A/N: Hello again, everyone! It's finally time to wrap up this story! This will be the last chapter, sorry to say. There will be no finishing up the side missions or anything like that. This is the last big, important thing of the game, so it's the last big, important thing of the story.
But before we begin, just a reminder, I'm still issuing my challenge for other RWBY characters to go through the crazy gauntlet that is the Arkham games. Perhaps it could be one of the boys for once, like Sun or Ren, two boys already skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Maybe it could be Penny, so she can live once again after being unfairly killed AGAIN. If you want to get crazy, maybe it could be one of the villains, like Emerald or Neo who join Batman as the lesser of two evils and wind up turning over a new leaf. Or it could even be one of the adults, like Winter or Qrow. The possibilities are endless. It's up to you.
But without further ado, let's finally close the book on the Arkham City chapter of the Bat and The Blonde.
Yang landed on a rooftop across from the Steel Mill, which was now adorned with one of the giant Harley Quinn bobble-heads. "I'm here, Babs. Are you sure there hasn't been any news on Bruce?" Yang asked, one of the rare times she was completely serious as she lowered her goggles and observed the patrolling thugs with Detective Vision, finding eight guards in total.
"No. He's been gone for 2 days. I'm worried. You know what he's been like since..." Barbara began.
"Yeah. I know. But therapy will have to wait until after I find him. But I WILL find him." Yang told her.
"I know you will, Yang. I'm just worried about whether you'll find him alive or dead." The tech genius said worriedly, clearly assuming the worst.
Yang wanted to say something to reassure the former Batgirl, but decided actions would be louder than words, so she continued to observe the powerful weaponry the goons possessed. "Looks like our Harley girl is getting ready for a siege. What is she up to?" The blonde brawler wondered.
"Just find Bruce and get the hell out of there. Okay?" Oracle questioned.
"What are you worried about? It's me we're talking about after all." Yang reminded the former heroine.
"And that's exactly why I'm worried." Barbara said. Yang smiled and rolled her eyes, before gliding towards a skylight she spotted. That would be her way in. She promised herself she would find Bruce alive, or her rage would burn hotter than the Steel Mill ever could.
A lone thug with a bat patrolled the room of the Steel Mill the skylight lead into. As the thug patrolled, he couldn't help but be distracted by a TV that played, on loop, the accusatory words of the now deceased Joker. "You left me to die!" The Clown Prince of Crime declared. Yang then burst through the skylight and nailed a three-point landing, looking up at the thug with a smirk. The doomed man still rushed in with his bat, but was quickly stunned from a solid jab to the face, spun around and bent over, at which point Yang kicked him in the rear, sending him flying head-first into the TV.
"Maybe Alfred was onto something when he said too much TV is bad for you." Yang quipped, before looking to the door as three more thugs poured in.
"It's Light Dragon! Let's kick her ass!" One of them said.
"Oh, I want to do a lot more to that ass than just kick it!" Another one of them said. He immediately received a knockout blow from a round from Ember Celica. The next two rushed at her and attacked together, but Yang caught and deflected their attacks, leaving them wide open as she grabbed their heads and slammed them together for a quick double takedown.
She then walked out of the room and could see out of the window to the shipyard, where Harley had a bunch of guards on patrol, while she herself was on the main bridge along with the hostages from the GCPD. "Shut up, idiots! I'm trying to think here!" Harley snapped.
"Does it hurt?" One of the captive cops asked with a smirk.
"I like that guy." Yang said with a small smile.
"Shut your stupid mouth! You're just lucky I need you later!" Harley snapped at her hostages.
Yang climbed into an open vent and went through it to the other side, pushing off the cover and climbing out. "Well, I found the cops, but not Bruce. Quinn has them. But it sounds like she has a plan for them. So at least for now, she's not gonna hurt them." She informed Oracle.
"Sounds good. Just be careful." Oracle said to her.
"It's all gonna work out fine. It always does." Yang said, although even she sounded slightly unsure.
"You think? He hasn't been the same since you two came back. He won't even talk about the Joker. I think if you hadn't saved Talia, he would've completely went off the deep end." Barbara said.
"That's why we're here. To bring him back to the shallow side. Maybe the middle ground at worst." Yang stated, before hanging up. And with that, she was off, hitting the button to raise a security door and heading down a flight of stairs into Access Corridor A. Three thugs were talking about how Harley was starting to become a liability, but for once, Yang wasn't in the mood to hear their stupid conversations. She let out a whistle at this point to get their attention. "Hey, boys." She said, before rushing in and uppercutting the thug up front, stepping to the left with her back foot and half-spinning to deliver a spinning back fist to the head of the thug towards the right, shifting onto that foot as she threw a side kick with her front leg to double over the thug on the left, then delivering an elbow to the back of his head to knock him out.
