Kranko Toy Factor
As Batgirl had tied up the Order business and assured the ex Scientist Viktor Fries of his wife's safety, Bane who was another citizen of Arkham City charged towards Batman in an attempt to crush him but Batman who was known around the worlds as the World's Greatest detective saw it coming, ducked out of the way and threw a batarang that hit a switch, sealing the Man who broke the Bat inside a elevator. He had been all around Arkham City and destroyed the Titan Containers that the Joker managed to get off Arkham Island before Batgirl stopped him.
The alleged cure that Fox supposedly had made was a decoy and was actually a sedative, thanks to Jervis Tetch aka the Mad Hatter. How, he didn't know. But he tried to make The Dark Knight succumb into his mind control device. It didn't work. After that he got a report about a distress flare at the Amusement Mile. It was Bane who was trying to locate the titan containers. Not buying that destroying titan container, Batman knew that Bane wanted to keep them for himself. So he played along and then Bane attempted to betray him, something that Batman had expected. Some things never change.
"No!" Bane roared.
"I knew you were going to double cross me, Bane!" Batman said knowingly. "So I used you to find the remaining Titan containers. Now I can destroy what Dr. Young had created!"
He took out his explosive gel and sprayed it on two of the six containers. He detonated it, destroying all six containers simultaneously to Bane's dismay. "NO!" He wailed as Batman left the toy factory, leaving the former prisoner of Santa Prisica fuming. HE contacted Prophet to get an update about Batgirl.
"Prophet, have you heard from Batgirl regarding Freeze's cure?"
"I'm not sure you're gonna want to hear this."
Already, alarm bells rang in his head and the worse possible scenarios already played out in his head. "I don't. But go ahead."
Prophet relayed everything that happened in the past two hours that involved a meeting with a member from The League of assassins that led to Ra's Al Ghul holding the final ingredient to the formula and his attempts to persuade Batgirl into join him only for her to put her foot down and forcibly extract a blood sample from him but without its difficulties. Batman was genuinely surprised to hear that Batgirl had bested Ra's in combat. Very few people have done so in his extended lifetime. Prophet told him that a naturally occurring chemical called Lazarus that was keeping him alive for 600 years was starting to lose its effect on him and that he was suffering from prolonged exposure to the side effects hence why he was defeated comfortably. Time was finally starting to catch up to him. But that would not end there. She returned to GCPD and handed the blood sample to Viktor that quickly made two vials containing the cure but the Joker had other ideas. Apparently he got impatient and sent Harley to get it. She used a emp grenade to shut down Freeze's exosuit momentarily and used knock out gas to incapacitate Batgirl. So now she had to infiltrate the Steel Mill that once belonged to Black Mask and get it back.
"Joker must be desperate if he sends Harley to retrieve the cure for him which means that he doesn't have much time left before he succumbs to the blood disease." Batman thought to himself.
A explosion interrupted the debriefing and he looked up to see a news helicopter with the famous reporter Vicki Vale descending rapidly with a rail rotor missing as it crashed down on the highway near the Dini Towers.
"I'll get back to you, something's come up." Batman said heading in the direction of the helicopter crash.
XXXX
Falcone Shipping Yard.
Barbara Gordon: So much for a quiet night. I'd rather spend it inside my cozy apartment with my boyfriend and watching Netflix than playing cat and mouse game with a clown jester that's holding the one thing that can save my ass from meeting with the Grim reaper. Call me cliche, but I'd much enjoy dealing with Killer Moth. At least you know what he's going to do.
Meanwhile at the Joker's base of operations, a henchmen was doing door duty inside a warehouse at the shipping yard that was used by the Falcone Crime Family as a storage for their drug shipments from South America when he heard a knock on the front door. He walked over to the door and saw a familiar cowl wearing heroine. His eyes were wide as saucers.
"Step away from the door." Batgirl ordered.
"Ah, shit." The guard muttered, backing away hastily from the door as it blew off the hinges, hitting him in the head. His fellow henchmen went to check on the explosion and almost shat their pants when they saw the flamed Knight in their midst.
