Chapter 2
The part of getting abducted by an interdimensional portal and dumped into a city he doesn't recognize that no one talks about is the anxiety that comes with not knowing anyone or being completely sure of anything. Like, for all he knew, maybe wishing death on the entire family of whoever happened to bump into you was normal here.
Or maybe the guy that Peter accidentally bumped shoulders with was just an asshole.
First thing's first, he needs to figure out how to get to a library. Which means, he needs to find out where he is now. So, a map.
What kind of a place sold maps?
Peter decided to chance it, and lo and behold, the cramped little grocery store that he wandered into had a little laminated map by the storefront. It obviously wasn't for sale, but it could be helpful nonetheless. Fishing his old Stark Tech phone out of his back jean pocket (how it hadn't been stolen yet was beyond him), Peter breathed a sigh of relief as it came on. Leave it to Tony Stark to engineer a cellphone that can survive the trip through time and space.
Though he had no signal, the camera app still worked. Peter snapped a quick photo of the map, and left as soon as he came out, lest the teenager behind the counter thought he was taking photos of them. Though, she'd only looked up from her phone once since he came in, and it was to place a handgun on the counter. And, judging from the metal he could smell - and taste - it was fully loaded, too.
That's one way to ward off robberies, Peter mused, feeling just a tad weirded out. He took a quick glance at the map on his phone. Apparently, the library was a couple miles north of where Peter had woken up, The Bowery. He didn't want to walk, and seeing as even a glance at the sun dipping towards the horizon made his senses jump at the base of his neck. Something told Peter he wouldn't like the Bowery after dark. It wouldn't take too long for him to run, he wouldn't even be winded after, but he didn't want to draw attention to himself.
Thankfully, the map also had lines representing the Gotham City subway lines. One section had been smudged out with black marker, so Peter guessed that those lines were no longer operating, for whatever reason. Jogging to the nearest subway station, taking special care to avoid touching anyone this time, Peter took the stairs leading into the tunnel 5 at a time, hoping to get to the library and find somewhere to stay before it got too late.
Peter jumped the turnstiles with ease, and walked out onto the platform. He'd done it before, when he was in a hurry and even more recently after he'd lost May.
May.
Peter clenched his eyes shut, trying to shut the thought out. Because once he thought about May, and how much he messed up, and how she was never ever coming back, he wouldn't be able to stop. And then it wouldn't just be her voice he could still hear in his head, it would be MJ's, and Ben's and Tony's. And here come the tears.
Peter scrunched his eyes tighter, and it became a little easier to breathe. There's no time for that. Peter focused instead on the sound of wheels screeching against track. Peter scrubbed his eyes with the back of his shirt sleeve. He could already feel a migraine forming.
Peter didn't wait for the subway doors to open completely before stepping off. And, now with a rough idea of where to go, he made it to the Gotham City Public Library in no time.
Peter could only stand in frozen in amazement for a minute. As it turned out, the building was a wonder of architecture. With Greco-Roman style pillars and walls and a perfect mix of Gothic architecture and those stupid gargoyles that just fit. And it had books inside??? MJ would be foaming at the mouth.
Peter was almost foaming at the mouth too, which was why he walked straight past the librarian at her desk and hurried deeper into the building, his eyes taking every part of it.
When he finally sat at the computer area - and, oh, he forgot to ask if these where free use - something in his heart seemed to settle. Maybe it was the smell of the pages and bits of dust on the book shelves all around him, or the heaters running at full blast to stave away the chill. His senses were still at a low thrum, but for the first time since being dumped (literally) in this city, he felt like he could take a minute to rest.
Peter sank bonelessly into the smelly, old computer chair and grabbed the mouse, careful not to think about just how many hands have touched it, and how he didn't know exactly where those hands have been. After turning on the absolute block of a computer, Peter got to searching.
"Oh, cool, they have Google here." He muttered to himself, opening a new tab. The first thing he searched up was a map of the United States of America, which was where he figured he was. He breathed a sigh of relief, noting that the states stayed about the same. However, zooming in to see the cities and the like, he saw names that definetly didn't exist in his own universe. Even more startling, apparently Gotham was somewhere in New Jersey.
Personally, Peter had nothing against New Jersey, but it was kind of cruel for whatever brought him here to drop him so close to home, with the knowledge that there would be nothing left for him if he went back. Having the geography, atleast at large, sorted out, Peter decided to try searching up some household names, well, household to him, atleast. He was in an alternate universe, but how alternate?
All searching the Avengers seemed to land him was some sort of dude-bro sports club. Searching the hero names of the heroes he knew either got him animal facts or something completely unrelated. Finally, Peter typed in the one name that everyone and their mother knew. Imagine his surprise wheb he found nothing. Absolutely zero results for Tony Stark and/or Stark Industries. Now, it might have been Peter's childhood (and teenage) obsession with Iron-Man talking, but he was sure that if he picked a random place on the globe blindfolded, chances are - if it was inhabited - atleast a few people had heard the name Stark.
