From beginning to end, Batman hadn't uttered a single word to Kraven the Hunter. This arrogant and dismissive attitude caused Kraven—who was being hauled around by Spider-Man Benjamin Reilly—to grind his teeth so hard they squeaked.
At this moment, no other person or prey could arouse the slightest bit of interest in Kraven.
Even though Kraven the Hunter was currently being hoisted by the Spider-Man with zero dignity, he completely ignored the Spider-Man altogether, his eye sockets flashing entirely with a blazing fury directed squarely at Batman.
"Just you wait, Batman," Kraven muttered through gritted teeth.
"Wait for what?" Benjamin Reilly's attention wasn't on Kraven. He asked casually before pulling out his phone.
Kraven parted his lips just as he was about to speak, only to be instantly cut off by Benjamin.
"Navigate to Ravencroft Institute."
Spider-Man Benjamin Reilly spoke aloud, feeding the destination into his phone's GPS.
Kraven: "..."
Half an hour later.
The Ravencroft Institute in the northern suburbs of New York.
It remained as gloomy and terrifying as ever. Dim lighting illuminated the perimeter wall, casting a feeble sliver of clarity, yet it only served to render the claw-like tree branches towering higher than the lights around the wall even more bizarre and eerie.
The main gates weren't tightly shut; instead, they stood wide open. A female doctor stood waiting right there, flanked by eight heavily armed psychiatric guards.
When Spider-Man Benjamin Reilly thumped down right in front of this female doctor while dragging Kraven the Hunter, the female physician was startled for a moment, but surprisingly stabilized her emotions at lightning speed and inquired:
"You must be Spider-Man? I'm Tanis Nieves, one of the attending physicians here."
Spider-Man Benjamin Reilly blinked in astonishment:
"You know me?"
Every day in New York nowadays saw the emergence of powered individuals, and there were even a subset of super-powered heroes wearing costumes and acting as vigilantes in imitation of the Avengers.
Spider-Man Benjamin Reilly was thoroughly unremarkable among them, his name currently circulating only across a few blocks in Brooklyn.
"I'm sorry, I don't know you, but I do know a friend of yours," the female doctor Tanis Nieves smiled and said.
"Oh, you mean..." Benjamin Reilly was about to ask if she meant Batman, but his mind raced at top speed and he instantly clamped his mouth shut.
He was worried about whether Batman had used his real identity when he came here previously, and if he blurted out Batman's name, he'd end up exposing him.
——At the very least, the fact that this female doctor was waiting here for them meant it was definitely arranged by Batman.
Sure enough, Spider-Man Benjamin Reilly's instinctive vigilance wasn't entirely useless. Dr. Tanis Nieves nodded with a smile:
"That's right, Mr. Valentine... Though I imagine his real name should be Peter Parker, that young and exceptionally talented entrepreneur, right?"
Benjamin probed:
"Why would you think that?"
His inquiry was neither a confirmation nor a denial; no matter how the female physician responded, Benjamin could easily build upon it.
To his surprise, Dr. Tanis Nieves offered a shy smile:
"I couldn't possibly forget his face, especially with the Parker Group making so many massive moves these past few months, even starting construction on a satellite launch base this month... So I recognized him very easily from television."
Spider-Man Benjamin wasn't stupid; he could tell that this female doctor—who wore a high ponytail, black-rimmed glasses, and a lab coat—seemed to harbor some special feelings toward Batman.
He had once had a girlfriend of his own and wasn't a virgin innocent to the ways of romance, but with Batman involved here, Benjamin Reilly found himself momentarily at a loss for what to do.
Watching the Spider-Man's awkward stance with hands and feet not knowing where to rest, Tanis Nieves offered a good-natured laugh:
"Don't be nervous. I was just marveling that he finally remembered my phone number; I thought he'd tossed that slip of paper into the trash can ages ago."
What slip of paper? Spider-Man Benjamin Reilly wore a blank expression:
"Haha, of course not."
His outward words didn't match his inner thoughts at all.
"Hand this fellow over to me. I'm already aware of his situation," Dr. Tanis said, nodding her chin toward Kraven the Hunter.
Kraven hadn't passed out, but at this point he seemed to have resigned himself to his fate, remaining completely mute as he allowed the Spider-Man to hoist him and toss him to the guards.
"Oh, right—may I ask what your relationship with Peter Parker is?"
Seeing that the Spider-Man had turned to leave, Dr. Tanis hastily asked, reaching out to tuck back a lock of hair with an expectant expression.
"Us? Uh?" Benjamin Reilly once again had no idea what to say.
And it was only at this moment that it dawned on him: clearly, it was Batman who had dispatched him here, and it was also Batman who had arranged for this female doctor. What on earth did any of this have to do with Peter Parker?
Unless Peter Parker was Batman?
The mere thought that he might have inadvertently learned Batman's true identity—perhaps even as a result of an oversight on Batman's part—made Spider-Man Benjamin Reilly's breathing turn heavy.
"It's fine, it's fine. It's inconvenient for you superheroes to reveal your identities; I understand." Tanis Nieves took the Spider-Man's stammering as an attempt to cover up his own identity.
"Can you pass along a message for me? Just say... just say Tanis Nieves is inviting him to grab a cup of coffee in Queens tomorrow afternoon?" Tanis Nieves requested.
She pulled a slip of paper from her lab coat pocket, clearly prepared ahead of time.
"Ah? Sure..." Benjamin hurried to take it, fleeing in a panic before he could even muster a goodbye.
"Batman, you're just going to dump Kraven into a psychiatric hospital like that? Aren't you worried he'll resume his hunting after he gets out?"
Inside the Batcave, Gwen poked and touched everything in sight, her curiosity entirely unceasing, though the lion's share of her curiosity remained fixed squarely on Batman as she voiced her question.
"Kraven the Hunter's target from now on will only be me, and that is the thing I worry about least," Batman explained.
He had deliberately ignored Kraven the Hunter.
Even the fact that Spider-Man Benjamin Reilly taking Kraven to the psychiatric hospital tonight would result in him learning Batman's true identity through his conversation with Tanis Nieves was a scenario Batman had intentionally orchestrated.
"Oh..." Gwen nodded, looking with fascination upon the twelve colossal frost-element weapons left behind by the Frost Giants. "Can I touch this?"
"Gwen, given the cooperative relationship between myself and your father, Captain George, I don't want you getting dragged into the world of superheroes," Batman looked at Gwen and said. "But right now, I imagine even dissuading you wouldn't stop you."
"Naturally," Gwen replied while already reaching out to touch a frost weapon, instantly yanking her hand back with a startled yelp as the biting cold hit her.
"Therefore, I need to train you—at the very least, to ensure you possess sufficient self-preservation capabilities," Batman said.
Gwen appearing in Brooklyn tonight to track down Spider-Man Benjamin Reilly was purely to train her own abilities, a fact Batman had long since overheard through the wiretap on Robin.
Thus, the moment Batman put forward this request, Gwen nodded almost without a moment's hesitation:
"So when do we start?"
--
Support me & read more advance & fast update chapter on my pa-treon:
pat reon .c-om/windkaze
(Just remove the hyphen - and space, to access Pa-treon normally.)