Starting Life From Zero: Far From Home

Chapter One

The world changed in the blink of an eye.

The redden skies of Titan vanished, replaced by blurry silhouettes moving through an ocean of brilliant white light. His senses were on overload, the smell of the world changed, the direction of the wind, the moving shadowy shapes became people and soon he could see the rows of shops.

One second he was with Tony Stark, pleading for his life as the buzz of his spider-tingle thundered in his head and the next he was here: in the middle of this crowded marketplace.

Peter Parker had tumbled to the cobblestone front of one of the merchant stalls, this one was draped in teal-blue clothes for shade. His mask was off, he realized and on instinct he thought it would be better to be wearing anything but this suit with all of these people around him.

The suit's AI shifted him back into his school clothes, a grim reminder of how normal this day had started. As he took in more of his surroundings, his eyes were still adjusting to the bright light, he saw that it wasn't just humans on this strange street: mixed in with the them were people with the heads of various animas and those who looked otherwise human but had tails or had pink or green or purple hair.

Peter sprung to his feet and glanced around. He spied a carriage drawn, not by horses, but by a giant bipedal lizard. Off in the distance there was a mountain or hill that seemed to be where the city continued off toward.

"Hey kid," a gruff voice from behind Peter caused him to spin around. He came face to face with a green haired man with a beard that ran like a strap under his chin. "Are you going to buy anything or what?"

Peter gazed down at the table in front of the man. It had one of those bazaar style tent-like structures pitched over it. The kind that he had seen in old animated movies like Aladdin or dove through in his attempts to escape the Templars in Assassin's Creed.

The shopkeeper waved his hand diagonally in the air as if to call Peter back to reality. "Are you deaf or just dumb? You can't stand in front of my store lallygagging if you're not going to buy anything." He was chewing on a thin strand of straw so he had to keep his teeth clenched to avoid losing it, but that also helped to make his expression and tone all the more threatening.

Peter's tingle hadn't fully quit ringing sense he got here. The memories of what he had been doing just before this flashed in his head: I had been fighting Thanos with Doctor Strange and Mister Stark and those weird...space pirates and then I was here.

"I don't have any money," Peter said.

"Now you're broke too! Go on! Scram!" as the shopkeeper shoed him away there was a flare in his tingle that made Peter scramble back into the crowds. He spun, just in time to avoid being run down by one of the massive lizards. Its yellow eyes looked him over as he passed.

Peter made a break for the opposite side of the street, brushing past other pedestrians in a bid to get into the nearest alley.

"Excuse me. Sorry. No, you first. Okay."

If he could get out of the view of other people and to somewhere tall enough Peter could find his way up to some place where he might get a better look at exactly where this was. Though he didn't know how it mattered, this definitely wasn't anywhere on Earth. Had they lost? If so, why did he end up here and where were the others?

Once he was in the shadowy space between two buildings he realized how hot the sun here was. The air was dry and no breeze reached him except for when someone or one of those vehicles passed too close.

Peter put his hands on his head, raking them up through his messy brown hair. "Come on Peter, think. Where are you? What did that purple guy say he was going to do when he left?"