Though, no Tony explained the literal bricks people seemed to be carrying in their pockets. And the shit computers.
Well, he found almost nothing that would have been familiar to anyone back home. He'll probably have a breakdown about this sometime later, but Peter decided to move on. So, Peter decided to search up 'superhero' and that gave him results alright. The search brought him to the Justice League, a (larger and more coordinated) rip-off of the Avengers, and that brought him to studying the main league members, which sent him further down the rabbit hole. Clicking on a link about Batman circled him back to Gotham City, but on the vigilante scene.
And, wow, almost ten different assorted vigilantes and the city still wasn't getting any better? According to some Wikimedia page (the obvious counterpart lf his earth's Wikipedia), they also had an entire roster of supervillains, called a rogues gallery. It looked like Batman & CO succeeded, more often than not, in stopping whatever evil scheme sprung up next. So, they did good work, but the crime rate stayed mostly the same, judging by some official-looking stats he found somewhere along the way.
Peter doesn't know how long he'd been at the library at that point, and was only brought out of his little deep-dive by a small tap on his shoulder. Swiveling his head around, Peter locked eyes with a woman with red-hair. Though he didn't notice her wheelchair from behind the desk before, Peter concluded that this must be the librarian he completely ignored earlier.
"Uh, hi" he greeted the woman, turning his chair to face her directly.
"Hi," She responded kindly, "I saw you come in earlier, and I just wanted to let you know that the library will be closing in ten minutes."
Ten minutes? That didnt sound right. Peter clearly remembered the sign at the top of the stairs saying that the library closed at 7 PM, it was barely 4 when he came in. Glancing outside, Peter quickly realized that the sky was a lot darker than it had been when he'd first walked into the building. Had he really been staring at a computer screen for 3 hours?
Peter scrambled to stand up, stammering a small apology to the librarian lady, and was presently surprised when he recieved a wave and a 'have a good night!' In response, as opposed to being flipped the bird and being told to go fuck himself. So far, library lady was the nicest person Peter had encountered in this stupid city. Leaving the building, Peter almost tripped over his own feet as a jolt spread down his spine. His Spider Sense was no longer the thrum it once was, and with a quick look around, he safely jumped to the conclusion that it wasn't in response to any immediate threat, but rather, in response to his surroundings.
Gotham was just magical like that.
Having some semblance of understanding of where he was, Peter turned his attention to shelter. The sun setting had only served to make the temperature drop even lower. That was not good. Peter didn't do well in the cold. He'd learned that particular fact when it got especially chilly on a field trip one time, and suddenly his eyes were drooping, and he was falling forward. The next he knew, he was waking up in the hospital. He'd given poor May a heart attack when she got the call.
So, his first priority was to find some kind of shelter and clothing to protect him from the cold. Walking around in a t-shirt and jeans weren't doing him any favors in this weather. Walking through the nicer part of Gotham, Peter spied a very promising dumpster behind an unsuspecting clothing store. Peter barely gave it any thought before he jumped in. Rummaging through it, Peter almost cried in relief when he pulled out a thick blue sweater two sizes too big for him. It smelled a little weird, and had a small stain on one of the sleeves, but Peter put it on anyway.
He was still a bit cold, but it was definitely an improvement. Going through the dumpster again, Peter found a small brown backpack with speckles of what looked and smelled faintly like blood on the bottom. Peter decided not to put his phone in it lest it get stolen, he decided to keep it in his front pocket, it was easier to protect when it was in his line of sight. Feeling very accomplished, Peter hopped out of the dumpster, making his way back to the Bowery, and avoiding dark alleys and shadowy corners like his life depended on it, which it probably did.
Before he knew it, he found himself in roughly the same place he'd started. Peter walked deeper into the area, coming across several abandoned apartment building. He slowed down infront of what looked to be an abandoned movie theater. The paint was peeling off the sides, and the sign that was probably used to present the movies that were showing back in the day was completely blank. Even stranger, the doors and windows were all barred with roll-up storefront gates, the kind that didn't let you see anything inside. From what Peter had seen, the usual abandoned stores and buildings were just left there for the homeless and less fortunate to use as shelter. This movie theater was just closed.
A few months ago, Peter would probably think twice about entering a building that was obviously meant to be left alone, but he was freezing, and he didn't want to be outside anymore than he had to. So, he went around the back entrance of the building, and pryed open the back door - just enough for him to crawl through, and he pushed the steel back into place afterwards.
Peter only waited long enough for his eyes to adjust to the dark - faster than they would have for any normal person - before going deeper into the building.