Chapter 109: Batman Needs a Partner
Batman and Tony Stark parted on bad terms. Tony didn't stand to see his guest out. Batman didn't offer polite farewells as he had during previous visits.
Taking the elevator directly to the ground floor, Batman found Happy Hogan finally awake. The portly man, whose demeanor reminded Batman somewhat of Gotham detective Harvey Bullock, remained oblivious to what had transpired upstairs.
Happy still wore his characteristic smile, jogging over to Batman's side and escorting him all the way to his car.
"Mr. Parker, do you have time for dinner tonight?" Happy asked, bending down by Batman's car window with a hopeful grin. "You and Tony are both my bosses. I haven't properly thanked you yet."
Without Batman saying much to convince him otherwise, Happy would likely use any future cooperation between Batman and Tony as an opportunity to climb the social ladder.
"Maybe when there's time, Happy."
Batman nodded at Happy, pressed the accelerator to the floor, and returned to the abandoned City Hall subway station.
Inside the containment habitat, Venom sensed something wrong the moment Batman returned.
Although Batman's expression remained unchanged from when he'd left, his focus still absolute, Venom couldn't shake the feeling that disaster was imminent.
Driven by instinct, Venom carefully writhed into the corner of the habitat box, raising only its head to cautiously watch Batman.
Under Venom's watchful gaze, Batman removed his thin windbreaker. Powerful muscles rippled beneath his shirt, visible between the button gaps. Venom couldn't help admiring the physique internally.
But then it remembered the massive black glacier from Batman's memories, and anyone who touched that glacier...
Venom quickly lost interest in such thoughts, because Batman had shed his Peter Parker disguise, changed into the Arkham suit, and now stood before the habitat box, staring silently at it.
"Did... did I do something wrong again?" Venom asked in a cautious whisper. Its voice was unusually deep and rough, completely at odds with its careful, fearful tone.
"Tell me about how you arrived on Earth." Contrary to Venom's expectations, Batman didn't threaten it or immediately deploy the high-frequency noise emitters. He simply asked in a low voice.
"How I arrived?" Venom tilted its head in confusion. "One day I found myself separated from my homeworld's hive consciousness control, so I attached to a meteorite passing near the planet. I drifted through space for who knows how long until I finally discovered this planet had life."
"Then I came here."
Batman's methods for detecting human deception wouldn't work on Venom, but his eyes carried immense pressure.
"What about other matters? Did any other symbiotes arrive on Earth with you?"
Venom shook its head vigorously, wobbling like unstable gelatin.
"No, I'm absolutely certain about that."
"I'm unique in this world."
Venom couldn't help feeling somewhat proud as it spoke.
But Batman simply raised his arm, activating the Arkham suit's miniature computer to pull up footage of the white creature from the Queens precinct, then asked, "Then where did this come from?"
The image clearly showed another symbiote, the inverse of Venom's pitch-black body with thin white veining. This one had a pearl-white body with minimal black markings, its face similarly dark.
"It's my offspring." Venom stared at the image for several seconds before stating with certainty.
"When did you produce this offspring?" Batman closed the image. He already had clues about the white symbiote's origin but needed confirmation from Venom.
"When you dropped those flashbangs, the small piece of symbiote matter you scraped off me split into offspring..."
Venom felt a chill run through it and quickly explained. "I didn't mean to cause you trouble! It's my instinct as a symbiote!"
Batman showed no emotional response to Venom producing offspring. Instead, he asked the real purpose of this conversation.
"Now I need to know: is there a connection between you and your offspring that would allow you to find it, or allow it to find you?"
"How did you know?" Venom asked reflexively, then realizing its attitude seemed wrong, quickly added, "Without this lead shell, I think I could sense it."
Venom extended its head slightly with anticipation.
It assumed Batman wanted to use it to locate the white symbiote, which would mean leaving this cramped habitat box to bond with Batman's body again.
'If I could merge with him...'Venom couldn't help fantasizing.
"What information do you know about it?" Batman asked.
"I don't know," Venom replied with confusion again, trying to guide Batman toward accepting symbiosis. "I can only use my full abilities when attached to you. Right now, I can't do anything."
But Batman stopped the conversation and began using leftover tools and materials from the habitat construction for another project.
He was adding a high-frequency sonic matrix to Venom's habitat box.
It wasn't a weapon to attack Venom, but rather to generate a constantly fluctuating layer of high-frequency noise.
Venom continued watching Batman work in confusion. After installing several devices on the habitat box, Batman tucked it under his arm and descended into the sewer tunnels beneath the City Hall station.
Without the Batmobile, Batman moved through the sewers on foot at high speed, heading straight for Rikers Island before continuing to North Brother Island.
