Batman Incident (17)

Everyone behind the defensive line watched as that figure, seemingly tiny beneath the overwhelming tide of bats, shot two webs directly onto the two buildings beside him.

Those two buildings had long since been emptied. Their structures had already been on the verge of collapse after the previous night’s battle. This time, the two webs Spider-Man fired were black, each tipped with a large net that stuck across most of the buildings’ facades.

Then Spider-Man flexed both arms and pulled inward. The two buildings let out a teeth-grating groan of compression and began to tilt.

Before everyone’s astonished eyes, the two massive buildings came crashing down. Thick clouds of dust billowed up, and the first wave of bats charging toward the defensive line had never expected this. They were buried beneath the fallen towers on the spot.

Everyone present was stunned.

Those were two buildings dozens of meters tall!

Previously, Peter had played more of a highly agile support role on the battlefield. Wherever an emergency arose, he arrived first, either repairing defensive fortifications or escorting the wounded. He had mostly served as support.

This was the first time everyone realized just how terrifying Spider-Man’s strength truly was. Stark’s helmet opened, and he stared straight at Peter, only to find that he did not look tired in the slightest.

As the buildings collapsed, Peter nimbly dodged aside. Then he grabbed a truck nearby and hurled it at the bats that had slipped through the net. That enormous truck, its tires as tall as a person, was no different from a small stone in his hands.

Stark swallowed. Steve asked, "Could your armor do that at full power?"

Stark hesitated before saying, "It could, but not with that kind of force application. I’d need to find a point of support. That isn’t scientific…"

"His limit is probably far beyond this." Steve folded his arms and watched Spider-Man slaughter his way through the center of the battlefield.

As someone who had also undergone physical mutation, Steve understood this well. He said, "Peter’s strength is still very far from being fully developed. His upper limit must be terrifyingly high."

Stark frowned and said anxiously, "I’m starting to feel some pressure. If it’s really like you said, then his Spider-Sense may truly be capable of prediction."

"I meant in the future." Steve looked at Stark. "At least for now, Peter is still in an adaptation period. The strength this mutation gave him is nowhere near its peak. The same goes for his Spider-Sense."

"To be honest, I think something’s strange. Peter told me before that his Spider-Sense rarely formed a specific image, especially one that lasted that long. You ejecting from the armor, falling, and then hitting the ground… that’s a little too specific."

"Does Spider-Sense come with storyboards or something? First it shows what environment you’re in, then it shows you ejecting from the armor and falling, and finally it shows the result when you hit the ground. Even a prophecy shouldn’t be that clear and explicit, right?"

"Now that you mention it, I think something is off too." Stark said doubtfully, "Peter never mentioned being able to foresee the future before, especially not with such clarity and accuracy."

"Maybe he’ll be able to do that in the future." Steve concluded, "But for now, Spider-Sense commensurate with his current level of strength shouldn’t be capable of such a clear prophecy."

"No matter what, I still need to prepare for it. If it’s real, then things will become very troublesome."

Spider-Man had blocked the first and fiercest wave of attacks, giving the defensive line behind him a chance to catch its breath.

When the second wave of bats attacked, they had grown smarter. They no longer simply swooped down from the sky in a swarm. Instead, some took human form and coordinated with the ground assault, weakening humanity’s anti-air firepower.

After a full day of preparation, humanity’s firepower had increased dramatically. Thanks to some maneuvering by Pierce and Nick, every unit participating in the defense had received ample heavy-weapon supplies. Under such circumstances, the advantages of human weaponry became apparent.

Most human heavy weapons generated high temperatures and explosions, precisely the things vampires feared most. Moreover, aside from the target that needed precise strikes, their splash damage was also considerable.

At several key defensive positions, oil barrels had been set up that snipers could detonate. When necessary, the explosions and flames from those barrels could disrupt the bats’ attack rhythm.

At first, the entire defensive rhythm was excellent. Different weapons covered one another in rotation, and the defensive line advanced layer by layer. Before long, they had even pushed their counterattack to the entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge.

But soon, many problems began to surface. For example, humanity had underestimated the bats’ fearless ferocity. Or rather, those bats had clearly been controlled by something and turned into crazed cannon fodder.

Hawkeye had just detonated an oil barrel. The explosion badly wounded one bat and set another on fire, yet the burning bat did not retreat. Instead, covered in flames, it charged into the nearest machine-gun emplacement.

Though the machine gunners had been prepared, one of them was still set ablaze. If his companions had not put out the flames in time, he might have died as well.

The burns left him unable to continue fighting, and he was quickly taken away by a hexagonal nut-shaped robot.

These crazed bats simply did not care about their lives. They would rather lose a thousand to injure the enemy by eight hundred than stop attacking.

Hawkeye lowered his bow and cursed under his breath. Then he said to Natasha over the radio, "What the hell is going on? These bats are even crazier than they were last night!"

"The Bat God they worship may be using some kind of power to control them." Natasha’s tone remained as calm as ever. "But Nick told me there may be a turning point soon."

As the battle grew increasingly intense, humanity’s advantage gradually faded, and the two sides fell into a deadlock like a meat grinder.

Stark blasted back an attacking crazed bat. Then the Iron Man armor soared into the air, firing several shots to drive back the bats trying to storm the position. At that moment, Jarvis’s voice came through his helmet. "A communication has come from the Stark Tower laboratory. The caller is Dr. Connors."

"Put it through." Stark hovered in midair.

Dr. Connors’s voice came through the earpiece. He spoke quickly but calmly. Connors said, "Listen. First, regardless of the principle, I’ve produced a serum that, if released properly, can disable every bat on the battlefield at once."

