New York
August 28, 09:14 EDT
Peter sat with his family in the breakfast nook. He was stuffing his face with eggs and sausage while Teresa scrolled through something on her phone, absentmindedly picking at her oatmeal. Richard was already on his second cup of coffee, flipping through the newspaper as Mary leisurely ate her eggs on toast. Dexter rested on Peter's lap and ate whatever fell off the plate.
Peter took a bite of sausage and looked at his family; they were all acting normal.
'Considering I told them I was Spider-Man and Batman dropped in for a quick visit yesterday, normal is pretty good.'
While Richard and Teresa cleaned up the house, Mary put together a simple charcuterie board, and Peter stepped out to retrieve the communication/tracker device he'd left behind. As he expected, Batman was waiting there, standing watch over the device.
Batman didn't ask why Peter had abandoned it, but Peter would've bet a lot of money that he knew exactly why he had. Still, Peter commented on it anyway just to make it clear that, while he might be young, he wasn't that naive.
Batman, being Batman, glossed over it and went straight to business, asking what had happened. Peter gave him a quick recap: he'd come clean, his family already knew, much to his own surprise, and while they were worried, they'd agreed to let him continue being Spider-Man.
Batman's only response was a simple, "Good."
But Peter could tell it was genuine. It wasn't just approval, but also relief; like Batman truly believed that Peter being honest with his parents and everything working out was a good thing.
Then, Peter awkwardly brought up the fact that Batman had to go to his house to confirm, asking him how to proceed. Batman tossed the device he had left behind to him and told him to activate it, and he would be there in no time.
Peter joked that they could do the meeting at a MacTavish's[1] instead if Batman was in the mood for some fries. All he got in response was a blank stare and silence so profound that it made Peter jump off the building and swing away.
After that, Peter got home and activated the device in front of his nervous family. Less than five minutes later, he experienced a tingling sensation that confirmed his house had been successfully infiltrated.
Peter gave his family a heads-up to stop them from being jumpscared as Batman appeared from the shadows of their kitchen. As he did, Peter closely watched Batman to see if there were any signs of surprise on his face; surprise from the fact that Spider-Man was the son of a senior researcher at his company and the fact that they happened to live next to a Justice League member.
There was nothing. Or if there had been, he'd already gotten it under control.
What followed was his family awkwardly offering Batman an assortment of meats and cheeses, which he politely declined, before everyone settled into the living room. After that came a long, in-depth conversation between two worried, if slightly star-struck, parents and Batman.
They asked what Peter would be doing, who he would be working alongside, who would be overseeing the Team, and dozens of other questions. Batman answered each one patiently and thoroughly. Eventually, they seemed satisfied, but before giving their permission, they asked for one condition.
Peter be allowed to continue operating solo.
The request caught Peter off guard, and it seemed like Batman had been as well. Before either of them could ask why, his parents explained. As worried as they were about Peter's solo activities, they had seen firsthand the difference he'd made. They knew how much this meant to him, and they believed taking it away would hurt not just Peter but the city itself.
Batman remained silent for a long moment. Then, finally, he nodded, agreeing, though not without conditions of his own. Peter would check in before starting his patrol, carry a tracker at all times during his solo activities, and call for backup if anything involving superpowered threats arose.
Peter didn't like the added rules, but he agreed, although he was already thinking of workarounds. With that, his parents gave their permission.
Batman thanked them, told Peter where to be and at what time the following day, and then excused himself, leaving the Parker family alone.
"Isn't it almost time for you to meet with Batman?" Mary asked, snapping Peter out of his thoughts.
Peter glanced at the clock on the microwave and swallowed the food in his mouth.
"Yes, it is." he said, grabbing Dexter off his lap and setting him down as he stood up.
Peter wiped his hands on a napkin and picked up his backpack.
"I'll be back later." he said, trying to keep it casual.
"Later as in later or later as in 'don't wait up?'" Teresa asked with a smirk, not looking up from her phone.
