The abrupt and inexplicable loss of his powers did not break Batman.
Even hours of grueling combat with Blade had failed to halt his momentum. Batman remembered vividly how the bug he had planted in the Manhattan Precinct long ago had paid off the previous night, picking up Nathan Garrett's plan to lure him out using a series of bombings.
However, the battle with Blade had wasted too much time, completely scrapping Batman's plan to take a short, several-hour rest on South Brother Island.
As he watched the Spider-suit gradually take shape, Batman silently contemplated the possible causes of his physical abnormality.
"Like the Hulk and the Lizard, Peter Parker's body gained its super-strength and other abilities due to genetic mutations following a spider bite."
"Is an external factor causing the genes to revert to normal, resulting in the loss of power, or is it an internal factor?"
Batman mentally retraced everything he had come into contact with recently. The primary suspects were the prehistoric world pointed to by the Omni-Wave Projector, Hank Pym's Pym Particles, and the symbiote offspring birthed by Venom Robin.
But while in that primitive world, the Arkham suit Batman wore had detected no suspicious radiation, viruses, or gases. Nor had he touched the Pym Particles with his bare hands—unless there was some kind of Pym Particle-based force field within Pym Tech Headquarters that had affected him.
As for the final possibility—the influence of the Venom symbiote's offspring—Batman had not yet conducted a detailed study on it and could not determine if the symbiote was the cause.
Ding.
A notification sounded from the production line machinery; the various components of the Spider-suit were finished.
Batman hadn't constructed it according to Peter Parker's original design. Instead, he had modified and upgraded it. To put it bluntly, Peter Parker's Spider-suit was just a set of clothes; the boy relied entirely on his own innate abilities to be Spider-Man.
But for a Batman who had lost his strength, he needed a suit that could not only serve as a successful disguise but also provide sufficient combat support.
Given that the power levels of the various extraordinary individuals in this world were often measured in tons, Batman equipped the interior of the suit with a sophisticated auxiliary power system. Even without his super-strength, the suit would allow him to exert over five tons of force.
Notably, Batman had modeled this suit after Tony Stark's Mark series armor, powering it with a replica reactor to support the suit's various functions.
"The NYPD has agreed to your plan, Mr. Garrett," Commissioner George Stacy said, looking at the Black Knight, Nathan Garrett. "But the police cannot participate directly. We will only act as emergency response and defense."
In the Commissioner's office at the Manhattan Precinct, Garrett smiled noncommittally. "Then I'll need to make a small adjustment to the plan."
"I need to be kept in the loop, Garrett," Stacy insisted.
"Of course you do," Garrett replied. "My plan is... I will pose as a Hydra agent hidden within S.H.I.E.L.D. By gaining your 'trust,' I will plant a large number of bombs throughout New York."
"That sounds terrifying." Commissioner Stacy frowned. "And the police department cannot provide you with the quantity of explosives you're asking for."
"You only need to know that it's a disguise. I am a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. My target is Batman; I'm not actually crazy enough to blow up New York." Garrett patted Stacy's shoulder to reassure him. "As for the shortage of bombs, you don't need to worry about that."
Stacy looked at him with doubt. If Garrett didn't need the police to provide the explosives, where was he going to get enough to level half of Manhattan? That was no small amount.
But Garrett seemed to have anticipated this: "Remember those S.H.I.E.L.D. transports that came to move the dinosaurs the day before yesterday?"
Commissioner Stacy nodded.
"They brought enough explosives for my use as per my instructions, and they left a team behind to help me set them up," Garrett said.
Stacy's heart sank, and he couldn't help but furrow his brow.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. transports had arrived the day before yesterday, but Garrett had only told him about the plan to arrest Batman yesterday. There was a one-day gap.
How did he know the NYPD would definitely agree to this bombing scheme? If they had refused, what did they intend to do with the bombs that were already being planted?
Dismantle them? Or would they have simply bypassed the police and proceeded in the shadows even if the department hadn't signed off?
Commissioner Stacy looked at Garrett's confident, refined face and remained silent.
Half an hour later, after Garrett had left the precinct, Stacy watched through the window as the man disappeared into the sky on his winged horse. Stacy picked up the desk phone.
However, his hand froze as he started to dial. After a few seconds of hesitation, he set the phone back down, grabbed his personal cell phone, and headed straight for the precinct rooftop.
"Agent Phil, this is George Stacy of the Manhattan Precinct."
Standing on the roof, Stacy spoke into the phone while constantly scanning the sky.
"Commissioner Stacy," the voice of Agent Phil Coulson came through the receiver.
"I wanted to ask if there is actually a man named Garrett in S.H.I.E.L.D.? Nathan Garrett," Stacy whispered, covering the mouthpiece with his hand.
"According to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal confidentiality protocols, I should say no," Agent Phil Coulson said. "But as you know, I've never been great at following the rules. We have a guy by that name."
Stacy breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worried that Garrett wasn't actually with S.H.I.E.L.D., but it seemed he had overthought it.
"That's good, then... By the way, how does S.H.I.E.L.D. plan to handle the dinosaurs and the primitive people they took away? I'm not digging for intel, I just need to give a brief report to the NYPD."
Phil Coulson's voice sounded confused. "As far as I know, thanks to damned bureaucracy, the Department of Defense, animal rights groups, S.H.I.E.L.D.... and a bunch of other organizations I can't even name are still bickering with each other."
"It hasn't even been determined yet if S.H.I.E.L.D. will be the ones taking the dinosaurs and the primitives away."
"I'm afraid we might need to use your precinct's interrogation rooms for a while longer."
With every word Phil Coulson spoke, Commissioner Stacy's heart sank further.
If those transport helicopters from the other day—the ones clearly bearing the S.H.I.E.L.D. eagle emblem—didn't belong to S.H.I.E.L.D., then whose were they?
--
Support me & read more advance & fast update chapter on my pa-treon:
pat reon .c-om/windkaze