The replacement shift was arriving, and the day shift workers began to line up near the automated time clock so they could swipe their cards on the card reader and go home. A few bragged about the good time they were going to have this summery weekend.

All of a sudden, a hissing noise filled the air. The workers turned to see a hole burn through the metal wall.

Some backed away, while others froze in fear as a hand reached through the burning hole. The hand rotated around the hole until it was big enough for someone to walk through. Through the hole emerged a ghastly figure, wearing flames that lapped over a flame-retardant suit.

The figure had just a skull for a face, with hair of acid flame. He cackled insanely as his henchmen followed him into the plant.

The brave manager of the Water Treatment Plant stepped forward.

"I don't know what you're trying to pull here, pal, but this is just a water treatment plant. We don't have any money here or anything."

Silently, the fiery-skulled man motioned to a henchman, who raised his gun and shot the manager dead. The rest of the henchmen then raised their guns and began shooting at the fleeing workers. However, one of the workers escaped the attackers' notice and ran to the break area to call the police.

The fiery man shouted to his troops. "Find the main reservoir tank! Hurry, there's not much time to spare!"

The henchmen grabbed a worker and forced him to show them the main reservoir area. The fiery man followed them. They surprised a group of workers in the Main Reservoir Area, but the workers were soon gunned down.

The flame-skulled leader stopped before a water reservoir that fed the water supply of Gotham.

"I was robbed of my ability to drink water when I became Dr. Phosphorous. Now I rob Gotham of its water!"

He stuck his chemically burning hand into the water supply, and at the same moment a number of his henchmen dumped small canisters full of carcinogenic chemicals into the water.

The wounded workers who were left alive watched in horror.

"Do you know what the problem is, officer?"

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you, sir."

"Try me! I have plans back in Brooklyn and I wanna get home."

"You'd better make other plans, buddy. The middle of the bridge has disappeared! From what I've heard, the same thing has happened to all the other bridges in the city!"

And for all practical purposes, it had. Cars were lined up on both the Manhattan and Brooklyn sides of the Manhattan bridge, stopped dead by the lack of bridge on which to continue driving. There was just empty space, inexplicable as it was.

Devin Floyd sat back in his car seat. It would be a long while before he would be able to get home. In a tower on the bridge, a mysterious helmeted figure gloated with glee at the confused commuters, then talked into a handheld communicator to report in his success.

"Success, Doctor Octopus. No one can leave Manhattan by this bridge, or by the others. My projected illusions have been successful."

"Excellent, Mysterio," a voice responded.

One guard sat at a desk in the hallway leading to the Information Services department, arguing with the Systems Administrator about how well the Yankees played during the previous night's game. There was a slight scratching noise, and both looked up to see a ceiling panel get moved aside.

The security guard did not have time to pull his gun before a catlike man jumped down on him from the ceiling panel opening. One scratch from the catlike man's claws shredded his face, and one well-placed blow to the nerve endings near the neck put the guard out of commission.

The Systems Administrator quivered as three thugs in strange cat masks and black leather jackets and pants jumped out of the hole in the ceiling.

"Please don't kill me! What do you want here?"

The catlike figure smiled. "My friend, we want you! We want you to help us do something."

They marched the Systems Administrator down the hallway, through a secure doorway, and into the main server room.

One of the catlike man's eyebrows arched. "Lots of transactions must go through here..lots of money back and forth..."

"Y-yes...sometimes thousands, sometimes more...Who are you?"

"They call me Catman. Right now, all I am is your boss, and you're going to do what I tell you to or I'll gut you with these claws."

"Sure. What do you want me to do?"

"That terminal over there...what's it doing?"

"That's a transaction server. It's doing a transfer of funds from this location to the community banks in the area. It does this every night...."

"Stop the transaction."

"But that would..."

"Do it."

The System Administrator stopped the nightly transaction. The records of the dependent community banks would be fouled up by the error, and people's accounts would show the wrong amount of money available. Catman had done some real damage, and with control of the Banking Department's computers, he could do even more.

Catman picked up a small communicator he had in his utility belt. "Success, Doctor Octopus. We now have control over a great deal of the money in New York City."

The room started to smell a little like chemicals. She paid this no notice, since sometimes trucks would back up to where the air intake valve was and fill their office with exhaust. But then, she stopped hearing the voice of Daniel, the operator in the cubicle next to hers. Nobody ever stopped answering the phone in the call center.

She got up from her seat and looked over the cubicle partition. Daniel was just sitting there while his phone rang, with a big smile on his face.

