For safety considerations, Dr. Otto wore and operated his mechanical tentacles even when leaving South Brother Island, keeping them highly compressed and stored inside the backpack beneath his jacket.
Now, returning to South Brother Island and looking at the ruined laboratory littered with debris in the wake of the kinetic shockwaves, Dr. Otto let out a helpless sigh.
Dr. Otto now deeply understood the feeling Batman had experienced upon leaving New York twice and returning to find everything in a mess, prompting him to sigh yet again.
"Hulk, I need Banner right now," Batman said first to the Hulk, before turning his attention to the She-Red Hulk: "Betty, everyone here is a companion. Don't be nervous."
Batman felt no inclination to blame the She-Red Hulk for causing this string of troubles. Put anyone else in an unfamiliar environment where a terrifying, monstrous-looking entity like Professor Lizard suddenly popped out and stretched its claws toward them, and Batman's reaction would only have been far more intense than hers.
Betty, having transformed into the She-Red Hulk, had neither lost her sanity nor her memories. Though she didn't recognize the others, she certainly recognized Batman.
After all, from the very first moment she laid eyes on him all the way up until now, Batman had always maintained this exact appearance—wearing his Bat-suit with his lower chin exposed.
"They're all companions?" Betty glanced at Professor Lizard, then shifted her gaze to Dr. Otto, who was retracting the four mechanical tentacles from behind his back.
Batman nodded, and Dr. Otto also withdrew his mechanical tentacles:
"If I'm not mistaken, you must be Dr. Banner's frequently mentioned girlfriend, Betty Ross?"
Betty tossed her long black hair over her shoulder. Watching Professor Lizard and Hulk successively revert to human forms, she looked curiously at Dr. Otto and asked:
"How do you know?"
Dr. Otto smiled mysteriously without answering.
"Betty, let me show you how to change back. First, take a deep breath and center your mind..." Dr. Banner looked up at the She-Red Hulk and said.
The transformed She-Red Hulk stood roughly two and a half meters tall, towering even slightly over the Incredible Hulk; Dr. Banner had to tilt his head straight up just to look at her.
No sooner had Banner finished speaking than the She-Red Hulk wrapped one hand around the white sheet draped over her body, while her physique began rapidly shrinking.
Amidst Dr. Banner's somewhat astonished gaze, Betty Ross responded as if it were the most natural thing in the world:
"Banner, don't forget I'm a PhD in psychology, and moreover, I have a boyfriend who turns into the Hulk. Controlling my own transformation isn't a difficult task for me."
Dr. Banner offered an apologetic smile to everyone present, then took Betty by the hand and hurried off toward the rest area on South Brother Island.
Batman didn't try to stop them. Letting the couple depart, he shook his head as he surveyed the debris-strewn laboratory.
"I'll clean this up," Dr. Otto offered.
With his four mechanical tentacles—unless Batman utilized his speed and web-shooter advantages—Dr. Otto could get the cleanup done much faster than anyone else.
And so, a bizarre scene once again unfolded in the lab: Dr. Otto picked up the two cases that had been dropped on the floor earlier, walking toward Batman and the others while the mechanical tentacles behind his back automatically busied themselves.
The reason it was bizarre was that everyone present, including Batman, knew that mechanical tentacles could not operate independently and autonomously; even the simplest actions required Dr. Otto to issue direct commands.
Yet right now, Dr. Otto wasn't even casting his eyes downward at his feet, and his tentacles were still able to precisely pick up each and every fragmented piece and sort them away.
Batman watched Dr. Otto's stroll-like demeanor, falling into deep thought.
"Don't be surprised, guys," Dr. Otto chuckled.
"How did you pull that off?" Professor Connors asked with a hint of concern, terrified that Dr. Otto might be experiencing a recurrence of being manipulated by his mechanical tentacles.
"The moment I walked through the door just now, I memorized the locations of everything in the lab, including the fragments scattered on the ground," Dr. Otto explained.
"Is that so?" Professor Connors looked somewhat doubtful, casting his gaze toward Batman.
Batman returned Professor Connors's look with a glance signaling that there was no need to worry.
Had it been Batman himself, he could have achieved that same instant memorization with a single glance; it was just that he hadn't expected Dr. Otto to be capable of it as well.
"What's inside the cases?" Batman asked.
"Have a look." Dr. Otto opened the two cases.
Batman, Professor Connors, and Professor Morbius all stepped forward. One case was filled with a stack of paper books, while the other contained various food items.
None of those were out of the ordinary. What was special was that Dr. Otto retrieved an oddly shaped USB flash drive from the book-filled case and handed it to Batman.
"Someone sent me some data via email, which I transferred onto this flash drive," Dr. Otto said.
"What's the content?" Professor Miles Warren asked.
Over the past few days, Miles Warren and Warren the Jackal had managed to get along reasonably well with the other scientists—at least losing much of their initial formality.
Dr. Otto glanced at Professor Warren:
"The external network environment is unsafe and could potentially expose my location, so I didn't open it to check what was actually inside."
"It's safe enough here; read it," Professor Connors said.
Batman casually plugged the USB drive into the computer closest to them.
As the data was read, an image popped up on the screen.
"Canada, Vancouver, 19 XX Street." The screen clearly displayed a specific address.
Dr. Otto spread both hands:
"Does anyone here have any special impression of this address?"
Batman pondered for a moment before shaking his head.
Aside from Wolverine originating from Canada, Batman had no special associations with the country whatsoever.
Right at that moment, the screen shifted, spraying out cheap special-effect confetti before all of it vanished, replaced by shaky, somewhat out-of-focus camera footage.
Almost the very second they laid eyes on this footage, everyone present—including Batman—furrowed their brows tightly as a wave of nausea welled up inside them.
On display was a hand that appeared skinless, covered in burns alongside spots and pit marks of varying sizes that made it look rather repulsive.
Yet this hideously ugly hand wasn't the focal point of their disgust; it was what the hand was doing.
This was a first-person perspective masturbation video.
"What the fuck!" Professor Connors couldn't help cursing aloud. "Whose bastard prank is this sick play?"
"Oh I love Batman" An atrocious, spine-chilling moan echoed from the video.
A chill ran down Dr. Otto's spine. Choosing to turn his head away from the abomination, he looked directly at Batman instead:
"My apologies, I had no idea this was someone's prank... Perhaps some crazy fan?"
As someone who summoned Thor down from the heavens to turn the tide during the Battle of Manhattan and single-handedly exposed Loki's plot with just a few words,
Batman, much like the rest of the Avengers, commanded a sizeable following of admirers.
Yet this admirer... was extraordinarily peculiar. At the very least, based on Batman's experience, even the Joker had never gone to such lengths.
--
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