Chronicles of the Spider

House of the Bat

Earth Prime

Present Day

"Alright, honey, come on, time to go!" Peter called out loudly. His voice echoed around the penthouse, and soon enough, the pitter patter of a pair of small feet answered the call, moving frantically from room to room. 

Karen stood next to him with an amused expression, knowing that Rose wasn't anywhere close to ready. She was surprisingly lazy in the morning, considering that both her parents were morning people. Peter was up at 4:00 AM every day, preparing for work and his job as the Spider. Karen herself only got around five hours of sleep every night, working on many projects for Starrwave. 

It wasn't even that early in the morning, but Rose liked sleeping in, despite her father waking her up every morning. She was usually napping in a corner, pretending to read a book or watch something. She always positioned herself to appear as if she was engrossed in the project, but both Peter and her knew Rose too well. Peter usually took pity on her, and let her snooze. Today, however, they had places to be.

It was family lunch over at Wayne Manor, and the entire family had been invited. Peter, Karen, and Rose were expected to be there, especially considering the various colorful messages Jason had sent his elder brother, threatening intense bodily harm if he didn't show up and keep the peace.

Rose finally marched out of her room with a grumpy expression. She blearily rubbed her eyes and glared at her father, mad at him for making her wake up so early. Peter rolled his eyes in exasperated amusement, before reaching down and picking her up. She was only five, but considering Peter's abilities, he could probably carry her for the rest of her life. Rose settled against her father, resting her face inside the crook of his neck to absorb some of his body warmth. Peter held her tightly, while Karen put shoes on the sleepy girl's feet.

"Ready to go?" Peter asked them reluctantly. Karen smiled at him mischievously. She knew that Peter wanted to meet his family, because he loved his siblings second only to them, but the entire family had the habit of pretending that family meals were a huge drag on their time, and that they would rather be anywhere else. Jason grumbled and groaned, Dick always came late, Tim had to be dragged from his room, Duke stayed as silent as possible to make things awkward, and Damian tried to slip off multiple times during every meal. Of the girls, Babs was always deadpan, even when everyone knew she would be amused at the drama, Cass was quiet as ever, though she threw funny faces at all of them more than once to get them to laugh and break their composure, Stephanie told terrible jokes to annoy people, and Helena simply glared at everyone.

They made their way into one of the back rooms of the penthouse, where a Zeta tube had been installed for ease of transportation. Peter set up the coordinates with one hand, the other arm carefully balancing his daughter against himself. In a few seconds, a low humming began, and started to get louder, while the circular apparatus quickly started going. In a few seconds, they were sucked into the light, and they reappeared inside a similar looking room.

Shaking off the remnants of the travel, Peter and Karen marched forward, throwing the door open. As soon it opened, Rose had jumped down from her father's grasp and launched herself at the approaching tall woman in a tight hug.

"Grandma!" Rose squealed, being tickled in the sides to make her giggle. Selina chuckled and held Rose away from her, taking in her form fully.

"Look at you!" she shouted. "You grow bigger every time I see you! You should tell your father to bring you by more often, sweetie!" 

"Or, you can just come by our place," Peter suggested, approaching the pair, before gently giving a hug to his mother. "Our door's always open for family, mom."