Chapter 81 Two Beasts Trapped, The Alpha Plan That Always Has a Backup
"Peter, Peter?"
Outside Oscorp Tower, Harry Osborn shouted hoarsely into the building.
Inside the tower, lights flickered on and off. Explosive sounds occasionally erupted, making it impossible to determine what was happening.
Harry Osborn was blocked by soldiers below, unable to enter. His face was filled with worry, but he couldn't force his way past soldiers whose individual physical capabilities far exceeded his own.
"After I gave Peter that 'Clark' identity documentation, he entered Oscorp Tower—but until now I haven't received any news from him—"
Hearing the massive sounds from inside the tower, Harry Osborn grew increasingly worried.
But just then—BOOM!
On Oscorp Tower's tenth floor, the Batmobile—after launching micro-missiles to blast through the wall—leaped out, catapulted several Dewar flasks toward the sky, then crashed thunderously to the ground.
The Batmobile executed self-destruct mode, but the hard armor on the vehicle body and the massive bat symbol remained unharmed amid the explosion.
Harry Osborn looked up toward the sky. He could only see a pitch-black figure catch those Dewar flasks, then charge back into Oscorp Tower.
"That figure seems familiar."
Soldiers below held their guns uncertainly, slowly approaching the Batmobile. Harry also moved forward, staring at the bat symbol on the hood for a long time.
"Batman? That vampire from recent rumors?"
Confusion flashed through Harry Osborn's mind, but he quickly dismissed thoughts about "Batman" from his head, instead attempting to secretly infiltrate Oscorp Tower while soldiers' attention was on the Batmobile.
THUD!
A tremendous sound. Dust in the stairwell fell with this impact. Harry—who'd secretly snuck into the tower's stairwell alone—shrank his head, covered his mouth and nose, and advanced bit by bit supporting himself against the wall.
"Peter!"
Harry shouted once.
The sound echoed in the stairwell, but no one answered. A beast's roar suddenly exploded, clearly audible even through many floors.
"Peter?"
Harry jumped in fright, waiting in place for several minutes. Only after the commotion inside the building weakened did he climb upward again.
"Professor Connors, calm down."
CLANG!
Batman spoke while pulling webbing with one hand. The webbing's end adhered to a Dewar flask filled with liquid nitrogen, which he swung forcefully, smashing it solidly onto the Lizard Professor's head.
HISS!
The bottle instantly shattered. Massive amounts of liquid nitrogen poured out, flowing down from the Lizard Professor's head along his keratinous layers. Thin white smoke also rose.
"ROAR!"
The Lizard Professor roared, forcefully twisting his massive body.
His body rapidly froze after being covered by liquid nitrogen. Scales fell off as the Lizard Professor twisted his body. Blood immediately seeped through wounds but quickly healed.
Pain and fury made the Lizard Professor's golden vertical pupils nearly turn blood red. He stared fixedly at Batman but still didn't launch an attack. Instead, he desperately dug toward the twentieth floor.
Even transformed into a monster, the Lizard Professor wanted to obtain the "perfect" regenerative serum and deliver it to Metropolitan Hospital.
"Professor, even though you've become a lizard, I hope you'll listen to what I have to say."
Batman spoke in a deep voice while bending down to remove the modified bat-signal transmitter. Activating it, he flung his hand. The transmitter and a batarang flew out successively, the latter firmly pinning the former at the ceiling's breakthrough.
Then modified pumpkin bombs rolled onto the ground one after another, as though abandoned.
"Your regenerative serum still isn't perfect. Insisting on using it to save a child will only make that child live in pain thereafter."
Since the rooftop, the Lizard Professor had never shown vigorous aggressive desires. Instead, he was only obsessed with returning to the twentieth floor to obtain the regenerative serum.
Even if there was a one-in-ten-thousand probability, Batman had to attempt verbal communication with him.
While speaking in a deep voice, he again fired webbing to adhere to another Dewar flask, harshly smashing it toward the Lizard Professor.
Then the third, fourth—
Until all Dewar flasks had been solidly smashed onto the Lizard Professor, the liquid nitrogen inside almost enveloping most of the Lizard Professor.
