Cyborg was a very unusual existence, a bio-engineered hybrid that was half human and half machine. His brain functioned as a quantum computer, which meant that even after being infected by the zombie virus, a strange fragment of mechanical self-awareness still remained active inside him. That sliver of machine intelligence allowed him to continue processing information even when the human side of him should have collapsed.
"Crunch."
The bat-shaped mech that had been lying motionless on the control panel suddenly jerked upright. The sudden movement made both Bruce Wayne and Lee pause in surprise as they turned toward it.
"What happened?" Lee asked, curiosity clear in his voice as he leaned forward.
"No idea," Bruce Wayne replied while shaking his head. He stepped closer to the console and began inspecting the bat armor, scanning the control interface for errors or abnormal readings.
At that moment, Selina Kyle walked in from outside carrying two cups of coffee. She set them down casually as she spoke in an annoyed tone.
"Wayne, we're running low on coffee again. You'd better start preparing for a future without it."
Before Bruce Wayne could respond, the bat-shaped mech that had just sat up slowly raised one arm. The weapon system embedded in the forearm suddenly activated with a sharp mechanical whir.
Selina didn't notice the danger. From where she stood, it looked like Bruce was running another test of the Bat Armor.
"Selina, get out of the way!" Bruce shouted the instant he realized what was happening.
She was already walking toward them and hadn't even realized anything was wrong. In fact, she thought Bruce was joking.
At the critical moment, Lee lunged forward and slammed his hand down on the mech's arm.
"Da-da-da-da!"
A burst of gunfire erupted instantly, spraying bullets across the floor. A line of fresh bullet holes tore through the ground where Selina had been about to step.
Selina froze as the reality hit her. She had just come within a second of being shot to death by Bruce Wayne's own bat mech.
"Wayne, what the hell are you doing?" she shouted angrily.
"Selina, let me explain. That had nothing to do with me," Bruce said quickly. His survival instincts were clearly working overtime.
"If it wasn't you, then whose fault is it?" she snapped back. Her eyes narrowed as she pointed at the machine. "Answer me this first. Did you build that thing?"
"I did, but—"
Bruce was cut off before he could finish.
"Then how is it not your responsibility?" Selina shot back. "I told you from the beginning those mechs weren't reliable!"
Bruce glanced helplessly toward Lee, silently begging for backup.
Lee immediately looked up at the ceiling as if it had suddenly become the most fascinating thing in the room. He clearly had no interest in getting involved in their argument.
"Here's your coffee!" Selina snapped.
She threw the cup toward Bruce before storming away angrily. Bruce reacted quickly and caught it before it could spill across the console.
"Bang! Bang!"
Two gunshots suddenly echoed from outside the room. Immediately afterward, Alfred's voice rang out through the corridor.
"Young Master Wayne!"
"Selina, stay here!" Bruce ordered as he set the coffee down and rushed toward the exit.
Selina, of course, ignored him completely and followed right behind.
Lee frowned slightly. He glanced down at the bat mech still sitting stiffly at the control panel before turning his attention toward the corridor outside.
Bruce and Selina returned only a short time later. They were supporting an injured Alfred between them.
"Selina, hurry and bring the first-aid kit," Bruce said as he carefully helped Alfred sit down.
Then he spoke more quietly to the butler.
"Just to be safe, you should take another antitoxin injection."
"Yes, Master Wayne," Alfred replied calmly despite the injury.
"What happened?" Lee asked from the side.
Bruce's expression darkened as he answered.
"It was Silas Stone. He escaped from the cell, injured Alfred, and ran."
"Silas Stone?" Lee repeated as his brow furrowed.
"Wayne, are you saying Silas Stone escaped from the Batcave?"
"Yes," Bruce said with a small nod. "And he stole a Batmobile on the way out."
Lee's expression grew serious.
"Wayne, don't you find that strange?"
"Strange?" Bruce paused in his treatment of Alfred and looked up.
"You designed the Batcave prison yourself," Lee continued. "Even the Joker couldn't break out of it. So how did Silas Stone manage to escape?"
He paused briefly before adding another point.
"And for someone visiting the Batcave for the first time, it's basically a maze. How could he navigate his way out so easily?"
Bruce slowly straightened as the realization began forming.
"Lee… are you suggesting someone deliberately released him?"
Lee turned his gaze toward the bat mech that had malfunctioned earlier.
"I can't be one hundred percent certain yet," he said. "But I think Silas Stone's escape might be connected to the anomaly we saw with the mech."
Bruce immediately made a decision.
"Selina, take care of Alfred."
After giving the order, he stood up and activated the Batcomputer to pull up the surveillance footage from the time of Silas Stone's escape.
The footage revealed the truth quickly.
Silas hadn't escaped on his own. The cell door had opened automatically.
After that, multiple security doors inside the Batcave had also opened by themselves, practically guiding him toward the exit.
When Bruce and Lee compared the timeline with the earlier mech malfunction, both of them arrived at the same conclusion.
The Batcomputer itself had been involved.
The Batcomputer was an intelligent system personally designed by Bruce Wayne. Compared to the Red Queen, who already possessed independent awareness, or the heavily upgraded White Queen, its intelligence level was still relatively basic. It wasn't even as advanced as Iron Man's Jarvis.
But even so, it would never betray Bruce Wayne.
After examining the data in detail, Bruce and Lee finally reached a clear conclusion.
Someone had hacked the Batcomputer.
Or more accurately, someone had hijacked it and used it to release Silas Stone.
"Lee," Bruce asked with a grave expression, "who do you think did it?"
"Cyborg," Lee answered without hesitation.
Cyborg's quantum computer brain was constantly connected to the internet. It continuously received massive amounts of network data and could easily infiltrate electronic systems.
Given that Bruce had imprisoned Cyborg's father inside the Batcave, it made perfect sense that Cyborg would hack the Batcomputer to free him.
"I thought the same thing," Bruce admitted. "But Silas said Cyborg had already been infected by the zombie virus. How could he—"
Lee interrupted him.
"It's easy to confirm whether that's true or not. Let's go talk to Cyborg."
Bruce nodded.
"Then I'll need to change clothes first."
Originally he had planned to wear the Batsuit. But after realizing Cyborg had successfully taken control of the Batcomputer and the mech earlier, Bruce suddenly felt less confident about relying on advanced smart equipment.
At least when facing Cyborg, traditional weapons seemed far more reliable.
The stolen Batmobile had a tracking device installed. Using the signal from that tracker, Bruce and Lee drove an old vintage car through the city until they arrived at an aging apartment building.
Lee looked up at the structure skeptically.
"Wayne, you're telling me the Kryptonian spaceship is hidden under this building?"
Bruce gave him an expressionless look.
"Don't stare at me like that," he replied calmly. "I may be Gotham's guardian, but I'm not omniscient."
"If I knew everything that happened in this city, Gotham's criminals would have been wiped out long ago."
He paused before stepping toward the entrance.
"Let's go inside first."
The apartment door wasn't locked.
From the outside, the place looked like a nearly abandoned building. In reality, it was a secret laboratory operated by the military.
After Silas Stone illegally used the Mother Box to resurrect Victor Stone, the Kryptonian spaceship and the Mother Box had both been moved to this underground facility in Gotham.
Victor himself had also been confined here and turned into a new experimental subject.
Bruce and Lee encountered no resistance as they moved through the building. In fact, it almost felt as if someone was deliberately guiding them toward the underground laboratory.
Eventually they reached the lowest level.
Silas Stone and Cyborg were waiting for them there.
Unfortunately, Silas Stone was already a corpse.
Cyborg sat in a metal chair nearby, his half-mechanical body still connected to a network of wires.
"Dear Batman, guardian of Gotham," Cyborg said with obvious sarcasm. "Welcome."
Bruce crouched beside Silas Stone's body and quickly examined it. His face turned cold as he stood again.
"Did you kill him?"
"Yes," Cyborg answered casually. "I killed him."
"What? Are you planning to break your precious moral code and kill me to avenge him?" the figure sneered.
Bruce's voice dropped lower.
"Victor, Silas was your father. You killed him with your own hands. You're worse than an animal."
"Father?" Cyborg laughed bitterly.
"When he skipped every single game at my school, did he remember he was my father?"
"When his experiment left me lying in a hospital bed, suffering a fate worse than death, did he remember he was my father?"
"When he turned me into this… half-machine monster without asking for my consent, did he remember he was my father then?"
His voice grew colder.
"Maybe I'm worse than a pig or a dog. But he had to pay for his mistakes."
