On a deserted patch of grass in Manhattan's Central Park, a man and a woman were snuggled up together. The man wore headphones and held an acoustic guitar in his arms.
His guitar playing was quite good—or at least, the young girl leaning against his shoulder bore an infatuated expression, her eyes fixed on him without so much as a blink.
That was until a figure landed nimbly behind them and let out a deliberate, exaggerated cough:
"Ahem, ahem!"
The newcomer was Benjamin Reilly, clad in his suit. Created as a clone using Batman's cells and bearing the memories of Jack Monroe, he had now inherited the long-absent moniker of "Spider-Man."
He had just left the company of a chemistry professor named Mark Raxton, having spent several hours hunting for and tracing clues to the man before him until finally tracking him down here.
Right now, however, Benjamin Reilly felt he might have arrived at an awkward time.
Seeing the man and woman snuggled together like a sweet couple, he even had the brief impulse to avoid disturbing their private space.
That thought was quickly pushed to the back of his mind. Benjamin Reilly knew full well what he was here to do.
He took a few steps forward and reached out, lightly flicking the back of the man's head with his finger.
It wasn't until the man playing the guitar stopped, took off his headphones with an annoyed glare, and turned to look at Benjamin Reilly that Benjamin smiled and spoke up:
"Hey, Mr. Antoine Desloin. If you want to pursue a lady, you should use your genuine heart, not your power."
Antoine Desloin scowled, looking at this kid who had popped out of nowhere:
"Who are you? Why do you look kind of familiar?"
"Looking familiar means we're on the right track," Benjamin Reilly snapped his fingers. "Over the past few months, I had a few things to take care of and went abroad for a bit, but I've cleared all that up now."
This was the explanation Batman had instructed him to use—a cover story to confuse anyone who might still be keeping tabs on the identity of "Spider-Man."
"You're Spider-Man?" Prompted by Benjamin's hint, Antoine Desloin finally remembered.
Benjamin Reilly gave him a thumb's up and nodded.
Without a word, Antoine Desloin raised his guitar and began strumming furiously at Benjamin Reilly. His fingers flew across the strings in a frantic, rhythm-less onslaught of sound.
Yet despite Antoine Desloin's frantic strumming, Benjamin Reilly remained standing right where he was, completely unaffected—he didn't show a trace of the infatuated daze the girl had succumbed to.
"Huh? Why aren't you affected?" Antoine stared at Benjamin Reilly in astonishment.
Benjamin Reilly pointed to his own ears:
"I'm wearing earplugs. I can only hear you talk if I focus really hard, but the second your hands got near that guitar, I stopped paying attention."
"I don't care how focused you are!" Antoine yelled in frustration.
He stood up, slinging the guitar across his body.
With one hand, he kept violently strumming the guitar, while his other hand reached into his jacket and pulled out a handgun, pointing it straight at Benjamin Reilly.
Bang!
He pulled the trigger without a second thought, but in that very instant, Benjamin Reilly vanished from his line of sight.
"That young lady might be enchanted by you, but I won't be, 'Hypno-Hustler' Antoine," Benjamin Reilly's voice sounded right beside Antoine's ear.
Before Antoine could register what was happening, a single punch from Benjamin knocked him unconscious.
Looking at the young girl who was still staring off into space, Benjamin glanced around, scooped her up, and swung away. Arriving at the edge of Central Park's lake, he gently splashed a palmful of cool water onto her forehead.
Before long, the young girl snapped back to her senses. Seeing Spider-Man standing beside her, her knee-jerk reaction was to scream:
"AAAH!"
"Shh!" Benjamin was actually startled by her scream. "I'm here to save you. Didn't you notice something was off?"
"The only thing off around here seems to be you!... Also, where is this? Wasn't I just at a bar?" The girl backed away several paces before she dared to speak.
"This is Central Park. A guy going by Hypno-Hustler tricked you into coming here," Benjamin Reilly explained. "He uses his guitar strumming to hypnotize people."
"How do you know?" The girl still refused to let down her guard.
"Because I've been tracking down clues about him lately, you know," Benjamin said with a smile. "He's already used this method to scam money out of quite a few people."
"But I don't have any money on me?" the girl retorted.
Benjamin Reilly threw his hands up in a shrug. "Yeah, you don't have any money."
Only then did the girl finally realize what he was implying. She instinctively checked her clothes, and after confirming they were intact and that she felt fine, she let out a breath of relief:
"Still, that's just your side of the story..."
Benjamin Reilly chuckled heartily without offering any further explanation. Instead, he turned around, fired a strand of webbing, and launched himself into the air.
"My name is Janice Lincoln!" Seeing Spider-Man rapidly disappearing into the distance, the girl hurriedly shouted after him.
From far away, Janice thought she saw Spider-Man wave his hand from mid-air. After checking herself over once more, she hastily departed.
Benjamin Reilly wouldn't have minded chatting a bit longer with Janice, but he hadn't forgotten that Hypno-Hustler Antoine was still lying out on the grass.
Spitting out strand after strand of white webbing, he wrapped the guy up like a cocoon. Hoisting him up, Benjamin headed straight for the Manhattan Police Department and dumped him at the front entrance.
Left alongside him was a stack of evidence documenting the money Antoine Desloin had swindled from others using hypnosis.
Having completed all of this, Benjamin Reilly finally swung off toward Imperial State University.
As he drew close, he found a quiet corner to strip off his suit, pack it into his backpack, and change into his street clothes. He then began sneaking back toward the student dorms.
Before he could take more than two steps, Benjamin Reilly froze mid-motion, turning his gaze toward a shadow in the corner.
Batman had appeared there at some point, so silently that Benjamin hadn't even noticed him until now.
"Batman?" Seeing that it was Batman, a broad smile immediately spread across Benjamin Reilly's face—a smile so contagious that even Batman's stoic expression gave way to a tiny curl at the corner of his mouth.
"If living on campus is inconvenient, I can buy an apartment for you nearby," Batman said, casting a glance at the backpack in Benjamin's hand.
When he had first enrolled him in Imperial State University, Benjamin Reilly had insisted on living on campus. Batman had thought it would be somewhat inconvenient, but he had chosen to respect his decision nonetheless.
Now that the topic was raised again, Benjamin Reilly still shook his head repeatedly:
"No, I appreciate the thought, but I prefer it like this."
"Why?"
"It makes me feel a little less lonely," Benjamin Reilly said.
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