Gotham City

Grand Avenue

12:55 A.M.

"This is Officer Hoyt, responding on the scene here in Grand Avenue. We have one officer in critical condition, currently en route to Gotham General. Officer Grant and Detective Morrison are also receiving medical attention at this time. Commissioner Gordon is relaying a Code Green to any and all personnel still inside Arkham City to keep the perimeter contained until further notice. Prisoner #181 has escaped. I repeat, Poison Ivy has escaped."

Slowly lowering the field radio from his mouth, the veteran GCPD officer ran a hand through his graying temples as he took in the organized chaos all around him.

The still overturned police van was being inspected by forensics experts, while a few of his colleagues were being strapped to stretchers and being rushed past him to awaiting ambulances.

As the sound of police sirens and nearby radio chatter continued to ring out in the background, the officer turned around only to come face-to-mask with the Dark Knight himself.

Somehow materializing in the midst of this police pandemonium, Batman paid him no mind, instead focusing on something, or rather someone behind him.

"Batman! How'd you-?" Before the officer could even finish his sentence, the detective had already brushed past him.

The vigilante's piercing glare shot past the swarms of GCPD personnel before finally settling on a demoralized Aaron Cash.

Sitting on the street curb with an almost defeated look etched across his rugged features, the officer lifted up his downtrodden gaze as the Batman now towered in front of him.

"Cash, are you okay?" he asked the officer, nodding at the stretch of gauze wrapped around his forehead.

"I've been through worse," he shrugged grimly, holding up his prosthetic hand for emphasis. "Did Gordon tell you what happened?"

"I heard on the way," Batman confirmed.

"We all knew the risks going in, took every damn precaution in the book. But even in handcuffs that woman outsmarted all of us. And what she did to Hutch…." Almost shuddering with the unsettling imagery still fresh in his mind, Officer Cash looked back down with a streak of guilt dominating his expression.

"That isn't your fault," Batman assured him. "What can you tell me about his condition when you found him?"

"When I came to, he was on the floor, I guess where she had left him. Lights were still on upstairs as far as I could tell, but his whole body was just…. still. Nothing erratic, not even a convulsion."

"It must be a new toxin she's concocted, then. A slow, drawn out prognosis isn't usually her M.O.," Batman deduced.

"It is if she has it out for someone," Officer Cash stated grimly, earning Batman's scrutinizing glare before explaining further, "I'm not one to read too much into these things. With these psychos, I've found it's easier just to lock the door and not think about it. But with her, especially in that church, it was just something…. different. Looking back, maybe she wasn't playing with her best hand, kinda like-"

"She wanted to get caught by me," the detective agreed, before sharing his own suspicions, "We've both been played, Cash. She was never surrendering, just buying time until she could escape. Everything that's happened tonight- the church, Bane, this convoy- has all been leading up to something. Something that puts not just Arkham City, but all of Gotham, at risk. I should've seen this coming."

"Well, we can assign blame all we want but that doesn't change that fact that she's still out there and more pissed than ever. Now, I didn't see what she did to Officer Hutch but I sure as hell saw the aftermath of what happens when she gets too close to one of us, Batman. I thought what I saw her do at the asylum was bad, but what she did to him…" As his voice trailed off, Cash's knowing eyes finished the story that his words could not.

"She won't get that close to me," Batman growled firmly, a burning intensity in his usually emotionless slits.

"Sounds to me like she already has, man," he told the vigilante candidly, who responded with his signature stoicism.

Quickly changing the subject, Batman continued on, "Can you tell me anything about Robin?"

Smirking mirthlessly, he remarked to the vigilante, "I was already out by the time he got in the truck, but from what the other officers have said, the kid's got moves. He made us all like like rookies fresh out of the academy."

"I trained him to uphold justice, not obstruct it," Batman started to defend, but Cash quickly waved it off.

