Chapter 2
Peter woke up gasping for air. His spider-sense was screaming at him.
Danger. Run. Close. Safe. Danger. Friend. Close. Green. Watching. Angry. Run. Safe. Approaching. Danger. Hide. Help. Duck.
It was a mess, each warning contradicting the last. His mind was buzzing and shivers were running down his spine and- wait duck?
A hand went over his mouth and he was pulled back. He started to struggle but his spider-sense was saying, trust. Safe. He stilled and looked up at their face. It was dark but he could see a girl with pink (?) hair and one pink and one green eye. She raised a finger to her lip in a shh motion. He nodded and she released him. Peter looked around. The room was dimly lit and he could see 4 broken and smashed machines with green liquid pouring out and on the floor. Had he been in one? The girl seemed to have dragged him under a desk. There was an unconscious kid on her lap.
A tall, bulky man entered the room. He wore a black suit with a red bat on the front. Over it was a red leather jacket with a hood on his head. His whole face but his forehead was covered in a metal looking red mask. Peter could see black hair with a white streak under the hood. There were guns holstered to his legs. Overall he gave major villain vibes.
“Shit,” bulky guy muttered under his breath then raised a hand to his ear “B… we got a problem.”
“What is it Hood?” a staticky voice came from what was probably a comm.
“There are Lazarus machines, 4 of ‘em. All have been broken out of. You know what that means.” bulky guy- now dubbed Hood- said. “There's no sign of anyone left here.” gunshots rang out and Hood cursed before running off.
When he was sure the guy was gone and no one else was near, he came out, the girl holding the kid close behind him. He could now see her fully. She did in fact have pink hair with a white streak. She wore a black jumpsuit with magenta at the ends of the sleeves and legs as well as on the colour. It was decorated with patches. Her skin was an odd pearly purpley colour.
Another small girl came out of the shadows. She had long brown spiky, bushy hair with two lighter tufts and a streak of white at the front. Tan skin with lots of freckles. Her eyes were cat like, with slitted pupils, one yellow and the other turquoise. She had cat ears peeking through the bush of her hair and a tail. She wore a red and white vest and black shorts. She looked to be around 8 like the other two. Why was he with a bunch of kids?
Taking stock of his own appearance, he was wearing what he was under his suit before the spell, and had his spider suit watch on his wrist. But everything looked too big.
“Holy shit, am i a kid?” he yelped. The other two looked at him like he was crazy.
“Did you hit your head or something,” Cat-girl said then her eyes widened “Why do i sound like that? Am I a kid too?” They all looked at each other, panicked. Footsteps began to approach.
“Let's worry about this later, first we should go,” Pink hair said, “Can you carry him?” she asked Peter, gesturing at the unconscious boy. He picked him up in a piggy-back and followed Pink hair out, Cat girl next to him. They made it out to the streets and Peter’s first thought was cold, very cold. His next thought was, this isn't New York. It was the middle of the night. The four of them wandered through the near abandoned streets,keeping to the shadows and alleys before ducking into a building.
The first and second floor were bombed out but the three of them climbed up to the third floor, unconscious kid still on his back. The place wasn't half bad in Peter’s opinion. It had a sofa, table, kitchen and other rooms. No one but them could probably get up so it was mostly left untouched. He set the boy down and the couch and slumped next to him. The other two followed suit.
“So am i right saying we all got de-aged or something?” Peter asked. The two girls nodded hesitantly. “Well my name is Peter.” He didn't see a reason to lie. He wasn't in New York and if the spell worked, no one should know him anymore.
“I’m Kipo,” Pink hair answered.
“Catra.” He looked at her. They really named the cat girl Catra? Wow, so original.
“Well it's nice to meet you both,” he replied “Do either of you remember what happened before you woke up?”
Both of them donned sad expressions before Catra spoke up “I remember my friend died, then this crazy psycho stabbed me,” her eyes seemed to glow green.
“I was in a building before it burned down,” Kipo’s green eye shone. Peter faltered. If they both had died before coming here does that mean-?