"Crap! It's Batgirl!"
Batgirl used her newly acquired Ice grenade to freeze all the henchmen, leaving them in a dire predicament before taking them out by one by one in rapid succession. Once the main threat was eliminated, all that she had to do was report her finding of Nora Fries's cryochamber in front of her. She looked peaceful. If only she'd knew how deep her husband had fallen from grace thanks to the circumstances that occurred. The blessing of ignorance. She looked down to see the sword given to her from Ariel as a appreciation gift for helping strapped to her belt.
"I found her Freeze." Batgirl informed him through the comms.
Freeze immediately wanted to know about his beloved wife. "Batgirl?! Where is Nora?"
"Warehouse 5b at the Falcone Shipping Yard. She's completely safe." Batgirl told him.
"Thank you, Batgirl."
Having done what she'd promised Freeze to do at the GCPD, she left the Warehouse. Next Stop. Joker.
XXXX
Steel Mill
She knew that she couldn't go through the same way into the mill's office now that the security has been doubled so she used the Freeze Grenade on the water to create a platform to stand on it. She enter the sewers by the use of batclaw linked an anchor where she entered the lower levels of the mill via a door. There she avoided the usual death traps made by JOker's henchmen to stop the intruders from getting in.
"I just spotted your dad through the CCTV. He's inside the City Hall. Strange had just requested an emergency meeting with the high council and demanded that protocol 10 was to be activated." Prophet informed her in the comms link.
That doesn't sound good. Dad was a part of a committee that had overview of the activity within the super prison. "Have you found out what Protocol 10 is?" Batgirl inquired.
Prophet sighed. "Yeah. It's a last resort security measure. From what I'm hearing on the chatter, Strange made up some bullshit story of how he failed to stop the smuggling of the illegal weapons within the prison and told them that they were planning a mass attack on Gotham."
Everything clicked in her mind as she discovered the true purpose of what Protocol 10 really was.
Barbara Gordon: In that moment, I had an epiphany. This was Strange's endgame. Gather all super criminals in Gotham under one roof and then wipe them off the map, making it look like he lost control of Arkham City leaving him with no choice to but kill them all. He'll be hailed as a hero and Batman as a villain for his failures. I'd be lying to myself if I didn't admire the irony of it all.
"With the weapons that he provided to each of the local gangs personally." Batgirl surmised. "This must've been his plan, the whole time."
"Certainly seems that way." Prophet confirmed. "Hold on."
Batgirl paused as she was in the elevator room of the building, waiting for whatever Prophet had discovered on the CCTV.
"Uh oh." Prophet uttered in dread. It wasn't good when he said that. It means only one thing. "The Council had just adjourned the meeting. They're not happy. Apparently they were very disappointed with Strange, stating that Protocol 10 wasn't even worth the trouble of activating it."
"But they approved his request, didn't they?" Batgirl said knowingly. It was more of a statement than a question.
Instead of answering, Prophet replayed a broadcast message from Strange on the Tyger radio that took place just moments ago. "Good evening, gentlemen. Protocol 10 has been permitted. You all know your specific instructions. It will commence in 20 minutes."
"Does that answer your question? Barbara, I got a bad feeling about this." Prophet replied uneasy.
"So do I, Shawn. So do I." Batgirl echoed her own concerns as she was now in the assembly line. "How did Dad take it?"
"He was pissed. He almost throttled Strange and the council when Protocol 10 was permitted." Batgirl shook her head with a wistful smile. Same old Commissioner.
XXXX
GCPD.
Fuckin' bureaucrats. All of them. Couldn't they see that they were about to commit a massacre thanks to that mad man. If they thought that he was gonna stand by and do nothing, they got another thing coming. He wasn't gonna let his daughter become another statistic in Gotham.
"Bullock! Gather your men! We're gonna storm Arkham City!" Gordon bellowed from the doorway.
