T'Challa's Black Panther suit was woven from vibranium that had been processed into fine threads using a specialized technique.
When Batman created the suit for him, however, he bypassed this method, opting instead to forge it as a single, seamlessly molded piece.
After all, his sole consideration at the time was providing T'Challa with a suit to complete his mission of reclaiming Wakanda, rather than crafting it strictly to the standards of a Wakandan king.
In other words, that vibranium suit was essentially a single-use asset for T'Challa. Once he ascended the throne, he would need to forge a brand-new suit for himself.
Batman now possessed five hundred kilograms of vibranium secretly gifted to him by T'Challa, but he obviously could not afford to be so extravagant as to waste it on another single-use suit.
He didn't even plan on using vibranium from head to toe. He remained concerned that the metal could lose its stability when exposed to specific sonic frequencies.
Instead, he would combine a mix of Adamantium, vibranium, Kevlar, and other materials to construct his new suit.
While the single-use suit for T'Challa had taken only about a day to manufacture, this new project was a different story. Batman had finished drawing the blueprints and systematically set up his equipment, but the actual fabrication process was going much slower.
This was meticulous work.
Taking no chances, Batman committed the schematics to memory and then burned the physical papers to ashes.
He pulled out a fresh pen and paper. This time, he was designing the Batmobile.
Without the Batmobile, Batman had to rely solely on the Batwing whenever a long-range mission arose.
But the Batwing was, strictly speaking, a consumable asset. Batman wasn't about to be so lavish as to build a fighter jet out of vibranium. What he needed was a heavy-duty Batmobile—something capable of packing more firepower and offering greater versatility than the Batwing.
By the time the schematics were complete, dawn had broken once more.
Batman had already grown accustomed to the absence of his old butler handing him a morning cup of coffee. He simply set aside his pen and paper and dialed an encrypted channel to South Brother Island.
"Dr. Otto."
"Batman, I was just about to contact you." On the other end of the encrypted line, Dr. Otto sounded highly energetic, almost ecstatic.
Batman's interest was piqued.
"Any progress?"
He had only sent Robin with less than ten grams of vibranium to Dr. Otto yesterday. Had he gotten results this quickly?
Dr. Otto's voice crackled with excitement.
"Exactly! I stayed up all night analyzing that 0.3-gram sample of Antarctic vibranium alongside the Wakandan vibranium you gave me..."
"I discovered that, given the right conditions, Wakandan vibranium can be completely converted into Antarctic vibranium!"
Batman stood up, starting his daily training routine as he asked, "What conditions are required?"
"An energy source." Dr. Otto chuckled on the other end. "And as luck would have it, energy is the one thing we have in absolute abundance here on South Brother Island."
Dr. Otto had invented an artificial sun, which had been glowing steadily in a corner of the South Brother Island laboratory. The Parker Group's rapid expansion was built partly on memory fiber and partly on the power generated by this artificial sun.
Even after more than a month of operation, Dr. Otto's calculations showed that the artificial sun had suffered virtually zero energy depletion. Power was not going to be an issue for Batman.
"Good," Batman replied, his voice characteristically brief and decisive. "I will return to South Brother Island in two hours to attempt processing the Antarctic vibranium into Adamantium."
Dr. Otto didn't ask why Batman wanted to convert Wakandan vibranium into the Antarctic variant before turning it into Adamantium. The answer to that had been clear before Batman ever set foot in Wakanda: Batman wanted to build an Adamantium-armored vehicle.
"The only issue is... we don't have that much Wakandan vibranium to work with," Dr. Otto added, a note of regret in his voice.
"I will take care of that," Batman said.
Dr. Otto didn't press for details; it wasn't his concern. Two hours later, after finishing his training, Batman arrived at South Brother Island.
"Dr. Otto, where is the data?" Batman went straight to the scientist's workstation.
"Right here." Dr. Otto handed over a thick stack of documents, half handwritten and half printed.
"We already knew that Antarctic vibranium has the unique property of liquefying other metals. Once you had Robin bring over the sample yesterday, I immediately attempted to liquefy the Wakandan vibranium."
As Batman flipped through the files, Dr. Otto explained eagerly, words pouring out of him:
"It turns out that even Wakandan vibranium is susceptible to liquefaction. By utilizing the data and materials I previously acquired from the Darkwind Group, I experimented all night and finally succeeded."
"Of course, I couldn't have done it without the assistance of Professor Connors and Dr. Banner."
Having reverted from his lizard form back into a human, Professor Connors, along with Dr. Banner, smiled and waved a brief greeting to Batman upon hearing their names.
"See for yourself. This is the fully converted Wakandan vibranium, and here are my formulas calculating their respective molecular structures. I couldn't find a single discrepancy. For all intents and purposes, they are identical." Dr. Otto held out a test tube.
Inside was a piece of solid metal smaller than a fingernail—for Antarctic vibranium is indeed a solid metal, despite its unique capacity to liquefy neighboring elements.
Batman rapidly skimmed the rest of the file and looked up at Dr. Otto. Ever since the Hulk and the Lizard had snapped two of his four mechanical tentacles, Otto had simply removed the damaged limbs, leaving only the two functional ones attached to his back harness. It gave him an asymmetrical, slightly awkward look, but his mind was clearly far removed from his prosthetics.
"Based on the Darkwind Group's trade ledgers, I can confirm that the core components needed to synthesize Adamantium are a gold-titanium alloy, Antarctic vibranium, iron, and trace amounts of a few other metals," Otto noted. "However, the exact ratios remain a mystery. A proprietary formula wouldn't just be sitting in a shipping manifest, after all."
Venom Robin, who was standing nearby with a massive, double-edged battleaxe slung across his back, chimed in with a suggestion. "Doesn't Kingpin have Adamantium bonded to his body? If we just strip his skeleton—"
Batman leveled a sharp gaze at Robin.
Dr. Otto quickly intervened to smooth things over. "Robin's idea might actually have some merit, though extracting his entire skeleton wouldn't be necessary. Even a trace sample of his hair or fingernails might contain enough residue to help us reverse-engineer the Adamantium formula."
"Though, naturally, harvesting a small bone fragment would yield the best results."
Batman nodded slowly. "I'll keep that option in mind. However, I already have a Plan B for acquiring the Adamantium formula."
Dr. Otto gave an inquisitive twitch with his remaining two mechanical tentacles.
"Not long ago, a mysterious shield-wielding man in New York ambushed Daredevil, Silver Sable, and several others. I suspect he may be Taskmaster, the mercenary often contracted by S.H.I.E.L.D."
Batman paused, then continued, "But that's purely speculative. I intend to track him down and see for myself. If he isn't Taskmaster, but rather..."
"If he's Captain America, then that shield of his might just provide us with the blueprint for Proto-Adamantium," Dr. Banner chimed in, walking over to join the conversation.
Batman looked at Banner. "Exactly. While textbooks and the media always refer to Captain America's shield as pure vibranium, it is actually a unique alloy accidentally synthesized by Dr. MacLain during World War II using vibranium and an unknown secondary metal."
Dr. Banner leaned back against the edge of Otto's workstation, adjusting his glasses. "But I have my doubts that this shield-bearer is Cap."
"Captain America is a national symbol. If he truly survived from the Second World War to the modern day, the government would almost certainly repackage him as a living legend for public relations. He wouldn't be lurking around in black tactical gear pulling off stealth ambushes like the man you described."
"And what if the government, or other external factors, forced him into a position where he had no choice but to conceal his identity?" Batman countered.
Dr. Banner merely shrugged, choosing not to press the argument any further.
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