PART 1 - Chapter 11 - Dinner and a Show


Where a man gets a simple invitation to a simple event with no huge consequences.


"... but seriously, why me?"

That was the question, wasn't it?


Peter had been summoned to speak with Ted at the CEO's personal office at the top of the Chrysalis - a request out of their usual routine, where Kord would normally just show up with at most ten minute warning at his labs to ask for news. So out of the routine it was that Peter had no idea of what could be his boss' intent.

Peter stored the newly painted NG suit, no longer completely black, inside his secret compartment inside his personal vault, which also stored the recently acquired Bumblebee Jacket, neatly folded inside.

'I'm not gonna lie, the jacket idea kinda works, but not like this, and especially not with these colors… though maybe with new ones? Blue and red, maybe? Or maybe…!' His sudden new idea felt good, felt right, so he mentally wrote it down to make some experiments later.

Things had been quiet, around the Chrysalis. With most of the teams unaware of the threat to their lives, things kept going as normal.

Well, as normal as it could be in the Chrysalis.

Peter remembered hearing about Sajani working on synthesizing Nth Metal, whatever that was, and the rumor that she had managed a breakthrough, since, last night, everything and everyone around her laboratory floor had become suddenly weightless for around thirty seconds.

Peter touched his ID badge on the special VIP elevator at the Lobby, and access to the last floor of the building was granted.


Ted Kord was wearing sports clothes, a top and shorts, and there was a pair of boxing gloves hanging on a chair, but Peter could not see any sandbags anywhere in the CEO's office.

"Peter! Welcome!"

"Mr. Kord?"

"I told you, Peter, call me Ted. Mr. Kord is only when I'm trying to be imposing."

Peter could see even better now his boss' physique, for a man in his forties, Ted Kord kept in shape.

Though he also noticed a distinctly large bruise on the man's left side, on his ribs.

"You okay?", Peter asked, pointing at the noticeable detail.

"Ah, my sparring partner has been showing some progress lately. Kid has a mean right hook, I should start treating him more seriously next time we fight. You practice boxing, Pete?"

"I've always been partial to sprinting, as in 'run away from fights as much as possible', ever since… Well, I never had an interest in fighting. Except in video games."

Peter hoped his quick change of subject hid the fact he had almost talked about his high school days, when 'Flash' Thompson got into the Football team and 'Kong' McFarlane became two feet higher and around sixty pounds heavier after one summer, while he remained the ever Puny Parker.

Which happened to a Peter Parker that lived his life on another Earth.

On this Earth, though, Peter Parker had been homeschooled.

No Flash, no Kong.

"Oh, video games, I should have invested in that in the eightes, but I was barely a teenager, so focused on my Masters Degree…", Ted had a look of reminiscence. "Well, anyways, let's focus on the future, precisely the very near future, as in tomorrow night."

Peter quirked an eyebrow.

"Peter Parker, how would you like to join me for a little gala at Wayne Manor?"

Peter Parker stared at Ted Kord in awe.

Wayne Manor. Home of the Billionaire Extraordinaire and Serial Adopter, The Klutz of the Upper Crust, Bruce Wayne.

The richest man in the country, who also happened to be good-looking, fit, smart and popular with pretty much everyone. Peter liked mentally calling him the Anti-Bezos.

But, the way Ted had asked him… "Are you… asking me on a date, sir?"

Ted Kord's face fell.

"Because that would totally be sexual harassment in the workplace environment."

"Wait, Pete, I mean, Parker, I didn't… it's not like you are… it's just that, I'm not! Not that there's anything wrong with-!" Peter's laughter made Ted realize he was being played with. "You are not that funny, you know."

"I really am… but seriously, why me?", he finally asked.

"Oh, please, Peter! As if you didn't know! Because you are the young blood, the hip face I need to show to Wayne and Gotham's high society, the representation of one of the young and bright minds employed by Kord Industries in this city."

Peter blinked. Twice. Then he frowned.

"Anna Maria bailed on you."

"Totally. But she also deserved the trip to Sweden and the award she earned."

"True. What about Metron?"

"Kid has no tact and hates the one percent. Called Wayne a white-privileged-butt. Only he didn't say butt."

"That's not that bad."

"To his face. When Wayne was visiting his school last year. Kid keeps the newspaper cut in his lab. On a frame."

"Why doesn't he hate you, then?"

"Next to Bruce Wayne? I'm actually not that rich and I built my own empire. Bruce inherited his."

'Oh, right. The Wayne Murders.' Peter recalled reading about Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce's parents, people with bigger hearts than their son, and the tragedy of their deaths.

