Forty kilometers… thirty kilometers… ten kilometers…
With every stretch of distance covered, Batman analyzed the real-time data streaming back from the spider-bots, issuing new orders to the units scattered across different sectors.
Vroom—!
The instant the Batcycle roared within ten kilometers of the Gamma Bomb Research Facility, Batman silently switched the engine from gasoline to electric. The thunderous growl instantly dropped to a dozen decibels, replaced by the near-silent hum of battery power.
At the same moment, inside the base, some spider-bots were still en route to their assigned reconnaissance zones. Others, having finished early due to proximity, began their secondary transformation sequence.
One spider-bot elongated its frame into a triangular support strut. The rest started climbing atop it, retracting their mechanical claws, flattening and curving their bodies into smooth arcs.
Seven or eight of the curved bots locked together, forming something that looked exactly like a miniature satellite dish.
Unlike the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier or the Adirondack base, this facility was physically cut off from the outside world. Batman's infiltration method this time was completely different.
At the Adirondacks, he had slipped in personally, sabotaged the cooling system, then exfiltrated while remotely downloading data. The entire operation had taken less than twenty minutes; his only goal had been intelligence gathering.
This was different.
Rescuing Norman Osborn couldn't be done in a ten-minute blitz, and Batman needed to stay hidden for as long as possible.
That's why he'd landed fifty kilometers out, sending the Bat-Drone and spider-bots ahead to scout while he prepared a wireless bridgehead. Once the makeshift dish was up, he could push his payload through the spider-bots themselves.
If anything went wrong at this stage, he would immediately switch to Plan B: brute-force entry or some other vector for the virus.
But the first phase went perfectly.
Without hesitation, Batman uploaded the custom electronic virus stored in his Arkham suit.
Shhhhk—
The moment the makeshift receiver accepted the payload, it collapsed. The spider-bots scattered like startled insects, each now carrying a fragment of the virus as they darted through vents, conduits, and maintenance shafts, hunting for any networked device to infect.
By the time Batman was five kilometers out, the farther-flung recon units finished their personnel sweeps and joined the infection wave.
At three kilometers, the virus propagation completed.
Batman now controlled the entire facility's comms, radar, and a significant portion of its central systems.
"Rosch, take the wheel."
He spoke to Venom. Black symbiote matter peeled away from his right hand, wrapping around the Batcycle's handlebars. At the same time, Batman raised both arms.
For a split second, it looked like he had suddenly sprouted four arms.
The facility loomed closer.
Batman leaned forward, reached down, and unlatched a compact sixty-centimeter-long rifle from the side of the cycle. Most of its length was in the stock; the barrel itself was surprisingly short. He pressed it to his shoulder, muzzle pointed toward the base.
Batman didn't use lethal firearms against humans. This one wasn't lethal.
Its name was the Disruptor: a tool for disabling enemy firearms. It fired short, penetrating laser pulses designed to fry firing pins without killing the wielder.
There was no scope. His own eyesight, enhanced by Venom, was better than any optical sight.
The instant he shouldered the weapon, his finger squeezed the trigger without hesitation.
Crimson laser pulses, nearly invisible in the night, lanced out toward the base—now less than two kilometers away.
Lasers don't drop and travel at the speed of light.
The very same second Batman fired, the firing pins inside the rifles of Hydra troops stationed around the perimeter melted into useless slag.
"Seventy-three Hydra soldiers in line of sight on the outer perimeter," he muttered. "No crew-served weapons or artillery spotted."
Seventy-three shots in the space of a heartbeat. Every pulse found its mark.
He knew each soldier probably carried a sidearm as backup.
But once their primary rifles and submachine guns were disabled, those pistols posed no meaningful threat to the man in the bat-suit.
In theory, he could have ditched the Disruptor entirely and just tanked the gunfire with Venom's protection.
But he was playing a role: the merely human vigilante on a motorcycle, not the bulletproof monster.
Even though Hydra hadn't spotted him yet.
Even the choice to arrive on the loudly roaring Batcycle instead of sprinting here faster than a sports car was deliberate misdirection.
Because if something went wrong and General Ross learned "an unstoppable, bulletproof monster just tore through the front gate," the man would almost certainly unleash whatever abominations were caged inside the facility.
Even though the spider-bots had already confirmed zero non-human life signs within the base, Batman always planned for the worst.
––––––––––
Unknown waters, S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.
Tony Stark and Director Nick Fury stood face-to-face, arms crossed, locked in a staring contest.
"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s firewall stopped you cold, Mr. Stark," Fury said icily. "Care to explain?"
Tony was still fully suited in the Mark III, silver-and-red faceplate sealed.
Not because he was being dramatic; the armor currently required external mechanical arms to don and doff, and the Helicarrier wasn't equipped with Stark-tech docking rigs.
Also, he knew Fury was still itching to get a closer look at the suit. No way was Tony letting agents swarm it the moment he stepped out.
"It means I've still got the best tech on the planet," Tony replied through the helmet speakers. "Everyone says so."
Admitting that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s defenses had actually blocked him stung his pride too much.
Fury's single eye bored into the expressionless metal mask.
"No games, Stark."
"The last time I sent Agent Coulson to you for a firewall upgrade… you didn't write that code, did you?"
"Who was it?"
Tony opened his mouth, reflexively about to cover for Peter Parker again; but then he remembered the vigilante constantly hovering at Peter's side.
If he could get Peter on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar, maybe even recruit the kid genius officially… it might give Peter another layer of protection against Batman's influence.
Besides the Rescue Suit Tony was already building, Peter would have the entire agency watching his back.
"It was a friend of mine," Tony said finally. "I'll introduce you sometime, Fury."
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