As an entrepreneur who had rapidly risen to fame in New York over the past two months, Batman had been forced to endure several media interviews throughout the day, offering diplomatic platitudes under his identity as Peter Parker.
The reason was simple: the charitable organization under the Parker Group had contributed a massive sum of money toward reconstruction efforts following the dinosaur invasion.
In a trance-like moment, Batman felt as if he had returned to his life in Gotham—playing the playboy by day and returning to his identity as Batman by night.
But as the sky darkened, Batman once again donned the Arkham Suit and swung toward the Pym Technologies Building alongside Venom Robin.
"Old Bat, shouldn't our top priority be keeping an eye on that Black Knight? Better yet, let's give him a solid thrashing and a proper interrogation," Venom Robin remarked.
Venom Robin possessed immense power, but neither Hulk nor Batman were opponents he could best.
Professor Lizard was once again stationed on Bat Island, though this time he was guarding that red Tyrannosaurus Rex. Venom Robin couldn't exactly go over there to provoke him into a fight.
He wasn't close with Professor Morbius and was quite intimidated by Dr. Otto, to the point that whenever Venom Robin accompanied Batman on a mission, his mind was almost entirely consumed by the desire to find someone powerful for a satisfying brawl.
---Dinosaurs didn't count. Aside from the unique, giant T-Rex that Professor Lizard was dealing with, the rest were mere primitive beasts—hardly a challenge for Robin.
"Robin, while interrogation is important, there are many times when interrogation alone won't get us the information we need," Batman said.
Between their swings, the two had already arrived at the rooftop of the Pym Technologies Building.
"You're planning to make that Black Knight show himself voluntarily?" Venom Robin asked.
"Exactly," Batman replied. "Although it currently seems that the Black Knight and Kingpin don't know each other, they both have inextricable links to the Dark Wind Group."
"Hawkeye isn't finished yet?" Venom Robin grinned. "If it were me, the mission would have been over long ago."
Batman didn't respond. He silently pried open a ventilation duct on the roof and leaped inside.
Venom Robin quickly followed, moving rapidly through the vents toward the interior of the Pym Technologies Building.
Because the building featured a massive, transparent lightwell at its center, surrounded by a spiral staircase with various laboratories and equipment arrays distributed outward, Batman and Venom Robin were able to get a clear view of the entire layout the moment they entered.
"Sss..."
It was precisely because everything was in plain sight that Venom Robin sucked in a sharp breath.
From the first floor to the fifth, dinosaur carcasses were being moved along an assembly line, where giant ants—each over a meter long—used their mandibles or mechanical tools mounted on their backs to dismember them.
Blood, bones, internal organs, muscle... every part of the dead dinosaurs was being collected by the ants through coordinated labor.
Then, these butchered parts were taken away by other ants waiting in line, who consumed the flesh bit by bit with their sharp mouthparts.
Aside from the lack of verbal communication, the entire process looked exactly like a socialized human society—but for ants.
Hearing the sharp intake of breath, Batman glanced sideways at Venom Robin.
Venom Robin wasn't afraid; rather, he had gasped out of a sense of novelty at seeing something new. From the look of him, he seemed to have developed an intense interest in those ants.
"Dad, how about we take one of these ants with us?"
Sure enough, just as Batman looked over, Robin spoke up.
"Don't go looking for trouble. Remember our objective," Batman whispered.
Though Venom Robin was incredibly curious about the giant ants, he nodded obediently for the time being.
The Pym Technologies Building was square-shaped, resembling a building block that had been magnified countless times.
As they moved down along the central lightwell, Batman was able to observe the facilities within the building in all four directions through the ventilation ducts.
Ants, ants, and more ants.
The Pym Technologies Building had a total of thirty-two floors. Compared to the sixty-six-story Parker Tower or the sixty-story Osborn Tower, Hank Pym's building was much shorter.
However, these thirty-two floors were teeming with thousands of giant ants.
The ants were responsible for operating experimental instruments, recording data using auxiliary equipment on their backs, and there were even engineering ants dedicated to maintaining the electrical circuits, as well as patrol ants inspecting every corner of the building—including the ventilation ducts.
This was, quite literally, a massive ant nest located in the heart of Manhattan.
At that moment, directly ahead of Batman and Robin was a patrol ant roughly half a meter tall and a meter long. It moved in fits and starts, occasionally waving its antennae in the air to gather information from its colony members.
"Old Bat, are we being too cautious?" Venom Robin whispered.
His physique was small, and since his body was entirely simulated by the symbiote, he didn't suffer from the discomfort humans face when crawling or keeping their heads down for long periods.
Venom Robin was following behind the ant with exceptional ease. If Batman hadn't stopped him, he would have likely pressed himself right up against the ant's abdomen.
"Do what you're supposed to do, Robin. Do not act on a whim," Batman said, looking at Venom Robin with a stern expression. "If you cannot manage that, you won't be leaving Bat Island for the next three years—not until you've completed every bit of your training."
Batman's tone was incredibly severe. This was the second time during tonight's mission that Venom Robin had entertained thoughts outside of the objective.
Batman had to nip that impulse in the bud immediately.
"Tch," Venom Robin muttered softly. He pulled his thoughts back and obediently held his tongue, asking instead about the mission:
"Where are the Pym Particles hidden? Every floor here looks the same; it's all just ant activity zones."
Batman whispered:
"Observe carefully. Our primary goal tonight is to understand the specific situation inside the building and, ideally, locate the Pym Particles. Stealing them is only a secondary objective."
Venom Robin watched as the patrol ant ahead stopped in its tracks. He stopped as well.
"We—"
He suddenly shut his mouth before he could finish. Another, unfamiliar voice echoed from within the Pym Technologies Building:
"Janet, help me brew a cup of coffee. I need to spend the night analyzing the data on these dinosaurs and observing the state of the ants that consumed their flesh."
As the words fell, an indescribable vibration rippled through the interior of the building, followed by a continuous "humming" sound.
Amidst this sound, Venom Robin and Batman, hidden within the ventilation duct, saw it clearly: a man wearing a red-and-black leather suit grew from a normal human height of 183cm to over twenty meters tall in the blink of an eye.
He looked exactly like the "Goliath" of the Bible.
Standing in the lightwell of the Pym Technologies Building, his feet planted on the first floor, he reached his hand up to the seventh floor. He moved a giant ant aside, revealing a tiny, toy-like block house that had been tucked beneath it.
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