"One of my guys saw his eyes right before getting his bell rung. It's not the greatest alibi, but given who we're dealing with here Gordon can look past the smaller details if it means getting Ivy back in that cell before dawn. But if he gets in the way again, especially when officers are involved-"

"He'll face me," Batman finished adamantly, now speaking through gritted teeth. "She doesn't win. Not tonight."

"I hope you're right, Batman," he ultimately said, before standing back up.

"Office Hutch is still at Gotham General, fighting like hell to hold on until they can pump her poison out of him. I owe it to him to be there until he wakes up," Cash stated simply, before lamenting, "And well, if he doesn't…"

"He'll wake up," Batman maintained adamantly.

Staring into the caped crusader's determined scowl, Cash knew better than to disagree with that.

"Just be careful out there, Batman. I've got a feeling this is only the beginning of whatever sick game she's got planned," he sighed resignedly, before taking steps towards a nearby police car.

Waiting until the officer walked out of earshot, Batman activated his comlink. "Oracle."

"Did you find out anything?" came her worried voice.

"Plan B," he told her grimly.

"You have got to be kidding me," she scoffed, almost in disbelief of the words just spoken.

Her incredulous tone didn't even phase the Dark Knight, who simply replied, "I don't have a choice."

"Bruce, you always have a choice not to talk to a psychotic criminal who just days ago held you captive in an oxygen-deprived shrine to her former abuser. You can always find another way."

"I need information from the one person who Ivy trusts more than anything in this world. There is no other way," he countered forcefully.

Before Oracle could offer another rebuttal, Batman kept going, "I don't have time to debate this, Oracle. Did Gordon tell you where she's being held at now?"

"Last I talked to him, she was still at the precinct for questioning. She's been uncooperative for the past few days but-

"Good enough." And with that, he produced his grapple gun and fired it off into the darkness above.

Launched up into the air, the Batman vanished into the night in the direction of his next destination.


"Can you believe it?"

"Believe what?"

"A few years ago, there used to be a normal woman underneath all that makeup and insanity. I used to run into her a few times back when I was still running shifts at the asylum."

"Was she hot then too?"

The GCPD officer gave his colleague a sly grin before answering, "Hell yeah my friend. If the Joker hadn't gotten in her panties first we would've had some real fun together, if you know what I mean."

Standing beside him with his arms crossed, his partner wore a disbelieving look as he tilted his head towards the one-way mirror.

"No offense, but I'm pretty sure she was out of your league even then," he teased the man, before remarking wistfully, "Now, if I was there-"

Before he could finish visualizing his hypothetical scenario, the door leading outside opened up.

Recognizing the sound, one of the officers turned to address his colleagues. "About time you guys came in. I've been holding my pee in ever since-holy crap!"

The Batman calmly stalked past both of them, not even uttering a word as he reached the door leading into the interrogation room.

"Wait, isn't he supposed to get clearance from us first?" one officer asked, slightly taken aback.

"Dude, it's Batman," the other one assured him, as the Dark Knight turned the knob and entered inside.


Harley Quinn looked like a shell of her former self.

With almost every limb handcuffed to either the chair or the table that she was resting her elbows on, she wore a white straitjacket restraining both forearms against her torso while leaving her legs clothed only in thin pants.

Though the unflattering straitjacket did little to disguise her athletic, curvaceous figure it certainly kept her from using her arms in any meaningful way.

Metal jingled all around the former Arkham Asylum psychiatrist as she remained in her seat, with both ankles and wrists handcuffed.

Her usually animated face was a dour, sunken grimace with her naturally blonde hair flowing down her shoulders in unkempt bangs.

Coming to a stop at the table opposite her, Batman narrowed his eyes at the clowned princess of crime who finally seemed to give off signs of life at his presence.

Lifting up her face, the detective noticed that her jester makeup had been wiped off, revealing just a glimpse into the woman formerly known as Dr. Harleen Quinzel.

In surprising fashion, the normally hyperbolic woman said nothing as the man she associates most with the death of her lover stood just feet away.

Undeterred by her silence, Batman took a step forward with only one thing in mind.

"We need to talk."