence. "We need to talk about this...Peter, Hawkgirl could you two wait outside." Both heroes nodded and stood up, John touched her arm as she got up and she gave a sadden yet happy smile to him.
They exited the room and waited in the hall as the door closed. Both leaned against the wall facing each other. "Peter...thank you. For what you said in there."
Peter smiled and shrugged. "Hey I just did what felt right to me." There was a moment of quiet and Peter couldn't stand it. "So...want to play twenty questions?" He asked her in good humor and despite herself she laughed.
It took over half and hour for them to be called in and she was thankful, Peter was a good friend but his way of keeping busy was getting annoying. When they sat down Superman addressed her with a serious expression on his face. "Well we've come to an agreement. You can stay, but there had to be a few rules." He glanced at Batman since he wouldn't budge on that point at all during the meeting so it was up to him.
He coldly looked over at Hawkgirl. "First thing your access will still be restricted, and I want the device you called your people with, also you're not to be on monitor duty alone and on any mission with the new league you'll be with at least one of the other members here."
She nodded it was acceptable to her. "That's reasonable. I just hope that I can earn back your trust and friendship one day." After that the meeting pretty much winded down and Peter was going to leave when Batman called him over.
"Why did you stick up for her?" He asked him.
Peter just shrugged. "I felt it was the right thing to do. If she had planned all of what happened to actually go down like that then I wouldn't but I have to believe in others. I know it's not your way, but it is mine."
Batman nodded indicating that he accepted that. "Have you made any plans for the future?"
Peter sighed and leaned against the wall. "I want to go back to New York...I think I've avoided it for long enough. Plus I know it's not my New York...but it's the closest thing I got to home here." He ran a hand through his hair. "Then I got to find a place to live, get a job, and hopefully get into NYU."
"You want to continue your studies?"
Peter nodded. "Yeah, back home I wanted to go into genetics...man it's going to be tough...I mean I barely made by as it was back home. Being Spider-Man, having a personal life, a girlfriend, school and work was tiring as hell...but I couldn't give anyone of them up."
Batman regarded Peter for a moment. He knew that unlike the others he didn't have to worry about making a living, he just had to make sure his company was up and running, and as for a personal life, he considered that more of a burden that took away from his time as Batman. He also knew Peter was a bright boy and should have been in collage already with a mind like his.
He hated to see talent wasted away like that, plus there was something else he had planned as well. "I may have a proposition for you, are you interested?"
Peter looked at Batman strangely not sure what it was but he figured it might be interesting to follow up on. "Okay...what?" Batman led them to the teleporter and punched in some coordinates that Peter didn't know and when they arrived it was in a metallic room just big enough for them both to fit in.
"Wayne Enterprises is a global business and I have offices everywhere go I also have a places in quite a few major cities that I use not only when I'm there but also as a base of operations as Batman if I need them." He walked to a door and pushed a button and a door slid open. Peter walked into quite a large penthouse. He looked around it and was impressed by it, and then he noticed a window and saw a familiar skyline.
"We're in New York." Peter nearly whispered.
Batman nodded. "Yes, you see Peter I see a lot of myself when I was your age, but unlike me you still seem to want to be more then Spider-Man. And you're right, unlike me you don't have the resources to be Spider-Man to your fullest abilities at the moment so I want to help you out."
Peter looked away from the view and looked at Batman as he continued talking. "This place is one of the places where I stay when I'm in New York, but I'm not actually here, in fact I've never had to use this place and it just sits here collecting dusk. So my proposition is this. You look after this place for me, use it, as you will since I doubt I'll want to ever use it, and also I want to help you in your studies. If you want I can pay your fees but if you pass and become a doctor in genetics I would like for you to work for my company."
Peter's head was spinning. This place was great and the amount of mommy to get even a low rent apartment was a lot, he looked once since he and MJ had planned to move in together after graduation. Plus free university and all he had to do was work for him. "I want to stay in New York if I do finish." Peter said to him. In his research he found that New York didn't really seem to have anyone looking after it and felt this city would need someone like him.
Batman nodded. "That's acceptable there's already a Wayne Tech division in this city."
Peter raised an eyebrow at that and narrowed his eyes. "Exactly how long have you been planning this?" Batman actually smiled a little but didn't answer him. He showed Peter around the place it had two bedrooms both going out onto a deck and both shared a bathroom, there was another smaller one down stairs on the first level with the teleporter and a smaller bathroom with just a sink and shower.