“I’ll be back in a second,” he muttered before climbing out the window to the roof.
His vision was tinted green and he felt angry. Why? He didn't know. He sat on the ledge of the roof. Staring off into the smoggy, starless sky. What happened when Strange cast the spell? Did it kill him? If it did, why was he here? Why was he a kid? Why did he wake up there? Why was everything so green and angry?
“Peter, I need you to take deep breaths,” a voice broke him out of his spiral. He recognised it, it was Karen.
“Karen,” he sighed in relief. He didn't even notice the nanobots shifting to form a hearing aid type thing around his ear. “Do you know what's going on?”
“I am unable to connect with any Stark satellites, would you like me to try to connect to another?” No Stark satellites, that meant no Tony. Was he back in time? Or another dimension?
“That would be great Karen, thanks.” She got to work at hacking and Peter sat in silence.
Watching.
His spider-sense wasn't warning of danger, just merely someone else was with him. So he tried not to react.
“Hey, bud. Can you come away from the ledge please?” the person said. Peter whipped his head round, feigning shock. He saw a man in a black suit with a blue bird stretched across his chest, the wing going to his shoulders and down his arms to his ring fingers. He wore a black domino mask with white lenses. His hair was black and windswept. He was probably a vigilante. His voice had a New Jersey accent- please say he's not in bloody New Jersey!
Peter’s eyes widened in realisation and he stood away from the edge “Oh god, no. It's not that. I just came up here to think,” The vigilante relaxed ever so slightly. Then as Peter stepped into the light, he tensed again, his mouth slightly agape as he stared at Peter. He quickly covered it up.
“You sure you're okay? Do you want help getting home?” he asked.
“Nah, I should be fine,” Peter shook his head. He had forgotten he currently looks like an 8 year old and not 17 anymore. A comm crackled.
“Nightwing,” so that was his name, “there is a bank robbery near you.” Nightwing sighed and touched his ear.
“Can someone else go, i'm in the middle of something,” he turned around to look at Peter but he was already gone.
Peter reentered the building to see Kipo and Catra standing in front of the now conscious boy, all three of them looking confused and frustrated. He cleared his throat to announce his presence and they all snapped their heads in his direction. The boy had black hair that looked navy in the light with a snow white streak in the front and one green and one dark grey eye- what's with everyone and having heterochromia? And a white streak? Was it an effect of dying and coming back? Did he have it too?- he would look in a mirror later. He had tan skin and freckles, as well as a jagged scar running from above his left eye, down to the right corner of his mouth. He was wearing a black hoodie, black baggy cargos, doc martens and fingerless gloves. Around his neck was a mask.
“Thank goodness you're here,” Catra sighed “He just woke up and I don't wanna do the explaining.”
“Okay, can you tell us your name?”
“My name is Milo,” he signed “I am also a girl by the way.” So that made sense.
“Her name is Milo,” he announced “Well, I’m Peter, that’s Catra and Kipo,” he pointed at them.
“Don't worry, I know sign language,” Kipo answered and Catra nodded along. Milo stared at the three, scrutinising them. She nodded to herself.
“So am i right saying we all died, got brought back to life, de-aged and are from different dimensions?” Peter froze. How did she know all that? All three of them looked shocked but nodded slowly. “Okay. Also, we've got, Spider, Cat, Jaguar,” she signed whilst pointing at Peter, then Catra, then Kipo and finally herself “Wolf.”
How did she know that? He's in a different dimension apparently, so how does she know he's part spider?
“How do you know that?” Kipo said from beside him.
“I just do,” like that's a good explanation “Don’t worry, secret safe,” as much as he didn't trust her his spider-sense was saying trust. And he felt so exhausted. This was a morning problem.
The four of them ended up asleep snuggling on the sofa and for the first time in a while none of them had nightmares.
