Tape Delay Blogging Thursday - COL vs ARI

In a bit of a throwback to one of my previous features on this blog, if the season ended today, the 2017 NL Wild Card game would be between the teams that are facing off today on MLB.tv's free game, the Rockies and Diamondbacks. Of course Colorado is just a half a game behind Los Angeles for the NL West lead, so these rankings could be very fluid over the more than half a season left in 2017, but given that it's the rubber match between these two today, let's take a little measurement of how these teams are doing. And the fact that it's just about a week before All-Star voting concludes should allow us to take stock of what this year's midsummer classic might look like:


Top 1st
Charlie Blackmon hits a leadoff homer (1 RBI)

Speaking of All-Stars, I would vote for Charlie Blackmon as the top National League outfielder. This is not just because he and I share an astrological sign (Cancer), but because he's objectively outscored his nearest competition of Bryce Harper and Marcell Ozuna. I would also put Blackmon on my shortlist of Best Facial Hair in Baseball '17, no matter how much my mother in law would disapprove of his personal stylings.

Top 2nd
Jeff Mathis grounds out to short, Rey Fuentes scores (1 RBI)

The game then gets tied by two players who are not technically starters for Arizona, but keep in mind that the notion of "starting catcher" has been somewhat foreign to the Diamondbacks this year.


Top 3rd
Paul Goldschmidt singles, scoring Jeremy Hazelbaker
Chris Owings homers to left field, Jake Lamb scores (2 RBI)

Back to the All-Star voting, I've voted for both Diamondbacks corner infielders, although since I did a statistical sounding, Nolan Arenado has overtaken Jake Lamb at third base in terms of fantasy points. Meanwhile, Paul Goldschmidt has hit like he has a chip on his shoulder ever since he sat on the bench for Team USA through most of the WBC in favor of Eric Hosmer.

Top 4th
Nick Ahmed singles to drive in Jeff Mathis (1 RBI)
Paul Goldschmidt homers to right, scoring Nick Ahmed and Jeremy Hazelbaker (3 RBI)

Seriously, Eric Hosmer? He of the 841 points and 11.8 points per game fantasy line on the season? And what's more, he just pulled ahead of A's first bagger Yonder Alonso (903 / 14.3) in All-Star voting? (Let's not talk about how Justin Smoak (1,019 / 14.6) and Logan Morrison (1,012 / 14.3) might technically be more deserving candidates, but you have to follow the ballots.) Whatever happens, it's too bad that home field advantage in this year's World Series will be so influenced by ballot-stuffing.


Top 8th
Zack Godley singles, scoring Chris Herrmann (1 RBI)

If this really were the NL Wild Card game, you can believe Zack Greinke would get the ball. He and lefty Robbie Ray have performed pretty similarly, but barring a huge change of fortunes, money usually does the talking in these situations. However, given how he's pitched AND hit tonight, the DBacks might want to consider giving Zack Godley the ball. If the mostly unheralded pitcher can  live up to his lofty name, he will surely be a boon to the Developed Chicago Cubs roster... but that's an entirely different feature.

#VoteAlonso

Liveblogging Thursday - NYM vs WAS

The last time I watched one of MLB.tv's free games, I liveblogged about some of the Astrological implications of the scoring plays in that game. While I likely won't be able to tune into the entire game today, I thought I'd continue the tradition, at least for the first few innings or so.

Top 1st
Bryce Harper homers to right (1 RBI)

In my last entry, I talked at length about the Libra lineup of which Bryce Harper is arguably the offensive anchor, and he just added to his very impressive 2017 stat sheet with a laser beam shot into the right field bleachers to open the scoring. I haven't submitted anything near my maximum 35 All-Star ballots (per email address), but every time I have voted, I made sure to check the box for Harper.