There was a small workout area but Peter didn't really think he would be using that. There was another hidden room that Batman had planned on using for his detective work. It was a small lab with a film developing station. Peter smiled at that, since now he would have a place to make more web fluid and to keep his all his Spider-Man gear safe as well. 'Sure beats putting it all in a truck in the basement.' He thought to himself.
There was a living room and a kitchen/dinning room near the front door, which led to a hallway to the other penthouse rooms. Apparently there were a few others but the decks had walls on the side so you couldn't see anyone coming or going from them, which he guessed was what Batman was looking for the most.
After the small tour Peter was still a little overwhelmed. "This is all great...but I feel like a freeloader already. If it's alright with you I'd like to get a job to pay for my own personal expenses. I still want to earn my keep you know."
Batman nodded and was glad he did, it showed that he was a responsible person. "So does that mean you'll accept my offer?" He was actually hoping so. He wasn't sure why but every time he heard about some young person with a hard luck story it was one of the few things that got past all his defenses. He guess it was because as a child Alfred had been there for him and in some way he wanted to pass that on.
He had done it with Dick and now with Tim, Peter had even more a tragic past then all of 'Bat-family', as he heard Barbara call it, so there was something in him that wanted to help Peter out. That was why he was training him and all of this. Deep down he knew how hard it was to live on after losing your family and he just wanted them to have an easier time then he had.
He also realized that Peter without the aid of anyone had gone on through so much and was his own man because of it. Batman figured if anyone deserved a break in life Peter did at least.
Peter looked over to Batman and smiled. "Yeah...I accept." Then he looked around. "So...when can I move in?" Peter wasn't sure but when his back was to Batman he swore he hear a small but limited chuckle. 'Man...I bet Wally will want to through a part.' He thought looking at the size of the place then he figured maybe he would let him, it was a long time since he had enjoyed himself.
THAT NIGHTPeter had moved all his stuff, which still wasn't much, to his new place and was outside the deck in his Spider-Man suit without the mask. It looked so much like New York, the air, the sounds of the city. It felt almost like home.
He was also confident that he wouldn't get lost since he knew this city better then anything. He pulled on the mask and jumped off the building and fired a web-line. He swung through the city and it was all coming back to him, the feeling of going over the busy night streets, the feel of the wind on his costume. For a brief instant he felt like he was home again. He landed on a building across from what has supposed to be the Daily Bugle but it wasn't. There was a sign that said 'The New York Journal' thought. "Huh, guess it's this city's version of a Newspaper building." Peter said to himself. "I wonder if they're hiring? Although if there's a J.J. Jameson in there I'm walking out the damn door, and looking somewhere else, once in a lifetime is enough thank you very much."
He swung through the city until he found just what the doctor was looking for. Trouble, and this kind was of a few guys that busted open a shop window and loading things into their van. Peter shook his head, he's seen a lot of crime and could tell these guys were just armatures. "Well time to introduce myself."
One of the guys, wearing a baseball cap and sweatshirt was putting a TV into the side of the old beat-up van. "Come on Frankie hurry it up, the cops will be here soon."
"Sorry he's a little tied up at the moment." Came an unfamiliar voice and the other guy twisted around seeing Frankie stuck to the wall in giant webs, some of it over his mouth. There was a thud on the roof of the van and when he looked up he saw someone in a red and blue costume with black lines all over it.
"Boo." Peter said to the guy looking up at him.
When the cops got the scene both of the patrol men got out of their car and weren't sure of what they saw. There was a van with merchandise from the store still in it, but the suspects weren't only still there they were tied up in webs.
The male officer looked at them and then to his female partner. "Do you have any idea what the hell is all this?"
She looked past him though at something behind him. "I think he might know." She said looking a little wide eyed and pointed. When he turned to look they saw someone jump off the side of a building and something came out of his arms and he was swinging away.
"What in God's name?" He asked backing away a little.
"Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." She suddenly said.
Her partner snapped out of it and looked at her. "What did you say?" She held up a small card with the words printed on it. He looked at the card then to the guys in the webbing. "Do you have any idea how we're going to write up this report?"
"None what's so ever." She said shaking her head.
NEXT UP CHAPTER 9: INITIATION