Chapter 1

DC Universe – Specification Unknown

Colours finally started to find their ways back into Peter's view and noise slowly crept back into his ears, unfortunately with the return of his senses, an ache crawled its way back into every single one of his muscles and a pounding headache decided to take up residence in his brain. "Ow…" He said aloud, as if vocalising his discomfort would somehow alleviate the pain. It did not. As he opened his eyes he saw dark clouds above him, sitting up he found himself on what appeared to be a rooftop, 'Ugh, where am I?' He thought to himself as he pushed himself up onto his feet. It was night, which meant he was out for a while as it was day just five minutes ago, but that was least of his worries. It was freezing cold and he could see snow falling around him, which was slightly off putting as it was Spring when the day began.

What bothered Peter most though was the skyline, he didn't recognise it at all, suggesting maybe he was in a new country. But he knew he was probably further away than that, after all the super collider he was literally just trying to stop was designed to travel through the multiverse. He sighed and rubbed the ridge of his nose with his fore finger and thumber through his mask, 'I'm in another universe aren't I? Damn Parker luck.' He thought to himself.

He jumped to the ledge to get a better view of the skyline and see if he could spot any familiarities, maybe he was lucky, maybe he just got transported to another city or somewhere in Europe or Asia or something, most of the signs and building names he could spot though were written in English however. 'Okay maybe I'm in England, they speak English there…' it was then he spotted a hot dog vendor with a sign saying 'Regular Hot Dogs $2, Chilli Dogs $3' He slapped his face into his palm and pinched the bridge of his nose again. "Okay," he said aloud this time, hoping it would somehow rectify his increasingly dire situation. "Maybe this is Australia, they use dollars I think, right?"

As soon as he said that he heard the screeching of tires and the honking of a car horn, his attention snapped to the street where he saw a car waiting for an elderly woman to cross the road. "Get out of the road, you dumb old broad!" came a voice not too dissimilar to a New Yorkers yet slightly different, either way it was unmistakably American, "Maybe the driver is a tourist…" he said before turning his head slightly left and seeing hanging below him on the very building he was standing on, the American flag. "Okay, maybe I Am still in my universe I've just been sent to a different city, maybe this Chicago, or something." He then thought about the season change, 'And it's the future? The past? Maybe I was shot a few months forward to Winter? Or a back to last Christmas?'

The longer he thought about it though, the more Peter came to terms with the idea the super collider probably sent him to another universe. It was, after all, designed for that express purpose, to traverse the multiverse. 'Shit!' Peter thought to himself, he didn't care much for swearing, but he didn't care at this moment, he'd just confirmed his worse fears. He was in another universe.

The nineteen year old hero stood up on the ledge and started pacing back and forth, Peter's memory had gone slightly hazy after he had been shanghaied into what he could only assume was another dimension. He could remember spots of the moments just before his arrival but they all seemed locked from him, as if they were hidden in a maze.

'Come on think, Peter. Think! I was fighting Electro, Miles was going against Vulture and Doc Ock was desperately trying to stabilise the collider. Then what?' He tried to focus harder but all he ended up doing was giving himself a headache, 'Ugh, I think I have dimensional motion sickness.' He thought, as his mind started to feel crushed by the weight of his own incomplete memories.

Still pacing the roof, the sound of yelling grabbed his attention. Jumping over to other ledge he slowly got into a crouch as he looked down into the alley beside the building Peter was on. From this position, he observed as five men in sweat pants and pullover hoodies with their hoods up, approached a younger looking man in similar clothing with his hood down. Three of the five were visibly armed with one holding a baseball bat, another brandishing a crowbar and a third with what seemed to be a simple iron bar. The other two however were the ones inching closer to the younger man in what Peter assumed was an intimidation tactic.

The costumed hero, still crouched on the ledge, continued to watch the scene play out. He didn't know how things operated in this city, or even where this city was, he decided to continue watching and to only step in when things got too far. He felt conflicted about standing back and just eavesdropping, especially since he could tell this interaction wasn't friendly. But, nevertheless he needed all the information he could get and this opportunity was basically dropped onto him, he wasn't going to waste it by acting too early.

