Young body old mind

Pain….falling apart….darkness….. 

That’s the last thing Peter remembered before….before turning into dust. And right in front of Tony too. Oh poor Tony, the look on his face. Peter remembered Tony saying that if he were to die or get hurt that he’d feel like that was on him. Oh he must feel so guilty. Just his stupid luck.

Peter groaned as he sat up. There was the slight throbbing of pain but nothing that he couldn’t handle. Also, why did he feel smaller? And his spider suit was severely damaged and there was only a little left. He hoped Karen still worked. After testing if Karen still worked which she did, Peter stood up and dusted himself off.He seemed to have ended up in some dirty alley, the only question was in which city. Was he back in New York? He had just been on Titan moments ago.There was a broken mirror in the alleyway Peter found himself in. Peter looked at himself in the mirror, and OH MY GOD! Why the hell was he 9 years old again?!

Suddenly the wind picked up and a newspaper flew into Peter’s face. He took it off his face and the first thing he saw was ‘Gotham city arkham escape’. Gotham city? Peter’s never heard of that city before. And he would know since he was decently good at geography despite it not being his best subject. (He was not going to be one of those Americans who thought Africa was a country). 

Could he be in a different universe? I mean he knew those existed since Dr Strange had said so, but wasn’t that a bit of a far stretch? You know where he could find more information? At a library, his first priority was to find a library.

He should probably also find some clothes and shoes since he can’t walk around in his broken spider suit. After finding some clothes and shoes in a dumpster that were in..decent shape (oh who was he kidding they looked terrible) from the same alley he woke up in he went on his way to look for a library.

He was going to look for the library on his own since his spider sense was giving him warning signals from everywhere. Also what’s up with that? He didn’t get bitten until he was a teen.

—

After walking for what felt like forever Peter finally made it to a building that said ‘Gotham Public Library’. This is where he needed to be to find out if he was actually in a different universe.

Peter entered the library and looked around to see if there were any computers in here. When Peter saw that there were computers in the library he immediately walked over to them.

And just his luck, there was no guest login. Oh no, that meant that he had to talk to the person at the counter. And the last thing he wanted to do right now was talk to someone.

Peter took a deep breath and walked over to the counter. He had to stand on his tippy toes to properly see over the counter. God he hated being small.

He paused for a moment before speaking.

“Uhm…excuse me miss..?”

The woman behind the counter looked up. The woman behind the counter had red hair and seemed to be in her mid 20s or something.

“Oh hey kiddo. What can I do for you?”

“I- ummm. I wanted to use one of the computers but I saw that there wasn’t a guest login…”

Peter replied. 

“Oh that’s because we don’t have them here. We’ve had people try to buy bomb parts on google on the computers in the library before”

“Oh…so I can’t use any of them?”

"Oh, you can. But I’d need to make you a library card. I’d need an ID or email for that”

“I…don’t have any of those…”

Well shit just his luck again. How was he going to get information now? He noticed that he still had Karen earlier so maybe he could secretly get her to pull info from the web? (Ha get it? Web?).

“Oh…I’ll let you temporarily use my library card. Just this once okay?”

Peter’s face lit up slightly.

“Really? Thank you so much! Miss..?”

“Barbara, you can call me Barbara”

“Thank you miss Barbara!”

He said practically skipping over to the computers. He was still going to need Karen to get info from the internet.

—

Okay Barbara was slightly concerned by the young child who was definitely younger than ten that just walked into her library. The poor kid had bruises all over him and his clothes were all tattered and it looked like there were about to be holes in his shoes, but the kid themselves didn’t seem to notice.

He was also so small. But who was she kidding? Practically anyone under 20 looked small to her. And his feet weren’t even touching the ground as he sat there.

She looked at the kid sitting at one of the computers, and getting more and more frustrated. And honestly the more she looked at him the more she thought that he was probably homeless. 

 She needed to tell the others about this.

Batchat

Babs: There’s a kid in my library

Jay: And this is important why?

Babs: The kid is like nine, and he’s covered in bruises and he doesn’t have proper clothes. Looks like someone tried to beat him up. He’s probably also homeless

Jay: Sounds like he might be a crime alley kid

Dick: That does sound bad. What's he doing now?

