Unlike when he first crossed over, the destitute Peter Parker—at that time, Batman still had to strip armor from the Spider-Slayer's body to make his suit.
This time, Batman was making the complete suit he wore when the Scarecrow united with other villains in an attempt to destroy Gotham, and Batman completely suppressed them all in one night.
It featured a three-layer synthetic titanium woven surface, with the inner layer filled with magnetorheological fluid material, plus added circuits, an insulation layer, and thermal insulation and cold-proof layers to isolate extreme temperatures.
These functions allowed Batman to focus more energy on offense rather than defense.
And unlike the previous "Spider-Slayer" suit, the new suit was fully tailored to Batman's body structure, able to support him in performing various complex tactical maneuvers.
The redesigned and rebuilt web-shooters combined with the grappling hook gun resulted in the Batclaw having a faster initial ejection speed, and it even included features for automatically cutting the web and quickly retracting it.
Since Peter Parker's physical abilities far exceeded Bruce Wayne's human limits, Batman designed the retraction kinetics to be even more aggressive.
The helmet was fully equipped with a see-through module, where the eye areas could freely cover or open a layer of protective lenses, displaying information received from see-through, sonar, and infrared in full view.
It could be said that aside from lacking Alfred's remote tactical support, the Batcave's supercomputer for computational power, and Lucius's technical assistance, this suit was nearly identical to the one he wore that night.
All of that was still secondary; the most important thing was that Batman's complete cape had finally been manufactured. The wide, soft cape could wrap around his body, harden when electrified for gliding, and even serve as a weapon for Batman to attack enemies.
Midnight, twelve o'clock, at the top of the Empire State Building.
The night sky was clear, with moonlight spilling over the earth.
In the biting night wind, Batman's cape danced with the breeze. Having fully completed his armor upgrade, he wasn't in a hurry to go find those two who had already been staying in the hotel for three days—
The idle Dr. Banner and Professor Connors.
He had other things to take care of first.
Over the past three days, Batman had never given up on gathering information about New York's underground forces.
After Kingpin and his other subordinates were imprisoned, that weapon-maker Schultz had yet to be found.
Batman couldn't help but stay quietly vigilant. According to what the driver Walker and Scorpion Mac had said earlier, whenever Kingpin's gang needed to make a move with weapons—like the tampered guns Black Cat had sold before—it was all Schultz's doing.
His disappearance meant that New York's underground forces would eventually develop and grow again sooner or later.
Based on the clues Batman had investigated, Schultz was likely hiding out in Queens.
"The incident at Oscorp three days ago led to countless ordinary employees and Wall Street finance professionals losing their jobs."
"Although Harry is actively absorbing these people back into Oscorp, I've still noticed that a portion of the unemployed have been showing up in Queens recently."
Batman thought to himself.
Based on the gathered clues, those unemployed individuals had simply joined an organization called the "Food, Emergency Aid, Shelter, and Training Center," abbreviated as "FEAST."
But Batman didn't believe things were that simple, especially since those unemployed people should have had better options—even if they didn't return to Oscorp, they could still choose to join other companies.
"There must be something drawing them there."
Whoosh!
Batman jumped from the top of the Empire State Building, his cape electrifying and spreading out behind him, making him truly transform into a massive bat soaring through the sky.
He was heading to Queens to search for Schultz and to investigate just what this "FEAST" welfare organization was all about.
In Queens, inside the "FEAST" orphanage.
This was a remote two-story row house; even late at night, it was still brightly lit.
Batman's figure landed silently on the roof, listening to the sounds coming from inside.
"There's no need to feel ashamed about accepting help. Everyone goes through storms; this world can be truly cruel at times."
"But remember, your worth is never defined by what you've lost, but by what you choose to become."
"We are a whole; every individual we help strengthens the foundation of our entire society......"
Batman hung upside down, slowly descending from the roof, inching closer to the window, where he saw that the one speaking was a middle-aged man in a gray suit.
In front of him, over a hundred people sat cross-legged: some in suits but with faces full of dejection—the unemployed; some in ragged clothes—the homeless; and some women who looked a bit uneasy.
Batman remained motionless, listening to the man in the gray suit speak for a full ten minutes, and in the process, he used his newly configured Batcomputer to identify him.
"Martin Li, a success story of the 'American Dream,' recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom...... He owns a Wall Street finance company and has multiple office buildings in Queens."
"Over ten days ago, he bought this two-story building, originally a clothing store, now converted into a homeless shelter named 'FEAST.'"
No longer needing to go back specifically to manually sketch the target's image and then have the computer identify it to query all their information.
The new Batsuit's integrated computer already included recording, photography, and video functions; Batman easily queried all of Martin Li's information on the spot.
But whether it was Martin Li's personal info, his companies, or this welfare organization, Batman couldn't find any abnormalities.
It was too clean—clean to the point of being unbelievable.
You have to know that even a group like Stark's had black marks with weapons illegally ending up in the hands of New York gangs, and Oscorp had ties to human experimentation.
But Martin Li showed no issues from either a personal or corporate angle.
Even the speech he was giving right now to those hundred-plus unemployed people and homeless in the orphanage was just full of encouragement, not exploiting them for anything.
Without wasting too much time there, Batman left several bugs behind before departing, wandering through the deep, narrow alleys of Queens in search of clues about Schultz, and along the way, he took down criminals, dumping them at the door of the Queens police station.
"Schultz seems to have vanished into thin air. I need to make a trip to Hell's Kitchen tonight."
Batman thought to himself, flying from Queens toward Manhattan with the high mobility of his cape.
Dr. Banner and Professor Connors were still waiting for him in the hotel.
In a military prison, General Ross was dressed in prison garb, his two legs limply dangling over the stool—this was from when Batman had bent the helicopter propeller and casually twisted them.
General Ross now wore a face of utter despair; he'd been hammered dead by the explosive revelations released by that reporter named Eddie Brock through the Daily Bugle. What awaited him was life imprisonment and the stripping of his political rights.
But as footsteps sounded, several prison guards strode in, and under General Ross's stunned gaze, they opened the cell and even removed the shackles from his hands.
"What......"
Before General Ross could voice his question, one of the guards handed him a document.
As his eyes slowly scanned the file from top to bottom, a smile appeared on General Ross's face. Then, with the help of one guard, he was seated in a wheelchair, and half an hour later, he boarded a helicopter bound for New Mexico.
"Relay my orders: Bring Norman Osborn from the Ravencroft Institute."
"Repair the gamma ray device in New Mexico."
"Investigate Batman's true identity with full force; track down Professor Connors and Dr. Banner."
"Get the Daily Bugle to fire that damn little reporter Eddie Brock; send an agent to kill him."
As General Ross issued his commands, one order after another was transmitted from the helicopter, an invisible force once again enveloping New York.