Chapter Text
Peter gave Peter 2 and Peter 3 one last hug. There was just a bit of time left before Mr. Strange finished his spell to fix everything, and that meant the other two Peters would be returned to their home universes. Peter knew he would probably never see them again, but he didn’t want to think about that right now.
“Thanks. For everything,” Peter says, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Of course, man,” Peter 3 nodded.
“Peters gotta stick together,” Peter 2 agreed.
Peter 3 looks at both of them solemnly. “In case we never see each other again, just know I love both of you, all right? We’re brothers. You both mean a lot to me.”
Before Peter could add anything else, he heard Dr. Strange yell, “Peter!”
He pivoted around to peer up at him, his spider sense flaring for no obvious reason.
( Danger-intense-confused-??? )
“What's wrong?” Peter asked, wincing at the Intense Feeling.
“Something’s wrong with the spell,” Strange said, an increasingly concerned look on his face. “I did everything right…” His voice trailed off.
Peter opened his mouth to voice his confusion and concern, but before he could, the feeling of a giant force (almost like a hand, Peter thought in a split second) grabbed him around his middle and pulled . He went flying, but the world around him was gone, replaced by flying bright colors, blurring together in a harsh strobe-like effect. He quickly closed his eyes against the harsh light and tried to stay conscious. He felt himself go into a spin, but before he could throw up it felt like he was almost spit out of wherever he had been before, and he felt the familiar pull of gravity. He tumbled head over heels for a bit until he tried to steady himself, but before he could make any real progress, he hit the ground with a loud BOOM, a burst of pain, and then blissful darkness.
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When Peter next opened his eyes, the bright flashing colors were gone, and it seemed to be nighttime wherever he was now. He looked up at the sky, and noticed he could barely see the moon at all. The moon was half full and mostly obscured by dark clouds and smog. For some reason this set off alarm bells in his head, and he wasn’t sure why. He got to his feet and tried to dust himself off, but there was just too much blood, mud, and grit for it to really clean him off at all. I really need a shower , Peter thought to himself. Maybe Aunt May- He started to think but stopped himself and winced. Peter wouldn’t be seeing Aunt May anymore. It’s his own fault, after all.
Peter took a deep breath and shoved that thought away. Cry later, figure things out now, he told himself. Probably not the healthiest thing for him to do, but right now he had bigger fish to fry. He looked around him, noticing he was in the middle of an empty lot. Where he had landed there was a crater with broken cement and crushed weeds, leaving an obvious indent. Peter saw that on three sides there were old, dilapidated, abandoned-looking buildings, the windows all broken or missing all together. On the fourth side was a street, with cracks running all over the asphalt and sidewalk. He started to walk towards the street, then caught himself and stopped, realizing he was still in his suit. Before he could start to panic, though, his spider sense flared.
(coming-falling-close)
He looked up and spotted a small round thing falling from the sky, and it landed with a thump right where he had landed, Peter stared at it for a moment, surprised and confused. It was a small white drawstring bag, full of…. something. He watched it for a couple seconds, then nudged it with his foot cautiously.
It just sat there.
Peter hesitantly leaned over and picked it up and studied it. There was a note pinned on the side with a safety pin.
Peter,
I’m not sure what went wrong, but I managed to get
this put together and send it after you before
I forgot. I wish there was more I could do but even now
my memory of you is fading.
I’m sorry.
-Strange
Peter swallowed dryly, then opened the bag. Inside was a hoodie, two t-shirts, two pairs of jeans, a cell phone, an envelope, and some pairs of underwear and socks. He looked around, and scuttled towards one of the abandoned buildings so he could change out of his suit,not wanting anyone to see him and freak out or anything. He climbed in through one of the window holes that had long missing glass and surveyed the building. There was debris on the floor and broken glass, but he couldn’t see anyone. He spotted an old, cracked stairs sign, and went that way. The stairwell was fairly clean compared to the rest of the building, so he quickly changed out of his suit into a pair of jeans and the hoodie from the bag. It was a dark navy color, and almost too big for him.
