Chapter 2

DC Universe – Specification Unknown

As Spider-Man aimlessly swung through the foreign city, he thought about how he acted earlier. 'You're an idiot Pete. You should've just helped the kid quickly and quietly, no quips, no showing off and NO talking him afterwards. Why couldn't you have done that? Ugh! Where the hell are you even swinging to?'

As his mind continued to wander, he found himself landing on another nearby building and started pacing once more on the ledge as he tried to gather his thoughts. He needed to figure out where he was firstly, then find his doppelganger (if they even existed) and then find a way back home. He stopped pacing, sat himself down on the ledge and stared into the unfamiliar skyline. 'God! Why can't life ever be easy for once?'

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by a voice from the shadows. "Something on your mind?"

Startled, Peter jumped back onto his feet and turned to the direction of the voice. He spotted a figure in the shadows and stiffened into a more defensive pose. Whoever it was probably didn't intend him harm, as if they did his Spider-Sense would have let him know before they even had time to get close.

"Well, somebody's jumpy." The feminine and voice added.

The figure stepped out from the shadows and into full view. He felt a tinge of hope as a sense of familiarity hit him.

He looked the woman up and down. She was wearing a form-fitting, black, body suit, made from what looked to be a mix of leather and a light Kevlar-like material. She had a whip attached to her hip and her upper face was covered in a black mask adorned with, assumedly, cat ears. One of her hands rested on her whip-free hip as she stood. A, seemingly full, black duffel bag lay on the ground just beside her.

"Cat? Is that you?" Pete found himself asking, he saw the resemblance and his mouth moved faster than his brain apparently. 'Idiot, Pete! Stop just saying things… Let's use our brain, I need to play things cool here.'

He then studied her closer, the similarity was there, sure. Hell, even the gimmick seemed to be eerily similar. But the face, the voice, the… well the body was still unbelievably good, he had to admit. But Pete could see the differences, he quickly noted some before he averted his eyes and focused on her face again, he didn't want to seem like a, or be a, creep.

His momentary, leering pause was interrupted by the woman continuing to speak, though it seemed to Pete she was enjoying the attention from him.

"So you've heard of me hmm? Interesting, can't say the feelings mutual…" She paused expectantly. Her expression trying to coax a response from the Spandex clad individual in front of her.

"Oh, err… Spider-Man" Pete responded instinctively. His voice soft and nearly uncaring, his disappointment and confusion starting to slip through into his voice.

"Well, Spider-Man the pleasure is all yours…" She replied with a grin before her face suddenly darkened into a serious and piercing gaze, "But I'm only going to say this once so listen closely… Only one person may call me 'Cat' and that certainly isn't you, got it?"

"Huh? Oh right, yeah sorry, that was actually not… Sorry. No, I thought… I thought you were someone else." He replied without thinking.

He sounded defeated, Pete was growing more tired and confused every second and as such he had no idea how to respond to the woman, and so he inadvertently decided to give up with all the smoke and mirrors. His plan to play it cool had been thrown out the window. And instead his voice had started to betray the lost teenager, revealing his vulnerable state to the stranger ahead of him.

"Well try not to sound too disappointed… Someone else though you say? Don't tell me a there's a copycat out there?" Selina looked at the masked figure with intrigue in her eyes. She was trying to get a response from him that would satiate her curiosity, and so far most of this 'Spider-Man's' responses had only made her more curious.

Peter took a breath and met the woman's gaze again. Questions raced through his mind, he had no idea which ones to start with or even if she would be able to help, her costume was some hint at something at least, this place seemed to have heroes or at least costumed vigilantes. He looked back at the woman, she was staring at him quizzically, he then realised he'd been thinking for a while and a loaded silence now hung in the cold night air. Deciding to cut his losses he figured he'd start with the basics.

Ignoring her comments. He begins to speak again. "Okay, sorry. I'm having a little crisis here." He eventually managed, "could I just ask a few questions…." He pauses, realising that if this isn't Black Cat he should start off easy and gain momentum from there. "Um… what can I call you if 'Cat' is off the table?"

