Lincoln had been shot in the head long ago.
The man standing guard outside the mine, pressing a hand against Batman's chest, was obviously not Lincoln. Instead, it was the very man responsible for reducing Wakanda to this miserable state: the geologist, Ulysses Klaue.
His Spider-Sense flared wildly, desperately warning Batman of impending danger. The threat didn't just come from Ulysses Klaue—there was someone else lurking inside the weapons factory.
Batman couldn't see who it was, but his Spider-Sense made it clear that he had to wrap this up quickly. He needed to dispatch Klaue immediately so he could confront the other foe without distraction.
Pop!
The sonic weapon on Ulysses Klaue's hand made a sound like a bursting bubble. A split second later, rings of sound waves erupted outward, bearing down on Batman like a solid wall of sonic force.
The trajectory of the sound waves, visible to the naked eye, flashed through the air for only a fraction of a second before slamming into Batman.
No matter how fast Batman was, he couldn't break the sound barrier with sheer physical speed. However, his vast combat experience kicked in instantly, prompting him to leap backward in tandem with the direction of the blast.
At that exact moment, his cape electrified and hardened. Grabbing the inner lining, Batman drove it violently into the cavern floor, turning it into a makeshift shield.
The instant the cape formed a barrier, Batman let go and braced his shoulder against it to withstand the sonic onslaught, his hands flying up immediately.
He was attempting to hack the sonic weapon on Ulysses Klaue's hand.
But after a mere four or five seconds, Batman stopped. The gauntlet computer on his Arkham suit failed to pick up any electronic signals from Klaue.
Why? Batman frowned. The moment Klaue's sonic weapon had made contact with his chest, Batman had already begun analyzing its components.
A sonic emitter, electronic signal transmission, command controls, and an outer casing—even though Klaue's weapon was shaped like a hand, Batman was certain he hadn't misjudged its internal architecture.
Yet, he couldn't detect any electronic signals, rendering him unable to hijack the device. It was as if something was shielding Ulysses Klaue.
With no time to overthink, Batman immediately shifted his strategy.
Retracting the gauntlet computer on his right arm, he raised his forearm and pressed it against the cape.
An instant later, the cape softened again. Batman manipulated it from a flat shield into a sharp, forward-pointing wedge—resembling a cowcatcher on a train locomotive designed to clear tracks.
But while a cowcatcher relies on the massive horsepower of a train to plow through obstacles, behind this cape stood Batman.
The sonic blast seemed endless, completely filling the space between Batman and Klaue, unleashing a relentless torrent of kinetic force against the cape.
Yet, with the cape angled like a wedge and backed by Peter Parker's sheer, superhuman strength, Batman forged forward step by step like an icebreaker cutting through frozen seas.
It was not until Batman was a mere three meters away that Klaue finally cut off the sonic blast.
Klaue intended to fall back to create some distance while switching his weapon's output from a wide-dispersion spread to a concentrated beam.
But the moment the vibrations stopped, the ground shook beneath him. A rapid, almost savage succession of thundering footsteps echoed in instant unison.
Before Klaue could even register what was happening, Batman's charging frame slammed into him, launching him into the air.
Pop!
Almost simultaneously as Klaue went airborne, his finger instinctively pulled the trigger.
A concentrated beam of sonic energy, visible as a brilliant pillar of light, erupted violently from his weapon.
Hurled through the air, Klaue's body hurtled uncontrollably toward the weapons factory, the focused sonic beam spinning wildly alongside his rotating frame.
Boom! Rumble!
Everywhere the concentrated sonic beam swept across the weapons factory, explosions erupted in sequence, sending flames and debris flying.
Thirty-three international mercenaries were stationed inside the factory. They had already grabbed their weapons to provide backup the moment Klaue launched his opening salvo at Batman.
But now, torn apart by the sweeping sonic beam and secondary explosions, the mercenaries shrieked in agony. Rat-tat-tat! Assault rifles fired blindly into the air, driving the chaos within the factory to a fever pitch.
Batman's expression remained unreadable. After launching Klaue with a devastating shoulder check, he whipped his cape back behind him, intending to exploit the fleeting chaos to neutralize the remaining mercenaries.
But the very second Batman moved, slipping into the weapons factory like a phantom—
The noise, the roaring flames, the flying debris, the acrid gunsmoke, the screams of the mercenaries, the airborne Klaue, and the sonic weapon in his hand...
Everything suddenly "glitched," like a computer screen freezing for a split second.
Even Batman found himself frozen mid-stride, locked in his unbalanced posture.
Then, the flames receded, debris flew back up, and bullets rewound into their chambers. Every unfolding event violently snapped backward, reversing to its starting state.
Seized by an invisible force, Ulysses Klaue was hurled backward toward the Vibranium mine. His weapon continued to spew its concentrated beam, obliterating the dirt and stone in its path.
The entire temporal distortion lasted only a heartbeat. The next second, the "glitch" vanished, and Batman regained his freedom of movement.
Except he was no longer in the weapons factory. He was standing inside a magnificent castle.
Batman was seated high upon a grand throne. In the ballroom below, a crowd of scantily clad dancers moved in hypnotic rhythm.
At some point, a soft, delicate hand began to gently caress his face. Turning his head, Batman found himself looking at a stunning blonde woman with piercing blue eyes.
Atop her head rested a green tiara. She wore a green, strapless minidress that seemed crafted from a material softer than armor yet tougher than silk, shimmering with a distinct metallic luster.
Yet, far more captivating than her voluptuous figure was her face. Her features and contours achieved an absolute, flawless perfection. Batman found himself completely devoid of words adequate to describe her countenance—she was the living embodiment of every ideal of beauty the universe had ever conceived.
"You're so tired. Rest now," she whispered, her supple body leaning heavily against him as her warm breath brushed his ear. "The world has already been remade in your image. There is no crime, no injustice, no despair. Only eternal peace..."
"Take off your mask, Batman," she murmured, slowly bringing her crimson lips toward his.
"Prepare for atmospheric reentry!"
Inside the spaceship, Ben Grimm roared at the top of his lungs. He watched in horror as his index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers began fusing together.
His skin was rapidly coarsening, turning a rocky, orange-brown hue and hardening to stone. His body mass grew exponentially, threatening to crush the seat beneath him into a flat pancake.
...and he snapped the spaceship's control stick clean off.
Beside Ben Grimm, Susan—whose body was rapidly glitching in and out of visibility—Johnny, who was spontaneously bursting into flames, and Reed, who was stretching his newly malleable body toward a fire extinguisher to douse Johnny, all shrieked in unison:
"Oh, shit!"
Boom!
The spaceship tore into the atmosphere, the entire vessel engulfed in a raging inferno from the inside out as it transformed into a blazing fireball, hurtling diagonally toward the earth below.
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