It was all over just as quickly as it had begun.
The inmates brainwashed by Poison Ivy were now being strapped into stretchers and being carted out of the church. The remaining TYGER guards were being detained, with GCPD officers marching them out for further questioning.
Now free of her control, the captured policemen were now sharing conversations and recounting their experiences with fellow GCPD officers.
The plants vanquished by the Dark Knight were now dealt with accordingly, either by scooped up and dropped into wastebaskets or sliced up and dumped into larger containers.
The Arkham medical staff doctors were being consoled by outside personnel, offering them hot cups of coffee and other food items to calm them down after such a traumatic experience.
Batman oversaw all of this with an emotionless mask, only moving to retrieve his REC before observing the GCPD personnel from the sidelines.
He soon had unexpected company in the form of a rescued doctor who walked up to the Dark Knight, still slightly in awe of him.
"The other guys wanted me to thank you for you know, saving our butts again. Guess you're our guardian angel, huh?" he thanked sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
"It was the least I could do," he assured.
"It's funny. I knew going in to Arkham City that I'd be dealing with the worst of the worst, but this is just ridiculous. First, we're pawns in the chess match of death between you and the Riddler. Now, the plant lady tried to feed us to freakin' Venus flytraps. Maybe I should've practiced in Keystone City instead," he mused aloud.
"You're safe now. This nightmare is over for you," he assured the doctor.
"So, what about for you?" he asked in return. "I'd imagine you of all people would've at least taken the night off, you know, after what happened with the Jok-".
"I'm fine, but make sure everyone else is," he stated abruptly, cutting him off mid-sentence.
The doctor nodded in understanding before returning to care for the other officers.
Footsteps from behind alerted him to veteran officer Aaron Cash, who had finished adjusting his prosthetic hook and now had an assault rifle slung over his shoulder.
"Suppose I owe you my life twice now, huh?" he smirked.
"Let's just call it even," he replied.
"Fair enough, but I gotta know, Batman. How'd you manage to take down Ivy like that? Once she stormed the building she had us pinned against the wall with those vines in ten seconds flat," he said.
"Hubris. I didn't need to beat her; I just needed her to beat herself. From there, it was just a matter of picking my openings," he told the officer.
"Once we get back the outside, there's a cell waiting for her back at the precinct. We'll throw her in there until we can figure out what else to do with her. And just to make sure she doesn't try anything, I'll be watching her crazy ass the whole way there," Cash informed him.
Batman nodded in approval. "Be careful."
"Same to you, Batman," he replied respectfully, walking away towards the transport truck.
Batman then turned to meet Commissioner Gordon, who after conversing with some officers approached him with gratitude painted across his tired expression.
"We were on that bridge for one hour. You walk in, and within twenty minutes she's in handcuffs. You gotta tell me how you do it," he remarked, impressed.
"She had some new tricks, but nothing that surprised me. How are the officers doing?"
Gordon smiled at the members of the strike team being debriefed by their colleagues. "You gave a few of them some hard hits, but besides some bruised egos they'll live to serve another day."
As he finished talking, Batman's eyes darted to Poison Ivy sauntering towards them while being flanked by officers with gas masks.
Despite being bound in handcuffs with more than a dozen rifles trained on her, Ivy flashed him a smug grin as she stopped to leer at the two men.
"Remember what I said, darling. This isn't over, until you are," she sneered knowingly, blowing a mocking kiss at the Dark Knight.
"Get her out of here!" Gordon ordered.
One officer nodded and roughly shoved her forwards, pushing her towards the church doors.
"Hopefully, that's the last we'll see of her tonight," the Commissioner remarked wistfully, but Batman instead focused on her parting words.
Watching as she was escorted away, he shot the handcuffed woman a wary look as she was escorted to the awaiting armored transport truck.
"Cash said you had a cell for her at GCPD?" he continued nonetheless, ignoring the leering look she gave him over her shoulder.
"Yeah, same design as the one at Arkham Asylum. Except now we'll have guns on her 24/7. We're taking the closest route out of Arkham City and back to the Precinct. If all goes well, which is rare in this city, she'll be in that iso-chamber by midnight," he explained to the detective.
"You sure you don't need me to follow?"
"My guys in the convoy have it covered. And if something goes wrong, well, you tend to cover up our screw-up's pretty well so-" Gordon started, but his vibrating walkie-talkie cut him off mid-sentence.
Unclipping it from his belt, he held it up to his ear.
"Yeah?" he sighed wearily.
Within seconds, his entire demeanor shifted as a wave of uneasiness washed all over him.
"Bane? How'd he escape?" he demanded, wanting impatiently as the person on the other line relayed more information.
"The sewers?" he breathed, his eyes widened in shock.
"Tell our boys to pull back. Repeat, do not engage Bane! It doesn't matter how he got free, only matters that he is contained before he gets his hands on that crap," he growled into the walkie-talkie.
Finally, after some back-and-forth banter, he lowered the walkie-talkie while cursing underneath his breath.
"Bane again?" Batman spoke up, as Gordon wiped his sweaty brow.
"Someone let him loose from his cell in that toy factory. I had an entire unit on that place, not even a rat could've gotten in without them spotting it. Evidently, some of our boys spotted him leaping into that rabbit hole in the middle of Quinn's former territory. They figured he must have stashed some Titan in those sewers and wants to stock-up," Gordon told him bitterly.
"I'll stop him."
"Look, I appreciate the help but I think we can handle-" Gordon turned back around, only to see that the Batman was nowhere in sight.
Realizing that he was talking to the air, as per usual, Jim Gordon smirked to himself before walking off.
"Every time."