'Just hang in there a bit longer, kid.' He thought as he looked at the terrified face of the young man being targeted. The kid looked no older than Miles, perhaps a bit younger.

The decidedly fifteen, maybe sixteen year old, boy was mixed race and dark skinned. His hair was short and curly, but, most noticeably to Peter, he looked malnourished. The kid looked as if he hadn't even heard the words 'cooked meal' in a very long time.

"Listen, kid. We don't want to hurt ya." Said one of the unarmed goons. "We just want what you owe us. Black Mask doesn't take kindly to late payments." He added as he advanced even further to the younger man.

'Black Mask? I guess that must be the boss of these cliché rent-a-thugs' Peter mused to himself. Desperately trying to piece everything together, all the information continued to point to one, inconvenient and irritating, conclusion. This wasn't his world. So he needed to work backwards, piece things together based on what he already knows from back 'home'.

'Maybe Fisk has a different gimmick here? I mean this New York is pretty much unrecognisable, so Kingpin wearing a black mask and going by a different name isn't too far out of the realms of possibility… If this even is New York. Or if Fisk even exists here… I'm overthinking, stop jumping to conclusions Peter. Just focus on what you see; assumptions are just going to confuse you.'

By this point the younger man had backed himself fully into the wall, and was urging himself to somehow back even further away. Hoping the wall would swallow him to put even more distance between him and the men in front of him.

He looked about himself worriedly as he tried to reply: "H-Hey guys, listen… I'm gonna pay Mask back I swear, I- I just haven't been able to scrape it all together yet. I'll have it by the end of the month! I- I swear…" His face was moist with sweat as every muscle in his body tightened with terror.

"Listen Eddy, you're half a month late with ya payment already. Now you know what happens with folks who are late with their pay…" The leader said, not without a hint of sympathy. "Black Mask can't just have people disrespecting him like that, especially for such a small amount of money."

The main thug eyed Eddy up and down, "So here's the deal, we're gonna have to put the hurt on ya a bit." He casually remarked. "Nothing too major, a couple of bruises here, some cuts there, maybe a broken arm or something."

Eddy, although terrified felt strangely comforted by the candid attitude the thug had. "T-That's all?" He replied, hie voice thick with fear.

The leader smiled, "Yeah, that's all we're gonna do to ya. I swear." He said with a grin sickeningly wide.

"Your sister on the other hand…" Spoke the other unarmed thug. He was a big brute of a man, pale, with a wide face that was scarred and misshapen, as if the man had been dropped face first as a baby everyday for a week.

Eddy snapped his head to the larger man, a mixture of disgust, hatred and fear in his eyes. The bigger thug just shrugged. "Well we gotta get some form of 'payment' tonight" He replied. He was wearing an ugly and evil smile that simply screamed bad intentions.

'God! The crooks here are just as morally reprehensible as the guys back home…' Pete thought. He had hoped maybe these guys would have some kind of decency, but he was an idiot to ever think that hired goons of this nature could be anything but disgusting creatures of pure greed and corruption.

Eddy looked back to the leader of the group with pleading eyes… "Please no. Leave her out of this I can get to the money, I swear!"

The leader raised is arms in mock surrender, "I'm sorry, Eddy. It's what we gotta do. My hands are tied."

'I guess that's all I'm going to get from these guys, better step in before they hurt the kid.' Peter thought resolutely and as soon as the leader finished his sentence with his arms above his head, the hero had his opening.

A resounding 'Thwip' rang through the air as the main thugs arms were suddenly stuck together and encased in a sticky, white, web-like substance. The thug looked back to Eddy with shock and confusion as Eddy looked back with astonishment and bewilderment. The two made eye contact before a voice cried out from deeper in the alley.

"I'd say they're more webbed than tied." Said the mysterious voice, and the entire group swung their heads to see a the outline of a man crouching on the building at the end of the back alley.

"I thought ya said the Bat was gonna be busy with one of his nutcases from the loony bin tonight?" Came the snivelly voice of the goon carrying the crowbar.

"That's not the Bat, dipshit! He ain't got the ears." Said the bigger goon, fear undercoating his voice, while still mostly sounding both stupid and piggish.