"Muntz?", he tried again.

"Jurgen actually demanded his contract to have a no-formal-parties clause."

"Smart guy. Can I have that too?"

"No~pe."

"There is also Sajani." Now Ted Kord was the one who blinked. Then once more. "Yeah, nevermind, you'd be safer with Metron. Ariana?"

"Believe it or not, she is an ex-girlfriend of one of Wayne's kids. The one who is always on his phone at parties?"

Peter cringed. "Ouch, that would be awkward."

"No kidding, and that is the last thing Kord Industries needs right now." Kord pulled his relatively modest office chair and sat down, Peter following suit on another one.

"Pete, Bruce Wayne has a big speech tonight, and he has something big coming, some project that has been in talks with big players, huge players, as far as I heard. Rumor has it, even Lincoln March will be there."

"The Mayor candidate?", Peter remembered from the newspapers' social media. Guy was investing money on many charity cases and had, as far as reporters could tell, a clean sheet, something really rare in this City.

"The next Mayor, if I'm not wrong. I'll be honest with you, because you seem to understand about the real world outside the laboratories, which is more than I can say about your colleagues. Wayne Enterprises has always been ahead of Kord Industries in R&D, and in our worst trimesters, people start wondering if I shouldn't sell my company to Bruce."

"But this tower, the whole multinational, is my creation. Mine. My father had a big business, and he left it to me to flee from the debt collectors. And there were a lot of them.", at that, Ted dropped his head back. "And I made it come around, by making it good for the world. I don't aim for the profit, it comes because our tech is good, it's honest and it's trustworthy. Lex-phones explode and Wayne's are great, but still too expensive for the little guy. Kord's hexachips are made by smaller foreign companies and built nationally. I aim to make the world a better place, but Wayne has money to burn away until he can make a profit. I don't."

The multimillionaire pulled his head back and stared at his young employee in his eyes.

"And this gala? Queen Industries and LuthorCorp were not invited. But Kord Industries was. It's the perfect chance of closing a deal between WE and KI, giving us a steadier position in this city. Partnership, not submission."

Ted Kord, as many weeks before, offered him a hand.

"Help me, Peter Parker, you're my only hope."

Which Peter took in stride and shook back.

"You know, I have a good feeling about this."


'It's official, Bruce Wayne simply eclipses Tony Stark.'

Peter Parker, wearing a tuxedo, bow-tie and italian shoes, all paid as company expenses, watched around the largest ball room he had ever been in his life.

'Wilson Fisk in his most lucrative days as the Kingpin could never pay for the kind of service and decoration that Wayne is casually flexing tonight.'

The crystals were really crystals.

The silverware was actually gold.

The butler was, in fact, an Englishman.

'Well, Parker, give a good look around you', he thought to himself. 'There are magnates, politicians, old money, nouveau riches, the industrialists and CEOs of most major banks, all together because a guy who has more wealth than some countries have as Gross Domestic Product invited them for dinner.'

Then he took a good look at himself and his new suit, a tailored gift from his boss. 'Not bad for a guy who not two months ago was budgeting between food, rent and web ingredients, huh, Peter?'

Peter Parker was sitting on a small round table, one of twenty total, with Ted Kord, then stood up as someone had just joined them, an elderly African American man that greatly reminded Peter of Morgan Freeman.

"Peter Parker, it's my great pleasure to introduce you to one of the greatest minds in the research and development field, Mr. Lucius Fox. Lucius, meet Peter Parker, the genius that has reinvented textile technology at Kord Industries!"

"Oh, high praise coming from a man such as Ted Kord", the older man shook Peter's hand. "I have to admit, I have been following your recent achievements, Mr. Parker. Your M4 project is remarkably brilliant in its simplicity and effectiveness."

"I'll… take that as a compliment?"

"As well you should! Actually, I would love to see your thoughts about some military-grade malleable structures that could be used in civilian-"

"Lucius, I really hope you are not trying to steal one of my rising stars.", Ted Kord admonished, but Peter could feel that he wasn't really serious.

"I'd never do that to an old friend, Ted. Why, the thought of offering this brilliant young man the chance of working for the largest and most well-paid science division in the hemisphere never came to me!", there was a smile when the man wiped his own glasses. "Honestly!"

Ted and Lucius accepted an offer of champagne flutes, Peter still nursing the first one he had received when they arrived.

"You know… joint business with shared royalties and a contract of five year partnership on that space program with the EU that Bruce has been pushing might make me feel like lending you some of my stars.", Ted quickly proposed.