The liquid nitrogen's extremely low temperature instantly carried away massive heat, freezing the scales and muscles on the Lizard Professor's body surface, making them lose elasticity.
This was merely one of Batman's pre-prepared plans for dealing with monsters General Ross might create.
Though the Lizard Professor's mutation had little connection to General Ross, having transformed into a cold-blooded animal like a lizard, he was precisely countered by liquid nitrogen.
With liquid nitrogen covering most of his body surface, the Lizard Professor's metabolism drastically declined, instinctively falling into a stiff and sluggish state.
Batman didn't stop his actions but continued attacking.
"Professor Connors, I believe no matter what you've become, you're still that scientist with firm will and kind heart."
"I need you to calm down."
While speaking, Batman used his own body to break load-bearing column after load-bearing column, shear wall after shear wall.
With each collision, Batman's body emitted faint sounds of breaking bones. Armor on his body shattered piece by piece. Inside the suit had long become warm and sticky. Blood almost covered Batman's entire body.
But Batman didn't pause. He needed to seize this opportunity.
The entire Oscorp Tower's architectural structure had been deeply memorized in Batman's mind back at City Hall subway station. He knew exactly that these shear walls he was breaking would cause collapse.
Partial collapse. Floor slabs and walls would crash down according to the breaking sequence, forming an artificial gravity cage.
Similar "cages" were distributed across every floor of Oscorp Tower, ensuring Batman had response plans no matter how the battle developed.
"Who are you—"
A beast-like voice sounded from the Lizard Professor's mouth. The blood color in his golden vertical pupils receded slightly. His scale-covered face looked somewhat pained.
"Why would you know these things—" The Lizard Professor's voice was intermittent.
Batman fell silent for less than half a second, then removed his bat helmet, revealing that face with untrimmed beard, forehead now slowly bleeding.
Between concealing his identity at all costs and revealing his identity to redeem a pitiable scientist, preventing him from making mistake after mistake, Batman chose the latter.
"Peter?" The Lizard Professor's voice contained undisguised surprise.
"It's me, Professor."
Batman looked at the Lizard Professor, voice no longer deep:
"Before you commit irreparable mistakes, trust me!"
"I'll fund your continued research on limb experiments. The life you couldn't save—I'll work hard with you too—"
"ROAR!"
Another roar sounded again.
This time not from the Lizard Professor—pressed below by floor slabs and walls Batman had utilized, body covered with liquid nitrogen—but from the Hulk, separated by several floors, whom Batman had stabilized for less than ten seconds using the gamma device's neural sedation and bat-signal sedative gas.
RUMBLE!
Starting from the fifty-eighth floor where the Hulk was, this newly furious green giant raised both fists, smashing the floor beneath his feet again and again. His body also fell downward at extreme speed.
CRASH!
This time the Hulk seemed to hold back no strength. Furious, the force of his descending fists shook the entire Oscorp Tower slightly with each blow.
Wherever he passed, dust flew, circuits exploded, water pipes burst. Even some glass-material windows and instruments shattered.
Yet Batman showed no concern for the spectacular Hulk. Instead, he looked at the Lizard Professor, hoping to see a trace of human emotion on his lizard face rather than cold-blooded animal cruelty.
"SMASH!"
The Hulk finally penetrated the last floor slab, landing beside Batman. Just as he was about to attack both the Lizard Professor and Batman simultaneously—
"Beep."
The bat-signal transmitter Batman had modified in advance and pinned to the wall suddenly emitted a nauseating low-frequency noise.
Simultaneously, those pumpkin bombs thrown on the ground exploded one after another. Intense flash and impact, plus the pumpkin bombs' high-frequency noise, filled the entire floor.
Exploding along with them was solidifying gel, also filled into another batch of modified pumpkin bombs, rapidly spraying toward the Hulk with the explosions.
Solidifying gel rapidly expanded and solidified upon meeting air, almost enveloping the Hulk's entire person.
"Calm down, both of you."
After the flash, noise, and solidifying gel, Batman re-donned his removed helmet. His deep voice sounded by both monsters' ears:
"Otherwise I'll activate the Alpha Plan."