With Nick Fury's experience stretching all the way back to World War II, his suspicion of Batman could only be described by a single idiom: completely inverted.
He hadn't even begun to suspect Batman of being HYDRA, yet the other man had turned the tables and suspected him, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., of being HYDRA.
Nick Fury laughed in sheer fury. He itched to draw his pistol and put a bullet straight through the exposed chin of Batman's cowl.
Compared to Fury's seething laughter, Batman showed no emotional fluctuation from start to finish.
"Prove it."
Amid the cold chuckle, Nick Fury's single eye locked onto Batman in silence for several seconds. He knew he had to break the deadlock.
He was facing a creature even more extreme, more stubborn, and more paranoid than himself. He knew that dragging this out would only make the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. look ridiculous.
Faced with Batman's demand, Nick Fury spat out a thick cloud of cigar smoke, making no effort to hide his current rage. "Prove it? You think this is a courtroom? You don't trust me—do you think I'll trust you?"
"I'm not showing you a single document, and I'm not giving you a single name. Because in my eyes, you and HYDRA are the same—threats that need to be locked in a cage."
The cigar smoke drifted lazily through the air. As it neared Batman, a wisp about to dissipate slipped through a seam in the Arkham suit.
Nick Fury said nothing, silently counting in his head: One, two, three…
Nothing happened. Director Fury let out a quiet sigh of relief and stubbed out the cigar. "But I can give you a chance—a chance for us to test each other."
Batman remained motionless. The moment Fury pulled out the cigar, Batman had already been on high alert—especially when he saw Fury seemingly casually trim off the excess beyond the cap. That vigilance only intensified.
Fortunately, it wasn't some kind of explosive. As Fury lit it and Batman watched the white smoke drift toward him, he already knew: this was probably some kind of sedative or knockout gas.
But that stuff was useless against Batman in the Arkham suit. The suit's internal air filtration system blocked it completely.
Fury clearly saw the move had failed. He immediately continued the unfinished "mutual test":
"You say I'm HYDRA. I can't prove otherwise with classified S.H.I.E.L.D. files."
"But I can give you a real HYDRA name—a parasite who's been lurking inside S.H.I.E.L.D. for years. If you can dig up solid proof he's HYDRA and hand that evidence to me without alerting him…"
"Then you'll not only prove your capabilities, you'll also preliminarily prove your stance."
"And I'll be able to use him to prove I'm not HYDRA."
"His name is Garrett."
Using HYDRA to prove he wasn't HYDRA—even Batman silently praised the move. But upon hearing the name, the brows beneath Batman's cowl twitched slightly. He immediately pulled up Garrett's file:
"Garrett. Senior Level 8 S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Handles the weapon logistics program for internal agent training…"
A long string of information Batman had previously investigated appeared before Nick Fury's eyes.
"You know he's HYDRA. Why not pull him out?" Batman asked in a low, gravelly voice.
Fury felt a headache coming on. The Batman situation wasn't resolved, the whereabouts of Doctor Octavius and the other two were still unknown, and now Batman had instantly accessed internal S.H.I.E.L.D. data.
"Before I answer your question, you tell me how you did that."
"Weapons he handled showed up on the black market." Batman was concise. "Your turn."
"A pawn." Fury kept it equally short.
Silence fell over the safe house once more, but this time it didn't last long. Fury broke it first:
"I can share the intel I have on Norman Osborn, but I need to know what you've done with Doctor Octavius, Professor Connors, and Doctor Banner."
"This time, you go first."
Batman stared into Fury's single eye.
"They're safe. In a place where no one will treat them like weapons or use them for human experimentation."
"I figured you'd say that," Fury shot back without pulling punches. "So you snatched three, lost one—and the one you lost just happens to be the least stable and most likely to be weaponized?"
He once again pinned Norman Osborn's disappearance on Batman.
"If you and your S.H.I.E.L.D. weren't so incompetent, HYDRA wouldn't have taken Norman Osborn." Batman gave Fury no quarter in return.
As the tension spiked again, Fury sighed. "I'm not your enemy, Batman. At least not right now."
With that, he walked to the safe house console. A flurry of keystrokes later, he pulled up a set of coordinates.
"General Ross—that stubborn mule who's been chasing Banner relentlessly—has never truly given up his obsession with super-soldiers. He sees Hulk as his failure, and Norman Osborn as the right answer he finally found."
"This is a desert site in New Mexico. It used to be a gamma bomb research base under General Ross's command, sealed five years ago after Hulk's birth."
"But according to my intel, there's been unusual activity there recently. HYDRA is gathering personnel."
This was a lead even Batman hadn't uncovered. While compiling his own intelligence, Batman had added New Mexico to his web of clues, but he'd been unable to leave New York to investigate.
"Is your intel reliable?" Batman asked.
"HYDRA has planted countless spies inside S.H.I.E.L.D.," Fury sneered. "Likewise, I have people inside HYDRA. Whether the intel holds up is for you to verify."
"I will."
With that, Batman's figure began to melt backward into the shadows—like ink dissolving into darkness—but his voice continued:
"Until I confirm it, keep your people in line. Any attempt to track me or locate those three scientists will be treated as a hostile signal."
In the blink of an eye, Batman vanished from the safe house, leaving a grim-faced Nick Fury standing alone, fists clenched.
That line he'd told Tony Stark—"Batman's threat level is now maximum"—hadn't been a joke. And now, Fury saw him as the greatest uncontrolled threat he'd ever faced.