Marvel’s Shadowed Knight

Just as the words left her mouth, Black Cat lunged straight at Bruce.

In the blink of an eye, she was already in front of him, her hands reaching directly for his face.

But Bruce easily blocked her attack, grabbing both of her hands without much effort.

Seeing this, Black Cat smiled slightly, then sprang up and fiercely kicked Bruce in the abdomen.

Bruce was forced back two steps by the blow but quickly straightened himself again.

Black Cat, ever agile, landed in a crouch, staring at the Bat now standing before her.

Even though Black Cat was famous for her thievery, in a city as vast as New York, you couldn't survive without some serious skills.

After all, today's New York was the stage for both supervillains and superheroes.

Without any real abilities, stepping outside was a risk.

"If it ends this easily, I don't think I'll be satisfied," Black Cat said, eyeing the Bat as she launched another assault.

It could be said that she was using all her advantages to the fullest.

Relying on her speed, she repeatedly slashed at Bruce's vital points with her claws.

But every strike was perfectly parried by Bruce. Her other claw did nothing more than scrape against his armored gauntlet, creating a trail of sparks.

After catching her hands, Bruce locked her firmly in his arms.

Tightly restrained.

"Do I smell good to you?" Black Cat suddenly turned her head and asked.

Bruce wasn't distracted by her words. Nanobots had already begun gathering at the point where he was restraining her.

Black Cat must have sensed something strange at her wrists—she suddenly crouched and, using her strength, flung Batman over her back.

Batman easily handled the sudden move and landed smoothly on the ground.

"Oh, I knew it." Black Cat then noticed her wrists were now bound by Bat-shaped handcuffs.

"But I'm quite skilled when it comes to lock-picking," she remarked, examining the cuffs. Yet she saw no visible seams or keyholes—it looked like one solid, forged piece.

She tried scratching it with her nails to see if her gear could help her escape.

But in the next instant, an electric arc sparked from the cuffs.

"Ah!!!"

Black Cat screamed, the pain shooting through her from the cuffs was intense.

With the surge of electricity, she dropped to the ground, panting heavily.

Clearly, Bruce had set up precautions to prevent her from breaking or slipping out of the cuffs.

"Try to destroy the cuffs, you get shocked. Try to slip out, you get shocked. And they're GPS-tagged. Don't waste your energy," Bruce said, not even walking toward her. He simply turned and began to leave.

His figure blended into the shadows, his mask and cape perfectly concealing any trace of the Bat.

"I didn't expect someone like you, a so-called superhero, to enjoy something like this," Black Cat panted. She had just begun to recover from the electric shock.

Bruce didn't respond. He merely fired his grapple and disappeared from her sight, retreating the same way he'd come in.

All of this had happened in just a few minutes. By the time the heavily armed security guards burst in, they found only Black Cat lying on the ground.

"Holy shit," one guard muttered, pulling off his hat. In all his years of working security, this was the first time he'd ever seen this notorious super thief.

And now, it seemed they might actually hand her over to the NYPD.

But when the security captain arrived, he quickly ordered the guards to fan out and check for any signs of theft.

However, when they saw the Bat-shaped shuriken resting in the display case that once held a diamond necklace, most of them were baffled.

How could something from comic books and movies end up here? Could it really be…

Had Batman suddenly appeared from nowhere to help catch Black Cat?

The security captain walked over and stared at the Bat-symbol shuriken with a frown.

He understood one thing—without that shuriken, Black Cat might have succeeded, and they wouldn't even have known something had been stolen.

But to say that the shuriken's owner was Batman? He didn't believe that for a second.

Of course, there was another possibility: that Black Cat had an accomplice who used these Bat-themed weapons to throw people off.

Maybe things went south due to a dispute over how to split the loot, and that led to a fight that ended with Black Cat being left behind.

Still, looking at the Bat-shaped handcuffs on her wrists, even the captain knew his theory was nonsense.

"Captain, NYPD is here." Just then, a guard came up to report the arrival of the police.

The building's alarm was linked directly to the NYPD's emergency alert system, so the police had arrived quickly.

Just as the captain was about to go out and greet them, uniformed officers walked in.

Seeing Black Cat lying on the ground, the officers were stunned. They had previously caught her—or rather, Spider-Man had—but she had escaped from prison.

And now, it was clear she had been caught again… and not in great condition.

"Well, I think I know who tripped the alarm," one officer said, crouching down beside her. He examined the strange cuffs around her wrists.

"Looks like New York has a new superhero," he added. He couldn't recognize the symbol, but his partner did.

His partner nudged him on the shoulder. "That's not some new hero. That's Batman's symbol. But… isn't he just a comic book character?"

"Well, not our problem. All we need to do is take her in," the officer replied indifferently. Superhero logos or cartoon characters—none of that mattered to him.

Those things were for corporations to worry about—who to sue, who to collect royalties from.

Black Cat remained silent, just watching them quietly.

She'd only come out tonight to get revenge on that spider, but now… it seemed she'd stumbled onto something far more interesting.