"Catwoman." She replies candidly, still fixing him with curious eyes. "And I don't normally go round answering the questions of random vigilante types in masks…" She takes another loaded pause and the two look at each other in silence for a moment. Before she continues. "But tell you what, I'm in a generous mood, and you certainly have me curious… So how about a little back and forth?"

In truth, she was interested herself about this figure and wanted questions of her own answered. Several minutes prior she had been minding her own business exiting the scene of a, dare she say, expert burglary, when all of a sudden she heard a commotion in an alleyway a block or so away. Keeping her distance, she moved to the rooftop of closer building and watched as a young boy was being harassed by a group of what appeared to be Black Mask's thugs. In the midst of a moral conflict she decided to hang back, not wanting to cause herself any trouble with Black Mask, from what she heard the boy would get a bit beaten up but would be overall fine.

She thought to herself she'll only step in if absolutely necessary, after all this was a job for Bruce and his pyjama-clad friends. She could always send a message over to Alfred to send one of the Robins to check on the kid and find the thugs, this wasn't her fight. Then she overheard the apparent leader of the troupe say something truly despicable regarding the boy's sister. At that moment she decided against hanging back and was about to give these thugs a very painful lesson on respecting women. Mask already wanted her dead because of her relationship with the Bat-Family, what was he going to do? Want her dead more?

But before she could even move to get closer to the thugs and lay the hurt on them, something happened, she saw the leader's arms covered in some form of net, she heard the voice of a young man from the building adjacent to her own and she watched as he summersaulted into the alley. She then watched on with fascination as the skinny, but decidedly well-built, stranger in spandex danced in circles around the goons, taking them down quickly, humiliating them in some cases, all while cracking stupid jokes.

She saw as he used technology similar to Black Spider to incapacitate the thugs. 'I doubt Spider turned over a new leaf… So this punk stole some gear and is now using it to stop muggings? Bruce isn't going to like this… At least he seems to have some fighting chops and isn't completely clueless.' She thought to herself. In fact he seemed to be more than capable in taking these guys on, he must have had some training. But by who and why was he here now? This was Batman's stomping grounds, no one came here, not even the league, without his say so.

After the 'fight' (if you could even call it that), she tried to listen as he talked to the kid but his voice was quieter now and she couldn't quite catch what he was saying, except for something about jazzercize, which only fuelled her curiosity more. She then watched as he leapt over the building he was on earlier. She was impressed by the leap, but unsure whether the stranger was a meta-human or his, probably stolen, gear gave him a boost. Nevertheless she decided to follow as he swung through the city, and when the stranger landed on the roof of another building she saw an opening and decided to introduce herself.

Now she stood mask to mask with the stranger as he stared back at her with big white lenses. He seemed to be considering her offer.

"Okay. A little I tell you mine you tell me yours?" He paused, considering, "I suppose that will have to do for now, It's not like I have any other options..." Spider-Man eventually replied to the woman, he needed some answers and if he had to give some of his own to get them, so be it. Besides people in this place didn't seem to know who he was so he could always lie.

"Ouch." The woman responded.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean it like that, it's just I really need some answers" He hurriedly tried to reassure her.

"I'm pulling your leg, Spider-Boy. And you're right, you don't have any other options, either you answer my questions, or neither us get any…" The woman said with a sly grin, causing the young hero to blush slightly under his mask.

'Slightly suggestive phrasing aside, I suppose this is my best choice of approach so far. I mean she's wearing a costume, has a gimmick and a name, she's got to be a hero or something like that… And she hasn't tried to kill me yet. So she's proba- Hopefully… Not a villain.' Finally he spoke: "So, who goes first me or you?"

"Ladies first I think." She replied. And Peter decided not to argue with the strange woman, he didn't want to upset the locals more than he already had. She continued: "Where'd you get the suit?"

