Chapter 91: Horror
Queens, as New York's second most populous district after Brooklyn, had a crime rate no lower than Hell's Kitchen due to its racial diversity.
After leaving Hell's Kitchen, Batman headed straight to Queens. His wide cape swept through narrow alleys from above, searching for possible criminals.
All traceable serial numbers on the Stark Industries weapons left behind by Black Cat had been ground off using extremely professional techniques—confirmed to be the work of Schulman, this self-taught engineer and inventor.
"An inventor's sudden disappearance—either kidnapping or voluntary disappearance."
"Either way wouldn't leave no trace... Barbara, retrieve all recent surveillance footage from Queens and Manhattan. Search for Schulman."
Batman spoke quietly to the Prophet AI equipped in his Arkham suit.
He now stood atop the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, fully deploying Peter Parker's superhuman hearing to capture sounds carried on the wind.
Bang.
An extremely faint sound rang out in the distance—nearly inaudible to ordinary people.
But to Peter's ears, this was as obvious as a light in pitch darkness. Batman immediately turned toward the sound source.
Using his intimate knowledge of New York's entire map and understanding of architecture to calculate echoes, he constructed a preliminary model of sound propagation in his brain, pinpointing the source to an industrial area bordering an old residential district several blocks away.
'Not a standard gunpowder weapon. Energy release unstable, accompanied by obvious medium tearing sound.' Batman thought. 'An energy weapon, and a crude version.'
Whoosh!
Batman jumped from the Unisphere. Airborne, he spread his cape, approaching the sound source rapidly like a phantom.
Batman had heard similar sounds countless times when battling Apokolips forces and Brainiac's minions, but compared to energy weapons wielded by Parademons, that sound definitely qualified as a crude version.
Bang! Bang!
Two more gunshots. Batman drew closer, hearing more clearly.
Using webbing replaced with black for nighttime use, Batman's figure didn't gradually descend under gravity's influence but instead rose higher, finally landing atop the tallest building near the sound source.
Soundlessly, a thin visor covered Batman's eye sockets. Faint white light replaced his originally pitch-black eyes.
Now Batman bore no resemblance to the vampire widely rumored throughout New York, but those white-glowing eyes made him even more unnerving—like a ghost in the night sky.
Night vision, thermal imaging, and sonar activated simultaneously. The Arkham suit rapidly displayed scanned images on the visor.
According to the Arkham suit's scanning and perspective, three shadows in a back alley were test-firing a peculiarly shaped gun at an abandoned transformer.
Each shot erupted unstable light from the barrel, accompanied by obvious arc jumping.
"Schulman's handiwork?"
His gaze turned elsewhere. Within two hundred meters of those three, no other people existed.
The abandoned transformer was already enclosed by municipal fencing with danger signs posted. This wasn't a residential area.
Batman silently leaped from above, using darkness as cover, descending with barely noticeable wind sound behind the three, then tapping one person's shoulder.
The person Batman tapped violently shuddered. From the corner of his eye seeing the pitch-black palm on his shoulder, he let out a scream:
"Oh God!?!"
This scream startled his two companions, who instinctively looked behind.
Under cover of pitch-black night, Batman's faintly white-glowing eyes, sharply upright ears, and the eerie combination of exposed chin made one person scream again:
"Not God—a ghost!"
Among the three, only the one who didn't scream—remaining relatively calm—raised his weapon. A black-and-white bullet shot almost point-blank at Batman's face.
But the bullet hit nothing. Batman who'd been standing behind them vanished without trace, as though he'd never been there.
"Did you see that? A ghost stood behind me..." the person whose shoulder was grabbed said tremulously.
"Saw it, but I think I shot him dead?"
The one who'd fired back looked uncertain, glancing around. Where was any trace of that black shadow?
"Let's go back quickly. Just tell Horror we tested the weapons—no problems. I don't want to stay here any longer," the third person said.
The three reached agreement, fleeing in a scramble.
None discovered Batman's figure constantly circling around them, and listening devices and tracking equipment had been planted on them in that earlier instant.
"Horror? That's an adjective, but just now they used it as a title."
"They went out to test weapons, deliberately choosing an abandoned transformer far from residential areas... Is Horror the person who made this weapon?"
"Is it Schulman? Or some other existence I don't know about?"
Batman's brain raced. Then he spoke quietly to Prophet AI:
"Also that peculiar black-and-white energy just now... Barbara, analyze that energy's fluctuations, energy structure, and spectral characteristics under infrared-ultraviolet."
The three got in a car, driving for over half an hour before stopping below a residential building.
Batman also soundlessly landed atop a building opposite.
"Bruce, after analysis, this energy shows cold absorption properties in infrared wavelengths, while being abnormally active in ultraviolet wavelengths."
During the half hour Batman followed the three, Prophet AI had already conducted preliminary analysis on the energy fired.
"Continue analysis, Barbara. No more reports. I'll review later myself."
Batman spoke quietly, then opened the computer on his Arkham suit's arm, hacking into New York's police system to query this residential building's recent rental and sale information.
Information about this residential building in the police system looked completely normal.
According to police system displays, this building housed forty-seven households. The most recent rental information was three months ago—a young mother and child moved in.
But this completely contradicted what Batman saw.
The Arkham suit's infrared and X-ray clearly showed inside this building—counting the three who just entered—only four people existed total. Other residents weren't in the building at all.
Looking at the pitch-black residential building—even after the three entered, no lights turned on—Batman didn't hesitate. With an extremely faint bat-claw launch sound, he flew inside.
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