Chapter 336: SHIELD Agent Batman?!
HUFF, HUFF—
One in the morning. Ant-Man sat alone on Pym Technologies Tower's rooftop, gasping for breath.
He stared into the vast darkness, his eyes filled with confusion and rage.
A flying ant emerged from inside Pym Technologies—Antony VIII.
Ant-Man irritably dug at his ear, then reached out with precise timing to pinch the ant between two fingers. A slight squeeze—SQUISH—and the flying ant that had fought beside him for two nights was dead.
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ... The Wasp Janet flew out from inside the tower.
She'd just finished transferring the Pym Particles to another location and cleaning up the smoke grenade residue and shattered atrium glass.
The moment she reached the rooftop and saw Ant-Man crush the flying ant, the Wasp frowned slightly before sitting down beside him.
"You're angry?" the Wasp asked. "Everything's proceeding according to plan. Although some parts exceeded our expectations—like losing a vial of Pym Particles—"
The Wasp would've been better off saying nothing. The instant she mentioned the stolen Pym Particles, the fury building in Ant-Man's heaving chest exploded outward.
He roared at the Wasp: "And you call this proceeding according to plan?!"
"Hank?" The Wasp spoke carefully. She'd never seen Ant-Man this enraged before.
Ant-Man shook his head. He wiped the fingers that had crushed Antony VIII against the ground, cleaning off the flying ant's fluids, then stood and headed back inside Pym Technologies Tower. "I'm sorry, Janet."
"I originally planned to follow Nick Fury's step-by-step plan. But now that my interests are involved, I've decided to join the hunt for Batman."
The Wasp turned her head, watching Ant-Man jump down through the atrium. She pressed her lips together but said nothing.
Several minutes later, the Wasp connected to an encrypted communication channel with SHIELD Director Nick Fury.
"Director Fury, the SHIELD agent codenamed Black Widow has been successfully extracted by Batman. We can proceed to the next phase of the plan."
"Sounds like good news, Little Wasp." Nick Fury's steady, powerful voice came through the encrypted channel. "The rest of Operation Owl no longer requires the Ant-Man couple's involvement."
The Wasp shook her head, lowering her voice. "With all due respect, Director Fury. Your so-called 'Operation Owl'—I haven't seen any agent make contact with us. And most critically... a vial of Pym Particles was stolen. Now Ant-Man has decided to join the hunting party after Batman."
"What?!" Nick Fury's voice immediately jumped eight octaves. "What do you mean no one from Operation Owl has contacted you?"
"That's exactly what I mean." The Wasp covered her forehead. She felt like Fury's shouting was giving her a headache.
"..." On the other end of the encrypted channel aboard the helicarrier, Nick Fury fell silent for several seconds.
"Understood, Little Wasp." Nick Fury said, then terminated the communication.
The Wasp blinked in confusion, not understanding what Fury had "understood."
Meanwhile, aboard the helicarrier in undisclosed waters.
"Agent Hill." Nick Fury called toward the hallway outside the operations command room.
Agent Hill—tall enough to nearly match Fury's six-foot-one height—pushed open the command room door.
"To prevent Batman from compromising any equipment Hawkeye might be carrying, we haven't had any contact with Hawkeye since deploying him to New York."
Nick Fury fixed his one eye on Agent Hill.
"According to our plan, Hawkeye would search for Black Widow while investigating Batman, thereby exposing Ant-Man's existence. Whether Batman is Hydra or not, the plan called for him to attempt rescuing Black Widow, smoothly advancing to the next phase—Operation Owl."
Agent Hill frowned slightly. "Director, what exactly are you trying to say?"
Nick Fury's face revealed no emotion.
"What I'm saying is that Black Widow has successfully infiltrated Batman's circle. But our 'Owl' has gone missing."
Agent Hill stared at Nick Fury in stunned silence.
"...?"
This time it was Agent Hill's turn to fall silent for several seconds. She opened her mouth multiple times but didn't know what to say.
But Nick Fury didn't seem emotionally affected by Hawkeye failing to follow the plan.
"One day ago, 'Daywalker' secretly provided me with intelligence."
Agent Hill nodded. "According to the plan, he should be heading to New York in the next few days. What was his intel?"
Nick Fury said: "A ronin dressed in samurai garb and wielding a katana has been conducting a massacre against the Darkwind organization in Yokohama, Japan. Daywalker plans to meet him—even delayed his New York trip by several days."
"As I understand it, this ronin has been killing Darkwind members secretly involved in human trafficking." Agent Hill nodded—she was aware of this intel too. "You suspect the ronin is Hawkeye?"
"Correct," Nick Fury said.
"How do we verify it?" Agent Hill asked.
"No verification needed." Nick Fury replied. "Our original purpose in targeting Batman was twofold: one, Batman's existence poses an extreme threat. Two, he's highly likely to be a Hydra member."
"Now that Black Widow has successfully made contact with Batman, we only need to release one piece of false intelligence."
Agent Hill stared into Fury's single eye for several seconds, then nodded and turned to leave the operations command room.
Deep into New York's night, at the triangular block where Broadway and Fifth Avenue intersected.
Here stood a twenty-two-story triangular building—a landmark structure that many foreign tourists favored: the Flatiron Building.
On the Flatiron Building's rooftop, a massive black web was spread out. Black Widow currently occupied the very center of that web.
Her limbs were bound tightly by webbing, her entire body lying spread-eagle on her back.
"What did you do to me?"
A cool breeze passed. Black Widow struggled to turn her head, trying to locate Batman.
But her head was also stuck to the webbing, allowing only minimal rotation. Batman's figure was completely absent from her field of vision.
Not only were her limbs bound—her entire body felt weak and powerless. Even her tongue lacked strength, making her speech slightly slurred.
"I ask. You answer." Batman's voice emerged like a ghost from somewhere beside Black Widow.
Black Widow looked toward the sound's source, but saw nothing except darkness.
"What do you want to know?" Black Widow took several deep breaths, subtly making her chest rise and fall in an alluring curve.
"Is the Hydra agent imprisoned under designation D-4 still alive?" Batman's voice was low and steady.
Black Widow's pupils dilated sharply. She could barely believe what she'd just heard.
Only a tiny fraction of SHIELD agents knew the Cube Prison's designation was D-4!
And among that tiny fraction, only a handful of people knew Black Widow had once used an actual Hydra agent to transmit Tesseract data, then imprisoned him in the Cube afterward!
"You're a SHIELD agent?" Black Widow asked urgently.
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