With those thugs currently out of commission, she continued to a nearby wall, which was clearly weak and vulnerable, allowing her to punch it down with ease. With that out the way, she made her way forward, launching across a large pool of boiling water in front of another structurally weak wall, which she discovered a group of thugs behind with Detective Vision, so she delivered another powerful punch, backed by the explosive power of Ember Celica and sending rocks flying, hitting three of the four of them in the head and knocking them out, before Yang launched herself over to him and knocked him out with a solid punch.
She went to the doors in front of her, but for whatever reason, they would not open. Fortunately, the former member of team RWBY found a nd crawled through another vent and came out in the Pump Room, making her way past a couple of automatic turrets, steam jets and a sniper, taking him out. After hearing some noise, she followed it and found the reason she could get through the doors before, a trio of goons was fusing it shut with an arc welder. Needless to say, Yang conveyed her displeasure at their antics by blasting them with freeze rounds and slamming them into the ground, before she continued on. She then found another set of automatic doors and went through, then made her way through a side door, where she discovered another group of about ten thugs. But it's what they were standing around that caught her eye: Batman's utility belt.
Yang growled at this, looking at I-beams above them, grappling up to them and using the grapnel boost for extra height, before coming down on the group with a battle cry, landing in the center of the group and slamming her fist into the ground, sending out a shockwave that sent all the thug's flying. After quickly checking to make sure they were all down, Yang walked over to the fallen belt and picked it up. "Barbara, I've got some news. Not necessarily good, though. I found Batman's belt. No Batman, though. He must have gotten taken down somehow and someone unclipped the belt to stop him from getting away. He must have been protecting someone. That's the only way they could've gotten him. But at least this is a start. I know I'm close." She informed the tech wiz.
"Great work, Yang. Just PLEASE be sure to keep me posted." Oracle requested.
"I'll do my best." Yang said, continuing on her way.
She only got a short way before she found yet another group of five thugs in her way, three unarmed, one with a bat and one with a car door shield. She rushed in and hit the thug in front to the right with another spinning back fist, looking at the thug to her left and hitting him with a light and quick combo before knocking him out with a punch to the head. The next thug was the one with the bat who took a swing at her, but she easily caught it and disarmed him, knocking him out with a swing from his own bat, then throwing it at the head of the last unarmed thug. The one with the car door came in last, rushing in at her, but she simply put her fist through the window to stun him, taking the door and hitting him in the head with it to knock him out.
She took a deep breath and looked at the automatic doors ahead of her. "They were just saying Batman was right through here. This has to be it." She said, passing through the doors. She then made her way to the middle of the room, where she observed a massive shrine to the Joker in the back, complete with an oversized mechanical version of the clown. And in the arms of the mechanical memorial was a giant ball, in which Batman was contained, sitting in a lotus position, his fists pressed together and his head down. "Oracle. I found him." Yang informed the supporting heroine.
"Thank god. Is he okay?" She asked.
"He's trapped, but alive. Harley made a giant Joker monument... thing that's holding a giant hamster ball with Batman trapped in it and I can't get to him. And I can't just blast away at it with Ember Celica in case she's rigged it with explosives or something." She explained, observing the structure. "He's got limited oxygen, so I have to hurry. There's a panel that controls the monument, but it needs a keycard. How much you want a bet Harley's got it?" She asked.
"Take her down, get that key and save Bruce." Oracle insisted.
"I'm on it." Yang said, heading to the door to the left, which lead towards the shipyard where she saw Harley before. However, before she could go through, the speaker system kicked on.
"I was wondering when you'd show up, lizard breath! Batman's gonna die and you're gonna watch it happen! I just wish it was you in there instead so you could feel what it's like to choke on your last breath like my Joker dead! You could've saved him, but you didn't! He's gone because you dropped the stupid cure!" Harley's voice rang out.
"Yeah, convenient how you left out the part that I dropped it because Joker tried to slit my throat." Yang grumbled, before heading through the door to the shipyard. She scanned around and saw how many guards there are, as well as the fact Harley was pretty much on her own in the center bridge. "Hm... The villains have been getting smarter lately and call in back-up every time we start taking out too many of their thugs. Harley's now the sharpest, but she knows when she needs back-up, so she'll probably call in reinforcements where she needs them. I'll have to try and take her out as quick as I can. Shouldn't be too hard." She said, leaping into action.
