Batman and Tony Stark parted on bad terms.
Tony didn't get up to see him out, and Batman didn't offer the polite farewell he'd given the previous times.
Riding the elevator straight to the ground floor, Happy Hogan had finally woken up. The chubby guy, who gave Batman an impression somewhat similar to Gotham's detective Harvey Bullock, had no idea what had happened upstairs.
Happy still jogged over with a cheerful grin, escorting Batman all the way to his car.
"Mr. Peter, got time for dinner tonight?" Happy bent at the waist, leaning in at Batman's car window with a wide smile. "You and Tony are both my benefactors. I haven't properly thanked you yet?"
Without Batman needing to convince Happy Hogan with just a few words—though in the end, Batman still had a high chance of reaching a cooperation with Tony—Happy wouldn't be able to climb the social ladder by latching onto this opportunity.
"Let's talk about it when the chance comes up, Happy."
Batman nodded to Happy, floored the accelerator, and returned to the abandoned municipal hall subway station.
Inside the ecological chamber, Venom had sensed something off the moment Batman returned here.
Though Batman's expression was no different from when he'd left, his focus just as sharp, Venom couldn't shake the instinctive feeling that it was about to face impending doom.
Driven by that instinct, Venom cautiously writhed, shrinking into a corner of the ecological chamber, only raising its head to warily watch Batman.
"Oh… such a powerful body. I like him!"
Under Venom's gaze, Batman shed his lightweight trench coat, his strong, muscular build faintly visible through the gaps in his shirt buttons. It couldn't help but sigh in its mind.
But then, recalling the massive black glacier in Batman's memories—and the negative film predecessor who'd been scared to death after touching the negative emotions beneath that glacier—Venom couldn't help but shrink its head again.
Soon enough, though, Venom had no time for random thoughts, because Batman, having shed Peter Parker's disguise and donned the Arkham battlesuit, stood silently in front of the ecological chamber, staring at it.
"D-Did… did I do something wrong again?" Venom asked cautiously in a low voice.
Its voice was exceptionally rough, starkly clashing with its careful, timid tone.
"Tell me about your journey to Earth." To Venom's surprise, Batman neither scolded it nor resorted to the high-frequency sonic emitter without warning; he simply asked in a low, resonant voice.
"Journey?" Venom tilted its head blankly. "One day, I found myself free from the hive mind control of my home planet, so I latched onto a meteor passing by. I drifted in space for who knows how long until I finally detected life on this planet…"
"And then I came here?"
The methods Batman used to detect human lies couldn't apply to Venom, but those eyes carried immense pressure:
"What about the rest? Were there any other symbiotes that arrived on Earth with you?"
Venom shook its head like a wobbling jelly:
"No, I'm absolutely certain of that."
"I'm the one and only existence like this in this world."
Venom couldn't help feeling a bit smug as it said this.
But Batman merely raised his arm, popping out the mini-computer on his Arkham battlesuit, pulling up the footage of the white monster from the Queens precinct, and asked:
"Then where did it come from?"
In the footage was clearly another symbiote, the opposite of Venom's all-black form with faint white veins: this one was pearly white all over, with only sparse black stripes, its face similarly black.
"It's my offspring." Venom stared at the footage for a few seconds before stating with certainty.
"When did you produce this offspring?" Batman closed the footage and asked. He already had a lead on the white symbiote's origin but still needed secondary confirmation from Venom.
"When you threw the flashbang and yanked off that small piece of symbiote from me… it split off into offspring…"
Venom felt a chill run through it as it spoke, hurriedly explaining:
"I didn't mean to cause you trouble! It's just my instinct as a symbiote!"
Batman showed no change in expression over Venom producing offspring; instead, he asked the real purpose of their conversation:
"What I want to know now is: is there a connection between you and your offspring that would let you locate it, or let it locate you?"
"How did you know?" Venom blurted out instinctively. Realizing its tone was a bit improper, it quickly added, "If not for this lead-lined shell, I think I could sense it."
As it said this, Venom stretched its head out a bit expectantly.
It figured Batman must want to use it to find the white symbiote, which would mean it wouldn't have to stay confined in this cramped ecological chamber—instead, it could bond with Batman's body.
"If I could merge with him…" Venom couldn't help but start fantasizing.
"How much do you know about it?" Batman asked again.
"I don't know," Venom said blankly once more, trying to steer Batman toward accepting its symbiosis. "I can only unleash my full abilities when bonded to you. Right now, I can't do anything."
But Batman ended the conversation and began using the remaining tools and materials from building the ecological chamber to craft something else.
He was adding a high-frequency sonic matrix to Venom's ecological chamber.
It wasn't a weapon to attack Venom but a layer of constantly randomizing high-frequency noise.
Venom watched blankly as Batman worked, installing several devices onto the ecological chamber one after another, then hugged the chamber to his chest and slipped from the municipal hall subway station into the sewer pipes.
