Chapter Text
"Please, Mami; I only want a few more pan de mallorca..." a 14-year-old with a sable complexion murmured, his eyelids fluttering. He woke up at the sound of another 14-year-old giggling and saw a familiar pale, round face above his own more square one. "AH!!"
"Heehee!! Kimi wa tabemono o yumemite imashita ka?"
"Peni," a tenor voice stated in an exhausted tone, "English."
"Hmph! Not my fault you lot haven't learned Japanese. I was only asking if Miles dreamed about food." Peni Parker moved her head away from Miles Morales' as the much shorter teenager crossed her arms. He pouted, but her lower lip slightly sticking out went ignored by the people he was with.
Bright brown eyes taking in the sight of a night sky dark from the lack of stars twinkling far away, Miles noticed background illumination came from a nearby streetlamp. He sat up, hands scraping against asphalt. "This isn't New York."
"Nope."
"Hey, Peter; do you know where we are?"
"Nope."
Snorting, a 15-year-old squatting next to Peni rolled her light blue eyes. "B."
"Gwen," came the tired reply, this time tinged with sarcasm.
Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy rolled her eyes again. She tucked some of her straight, straw-blonde hair behind an ear before rising to a standing position. The other three stood up too.
Miles suddenly flailed his arms. "Wait, you're here??!! I'm here??!! Us, we're all–!"
"Here?" Gwen cut him off with an amused smirk on her triangular face. She nudged Miles' right arm. "Yeah. This is real."
"Awesome to see you all again!" Miles grinned, placing his palm against Gwen's offered hand before squeezing as the two pulled each other closer and shared a one-armed hug. Behind them, Peter Benjamin Parker – sometimes known as Peter B. Parker for short – rolled his eyes; but a sincerely fond smile was on his narrow face. Peni stepped behind Peter, her shoulders rising. Miles glanced around, inquiring: "Where are Noir and Ham?"
"Not here. I'm guessing whatever goober pulled us across the Multiverse didn't affect them," Peter replied, his super hearing causing him to notice Peni step backwards whilst inhaling sharply. He looked over his shoulder. "You okay, kiddo?"
"It's my fault," Peni mumbled, but all three of her fellow Spiderpeople heard it. He raised her hands to embrace themself. Gwen exchanged a concerned glance with Peter while Miles stepped towards Peni with a hand held out.
"You're not behaving like yourself at all. Or at least, not like the Peni I knew for two days. What's wrong?"
"Didn't you hear me? I brought us here! It's because of me that, that..."
"We're stuck in a Universe that's not any of ours?" Gwen finished. Peni nodded, raising one hand to wipe tears away with the heel of her palm. The others exchanged uncomfortable looks. None had seen her so upset before. Happy? Almost constantly. Angry? During a fight or two, definitely. But guilt-ridden and sad? Those were new ones. Peter silently wished his cartoon pig counterpart – Peter Benjamin Porker a.k.a. Spiderham – or his literally black, grey, and white private detective counterpart – Peter Benjamin Parker a.k.a. Spiderman who the group of Spiderpeople, with his permission, called Noir – or preferably both were present. They were better at comforting Peni than him.
Miles placed a hand on Peni's shoulder. "C'mon, lets find someplace to eat. We can talk this all through there."
"You really think food is going to solve anything, kid?" Peter asked, genuinely curious.
Miles shrugged. "Hey, man; it worked with you, didn't it?"
"...Touche."
"At least we're still in North America and the currency is the same here as in our Universes," Gwen murmured before biting into her burger, steadfastly ignoring Peter's munching as the cisgender man thoroughly demolished his burger. Peni dipped a chip into ketchup; but, instead of eating it, he watched the ketchup slowly drip from the fried strip of potato as he held it near themself.
Miles stopped sipping his drink through a straw. "Are you gonna eat that?"
Peni shoved the final chip into her mouth. After swallowing, he stared at the table before stating: "It's my 15th birthday in five days."
"It is? Congratulations," Gwen said, smiling in sincere happiness before she started frowning.
Peni winced. "I got a bit of D.N.A. from you three at Au– Umm... at Miss Parker's place in Miles' Universe."
"That was over 9 months ago. Precisely 39 weeks and 4 days ago. 277 da–"
"We get it, Peter," Gwen snapped. Her eyebrows then furrowed and she pressed her lips tightly together before parting them to apologise. "Sorry."
Peter sighed, then shrugged. He turned to Peni. "I'm guessing you didn't manage to get Ham's and Noir's hairs?"
"No," Peni confirmed.
Miles had pulled the straw from his empty paper cup since the fizzy drink was gone and he was now tapping the paper cup's side with his straw. "Does Ham even have hair?"
