Once inside the mansion, the heroines immediately see thugs on the other side of a ray shield.
"Well, look who it is." One thug said.
"Yeah, the big bad bug and her posse." His friend said. "C'mon, tough girls. Come and get us."
"Oh look at them." The first said. "Ain't you got some butterflies to fix or something?"
"That's right. Go on get lost. Joker will finish you off." His friend said.
"Ok." Ladybug said, overly dramatic. "We know when we lost. C'mon girls, these guys are just too smart for us. Let's deal with someone else." She led them back outside.
"So, mind telling us what that was all about?" Stinger asked.
"That was to lower their guard." Ladybug said. "They may block the entrance, but these idiots never think to secure every single entryway."
Ladybug pointed to one of the vents on the wall above the door. Rena Rouge and Stinger got the idea.
"So that's why you lowered their guard." Rena said. "They never suspect a surprise attack."
Ladybug yo-yoed the cover and pulled it until it ripped off. The heroines entered the room and saw a door that they entered. They saw the entrance hall and now they were able to clear over the gate and they saw the same guys that had mocked them.
"Yeah, I can't believe they left." The first thug said.
"Yeah, those cowardly bitches limped off, quivering those legs of theirs." His friend said.
"If I said this once, I'll say it again." Rena said. "It's always so adorable how clueless these guys are."
They leaped from their position and took them out. They continued by grappling onto the vents and pulled another vent cover. They entered and destroyed a wall before entering another vent and dropping around the main hall as another announcement came on.
"Joker here with a little update for you all." Joker said. "First the good news. We have Dr. Young. Bad news is she's not talking. She's hidden a document somewhere in the mansion: I want it found. I've got a plan or 6 to loosen her tongue, but in the meantime, search every kook and granny. There's a pipe for whoever finds them."
"That doesn't sound good." Rena said.
"If he gets Young to talk, he'll be a step closer to his goal." Ladybug said.
"So we find either Young or the notes first." Stinger said.
After taking out the goons in the main hall, they decided to check the west wing. Once they entered, they saw a guard and a doctor being aimed at a goon with a gun.
"Shut up! We're in charge, you hear me!? No where'd she go!? Answer me!" The thug demanded.
"I said I don't know, she could be anywhere!" The guard said, before gasping as Batman grabbed the thug and choked him to unconsciousness, but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was Batman.
However, before anyone could say anything, the strange collar around the thug's neck began flashing, beeping and making a strange laughing sound.
"What's that collar do? Why's it making that noise?" Ladybug asked.
"It's the suicide collar, but it sounds weird." The guard said.
"Suicide collar?" Stinger asked.
"They've got some other name, but, well, we just use 'em to monitor the patients' heartbeats. If it drops too low, the alarm goes off and a crash team rushes in." The guard explained.
Joker then came on the cameras. "And so does my crew if you trigger one." Joker demanded, laughing maniacally. "How do you like them apples, Bugsy?! Standing around in the hm... Let's see..." He wondered, checking the monitors. "Ah, the West Wing. They'd be there now if they weren't bust knocking some sense into Cash." He said, to which the vigilante growled. "I'll tell you what: I won't spoil the surprise and let them know you're coming." He said.
"We have to hurry." Ladybug said, rushing ahead to the library. With their Detective Mode, they saw Cash and another guard tied in the middle of the Records Room, with 6 armed thugs patrolling the area. Scanning the area, Ladybug noticed one of the thugs walking along the walkway above her to the left, reaching the opening for a ladder to access that level. Quickly grappling to the top of the stair where the walkway opened, Ladybug grabbed the ledge just as the thug reached it, pulling herself up just as the thug passed her and put him in a chokehold. She then quickly grappled to the gargoyle at the corner above the walkway and glided over to the other side of the room, landing silently behind another thug he quickly repeated the chokehold before the first unconscious thug's alarm even went off, grappling to another gargoyle across the room. However, Joker finally decided to chime in, helping his clueless thugs as they heard a collar go off.
"Hey, you may wanna check THE WALKWAYS. I think someone left you a present." He instructed.
"You heard joker!" One of the thug's said as they ran to the aid of the first unconscious thug.
But then the alarms started going off, putting the thugs on alert. three of the remaining four hurried to the first unconscious thug while the 4th remaining thug guarded a path off to the right side of the room. From where he was, Ladybug easily glided towards, above and over the thug, landing silently behind him and putting him in the same chokehold as the second. In less than a minute, he had reduced the number in half from 6 to 3. Then she grappled up to a gargoyle on the corner and saw one of the thugs hung back on the floor while the other two checked on the first one on the walkway, keeping an eye on them in case Ladybug jumped them, not considering he was alone with his back turned, making him the perfect target to jump, which Ladybug easily did so after landing in front of Cash and the other guard, swiftly yet silently sneaking up to the guard and executing yet another chokehold.
"Oh, god! What do we do!" One of the thugs said, realizing Batman was now in there with them.
"Leave him here! Just shut up and keep looking! If we fail Joker, we're dead. So we need to spread out and find that bat!" The other one instructed.
"I'm coming with you till we reach the end of the walkway." The first one said.
"Fine!" The other snapped.
He once more grappled to a corner gargoyle, before grappling to the one above the two remaining thugs. They started walking down the walkway, looking in the same direction, so they didn't notice when Stinger dropped down right where they had been standing and grabbed the thug in the rear, once again repeating the chokehold. The thug in front didn't even notice his last remaining ally was knocked out right behind him, until Joker decided to chime in again.
"You may want to do a quick head count." He advised.
"You heard Joker!" He said, turning back to glare at his buddy, only to panic as he saw Rena Rouge in front of him with his partner unconscious at his feet. "Oh, god, no!" He said, flinching as Rena lunged forward, landing a few punches before a final rising elbow almost knocked him into the air and over the edge.
Ladybug quickly hurried over to where Cash and the other guard were tied up and used a Bug Disc to quickly, yet safely, slice the ropes.
"Thanks." Cash said.
"Where did Dr. Young go?" Rena asked.
"I told her to run. These guys came in looking for her, so I told her to go to her office and hide." Cash explained.
"Does she keep her records in her office?" Stinger asked.
"I guess. She seemed pretty desperate to get in. Her office is over there." Cash said, pointing to it.
"How long ago was this? I need to find her notes before Joker gets his hands on them." Ladybug explained.
"20 minutes, maybe more. What's so important about the notes?" Cash asked.
"Joker wants them. That makes them important. Stay here. We're going to find her." Ladybug said, walking away.
"Not a problem. I'll try the radio. See if anyone else is around." Cash said. He grabbed his radio. "Arkham Control, can you hear me?"
"Joker's thugs were trying to get into that office, but they couldn't get through the front door. I'll have to find a different way in." Ladybug said.
And so, after going through yet another vent, he found the way in he needed. Looking over, he worriedly observed the now open safe.
"Someone has already gotten to the safe! The question is, who opened it?" Rena wondered, looking to the door. "There's no sign of forced entry. Whoever opened it knew the combination." He said to himself. Checking his computer, he was relieved to see that it was Dr. Young who opened the safe and retrieved the notes.
"Good. Dr. Young got to the notes before Joker. He has her, but he doesn't have the notes yet, which means she must've hid them somewhere." Stinger said, before they activated their forensics modes. They quickly scanned the vault door to trace her fingerprints.
"Micro, I've got Dr. Young's trail. I've adjusted the scanner to track her recent prints. I'll be able to find either her or the notes." He explained.
"Nice work!" Micro said.
After they got the trail, they went back to the main hall and had gone down the path they had saw earlier and entering what looked like a museum. They walked down the room at a jogging pace, just enough to move fast while still staying quiet. She heard voices around the corner and took cover at said corner, using their masks to see what she was dealing with. Nothing major, two thugs, one armed, right in the middle of the hall, not paying attention. Easy. Stinger rolled out from cover and fired a round at the gun totting thug, blasting him back into the door and knocking him out, while Ladybug rush in at the other one as he went for the fallen gun in an panic, jumping and rolling in mid-air to hit the thug in the head with both of her feet for an easy knockout.
"Joker was expecting you guys to be able to stop us? That's almost offensive." She said with slightly annoyance at her skills being underestimated, before walking through the door, entering what appeared to be one of the rooms which was a library. They attempted to sneak up on some of the thugs, when Joker's face suddenly came on the TV.
"Hey there, heroes!" He said in a cheery tone, alerting his thugs to their presence. "Welcome to the Arkham Library. History is so important. A traumatic event here! A murder there! It's enough to drive anyone crazy!" He laughed.
Ladybug blocked a punch from a thug and returning it, knocking him back into a wall and knocking him out. Rena dodged a swing from the other thug and peppering him with punches to the torso and head, relying solely on her own strength rather than her enhanced strength her suit gave her. She looked to her right as a thug came at her with a pipe. With an acrobatic move that would've made a gymnast proud, Rena jumped and elegantly twisted in mid-air, dodging the pipe, which hit the thug she was beating on in the process and knocked him out. As she faced him again after her twist, still in mid-air, she threw her flute to the thug, knocking him out and sending her flying back into a wall that she quickly caught herself on. As Ladybug began to spin herself mid-air, she threw a roundhouse punch to the thug that was standing beside the one she just took down, knocking him back into another bookshelf and knocking him out. Lastly, there was a knife-wielding thug, who rushed in at Stinger.
"You know you shouldn't run with sharp things." She told him, firing behind her with both bracers to launch herself forward, bringing her knees up to drive them into the thug's head, easily knocking him out. "You could've hurt yourself. That's my job." She said with a giggle at the end.
Joker decided it was time to chime in again. "Congratulations! Now all you have to do is take a trip downstairs and save the helpless hostages, right?" He asked.
"What?!" Stinger demanded, looking down through the glass floor to confirm there were two hostages tied back to back in a couple of chair right next to a box big enough for a bomb. "You monster!" She said, hurrying downstairs, only to find the doorway was blocked by a security gate. "Oh, come on!" She said in annoyance, before looking at the hostages calling for help. "Don't worry! I'll get you out of there!" She said, hurrying back up the stairs. Looking around frantically, trying several other doorways, all of which were blocked by security gates as well. She was so determined to get the hostages out, she didn't hear Ladybug or Rena calling out to her.
"One minute thirty to go! Gotta say, I'm getting bored. Maybe I should just push this button and..." He started, before breaking out in laughter. "Only joking!"
That only helped to get her more panicked. turned her attention to the grates, but managed only to find ways to upper levels instead of down where she wanted. Stinger saw a huge chandelier that decided to use her gauntlets sharp edge to cut the rope of the chandelier. It fell below the floors of the library allowing them easier access to the hostages.
"3... 2... 1..." Joker counted down as Stinger ripped off the box top, only for her eyes to widen as she narrowly dodged a large boxing glove, glaring at it with extreme annoyance. She let out a small shout of anger, before shooting the boxing gloves to pieces with her bracers.
"Stinger." She heard a voice and saw that Ladybug and Rena standing there with concerned looks on their faces. Stinger realized that she had completely ignored her friends when they were trying to come up with a solution.
"Hey! Can you untie us!" One of the doctors said.
Stinger snapped back to reality as she remembered the situation at hand. "Oh, right!" She said. Using her bracers sharpness, she cut the ropes until they were weak enough for the hostages to break out of on their own.
"Thank you, miss. Are they gone?" The doctor asked.
"Yep! You're safe. So, what happened?" Stinger asked.
"It all happened so fast. Some patients came in and started tearing up the place. Almost like they were looking for something. Bill fought back, but there was too many. They took Doctor young. She rushed in here and they followed." The doctor explained.
"I'm sorry. When I came to, we were all tied up. Doc Young was gone. I heard her voice on one of their devices. It sounds like they were being told to meet in the Warden's office." The guard explained.
"So, Dr. Young was trying to hide her research notes on the formula when she was caught." Ladybug said. "Where did you hide them?" The heroines began looking at the books until Ladybug walked over to the book and opened it and found the notes. "Micro, we found Dr. Young's formula."
"Great! So does that mean you've stopped Joker?" Micro asked. She wanted to sound relieved. Ladybug uses gel to burn the paper.
"It's never this simple with him." Ladybug said, the formula decayed in a second.
I try, you know. God knows I try. But since Arkham Asylum is such a long game (for me personally), I'm constantly having to make sure everything is perfect. And it doesn't help that I'm mostly getting a lot of the dialogue and fights from a video.
But don't ever think that just because I complain about this, doesn't mean I'm quitting this series. I am finishing this series until the end. After Arkham Knight, I'm still doing one more story about the series called "Miraculous: Arkham One-shots". More details about this story will be talked about later on.
But other than that, here's the next chapter. Next time, Ladybug and Stinger will still have Scarecrow gas to deal with and Harley releases a certain green plant lady in the wild.
Until then, let me know your thoughts.