"The Spider-Totem!"
Almost the exact instant Professor Morbius finished speaking, the term popped into Batman's mind.
However, according to his previous analysis, whether it was Spider-Man (Peter Parker) or Black Panther (T'Challa), their abilities were more or less related to their respective titles.
Because of this, Batman believed that what caused him to lose his powers before was the Spider-Totem, rather than some Cuckoo-Totem or Cricket-Totem.
T'Challa's case was even more straightforward. Not only had his ancestors worshipped the Panther God, but the power obtained by every generation of Black Panther was bestowed upon them by entering the Wakandan temple and receiving the blessing of the Panther God—the Panther Totem. His fighting style and the design of his suit also perfectly matched the word "Black Panther."
But Professor Morbius...
Batman looked the ash-gray biochemist up and down, failing to see how he was connected to the Spider-Totem in any way.
If anything, Professor Morbius was actually much closer to a bat.
Vampires in folklore were concocted by combining Egyptian mythology with real-world vampire bats, and Professor Morbius's mutated appearance also featured bat-like traits, such as a flattened nose, fangs, and pointed ears.
In fact, when Batman was in New Mexico, Professor Morbius had even directly used the moniker "Batman" for his operations.
The only mystical power regarding spiders that Batman knew of was the Spider-Totem. Hearing Professor Morbius say that the spider had grown bat wings left even Batman himself deeply perplexed.
"That is the extent of the dream. I've dreamt it several times in a row. Every time, that figure of indistinguishable gender stands behind me, using a language I don't understand to describe things I do understand. And every time, that massive spider sweeps them away."
Professor Morbius concluded his summary of the dream.
"Professor, can you replicate the specific pronunciation of how that person spoke?" Professor Connors asked.
"I've tried, but I can't replicate it," Professor Morbius said, shaking his head with regret.
"A pity," Professor Connors said regretfully. "Otherwise, we could have tried to translate existing real-world runes to see if they match those syllables. It might very well be the pronunciation of ancient runes."
This was clearly yet another unsolved mystery.
Batman was not discouraged by this. He simply committed the contents of this conversation to memory, filing it away as another piece of the puzzle.
The next five days flashed by in an instant. In the blink of an eye, it was already November—marking the fourth month since Batman had crossed over into this world.
On this particular day, when Venom Robin returned to Bat Island from South Brother Island with an axe strapped to his back, he saw that the various instruments that had been running continuously for the past few days had finally gone silent.
A Batsuit lay quietly on an otherwise empty table. Its primary color scheme was neither the traditional pitch-black of Batman nor the vibrant red and bright blue of Spider-Man, but a deep-sea blue that bordered on black.
Batman stood in front of the table with his arms crossed over his chest, his right hand raised to stroke his chin.
Venom Robin quickly took a couple of steps forward to examine the suit, only to find that its surface color had shifted back to black. It seemed that fleeting hint of blue-black could only be seen from a specific angle.
The most conspicuous part of the suit was undoubtedly the chest area, where the armor was thickest and the protrusion most pronounced. More importantly, Robin could tell at a glance that it was a meticulously processed protective layer of Vibranium.
The Vibranium had been given a matte finish, leaving the surface a dark gray with edges as sharp as knives, shielding nearly the entire chest of the armor. Crested upon it was an iconic bat emblem—with wide wings, pointed ears, a tapered tail, and borders as sharp as knives.
Compared to the sharp, pieced-together bat emblem on the suit Batman had originally modified from a Spider-Slayer, or the relatively slender bat emblem of the Arkham suit, the bat insignia on this suit was far more massive. The tips of its outspread wings drooped slightly, bearing a resemblance to Venom Robin's own symbiote wings, which could not yet fly and were only used for gliding.
The cowl was the same as always; Venom Robin couldn't spot any unique features, save for the sharply upturned bat ears, which seemed even more pointed.
The abdominal armor, kneepads, elbow pads, forearm bracers, and leg armor possessed a distinct metallic texture. Rather than being a single, solid piece, they were layered over one another like dragon scales.
This armor even featured a pair of thick pauldrons that the Arkham suit lacked, making the entire upper torso of the suit look much more imposing. The cape cascaded down from the pauldrons; woven with a blend of Vibranium and memory fibers, its ribbed texture made it resemble a pair of folded, membranous wings.
Venom Robin noticed that this cape seemed detachable and could even split down the middle into left and right halves. Curious, he stepped forward and tugged at it, discovering that the cape was heavier than ever before. He estimated it weighed at least fifty kilograms—a full five times heavier than the previous cape.
Beneath the cape, a spinal guard ridged slightly along the back like a dormant keel, every single segment fitting seamlessly with the armor on either side. Moving closer, Venom Robin noticed that aside from the areas where the armor was immediately obvious, almost every other part was covered in plating as well. At first glance, it appeared to be a single piece, but only when in motion could one tell it was an assembly of components.
"Modular?" Venom Robin asked, feeling like he was asking a question worthy of an expert.
Batman didn't shoot down Venom Robin's confidence; instead, he nodded.
"More or less."
The Vibranium suit was considered finished for now, but it was not yet its ultimate form.
Once Dr. Otto engineered Adamantium, Batman could add another layer of Adamantium plating inside the Vibranium armor at any time, driving the suit's weight even higher and vastly augmenting its defensive capabilities once more.
The total weight of the armor was currently around two hundred and twenty kilograms. If the Adamantium was ready, the weight of the suit alone was projected to reach five hundred kilograms—effectively half a ton.
This was clearly a suit Batman had custom-built specifically to counter the endless stream of super-strong powerhouses in this world.
The added mass would prevent Batman from being easily knocked away, and when combined with Vibranium's kinetic energy-absorbing properties, it would make him as immovable as a mountain.
One shouldn't look down on this weight, which seemed minuscule compared to the near hundred-ton strength of Robin or the Hulk. On Batman, this added mass would allow him to unlock performance capabilities far exceeding a mere five hundred kilograms.
This weight was the result of Batman's deliberate calculations. Any heavier, and he would inevitably sacrifice maneuverability and agility during stealth missions.
Furthermore, Batman had considered the possibility that he might face a situation where he lost his Spider-Man abilities again in the future; the modular armor design would allow him to shed the heavy plating at a moment's notice.
Out of concern that an opponent might deliberately or accidentally strip off his armor, the detachable components were specially engineered so that anyone else would find it virtually impossible to remove them short of using brute force.
As Batman took off the Arkham suit and donned the Vibranium suit, Venom Robin immediately unstrapped the double-bladed great-axe from his back, swung it in a wide arc, and chopped down toward Batman.
Unsurprisingly, even with over eighty tons of strength backing him, Venom Robin was quickly defeated at Batman's hands.
What amazed Venom Robin even more was that as he fought Batman, the suit actually began to emit a faint, dark purple aura. The more he attacked, the more pronounced the dark purple glow became, cloaking Batman in an even deeper shroud of mystery.
"What's this suit called?" Venom Robin asked curiously, taking his yet another defeat at Batman's hands completely in stride.
"Gargoyle," Batman said.
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