When Batwoman and Huntress arrived at Ace Chemicals, it was clear that the place was abandoned.
"It's a shame that this place went the way it did, since before the Joker was born, it was one of the city's top chemical plants. Then its worst villain was born here and Ace couldn't handle the crisis." Huntress said.
"And then he made it one of his numerous hideouts throughout the city, since I doubt any of Batman's enemies have just one lair. This was just the Joker's first one." Batwoman said and Huntress nodded.
"Yep. But it was abandoned after Batman, Robin and I figured it out and raided it with GCPD. It's been abandoned ever since, but be careful. It wouldn't surprise me if any of the sick defense mechanisms the Joker built into this place are still active, especially since the Joker is Cluemaster's benefactor, there's a good chance he gave Cluemaster this location." Huntress said.
"Which Robin?" Batwoman couldn't help but ask.
"Robin 2.0. His last mission where the Joker almost killed him and did succeed in breaking something inside him. In a way, the Joker did kill Robin and give birth to the Red Hood. Before that, Jason had problems, but he wasn't a lunatic. And despite everything, I still can't help but hold out hope that maybe someday, I'll get my little brother back." Huntress said, since she'd loved Jason dearly like he was her own blood and she wished that she could've helped him.
"We'll find a way to help him. Eventually. But let's focus on the task at hand. Batwoman to Batcave, any ideas what we're going into?" Batwoman asked.
"Enough to know that you should both be glad that your suits were upgraded with oxygen masks, since you're gonna need to seal your faces for protection against any chemical defenses the Joker left behind." Luke said over the comms.
"Copy that." Batwoman said as she closed her suit's faceplate and brought down protective lenses over her eyes while Huntress used her newly upgraded nanosuit to cause a full face mask to cover her face so no skin was exposed.
"Let's do this." Huntress said, though they were now communicating solely over the comms as Batwoman kicked the door open to reveal the building was empty aside from a large chemical vat in the center of the room.
"What are we looking at?" Batwoman asked.
"It looks like a cross between a bomb and a chemical disbursement device. Not sure what kind of chemicals those are, but I'm guessing nothing good." Luke said, right as a monitor turned on to reveal Cluemaster's face once again.
"Congratulations on finding my device. You're clearly smarter than I gave you credit for, but can you solve my next puzzle? You now only have 20 minutes to stop my beautiful bomb from dousing Gotham with the same chemical cocktail that created the Joker himself." Cluemaster said with a twisted grin.
"No." Batwoman said in horror.
"Oh yes. But this should be simple enough. All you need to do is cut the right wire to deactivate it. However, cut the wrong one, and your time goes down and if you cut a certain wire, you bypass the timer all together. Stop the bomb and you get my location for a final showdown. But I doubt I'll be seeing you then. Good luck. You'll need it." Cluemaster said as the video cut out.
"We need a plan b. Batcave, is there any way to render these chemicals harmless in case we can't stop it in time?" Batwoman asked.
"Yeah, Bruce had something developed for this exact occasion. A chemical compound that should render any earth based chemical harmless and inert. I'm sending the data to Huntress's wrist screen now, since she's got better chemistry skills." Luke said.
"I don't disagree. Plus I'm the one who was actually taught to dismantle bombs before." Batwoman said as Huntress's wrist screen flashed with the directions.
"I'll see if I can find any leftover chemicals to whip this antitoxin up." Huntress said as she moved to search.
"Okay, Luke, can you use the camera in my lenses to analyze the bomb's structure?" Batwoman asked.
"I already did. I'll walk you through exposing the motherboard, but remember, we need to be careful not to trigger the bomb early." Luke said.
"Let's do this." Batwoman said as she let Luke talk her through the initial steps of the dismantling of the bomb until the motherboard was exposed with a choice of about 12 different wires. Each one a different color, red, black, blue, yellow, gold, purple, silver, white, green, orange, pink and brown. She had to give Cluemaster credit, the man knew how to build a bomb.
She quickly ruled out the red and brown wires, since those both seemed too obvious, since the red wire was a cliche and brown was his last name, too obvious. But that still left 10 other choices.
"Which one is it? I can't risk choosing the wrong one, since I could end up setting the bomb off now." Batwoman asked as she tried to rely on her military training, but it didn't do much, since she'd never seen a bomb like this before.
"Hang on, I'm using the lenses in your mask to scan the bomb and I think I got it. Cut the white wire and then prepare your suit's defibrillator to deliver a supercharged electrical surge to help short it out." Luke said.
"I hope you're right about that." Batwoman said as she proceeded to charge up the defibrillator and then cut the white wire and then delivered the charge and sure enough, it was enough to short out the bomb as she saw it disarm itself.
"Well?" Batwoman asked.
"The bomb's disarmed. Cluemaster included a failsafe so that even if the right wire was cut, it just disabled the insulation. The bomb would still go off, but since you delivered a strong enough charge, it shorted it out. I've already contacted Sophie, so the Crows should be there soon to properly dismantle and dispose of it." Luke said.
"Good. Now, where's Cluemaster's message with his location like he promised?" Batwoman asked as Huntress rejoined her and the monitor turned back on.
"I have to admit, I'd be impressed if you hadn't cheated by using outside help. That's against the rules." Cluemaster said.
"You just said we had to play your game. It's not our fault you never established the rules saying we couldn't get outside help. That's your fault. Now, spill." Batwoman said, very happy that they were almost done with the first headache in the Joker's twisted game.
"Fine, if only to finally end this. Your final clue to the bonus round. You'll find me on my home turf, the place where I became the man I am today and where I made my first mark on Gotham. See if you can put the pieces together." Cluemaster said as the message ended.
"His home turf, does that mean his old house?" Batwoman asked.
"No, it's too easy. And honestly, I think that means his old studio, since that is where Cluemaster was born and where Arthur Brown first made his mark on Gotham." Huntress said.
"Then let's get going and end round one of this stupid game once and for all." Batwoman said and Huntress nodded as they headed out.