Harvey Bullock was munching on his favorite donut when his commanding officer gave him the order. "Don't we need a warrant for that, Commish?"
The police commissioner could care less about procedures. "Fuck a warrant."
XXXX
Arkham City.
Assembly Line.
Once a well respected psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, Harley Quinn briefly wondered how things had went downhill in her life before yelling into the tape placed on her mouth as she found herself tied up and gagged to a pole near the assembly line.
XXXX
10 minutes ago
Harley Quinn with a beaming smile on her face was making her way to the Manager's office at the Steel Mill with the only cure in her hands, she destroyed one of the two vials as a punishment to Batgirl for conspiring with the walking snowman against her pudding when her men that acted as her security goal were attacked by Talia who had been keeping an eye on things including her beloved Dark Knight after what transpired in Wonder City. When she heard that Harley Quinn had stole the vial that would cure her brother's beloved of the aliment that was killing him, she immediately followed Harley's trail and snuck into the building undetected. Despite their ideologic differences, Talia wouldn't forgive herself if she let the woman her brother loved die because of her pettiness.
She disarmed a henchmen from his rifle and used it as baton to strike them both in the heads, taking them out before using it to rid of a lead pipe of the last henchmen before twirling around, wrapping her leg around his throat, bringing him down. She twisted her strong leg, breaking his neck.
Standing before her, Talia glowered at the jester's girlfriend who had a baffled look on her face. "The Cure, Quinn. Give it to me."
"Or what?" Harley dared.
"I'll force you to."
"Don't think so, Ms. Kung Fu. Mistah J ain't got much time left in this world so... Death by bat!"
Harley cried as she charged at the Demoness with her signature baseball bat raised. Talia sighed before disarming her of her bat with a quick elbow strike to the chest and then hit her in the face right and left haymakers before finishing her off with a spinning kick to the head.
"They never listen." Talia mused, taking the cure from Harley's prone body that was tucked in her bras.
XXXX
To complete her miserable luck, the Red headed bitch Knight appeared stepping through the door and climbed up to an elevated area where she saw a bound and gagged Quinn to her amusement."Well, What a surprise. Someone finally hd shut you up. Wanna tell me who?"
"I did."She turned around and saw the Demoness stepping out of the shadows holding a vial in her hand.
"Talia."
"I followed her from the precinct after she stole the cure from you. I simply returned the favor." Talia presented the vial that contained the antidote to Batgirl's ailment.
Batgirl was hesitant of taking it. "How do I know this is not payback for lying to you in Wonder City?" Batgirl inquired dubiously, thinking about what happened with Talia's father.
"Whatever you think of the Al Ghuls, We are not savages." Talia explained her reasons. "We live by a code of honor. Besides, my beloved Dark Knight as well as my brother wouldn't look at me the same if I let my differences with you cloud my better judgement."
Seeing her point, Batgirl took the vial and drank some of the contents. She felt so much better after the antidote got rid of the disease right away as Talia left the line.
Placing it inside a pocket of her belt, She removed the duct tape from Harley Quinn's mouth for intel. "What do ya want, Girl-Brain?" Harley hissed. "Come here to rub it in my face? I ain't telling you anything! I'm not telling' you that Mister J is waitn' for you in the Funhouse at the manager's office."
Leave it to Harley to spill the beans about her 'puddin's' latest scheme. "Thanks, Harley. Still as helpful as ever." Batgirl replied. She placed the tape back into Harley's mouth, despite her protests.
Barbara Gordon: If I saw the Harlequinade, that meant I was getting close to the source. I had to keep moving.
XXXX
Joker's funhouse.
Sneaking past the guards on the platform, she grappled on the entry to the Manager's office where she was being held there several hours earlier before turning left to where the Funhouse was. Joker was standing on a elevated area, putting some lipgloss, the mirror reflecting the sickly appearance.
"You have a lot to answer for tonight." Batgirl stated.
