DNA and Trackers
Peter got back to the theatre feeling proud of himself. He got his bag back, warm clothes, food and hot chocolate. He’d get back to New York tomorrow, and okay it may not be his New York but it was a start. Looking both ways making sure the coast was clear, Peter climbed back through the vent, webbing it behind him and landed on the beams above the stage. He stretched and began creating a large web between the gaps. It wasn’t even midday yet, he could sleep a solid 15 hours and still have time to spare to get to the bus station. Stretching, Peter reached over towards the left side of the stage where the moth-eaten curtain was hanging. With a swift tug, the curtain rails snapped and clattered on the stage below.
Peter gathered the curtain up before placing it in the center of his web. Peter remembered how cold it got the night before and he was not going to go into hibernation and miss that bus. Peter stashed his bag in the vents above and looked down at the web, god, he hopes no-one finds this when he leaves. He didn’t know how long his biological webs lasted but it would definitely scare the shit out of anyone who finds it. With a shrug, he jumped into the center of the web, curled up and passed out. Warm for the first time since entering Gotham.
Tim had been staring at the screen for hours now. Error message after error message; ‘Unknown Components Found’, ‘Unable to stabilize sample’, ‘Please clean slide and attempt later’. What was supposed to be a simple procedure (one he has done countless times), was proving to be a lot more hassle than a simple procedure. WIth a groan, Tim took out the slide with Peter’s dried blood and chucked it into the growing pile of other failures.
It was a Saturday. Tim was supposed to go on patrol in a few hours with Nightwing. Looking over his shoulder towards Dick, watching him type away, compiling any footage he had. There was a recreation of Peter covering half the screen that Dick would update with known injuries. A 3D version of Peter mimicking an autopsy report that would update with every detail Dick added. A large stab wound noted at 3 inches deep, possible broken bones and head injuries. A perfect recreation of Peter from the first night they met. After the chase, Dick had gone back to the scene looking for any clues of how Peter even got there. All he found was more blood and the metal Peter had ripped out of himself. The metal was from some kind of machine, the printed words ‘-ark In-’ didn’t match anything in their systems. The metal itself was unlisted, stronger then what’s commercially available and clearly damaged from an explosion of some kind.
Unfortunately, the blood on the shrapnel was unable to be tested, at the time they assumed it was due to contamination from the general pollution of Gotham that left it non-viable. Inserting a new sample of Peter’s blood, Tim watched the screen load before a new error message appeared - it wasn’t the pollution, it was Peter. Guess neither of them would be going on Patrol tonight. Tim stood up causing Dick to turn towards him, he glanced at the error message before looking back at Tim.
“Where are you going?” Dick asked, “I thought you said you were good at this kinda stuff, don’t tell me you're giving up already?”
“I’m not.” Tim snapped as he grabbed his empty coffee cup. “I’m getting another coffee. If I see one more error message I’m going to snap. I’ll be back later.”
“I told Bruce we’re not going on patrol,” Dick said, turning back towards his screen. “Cass and Bruce are covering us.”
Tim rolled his eyes as he made his way up the stairs and into the manor.
“Hey Alfred.” Tim greeted as he jumped up on the counter next to the coffee machine and slotted his reusable cup into the correct spot.
“Master Tim,” Alfred greeted back, taking out a roast chicken from the oven, “Master Bruce is due back soon, I understand you and Master Richard are too occupied for tonight's activities. I hope that doesn’t mean you’re too preoccupied for tonight's dinner.”
“Who knows?” Tim mumbled as he pressed ‘Americano’ on the machine. “We really need to get this guy's blood to act normal first. Just one time with no error message. We have all the information right in front of us but we just can’t read it.”
“I’m afraid I can’t help you with this one, computers aren’t my forté” Alfred replied as he began serving up two plates of roast chicken and veg, “Now, if you and Master Richard insist on staying down there for dinner, then I must insist you bring these down with you”
Tim screwed the lid on his coffee cup and tucked it under his arm as he grabbed the two plates from Alfred.
“Thanks Alfred.”
