Should I trust you?
He couldn’t move.
May was dying, but he felt like his legs were made of stone.
… er!
A voice was screaming at him. What was it saying?
… ter!
“...She was there... because of you…”
He couldn’t breath.
… Peter!
“... I may have struck the blow, but you... You are the one that killed her”.
…
Peter woke up screaming. Not surprising, really. Though the hands trying to hold him still were new.
“Hey! Get a hold of yourself!” Someone said, Peter wasn’t sure who, since he was busy feeling like the whole world was spinning. He was for sure going to throw up that burrito he had for breakfast.
“... If you puke on this floor, I swear I’ll kill you!” Peter wasn’t great at following orders, Tony had told him so, repeatedly. However, lucky for him and the yelling voice, he didn’t actually vomit his guts out.
“Where am I?” Peter asked, disoriented. As he blinked, finally able to focus his eyes. It was still night time, but the soft light from a lamp next to him allowed him to see a man standing next to him, watching him. He wore a domino mask, jeans, and a red hoodie.
“... Red Hood?” The man nodded at his words, sighing.
“You passed out really hard”, he said. “Had to drag you around fully unconscious”. He sounded annoyed.
“Sorry?... Eh, mind telling me where did you drag me to, exactly?” Peter said, getting more confused at every passing minute.
“Somewhere safe”, was the vague answer he got. Only then, taking a look at his surroundings, Peter noticed the gun on the man’s hand, probably prepared to shoot him if Peter made the wrong move.
“Uhhh, the gun is really not necessary?” he carefully said.
“Is that a question?” answered Red Hood.
“Eh, no. No, really, there’s no need for that”, Peter said, raising his hands. The last thing he needed was to reveal himself because he had to dodge some bullets or knock someone else unconscious (Peter chose not to think about the recent sound of broken bones or the fact that the other guy was probably more than unconscious), even less when that someone was probably helping him.
The one who called himself Red Hood put away the gun. “There. Better?”
Peter then realized he was currently lying down on a very comfortable couch, as the other man grabbed a chair to sit down close to him.
“So, Peter”, Red Hood said, with his arms crossed. “Who are you, exactly? I can tell you are not from around here and no one ends up in Gotham “accidentally” very often. Not exactly a tourist spot”.
…
Jason didn’t know what to think about this guy, he should have really let him be or dropped him off to one of the bats, make him their problem. But… he felt like he owed him at the very least a moment of rest. He may have killed the Joker, after all.
After he left the guy named Peter for a bit in that alley, he ran the few blocks that separated Jason from him. What he found, he would remember forever.
Joker was just lying there, like so many bodies found around Gotham. It was so… mortal of him. The source of his worst nightmares, inner demons and blinding rage was just... there.
However, like always, things didn’t go exactly the way Jason hoped. That monster still had a pulse (how on earth could that even be possible? He had a cracked skull, for fuck’s sake, and so many broken bones). Well, on the bright side, he wouldn’t be up to anything anytime soon. If he even survived this.
He waited for the blinding green anger to come. The rage. Somehow, he felt nothing but emptiness, watching the clown lying there. It felt too easy.
Why did the monster that haunted every single step he took, every breath and his nights looked so… peaceful? Jason felt sick. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He was meant to fucking suffer.
Right when he was about to raise his gun, thinking about finishing the job, Jason felt people arrive in the alley.
“Red Hood”. Two voices said, appearing behind him.
“Replacement. Nightwing. Nice of you to drop by” he answered, suddenly very tired. “He’s not actually dead yet, sadly”
“... Are you the one who did this?” Nightwing carefully asked.
“No, but I wish it had been”. Jason honestly said. “ It should have been”, he added. Nightwing just listened silently.
“Any idea of who would have done this?”, Red Robin inquired, sounding quite amazed. After all, Joker had more than a bunch of broken bones and a seriously fractured skull, which could have been only accomplished with a great amount of brute force (Jason had started to elaborate some theories about that - not that he would share them with the present heroes, anyways -).
“I wish I had, so I could give them a prize” Jason answered, eyes glowing green for a moment, before he could really think about what to say. Maybe he should have told the truth. The Peter guy (kid? He looked younger than Jason) hadn’t actually committed something terrible, in Jason’s eyes. Though Batman probably wouldn’t feel the same way, actually.
Besides, the guy’s situation seemed more complicated the more he thought about it and Jason wasn’t really feeling like just washing his hands and throwing Peter to someone who might treat him immediately like some sort of dangerous criminal (the little bats were maybe okay, but the big one would be a problem without a doubt). Especially since Peter had… Amnesia? Jason hadn’t ruled out time travel, alien status nor some kind of dimension jump either (they all have seen some weird shit).
