Luke knew that something was off. The first thing that tipped Luke off was that he was no longer on the bus that he was on a second ago. The second thing that tipped him off was the gag-inducing smell that seemed to permeate the area. His final clue was the white slime that seemed to be eating him whole. Luke being a calm and rational minded person handled the situation with poise and efficiency.
"Son of a gum chewing funk monster!" Luke flailed about trying to rip the slimy thing off of him before it completely enveloped him. An old shower curtain got caught around his feet sending him crashing into a large pile of garbage. Pain shot through the back of Luke's head and he saw stars as he hit his head on something on the way down. Laying in the garbage, Luke moaned as the slime finished covering him and Luke accepted his fate. He could picture his headstone now: "Here lies Lucas Landis, he died in a pile of trash eaten by slime."
Suddenly, the pain in Luke's head was gone along with the nasty smell. Sitting up Luke realized that he felt good, better than good in fact. He felt better than he could ever recall feeling. Slowly standing up, Luke took stock of his situation. He was in some sort of trash alley, the walls were covered by multiple graffiti tags overlapping and covering each other up which rendered them indecipherable. The sky was dark and there was a slight drizzle coming down making it impossible to guess the time, though Luke could see some streetlights on by the road. That and the lack of traffic indicated that it was probably pretty late. Looking at his arms he saw that the slime had turned into some sort of bodysuit. He pinched the sleeve of it and pulled. The material seemed to stretch impossibly far and snapped back into shape when he let go. Making his way over to a nearby puddle he looked at his reflection under the street lamp's light before gasping.
It was Spider-Man's Venom suit, except the colors were inverted. Instead of a black suit with a white spider it was white with a black spider. Luke slowly waved to himself in the reflection trying to justify why he was wearing the Venom suit. No, he recalled reading that it was called the anti-venom suit. Not quite as catchy as venom but... Luke shook his head, he was beginning to ramble in his thoughts. Fact in order. He appeared in the middle of this alley, a white slime-like creature covered him and now he's wearing the anti-venom suit and feels better than he's ever felt in his life. Occam's razor would say that he was probably transported into the Marvel universe somehow and had bonded with the anti-venom symbiote. Sane thinking would suggest that he'd gone insane, or was dreaming in a coma. Luke began to look around to see if there were any conveniently placed lamps to reveal his coma for what it was. Failing to find anything, Luke took a deep breath before returning to his reflection.
'If I'm actually this crazy then there's really nothing for it except to continue forward and see how deep this rabbit hole can get.'
Looking at his hand Luke imagined the suit peeling away to reveal his hand. He had to stifle a flinch as the suit did just that. 'Okay,' Luke thought, 'so it seems to be operating under the general symbiote rules of think it, do it. I wonder how far I can take this.' Luke focused his imagination and visualized the symbiote suit morphing into his regular business attire. In the reflections he saw the symbiote peel away from his face and shift itself into a white button shirt and slacks. Folding the sleeves up, Luke tried to stop himself from smiling like an idiot before giving up as he broke out into a wide grin.
'Okay, this could be fun.' He thought to himself. Looking around, Luke decided that he probably shouldn’t loiter around a shady trash alley in what was probably the slums of New York City. So, picking a direction at random Luke started walking as he decided what his next move should be. He had most of his important information memorized but without physical copies of anything he wasn’t really sure what he could do. Not to mention that if he was really in a marvel universe then realistically his information wouldn’t exist here.
As he continued his walk Luke noticed a newspaper off the side of the road. He picked it up to see if there was any useful information in it like the date or the funnies page. Looking it over Luke stilled. The Gotham Gazette, if this was an actual newspaper then things just got a lot more complicated. Most DC and Marvel universes were pretty divorced from each other so there wouldn't be a joke paper like this. Luke stuffed the paper into a pocket and had the symbiote form a pair of gloves so that he could use it to try to quickly climb the side of a building. It was a unique experience feeling himself stick to the side of the building. Bracing himself, Luke looked down but the vertigo he expected from clinging to the side of a building several stories up never came. Once again grinning like a lunatic he gave a whoop of exhilaration and made his way up the rest of the building.
Praying under his breath Luke scanned the skyline and he didn’t recognise anything. Granted it was pretty hard to make things out and he’d only seen the New York skyline in movies and games but the massive ‘Wayne Enterprises’ skyscraper kind of put the final nail in the coffin. Suddenly the sky lit up with the iconic silhouette of the bat signal. Luke’s heart felt like it skipped a beat looking at it.
