The punching bag rang out with heavy, rhythmically echoing thuds under Captain America's fists, his clothes completely drenched in sweat.
Hawkeye and Black Widow turned their heads away; not one of the three answered Batman's question.
Batman didn't repeat himself a second time. He sniffed the air, failing to detect any trace of the scent left by Jack Monroe over the past three days.
Stepping forward a few paces, he reached out with a iron grip, snagging Captain America's swinging fist mid-air.
"Jack Monroe treated you and Bucky as his idols. Before leaving, I told you to keep him safe." Batman stared fixedly at Captain America. "Now, tell me where he is."
"I'm sorry..." Captain America opened his mouth to say.
Before he could finish his sentence, his entire body went flying backward, shattering the wall of Avengers Manor before tumbling out into the garden outside.
Hawkeye and Black Widow exchanged a sharp look, scrambling to their feet to flank Batman and block his path.
Batman's icy gaze settled on them without a word.
Under Batman's piercing glare, Hawkeye's throat bobbed before he managed to force the words out with great difficulty:
"He's dead."
Bang!
Hawkeye and Black Widow were sent flying through the air as well, crashing down right next to Captain America.
"Tell me what happened, and where his body is." Batman's voice grew increasingly frigid.
"There's nothing left," Hawkeye gritted his teeth, pushing himself up off the ground despite the pain.
Because of the moment Captain America hesitated when facing Bucky, both he and Black Widow had lost the opportunity to retrieve Jack Monroe's body.
Before making their escape, Hawkeye had been forced to fire a single incendiary arrow, reducing Jack Monroe's remains to ashes.
Batman gritted his teeth, forcing his raw logic to suppress the thoughts raging inside his mind, yet certain memories proved impossible to erase.
Jack Monroe—what a fantastic kid he had been. Young, vibrant, his mind shattered beyond repair by that one bad day, yet he had still greeted the world with a smile on his face.
And after taking a single trip out with Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Captain America, not even his body had been brought back.
Batman turned his gaze toward Black Widow. He wanted to know whether she had used the memory extraction device he had handed her before their departure.
Black Widow also pushed herself up off the ground while clutching her abdomen, her brows knit tight:
"If you'd put a fraction more strength into that strike, this thing would have been destroyed."
Saying so, she pulled the extractor containing Jack Monroe's memories from her pocket.
Batman raised a hand, shooting a strand of daytime-use white web-fluid to snatch it up, snapping it securely into his grip before looking at Captain America:
"If Jack Monroe met with tragedy, I presume you encountered something beyond your original plans as well. Tell me."
If Captain America and the other two had faced fourteen base-level Hulk-tier adversaries like Batman had—no, even if it had been a single base-level Hulk opponent—that resulted in Jack Monroe losing his life, Batman would never have pressed them further.
"I ran into Bucky." Captain America climbed up from the ground, offering no attempt to fight back, his eyes fixed instead on the memory extractor in Batman's hand.
"Bucky?" Batman asked back.
"The man who attacked me," Black Widow reminded him in a low voice.
Bucky—the man who had attacked Black Widow.
These two critical clues were unraveled rapidly within Batman's mind, particularly as he caught the momentary flash of bewilderment in Captain America's eyes when uttering the name "Bucky."
Even without asking for a detailed account of their operation, Batman had already pieced together the entire cause and effect.
Consequently, those eyes—which had softened slightly following Alfred's arrival—turned colder than ever as he stared at Captain America, his voice forced through gritted teeth:
"Bucky was once your brother-in-arms. I understand that you refuse to believe he willingly joined Hydra, or that he might be acting out of agonizing compulsion, forced beyond his control..."
Captain America was about to speak, but Batman's voice turned sharper and more scathing than it had ever been before:
"What about Jack?! Was he not your comrade-in-arms as well?! Yet after his death, you couldn't even bring back his body?!"
"I am deeply sorry about Jack, Batman. I will take full responsibility for his death." Captain America took a long, profound look at Batman.
Bypassing Batman, he stepped back into Avengers Manor through the newly smashed hole in the wall.
A few minutes later, he emerged wearing his iconic Stars and Stripes uniform, holding his Vibranium shield in hand.
"Cap?" Black Widow asked, watching Captain America prepare to depart.
"I bear the responsibility for Jack Monroe's death. Regardless of what state Bucky is currently in—"
The resolve returned to Captain America's eyes, his tone devoid of a single shred of hesitation:
"Either I perish alongside him, or I bring him back!"
Black Widow and Hawkeye exchanged a glance before looking toward Batman together.
Sending an inexperienced Jack to face a seasoned, lethal veteran like Bucky—especially now that Bucky had been reduced to a brainwashed killing machine, rather than Cap's sidekick from seventy years ago—
When it came down to it, the two of them bore responsibility as well.
"We're coming with you," Hawkeye and Black Widow said simultaneously.
Captain America paused in his tracks, turning his head slightly:
"No need."
With that, he stepped out of Avengers Manor.
Batman did not linger long either, departing the estate shortly after Captain America's exit.
It was only several minutes after Batman had left that Hawkeye and Black Widow limped back into Avengers Manor, supporting each other as they sank onto the sofa.
Rubbing his still-throbbing abdomen, a bitter smile cracked across Hawkeye's face:
"That kick sure hurt like hell."
"If he wanted to, that kick could have snapped both of us clean in half. Batman held back," Black Widow said slowly, her hand still clutched over her midsection.
"Ever since we got back, I've been replaying the details of that fight in my head," Hawkeye said. "Why did Jack Monroe freeze up so suddenly back then? Just because he saw his idol?"
Black Widow lacked even the energy to shake her head, speaking listlessly:
"I'm afraid it was more than that. Even when Captain America first revealed himself to him, Jack Monroe was thrilled, but never to the point of freezing up in the middle of active combat."
"I'm afraid even Batman wouldn't have an answer to that question," Hawkeye concluded with a sigh.
"Bat—"
The moment Batman entered the laboratory on North Brother Island, Doctor Otto Octavius raised a mechanical tentacle to greet him.
Before he could finish his greeting, however, he keenly picked up on Batman's stone-cold, uncompromising aura, instantly shutting his mouth.
Exchanging subtle glances with the other scientists present, the group shook their heads in unison, completely unaware of what had transpired.
'Jack Monroe lost almost everything, only to finally forge a new identity for himself as the second Bucky under Captain America's guidance.'
'Yet the moment he saw the real Bucky, he realized that even this newly acquired mantle was about to slip away from him.'
The scene of Jack Monroe's battle against Bucky played out vividly within Batman's mind, even though he had never witnessed the fight firsthand.
Batman could even deduce what Jack Monroe had been thinking in that exact moment, as well as the brief hesitation that followed the realization.
And it was precisely that split-second opening that Bucky had seized upon to claim his life.
Exhaling a heavy, ragged breath, Batman shifted his gaze away from Professor Connors—who was looking at him with deep concern—as well as Doctor Banner, who was lost in thought with a furrowed brow, Doctor Otto Octavius, who offered a look of genuine care, and Professor Morbius, who hesitated slightly.
He looked toward the bewildered Jackal Warren and Professor Miles Warren, his voice low and raspy:
"Professors, I need you to clone a body and implant these memories into it."
Batman pulled out the memory extractor that Black Widow had brought back.
Jackal Warren took it, asking no unnecessary questions, merely raising the single query that had to be asked:
"Whose cells should we use for the clone?"
Without a moment's hesitation, Batman's voice dropped to an even lower register:
"Mine."
--
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