Arkham City Post #11: Wonder City

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 10: Hunting the League of Assassins

As the blood trail leading to Ra's Al Ghul's hideout seemed to be leading down, not up (which made me question if the line launcher was the right gadget for this job), I thought of someone else I'd met in an underground setting: Calendar Man.  Even though the events of this adventure all take place in a single night, the calendar in the real world keeps on changing, and today was Halloween itself - the holiday Calendar Man mentioned when I first saw him!  After clearing the courthouse of some more random Two-Face thugs who had wandered in, I spoke good old Julian Day, still locked up in his cell.  He didn't seem to say anything interesting, but while he was blabbing, I noticed a calendar on the wall with a number of dates circled, mostly major holidays.  Was I supposed to return to talk to this nut on each one of these days?  And if so, what would be my reward?

This Calendar Man business seemed like too much of a meta-mission for my tastes, so I continued following the trail, which took me deep into the Subway Tunnels, and from there to the Sewers.  After a brief, purely conversational run-in with my old friend Croc (where else would he be hanging out?) and the return of the annoyingly-chattering Joker Teeth, I got to the roots of the matter and learned a little trivia about our great city.  Apparently Gotham was built over the collapsed ruins of an older city.  Don't ask me how that's logistically possible - it doesn't seem to make sense unless the original city was built underground to begin with.  This old city, called Wonder City, whose crown jewel - Wonder Tower - looms over Arkham from the center of Hugo Strange's Restricted Area.

According to what I learned from the voice blaring over the PA system, Wonder City was to be a sort of eco-utopia, where everything was run on a renewable source of energy known as Lazarus.  Wait, as in the pits?  Could it be that Ra's Al Ghul could have been behind the Wonder City project, which took place generations ago?  If that's the case, it would make sense that he would choose this location for his lair.  Or perhaps the location chose Ra's, so to speak, if there was a Lazarus Pit close by.

This was one of the droids I was looking for.

There could be no doubt that the League of Assassins was close by, as I soon found myself beset on all sides by ninjas and ninjettes wielding sharp and intimidating swords.  They had to be coming from somewhere, but the only door I could see - a giant circular affair, flanked by two large statues - was sealed by some unknown method.  I had to find out how the league was getting in and out, and it dawned on me that Wonder City's famed Mechanical Guardians might hold the key.  If these droids were powered by Lazarus, their surveillance system might have still been operational.  To find out, I had to scan the memory systems of all the Guardians scattered around the ruined city, while also dodging sword swings and dealing with my quickly deteriorating health.

Yes, that's right, Joker's Titan-corrupted blood was beginning to really take it's toll.  Dizzy spells, sudden muscle fatigue, fits of coughing culminating with spitting up blood.  I'm sure it didn't help that finding this cure required pushing my body to its utmost limits.  I didn't get the full disease meltdown until I gathered all the data from the Guardians and found out that the ninjas were using their swords to open the doors.   I had just countered one of their swings, inserted the unorthodox key into the lock, and knocked out the sword's holder in one swift motion, when the doors opened to reveal not Ra's Al Ghul's secret hideout, but a blinding white light, out of which I could hear the voices of my parents urging me forward.

Just as I was about to succumb to the warm feeling of comfort that I knew would accompany the end of my quest (and my life), I saw a figure emerge from the light who alone gave me the will to cling to life: my one true "beloved" Talia Al Ghul.

Part 12: The Demon Trials