"He don't make jokes either." Said the main thug, while trying to wrestle his arms free. He grunted and stared at the silhouette atop the building, looking and sounding pissed off and confused. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?"

Spider-Man had been taking in all the details of the exchange, 'Who the hell is the Bat, Is that this versions Peter Parker, or is there another Spider-Person here? But, if there was why didn't any of them know of me? Ugh! I HATE the multiverse! Such a headache.' He monologued to himself as he dropped from the ledge, performing a forward somersault before deftly landing with near silence in the alley below. The building had only been three storeys, an insignificant height for someone with Pete's abilities.

A couple of the armed goons seemed impressed with the display but the snivelly crowbar guy, the leader, and the big guy all kept their composure and fixed their gazes at Spidey with hate and confusion on their faces.

"Me? Oh you know I was just in the neighbourhood, came here to see my good buddy Eddy." He said turning his gaze to the kid and pointing with finger guns at him. He wanted to see if he was alright, and maybe also encourage the goons to back off. Eddy just seemed as frightened as before but now with hints of confusion and shock painted on his face. "Hi, Eddy how've you been, buddy? Sorry I'm late… Traffic. You know how it is.."

The leader of the thugs, his arms still webbed closed, looked to Eddy, rage reddening his face, his eyes screaming with hate. "You know this punk, Eddy?!" He all but shouted.

"N-No. I-I Swear. I've never seen him before in my life" Eddy squeaked out, his heart racing.

Spider-Man put his hand to his chest, as if he'd been stabbed in the heart. "Eddy! How could you? After everything we've been through?" His voice thick with mock hurt.

"Whatever! Just take this guy out quick while I get this shit off my hands." The leader said, still struggling with his arms.

At his command the three armed goons approached Peter, he crouched down into his signature three point half crouch, laying one hand on the floor as his other hand was stretched in the air behind him. 'This guy has know idea what he's doing'the snivelly crowbar guy thought to himself.

The other two goons hesitated for a second, they'd never seen someone pull a pose like this before a fight. Which meant one of two things: Either, this guy was just making it up as he went along and had no idea what he was doing. Or, he was toying with them. Right now something within them was yelling at them that it was the latter, and that they should just run.

The crowbar guy went to strike first, charging at the costumed intruder with his weapon raised, ready to swing. Before he could even get close however, the costumed stranger had pounced, like a coiled viper straight at him. He landed in a handstand on the crowbar goons shoulders and handsprung forward off the goon, which sent him tumbling downwards and forward, straight into a row of garbage cans. He fell to the floor grabbing at his head, as his skull left a sizeable dent in the metal bins.

The leader, who was focused on trying to free his arms at the time, looked up at the sound of the scuffle, only to see a pair of feet coming straight at his head. The hero had launched himself off the crowbar goon straight towards the leader. "Oh, fuuu-" The lead thug managed to mutter before: "Whak!" Spider-Man's feet connected with his chest, knocking the wind out of him.

Before the goon fell though, Spidey pushed off him with his legs, sending him flying backwards into the bigger thug, who was just about to pull a pistol out of the back of his pants. The two crashed into each other, however, the bigger goon was strong enough to keep them somewhat upright. But it meant he was delayed in getting his gun out, as he grabbed the leader and helped him to find his balance.

The hero was now standing tall, looking at Eddy, "Eddy, my man, why the hell didn't you tell me this party was spandex optional? I wouldn't have worn my best red and blues." He said, as Eddy just looked back at the man, dumbfounded.

The two more hesitant goons, armed with a baseball bat and an iron bar, looked to each other nervously before looking back to their spandex clad assailant. He wasn't looking at them, he let his guard down, they thought. The two started to rush at him.

Peter saw Eddy's eyes go wide as he was about to warn him of the coming attack, but the hero's sixth sense already warned him. Without ever looking away from the kid, and in inhuman speed, Spidey moved his right arm across his body so it was under his left armpit facing the two armed goons who were approaching him from his left. He shot out a web line straight to the iron bar in one of the goons hand, grabbed the line, and with a simple flick of his wrist, he snatched the iron bar from the thug and sent it right into the side of the head of the baseball bat wielding goon, knocking him out cold.