The normal human amnesia theory was discarded quickly, since he had seemingly one-punched the Joker, the guy was probably a meta of some kind. A runaway? An experiment subject who got free?
In the end, Jason kept quiet about Peter Parker. At least while he figured some things out.
“We’ll handle things from here”, Nightwing said, interrupting Jason’s thoughts. “The ambulance will arrive soon, though I don’t know if there’s anything that can be done. I warn you, B might show up soon”
Red Robin and him looked at Jason warily, waiting for the burst of anger. It didn’t come (the green threatening to glow in his eyes said it was only a matter of time).
“Sure, suit yourselves. Let me know what you find out”, he said, walking away.
The other bats just watched him leave, with worried and doubtful eyes, clearly not expecting this. Jason for sure would hear from them soon, wishing to speak to him.
Once he got back to the alley he left Peter waiting, hoping he hadn’t gotten in trouble, like getting mugged or something, remembering suddenly he had left an outsider alone in freaking Gotham. Although, if he thought about it, the muggers were probably more at risk than Peter.
What he did not expect at all was to find the young man lying dead still on the wet, cold ground. Approaching fast, Jason looked for a pulse only to find a steady beating heart and a very asleep Peter.
Sighing, he threw him over his shoulder and took the path to the nearest safehouse (he had not taken the bike to get here - and Peter would have fallen over anyway, in his current state -).
When he finally got there, he laid Peter on the couch (it was a nice couch). The guy didn’t wake up even once.
Jason was able to take a good look at him now. He was on the thin side, looked tired and had dark circles around his eyes that left Tim’s to shame. Jason was definitely not worried, he barely knew the guy.
Peter stirred, making sounds like it was hard to breathe. His arms were covered in bruises and Jason remembered him putting his weight on one foot as if the other one was hurt. Jason frowned.
Thinking about his theories from what he could gather about Peter, Jason felt conflicted. Could he even be trusted? Would he tell him the truth about who he was? Did it matter? Alien, dimension traveler or not, he could still be a danger to the city, to its people and to his fam… The others.
Jason carefully grabbed a few hairs from Peter’s head. Better be safe than sorry.
…
Peter was at a loss of words. What was he supposed to say? Hey, I’m actually from another dimension, nice to meet you. Was the multiverse even a thing here? The town had obviously vigilante-like activity, but that didn’t tell him they had the means to understand what he was talking about.
Well, it didn’t hurt to be honest, especially since the guy was (maybe) a hero of some kind. Worst case scenario, he would say he hit his head. Hard.
It wasn’t like Peter had anywhere else to go. It helped that his spider-sense hadn’t triggered around this guy at the moment.
“You might not believe me when I tell you”, Peter started. “To put in simple terms, I think this might not be my universe, meaning I come from another Earth. For starters, where I come from there’s no Gotham, as far as I know… Are we still in the United States? Just checking”
“Yeah, we are in New Jersey,” Red Hood said, with a blank look on his face.
“Ew”, Peter couldn’t help but let out. To his credit, the other man simply ignored the comment.
“Okay, you’re supposedly from another dimension. That doesn’t tell me how you ended up in an alley of the Capital of Crime” Red Hood finally said.
Peter chose not to take offense on the “supposedly” part. After all, he himself had made the mistake of trusting Mysterio too much too soon. Yeah, maybe he shouldn’t be telling this Red Hood guy his whole life story (stranger danger and all that).
Peter proceeded to tell some of his story anyway. After all, he hadn’t had someone to really talk about it in a very long time.
“Well, I was bitten by a radioactive spider a few years back, which led me to try the superhero thing. Then around a year and a half ago, this guy pretended to be a hero called Mysterio… I wrongly placed my trust in him, which bit me in the butt. He staged his death and blamed me, revealing my secret identity in the process” He took a deep breath.
“After all of that, I… made a series of rushed decisions. Asked this magician guy to make a spell that would make everyone forget who I was behind the mask. Simply put, it didn't work out”, Peter winced.
“Something went wrong, it was kind of my fault. Because of that my… Well, a lot happened and a lot of people got hurt” he admitted. “This opened the door to what is known as the multiverse, I guess”.
Red Hood stared at him silently, listening attentively the whole time. He made a face.
“So… Not to sound insensitive to your sob story, but that really doesn’t answer my question. How did you end up here?” asked the man.
“Well, I don’t actually have an answer to that question. A portal opened under me and I ended up in a dark alley, that’s all I got”, Peter shrugged.
Red Hood stayed silent for a moment. Then, sighing while taking off his mask, opened his mouth. “You can call me Jason”.