Chapter 116: Guardian of Tragedy
"BREAKING NEWS: Stark Industries CEO Tony Stark ambushed during weapons demonstration in Middle East. Military conducting full-scale search operation."
The Daily Bugle's printing presses ran at full capacity, flooding New York with newspapers. Nearly everyone in the city grabbed a copy, desperate to know what had happened.
Half a day had passed since Tony Stark's ambush and disappearance, but the impact showed no signs of diminishing despite the rushed timeline.
Stark Industries' stock price plummeted in free fall. The company had yet to issue any official response.
Batman no longer needed to purchase copies of the Daily Bugle for intelligence. After acquiring the Oracle AI, he'd hacked directly into the newspaper's internal systems and installed a concealed backdoor program.
The Oracle AI now compiled all intelligence gathered by the Daily Bugle and forwarded it directly to Batman.
Until he possessed his own satellite network, comprehensive city-wide surveillance infrastructure, and Peter Parker's identity had accumulated sufficient connections, the Daily Bugle's vast network of reporters and contacts remained a resource Batman could exploit.
But now, back in Manhattan's abandoned City Hall subway station, Batman wasn't reviewing the media outlet's latest reports.
He'd learned about the incident before everyone else—everyone except Obadiah and the terrorist organization responsible.
Batman was currently analyzing the encrypted email the terrorist group had sent Obadiah, attempting to reverse-trace their exact location.
Simultaneously, the Oracle AI processed footage from Tony Stark's worldwide broadcast demonstration of the Jericho missile, analyzing the mountain formations visible in the background to pinpoint the specific location.
The AI also searched online for any traces of the symbol that had hung behind Tony Stark in the video—ten rings forming a larger circle with two crossed swords at the center.
"Ajax Security's logistics records show over a hundred shipments to different Middle Eastern regions in the past decade. Financial records jump through layers of trusts and shell funds."
"The records narrow down Tony Stark's approximate location, but it's far from sufficient."
Batman studied the Venom symbiote in its containment unit, deep in thought. Venom had compressed itself into a ball, resembling a blob of dark jelly.
Once again, Batman felt stretched impossibly thin.
The crisis with Tony Stark's weapons flooding the black market had consumed critical time. The listening device and micro-tracker Batman had planted on Schultz had become useless when the man changed clothes. Schultz had vanished again.
Both devices now sat in a trash can in Queens.
The white symbiote spawned from Eddie Brock remained missing. The biological pheromone lure had triggered no response.
Until that problem was resolved, Batman couldn't travel to the Middle East to rescue Tony Stark.
Beyond that, a chain of interconnected problems demanded his attention—Obadiah, Stark Industries, Hydra, SHIELD, and more.
Even the three scientists on North Brother Island required daily visits to prevent catastrophic confrontations between Doctor Connors and the Hulk.
As Batman contemplated his next moves, the Oracle AI completed its search. The symbol from the video email belonged to an organization called the "Ten Rings."
But according to the Oracle's findings, Ten Rings cells operated across nearly every continent. These scattered branches maintained virtually no communication with each other and answered to no central authority.
This discovery exponentially increased the difficulty of locating Tony Stark. Batman couldn't use intelligence from other cells to track down the specific group holding Tony.
But Batman never surrendered. He cross-referenced financial trails, logistics routes, email transmission addresses, and background details from the broadcast footage, systematically narrowing the possible area where Tony might be imprisoned.
Then an alarm pierced the silence. The biological lure Batman had left in the Adirondack Mountains had been triggered.
Batman had rigged the lure with flame and high-frequency noise defenses that would activate automatically if the white symbiote approached or made contact.
Now both systems had triggered simultaneously—meaning Batman's countermeasures had proven ineffective against it.
Batman's first instinct was to head for North Brother Island and preemptively calm the three scientists, ensuring they wouldn't take any rash action.
He couldn't risk having a giant lizard or the Hulk suddenly appear while confronting the white symbiote.
"If this were a different type of opponent, and if I'd established more reliable trust with Hulk and Connors, I could let them handle it."
"But right now, I can only rely on myself."
Batman didn't hesitate. He immediately prepared to depart. After considering the Venom symbiote compressed in its containment unit, he tucked the box under one arm and moved swiftly through the subway tunnels and sewer systems toward Rikers Island.
The alarm had also reached Venom through its containment. It raised what passed for a head, watching Batman sprint silently through the sewers, and intuited what had happened.
"That thing showed up?"
Batman glanced down at the containment unit tucked against his torso. Through the transparent reinforced glass, he watched the symbiote's mass wobble with each stride.
"Yes." Batman fell silent for a moment before answering, his voice a low rumble.
Hearing Batman finally acknowledge it, and having confirmation that the white symbiote had appeared, Venom immediately grew excited.
"Let me handle it! Just become my host and we'll pulverize that thing together!"
"No." Batman's response was immediate.
Within minutes, Batman had crossed from Manhattan to Queens.
"But you can't defeat it alone," Venom insisted urgently. "Symbiote offspring are always stronger than their parents. Unless it wants you as a host too—then you could resurrect Martin Li and kill him again in front of it."
"That might make it submit like I did."
Batman caught the critical detail in Venom's statement. His footsteps halted.
"Offspring are always stronger? Comprehensively enhanced, or do your weaknesses disappear in the next generation?"
Batman needed confirmation of what the pheromone tracker had already suggested.
Venom tilted upward, only able to see Batman's exposed jaw beneath the mask from its angle.
"I don't know."
Batman regarded the creature that claimed ignorance about everything unless he agreed to become its host. The confrontation with the white symbiote might prove more difficult than anticipated.
During the brief period Venom had bonded with him, Batman hadn't utilized any of the symbiote's abilities, maintaining constant mental pressure to keep it suppressed within his body.
But Batman clearly remembered the strength enhancement Venom provided. Compared to Peter's current thirty-ton lifting capacity, Venom's strength alone exceeded eighty tons.
The raw power increase didn't particularly concern Batman. But if the white symbiote had also shed Venom's vulnerabilities to high-frequency sound and extreme heat, the difficulty of defeating it would increase exponentially.
Increase—not make impossible. Visiting North Brother Island to manage the scientists was part of his contingency planning.
Moments later, Batman leaped from the Rikers Island shoreline, gliding toward North Brother Island on his cape.
"I could do that too. Even more than your cape—" Venom muttered inside its containment.
Batman ignored the comment this time. As before, he concealed the containment unit and entered alone into the laboratory hidden within North Brother Island's dense forest—a converted summer estate.
This time all three scientists wore white lab coats, surgical masks, and protective goggles. They huddled together over research documents, none speaking a word.
Thud. Thud.
Batman's heavy footsteps echoed without concealment. All three scientists looked up simultaneously.
"Batman," Banner spoke first. "According to our research, Professor Connors' condition has been encoded into his genetic structure. Unless we perform extensive genetic modification, there's no way to cure him completely."
"But that's only theoretically the sole method of treatment. The success rate is less than one percent."
Professor Connors remained silent. He removed his goggles and mask, unable to hide the despair etched across his face.
Otto shook his head sympathetically, regarding Connors with unmistakable pity.
"There's more than one solution." Batman's voice rumbled low. "Professor Connors, lizard DNA flows through your blood, but your heart remains human. If Plan A fails, we start again from Z."
"Don't question my authority or Dr. Banner's," Connors snapped, anger flashing across his features. "We're out of options. I—I can't return to being a complete human being. I'm destined to remain a monster forever."
"No, Professor." Batman raised his head slightly and stepped directly in front of Connors. "Curt Connors is dead. That's the reality you must accept."
The moment those words left Batman's mouth, Banner tensed beside them, fingers moving toward the buttons of his lab coat. Otto quietly began backing away.
Connors stared at Batman in confusion, unable to understand why Batman would declare him dead when he stood there alive.
"But you haven't disappeared. You're now something more complex, more powerful. You can choose to let that power consume you and become a true monster."
Batman stood before Professor Connors without any defensive posture, as though completely certain the professor wouldn't transform into a giant lizard over a few harsh words.
"Or you can become the first person to master that power. Become a guardian who ensures no one else experiences your tragedy."
---
Knock, knock, knock.
Having lost his "Shocker" suit but finally escaped the scrutiny of Mister Negative and Batman, Herman Schultz stood at the door of a renowned electronics engineer.
"Yes?"
The door opened with a creak. A woman wearing an apron regarded Schultz with confusion.
"My name is Herman Schultz." He introduced himself carefully. "I'd like to meet with Mr. Toomes—the electronics engineer who's dedicated his career to developing personal flight technology. He's quite famous in scientific circles."
Adrian Toomes. The Vulture.
SLAM.
The door slammed shut with force.
"I know Adrian Toomes is home! I want to collaborate with him!" Schultz called at the closed door.
No response came.
Schultz stood in place, thinking for a moment before trying again.
"I know Mr. Toomes' dream—to fly like a bird. I've brought a method that might actually work!"
Several seconds passed. Then the door creaked open again. This time, instead of the aproned woman, a suspicious-looking Adrian Toomes stood in the doorway.
"Come in. You've got three minutes."