Chapter Text
At first, there was nothing. Just particles drifting in space. Floating from the hands of a desperate man calling out a name. The particles didn’t respond. This is because particles could not, in fact, talk. Nor can they think or feel. So, they simply drifted.
Away from the man. Away from the ruins of a dead planet. Through the cosmos, past glowing stars and nebulae, navigating the cracks of the Universe and all Universes in between.
Directionless. Spreading apart throughout its journey.
Until they became whole again.
It was dark when the dust woke up. It felt burning. Which was weird. It glanced down and noticed it had a hand. A hand? How did it have a hand?
Lifting up the hand to examine it made it realize that it also had an arm. And a shoulder. And a chest. An unmoving chest.
Oh. That’s where the burning was from.
With stuttering breaths, he took in all the air his patchworked lungs could handle. He inhaled and exhaled greedily, never seeming to have enough, yet feeling completely lightheaded the more he had.
“Whoa!” A voice said. “Maybe you should slow down with that…”
It took him a moment to understand the voice. It startled him. Being spoken to as a person was weird when you were unfeeling dust a moment ago.
He was dust. Why was he dust? Why was he a person? Who was he exactly? How does dust become a person? People turned to dust, that much he knew, but he felt like the other way around should not have been possible.
“Signal, step away.” Another voice barked. “We have no idea what this thing is capable of.”
A snort. “That thing looks like a kid to me.”
This voice was female.
“He’s clearly a shifter,” A snooty voice added. “How else could he have entered the cave the way he had?”
“Hey,” The first voice softened. “It’s okay. Just breathe with me, okay?”
“Signal-”
“Just let him do this, B.” The female voice drawed. “It’s not like we can get any answers when he’s all panicked like this.”
“He could be faking it.”
“Robin is correct.”
“Will you three just shut it for a moment?” The first voice snapped. Pause. “Thank you!”
Someone was crouching in front of him. They lifted his hand and pressed it against their own chest.
“Hey, can you breathe with me?” The first voice repeated.
He found himself nodding.
“Good. Now, slowly, inhale.” He inhaled. “Good, hold that for three seconds, then exhale.”
He exhaled. He followed the pattern of the first voice, inhaling, holding, exhaling. Finally, he was able to manage his breathing. Still dazed, he glanced up at the voice, who was a person. A person in a yellow helmet with two little pointy spikes, one on each end of their head. He could see their mouth, though, and their mouth was smiling.
“You good?” They asked.
He nodded carefully, still a bit dazed. He glanced behind him, towards the three others. Three other people. They were people, and he was a person, and the person in front of him was a person. Three of these people were brightly dressed. The one in purple winked at him. He could sense that she was still tense. He didn’t know why he could sense that.
“Do you mind telling me your name?” The first voice asked.
He returned his attention to them. “What?”
“Your name.” They repeated. “That is, if you got one.”
The last part was said jokingly. He was not sure what the joke was.
“I…” He scoured his mind. Alright. A name. A name is a word given to a person to distinguish them from other people. He was a person, so he must have a name. But he was also dust, and dust did not have a name. So, he must not have a name. “I don’t think I do.”
The smile became strained.
“Okay, that’s alright.” They assured him. “Do you remember how you got here?”
“Here?” He glanced around again. He was in a cave. The cave had things in it, like big pennies, a fancy car, and a giant computer. He did not think that caves usually had these things inside of them. He glanced back at them.
“I was dust.” He explained.
“I know that.” The yellow helmet nodded slightly. “But do you remember how you got in here?”
He frowned. “Dust doesn’t think…”
“Well…he isn’t wrong.” The purple person said.
The big one with a black bat on his chest stepped towards them. “Are you saying that you were made from the dust?”
He blinked. That was what he just said. But he still nodded.
“How?”
Huh. He thought he asked himself that question a moment ago. It was a good question. A question he still had no answer to.
“I don’t know.” He repeated.
Given the tightening of the big one’s jaw, he could tell that the answer did not satisfy him. But he had no other answers to give, especially for a question that he had himself.
How does dust turn into a person…?
“I’m a person now.” He found himself saying.
“Yes.” Agreed the first voice. “You are a person now.”
They shifted and began to stand up. Then they held up a hand. “Need some help, buddy?”
He blinked. Standing. Could he stand? He needed legs for that. He needed to check that he had legs.
So, he checked.
He had legs.
He accepted the first voice’s hand. He was pulled upwards, but swayed the moment that he was on his feet.
Oh! He had feet too!
