Chapter 5: I Am Batman
Black Cat hung inverted from the gantry crane. Her flawless face flushed crimson. The shadow had bound her so tightly she couldn't break free.
She tried to shout, but her mouth was sealed by white, sticky webbing, allowing only muffled whimpers to escape.
Black Cat still had no idea what person, or what monster, she'd fallen into the hands of. A trace of sorrow welled up in her heart.
'This was my first mission since joining Kingpin's organization, and I've completely botched it...'
Her sorrow wasn't about failing the mission, but that her revenge plan had been aborted just as it was getting started.
"Who is Kingpin? Why are you seeking revenge?"
The low voice appearing without warning beside her ear startled Black Cat.
She steadied herself, her eyes rolling wildly, hoping to find the speaker's figure within her limited field of vision. Unfortunately, she failed. Everything within sight was pitch-black abandoned factory. She couldn't see who was speaking.
"Mmph."
Black Cat whimpered twice. Her mouth was still sealed. She couldn't speak at all.
The next moment Black Cat's body lightened. After a disorienting spin, Batman set her steadily on the ground.
Then the webbing on her mouth and body was torn away. She regained her freedom.
Pretending to casually stretch her limbs, Black Cat simultaneously surveyed her surroundings discreetly. Unfortunately, she still couldn't see who had rescued her from Squid-Man. She could only ask the empty air before her:
"You just untie me like this? Aren't you afraid I'll run away?"
"Answer my question: Who is Kingpin? Why are you seeking revenge?" The low voice whispered like a devil from a nightmare.
"You don't know who Kingpin is, which means you're not a New York local. At least not involved in organized crime." Black Cat couldn't quite figure out this mysterious character's intentions. She could only feign composure. "But tonight you got involved in gang activity. What exactly do you want?"
Boom!
Black Cat's repeated evasion seemed to displease this mysterious person. She watched helplessly as an I-beam weighing at least five tons was lifted upright and driven deep into the earth.
Black Cat was stunned.
Everything tonight had exceeded her imagination. Only now did she realize she seemed to be conversing with a non-human existence of extreme power.
Her face appropriately showed a terrified expression, though her mind was quietly becoming active.
'I can't possibly deal with Kingpin alone. I need help. My previous plan was to offend as many New York gangs as possible, but now it seems I've found a better ally...'
"This is a warning. Answer my question!"
Batman's voice interrupted Black Cat's thoughts. He still hadn't appeared in Black Cat's line of sight, maintaining his mystery.
"Kingpin is the leader of my gang. A year ago he began massively expanding his influence in New York. He says he wants to become emperor of the world's underworld, so he calls himself 'Kingpin'..."
Black Cat seemed frightened. She hurriedly spilled everything she knew:
"Unfortunately, New York alone has over fifty major gangs, and quite a few historic families, like... like the Corleone family of the Mafia..."
'Like the Falcone family in Gotham...' Batman silently added in his mind.
"...So Kingpin's expansion hasn't gone smoothly." Black Cat finished sharing everything she knew about Kingpin.
"Why revenge?" Batman asked.
Hearing the word "revenge," the half-genuine fear on Black Cat's face quietly disappeared, replaced by barely concealed hatred. Or rather, she wasn't planning to hide anything from Batman:
"Kingpin killed my father."
"My father was the famous 'Black Cat Burglar.' Six months ago, Kingpin approached him, demanding father steal something for him. Father refused."
"The next day, he was found dead in an alley. I investigated for a full month before discovering Kingpin had sent people to kill him."
Black Cat finished speaking and waited, but received no response from Batman. Just when she thought he'd left, the low voice spoke again:
"You're not lying. Kingpin is also on my list. Interested in cooperating?"
As Batman, if three days of continuous intelligence gathering hadn't revealed who Kingpin was, that would be humiliating.
In the temporary operations center at the deepest part of the abandoned shipyard, Kingpin's portrait had already been pinned in the most prominent position.
To return to Gotham, Batman needed to build his commercial empire from zero. He'd inevitably confront these criminal forces.
Similarly, for Kingpin to establish his underground kingdom, he'd inevitably use legitimate businesses to cover his crimes. Even if Batman didn't seek him out, he'd eventually come for Batman.
Asking Black Cat about Kingpin was just a pretense. The moment Black Cat whispered about "revenge," Batman had already planned everything.
Her whisper might fool subordinates close by, but couldn't fool Batman's superhuman hearing.
When Black Cat heard this mysterious person say Kingpin was also his target, her lips were already curving upward. She'd said all this precisely for this result. As for why this mysterious person wanted to deal with Kingpin... what did that have to do with Black Cat?
"Cooperation? Of course no problem. What do you want me to do?" Black Cat crossed her arms before her chest, creating an enticing valley.
"Take a vacation. When it's over, our cooperation can officially begin."
Black Cat was bewildered. "Vacation where?"
"New York Police Department."
Black Cat completely failed to understand why cooperating against Kingpin required sending herself to the police station. She called out:
"No, wait... at least tell me whether you're human or what?"
The low voice suddenly sounded beside Black Cat's ear:
"I am Batman."
Then she passed out.
When Black Cat groggily awakened, she found herself and her subordinates bound and dumped at one of the NYPD's Manhattan precincts. Dawn was just breaking.
This time she was bound with rope and chains. These two items couldn't contain Black Cat, who'd trained with her father "the Cat" since childhood. She escaped quite easily, disappearing around a street corner before sunrise.
As for those subordinates... Black Cat wasn't planning to help her enemy Kingpin. She wished all Kingpin's subordinates could be tied up at police stations like this.
"Batman..." She silently repeated the name.
"Batman?" A few hours later, Kingpin whose neck was even thicker than his head, tapped his polished floor with his cane and stood. He looked like a wall. "He disrupted my plan?"
In an office in a Hell's Kitchen building, Black Cat nodded with apparent fear:
"Yes. According to plan, we were selling Joseph a batch of defective guns. He would turn around and sell them to some small Manhattan gangs, and we'd swallow them all tonight."
"But after I shot Joseph in the head, Squid-Man fled. He apparently didn't intend to continue working for his deceased employer."
Black Cat knew Kingpin's cunning well. If she lied, Kingpin's mind would certainly catch it. So everything she said was true, only hiding her cooperation with Batman.
Even if she didn't say anything, Kingpin would find ways to get the information he wanted from others, like Joseph's people.
"First Spider-Man, then Squid-Man, now Batman. When did New York become a zoo?" Kingpin smiled as he spoke.
Ignoring his appearance, his voice alone might make one think of a kindly uncle.
Kingpin casually picked up today's Daily Bugle from the desk, pointing at the photo of Squid-Man on the front page:
"This is the Squid-Man you mentioned, correct? Tell him I'm offering five million dollars for Batman's head."
At the same time, in the deepest part of the abandoned shipyard, Batman also held this morning's edition of the Daily Bugle, deep in thought.