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Spiders Are Scary Too (Marvel/DC)
🕑 Added 2025-01-04 02:15:01 +0000 UTCBruce Wayne, Batman's alias, was a very, very rich man. He was a playboy who pretended to indulge himself in excess and luxury, lavish accommodations, expensive super cars, the best food prepared by the best chefs, and whenever he wanted something, he would get it.
But that was just a façade. After all, his true identity was that of Batman, a vigilante whose periods of rest made him restless. Being away from his city, from Gotham, always put him on edge, but to maintain the fiction of Bruce Wayne, he had to leave sometimes.
Batman cared little for New York, but Bruce Wayne was supposed to say that he loved it while he was there. A simple act that allowed him to build good will with people and kept up his billionaire playboy philanthropist persona.
But what was really annoying him was that, in order to not commit an extremely obvious mistake, he couldn't act as Batman while he was in New York.
Because if Batman happened to show up in Queens at the same time as Bruce Wayne just so happened to be having a very public tour of Wayne Enterprises' NY facilities, some people would put two and two together, and that was fatal.
So he had to act, instead, under his disguise.
Walking the streets of Queens, the Batman in disguise hunted for a specific kind of prey. Bats weren't well known for eating spiders, but many varieties of bat ate spiders if and when they could, and so the Batman found himself hunting a Spider for a change.
The most well known Criminal in New York and rapidly becoming the most well known in the country thanks to the tireless efforts of a certain news company, had attracted Batman's attention, and while he was in NY, might as well drop by and bag the spider as well.
At least, that had been the initial plan, until Bruce Wayne was apparently recognized by some idiot thugs who followed him.
Batman led them into an alley with the intention of beating the tar out of them and calling the police, but before he could even start the process, a red and blue blur descended from the rooftops swinging on a long rope made out of viscous looking silk, and with a very painful sounding thud, collided with one of the three thugs following Batman into the alley.
Before the other two could even respond, the red-suit menace extended out his hands, fingers curled inwards, and sprayed more of the silken ropes from his wrists, catching the other two thugs in silken wrappings.
Batman blinked.
He was the world's greatest detective, even if he wasn't keen on the title himself, being someone who was always on the lookout of further improvement and perfection... so it wasn't really that hard to get a general idea. The build, the not-quite-fully-developed musculature revealed by the skintight spandex, and most importantly the voice.
"Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman to the rescue!" he called out, as he kicked off of the thug he had trapped, and webbed him up against a wall. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to clear out before the police shows up and they think I'm one of them again," he said, striking a bow, "you'd think the bright red and blue spandex would be enough of a tell huh?"
Batman stepped forward. "It's because your face is covered. Humans are predisposed to fear and mistrust that which they can't recognize and your mask comes close to the uncanny valley."
"Really? I thought it was cool and mysterious," the boy under the mask said.
"The name's," Batman had to stop and remind himself, cracking a smile and offering a hand, that he wasn't Batman at that moment, "Bruce Wayne," he said, turning his hand to reveal his business card. "Call this number when you're somewhere safe and private."
Spiderman took the card, his brow furrowing so much it even showed through his mask.
It would take... days, before the boy in the spider suit would finally work up the courage to call.
A week after that, however...
"Peter, May, this is Alfred," Batman said, gesturing at his butler. "He will handle all matters for anything you require," he said.
"Greetings, Master Bruce, sir and madam," the butler said, standing ramrod straight and showing perfect dignity as he did. "Please rely on me for anything you may need."
"O-ok, this is all so new to me..." May said, as she followed Peter into the Wayne manor. "Is it really okay to bring us here just for Peter's Internship?"
"Please," Batman said, using his billionaire playboy smile, "this is just how much Peter's talent is worth," he spoke, "and many of the rooms in the manor are empty, surely they're better off being used than left alone. Feel at home..."
Peter's lips were set in a tight line.
Not much later, while Alfred was keeping May busy by familiarizing her with the manor...
Deep underground, Batman was showing Peter the limits of his Spider Sense.
While Peter could see any attack coming and react before it actually even launched, that didn't really matter, because his reactions were purely instinctive, and though he had extremely incredible athleticism, dexterity and agility, he was predictable. His instincts would always have the same reactions to the same movements, because he moved efficiently without even knowing.
"If your opponent can close off your avenues of escape, you should break through, rather than allow them to keep herding you," Batman called, as he weaved and ducked around Peter's attacks, because his automatic danger sense didn't help him attack, only defend. "There is a form of martial arts that eliminates conscious thought and allows your body to move purely on instinct. I will teach it to you as we fight."
"W-Whoa, this is insane, how are you this strong and fast!?" Peter called as he barely managed to dodge a hook to the chin that would've probably sent him reeling, rolling around Batman and then past him, trying to get away from the laser wall of the ring he was trapped in.
Batman was training Peter by slowly applying more of his weaknesses into combat, and what they were dealing with now was Peter's overreliance on his ability to stick to surfaces, by creating walls that would shock him if he touched them.
