In The Web Of Gotham

Forensic Fright

Peter walked into the Batcave, dropping his detective coat onto a table, while holding the evidence bag. He took the syringe out, looking at the blood within and grabbing a small vial. Injecting the blood onto the vial, the scent of toasted wheat invading his nostrils once more. Closing the vial, he slips it into a 6 holed compartment next to the Batcomputer and pulling the compartment closed.

"Batcomputer, activate centrifuge. Set the RPM to 30,000. Then perform a chemical analysis on the contents of vial slot 3 after 10 minutes," Peter instructed. The computer responded to his voice by displaying a progress bar that indicated that the centrifuge had begun it's high speed rotations. Batman walking up behind Peter and grabbing his shoulder.

"There's a lot of radio noise going on. What happened?" Batman asked.

"Woman overdosed on a mystery drug. Took a blood sample from her and I'm having the Batcomputer isolate the foreign chemical with the centrifuge and analyze it," Peter replied as Batman looked towards the evidence bag and the syringe Peter used.

"Standard grade GCPD forensic syringe?" Batman asked with a cocked up eyebrow beneath his cowl.

"Yeah, I had to sneak it into the belt when I was clocking out today. Be prepared in case something happened, I just expected finding a lone gun though. Not a blood sample of someone undergoing an overdose," Peter explained. Batman reached into a pouch on his belt pulled out a white box with buttons and dials and a screen.

"Did you not have one of these?" Batman asked as he brought it over to Peter. The young detective took the box and looked it over. Latched to the bottom of the box was a camera, that was capable of taking multi-spectrum photographs. There was a slot underneath the screen, with a green analyzing slide inside of the slot. Sliding open the lid next to the screen, peter found small evidence collection jars, evidence bags, sterile swabs, and small sterile syringes with forensic vials. By all technical analysis, this small box was a portable forensics lab with all the bells and whistles.

"No...no I did not. It's actually too big to fit in any of the belt compartments," Peter said as he tried to fit the box into the thin compartment, to no avail.

"Hm...I see. Hand over the belt," Batman demanded, leaving Peter in absolute bewilderment.

"Excuse me?" Peter asked, as he obligated. Batman took the belt and looked it over.

"It's good that you made a prototype of Project Beyond. Since it means that I can make early assessments to adjust for the future. You've exposed a flaw with Project Beyond at this current stage of development," Batman explained as he began to disassemble the belt.

"The belt is simply too geared for a rudimentary combative assortment," Batman concluded as he grabbed some of his tools from the work desk.

"So what's the plan? For the belt, I mean?" Peter asked, his gaze occasionally switching to the centrifuge of the Batcomputer. Batman started to grab at different boxes and latches and beginning to do measurements.

"The plan is to use larger and thicker pouches and materials, to improve upon the actual capacity per belt compartment. It'll lead to a more easily modular assortment of tools," Batman explained.

"...Okay not that I didn't understand any of that at all, but if you could-"

"You'll be able to store more tools to be more easily prepared," Batman surmised.

"Thank you sir," Peter shyly replied as he just watched the Batman work. It was a marvel to watch Batman work on his own equipment right in front of Peter. No wasted motions, no seconds lost as he just meticulously deconstructed and reconstructed the belt into something better than it's original self. After only 5 minutes of getting his hands on the belt, Batman had completely reconstructed the belt.

The central red button buckle that had the Electromagnetic charge generator was now rebuilt entirely. The red button enclosed with a bulkier square casing. Peter squinted his eyes, seeing what looked like a few electric coils weaved inside of the casing. The new belt boxes looked like hardened workman's pouches that had suitcase latches used to close them up. Batman clicked one of the latches on the boxes as the lid springs open with a dull click. Showing the interior to Peter, revealing that the box has a partitioned interior. With a larger front compartment and two smaller divided back compartments.

"Lot more space in there, yep," Peter nodded and joked. Batman slotted the box back onto belt and handed it back Spider-Man.

"The generator in the belt buckle is more efficient, and practically silent on activation. The button is also a dial that can adjust the voltage to a high voltage shock charge," Batman instructed as he watches Peter loops the belt around his waist and click it together.

"Now stock up on the tools you're going to need. I'll look over the analysis you have the computer doing," Batman commanded as he went over to the Batcomputer. Peter though began to look over the assortment of the Batman's additional equipment to try and determine what to add to the belt. The first thing he added was the crime scene kit that Batman had shown him earlier. As a detective himself, Peter was going to need to have that on the ready at all times. Looking to the other gadgets around the cave, Peter picks up a set of what looked like military grade tech binoculars and set that into another one of the belt boxes. Slipping his Spider's Nest device into the box that he put the crime scene kit into, along with the pouch of lockpicks. Putting the multiple partitioned compartments of the belt boxes to use as he restocked on his tools, along with grabbing a larger assortment of others. The computer gave an alert, as the centrifuge analysis had completed.

"What's the chemical that was in that woman's blood?" Peter asked Batman as the Dark Knight entered some commands into the Batcomputer. Cross referencing the analysis the computer's given with the vast list of chemical compounds catalogued within the database. As Batman narrowed down the list of chemicals, Peter started getting more and more concerned as two of the options had stayed consistent.

Finally when the analysis had determined the result, Peter's heart had sunk as things had started to click together for him.

"Were you expecting this result?" Batman asked Peter, noticing his look.

"It was an option I initially considered...but it was also the option I was fucking dreading," Peter replied as the chemical analysis determined that this was a strain of Scare.