Top 2nd
Gio Gonzalez comes up lame while running to first base

I'm not sticking to scoring plays in this game because Gio Gonzalez's last at bat gives me the opportunity to say a few more words about my favorite baseball hot button issue, pitchers hitting vs. the designated hitter. Gio Gonzalez is currently the No. 2 starter on a Virgo pitching staff that has been decimated by injuries in the early going - they've lost Noah Syndergaard and Alex Reyes for most of the year, and just recently welcomed back David Price from the DL - and if the Nats' resurgent lefty goes down due to running hard out of the box after a groundout, it will be just another chapter in the fans missing out on the chance to watch a highly talented player for an extended period of time due to an archaic rule and a few stubbornly nostalgic decision makers.

Anyway, speaking of players missing time due to running hard after a groundout, second baseman for both the New York Mets and the Virgo Maidens, Neil Walker, will likely miss a number of weeks after partially tearing his hamstring trying to beat out a bunt single. Fortunately, Jose Ramirez's new eligibility at 2B should allow VIR to not miss a step, but since I only change the lineups once per month, they're going to have to play shorthanded for the next two weeks or so. That's also the reason why the stats I'm presenting below are from closer to 6/1 than 6/15.

Top 3rd
Daniel Murphy ALMOST drives in Bryce Harper on a single,
except for he's thrown out at the plate by Juan Lagares

If the Nationals didn't have a left hander on the mound today, it's very likely Bryce Harper scores on that single up the middle from Daniel Murphy. Let me explain: the Mets' leader in appearances in center field (by just one game, but still) is Curtis Granderson, who hits left handed, and thus is obligated to sit against lefty starting pitchers. Granderson's arm pales in comparison to defensive wizard Juan Lagares, who made another brilliant play to save a run. But mostly I just wanted to talk about Aries, which is once again shaping up to be a very strong contender this year. The most interesting thing about the Rams is not the expected performers such as Nolan Arenado and Chris Sale, but the surprise stars like Yonder Alonso and Travis Shaw whose hot starts have eclipsed long-time contributors like Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Santana. Also worth mentioning: Mets right fielder Jay Bruce is inexplicably in the lineup, even though he does not have the platoon advantage against tonight's opposing starter.

Top 4th
Gio Gonzalez redeems himself by driving in a run with a single (1 RBI)

I guess I could have saved the Virgo entry for when a Virgo player actually did something to contribute to the game's score, but I couldn't resist a chance to speak out in favor of the universal implementation of the DH. Kudos to Gio for staying in the game and not only pitching well enough to keep his team in it, but also for helping his own cause!


Bottom 4th
Jay Bruce drives in Yoenis Cespedes with a double to right (1 RBI)

Maybe I spoke too soon about Gio pitching well enough, as Jay Bruce has just done the unthinkable and gotten an extra base hit off a same-handed pitcher to bring the Mets within one run. But since I've already talked about Aries (the batter) and Virgo (the pitcher) and even Libra (the runner who scored), I have nothing more to say about this play.

Tape Delay Blogging Wednesday - OAK vs TOR

Sometimes my schedule gets complicated and I don't get to sit down and watch a baseball game in real time. Which means I'm not technically liveblogging if I start writing about it, but I noticed some interesting Astrology parallels regarding the scoring plays. These are worth bringing up now because we're close to my monthly lineup rebalancing, so the numbers and changes are more relevant.

TOP 2nd
Kevin Pillar homers to left center (3 RBI)

The stars haven't seen fit to punish Pillar's offensive performance for a homophobic gaffe earlier in the season, as the play of Toronto's leadoff hitter has surpassed that of incumbent Capricorn center fielder Odubel Herrera. Pillar would hit also bat leadoff for a hypothetical CAP batting order that would also include his real life opponent's first baseman Ryon Healy. As an interesting hot stove related wrinkle, Healy was also a mid-season addition to the starting lineup, and the incumbent 1B he replaced? Former Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion. However, these lineup tinkering machinations will likely mean very little by the end of the season, as the Capricorn Goats rank 11th in the 12 team league, as of June 1.

