Chapter 308: Venom Robin's Fury
"Robin." The instant Tony Stark flew from Baxter Building, Batman had already contacted Robin in the Batcave.
"Fucking stupid bat!" Robin erupted the second the encrypted channel connected. "Why'd you leave me behind and run into that vortex thing?!"
"I was about to buy you a goddamn cemetery plot! Now you're telling me you're back?"
"You training me just so I can guard your stupid cave? You love solo missions that much? You didn't even know what dangers were on the other side! You think you're invincible?!"
"You know what went through my head watching your signal disappear from the Batcave? Damn old bat!"
Batman's eyes watched Lunella attempt to close the full-wave projector while his ears processed Venom Robin's furious tirade.
"I understand your feelings, Robin." Batman said. "Right now I need your help."
"Oh, I thought a certain bat didn't need help." Venom Robin sneered. But his tone quickly shifted to anxiety. "What help? Manhattan's full of goddamn dinosaurs and primitives everywhere. Don't tell me you can't handle them."
"I'm closing the channels between the primitive world and Manhattan." Batman explained. "Put on your mask. Move out immediately."
In the Batcave, Venom Robin muttered a few more curses at Batman, then rapidly donned his human face mask.
He glanced at the Batmobile, sighed, then transformed his legs into cheetah-like configuration. Racing along subway routes, he burst into the sewer system. Two minutes later, a manhole cover flew skyward.
"Fighting dinosaurs? This kindergarten-level crap is my job? You treating me like a baby?"
Venom Robin grew angrier thinking about it. Batman hadn't even told him before charging into that unknown world. If Dr. Octavius hadn't contacted him, Robin wouldn't have known Batman had left at all.
Now he planned venting that rage on these damn dinosaurs.
BOOM!
Over a thousand feet away, dozens of dinosaurs roughly forty feet long—resembling Quetzalcoatlus—wandered Manhattan's streets. One tail swipe sent a parked car flying.
Ahead of this dinosaur horde, a group in suits, trench coats, thick skirts, and restaurant server uniforms stumbled desperately in Venom Robin's direction.
Clearly escapees from some upscale restaurant. Their former elegance and dignity had vanished completely into undignified flight.
Venom Robin stood in place watching them. Several seconds later, he raised one hand skyward and caught the manhole cover he'd launched earlier, replacing it neatly over the opening.
Then Robin dusted off his hands and strolled toward the dinosaur pack.
"There's a kid ahead!"
"Get out of the way!"
"Run!"
The frantically fleeing group spotted Venom Robin walking toward them and screamed warnings at the top of their lungs.
Currently Venom's white shroud-cloth battle suit wrapped around him like a white cape. Combined with the handsome face on his human skin mask, to ordinary eyes he appeared to be a pretty shell with walnut-sized brains.
Venom Robin ignored them, continuing his stride toward the fleeing crowd and dinosaurs.
"Stay there!" From within the crowd, a suited man holding his daughter shouted at Venom Robin.
The man's name was Ivan. He was the same person who'd nearly been forced by Kingpin's enforcer Walker to jump from the Statue of Liberty. After Batman sent Kingpin to prison, Ivan had successfully found work at Oscorp.
He'd collected several weeks of paychecks now. Life had grown prosperous enough for him to buy a suit and treat his wife and daughter to a fancy restaurant.
But when the full-wave projector opened channels around Baxter Building, dinosaurs and primitives' arrival forced Ivan to abandon his meal. Clutching his daughter, joining his wife, they'd merged into the fleeing crowd.
"Maddie, hold on tight! I'm grabbing that kid too!" Ivan called to his daughter between running strides.
Maddie was dressed like a little princess today, wearing the kind of gown she'd only seen in cartoons before.
She blinked at the approaching boy who seemed oblivious to how terrifying those dinosaurs were. Without another word, she tightened her grip around her father's neck.
"Three, two, one..."
Ivan counted down mentally, feet never stopping.
Just as he finally passed Venom Robin alongside the fleeing crowd and reached out to scoop Robin up—Robin slapped his hand away.
In a blink, Ivan had rushed past Robin. He stopped abruptly and called back:
"Hey!"
In his urgency, Ivan's voice carried enormous volume. Not only did Venom Robin turn to look, but the other fleeing restaurant patrons and servers couldn't help twisting around to stare at this strangely dressed boy with even stranger behavior.
Venom Robin still couldn't be bothered with these strangers. Without looking back, he continued walking toward the dinosaur pack.
"Is this kid in shock?!" Ivan gritted his teeth, stamped his foot, then shoved daughter Maddie into his wife's arms and ran alone back toward Robin.
BOOM!
But those few wasted seconds allowed the dozens of dinosaurs to close within sixty feet of Venom Robin.
Sixty feet sounds like a long distance. But for these forty-foot creatures, it was merely three forward steps.
Moreover, Venom Robin still hadn't stopped. He was actively approaching the dinosaurs. This forced Ivan to halt.
"Come back! The dinosaurs will eat you!" Maddie screamed. She covered her eyes in terror, unable to watch the bloody scene about to unfold.
But fear couldn't keep her eyes closed. She couldn't resist peeking through her fingers at that foolish-seeming boy.
Hearing Maddie's voice, Venom Robin finally stopped. He glanced back at her.
ROAR!
A dinosaur bellowed. The creatures at the front opened their massive jaws, lunging simultaneously at Venom Robin.
Ivan clenched his jaw. Realizing he couldn't save this boy, he'd just turned to leave when his eyes snapped wide open.
He clearly saw Venom Robin extend both hands—one high, one low—grabbing the upper and lower jaws of one dinosaur. Then Robin's arms suddenly elongated, and with them, he tore that dinosaur's mouth apart!
Maddie covered her eyes while peeking through her fingers. Her mouth formed an O shape, unable to believe what she'd just witnessed.
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