—----
Marinette groggily sat up. She felt dizzy. In front of her were two girls. She rubbed her eyes and stared at them. One of them had brown bushy hair and cat ears and the other had pink hair and an abnormal skin colour. But the weird part was their auras. They both seemed safe and Pink hair had traces of Jaguar- probably part jaguar- the weird part was that they both had something else there but she just couldn't place her finger on what it could be. Including the fact they all seemed to be from different dimensions, had died, de-aged and been through the Lazarus Pits- wait what?
Another boy entered the room. He had dark brown hair, Caucasian skin and he had one orange and one green eye. His clothes looked oversized and a bit bloodied. She could see Spider as well as the same things as the other two.
“Okay, can you tell us your name?” Spider boy asked. She hesitated. On one hand she could say Marinette, but that name was dead to her now. On the other hand she could make up a new name. On the other other hand she could use her old name.
“My name is Milo,” she answered “I am also a girl by the way,” because she was in her 8 year old body, people were gonna think she was a boy again, yippee, more correcting people!
He told her their names and they all knew sign language. That's a first. What she said next had them all freezing. She could hear maniacal laughter in her head through her and Luuna's telepathy.
They all fell asleep. And she can confirm that hybrids give the best cuddles.
The next day, they all woke up and started ransacking the apartment they were in. They found quite the good loot. A wardrobe of clothes; a can of food (which they ate); $23.56; bobby pins; quite a lot of sewing stuff (score!); and an assortment of junk.
“I don't understand why I have to wear this stupid hat,” Catra groaned, tugging at the red beanie on her head.
“Because we don't know how they would react to mutes, or mutants, or hybrids, or whatever you wanna call it, here,” Kipo answered, pulling out a black hoodie with white constellations and planets embroidered on it. “Oooh, I call dibs. They really left alotta stuff here.” She was now wearing a grey t-shirt with a black cat on the back and black leggings.
Catra was wearing black leggings and a very oversized dark red hoodie to cover up her tail. It had a sitting fox surrounded by wild flowers on the back. Her t-shirt was plain black.
Peter had a graphic tee of a band none of them knew and black jeans. He found a black zip hoodie with grey webbing patterns.
Milo had a black t-shirt with a snake tangled up in roses and a navy blue hoodie with a faint magenta butterfly stretching across the back. On her legs she had black baggy cargo trousers with grey stars.
They had found all these clothes and Milo only needed to repair the odd rip. It really was a jackpot.
Peter sat on the floor with Milo in front of him, putting bobby pins in his hair to cover up the streak. She had already done the others and herself.
“I still don't understand why we have to cover it up,” Peter said when she put the last pin in.
“It's because it's a sign of Lazarus pits,” she signed back.
“And that means…?” Kipo asked, plopping down next to the pair. Catra followed suit.
“Yeah, you still haven't explained that yet.”
Milo sighed “So basically Lazarus Pits bring people back from the dead. It gives you a white streak and green eyes. But it does have side effects, like Pit rage, which is basically uncontrollable anger. I have a lot of experience with handling my emotions so I can help you.”
“Huh, so that explains quite a bit,” Peter muttered under his breath.
“But why do you guys have only one green eye and mine are the same?” Catra asked.
“That is something I don't know,”
“We should probably go out soon, if we want to get anything done,” Kipo chimed in.
“Okay. So me and Kipo go to find info and you two go find food and other stuff,” Peter said “And since Me and Milo are most experienced with this kind of world, you follow our lead. Got it?”
They all nodded.
20 minutes later, Milo and Catra were in a shop, looking for food. She grabbed cans of food and went onto the toiletries, Catra following along. She got the stuff paid and walked out with about $4.08 left.
As they walked through an alley, a man appeared.
“Hey little girlies, whatcha doin’ out ‘ere all alone?” He held a knife in his hand. Catra didn't hesitate for a second. Moving with an unnatural grace she was behind him in an instance. She kicked him in the back knocking him to the ground and out cold. Milo clapped through the stuff in her arms as Catra bowed.
“I know, I'm awesome,” she had a Cheshire grin.
Milo quickly grabbed her and dragged her into the shadows. Then they were back in the apartment.