He did not have long to marvel at that before he fell into the first voice’s arms.
“Ooookaaaayyyy.” The first voice shifted. Then muttered to themselves. “Note to self, newly formed people probably can’t walk very well.”
“Yes.” He agreed.
The first voice glanced at him. Then they turned to the purple person. “Mind helping me to medical?”
They nodded and made their way forward.
“Father,” The snobby one said. “You’re not really letting them do this, are you? We don’t know anything about this creature! What if it was sent to destroy us?”
Destroy them? Why would he destroy them? They were people, just like him. He wasn’t a destroyer, he was the opposite. He was…he was…
A protector? Was that right?
The big man sighed. “We’ll be monitoring its behavior. So far, it is docile, but as soon as that changes ....”
“That won’t change.” He said back. “I don’t hurt. I protect.”
The two people holding him frowned at him.
“...okay then.” The purple person said. “That’s good to know, I guess.”
But behind him, he couldn’t hear the other people moving for a moment. He could barely hear them breath, until…
“Father?” The snobby voice repeated,
The man grunted.
And he was brought to a white room with a bed.
********************************************************************************************
“This may hurt a bit.” Mr. Agent A explained, holding out a needle towards him.
He nodded slowly. He was not sure if he truly knew what he was agreeing to until the needle punctured through his skin.
Oh! That was hurt. He knew what hurt was. He felt it before when he…when he….
Huh. Could dust feel pain?
He asked the question to Mr. Agent A, who did not take his eyes from the filling vial.
“I do not believe so, sir.” He replied. “Then again, we live in a strange world. Anything could happen.”
He considered that. “Like what?”
Mr. Agent A paused from switching tubes to glancing at him with an unreadable expression.
“Such as young men forming from the dust in the Cave.” He replied.
“Oh.” He was not wrong.
He returned his attention back to his task. “I should be thanking you, actually. You saved me a fair bit of cleaning.”
“Oh.” The boy repeated. “You’re welcome.”
The corners of Mr. Agent A’s lips twitched.
Robin peered over the medic’s shoulder with a sneer. “How could a being formed from dirt even bleed?”
He was almost slapped on the back of the head by Spoiler, until he caught her arm. She pulled it back and rolled her eyes.
“First off, don’t be rude,” She replied. “Second….”
She paused, contemplating.
“No, actually, how is he bleeding?”
“The scans are saying that he is completely automatically correct for a human.” Signal said next to Batman, who was studying the scanner from the front of the bed. Due to the needle in his neck, he couldn’t really turn and glance at them much.
“Hold still.” Mr. Agent A instructed.
He did so.
“Huh.” Spoiler replied. She disappeared from his vision. “Double huh. Doesn’t explain the outfits, though.”
He wasn’t sure how to explain the outfits either. It reminded him of their costumes, the first one shiner. All he really had to do was to think that he didn’t want to wear it anymore, and it crawled off of his body and formed a watch around his wrist. Only to find a less shiner version of the suit underneath, this time, with no clear way of taking it off.
Robin glared at him. “Let me guess, you do not know where these costumes have come from either?”
He had to stop himself from shaking his head.
“No.” He frowned. He thought they established that he didn’t know much of anything. Especially considering how weird his mind felt.
It was…disorienting, he believed the term was? He was struggling to string thoughts properly, though it had gotten a little better.
The needle was pulled from him, and he could feel a bandage being pressed against his neck.
“You did an excellent job, young man.” Mr. Agent Alfred complimented.
He smiled. “Thanks.”
He watched as the older gentleman provided his blood to Batman. He nodded, asking if he could place it into the computer.
“Very well, sir.” The agent nodded. He turned back to him. “I shall be returning with a meal, young man. That is, if you are able to eat…”
He frowned thinking about it. His stomach did feel pretty empty. That meant he needed food. He thinks so, anyway.
He nodded. “Thank you.”
Mr. Agent A gave him a small smile before glancing at the others. “This boy could teach you lot a thing or two about manners.”
Signal chuckled. “Uh…sorry A-Agent A.”
Well, of course he had manners! He was raised to be polite and she would be so disappointed in him if he didn’t-
Wait. Who was ‘she’?
He watched Mr. Agent A tut and left without really seeing anything.
There was a…person, he thinks. Someone he knew. Someone who was important to him. Someone that he…that he loved more than anything in the Universe.
But he was dust before. How could he have known someone, let alone loved them and learned manners from them?
There was something there. Something at the tip of his tongue that he just couldn’t reach.