"Get to the point. What do we need to do?" Stark asked bluntly.

"I told Nick before that I had a better way to solve the problem at its root. Now I’ve succeeded. There’s only one final step left."

"In short, I used components extracted from the lizard serum—the serum that can turn me into a lizard monster—to create an infectious mutation serum for infecting those bats."

"Once the bats are infected, they will begin to become lizard-like. Unlike humans, bats cannot become Lizardmen. They will only become more reptilian, growing heavy scales all over their bodies, tails and legs, and losing their ability to fly."

"I altered the components to make this mutation more uncontrollable. They might grow a tail from their chest, or be crushed to death beneath thick scales."

"This mutation is completely uncontrollable, so once infected, the mutated bats will almost entirely lose their ability to fight."

"But it won’t infect humans?" Stark asked.

"Of course not. Why else did you think I brought in so many bats for research? This is a targeted infectious serum, completely ineffective on humans. I’ve already tested it."

"All right. What else do you need?"

"To eliminate all the bats’ combat capability at once, I need a sufficiently powerful spray emitter. Ideally, it can disperse the mutation serum instantly, covering the whole battlefield and infecting every bat. It needs to be fast, so they don’t have time to use any magical means to counter it."

Stark considered it as he looked at the increasingly brutal battle below. "Then let’s do it. I remember I still have a UV emitter. Can you see whether that can be used?"

"I reviewed the blueprints for all your emitters. By my calculations, its power is insufficient. Light and gas are not the same. Gas requires enormous thrust to quickly cover the entire battlefield."

"Then modify it quickly. I’ve opened up access to every laboratory for you."

"Yinsen and I have already made a version. It only needs final calibration. It will be ready within half an hour. What you need to consider now is where to set it up and how to trigger it."

Connors spoke at a breakneck pace. "Theoretically, its spray range will be a sphere around three hundred meters in diameter. To make the best use of that range, the emitter cannot be placed on the ground. Find a tall building as close to the combat zone as possible. Once you choose the location, we’ll transport the emitter there immediately."

Stark said, "Actually, there’s only one tall building within the entire area."

He looked up and saw Brooklyn Heights Tower on the eastern side of the Brooklyn Bridge.

As if he had sensed something, Stark fell silent over the line. Connors asked, "What is it?"

After a while, Stark’s voice came through. "No… it’s nothing. There’s only one building that meets your requirements. Once the emitter is calibrated, transport it to the roof of Brooklyn Heights Tower immediately. Jarvis has already sent you the exact coordinates. I’ll be waiting there."

Connors heard an inexplicable emotion in the end of his sentence, but he had no time to continue chatting and quickly hung up.

On the other side, Peter swung over on his webs to Stark’s side. "The situation at the front is terrible. Where’s the turning point Natasha mentioned? Do you know, Mr. Stark?"

"Forget that for now." Stark’s voice came from inside the armor with a faint electronic distortion. He continued, "Tell Steve to lead a squad and clear every vampire around Highland Tower. I’m going up there."

"Highland Tower?" Peter turned to look and found that it was the tallest building nearby. He said, "No! Wait! You can’t go! Did you forget, forget that thing I…"

"I haven’t forgotten, Peter. I remember it very clearly, but I have to go." Iron Man, clad in armor, flew directly in that direction. Peter chased after him, shouting, "No!!! You know you’ll die if you do that! Oh God…"

Peter pulled out his radio and said to Steve, "Stop Stark! He’s gone crazy! He’s going to Highland Tower!"

"Peter, protect Stark." Steve’s voice came through the radio. Clearly, he had received Connors’s communication as well. He said, "There are things that must be done, even when you know they won’t end well."

Peter was nearly frantic. Having seen that vision with his own eyes, he could not accept this happening no matter what. He said to Stark, "You don’t have to go up there. I can go alone. What is there that I can’t handle? I…"

"Activating the emitter takes time, and the infection needs time to take effect." Stark’s voice was extremely calm. "One person can’t defend against the bats, activate the emitter, and arrange an extraction at the same time. One person absolutely cannot do it."

"Then we can think of another way. It doesn’t have to…"

"Peter, I’ve told you before…" Stark stopped. His faceplate lifted, and Peter saw Stark’s face. There was no panic or fear on it. He looked calmer than usual.

"If I were afraid of death, I should be hiding under the layers of protection at Stark Tower right now, not fighting here."

"I understand better than anyone that if I’m destined to die, no armor, no matter how advanced, can protect me. This armor has never given me any sense of security. Every moment, I face death head-on."

In the pitch-black night sky, Peter clung to the wall of a building and looked at Stark hovering opposite him.

The wind whipped the hair beneath Stark’s raised faceplate. His eyes seemed to absorb every bit of light around them, reminding Peter of the sunrise he and Stark had watched together for the first time.

"Even without the prophecy you saw, I worry every second I’m on the battlefield."

"Advanced armor, even more advanced armor… I’ll keep developing all kinds of armor endlessly, because I’m afraid of death."

"What I never told you was that in that cave in Afghanistan, beyond the pain, there was endless fear. No one isn’t afraid of dying."

Peter heard pain begin to seep into Stark’s voice, as though he were recalling memories he had never wanted to revisit.

"Back then, I knew I was about to die. No one could tell me whether I would make it out alive…"

"Just like today, I know I’m about to die…"

Stark closed his eyes. His voice began to tremble slightly, gradually scattering into the cold night wind of Brooklyn.

"Maybe I’m crazy. I know there’s only death ahead, but a voice keeps urging me to do this. I have to do this…"

"I can only do this."