Bruce arrived at the entrance of Osborn Tower in no time. He looked up at the skyscraper, feeling a certain nerve in his body throbbing.
At that moment, everything around him seemed incredibly sharp, from the dust particles floating in the sunlight to the dirt falling from his boots, even the shimmering curlers in the hair of a lady in a car window.
His peripheral vision blurred, but beyond that borderline of clarity and fuzziness, he sensed several other viewpoints, ones that human eyes could never see. Except for a small area directly in front of the back of his head, his field of view covered about 330 degrees around his head.
These viewpoints interlaced, creating a three-dimensional vision that allowed Bruce to mentally map his position in the current environment.
He then located the direction indicated by the throbbing nerve. It was the Osborn Group right in front of him.
As he took a step forward, the nerve throbbed more intensely. Bruce forced his eyelids up, attempting to control his body logically to keep moving forward.
The next second, he gasped. The violent throbbing of the nerve began to hurt his scalp. His legs felt as heavy as lead and couldn't move. On the contrary, the cells on his sides and bottom felt as if something was pulling them backward.
Batman had no overwhelming will to overcome all difficulties. Like most humans, he succumbed to his instinct. He couldn't control himself and stepped back two steps, falling onto the ground.
Beep——beep_beep!
The harsh ringing echoed at his side. As Bruce staggered to stand up, and looked at the surprised Osborn Group employees at the entrance, he saw their bodies outlined in red light.
The entire door of Osborn Group started to glow, emitting sharp buzzing sounds. The light scattered into lingering black spots, propelled towards Bruce, pushing him away.
A silhouette stumbled across the busy street and started running wildly. Bruce didn't know where he was running, he just wanted to be as far away from the Osborn Group as possible.
Finally, when he crossed two streets and stopped in front of a coffee shop, the terrifying illusion disappeared, and the throbbing nerve finally stopped hurting.
However, that didn't mean it stopped throbbing. Bruce could still feel a regular throb, still pointing in a certain direction.
Bruce took a deep breath. After recovering from the initial panic, he started trying to figure out what was going on with this thumping nerve and where it was pointing.
He couldn't locate the precise position of the nerve, it seemed to be spreading over his whole body, like every organ and muscle were throbbing with it.
Without a compelling curiosity, but with pragmatism, Bruce decided to research where this nerve was pointing.
He relaxed as much as possible, following his instinct to look in one direction, only to be blinded by a bright light instantly.
As his eyes adapted, Bruce found himself looking at the top floor of Osborn Tower, where there was a figure in a suit standing behind the glass curtain wall.
Norman Osborn, the name of the figure appeared in Bruce's mind abruptly.
He's the source of danger. The minute this thought appeared in Bruce's mind, he believed it. He didn't have the mood nor the ability to investigate the cause. He knew he needed to stay away from Osborn.
Bruce turned around, wanting to find a shady place to be. As a Gothamite, he wasn't very used to the sun in the other East Coast cities. He felt everything around him was a bit dazzling, cause him discomfort.
Conveniently, there was a coffee shop beside him. The shop front had a small courtyard with tables, chairs, and sunshades. Without worrying about whether they banned people who didn't make a purchase, Bruce squeezed in through the gate of the courtyard.
He found a seat and sat down, letting out a sigh of relief. However, just as his elbow rested on the table, he shivered again, his nerve throbbing in pain.
Bruce sprung up, turning back to see a group of suited figures emerging from the street corner.
Though they weren't armed or in uniform, Bruce had a sense they were sent by the Osborn Group.
What could the Osborn Group want them to do?
Without thinking, Bruce ran. Sure enough, the group of men started to move, charging in his direction.
Just then, Tony Stark arrived in New York.
He carefully deciphered each word and sentence in the message that Bruce sent him, drawing the conclusion that either Batman was an idiot or he had hidden some secret message.
The first option was clearly impossible, excluded by Stark first. Withstanding the mental pollution, Stark meticulously read through the verbose message but found no secret code or hidden message.
As the text itself held no secrets, the verbose manner of narration might be conveying information. Stark had a sudden insight. Could Batman already be targeted by the Osborn Group?
It was not impossible; after all, Batman had just arrived in this cosmos. Considering his suspicious nature, he would have certainly begun an investigation as soon as he landed.
After entering the Osborn Medical Experimental Center, he would have tried to gather information in various ways. Stark understood Norman, that old fox, very well. Norman was adept at pretending to be careless on the surface but setting traps at the most critical points.