"What's so funny, Daniel? You gonna answer your phone, or do you need an invitation?"

There was no response. Sheree walked over to Daniel and turned his chair around forcibly. Then she screamed.

Daniel's face was fixed in a permanent smile. Sheree then smelled the fumes more strongly, and took a quick look around. The phones in the Emergency 911 Call Center were ringing, but no one was answering them. They were all dead, their faces fixed in a permanent smile. The gas soon overcame her, and she fell to the floor with a permanent smile on her face.

A lanky figure entered, wearing a green gas mask, followed by five goons dressed like mimes, each with either a black or white gas mask.

"What a lovely view!" the Joker said. "If I could only do away with that annoying ringing sound! It's driving me batty."

One of his mime-like goons, Marcel, quietly slipped off to the telecommunications room and shut the phone system down. The ringing of phones stopped.

"That's better," the Joker said, knocking a dead call-center employee out of their chair and sitting down languidly. "It seems, boys, that we have control of the emergency services in this town." He held a communicator that looked like a squirting flower up to his mouth.

"Octopus, this is the Clown Prince of Crime speaking," Joker stated. "We have success."

"Well, hero, looks like your city's coming under my control. Care to switch sides and join me? It's the only practical choice."

"You're a lunatic, Octavius!"

"That's too bad, Spider-Man. With your obvious scientific knowledge, you would make a good..lackey for me. I'll just have to kill you, then...but not right now. I have a call to make...to the Mayor of New York City!"

Spider-Man struggled anew against his bonds. There had to be some way to get out of here, to save the city. He just had to figure it out.

The mayor pulled his chair up to the conference table and gave everyone a hard stare. "Tell me, boys, how can all of these things go wrong in the city in the space of hours? Have we been caught napping?"

The transportation secretary cleared his throat. "Mr. Mayor, we have detailed emergency plans to deal with a bridge outage like the one that happened today...although I must admit I've never seen a bridge disappear before!"

The phone rang, and the Mayor's personal assistant picked it up. She was happy to get a break from taking notes on the heated meeting.

"Who is this?" the personal assistant demanded loudly. "Well, okay, I'll let you talk to the mayor."

"Who is it, Samantha?" the Mayor asked.

"Someone called Doctor Octopus. I would have hung up on him, but he claims to know who's responsible for today's disasters."

"Probably some nut...Hello?" the Mayor said, pressing the cell phone to his ear. "You..you what?"

"What is it, Mr. Mayor?" the chief of sanitation asked.

"This guy on the phone claims responsibility for the disasters today. He says if we don't give him 36 million dollars by midnight, and control of the city's six boroughs, he'll take down the entire power grid to the city."

"How do I know this is for real?" the mayor asked into the phone.

At that instant, the power to Gracie House went out, and the Mayor and his advisors were left sitting in the dark. The only light in the conference room was the power LED on the Mayor's cell phone.

"Okay, we believe you," the Mayor said, his voice trembling. "Now let's talk terms."

The city was in dire straits, with no emergency services, a threat of poisoned water, no way for anyone to get out of the city by car, and God knew what else wrong. Riots were going to be breaking out soon if the situation wasn't somehow abated. He had already deployed the Super-Unit Police to deal with the incipient panic in the streets.

Gordon's hand moved slowly to his desk drawer, and opened it. Inside was a palm-sized object he had received in the mail two years ago. He had never needed to use it before; now, it was his only hope. It was shaped like a bat, and the letter that had come with it said that whenever Gordon truly needed help, he could push the signal button on this bat and help would come to him. He needed that help now.

He pressed the Bat-Signal for the first time ever.

Bruce showed Alfred the envelope that contained the letter. "Why do you think someone would want me to go to this nursing home, Alfred?"

"I don't know, sir. As you may well know, none of the Wayne family resides in a nursing home, not even your oldest aunts and uncles!"

Bruce Wayne analyzed the letter with his keen detective's eyes. "It's written in a scrawly hand, by someone who has...some kind of arthritis or something..but the handwriting looks like it's written by someone with a sense of urgency. The letter asks me to please come visit before it's too late, to ask for Agatha Haggschwarz." Bruce looked at Alfred quizzically. "I don't know anyone by that name."

Alfred stiffened. "Well, perhaps it's her last wish that she meet the esteemed Bruce Wayne. Surely you could find some time to visit her, and grant an old woman..."

Suddenly, the Bat-Signal went off. Alfred was so shocked by the sudden noise he almost dropped his tray. Years of butlering prevented any mishap, however.

