WHO: Peter and Regulus and then Peter and Dick WHAT: Nightwing and Peter Parker the Cat Whisperer get some nukes WHERE: Near the fountain, their shared house and the cyberpunk wasteland fortress WHEN: 3 days after arrival RATING: Low
There were two things that Slytherins and large jungle cats had in common: an affinity for water. Regulus hadn’t wanted to deal with his brother anymore that day and so far everyone around him seemed a bit...yeah, he wasn’t all that interested. The panther laid stretched out on the great stone ring around the fountain, enjoying the cool spray and his tail swishing gently in the water.
Hopefully, his presence alone would be intimidating enough that no one was likely to bother him. Sirius probably would, but his brother was an idiot and Regulus was sure he could outrun him like this.
---
That was a cat. That was a big cat. The moment Peter spotted it he half wondered if the King of Wakanda was around somewhere. It would make a sort of sense, or at least it would in Peter’s mind. Mr. Stark always had some kind of robot or tech around. Captain America probably had an american flag hanging over his bed. Why wouldn’t the Black Panther travel around with a panther? That had to be a benefit of being king.
He didn’t see anyone else around though so Peter wasn’t exactly eager to get too close to the animal. He kept as far away as he could, trying to edge his way around the courtyard without attracting attention.
---
Regulus’ ear twitched at the sound of movement. He opened his eyes, yawning as he stretched. A young man about his size who clearly had some sense to him if he kept his distance. Probably he should find somewhere else to rest.
---
Peter went still when the big cat moved. Sure, he was Spider-Man, when it came to fighting he could have taken the panther. He didn’t want to fight the panther though. He never liked having to restrain animals even when he was actively trying to save himself from them.
“Good kitty.” He whispered. “Stay over there. You don’t want to try to eat me.”
--
Regulus stared flatly at the boy, looking more than a little done with his shit. He twitched his tail, launching some water droplets in his direction.
--
“Okay.” Peter blinked and started to edge along again, still watching the big cat. Maybe he was docile, maybe he wasn’t. Peter wasn’t eager to find out how sharp those claws were. He didn’t sense that the animal was preparing to attack him but he could still change his mind.
--
Regulus got up properly, stretching again before he got up and started heading back towards the woods where he’d stashed his clothes a path that just so happened to seem to intersect with the young man’s.
---
Peter stopped again. Maybe it was bad luck when a black cat crossed your path but he was mostly certain that when the black cat was a panther it could be excused. “By all means, big guy. Go ahead on and go do whatever things cats do. You’ll scare people if you hang around too much. Scared people do stupid things. You know-”
He paused for a moment, frowning. “I’m talking to a cat.”
---
The cat paused and looked at the boy, tilting his head in thought as he sized him up, tail moving gently behind him. He was talking to a cat and the cat was listening.
Regulus walked over to him.
---
Instead of backing up and giving the animal a reason to follow him he stayed as he was. “I don’t know why I pictured panthers as smaller. You’re a big boy, huh? What are you doing here? How did you end up here? You just show up too? Huh?”
---
Regulus sniffed at the boy’s leg and then half to reward him for his bravery found himself rubbing against his leg, purr a low rumble as he did.
---
Peter Parker, cat whisperer. It had a nice ring to it, but he wasn’t going to let it go to his head. He carefully reached down and ran his hand over the cat’s dark fur, hoping the panther didn’t turn his head and bite off his hand. It would probably grow back, maybe, but he wasn’t eager to find out.
---
Regulus tipped his head up into those pets, deciding it was fine to ask for more.
---
He pet his back a bit, eventually moving his hand up to rub at the cat’s jaw the way he knew they often liked. Well, the little cats did at least. He had the internet before he turned up here though, he’d seen a lot of videos about big cats loving boxes and catnip. They weren’t so different really.
“You’re pretty handsome, you know. Your fur is very nice.” Maybe it was about positive energy. He was giving the cat some positive energy and maybe the cat liked it.
---
Oh, those jaw scritches were very nice. He sat and butted his head against the young man’s leg. He got up again and gave him one more heavy lean and started for the green so he could be himself again.
---
“Okay, my dude. See you around I guess. Don’t eat anybody.” He called after the panther, feeling strangely good about this little encounter. Maybe things weren’t all bad, he’d just made himself a panther friend after all.
---
Regulus chirruped a little at him as he walked away, clearly not in much of a hurry. If he ran, he’d call attention to himself from someone else and he very much did not want to do that.
---
The panther couldn’t understand him, he was pretty sure of that. Maybe just mostly sure. Cats liked to make noises, it was a thing. Of course, this place was weird enough, it was entirely possible that maybe the cat did understand him. It seemed like he would have time to find out.