"Partnership in development of space program with your Mr. Muntz, yes, and lower prices on the next gen hexachips you are secretly planning on launching next spring and you put both Mr. Parker and Ms. Jaffrey as part of our trainee exchange."

"Maybe for Jaffrey, and you must be kidding about Peter. I can bring Grady Scraps from Los Angeles, you were interested in his work in optics and refractions last year, right?"

"Hmph", said Lucius in annoyance. "You are forcing my hand, Ted."

"I never lied over how good my cards have been, Lucius.", Ted took another sip, then smiled. "Let's table this for another time, I see our host has finally deemed us worthy of his arrival."

And indeed, Bruce Wayne finally came to his own party, fashionably late, with three of his sons tagging along, the aforementioned butler now gesturing for the waiters to take their places around the room.

The young scientist could not help but wonder where he had seen the eldest son before. Richard 'Dick' Grayson - the one obviously most famous amongst the ladies. Dark hair, perfect smile, runway model type of physique, effortlessly charming as he walked along with his 'father'.

Peter turned his head to the side, and he could almost feel a memory surfacing, just to slip away.

The middle one, Timothy Drake, was, as usual, holding a smartphone on one hand and casually looking at the gathering, as if he had just noticed them. As rumors went, he was the most likely to assume the company than the others, a true predator in business hiding behind his uncaring dark vibrant blue eyes.

The shortest and youngest of the bunch was Bruce's actual blood son, Damian Wayne, barely a teenager, darker skin tone almost as if he had been blessed with the perfect sun tan from birth, and an arrogant expression that made him appear even younger than he was, bright green eyes staring at the crowd as if they were exactly where they were supposed to be, waiting for him.

"Thank you all for your presence and your patience! I swear, forty years living in this house and I still get lost sometimes!", the small joke broke the ice, as Bruce took stage behind a podium, with a maquette of Gotham City set on a table directly in front of him, and everyone else taking their seats.

"Every Saturday, the Gotham Gazette includes a small life-styles piece called 'Gotham is.'" Bruce started his speech. "In the column, random Gothamites are asked to complete the sentence 'Gotham is…' using three words or less." A minute into the speech and Peter could see how the Billionaire had everyone's attention. Maybe it was his charisma, or the conviction of his words.

He went on about people naming the city as 'Gotham is hopeless', then as one of its villains, and then reaching 'Gotham is Batman', which Bruce affirms how he thinks that every vote for Batman is, in itself, a vote for Gotham's true heroes, the GCPD, and good and tireless men such as Commissioner Gordon.

But he himself, Bruce Wayne, could not say what 'Gotham is' to himself.

He told them how he knew what loss was. But that his father had taught him how 'Tomorrow was just a dream away', and that his words helped the orphan understand that the pain and the anger were temporary.

How he realized that yes, good days would come, how things would get better.

"Now, why am I telling you this? Well, friends, my point is this: when circumstances are challenging, or frightening, asking what our city 'is' is pointless."

"Because all we will see, when we look around at the buildings and the streets, will be our own fears, our own frustrations."

"Our own demons."

Bruce's face was much more serious now, and the lights of the room started to dim, just ever so slightly.

"But if we stop looking to the present and the past, and instead we look to the future…"

The podium was slowly moved away, the city model hovering a foot higher from its table, with Bruce spouting about Wayne Enterprise aggressive and immediate investments to rebuild the city, its most derelict industrial areas, the abandoned and marginalized neighborhoods and the public transportation systems.

"Look past what Gotham was, what Gotham is… and imagine with me, just for a moment…"

Small holograms were projected on top of the maquette, drawing numerous gasps from the crowd.

Several luminous and transparent buildings rising from Gotham City, reaching heights the triple of the tallest buildings in the Financial Area and Diamond District, several city blocks large, with numerous new highways and railways and pedestrian paths.

Bruce closed his speech with the pleas for investors and support, to everyone to join him in the promise that 'A Better, Brighter Gotham is one Dream away.' Cue the applause. Cue the toasts. Cue the handshakes and the promises of investments.

"So?", came Ted's question.

"So?", repeated Peter.

"What do you think?"

"About?"

"Come on, Pete! About Bruce and his plans?"

"Well." And what could he say? That he thought Bruce Wayne was certainly handsome and charming and could make a career as a politician easily? Or that he knew how to press the right buttons and say the right words to get people to invest in city improvement, the whole 'dream' speech also containing promises of economic prosperity to Gotham City?

"Come on, better start remembering how to talk, because here he comes!"


There were things that Bruce Wayne could do that Batman never could.