“What in the world?” Catra gaped “How?”
“Magic. Don't tell the others.”
“Okay, but why?” Milo merely shrugged in response.
About 40 minutes later Peter and Kipo got back with a bunch of papers. “So I created identities for us, so we now officially exist, yay. Also the story is that me and Milo are siblings and you two were adopted by our parents before they died 2 months ago in a car crash. Our last name is Parker because I panicked. Now you all get to join in on the amazing Parker Luck™!” Peter rambled.
“What the heck is ‘Parker Luck™?” Catra asked with quotation marks.
“Oh, basically it's just really shitty luck. I'm practically cursed. My parents died, I got bit by a spider, my uncle died became a superhero, nearly killed by my dates dad, trapped under a building, nearly died again, turned to dust on an alien planet, came back, my mentor died, I trusted the wrong person, my identity got revealed, villains from other universes came, my aunt died, and I broke my universe and died a second time i guess,” he listed off on his fingers. Huh, he actually is cursed. She could see it. That's a problem for another time.
“Really? Because for me, I was raised on what was basically a cult ro become a child soldier, got ditched by my best friend for a bunch of strangers, had a whole villain arc, made a mistake and got exiled, destroyed the world and died, came back half alive then died, the world got fixed, got duped by a shapeshifter, had all my other friends ditch me, got abducted onto a psychotic alien's ship, mind controlled, fell from a great height, and when finally start looking up, said psychotic alien killed my girlfriend then me,” Catra said in return.
“Well I was from a world where mutes reigned, and humans lived underground. I got found as a baby, my new parents genetically modified me to be part mute, then my mum ‘died’, then I got dumped in the over world, nearly died, got attacked by a giant bunny, weird frogs, nearly eaten by astronomer wolves, hunted down by a misunderstood monkey, found my mum, turned into giant jaguar, trusted the wrong person, turned into bigger jaguar, all humans turned on me and tried to ‘cure’ the mutes, they succeeded, I got kidnapped and my DNA was used to cure them, finally escaped then got crushed in a flaming building,” Kipo added. Was this a competition? They all turned to Milo.
“Umm, I was raised as an assassin, didn't have a name, got killed on a mission, came back to life in a different dimension with powers, got turned into a child soldier by an old man, my whole country was held emotionally hostage by a butterfly man, got harassed by a cat boy, witnessed too many gruesome events, died more times than I can count, got given the responsibility of the world, had every single friend and parents turn on me because of a liar, couldn't even get angry or be sad, got into a final battle with the butterfly and killed by my partner,”
“Dang, we are a really traumatized group of kids,” Peter said “How old were you guys before… y’know? I was 17,”
“I was 18,” Catra responded.
“15,”
“16,”
They ate some of the food before going to sleep. This time there were nightmares.
Milo woke up gasping for air. The others were sleeping peacefully. She needed to get out of there, it was too hot and stuffy. Climbing out the window, she made her way onto the roof and started leaping and running between them. The wind ruffled her hair, the adrenaline made her feel alive. It was nice.
After a bit she stopped on a rooftop and sat by the ledge. She stared down at the near abandoned streets. Her hearing picked up a noise. Someone else was there. She grabbed the first thing in reach and chucked it in the person’s direction before bolting. There was a loud thud and someone cried “ow,” quietly. She had just made it over to the next roof when she tripped and face planted into the ground.
You see the thing about having shadow powers is that some of them can gain sentience. Move of their own free will. But there were very few and they only did stuff like this to help her or mess with her. So the situation was probably safe. She is sooo getting you back for this Steve!
She groaned and sat up rubbing her face. Her forehead had a cut on it now. Thanks a lot Steve, this is all your fault. In front of her a man crouched down. He was very bulky. He was wearing a red leather jacket with a hood, and his suit had a red bat on it. Most of his face was covered by a metal-looking mask and he gave creep vibes. But in his aura she could see he was safe and also he had been through the pits. Ahh, this must be who Damian told her about. One of his mother’s toys. Jason Todd.