The lid of the cryogenic hibernation pod slowly slid open, and General Ross couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement as he gazed at Dr. Banner lying inside, his eyes closed.
This was the pursuit of a lifetime for him, ever since the gamma bomb accident. Now, less than five meters away, General Ross needed only to take a few steps forward to reach him.
"General Ross, we don't have enough personnel on the tenth floor—we need reinforcements!"
"General Ross, please issue orders!"
Reports from the soldiers downstairs came one after another through the earpiece General Ross was wearing.
"Damn it! Send more men! Don't give Batman a chance to reach the eleventh floor! Protect the gamma-ray equipment there!"
General Ross cursed angrily.
"That's the key to our experiment; we have to stop him at all costs!"
The tenth through twentieth floors of the Osborn Group building housed various laboratories, and most of the Osborn Group's experimental equipment, including the gamma-ray device, was concentrated there.
It was stored on the eleventh floor and was one of the most important pieces of equipment to General Ross in the entire building.
Meanwhile, Batman, clinging to the exterior wall on the forty-ninth floor, was listening to the Oracle AI's report.
"Overwrite progress is seventy percent. Estimated time: four minutes."
Batman had chosen to drop the Batmobile onto the tenth floor with the goal of having the Oracle AI on board completely overwrite the internal program of the gamma device, preventing General Ross from using it again.
"Four minutes left—plenty of time."
Batman calculated silently.
The eavesdropping device on General Ross had picked up information about Dr. Banner's arrival at the top floor of the Osborn Building, but he hadn't heard Dr. Banner himself speak.
"The suit doesn't yet have infrared or X-ray functions, so it can't penetrate walls to see Dr. Banner's condition."
"There's an eighty percent chance he was transported here in a state of cryogenic hibernation, and a twenty percent chance he was conscious but immobilized after being injected with anesthetics."
The sky grew darker, and Batman took out black spider silk fluid from his utility belt, replacing the white spider silk he was currently using.
"Either way, it benefits me—but also General Ross."
With an extremely faint hiss from the nitrogen springs, the replaced dark spider silk shot upward rapidly, firmly adhering to the exterior wall of the Osborn Building.
As Batman exerted force with his arm, his entire body ascended swiftly amid the whistling wind, though his speed slowed as he approached the rooftop.
Without alerting anyone, Batman, in his suit, arrived on the rooftop, blending completely into the night.
Most of the soldiers on the rooftop were gathered around General Ross, while soldiers from other floors had been dispatched to intercept the Batmobile.
This left Batman with not many, but enough, hidden observation points to lurk in.
"Professor Connors is unconscious, with no restraints on him."
"Dr. Banner is in the hibernation pod, not yet awake."
"General Ross is less than five meters away from them, surrounded by over fifty soldiers in a defensive formation."
"There are researchers in white lab coats who don't belong to the Osborn Group; they might be the 'scientific advisory team' General Ross mentioned."
The entire rooftop was divided into three areas: one section for General Ross and his soldiers; another simply cordoned off with caution tape, where only an unconscious Professor Connors lay on the cold ground.
The third section featured a specially made metal chair, complete with restraints, chains, and a myriad of sensors and tubes.
In addition, General Ross's scientific advisory team was there; they had temporarily set up a laboratory bench and were now working busily and intently.
"I was deceived."
Batman thought to himself, then silently leaped down from the rooftop, pressing his body against the exterior wall of the Osborn Building. Relying on Peter's adhesive ability, he braced himself firmly against the wall.
He had been misled by General Ross the entire time, believing the gamma-ray device was of paramount importance—even going so far as to have the Oracle AI overwrite its program system for that reason.
But now it seemed that General Ross's purpose wasn't to utilize the Osborn Group's gamma device at all.
He had overseen the gamma bomb project in a desert in New Mexico three years ago, in 2003; how could he possibly militarize the Osborn Group just for a mere gamma device?