Seemingly unfazed, the red and blue coloured man continued his longwinded and somewhat unfunny, yet endearing, joke "I mean seriously, I feel sooo over dressed. Next time you invite a guy out just let him know beforehand, kay?"

The goon, who was previously armed with an iron bar, was looking at the unconscious form of his friend and back up to their strange attacker. His hand was still under his armpit but was more relaxed now and it seemed as if he just was casually chatting with Eddy. Not sure whether to press the attack again or not, the goon just stood there in stunned confusion.

"And another thing, this mask really brings out my allergies I mean I- ah- ah- AH" Peter continued, he decided he enjoyed this bit he was doing, even if it was very stupid. Besides it was refreshing fighting criminals who had no idea who he was, they always underestimated him and it was very satisfying seeing their shocked expressions. While he was talking, he was using the interface in his mask lenses to change his right web shooter mode, to complete the dumb joke he was setting up. "AH- CHOO!" Peter yelled as he shot an impact web from his right hand directly at the still stunned and conflicted goon.

The goon's front was immediately encased in webbing, and he felt as though he had been punched in the chest by a truck as he was sent flying backwards into the wall behind him, and was stuck there, suspended a foot off the ground.

While all this was happening, the big goon was also now trying to rip the webbing off the leader's arms, to no avail. "Who the hell is this guy?" He asked.

"Who cares? Just get this crap off me and shoot him!" The leader replied, frustration behind every word. His chest still aching from the blow he received, "Ugh! Just leave this shit for now! Just shoot em both, we'll bring the kid's sister to Mask and he can decide what to do about 'payment'."

As the big guy let go of the leader's arms and pulled his gun out his pants, he watched as his ally was thrown into a wall by, and covered in, the same stuff as the leader. He also saw his other ally, who was wielding a crowbar before he was thrown into some trash cans, was now getting to his feet, although he was stumbling and still gripping his head. The big guy pointed his pistol at the red and blue figure in front of him.

Spider-Man obviously sensed the gun being pointed directly at him, not to mention the fact he was facing the big goon, even if his attention was still mostly on Eddy. With his right arm now resting on his hip, he used his left to fire another web line.

Before the big goon even had time to think about pulling the trigger the gun was snatched from his hand by the line, and he watched, stunned, as the costumed man deftly caught the gun in his left hand, crushed it casually and tossed it behind him. The crumpled pistol arced in the air as the crowbar goon was still stumbling about dizzily. It landed square on his head with an audible "Thunk!" And he dropped to floor unconscious.

"God, does nobody have manners these days?" Spidey asked the dumbfounded Eddy, he turned his attention to the two remaining thugs, the leader and the big guy, "I mean I'm trying to have a conversation with my buddy here, do you mind?"

At this point both the big goon and the leader were thinking of cutting their losses and just running away, but they knew Black Mask wouldn't let them get far if they failed their job. Before they could think any more on it though the leader's legs were webbed together, with a line between him and the hero. Spider-Man pulled on the web line as he leapt several feet off the ground, yanking the leader off his feet. His head narrowly avoiding the ground, as the hero pulled him into the air and attached the other end of the line onto the bottom of the fire escape above. Spider-Man then crawled along the bottom and, in a swift and graceful motion, swung himself onto the railing of the first balcony of fire escape.

The leader dangled upside down a few feet off the ground, thrashing about and yelling a slew of colourful insults at the hero. Suddenly his mouth was webbed shut and the rest of his upper (or lower, considering he was upside down) body was covered in white webbing.

The big guy stared at his fellow criminal, dangling upside down, still thrashing violently, muffled, yet angry, noises coming from his webbed face. Unsure how to proceed his gaze moved up the line and onto the hero crouching on the railing of the fire escape above.

Spider-Man simply waved back to the goon, enjoying the confused and scared expression on his face. He then shot a line to the thug's chest and, similarly to the leader, yanked him off the ground. This time though, he also used the goon's weight to pull himself off the railing and planted his feet into the airborne thug's chest. Kicking the big guy back down to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. He landed on the ground with a "Thud" and his back and chest ached with a pain he hadn't felt in years.