'That's her first question? She wants to know about my fashion choices, sure red and blue spandex definitely has a certain flare to it, but so does a skin-tight cat suit… Anyway my turn next, let's not reveal too much, gotta be somewhat tactical about this.' He quickly answered and added his own question: "I made it… Um, okay my turn, I'm actually kind of lost and dealing with some memory problems… Think I hit my head too hard or something earlier, so could you remind me what city this is?" 'You're an idiot, Pete. Like she's going to believe a story like that, why are you so bad at this? So much for tactics…'

Selina had thoughts of her own on the spandex-clad man ahead of her and her mind started to run: 'He made it? That's odd, he must have stolen the design or at least based it off of Black Spider's… The abilities it gives him are so similar… More powerful, but similar…' Still confused by his answer it took her a second to register the stranger's ridiculous question and the weird rambling he prefaced it with. 'Wait, what did he just say?'

Voicing this confusion she responded: "What city is this? That's your question?"

"Err…. Yes." Pete had realised by this point that lying may no longer be an option, and he still wasn't great at being subtle when it came to attractive women it seemed. So, if she asked about where he came from he might just have to be honest. But, he still needed to know where he was right now.

Her eyes narrowed, her expression seemed to shift from amused curiosity, into suspicion. "Seriously, who are you?" She replied, her voice cold.

"No. My question first." Peter replied bluntly. He needed answers and he was tired of trying tiptoe his way around every interaction. He'd only had two so far and already the pressure of not revealing too much was getting to him.

He'd felt similar before, after 5 years of trying to conceal his identity, he became quite good at bending, stretching and twisting the truth, even lies had become easier. After all, it was to protect those he cared about, and he knew the consequences if he failed to keep that secret safe. He learned that the hardest way imaginable.

But this was different, stretching the truth and lying was so much simpler when he was home, and it wasn't even necessary when he'd previously travelled the multiverse to fight weird energy vampires. This was all new, he lacked all the simple details you fail to appreciate because they're always there. Where you are, what time it is, who your friends are and most importantly, who your enemies are.

This time, Pete felt truly alone, and trying to lie under those conditions was nearing impossible, he just wanted answers. Consequences be damned, as far as he knew he was the only one at risk for now, and he was okay with that.

Selina paused, slightly taken aback by his change in tone. A silence hung in the air for a moment. Finally, she answered: "You're becoming more mysterious every time you speak. But a deal is a deal... This is Gotham City." She kept her steeled expression, and her eyes narrowed even more as she focused on the stranger.

'Gotham?' Pete thought to himself, 'I know that name. It's an old name for New York, so this must be an alternate version of my home. But why does it look so different, I've been to other New Yorks before and there's always some similarity. Why is this one so different?' He looked around himself once more, hoping to find something he would recognise, then he noticed something, something he should have noticed straight away. Then again, perhaps he did, but was so distracted it slipped his attention: 'And why the hell are there so many blimps?'

"Gotham. Like New York?" He eventually said.

"No." Her voice was still cold.

"Does Gotham have a different name, like New Amsterdam or something then?"

"No. I know where you're talking about, this isn't it. New York is somewhere that way," She said pointing ahead of her, passed Pete. "In New York State, we're in New Jersey right now."

Although Selina still had her suspicions, she could sense a level of desperation from the stranger and, although she wanted answers, she felt that the least she could do was let him know where he was. But, his response still seemed to only make her suspicion of the stranger grow.

"My turn. Also I'm getting two questions since I just answered twice." The woman responded, a level of seriousness he'd not yet heard made her voice heavier, more cutting. "Who are you… Really?"

"I suppose, 'your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man' isn't gonna' cut it?", Her dark green eyes peered back at him from behind her mask, Pete felt as if they were piercing through him.

"No. I need more than that. You're a newbie here, and Gotham isn't the sort of city that welcomes newbies… So, I'll ask again: Who. Are. You."

Pete sighed, "I'm not telling you who I am behind the mask if that's what you mean. I can't do that…" There was a long pause, he looked her in the eyes, her face softened for just a moment, as if to communicate that she accepted the condition.

"But what I can tell you is, I'm Spider-Man. I don't thin- No. I know I'm not from around here, in fact I think I'm very far from home right now."

Her face softened again, reverting back to its more inviting, yet curious, expression "I still need more. You can't just show up, perform some acrobatics in a onesie, bust up some thugs and call it a night without attracting some attention, not here at least."

