Peter stands on a roof top, looking over a now safe New York City, feeling suspicious of the Court of Owls suicide.
"Is everything alright, sir?" Ben asks through his earpiece.
Peter stays silent for a moment.
"It doesn't make sense, Ben. Members of the Court, taking their own lives, just like that." Peter says.
"I rather think it does, sir. You've taken the city back from them." Ben points out.
"Then there's the money. The money siphoned from the dead members accounts in just the last few weeks... it feels like a set up." Peter replies.
"You saw them firsthand, Master Peter. The Court members are quite dead."
"Something just doesn't fit about this. There's something behind it. I can feel it. Someone close. Close all along."
"If I may speak freely, sir. Perhaps the thing that doesn't fit about this ending is that it is an ending."
Peter considers that Ben could be right for a moment, but he continues to think about the situation. After putting together all the facts he has, Peter makes a realization.
"Ben, the nights not over yet. I have to go after him." Peter says, jumping off the roof and swinging away.
"After who, sir?"
"The one behind him. The one I forgot." Peter says.
Moments later, Peter sneaks into the morgue and opens one of the drawers, seeing a note instead of a body. He picks it up and starts to read.
"Follow me down the rabbit hole?" The note says.
Peter crumbles the paper in his hand and starts to walk away.
"I'm right behind you." Peter says.
Later, Peter walks through The Willowwood Home for Children, a dark and abandoned hospital for children suffering from mental illness. He then stares down the dark end of the hall.
"I'm here." Peter says.
At that moment, Peter's spider sense goes off and he dodges a knife thrown at his head. After that, someone starts to step out of the shadows.
"So tell me, Spider-Bat... who? Who am I?" a voice asks.
Peter glares at the mysterious figure.
"I don't know. But you're not Lincoln Smythe. Because Lincoln Smythe doesn't exist. He's a paper man, set up by the Court of Owls." Peter says.
Lincoln steps out of the shadows with yellow eyes, pale white skin, and an evil grin.
"Good. So if I'm not Lincoln Smythe... then who am I?"
"You were a member of the Court of Owls, but you betrayed them just as everything was crumbling down. You invited the members of the Court to an emergency council, and you poisoned them. You made it look like they killed themselves. Meanwhile, you included your name on the list of targets, you had one of the Talons come after you and you faked your own death."
YOU ARE READING
THE AMAZING SPIDER-BAT
ActionAfter being bit by a radioactive Spider and the death of his parents, a young man goes around the world to train his mind, body, and spirit to become the hero his city needs.
