Chapter 151: Vibranium Properties
Batman left the safe house mere minutes before Nick Fury also rapidly evacuated.
Nick Fury felt certain that with Batman's technical capabilities allowing silent infiltration, this safe house had effectively ceased being safe.
Every word he'd spoken here, every action he'd taken, might already be under Batman's surveillance.
He had to immediately abandon this safe house—even leave New York entirely.
"Agent Hill, immediately assemble SHIELD's network engineering division to conduct a comprehensive firewall audit."
Nick Fury departed Manhattan overnight. At another safe house, he removed all clothing, repeatedly scanning his entire body multiple times. After confirming no listening devices had been planted on him, he proceeded to the Adirondack Mountains base.
Nick Fury didn't even enter the base interior. Instead, he directly used his authority arranging a helicopter flight to the offshore Helicarrier, issuing orders aboard the aircraft.
"Acknowledged, Director." Aboard the Helicarrier, Agent Hill—on twenty-four-hour standby—responded instantly without asking for reasons.
Several hours later, Nick Fury returned to the Helicarrier command center. After completing another full body scan and receiving confirmation from Agent Hill that SHIELD's firewall showed no issues, he issued his second command.
"Where is Agent Nineteen? Connect me to her encrypted communications."
Minutes later, Nick Fury stood in the command center wearing a headset, voice extremely low as he spoke to Agent Nineteen on the encrypted line's opposite end.
"Barbara, proceed immediately to designation 'D-4.' Ensure data analysis on the Tesseract remains in absolutely secure environment."
D-4 was the code designation for the Cube prison in Wyoming. Agent Nineteen's full name—Barbara Morse—was known to only a few within SHIELD.
Code name: Agent 19, "Mockingbird" Barbara Morse.
From beginning to end, Batman had never questioned Nick Fury about any information regarding the Cube prison.
He still hadn't completely trusted that Nick Fury wasn't Hydra, and harbored doubts about the SHIELD director's capabilities.
Hydra had stolen Tesseract data from the Adirondack Mountains base and transmitted it to the Cube prison using physical human courier methods.
Batman found it difficult believing the Cube prison hadn't been infiltrated by Hydra.
If that location had truly become a Hydra base, Batman rashly inquiring would inevitably trigger their alertness.
Whether or not Nick Fury was Hydra, whether he knew about this situation—anything he did might sabotage Batman's plans.
Similar to his reasoning for not immediately moving against Obadiah Stane, Batman hoped to uproot Hydra completely—at minimum, thoroughly eliminate Hydra from the Cube prison.
Rather than simply discovering one lead and immediately addressing it. Running east one trip, running west another—that style didn't suit Batman.
Moreover, compared to the Cube prison which had merely obtained Tesseract data, the other information Nick Fury had revealed represented what Batman cared about more.
The New Mexico gamma bomb research base had been reactivated. Hydra was converging there.
"According to my previous clue analysis, Norman Osborn was taken by General Ross and has connections to Hydra."
"Given General Ross's obsession with the Hulk, he won't abandon super soldier serum research."
After leaving the safe house, Batman similarly employed numerous methods confirming Nick Fury hadn't planted listening devices on him before returning to the Manhattan Batcave.
"Next, continue collecting clues and prepare for traveling to New Mexico."
Batman looked toward the containment habitat. Venom remained obediently curled inside watching children's programming.
Seeing Batman's gaze turn toward it, Venom immediately perked up its small head.
"Dad, is there another mission requiring our involvement?"
Batman shook his head slightly.
"No."
Directly allowing Venom to attach to his body, Batman could travel a thousand miles per day—running from New York all the way to Wyoming or even New Mexico purely on foot.
But Batman wouldn't become so dependent on Venom. Just as he'd once possessed the Fenrir armor for combating the Justice League yet never deployed it against Gotham's criminals, Batman wouldn't allow himself to depend on any weapon or anyone.
Batman still wore his relatively standard armor. He needed to ensure that even with absolutely nothing, he could rise again—just as he had after crossing into this world.
"Barbara, how long until the geological survey equipment arrives?" Batman's voice rumbled low.
"Tomorrow afternoon, Bruce," Oracle AI responded.
Batman said nothing further, silently beginning to contemplate purchasing prototype aircraft models, modification plans, and acquiring components.
The Batmobile could start from a basic frame—Batman purchasing various components for zero-build assembly. But the Batplane wouldn't work that way. Though both were vehicles, they fundamentally weren't the same category.
Relying purely on purchasing aircraft components wasn't realistic. What Batman could do now was purchase a prototype aircraft and personally conduct modifications.
Only after Parker Industries upgraded to Parker Corporation, possessing numerous heavy industry subsidiaries, could Batman start from the source manufacturing a true Batplane.
One night passed in the blink of an eye. After Batman completed his daily mandatory training regimen, he took the vibranium and headed toward North Brother Island.
Finding no vibranium data within SHIELD's internal files, Batman needed to personally study this unprecedented new metal.
On North Brother Island, as equipment for nuclear fusion research arrived successively, Doctors Banner and Octavius grew increasingly busy. They needed to verify formulas recalculated after overturning previous computations.
Professor Connors sat cross-legged in a distant corner, eyes closed in meditation. Even Batman's arrival didn't prompt him to open his eyes.
Batman didn't disturb them, taking the vibranium and diving into research using available equipment here.
This location lacked specialized instruments for analyzing metal composition and conducting metallurgical research, but that didn't pose a challenge for Batman.
Batman had once—without obtaining actual kryptonite samples—derived kryptonite's composition through pure theoretical deduction. Researching vibranium presented no significant difficulty.
Starting from basic chemical and physical testing, several hours later Batman had obtained most data regarding vibranium.
"Capable of absorbing nearly all kinetic energy. Chemical reagents produce no surface corrosion. High and low temperature environments produce no expansion or contraction phenomena, with no heat transfer characteristics. Its molecular structure remains relatively static."
"Physical methods—even deploying nearly Peter Parker's full strength—cannot produce the slightest deformation. Special molecular structure makes it virtually indestructible."
"Vibranium's alternate name is 'sound-absorbing steel.' But testing reveals vibranium possesses weaker resistance to specific frequency vibrations. Captain America's shield being processed into circular form perhaps relies on this principle."
A string of research data was stored in Oracle AI's computer system. However, this represented only preliminary research. Actual application remained some distance away.