Spider-Man Reincarnated in the DC Multiverse

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/-\

Crime Alley didn't sleep.

Even when the streetlights flickered out and the curfew warnings echoed like a preacher's dirge, the heart of Park Row still pulsed in shadows syringes under mailboxes, muffled cries behind shuttered windows, boots stomping through puddles with too much purpose.

Peter stood at the mouth of the alley, rain trickling off his mask, watching a world that hadn't changed even with a thousand heroes passing through it.

He whispered to himself, "So this is where it began."

Batman hadn't confirmed it. He didn't need to. The legends all pointed here. The chalk outlines had long since been washed away, but the weight of them lingered like smoke. It was a place where something had been stolen and something darker had taken its place.

Peter wasn't here for a tour. He was here for a pattern.

The new gang wasn't flashy. No costumes. No online manifestos. Just clean-cut thugs with paramilitary discipline, neutral masks, and weapons far beyond street-grade. They moved in coordinated units, struck without hesitation, and vanished into alleys like they were never there. Oracle had flagged an uptick in assaults quiet, targeted, and all within walking distance of this very street.

Gotham had seen warlords, monsters, and demigods.

But this? This was surgical.

Peter crouched on a rusting fire escape, lenses narrowing as he watched three figures below stalk a delivery truck two blocks down. They weren't robbing it. They weren't even interfering. They were escorting it disguised as loiterers, but their eyes never left the rear axle.

Whoever they were, they weren't common criminals.

Peter followed from above.

When the ambush came, it was sudden like a page turn in a script.

A civilian a food cart vendor closing up walked too close to the edge of an alley. One of the masked men flinched, and within seconds, the vendor was shoved against a wall, tased, and zip-tied. The truck didn't stop. The guards melted back into position.

Peter dropped like a stone.

He landed between them, boots cracking the concrete, fists already moving. The first attacker staggered back, caught off guard. The second raised his baton Peter yanked it away with webbing and cracked it across the man's shin.

The third? Faster. Better trained.

He anticipated Peter's moves stepped around a punch, used his weight to slam Spider-Man against a light pole. Peter's breath left his chest, but he reacted instinctively, flipping over the attacker's shoulder, landing in a crouch.

He launched a triple webline, pinning two to the alley wall.

The third tried to run.

Peter caught him with a sweep. Not elegant. Not acrobatic. Just angry.

The man hit the asphalt hard and didn't get back up.

Peter stepped over him, panting. "Let's see who's under the mask."

But the helmet was locked biometric-sealed. No identifiers. Even the gear tags were scorched out.

Peter stood over the man and muttered, "You guys are a long way from amateur hour."

Batman arrived twenty minutes later.

He didn't say a word. Just examined the unconscious attackers with the same cold precision Peter had come to expect.

"They're not local," Peter said. "Training's too tight. Movement too clean. This isn't a gang it's an operation."

Batman didn't look up. "They're testing the city's pressure points. Mapping response times. Civilians are just part of the data."

Peter's stomach turned. "You're saying this is a dry run?"

Batman finally met his eyes. "Yes. And you're part of it."

The next night, they returned to Crime Alley together.

Batman moved with surgical silence. Peter followed two rooftops behind, watching his silhouette blend into the geometry of Gotham like it belonged there.

They broke up another group in the South End five enforcers attempting to extract information from a tech broker. She survived. They didn't.

Peter couldn't shake the sense that they were always just one step behind.

It gnawed at him.

When they finally paused for breath just below the shattered gargoyles of St. Jude's Cathedral Peter turned to the Dark Knight.

"You do this every night? Fight fire while the city keeps burning?"

Batman didn't look at him. "If I stop, it spreads."

Peter's voice was quieter. "But you never put it out."

A long silence stretched between them.

"I'm not here to win," Batman said finally. "I'm here to endure."

Peter leaned back against the ledge. "That's the saddest mission statement I've ever heard."

"No. It's the truest."

Later, in the heart of Crime Alley, they found another body.

Young. Probably no older than Peter had been when he got bitten. No ID. Just a note pinned to his jacket:

"This is what your hope buys."

Peter didn't speak for a long time.

Finally: "He didn't deserve this."

"No one here does," Batman said.

Peter turned to him, voice tight. "Then why does it keep happening?"

"Because people like me aren't enough. And people like you aren't ready."

Peter flinched. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Batman stepped forward. "You still believe everyone can be saved."

Peter's eyes narrowed. "And you've already decided they can't?"

"I've seen what happens when hope becomes a liability."

Peter stepped closer. "And I've seen what happens when fear turns you into the thing you're fighting."

They stood inches apart.

"Maybe we're both wrong," Peter said. "But at least I'm still willing to try."

A beat passed.

Then Batman turned away. "Hope won't stop what's coming."

Peter's voice was a whisper. "It might."

They parted ways without another word.

Peter lingered.

He stood beneath the same broken streetlamp where the Waynes had fallen, rain dripping from his gloves, thinking about how thin the line really was between justice and vengeance.

He'd always drawn his from guilt, yes but also from love.

Uncle Ben.

May.

Even the friends he'd lost in other worlds versions of him that never came back. Their memories didn't harden him.

They anchored him.

As Gotham breathed around him, Peter made a silent vow not to win, not to endure, but to change what could still be changed.

He wasn't Batman.

And maybe that was a good thing.

/-\

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You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want.