Bruce had been away from Gotham for less then a week. Rumours in Metropolis about a new cloning operation going on in LexCorp had Clark in a tizzy fearing a new super child would pop up and, unable to investigate properly due to LexCorp’s habit of lining their labs with lead, had called in Bruce to help. To Clark’s credit, it was cloning. Just not human. LexCorp was attempting to make certain animal DNA compatible or beneficial to human use. An attempt to branch out into the medical field with promises of curing cancer. They were exposing animals (naked mole rats, horseshoe crabs, scorpions, and spiders) with known carcinogens, cloning the healthiest and repeating the process.
Initially Bruce was hesitant to step in, it seemed that LexCorp was finally doing something that would be beneficial for once. And then he heard about the volunteers, LexCorp was attempting to recreate results with human subjects. Volunteers from struggling parts of society, desperate for money, desperate to escape from their past that they’d risk it all just for a few thousand dollars. Desperate enough to sign their kids up for torture and death disguised as medical trials. They weren’t after adult subjects but children, children whose DNA was more malleable. The more he investigated, the more sickened he felt. At first Bruce despised these families willingly signing over the lives of their own children, and then he got the list of the children’s names.
Navn Navnesen, Gipsz Jakab, Anna Kowalska, Juan Dela Cruz . Every single name was a placeholder name, John and Jane Doe’s from different cultures. A single night is all it took and Bruce hated his own trepidation as he looked at the children in the labs. He should’ve acted quicker, saved these children sooner but he hesitated believing that LexCorp had finally begun doing something good. He let them hurt more children because he hesitated. Children aged between five and eleven, hooked up to machines, kept in glass walled cells, exposed to a variety of chemicals that would lead to consequences well into their adulthoods. Human trafficking done in such a way LexCorp had been able to shrug off the entire legal repercussions by claiming lack of knowledge. Paper work claiming parental permission for medical trials and, with a few expensive lawyers, they left with a minor fine. Bruce had traced the American section of the human trafficking ring to a dock in New York. Within the hour Superman had flown over and effectively shut up shop for them.
Bruce had left Nightwing to keep things under control during his absence. He had heard about a possible meta kid showing up in Gotham, teleportation was hinted at along with an enhanced healing ability. Scared, alone, and injured. He hoped it wasn’t another trafficking situation, Gotham wasn’t kind to meta’s, especially kids. Illegal meta fighting rings were rampant, always looking for replacements when one of their fighters wouldn’t get back up. It gave merit to the teleportation theory, that could be how he got out. Smart enough to avoid camera’s to keep his abilities hidden, but clearly desperate to escape. Desperate enough to make mistakes.
Dick and Tim were still working on the bloody hoodie, attempting to isolate a sample and build a working theory. Dick also managed to place a tracker inside the lining of his bag. They had decided not to activate it until Bruce and Cass were on patrol, specifically until they were at the boy's first known location near Crime Alley. The boy's abilities to avoid cameras made them wary of turning it on early, if he could sense it somehow, they needed to give him the least amount of time possible to escape.
Walking into the cave with Cass close behind, Bruce approached Tim and Dick.
“I don’t get it” Tim groaned, turning to Bruce, “I can’t seem to isolate the sample. I either get a piece that's too damaged or just straight up incomprehensible. The system keeps rejecting it.”
Bruce nods as he looks at the array of error messages and the pile of discarded blood samples. Cass leaves the area to change into her gear.
“What do you mean by incomprehensible?” he asks as he turns to look at the screens Dick was working on. Eyes going between the still frame of the kid and the diagram of injuries on the virtual body. He couldn’t help but think he’s seen this kid before, something familiar he just can’t place.
“I mean when I get a sample that’s not damaged, the system accuses me of messing up the slide” Tim’s point is proven when a new error message pops up: ‘Please insert one DNA sample at a time’, “See!”
Bruce looks back at the screen.
“Can you insert multiple DNA samples at once?” Bruce asked.
“I didn’t!”
“I know.” Bruce says as the slide pops back out of the machine. “But can you? Can you get the system to analyse the sample as multiple different ones?”