Yang grappled up to a high vantage point where she could see everyone present in the shipyard. She then fired rounds from Ember Celica at the thugs to knock out the thugs on the upper levels closest to Harley, before she dove down and tackled Harley, peppering her with powerful hits. To her credit, Harley actually managed to kick Yang and push her back, before blasting her in the face with her weapon, sending over the edge. She managed to get back up with her grappling hook, but by this time, the thugs from the lower levels reached them. Yang tripped Harley before she could fire at her again, then shot some freeze rounds at the thugs in front on either side of the bridge. Yang then rushed to the right side of the bridge, maneuvering around the frozen thug to pummel the unfrozen thug, before taking out the frozen one with an Ice Smash Takedown, quickly grappling to the other side and doing the ice takedown on the frozen thug, before pummeling the unfrozen thug this time. By this point, Harley got back up, but Yang closed the distance and quickly beat her down.
After that, she picked up Harley and held her against the railing of the walkway they were on. "Get off me!" Harley demanded.
"Just make this easy on you and give me the key, Harley!" Yang ordered.
"You didn't want to give Mr. J the cure, so I don't wanna give you the key!" Harley snapped.
Yang rolled her eyes. "Like talking to a wall with you." Yang said, letting go of one of Harley's hands and reaching between her cleavage to find the keycard. She then sighed and shook her head. "You know, Harley, I really thought you were better than that. What was I thinking?" She questioned.
"No! That's mine! Let me go!" Harley insisted, grabbing for the card.
"Okay, but remember, you asked." Yang said, pushing Harley over the edge, before catching her foot with a grappling line and tying it to the railing, leaving the clown girl to hang upside down. "I was really hoping you could get better without Joker. I guess I was wrong." She said.
She freed the cops and made her way back to the shrine room where Batman was being held, but upon opening the door, she found the room was full of thugs, thirteen in total: three with bats, one with a pair of knives one with a shock baton, one wearing armor and another with a car door shield. The rest were unarmed. "Well, well. If it ain't the lizard!" One of them taunted.
"We're gonna have some fun with you!" Another one called.
"Let's start chopping her up and see if she can grow stuff back like a real lizard." Yet another said.
Yang sighed at this. "You know what? Let's just get this over with." She said, readying herself for battle.
Background Music: "Madhouse" by Anthrax
As she finished speaking, she instantly rushed forward, in front of the thug closest to the front, delivering a powerful uppercut to knock him into the air. Two of the thugs with bats rushed in and tried to hit her, but she blocked each of their hits. Then, the guy with the shock baton charged in and thrust said baton at her, but she kicked it into the air, then delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to the baton's former wielder and the bat-wielding thug to the left. Then she caught the shock baton as it came back down and grabbed the bat of the other thug, pulling him in and shocking him with the baton to knock him out.
Another pair of thugs rushed in at her and attacked, but she blocked both of their attacks, grabbed their heads and banged them together for a quick and easy knockout. The armor-wearing thug came up next along with another thug with a bat. Yang quickly pummeled the armored thug with a barrage of light punches all over his head and chest, before kicking him back as the bat-wielding thug closed in. He swung the bat at her, but she was once again able to block it, before grabbing it and backhanding the thug to make him release the bat, before she delivered a round kick to his head to knock him out, then spun as the armored thug was coming back, adjusted her grip on the bat and hit him in the head to knock him out as well.
"You know, I don't know whether to give you guys credit for being persistent, or take away points for stupidity. You keep trying to fight us, even though it never works. You guys know that's the definition of insanity, right?" Yang asked. Suddenly, she heard a roar and turned to see a body flying at her at high speeds, knocking her down. She groaned at this, looking up to see there was a Titan who had come from the door behind her, along with another shield thug and an armored thug. "Well, I guess that makes things a bit more interesting after all." She said.
And with that, the Titan charged at Yang, but she fired a round from Ember Celica at its left leg when it was about to step down with said leg, throwing it off balance and causing it to stumble forward out of stride, right into Yang and she hit it with a powerful haymaker, stunning it and allowing her to get in several more hits, before bringing it to one knee with a jumping overhead attack. She then climbed onto the behemoth's back and started steering him around as he flailed his arms wildly in an attempt to get her off his back, knocking down several other thugs in the process. With this, Yang was able to half the number of enemies before the Titan was finally able to throw her off. It turned around to face her, but just then, out of the corner of her eye, Yang saw another thug picked up a gas tank and threw it at her. Reacting quickly, she was able to catch the tank and threw it at the Titan, the direct blast to the face more than sufficient to bring down the brute.