"Oh, dear! What is that?"

"It's Commissioner Gordon! I knew that he'd be calling me sooner or later tonight! I've got to get to the Batmobile!"

In a matter of moments, Bruce Wayne had changed into Batman, and the Batmobile roared out of the Batcave toward New York City.

He jumped out of the Batmobile. Commissioner Gordon would have to wait.

"Armor," he said into a hidden microphone in his gauntlet, and a force field appeared around his vehicle.

Batman parted his way through the screaming crowd and ran down the subway steps into the station. Halfway down the steps, he heard an unearthly roar come from down below. He pulled a folded Batarang from his utility belt, and pressed the button that expanded it to its full size. Batman continued down, a little slower than before.

As he reached the subway platform level, Batman saw who had made the frightening roar. A nine-foot-tall dinosaur that had the features of six different dinosaurs was destroying a subway train. His jaws snapped at the people who were trapped in the car he held in strong dinosaur arms. Batman was amazed when he heard this creature speak.

"I am Stegron, lord of the dinosaurs! I am here to destroy your useless technologies!" Stegron grabbed a portly businessman with a clawed hand, and threw him to his two attendant velociraptors, who cut the poor man to shreds right before Batman's eyes.

Batman quickly noticed that behind the attacked train, there were other subway trains lined up down the tunnel, waiting for the chaos to subside. Down the tunnel, Batman could see people abandoning the trains in a hurry. This was the train going out of Manhattan to the city's environs--effectively, a good portion of those who worked in Manhattan were now trapped in the subway tunnel.

Batman knew that throwing the Batarang would do no damage to the naturally armored Stegron, but he threw it to distract the creature.

"Hey, you big monstrosity!" Batman called out. "I didn't think dinosaurs came as ugly as you!"

"Quiet, costumed fool!" Stegron responded, still grabbing at the frightened subway riders. "Velociraptors, tear him apart!"

The two velociraptors seemed thrilled at the prospect of a hunt. They licked their lips of the blood from the businessman and silently stalked Batman. Batman wondered how he would get out of this one, but readied for the dinosaurs' attack.

'I know that if I cut the power source, then I'll be free. But how do I find the power source?' Spider-Man thought.

Suddenly, he thought about his suit. 'Of course!' he thought. 'I can make the nano-machines into a mirrorlike substance and reflect the energy!'

Spidey immediately began to concentrate on this task.

Batman stood, facing Stegron, the Dinosaur Man. A velociraptor stood on each side of him, licking their lips in anticipation of their next meal. They began coming closer, slowly stalking the detective hero. The tunnel was surprisingly quiet, considering the number of commuters trapped.

Batman listened. He thought he heard something. He looked back, at the tracks and smiled. The train which was attacked by dinosaurs had been moved far down the track, thanks to the enormous strength of its attackers.

Suddenly, the velociraptors lunged at Batman. However, Batman had already leaped back, landing on the opposite platform. He quickly grabbed a Batarang and threw it at the dinosaurs, which felt to the tracks, right on the electric rail.

"You!" Stegron yelled. "You killed my pets!!!!" He began running toward the tracks. At the same moment, a subway train came rushing through. Once it had passed, Stegron could not see Batman.

"Dinosaurs! Stegron commands you to attack him! Attack Batman!" he ordered the other dinos who had dismantled the other subway.

Meanwhile, Batman had ran up the subway exit as the train passed him.

"Batmobile, auto-pilot," he said into his gauntlet. The Batmobile's armor slid back, and the car guided itself to the homing signal in Batman's gauntlet.

He jumped in, and the hatch shut, just as the dinosaurs jumped on.

"I don't have time for this," Batman muttered. "Nitrous feed." He pushed a button on the control panel and the Batmobile soared off, knocking its ambushers off.

"Mr. Mayor," one of the advisors asked. "How are we going to get 36 million dollars? These so-called Sinister Six took control of the banks. We cannot get that money."

"I know," the mayor replied. "We have to use that to our advantage." He turned to another advisor. "Have you contacted Gordon?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. However, he is too busy to come here at the moment."

"Of course. But, does he have any ideas?"

"He said he was working on it. Something about an ace up his sleeve."

"Ace up his sleeve?"

Or so he thought. A red light blinked. Doc Ock tapped his headset.

"Report."

"Doc?" Stegron said on the other end.

"Ahhh. Stegron, have you taken the subway?"

"Well, we took out one train, but Batman got in the way."

