Happy Hogan stood in front of a Rolls-Royce wearing sunglasses, watching the plane glide slowly to a stop. Pepper Potts stood beside him, craning her neck in anticipation.
As the plane's cabin door opened, Tony Stark slowly walked down, supported by the bearded man from whom he had borrowed a phone earlier.
Happy tried his best to keep his expression serious, but even with the sunglasses on, the corners of his mouth kept curling up, betraying his mood.
Pepper stood off to the side, lips pressed together without a word, her eyes only slightly red.
Tony Stark was just like the playboy he used to be, carefree and cynical. He walked straight up to Pepper and looked at her:
"Your eyes are red. Shedding tears for your long-lost boss?"
"Tears of joy. Your return means I don't have to be unemployed and go job hunting," Pepper said, genuinely thrilled to see Tony Stark back safe and sound. "I hate job hunting."
"Vacation's over."
Tony Stark said, then turned to Happy, who was pretending to be a stern and imposing bodyguard but had been grinning ear-to-ear for half the day already:
"Happy, I'm glad you weren't snoring."
Tony Stark was teasing Happy about how he always dozed off in the lobby of Stark Tower.
Happy took off his sunglasses and looked at Tony Stark. He really wanted to give the guy a big bear hug, but considering their boss-driver dynamic, Happy held himself back.
"Happy, take us to the hospital," Pepper said to him.
Before Happy could agree, Tony Stark cut in:
"No, no hospital."
Pepper and Happy both turned to the Stark Industries playboy, who continued:
"Right now, I just want to do two things. One is eat a cheeseburger, and the other is hold a press conference."
The former City Hall subway station, now the Batcave.
Batman had received word from Silver Sable that Tony Stark had been safely brought back. He sat alone at the Batcave workstation, repeatedly watching the morning's news footage.
He had only left Narrows Island a few minutes ago, after thoroughly examining Eddie Brock from head to toe and dumping him at the doorstep of the Queens precinct.
Just as Batman had suspected, Anti-Venom hadn't fully died. Like Venom, it had left behind a sliver of symbiote matter hidden in Eddie Brock's bloodstream.
With the modified metal rig and attached instruments that Dr. Octavius had spent all night building, Batman hadn't needed much effort this time to extract that strand of white symbiote matter from Eddie's body.
At that moment, the strand of white symbiote was stored in a transparent cubic glass container right in front of Batman, constantly shifting into various shapes.
"Dad, what are you thinking about?"
Venom's voice rang out beside Batman's ear.
Batman glanced at the Venom head protruding from behind his shoulder, reached for four chocolate bars, unwrapped them one by one, and handed them over.
"This morning, while I was fighting Anti-Venom on Bat Island, with Narrows Island between us, something happened on Rikers Island."
Batman seemed to be explaining it to Venom, or perhaps using his analysis to teach it:
"After Mr. Negative's death, Kingpin's former subordinate 'Schriller' Shulman created new weapons again, and this time, he had an accomplice."
As he spoke, Batman turned on all the screens at the workstation, filling every monitor with news footage and videos. He said to Venom, who had stuffed all four chocolate bars into its mouth and was chomping away noisily:
"Robin, tell me what you see."
"I see a masked guy in iron-gray battle armor and another guy in emerald-green clothes who can fly in the sky snatching a criminal from the prison."
Venom stared closely at the news footage as it spoke.
"What you're describing is all obvious stuff, Robin."
Batman showed no dissatisfaction with Venom's complete layman's excitement. He zoomed in on the footage while guiding it to various corners of the screens, saying:
"We haven't been to the scene yet, but that doesn't mean we can't gather enough intelligence from the news."
Venom blinked its eyes at Batman, waiting for its all-powerful dad to analyze something from these few frames.
Batman didn't disappoint Venom's expectations. He started from scratch, analyzing for it:
"Based on the damage patterns, Shulman's Schrill Gauntlets were primarily targeting Rikers Prison's load-bearing walls and surveillance towers, not the guards."
"He was creating panic and chaos to structurally enable escape, not pursuing maximum casualties."
Footage: As he said this, Batman pointed to the news images he had opened on separate screens.
"These frames are sequential. Look at that green flyer—what's special about his flight path?"
Venom stared blankly at the news footage. It couldn't see anything.
"He was circling above the prison but didn't directly participate in the attack. He has no offensive weapons on his hands or body," Batman said. "He's observing and providing pickup, and he's the operation's commander."
"These are photos taken by bystanders on Rikers Island. Pay attention to the prisoners who escaped after Shulman wrecked the prison."
"They seem chaotic, but there's no trampling or collisions. That means someone was directing them on what to do. Although we can't hear specific audio in the news videos, it's highly likely the green flyer was giving the orders."
"Chocolate is so delicious..." Venom swallowed the last bite of chocolate, nodding vigorously as it listened to Batman, as if it were actually paying close attention.
The person Shulman had snatched from Rikers Prison was Scorpion Mac. Batman hadn't seen a clear front view in the news footage, but even the side profile was enough for him to recognize.
"Shulman broke into the prison just to rescue Scorpion Mac, yet he completely ignored his former boss, Kingpin."
"What is he trying to do?"
"From the intel I've gathered before, Shulman and Scorpion Mac weren't close enough for this."
"Shulman made new Schrill Gauntlets, and his accomplice's flight suit is making its debut... Did Shulman prepare a set of gear for Scorpion Mac too?"
"Kingpin is the only prisoner who didn't escape after the incident at Rikers Prison today. What is he plotting? Just the green flyer's commands from the sky wouldn't necessarily make that group of prisoners so obedient and orderly as they fled through the breach."
Batman gradually sank into his detective rhythm. He stared at the guy in the green flight suit. Since most of the photos and videos in the news were taken by bystanders on Rikers Island, the images weren't clear.
Batman could only discern from the blurry footage that the flyer's age was between thirty and sixty, and he had a very prominent hooked nose.
"To be sought out by Shulman means he either has money or the ability to collaborate with Shulman on creating the Schrill Gauntlets and flight suit."
"Who is he?"
Batman frowned in thought. Just as he was about to head to Rikers Island disguised as a reporter to get specific physical descriptions of the flyer from eyewitnesses, Oracle AI suddenly detected keywords online:
"Bruce, Tony Stark—just rescued by Silver Sable—has held a press conference and mentioned the word 'weapons.'"
"Shall I play the live feed from the on-site photographers for you?"