He sat on one of the steps and pulled his hoodie up over his head for comfort. Remembering the envelope, he pulled it out of the bag and opened it. There was about $500 dollars in it, all in 20-dollar bills. He had a feeling this was all the money he was going to get for a while. He probably would need to get a job, too, but that was the least of his worries right now. He could feel panic slowly starting to edge into his mind, but he shook it off. Find somewhere to get information and maybe shelter, panic later, he reminded himself again. The first task was almost done already, because Dr. Strange had managed to give him a phone. He pulled it out of the bag, and he turned it on, and it powered on easily. While it booted up, Peter gave it a once over. It was a Stark tech phone, and the latest version. (He’s gone he’s gone)
Once the phone finished starting, he unlocked it and opened the maps app and opened the search menu before pausing. Why was the city called Gotham? He’d heard of people calling New York that before (Like from the Batman comics that Ned loved) because they were similar to the city from the stories, but he’d never seen it on an official maps program. He zoomed the map out and went still.
He wasn’t even in New York State anymore.
He was in fucking New Jersey.
What the fuck.
Peter could barely think with all the feelings of panic that immediately began to cloud his mind. He looked wildly around him, trying to not descend into a panic attack. With shaking fingers, he searched for a breathing guide GIF on his phone and tried to follow along with it. As he breathed, the tunnel vision finally started to go away, but his heart was still pounding.
“I need some air,” Peter mutters to himself, and stands up.
Hoping the building had a way up to the roof, he followed the stairs up a few floors and thankfully at the top was a hallway with a sign that said “roof access” at the other end. Peter trotted down it and pushed the door open. The roof was relatively clear, with dandelions blooming here and there in small patches. He made his way to the edge and sat on the small wall with his legs dangling over the edge.
(quiet-safe-no-one-alone)
Peter took his phone back out and started his information search. First, he googled “avengers” and to his relief (and confusion) there were actually results! Though it was kind of odd, instead of news stories about what they had done to help, it was showing fandom pages and wiki articles. Confused, he tapped on one, and it popped open.
It showed different covers for different comic books, when the series was created and the current writing team, which gave Peter a dawning theory. Almost in slow motion, he opened a new tab and googled “Batman”. News stories and articles talking about him popped up, along with other heroes, at least that’s what Peter assumed they were. He had lost focus on the screen and was now looking, really looking, at the city around him. The building he was on was one of the taller ones in the area and was at the top of a hill, so he had a pretty good view of most of the city.
The city was dark and gloomy, with smog obscuring the city skyline. He could see people moving here and there but the area he was in seemed pretty quiet. Almost unusually quiet for a city this large. He looked up at the moon again, barely peeking through the pollution, and it finally hit him why it seemed off when he first looked at it. When he had been back in New York, the moon had been full last. It wouldn’t have been half full right now, which tells him either he lost time or moved back in time entirely. He checked the date on his phone’s calendar app, and the date May 2, 2019, flickers up at him. It was a good thing he had been sitting down already because it almost knocked the breath out of him. It was 5 years in the past. Well, Peter thought to himself, is it really going in the past if the whole world and universe is different? For some reason, that didn’t really help him feel better, but oh well.
Peter turned his eyes back to the roofs below him. He probably wouldn’t have been able to see them without the spider bite, which for the umpteenth time he was thankful for. He noticed to his surprise that he could see a couple of people moving around on a roof not very far away. They weren’t looking at him, but they were talking together about something. Although they were too far away from Peter for him to hear what they were saying, from what he could see they seemed heated. Normally Peter would have gone to talk to them or something, and make sure it didn’t get too heated, but a wave of tiredness hit him like a sledgehammer. He made the executive decision to stay in the stairwell of the building for now and try and get some sleep if he could. Peter backed off the ledge and headed back towards the roof access, quietly closing the door behind him.
He made his way back to the stairwell and found a good spot that was rather hard to see if you weren’t looking for someone, just in case anyone came through the building. It was warm, so he didn’t need a blanket, and he used his white bag as a pillow when he curled up under the stairs. His brain was still busy trying to think of his next plans, but his exhaustion quickly pulled him to sleep.