ALSO TOP 2nd
Justin Smoak homers to left center (1 RBI)

The guy whose incredible production has made Encarnacion's departure more palatable plays for the only astrology team currently worse than Capricorn, the Sagittarius Archers. Maybe one of the reasons for SAG's struggles could be the lengthy absence of their top ranked player and Smoak's real life teammate Josh Donaldson. Also outfielders Adam Eaton and A.J. Pollock are currently out to injury, as is Athletics right hander Kendall Graveman. However, to make this even more relevant to today's game, Graveman's real life teammate Khris Davis is currently plugging away quite nicely in the middle of the Sagittarius lineup.

BOTTOM 3rd
Rajai Davis singles and scores on a groundout (1 R)

Oakland's elder Davis is a Libra, but he's far down on the depth chart of the most successful Astrology sign on record, so let's skip over him for now.


BOTTOM 4th
Trevor Plouffe homers to left (1 RBI)

Oakland's stopgap third baseman is a Gemini, but Plouffe is stuck firmly behind not just Anthony Rendon, but also Yuli Gurriel (thanks to his eligibility from last year) and Eduardo Nunez.


BOTTOM 5th
Rajai Davis triples and scores on a sacrifice fly (1 R)

Well, since Rajai Davis just scored his second run and helped tie the game, let's look deeper into his standing in the Libra hierarchy. Although he's not counted among 2017's elite fantasy base stealing assets, even though he led the AL in thefts as recently as last year. Instead, he's relegated to a Libra second tier of center fielders, placing behind not just breakout star Aaron Hicks, but also pressed-back-into-service Andrew McCutchen (and that's even when Yoenis Cespedes and Starling Marte return to the field). The still-very-talented group of Libra Scales backups also includes a couple of players on the opposing side of Rajai's real life A's. An injury-shortened first third for Troy Tulowitzki kept him from catching up to Netherlands star Xander Bogaerts at shortstop. And not even Jose Bautista's recent hot streak pushes him past Matt Kemp for the DH spot (not even to mention LIB's top two corner outfielders Bryce Harper and Mookie Betts).

BOTTOM 8th

Well now I'm back up to live, and the game's still tied, so if I post it now, it's technically liveblogging, so here we go!


TOP 10th
Josh Donaldson homers to left (2 RBI)
Justin Smoak homers to right (1 RBI)

We've already covered Sagittarius, which is good, because I need a moment to cry and fume to myself about how evil genius mastermind Billy Beane supposedly hamstrung his own team by trading away his best player due to a personal vendetta, and how Josh Donaldson always seems to remind his former boss of that fact by hitting like gangbusters every time he returns to the Oakland Colisseum. The only consolation is that the better he does, the better the hypothetical fortunes of a developed A's team, which is also helped by the possibility of adding Chad Pinder to the outfield...


BOTTOM 10th
Roberto Osuna strikes out Jed Lowrie to end the game and earn the save

I was hoping to be able to use this chart in the bottom of the 9th with the context, "A's walk it off without having to face Blue Jays closer, and Aquarius ace reliever, Roberto Osuna." Unfortunately, the standout Mexican pitcher came in with a save opportunity against the boys in green and gold, and succeeded, despite giving up another run to, who else, Rajai Davis. Not that he pitched in this game, but Oakland lefty Sean Manaea is one of two astrology-relevant A's starters (the other being Andrew Triggs for Pisces). The Blue Jays also currently have just two starting pitchers on fantasy astrology staffs (Marco Estrada for Cancer and Marcus Stroman for Taurus), but injuries to Aaron Sanchez (CAN) and J.A. Happ (LIB) could see that number rise in a hurry. Other notes from the Water Carriers roster: if you checked back in April or May, you would have seen Toronto catcher Russell Martin behind the plate instead of the red hot Alex Avila. And while you wouldn't find him starting in any month, Blue Jays middle infielder Ryan Goins is also on the Aquarius depth chart.

