Chapter Text
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOO!!!"
I dove through the new york sky, sticking out my arm as I shot out a new web-line to swing from. I grabbed hold, quickly flying through the arc of my swing, releasing the web-line and flying through the sky.
"Never gets old!" I yelled, smiling ear to ear under my bright red mask.
I fired another web-line, swinging at break neck speeds through the bright blue skies. As I flung past a flag pole, I grabbed hold of it, spinning around it until I slowly came to a stop. I clung below an American flag, as I stared at the wonderful city I loved, the chaos of the city traffic blaring below me. The busying crowds of people, the constant movement, it felt oddly peaceful.
"New York City. Can't get enough of it. I know I might as well be the world's punching bag. Lost a lot of people, my name has more dirt on it then your average congressman, and egh Paul, but I'd do it all again for this place. With all the crazy crap my life has, at least I can always depend on New York to be New York."
I let out a sigh, my eyes naturally closing for but a single moment.
While my eyes were closed a bright light bled through my eyelids. Naturally I tried to raise an arm in front of my eyes to shield my eyes. When the light died and I opened my eyes the city around me was completely different. The sky was a dark polluted nighttime brown, the streets and side walks were dead quiet. I looked up to the flag I was under and saw an entirely new one, the flag holding a symbol of a black circle with a red orb in the center, surrounded by yellow lines.
As I looked about at the new city I found myself in, only one thought was in my mind.
"You've got to be $%@#ing kidding me."
"Y'know, if I had a nickel for every multiverse thing I was dragged into I could probably afford therapy."
I said to myself before firing another web-line and beginning to swing through my new surroundings. The proud bright city I once knew was replaced with dark and dirty abandoned slums with gothic designed architecture. The sprawling eerie city had streets that were nearly empty of cars, the few cars I did see were driving particularly slowly, carefully. As I swung up and around a large skyscraper, a blimp with a spotlight reeled it's ugly head out, as it illuminated the city streets. I let myself reach the absolute height of my swing, and at the upper half of the blimp read blocky text that read 'GCPD'.
"GC.... GC..... What city has the initials GC?" I said to myself, grabbing hold of a nearby building, purching on its shear surface. "If I didn't know any better I'd say this was Jersey Halloween edition."
I continued to look down at the city, trying to learn as much as I could from just looking at it. I saw a few ATVs driving down the streets, built like tanks, all black, with that same logo I saw on the flag on them. Graffiti was apparent, even from this high up, a lot of clowns strangely enough, a lot of one singular clown, praising that clown.
As I continued to look around, my spider-sense went off, tingling the back of my head.
In a nearby alleyway, I saw what I was being warned of. A white man in a blue suit and glasses was being assaulted by someone in all black tactical gear, rifle in hand, fully enclosed helmet, and that same symbol I saw on the flag on his shoulder.
As I began to carefully swing and repel downwards, I listened in.
"Please! I-I didn't write anything! Those articles were from before all this! Before Metropolis!" The blue suited man said, holding his hand out in front of him as he fixed his glasses.
"Sorry Ryder, Boss' direct order. We don't need 'Why Batman is Good for Gotham' spreading any further." The officer said, stepping back and pointing his rifle at 'Ryder'.
"Woah woah hold on! I'm not doing anything with it! I-I can take it down! It was years ago, but I can find a way! For God's sake Joker was still throwing pies at people!" Ryder exclaimed, begging for his life.
I clung to the side of the alleyway, up above them both, as I shot a web-line onto the officer's rifle, pulling it up and out of his hands. They both turned to me in shock.
"Wow! I cannot think of anything more dystopian. This feels straight out of a dark 90s movie." I quipped, dropping down onto the alley floor.
"Who the hell are you!?" The officer said, his confusion masked by his fully enclosed helmet.
"Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and this neighborhood doesn't seem too friendly!" I said, firing a web-line onto the officer's chest, using it to pull him close to me. I followed the motion with a round house kick, knocking the officer to the side and on the floor, up against the alley wall.
I began to web the officer to the wall as Ryder nervously spoke, "I- Thanks! Are you with the...." Ryder leaned in and whispered, "Insurgency?"
"If it means knocking out bullies like him, then sure. I'd get out of here while you can, look into leaving the city." I advised, turning to Ryder after leaving the officer firmly webbed still.
"That I can do! Can I offer some advice? Might want to work on the title, seems a little... small doesn't it? I mean 'Friendly' isn't exactly getting you into any newspapers." Ryder offered, immediately making me wonder if saving him was worth it.
"Of all places I've been to, this place could probably use a Friendly Neighborhood Me the most." I said, firing a web-line up over my head, feeling the line attatch onto a nearby building and pulling myself into the air, swinging away from the area.
I swung down onto an above ground train track, walking off the tracks themselves and over to the railings. I put my forearms on the rails, pausing for but a moment to think out a plan, thinking aloud.