Joker tsked like a disappointed father. "Did your parents ever teach you the virtue of manners, Batgirl? It can go a long way. After all, if you wanted me so badly," Joker turned around now revealed his now vigorous body that did not bear any visual signs of the Titan. "You simply had to ask."
The Homicidal jester laughed while jumping down to the floor. "I think it's high time that you learn a thing or two about respecting your elders. Something that dear old Bats should've taught you long ago."
Batgirl had a deadpanned look during his monologue. "Psychopaths like you will never teach me anything, Joker."
"Oh, trust me, kiddo. There's always time for a lesson. Like, 'Ass kicking 101'. " Joker said taking a half serious boxing stance with his fists up before dancing around. "Just you and me, Batgirl."
Batgirl sighed as she blocked a right hook with ease before responding with her own right to the face and then a left hook before elbowing him in the stomach, the ribs and the chest. She took a hold of the Joker's arm and threw him by the shoulder before curb stomping him in the abdomen, taking the breath out of him.
"Please! Stop! You win!" Joker pleaded for mercy. Batgirl knew better, he was trying to make her lower her guard for a surprise.
Barbara Gordon: Normally I would've stood down if an ordinary thug had surrendered but Joker was no ordinary thug. He was evil personified.
And to confirm her suspicions, Joker got a second wind as he stood up. "Hang on, did I say me? What I meant to say was me and these guys!" He corrected.
The trap doors opened to revealed Joker's men stepping out to defend their leader. Just as she expected.
Batgirl beckoned them to bring it with a simple hand gesture nonchalantly.
The Dark Dame parred a punch and struck him with a harsh jab to the nose. She caught a leg with her hands and kicked the thigh before striking the second attacker in the knee cap with her other leg, breaking it as she pushed him into others.
Joker cringed at the bone crunching sound. "Ooh, that's gonna sting in the morning!"
She blocked a side kick with her knee before spin kicking the third in the abdomen. The Flamed Knight caught an incoming fist with the palm of her right hand before punching the fourth thug repeatedly in the face, stunning him. She pulled the arm out of its socket, earning a painful howl from her attacker before she clubbed him down to the floor with a fierce blow to the chest.
Batgirl yelped as one of her attackers grabbed her by the long red hair from the cowl while two tried to gang up on her. She did her best to hold them off while using the back of her heel to kick the man who grabbed her from behind between the legs. Her grabber fell into a fetal position on the floor while clutching his groin with his hands in great pain. She leaned back from a knife wielding henchmen who tried to slash her before swatting the knife away with her hand and then grabbed his head by the neck and brought it to her knee, the kneecap meeting face as she knocked him out cold. Two men remaining, She leaped up high in the air, double kicking them in the chests, sending them through the wooden walls of the funhouse while landing gracefully on her feet.
Seeing all his men were taken care of for the moment, Batgirl turned her attention to Joker who face palmed in despair at their incompetence. "Note to self: Needs stronger henchmen. Good ones this time." Joker muttered to himself.
Wonder Tower.
At the command Center inside the Wonder Tower, Hugo Strange was watching the monitors from the control room when one of the helicopters gave him a report through the radio.
"Air Tyger 3 to command. We have confirmation that the secondary target is in the Steel Mill. Repeat, Batgirl is in the Steel Mill."
Hugo deviously smiled at the news. The police commissioner almost punched him after the emergency meeting with the council had ended at City Hall when Protocol 10 was approved. So he decided that his daughter would be the first one to die. "Excellent. Make it the first target."
"Understood." Air Tyger said.
"Good. Protocol 10 shall commence...Now!" Hugo Strange announced.
XXXX
Steel Mill.
Joker's funhouse
Just as Batgirl was about to apprehend The Clown Prince, the rooftop of the mill started to collapse when the missile sent by Strange personally, struck the Steel Mill. Batgirl avoided the falling debris the first time, but wasn't lucky the second time as she found herself trapped by rubble. Memories of the Killing Joke came flooding back in her head as she futilely tried to remove the rubble off her body.