Still, first things first—revenge on the spider. After all, he'd beaten her pretty badly last time, and her time in prison hadn't been pleasant either.

The officers didn't bother replacing her cuffs—if Black Cat herself couldn't remove them, there was no way they could.

After all, she was a master of breaking and entering.

If even she couldn't crack these cuffs, how could they?

As they escorted her to the police car, Black Cat suddenly looked off in one direction.

The officers tensed immediately, praying that her accomplices weren't coming to rescue her.

But the direction she looked in was completely empty.

Relieved, the officers exhaled. As long as no one was coming to spring her, they could relax a bit.

No one ever really knew what went on in the minds of these supercriminals.

Perhaps the Black Cat was just a little mentally unstable.

But the Black Cat actually smiled, because when she looked up just now, she clearly saw the corner of a cape disappear.

That bat was still watching her.

Now things were getting interesting.

Meanwhile, a red-and-blue figure was hanging upside down on a wall, watching as the Black Cat was escorted into a police car.

He had been distracted by another incident earlier and hadn't made it in time. It was only when he learned the police were headed here that he rushed over.

But the first thing he saw upon arriving was the Black Cat being shoved into the police car.

Peter Parker was a little confused about what had happened.

Just as he was about to leave and investigate what exactly was going on, he spotted a police officer walking out with an evidence bag.

Peter immediately zoomed in his vision to see what was inside that evidence bag.

But when he actually saw it, he couldn't believe his eyes.

"A Batarang?"

Peter was utterly shocked. He flipped up onto the rooftop and began to think it over.

Previously, he had once worked with a certain Bat—actually, not just him, someone else had collaborated with that Bat too.

But the issue was, that Bat clearly wasn't from his universe. So how could a Batarang appear here now? Something about this was clearly off.

His first instinct was to suspect Bruce Wayne. After all, in this version of New York, aside from Tony Stark and Peter Parker of Parker Industries, the only one who matched Batman's profile was Bruce Wayne of Wayne Enterprises.

But Stark was Iron Man, and Peter Parker was Spider-Man.

It didn't take much thought to narrow down Batman's identity to Bruce Wayne.

Still, something about that didn't add up. He had seen Bruce Wayne at the gala tonight, and nothing seemed unusual.

And if Bruce really wanted to be a superhero, he would have done so long ago. He wouldn't just randomly emerge at a time like this.

Besides, based on the Bat he had worked with before, that guy would never share a bed with another metahuman.

That Bat had deep-rooted distrust toward metahumans, yet Bruce Wayne was frequently seen around that newly appeared Spider-Woman.

That alone was enough for Peter Parker to cross Bruce off his list of suspects.

Which left him with quite the headache trying to figure out who it could be.

Bruce, on the other hand, had no idea that Peter Parker was stressing over Batman's identity.

At this moment, Bruce was patrolling the streets of New York.

During this patrol, aside from the Black Cat incident, he had already dealt with three knife robberies, two gun-related crimes, and one case involving the sale of addictive drugs.

All of this gave Bruce a whole new impression of New York City.

This place was even messier than he expected—more Gotham than Gotham itself.

Bruce decided not to continue patrolling for the night. He had already detected that others were beginning to take action, with the street-level heroes becoming increasingly active.

What he needed to do now was draw up a proper patrol plan and develop a system to respond to these incidents based on New York's current situation.

As soon as he returned to the Batcave, he saw someone tapping away at the console.

Bruce didn't need to guess—he knew it was Jessica sitting there.

"Looks like the Bat's back in his cage," Jessica said, spinning around in the chair and tilting her head at Bruce, who had taken off his suit.

"New York's a lot more chaotic than I imagined—at least, this version of New York is much worse than the one I'm used to," Bruce replied, not directly responding to her comment as he walked to the console to begin filtering data.

Jessica suddenly twitched her nose but didn't say anything.

"You ever think about how many villains and gangs you took down during the New York Crisis?"

Jessica addressed Bruce.

Back in that other universe during the crackdown, Bruce hadn't held back in the slightest.

He acted swiftly and decisively.

After that war, there weren't any major gangsters or criminals left in New York.

That battle had stunned most of the ambitious villains into fleeing or hiding.

And those who should've left, did.

Bruce nodded in response—he understood the reason behind it all.

But that had been a special case.

Now, he had no intention of launching a similar campaign.

Besides, in this world, Wayne Enterprises still existed, giving him other options.

"Alright, tomorrow's another day," Jessica said, standing from the chair. She grabbed Bruce's cape.

And turned the Bat around.

"You still owe me an explanation—where did that scent on you come from?"

Bruce didn't say anything, but Jessica could already tell what he was thinking.

"Relax, I'm not jealous. Actually… it's kind of hot," she said as her hands started to move.

At that same moment, elsewhere in the city, the police escorting the Black Cat back to the station were blocked at an intersection by a car accident.

They were on high alert, making sure she wouldn't escape. They had seen how she trembled from the shock of the handcuffs earlier…

But they still didn't feel completely at ease.

They turned to look—only to see the Black Cat smiling faintly at them.

The next second, she lost consciousness.

(End of Chapter)

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