"It's actually a two piece, not a onesie..." He offered, her unamused expression informing him now probably wasn't the best time to be pedantic. "Sorry." He added.

She could see 'Spider-Man' right himself before shuffling on his feet, he was clearly considering what she was saying. She continued, ignoring his correction. "Look, trust me when I say this, answering my questions will be easier than answering Batman's."

That was the third time Peter had heard that name, he must be a big deal here. But for now, 'Catwoman' was the only one with him, and she wasn't trying to press him too hard at the moment, other than a serious tone and some 'evil eyes'. 'Answering her questions couldn't be too bad could it?'

Using his fingers to emphasise each point, as if making a list, he replied. "Okay… I'm Spider-Man. I got super powers from a radioactive spider. I'm from Queens in New York. I've been fighting crime for about 5 years. And I'm very confused about everything, so I'm not sure how much information to actually… Give… Right now… Not that I don't want to I just…"

"I get it. That'll have to do for now…" She said, with her hands in the air, her voice getting softer.

"But 5 years? And in New York? How come I haven't heard of you, I thought Powergirl was the only cape there? You've got to see why I'm so… intrigued, everything you say just gives me more questions."

"If it makes you feel any better, everything you say only makes me more confused, so we're about even there." He replied, chuckling slightly. A hint of melancholy sprinkled within his laugh.

"Sooo… this back and forth game might go on for a while. If, we keep playing that is."

"I have nowhere to be, I was about to retire for the night anyway… and I believe you still owe me at least one answer."

"Okay then. Ask away…" Pete replied, more casually this time, the truth is he was starting to warm up to Catwoman, partly because she reminded him of Felicia, but also because she was actually turning out to be quite pleasant to talk to.

Moreover, the fact she was able to sneak up on him without alerting his spider-sense, definitely couldn't be ignored. It alerted him to him to danger, and her managing to actually making him jump, although terrifying at the time, only communicated to Peter that she had no ill intent. At least not yet.

Selina, now sitting on the wall adjacent to Spider-Man, considered for a second before asking her next question. She had so many racing through her mind: 'Why is he here? Why did he steal Black Spider's gimmick? Hell, he might not even know who that is. He didn't even know what city he was in, and when he I told him it sounded like he'd never heard of it. Why show up here? Why now? How has he been doing this for 5 years without me knowing? I thought I was caught up with most of the big deal capes, so how has he managed to keep this low of a profile all this time? How come the Justice League haven't recruited him yet? Did he turn them down?'

Thinking too hard on her next question was pointless, they would be here for hours if she asked every single one. And Spider-Man himself seemed to have just as many questions, they could keep going back and forth forever, and as much as she was enjoying this, she needed to get her stolen goods back home before the night really got going. It was forecast to be long one for the Bat-Family after all. Finally, she made a decision, asking every question would just spoil the mystery anyway, so she settled for something more casual.

"So, who is Black Cat?" she eventually asked.

"Errr… A cat burglar, back in New Yor- Back home. Similar dress sense and gimmick as yourself…" He considered not adding his last words, but Catwoman's new, more welcoming and casual attitude, caused a momentary lapse in judgement, "And kind of my ex, I guess…"

She rose an inquisitive eyebrow from behind her mask. "Oh wow. You really are a fascinating one aren't you? Though, I can't say I'm too pleased to hear someone has stolen my thing. I really thought I was the only cat themed cat burglar out there. I may just to visit New York and teach someone a lesson about stealing other people's tricks."

Pete chuckled at that, genuinely this time. He moved himself to sit on the wall next to Catwoman. "Sorry, but no offense, I'm pretty sure neither of us had heard of you either… She may be a thief, but she took the mantle from her father… Not you." A pinch grabbed his heart and he remembered the pain her father had later caused him in his burgling career, and how it hurt their relationship when he refused to help her get him out of jail.

Changing the topic, he continued speaking, "Though, I suppose that confirms my suspicions about what's in the bag." He said, pointing a thumb in the direction of the duffel bag.

