Worlds Away

Dick cheered loudly, jumping up from the couch to wrap his arms around Kory. “What?” she asked. 

“Tim just texted. He said Spider-Man is going to try and hang with the Titans for a weekend.”

“Dick, that’s wonderful! Did he say when?”

“Like a week or two from now.”

“That’s great! Do you think he’ll fit in well?”

“Well, he’s most likely going to be a better team player than any of the Bats, that’s for certain.”

Peter was not a team player. Well, he could be, it’s just… Spider-Man was kind of a solo act. So, he was interested to see how this would go. 

“Recognized: Red Robin, B20 and Guest,” the automated voice rang out. 

Peter grabbed Tim’s arm and shook it lightly, gawking. “Dude, you never told me you guys have teleportation technology!”

“Not teleportation,” Tim corrected. “Zeta technology.”

“Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. You guys have teleportation devices! That’s so fucking cool! Teleportation that’s not being used to raid New York City!” So entranced was he, that Peter didn’t notice the heroes staring at him expectantly on the couch. 

“What was that about New York City being raided?” The green one asked.

Peter blinked and turned, finally catching sight of the people watching him. “Oh. Nothing! Absolutely nothing. What’s up?”

Tim introduced, “Everyone, this is Spider-Man, Gotham’s latest. Spidey, this is Starfire, Raven, Cyborg, Changeling, and you already know Nightwing. Everyone else is kinda busy with their respective cities at the moment.”

Peter waved awkwardly at the group, adjusting the straps of his bag on his shoulder. “Hi.”

Raven leaned forward, studying Peter closely. “That’s some powerful magic you have around you.”

Peter was glad for his mask, as he blanched and took a step back. “We all got here through some weird ways, okay?”

She hummed but didn’t respond. Changeling grinned. “I like this one.”

Cyborg snorted. “You would.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

Starfire floated forward, grasping Peter’s hand and shaking it enthusiastically. So much so that Peter had a feeling he’d be bouncing up and down if he weren’t stuck to the ground. “It is wonderful to meet you! D- Nightwing has told us so much about you!”

Peter blinked, and turned to Nightwing, trying to convey a ‘what the fuck’ as much as he could through a full face mask. “He has?”

Dick shrugged, unapologetic. “She’s my partner, I’m going to tell her about the happenings in my life.”

“That wouldn’t happen to include my name, would it?”

Dick shook his head. “You’re a Bat, we’re pretty private about that kind of thing.”

“We didn’t see this guy’s eyes for five years.” Cyborg rolled his eyes, er, eye. “Who were we going to tell? Even so, we’re not going to push a name from you on your first visit. Go put your stuff away, we’ve got a spare room set up for you and everything.”

Nightwing waved Peter over to the elevator at the far end of the room; Peter scrambled to catch up, Peter Parkouring over the couch to do so. Tim followed behind, and the elevator doors closed on the three of them as the metal box began to rise. “So,” Tim started, “do you want me to stick around? Just so you can have someone familiar to talk to?”

Peter nodded as Dick squawked. “What am I, chopped liver?” 

“Guy I barely know, versus my boyfriend. I wonder,” Peter teased. 

Dick huffed. “Fine, fine. I see how it is,” he teased back.

The doors dinged and opened to a hallway with an open door at the end. The three walked over there and Peter dumped his bag on the bed, examining the sparse space. Curious to see the view, Peter made his way over to the floor-to-ceiling window. He stared out over the sea, a small smile making its way onto his face. “We’re pretty high up,” he commented.

Dick hummed thoughtfully, placing a card attached to a lanyard in Peter’s hand. “We can move you if you’re uncomfortable.”

Peter shook his head. “No, it’s a good thing. Heights make that spider-y part of my brain really happy.”

Dick grinned. “Good. Now come on, we’ve got a day of training ahead of us.”

“If trouble doesn’t call,” Tim pointed out.