"Probably the second one." he said.
Richard looked over his newspaper and gave him a look. "Be smart."
Mary smiled at him, soft and proud and worried all at once. "And be safe."
"Always." Peter said with a smile, heading out the back door.
"Make a lot of super friends!" he heard Teresa shout as he closed the door behind him.
~
Batman hadn't given him an address to be at, just some coordinates.
In his costume, Peter arrived at the coordinates, landing lightly on the concrete support beam of a massive bridge. The place was somewhere he had swung by dozens of times, just another dead zone beneath a bridge with graffiti everywhere.
"Well, I can't deny that it isn't on brand for Batman." Peter muttered as he dropped down onto the ground.
Peter would be lying if he said he hadn't half-expected to meet up with Batman on top of a skyscraper and be picked up in the Batplane before flying to the Hall of Justice or wherever.
He was about to check what time it was when his spider-sense tingled. It wasn't from danger or because someone was approaching; it was from being watched, not by a person but by a camera.
Odder still was the fact that he was getting different reactions from two different sources.
Peter turned to where the reaction was coming from and saw a giant billboard on the bridge for an old movie called "The Silver Blade."
'I remember watching that movie with Mom. It stars that actor she likes, Jonathan Lord.' thought Peter. 'Sure is an odd place for a billboard, though.'
He approached the billboard, his spider-sense tingling stronger as he neared. He could feel the two sources much more clearly now that he was closer to the wall.
Peter tilted his head upward first.
Above the billboard, tucked just beneath the lip of the bridge, something caught the light for a moment. He zoomed in using his telescoping vision and saw a camera so well hidden he wouldn't have known it was there if not for his spider-sense and his enhanced vision.
'Okay.' Peter thought. 'That explains one of the sources.'
Peter's gaze moved back down to the billboard itself. From afar, it seemed like just a wall with a billboard plastered over it. Now that he was so close and using his telescopic vision, he could see a seam that split the entire thing into two.
The seam was perfect. Too perfect.
'That's the second source.'
Just as he was about to knock on the wall to check what it was made out of, his spider-sense tingled again, this time from behind him.
He turned around to see Batman falling and landing with his cape billowing.
"Did you design your cape to flow like that, or is that a happy accident?" Peter asked.
"It's intentional." Batman said.
For just a fraction of a second, there was a hint of a grin at the corner of his mouth, so quick Peter almost missed it, before it was replaced by the familiar stoic mask.
"You know, Batsy-"
"What?" Batman cut off Peter.
"Oh, you caught that, huh?" Peter wryly smiled under his mask. "I was trying to slip it in there all casual like."
Batman's eyes narrowed. "Don't."
Peter held up his hands in mock surrender. "I thought because we've become such good friends, it was worth a shot."
Batman didn't say anything, just stared.
"Note taken." Peter said, pointing behind him at the billboard. "Anyway, does this fake wall have something to do with why we met here, or is it just a coincidence?"
Batman's gaze lingered on Peter for a long, assessing moment.
"It's not a coincidence." he said at last.
He stepped past Peter toward the billboard, stopping directly in front of the seam.
"This is an access point for all League and Team members." he continued.
"Access point to what? A safehouse of some kind?" Peter asked. "Not to brag or anything, but I do have my own personal lab."
"This is different." Batman said. "Computer. Add authorization: Spider-Man B-08. Authorization: Batman 02."
"Recognized: Batman 02." said a computerized female voice.
A blue light shone down from where the camera was hidden and scanned Peter.
"Authorization added: Spider-Man B-08." it said again.
Before Peter could say anything, the billboard split in two, revealing a high-tech cylindrical tunnel that ended in a closed mechanical iris.
Peter's eyes widened. " ... okay, this is a little different from what I have under my shed."
Batman stepped inside. "This bridge serves as an access point to a Zeta-Tube. It is one of two in New York and part of a network of Zeta-Tubes all over the world."