"Are you gonna' try and take me in to 'Gotham's finest'?" She replied calmly yet direct, her voice taking on a darker tone as she continued. "Because that won't work for me. And I would hate for our night here to have to end so… Unpleasantly."

A low hum came from Pete's spider-sense, he paused before chuckling again, Pete responded. "No, I'm not. Not tonight at least. I have bigger worries right now… Plus I have no idea where I would even take you to be honest, this whole place is new to me."

Slowly, some puzzle pieces surrounding Spider-Man had started to fall into place for Selina. She looked him in his lensed eyes before speaking, "Wow. You're really far from home aren't you?"

"I umm, don't know how to respond to that honestly."

"Oh please, I'm not stupid. You don't know anything about this place, you come from seemingly nowhere, yet somehow you've been doing this for 5 years? Also, I would definitely have found out if someone was going around using my image. Plus, you barely reacted when I warned you about Batman. Meaning you're either very brave, very dumb or you're very ignorant. It's the last one, isn't it? You're so confused because you're really not from around here, right?"

Pete was taken aback from the sudden onslaught, and how accurate it was. He sighed dejectedly, "Yeah, you're right."

"So, Past? Future? Alternate Timeline? Another universe? Which is it?"

"The last one, at least I'm pretty sure it's the last one. Could also be the third I guess… You're not acting as shocked as I thought, though."

"Oh please, you're not that special. New York's own Powergirl isn't from this world either, and that's been public knowledge even since Supergirl showed up."

"Umm… I don't know who any of those people are."

"Right, sorry. So how'd you get here then, judging by how stressed you seem, it couldn't have been on purpose?"

"It wasn't, I was fi-"

Pete was cut off by sound of an explosion from further in the city. His spider-sense started tingling as he jumped to his feet, leapt to the other side of the roof and began looking for the source. He saw smoke and could hear sirens ahead of him in the distance.

Without thinking, he dove off the roof. Selina jumped to her feet, as he disappeared from her vision, concern started to build as she waited for the sound of Spider-Man hitting the ground. Only for her to see a line of webbing attach itself to the building opposite and a red a blue clad figure rise through the air.

"Sorry, duty calls! Nice meeting you!" We'll have to catch up another time!" He called back, his voice growing quieter as he swung off into the distance.

A wide smile crept its way onto Selina's face, 'See you around, Spider-Man.' She thought as she picked up her duffel bag, and leapt off the building from the opposite side of the chaos.

Author Notes:

Sorry this took a while. Life, unfortunately, is a thing. So, I've been pretty busy lately. This chapter was meant to be longer and include some more action, but I found myself enjoying writing the character interaction too much so decide to focus on that for now. Trust me though, I'm only getting started, big things will (hopefully, assuming I don't give up, or have a terrible tragedy befall me) happen in this story. There's a whole multiverse (two actually) of characters to use.

So I hope you enjoyed this more light-hearted and chill chapter for now. Also I hope my writing for Selina wasn't OOC for anyone, I tried to stick with what I know of her from the sources I've read/watched, but I'm just a fan after all (I realised I use 'after all' a lot actually, I hope that doesn't become annoying)so please be merciful. I decide to not keep the secret of where Pete's from for too long, at least with certain characters. Plus, I tried to make the conclusion come somewhat naturally. Selina isn't a dud, you have to be very cunning and observant to be such a successful burglar after all (There it is again...)

Finally, some notes on spelling. If some words seem a bit off it's because I'm from the UK and we spell some words differently to other English speaking countries. I hope to use US English for the character dialogue and thoughts, but I'm only human and will probably forget and fail to do that.

Also I try to keep to a limited-omniscient, third person narrative voice. Mostly from Pete's perspective but dipping in and out of other people's perspectives every now and then. Hopefully I've done it effectively and it isn't too distracting. That being said, I don't plan to change that approach but if you have any pointers for improvement I'm all ears.

Criticism and praise equally welcome, I want honest thoughts. Try to make it constructive though, please don't be a dick. It probably won't bother me all that much, but it might bother Jesus. You ever consider that? Yeah... Think on that for a while.

Until next time,

FumbleFeatures :)