unbeta-ed

"Did you get him?" Flash asked the moment Spider-Man landed softly on his side.

Spider-Man paused before scrambling for his backpack and gingerly plucked something out from the bag.

Flash cooed upon coming closer. "Well, seems like he's okay. Mrs. Burton is worried what might have happened to him. Is he sleeping?"

"Well, they sleep most of time. At least, the one I used to have."

"You had one? Wow. Usually, it's either a dog or a cat."

"We have limited space in the apartment, so I went for something small. They're also low maintenance and nice to play with."

"Until they spiked up," Flash murmured.

Spider-Man's face might be covered, but there was unmistakable wince there. "Yeah. It took a while for him to warm up to me. Do you have a pet back home?"

"I don't. But now that you mention it, I might get one. Any suggestions?"

"Um, get yourself a Jonathan maybe?"

Flash chuckled. "Yeah, maybe I should."

"Paint him blue. He can make a good mascot for your team."

Flash grinned. "We'll see about that."

Flash carefully poked the hedgehog's head, making it wiggle to curl into a ball, thankfully without having the quills shot out.

"Alright, Jonathan, time to get you home."

They found themselves on an empty rooftop of a nearby abandoned building. It was a peaceful break, considering, after covering most ground and swinging on buildings of the city. There were boxes of take outs and pizzas between them, together with a few cans of sodas. And it was beginning to feel like a sleepover or a picnic than a nightly patrol.

Not that they would have it any other way.

"So what abilities do you have other than super speed?" Peter asked after munching.

"Fast healing?" Barry wondered if he should say accidental time travel as well. "I can phase through solid objects too."

Peter perked up at that. Barry hasn't demonstrated that yet. "Oh yeah?"

"Watch."

Barry aligned the five empty boxes of pizza and vibrated his arm. He slid his hand through the cartons and removed it again, handing to Peter for inspection the flattened boxes without any hole in it.

Peter gasped in amazement. "You mean, you can literally pass through anything? How about walls?"

"I can pass the dimension barrier, so yeah, I can pass through walls as well."

"Ohhh. Can you demonstrate it with something harder than cartons?" Peter was thoughtful for a second. "Um, walls, maybe?"

Barry hummed. "How about you wait for me on the ground floor of this building?"

"You'll do it? Awesome."

Barry shook his head in amusement after Peter leaped past the railing for a dive below.

There was way too much energy in Peter that he couldn't easily sit still for more than an hour.

"Karen, are you getting this?"

"I am. Would you like a copy sent to your phone?"

"Sure!"

Barry stopped his vibrations entirely, looking at Peter curiously with a slight tilt of his head. "I never asked, but who's Karen?"

"She's an AI embedded on my suit. Mr. Stark created her too. Say hi, Karen."

"Hello, Mr. Allen," Karen's voice rang. It was like from a phone on loudspeakers, except her voice was clearer.

"Hi there!" Barry returned just as enthusiastically. "You're Peter's handy companion, I see."

"She's like my conscience, actually, but she's literally speaking," Peter shared. "She also records what I see through the mask—um, you don't mind, do you, sir? That phasing thing was really something so I asked her to record it."

"I don't mind." Barry shrugged and then playfully nudged Peter on his shoulder. "Save the 'sir' for the class. We're both masked men tonight."

Men, huh? That was the first time Peter heard he was called one. Usually, he was the kid, or that teenager with high-pitched voice.

"So, how about you? Any other abilities?"

"Karen told me ones about the web combinations I have. Haven't tried them all, but I've seen some at work."

"That must be some heavy bad guy to stop if you had to use a lot."

Peter scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Not really. I need to pass the time when it happened. I kinda got stuck on a warehouse?"

He must be red from embarrassment when Barry began laughing as he told the story.

"So these are the upgraded web-shooters? And the first version was made by you?"

"There were some materials at home. I do the web formula at the chem lab because the school have the chemicals I need—did the web formula, I mean, because I never slacked at your class, I swear!"

"You designed and built your web-shooters and web formula by yourself." Barry's lips quirked into a grin. "That's amazing in itself. Honestly, after finding out that you're Spider-Man, I won't be mad if you're stirring on a flask and hiding it on the drawer."

Wasn't that close to what Peter did in chemistry class before? He chuckled nervously. "Still, it's class hour, so…"

"Tell you what, when I'm in the middle of lecture and I suddenly asked for a bathroom break, that was me stopping a few nearby crimes."

Mr. Allen's stories of stopping crimes in the middle of class hours was definitely better than Peter's assumption that Mr. Allen often has an upset stomach.

"Oh my god. Can we post that?"

"Go for it, but won't they know you're Spider-Man?"

"Nah. Spider-Man has his own account."

"Ah, the days when they used to steal only a couple of TVs at JC Penny."

"And when they used to deal in illegal arms? Yeah, read about that too."

"Now they smuggle weird techs with names you can't pronounce."

"Some are alien techs that they never bothered to name. As long as they cause more boom."

"I'm glad that my earth never attempted to mess with the Dominator tech. Imagine that."

"What do they look like, the aliens from your own universe?"

"They look… alien-y enough."

"Uh, like the alien from Alien?"

"You have that movie too? I suppose the Dominators are like that, but not as long. They're tall, though. Bipedal, wrinkled-like skin, multi-fanged mouth, and red skull. They're intelligent and bilingual."

