Batman: Arkham Knight, Part 2 - Ace Chemicals

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 1: A New Story Begins

Although locking up Poison Ivy at the GCPD did constitute a moral victory, it didn't get me any closer to accomplishing the night's main task: stopping Scarecrow from detonating his fear toxin bomb. The same would be true of any of the three options offered by Aaron Cash with the new Mission Select feature: missing members of a fire crew, an occult unsolved murder, or reports of the Riddler lurking around the train yard. While I like the idea of the side missions being seamlessly integrated into the plot, I decided to stick to the main objective and meet with Oracle to talk about Scarecrow's toxin. Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Oracle (a.k.a. formerly Batgirl) made her hideout at the top of the iconic Clock Tower, with an apartment behind the clock face itself, which transforms into a super computer terminal upon a successful retinal scan. After communicating with her exclusively over radio in our last two adventures, it was nice to finally talk with her face to face.

Barbara had analyzed Scarecrow's fear toxin and broken it down to its component parts, which gave me the idea to search for any chemical reactions that might be a byproduct of the synthesizing process. Oracle could easily handle such a task, but the WayneTech satellites alone were not strong enough to complete the search in time, so I had to repurpose some devices around town: the radio broadcasting antenna at the Panessa Movie Studios and the microwave tower at Falcone Shipping Yard. While these tasks would normally fall under the category of side mission-esque filler, they actually led to some important upgrades. The generator powering the antenna at the studios was damaged, so I had to get the Batmobile up to the roof (shades of that famous scene from Batman Forever) and use the Power Winch feature provided by Lucius Fox to power it up. Meanwhile the microwave tower was guarded by three armed henchmen who couldn't be isolated, so Fox gave me access to a new and improved Bat Suit, one that allows me to move fast enough to take out multiple armed henchmen at once by seamlessly moving between them. Now it's not just the Scarecrow who can harness the power of fear...

Using these antennae in conjunction with the Bat Scanner, we were able to determine that Scarecrow was synthesizing his compound at Ace Chemicals. Now his plan to give the city warning and initiate an evacuation started to make sense: with a full security detail present, Dr. Crane would never have been able to gain access to the island facility. I met Jim Gordon and the GCPD forces outside, but when I tried to gain access to the island facility, an armored helicopter flew in out of nowhere and destroyed the bridge. The helicopter was piloted by a man I didn't recognize wearing a hi-tech robotic mask covering his whole face. I sent an image from my cowl to Oracle, who was able to identify him as the Arkham Knight, a self-styled military commander working for Scarecrow, who apparently has a vendetta against me for some reason. WayneTech satellite imagery of the  Ace Chemicals facility showed that he was loading a large militia and a squadron of tanks into large carrier helicopters, presumably for deployment throughout the city.

But I couldn't worry about that now, since if I didn't stop Scarecrow's bomb, there would be no city for them to terrorize. Luckily, the Batmobile's afterburners allowed me to easily jump the distance between the mainland and Ace Chemicals, after using the winch to fashion the end of the road into an improvised ramp. And also thankfully, the Arkham Knight's tanks and helicopters were unmanned drones, which means I could unleash the full fury of the Batmobile's Battle Mode. In this mode, the wheels of the Batmobile basically become four giant Dyson vacuum balls, allowing for seamless strafing in all directions. Oh, there's also a 60mm cannon, a Vulcan machine gun, and homing missiles that are activated when the other weapons are sufficiently charged. Retro gamers among you might recall the 3DO classic BattleTanx, and the comparison would be appropriate.

After dispatching the drone forces, I was able to access the Ace Chemicals computer terminal, which told me that a skeleton crew of five employees were still located in the facility, no doubt held captive by Scarecrow to assist in producing his toxin. The Bat Scanner provided me with their locations, but I was too late to save three of the five employees. While rescuing one of the live ones, I was ambushed by a large armed militia force, along with the Arkham Knight himself. I don't know his identity, but whoever he is, he seems to know an awful lot about me and how I operate, including the fact that the Bat Symbol on my armor is a trick to get enemies to concentrate fire on the best-protected spot. I have my own idea of who this guy is, but to keep my conjectures from ruining it for anyone who wants to find out on their own, I'll just write my guess on this piece of paper, take a picture of it next to today's newspaper, and hide it safely in a compartment in my utility belt until his identity is revealed in the story.

Anyway, I was able to take out the militia forces by remotely controlling the Batmobile, which was still parked outside. In addition to the weapons mentioned above, my signature ride also has non-lethal riot-suppressing rounds and an electric charge attachment for situations such as these. The Arkham Knight grappled away before the battle was over, but I knew things weren't over between us. The Batmobile came in handy for rescuing the final hostage as well, who was trapped deep underground, on the bottom end of a deactivated elevator. Long story short, I attached the power winch to the elevator's counterweight, stepped inside the car, and used the Batmobile's remote piloting to lower it ever so gingerly to the bottom level. I honestly don't know how I made it through Arkham Asylum and Arkham City without this super helpful member of the Bat Team. After returning the hostages to Gordon waiting outside on the bridge, it was time to resume the search for Scarecrow deep inside the mixing chamber.

Part 3: Enter Fear Toxin