"You're saying... this thing might be left over from the time of King Arthur?" Venom Robin's eyes went wide.
Batman nodded slightly. The online clues regarding the broken stone tablet had gone cold, but the object's own age and origin were clues in themselves.
The 12th Century. Knights.
Taken separately, these two words were unremarkable. But once combined, it was hard for anyone with a passing knowledge of medieval history not to link them to King Arthur.
In Batman's original world, there were plenty of magic-side superheroes or villains active from the time of King Arthur to the present day, such as Etrigan, Morgan le Fay, and the Phantom Stranger.
In this current world, when Batman previously searched for the existence of magic and supernatural forces, he had also specifically looked into rumors regarding the Middle Ages.
Just like in Gotham, the medieval legends of this world were equally filled with numerous magical rumors, such as Morgan le Fay and her son, Mordred.
It was just that Batman, whether in S.H.I.E.L.D. or the CIA, had never found evidence of those magical forces existing, as if the legends were truly just legends.
Batman did not give up. He always remembered that his ultimate goal in this world was to return to Gotham.
To achieve this goal, Batman established the Parker Group and had been relentlessly tracking information regarding the Tesseract. Finding supernatural forces was also part of his plan.
The Moon God Khonshu counted as one. At the appropriate time, Batman intended to use a series of methods to determine if Khonshu possessed the ability to send him back to Gotham.
It was just that the current Batman didn't have his own rocket launch base yet. Even if he could infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D., or even pull a bait-and-switch to replace the satellites carried by NASA spacecraft with his own...
But the method of blowing up the moon and using artificial satellites of sufficient mass to maintain tidal gravity was not that simple to achieve.
Before possessing the means to truly implement this plan, Batman would not take any actions toward Khonshu that might alert the god to danger.
Batman also didn't pin all his hopes for supernatural power on Khonshu; the broken stone tablet in the Metropolitan Museum also offered him a glimmer of hope for returning to Gotham.
"Dad, I can't find anything."
Just as Batman was pondering the issues related to the medieval stone tablet, Venom Robin spoke up dejectedly:
"There's absolutely no information in the trade data about an employer hiring the Darkwind Group to steal the tablet."
The little guy looked full of unhappiness, rubbing his fists together as if he couldn't wait to fly straight to Japan and interrogate Lord Dark Wind of the Darkwind Group face-to-face.
He stole a glance at Batman, seeing that Batman remained expressionless and showed no dissatisfaction regarding his failure.
While he breathed a sigh of relief inside, he couldn't help but feel a bit discouraged that he couldn't get the job done after demanding several bars of chocolate in a row.
The chocolate was already in his stomach; spitting it out was definitely impossible. So, Venom Robin simply acted self-righteous:
"Old Bat, if I just go wipe them out, wouldn't everything be solved? Is it really worth investigating these clues that aren't even clues?"
"It is normal not to find anything, Robin." Batman noticed the flash of gloom on Venom Robin's face, as well as the embarrassment hidden behind his self-righteousness. "Conventional trade data is the surface of the sea. What you need to look for are the currents beneath the surface..."
Batman demonstrated step-by-step for Venom Robin, starting from an abnormal insurance claim for an artwork by the Darkwind Group, to the equity changes of its subsidiary small cargo companies, and finally to the Chairman of the Darkwind Group, Lord Dark Wind himself.
Although he possessed Batman's technology and the aptitude for planning for worst-case scenarios, Venom Robin did not fully possess Batman's detective mindset.
"The hidden employer and the Darkwind Group certainly wouldn't sign a glaring contract stating 'Hire Darkwind to steal the tablet.' What we need to do is analyze a series of Darkwind's trade records and deduce traces from them."
Under Batman's hands-on guidance, Venom Robin re-examined the parts he previously thought held no clues, and a vague lead gradually became clear.
"Not bad, Dad," Venom Robin didn't stint on his praise, just like when he was pure Venom attached to Batman's body.
"No, actually, looking at these clues in isolation, they don't reveal much useful information." Batman used his hand to guide Venom Robin's line of sight. "We already knew that gang of thieves were pawns. Now we've just further confirmed that someone hired the Darkwind Group."
"So what do we do next?" Venom blinked his blank eyes. "Do I need to go to Japan? I'm confident I can wipe out the Darkwind Group in one night."
"We are detectives first, assassins and knights second." Batman shook his head slightly. "Theoretically, I have another candidate for going to Japan."
"Who?" Venom Robin was instantly alert and pressed for an answer.
"A woman. Or possibly a man."
"Welcome to the Ant Farm, Natasha."
Dressed in his black and red suit, Ant-Man Hank Pym pinched Black Widow, Natasha, between two fingers and tossed her into a small house the size of a laptop, built like toy blocks.
To Ant-Man and the Wasp, who were at normal human size, it was indeed a small house.
But to Black Widow, whose body had been shrunk to the size of a fingernail, it was tantamount to a massive, insurmountable, and indestructible fortress.
"Is... is this... Codename D-2?"
Black Widow Natasha looked up at Ant-Man and the Wasp, who appeared as towering as gods to her, her voice trembling with disbelief.
"No need for codenames in here," Wasp, Janet, giggled. "But yes, this is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal Codename D-2, the Big House Prison."
One of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top secrets, and one of the most secure places in the world: D-2, the Ant Farm!
"You've been working with S.H.I.E.L.D. all along?" Natasha frowned and asked. "Rumors within S.H.I.E.L.D. have always said you refused to have any dealings with the agency since World War II... was that fake?"
Several ants crawled out of the Big House prison, walked up to Black Widow, and used their antennae to signal her to behave and follow them.
Watching Black Widow being led into the prison cell by the ants, Ant-Man Hank Pym smiled:
"Of course it was fake. What else?"
"If you had access to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s core projects, you would know that ever since Howard Stark left the agency, Project Goliath has been under my leadership."
Only after Black Widow was thoroughly locked inside the cage did Ant-Man head to the laboratory with the Wasp, leaving this Ant Farm, Codename D-2, sitting blatantly in a conspicuous spot within the Pym Technologies building.
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