Inside Codename D-2, the "Ant Farm," also known as the Big House prison.
This was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most closely guarded secrets, a facility used to incarcerate extremely dangerous criminals much like the Cube.
At this moment, Black Widow sat inside her cell. A flash of helplessness crossed her face as she watched the ants occasionally scurrying past outside.
If this were any other prison, Black Widow could easily employ words, hypnosis, seduction, or various other tactics to orchestrate an escape, or at the very least find a way to access outside information.
But in the Ant Farm, the guards had been replaced by ants equipped with specialized devices. Tactics like seduction were utterly useless against them.
Black Widow had considered targeting Ant-Man, Hank Pym, or trying to find out who else was imprisoned in this facility.
However, one of the reasons the Ant Farm was also dubbed the "Big House" was that the cells here were constructed almost entirely out of basic toy building blocks. Aside from essential lighting, they contained practically no electronic devices.
This ruined even Black Widow's contingency of secretly building a radio transmitter to send an SOS signal to the outside world.
"Nick Fury, you old fox!" Black Widow watched a giant ant pass by her cell, its antennae twitching in the air. "What the hell kind of game is he playing?"
Black Widow could easily deduce that from the day she was captured by Ant-Man and the Wasp and locked in the Ant Farm, Nick Fury must have already leaked the narrative that "Black Widow is Hydra" to S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
She even knew that Fury was doing this to lure the snake out of its hole—to completely uproot the Hydra forces buried deep within S.H.I.E.L.D.
"But who could have guessed that Ant-Man and the Wasp, who were rumored to have cut ties with S.H.I.E.L.D. long ago, have actually been secretly working for them all along, to the point where they were even entrusted with the mysterious D-2?"
Right now, Black Widow could only pray that there were no flaws in Nick Fury's plan, and that no one besides S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra knew she was in New York.
Otherwise, multiple factions converging on New York would only muddy the waters even further.
On Bat-Island, Venom Robin was still undergoing physical conditioning.
And alongside the physical training, Batman was simultaneously developing Venom Robin's mind and cognitive abilities.
"Old Bat, you only gave yourself a fifteen-day deadline to find Black Widow. But as far as I know, even between you and Hawkeye, neither of you has a clue where she actually is, right?"
This mental development naturally took the form of Venom Robin asking about things he didn't understand, with Batman providing the answers:
"Finding an agent who excels at hiding out of billions of people in the world, especially one we highly suspect is a double agent—is fifteen days really enough?"
"It's enough time," Batman said. "Black Widow is in New York."
Batman delivered this as a statement, speaking as if it were a plain fact rather than a guess.
"Why are you so sure?" Venom Robin asked.
"Because Hawkeye came to New York from the Cube, which means Black Widow must be here too," Batman replied. "Even though I suspect Hawkeye's target is actually me, not Black Widow."
"So how did you arrive at that conclusion?" Venom Robin asked.
"Because out of all the cities in the world, New York is the only one that simultaneously houses Batman, Hawkeye, Iron Man, and the Ant-Man and Wasp whom we've never made contact with," Batman said.
"Wait, don't explain just yet, let me think." Venom Robin quickly engaged his brain. "If Black Widow is Hydra, then she would definitely try to actively make contact with you and Iron Man, so she must be in New York?"
"And if she's a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent... then she wouldn't be separated from her partner Hawkeye at all, so Hawkeye being sent to New York is exactly so they can regroup?"
Batman looked at Venom Robin and remained silent for a few seconds. He had thought Venom Robin might spot the issue from the perspective of Ant-Man and the Wasp, but he never expected his line of reasoning to veer so wildly off course:
"Wrong process, but right result."
"Huh?" Venom Robin tried hard to suppress the urge to scratch the back of his head.
Batman sighed silently. He knew that if he didn't explain it clearly, Venom Robin would remain utterly clueless:
"A month ago, Tony Stark returned from the Middle East and announced the closure of his weapons factories."
"A few days later, he built a suit of iron armor, put it on, and called himself 'Iron Man.'"
"Also a month ago, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury secretly visited Tony's home to inquire about the supply of high-end weaponry."
"That same night, I infiltrated a safehouse in Manhattan and met with Nick Fury, who had just come from Tony Stark's."
"It's a known fact that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s high-end weapons were previously supplied by Stark Industries. With this supply chain gone, I investigated all the corporations Nick Fury might reach out to and eventually narrowed it down to five companies with the requisite capabilities."
"Among these entities, Pym Technologies, owned by Ant-Man and the Wasp, is the most likely candidate to become Nick Fury's next target."
"I suspect that Ant-Man and the Wasp have always maintained contact with S.H.I.E.L.D., contrary to what my previous investigations showed about them being disconnected for years."
"Combined with Hawkeye being inexplicably sent to New York and the series of events that have unfolded here over the past two months, I am ninety percent certain that Black Widow is in New York."
"To be more specific, she is currently inside the Pym Technologies building."
After finishing his deduction, Batman looked at Venom Robin, hoping he would find the loopholes in his statement so he could take the opportunity to guide him.
For instance, Pym Technologies is different from Stark Industries; not only do they have no external commercial operations, they don't even have any weapons factories under their name.
For instance, regarding Hawkeye being locked up in the Cube a month and a half ago, it's hard to say whether Nick Fury was involved in that plan, the true purpose of which might have been to let Black Widow thoroughly infiltrate Hydra.
For instance, now that Hawkeye has been released while Black Widow has disappeared, a more reasonable assumption would be that Black Widow has successfully embedded herself inside Hydra and is about to coordinate with Hawkeye from the inside out to take them down.
Unfortunately, although Venom Robin was smart, his brain's processing speed couldn't keep up with Batman's pace. He couldn't manage to keep his mind in a state of extreme hyperactivity while simultaneously undergoing high-intensity physical training.
Batman's ability to do so was the result of decades of unyielding daily discipline. Venom Robin had been born less than two months ago. Batman merely shook his head inwardly, keeping his thoughts to himself to avoid dealing a blow to his confidence.
"Beep beep beep beep!"
The little girl Lunella and Ben Grimm had just returned to the Baxter Building when the alarm systems throughout the entire structure immediately blared to life.
The soft white lights were quickly replaced by flashing red warning beacons. Heavy steel blast doors rose up along the exterior glass walls of the entire building, and biometric-locked weapons snapped out from almost every wall and corridor inside.
At the same time, as the Baxter Building entered high-alert status, warning signals were rapidly dispatched to the NYPD, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force, the World Security Council, S.H.I.E.L.D., the White House, the Pentagon...
In less than five seconds, almost every faction capable of rapidly deploying military forces had received the SOS signal from the Baxter Building.
"Lunella, I think we're in trouble," Ben Grimm gasped, knowing that the Baxter Building had now entered its maximum lockdown state.
As a genius scientist not even thirty years old, Reed Richards' personal safety was prioritized to a degree second only to the President of the United States.
Lunella said nothing. She clutched the circular, spoked object to her chest, then quickly dismantled several parts from the device she was using to track Batman, her eyes fixed unblinking on the device's radar.
A few seconds later, Lunella looked up at Ben Grimm:
"The building hasn't been breached from the inside. My device hasn't detected anyone other than Reed, Susan, you, and me."
"Then this alarm..." Ben Grimm frowned, looking alongside Lunella at the mysterious circular, spoked object. "Does it have something to do with this thing?"
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