Dick shrugged and walked to the doorway, waiting for the two teens. Peter took the card out of the plastic sleeve, threw the lanyard onto the bed, and pocketed the piece in a compartment of his utility belt. Dick and Tim’s grins were equally wide at the action, and Peter followed the two back downstairs.

The elevator ride to the first floor was significantly longer, and Peter was almost wishing he had just gone to the roof and swung down. Elevator rides were awkward no matter the universe. The doors opened with a ‘ding,’ and the three stepped out, with Peter eagerly examining the environment. His enthusiasm dipped at the barren rocky patch in front of him. “This is where you guys train?”

Tim chuckled. “Don’t judge it too harshly. It’s got a few tricks up its sleeve.”

Tim led Peter to where everyone else was standing, with Dick breaking off from them to head up to a control panel overlooking the terrain. “Cyborg, care to demonstrate for Spider-Man here?”

Cyborg cracked his knuckles, or whatever he could do with metal hands, and took off at a running start, dodging the gigantic metal fists that suddenly sprung out of the ground. Lasers sprouted out of the ground on metal rods and shot at him, which he also easily evaded. Several metal contraptions sprung out of the ground, looking a little bit like ginormous metal guillotines, and oh shit they acted like huge guillotines too, with big bars slamming onto the ground. Cyborg ducked and weaved and rolled under the last one, barely having any time to come up for air as more things came out of the ground and shot weird discs at him, most of which he decimated with his sonic cannon (sonic cannon!!!!). Large pillars of rock began to rise from the ground, with Cyborg being on one of them. He easily jumped from pillar to pillar, landing back on the ground without a scratch in seconds. 

Two more large metal poles rose from the ground and connected, forming a web of red lasers. Cyborg dove through one of the openings, rolling smoothly before being back on his feet and sprinting back towards the group, almost completing a full circle. Mere feet away, a big ass sheet of metal rose in front of him, which Cyborg used his cannon to carve a path through. Finished, he put his hands on his hips and gestured at the starting point. “Who’s next?”

Tim shoved Peter forward, smirking. 

“Yeah!” Changeling cheered. “Show us what you got, bug!”

Peter opened his mouth to correct him, only for Tim to beat him to the punch. “Spiders are arachnids, not bugs,” he corrected.

Peter slowly turned to face Tim, once again grateful for his full face mask, so no one else could the utter love-struck expression he knew he was sporting at the moment. Tim could apparently tell regardless, as his smirk grew bigger and a bit cheeky. Peter cleared his throat and shook his head, approaching the starting line. He took a step back, then threw himself forward at Nightwing’s “Go!”

Peter inhaled slowly, focusing on what his senses were telling him, and broke into a run. The ground where the fists rose up was clearly marked and easy to avoid just by not stepping on the wrong dirt patch. Peter used the last metal fist to launch himself into the air, dodging the lasers by relying on his Spidey-Sense and where he had seen the lasers shooting previously. A few of them he webbed up, causing them to explode altogether. Peter hoped those weren’t too expensive, then disregarded that thought because a billionaire was paying for it.

Peter easily dodged the guillotine looking things by hopping from the top of one to the top of the other. The little explode-y disks were easily caught with a web net, which Peter used to destroy the others. The rock pillars were next, with Peter bouncing from one to the next like a yo-yo on a string. The grid of lasers rose from the ground, which Peter managed to just nick his shoulder on. “Shit,” he hissed, wincing. 

A big ass pit opened up, which Peter mentally squawked at. Cyborg didn’t have to deal with that one! He shot two strings of webs to either side as he fell in, letting gravity do its thing before using it to slingshot up and out of the pit and across the final metal wall. Peter stood on the other side, panting ever so slightly. Starfire cheered, pumping a fist in the air. “That was wonderful!”

Tim was smirking again, the kind that Peter had come to recognize as his ‘my boyfriend is pretty fucking cool’ smirk. It made Peter grin back, even if Tim couldn’t see it. 

“Dude!” Changeling exclaimed. “I didn’t know you shot fucking webs out of your wrist! Do those— do those come out of you??”

