On the surface, Batman remained expressionless, but in his mind, he had already sorted through and connected all the clues.
"Who is he? What does that have to do with you looking for Aunt May?" Batman asked.
Logan pulled his leather jacket—shredded by Batman's fists—tighter around himself to block out the chilly November wind.
"I wasn't looking for Aunt May. I was looking for you, Peter Parker. The people your parents went up against back then are trying to come after you now."
"Hydra?" Batman asked.
By now, he was wearing a gargoyle batsuit forged from Vibranium. It would have defied common sense if he didn't know about Hydra's existence, so Logan wasn't surprised that Peter Parker knew about them.
"Exactly. Hydra. I don't know the exact details of how they died, only that it was connected to a country called Latveria. They were on a secret mission at the time."
Latveria? The homeland of Victor von Doom, whom Dr. Banner mentioned as a master of numerous scientific fields and someone who might even know about runes?
This was already the second time Batman had heard of this place.
"I tracked you down to fulfill a promise I made to Richard all those years ago," Logan said, offering a somewhat helpless smile. "I promised him I'd look out for you from the shadows and let you live out a peaceful life as an ordinary person."
Batman's mind was a whirlwind of emotions as he thought about Richard's actions—entrusting Peter Parker to Aunt May while secretly arranging for Logan to protect him.
How strikingly similar this was to his own childhood, when Thomas Wayne drew up a will in advance, arranging for the old butler, Alfred, to take care of him after his death.
"But you never showed up. Not until today," Batman said, his expression unchanged.
A flash of pain crossed Logan's face, as if he were remembering something deeply unpleasant.
"Yeah. For a while, I was subjected to a certain experiment. That experiment caused me to lose most of my memories, and even now, I still haven't fully recovered them."
"But at least you remembered your promise," Batman said.
Logan extended his steel claws from the gaps between his knuckles, flashing them at Batman.
"This is the byproduct of that experiment. An alloy skeleton replaced every single bone in my body, including my skull."
"So even though I remembered the promise, I still can't recall the secret mission that led to the deaths of Richard and his wife."
Logan was just casually recounting his past, but his words were automatically processed into intelligence within Batman's mind.
Batman thought back to when Hawkeye, disguised as Ronin, went to Yokohama, Japan. When Hawkeye discovered the existence of Kingpin within the Dark Wind Corporation, he mentioned that Kingpin's skeleton had already been replaced with Adamantium.
This information was later personally verified by Batman during the dinosaur invasion.
After that, Dr. Otto on South Brother Island analyzed the Dark Wind Corporation's trade records and deduced that this technology for replacing human bones with metal was provided by Garrett.
Garrett had even secretly provided a wealth of technical support for grafting Adamantium onto human skeletons, and the source of those technologies was S.H.I.E.L.D.—or rather, the Hydra faction that Garrett belonged to.
Without those technologies, Kingpin would have died during the bone-replacement surgery long ago, let alone returning to New York to establish his empire.
Back then, Batman had his suspicions: did Garrett get the technology from S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra?
Why would they provide this technology to Japan's Dark Wind Corporation instead of using it themselves?
Had there been a precedent for this technology?
And now, Batman had found the answer in Logan, but he still wanted further confirmation.
"The metal in your body—is it Adamantium?"
Logan's eyes instantly flared with light, like a wild beast sensing danger.
"Yeah. That's one of the reasons I got the name 'Wolverine'... but how do you know about Adamantium?"
Wolverine? Batman silently repeated the name in his mind.
"There's a New York businessman named Wilson Fisk. He underwent the same procedure through the Dark Wind Corporation in Japan," Batman explained.
"I don't know who those bastards were that swapped out my skeleton, but from what you're saying, tracking down the Dark Wind Corporation would give me answers," Wolverine said.
"Too late. The Dark Wind Corporation has already collapsed. All I know is that the technology originated from either S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra," Batman said, shaking his head.
Wolverine retracted his claws, the punctured wounds between his knuckles healing automatically as the steel blades slid back in.
He didn't press further about the Dark Wind Corporation, clearly intending to look into it himself later.
Batman didn't bother explaining that Hawkeye, as Ronin, had single-handedly slaughtered the entire Dark Wind Corporation either. Instead, he shifted the topic.
"You mentioned a man with a shield earlier. What was his purpose in seeking you out?"
"He was the key to unlocking my memories about my promise to Richard and his wife. Without him, I wouldn't have even remembered a guy like you to this day," Logan said.
"Who is he?" Batman pressed.
"If I tell you who he is, you'll be dragged into an impending conflict." Wolverine stood up, looking across at Peter Parker with a deadly serious expression. "You need to think this through."
Batman stood up as well, staring back at Wolverine as he gave a slight nod.
"What you might not know is that I've been hearing one report after another about this man with a shield lately... Whatever the conflict is, I won't run from it."
"He's Steve Rogers. Though most people prefer to call him by a much louder name: Captain America," Wolverine said.
"What happened?" Batman asked, showing little surprise.
He had suspected for a while now that the guy was Captain America; he just lacked conclusive evidence.
Now the question circled back to the scenario Dr. Banner had brought up five days ago: what kind of situation would force Captain America to eschew revealing his identity—where he could rally thousands with a single call—and instead choose to hide in the shadows, launching sneak attacks and interrogating people about events from two years ago?
"Two years ago..."
Sure enough, the moment Wolverine spoke, he also brought up two years ago.
"Captain America is certain that two years ago, there was a mission involving several so-called 'superheroes,' including myself. But without exception, every single one of them lost their memories. Even Captain America himself doesn't know exactly who was on that mission."
"He's currently investigating it."
"It sounds like you're certain you were part of that mission," Batman noted, acutely catching Logan's phrasing.
"Yeah. That mission was connected to Latveria," Wolverine said. "In fact, it was only when Captain America mentioned the word 'Latveria' that I remembered your parents' final mission, which reminded me to come looking for you."
"Come with me."
Batman turned around. Wolverine quickly kept pace, asking, "Where to?"
"There are two others I suspect were involved in that mission two years ago," Batman said. "One is Luke Cage, and the other is Jessica Jones."
--
Support me & read more advance & fast update chapter on my pa-treon:
pat reon .c-om/windkaze