As, in this case, inspiring wealthy people to part with their own money, willingly.

Bruce set his eyes on the next table, three men standing up to shake his hand.

His newest gadget, the contact lens with remote access processor linked to the Batcave's computers, meant that, as Dick had so bluntly stated, wherever he would go, he would have the Batcave going with him.

A blue caption box appeared above the leftmost man.

Lucius Fox.

Technical Advisor.

Currently employed at Waynetech, Wayne Enterprises R&D Department

Access Level: Moderate-High

'Facial recognition working as intended.' Bruce turned to the one in the middle.

Edward 'Ted' Kord.

Current: Blue Beetle (II)

C.E.O Kord Industries.

Justice League member.

Former Justice League International member.

Threat assessment: Low-Medium.

'Good', he noted to himself. Then it came to the young man on the right.

The one that he had been hearing about so much lately.

Peter Benjamin Parker

Currently employed at Kord Industries.

Threat assessment: no data

Known Expertise include:

chemistry

biochemistry

physics

robotics

textile material

genetics

(...)

'And the list goes on and on, impressive for a man of his age.' Bruce had heard about Kord's recent think-tank and had to say that most of them could achieve great things, but this Parker, from humble origins to stellar results in less than two months.

Amazing.

And suspicious.


"So, can I count on Kord Industries support, Ted, old buddy?" Bruce shook Ted Kord's hand with firmness and swiftness, something Peter could describe as professional enough without looking too cold.

"Of course, Brucey, I was just talking to my buddy Lucius here about the prospect of a trainee exchange, the legal departments can make sure the finer details are in order."

"Oh, that is wonderful, I was hopeful about counting with Kord Industries' support!"

The billionaire turned to the young scientist, Ted's 'plus one', and his charm was set on high beams. "I believe we haven't been introduced, I'm Bruce, Bruce Wayne."

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Wayne.", was the somewhat restrained reaction of the younger man. "Peter Parker, I work at KI's Chrysalis."

"Is that so? Were you one of the Gotham U's students Ted Kord managed to snag from us?"

"Peter is a personal find of mine", Ted corrected.

"Ah, a protégé! Anyone that can catch the attention of Teddy is definitely someone worth snatching away, right Lucius?"

The three men gave small laughs, all so polite, all so… forced, in Peter's opinion.

"Well, I'm sorry to curt this meeting short, but I am confident I can count on Kord's and Parker's insights to help in our 'Rebuild Gotham Initiative'."

"Of course, Bruce! There are many projects that we can-"

"I'm afraid there's not much that can be done about your Initiative."

There was a pause, where everyone had to pause and realize that, yes, it had been Peter Parker who said that, and yes, it was a complete rejection.

And, because he could not keep himself quiet, he had to add:

"No matter how much money you put into it."


"You know, Peter, I don't know if I get angry with you for what you said or thank you for making me witness a speechless Bruce Wayne."

"Really?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm right in the middle of these feelings, so I'll keep my judgment until I can get your explanation for what happened at the Gala."

It had been quite a moment, Ted Kord had to admit. Bruce Wayne's surprised open mouth and no words coming out, Alfred Pennyworth's raised eyebrows (probably in scandal), even Lucius Fox's narrowed gaze, admittedly in curiosity.

"Because Bruce Wayne can't say what 'Gotham is'."

"Oh?"


Gotham Manor

Hours earlier

Peter was never a man of snark, but, obviously, Bruce Wayne had lived a much more fortunate life to know better.

The whole idea of 'Rebuilding Gotham City' came from a good place. But that didn't mean it was a good idea.

What is Gotham?

'Gotham is its People'. Even Peter could answer that properly, and he wasn't a Gothamite, for crying out loud!

Gotham City was the good and the bad. The kind and the ugly. The people that built the city. The people that destroyed it. The ones that praise it and that criticize it.

He knew that because it was the feeling he got just like back home, in New York City.

There were dreamers, like Bruce Wayne, and monsters, like that 'Penguin' guy he had heard about, and many, many worse criminals.

And there were the middle, the gray areas.

Peter wondered how much these people, with their riches and status, really understood the guys that worked the nine to five and beyond that? The women that had to leave their families alone to earn enough to keep them under a roof every week?

Wayne then started talking about his father, how he spouted that 'Tomorrow was just a dream away'. The hero had to admit, this Thomas Wayne sounded awfully similar to dear old Uncle Ben.