He finally started again, keeping an eye on the cat still but this one was a less nervous one.
---
Was the muggle following him? It certainly felt like it. Regulus glanced over his shoulder as he walked to check.
---
He was certainly watching him but he was going his own way. He needed to let Dick know that he hadn’t run into anyone other than the panther so far, that maybe Droney had just picked up the cat. Still, at least he had something new to share instead of going out exploring and finding nothing.
---
Back home (since that’s what it was now, apparently,) Dick had managed to scrounge up enough vegetables that there was something of a roast in the oven. No meat, but only because he couldn’t quite bring himself to take a shot at the birds around. They’d need to eventually. Maybe Peter would be better at that with his webs and everything?
He heard the door open and looked over at his new roommate coming inside. “Everything okay?”
---
“I ran into an honest-to-god panther.” Peter answered like he was commenting on the weather. He shut the door and followed his nose to the kitchen where he nodded to Dick. “He’s weirdly friendly if you talk to him. He came up and did that whole cat arch thing. Didn’t see anything more though, sorry.”
---
Dick arched a brow. “You sure it was an honest-to-god panther and not a shape shifter?” He’d seen too much weird shit in Gotham and everywhere else to just take a friendly predator at face value.
---
Peter paused, brow furrowing as he considered it. He hadn’t considered that, he was fairly sure he’d never seen that before, but given how weird some of the stuff the Avengers had gotten involved in it wasn’t out of the possibility. “Uh, well, I spoke to him and he didn’t talk back. I pet him.”
---
“Not all shifters can talk while they’re being animals. Did it seem like he understood you?”
---
“I- I don’t know.” Peter said honestly. “He got friendly after I talked to him, so maybe. He didn’t seem like he was, I don’t know, man. I’ve never really dealt with a panther before. Well, I mean, not one who wasn’t a guy in a suit.”
---
“You’re okay,” he said, giving him a gentle little smile. “Just animals like that aren’t usually fond of people and they especially don’t do the leg thing so my first thought is just either that’s not a normal animal or it’s got rabies.”
---
“He didn’t offer to bite me and I didn’t sense danger off him, so probably not rabies.” Peter said. Of course this guy would know about animals. He and Dick had talked quite a bit since they were essentially stuck together and it seemed like he knew a little bit of everything. Peter felt like he ought to go out and buy himself a fact a day calendar if only so he could feel like he was keeping up.
---
“I grew up in a circus,” he said. “Before the hero life.” He leaned against a counter. “How do you feel about hunting?”
---
He made a face.
“I don’t like killing things.” He admitted. “Animals least of all. I mean, I can like trap stuff and whatever, but I don’t- I guess I can if we have to. Are we to that point?”
The circus thing made sense though, just from what he knew and how he was so graceful. Peter should have known.
---
Dick sighed. “It might,” he said softly. “I don’t much like killing things either, but with food the way it seems to be here we’re lacking alternate sources of proteins and fats, y’know?” As it was, it felt somewhat like he was fighting to keep up with Peter’s hollow leg not that he was going to fault the boy for it or even bring it up. He could go longer than he wanted to admit without eating if he had to.
“I can handle it.” Let the boy keep his innocence for a little while longer. He knew how to trap things.
---
“If you’re sure.” He said, shifting his weight. Dick hadn’t meant to imply that he was any kind of burden, or child that needed to be taken care of, but Peter couldn’t help but feel that way. He didn’t like it. He would have to prove himself useful some way, he just hoped it wouldn’t require getting blood on his hands.
---
“I’ve got three little brothers, two sisters and more less official siblings than I can count. It’s fine. I’m sure.” He gave Peter a charming smile.
He was used to standing up and being responsible. Someone had to be. God knew Bruce was terrible at it.
---
“Yeah.” He said, knowing better than to insist that he wasn’t really a kid. That was the quickest way to spot a kid or so May always said. Sixteen was still young enough for no one to take him seriously. He was used to it.
“So how much longer on the veggies?” He asked, nodding to the oven.
---
“Right about now,” Dick said, pushing out of his lean to check on them, pulling the pan out of the oven. “Give ‘em a little bit to cool.”
---
“Nice.” He said with a nod, having stepped back to let him do whatever he needed to do without him getting in his way.
---
Dick set to getting things cooled off and making sure everything was done before he nodded to himself. He put them in one of the bowls and handed it to Peter. Growing boy. He needed it more. Dick would be fine for another day.
