WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!
Part 13: Confronting Mr. Freeze
To make up for his stubbornness (which led to the loss of my cure), Mr. Freeze provided me with a new gadget based on his freezing technology: a grenade that could create a freezing blast, either stunning enemies or creating a block of ice that would float on a mass of standing water. It was necessary for me to escape the GCPD building, the main door of which Freeze had barricaded with a mass of ice. The only path out was blocked by some broken pipes spewing steam into the hallway. A freeze blast on each of the offending pipes did the trick, and I was ready to hunt down Harley Quinn and my cure.
Except as soon as I left the building, I saw Vicki Vale's news helicopter shining a light directly on me. Apparently in addition to sneaking in and stealing the cure, Harley had also leaked my location to the press. I was more annoyed at than concerned by the situation - it would have been easy enough for me to dodge the attention of an amateur helicopter pilot - until an RPG streaked across the sky and sent the chopper into a tailspin. Following the source of the radio broadcast led me to the crash site: an open area overlooked by the majestic Dini Towers, from which snipers were taking pot shots at the news team. I was easily able to take care of the snipers (while also recognizing and appreciating
the metagame reference), rescue the damsel in distress, and deliver her to the safety of the Church/Medical Center. Although I stopped short of granting her request for an exclusive interview.
As I was delivering Vale to the Church, I thought I caught a glimpse of a sickening vomit-green colored top hat flitting in and out of view. But before I could react, my attention was drawn by a radio communication from Alfred informing me that Lucius Fox had been working diligently on developing his own cure, and that it was ready for me to use! In hindsight, that broadcast, which would allow me to circumvent the Main Objective of the entire
game adventure, seemed exceedingly suspicious, despite Lucius's genius. But something unexplainable drew me to the canister Alfred had delivered, and I injected myself with the "cure" it contained totally cavalierly. Needless to say, the injection did not in fact cure me, but rather caused me to pass out, for the fourth time tonight...
...and for the third time tonight, I woke up from unconsciousness to find myself tied to a chair. But this time, I was sitting at a grotesque tea party attended by a bunch of brainwashed thugs wearing rabbit masks - clearly the work of the Mad Hatter. Just what I needed, I thought, another random encounter with a villain who had seemingly nothing to do with my main objective. Jervis Tetch then appeared and explained that he had implanted a hypnotic suggestion in my brain that caused me to see what I wanted most: in this case, the cure. The more I struggled, the crazier the hallucinations got: I found myself in a void, balancing on the face of a stopwatch, surrounded by attacking rabbit thugs. It took some willpower, but I was able to master my mind (you'll remember from my previous adventures with Scarecrow Toxin and Demon's Blood that I have ample practice in combat while under the influence of dangerous psychoactive substances), subdue Tetch's army, and destroy the magical hat that was responsible for all the mind control.
As I left the Mad Hatter's hideout in Park Row, I stopped to pay my respects to Crime Alley, the site of my parents' murder on that fateful night. Nearby, I noticed another victim of the Identity Thief, this one situated next to a knife bearing Bruce Wayne's fingerprints. I was unnerved by the find, but determined to find out the truth, when I noticed a mysterious figure watching me from a rooftop! He was wearing a red hood and cloak, and when I approached him, he gave me some cryptic message and disappeared, leaving behind a mysterious symbol, which I scanned into the Bat Computer. What the heck, I thought, as long as I'm still riding the rejuvenative high from Ra's Al Ghul's Demon's Blood, I might as well add another couple more side missions to the list...
Part 15: Pre-Steel Mill Adventures
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