"Batman? This is not good. Now our plans are ruined!"

"Not to worry. I sent my dinosaurs . . . on . . . him . . . "

"Stegron? What is wrong?"

"They just came back."

Doc Ock sighed. "Well, take over the sub system. I'll worry about Batman."

He ended the connection and sighed.

Suddenly, one of the monitors in front of him was smashed to bits. Webbing lay on the jagged edges.

"Okay, Octopus, what's the plan?" Spider-Man asked.

Doctor Octopus spun around and saw the wall crawler behind him, stepping off of the platform. "Spider-Man!" he exclaimed. "How did you get out of your bonds?"

"That's none of your business," Spidey said, walking over to the leader of the Sinister Six. He grabbed Ock's shirt and lifted him in the air. "Now, tell me what your little sinister plan is!"

Octavius smiled. "Why, certainly." Suddenly, his tentacles began moving and lifted Spider-Man into the air. He also pushed a button on his wrist. "Sinister Six, this is Doctor Octopus. We have an intruder."

"Who is it?" one of the six responded, a voice which Spider-Man recognized.

"An old friend of yours, Joker. Spider-Man."

"You're in cahoots with Joker!" Spidey exclaimed. "Are you crazy?"

"No, but you most certainly must be." With that, Doctor Octopus began to squeeze on Spider-Man, attempting to break his rib cage. But Spidey wasn't going to let that happen. He fired webbing into Octopus's eyes.

Doc Ock dropped him and stepped back, grabbing the webbing on his eyes. "My eyes!" he shouted.

Spidey took that as his cue to leave, and he ran as fast as he could for the exit. He had to get back to the city.

"Where can he be?" he said. "Maybe everyone is right. Maybe the Batman is nothing but a myth."

"Commissioner."

Gordon turned around, startled. "Wha--?"

The commissioner's jaw dropped. Standing in front of him was Batman. "Y-you came," Gordon said.

"Sorry I took so long. Had a little problem in the subway."

"Part of the Sinister Six?"

"Is that what they call themselves?"

"From what we can tell, yes."

"What's the latest status report?" Batman asked.

"The bank's nightly transactions were interrupted by someone named Catman. It might be years before the city can recover from that. Joker shut down 911 services."

"Joker?" Batman asked.

"Yes," Gordon replied. "He's been a real pain in the neck recently. Spider-Man brought him in a few weeks ago, but he busted out just a few days before all this happened."

"Spider-Man, huh? I wonder if he's been involved in this yet."

"We haven't heard from him. But who knows what could have happened. Anyway, back to the rest of the Sinister Six, we have Stegron who has been trying to take over the subways. And somehow the Brooklyn Bridge has disappeared. We don't know who's behind that, but it's one of the six. Then, Dr. Phosphorous polluted the water supply."

"That's only five. Who's the other?"

"That would be Doctor Octopus. We think he's the leader. He's taken control of the power supply and is holding the city ransom. Thirty-six million dollars, or the power is out."

"Hmmmm." Batman thought for a moment.

"That's why we needed you. We thought that if we let you give him the money, then you could somehow overtake him and take out this Sinister Six."

"Hmmmmm," Batman repeated.

Up above, in the commissioner's office, Batman turned toward the window. Gordon sat down and looked down at his desk. "I don't know what to do."

"I'll be in touch," Batman said.

"Okay," Gordon said, looking up. But, Batman was already gone.

As Batman flew down to the Batmobile, he spoke into his gauntlet. "Open." The Batmoblie opened. Then, Batman saw the man dressed in red and blue beside it. He landed in the driver's seat.

"Spider-Man, I presume," he said.

"How did you know?" Spidey asked.

"Gordon told me as much. I'm Batman. Hop in. If we're going to stop the Sinister Six, we're going to have to work together."

Spidey hopped over the driver's side and landed in the passenger's seat. The top slid back over.

"Buckle up," Batman said.

Spider-Man did so and the Batmobile took off.

"So, where are we going?" Spidey asked.

"The Brooklyn Bridge," Batman replied. "The middle of it disappeared, and the cops don't know who did it. Do you?"

Spidey thought for a moment. "I have an idea. So, what's the game? Who are these Sinister Six?"

"I thought you knew."

"No, I have been held captive by their leader, Doctor Octopus. All I know is that they took control of Manhattan and that Joker is one of the six."

"Doctor Octopus, eh?"

"Yes," Spidey replied. "And what really takes the cake is that he and I were created in the same accident."