"Training and discipline," Batman responded. "Your potential is immense, you already possess the reflexes and agility to dodge gunshots with your spider sense active... you just need to apply it properly, and you can turn it into a tool for attacking as well! Let your limbs loose and stop thinking of anything but the fight! Center your world and only start expanding your awareness when you've mastered your immediate surroundings!"
"Does that even make sense!?"
"It does if you make it make sense!" Batman called, throwing himself into offense, a flurry of blows, kicks primarily but the odd punch as well, increasing the speed, intensity and herding Spiderman, he was able to get to the point where Batman stopped his fist an inch from Peter's nose, just over the mask. "Even if you can see the attack coming, it's no good if you're not in a position to dodge it."
Peter let out a deep breath.
"You really are terrifying you know?" Peter said, as Batman pulled his fist back. "I couldn't even get a word in edgewise, are you trying to keep it all to yourself?"
The ring deactivated and the two walked off of it, and to where bottles of fresh, cool water and towels were already helpfully laid out for them.
"Save the quips for when you're actually in danger," Batman stated. It was as healthy a coping mechanism as any other, fear didn't just disappear overnight, Peter had more than enough courage to make up for the inherent fear of danger that a healthy human being possessed. "You did well today," he said. "And speaking about doing well, have you made any progress on the project I asked you for?"
Peter pulled his mask off and accepted the towel Batman offered him, removing the sweat from his face, before taking a few gulps of water.
"I've made more than progress," he said, "it's incredible..." he said.
"Good. Make sure you use all the budget I've assigned," Batman stated, "and if you're on to something, anything," he said, pointing a gloved hand at Peter, "go overbudget as much as you need."
"It's hard, okay? I keep trying to cut corners and reduce costs, bad habits are hard to break! I never thought one day I'd be having trouble actually spending money!" Peter called with a laugh.
"Peter, the technology you developed to make your web shooters alone would've made you a millionaire as a contractor to the US military," Batman lectured him. "Even if you didn't have your powers, I would've brought you here just to make sure you could create these for me," the Dark Knight said, as he raised his right arm, showing off his special customized web shooter.
Naturally, Peter had given him black webs to shoot, and thanks to having effectively unlimited money and materials to work with as well as the means and resources of one of the world's wealthiest, most powerful men, he had advanced his web shooters even more.
The young man actually blushed a little at the praise he was receiving. After being made fun of for being a nerd for most of his life, suddenly having his life flipped, turned upside down was a shocker.
"So does this mean I can have my Spider Car?"
There was a moment's pause.
"Submit the project to Fox. Waynetech can handle all the mundane tech, but make sure to submit the special compound for the tires alongside it."
Peter nodded, and then took his final gulp of water, before turning to the weight machines.
Unsurprisingly, even the heaviest weights Batman lifted, which was by no means a small amount, were not particularly hard for Peter, but of course, Batman could obtain much heavier ones for him. Peter never thought he'd find his already superhuman strength growing, but even just a little bit of pushing himself was already showing results, in mere weeks.
"Oh man this is gonna be so awesome!"
Batman hummed as the young, amateur crimefighter moved on to the gym after what was only a warmup for him.
He couldn't help the slight upturn of his lips. He rarely smiled while the cowl was on, it would defeat the point of keeping his terrifying persona.
Peter was a strange sort of sidekick for him, in a way. His identity as a superhero was already established, but he needed a lot of aid in making it a superhero identity and not a villainous one, thanks to the actions of a man who would soon find himself having to moderate his extreme opinions lest the new owner of the Daily Bugle show him who's the real boss.
Soon enough they'd be going out to fight crime together. Batman would've been more careful, given him more training if he could, but Peter would grow best in action, rather than being kept in a cave to train.
Watching him work out, Batman began drafting plans. His own training with the new equipment Peter had made for him was well underway. Peter's webs might not be spidersilk, but they had all the properties of such silk and then some, as well as some that frankly he couldn't make heads or tails of, especially not how Peter had figured it out.
He tested the range of motion of his new suit. The fabric was impossibly flexible and sturdy, it could survive basically any sort of mundane weapon and many esoteric, exotic weapons, and kept him warm without overheating him. Incorporating the web shooters into his grappling hook had been the last step in improving his arsenal before he felt ready to go out again.
Really...
Of all of Peter's abilities, his immense strength, his combat precognition, his agility, dexterity, flexibility... the one that was the most terrifying was just how smart he was.
Correcting his low self esteem would take time, but... surely, that kid had a bright future. Odd for the Dark Knight to say, for sure, but...
Batman raised his arm and glanced at the web shooter system incorporated into his glove. He'd have to carefully balance taking down Criminals without harming them too much with putting the fear of the bat in them.
Well, he'd never shied away from a challenge and wouldn't be about to start.
"Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot," Batman thought out loud, "but that doesn't mean I should start a halloween themed superhero team," he muttered to himself, shaking his head as he headed to the training ground prepared for him to test out and train with his gadgets.
He was tormented by thoughts about finding an orphaned kid with potential and a skeleton or jack-o-lantern theme for quite some time after.