"That's… wow."

"Yeah. So how about the aliens here?"

"There's the alien alien, and there's the good-looking ones."

"Good-looking?"

"Thor and his brother, Loki, are technically aliens, because they're from Asgard, another planet to my understanding. They look like Hollywood actors, by the way."

"Right. I've seen pictures of them online. Though, I suppose, yes, there's a good-looking alien that I know too, but she's from a different earth. The Supergirl I told you about. She has this cousin too, and they call him Superman in their world. I heard that their planet was destroyed so they had to flee to earth."

"Does your earth have them too, Superman and Supergirl?"

"We don't. It's one of the many differences our earth has over theirs. When I checked, I don't exist there too, like in here. Sometimes you get this versions of earth that look exactly the same from where you came from, sometimes they're entirely different. On the earth where Cisco and I were supposed to arrive, I met another version of mine there. He's not the Flash, but a CSI who's married to… the girl he really likes. He's happy that way, and I admit, that's a more peaceful life."

"…You left a lot of people, didn't you?"

"Let's see. My foster family, Joe and Iris. And there's the teammate of ours, Caitlin. She's probably worried sick and already contacted Harry, a friend of ours from Earth-2. I'm sure that they're doing their best as well to locate us. If Cisco and I couldn't return from here, then I trust them to bring us back. There's also this other team, the Team Arrow, who must have heard the news. The Green Arrow is a friend from a neighboring city. He isn't a meta-human, but he might as well be with how precise he shoots his target. I believe The Avengers have the same guy in the team?"

"You must be talking about Mr. Barton. Hawkeye. Unfortunately, he was on Cap's team. He seems nice—all of them are nice, I bet, if we were on a different situation."

"Why did you join? It's alright if you don't want to answer; it's rather personal."

"It's fine. I tend to give myself a lot of excuses and to others a mini speech on how with great power comes great responsibility, but if I'm asked directly, the answer boils down to proving myself capable. People like Tony Stark don't just knock door-to-door on any apartments, and he's certainly not the type to make costumes for a kid who had a get up of red tights and goggles. I like to impress him, because that way I feel worthy of what he's giving me."

Barry glanced at him, smiling. "Thank you, for being honest. I gotta say, if I were in your shoes, I would be doing exactly the same. But I'm an adult, so in a way, I also know what an adult thinks of a younger man trying to impress him." He remembered Stark confronting him that night. Stark has that air of arrogance, but his heart was clearly in the right place if he was worried for Peter and how he would be affected by Barry's role as his teacher and an unknown vigilante that came out of nowhere. "Mr. Stark's priority will always be your safety, maybe that was why he gave you a new suit when he asked you to join his side. You being there was enough to impress him." He reached out to ruffle Peter's head. "I know that you're feeling inadequate. I understand; I felt like that too when I was your age. But you know what? Powers or not, you could help others in your own way, and giving aid is the best reward there is. And for me, you're impressive already as Peter Parker, the young man with a promising future."

Peter reddened at the encouraging pats on the head and the praise that he got. Aunt May used to say that she was proud of him, and that was nice too, but she didn't know what he was out here during evenings and donning the Spider-Man costume. Mr. Stark was the opposite: he knew Peter as the Spider-Man, but he never saw the high school student struggling with assignments and grades.

With Mr. Allen knowing the both sides of him, it meant a great deal what he said. Peter was right to idolize him despite knowing him for only a short while.

Mr. Allen was the kind of person that Peter could see himself becoming similar to, one day.

"Judging from your huge grin, it's a good news," Barry said knowingly after changing out of his suit. Cisco lifted the extrapolator, and Barry immediately caught on. "You did it?" he asked incredulously.

Cisco nodded vigorously, hitting the high-five that Barry initiated. "Not without help, of course, and the thing is, the portal has to be opened at Stark's lab at Stark Industries. Apparently, it can only do so there, and the portal has to be conjured first before it can be widened for us to pass through."

"Still. Cisco, that's impressive."

"Heh. Yeah, I should give myself a pat on the back too." It was another one to add on his list of accomplishments. "So, the day after tomorrow?"

Barry blinked. "Wait. We can go as early as that?"

"Yep. It takes only half an hour to set it up, you know. And Stark said I could just give him a ring to tell him when."

Barry was elated at the news, truly, but there was a pang of something else in there that he didn't expect. He recalled his attentive students and Midtown. He wasn't particularly attached to the whole school and the student body, though he taught a number of them. And got close with an earnest one.

"Barry?"

"Oh, sorry. It's just that—hey, I know you did a lot of work here, and I'm lucky that you're with me, but can I ask a small request? Can you, uh, hold it off for until Wednesday, the 28th. Allow me to be their chaperone for their field trip at the museum as a… goodbye to them, and then we can go at the evening. If that's okay to you, that is."

Cisco raised an eyebrow. "They grew on you, huh?"

"They did. It's my first time teaching, but I didn't know it could be quite an experience. But honestly, it's Peter that I grew to know more."

"I know. You could see yourself in him." Cisco shrugged. "I don't really mind. I like the kid too. I was thinking of letting Stark tell him our departure instead, but that will be quite rude. Go on, Barry. You formed more ties here than me."

"Thank you, Cisco."

TBC