Chapter Text
Peter landed in front of the wizard, clinging to the slick side of the iconic torch as he looked up at the shattered sky.
“What’s happening?” He shouted, looking up at Doctor Strange.
“They’re starting to come through, and I can’t stop them,” Strange responded, his hands shaking as he fought to keep the rifts from opening wider.
Peter fought to keep the encroaching panic away. “There's got to be something we can do. Can't you just cast the spell again? But, like, the original way, before I screwed it up?”
“We’re too late for that,” Strange shook his head, fighting to keep steady. “They’re here! They’re here because of you.”
And just like that, the panic vanished. This was his fault, and Peter knew it was up to him to fix it. His gaze hardened as he looked back up to the man floating above him. “What if everyone forgot who I was?”
“What?”
Peter looked across the harbor, eyes darting to the figures in the sky that were becoming clearer by the second. “They're coming here because of me, right? Because I'm Peter Parker? So cast a new spell. But this time, make everyone forget who Peter Parker is. Make everyone forget...me.”
“No” Strange denied immediately.
“But it would work right?” Peter pressed.
“Yeah, it would work.” Strange closed his eyes and took a breath, “But you got to understand, that would mean everyone…” another breath through clenched teeth, “who knows and loves you... We'd... We'd have no memory of you. It'll be as if you never-”
Stephen didn't get to finish his explanation before a flash of white-violette burst from one of the rifts, the sound of shattering glass becoming overwhelming, sending Peters senses reeling.
“Shit” he swore, “No. Oh no nononono,” he muttered as he slung fiery threads of magic towards the now gaping hole in the sky, looking like it was trying to sew the rift back together like how May used to mend his jeans.
Peter pushed the thought of May away, he couldn't break down, not now. He needed to fix this.
“Strange! You have to do it!” He looked up to see the wizard shaking his head. “Do it now!” Peter shouted, standing up from his crouch.
“I can’t!” He screamed, his hands shaking harder than ever. “It’s too late, something breached the containment, they’ve felt you here. They’ll be able to find you now, wherever you are in this world, they’ll find you, Peter. I’m sorry.”
“Then I have to leave. If I’m gone, will you still have to wipe everybody’s memories?”
“I- What are you… Peter, it's too late, you can’t run from them”
Peter cut him off. “You said they’ll be able to find me anywhere, in this world . But the multiverse is real.” He looked up at the sky before turning back, “They’ve caught my scent so I can’t stay here, but if you send me away, somewhere where there is no Peter Parker and no Spider-man, and then wipe everyone's memories of me here, there’ll be nothing left for them to chase.”
Strange looked down at the stupidly brilliant, self-sacrificing kid. He could see the steel in his gaze, just barely covering the misery he could see the kid refusing to acknowledge.
“You’re too smart for your own good kid” He muttered, lifting one hand to start a new spell.
Peter just gave him a grim smile, wiping away a trickle of blood from his hairline. “Tell MJ and Ned that I love them and I know they’ll do amazing at MIT. I have a feeling we don’t have time for goodbyes.”
Strange nodded grimly, orange light coiling around Peter as the spell took hold. “I’ve tried to craft the spell to find an Earth similar to ours containing no Peter Parker or Spider-man, but I have no idea where you’re going to end up, I’m sorry kid.”
Peter didn’t get a chance to respond. The coils of light encased him completely and with the screeching sound of metal on metal, he was gone.
Jason focused on keeping the green at bay as he gave the useless trafficker a swift kick to the temple, knocking the spineless man out. It’s been two and a half months since kids started going missing all over Gotham, and every single lead Jason has followed has brought him no closer to finding the missing kids.
Leaving the trafficker tied up and unconscious, he pings the location for Oracle to send the cops and takes to the rooftops, needing to work off his agitation. Cases involving kids are always a sore spot for him, and this case in particular is getting under his skin. If the kids being taken were all kids in his territory, maybe he’d have noticed sooner, it was only after a string of disappearances happened in crime ally that they caught on to the situation.
Kids had been disappearing from every borough of Gotham with no connection between them. Every age, race, and sex, there was no pattern. It started in the freaking diamond district of all places. Twin boys disappearing on the way home after a night at the movies. Then a teen girl from the fashion district. An eleven year old from Old Gotham, a police officer’s son from the upper west side, a seventeen year old boy from Coventry. It was the four and six year old siblings that disappeared from their beds in Chinatown that finally caught the media’s attention.
But with the media’s attention, it seemed like the criminal decided to switch his target to kids the media wouldn't care about. Kids from the Narrows, Bowery, and Crime Alley. And then suddenly, the disappearances stopped. With no sign of the missing kids, no witnesses, and no new kidnappings, Jason had been shaking down anyone with connections to trafficking rings for three weeks with nothing to show for it.
Releasing his grapple, he tucked into a roll landing on the next rooftop. Pausing to catch his breath before whirling and smashing a fist into the nearby AC unit. Panting as his com came to life with a beep.
“Hood, your guy’s in custody. His name is Michael Holtrop, but I'm not finding any connection between him and the kids.”