All the words he had heard through the eavesdropping device were a performance for Batman. In other words, General Ross had discovered the eavesdropping device and was trying to mislead him.
General Ross's true purpose was to occupy the Osborn Group and then use its vast biotechnology to combine and experiment with Dr. Banner's blood, thereby creating his ideal super-soldier serum!
Even what he had said before Dr. Banner's arrival, during a conversation with an unknown person about "combining unstable gamma rays with stable regenerative agents," had been reserved—he hadn't revealed his entire plan.
Batman showed no panic about anything exceeding his plan; while it might not have been in his original plan, his plan had already encompassed it.
Batman had already, during his contact with Professor Connors at noon, had the professor use his authority as the only remaining scientist director at Osborn to transfer all core experimental data to a hard drive.
That hard drive was now hidden in a hole punched by Batman in the City Hall subway station.
Even if General Ross's true plan had previously fooled Batman, he still wouldn't be able to successfully conduct the experiment.
With General Ross's plan now clear, the subsequent matters would be much simpler; at least dealing with this ordinary human general no longer required Batman to specially devise dozens of plans for him.
With his back pressed against the exterior wall of the Osborn Building, Batman's hands completely left the wall.
The armor on his outer forearm slid open, and a miniature portable computer popped out. Batman pressed key after key, and commands and codes rained down, targeting Dr. Banner's cryogenic hibernation pod.
Dr. Banner was still lying in the hibernation pod and hadn't yet been moved to the metal chair and secured by General Ross and his scientific advisory team.
Through commands, Batman was attempting to seize control of Dr. Banner's cryogenic pod, ensuring that only he could unlock it or intensify the freezing.
After a dozen seconds.
Drip.
The cryogenic hibernation pod emitted an almost inaudible click. Batman successfully seized control of it, and all data from the hibernation pod was synchronized to Batman's miniature computer.
The cryogenic hibernation pod was powered by liquid nitrogen contained in a Dewar flask, but the liquid nitrogen capacity was nearly depleted, able to keep Dr. Banner in cryogenic hibernation for less than two more minutes at most.
"I need to take down General Ross and his soldiers within two minutes, then take Professor Connors and Dr. Banner and leave here."
Batman quickly formulated a battle plan based on the current situation.
At the same time on the rooftop, General Ross—who was intently waiting for the scientific advisory team to get into position, ready to tie Dr. Banner to the metal chair to begin drawing blood and conducting combined experiments with the Osborn Group's biotechnology—suddenly heard a soft sound.
He was already highly focused, and this soft sound went unnoticed by others, but not by General Ross.
He abruptly stepped forward, only to see a red light illuminate on the cryogenic hibernation pod where Dr. Banner lay, and the opened lid slowly sliding as if to close.
"General Ross, there seems to be a problem with the Osborn Group's core data—"
Just as General Ross was about to order his soldiers to force open the lid of the cryogenic hibernation pod, someone from the scientific advisory team suddenly spoke.
"What?"
General Ross's face and neck suddenly turned crimson, his eyes bloodshot and completely red.
He lifted his foot to step forward, wanting to personally examine the data on the experimental instruments that he couldn't understand at all, when another soft sound came.
This time, it came from Professor Connors, who was isolated to one side and unconscious.
Under the gaze of an enraged General Ross, a bewildered scientific advisory team, and nervous soldiers, Professor Connors's already amputated right arm continuously made faint, rustling sounds.
A complete arm grew out, as tender and white as a baby's, rapidly aging and shedding upon contact with the air.
Layer after layer of skin repeated this process, causing Professor Connors's newly grown right hand to be quickly enveloped by layers of aged skin.
Limb regeneration requires energy, and the supposedly unconscious Professor Connors awoke in hunger, but the world he saw before him was vastly different from before.
His eyes had transformed into reptilian vertical pupils.
--
Support me & read more advance & fast update chapter on my pa-treon:
pat reon .c-om/windkaze