'You can't always win, that's the way life works.', Ben Parker once told him, over something silly, a baseball game. 'Sometimes, it doesn't matter how hard you try, you lose anyway. Life is a very long season. Some you win, some you lose… and it's good to lose once in a while. It makes the winning all the sweeter.'

But Bruce, with all his loss, didn't get it. He did not go by bus. He did not have to check if he had enough money in his account for rent and food.

Bruce Wayne. Did. Not. Know.


"Ted. You are a scientist, like me. And, as a scientist, you know that it doesn't matter what you aim to achieve, if you ignore the basis of a problem, you will never achieve a solution."

"Bruce Wayne went and told everyone to ignore the past and the present. 'When circumstances are challenging, or frightening, asking what our city 'is' is pointless', his exact words."

"Ted, that is stupid. If things are difficult now, if they are scary now, you need to do something about things 'now'. Would you go for a medic that only deals with the symptoms but doesn't wonder what the cause is, because it's 'pointless'? If Bruce became a Doctor, he would not treat a limp, he would cut off the leg and replace it with an expensive prosthetic, because it's a shiny, bright, better futuristic limb."

"You said it yourself, Bruce Wayne is the kind of guy who can toss money at a problem until it goes away. That is not how Real Life works."

"You get your car engine broken, you fix the engine, replace the broken part, readjust what's loose, put more oil, whatever it is, you deal with it. You don't go and say 'I'll buy a new chassis!' or get new leather seats, that's not fixing things, the car won't move an inch further if you ignore the engine problem."

"Today, people are scared because of rising criminality, but they still go out on the streets and risk themselves because they are going to lose their jobs if they don't."

"You can't change the City if its people are afraid, if they are still under the mercy of criminals and abusive cops and uncaring employers. Change the 'Now', and you'll change the People, and then, you change Gotham."


Peter Parker's fame as the rude representative of Kord Industries got him many supporters inside the Chrysalis and admirers on the street.

And it also got him a reprimand from Ted Kord and a number of other punishments to save (Company's) face in public, no matter how much the millionaire privately applauded his stance against the 'Rebuild Gotham Initiative'.

Ted would not fire Peter Parker, but he had to make him an example.


"Tell me it's true!"

"Hello, Red Hood", came the tired voice of Nightwing, as he just climbed up a building, after restraining all members of a gang he had just beaten up. His younger brother's excited voice always spelled problems to him, he just knew it.

"Tell me that a nerd publicly roasted B in front of everyone at the Gala. Give me this early Christmas present, Wing."

"First, it wasn't in front of everyone, the gossip column is just making it bigger than it actually happened."

"But something did happen!"

"Well", Nightwing lowered his voice, while pressing a button on the neck of his suit, muting his own recording devices. "Ted Kord's newest star pupil made a remark to B's face and some people around them actually heard. He told B that his Initiative would never work, no matter how much money B wasted on it." Nightwing could not see the huge smile hidden by the red helmet, but he knew it was there.

"Ha! That's awesome! Wait. Newest pupil? Another supersuit?"

"No, this Parker is just a scientist, not like the Reyes kid in the West Coast. Not another vigilante."

"Not yet, you mean."

"Not every guy under the wing of a vigilante ends up becoming a vigilante, Jay."


Since Peter Parker was taking some time-off, Spider-Man took the stage, swinging in Downtown during the nighttime.

His new suit, no longer black, felt much more comfortable, even if the only change had been aesthetic.

The red and webs had returned, starting from the mask and forming a triangle from his shoulders and ending on his ribcage, a solid and bold white small spider blazoned in his chest and a large black one on his back.

Arms and abdomen were bright blue, brighter than before. Forearms kept the red and webs, but fingers and thumbs were blue.

A small belt, three layers of red, white and red, and full blue legs, except for red and webbed kneepads and rings on his ankles and the small white plates that reinforced his feet.

And, for the newest addition, shining lights coming from triangle pieces on his wrists, the white round belt buckle and the front spider logo.

In Gotham City, you either could go mysterious and dark, or you could be a beacon of light and hope.

"New suit, new colors!", Spider-Man jumped over the metropolitan train and swung low enough so that the people on the streets could see him clearly.

"Let's see what the City needs!"


To be Continued!


Author's note:

This. Is. IT. The fic quote came from this chapter, and this is the chapter I am most afraid will repel readers.

My own opinion being, Peter is not in the right. But he is also not wrong. He is his own character, with his own decisions, and this will clash with others in this reality, as it would IRL.

Hope you enjoy it.

Next Chapter: It's raining men!

P.s.: FF dot net still showing troubles! Thank you for every one who replied and reviewed and also spoke to me about the current state of disorder in this site!