"Pardon?"

"It was about a year ago. I was watching a scientific demostration by Dr. Otto Octavius. Something went wrong. I was bitten by a radioactive spider, and Doc Ock got his metal tentacles bonded to his back."

"Octavius? I remember that accident."

Just then, the Batmobile pulled up to the Brooklyn Bridge. Traffic was backed up, so the two superheroes were forced to walk to the edge.

As they got there, Spider-Man's spidersense began to tingle.

"I have a strange feeling. Almost deja vu," Spidey said. "Batman, I think I know who is behind this. Watch."

As Spider-Man said that, he began walking, getting closer to the edge. However, when he walked off the edge, he didn't fall. Instead, he looked as if he was standing in mid-air.

"Mysterio," he said.

"Get me Gordon on the phone, now!" the mayor shouted.

One of the secretaries ran up to him with a cell phone. "It's the commissioner, sir."

"Thank you," the mayor said, grabbing the phone. "Gordon!"

"Yes, Mr. Mayor?"

"What is the department doing about the money?"

"I have officers currently putting counterfeit money together. Hopefully, that can buy us some time."

"Who is going to deliver it?"

"That would be the special agent I told you about."

"Who is this special agent?"

"I am unable to disclose that information at this time."

"Gordon!"

"I am sorry, Mr. Mayor. I think you should be working on giving control to Doctor Octopus." With that, Gordon hung up.

"Lois," Jimmy said. "I'm going out to take pictures of the damage. You want to come and get a story?"

Lois looked up from her computer. "Might as well," she said. "Nothing much to sort through here."

She grabbed her coat and notepad and followed Jimmy outside.

"Who is this Mysterio?" Batman asked.

"He's a nut I ran into a few days ago. He can create illusions. That's what the bridge is - an illusion. However, last time I saw him, he kinda went ka-boom."

"Kaboom?"

"Yeah. We were down in a cave and it exploded."

"Oh."

"Where are we headed now?" Spidey asked.

"Back to the police department. Gordon wants me to deliver the money to the Sinister Six at midnight."

"It's only a little after 11 o'clock. Will they have it ready?"

"That's not our concern. They want us to somehow delay."

"Delay? How?"

"I was thinking of making you a diversion."

"Diversion?"

"My partners, soon we must leave to collect the ransom," he said. "Six million for each of us. I need you there, in case those stupid cops try something. Or worse, that infernal Spider-Man."

"Don't worry, Ocky!" Joker said. "I'll take care of that annoying bug!"

"Wait a minute!" Mysterio interjected. "I have dibs on Spider-Man!"

"Joker! Mysterio! Calm down. If he shows, then it will be six of us and one of him." Doc Ock turned to the rest of the Six. "I need you to hide in various places, behind me. . . "

"Spider-Man!"

"Hey, no need to be scared. I don't bite."

Gordon smiled. "How did you get involved with this?"

"First I was captured by the leader, and then I found out that I had already fought with two of the Sinister Six."

"Sounds like you know them."

"Commissioner," Batman said. "Where is the money?"

Gordon pointed to two cases sitting on his desk. "Mostly counterfeit, but enough real money that they won't be able to pull anything at the dropoff site."

"Will we have police back-up?"

"Of course."

"Good, we'll meet you there," Batman replied, picking up one of the cases and leaving. Spidey glanced at Gordon and picked up the other case. As he climbed out the window, he waved.

"It was nice to meet you! I look forward to your cooperation many more times!"

Batman stood, waiting. Behind him were half a dozen police cruisers, with officers ready to act. Above him, Spider-Man waiting in a tree, hidden from view.

A man was walking up. He wore a brown trenchcoat, and his back was a weird shape.

"That's Octopus," Spidey whispered into the special headgear Batman had given him. "Watch out. My spider-sense is going off so bad, the whole gang has to be here."

Batman nodded, as if to say he understood.

Doctor Octopus approached him. "Now, why would the mayor send a costumed vigilante to give me my money?" He paused, and walked around the Dark Knight. "Of course. Because they were expecting trouble. If you want trouble, I'll give you trouble!" Ock pressed a button on his wrist and the Sinister Six came out from hiding, all charging at Batman. "The money, please."

"Are you going to keep the power on?"

Octopus pulled a device from his trenchcoat. "This is what controls the power. You give me the money, I give you the device." He held out the device. Batman held out the case of money and grabbed the device. However, Doc Ock pulled back and kept both. "Fool!" he yelled as his mechanical arms tore the coat. Just then, the rest of the Sinister Six caught up.