Without the Batmobile, Batman raced on foot through the sewers at high speed, heading straight for Rikers Island before transferring to South Brother Island.
Batman first hid the ecological chamber, then entered the laboratory on the island.
Here, Dr. Otto, Professor Connors, and Dr. Banner were all in white lab coats, dividing the work among themselves.
"Batman? I thought you didn't have time to come today." Dr. Banner was the first to greet him.
"I need to build a low-temperature plasma field."
Batman stated his purpose plainly and quickly got to work with the lab's equipment.
Since Dr. Otto and Dr. Banner were both nuclear physicists, Batman had bought nearly every physical material and device available on the market; the lab lacked nothing he needed.
The high-frequency sonic matrix was Plan A, using constant high-frequency noise to block any external probing of Venom inside the ecological chamber.
The low-temperature plasma field he was now building was Plan B; this high-energy field could effectively ionize and neutralize any special pheromone molecules Venom might emit, destroying them before they formed a viable signal.
Dr. Banner was currently the idlest of the three scientists. He strolled over to Batman's side, watching him silently work on the low-temperature plasma field:
"Need any help?"
Batman glanced at Dr. Banner, hesitated for a few seconds, and decided to give him something to do:
"Doctor, I've sent a segment of data from a biological sample I collected to your computer. I want you to build a device that can simulate this organism's signals based on that data."
During the time Venom had bonded with Batman, his Arkham battlesuit had already recorded various data points from then.
This was Batman's Plan C: create a decoy that simulated Venom's biological signals to mislead the white symbiote that might connect with Venom in some way.
"Biological sample data from some organism?" Dr. Banner's first reaction was wariness. "Batman, I don't want to see you doing anything like what General Ross did. I've told you that."
Batman shook his head and pulled up the footage of the white symbiote from the Queens precinct again for Dr. Banner to see:
"Doctor, this is an extraterrestrial organism. The tragedy at the FEAST shelter the day before yesterday was partially connected to it."
"I have another important matter to attend to right now, so I want to lure it temporarily to an uninhabited area and prevent it from rampaging through New York's streets."
Dr. Banner watched the footage Batman provided over and over. His face showed no trace of fear; instead, he proactively offered:
"If this thing shows up and starts destroying everything, I can step in to stop it."
Batman paused his work and looked at Dr. Banner with a serious expression:
"No—quite the opposite, Dr. Banner. You need to stay as far away from it as possible."
"Oh?" Dr. Banner didn't understand Batman's intent. He returned to his computer, frowning at the data Batman had sent. "Where did this data come from?"
"This extraterrestrial organism can bond with a human host," Batman said. "Its parent once bonded with me, and my suit recorded its data."
Dr. Banner shook his head repeatedly. He wasn't afraid of much else—even if he was, the Hulk inside him feared nothing.
But something that could bond with a person's body? Dr. Banner preferred to keep his distance.
Hearing the phrase "bond with the body," Dr. Otto, who was nearby examining a lizard tail, looked over and said:
"Forgive my bluntness, Batman, but you seem to have more on your plate than you can handle. Maybe you should get a sidekick."
The image of a figure in a red cape flashed through Batman's mind, along with his various Robins. His voice remained steady: "I'll consider it."
Time flew by, and soon it was afternoon. Batman took the decoy Dr. Banner had made, the completed low-temperature plasma field, and some chemical agents, hugged Venom's ecological chamber, and returned via the sewers to the municipal hall subway station.
During this time, Batman had been monitoring news broadcasts and heard no reports of symbiote attacks on people.
Venom, jostled back and forth in Batman's arms—even through the thick lead-lined shell—sensed this wasn't the time to speak up and could only let itself be carried.
Batman needed to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base and access their internal network for information on the handlers and related details of Stark's lost weapons, but Venom's presence meant he couldn't leave it unattended with peace of mind.
Even with all the preparations he'd made, he still had no 100% guarantee that Venom wouldn't be found by the white symbiote.
Both matters were critically important and needed to be done ASAP. Facing this inability to split himself, Batman couldn't help but recall Dr. Otto's words in his mind:
"Batman, you should get a sidekick."
His gaze remained calm as he prepared to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D., but his thoughts inevitably drifted to the red cape, the symbol of hope, and those Robins who were always disobedient yet still his reliable partners.
If they were here, Batman wouldn't have to shoulder everything alone. A simple infiltration like S.H.I.E.L.D. was something the Robins could handle effortlessly.
But now, Batman was in a world without Robins or his world's greatest partner to help. He could only complete everything alone.
As for the three scientists on South Brother Island, their relationship with Batman was currently just cooperative.
Moreover, whether it was Venom or infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D., handing either off to them wouldn't reduce the danger in the slightest—and unexpected complications could even increase the difficulty.
--