Arkham City Post #3: The Church and Side Missions

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 2: Rescuing Catwoman

While I had my cowl's Detective Mode equipped to scan the bullet trajectory evidence, I noticed a human form huddled in the basement.  I cautiously crept down there and found Calendar Man locked away in the courthouse's holding cells, muttering something about Halloween being a good time to come and see him.  Why was he locked in the holding cells?  Could he have been referencing "The Long Halloween?"  Is that even in the same continuity as Arkham?  How can I even be sure what the date is?  But I had to file these questions away, as I had more pressing matters to attend to.

Outside the courthouse, I found a couple of civilians huddling together for safety.  These weren't criminals, but employees of the company that used to run security for Arkham City before Strange took over - political prisoners, if you will.  There was clearly something Strange wanted kept hidden, and I resolved to find out what that was, with the help of these folks - however many I could find.

On the way to the church, I ran into a familiar sight: a glowing green question mark situated on a rooftop; only this one was enclosed in a steel dome next to an unfamiliar sight: a circular floorplate embossed with a similar question mark.  Standing on the plate caused the cage to open up, allowing me to snare the Riddler Trophy with my batclaw.  As soon as I did, Edward Nygma's irritating voice came over my in-cowl radio, informing me that completing his challenges this time around was not just a silly diversion, but a matter of life and death.  Bringing my list of things to file away up to three...

Inside the church, I found Harley Quinn and her thugs holding several doctors and police officers hostage.  Harley split, giving me the opportunity to show off a few of the new Predator Mode moves I had developed throughout the past year.  Back at the Asylum, I had four basic ways to take out enemies: I simply choke them out (either from sneaking up behind them, jumping out of a floor grate, or waiting for them as they rounded a corner), string them up by dropping down on them from a vantage point, pull them over a ledge, or smash down on them through a glass ceiling.  To these tricks, I added the ability to break through wooden panels behind which a thug might be hiding, choke an opponent out with my legs from a platform above them, and a special trick whereby I could take out two nearby thugs in one move (I call that one the "let's put our heads together" attack, for obvious reasons...).

I interviewed the hostages - among which were familiar faces Aaron Cash and William North - who informed me that when Harley left the building, she took with her one of the doctors for the purpose of "fixing up the Joker."  I guess I gave him a worse beating than I thought back at the Asylum; and I'm sure his recovery process was not aided by the megadose of Titan he injected himself with before our final showdown.  I can't imagine the effects of coming down from that trip - the mind-altering effects that nearly took hold between when I was shot with a Titan dart and when I injected myself with the antidote were not insignificant.  But if Joker was the one who fired the shot from the church belltower, I might have a chance to ask him about the experience myself.

As I found out after climbing to the top of the church, it turns out that Joker wasn't indeed up there: the gun was fired by a remote control radio device... and was wired to a series of hugely exaggerated explosive devices.  I just barely had enough time to scan the radio receiver with my Detective Mode Evidence Scanner and dive out the stained glass window before the whole thing went up in flames.  But I got enough information to put a trace on the radio signal Joker was sending.  But since it appeared to be coming from the other side of the city, I decided I needed a more effective means of getting around...

I connected to the Batcomputer to embark on a little training session to ready myself for an upgrade for the grapnel gun that Lucius Fox still had in the prototype stages.  The increased power would enable me not just to grapple up to a point, but to launch myself into the air above said point, leading to further gliding and grappling potential.  But before I deemed myself ready for such an upgrade, I decided to put myself through a series of Augmented Reality (AR) missions that tested my ability to glide through various targets and make use of my newly-learned divebombing skill.  It was not easy, but I didn't get to where I am today through lack of discipline, and I eventually rewarded myself with the more powerful gadget - much to Alfred's chagrin.  Apparently he disapproves of me using a device that Lucius was still testing, but in an environment five times as large as the Asylum, I knew I would need a little extra edge to traverse ground more quickly.

With the Grapple Boost in hand, I was ready to head towards Joker's radio signal... until I was distracted by a ringing payphone, which I couldn't help but pick up.  On the other end was the chilling voice of Victor Zsasz, who informed me that he would murder a hostage if I failed to answer another ringing phone somewhere within the city in a certain amount of time.  The computer was able to track down the source, but it took time, and I had to make use of all my grappling, gliding, and running skills to get there in time.  I kept Zsasz on the phone as long as I could, but it wasn't enough to triangulate the position of where he was calling from.  As the FOURTH thing for me to file away, I don't doubt he'll call back at some point.

Part 4: The Joker's Steel Mill