Arkham City
Industrial District
Present Day
11:35 P.M
"Unstoppable"
The shadow of the Bat loomed high above the Industrial District.
Where once stood a labyrinth of steel works and sinister carnival motifs now laid a broken shell of its former glory. The once towering were now charred, full of gaping holes, and seemingly teetering on their very foundations. Strained colors of red and black, indicative of Harley Quinn's makeshift army, were now fading into the bleak gray of the district's old layout.
Where inmates clad in clown face paint and metal baseball bats once prowled, GCPD officers now patrolled.
The tattered cape of the Dark Knight danced wildly in the wind as he remained perched atop the condemned mechanical crane that towered above the "rabbit hole," an impromptu entrance to the main sewer maintenance system.
His built-in visor zoomed in below him, making out three blurred soon-to-be-enhanced figures standing by the giant gaping hole. As he enhanced his Detective Vision, he made them out to be fellow GCPD officers, and by the looks of it weary ones at that. Clad in riot gear, they wielded semi-automatic rifles and tear gas grenades.
A SWAT armored vehicle next to them was now upside down with a gargantuan fist imprint impacting its hood. Several other patrol cars littered the streets in the wake of the unstoppable Bane.
"So just to recap: Sergeant Lambs, one of the most respected and level-headed guys we know, somehow gets past security at the toy factory and releases Bane who then proceeds to destroy said toy factory. And now, the Commish thinks he's getting his super steroids in the sewers before digging his way to Gotham. How am I doing so far, Tony?"
"Nothing but the truth, George."
"Right. So, while we're just standing here like a bunch of dumbasses waiting for the Bat to grace us with his presence, what are the odds that Bane will meet the other giant rage monster in the sewers?" George said to his colleagues.
"Who, Waylon?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow quizzically.
"No Tony, the cookie monster- yes Waylon! Scaly bastard still hasn't been collared yet. Personally, if those two ever duke it out, my money's on ol' Lizard for Brains. Besides, what's Bane gonna do? Throw a rock at him?" George smirked.
"More than that."
The officer nearly soiled himself as the Batman suddenly appeared behind him. Even the other two officers were taken off guard, Turner frantically hiding his drinking flask in an ill-timed effort to compose himself.
"What's the current situation here?" Batman asked casually, as if nothing had happened.
"How you do that?" George stuttered in an idiotic stupor, trying to piece together how Batman materialized out of nothing.
"Not too good, Batman. Bane came rampaging through our section like a rhino, took out our squad cars, and dug his way back into the sewers system. Thankfully no fatalities, but we had to airlift some out to Gotham General. He's probably on the main pipeline to the East Side by now," the other reported, slightly intimidated by the Batman's presence.
"Any new information on why Lambs released Bane from his cell?" the masked vigilante also asked.
"What you know is what we know, Bats. Maybe Bane's old gang got to his family, and made him do things. Either way, something's not adding up here, but I guess you'll figure it out before we do," the officer named Turner replied.
The slits on his cowl narrowed as he processed this information. "And Croc, any leads on him?"
"Still MIA, sorry Batman. Right now, the main objective is getting Bane back to custody, and seeing as how we just lost half our squad-"
"Stay here. I'll take care of it," Batman finished, focusing all his attention on the gaping hole. Brushing past the officer, he peered down at the darkness below.
"No offense, Batman, but this guy just ran through our best guys, and left them in a heap. He's-"
"Not invincible. Tell Gordon I'm in the sewers."
And with that, he vaulted over the metallic covering, and dived down into the darkness below.
The three officers peered down at the unknown abyss, half startled by the fact that they met Batman, and half amazed that they actually just met Batman.
"That has got to be the craziest son of a bitch I know," Tony remarked, still in awe of the Dark Knight's vitality.
"Can't argue with the results," George conceded grimly, staring down into the abyss that Batman had just descended into.
"He's got this. Right?"
Batman's cape immediately hardened into a bat-shaped glider to slow his descent before his boots touched the ground.
As the cape draped behind him, he quickly activated Detective Mode, his visor filtering through the mundane and instead scanning for anything out of the ordinary.
Seeing nothing hostile, the Dark Knight stalked to the right, entering the central maintenance system.
The main gateway surrounding the entrance had been almost completely demolished by the human wrecking ball himself, only leaving a series of mangled metal bars on the ground. Several pipes, bent like unrolled paper clips, dangled from the walls.
The jagged ends of his cape dragged behind his heels as he casually walked through the gateway.
Blankets of moss draped down from the ceiling, and aside from the pipes and the destroyed remnants of Joker Teeth littered on the ground, nothing in particular piqued his interest.
That was, until he noticed the rather peculiar green fluid dripping from one of the pipes. Crouching down next to the pipe, he activated the Environmental Scanner portion of his visor, immediately clouding his surroundings in a deep blue palette.
Focusing in on the liquid, he scanned its biological signature, processing it within seconds. The result was crystal clear: Venom.
Standing up, he held up his gloved hand to the radio receiver embedded within his cowl.
"Oracle, I've found Bane. My evidence scanner indicates that he's somehow managed to get a hold of some Titan containers. He must've hidden them as contingencies before first contacting me a few weeks ago. By the looks of it, he must've been in a hurry; leftover residue is all over the place," he reported to the former Batgirl, noticing some other pipes with Venom residue dripping of them.
"Neither is bribing. I still can't get over the security footage of that GCPD officer letting Bane out of his cell in the first place." Her feminine voice droned over his comlink.
"Get over it," he replied bluntly, before continuing, "Corruption still runs deep in the GCPD, and the number of honest cops still left I can count on two hands, your father included. Either way, Bane is not escaping Arkham City with the Titan."
"The guard claimed that he didn't even remember letting him out of his cage to begin with," Oracle pointed out.
"They all do," he reminded her, before trotting along the murky path.
"I suppose, but I'll talk to my dad, look more into it," she mused, still not entirely convinced of the officer's guilt.
"Look more into it, later. Bane's the real problem here. Bane's overconfidence put him in that cell until I finished dealing with Protocol 10. Hopefully, he isn't holding a grudge," he said, before vaulting over a low wall and continuing along the path.
"Grudge? More like death wish. Getting run over by the Batmobile isn't something that you just forgive and forget, Bruce," she reminded him.
"Neither is getting my attention. He's far too bulky to easily navigate these sewer systems. If I calibrate my cowl to scan for seismic disturbances in the maintenance systems, I can still catch up to him," he pointed out.
"And then what? At the asylum, you got lucky, real lucky. I just hope you know what you're doing," she cautioned him, her voice heavy with worry.
"I've made a career out of 'knowing what I'm doing', Barbara. I'll be fine," he assured her dryly, before leaping over a noticeably large gap in the sewers, his cape dancing wildly in the air behind him.
"Just be careful, Bruce. The last time Bane took a swing at you, it ended up with two broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder," she reminded him.
"Bane would be lucky if that's all I do to him. Batman out," he growled, just as he reached an intersection in the sewers.
"Batman wait," Oracle suddenly exclaimed.
"Oracle?"
"We need to talk," she said softly.
"Later," he grunted.
"It's about Tim."
Batman paused for a moment. His mind poised in deep thought as he weighed what he wanted to say against what he needed to say. Inevitably, he went with the latter.
"Robin is his own man in the field, Oracle. Whatever problem he's going up against, I'm sure he knows how to take care of himself," he replied simply.
"And what if he can't? Look, bad timing I know, but I need you to listen to me. For Tim's sake," she pointed out.
"When was the last time you had contact with him?" he sighed.
He could hear a relieved breath escape Oracle's mouth on the other end of the radio comlink, as she furiously typed into the Bat computer.
"Two hours ago. He went to take down Poison Ivy in Amusement Mile. Figured it would be a routine weed whacking, but something went wrong. It's been radio silent ever since he entered the hotel, and I haven't had a solid lock on his suit since then," she finally explained.
"He's been trained for worse, Barbara. Tim can- will find a way out," he reiterated, retreating back behind his usual emotional barriers.
"So that's it? You're not even gonna try to be worried about him?" she demanded.
"Right now, I need to prioritize, and that starts with Bane," he pointed out.
"But what about Tim?" she grated, her frustration building to a scathing crescendo.
"The mission comes first, Oracle. Always," he reminded her.
"He's your partner, Bruce," she pointed out.
"Robin took an oath Barbara; to always put the mission first, no matter what," Batman reminded her stoically, before beginning to calibrate his gauntlet. "And right now, that mission is taking down Bane before he gets to Gotham. I can't do that and help Tim at the same time. As soon as I neutralize Bane, Robin is my next priority."
"Priority? So that's all he is to you now? Just another soldier that trusted his life to you, who fought for you? Died for you?"
His fists clenched for a moment as he remembered the name, always fresh in his mind no matter how much time has passed by.
Jason.