"He-eck if I know," Peter murmured.
Gwen snorted. "You know we're teenagers, right? You don't have to censor yourself from swearing in front of us."
"Hey; if I can avoid letting loose swear words when Doc Oc has me strapped to a chair, I can do the same in front of three children."
"I'll be 16 on the 2nd of March."
"Still a kid, Gwen. Wait a year and half, then you're not a child."
"So you'll swear in front of me?"
"Nope."
"Peter!!"
"Hey, Aunt May and Uncle Ben raised no uncouth boor."
"But they definitely raised a fool," Miles stated, smirking in amusement.
Peter flopped sideways so he was partially atop Peni's head, her left shoulder pressing against his right side. "Now you two are ganging up on me! Peni, you're the only one here I trust." The other two Spiderpeople smiled as Peni giggled.
Miles grinned, then frowned. "Jokes aside, what's the plan?"
"My teleporter was supposed to bring Peter into my Universe, but it exploded. Next thing I know, I wake up here. ...A frog in the well knows nothing of the sea."
"Err..."
"I was so curious. Before our adventure with the collider last year, I had no idea the Multiverse existed; I thought my home Universe was all there was. If I hadn't been arrogant by assuming my knowledge and skills are enough to do a better job than Octavius, we wouldn't be in this mess now. I hoped we could hang out for nearly a week and I'd send you back to your homes after my birthday."
"Wait, Peter's D.N.A. was the only one in the teleporter machine, right?" Peni nodded, so Miles continued: "Then why did me and Gwen get dragged here when it exploded?"
"Maybe it was proximity. Our hair samples were in the same room, weren't they?" Gwen guessed. Peni nodded again. Gwen sighed.
Miles tapped his straw against the table. "Bad luck all around. So, now what do we do? What if you three start glitching again?"
"It wouldn't only be us; you'd be glitching too, Miles. For starters, we need to find out as much as we can about where we are."
"Don't forget shelter, water, and food," Peter added.
Peni pulled a palm-sized digital tablet from one pocket and turned it on. "I can write those into a list, so we won't forget. Sumimasen, gomen-nasai. I'm sorry. If I hadn't taken a hair from each of you, none of this would have happened."
Gwen sighed again. "What's done is done. Lets focus on survival."
Author's Note (A.N.): I'm currently miserable and decided to make 4 of my Favourite fictional characters join me in misery.
You won't need to know anything at all 'bout 'Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse' (2018) C.G.I. cartoon movie nor 'Batman' (1939) franchise. I'll contradict canon a lot coz my brain is too broken to remember my own name and anything my 5 senses tell me (no joke, the past 2 decades have made clear my brain can barely function at all and it's a miracle I'm able to read & write and do maths). However, there will be spoilers for both Spider-verse and Batman!! This is set in an Alternate Universe version of various Batman media, as I've got my own timeline fanfic (which will be eventually posted on this website) with its own specific version of what has happened; many things that happened in the comicbooks or in the cartoon T.V. series have never happened. However, most of the timeline will be irrelevant here and anything relevant gets explained In-Story.
Although I didn't tag them, certain friendships – Alfred & literally everyone he loves; Bruce & his 12 kids (a.k.a. the 10 Wayne siblings plus Stephanie & Barbara); the 10 Wayne siblings (none of who have the Wayne surname, coz I think it's more enjoyable that way); Gwen & Peter; Peter & Peni; Peni & Miles; Miles & Peter; the Spiderpeople & Barbara; Barbara & Stephanie; Stephanie & Damian; etc. – will be explicitly confirmed as platonic In-Story. However, I'm leaving the one between Miles and Gwen ambiguous since I can't bring myself to decide whether to make it romantic or not (I like both options and usually can easily sway myself to one option or the other, but this time I'll leave it up for interpretation); same goes for the relationships between Barbara and Ya as well as Stephanie and Tim along with Gwen and Peni. You're welcome to interpret those 4 friendships – as well as the ones that'll eventually form between the Bat-teens and the Spider-teens along with the one that'll eventually form between Peter and Bruce – in whatever way you want. Although they're not focused on, there's brief mentions of the romantic relationships Bruce had with Talia and Selina plus both ladies are shown to be married to each other (but it's not focused on any more than most cartoon T.V. series show heroic Main Characters' parents' romance).
I use Miss (female honorific), Mister (male honorific), and Muks (honorific for enbes, meaning people who are gender nonbinary in some way); I shorten them to Ms., Mr., and Mx. sometimes. However, I never use Mrs. regardless of whether a woman is married or not.
I underline anything that's in a language other than English being translated for you Readers to understand, whereas (American, Australian, and British) English along with all other languages are not underlined.
Here's a picture of Miles Morales:
