The Arkham Batmobile had been temporarily converted by Batman into a mobile workstation and was already parked on Bat Island in advance.
For the plan to head to New Mexico and rescue Norman Osborn, the first facility to be completed on the island was the aircraft elevator and launch platform—even the Bat-workbench had its priority pushed back a notch.
Batman had also preemptively strung massive, pitch-black webs across Bat Island based on the terrain, strong enough to catch the weight of eight enormous shipping containers dropping from the sky.
Venom-Robin deployed his parachute, drifting lazily through the air as he carried Batman and the container across from Rikers Island, over South Brother Island, and down onto Bat Island.
The instant they touched down, Batman issued the order: "Barbara, initiate the Batwing plan immediately."
"Under it, Bruce." The Oracle AI workstation temporarily installed in the Arkham Batmobile responded at once.
The prototype aircraft Batman had purchased was a Harrier GR9 built by Britain's BAE Systems—a vertical/short-takeoff-and-landing attack jet.
Because of its extreme piloting difficulty, accident rate exceeding thirty percent, short combat radius, poor speed and maneuverability, and inadequate high-altitude performance, the Harrier had been phased out only a few years after entering service. By 2006 it was already on the chopping block, which was exactly how Batman had been able to acquire one.
In Batman's eyes, however, every one of those "flaws" was actually a feature.
Piloting difficulty? Laughable.
He had once borrowed Hal Jordan's ring to manifest an interstellar Batwing fighter complete with cosmic-level sensors and wormhole jump drives, then solo-piloted it straight into Apokolips to fight Darkseid's legions.
He had personally rebuilt General Zod's crashed Kryptonian scout ship, adding a kryptonite missile silo and gravity-field generator.
He had commandeered Lex Luthor's sky-dreadnought technology to deploy the entire Bat-family anywhere on Earth in under sixty minutes.
Space stations, Brother Eye, the Watchtower… Batman had flown more vehicles—and things that were far beyond mere vehicles—whose difficulty levels shattered ordinary human comprehension. A little Harrier GR9 wasn't even a warm-up.
In his estimation, even Damian could fly the thing without breaking a sweat.
Among everything currently available on the market—and before Parker Industries had its own heavy-industry production lines—this prototype was the best candidate for conversion into a Batwing.
The shortcomings in speed and agility? He would fix those himself, tailoring the aircraft exactly to his specifications.
Its built-in vectored-thrust nozzles allowed vertical takeoff and landing from Bat Island without needing a runway—that alone made it the top choice.
The all-metal semi-monocoque fuselage gave him enormous modification potential, while the low radar cross-section and spacious weapons bay were additional points in its favor.
As a temporary Batwing, the finished product would be more than adequate.
But Batman was never satisfied with "adequate." According to his plan, this jet was nothing more than a disposable tool, to be used only for the single mission to New Mexico.
Once he returned, Parker Industries would gradually acquire heavy-industrial assembly lines, letting him become self-sufficient and build the real, permanent Batwing that truly belonged to him.
Only after that true Batwing existed would he head to Wyoming to investigate whether the Cube prison was, in fact, a HYDRA nest.
The data that HYDRA had smuggled out in human cargo already contained a virus he had planted. He wasn't worried about anyone using it.
The virus would corrupt the data until Batman personally confirmed the place was clean, at which point he would restore it.
Yet judging from the way Dr. Banner had been shipped directly from the Cube to the old Osborn Tower after General Ross took control—and from how desperately HYDRA had infiltrated the Adirondack facility to steal Tesseract data—the Cube was almost certainly HYDRA's biggest stronghold by now, hiding right under the nose of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury.
A single night flashed by.
The Batwing refit was still unfinished. Aside from brief moments to choke down food, Batman never stopped working.
Since the Arkham Batmobile couldn't accommodate the robotic arms from the Manhattan Batcave, Oracle AI handled assembly assistance.
Most of the modifications still required Batman's own hands. Occasionally Venom would stretch out a tendril to help with simple tasks—like passing a tool.
In the few hours he wasn't working on the Batwing, Batman—wearing Peter Parker's face—returned once more to South Brother Island to hammer out the details of the artificial-sun energy conversion project and the exact terms of cooperation with Doctor Octavius.
Batman desperately needed funding. Parker Industries was booming, yes, but the moment he green-lit the rocket launch complex and satellite network, every cent he had would evaporate.
Even so, when negotiating the concrete terms with Doc Ock, Batman deliberately saved the topic of profit—the thing every other businessman cared about most—for last.
Money was important, but what he needed even more were allies.
Allies in combat power. Allies in scientific manpower.
Because the enemies he truly intended to crush weren't just General Ross in New Mexico or whatever was lurking inside the Cube.
His real target was HYDRA—an organization that had infiltrated who-knows-how-many levels of every government and military on Earth, all the way up to the World Security Council itself.
Wyoming State, the Cube.
Agent 19 "Mockingbird"—Barbara Morse—sent here by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, stood with arms folded, watching Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, locked inside his cell with obvious interest.
Ever since arriving, her orders had been simple: protect the scientific team analyzing Tesseract data and ensure no one except her ever made contact with them.
Nearly every single day, Barbara Morse would come stand in front of Hawkeye's cell for a while.
She had never spoken a word to him. Hawkeye, likewise imprisoned, showed no desire to talk either.
Until today.
Today, Mockingbird finally broke the silence, eyeing the archer—who had been stripped of his purple sleeveless combat suit and bow and now wore only an orange prison jumpsuit.
"You thinking about breaking out?"
Hawkeye lifted his gaze to meet Mockingbird's. His face was expressionless. Shackles bound both wrists and ankles; even his neck wore an electronic collar blinking a steady green light.
"We both know no one has ever escaped the Cube since it was built," he said after a long pause.
His voice was hoarse—no longer carrying the easy confidence it had when he and Black Widow Natasha had arrested Dr. Banner in Dharavi.
"True," Mockingbird replied, still watching him. "But there was one recorded case of a prisoner 'leaving' with outside help. And that prisoner was someone you personally brought in."
Hawkeye's eyes locked onto hers.
"You mean Dr. Banner?"
Mockingbird gave no confirmation or denial.
"Banner was never a prisoner—at least not at first. My original orders from Director Fury were to 'invite' Dr. Banner to participate in gamma-ray research on the Tesseract as a way to locate him."
He looked away, staring at his own feet.
"Even when I put an arrow in him, that was only to keep him from hulking out and wrecking the place… I never thought they'd transfer him here, to the Cube."
Hawkeye had never told a soul what Banner had said to him inside these walls.
S.H.I.E.L.D., General Ross, Dr. Banner, the mastermind behind the scenes, the codename from the World Security Council…
From the moment Black Widow framed him and threw him in here, and then—immediately afterward—Banner was airlifted away, a massive suspicion had taken root in Hawkeye's mind.
That suspicion made him distrust everyone. Even Agent 19 Mockingbird, the colleague he had once worked alongside at S.H.I.E.L.D.