“...but it’s only one sample of DNA?” Tim says but turns back to the computer and changes the parameters. “It will just be a mess though, I’d have to manually attempt to reconstruct it afterwards”
Bruce turns back to Dick’s screen waiting for him to give him a brief on what he has on Peter so far.
“So, I don’t have much but I have more than Tim” Dick says.
“HEY!”
“He said his name was Peter. I’d guess somewhere between 8-11 years old, pre-puberty anyways.” Dick says, ignoring Tim, “He’s fast, strong too, managed to yank Jason over his head”
Dick pulls up his suit's footage of Peter throwing Jason into him with one hand.
“We lost him after that, he slipped into an alleyway, Jason was only seconds behind him but he was gone. He circled back later and found nothing.” Dick continues, “Last night he broke into the library, somehow not triggering any alarms and avoiding the camera’s, that lends itself into the teleportation theory. I mean Oracle was in the building but only noticed when she saw the light from the computer as she was leaving.”
“He vanished before she got up there?” Bruce asked, watching as Dick pulled up another recording from the library, showing Peter jumping over the railing. Bruce glanced over towards the digital copy of the kid’s injuries. “He’s severely injured, and he’s jumping over ledges? Why not just teleport away?”
“It’s probably a cool down thing, Oracle said the lock on the men’s bathroom window was broken, he’s small enough to slip through it,” Dick replied, “We reckon that’s how he got out.”
“What was he doing on the computer?"
“Looking for a way out of Gotham” Dick pulls up the search history Oracle had sent him earlier. “Oracle’s keeping an eye on the Gotham Bus Depot, he was looking at the bus time table so we’re not sure of where exactly he’s trying to go, if he’s even got a specific destination in mind. Other than that he just looked up superhero stuff, Superman, us lot, the Justice League. Which is surprising considering he ran from us the first chance he got.”
“If he just escaped from being held captive somewhere, he’s going to be skittish” Bruce comments, “He obviously is involved in something dangerous if you found him in that state.”
Bruce glanced at the time, it was almost 8pm, he’d head out soon, hopefully get this kid cooperating as soon as possible before he managed to skip town. Heading to the changing area Dick called out to him.
“He’s really a sweet kid, adorable too, has a gap in his front teeth and everything; just screams innocent. Stupid though, I mean he just met me and he hopped into my car cause I offered him a hot chocolate.” Dick tells him and points to Cass as she re-enters the room. “Don’t scare him off.”
Cass crosses her arms, offended of being accused of doing such a thing. By the time Bruce emerged Tim had made some progress with Peter’s sample. Instead of looking at error messages he was looking at chemical components and fractured lines of DNA.
“I have absolutely no idea what the fuck I’m looking at” Tim says as he types frantically, “None of it matches, no wonder the computer was having a hard time, it’s a mess. There’s signs of radiation poisoning and god knows what else. I don’t even know where to start.”
Dick points to a random part.
“That one.”
“What?” Tim asks, confused.
“You said you don’t know where to start so I gave you a place to start.”
“...You’re an idiot y’know that.”
“I love you too”
“Dick’s right” Bruce says, “If you’re going to attempt to reconstruct it, you have to know what the pieces are, you said there were signs of radiation poisoning, that can alter DNA right? Maybe that’s how the pieces are attached. Look for the meta gene first, it’ll give an idea of what exactly Peter’s capable of.”
“There is no meta gene.” Tim says, “The computer searched for that first, nowhere in this mess is it present.”
“So he’s not a meta?” Dick asks.
“No, but he’s definitely fucked up in another way, I mean, jesus, look at this shit.” Tim says, “It’s not even neat,if he was experimented on then it could make sense but there’s no clean attachments like you’d expect from something deliberate. Just an absolute mess.”
“Better get started then.” Dick chimes in, before turning to the two vigilantes. “Oracle sent the location we first found Peter to you two, when you get there, tell me and I’ll activate the tracker.”