Now the only thugs who remained were the thug with the knives, the two with car door shields and the last armored thug. The one with the knives rushed in and sliced away at the blonde brawler, but she managed to evade every attack, before finding an opening after the third slice, grabbing the thug and disarming him, before slamming him to the ground for a knockout. The armored thug was next and much like the first one, she battered him with a quick barrage of strikes, before shoving him back into one of the thugs with the car door. One of them, however, was still free to try and charge Yang with his improvised shield, but like she did earlier, she simply sent her fist through the car window and into the thug's face to stun him, before throwing him to the ground as well. At this point, the other two thugs were back up, but Yang grabbed the car door and wrenched it away from the thug holding it, the swinging it and hitting the two thugs in the face with it to knock them both out.
End Music
Yang huffed and wiped some sweat from her brow at the fight, before hurrying over and using the keycard on the shrine, causing it to throw the ball containing Batman to the ground at its feet. This knocked Batman out of his meditative trance and the Dark Knight delivered a powerful punch to knock the lid off of his prison. Yang then came up to the bottom steps of the shrine. "You okay?" She asked.
"What kept you?" He countered her question with his own.
"Wow, your gratitude is overwhelming." She said sarcastically, handing him his utility belt. "Maybe next time, you should try not getting captured." She told him.
He quickly equipped the belt and looked up to his newest protégé. "What happened to the cops?" He asked again.
"They're fine. They're in the shipyard. Harley and all her thugs were knocked out there, so they should be fine." Yang said.
"Forget about them, Bat-brain! They'll all be dead soon and so. Will. You!" Harley declared. At that moment, a nearby door raised up to reveal a bomb.
"Crap. How much you wanna bet that's not the only one?" Yang asked.
"You save the cops. I'll handle the bombs." Batman instructed.
Yang nodded at this and quickly made her way back to the shipyard. Thankfully, the cops were still there and unharmed just like they had been when she left. "Okay, guys! Time to get moving!" She told them.
"What the hell's going on out there?" One of the cops asked.
"Harley's got a few bombs ready to level this place. We've got to get out of here NOW." She explained.
"It's no use! We'll never make it to the exits in time!" Another one said.
Thankfully, Yang noticed a decent-sized boat that appeared to be in working order in the water. "That one looks like it can fit all of us. Let's get to it." She said, the group quickly getting to the boat and climbing aboard. Yang made her way to the helm and broke open the controls, quickly hotwiring it and bringing the boat to life as the last of the cops was getting aboard. "Alright, me hearties! Time to set sail!" Yang said, putting the boat on full throttle and taking off, making their way out of the shipyard. Once they were clear of the building good hundred feet or so from Arkham City as a whole, Yang looked back at the cops. "Alright, everybody. Ready to get back to your brothers in blue?" She asked, getting nods and cheers of confirmation. "Then let's go." She said, sailing around towards the front of the Steel Mill where police were holding the line.
As Yang got the boat into position and began to usher the police off of it, the building exploded. "Batman, no!" She cried out, leaping off the boat and hurrying to the scene.
She saw Batman was looking at the building solemnly while Harley appeared to be quite pleased with herself. "Now you know how it feels!" Harley declared. Yang guessed they thought she didn't make it out of the explosion. She was about to call out and confirm she was alive and well, but before she could, she noticed that Harley pulled a knife out of nowhere and rushed towards Batman, preparing to stab him. Thinking quickly, Yang fired a round from Ember Celica at Harley, hitting her in the back and sending her tumbling across the ground, unconscious.
She then walked up. "Sorry I'm late to the party." She said.
"Where are the cops?" Batman asked, walking up to her.
Yang looked over her shoulder to see that the officers were helping each other to where the other cops were holding the line, now turning their attention to the returning officers, guiding them to get medical attention. "They're fine. It was definitely a plan that could've given any of Joker's a run for their money, but we managed to save everyone." Yang said.
With that, Batman looked around and decided that... "I'm done here." He said, pulling out his grappling hook and firing it, letting it carry him off into the night.
"Hey, kid. Is he alright?" Gordon asked in concern, looking to the blonde brawler.
"Y-yeah, he's... He's totally fine. He's always fine." Yang said, although she clearly sounded uncertain, turning away. "He's got to be." She said quietly, before grappling off into the night as well.
A/N: And with that, another chapter of Yang's journey with Batman comes to an end. I hope you all enjoyed it! I hope some of you are at least somewhat interested to try my challenge and give us another entry in this new niche. I'll try to have Arkham Knight out as soon as possible.