Babs: He’s using one of the computers. 

Tim: Don’t you like, need a library card for that?

Babs: Yeah but he didn’t have an ID or Email for me to make one for him so I’m letting him use mine for now.

Jay: Do you have this kid’s name?

Babs: No I don't, I forgot to ask.

Dick: I’ll keep an eye out during patrol. Jay probably will too since the kid does sound like a crime alley one

Babs: Thanks Dick

—

Okay so his suspicions were confirmed. He was indeed in another universe. Wait, did that mean that he had a counterpart in this universe? If so he needed to think of a different name just in case. Peter was fine, it's a generic enough name anyway. But the last name would need some changing. What was his dads old last name again..? Peter swears it was something with a G…

Also did this universe have heroes, Vigilantes, and Villains? It would probably be smart to search that up.

Okay so apparently this universe had something called the Justice League, or JL for short and it had a whole arrangement of heroes in it. But the most important are probably the founders which are Superman, Batman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green Lantern, the Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman. 

Wonder Woman kind of reminded Peter of Captain America. Only Wonder Woman was present during WW1 instead of WW2.

Superman and Martian Martian Manhunter were both aliens although Superman looked human.

Aquaman was apparently king of Atlantis (Atlantis exists in this universe?)

Green Lantern was a guy with a ring that had cool powers and also his weakness was the colour yellow. (That’s just stupid and lame)

There was also the Flash who is the fastest man alive. Wonder what it’s like to be able to go that fast.

But currently the most important was Batman, who apparently was Gotham’s very own vigilante along with a whole other ragtag of other vigilanties. Such as Nightwing, Spoiler, Black Bat or Orphan, Red Robin (why the name of a restaurant? Or did it not exist in the universe?), and Robin and apparently there have been multiple in the past. So it’s kinda like a title that’s been passed down.

And he technically wasn’t a vigilante but a crime lord but Red Hood was sometimes seen collaborating with Batman and the others, so they definitely know each other.

While Peter was thinking of a name and all the information that he just read about this universe's heroes Karen signified that she was done taking all the info of the internet, So Peter unplugged her. But how was he going to keep Karen with him?

You know what he was just going to stuff her in his pocket.

Peter walked back over to the counter.

“Uhm here’s your library card back miss Barbara”

Peter said, sliding the card onto the counter.

“Ah thank you…..”

She said trailing off, oh she probably wanted to know his name.

“Oh Peter. Call me Peter”

“And what might little Peter’s last name be?”

Okay she did not just call him little, okay well it does make sense since he has the body of a nine year old.

“I don’t feel comfortable telling strangers my last name”

It wasn’t necessarily that he just hadn’t thought of a different last name yet.

“Are you hungry Peter?” Barbara asked, looking down at her phone for a split second. Peter could see that the screen lit up. Probably a text from someone she knew.

“No not really” Peter replied.

“I have some uhm let me see….oh I have some peppermints”

“Uhm no sorry I’m allergic..” he wasn’t actually allergic he just panicked okay?

“Anyways I really should get going. Bye miss Barbara!" Peter said before quickly running out of the door and back onto the streets of Gotham.

—

Okay so after roaming around Gotham for a while Peter decided that finding a place to sleep would probably come in handy. 

But the question is where, since Peter has deduced that Gotham is an absolute shitshow that looks like a gust of wind that's slightly too strong might make some of the buildings collapse and crumble.

But at the same time the city seemed resilient. Also how was he going to get food? Dumpster diving maybe?

 No that was definitely a bad idea. If he were to go dumpster diving he would need to do it in the rich part of the city, and if he was being honest he didn’t want to put in the effort for that at the moment.

Okay so maybe an abandoned building? That could possibly work if he found the right place. A homeless shelter didn’t seem like a good idea seeing the state of the city and it’s high crime rate.

 By the sound of it they seemed like ideal places for human trafficking, and that was a can of worms Peter did not want to open under any circumstances. 

An abandoned building seemed like his best bet for now.

After roaming Gotham for a while Peter found a building that seemed suitable for now. Seemed like an old abandoned shop.

