Batman should have been glad that Jack Monroe, in the span of just two days, hadn't turned into a criminal like the denizens of Gotham after losing everything—his girlfriend and his parents—in the blink of an eye.
But Batman couldn't bring himself to be happy. He knew that no matter how genuine the smile on Jack Monroe's face appeared, that "one bad day" hadn't truly left Jack with anything to be joyful about.
Deep down, Batman remained wary, watching to see if the corners of Jack Monroe's mouth would stretch wider and wider until they reached his ears. But before that possibility could become a reality, Batman chose to offer a word of comfort:
"You did the right thing. This truck belongs to you; you shouldn't have abandoned it."
"You are a hero."
It sounded almost absurd—that an ordinary man could be called a hero simply for refusing to abandon the van his father left behind.
But the definition of a "hero" had never been reserved solely for those like Superman.
Batman had studied sociology; he remembered a sociologist once saying that there is only one true heroism in the world: to see the world as it is, and to love it nonetheless.
"Romain Rolland said that, right?" Jack Monroe seemed pleased that Batman agreed with him. "Compared to a 'hero' like me, Manhattan needs a hero like you right now, Batman."
Batman shook his head.
"No, I don't consider myself a hero."
Jack Monroe started to say something more, but when he turned his head, Batman had already vanished.
"Whenever you find yourself in trouble, you can choose to contact me," Batman's voice echoed through the air.
Jack quickly leaned his head out of the truck window to look around, catching only a glimpse of a shadow disappearing behind the massive billboard at One Times Square.
"You are a hero, Batman," Jack Monroe muttered, the smile remaining on his face even after Batman's departure. "You, Captain America, and his partner Bucky—you're all heroes."
As he talked to himself, Jack caught something out of the corner of his eye on the passenger seat: a Batarang.
Unlike the various types of Batarangs Batman used in combat, this one was merely shaped like one. It had a button on the back and looked more like an electronic toy.
"Is this what Batman left me to call for help?" Jack Monroe picked up the Batarang, examined it closely, and then carefully tucked it into his pocket.
Click!
He turned the key in the ignition. Bit by bit, Jack Monroe maneuvered the van, continuing his journey with a full load of cargo, driving toward the rest of his life.
Behind the One Times Square billboard, Batman watched as Jack Monroe slowly drove the van toward the Brooklyn Bridge. Only then did he flare his cape and take flight toward another location.
"I hope I'm just overthinking things. The world needs Batman, but it will never need a Joker," Batman said to himself.
Thwack-thwack-thwack.
The sound of helicopter rotors filled the air. Batman looked up to see the armed helicopters that had previously surrounded the Baxter Building—and later scattered to hunt dinosaurs—now flying in a synchronized grid across the sky.
The gunners manning the machine guns were no longer firing wildly. Instead, snipers had taken their place, occasionally picking off targets below with precision shots.
"Tony, did you contact the NYPD?" Batman asked via an encrypted communication channel to Tony Stark.
It took a dozen seconds before Tony Stark's voice responded:
"Correct. Instead of letting those machine gunners waste ammo on dinosaurs, they're better off acting as spotters in the sky. They just need to tell me where the dinosaurs are."
"Care to guess how I got the police to be so cooperative?"
Batman thought for a moment and asked, "Did you reveal your identity?"
"No, I bribed the New York Police Commissioner," Tony Stark said. "Ridiculous, isn't it?"
"Yes," Batman replied.
"I contacted the Commissioner to tell him how to deploy his forces, but he chose to hang up on me," Tony said. "It wasn't until I transferred a massive sum of money from Tony Stark's private account to his personal one that he was willing to follow my lead."
Batman remained silent.
"I see the random portals are being closed. Is everything handled inside the Baxter Building?" Tony asked.
"Yes."
"Then get over to the Empire State Building, fast," Tony shouted. "Dinosaurs have broken inside—along with that green-skinned friend of yours."
"One minute."
The Hulk had been holding back while inside the Baxter Building.
But as he leapt out and saw the swirling portals everywhere, with dinosaurs and primitive men pouring out of them, the Hulk grew angry.
He stopped restraining his strength. A single downward punch was enough to crush an Ankylosaurus, driving its thick, bony armor and the ground beneath it into a crater.
Streets, buildings, vehicles...
The Hulk unleashed his power without reservation. The destruction he left in his wake far exceeded that caused by the giant dinosaurs.
In his rampage, the Hulk killed over thirty large dinosaurs, but he had smashed more than a hundred cars in the process.
The roads he traveled were left with pit after pit; in some places, the ground collapsed entirely, causing underground gas lines to rupture and explode.
Following this path of destruction, the Hulk arrived at the Empire State Building.
He watched with his own eyes as several Allosauri charged into the building. Without hesitation, the Hulk prepared to storm inside to slaughter them.
But he was stopped. It wasn't a dinosaur that blocked him, but Tony Stark, flying in the Mark IV armor.
"Hulk! Calm down! You can't go in there!" Tony Stark was doing his best to prevent the Hulk from entering the landmark.
If it were the Hulk who restrained his power, it might be fine, but Tony had seen the devastation the Hulk had caused across the city from his vantage point in the sky.
If he let the Hulk into the Empire State Building, Tony seriously doubted the skyscraper would remain standing after thirty minutes of the Hulk's fists.
Vrum!
The chest repulsor—strong enough to blast through several consecutive walls of the Baxter Building—slammed into the Hulk. It did nothing but leave a faint singe mark on his green skin.
The Hulk simply rubbed the singe away with his hand, revealing the powerful, green muscle underneath, completely unfazed.
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