Joker who had avoided the falling rubble completely, drew out his knife as he walked slowly towards the fallen Knight, like a predator stalking its prey for a kill. "Any final requests?" Joker taunted pressing the blade to her cheek.
The Flamed Knight wasn't gonna give the madman the satisfaction of her being scared. "Go to Hell." Batgirl spat.
"How would you like a trade?"
The two bitter enemies turned their heads to see Talia sauntering to where they were at the funhouse. Batgirl sported a look of incredulously while Joker scoffed annoyed by the interruption. "Let her go. Take me in her place." Talia requested.
Joker rolled his eyes in annoyance as he got away from the lying heroine and faced. "Don't you see I'm in the middle of telling Batgirl her final joke here?"
"Talia! What are you doing?" Batgirl Grunted trying to Remove the debris off but couldn't. it was too heavy.
"Be careful of how you speak to me, jester." Talia warned. "I am Talia Al Ghul, the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul. And the commander of the League of Assassins."
Joker was not impressed. Not in the slightest. "Well, whoopee for you." He sneered.
Talia laid out the terms of the trade in a blatant way. "Spare Batgirl and in return you'll be given the gift of immortality."
Batgirl's eyes went wide in horror of the terms. Joker was already an handful but an Joker having access to the Lazarus pit? It's chaos incarnate. "No! Don't do it!"
Joker was immediately excited by the prospect of being immortal based on the reaction from Batgirl. "Wait, she's telling the truth? Immortal eh?" He thought about it quickly before accepting the trade by taking the sword that Talia presented in her hands. "Well then, my dear. Lead the way."
"Talia!"
Rolling his eyes in annoyance at the sound of Batgirl's voice, he kicked her face in hard and the last thing she saw was the tracking device she used to locate the League of Assassins on Talia's outfit.
Barbara Gordon: This isn't how I'd exactly I envisioned myself tonight. Spending what could be my final moments in this shithole.
XXXX
The Vault.
Despite the complications the night had brought on for her, things had turned out well for Selina Kyle.
After getting the information she needed, she went to Park Row and used the sewer passage underneath Ivy's old flower shop to gain access to the storage facility. There, she expertly stole three cards from the guards that were patrolling the vault and used them to open the vault in the security room. Unfortunately it alerted the guards but thanks to her experience and stealth, they were no match for her and then she retrieved her loots from the vault.
Now all that was left do was leaving Arkham City. Well, she was going to when she saw a screen of unconscious Batgirl buried in the Steel Mill which left her with a moral decision: Leave the Loots and save Batgirl or vice versa. On one hand she could save her, returning the favor from earlier or on the other hand. Besides, She's Batgirl, right?
Catwoman let out a dejected sigh, realizing what she had to do as she ditched her loots and went back to where she came from. She's not a killer and she couldn't forgive herself if she left her to die.
"Since when have I developed a conscious?" Selina thought to herself as she used the sewers to head straight to the Mill.
XXXX
Steel Mill.
Batgirl was still trapped by the debris when Catwoman of all people comes to the rescue.
"What do we have here?" Catwoman mused to herself as she went on to help her. Batgirl added her aid as their combined effort allowed it to remove the rubble off her body. Batgirl stood up and brushed the dust off her suit. "Figured I return the favor for saving my life at the courthouse. "
"Thanks." Batgirl said grateful. Maybe Bruce was right that she wasn't pure evil.
"So. We now both know what Protocol 10 is." Catwoman said. "If you want to stop it, I suggest you hurry." Catwoman left the ruined funhouse. With a renewed resolve, Batgirl left the funhouse and watched in horror as the Tyger Choppers was striking down on everyone from an elevated area.
Barbara Gordon: It was time to get out of there. Strange seemed to have ordered his men to carry out his brand of justice to the street life below. I was about to fail Bruce, Dad, Jericho, Max and everyone here in Gotham like I failed Dr. Young along with the guards that died at the Asylum a year ago. Maybe this was my punishment from the fates: There will always be casualties in war for all eternity.