‘What could be going on that needs a direct call to Batman?’ Luke stood on the edge of the building for what seemed like an eternity coming up with worse and worse scenarios. Penguin and Black mask starting a turf war? Solomon Grundy running on a rampage? The Joker!?
“Excuse me sir, but are you okay?”
A young voice broke Luke out of his dread spiral. Looking over Luke spotted a young Robin cautiously making his way over to the ledge that he was standing on.
“Emergency services got a call about a potential jumper and, well, I thought that maybe we could talk.” Robin continued placatingly. “I know that I don’t really know what's going on in your life but I’ve been told that I’m a pretty good listener if you want to talk about it.”
Looking at this young man who couldn’t be more than 13 doing his best to convince him not to jump, Luke had to smile. “All right, let’s talk.” Luke stepped off the ledge with a grace that he probably wouldn’t have had without the symbiote bonded to him; he turned and gestured to the Bat Signal lighting up the sky. “Though, shouldn’t you be helping the big man with whatever that is.” Looking at the young hero Luke tried guessing which Robin he was talking to. He was pretty young and he didn’t think that Jason started out until he was fifteen or sixteen so probably not Jason. Damian would probably be a lot more… sharp, than this Robin was acting so he was probably dealing with either Dick or Tim. And he missed the first part of Robin’s response
“...Batman would have called me or Batgirl to help out. Most of the time when the signal goes up it's just a case that the Commissioner wants Batman to look at, though sometimes I think they just turn it on to scare the petty criminals” Robin was rubbing the back of his head as he responded. “Besides, I think that right now you're more important than any of that.”
Luke gave a slight chuckle at that. “Well that's a lot better than I thought it would be. I was worried that the Joker was going on a rampage. Think I might have jumped just to spare myself that trauma” Luke joked, though his smile faded as he saw the worried look on Robin’s face. “Sorry, that was in bad taste”
Robin put on a brave smile. “Don’t worry even if the Joker does break out of Arkham. Me and Batman will have him back in before the morning newspaper even wakes up”
Once again I looked at this young boy. Trying so hard to project an air of confidence and safety to assure me that everything was going to be alright. “You’re pretty young for all of this, aren’t you?” He thought it was kind of funny to see Robin bristle at the insinuation.
“I’m not some little kid,” Robin exclaimed. “Besides, I’ve been trained by the best. There’s nothing I can’t handle.” With his hands on his hips, Robin did a proud little pose sticking out his chest in an attempt to look bigger than he actually was.
“Woah there,” Luke put his hands up placatingly. “I didn’t mean to insinuate anything. I was just impressed. I mean, you can't be more than twelve but here you are running around Gotham, saving people. It’s just pretty cool, that's all.”
Robin deflated a bit at that. “Yeah, well… Thanks I guess. Though, I’m thirteen, not twelve.” He kind of awkwardly shuffled, having lost his previous momentum. “But this actually isn’t about me, remember. I’m here trying to make you feel better.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what. Recently I’ve lost everything. I don’t even have any identification. If you can get me off this roof, point me to somewhere I can sleep for the rest of the night, get a free meal and maybe someone that can give me a hand. I promise that there will be no untimely attempts to meet my maker.” Luke held out a hand.
Robin immediately brightened up and grabbed Luke’s hand. “I can do that!”
Luke decided that the way Robin got him down was pretty cool. Sure, Robin had to hook him up to a harness and use his grapple gun to winch them down instead of deadlifting him and swinging them down. But, being realistic, Robin was a small thirteen year old and Luke was a grown man. Besides, grappling guns were, by their very nature, awesome.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to walk you to the shelter?” Robin asked for the third or fourth time after giving Luke the directions to the nearest Wayne Foundation shelter. “I know it seems empty right now but Gotham can still be super dangerous at night.”
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Luke smiled and couldn’t help but ruffle Robin’s hair a bit. “I’ll be fine hero boy. Besides, isn’t it a school night?”
“What no, it's Friday!” Robin squawked, “Besides, being a hero’s more important than learning things I already know.”
“Okay, okay,” Luke surrendered. “Though there is one last thing before you take off to save the night.” Luke reached into his back pocket and pulled out the newspaper he’d picked up earlier. “Could I get your autograph?”
Robin seemed momentarily stunned that someone would be asking for his autograph. Pulling himself together quickly, grabbing a marker from his belt he scrawled ROBIN on the front page before handing the paper back to Luke. “Also,” Robin pulled out a card from his belt. “If the foundation is full already, give them this and they’ll give you a little extra consideration. Usually they have a few employee only cots stuffed away that they’ll let you use.
Luke grabbed the card and saw it was some sort of coupon/business card with a Wayne signature printed on it. “Thanks Robin, I appreciate the help. And thanks for talking me down up there.”
Robin grinned “I think we both know that you weren’t going to jump, but you're welcome anyways. Stay safe!” Robin pulled out his grapple gun and shot off into the night heading away from the shelter and towards the skylight that had turned off a little bit after we got off the building.
Luke smiled as Robin flew off, looking down he saw Robin’s signature and laughed a bit. The ‘R’ had definitely started off as a ‘T’ before a hasty correction. ‘Well’ Luke thought, ‘That solves the mysterious identity of our Robin.’ Luke started towards the shelter before frowning, suddenly sad at the implications of what it meant that Tim Drake was currently Robin. Jason Todd was dead, or revived with the League of Assassins. Dick and Bruce would probably still be on the outs with each other. Would Barbara Gordon be paralyzed yet? What about Stephanie Brown, had she felt the need to become Spoiler yet, had the Black Mask tortured her yet?
Not to mention the other heroes outside of Gotham. Life was rough for these guys. Despite everything they did for their cities or the world it seemed like there was no end of ways for the universe to crap on them. Stopping, Luke looked at his reflection in the window of a building. He willed the symbiote to reform the full body anti-venom suit. Could he be one of those heroes? Should he be? Luke wasn’t sure that he could handle that. All that pain and suffering that the heroes suffered. The mask split revealing half of his face to his reflection. He wasn’t a hero, he was a Data Analyst. Suddenly he felt what he could only describe as a shudder in his soul. Whipping his head around he saw a young girl slip into an alley followed moments later by a group of five or six large, thuggish looking men wearing what looked like cliche gang paraphernalia. Luke felt his stomach drop at what he could only imagine was going to happen.
Almost without thinking he was rushing down the road to the alleyway they all went in as the mask reformed around him. Maybe he wasn’t a hero. Maybe he was only Lucas Landis, a data analyst. But something in him knew that he wouldn’t be able to look at himself if he walked away from this and let that girl get assaulted. Super symbiote suit or not. Right was right and wrong was wrong. And this was definitely wrong. Bursting into the alley he was momentarily stunned at the sight of two of the men out cold on the ground and the young girl he had been so worried about going absolutely ham on the other thugs. She was flipping, juking, and all manner of other sweet moves that looked very out of place for a small girl to be performing.
Coming to his senses after the third guy went down Luke jumped into action before a tragic slip could trip up the girl. Lifting up his wrist he aimed for the biggest of the men left and tried imagining webbing shooting out and hitting the guy in the head. With a distinct thwiping sound a white line shot out, missing the head but still catching the thug's shoulder. Pulling as hard as he could, the thug shot straight towards Luke like a bullet before smashing into him and knocking them both back into the alley wall.
“Note to self, don’t forget about superstrength.” Luke groaned, more out of habit than feeling any kind of pain. Then before the thug could stand back up, Luke webbed him firmly to the ground and took stock of the rest of the fight. The other two thugs had paused their fight and were looking slack jawed at Luke before the girl took advantage of the situation and took one of them out with a super cool flying spin kick. Luke quickly stuck the final guy to the wall, knocking him out and putting an end to the fight.
“Uh, hey there civilian.” Luke felt so stupid and awkward at that moment. ‘Really,’ he thought to himself. ‘Hey there civilian. Could you sound any stupider?’ Surprisingly the girl didn’t seem to be too wary of Luke. Rather she looked more curious than anything. Looking at her she seemed to be around 10 or 11 with an asian look to her, though Luke couldn’t quite place it.
Luke gave a hesitant wave “I was just walking by and I saw those guys following you into the alley and kind of assumed the worse, but it seems like you had it handled.” With an awkward chuckle Luke scratched the back of his head.
The girl gave a small smile and a hesitant thumbs up, almost like she wasn't quite sure if that was the right way to use the gesture. Suddenly Luke’s mind put together all of the clues. Young asian girl, looks homeless in Gotham, super kick-but fighting skills, socially awkward.
“Wait a second, you’re Cassandra Cain!” Luke blurted out before he could stop himself. The effect was immediate. Cassandra was immediately on edge. She crouched down into a fighting position, her eyes darting around trying to find an exit or maybe assassins sent by her dad.
Without really thinking about it Luke shifted his suit back into the shirt and slacks form so that Cassandra could get a good read on him. “Hey, hey. Sorry for scaring you. Yes, I know about your parents but I don’t have anything to do with them. I just know a lot of things that I probably shouldn’t. I promise I only want to help.” Luke tried to convey his intentions the best he could by acting as open and honest as he could.
