ʀᴇᴄʟᴜsᴇ! homesick

CH 1: Safe

I've messed up.

No, this is not like all the other times something has gone wrong or I've messed up. This one is worse.

When a normal person messes up at something, it's fixable, it's on a relatively small scale.

My life, is anything but normal.

I mean, for me, it's always worse.

For example, there's a quote that sums up my life at the moment. It's the one my mom used to say, until my dad explained to me that the quote was actually from his Uncle Ben. My Great Uncle.

"With great power, comes great responsibility."

Uncle Ben was a wise man. I wish I had gotten to meet him. And Aunt May. But his words carry on years later, and I find them more relatable than in the years when he had first spoke them.

But I would like to tag along another quote to the repertoire, "The greater the power, the greater the mistakes."

Because there is no other explanation to my unexplainable situations, where I am the black cat of Spiders. Why I was here, in an unrecognizable, desolate city, with a child pointing a sword at my neck.

Katana, actually.

I knew I had messed up, that I wasn't fast enough, scratch that, good enough to keep Spider-Man and myself safe. But I was expendable, he was not. However, I still doubted that I had messed up this badly, to end up a world where this somehow made sense.

"You heard me, harlot! Who are you and what are you doing here?" The young vigilante gritted at me.

I don't know how I got in this situation, actually that's a complete lie. I know every step and decision as to how I got here.

I should have seen it coming.

At least everyone was safe back home.

Life would go on without me.

But with at a katana at my neck, I'm not so sure I should have left. Was it all worth it?

It was.

I wouldn't trade the world for it.

I'm Viviana Taylor Parker, better known as the one and only Recluse, and I am utterly screwed.

Not is the universe out to get me, but the entire multiverse.

Back to the moment, I slightly pushed myself forward, the sword cutting my neck. I put my hands on my hips, and in an accusatory tone, I quarreled back, "Where exactly, is Gotham City? And excuse me, traffic light! Have you seen what you're wearing? How did your mom let you go out of the house looking like that?" I heard laughing in his ear, someone on the other side.

"Tt." He ignores my first question only to answer the second. "Like I haven't heard that one before." He pressed his sword a little harder, and blood started tickling down my throat. I didn't flinch, the pain was nothing compared to what I had put my body through the last few days. Y'know, the usual.

Out of the corner of my eye, a grappling hook attached to the side of the building.

Backup.

A person followed it, landing behind the gloried traffic light, with a soaring, graceful flip. He didn't look much older than me, maybe early twenties. He had black hair, like the child in front of me, but happiness and determination twinkled in his blue eyes. He wore a black super suit, with a blue bird printed across the front. It strangely resembled the bat symbol of the smaller child, but different enough to be unique. I started to back up slowly, knowing I could handle a child in combat, but not a seasoned hero on top of it.