---
Peter took the bowl, frowning a little. “I- I have regenerative healing, you know. I mean, yeah, I have a faster metabolism and all that. When this is over I’ll just eat a few big meals and be fine, it might be harder for you. I just- I mean I appreciate it, but I’m not really delicate and I’m not a little kid, you don’t have to treat me different. You need your strength too.”
---
“You’re what? Sixteen? You’re still growing. I’m way done with that. I’m not trying to imply you’re delicate at all. Even if you weren’t all super powered, I’d still make sure you ate before I did. I’ve trained to fast like this. I’ll be fine.” Even if he didn’t remember puberty first hand, he’d lived through Jay and Tim inhaling everything in sight and Damian getting to the first edges of that too. And Cass, but Cass was for different reasons. “Eat,” he said gently, “please.”
---
He let out a gentle sigh, “Yeah, okay. But, like, if I hear your stomach later I’m gonna go find you something.” He looked down at the bowl. “Next time I see the panther I’ll follow him. He didn’t look too thin so if he’s been here a while he probably knows where to find something more than vegetables.”
---
“That’s so not fair, Mr. Super Hearing,” Dick teased. He squeezed Peter’s shoulder as he passed him. “No guilt, okay?”
---
“Yeah, that’s probably gonna be a big no. I mean, I won’t ask or guess about why you wear your suit and do the stuff you do, but I’m pretty sure that like me you’ve got a big old mass of guilt in your chest. Can’t get rid of all of it, right?” Peter shrugged. “I’ll get over it though. Maybe only once I’m like back in Queens or whatever, but I won’t bother you about it again.”
---
“There’s no getting rid of it,” Dick agreed.
---
Peter nodded again and went to find himself somewhere comfortable to sit and eat. He went slow, trying to pace himself. Mindfulness, he remembered hearing it one of those TED talks he used to leave running in the background while he was putting together his first suit and web shooters. Mindfulness might just help him feel fuller sooner, or so he hoped. If he could fill himself and still save some for Dick, that would be ideal.
---
Without thinking, Dick dropped a kiss to Peter’s hair as he headed for the door. “I’ll be back.” He could give him his trust. He hoped it’d help.
---
That was a surprise and Peter found himself unable to react until Dick was already walking away. His back had tensed and took a moment to relax while his brain came out of whatever lag he was experiencing. It had been platonic and paternal, meant to be a comfort, Peter was pretty sure, even if the placement made him feel really young.
“Okay.” He said, voice breaking a little mid word. He cleared his throat. “If I’m not here I’ve just gone dancing.”
---
“Is that the euphemism we’re using now?” he asked, smile as charming and dazzling as ever before he slipped through the door.
---
A few hours later and Peter was already working on bedding down. The mindfulness hadn’t worked as well as he’d hoped and given the option of sitting around and thinking about his hunger or going to bed, bed sounded better.
Of course, before bed there was a little routine of exercises he liked to do, in that moment it was crunches as he’d just finished his pushups. “Still weird sleeping without city noise.”
---
Dick came in quickly and headed straight up for the loft, stripping his shirt off as he moved for the closet where he’d stashed his suit, clearly a man on a mission. “Yeah, you won’t have to wait long for that. Get dressed.”
---
“What’s going on?” Peter asked, rocking back until he was able to spring up onto his feet. He didn’t hesitate, going for where he’d stored the suits he had, but even as he undressed enough to get his suit on he was still curious.
---
“There’s a door that goes somewhere else and I’m not stupid enough to explore it on my own and leave you worrying.” He grabbed the communicator that had been ominously sitting on a table in the town square he picked up and tossed the other one to Peter once he was finished getting his uniform on. He went back down the stairs and pulled out some of the spirit gum he had hidden in his suit to get his domino on.
“You down for some adventure?” Somehow through all of this, his smile sparkled.
---
“Oh yeah, always.” Peter smirked, slipping into his suit and tapping the spider to make it conform to his body. After that came the metal suit and it was handy enough to create a spot to hold onto the communicator for him. He really would have to thank Mr. Stark again.
If he ever saw him again.
That thought made him sad enough that he wasn’t going to linger on it. If the door led back to his world then he could let himself think about Mr. Stark and May and Ned and everyone else he ended up leaving behind. “Any idea where the door goes?”
---
“Doesn’t look like anywhere friendly,” Dick said, gesturing to his uniform like that alone was telling.
---
“Yeah, okay, good point. Could still be Jersey though.” He stretched again once the mask covered his face.
---
“Not any of the Jerseys I’ve ever seen, but yeah, could be,” Dick agreed. He stretched and nodded to Peter. “You good?”
