Chapter 372: The Polar Expeditions
Lizard Professor had intended to escort Lunella to the airport and see her onto her plane before looping back to the Adirondacks to reinforce Batman. But when the Batwing banked in low over Bat Island and Batman stepped out, Lizard Professor realized the worry had been unnecessary.
"Finished?" Lizard Professor looked at him and drew a slow line across his own throat with one claw.
Batman shook his head.
"Not finished. Just pushed them back for now."
"If there's nothing you need from me immediately, I'll head next door." Lizard Professor yawned. "Dr. Otto has been after me for days. He says he's finished most of his part of the prosthetics research -- only my section is left."
"I'll come with you."
Batman turned toward the shoreline of Bat Island, knees bending slightly as he coiled to launch himself -- the way he always had, leaping and gliding the gap to North Brother Island.
Lizard Professor waved him off before he could spring.
"Get on."
He dropped low as he said it, shifting from upright on his hind legs to all fours, tail swinging behind him for balance. As his posture settled, the jagged bone spikes ridging his back retracted smoothly into his body, leaving his shoulders flat and wide.
Batman had seen this before. Lizard Professor had carried him the same way into the prehistoric world.
Without hesitation, Batman released his ready crouch, pressed one hand against Lizard Professor's side, and swung himself up.
Lizard Professor made a low sound of amusement, waded out into the East River, and floated forward onto the surface as he began swimming toward North Brother Island.
"When are you planning to make the alliance official?" Lizard Professor asked, his tone easy, the way someone asks about the weather. "When exactly are you announcing this?"
"Professor, you're asking the exact question I've been sitting with." Batman said. "But not yet."
Forming an alliance wasn't something you did by gathering a group of misfit scientists in a lab and making a speech. It required the right moment. Lizard Professor glanced back at him, read nothing but focused silence in the dark lenses, and dropped any further attempt at conversation. He poured on speed, cutting through the East River like a thrown spear.
A few minutes later, North Brother Island.
"Look who's back." Dr. Banner had shifted into the Hulk at some point -- he was sitting cross-legged on the floor when Batman and Lizard Professor pushed through the door, and stood as they entered. "It's Big Lizard."
Lizard Professor flashed a full set of claws at the Hulk and grinned.
"Little green frog. Want to go a round?"
Hulk's eyes lit up. He slammed both hands together in front of his chest, knuckles cracking:
"Let's--"
Dr. Otto appeared instantly, mechanical tentacles extending left and right to cut between them like barriers:
"Both of you, hold it."
He turned to Batman.
"Batman. There's been a development on the Antarctic Vibranium."
Click.
Batman said nothing. He looked toward the sound.
Dr. Otto turned his head -- and found Lizard Professor and Hulk each holding a snapped mechanical tentacle.
Silence fell across the room. Even Professor Morbius went quiet.
Hulk's expression shifted to something close to genuine guilt.
"Octopus. Hulk broke your leg."
Lizard Professor showed considerably less remorse. A broken tentacle meant building a new one.
"It wasn't intentional," he said, spreading his hands toward Dr. Otto.
It wasn't. Before his time on Bat Island, Lizard Professor's strength had topped out at just under fifty tons. But during that period he'd undergone what could only be described as an evolutionary step -- his frame had actually reduced in size while his strength had increased. He was pushing eighty tons now, at minimum. Under that kind of force, the tentacles Batman had built for Dr. Otto simply weren't rated for the load.
"I know you didn't mean to. But still..." Dr. Otto trailed off.
"Professor, my suit urgently needs an upgrade -- and so do your tentacles." Batman stepped forward. "Tell me about the Antarctic Vibranium."
Dr. Otto shook his head and let it go.
"I've been combing through Darkwind Group's trade records. Cross-referenced with other data, I can give you the full picture now." He walked to his workstation and pulled up a dense spread of files across the screens. "Darkwind Group assembled a North Pole expedition team. The funding source was the person we've been tracking."
"Garrett. Running money through S.H.I.E.L.D. channels." Batman said.
"Exactly. Based on everything I've been able to corroborate, I'm confident their objective was Captain America -- specifically, his body, which supposedly went down somewhere in the Arctic."
The name landed in the room with weight. Hulk and Lizard Professor exchanged a glance and quietly let go of any thought of sparring. Both moved forward. Professor Morbius, sandwiched between the two of them, craned his neck to see the screens.
"Did they find him?" Batman asked, eyes on the records.
"Apparently not." Dr. Otto said. "The operation ran two years ago. Afterward, the entire North Pole team vanished. So the following year, Darkwind Group put together a South Pole expedition."
"Their objective down there isn't entirely clear, but they got lucky. Within two months in Antarctica they located a previously unknown metal deposit -- what we've been calling Antarctic Vibranium."
"From there, Darkwind Group obtained additional data from Garrett. They fused the Antarctic Vibranium with steel, titanium-gold alloys, and other specialty metals. The result is what they're calling Adamantium."
Batman worked through the records carefully. Dr. Otto had assembled all of this from chains of trade logs -- it would have taken weeks of analysis. Batman had never had the bandwidth for it. He was glad someone had.
"Is Kingpin in these records?"
"Yes." Dr. Otto switched screens. "Bullseye -- Lester -- worked for Darkwind Group at one point. Once they developed Adamantium, he became their first choice for the procedure."
"Kingpin made his connection to Darkwind Group during that same period. The alloy skeleton project was always aimed at Lester -- right up until you broke Kingpin's bones and Black Cat put Lester in the ground."
"They never ran tests on their own people?" Professor Morbius said, frowning. "Or on animals?"
Dr. Otto glanced up and found only the top of Morbius's head poking out from between the two massive bodies on either side of him.
"Because Adamantium is only workable at the moment of initial formation. Once it cools and sets, it locks permanently. No known process can alter or destroy it."
"To survive bone replacement with Adamantium requires physical resilience and force of will that far exceed anything a normal human possesses. And that still requires a medical recovery infrastructure capable of keeping the subject alive through the process."
"Garrett supplied the technical framework. Without his support, Darkwind Group couldn't have performed the procedure at all. Kingpin wouldn't have come back."
Professor Morbius let out a slow, impressed sound. Hulk looked indifferent. Lizard Professor was studying the geometry of his own claws.
Batman had gone silent.
Dr. Otto looked over. Batman's brow was drawn tight, his focus turned inward, working through something.
"Batman?" Dr. Otto touched his arm.
Batman came back. "Adamantium's hardness exceeds virtually all known materials?"
"Correct. Though we currently have no basis for comparison against Vibranium -- we can't say which is superior." Dr. Otto said.
Batman nodded slowly.
"Sounds like a useful material."
***
20+advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces