Of Bullies, Aliens, and Teams
Peter walked out the door with Tim, easily jumping over a foot sticking out to trip him. Peter waved cheerily at Edison Bright, who sneered at him in return. So far so good.
“Ignore him,” Tim said. “He’s been doing this bullshit the entire time I’ve known him.”
“Oh, I am,” Peter reassured. “Trust me, I’m kinda used to bullies by now.”
“The horrors of adolescence.”
The two walked into the lunchroom, getting trays and food before heading over to their regular table where Duke and Steph were already waiting. “Hey, Parker!” someone shouted.
Peter turned to see Edison at his table with his cronies, beckoning Peter over. Peter glanced at Tim, who rolled his eyes and sat down. When Peter didn’t follow suit, he blinked up at the teen. Tim’s eyes darted between Peter and Edison, raising an eyebrow. “You can’t seriously be considering it.”
“What? I’m curious!”
“Your funeral. In all seriousness though, if you need any of us to tear him a new one, we’d do it in a heartbeat.”
“Yeah!” Steph chimed. “Honestly, I’ve been waiting for him to give me an excuse.”
“Same!” Duke exclaimed.
“I’ll be fine,” Peter reassured. With that, he slapped on a shit-eating grin and walked to the jock table.
“What can I do for you?” Peter asked with his customer service voice.
“We know your little secret, Peter. ”
“And what secret is that?”
“You’re not from here, are you?”
“From where, Gotham? Cause yeah, I thought the New York accent would make that kind of obvious, but hey, Gotham is becoming home pretty quickly now and—”
“Not that one, fuckwad! You’re not from this planet!”
Oh?
“Yeah,” one of the cronies Peter couldn’t be bothered to learn the name of said. “And if you don’t do exactly what we say, the whole school, hell, the whole world is going to know!”
Peter considered this. “ Do you know anything, though? With what evidence? And better yet,” Peter leaned in, “who’s going to believe a word you say?”
No one had anything to say to that, so Peter waved them goodbye and headed back to his friends.
“What was that about?” Duke wondered.
Peter recounted his conversation with an amused smile, eyes alight with mischief that would make Loki proud. The three other teens were understandably worried at this, which Peter shrugged off.
“Now that they know,” Peter explained in a quiet murmur, “I might be able to have a bit of fun with them. I’m not sure what quite yet, since I don’t want to do anything that’ll link me back to Spidey at all…”
“Don’t worry,” Steph giggled maniacally. “I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with something!”
“So, how was school?” Jason asked.
Peter shrugged, chopping the carrots carefully. “It was fine. Some guys figured out that I’m not from here though.”
Jason stopped stirring, staring at Peter in concern. “Are you okay, did they threaten you at all?”
“Oh they tried,” Peter hummed, moving on to the celery. “I just told them that no one would believe them and let them ~stew~ in it.”
Peter used the back of the knife to scrape the vegetables into the pot of stew, eyebrows raised with a big grin.
“Very funny,” Jason deadpanned. “Shit, Pete, how long have these guys been bothering you?”
“About this? They only started today.”
Nothing went over Jason’s head. “So they’ve been bothering you for a while now.”
“I mean, they try to bother me. I just make sure it doesn’t work, and Spidey-sense lets me know if they’re trying to trip me or grab my bag or something.”
“How does that work, anyway?”
“Well, if someone or something is a danger to me, I get this weird tingling sensation. It’s only gotten stronger since I’ve been here, most likely due to the radiation enhancing what was already there.”
“And the spidey-sense didn’t warn you about that?”
“Nope! Which is why I kept telling you that it’s fine.”
“Right it was definitely just that and not your pride.”
Peter stopped and slowly turned to glare at Jason. “Now that’s just rude.”
“But accurate!”
Peter grumbled and finished up chopping the potatoes. He scraped those into the pot too, and he and Jason washed their hands. “You got any homework, kid?”
“Nope!”
“Sweet.”
Spider-Man sat on the roof of an apartment building, swinging his legs back and forth. Red Robin sat next to him, absentmindedly staring at the sky. “Have you given any more thought to your invitation?”
“Invitation?”
“To the Titans. You’re trained by someone, a couple different someones, if your fighting style is anything to go off of, but, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, you could use some more training. Or at least some regular training. Perhaps with other metas.”
Peter hummed. “I don’t know. Who would I be working with?”
“Well, there’s Nightwing, me, Starfire, Raven, Changeling, Cyborg, Superboy (who goes by Kon-El now), Kid Flash (who used to go by Impulse), and Wonder Girl.”
Peter blinked. “Why did I even ask? I don’t know any of these names!”
Tim snorted. “Beats me, man. Personally, if I were you, I’d just stay here in Gotham, and maybe head out to help us every now and then? Once we graduate and all. It’s up to you, honestly. And how well the team likes you.”
Peter mulled this over. “I don’t think I could do anything permanently, but I’d love to be an honorary member or something.”
Tim laughed, unaware of Peter admiring how his hair fell back and how his collarbones looked. “Sounds good to me. I think the team would love you, Kid Flash especially. He’s from the future.”
“Him too?”
Tim paused, turning to look at Peter. “What? P-Spidey, are you from the future?”
Peter grimaced. “It’s complicated. I guess I haven’t been fully honest with you guys. I’m not really an alien. I’m from Earth, just a very different one. One that has Star Wars and Kingdom Hearts and doesn’t have Bugs Bunny.”
“Your world doesn’t have Bugs Bunny???”
“Nope. Which is a shame, honestly.”
“It really is! How’d you get here then?”
“Dr. Strange.”
Tim froze. “Who?” he asked, his voice strangled.
“Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme.”
Tim exhaled in relief. “Oh thank god. We have a Dr. Strange too, but he’s not a good guy.”
“Huh. Interesting.”
“So why did this wizard send you here?”
“I couldn’t be in my world anymore.” Peter didn’t want to elaborate.
“I’m sorry.”
Peter shrugged. “Not much you can do about it. Well, I mean, you’re here, aren’t you? That’s more than enough for me.”
Tim’s face turned as red as his name and looked away. “Thanks, Spidey.”
“No problem, Red.”