Arkham City Post #17: Protocol 10 In Effect

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 16: Confronting Joker in the Steel Mill

I didn't know it at the time (what with the being unconscious and all), but the collapsing train was actually caused by a missile fired by one of Hugo Strange's TYGER helicopters.  It seems he had put Protocol 10 into effect, which consisted of using heavy firepower to level everything in sight within the borders of Arkham City.  And here I was expecting some brilliant strategic masterstroke.  It's always the smartest of my enemies who disappoint me the most...

But before I found all this out, there was the little matter of being trapped under a huge mass of debris.  Joker had somehow avoided being crushed and was crouching over my incapacitated form, ready to cut my throat with a knife, when who should appear to save the day but Talia!  She offered herself up in a trade: if Joker would let me go, she would bestow upon Joker the secret of immortality!  I was obviously in no position to object, being helplessly pinned to the floor, so I only watched in horror as Talia surrendered her sword to Joker and led him out.  But my spirits were lifted slightly when she alerted my attention to a homing beacon she had attached to herself, allowing me to pick up her trail.

Before I could start out, I received a little help from Catwoman, who showed up in the nick of time and helped me escape from under the rubble.  She ran off to avoid the deadly air strikes while I immediately set out in search of Talia.  However, Alfred and Oracle had the NERVE to hinder my quest and provide me with a new main objective: they wanted me to apprehend Strange before they would help me rescue Talia.  After some harsh words regarding chain of command in this operation, I agreed to help save the inmates - although most deserved to be condemned by society, Batman couldn't let hundreds be slaughtered by Strange's attacks*.

*Never mind the many thousands more that would die if Joker was allowed to become immortal... not that I would ever kill him anyway...  But I knew in my heart that Talia would never deliver on this promise.  Which was one of the reasons I needed to get to her quickly: since Joker would clearly kill her the moment she refused his promised prize.

Before I could get into Strange's command center at the top of Wonder Tower, I had to search and scan a number of TYGER helicopters to find the control codes, which I could then input into my Cryptographic Sequencer.  After that, I had to make my way to the foundations of Wonder Tower (which were heavily guarded by TYGER guards), input the codes into the elevator, then scale the tower to access the control terminal.  Once at the top, more TYGER guards, heavily armed and equipped, were protecting Strange himself.  I felt bad about beating up on these operatives, many of whom started out as good cops who were influenced by Strange's hypnotic mind control techniques - and perhaps those of his mysterious "master" who he referenced over the radio during my trip through the TYGER processing center.  But it wasn't like I was planning on delivering any permanent damage to any of them.

Even after breaking through Strange's defenses and taking out some of my long built-up frustrations on his face, he remained optimistic about his long-term success.  He was going on and on about his view of himself as Gotham's savior, when his gloating was abruptly cut short as a razor-sharp blade passed through his chest from behind.  As the villain lay dying, his "master" was revealed - the only man in my rogue's gallery with enough power and resources to back such a nefarious scheme: Ra's al Ghul.  So the real mastermind behind the whole plot was just using Hugo Strange as a puppet.  And when Strange failed to live up to expectations, he was murdered in cold blood.  I only wanted to humiliate Strange by knocking his thugs around - I didn't know it would get the poor guy killed.  But in a disgusting, morally reprehensible way, Ra's's actions saved me thinking through a difficult conundrum.  Because let's get real: Strange knew my secret identity.  I couldn't very well have just turned him over to the proper authorities.  It wasn't like I could have staged some elaborate ruse involving Robin dressing up as Bruce Wayne in order to deflect attention and "prove" him wrong...

Anyway, as Ra's was wrapping up his "I want to take over the world" speech (which I had to sit through for the thousandth time, at least), Strange, with his dying breath, voice-activated Protocol 11.  As a five second countdown to an imminent explosion of the tower flashed up on the screen, I had no choice but to grab Ra's and crash us both through the window.  As we hurtled through the air - me latched onto Ra's like a parachute instructor to a first-timer - he made the worst decision of his criminal career so far: he stabbed HIMSELF through the chest, apparently hoping to catch me with the end of his blade as it passed through his ribcage.  Needless to say, I just let go, and the thrust ended too short to pierce my armored costume.  And then for good measure, Ra's continued to fall and was impaled on a sharp piece of stone.  I'm no expert on the capabilities of his Lazarus Pits, but this looked like a tough predicament for him to recover from.  So today marked the ignominious ends to two of my most formidable opponents...

Part 18: Showdown with Joker at the Monarch Theater