Batman concealed the habitat box first, then entered the island's laboratory.
Inside, Dr. Otto Octavius, Professor Connors, and Dr. Banner were all wearing white lab coats, working in coordinated collaboration.
"Batman? I thought you didn't have time to come today," Dr. Banner greeted first.
"I need to create a low-temperature plasma field."
Batman stated his purpose simply and directly, quickly getting to work using the laboratory equipment.
Since both Dr. Octavius and Dr. Banner were nuclear physicists, Batman had purchased virtually every physics material and equipment available on the market. The lab had everything he needed.
The high-frequency sonic matrix was Plan A, using continuously generated high-frequency noise to prevent external detection of Venom inside the habitat box.
The low-temperature plasma field he was creating now was Plan B. This high-energy field could effectively ionize and neutralize any special pheromone molecules Venom might emit, destroying them before they could form effective signals.
Dr. Banner was currently the least busy of the three scientists. He wandered over to Batman's side, watching him work silently on the plasma field.
"Need help?"
Batman glanced at Dr. Banner. He hesitated for a few seconds, then decided to give Banner something to do.
"Doctor, I've sent data from biological samples I collected to your computer. I need you to create a tool that can simulate this organism's signal based on that data."
During the time Venom had bonded with Batman, his Arkham suit had collected various data readings.
This was Batman's Plan C: creating a lure that simulated Venom's biological signature to mislead the white symbiote that might establish some connection with Venom.
"Biological sample data?" Dr. Banner's first reaction was wariness. "Batman, I don't want to see you doing anything similar to what General Ross does. I've told you that before."
Batman raised his head, pulling up the footage of the white symbiote from the Queens precinct to show Dr. Banner again.
"Doctor, this is an extraterrestrial organism. The tragedy at the FEAST shelter two nights ago is partially connected to it."
"I have another urgent matter to attend to, so I hope to temporarily lure it to an unpopulated area and prevent it from rampaging through New York's streets causing destruction."
Dr. Banner watched the footage Batman provided repeatedly. His expression showed no fear. Instead, he volunteered, "If this thing appears and starts causing destruction, I can intervene to stop it."
Batman stopped his work, looking seriously at Dr. Banner. "No, quite the opposite, Dr. Banner. You need to stay as far away from it as possible."
"Oh?" Dr. Banner didn't understand Batman's reasoning. He returned to his computer, frowning at the data Batman had sent. "Where did this data come from?"
"This extraterrestrial organism can bond with human hosts," Batman said. "Its parent attached to me. My suit recorded its data."
Dr. Banner shook his head repeatedly. He wasn't afraid of much else, even if he was, the Hulk inside him feared nothing.
But this type of organism that could bond with human bodies was something Dr. Banner preferred to avoid entirely.
Hearing "attached to me," Dr. Octavius, who had been busy testing the Scorpion tail nearby, also looked over and spoke up.
"Forgive my directness, Batman, but you seem to have more tasks than you can handle alone. Perhaps you should have a partner."
Batman's mind flashed to images of a figure in a red cape and several Robins. His voice remained steady. "I'll consider it."
Time passed quickly into the afternoon. Batman gathered the lure Dr. Banner had created, his completed low-temperature plasma field, some chemical agents, and Venom's habitat box, then returned through the sewers to the City Hall station.
Throughout this time, Batman had been monitoring news broadcasts. He hadn't heard any reports of symbiote attacks on civilians.
Venom had been carried back and forth in Batman's arms. Even through the thick lead shell, it sensed now wasn't the time to speak up, simply accepting its fate.
Batman needed to infiltrate the SHIELD base to access the internal network and obtain information about the handlers and documentation related to the Stark weapons leaks. But Venom's presence meant he couldn't leave with confidence.
Even with all his preparations, he still couldn't be one hundred percent certain that the white symbiote wouldn't find Venom.
Unfortunately, both matters were critically important and required urgent completion. Faced with this impossible situation of being pulled in two directions, Batman couldn't help recalling Dr. Octavius's words.
"Batman, you should have a partner."
His gaze remained calm as he prepared to enter SHIELD, but his mind inevitably wandered to thoughts of the figure in the red cape symbolizing hope, and those several Robins who never listened but remained his reliable partners.
If they were here, Batman wouldn't need to handle everything alone. Infiltrating SHIELD was a simple task the Robins could easily accomplish.
But Batman now existed in a world without Robin, without his World's Finest partner. Batman could only complete everything alone.
As for the three scientists on North Brother Island, Batman's relationship with them currently remained purely cooperative.
Besides, whether dealing with Venom or infiltrating SHIELD, delegating these tasks to them wouldn't reduce the danger level at all. If anything, various accidents might increase the difficulty.
***
advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces