The next day, even before dawn, rumors had spread to almost everyone who knew of Batman, had heard of Batman, or felt fear or intrigue toward Batman.
By the time the sky darkened on the third day, the rumors had completely blown up. From Facebook, which had just launched on the app market in September, to the mainstream MySpace, "Batman" was the most talked-about word across almost all social media platforms.
Anyone with a criminal record lived in constant fear, as no one knew if Batman might descend from the sky at any given moment and torture them until they were barely recognizable as human.
For the vast majority of others, their feelings toward Batman were a mix of curiosity and dread. A significant number of young people even saw Batman as an idol, spinning a slew of fabricated topics like "Batman did it for a woman."
There was also a subset of people who believed Batman was a living figure stepped right out of a story. This group, naturally, consisted of readers of Twilight, such as Captain George Stacy's daughter, Gwen Stacy.
But Garrett wasn't one of these people. He had a different perspective on what Batman was doing.
"A Caucasian woman, around five-point-five feet tall, with a good figure."
"A woman who fits that physical description, and who is worth Batman spending almost an entire night interrogating hundreds of New York's low-level thugs and gang members... I think there's only one."
Inside a nightclub in Hell's Kitchen, Garrett leaned back with both elbows resting on the bar counter behind him, his gaze drifting over the men and women swaying their hips to the music on the dance floor.
The disco ball flickered, its constantly shifting colors casting alternating hues of green and red across Garrett's face.
Watching a young couple who had known each other for less than three minutes embrace on the dance floor, a smile surfaced on Garrett's face as he reached a conclusion in his mind:
"Like me, Batman is looking for Black Widow."
"Either he's with S.H.I.E.L.D., or he's Hydra. There's no other possibility."
"This seems like good news for me."
Unlike Tony Stark—whose father, Howard Stark, was one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D., meaning that even if Tony wasn't officially part of the agency, he inherently had some connection to them.
The reason Garrett hadn't yet gone to see Tony Stark's super-bodyguard, "Iron Man," since arriving in New York, was out of concern that Iron Man might be an agent secretly dispatched by S.H.I.E.L.D. to protect Stark.
From the publicly available video footage, Iron Man could fly, possessed substantial firepower, and wore a seemingly indestructible metal suit. Garrett wasn't confident he could take him on.
"My equipment will be delivered to New York tomorrow. When it arrives, I'll go meet Iron Man first, and then I'll see about this mysterious Batman."
Garrett stood up straight from the bar and, with a smile on his face, joined the dance floor.
"According to my calculations, someone will try to track you down within three days at the latest. Two days have already passed."
On North Brother Island—also known as Bat Island—Venom Robin asked casually while undergoing Batman's training:
"Old Bat, if... and I mean if, the people from S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra try to find you, are you prepared?"
"Focus on your training, Robin," Batman said.
Carrying a massive counterweight block on his back—custom-built by Batman at a heavy industry manufacturing plant owned by Parker Industries—Venom Robin did push-ups while saying:
"Dad, you said I needed to learn everything I could from you. That question just now is what I don't understand."
The giant counterweight weighed a staggering fifty tons. Because it was made entirely of solid lead, its volume was less than five cubic meters.
Such weight was enough to crush a normal human into a pancake, but on Venom Robin's back, it seemed effortless.
Under the weight training, Venom Robin's strength was growing with every passing moment, having long since surpassed Batman's.
But even so, a sheer advantage in physical strength still wasn't enough for Venom Robin to defeat Batman.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't too bad. Even though Hydra exists within the World Security Council behind them, at least on the surface, they are still an official security organization. They won't use extreme measures to get your attention."
"But what about Hydra? Batman, if Hydra resorts to violent methods—like killing dozens or even hundreds of people to force you out of hiding—what will you do?"
Venom Robin asked. It was a question he had pondered for a long time without finding an answer.
"Robin, you need to stay focused during your training. That's how you make rapid progress," Batman said to Robin, his face remaining cold as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"I'm training my body and my mind at the same time," Venom Robin retorted.
Batman shook his head:
"I'm referring to the night before last, when you operated alongside me. I recall telling you that it was a training exercise and a practical test for you."
Venom Robin paused for a moment:
"Huh?"
Batman explained:
"If you were focused enough, you would have noticed that I left traces on some of the criminals. Not many, but enough for truly professional people to find me."
"Uh..." Venom Robin was speechless.
He thought hard for a solid five or six minutes but still couldn't remember what traces Batman had left behind:
"But we spent barely ten seconds taking down each criminal, and interrogating them took ten minutes at most. I don't remember you leaving any clues."
"That is because your detective skills are still far inferior to those guys at S.H.I.E.L.D.," Batman said in a low voice.
Venom Robin wanted to spit, but lacking the biological function to produce saliva, he had to settle for rolling out his long, scarlet tongue:
"But you're basing this on the assumption that those Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are smart enough... What if the ones who show up are idiots?"
"Do you remember the Abomination?" Batman asked.
"I remember. 'Abomination' Blonsky is sleeping soundly on the second level of the Batcave," Venom Robin said.
"Is he smart?" Batman continued.
"He's dumb as a rock..." Venom Robin realized halfway through his sentence. "If the opponent is stupid enough, then to us, it's practically a flashing neon sign announcing his arrival?"
"You are very smart, Robin," Batman said.
"I don't think that was a compliment, Old Bat."
"Exactly."
Baxter Building.
"Batman?"
"While I am highly curious about what kind of creature he is, unless his existence or technology can directly solve the interstellar navigation problems we are facing, the cost-benefit ratio of proactively studying an uncontrollable variable is far too low."
Reed Richards said to Ben Grimm, who was standing beside him and had just brought up Batman.
"Reed, the New York city government doesn't want you to study him; they want you to build a tool that can attract and capture him." Ben Grimm took a sip of coffee and said effortlessly, "Your head is completely filled with cosmic rays and rocket fuel. I think you could treat this as a break."
"Look, Ben." Reed Richards didn't even turn his head, his eyes glued to his experimental data. "You know my primary research focus is interstellar travel. How could I possibly carve out time to allocate to Batman?"
"Then I'll have to figure out what to tell the city government... Oh, I've got it," Ben Grimm said.
"What?" Reed asked casually.
"Dump the problem on Johnny."
"..."
As the two were talking, a little girl walked into Reed's lab holding a small device.
"Lunella, what's that?" Ben Grimm immediately turned his attention away from Reed Richards and asked the little girl.
"Dr. Cho said the device I invented before was already outdated, so I gave it a minor upgrade," Lunella said.
"Oh really? What exactly did you upgrade?" Ben Grimm asked, sipping his coffee since he had nothing better to do. "I remember it used to identify faces and vehicles. What about now? Can it identify the gasoline in a car's gas tank?"
"No, I want to use it to try and find Batman," the little girl, Lunella, said.
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