"Asgard has no aircraft?"
"Aircraft?"
"Vehicles capable of carrying people through the air."
"None."
"How do you usually travel?"
"I have my hammer."
Batman remained silent for a good while. He finally understood Thor's way of thinking.
Although Thor spoke in archaic English and, as Batman had learned from earlier questioning, was around four thousand years old—logically someone whose eyes should reflect the weariness of ages, aloof from the world—in reality, Thor was no different from a young human male in his early thirties. Having spent thousands of years on Asgard, he knew remarkably little about the outside world, lacking even basic common sense about Earth.
All of this meant that interacting with Thor felt less like dealing with an ancient relic and more like dealing with a somewhat eccentric young man.
"You rely on spinning your hammer to fly? But even if it spins, your hammer lacks the capability to generate an updraft," Batman observed.
"Mjolnir itself can fly." Thor casually gave the hammer a light swing in his hand.
Unsurprised, Batman nodded. A week ago, when he broke the sacrificial array and summoned Thor, he had noticed that while hovering in midair, the deity hadn't spun his hammer at all.
"I've noticed your hammer almost never leaves your hand," Batman added.
"Indeed. This is a treasure of Asgard, and my favorite," Thor replied.
Though he spoke thus, Thor hadn't reached the point of clutching the hammer in his sleep—a detail Batman knew from monitoring Thor around the clock over the past week.
Facing a god of thunder whose power could practically crush other superheroes, Batman had been forced to alter his usual style, engaging Thor in conversation from time to time to learn about him and Asgard from every angle.
Thor didn't mind Batman's casual inquiries, answering every question posed, though sometimes even he couldn't answer the things Batman asked.
In the midst of such "small talk," they arrived at the ruins of the Gamma Base in New Mexico without incident.
"What manner of formidable foe is this, that requires the two of us to join forces?"
Having parked the Batwing two kilometers away from the Gamma Base, Batman and Thor proceeded on foot. Along the way, Thor asked with great curiosity.
He had never seen Batman in combat, but in his mind, anyone capable of reverse-engineering a ritual array to rescue him had to possess overwhelming power.
Perhaps he was a sorcerer wielding potent magic.
Throughout the trip, Batman had kept steering the conversation, leaving Thor few chances to ask questions. Now, he finally seized the opportunity, his gaze drifting toward New Goblin, who sat amidst the ruins of the Gamma Base in the distance.
"He was once a close friend of mine," Batman said.
"I see. You cannot bear to do it yourself, so you wish for me to eliminate him?" Thor nodded, believing he understood.
The weather in New Mexico was relatively clear, but as Thor spoke, a flash of lightning gleamed in his eyes, and thick dark clouds instantly gathered from all directions.
Rumbling thunder echoed through the storm clouds in an instant.
"No." Naturally, Batman wouldn't reveal that his true motive for bringing Thor along was simply to question him on the journey. "I'll handle this."
Thor didn't press the matter; he, too, was curious to see what kind of magic Batman possessed.
And so, at the edge of the Gamma Base ruins, Thor halted with Mjolnir in hand, watching as Batman walked over to New Goblin.
"Harry," Batman said, stopping in front of New Goblin, who sat with his head bowed among the debris.
"I knew you'd come." New Goblin raised his head, sunlight illuminating half of his face. Etched with deep exhaustion, stubbornness, and a flicker of anger, he looked in rough shape. "Are you here to take me back... or to kill me?"
"Your father is still alive," Batman said.
"I know. The moment I left your cave, I saw news about him in newspapers everywhere." A sneer touched the corner of New Goblin's mouth. "You saved him, and then you set him free."
Batman said nothing. He didn't yet know what was going through New Goblin's mind, and the less he said right now, the better.
"Why did you save him?" Unexpectedly, New Goblin spoke words completely different from that rainy night. "You know who he is, and you know what he's done."
Seeing Batman remain silent, New Goblin listed his father Norman Osborn's crimes all in one breath:
"He's the Green Goblin! He's a monster! He experimented on living people, drove his own friends to suicide, and even blew an entire family sky-high! He..."
"He planted fear deep in your bones," Batman said.
New Goblin's voice stopped abruptly. He lowered his head once more, staring blankly at the rubble.
"Batman, you saved him, but you shouldn't have."
"You should have killed him, and then killed me... Peter."
"I won't do that. Your father is worth saving. No matter how much evil he committed, none of it was his true intent." Batman sat down next to New Goblin. "Likewise, the things you said and did before—none of that was your true intent, either."
New Goblin turned his head toward Batman.
"Do you really think so?"
A trace of grievance laced his voice. Injecting the serum hadn't been his intent; joining forces with Professor Morbius to attack Batman on that rainy night hadn't been his intent; and destroying the Batcave upon waking to restore the strength of Red Hulk and Leader hadn't been his intent, either.
Ever since the shock therapy on Professor Morbius failed, the only thing Harry Osborn had truly wanted to do was tie himself to a chair and inject himself with lethal chemicals.
He had wanted to perish together with the alternate personality inside him—the "New Goblin"—yet even he didn't know when those two liters of toxic chemicals had been swapped out for stimulants.
It was just that by now, Harry Osborn had long since merged completely with New Goblin.
"Yes," Batman said, his voice grave and earnest as never before. "You hate him, but you're even more afraid of losing him."
"But nothing Norman Osborn did is your fault. Nor is it truly his. The blame lies with General Ross, Hydra, and the forces behind them."
"But..." New Goblin instinctively let out a sneer, preparing to object.
"But you chose to come here. You chose to come here alone, without gear or weapons, because you want to know the truth," Batman said.
The sneer faded from New Goblin's face, replaced once more by a desolate look. Clearly, even now, his mental state remained extremely unstable.
"Do you know? When Ben died, I was right nearby. I watched him collapse on the street, blood pouring from his chest into the gutter. I stood there, unable to do a thing," Batman said. "I thought I would turn into a completely fallen monster. But I became something else."
New Goblin looked at Batman again.
"What?"
"A monster that doesn't kill."
--
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