Bruce watched the monsters darting back and forth across the holographic screen.
His eyes beneath the mask were filled with deep helplessness.
Once upon a time.
He had been the embodiment of Gotham's fear.
Now.
Not only did he have to hand over all of Gotham's underworld tax revenue.
He also had to serve as logistics chief for an alien bandit in this damn Mars orbit.
"I'm not complaining?"
Tony spun around in midair.
His armored arms flailed about.
"Do you know how many Stark Industries patents that vampire named Lynn wants me to hand over?"
"Half! A whole half!"
Tony sounded as though he were about to cry.
"He even took the patent for the civilian version of the miniature Arc Reactor and registered it under some shitty trademark called the 'Miracle Battery.'"
Tony had just been about to continue denouncing the evils of capitalism.
When the alarm inside his suit suddenly began blaring like mad.
Harsh red light flashed frantically across the inner wall of his helmet.
"Sir, an unknown high-dimensional energy spike has been detected."
Even JARVIS's electronic voice stuttered slightly.
"It does not fall within the scope of known universal physics. Data is overflowing..."
It was not just Tony.
Every high-precision radar aboard Bruce's tugboat maxed out in an instant.
The needles smashed straight through their dials.
Through their suits' external cameras.
The two of them looked toward the depths of space at the same time.
There.
The once-stable curtain of stars.
Had undergone an immensely violent optical distortion.
As if someone had dropped a ten-thousand-ton deep-water bomb into the center of a calm lake.
Though the distorted wave of light was dozens of light-years away.
The aftershock it brought.
Actually caused a minute disruption in the gravitational field of the entire Solar System.
Construction materials