Batman: Arkham Knight, Part 11 - Knightfall Protocol

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 10: A Very Arkham Conclusion

If I'm going to continue my story, there's no way to get around this spoiler bomb: despite my best efforts to stop him, Scarecrow completed his master plan - revealing my secret identity as Bruce Wayne for all the world to see - but it didn't have the effect he desired. For some reason, Crane thought it would break my spirit to be publicly unmasked, but it was quite the opposite, and (with a little help from my friends) I was able to best my foe once more. I was a little nervous to take him and Gordon back to the GCPD helipad in the Batwing, now that everyone knew who I was under the mask. But good ol' Aaron Cash immediately put my mind at ease with the line of the night: "So, Bruce Wayne, huh? If it's all the same to you, I'll stick to Batman." I mean, this is a line around which you could build a major motion picture. I'm thinking Samuel L. Jackson as Cash...

But the unwavering support of Gotham's police force notwithstanding, I knew that things couldn't go on as usual now that the Bat was out of the bag. One thing was clear: this would be Batman's last night. But thanks to the terror Scarecrow had unleashed upon Gotham, there was still a lot to be done before sunrise. The first priority was rescuing Catwoman from the Riddler's clutches. Nigma had somehow acquired the vast disused sewer system underneath Gotham and had spent countless hours and dollars transforming the tunnels into various deathtraps for the Batmobile (both of the obstacle race and logic puzzle variety). These challenges alternated with in-person tasks that Selina and I had to complete together at the Orphanage. After enough of these, Riddler did release his prisoner from her explosive collar, but then attacked us in an Aliens-style mech suit! However he refused to stay put for the final battle until I had solved all 243 of the riddles he had placed around Gotham.

But there was no time for a wild goose chase at the moment, as other, more dangerous super criminals were still causing trouble. The streets were veritably littered with Penguin's gunrunners, so I enlisted Nightwing's help once to track them all back to their home bases, beat up the guards, and destroy the weapons caches within. What's more, Two-Face's crew was using those guns to perform a series of daring bank heists, which I was of course able to stop single-handedly. (He didn't even have a rocket launcher this time, if Catwoman's story from Arkham City can be believed.) I even uncovered a shocking conspiracy, where the chief of Gotham's fire department, Ray Underhill, had been working with serial arsonist Firefly, giving him the means to start fires to ensure his department wouldn't be purged by fiscal cutbacks. The storyline was a bit too political for my tastes, so I locked up the chief along with the other bad guys.

I have to say, I was a little disappointed in the resolution of the Man-Bat saga. His reveal was perfect, and it was fun discovering that he was actually Dr. Kirk Langstrom and synthesizing an antidote through an amusing minigame. But any interaction with my dark inversion always calls to mind "On Leather Wings," the pilot of the seminal Batman: The Animated Series, where I hooked my grapnel gun to Man-Bat's leg and he dragged me through the skies over Gotham. I was all set to re-create that sequence, with Simon Stagg's airships standing in for the iconic police blimps, but sadly all that was required was to locate him, tackle him out of the sky, and administer a double dose of antidote. I was also dismayed to find that during his transformation, Kirk had killed his wife Francine: now how is she going to become She-Bat later on?

However, I wasn't disappointed in the satisfaction I took from destroying the various Militia roadblocks and sentry towers throughout the city, thanks to the fact that my old nemesis Deathstroke had taken over command after the Arkham Knight's defeat. These provided a challenging yet minimally stressful mix of traditional combat and predator challenges with significantly higher stakes than AR training missions. At this point I didn't even mind facing the endless army of drones that attacked whenever I tried to diffuse a bomb in the streets. These battles ceased to frustrate me when I recalled a line from The Simpsons where the Commandant of Bart and Lisa's military school describes the future of warfare to his graduating class: "most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today, remember always your duty is clear: to build and maintain those robots." At least Deathstroke was actually driving his own dumb tank, so I could punch his face after our battle was finished.

