Chapter 133: Prison Break
Happy Hogan stood in front of a Rolls-Royce wearing sunglasses, watching the plane gradually taxi to a stop. Secretary Pepper Potts stood beside him, watching expectantly.
As the aircraft's cabin door opened, Tony Stark slowly descended with assistance from the bearded man whose phone he'd borrowed earlier.
Happy tried to keep his expression serious, but even with sunglasses on, his frequently twitching smile betrayed his feelings.
Pepper covered her mouth without making a sound, only her eyes slightly reddening.
Tony Stark seemed cynically nonchalant as before—still the playboy. He walked directly to Pepper and looked at her.
"Your eyes are red. Are those tears for your long-lost boss?"
"Tears of joy. Your return means I'm not unemployed and don't need to find work," Pepper said, genuinely happy seeing Tony Stark return unharmed. "I hate job hunting."
"Vacation's over."
Tony Stark spoke, then looked at Happy, who appeared to be playing the serious, imposing bodyguard while actually grinning for quite some time.
"Happy, I'm glad you didn't snore."
Tony Stark was teasing Happy about constantly dozing off in Stark Tower's lobby.
Happy removed his sunglasses and looked at Tony Stark. He desperately wanted to hug him hard, but given their respective positions as employer and driver, Happy restrained himself.
"Happy, take us to the hospital." Pepper said to Happy.
Before Happy could respond, Tony Stark interjected:
"No. Not the hospital."
Both Pepper and Happy looked at the Stark Industries playboy. Tony Stark continued:
"I only want to do two things right now. One is eat a cheeseburger. The other is hold a press conference."
---
In the former City Hall subway station—now the Batcave.
Batman had received information from Silver Sable that Tony Stark had been safely brought back. He sat alone at the Batcave's workstation, repeatedly watching this morning's news.
He'd left North Brother Island just minutes ago, dropping Eddie Brock—thoroughly examined from head to toe—at Queens police station's entrance.
Just as Batman suspected, Anti-Venom hadn't completely died. Like Venom, it had left a trace of symbiotic material hidden in Eddie Brock's bloodstream.
Thanks to the metal frame and attached instruments Dr. Otto had spent all night modifying, Batman extracted that white symbiotic material from Eddie's body without much effort.
Currently, that white symbiote was stored in a transparent square glass box before Batman, constantly shifting through various shapes.
"Dad, what are you thinking about?" Venom's voice sounded near Batman's ear.
Batman looked at Venom's head extending from behind his shoulder, reached for four pieces of chocolate, unwrapped each one, and handed them over.
"This morning while I battled Anti-Venom on Bat Island, a situation occurred on Rikers Island."
Batman seemed to be explaining to Venom while simultaneously using his analysis to teach it:
"Kingpin's former subordinate 'Shocker' Herman Schultz, after Mister Negative's death, manufactured new weapons. And this time he has accomplices."
Batman opened all the workstation screens, filling every monitor with news footage and videos. He addressed Venom, who'd stuffed all four chocolates in its mouth and was chewing enthusiastically.
"Robin, tell me what you see?"
"I see a masked guy in an iron-gray suit and another guy in green clothing who can fly in the sky. They abducted a criminal from prison."
Venom carefully studied the news footage.
"What you're describing is all obvious, Robin."
Batman showed no dissatisfaction with Venom's purely layman observation. He enlarged the footage while guiding it, pointing to various corners of the images.
"We haven't visited the scene yet, but that doesn't mean we can't extract sufficient intelligence from the news."
Venom stared wide-eyed at Batman, waiting for its resourceful dad to analyze something from these images.
Batman didn't disappoint Venom's expectations. He analyzed from scratch:
"Based on destruction patterns, Schultz's Shocker gauntlets primarily targeted Rikers Prison's load-bearing walls and guard towers, not the guards."
"Creating panic and chaos to facilitate escape—not pursuing maximum casualties."
Batman pointed to news footage he'd opened on different screens.
"These images are sequential. Look at that green flyer. What characteristics does his flight path show?"
Venom stared blankly at the news footage. It saw nothing.
"He's circling above the prison but not directly participating in attacks. His hands and body carry no offensive weapons." Batman said. "He's observing and providing support. And he's the operation's commander."
"These photos were taken by bystanders on Rikers Island. Notice the prisoners entering and exiting after Schultz destroyed the prison."
"They appear chaotic, but there's no trampling or collisions. This indicates someone is directing their actions. Though we can't hear specific audio in the news videos, there's high probability the green flyer is commanding them."
"Chocolate tastes so good..." Venom swallowed the last bite of chocolate, nodding busily while listening to Batman as though genuinely paying attention.
The person Schultz abducted from Rikers Prison was Scorpion Mac. Batman hadn't seen his full face in the news footage, but recognized him from just a side profile.
"Schultz broke into prison only to rescue Scorpion Mac, completely ignoring his former boss Kingpin."
"What's his objective?"
"According to materials I previously collected, Schultz and Scorpion Mac's relationship wasn't close enough for this."
"Schultz manufactured new Shocker gauntlets. His accomplice's flight suit also just debuted... Has Schultz also prepared equipment for Scorpion Mac?"
"Kingpin was the only prisoner who didn't escape after today's Rikers Prison incident. What is he plotting?"
"The green flyer's airborne commands alone wouldn't necessarily make those prisoners so obedient, escaping through the breach so orderly."
Batman sank into his investigative rhythm. He studied the figure in the green flight suit. Since most news footage photos and videos were shot by Rikers Island bystanders, the images weren't clear.
Batman could only determine from blurry footage that the flyer's age ranged between forty and sixty, and he possessed a very conspicuous hooked nose.
"Being approached by Schultz indicates he either has money or abilities to cooperate with Schultz manufacturing Shocker gauntlets and flight suits."
"Who is he?"
Batman frowned thoughtfully. Just as he prepared to visit Rikers Island as a reporter to obtain specific physical characteristics of the flyer from eyewitnesses, the Oracle AI suddenly detected keywords online:
"Bruce, Tony Stark—just rescued by Silver Sable—has called a press conference and mentioned the word 'weapons.'"
"Do you need me to stream the on-site photographer's live footage?"am the on-site photographer's live footage?"