Batman and Spider-Man

Chapter 6

Sirens blared in the distance. Street lamps were twisted inside out and gnarled, sparks dancing from their remains. Buildings were kneeled over, raining rubble down on the street. Cars were upturned and lopsided over the jagged remains of the road. Glass covered the sidewalk like snow. In the centre of the road was the Batmobile, or what remained of it. The armour plates were now nothing but scraps, smoke trailed from its engine and its weapons spilled out of it like intestines. The proud vehicle was nothing more than an animal corpse lying in the middle of the road.

Batman and Spider-Man were on top of the roof of one of the buildings that managed to survive the devastation.

Spider-Man put the pointy eared asshole down and let out a sigh of relief.

"So glad I managed to get to you in time," Spider-Man said. "You may be a violent dickhead but I'd prefer if Gotham's favourite vigilante wasn't a ball of flesh on the street."

"You let him get away," Batman said coolly, not even a show of thanks.

"Hello," Spider-Man said. "I saved your life."

"And caused the destruction of infrastructure and tons of injuries."

"And how the hell is it my fault instead of I don't know, the psychopathic dwarf."

Batman opened his palm, revealing a miniature circular device, no smaller than a coin with red and blue wires running through its blue shell.

"This is a Disruptor," Batman said. "The weapon Penguin was carrying was a Vibranium sound cannon. The disruptor would short circuit the weapon, causing it to not function."

Batman placed the Disruptor in his belt. "Or it would have if it wasn't for you."

Spider-Man tried coming up with a comeback but the words in his head were drowned out by his guilt. He looked over the edge of the building and a chill spread across his body. At the bottom he saw crowds of people leaving what remained of their homes, vacant expressions on their faces. Blood running down their faces, their eyes. Bruises on their head. People were crying, screaming. He heard somebody scream "I can't hear anything. I can't hear!" It was overwhelming.

"I..." Peter said, his voice shaking. His body numb. "I..."

"None of this would have happened if you hadn't interrupted me," Batman said.

He didn't know what came over him but Spider-Man let out an angry scream. Emotions boiled within him, guilt, sadness, despair. And anger, anger at the man dressed as a bat, anger at himself, anger at everything. He didn't know why but Spider-Man charged at the Batman, putting all his strength into his punch. He didn't care what happened to him, he just couldn't handle all the emotions that were swirling around his chest.

The Batman side-stepped, causing Spider-Man to come to an abrupt stop as he grabbed his arm.

"All this power, all this control."

Peter tried punching him with his other hand but Batman kicked him across the leg causing him to stumble.

"But you don't know how to hone it," Batman said. "You don't have discipline."

Peter placed his hands down, launching himself like a springboard but all Batman did was step back and Spider-Man crashed into the curbs reducing it to rubble.

"You rush into things," Batman said as Spider-Man launched a web at Batman's chest and tried to carry him over before realising that it was already sliced into half, noticing a Batarang stuck in the ground. "Like a child. Doing things without thinking."

Spider-Man charged toward him, attacking Batman with two wide sweeps that Batman dodged with ease. Ducking underneath him, Batman punched him straight in the chest knocking the air out of his body.