And there was still a cash register! Maybe there was money in it? Probably not but he had to hope for something. He’d even be happy with 5 dollars.

Peter walked over to the cash register and upon trying to open it he found out it was locked. That wasn’t a problem, he'll just rip it open.

After doing so there was money inside! That was good, and after counting it it came down to about 250 dollars. Who would leave that much money behind? That was a decent enough amount for now.

Peter could use the money on food that didn’t go bad fast. And maybe some clothes, a jacket sounded like a good idea. But food was his main priority.

Also getting a good mental map of Gotham seemed like a good idea. But how..? Maybe a new spider suit?

But he had the body of a nine year old and Peter had read that there was a ‘no meta rule’ in Gotham. 

Or whatever that meant. But that probably extended to no other heroes/vigilantes in Gotham. 

Eh who gives a shit, Peter definitely didn’t.

But that would probably take a while since Peter also needed to find out about his web shooters and how he was going to get web fluid and all that stuff.

Peter hid the money away and went to the roof of the building and just sat up there. Peter always liked high places, it also made his spiders sense happy.

Just then Peter’s spider sense spiked up, someone was watching him. But who, and why? 

Peter looked in the direction he felt it coming from. When he looked there he could feel the heartbeat of that person spike.

Internally Peter had a shit eating grin but he didn’t let it show, he just shrugged and went back to staring out at the city skyline.

It wasn’t like New York but it also felt familiar in some way.

Then Peter heard the footsteps. Probably from whoever was watching him earlier.

 Whoever it was he could probably defeat them in a fight because of his super strength so he wasn’t too worried.

“What are you doing up here?” Said whoever was stalking him. Sounded like they had a voice modulator or something.

“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers” is all that Peter replied, not bothering to look behind him.

“Look kid, it's not safe up here. And you do know there’s a curfew right?” replied the stranger.

Peter looked behind him and now he could see the person.

Oh he read about that guy on the internet earlier, Red Hood or something..? He’s a crime lord, but the residents of crime alley seemed to kinda like him. And he sometimes works with Batman and the other vigilantes.

“Well you’re not supposed to be out on the street . I good sir am currently on a roof” replied Peter standing up and wiping himself off with his hands.

Redhood seemed to want to say something but before he could Peter said “Yes I’ll get away from the edge of the roof I’m not suicidal” while walking towards Red hood.

Red hood seemed shocked for a moment but quickly regained his composure. “You alright kid?”

 Why was he asking that? Peter felt fine. “Yes, why are you asking..?” - Concerned?- Peter felt his spider sense say. With that he got the feeling that Red Hood was looking at him like he was a kicked puppy, despite him wearing a helmet and Peter not being able to see his face. 

“Okay I get the feeling that you’re looking at me like I’m a kicked puppy and I don’t like it. Stop it” Peter said pointing at Red Hood.

Red hood sighed “You hungry kid, or cold? ‘Cause you look like you could use some food and a jacket”

Peter attempted to look suspicious of his offer by squinting his eyes at Red Hood. “I'm not that stupid that I'll just take things from strangers, you know that? I might look young but I'm not an idiot”

Red Hood looked slightly baffled, ah that gave Peter some satisfaction from the shitty situation he was in. 

Okay Peter couldn’t hold it in anymore and started laughing while laughing he said.

“Oh just kidding, I know that you like to help the citizens of Gotham. Also yeah a jacket would be nice”

Peter could hear Red Hood sigh and grab a bag. Where did that come from?

“Here kid, it’s just a bag with essentials such as clothing, food, and stuff for hygiene that I give to the children” Red Hood said while holding out the bag to Peter. Apparently the guy just has these on him.

“Uhm thanks…don’t know where the hell you got the bag from because I swear you didn’t have it a moment ago, but thank you” Peter said, taking the bag from Red Hood.

“Stay safe kid, and if I were you I would get those injuries checked” Red Hood said before disappearing into the shadows. A bit cliche to be doing that but okay.

Peter went back into the abandoned shop he had decided to stay in and found a place to sleep. He would look at  what was in the bag tomorrow morning and from there make a plan on what to do. 

But for now he would rest unknowing to the fact that he now had a couple of vigilanties worried for him, and that there were a lot of things coming for him.