"New dimension, new city, new everything. I swear with all the experience I have with multiverse stuff I could write a guide book on this. Need to find the Avengers, Fantastic Four, they should be able to help me get home if I'm lucky. Which I'm not but it's a better lead then swinging around aimlessly. Problem is, this place puts Judge Dredd to shame. I'm not gonna find many super heroes just flying about. I wonder if there's another me here, this place does remind me of Hobie's dimension."
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of fighting.
I ran across the tracks to the other side, looking down from the platform. In front of a club was two men fighting, both of them identical, with the exact same hair, face, all of it, with the exception of clothing. One wore a bright green outfit with a green domino mask, a symbol on his chest designed like an extremely simplified old train lantern. The other wore a similar outfit, but bright yellow. His outfit seemed slightly more bulky, with a similar symbol on his chest, yet clearly not a lantern design, truly I didn't know what it meant. I couldn't tell what was going on, no idea who was on what side, but I saw two injured laying on the ground behind the green man. A woman, in a bright red, blue and gold outfit, a lasso and a sword and shield combo on their person. The other was a man dressed as what I can only describe as a Robin Hood cosplay. The fact that the green one was seemingly defending them gave me a pretty decent clue.
The two men held out their first, a beam of their respective color colliding. The woman began to raise to her feet, only to promptly be blasted by the man in yellow, before continuing to collide his beam with his counterpart.
The two stopped firing their beams, realizing that it was going nowhere. They each began to summon brightly colored objects in front of them to attack the other, the same color as their suits. While the green man summoned a green array of throwing knives to launch forward, the yellow man summoned a yellow circular shield, to block the attack, both items disappearing.
I began to slowly approach, silently climbing over the railing and slowly repelling down behind the yellow man as they both argued.
"I'm sure they're very proud of you." Said the man in green, not saying who 'they' are.
"Sanctimony is easy when you don't-" Began the man in yellow, cut short by green.
"Save it. Time to kick my ass." Green said, before readying a battle stance as Yellow did the same.
Before they began to throw blows, I dropped to the ground, firing a trio of web balls at Yellow's back. One landed on his right hand, webbing shut whatever energy or power he was using, one stuck his left elbow to his side, sticking his arm to himself, and the last landed behind his right knee, causing it to bend and become stuck in the bent position.
"What the-!?" He yelled, turning to face me as Green summoned a large bright green baseball bat that whacked him across the back of the head, causing him to fall to the ground.
I fired out a few more web pellets, sticking Yellow to the ground, and then quickly shifting my aim onto green, both hands extended out ready to fire at him.
"Woah woah! First you help then you want me down too?" Green asked, holding up his palms to show he meant no harm.
"Just being careful, hard to know who to trust when hopping dimensions." I said, slowly and carefully approaching.
"You're not from here?" Green asked. "Neither are we, but you don't seem to be from our world either."
"Don't recognize you either, you're heroes in your world?" I asked, lowering my aim, letting my arms slowly drop.
"I assume you're one too?" Green asked, softly dropping to the ground, answering my question with an unspoken yes. As he spoke, the other two people he was with began to rise to their feet, the America Woman and the Robin Hood knock off.
"Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man at your service." I introduced myself with a mocking bow forward.
"Green Lantern." The man I was speaking to said.
"Wonder Woman." The woman said, crossing her arms, looking at me up and down as she studied me.
"Green Arrow." Robin Hood said, bow still in hand.
"Two Greens? That's gotta get confusing." I joked, the sound of sirens echoing through the alley. "That seems like go time."
"Hiding from the cops.... Aren't there any good guys left?" Green Arrow asked rhetorically.
"There just might be." Green Lantern responding, nodding behind me.
As all of us turned to face what he saw, seeing a figure all black. A black bat sitting on his chest, his black pointed cowl connecting to a cape that covered his shoulders, and a black belt with a golden buckle, covered with pouches holding a variety of tools and gadgets.
"You sure that's not a bad guy?" I asked, squinting my eyes at him, his dark attire, thickly padded costume, and pointy horns giving me a pretty good guess if we'll be fighting or not.
"Relax. I'm not gonna hurt you." The man in black said, his voice still, cool, with a very slight growl to his tone.
"You're not our Batman." Wonder Woman stated. "But if you're anything like ours, we can trust you."
"Come with me, I have somewhere safe. I know how you got here." This 'Batman' said, in a vague attempt to persuade us.
The others continued to talk while I leaned over to Green Arrow, "We outnumber him, is he dangerous? Does he summon bats or something?" I whispered, concerned and unsure if Batman was a threat if he decided to attack us.
"No, he's just rich." He responded as if that was a normal response.
"What?" I asked as Batman turned and began walking down a nearby alleyway, the rest of them immediately following him. "I-Alrght then." I said as I sped walked after them.