Peter was out cold, curled under the heavy curtains suspended high above the stage. He would have stayed like that for at least another seven hours if not for the sound of footsteps on the roof. He was silent as he unfurled himself from the curtain and crouched on one of the beams. He strained his ears to listen as he heard the sound of scratching on the rooftop fire exit lock. Someone was up there, two people, and they were picking the lock. Panicking Peter slipped into the vents and grabbed his bag, freezing when he heard the door to the roof open. Peter closed his eyes and listened when he felt something, a slight buzzing coming from his bag.
Quietly, Peter opened the bag and his heart stopped noticing the missing jumper. Fuck. He quickly found the cut in the base and pulled out a small, barely bigger than his finger nail, tracker. It was silent but Peter could feel the dull electrical pulse as it gave off a signal. Double Fuck.
Peter held the tracker over the opening in the vent and dropped it down onto the curtain in the web; he didn’t want the intruders to hear the noise and alert them of his location and besides, maybe seeing a giant spider web would scare them off, hopefully. Peter watched as two figures slipped inside. The larger one, Batman, Peter remembers, walks out to the center of the stage and scans the rows of seats. The smaller one, Peter can’t see them from this angle but can hear the steady beating of their heart, was silently moving from private booth to private booth. Both obviously looking for something, for Peter. How did he not realise the tracker was on him and how did he not realise Ned’s hoodie was missing. Now Batman, notoriously known for disliking meta’s which Peter assumes he would classify as, not only has his DNA but is actively hunting him down. Triple Fuck.
Batman didn’t move from the middle of the stage, it was like he wanted to be seen; to draw any attention away from the person still moving around the top floor silently, too silently. Peter doesn’t move. There’s a crackle from Batman’s com and a voice speaks up again. A voice Peter only now remembers. Dick from the coffee shop, Dick who handed Peter his bag, Dick who he met on the first night: Dick was Nightwing and he had led Batman straight to him. If he sees him again, he’ll make sure to pour coffee on him.
“Any sign?” Dick asks.
Batman remains silent as if waiting for something.
“Cause the tracker says he’s right above you.”
Peter swears he could hear his own heartbeat echoing through the vents as he watched Batman's head pan upwards looking straight at his giant spider web. Fuuuuuckk.
“Is that… a spider web?” Dick asks as if not believing his own eyes.
‘Great. ’ Peter thinks, ‘they have cameras in their suits.’
He watched as Batman took something out of the utility belt, Peter can’t see it from this angle but he can smell it, whatever it was, it was full of something chemical and Peter wasn’t going to stick around and find out. Peter could hear the second figure land on one of the beams close to him and approach the web. Peter moved silently as he began backing away, eyes still trained on the entrance of the vent, as he moved backwards towards the exit. He could hear movement as the person stepped into the center of the web and onto the curtain itself, smart enough to avoid touching the webbing.
“He found the tracker.” Batman said, “He might still be here. Orphan, proceed with caution.”
‘Orphan? What kind of superhero name was Orphan.’ Peter thought as he heard the figure step back onto the metal beams. Peter was almost out when his backpack caught on something, echoing a small clink through the vents. Peter froze.
Get Out!
Within seconds, the grate was pulled off and a smoke bomb smelling like the same chemicals Peter smelt on Batman, was chucked into the vents. Not wanting to be exposed to whatever it was Peter did the only thing he could think of, and smashed through the bottom of the vent. He hit the ground hard. But Peter has had worse, even if it meant that fall re-opened his stomach wound, he knew he healed enough that it wouldn’t be too bad. What was more concerning was just how fast Batman was now running towards him.
Peter quickly moved to a crouch and shot webbing at Batman's feet. To Peter’s horror; Batman jumped in time to avoid it, not losing his momentum one bit. Panicking now, seeing the frankly terrifying man, running straight for him. Peter let out a scream and webbed himself towards the closest wall and scurried up it till he was pressed into the corner of the ceiling staring down in fear as Batman was now standing where Peter just was. Staring right back at him. Glancing over towards the other person; they wore an all black outfit, face completely covered with the stitching over her mouth. It was definitely one of the scariest things Peter has ever seen. Peter felt like he was going to have a panic attack.
