Chapter 175: Rescue One Armor
Understanding these were gifts from T'Challa and Wakanda, Batman instantly grasped the full situation. He no longer needed to deliberately extract related intelligence from Silver Sable's company.
T'Challa couldn't contact Batman directly, so he'd naturally chosen to deliver the package through Silver Sable, who sent someone to Parker Industries, then had Parker Industries' Peter Parker forward it to Batman.
The circuitous route was troublesome, but the more complicated the delivery chain, the more it proved Batman's identity security remained intact.
Unless someone earned extreme trust, Batman wouldn't share contact methods belonging to "Batman" with others.
Initially, to conceal the Peter Parker connection from Silver Sable, Batman had created a separate Bat-communicator for her.
Beyond Silver Sable, Batman hadn't even provided dedicated communication devices to the three scientists on North Brother Island. They could only use the laboratory's built-in communicator to reach him.
Placing all three Wakandan gifts together with the electronic signal blocker, Batman didn't linger at Parker Industries.
After instructing CEO Alice on several business matters as Peter Parker, Batman plunged back into his Manhattan Batcave.
For the Arkham suit upgrades, Oracle AI's capabilities were limited—too many technical complications involved.
This required Batman's personal attention and time.
However, priorities mattered. Batman spent seven or eight different methods repeatedly confirming the chip, Kimoyo bead, and vibranium contained no tampering before isolating a separate computer to examine the chip and analyze the Kimoyo bead.
"T'Challa wasn't lying. He didn't hide anything in the chip or Kimoyo bead. The vibranium's clean too."
Two hours later, Batman finally ceased his analysis of the three items.
"Dad, is that a chocolate bean?"
Venom squirmed out from the containment habitat, perching on Batman's shoulder to curiously examine the Kimoyo bead pinched between Batman's fingertips.
The next second, the Kimoyo bead vanished from Batman's fingers. A chocolate bar appeared in Batman's hand as if by magic:
"Yes, Robin."
Venom's eyes widened. Its body twisted, coiling around Batman's arm like a pitch-black serpent, searching thoroughly but unable to find where Batman had hidden the Kimoyo bead.
But its vigorous curiosity was quickly replaced by chocolate cravings. It gulped down the chocolate in one bite.
Then it crawled along Batman's arm, returning to his shoulder.
Batman didn't continue analyzing the three items further.
Limited by the Batcave's experimental conditions, Batman couldn't conduct deeper vibranium research. But after Alfred AI's creation, Batman was confident he could replicate his former achievement—deducing kryptonite's molecular composition purely through theory—to construct a complete molecular model of vibranium from nothing.
Whether or not he possessed this palm-sized vibranium piece made little difference to Batman.
Similarly, the biological tissue rapid regeneration gel offered limited utility.
In Gotham, Batman might have desperately needed it. But now his body was Peter Parker's. This physique's capabilities were so extraordinary they completely replaced the regeneration gel's effects.
For Batman, this technology served only as a contingency plan—insurance against the day Peter Parker's physical abilities and healing factor might vanish, requiring external treatment.
The technology itself was beyond current era standards, but Batman had no intention of commercializing it.
Doctor Octavius's artificial sun and Professor Connors's ongoing research into limb regeneration combined with prosthetics technology already provided sufficient foundation for Parker Industries' expansion. Adding regeneration gel technology would merely be icing on the cake.
The Kimoyo bead held somewhat greater value. If Batman truly lost all support one day and reached absolute desperation, he could request Wakanda's assistance.
But if that day genuinely arrived—meaning all Batman's plans and every Batcave had failed—then even Wakandan help would prove negligible.
That scenario was nearly impossible anyway.
Even Batman's unexpected dimensional crossing to this world hadn't invalidated all his plans.
After the crossing, Batman had barely worried about Gotham's condition or whether the Justice League could handle extreme situations without him.
He'd long ago prepared emergency protocols in Gotham for his sudden disappearance—for scenarios where he couldn't be found by any means.
Batman even believed that at this very moment, Superman, Green Arrow, Flash, even Luthor were following his contingency plans step by step.
Superman would don the Bat-cape to help maintain Gotham's peace. Green Arrow would replace his strategic planning. Flash would travel to ancient and future timelines searching for him...
Only Batman now felt nearly certain this universe didn't belong to any timeline branch of his original world. Flash's search was doomed to futility.
"Robin, tonight we're conducting another test. I need you prepared." Batman told Venom.
He let Venom remain perched on his shoulder, focusing intently on upgrading the Arkham suit.
Batman hadn't forgotten his first encounter with Venom—how strong light and high-frequency noise stimulation had caused it to spawn offspring, birthing Anti-Venom from Eddie Brock's body.
For the upcoming New Mexico mission, Batman needed absolutely foolproof preparation.
....
"Thicken the armor plating further. Make room for the internal medical systems—"
"Friday, I'm upgrading you to a certain degree. You'll forcibly assume armor control when Peter encounters danger, transporting him to safety."
"While maintaining armor stability, maximize flight speed. I'll need to sacrifice nearly all weapon modules. This suit wasn't built for warfare anyway."
"Oh, I remember Peter saying he didn't want armor. Considering direct gifting would face rejection—"
"I'll also add biometric identification protocols to this suit. Deploy it on Stark Industries satellites. The moment Peter faces danger, it'll launch and enter the atmosphere..."
Stark Tower's penthouse. Tony Stark was designing an armor with appearance and functionality distinct from his Mark III.
This suit displayed silver and red coloring. Because the reactor needed mounting within the armor itself, plus thickened plating requirements, this armor looked considerably bulkier than Tony's Mark III.
Named Rescue One, the armor currently stood in semi-open configuration. Tony Stark used tools to modify internal structures, periodically instructing Jarvis AI to execute tasks.
Tony had specifically designed a new artificial intelligence for this rescue armor, naming it "Friday." The voice was sampled from a female model Tony had slept with several times.