A monument to the fallen Robin in the Batcave reminded him of the second Robin. His greatest failure.
Gordon quickly realized her mistake. "Okay, low blow. That was on me, but you get my point, Bruce."
"If I don't stop Bane, we're looking at enough Titan to start a superhuman arms race. You know what I have to do," he insisted.
"Be you, I know," she sighed from the other end.
Hesitating before retreating into his usual emotional barriers Batman gave some brief thought to her words.
"Have you got a lock on his position now?"
"Barely. His suit's GPS was at Ivy's lair until about an hour ago, then he started popping up all over Arkham City. He must've gone underground, because I haven't been able to triangulate his position yet," she said, still typing away.
"Keep trying. If you still don't have a lock on his current position by the time I've neutralized Bane, then keep a lock on Ivy's convoy until she reaches the GCPD. I intend to have a very long conversation with her, and I will get answers," he told her, before typing in a few dials on his left gauntlet.
"Got it," she confirmed.
Batman chose his next words wisely. "Barbara, I know I can be…"
"Stubborn. Bullheaded. What else is new?" she listed off mirthlessly, words that would describe the Dark Knight all too well.
Despite her bluntness, he had to at least appreciate Barbara's unapologetic honesty.
"Whatever Ivy's done to Tim will be undone by the end of the night. I can promise you that," he assured.
"Promise Tim that, Bruce. And thanks!" Oracle smiled gratefully.
"Don't thank me. Thank my conscience," he deadpanned, now entering the underground nexus.
The Dark Knight continued his lone trek down the deserted passageway, wary of his ever-changing surroundings. As his boots continued sloshing through water puddles built up through leaks in the pipelines, he started to make a mental note of a single noise, growing increasingly louder by the moment.
Thump.
Never one to subscribe to the theory of coincidence, he scrutinized the integrity of the walls, examining the decayed exterior and bricks eroded by the sands of time.
The sound seemed to carry in the pipes, growing louder and softer at the same time. Switching on his Detective Vision, he examined every crack and crevice of the infrastructure, only to find nothing worth further investigation.
That was, until he moved his visor up just a few feet to the left.
There was a gargantuan fist-shaped dent that carved into the metallic surface, the hand's size ten times his own. It was large, imposing, possibly a sign of things to come?
As he zeroed in on the quite peculiar nature of this imprint, his HUD picked up signs of Venom strands littered all over. Each strand trickling down the wall like a river, he incorporated his Environmental Analysis to examine it at the microscopic level.
"Strange, Bane is usually in control of his Venom, not the other way around. He should've already regained his mind by now," he theorized to himself, as he continued his investigation.
Each sample he analyzed contained was composed of Bane's usual mass of ingredients: steroidal enhancers, enzymes that release various endorphins meant to maintain his superhuman state of being. Those even included traces of Bane's old TN-1 formula, the same formula that made him the belligerent behemoth he is now.
However, his HUD couldn't decipher the most prevalent chemical agent in this chemical concoction, an unknown variable in his equation. Despite checking for possible matches, he came up with nothing, aside from deducing it was composed of natural, not synthetic elements.
"Oracle, I'm sending you my current analysis on Bane's latest Titan formula, with a diagnosis request on an unknown element. I've only analyzed the basic biological parameters but see if you can reference it against the Bat computer. Look for anyone I've faced who could have this same or similar chemical signature," he reported, sending his analysis to the Bat-Cave via a quick sequence in his wrist gauntlet.
"Will do." Her voice buzzed over his comlink as he turned towards the edge of the corridor, leading to a twenty-foot drop into the metallic catwalk below.
Thump.
Deciding to move in the direction of the noise, he hastily approached the edge, before plummeting down to the next level.
Extending his cape outward to slow down momentum, he gracefully landed on the grated floor below.
Thump.
Breaking out with a running start, he approached the sealed TYGER circular door in front of him, faded green spray paint creating the visceral image of a laughing clown, imagery of the Joker. The blimp in his radar seemed to be gravitating towards his own visual avatar.
Thump.
The slits on his cowl narrowed as he stopped only inches away from the containment door, staring straight at the clown's face. The repetitive Thump was definitely emanating from behind the door, but now at a greater intensity.
Thump. Thump. THUMP!
In fact, the noise seemed to be building to a crescendo, one that seemed to put him on the receiving end. Activating his Detective Vision, he found no visible deficiencies in the containment door.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
In the few seconds since the loudest consecutive noises, the detective quickly came to the realization of what, or more specifically who was behind that door.
But by then, it was already too late.