---
“Oh yeah dude, I’m pumped. Well, okay, I’m good. It’s all good.” He rambled a little, rolling his neck and wiggling his shoulders a little to show how ready he was. Maybe it made him look a little nervous, and maybe he was a little nervous about going through a doorway and possibly ending up somewhere worse, but at least he had backup.
---
Nightwing nodded and lead Peter out to the building with the door he found. Cautiously, he put his hand on the door he’d opened before, glancing back at Peter again just to be sure. He opened the door and stepped into the world.
---
“Right, okay, great. Through the weird door.” Peter said to himself under his breath. Thankfully nothing but a general sense of unease filled him when he looked at the thing. He’d felt the same about the spaceship over New York, and that had been fine, at least until he died. He took a deep breath, saying a last ‘okay’ before following Dick through the door.
---
“I don’t know what we’re gonna find here,” Dick said, “but the door seems to open back up to the place we left.” He nodded to where it’d closed behind them. “If anything, we might be able to find some supplies, maybe see if we can’t get the power back on in the house somehow. Get the heat on or something.”
---
“And don’t die.” He said with a nod. “Power, heat, not dying. Sounds like a plan to me.” He said, making an attempt to be positive.
---
“Food, maybe?” he joked, walking as silently as he could through the building. The signs were all in English at least. There were a whole bunch of flyers for some kind of amusement park. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. What he wouldn’t give for someone he’d trained with instead. He and Peter could work on getting that kind of wordless communication together, to move in sync.
Out of the security windows, he could see neon lights and he perched himself gracefully on a desk to get a better look.
There was a lot of color out there.
---
Peter let him do all of his perching, he seemed to know what he was doing anyway and he was preoccupied listening to Karen.
“Elevated levels of radiation, my suit lady says. Not dangerous but different. It could mean a lot of things.” He kept his voice low as he moved closer to the windows, feeling tense but unable to put his finger on exactly what was worrying him.
---
He pointed out the window at some heads on metal spikes along what appeared to be a perimeter wall, underlit by pink neon lights. “I don’t think we walked into the good guys’ camp.” Elevated levels of radiation. Right then. Even if they weren’t in any danger, he was still glad that Bruce’s paranoia included that in his suit. “No food from here then.”
---
“Yeah, potatoes are radioactive enough on their own.” He said, glancing to Dick. “At least your suit will look cool under those lights if we go out the front door. Gotta suggest going up and over though, if you wanna try getting out of here.” It seemed like Dick was already aware of the fact that people rarely looked up so he wouldn’t repeat that little fact at him.
“There’s also a generator, a little backup one upstairs somewhere. That could be useful, at least until it ran out of fuel.”
---
Nightwing shifted the mode on his lenses to look above them, quietly scanning for heat signatures. Nothing seemed to jump out just yet beyond more neon. He put them back to normal. “Seems like the cat’s out for the time being.”
---
“Then we should be quick.” Peter nodded, heading in the direction where it would make sense for stairs or some way up to be.
---
Nightwing kept low and quiet, listening and keeping an eye out for alarms or traps and the like. There was a broken ladder leading up and he hefted himself up it, knowing Peter was present enough to follow. The ladder kept going for a bit and soon it became obvious that it’d been built into an elevator shaft of some kind.
He looked at Peter and made a gesture to his own eyes, pointing at the young man and then out, silently hoping that he got that he’d very much like Karen’s input on what was ahead of them.
---
Peter didn’t need Karen to tell him what was going on up there, he could hear it and smell it. He shifted his position on the wall, having climbed up it instead of the ladder, moving closer to Dick. He kept his voice down, “Animals, and blood and people. They’re saying something about a match. Probably some kind of animal fighting. Yeah, more people are moving around, tormenting the animals and making them angry. It’s weird though.”
---
He got into the room. Airport control tower? Certainly felt like it. Or at least like it once was. The windows weren’t exactly windows, but some variety of force field and he looked down onto what had to have been a tarmac once upon a time. “So we’ve got knock off Godzilla fighting a…” He frowned. “A van crab?” They were boxed in by the same kind of neon force field that was on the windows and the people were loud enough and distracted enough not to notice them.
There were mostly naked people dancing as well and some obvious sex acts going on. He was half tempted to cover the kid’s eyes, but he was a teenager with the internet and it was probably nothing he hadn’t seen on a screen before.
---
He glanced down at it, took a moment to be weirded out and then turned his attention to what felt a little more useful to them at the moment. The air traffic controller consoles, or what was left of them. As quietly as he could he pulled off one of the panels and turned the light up on his mask to get a good look inside.