Spider-Man, still airborne after kicking himself off the big guy, performed a graceful backwards somersault before landing over the now prone goon. His legs were parted as his feet landed on the ground on either side of the big guy, who was on his back. The thug looked up with fear at the towering, red and blue clad hero. He was surprisingly skinny considering how hard he hit, the goon pondered, as the hero started to crouch over him before grabbing by the collar of his shirt.

Spider-Man was debating interrogating the thug, before deciding against it. 'What would I ask him, vague questions about his boss? About the city? anything this guy tells me isn't going to be worth the time. Besides I'm not here to pick a fight the sooner I get home the better.' He thought, besides he knew that he'd be on this 'Black Mask' character's radar soon enough after taking down his goons. He just hoped he was home before that happened, he didn't want to be causing too much trouble here, wherever here was. Instead he looked back to the goon who was already wincing in preparation for a punch. 'Well, I shouldn't keep the guy waiting…' He thought before delivering a quick and decisive punch to the goon's face. Knocking him unconscious.

Peter dropped the goon and looked back over to Eddy, he was still just standing there staring back at Spider-Man, his mouth agape. A beat passed before the kid broke the silence: "Holy shit, dude! That was awesome! How the hell did you do that? You were like a ninja or something, who the hell are you? Are you working for Batman? Are you the new Robin or something? How did you crush that gun with your hand? What was that gooey stuff you tied those guys up with?" Eddy blurted out with excitement and wonder.

Pete was taken slightly aback from the outburst, clearly the kid was sill in shock. Not wanting to reveal too much information, Peter elected to only answer one of Eddy's questions: "Um… I do a lot of jazzercize, it's good for the muscles. Are you okay?"

Eddy, slightly confused by the stranger's response, looked around his incapacitated agitators. "Err, Yeah. I'm good. Thanks. But, again, who are you?" He asked.

"I'm just you're friendly neigh-" Pete paused. His initial reply was mostly reflex at this point, although he hadn't used the exact phrase in a while (after just under 5 years of 'Spider-Manning' eventually people stopped asking who he was). Nevertheless it was his go-to response. But this wasn't his neighborhood, he actually wasn't sure what neighborhood he was in, or how long he'd actually be here. So he cleared his throat and tried again…

"I'm nobody really… Just passing through." He stated. 'I hope I am at least' He then thought. Ideally he didn't want to be here any longer than necessary, but he didn't even know where, or how, he would begin trying to get home.

"Nobody? Dude, you just took out like…" Eddy paused to count the thugs, "Five guys like it was nothing." He looked Peter up and down, studying the costume, it was different than what he'd heard the 'Bat-Family' wore. It was tight, form fitting and covered his whole body. It was coloured deep blue and red with a black spider symbol on the chest.

"You sure you're not one of Batman's? But, what's with the spider?" Eddy seemed to get more serious, and looked at the figure with a more sceptical gaze. "Seriously, who are you?"

'There's that name. Again. Who the hell is Batman? I need to figure this all out, fast.' Peter sighed. He helped this kid because he had to, he couldn't let him get hurt, or worse. He could just swing away from this whole situation, but figured that would only cause more confusion for the kid. "If you really want a name… You can call me Spider-Man, but as I said I'm just passing through."

Before the kid could ask more questions, Peter leapt back onto the wall of the building he came from. "Try to stay out of trouble kid, and go home. It's a school night." He quickly said as he ran up the building onto the roof. He actually had no idea if it was a school night or not, but he felt an urge to drop one last quip before he left.

Eddy watched as Spider-Man defied gravity and ran up the wall with ease. He was silenced by his confusion and shock, and he saw as the masked man stopped for a second on the roof of the building before leaping once more further away into the Gotham skyline that lie beyond the alley. 'It's Saturday…' He momentarily thought, before he was snatched back into reality by the muffled screams of the upside down thug hanging next to him. Eddy, sneered at the thug before exiting the alley and running home. He had a lot to tell his sister when he got back.