Peter followed him inside, glancing back as the billboard slid shut behind them. Lights that ran along the tunnel lit up one after another, bathing the cylindrical passage in white.
"Why do the words 'Zeta-Tubes' sound familiar?" Peter asked as his eyes darted everywhere at once.
"The inception of the Zeta-Tubes dates back to 1955. Dr. Erdel proposed the idea and conducted experiments back then, but due to technological limitations, it didn't go far." Batman explained.
"Dr. Erdel!" Peter said in recognition. "I knew I remembered reading about them somewhere. My dad had some of his research in his study, and I read it a long time ago." He thought back to those papers. "But all of his stuff read like science fiction and the ramblings of a mad scientist. You mean to tell me, this is based on that?"
"There were papers circulated as a means to discredit him." Batman explained. "His actual research was ahead of his time by decades."
"Really?" Peter asked. "So if I remember correctly, and if what I read was right, this Zeta-Tube uses something called Zeta-Beam energy as a means of teleportation."
"Yes." Batman answered
He swiped his hand in the air, and a holographic keyboard and screen appeared. The holographic keys chimed softly under Batman's fingers as lines of data scrolled past in midair.
"Zeta-Beam energy." Batman said. "A directed, stabilized radiation field capable of collapsing spatial distance between two fixed points."
"Awesome." Peter said, eyes tracking the equations and schematics flashing by.
The hologram shifted into a three-dimensional model of the tunnel they stood in.
"Early Zeta-Beam experiments were uncontrolled and dangerous." Batman continued. "Erdel understood the theory, but he lacked the means to regulate the beam or anchor the exit point, among other limitations."
The hologram updated again, highlighting a specific section of the tunnel. "Modern Zeta-Tubes use phased emitters, quantum locks, and redundant targeting systems. The danger is all but eliminated."
"This is ... insane." Peter exhaled a soft, impressed laugh. "I'm guessing the cost of making them and the upkeep is what's stopping them from being introduced en masse."
"That and their potential to be weaponized." Batman added.
Peter nodded. "Yeah, that tracks. Instant global teleportation would basically rewrite every military doctrine on the planet overnight. Not to mention the kind of chaos it would bring if a villain got their hands on it."
"Every Zeta-Tube has multiple security measures in place, biometric, encrypted authorization, oversight from independent systems, and more. If a Tube is compromised, the rest lock down." Batman said.
"Yeah, that's cool and all, but let's talk meat and potatoes." Peter rubbed his hands together in excitement. "What's the progress looking like on miniaturizing these things?"
"There is none." Batman said as he began typing on the keyboard.
Peter froze mid-hand rub. "There's none?"
Batman didn't look up from the keyboard. "Correct."
"None, as in, we're stuck on one part, or as in we tried, and it exploded, so we stopped, or as in you don't want to say anything because you think I might try duct-taping a Zeta-Tube to my web-shooters?"
"There is no research currently being conducted on minituarization." he clarified.
Peter's eyebrows shot up under his mask. "Currently. So there was."
Batman finally glanced at him. "Yes."
"How bad?"
"Bad enough that the topic is no longer discussed."
Peter whistled. "Okay, that answers that. But if you ever want a fresh set of eyes on it, please call me."
Batman ignored Peter's request. "Get ready."
"Oh, I'm ready." Peter excitedly looked around. "Actually, where exactly are we going?'
The mechanical iris opened up, and a bright yellow light appeared.
"You'll see."
The Zeta-Beam energy shot out and consumed them.
~~~
AN
I'm sick at the moment, so apologies for the delay and the shorter-than-usual length.
Next chapter is the Cave. For real this time.
Unless the Zeta-Beam malfunctions and sends him to Rann.
Decided to summarize the Batman conversation because I didn't want to dedicate another chapter to him and his parents and Batman conversing about him and all that. Thought it would've been dragging it a little.
[1] McDonald's parody in the DC universe, and I did update the name on the other chapter since I used McDonald's by accident