Peter met up with Jessica, then handed the last almost-successful villain LMD in his possession over to the balding agent. Using the excuse that he needed to go home and sleep, he left on his own.
That was because the strange man in his earpiece had demanded that he act alone and tell no one of his existence. Otherwise, the man would impersonate Peter and send confession texts to five girls who "secretly had crushes" on him.
That scared Little Bug half to death, leaving him no choice but to obey the sinister bat-shaped shadow.
After all, the other guy only wanted to tag along on patrol, not do anything bad. There was no need to turn this into a fight to the death.
So Peter swung out of the park by himself, found the rooftop of a building, and crouched down. Pressing a hand to his earpiece, he said, "Moneybags, I'm out. Where are you?"
"Behind you."
The gloomy voice suddenly spoke—not through the earpiece, but directly from inches behind Peter's head.
Startled, Little Bug nearly fell off the high-rise rooftop, but the other man grabbed him and yanked him back. Peter irritably shook off that hand and immediately started rattling on, "Do you know people can be scared to death by other people? Do you walk without making any sound? And this is the seventieth floor! I only decided to come up here to enjoy the view at the last minute. How did you suddenly appear behind me?"
"Because... I'm Batman!"
The shadow fobbed him off just like that, offering no explanation whatsoever beyond giving his codename.
Yet Peter accepted it. He nodded as if he sort of understood. "So you're Batman, not The Batman Who Laughs, right? That makes sense. Your mouth has been turned down this