Jason growled, shaking out his hand as moved to the edge of the rooftop. “The fucker didn't know anything. Another dead end.”
Oracle hummed, Jason could faintly hear her fingers against the keys as she spoke. “Are you sticking around? Nightwing is just west of you on Columbus Street.”
Snorting, Jason readied his grapple, “and have to deal with getting Golden Boy’s emotions all over me?” He said flatly. “Pass. I’m done for the night.”
“You know he’s just worried about you” Oracle sighed, “you and the kids”.
“I know O” he grunted as he lept off the building. “Doesn’t mean I want to deal with it. Hood signing off.”
He clicked off his coms before swinging in silence to his bike. He could have bunked down in one of his closer safe houses, but he wants the ride back to the alley to clear his head, and more importantly, he wants the leftovers he swiped from the manor. He had almost made it home before he heard the unmistakable sound of a child’s cry.
“No, Max! Give him back, Max!”
Jason makes a hairpin turn, bike roaring as he speeds towards the girl's cries, and comes to a screeching halt. He’s off the bike and beside the crying girl in a second, one hand already unbuckling the gun on his hip.
“Hey, hey, Marley” He hushes the girl he recognizes from the gang of street kids that hang around the junkyard on 4th. “What happened?”
“He took Max!” she shrieks, pointing at an alley down the street. “We were just walking and he came up behind me and pushed me and took Max!” She sobbed, words jumbling together.
“Stay here,” he tells her before sprinting to the alley. Another kidnapping? After almost three weeks of nothing, Jason hopes that this is the break in the case he’s been looking for.
He slows at the mouth of the alley, checking his weapon before flipping the safety off.
“You better not have touched a hair on that kid's head” Jason growled as he stalked into the alley, his helmet’s vocoder carrying his voice through the darkness. “After the month I’ve had, I’m just itching to pump someone full of lead tonight.”
He wasn’t going to aim to kill, he needed the fucker alive, but he didn't need to know that. But as he stalked his way farther into the alley, he couldn't see any sign of the kid or his kidnapper. Something shimmered at the end of the alley, waving eerily in the moonlight. It was only as Jason got closer that he could make out what it was.
A spider web, bigger than any web he’d ever seen before, was caught in what seemed like a pile of animal bones, twisted and dancing in the wind that funneled down the alley.
“The fuck?” Jason muttered, gun still carefully drawn as he nudged the pile of bones.
It was then that he heard the slight scrape of cloth against bricks and a whimper, the only warning before he looked up, locking eyes with something perched on the alley wall.
He dove out of the way as the thing pounced, feeling fingers grasping at his shoulder and pressure around his bicep before he twisted and expertly took a single shot, hitting the kidnapper in the arm. The thing hissed, a sound not quite human, its eyes flashing a toxic green before it released the small white package it was holding in its uninjured hand.
Jason took a couple of steps back, trying to get a good look at the thing, but it was swallowed by so many layers of fabric, gauzy strings of spider web, and dirt that all he could make out was the green eyes peeking out from under the wild nest of hair it was sporting.
It hissed again, moving its body down into a crouch, its limbs sticking out unnaturally, and Jason’s hand started to tremble. Suddenly, his hand holding his gun fell to his side and his body staggered sideways, his strength disappearing as a tingling numbness spread down his arm and across his chest.
“Fucker!” He gasped, stumbling into the wall as he fought to keep his body upright. “What did you do!?”
The unknown didn't answer him, instead vocalizing a few rapid clicks and growls before jumping up and sticking to the wall, scurrying up it on all fours, onto the roof, and out of sight.
“Fuck fuckfuck” he slurred as he could feel his tongue getting heavy and numb. He panted as he reached up and pawed at his helmet, struggling to reactivate his comms, connecting to the open channel he never uses, and suddenly he was awash with chatter.
“Hood,” he grunted, and instantly all the chatter stopped. He paused, forcing his numb tongue to move. “Need evac. Hit. Unknown tox. Paralytic” his voice slurring as his body slipped closer towards the ground.
“Oracle” Batman’s gravelly voice cut through the silence
“I’ve got him B” The sound of keystrokes rattled down the com. “The Alley, ‘Wing is closest, sending location now.”
“Eta 5 minutes” Nightwing’s response was curt, wind rushing through his com as he swung between buildings.
“I’ll rendezvous at Hood’s location with the batmobile. Eta 11 minutes. Agent A, prep for a full tox screen. Red Robin and Robin, stick together, finish your route, and come straight to the cave.”
“Alright B.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Hood, do you know where you were hit?” The roar of the batmobile could be heard across Gotham.
Jason tried to answer but all that would come out was a slurred “harrrmm” as gravity finally won and he tipped over, smashing his helmet against the ground, the sound ringing through the comms.
“Hood!” “Jason!” a cacophony of worried voices rang through his helmet as he stared at the white lump the thing dropped when he shot it. It twitched and Jason realized that he was staring at the ugliest goddamn dog he’s ever seen. A little rat-like thing that had a collar with one word.
Max
God damnit, he was never going to hear the end of this. His eyes slipped closed as he heard the distinct sound of a grapple releasing and feet hitting the pavement before the world went dark.