Peter clasped his hands behind his head, swinging his elbows back and forth a bit. “That’s for me to know, and you to never find out.”

Changeling didn’t know how to take this, his facial expression falling somewhere between awestruck and appalled. Cyborg clapped Peter on the back, a big ol’ grin plastered on his face too. “That was pretty impressive, kid.”

“Nicely done,” Nightwing commented, having made his way down from the control panel to join the rest of the team. Peter wasn’t sure what to do with this much positive human interaction. He hadn’t had teammates giving him this much positive reinforcement since… well, since before The Dusting. Shit, had it really been that long?

“Spider-Man, are you okay?” Raven asked. 

Peter blinked. How did she know? Shit, could she read minds???

Raven chuckled. “I’m an empath, not a mind-reader. I get that a lot.”

Peter narrowed his eyes. Then how did she get that last bit, huh? She rolled her eyes, a small smile gracing her face. “Don’t worry kid, your secrets are safe. Relatively. I mean, you are a Bat, according to Nightwing, so they won’t stay very secret for long around that crazy family—”

Tim and Dick made almost identical noises of offense. 

“—but they’re safe from me. For the most part.”

Peter chuckled. “Good to know. Are we going to go through more training exercises or are we going to eat something?”

Changeling perked up. “Yeah! This kid knows what’s up! Last one to the kitchen’s a rotten egg!” 

With that, the green man turned into a hawk and headed towards the top of the building, where Peter spotted a small balcony with a door, presumably leading inside. Tim started to head into the building, presumably to get to the elevator or rappel up the stairs, but Peter grabbed his wrist and shook his head. “We’re going the fun way! Maybe we won’t get there super quickly, but we won’t be the last ones!”

Tim looked at Peter, confusion evident. Peter scooped him up in a bridal carry and started sprinting up the side of the building like Sora (may he rest in peace) in KH3. Tim let out a delighted laugh, clinging onto Peter for dear life. Peter managed to get through the door on the balcony just after Changeling, and certainly before the rest of the Titans. Somehow, despite flying, Raven was the last one in, shrugging. “Damn. Guess I’m a rotten egg. Bummer.”

“It’s not fun if you don’t even try!” Changeling pouted. 

The group laughed it off as Dick ordered the pizza, apparently knowing what everybody wanted already, including Peter, which surprised him. Apparently knowing Peter was looking at him, Dick shrugged. “You seem like a pineapple on pizza kind of guy.”

“One, what the fuck is that supposed to mean, two, how did you know? For all you know I could hate it!”

“Oracle expressed her disgust when she was watching you on patrol one time,” Tim deadpanned.

“Way to take the fun out of it,” Dick sulked. 

“Do not worry, Spider-Man,” Starfire comforted, “I also enjoy pineapple on pizza.”

The group settled onto the gigantic couch in front of the second biggest flatscreen Peter had ever seen (the first was the one in the Avengers tower) and chatted amicably while they waited for the pizza. 

“So,” Raven started, handing Peter a Dr Pepper and sitting on his left, “if you don’t mind me asking, is there any particular reason you got so upset at us congratulating you? You’re not… being hurt, right?”

Peter swallowed, blinking rapidly. “What? No, god no! It just… reminded me of home, that’s all. Or, my old home, anyways. Gotham’s growing on me.”

Raven blinked in surprise. “You’ve been on a superhero team before?”

Peter cringed. “It was a long time ago. And you won’t find anything about it even if you look, so don’t bother.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Does it have to do with the magic around you?”

“A little,” Peter admitted. “How do you know it’s not me that’s magical?”

“It surrounds you, not comes from you. And if you had any knowledge of the mystic arts, you’d stay away from me.”

Peter didn’t know what to do with that, so he just took another sip. He turned to Tim, who was obviously monitoring the conversation very closely. “You have a spare domino mask or something?”

Tim nodded and fished one out of his utility belt. “Why?”

“I trust these guys. Mostly.”

Raven huffed out a laugh at that and shook her head. “Yep. That’s a Bat all right.”