*beep*

*beep*

*beep*

As Ghost Spider slowly clawed her way back into consciousness, she was greeted by a bright light and the sounds of a heartbeat monitor.

Everything was hazy and there was a dull ache in her chest, slightly more concerning was that she couldn’t move her right arm.

Worried what that could mean, she quickly glanced down, idly noting she was both still covered by her costume but also thick bandages wrapping her chest. The arm turned out to be a minor thing. It was held in place by a couple of thick leather restraints. Considering neither band was locked beyond a metal clip to stop it from sliding and she had another pair of leather straps running over her torso and legs while her left arm remained free Ghost Spider guessed whoever put her here was more concerned about stopping her from thrashing around or rolling to one side and ripping out the IV’s she could see going into her arm than truly keeping her restrained.

The first two bands were easily released since Ghost Spider’s left hand was still free. But as she started to fiddle with one of the straps on her right arm a smooth voice with a cultured accent interrupted her.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Miss. Despite your healing speed, you are still quite injured. You should continue to rest for now.”

“Huh?” Ghost Spider turned her head and saw an elderly man in an impeccable butler suit. She knew from her additional memories that this was Alfred Pennyworth, butler to the Wayne family, but for some reason he was a) showing himself to her despite the risk of her somehow making the connection to him and Batman and b) was wearing a small black domino mask. The combination of the two overloading Ghost Spider’s already sluggish mind.

“Wha-, I-, whuh?”

“Ah, you are probably still disoriented from your ordeal. You managed to protect Miss Supergirl at the cost of your own wellbeing. You were brought here for medical treatment. If you need anything please feel free to ask and I will do my best to accommodate.”

“Y-you’re…” Ghost Spider was trying to come to terms with the fact that she nearly died and blurted out the first thing she could think of, unfortunately her chest constricted in pain so she was unable to actually complete a sentence.

Alfred misunderstood Ghost Spider’s intention and thought she was requesting who he was. “How rude of me, you may call me Butlerman.” Alf- Butlerman sketched a bow before heading towards a break in the medical curtains that surrounded the bed Ghost Spider was resting on. “If you don’t have any immediate needs I will go and inform the others you have awoken.” He looked back at the injured Metahuman but she shook her head. Satisfied, Butlerman departed swiftly.

Ghost Spider just stared at the section of curtain the butler disappeared through. Did that seriously just happen? Who in their right mind could call themselves Butlerman with a perfectly straight face? Ghost Spider looked at the bandages on her chest again and then at the IV’s. Did she just hallucinate that? Surely she was on some pretty good painkillers if she was just a bit sore after Metallo shoved his hand through her.

After a bit of thought, Ghost Spider decided she should at least figure out where she was. She clumsily undid the straps and removed the IV’s from her arm and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

As she tried to stand she realised that even though the painkillers stopped her from feeling anything, it didn’t mean she was actually alright. She almost immediately collapsed on the ground when her legs gave out and only coincidentally managed to grab the bed to stop her fall. Even that small amount of movement was enough to cause the wounds on her chest to throb harder.

Still, determined not to let a little thing like a severe chest wound and being too weak to stand under her own power keep her down, Ghost Spider spotted a wheelchair conveniently close by and forced herself close enough until she could flop into it. Several seconds later she realised her condition was a perfect reason to not strain herself so much. The drugs must be messing with her head.

Oh well, she decided. She got this far already, might as well finish what she started.

The curtains took a bit of maneuvering, but Ghost Spider eventually got free of them and got her first look at the rest of her surroundings. She was in a massive cave system that was filled with all kinds of things. There was a bank of computers running along one of the alcoves with enough power behind them Ghost Spider was sure it rivaled even the combined processing speed of some top class research labs, a display case with copies of what the spider themed Meta recognised as the entire Batfamily’s uniforms, multiple vehicle bays where bat themed machines could be seen just waiting to be launched, and an entire assortment of trophies taken from various encounters Batman had his sidekicks had gone through complete with placards describing why each one was significant.

Curious, Ghost Spider wheeled over to one of the more prominent pieces, a giant penny Batman had somehow managed to get into the cave, and looked at the description.

“Huh, March 28th, Two-Face and the Two-Ton Gang. Used in an over-sized coin-flipping machine.” Ghost Spider read aloud. “Bet there’s a weird story behind that one.”

“You know, usually when you tell someone ‘you are still injured, please rest’ you expect them to y’know actually rest! Not go digging around other people’s homes.” a voice interrupted behind her.

Ghost Spider turned and saw Supergirl, Batgirl, and Alfr-Butlerman heading towards her. From the way Supergirl had her hands on her hips, Ghost Spider determined she was the one who spoke.

“You don’t live here either.” She pointed out and waved a hand at Batgirl. “She does.”

