Robin skillfully guided the Batcopter out over the ocean. Although the setting suspiciously resembled what we have seen of the Batcopter in previous episodes, be assured that on this occasion it was actually much farther out to sea, in a completely different location. Robin tried the radio.

"Calling Bruce Wayne! There could be villains inside the submarines ready to fire missiles at any approaching aircraft!" He waited for a response, but received only silence. "Doctor Wayne? That's funny. I just talked to him. Why isn't he still on break?"

Tragically, Bruce Wayne still lay trapped at the center of Dr. Daka's diabolical dissecting contraption. Bruce could hear the faint chirp of Robin's voice coming from the radio transceiver in his coat pocket. Bruce desperately tried to maneuver his strapped arms to get at the radio. Just as he had managed to fish it out enough to touch the reply button, a swinging hydraulic arm knocked it from his grasp. The batteries popped out of the radio as it hit the floor.

Bruce looked up to see a number of the sharp-edged scalpels poised directly above him. As he tried desperately to devise a means of escape, the scalpels simultaneously descended on him from multiple directions. In the Batcopter, Robin briefly heard the sound of metal gears grinding before the connection was just as swiftly broken.

"Bruce! Bruce!" he cried. The only response was static.

And, in what just minutes before been the Riddler's hospital room, Barbara Gordon sat struggling with her bonds. With brave determination, she attempted to wiggle her arms free of the chair back around which they were tied.

Meanwhile, Daka and the treacherous Nurse Blondy Jo sat relaxing in the back of an automobile. Driving the vehicle was the Riddler, receiving instructions via Daka's mind-controlling microphone. Daka fitted a cigarette into his cigarette-holder as he savored the moment.

"I feel it is worth noting, Mr. Riddler, that you seem to be held in higher regard than I by our brethren in the super-villain elite," Daka sneered as he lit his cigarette. "Yet it is you who the world will observe chauffeuring us around your city (turn left here). You, a lowly driver, the only role in this monumental plot which would suit your limited capabilities."

Barbara had managed to tug her arms up over the chair back and now straightened unsteadily to her feet. As she began hopping across the hospital room, its former occupant was pulling to a stop at the street that bordered the front gate of the hospital. A blur of speeding traffic from both directions whooshed past in front of them.

Daka spoke into the microphone. "Wait. Wait. After this car you will go. And then we may discuss these submarines of yours."

Registering the fact that a car had indeed passed by, the Riddler started to pull into traffic.

"No, wait!" said Daka, forcing the Riddler to suddenly brake. "Not that car, fool...this one!"

"Wait! Thayat truck!" added Blondy Jo.

"Yes, wait," agreed Daka. "You go just after this truck."

The Riddler waited, his blank gaze directed straight ahead.

Barbara's leaps had by this time brought her to the opposite side of the room. Gasping for breath, she resolutely forged ahead, thrusting her torso at a button on a wall panel. A plaque under the button read 'Bubonic Plague Contamination Alert'. By straining on the tips of her toes, she managed to press the button with her nose. The sound of claxons immediately filled the air.

The repercussions of Barbar's action were instantly felt out at the front gate. The activation of the alarm automatically triggered the closing of the huge security gate, albeit very slowly. Inside a nearby vehicle, debate continued over ideal traffic-merging conditions.

"Go! What you wait for?" Daka snarled at the Riddler.

"Nu-ooo!" cried out Blondy Jo, spying a speeding car sliding over into the nearest lane.

"Stop!" Daka commanded just in time to save them the oncoming Cadillac. The three villains remained oblivious to the huge gates continuing to close on either side of them.

"Get ready...not yet...wait," Daka said.

"He shudda gone!" protested Blondy Jo.

"Not yet...not yet...yet! I mean, now!"

The Riddler obediently hit the gas. The car plowed straight into the unyielding clutches of the security gate. The massive gate crushed the front end of the car like a walnut, stopping it dead in its tracks.

In the hospital room, Barbara had located a tiny pair of scissors and was now using them to cut through the tape binding her wrists.

The Siren quietly crept through the bushes lining the hospital's fenced perimeter. Although the alarm had now shut off, she was still wary of being spotted. Hearing a shout, she turned to see Daka standing by his damaged car. He was waving his claw hand in the air and swearing in his native tongue. Her eyes widened as she spotted the Riddler standing by passively during the tirade. She hurried in that direction.

An astonished Doctor Wow entered ampitheater B and gasped at what he saw in the dissecting machine. He stood frozen in shock for a moment, then rushed forward to help the motionless figure of Bruce Wayne.

Daka was giving hasty orders to the Riddler via his microphone. "Mr. Riddler, I may not have the chance to interview you privately in the near future, so you must respond to my next question directly. Where are..."

"Not so fast," interrupted the Siren, arriving just in time to spoil his interrogation.

"Leaves us, woman. You will betray no loyalties here."

"Can you hear me, Riddler?" asked the Siren, searching for some sign of intelligence in the blank expression. "Have you regained your senses?"

Daka turned to Blondy Jo. "Please to cover ears, nurse." Blondy Jo dutifully covered her ears.

"My ears! Quickly!"

Blondy Jo covered his ears just before the Siren opened her mouth and let loose with a piercing note that reverberated across the grounds. The Riddler watched all this transpire in blank fascination.

Yelling into the microphone over the sound of her voice, Daka ordered, "You will ignore this woman, Mr. Riddler! Her singing means nothing to you!"

The Siren's note finally died off. She and Daka each grabbed the Riddler by an arm.

In unison, the two bellowed, "Riddler, come with me!"

The Riddler tried to cope with the conflicting commands, both of which he was compelled to obey. His eyes spun around in his sockets as the sensory overload took a horrible toll. Dr. Daka and the Siren watched closely, searching for a sign of which command had won out inside the workings of the enigmatic skull. After a long pause, the Riddler opened his mouth.

"Woo Woooo!"

His mind suddenly freed from the confines of sanity, he broke away and sprinted off across the lawn.

"Clickety-clack-clickety-clack-clickety-clack," they heard his voice recede in the distance. Turning toward the other, Daka and Siren snarled (again, in unison), "See what you've done now!"

Kicking off her heels, the Siren took off angrily in pursuit. Daka called the Riddler's name repeatedly into his microphone, to no result. He angrily shook his claw, then spied two guards exiting from the hospital.

"Doctor Daka! Why aren't you with the Riddler?" asked one guard. "Surely you don't want us to stay away from the room if he's alone up there."

"No! The Riddler is over there" Daka pointed after the fleeing twosome. "...escaping with the woman in white! You must stop them both!" He turned to Blondy Jo as the two guards gave chase.

"This way!"

"Ain't we gonna go aftuh the Riddler?" she asked.

"I have a hospital full of guards who will do that for me - as long as my authority is recognized. Now that we must remain longer than anticipated, I will be cutting short my experiment on Bruce Wayne. He is horribly disfigured by now, but still agonizingly far from death. The machine has been programmed to deny Mr. Wayne that relief until daybreak. While the guards recapture the Riddler, we must focus on preserving our standing here. We will also do mankind the favor of ensuring that future generations of the Wayne lineage are never unleashed."