Cassandra stayed still for what felt like an eternity. Luke felt like she was staring into his soul. The tense atmosphere was suddenly shattered with a loud stomach growl and Cassandra’s face lit up red in embarrassment. “Uhh…” Luke said “Look, I know that I’m a really suspicious guy, that you don’t know but I did happen to get this voucher from Robin for a meal and a bed from the nearby shelter. I think it was just meant for one but I bet I could convince them to stretch it for the both of us. It looks like you could use a good meal.”
Slowly Cassandra stood up from her crouch and nodded at Luke. “Um, I guess I’ll just head towards the shelter and you can follow however you feel comfortable. With another nod from Cassandra Luke took off towards the shelter. After a few minutes of walking Luke felt Cassandra grab his hand and walk beside him.
“Is this so that you have a firm hold to flip me?”
Cassandra looked pensive for a second before smiling and shaking her head.
“Well okay then.” Luke smiled. It took another 10 minutes of walking before they came up to the shelter. Walking up to the sole receptionist who seemed to be the only person on duty besides the night guard keeping watch
“Evening,” the receptionist greeted the two as they approached. You two are coming in pretty late aren’t ‘cha. He looked at a clipboard on his desk and grimaced. “Unfortunately it looks like all the beds are already taken for the night, though I could call some of our sister locations to see if they have any openings.”
Luke reached for the card that Robin had given him. “Ah sorry about that showing up so late but I had to find my niece, you know how it is.” Pulling out the card Luke handed it to the receptionist. “I, uh, Robin gave that to me and said that you might have an extra cot that we could use.
The receptionist took the card and looked it over. “Hmm, looks like the Bats are vouching for you.” He looked over Luke and then Cassandra. “Run into a bit of bad luck?” At Luke’s nod the receptionist continues. Well here’s what I can do. The shelter has a couple of small rooms up top for employees or special cases. I can put you in one for a few days but that's all beyond that you’ll need to go through the same process as the rest of the people here.
Luke smiled in relief. “Thank you so much… John.” He said with a quick glance at the nameplate on the desk.
“Erik actually, I’m just filling in for John while he’s on vacation. Usually I’m on the other side of the city.” Erik said with a smile. “Now there's a communal kitchen for the apartments and it has some food for anyone who wants a snack. Otherwise you can get meals down here with everyone else at meal times.
“Thank you again Erik.” Luke grabbed Cassandra’s hand and made his way to the indicated area. He rifled through the kitchen cabinets and fridge until he came up with a few sandwiches for him and Cassandra, as well as sneaking a couple of chocolate bars that he seemed to be able to sniff out that he almost ravenously consumed. The room itself had a bed, couch and a basic desk. Setting Cassandra on the bed Luke took the couch and settled in to sleep, the symbiote shifting into some pure white pajamas with a black spider web pattern on them.
Luke looked over at Cassandra who had immediately fallen fast asleep. Likely this was the first safe and comfortable sleep that she’d had in a while. Turning his mind back to his earlier thoughts Luke was once again questioning what he should be doing. The thing was, Luke had no idea what it was that he should be doing. In his estimations he’d handled himself pretty well against those thugs but that really wasn’t the same as taking on the big leagues that he would have to deal with if he did go hero. Luke wasn’t sure if he could deal with the likes of Gotham's heavy hitters, even with the suit. Then there was Cassandra to consider. He hadn’t really considered the implications of interfering with such a major character. Considering what he’d seen of the fight Cassandra really hadn’t needed help despite only being ten or so but looking at her all he could see was a kid who was on the streets and needed help. Luke mentally scolded himself for thinking of Cassandra as just a major character. The people here weren’t story book characters anymore. These were real people, with real struggles. Turning over Luke wondered if he had any right to interfere with that. Then he wondered if he had any right to ignore it either.
Sighing, Luke went into the restroom for a cup of water. What it all came down to in his mind was if he was ready or not. Was he ready to be a hero, was he ready to take care of Cassandra, was he ready to do any of this. Looking at his reflection he once again formed the mask. With a bit of will power it changed from the white mask into the classic red Spider-Man mask. “That’s right,” Luke whispered to himself. “It's a leap of faith.”
Going back to the couch Luke thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep. ‘I guess I’ll give this hero thing a go.’
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> So this is chapter one of a writing exercise that I'm working on. I've also published this on Archive of our own under the same name. I doubt that there will be a very regular update schedule