"What is it?" Venom Robin asked, his guard immediately going up.
"I don't know what happened either, but I feel as though someone is calling out to me from the Statue of Liberty," the Black Knight said.
"Let's go take a look." Venom Robin enthusiastically slung his double-bladed giant axe onto his back and pulled the Black Knight along.
"Wait, what if it's a trap?" The Black Knight felt a little uneasy, but his strength was no match for Robin, whose height only reached his waist.
"I have a plan," Venom Robin said, flicking his crimson, elongated tongue at the Black Knight. "I used to run with the old Bat, after all."
The Statue of Liberty was not too far from their current location. It was a distance of a little over ten kilometers to the southwest, and they only needed to cross the Hudson River to get there.
However, by the time the two arrived, not a single soul could be seen on the island where the Statue of Liberty stood.
"Dane, are you playing me?" Venom Robin leaped up onto the torch of the Statue of Liberty, took a lap around to confirm there wasn't a third person there, and then ran back down to interrogate the Black Knight.
The Black Knight did not answer. Instead, his eyes were glued straight to the surface of the Hudson River.
"Hey!" Seeing that the Black Knight was ignoring him, Venom Robin reached out and gave him a shove.
The shove made the Black Knight stagger. Regaining his composure, he looked toward Robin, his voice filled with bewilderment:
"She's in the water."
Robin immediately craned his neck to peer into the river, but unfortunately, he couldn't see anything at all.
Just as Robin was about to press further, the Black Knight suddenly spoke:
"She's coming."
As soon as his voice fell, a loud splash echoed!
The surface of the Hudson River violently churned, and a vortex rapidly materialized out of nowhere.
From within the vortex, a female figure draped in a transparent white veil slowly emerged from the water.
Her long golden hair fell over her shoulders, and her white veil was adorned with hints of green vines. The morning sun filtered through the veil, outlining the contours of her silhouette and casting a golden trim around her.
The vortex on the water's surface quickly vanished, but the woman did not sink back into the river. Instead, she stood barefoot upon the surface, rings of ripples undulating outward with the slight movement of her toes.
"The first descendant of the Whitman family to wield the Ebony Blade in centuries." Her very first words exposed the Black Knight's true identity.
The Black Knight took a cautious step back, while Venom Robin stepped forward and unslung his double-bladed giant axe.
"I am Vivienne," the woman standing on the water said. [Translator's Note: Vivienne is the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian legend.] "So much time has passed, it seems you no longer recognize me."
A realization struck Dane Whitman, the Black Knight:
"I indeed do not know you, nor have I ever heard of you... but I am indeed a descendant of the Whitman family."
"When Merlin forged this blade, I was right by his side." Vivienne raised her hand and pointed at the Ebony Blade in the Black Knight's grasp.
The Black Knight's heart skipped a beat, and he instantly thought of the curse of the Ebony Blade:
"Can you tell me what the curse on this sword is?"
"A curse? What curse?" Vivienne seemed somewhat surprised. "I did not call you here for matters regarding a curse, but rather to grant you a companion to fight alongside."
"No, wait," Venom Robin felt that something was off. "Give me two minutes, I'm calling someone."
He intended to call Batman over to see what exactly was going on with this Vivienne.
"There is no need to worry, little one," Vivienne said with a smile toward Venom Robin.
The white veil billowed across Vivienne's body with the morning breeze, exposing large expanses of snowy-white skin to the air.
But Venom Robin was not buying into it. Since she wouldn't let him call the old Bat over, he immediately gripped his double-bladed giant axe, preparing to give Vivienne a piece of his mind.
Yet, before Venom Robin could even swing his axe, Vivienne simply lifted a finger. The light veil slipped from her body, falling into the water, and a wall of water several meters high rose out of nowhere, drenching Robin from head to toe.
By the time Venom Robin was throwing a fit and shouting, preparing to charge forward again, he realized that Vivienne had already vanished.
However, the water's surface was not empty; instead, a winged, reddish-brown warhorse stood there.
Like Vivienne, it stood upon the water as though treating the liquid surface as solid ground.
Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, stared blankly at the warhorse, watching as it trod across the water step by step until it reached him, gently rubbing its head against his shoulder.
"Did that woman just turn into this?" Seeing that the warhorse's rear was facing him, Venom Robin quickly turned his face away.
The Black Knight gave Venom Robin a strange look:
"No, she is the Lady of the Lake. This horse is a gift left by my ancestor for future Black Knights. Its name is Strider." [Translator's Note: In Marvel Comics, the Black Knight's winged horse is named Strider.]
"Oh." Only then did Venom Robin turn his face back around. He felt it was a bit of a pity that the horse hadn't been transformed from that Lady of the Lake or whatever.
Strider's body was equipped with a saddle and reins, which bore golden patterns nearly identical to those once used by Nathan Garrett.
Although Dane Whitman had never ridden a horse before, the moment his palm stroked Strider's head, he felt as if he had long since mastered how to ride and how to fight on horseback.
And so, he leaped onto the mount and yanked the reins.
Two streams of white vapor snorted from Strider's nostrils. Amidst a resounding neigh, its front hooves reared high into the air, and its wings snapped open.
Whoosh!
With a slight flap of its wings, the warhorse soared into the sky, circling once around the Statue of Liberty.
"Robin!" Dane Whitman shouted loudly, a smile he couldn't hold back plastered across his face.
"Stop shouting! Big deal, you have a horse," Robin spat. The symbiote matter on his back rapidly squirmed, growing two dark-red, membranous wings.
He couldn't fly properly yet, but he could manage to glide using the wings.
"Go to Times Square and meet up with the others," Robin said to the Black Knight, who was continuously circling in the air, as he leaped onto the crown of the Statue of Liberty.
The Black Knight casually extended the Ebony Blade into the air beside him, as if sliding it into an invisible sheath.
Then, gripping the reins with both hands, he gave them a shake and took off toward Times Square first.
Venom Robin snorted, then jumped off the head of the Statue of Liberty, opening his wings to glide through the air in pursuit.
It was just that the force he used for this jump was a bit too great, leaving a hole where he stepped on the Statue of Liberty's crown of thorns.
However, Venom Robin still didn't care about it; after all, he wasn't an American.
At the Baxter Building, Iron Man, Tony Stark, looked down at the Fantastic Four, who were utilizing their respective abilities to battle the Hydra soldiers.
"Peter, according to my observations, the situation you were worried about with the Fantastic Four hasn't occurred," Tony said over the encrypted channel.
"Very good, Tony. You may fight alongside them now, but remember to stay vigilant," Batman's voice came through shortly after.
"Vigilant of them?" Iron Man swooped down, landing right among the Fantastic Four. He fired a repulsor blast that sent a Hydra soldier flying to state his allegiance, while asking in a low voice.
"Vigilant of them, and..."
Batman's words cut off before he could even finish his sentence, and the encrypted communication disconnected.
He wasn't trying to leave Tony hanging on purpose. Rather, at that exact juncture of their conversation, the Lizard Professor—who was lurking in Manhattan's sewer system—had utilized the method arranged by Batman to successfully locate the Red Hulk and the Leader!
"Hulk!"
Beside Batman, the Hulk, who had been sitting cross-legged on the ground with his chin propped in his hands, widened his eyes and bolted upright, his muscles and bones cracking loudly like claps of thunder.
"It's your turn!" Batman said to the Hulk.
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