I emerged from the Final Offer, ready to proceed to the crime scene at Lacey Towers, when I was met with another distraction. Projected high above the ship's deck was a message from an orthographically-challenged villain known as Anarky who had apparently planted bombs all across the city and was threatening to detonate one in just a matter of minutes. This would have been a bit of a problem but for a massive retcon that gave me access to the grapnel boost upgrade (allowing me to launch myself into a glide from a long range grapple), even though according to my earlier case files, the gadget was still in prototype phase around the time of Arkham City. Oh well, you have to give the people what they want, and what they want is MORE GRAPPLING!
Upon arriving at Lacey Towers, one of Black Mask's safehouses, I found that it wasn't quite as safe as he believed. Tied to the chandelier and shot through the heart was Tiffany Ambrose, the main squeeze of Black Mask's alter ego, Roman Sionis. On the floor near the entrance was the body of someone who wasn't Black Mask himself, but who had the same height, build, and taste in headgear: a decoy, mercilessly shot dead by someone who was waiting in the room, probably whoever had strung up the lady friend. But further investigation of the scene showed that there was a third member of the party, someone wearing a white coat who snuck in from the balcony and got the drop on the shooter. The last activity on the girlfriend's cell phone was a worried text to Sionis asking about someone called The Joker. Sionis replied that he was "Nobody that matters," but reading that name for the first time, even though I had no idea who it was at the time, I could tell that something sinister was going on. It's one of those character-defining moments that I will always remember until the end of my days.
While I had a pretty clear prime suspect, it was still unclear who came out on top in the fight that followed and what had become of the real Black Mask. I needed more information, and the only way to get it was to physically hack into the GCPD's server room in police headquarters. As I was describing my plan to Alfred over the radio, he gave me a piece of advice that, for once, I decided to take: return to the Batcave and pick up another gadget to help me deal with the hordes of corrupt cops occupying the building. The Concussion Detonator is similar to the Snap Flash that would eventually be adopted by Robin - I can attach it to an enemy without their knowledge, and after a period of time it explodes, leaving them dazed. My new toy aside, going to the Batcave is always a fun proposition, because it gives me the chance to listen to some of Alfred's unique, w00ts-laden wisdom.
Clearing out the cops guarding the rooftop entrance to the GCPD was no issue, but once inside, I stumbled upon a whole room full of corrupt SWAT officers. Their leader was the baddest egg of all, Howard Branden, who had apparently made a deal with Black Mask to get in on the bounty he had placed on my head. I couldn't hold back a little smile at this piece of information: sure it was one more faction to deal with, but think of how bored I would be if the only skulls I got to crack tonight were henchmen and criminals. Adding some rotten cops into the mix is a surefire way to spice things up. Speaking of spicing things up, you'll never guess who I ran into in the interrogation room: Penguin's arms dealer Ricky "Loose Lips" LeBlanc. Apparently the cops had confiscated a device from him that could not only remotely jam firearms, but also disable encrypted locks on security consoles. Of course the cops, even corrupt ones, couldn't get that information out of him; it took my personal touch to persuade him to speak. And it's a good thing too, because one of those exact encrypted locks was protecting the door to the server room. Funny how things like this tend to work themselves out.
One thing that didn't work out, however, was that all access was restricted to the evidence locker in which this Disruptor was stored. I had to have Alfred examine the schematics of the building to help me find an alternate way through. The drawback to this method was that Alfred's alternate route took me straight through the holding cells, where I had to do battle not only with a group of SWAT officers, but also with the hardened criminals that they set loose, presumably to keep me busy while they focused on collecting that bounty. I have to say, one of the reasons why I particularly like this case file is because I come across so many various types of enemies in it. You've got your garden variety thugs, some of whom wear armor or carry knives or riot shields, but there are also big fellas like the Penguin's enforcer on his ship, who can't be taken down except via a savage beatdown, and Black Mask's skilled martial arts experts, whose advanced attacks require two successive counters to block. (Or sometimes when you counter them, they just stand there doing nothing, screwing with your combat modifier bonus #BugCity) In the holding cells, I had to face off with a thug who was hopped up on the muscle-enhancing drug known to be used by Bane, who required two successful takedowns: one to deactivate the Venom device and another to put him out of my misery.
On my way back to the server room, I overheard an argument between Captain James Gordon, one of the few honest cops left in the city, and his daughter Barbara. I didn't catch what it was about, but I remembered noting that the girl's fiery personality matched her fiery red hair. The Disruptor worked like a charm and I easily made it into the server room only to run into... Barbara Gordon, doing some hacking of her own. She was pretty good at it too; she even helped me devise a plan to access the GCPD's telecommunications hub in the sewers below police headquarters so that I could remotely access the criminal database at any time. I remember thinking that despite her rebellious demeanor and curious slang - she referred to my cryptographic sequencer as a "pwnbox" - it would be great to have someone with her skill set as part of my crime fighting team.
Since apparently meeting one Gordon tonight wasn't enough, I ran into Barbara's father as I was trying to avoid being pwnd by the SWAT team who had finally managed to catch up to me in the server room. We had a nice little chat that ended with me knocking him unconscious while simultaneously saving him from being riddled with bullets from the SWAT team's guns. In spite of the rocky beginning, I knew this would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. After wading through the sewers (it's a good thing I had already subdued Killer Croc, or this trip might be a little more interesting) and uplinking the National Criminal Database to the Batcomputer, I was able to find enough information to solve the Lacey Towers murder. As I suspected, the crime was indeed committed by the Joker who likely kept the real Roman Sionis alive in order to access his funds in the Gotham Merchant's Bank. I knew I had to rinse the muck off my suit and get going.
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