"I don't know who he is, but his combat skills are top-tier. Even though there was an element of surprise, he still managed to subdue me within just a few breaths."
"For a split second, I even wondered if Captain America had woken up from the ice and come looking for me."
Daredevil sheathed his Billy Club back onto his leg, nodding to Luke Cage and Jessica Jones as he spoke to signal them to relax.
After all, Daredevil had crossed paths with Batman several times and had even reached out to him for help when things got tough. He believed Batman was genuinely tracking a lead, not looking to start trouble.
"To your knowledge, who else uses a circular shield as a weapon besides Captain America?" Batman asked.
Batman wasn't omniscient. It had been two months since he crossed over into this universe, and he had long since realized that this world wasn't devoid of superheroes and criminals as his initial internet searches had suggested.
On the contrary—Blade, the vampires of New York, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Black Knight, Ant-Man... just since his arrival, Batman had encountered a vast number of extraordinary individuals whose origins he hadn't personally witnessed.
This world wasn't like the universe of the Justice Lords, where cameras and patrol robots blanketed every square inch.
Even if the government installed cameras on a street, they would be smashed or stripped by street punks to be sold for scrap within two days at most.
The internet cut down some of Batman's workload, but only a fraction; it couldn't grant him omniscience.
"No one," Daredevil said, shaking his head. "Why did you suddenly ask Luke Cage about 2004? Is it related to that shield guy?"
"No." Batman pointed to his own back. "I noticed Luke Cage has an unhealed old injury right here."
"What?" Luke Cage blinked, caught off guard.
He glanced at Jessica Jones, then decisively pulled off his hoodie and the shirt underneath, turning around to expose his bare torso.
Daredevil focused his attention and, sure enough, caught the trace of an extremely faint scar on Luke Cage's back.
If one weren't deliberately looking for it, it would be hard to notice.
"Is it really there?" Luke Cage asked, reading Daredevil and Jessica Jones's expressions.
Jessica Jones gave a soft grunt. "Yeah. It's there."
"I have absolutely no memory of ever getting hurt there," Luke Cage muttered, scratching his head.
"I don't think this has anything to do with the mystery man Daredevil ran into," Jessica Jones said.
"Between July and October of 2004, do you remember where you went?" Batman ignored Jessica Jones, pressing Luke Cage for answers.
"Jessica and I were right here in New York, we didn't go anywhere..." Midway through his sentence, Luke Cage suddenly clutched his forehead and let out a sharp cry of pain.
Jessica quickly stepped forward to comfort Luke Cage. Batman and Daredevil exchanged a look, subtly shaking their heads at each other.
"If you really have no recollection of that time, take a rest for now." Batman didn't press further. Instead, he handed Daredevil a bat-shaped communicator. "If you remember anything, let me know immediately."
"I will," Daredevil said, gripping the Bat-communicator and nodding firmly.
Batman took a deep look at the three in the basement, then turned and left, with Venom Robin following close behind.
Neither spoke a word until they had completely cleared Hell's Kitchen and arrived at the rooftop of the Empire State Building. Only then did Batman speak:
"Daredevil is hiding something from us."
Venom Robin nodded. "I noticed it too."
"Tell me your thoughts," Batman said, glancing at Venom Robin.
"Dad, I need your portable computer," Venom Robin said.
Batman raised his arm, shifting the armor plating on his right forearm to reveal the interface, then sat on the edge of the rooftop and extended his arm to Robin.
With a rapid clatter of keystrokes, Venom Robin pulled up feeds from several storefront security cameras.
Public street cameras were incredibly scarce, but almost every shop in New York was equipped with them to deal with armed robberies.
When the police arrived, shop owners could use the in-store footage as evidence to justify shooting robbers in self-defense.
Batman noticed that the cameras Venom Robin had pulled up all captured fragments of the street outside to some degree. Pieced together, those overlapping frames clearly showed the exact same stretch of road.
"This is the area where the Lizard and the giant T-Rex fought during the dinosaur invasion," Venom Robin said, pointing to one of the screens.
He pointed to another surveillance frame. "And this is Daredevil. After receiving aid from Iron Man, he wandered aimlessly for a few minutes, then headed straight for the edge of Hell's Kitchen."
Batman nodded, encouraging Venom Robin to continue.
"Look, Old Bats. After the giant T-Rex's tail overturned that truck carrying radioactive chemicals, Daredevil didn't just save Luke Cage and Jessica Jones."
"But they were the only two he took straight back to Hell's Kitchen after pulling them out."
"I suspect Daredevil knew them before this incident, but for some reason, their memories of each other have vanished."
Venom Robin pieced the clues together step by step, mirroring Batman's deductive reasoning before delivering his conclusion:
"So I agree with you. Daredevil is definitely keeping secrets, and it's not just the fact that he already knew those two."
"That Bat-communicator is actually a wiretap, right? We can probably listen in on their conversation to find out what exactly they're hiding."
Batman pulled his arm back, letting the armor slide back over his gauntlet computer. "No, it really is just a communicator."
Venom Robin blinked in surprise. "Then how are we supposed to figure out what they're hiding?"
"Daredevil isn't just hiding things from us; he's keeping Luke Cage and Jessica Jones in the dark as well," Batman said. "Under these circumstances, a wiretap wouldn't yield any useful information."
Venom Robin fell silent. He had only deduced that Daredevil wasn't telling Batman everything, but it hadn't even crossed his mind that Daredevil was keeping the other two in the dark as well.
"Robin, have you noticed a pattern yet?" Batman asked.
"What pattern?" Venom Robin looked bewildered again, feeling his brain struggling to keep pace.
Batman didn't fault him, patiently explaining:
"Tony and I have never crossed paths with that shield-wielding man in black. But Silver Sable and Daredevil have, and Luke Cage and Jessica Jones are highly suspect."
"I crossed over just two months ago. Even Peter Parker has only been Spider-Man for a few months, and Tony's time as Iron Man has been equally brief."
"It's a bit early to draw a definitive conclusion based on just these few cases, but I still believe it's no coincidence. That shield-wielding man is deliberately hunting down criminals or superheroes who already possessed alternate identities long before."
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