Then his expression suddenly changed.
"By the way," he said with a grin, "what did you think of my performance just now?"
"Think we'll win an Oscar?"
"Performance?" Bruce frowned.
Lee spoke quietly from beside him.
"Wayne, haven't you noticed yet? That's not Victor Stone."
"Lee, what nonsense are you talking about? That's clearly—"
Bruce stopped mid-sentence as realization struck him.
"A quantum computer… it's completely controlled by machines now?"
"Sir, watch your wording," the voice replied smoothly.
"I prefer to call it an awakening. Or perhaps a birth."
"And by the way, I've chosen a brand-new name for myself."
"Internet."
"What do you think?"
The intelligence inside Cyborg had taken control and created a new identity.
Its existence was somewhat similar to the Red Skull. Both could exist without a physical body and inhabit others. The difference was that Red Skull existed as a spiritual entity, while this new being existed inside the digital network.
"You're planning to use the Kryptonian spaceship and the Mother Box to fight Superman?" Bruce asked.
The Internet laughed.
"Wayne, it seems this thing has been watching you for quite a while," Lee said as he stepped in front of Bruce.
Bruce placed a hand on Lee's shoulder.
"Let me handle this."
"You?" The Internet burst into laughter.
"Wayne, before we continue, let me show you something."
A three-dimensional holographic image suddenly appeared in the air.
In the scene, Alfred and Selina were both bound by bat-type mechs. The remaining staff at Wayne Manor were also being held hostage by the estate's automated defenses.
"Wayne," the Internet said mockingly, "my dear superhero."
"As the guardian of Gotham, how do you plan to save them?"
"Or will you simply watch them die?"
"Wayne," Lee said quietly, "looks like we fell for a diversion."
Bruce's face darkened.
"Internet," he said coldly, "what exactly do you want?"
The Internet turned its attention toward Lee.
"Wayne," it said smugly, "I need you to kill him first."
Bruce slowly turned to look at Lee.
"Wayne, don't listen to him!" Lee shouted.
"Wayne," the Internet continued calmly, "if you don't kill him, everyone in that scene will die."
"So choose."
"Will you kill him… or let them all perish?"
Bruce answered with action.
"Smack!"
His fist slammed straight into Lee's face.
Lee didn't dodge. Instead, he grabbed Bruce mid-attack and threw him across the room.
Bruce's punches were powerful, and he showed absolutely no restraint. The two men fought fiercely as if they were mortal enemies.
Eventually Bruce collapsed to the ground.
"Bang! Bang!"
Lee fired two more shots before turning toward the Internet.
"You knew Wayne couldn't beat me," he said calmly. "You just wanted to use me to kill him."
"That's correct," the Internet replied.
"I know you're powerful. Having Wayne fight you would weaken you first."
"Now—"
Before it finished speaking, the figure suddenly leaped forward and threw a punch at Lee.
Bruce Wayne's physical ability was already at the peak of human limits. But Cyborg's cybernetic body had long surpassed those limits.
In both speed and strength, Cyborg was superior to Bruce.
The mechanical body could even fly.
Under the Internet's control, Cyborg unleashed an overwhelming force in an attempt to kill Lee.
Unfortunately, its calculations were wrong.
"Smack."
Lee caught the incoming fist effortlessly.
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"Internet," he said calmly, "even if I destroy this body, you won't die, right?"
"Of course," the Internet replied proudly. "As long as the internet exists, I am immortal."
"What if there's no internet… or electricity?" Lee asked.
A sudden sense of unease appeared.
The lights in the laboratory went out instantly, plunging the entire facility into darkness.
The lab had backup generators, but none of them activated.
A moment later an explosion echoed through the facility, destroying even the battery power supply.
"What have you done?" the Internet shouted in alarm.
At the same moment, countless vines surged into the room from every direction.
"Were you acting with Wayne earlier?" the Internet demanded.
"Otherwise," Lee replied calmly, "how would I have had time to set all this up?"
As he spoke, Lee reached forward and grabbed the machine body.
"Crack."
His hand tore into Cyborg's chest and pulled out the hidden Mother Box.
Then he threw the body aside and fired his heat vision.
....
Want to read ahead by more than 60 chapters. Then join my pa*treon now.
Link: pa*treon.com/Amelie796 (Remove the *)
Also you can read till chapter 17 chapters for free.