Spoiler interrupted his thoughts by sitting next to him. “Welp, we can’t just be calling him ‘hey you’, so let’s think of some names!”
He blinked. “Names?”
“Well, yeah! You need a name.” She replied.
He almost replied that he did have a name, but frowned when he really took in that thought. Did he have a name? He didn’t feel like he did earlier.
“How about Toby?” Spoiler.
He blinked. “What?”
“Yeah, I’m not feeling that either…” She tapped her chin considering. “How about Andrew? Andrew is a nice name!”
“He doesn’t really look like an Andrew.” Signal glanced up and grinned. “How about Thomas?”
For some reason, Batman froze. Robin looked scandalized. Spoiler cackled.
“I kind of like that.” She glanced at him. “What do you think? You want to be a Tommy-boy?”
“Do not name him Tommy.” Robin scowled.
“Why not? He definitely looks like a Tom….”
“I don’t know.” He blurted out. He shifted. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice name, but it just doesn’t…feel right.”
Spoiler shrugged. “Alright then. Tom’s out then. How about Steve?”
His brain tickled.
“No.” He shook his head, feeling a tug of tightness from his healing puncture wound.
“Jacob?”
He shook again.
Spoiler straightened up. “Okay, speed round! Hunter, James, Alex, Sam, Bob, David…”
She continued to list names, him rejecting every one of them. Just as he was starting to feel guilty for not picking one, she said one that he liked.
“....Aiden, Charles, Bigsby, Dan, Jose, Peter, David-Oh, wait, did I already say that one…?”
“What was that last one?” He perked up.
“What, David?” She raised her eyebrows. “That’s the one? So nice it needed to be said twice-”
“No, the one before that.”
Spoiler paused, forehead furrowed. “Um…I forgot. Sorry, I was just saying the first thing that popped in my head-”
“She said ‘Peter’.” Robin interrupted with an eye roll. “Honestly, Spoiler, you can’t even remember the last thing you said? How could you be a vigilante with a memory so terrible-”
“Oh, I know you love it when I forget things.” She might have been grinning. “You just love correcting me, my precious little know-it-all-”
“So, ‘Peter’?” Signal raised his voice over the others.
Peter immediately turned his attention to Signal. It took him a moment to realize that he was asking if he liked his name and was not calling for his attention.
Huh. He supposed that was a good sign. It definitely felt right…
“Yeah, I like it.” He nodded.
“Peter it is, then!” Spoiler clapped her hands, then gasped. “We should celebrate! Today is basically Peter’s birth day, and he’s so close to taking his first steps-”
“You just want an excuse to eat cake.” Robin said drily.
“Of course I want an excuse to eat cake! But that doesn’t change the fact that we got a new baby now-”
“Baby?” Peter blanched.
“Oh no, she’s already adopted you.” Signal grinned. “Trust me, it’s too late. Welcome to the family.”
Peter sputtered as Spoiler wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “And that’s another reason to celebrate! So many milestones in such little time! Maybe we should have two cakes. Just between me and Peter.”
“Hey, I want some cake!”
A beeping sound came from Batman. He proceeded to pull out a whole tablet out of nowhere and immediately glanced at whatever was being notified.
“What is it, Batman?” Robin asked, trying to look over his father’s shoulder.
Batman angled it away from him. Robin clicked his tongue in annoyance. Peter kept his attention on Batman. Though he wasn’t showing it, he could hear his heart racing faster and faster. Whatever was on the screen probably wasn’t all that good.
Batman caught him looking, and he just…stared at him. It was unsettling, especially since that meant that whatever was causing him stress had to do with Peter.
And that made Peter nervous.
“B?” Signal asked, taking a step forward. “What’s wrong?”
He shook his head, tucking the tablet away.
“Keep an eye on him.” He ordered, walking towards the exit. “I need to check something.”
Spoiler shook her head, standing and stretching. “That man is such a drama queen. He’ll take any opportunity he can to be extra like that.”
Robin scoffed and glared at the doorway. Then he started to walk off in the direction Batman went.
Peter frowned. “Aren’t you supposed to stay here?”
He got a tongue click in reply before that black cloak disappeared back into the caving system. He glanced at the other two, who just shrugged.
“Don’t worry about it.” Signal assured. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Yeah, like I said.” Spoiler inched towards the door. “B just likes drama. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
But they were both stiff. And they both saw the way Batman had looked at him.
Peter had a feeling that whatever was happening, it was going to affect him gravely.