Chapter Text
Peter just wanted a sandwich. He had walked into Delmar’s to fulfill that quest, when three masked gunmen rushed in to rob the place. If he had been in his suit, it would have been as easy as pie to take them down, but thanks to Parker luck, he was just Peter, not Spider-Man. He had figured the best course of action was to do nothing and hope they left everyone unharmed, but that didn’t last long.
The gunman who appeared to be in charge had a massive, alien looking gun, and he appeared to like pulling the trigger. First he aimed it at objects, a chair, a table, another chair. When the beam of purple light hit the objects, they disappeared, leaving just traces of purple dust.
When the gunman decided to point his gun at a lady struggling to give him her wallet, Peter had to make a split second decision. He jumped between the gun and the lady as the trigger was pulled. There was a flash of purple, and then everything went dark.
Peter groaned as he opened his eyes. It was dark, but as his eyes adjusted, he could see stacks of boxes, a table and two chairs around him. He focused on his hearing, and heard nothing but the scuttling of rats. He was alone. Judging by the boxes, he guessed he was in some kind of warehouse. He felt like his body had been put through a blender. It reminded him vaguely of how he felt after he was turned to dust and then brought back. He looked at the chairs and table again. They looked the same as Delmar’s furniture. Putting two and two together, he realized that the gun must teleport things. Next order of business, figure out where here is. Hopefully he can get back home in time for school tomorrow.
Peter tried to look at his phone, only to realize he left it charging at home. He checked the rest of his pockets and found one twenty dollar bill, one elastic, and one Lego Iron Man minifigure.
He walked outside and noticed it was much darker than it had been on his way to Delmar’s, the clouds were dark and heavy and the smell of smog was strong. He climbed to the roof of the warehouse, and looked at the unfamiliar skyline.
“I get the feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” He mumbled to himself.
“What to do?” Peter said to himself, his voice sounding louder than he expected in the quiet surroundings. “Alright, let’s make a list. One, find out where I am. Two, go home. That can’t be too hard, can it?”
He decided to explore. Walking towards what looked like the more populated area in the distance, he heard voices. He thought about ignoring them, but curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to investigate. Creeping closer, he realized it was some kind of weapons deal. Not one to let something like that stand, he pulled his T-shirt over most of his face, and his hoodie over his eyes. It wasn’t ideal, but between that and the crazy amount of shadows everywhere, and the fact it was only four men, he figured he could take them down without risking his identity.
“Didn’t anyone tell you not to play with guns!” It wasn’t his best quip, but give a guy a break, his day wasn’t going so well.
“Run, it’s a bat!”
“It ain’t a bat, you ever hear them speak like that?”
“Robin did!”
“He did, but not anymore, lately he’d rather stab you, and his insults are vicious!”
“If it ain’t a bat, what is it?”
“I don’t know, but if he ain’t a bat, I reckon we can take him!”
Peter was pretty confused, he’s been mistaken for an overgrown spider before, but never another animal. He decided to worry about it later. “I’m your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!”
“Our what now?”
Staying in the shadows, he sent out some webs to relieve the men of their weapons. Not giving them a chance to react, he webbed them to the shipping container behind him. It was over pretty quickly, not that he was complaining, he was still pretty sore from whatever happened earlier and didn’t really want to get in a fight, but it was a bit boring.
The men tried to get free of the webbing, but they were pretty stuck.
“Say, think you can help a Spider out? Where are we?”
“At the docks idiot.”
Peter looked around at the shipping containers, and the water in the distance. “Huh, I probably could have figured that out myself. What city is this?”
At that the men started laughing.
“Welcome to Gotham, city of darkness and home of the insane!”
“What?”
“Word of advice kid, get out of here before the shadows eat you. And if you can’t get out, stay away from clowns, bats, and don’t hurt any plants.”
“Okayyyy then.” Peter decided to worry about that strange advice later. He used a web to grab a phone that had fallen out of someone’s pocket. Opening it, he realized the time was only 2:45pm. Considering how dark it was, he did not expect that. He dialled 911, told the operator about the men with weapons, and then continued his journey.
About an hour later, after stopping three muggings, two of which he was the intended victim, he made it to what appeared to be the main part of the city. The streets were a little cleaner, and the people a little better dressed, but the people and the shadows gave off a creepy vibe. He brushed it aside, blaming the strange words of the man earlier that he had been trying to brush aside.
He wandered for a bit, unsure what to do, until he spotted Gotham City Library. Figuring that would be a good place to start, he walked in. The lady at the front desk introduced herself as Barbra Gorden, and asked if he needed any help with anything. He declined and went over to the computers.
He sat for a minute, trying to figure out what to search, and then googled Gotham. He clicked on a link for a map showing the location of Gotham in the US. He stared for a bit, blinking a few times. Something was very wrong here.