Chapter Text
It had been almost a year since Peter was erased. Life could’ve been better, yes, but it’s hard to get anything done when you don’t legally exist. Peter had two jobs- one at a shady warehouse, one at a small cafe, both places that were willing to pay under the table. Those two jobs took up his days, and his nights were consumed by Spider-Man. He patrolled for a few hours (or all night, if he ignored Karen like he usually did) It wasn’t exactly healthy, no, but he wouldn’t, couldn’t, stop. He feared losing this small bit of control would break him.
Peter pondered over this as he swung through the streets, the Iron Spider gleaming under the New York light. It would crush him to quit patrolling. The thought of all those lives, all those innocent people getting hurt while he stayed cozy in bed… it would kill him. So there, Karen. He thought as he thwipped webs to catch on another building.
Purposely ignoring his bodies’ desperate screams for rest, Peter continues on with his patrol. A low sound caught his ear- a muttering, low and angry. Could be worth a swing by.
Peter threw his body left, rapidly changing his course towards the sound. It led him to what looked to be an abandoned building. The muttering grew louder; it must have been about two people, in a moldy building at the witches hour. Very conspicuous. Peter thought as he crawled along the wall to a boarded window. The muttered words became clearer as he pressed an ear to the boards.
“-we don’t even know if it works?! You spent all our money on a gun you don’t even know how to use?!”
A gun, most likely some form of alien tech if these crooks didn’t know how to use it. Great. Alien tech was always a pain to deal with. He inwardly cursed the men as he planned how to do this. Using his ungodly strength, Peter began prying up the boards carefully, trying to not make a sound. When it was clear the men were still unaware of his presence, Peter slipped inside and crawled along the ceiling.
The men were too busy arguing to notice their new friend on the ceiling. They only took notice when he dropped down and punched the first guy, nicknamed Harry, across his face. Bad guy #2, or Marv, scrambled backwards in fear, the gun in his hands. He pulled the trigger, then cursed as nothing happened. Peter took this opportunity to punch him in the head, just enough to where he passed out. The gun clattered away, harmless again.
Peter neatly wrapped the crooks in webs, leaving a bright pink sticky note on Marv for the police. The threat was eliminated, the danger gone… so why was his spidey-sense still going off?
He looked around in confusion. Perhaps there was another crook? Where on earth could he be hiding? Or maybe-
A sharp pain in his head, an inward command to MOVE, and he still wasn’t fast enough. The guns trigger had been pulled before it was thrown, and it happened to land pointing at Peter. Apparently, it took a while to warm up, and decided to fire right when Peter wasn’t aware. Just his luck. Blue light engulfed him, and the world flashed, then spiraled, then went completely, impenetrably dark.
…until it wasn’t. Peter jolted awake, wind rushing by his ears- wait, wind?
Oh, he was falling.
Well, shoot.
Panic seized him. Wasn’t he just in a moldy building, in the dark hours of the morning? How was he falling in broad daylight, down to what did not look like his NYC? Was he kidnapped? But then-
Think about how you got here LATER, focus on surviving it NOW! A voice snapped in his head. It sounded oddly like Tony.
“KAREN!” He shouted into the wind. Relief filled him when he heard her powering on. Her smooth Scottish tones filled his ears. “Oh, hello Peter. Glad to be back on. You appear to be falling several hundred feet towards the ground. Would you like me to help prevent your imminent demise?”
Ah. She was probably still pissed he had been turning her off during patrols so she couldn’t tell him to take care of himself. Whoops.
“Yes- please!” Hie eyes were trained on the ground, which was actually a cityscape- a cityscape that gained more detail every second he fell.
Karen let out a sigh. Can AI even sigh? Oh, who was he kidding. Of course she can. “I propose you attach a web to the first building that comes near enough. Attempt to use your momentum to curve an arc instead of a straight drop. When you do that, you will have much more control over your movements. I’m afraid you may break or dislocate your arm, though, with how fast you are falling. Do what you will with this information.”
“Love ya, Karen!” He yelled, looking around to find a building. Oh wow- there were a lot! He fired a web, praying to whatever entity was there to not let it break him.
The web jerked him as it grew taut, and a sickening POP sounded as his shoulder jumped out of its socket. Peter bit back a scream of pain, mentally cursing his weak arm. He would have to set that later.
