In The Web Of Gotham

Control The Darkness

Once again, Spider-Man was trapped in the darkness of the cave. The Batman hiding in the shadows, trying to heighten the detective skill of the wall crawling hero. Avoiding multiple Batarangs that came from the darkness, from hearing them flying directly at him from multiple angles.

"You've gotten more adept at dodging with your eyes and ears alone. Now try to find me before I hit you," Batman's voice called through the Batcave. The sound of two more Batarangs bring thrown was heard. One coming from the left, one looping around from behind and coming from the front. Spider-Man also detected that one of the Batarangs was...beeping?

Yeah, beeping like a bomb's timer. Potentially an explosive device, avoid that! Spider-Man thought to himself as he leapt up with a backflip, the Batarangs flying past. He could see one with a red blinking light that flew off into the darkness and illumated the shadows with a small explosion. As he landed onto his feet, Spider-Man kept himself prepared. A new plan formulating in the young detective's mind. That Batarang detonated on impact after flying at a high speed, so what if...

Spider-Man had to steady himself. Focusing to the point where time seemingly slowed down as he kept am ear out for the beeping of the bomb Batarang. An electric Batarang was coming, with a normal Batarang ahead of it. The beeping returned, coming from the left. It's a ways away, but it'll come shortly after the first two.

This needs to be done within a certain window of time to make this work.  Spider-Man thought to himself as he whipped around, catching the normal Batarangs immediately. Then leading his hand along the trajectory of the electric Batarang, catching the electric Batarang and looping it around the normal Batarang. Whipping his arm around and throwing both back towards Batman. The normal Batarang hit first, making the skittering sound and flash of orange light and sparks. The electric Batarang came after, the blue light from the arcing electricity giving a bit more light. Once more, there was only a passing glance of the Bat's cape. This time, he was ascending as noted by the sound of the grapnel gun and the flapping of the cape. He's gone to another point in the cave, and following the sound of the grapnel recoiling clued Spider-Man in to where Batman was. Testing his theory, Spider-Man spun around and grabbed the edge of the explosive Batarang. Having his arm follow the momentum to slow it to a gradual stop...the beeping persisted...no explosion.

"It worked!" Spider-Man cheered briefly as he wound back, throwing the Batarang towards where he heard the grapnel detach and the cape flourish to the other wall. The beeping echoing in the darkness before the flash of the explosion briefly illuminates the wall. The outline of the Batman prominent and clear before the light fades.

"Found you," Spider-Man said as the lights in the cave turned on. Batman suddenly being behind Spider-Man.

"Clever. Using the constant light from the electric Batarang to bait me to move. Then using the Explosive Batarang to expose my location," Batman congratulated. Spider-Man jumped from how fast Batman moved in between the explosion fading and the lights turning on.

"Well...how many times did I need to do this exercise before I figured it out?" Spider-Man asked, catching his breath.

"20 attempts. This was the 21st and your first success," Batman replied.

"Alright...now that the first exercise is over. What's next?" Spider-Man asked.

"Now I need to do the same for you. You hide in the dark. To build your stealth capabilities, you'll need to keep me in the dark about your whereabouts for 5 minutes," Batman instructed.

"Oh that's even more impossible. World's Greatest Detective!" Spider-Man said.

"It may seem impossible, but that's what this training is about. Control the impossible to make it reality," Batman said as the lights turned out again. Spider-Man backed up and crawled along the walls, using the belt to invert his suit's colors to try and better obscure himself in the dark. The clock began ticking, and he needs to hide from the world's greatest detective. Safe to say...he was consistently getting found out.

100 attempts. It took about 100 attempts to finally last...2 minutes of hiding from Batman. The World's Greatest Detective is not making this easy for Spider-Man. Although, he finally believes he has a strategy to get one over on the Batman. He didn't have time to fully plot out his course though, as he heard the sound of Batman throwing a Batarang. He heard the projectile curving through the air, before heading to where Spider-Man was. Pressing himself against the ceiling, he reached out and silently caught the batarang with his fingertips. 1 minute down, 4 to go.

Throwing the batarang, he heard it flying somewhere else into the dark cave. The metallic clattering echoing across the cave gave Spider-Man auditory cover to crawl across the ceiling and stand upright over Batman's head. From the utility belt, Spider-Man grabbed and primed 4 smoke bombs. 2 in each hand as he threw 1 behind and 1 to the left of Batman, and 1 to the front and 1 to the right of Batman. 2 minutes down...3 to go.

The smoke bombs clattered on impact, then made the loud hissing sound as they all unleashed the thick payloads of smoke stored inside of them. Once more using the sound as a cover, Spider-Man webbed a loose rock that he spotted to his hand. Then making two web lines simultaneously, one attached directly above him and one to the far other side of the Batcave. He stuck the rock to the other web line, clasping his feet around the directly above web line and letting himself descend. Letting the rock go to swing to the other side of the Batcave, while Spider-Man silently landed and stood directly behind Batman. Mirroring his movements to stay behind him and quiet, as Batman tried to discern the location from sound now since sight was even more limited due to the smoke. When the rock from earlier slammed against the cave, Batman's attention was shifted as he grapneled away. 3 minutes down...2 more to go.

Come on...let that stupid rock stall you for another two minutes. Spider-Man thought to himself as he waited for the clock to run itself out.

Batman was investigating the sound from the rock, not knowing that it is simply a diversion.

The smoke screens as a diversion was clever, thinking he'd try to drop onto me to hide his retreat to another vantage point further into the cave. He had 1 minute left but this trial is over. Batman thought to himself as he threw an electric Batarang at where he thought he heard Spider-Man land. The batarang hit, the electricity surging into a rock and the blue light from the electricity revealing the ruse.

"What?" Batman said in mild surprise as the lights kicked back on. Time was up, and Spider-Man was standing where Batman was before.

"It took. Every ounce of my planning. To figure that strategy out," Spider-Man said with exhaustion in his voice.

"The smoke screens weren't a diversion at all. They were a cover, distractions to set up the rock," Batman realized.

"The batarang from earlier was also meant to drown out my crawling to right above you," Spider-Man added to Batman's assessment.

"Utilizing your environment and your enemy's tools to your advantage. Good start. That'll be it for now in terms of the training. I need to formulate some of the more advanced training methods for you. Head home. Your sister is probably worried sick about you," Batman instructed.

"I can keep the suit?" Spider-Man asked. Batman nodded.

"You made the suit. It suits you rather well, and you can keep the belt," Batman added. Spider-Man leapt up and swung towards an aerial exit point in the cave, leaving the cave to swing home. Alfred came down shortly after Spider-Man left, with a tray of tea.

"You intend to call in favors, don't you Master Bruce?" Alfred asked. Batman removed the cowl to reveal Bruce Wayne underneath.

"Not favors...favor. I'll be on the phone with Khan," Bruce said as he back to Wayne Manor through an elevator.