"Wisdom is not a privilege—it is a gift, and it must be used to benefit humanity. That has been my lifelong dream."
The evening sky was ablaze with endless burning clouds. Batman did not rush to make a spectacle of himself by personally carrying the container holding the Batwing prototype up to Bat Island with his bare hands for modifications.
After confirming that the construction on Bat Island matched his plans exactly, Batman bent his knees slightly, leapt straight into the air to a height of over a hundred meters, and unfurled his cape against the setting sun. With the wind roaring past him, he glided toward South Brother Island.
Inside the laboratory on South Brother Island, Doctor Otto Octavius's nuclear fusion tokamak device was fully assembled. He wore a dark brown overcoat that concealed the battle suit Batman had personally crafted for him.
At this moment, Doctor Octavius stood before the tokamak and spoke to Batman, who stood at his side.
Batman said nothing, merely giving Doctor Octavius a slight nod.
In Octavius's field—especially nuclear fusion—even Doctor Bruce Banner could only serve as an assistant for the time being, working alongside Professor Curt Connors as they bustled about nearby.
"I've corrected the errors in the earlier equations. I essentially started over and completed the nuclear fusion energy simulation from scratch, achieving exponentially increasing energy output through harmonic atomic frequency."
"Just like the sun, it can provide the Earth with a constant supply of renewable energy."
As he spoke, the back of Doctor Octavius's dark brown coat bulged slightly. Then, one after another, four mechanical tentacles emerged from the pre-cut openings he had prepared, adjusting the control panels to their designated positions.
"Today, you will all witness with your own eyes the birth of a new energy technology based on nuclear fusion."
As he said this, Doctor Octavius looked at Batman, at Professor Connors, at Doctor Banner.
"I am honored to share this moment with you, my friends."
Ever since successfully merging the beast he became with his original self and truly becoming the Lizard, Professor Connors had shifted the focus of his research to limb regeneration and advanced prosthetics, taking the lead in that field.
With Connors's full assistance, Octavius had been able to free up his hands to concentrate entirely on his nuclear fusion research.
Add to that the help of Doctor Banner—a scientist of profound attainment even if fusion wasn't his primary specialty—and Octavius's progress had been nothing short of meteoric.
Here on South Brother Island, Peter Parker's financial support meant Octavius no longer had to worry about funding. Batman's laboratory and the battle suit removed any lingering concerns about safety.
All of this support had finally allowed Doctor Octavius to truly demonstrate his genius. Today was the day they would see it.
The tentacles rose slowly. Three of them operated the tokamak controls while the fourth delicately grasped a man-made radioactive isotope—tritium—synthesized on the island.
It was stored inside a round, transparent vacuum container. Under the control of Octavius's tentacle, the container was placed at the very center of the tokamak. At the same moment, Doctor Octavius donned a pair of protective goggles to shield his eyes from the intense light.
The device's superconducting coils generated a powerful magnetic field, forcing the charged particles to spiral along the magnetic lines so the tritium would never touch the container walls and risk cooling or destroying the apparatus.
Visibly, the instant Octavius released his tentacle, the container hung in mid-air, trembling slightly, then stabilized as he fine-tuned the tokamak.
Inside the South Brother Island laboratory, silence reigned. Batman—having removed his Arkham combat suit—was a scientist too, and a scientist's discipline kept him as quiet as Connors and Banner beside him, waiting in perfect stillness.
Eight golden beams from the peripheral devices fired simultaneously into the vacuum container holding the tritium. In an instant the tritium was heated to extreme temperatures and transformed directly into plasma.
Less than a second later, that golden plasma expanded into a fist-sized sphere of nuclear fusion light. Under the containment beams, neutrons released by the fusion reaction struck the lithium blanket lining the chamber walls, generating new tritium.
At this point the golden fusion fireball had grown to half a meter in diameter. The tokamak ceased firing its beams and simply held the fusion reaction steady in place.
It hung in the air like a miniature sun, spinning slowly, radiating light and heat.
Octavius's tentacles replaced his hands, reaching out through the tokamak's containment field to caress the fireball from afar. Golden light reflected in his sunglasses, and an expression that was half-crying, half-laughing spread across his face.
"The power of the sun… in the palm of my hand…"
His lifelong dream fulfilled, Doctor Octavius's breathing began to tremble.
The light was so beautiful it gave him the hazy sensation of dreaming. He stared at it without blinking, as though afraid the moment he closed his eyes it would vanish.
A long, long time passed.
The sun had set; night had fallen over New York.
Yet on South Brother Island, under the direct gaze of three scientists and Batman, a new sun rose.
It was extraordinarily stable. After repeated tests, Octavius confirmed there was no risk of runaway reaction. The only remaining challenge was converting the virtually limitless energy of this miniature sun into practical power.
At that point Batman quietly unclenched the fists he had been holding ready. The contingency plans he had prepared in case the fusion reactor went critical would not be needed after all.
Since crossing into this world, there had been far too many times when the countless plans he prepared went unused. Yet Batman felt no discouragement—because that meant a good outcome, the outcome he always hoped for most.
Doctor Octavius nearly collapsed to his knees, steadying himself with his tentacles so he didn't fall in an undignified heap.
He turned to Batman, to Professor Connors, to Doctor Banner, a relieved smile breaking across his face.
"I did it. With all of your help."
Banner gave a shy, genuine smile, truly happy for Octavius. Professor Connors clenched his fists as he stared at this miraculous experimental result—not out of jealousy, but because if Octavius could achieve his dream and create a stable fusion reactor, then Connors's own dream of a world without physical disability would one day come true as well.
"It's a shame Peter isn't here. I would have loved for him to see how beautiful this is."
Octavius walked back to Batman and the others, standing shoulder to shoulder with them as he gazed at the sun that he could never tire of watching, and sighed.
Batman looked at Octavius. He said nothing aloud, but in his heart he had already answered:
He will see it, Doctor. Both Peter and I will make sure of that.