Batman looked at Professor Miles Warren, who had turned around, but remained silent.
In the ambient light, Batman could see that Professor Warren's body was covered in thick dark-gray fur, even across his face.
His jaw protruded outward with interlocking, jagged fangs, and thick drops of drool dripped from his mouth onto the front of his white lab coat, leaving a trail of wet streaks.
Rather than a human being, he looked far more like an upright, walking wolf at this moment.
"How long have you been in this state?" Batman asked, his eyes fixed on Warren's bloodshot, non-human eyes as he caught the faint whiff of a gamey stench.
"Since the day Doctor Cho left." Warren's lips peeled back into a wide grin. As the moonlight outside fell over him, it rendered his appearance even more terrifying than Batman's. "Perhaps you don't know who Doctor Cho is. She was my attending physician, Helen Cho."
Batman said nothing. At this moment, Warren still didn't know that Batman was Peter Parker, nor would Batman actively expose his own identity.
Half a month ago, Batman had visited Professor Warren in the hospital under the identity of Peter Parker. That same day, Doctor Cho left Metropolitan General Hospital to join the Parker Group.
And that very night, Luke Cage was ambushed, leading to a prison break at Rikers Island.
Almost immediately after, with virtually no breathers in between, Batman received Tony Stark's distress signal, traveled to the Adirondack Mountains base, and exposed Loki's scheme to intentionally lure him away upon arriving at the facility.
From that day until recently, Batman had been in a state of high-intensity, non-stop exertion.
It was during that window of time that Professor Miles Warren had tampered with himself, transforming into the creature standing here today.
"I haven't harmed anyone, nor have I destroyed anything," Warren said. "Batman, you have no reason to be here interfering with my research."
"You harmed yourself," Batman said in a low voice.
Professor Miles Warren's grin widened further, his blood-red tongue licking over his fangs.
Looking at Batman, he slowly shook his head:
"Waking up after witnessing supernatural powers and nearly losing your life to them, only to do nothing about it—that would be truly harming oneself."
"I am protecting myself right now, Batman."
Batman lowered his gaze. After a few seconds of silence, he turned his eyes toward a culture pod to his left, inside of which was submerged a familiar figure.
Unlike the werewolf-like Miles Warren standing before him, the man inside the pod possessed the exact same body and face as the former Professor Warren.
Even the scars left from the surgical suturing—after Professor Morbius had crushed his shoulder and half his chest—were identical.
Or rather, the man submerged inside the culture pod was the true Professor Warren. As for the werewolf standing in front of Batman, it was hard to say who he really was.
"If I'm not mistaken, this body of yours was cloned using the blood cells of Werewolf by Night, correct?" Batman asked.
Werewolf by Night—Jack Russell—was a helper Captain America had brought back from the UK, and he had now joined the Avengers as well.
The werewolf Warren made no attempt to deny it:
"Correct. I collected countless blood samples left behind during the Battle of Manhattan, and only Werewolf by Night's cells were the most suitable for cloning, as well as the fastest to grow."
"Having human memories implanted into this werewolf body, how does it feel?" Batman continued to ask.
From the beginning to the end, ever since Batman arrived, he had remained standing in the exact same spot. He hadn't launched an attack on Warren, nor had he tried to preach grand principles to him.
Batman simply conversed with Warren as though catching up with an old friend.
"How does it feel? I've never felt better! The feeling of having this kind of power in my own hands is so real, so magnificent."
Warren walked over to the culture pod housing his human body, extending a fur-covered hand to touch the glass:
"But none of that matters. What matters most is that I've achieved immortality."
"Even if this body of mine happens to die someday, they will inherit my memories and continue living, on and on for centuries to come."
Batman nodded:
"It sounds like a workable plan, but none of them are you, Professor. You know that clearly, which is why you kept Professor Warren's original body submerged in that culture pod."
"Because you know that no matter how many memories you inherit, you are not the real Professor Warren—merely a clone inheriting his memories."
"I understand your actions, but I can hardly agree with your perspective."
Motive determines threat level; that had always been Batman's perspective. It was precisely because Warren's initial intention in using cloning technology wasn't to cause destruction or harm others, but rather an extension of his survival instinct following that incident at the Osborn Tower.
That was why Batman chose not to use force, opting instead to talk it out with him.
"Regardless of whether I am the real Warren or not, my objective has already succeeded. That is my answer," the werewolf Warren said. "And you don't need to call me 'Professor' anymore. I prefer a new name: the Jackal."
"Very well, Jackal," Batman corrected himself. "Putting you and the original Professor Warren aside, I have only one question for you."
The Jackal nodded. His beastly instincts told him that Batman held no hostility toward him, so he turned around, pulled up two chairs, and sat down directly across from Batman:
"Let's hear it."
Batman sat down in the chair, looking for all the world like he was simply chatting with a friend:
"If one day you grow old, or suffer an accident—in short, anything that might result in your death—and you need to activate another clone..."
"That new clone will possess all your memories and all your thoughts. But once those memories are implanted into him, you will have to fall into a deep sleep or face death, just like Warren over there."
Batman gestured toward the naked, eyes-closed Warren inside the culture pod as he spoke:
"At that point, will you still be able to say the words: 'He is me'?"
The Jackal's bloodshot eyes stared at Batman. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but swallowed the words back down just as they reached his lips.
The question Batman raised was spot-on. Even if the Jackal claimed again and again that "he would achieve immortality," he knew better than anyone that the only thing achieving immortality was the sequence of implanted memories, not his individual self.
"I will find a solution," the Jackal said after a long silence, his voice turning raspy.
"I'm afraid that isn't a problem that can be solved overnight," Batman said. "And... Jackal, tell me the truth. Did Professor Warren enter that culture pod to sleep willingly?"
The Jackal's heart skipped a beat. He instinctively glanced at Miles Warren inside the culture pod; on Warren's arm was a clear claw mark—the very mark left behind when the Jackal had forcefully thrown him inside.
--
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