"Enhancement Protocol Stage 1 fully complete. Three new active and passive skills unlocked and field tested successfully. Gen 2 suit combat validated. By any reasonable measure, this arc of preparation is complete."
"Feels good to hear."
"There is one item I should flag before you rest."
Bruce set down his fork. "Go ahead."
"While cross referencing the Bane surveillance data against the combat simulation I built for your Threat Sense training, I identified several inconsistencies I did not have processing bandwidth to properly analyze until now."
A screen lit up nearby, displaying the thermal silhouette from the docks alongside a series of movement fragments NEXUS had captured over recent weeks of surveillance.
"His confirmed physical dimensions and the strength implied by his handling of heavy cargo during loading operations are consistent with someone whose muscle mass has been chemically enhanced through prolonged Venom exposure, matching what I would expect from the shipment data."
"However, his observed movement discipline, balance under load, and what appears to be deliberate restraint in situations where a purely aggression driven combatant would have reacted violently, these do not match the psychological profile typically associated with prolonged forced drug trials."
Bruce felt something cold settle in his chest, the same feeling he'd had reviewing Deadshot's file weeks earlier, the sense of a puzzle piece that almost fit but didn't quite.
"Meaning what," he said slowly.
"Meaning the physical evidence suggests one kind of origin. The behavioral evidence suggests another entirely. I do not currently have a model that reconciles both data sets into a single coherent profile."
Bruce stared at the thermal silhouette, at the careful, controlled way it moved even in a grainy, low resolution capture.
His meta-knowledge had given him a clean picture walking in. Prison. Drug trials. A weapon built entirely by suffering and chemistry. Simple. Self-contained. Safe to introduce this early, because it needed nothing from the wider timeline to justify existing.
But NEXUS wasn't wrong. Something about the data didn't sit flush against that picture.
'Unless it isn't just that,' Bruce thought, and the thought unsettled him more than he wanted to admit. 'Unless this world isn't handing me one clean version of anything.'
He didn't say that part out loud. Not yet.
"Keep building the profile," he said instead. "Flag anything else that doesn't fit. I want to know exactly what I'm dealing with before I go anywhere near that warehouse again."
"Understood. I will continue analysis overnight."
Bruce sat alone in the cave for a long time afterward, the new suit hanging silent on its rack, three fresh skills settled into his mind like tools he'd finally finished forging, and one loose thread in Bane's file that refused to lie flat no matter how he turned it over.
Whatever was waiting at those docks, he was beginning to suspect it wasn't going to be as simple as the file first suggested.
He intended to find out exactly how complicated it really was.
'Bane, bane, bane. I hope it isn't as I suspect.'
Bruce has been having a suspicion on something for a while now.
'It won't be too long now. I'll be sure.'
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