No matter how formidable Batman was, he needed to accumulate experience to understand the style of his opponents. Upon his arrival, it wasn't entirely impossible for him to run into trouble.
If Batman sent these messages under Norman's surveillance, things would start to make sense. While from Stark's genius standpoint, these text messages were filled with annoying ramblings and too much nonsense to bear, they perfectly conformed to the typical person's chatting style.
Who sends text messages laden with spy-like succinctness? Don't people just talk about whatever comes to mind, filling in a sentence whenever it pops up?
If this continuous blabber was to numb Norman, then Batman's situation was probably not hopeful. If Batman had said that his personal safety wasn't compromised for the time being, that couldn't be trusted. So, Stark hurriedly flew off to New York.
If Norman truly made the first move against Batman, it would be a great opportunity to secure Batman's trust and support.
Although it was not possible to gain the complete trust of such a paranoid individual, if Stark took action to help Batman at this point, he would be better able to establish Norman as the culprit.
At this moment, the Stark Group hadn't shown its fangs yet, the crisis virus was still a hidden threat, so Iron Man was still a superhero, naturally occupying the advantage in public opinion.
Thus, from Batman's perspective, it was an evil biochemical company trying to control him and poisoning the waters of San Francisco, while the superhero Iron Man was teaming up with Batman to stop this.In as long as this impression was left in Batman's heart, things would be much easier afterwards.
That's why Stark hurried over to earn good points so that he could get Batman on his side, even if temporarily, as the scales of victory would tip more quickly towards him.
Stark, wearing a black gold Iron suit, flew to Osborn Tower at the fastest speed and indeed saw Bruce Wayne running not far away, with Osborn Group's security guards chasing after him.
Stark thought Norman, that old fox, truly had made a fool of himself this time.
The Iron suit dove down from the bright sunlight, turning into a glittering meteor. As it flew past, the violent air current caused pedestrians to shriek and flee.
Quickly making a U-turn and halting in front of the pursuing security guards, several rockets were fired, forcing all the pursuers to find cover.
Stark had no time to entangle with them, instead quickly locating Bruce who darted into an alley.
With the engine roaring, the enormous iron armor landed, causing Bruce to widen his eyes. He had seen Iron Man in Battleworld, but the Iron Man he had seen had not been this imposing.
Most Tony Starks were quite flamboyant, so the battle armors were always made in bright colors. However, he was a scientist, not a ruler. He seldom had imperialistic ideas and did not use external appearances to express his majesty.
But Tony Stark, with reversed morality, was nearly opposite to the original Tony. He pursued control, power, and authoritarianism, resulting in all of his weapons having a more solemn, cold, and oppressive style, exhibiting characteristics of Nazi-inspired design.
So, when the oversized battle armor landed in front of Bruce, he felt the oppressive force emanating from this cold instrument of war.
His nerves trembled faster, almost becoming a discernible noise, which seriously interfered with Bruce's hearing. He heard the other party say something, but he could not make it out clearly.
Unable to hear what the other party said, he did not know how to respond and could only stand motionless on the spot.
The atmosphere was a little too awkward, he thought.
However, this taciturn attitude was interpreted by Stark as silent resistance. Indeed, it wouldn't be easy to win over Batman's trust; people like him wouldn't be swayed by minor acts of kindness.
Stark calculated that he should not act too hastily. If he rushed kindness onto others, he would unavoidably rouse suspicion. If his attempts to please were too obvious, it would give others the impression that unwarranted favors often point to a plot or ulterior motive.
After the two stared at each other in silence for over ten seconds, the Iron suit rose into the sky, disappearing from view.
Having stood there for a while, Bruce's vertigo and tinnitus finally began to subside, and his vision was not so blurry. Looking up, he saw that Iron Man was already gone.
He staggered out of the alley and the next second, a long, black luxury car stopped at the alley's opening. The window rolled down to reveal Norman Osborn's face.
He had seen Norman's picture in the medical experimental center, but now he couldn't run away anymore, as the terrible hunger once again hit him. He knew he needed to rest.
Ignoring his still throbbing nerves, Bruce fell backward and before he closed his eyes, he vaguely saw security guards rushing over.
Just as his vision blurred, a flash of light sped towards him from the distance. The bright colors of the Stars and Stripes Shield blinked and vanished in the haze.