We're officially 10 chaps ahead of the other guy, hehehe!
Chapter 144: SHIELD Slash Hydra Base
Doctor Octavius had passed Batman's hidden test, proving his core concern truly centered on psychological safety rather than craving the power and control the tentacles provided.
Although Batman had only agreed to design primarily defensive armor for Doctor Octavius, when he left North Brother Island and returned to the Manhattan Batcave, Batman didn't hesitate. He immediately initiated a new project—building entirely new mechanical tentacles for Doctor Octavius.
The new tentacles would eliminate potentially lethal spikes and blades, instead serving primarily as defensive measures for situations when Batman wasn't present and either the Hulk or Professor Connors lost control.
The redesigned tentacles would be silver-gray, their lines closer to the streamlined design of Batman's armor rather than the sharp, angular appearance of the originals.
Batman would control their core power source and control systems. Octavius would have usage rights, not absolute ownership. Batman retained remote override capabilities—forced lockdown and emergency shutdown.
"Robin."
Batman donned his Arkham armor again, his voice low as he called out.
Venom had remained quietly hidden inside Batman's body. Only now, hearing Batman summon it, did the writhing black symbiote material emerge from behind Batman's shoulder, forming a head.
"Dad?"
"You performed well last night."
Batman's voice remained cold, but his hands produced two chocolate bars like magic.
During last night's confrontation with the Toomes trio and the Rykers escapees, Venom had completely followed the rules Batman established for it, exhibiting no disobedient behavior and doing nothing inappropriate.
Batman had sufficient reason to reward his Robin.
Seeing the chocolate, Venom's eyes lit up immediately. "Dad! I love you!"
Despite being starving, Venom didn't forget to thank Batman. Only after expressing gratitude did its scarlet tongue unfurl, snatching the chocolate and devouring it enthusiastically.
Batman's expression remained unchanged. He pointed toward the containment habitat. Venom obediently slithered inside, waiting for Batman to activate the computer and play children's programming.
Batman didn't disappoint. After selecting carefully curated educational content, he moved to another section of the Batcave.
Last night's confiscated equipment—Vulture's flight suit, Shocker's gauntlets, Scorpion's armor—had been placed as Batman's trophies on the wall beside the white Anti-Venom symbiote's containment area.
He then returned to Venom's side, retrieved the finger-sized piece of vibranium from atop the habitat, and headed toward the workbench to study it.
BEEP!
Suddenly, Oracle AI emitted an urgent alert.
Without hesitation, Batman immediately set the vibranium aside again.
Oracle AI's alerts only triggered under specific circumstances—anomalies on North Brother Island, monitoring programs detecting keywords from Stark Industries or Oscorp, the Batcave being tracked...
Or the program Batman had embedded in data stolen by that Hydra agent from SHIELD's internal systems had been triggered, potentially related to Norman Osborn's whereabouts.
Inside the SHIELD base in the Adirondack Mountains, Batman's technology had detected data streams transmitting outward from SHIELD's internal network. He'd instinctively planted tracking malware within those data flows.
Since then, the data reception and transmission device containing SHIELD's internal information and Batman's tracking virus had remained dormant—until today.
"Weaponized energy. Space transportation. Unlimited energy development. Consciousness digitization and artificial intelligence. Universal energy laws. Light-speed engines..."
A stream of encrypted files flowed back to the Batcave through the virus program Batman had subconsciously planted.
After Batman decoded them, a massive array of highly technological terms and information appeared before him.
"This is data from the Tesseract?" Batman allowed Oracle AI to control the massive data streams cascading like code rain before his eyes. Relying on Peter Parker's enhanced reaction speed and dynamic vision, he absorbed every piece of information without missing a single detail, then analyzed it using his Batman intellect.
Perhaps analysis wasn't necessary. This data originated from SHIELD's Adirondack Mountain base executing Project Pegasus, then stolen with great effort by Hydra agents.
Batman reached his conclusion almost instantly, confirming this data pertained to the Tesseract.
"Barbara, collect, categorize, and analyze all data."
Batman's voice remained low as he immediately began locating the address information for the device containing his tracking virus.
"Understood, Bruce." Oracle AI responded instantly. The Batcave's currently modest server array immediately began operating at full capacity.
Dozens of minutes later, Batman had pinpointed the data's location. His brow furrowed.
The device had been activated in Wyoming. According to SHIELD satellite imagery, that location was barren desert—nothing but sand and desolate earth.
The trail appeared to end. Batman's only means of investigating that Wyoming area would be traveling there personally.
But after merely seconds of consideration, Batman issued another command.
"Barbara, retrieve all files on that aircraft piloted by SHIELD agents Black Widow and Hawkeye that I accessed when hacking SHIELD."
Since arriving in this universe, Batman had never dealt with any Wyoming-based organizations.
Beyond passively learning about the state through news or other channels, the only time Batman had encountered "Wyoming" during his intelligence gathering was that SHIELD aircraft.
Batman had hacked SHIELD's systems at the time, obtaining the aircraft's model, takeoff time, landing time, and return schedule.
That data hadn't been deleted after the Oscorp incident concluded. Instead, Batman had stored it in the Batcomputer, where it remained useful even now.
Although the files didn't specify the aircraft's exact destination, that didn't pose a challenge for Batman.
Through simple mathematical calculations involving the aircraft's flight speed, direction, and duration, Batman immediately reached a conclusion.
"That aircraft's departure point was Wyoming. If the location matches where the Hydra information reception device was triggered, the aircraft's speed and time traveling from Dharavi in Mumbai, India to that location matches the data I collected through hacking."
"Doctor Banner also departed Wyoming by helicopter to reach New York. This proves that location isn't the uninhabited wasteland satellites display, but rather conceals another SHIELD base."
"Or rather... a Hydra base."
"Doctor Banner might know something about conditions there."
***
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