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Chapter 12 - Chapter 12: Silver Sable and Black Cat

If he cut loose, Batman could have flattened all fifty guards in seconds.

But he didn't. Thanks to days of training, he kept a tight rein on every strike, holding himself to about the same output as the Batman he used to be.

Even so, the guards were no match—one after another he tossed them aside or knocked them out with crisp, efficient technique.

Until Silver Sable eyed him with clear interest, practically itching for a bout.

"Who are you? Dropping my people barehanded like that? Feel like going a few rounds with me?"

"No." Batman's answer was ice-cold. He vaulted beyond the lab's security door, flicked a line of web, and was gone.

Silver Sable didn't give chase. Her utility belt cinched her narrow waist, making her figure even more striking.

"He pulled his punches—doesn't seem like a bad guy… He must've learned about Oscorp's human experiments from somewhere and came to gather evidence."

She let him leave, turned back, and kept snapping photos of the test subjects for proof. At first light, she'd deliver them to the NYPD.

"Biotech floors…"

Leaving the B2 lab, Batman didn't exit the building. He scaled the outer wall, using web-lines and wall-crawling to reach the 20th floor.

According to Peter Parker's notebook, he'd been bitten on the 21st floor—in the gene-modified spider breeding area.

"A proper biotech firm would uniquely tag every specimen. I just need the file on that specific spider—see when it went missing.

"If the dates match Peter Parker's notebook, it proves the powers came from genetic mutation, not a lab subject protocol."

He didn't like either origin on principle—but if he had to choose, he'd take an accidental mutation over powers paid for with dozens of lives.

An hour. Two…

He combed the files for three straight hours, from floor 20 through 30, and still found nothing on that spider.

Dawn was graying the sky. Tireless, he headed for 31.

"Nothing. Still nothing…"

He tossed another stack of spider files aside, brow furrowed. At this pace he'd come up empty. He needed a different angle.

Then the building directory by the stairwell made his eyes light up.

Floors 1–10: public areas. 10–20: laboratories. 20 upward: core biotech facilities through floor 53. From there to 60 was the private domain of Oscorp founder and chairman Norman Osborn. His office took up over half of the very top floor.

"If that genetically altered spider disappeared, rank-and-file or researchers would have reported it up the chain. I should search Norman Osborn's office—or the execs over the spider program."

Resolved, he stopped wasting time and scaled up the facade.

Clack.

Top floor, 60. He checked left and right—empty—then slipped down through a vent.

He froze mid-move.

Someone else was here—someone he didn't expect: Black Cat.

The white-haired woman in a skintight suit was kneeling at a cabinet in Norman Osborn's office, rummaging through drawers.

Because of the angle—and without the Batsuit's "Detective Mode"—he hadn't realized she was here before he dropped in.

"Peter Parker's Spider-Sense can parse micro-cues in the environment for danger, but it doesn't help with presences that aren't hostile," he noted to himself, watching her dig. She seemed to be after something in Osborn's office, same as him.

"You look busy."

After a moment, as she stuck her rear in the air to reach the bottom drawer, he spoke.

The sudden voice in the dead of night made her jolt upright like a thief caught red-handed… which she was.

"Who are you?" She raised her hands like claws, taking a fighting stance.

"Who are you?" Batman didn't move, a statue in the shadows.

"I'm Kingpin, the underground emperor of New York. I suggest you leave. Now," she growled, trying to sound fierce.

"…," Batman stared at the partner he'd thought promising a moment ago, at a loss for words.

Maybe it was the darkness—or his low voice—because she suddenly relaxed, eyes widening.

"Batman?"

"What are you doing here?"

Once she'd recognized him, he stepped from the shadows, and she dropped her guard completely.

"Did you know Kingpin hired the Squid-Man to kill you? Also, I thought you were some kind of monster. Turns out you're human—like me?"

She looked him up and down—the all-black stealth suit, even his face fully covered, a ninja in the dark.

"Not the same," Batman said with a small shake of his head. "What are you doing here?"

His soul belonged to another world, one nothing like this one.

"I heard Kingpin's a shareholder in Oscorp. I'm seeing what I can dig up." She went back to rifling drawers. "I don't want his outfit getting stronger. You?"

"I'm looking for a file tied to Oscorp's biotech."

"Biotech? Genetic modification? I think there's something over there." She pointed lazily at a packet she'd tossed on the floor.

Batman strode over and scooped it up. It was exactly what he'd been hunting: records on the spider that gave Peter Parker his powers.

The disappearance—and the later recovery of the spider's body—were dated the very day Peter toured Oscorp.

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding—then tensed again.

If Kingpin had equity in a multinational like Oscorp, it meant the crime boss commanded enormous capital… and a gang with deep pockets was a terrifying thing.

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