“I don’t even want to think about what else they have here if that’s normal for them.” He said to himself. “There’s some stuff we can use in here, we grab as much as we can and a generator and I probably get power and everything else going, no problem.”
---
“Keep your head low,” Dick said. “They can see through this. We don’t need them investigating light and we see if we can’t find a generator that’s not hooked up to anything so we don’t alert them with a power outage. Maybe have droney keep an eye out?”
He moved into the storage...pit, he guessed? There was a bunch of stuff there that looked like it was just discarded tech storage. Lenses still on low light, he started quietly looking through it.
“Peter…”
---
“Yeah?” He whispered back, tapping Droney to get him unattached from his suit. He dimmed his lights again and moved over to get a look at whatever it was Dick was seeing. Karen was already scanning and making an inventory of what was in storage. “How much can you carry?”
---
“A lot, but this is nuclear,” he said, holding a tennis ball sized small battery from a bag of them. He really wasn’t sure if this was something they should be fucking with or not.
---
“More power than we need then.” He said before looking up to Dick. “Science is kinda what I do. We take them, use them responsibly and maybe I figure out how to open a door home or at least we don’t worry about whatever the weather throws at us for a while. We leave that here, well, people are going to die. I don’t like stealing but I wouldn’t trust these guys with a foam sword, you know?”
---
“You got enough there to figure out how to hook these into a basic household grid?” he asked. Honestly, he’d just be glad to be able to use the oven properly instead of basically heating up wood and leaving it in a big pan to handle the vegetables Peter had for dinner. He put it back in the bag and zipped it up. There was a lot of weight to it. Lead, probably.
“Maybe we figure out how to open a door to a place with solar instead. I know it’s broadly safe, but I’ve...I’ve seen too many accidents to trust it completely.”
---
“That would be nice, dude, but we ended up here. The next place might be like that that really old movie, A Kid In King Arthur’s Court. I mean, I should be able to rig together some solar panels if you’re really afraid, but let’s not leave it. You never know? Right. And I know what I’m doing.” In theory, Karen could help with the rest.
---
“I’m not saying we leave it. I’m just saying we need to be careful with it.” He hefted the bag up properly onto his shoulder. “This good for now or do you wanna push our luck?”
---
“Let me get those wires and chips. Most everything else in here looks pretty damaged and I don’t have the tools to fix them.” He grabbed a bag, dumping out some old money before he went to fill it up. “Oh, if you could find any tools in there, that would be great. Welding equipment would be amazing.”
---
There was a toolbox. Nightwing grabbed it without looking in it. He didn’t want to stick around and most everything in the pile felt like it was going to try to give him some radioactive tetanus or something. “Fight’s ending,” he said. “Time to boogie.”
---
“Boogie? Really?” Peter shook his head and shoved the last of what he was able to salvage into his bag before coming to take the toolbox from Dick. He didn’t look inside either, he just zipped it up inside the bag and recalled Droney before jumping down the shaft.
---
Nightwing winced a little as the kid jumped, worried about how much noise he was going to make when he hit the ground. He made his descent quietly and walked with Peter back down the halls to where the door was. He really hoped they weren’t trapped there.
---
As they walked near a window, Peter suddenly pushed them past it. He flattened himself against the wall and put a hand on Dick’s chest to make sure he did the same, putting a finger up to where his lips would be under the mask.
A dangerous situation, sure, but Peter couldn’t help but be a little distracted by how firm the guy had to be under that suit.
--- Dick kept himself silent and to the shadows. The taser in his right gauntlet made a brief hum as he activated it just in case.
---
When he heard the footsteps move on he dropped his hand and nodded to Dick, telling him to keep going. He was a little glad that Dick hadn’t needed to use that thing on his arm, it might have brought one guy down but he was sure someone else would have heard it now that everyone was milling around again.
---
Dick slipped to the door and opened it, clearly waiting for Peter before they slipped through and shut it behind them. On the other side of it, he let out a breath he’d been holding and disabled his gauntlet. “Let’s not go back there. Maybe leave a note on the door that says it’s not a great place.”
---
“Yeah, yeah, I’m with you on that one.” Peter nodded in agreement, the mask peeling away from his face. “But hey, light and heat soon, right?”
---
“Maybe we can figure out plumbing too. Or a water filter of some kind.” It was super weird that the toilet worked but everything else seemed to want to be relying on the pond.
He pulled a batarang out of his pocket to carve a large radioactive symbol on the door. It’d have to do for now.
“Home?”
---
Something about Dick carving that with some weird looking boomerang tickled Peter and he found himself chuckling and nodding even as they set off. “Yeah, let’s go home, dude.”