Hey guys. Sorry this is a little late, but I've been spending most of my time watching Code Geass, trying to figure out how to do a Batman crossover.

Chapter III

Coming To Grips

Beast Boy and Cyborg were busy analyzing X and his new life with much interest.

"So, you're like, Nightwing?" BB asked, poking X in the arm. "Dude, that's so..."

"I'm not," X protested. "I just... look like him."

"Yeah," Cyborg said. "And sound like him... and share his exact genetic makeup."

"I understand you're the one to thank," X said, looking at him. Jeez, Cyborg thought, those eyes. "You came up with the cure."

"Spidey did most of it," Cyborg admitted. "His blood has some strange wonder-drug in it, and that's what saved you."

"So I'm part Spider..."

No one said anything to this slightly ominous statement.

The door opened, and Nightwing stood there.

"X?" he said. "Can I have a word?"

The door closed behind Dick, leaving the two young men in the room alone.

"Ready to confront your fears?" X asked, folding his arms. "Or are we going to have a staring contest for a few minutes?"

Dick sighed, putting his hands on the table in the room. X leaned against the wall, staring at his originator.

"What do you want to talk about?" Dick asked. "'Cuz I honestly don't know how to start this conversation." X snorted.

"Typical. Well, let's see." X pretended to count on his fingers. "You and Kory. Let's start with that."

"Kory?" Dick asked, confused. X gaped.

"Oh, my god," he said. "Your own girlfriend, and you never bothered to learn her name."

"Is that really what you want to talk about?" Dick asked through clenched teeth. "Because I'd rather not. Besides," he jerked his head to the door, "you've got Blackfire, haven't you?"

"Okay," X said, throwing up his hands. "I give. What do you want to talk about?"

There was an awkward silence. Dick knew he should be talking about deep stuff with X, but the words wouldn't seem to come.

"What are you going to do with your life?" Dick asked. X exhaled.

"To the point," he said. "Just like you learned from Bruce."

Dick looked at him.

"I plan to continue my life of looking out for numero uno," X went on. "So thanks for the suit. I was gonna keep it anyway."

"You're welcome," Dick said. He found it was easier to talk than he'd expected. X wasn't like Dick at all. "And... are we just going to have to keep calling you X all the time?"

X shifted, clearly uncomfortable.

"The only other name I know is Richard Grayson," he said. "Kinda awkward. I don't know how to respond to any other name."

"Well, it took the others a while for 'Nightwing' to stick," Dick said. "I'm sure any name you pick..."

"Oh, so I get to choose my name?" X said, and there was a steely note in his voice. "Great, thanks... bro. That seems to be about the only damn thing I got to choose in this life."

"You chose Red X," Dick pointed out. "You've changed your life. You've given yourself life. Why not give yourself a name, too?"

"Because I thought I was going to die!"

This outburst from X stunned Dick into silence. His ice-blue eyes, which seemed much colder than Dick's, were over-bright from unshed tears.

"You... you who've had it all... I don't need any favors from you," X breathed.

"It's not favor..."

"PITY THEN! I DON'T NEED IT!"

With that, X stormed out. Dick was left, looking after him, feeling a hollow sense in his stomach.

"What are we doing here?"

Spidey rolled his eyes, then remembered his mask.

"Looking for clues to this so called Scarlet Spider," he answered Raven. He had wanted her to come with him, partly to count in her powerful abilities, partly to talk in confidence to her. "Last clone that survived took the name Spider-Woman."

Raven blinked, seeming unsettled by the idea of a female Peter. He grinned.

"That's... so wrong," she said, looking disgusted. He stood up, stretching his neck.

"It is."

They were in the remains of the lab that Dr. Ethan Hunter had created the Scarlet Spider in. Spidey was looking for any leads on where they might go after the duo.

"I reckon they're a team, so finding one should mean locating the other," he said, glancing around. "I still wanna know how this guy found out who I am, and where the hell he got my blood."

Raven knelt down now, placing her hand on the ground. She was reconstructing the scene in her mind's eye, so Peter kept silent. Finally, her eyes fluttered open, and she straightened up.

"Hunter isn't from this universe," she announced. "He's from an alternate reality of your universe."

Peter gaped at her. How had she gleaned that? And who was Hunter?

When she saw him staring at her, she shrugged.

"Without Trigon's influence, I've been able to expand my powers," she explained, as if it were simple. "That, and being your girlfriend."

"I love you," Peter said. "Do I ever tell you that?"

"Not enough," she answered with a sly smile. "Hunter is a false name. His real name... is Miles Warren."

Peter frowned.

"I know that name," he said. "My aunt was dating a guy by that name before... yeah." Before he died, he was going to say. Raven nodded.

"But this is an alternate version of that guy," she explained. "He's a scientist obsessed with human DNA replication, which mean-,"

"-cloning," Peter finished. "But still, how does he know me?"