The other three tensed but Ghost Spider was too busy watching her hand as she waved it back and forth. For some reason there was a delay when she moved it in her head and when it actually moved on her body. Weird.

“Cause Bat-people live in Batcaves.” Ghost Spider continued when the others didn’t seem to understand her point. “Super-people live in Supercaves.” She finished with a tone that this should be self-evident.

“Huh?”

And it seemed Supergirl still couldn’t understand such a simple thing.

“Actually you should probably leave. I don’t think Bat-people like it when others get into their stuff.”

Supergirl looked at Batgirl with a lost expression and the other girl could only shrug in response.

“Uh-huh, then why shouldn’t you leave? You aren’t a Bat-person either.”

“I’m a spider.” Ghost Spider pointed out the obvious. “We can go wherever we want. Not even Butlerman can keep us out for long.”

The butler in question smiled ruefully at the undeniable truth and offered each of them a drink which Ghost Spider happily accepted.

“Is she high?”

“No, I'm sitting down. I’m actually pretty low right now.”

“Oh Rao, I think she’s high… How strong were those painkillers?”

“Probably too strong.” Batgirl reflected. “Though we should probably stop her before she spills- wait, how did she do that?”

The two heroines stared in shock at Ghost Spider, who had pulled her mask up over her nose so she could drink what she was given. The reason for their surprise was simple. They had looked all over for some way to remove Ghost Spider’s suit so they could treat her chest wound. But no matter how they looked, they never found a way to remove any of it. In fact Supergirl had eventually managed to confirm the suit had replaced the skin of the spider-themed girl so they were completely unprepared for Ghost Spider to simply pull part of it off and have human features underneath.

“I thought you said the suit was part of her?” Batgirl questioned as she watched Ghost Spider down the glass of water.

“It is…” Supergirl confirmed, sounding a little disturbed. “I can see where the suit is blending into her skin now that part of it’s been removed. It’s completely merged with her.”

“Huh, a shapeshifter then?”

Supergirl shrugged.

“Ask her, I have no idea.”

Ghost Spider was half listening to what was going on out of habit and felt the need to correct them before they got the wrong idea.

“Nope, not a shapeshifter!” she gestured at her suit, “This is a Klyntar, an alien symbiote! Well kinda. Mine was actually made when an evil lawyer turned crime-boss and a doctor who might be a gender-swapped news journalist from another dimension injected me with mutant Lizard juice and now I have to feed it chocolate or it will eat your brains.” Ghost Spider said seriously. For some reason the others seemed to ignore her, other than Butlerman who gently removed the now empty glass from her hand.

“Should she be moving around that much? She sounds really out of it if she’s trying to pass off shapeshifting with...well...that.” Supergirl asked dryly.

Batgirl waved her off. “Alfr-ahem-Butlerman gave her a sedative. We’ll let her sleep the painkillers off a bit and talk to her when she’s a little more...coherent.”

“You mean when she isn’t tripping balls?”

Ghost Spider was beginning to wonder if Supergirl actually needed glasses instead of just wearing them in her secret identity. She was clearly sitting down and not tripping over anything. She thought about offering to make her some if Batgirl couldn’t for some reason but she was starting to feel really tired and they still didn’t believe her about the symbiote. She wasn’t a shapeshifter!

She didn’t know why that bothered her as much as it did, although the word ‘skulls’ kept jumping into her mind even though that didn’t seem quite right, but instead of examining that feeling Ghost Spider thought hard about how she could prove her suit was a symbiote and not just her. It hit her suddenly, if they believed it was just her shifting herself all she had to do was prove she could separate herself from the suit!

“I got it! I can prove I’m not a shapeshifter!” Ghost Spider declared to everyone. Batgirl seemed skeptical, Butlerman had a stoic mask for a facial expression, and Supergirl was making a face that screamed ‘this is going to end poorly’.

Ignoring the lack of reaction, Ghost Spider reached up to her face and without hesitation ripped off her mask.

“See? Shapeshifters can’t separate things from their bodies. I can’t be a shapeshifter.” Ghost Spider said sleepily, lightly tossing the mask up and down in the air while the other girls gaped at her. Even Bulterman looked taken aback at Ghost Spider’s decisive action.

“Gwen!? What, what the hell?!” Batgirl shouted at the now unmasked girl.

“Oh, we n’t doin’ coden’mes ‘ny more?” Ghost Spider- Gwen slurred, her eyes drifting closed as the sedatives started to fully take effect. “Th’ts cool. Hey Barbara, Imma take a nap r’l quick. Let’s talk lat’r”

Eyes now fully closed, Gwen fell fast asleep, uncaring of the huge pile of questions she had generated in her unmasking and identifying Batgirl’s civilian identity.