Batman: Arkham Knight, Part 5 - Gunrunners and Airships

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 4: Chasing Oracle

Since the Arkham Knight escaped our last encounter, I had no choice but to chase down one of his APC's and interrogate the driver for news of his and Oracle's whereabouts. I've done some screwed up things to people's bones and joints to get information out of them, but the strategy I used on this guy takes the cake: with my boot planted firmly on the soldier's chest, I remotely maneuvered the Batmobile so the rear tire was inches from his face, then revved the engine until he talked. Straight out of an episode of The Sopranos! He quickly gave up that the Arkham Knight had gone to see the Penguin, who was using a dummy company called North Refrigeration to supply guns to the entire city. Hearing that name immediately brought to mind an investigation that Nightwing was conducting in Blüdhaven, so I got in contact with him post haste.

Dick had indeed been investigating North Refrigeration and the types of weapons to which they had access, and his knowledge helped me out first hand in the form of a new gadget he provided: the Disruptor. This helped me even the odds with the armed guards outside Penguin's hideout, and Nightwing helped me remove the less threatening henchmen inside. A slightly more routine interrogation of Oswald C. Cobblepot revealed that the Arkham Knight's next stop in his tour of the city was pharmaceutical magnate Simon Stagg, whose famous airships are an iconic fixture of Gotham's skyline. I had Alfred look up all the information he could find about him while I headed back to Wayne Tower to collect another espionage device from Lucius: the Remote Hacking Device (a much easier and classier name than Cryptographic Sequencer).

From the top of Wayne Tower it was easy to find a spot overlooking the airship (with room enough for my hallucinatory Joker to perch beside me) from which I could dive down and use the RHD to open up a maintenance hatch. It wasn't difficult to find Stagg: he was being loudly worked over by a group of unarmed militia, but he still wasn't giving them the information they wanted. I was hardly surprised that some trained thugs couldn't possibly have the interrogation skills necessary for the job at hand, nor was I surprised that they didn't have the combat skills to take me out once I descended upon them. However once I was alone with Stagg, my interrogation skills were severely hampered by fear toxin: before I could get to the really juicy questions, I saw the bodies of the incapacitated militia members rise up in a zombified state. It was all I could do to keep knocking them down before more of them took their places, but then to my horror, the bodies of the militia soldiers transformed into likenesses of the Joker! And they weren't just floating there, they actually attacked me!

While I was fighting this battle within, the militia took the opportunity to spirit Stagg away to the other adjacent airship. This led me on a wild goose chase all over THIS airship, since I had to reconstruct Stagg's fingerprints in order to gain access to the other airship. Luckily the Arkham Knight had thrown Stagg around the room during his abduction, which left a series of nicely preserved handprints, which I found by reviewing footage from the security cameras on board the airship. During my search, I also found various research notes from Stagg in which he confirmed that he was working with Scarecrow on both his fear toxin and a project called Cloudburst, but that the two didn't see eye to eye on several aspects of the plan. This was like the failed collaboration between Dr. Young and Joker back at Arkham Asylum all over again!

I found Stagg locked in an experimental quarantine chamber and under the protection of a roomful of armed militia soldiers. These men had the support of a floating drone, but thankfully I could use my RHD to turn the machine on its controllers. Once again I didn't get much of a chance to interrogate Stagg due to fear toxin, but this time it wasn't my reaction that caused trouble, but his. After he told me the bare minimum about Cloudburst - it's a device located in the next room that can greatly increase the dispersal range of gaseous chemicals - Scarecrow flooded his chamber with gas, and Stagg was suddenly very reluctant to be touched. I saved him from the worst of his hallucinations by knocking him out cold, then continued into the Cloudburst chamber - after a quick pep talk from my Joker hallucination - to have my second face-to-face confrontation with the Scarecrow.

But wouldn't you know it, I botched it again, and instead of getting sweet closure for this adventure, all I got was another dose of sweet fear toxin. Scarecrow got his chance to gloat, asking me about my deepest fears ("A city engulfed in fear? Betrayed by those you trust the most?" I half expected him to close with "Me... in a thong!?"). But it wasn't long before my actual deepest fear manifested itself: The Joker's infected blood taking control of me, creating a supervillain with unparalleled mental and physical prowess, plus the brutality to match. The distraction gave Crane enough time to make his daring escape: he stood on the Cloudburst device as one of Arkham Knight's helicopters forcibly removed it from the back of the airship. I guess as far as our epic confrontations go, the third time will have to be the charm...

Part 6: Ivy and Harley