"Well, I'm just guessing here," Raven said, "but I think in his alternate reality, there's another version of Spider-Man, whom he's already cloned, and thus know his identity."

Peter's jaw dropped.

"That's trippy," he said. "But not completely shocking," he admitted. "I mean, the whole universe thing is trippy."

"But that's not all," Raven went on. "I think... I think Warren, or Hunter, is himself a clone."

Now Peter was stunned.

"You let me crawl all over this lab before you could tell me that?!" he wondered. "Now that's bizarre."

"Come on," Raven said. "The guy who could make himself immortal by cloning himself would probably have a few on hand in case of emergencies. I'm guessing this one went on his own, was changed, is mentally unbalanced, has memory blanks, and has a bit of a god complex."

Peter stared at Raven, arms dangling uselessly. Then he picked one up with the other, and slapped himself. She giggled.

"You truly are amazing, you know that?" he said.

"Thank you," she said gracefully. "So, what's the next step?"

Peter walked over to the tank, where some of the liquid which once surrounded Scarlet Spider's body still remained. He felt it with his glove, and his spider-sense tinged.

"I think I can follow his trail," he said. "Not sure how I'm gonna use this crap, though..."

Raven coughed, and he looked at her. She looked at the liquid, then at him, and he knew her meaning.

"Oh, no," he said. "No way. He was floating in this stuff! Probably naked! No way, I'm not imbibing this in any way..."

Spider-Man did end up sipping a very tiny bit of the liquid, making faces, and acting like it was disgusting.

The nutrient liquid that had kept Scarlet Spider alive activated Pete's spider sense, and he could use its increasingly irritating tingle to track down where Scarlet Spider was. He tried not to dwell on the disturbing repercussions of this act.

Last time I do this kinda crazy crap. Oh, wait, never mind... I'm Spider-Man.

They arrived at one of the highest points in the city. Peter was shocked to see webbing all over the place, and a lithe red figure hanging from one of the loose strands. He had black details on his suit, and black slits for eyes.

He felt a discord in the back of his mind, Raven's reaction to seeing the Scarlet Spider. Well, Peter wasn't too chuffed either.

"Hey!" he said, grabbing onto the web with ease, while Raven hovered behind him. "That's copyright infringement! I'll sue you!"

Scarlet Spider didn't say a word, merely raised his arm to aim a gauntlet at him. Peter tensed, prepared for his spider sense to let him know when to move.

A mini rocket shot out at him, and he tracked his progress as it got closer.

Okay, spider sense, you can lemme know now...

He felt a jolt of panic from Raven, which was his cue to move. He leapt out of the way, feeling the afterwash of the jet burn his arm.

It sped into the web, and exploded. Peter stared.

Why didn't my spider sense warn me?! Oh, crap, don't tell me I'm losing powers...

He did a couple of flips toward Scarlet Spider, just to make sure he could still do it. Reassured, he suddenly realized a punch was about to hit his face.

Whammo.

Peter tumbled from the web, tasting blood. He couldn't understand it...

He's my clone. Maybe that's why.

It was in the course of the next few minutes that Peter realized how much he had depended on the early warning in combat. With it gone, his agility and strength wasn't much use without direction.

Fortunately, Raven was with him. Otherwise, he'd have received the second worst ass-kicking in his life, the first always being when he was thrown out the window by Kingpin, early in his life.

Peter recovered himself, watching Raven attempting to grab Scarlet Spider telekinetically. But even though the usual negative glow appeared around his body, he still moved of his own free will. Raven's surprise didn't stop her from dodging his next blow, however.

"Hey, bro," Peter said, coming up for a signature Spidey uppercut. "Sue you!"

The blow landed, but Scarlet Spider merely back-flipped to another part of the web. The blow was hard, but since the Scarlet Spider could take a punch even better than Peter, it didn't matter much.

It did confirm one thing... Scarlet Spider's spider sense didn't work against Peter, either.

Okay, but still, he's got training. I need to end this, quickly.

Raven was now throwing objects at Scarlet Spider, forcing him to divert his attention between royally beating up Peter and dodging random stuff, like cars.

It was a testimony to the inadequacy of Smart Cars when Raven tossed one at Scarlet Spider, he just caught it, and proceeded to fold it up like a lunchbox.

"Wow," Peter said, shaking his head. "Just... wow."

Scarlet Spider shot a small missile at Raven, which exploded into a cocoon of web that trapped her in mid air.

"Whoa," Peter said aloud. "I need to get me one of those..."

Scarlet leapt at Peter, who grabbed him. Despite his enhanced training, he wasn't stronger than Peter was.

It was a deadlock, each fighting the other for dominance. But mostly Peter was fighting so as not to look bad in front of Raven.

And then he felt a sharp stab in the back of the neck. He momentarily lost his footing, and fell, darkness covering his vision.

Tranquilizer... son of a...