For now, he could focus on slowing down. Now that he had more control over where he was going, it was relatively easy to land on the roof of a building. The Iron Spider mask slid down his face and he breathed in, giving his heart time to calm down. The city around him certainly looked like an average city, but…
“Great.” Peter groaned. All the signs were in Japanese. Peter never learned Japanese. How on earth did a beam of light send him all the way to Japan? “Karen, can you run a scan on where the hell I am?”
“Certainly, Peter. I also advise you fix your shoulder before your adrenaline wears off. Give me a moment to scan.” She went quiet, likely attempting to connect to a satellite. Peter took this time to grab his shoulder, count to three, and roughly wrench it back into place. It fell into its socket with a sickening pop, and Peter held back tears of pain. He tested his shoulder out, experimentally rolling it a few times. Good thing I listened to Cap when he taught me first aid. Even so, his shoulder would ache for a few days at most.
There was a light hum and Karen spoke into his ear. “Scan complete. We are in Musutafu, Japan. It is April 17th, 7:00 AM.”
“April 17th… no, that can’t be right. It was November, for gods sake! How the hell…” Peter was at a loss. Had 5 months really passed? Or was something else going on? Perhaps… it was always a possibility… but no, it couldn’t be…
Peter was yanked from his thoughts as he heard a scream. Despite being lost, confused, and dare he say it, scared, he couldn’t ignore people in trouble. He sprinted and leapt off the building, mask sliding back over his face. The sound was relatively close, and it was easy to spot the cause of terror. In the middle of a dust cloud was a giant.. shark? Person? Whatever the case, the guy was causing a ruckus. There was also a crowd of people gathering to watch the shark-man- have they no self-preservation? The villain would crush them! Whatever, he’d ponder over the people’s stupidity later. For now, the villain.
“Hey, big guy! Yeah, over here!” Peter called, slinging around him. “Have a bad day at work or something? Why ya taking out this building?” Keep him distracted, look for an opening. “You know rage rooms are a thing, yes?” The guy looked up in confusion, angrily yelling in Japanese. With his action of looking up, he opened a spot on his jaw. Peter, quick as a flash, was swinging towards his chin and slammed his feet against the pressure point. The shark guy’s eyes fluttered and he began to fall- straight towards the crowd!
“Shoot.” Peter threw a few webs and heaved the guy the other way, making sure he didn’t squish anyone. After ensuring the villain’s head wouldn’t smack the ground, Peter turned to hear… cheering? He squinted, then felt his eyes widen in shock. There were so many mutants! A lady with a tail, a man with spikes on his head, a kid with scales… all out in the open too! He was unaware of how many mutants Japan had, or how accepting the people were. Maybe America was just a shitty place.
A shout from behind him made him turn his head. He instantly fell back into a fighting stance, but as his spidey-sense continued to stay silent, he relaxed. Approaching was a giant woman and a man who appeared to be made out of wood. The woman began to shrink down and he tipped his head. She was sort of like that guy he fought… who was it? Ant-Man? Yeah, that guy. Then he realized she looked furious. She opened her mouth to begin berating him-
Oh wow, Peter was really tired. A sudden wave of exhaustion flowed over him. It may have been from the unstable schedule Peter had been taking on for a year, or the fact that it was 3 in the morning when he was transported, or it may have been the adrenaline wearing off; whatever the case, a nap sounded great. He staggered, shoulders dropping. The once-furious lady’s expression shifted to one of concern.
“おい、大丈夫か?” She asked, but he couldn’t understand. His legs buckled, and the only thing stopping his head from hitting the ground was a branch from the wooden guy.
Peter’s consciousness wavered. Snippets of conversation floated through his ears like clouds. The last thing he heard before blacking out was the recognizable screech of tires on pavement, and the clicking of a door shutting.
🕸️ 🕷️ 🕸️
“Well, I can certainly see your predicament.” Tsukauchi commented, eyeing the limp, metal-coated figure on the ground. “Thanks for giving me a call, Kamui, I’ll take this from here.”
The arbor hero nodded and went to do crowd control. Mt Lady was close behind, though she did throw a few curious glances at the prone figure laying at Tsukauchi’s feet.
With a sigh, Tsukauchi scooped up the man, surprised at how light he was. After loading his shiny body into the back of his car, he slipped into the drivers seat and began the journey back to the station. He didn’t know why, but he has the feeling that his day was about to get a lot weirder.