“Peter” Batman spoke, “Come down.”
Peter shook his head.
“Nuh-Uh”
“Don’t make me come up there and get you” Batman said as if talking to a child, which Peter guesses he is.
“Don’t say that!” Dick spoke over the com. “I told you not to scare him, and now you’re threatening him!”
Batman was silent for a moment and Peter took an opportunity to look towards Orphan. She hadn’t moved, just as terrifying looking as before.
“I’m not threatening you” Batman eventually said, “I’m just… concerned. It was a bad fall”
“...You gassed me!” Peter exclaimed, glancing quickly towards Orphan to make sure she hadn’t somehow moved.
“Which is why I want you down here.” Batman reasoned.
“That makes no sense,” Peter said, “Why would I go down there when you just used chemical warfare on me”
“It wasn’t chemical warfare,” Batman said, “It was something to help you relax”
“So you’re trying to kidnap me?!” Peter shouted, “I am not getting kidnapped thank you very much”
“I’m not kidnapping you.”
“Then am I free to go?”
“...No.”
“Oh my god” Dick sighed through the com.
Peter nodded. There were no windows in here but there was a fire exit door, that was his best bet. He just had two problems, two highly trained problems, to deal with first. His bag was still on his back, so at least he didn’t have to salvage that first. Batman still had his hoodie though, Ned’s hoodie. Peter could leave it behind even if had too even if it hurt to do so.
“Where’s my hoodie?” Peter asked as he slowly moved from the corner, back still flat against the wall. He had to move to the other side of the room, he couldn’t risk swinging unless he had a direct shot at the door and with Orphan on the beams, he didn’t have one unless he moved. Batman and Orphan kept their eyes on him.
“It’s at my place.”
“Dick gave you it, right? He put the tracker in my bag too?” As Peter moved closer to the fire exit door, he watched Orphan form the corner of his eyes move closer to the new opening in the vent Peter made when trying to escape the fumes. That’s fine, he wasn’t planning on going that way. “Y’know it’s really rude to steal from kids. What next, you gonna steal my candy too?”
“What happened to you?” Batman asked, moving towards the fire exit door. Okay, not the fire exit then, that’s fine, there’s more ways out. “If you tell me I can help you. I can stop this from happening to anybody else.”
“I don’t know what you mean?” Peter said innocently. Vent: covered by Orphan, Fire Exit: covered by Batman, Back Stage: Free but more entrances, easier to be cornered, Main Entrance: Also free, the front door is bolted shut though and Peter isn’t too sure he wants them to know he can break through a metal, bolted door. The easiest way was still the fire exit, if he got lucky, he could get past him. “Who did what to me?”
“Peter, this is serious.” Batman said, stepping directly in front of the door. “You need help”
“Oh yeah, I totally do,” Peter agreed, crawling further down the wall on all fours face first. He knew it unnerved them, he could hear the slight tremor of their breaths, but neither showed it. “These guys playing superhero keep trying to kidnap me which I’m pretty sure is a felony or something”
Peter stopped a few feet off the ground. Batman stayed guard in front of the door and Peter heard Orphan move closer, staying up high.
“We’re helping you,” Batman defended.
“You’re really scary and I do judge books by their covers so I’m gonna have to refuse that help” Peter steadied himself against the wall, legs bent, hands hovering in front of him, facing batman fully. “Sorry”
With that, Peter shot two webs out towards Batman. Batman avoided the one aiming for his feet but Peter managed to snag one of his arms. Peter tugged hard, pulling Batman towards him while at the same time jumping off the wall, Batman stumbled as he was pulled halfway across the room within a second. He heard a thwip and saw the metal claw of a grappling hook, hit the wall beside him as he shot through the air but Peter’s webs were faster. Peter shot another web at the door and yanked himself towards it, landing full force at the door with his feet as it slammed open.
The cold air greeted his skin, as he shot another web behind him, sealing the door shut behind him. Peter ran.