Spidey jumped out of the tree, and immediately tackled Joker. Fortunately, he had already dispatched his camera, which caught the shot.

Meanwhile, behind the police lines, Lois and Jimmy were watching the battle as it began. Lois was taking notes and Jimmy was taking pictures.

"I wonder where Peter is?" Jimmy asked.

"Probably home with his aunt. Or maybe he's busy with another set of photos," Lois replied.

"Batman," Phosphorous said. "You must die!" The not-so-good doctor then put his hand out and sprayed Batman with poison. Batman flung his cape up in front of his face, so the poison wouldn't harm him.

In a swift motion, he dropped the cape, twirled around, and smashed his elbow into the madman's face.

Phosphorous dropped, and Stegron ran from behind him, trampling over Batman.

On the other side of the battlefield, Spider-Man was under attack from Joker and Mysterio. He knew the best way to defeat them was to have them take each other out. That, or use impact webbing to the head.

He backflipped far enough away to fire the webbing and have enough time. He crouched down and aimed. Joker and Mysterio began charging. Spidey pushed the webshooters.

FOOM! FOOM! Two balls of impact webbing left from each wrist, both impacting in the faces of the villains. They fell to the ground.

Spidey looked over at Batman, and saw Stegron pounding him. He began to run over to help his new friend, but was stopped by Catman.

"Spider-Man . . . " Catman said with a hint of interest in his voice.

"I don't have time for this," Spidey said. He began to charge Catman, but the villain leapt out of the way, turned and ran back at Spidey.

'Cat's don't like water. Good,' Spidey thought, and began webslinging to the pond.

Catman foolishly followed.

Spidey stood in front of the pond, and shot webs at Catman. He shot the webs all around, so the acrobatic villain wouldn't have anywhere to jump. He pulled the webs tight and flung him into the water.

"You little bug!" Catman yelled.

"Spiders aren't bugs!" Spidey yelled back.

"Get off!" Stegron shouted, flipping Spider-Man off.

"Sinister Six!" Doc Ock shouted. "We have completed our mission! It is time for us to leave!" He came over to Spider-Man and Batman, who were laying on the ground. "But we will be back."

That was the last thing the two heroes heard before they passed out.

"You know, that was a pretty lame fight," Spidey commented. "I mean, I beat most of them just with my webbing."

"True," Batman replied. "At least the Brooklyn Bridge is back."

"But the banks are going to be screwed up for months. What about the water supply?"

"It will take a while, but not too long. At least 911 services have been reactivated."

Both were silent. Finally, Spider-Man spoke up. "So, how long before they come back?"

Batman was quiet. "Not long enough."

"Ah, sweet money," he said, pulling out a bundle. Some bills fell out of the middle.

"Hey!" Catman said, picking one up. "This isn't money! It's paper!"

"What? They tricked us?" Mysterio asked.

"Let's go back and get our money!" Joker exclaimed.

"No," Doctor Octopus said, calmly. "They'll be expecting us. We must wait."

"But!" Joker exclaimed.

The person in the passenger side turned to the driver. "So, Batman," he said, "where are you taking me?"

Batman kept looking straight ahead. "We're going to the GCPD, Spider-Man."

"To straighten things out with the Commissioner?"

"Something like that."

Spidey was silent for a moment. "Do you think the Sinister Six has figured out that we've fooled them?"

"I'm sure of it."

Before either superhero could say another word, something beeped.

"What's that?" Spidey asked.

Batman lifted a panel on the dash. It was a small monitor. A picture of an oracle was showing. A man's voice began to speak.

"Batman. This is Oracle."

"Come in, Oracle."

"Batman, I heard about your adventure tonight. Are you okay?"

"Of course I am."

"Pretty bold move giving fake money."

"Not my idea."

Spidey stared closely at the monitor. A phone number was printed on it. He quickly memorized it.

"Well, I'm sure you're looking forward to getting some rest after that fight."

Spidey spoke up. "I don't know about you, Bats, but I sure am!"

"Who's that?" Oracle asked.

"Don't worry, it's only Spider-Man. You can trust him," Batman replied.

"You know I don't like people finding out about me."

"Oracle, we all know you do. Batman out."

The monitor went blank, and Batman flipped it down.

"Who was that?" Spidey asked.

"Oracle. He gathers information and gives it to other heroes. He's helped me quite a bit."

Spider-Man said nothing. He saw the GCPD building. "Looks like we're here," he said.