With all the major threats eliminated, there was nothing left to do but scour the city for Edward Nigma's infuriating trophies. I must admit, I had to resort to the Internet to find many of these, as I couldn't help running over some of the Riddler informants with the Batmobile - who would have divulged their locations if interrogated - but luckily Alfred is familiar with IGN. During the final battle with Nigma, all he could think to do was throw an army of Riddler bots at me, some of which I couldn't attack without receiving an electric shock. But luckily Catwoman showed up just in the nick of time and had no trouble getting past their defenses. After extracting Riddler from his mech, punching his lights out, and depositing him in the Batmobile, Selina and I shared a pash {that's Australian slang for "passionate kiss," btw}, I took Nigma back to the holding cells at the GCPD, and it was time to activate the Knightfall protocol.

Batman: Arkham Knight, Part 10 - A Very Arkham Conclusion

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 9: A Spoiled Knight Unmasked

After my exciting confrontation with the Arkham Knight, in which he revealed to me his secret identity {the details of which are hidden behind a "Read More" link in the previous post}, I returned to finally free Commissioner Gordon from his bonds. It seems he had actually managed to track Scarecrow to this abandoned shopping center before being used as bait for the Arkham Knight's trap, and we were fully prepared to ride the elevator up to the roof and finish this. Well, it turns out Jim wasn't prepared, at least not for the giant haymaker that leveled him, courtesy of a militia brute who came rushing out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened. After I cleared the room, we had a moving, spoiler-ridden conversation on the elevator ride up, where we did in fact find Scarecrow waiting for us. He was alone and not looking very prepared to face me one-on-one - could the unforeseen defeat of the Arkham Knight have actually ruined his plans and left him unprotected enough for a satisfying beatdown? But then, shockingly, Gordon turned his gun on me.

While I had certainly defeated the Arkham Knight, it was not he who set the trap, but Scarecrow himself! He had somehow gotten to the Commissioner and convinced him to lead me here for the purpose of some dramatic betrayal. But why? And also how could he have gotten Gordon to his side...? And then I saw the reason: Barbara Gordon, bound and gagged and wheeled out by armed militia soldiers in perfect cover formation. So Oracle was alive!? I have to tell you, even after I saw her pull that trigger, deep down I had a feeling it could have just been the fear toxin talking. But her being alive meant Scarecrow had leverage against Gordon. And when Crane threatened her life, Jim turned and shot me right in the chest. That's right, a perfect hit directly on the Bat-Symbol, where my armor is the strongest. I played my part and tumbled off the edge of the scaffolding.

I heard from my hidden vantage point that Scarecrow didn't plan on upholding his end of the deal, as he edged Barbara further and further towards the edge... and finally off! It's a good thing I was using detective mode to monitor everything going on upstairs, because it allowed me to perfectly time my dive off the building to catch Oracle mid-fall and use my cape to gently glide her to the ground. Well, hard enough to bruise a couple of ribs, but significantly more gently than if she had just free-fallen. Come to think of it, this was eerily similar to how I saved district attorney Rachel Dawes when the Joker threw her off a building in The Dark Knight - but it worked so well then, why not once more? I guess Scarecrow saw my daring heroic feat, because he sent in a squadron of tanks to the bottom of the building to finish us off. And here I was with the Batmobile crushed to pieces at the bottom of a giant excavation ditch.

Here's where the limitations of the current generation of gaming consoles get in the way of telling the most interesting version of the story as I imagined it happening (granted, I was still pretty hepped up on fear toxin at the time). It's not that Lucius Fox wouldn't have had a spare Batmobile ready had I required it. But I also had access to a state of the art fighter jet, and quite frankly I was sick of dealing with these tanks on their own level. So I remotely called in the Batwing to lay down some suppressing fire and pick up Oracle and me. As we were on the way back to the GCPD, where I was going to set Barbara up on their computer systems, Scarecrow broadcast a chilling message stating that the precinct was already under attack by a drone army far surpassing any I had faced before! Maneuvering a plane through the steel canyons of the city while also targeting enemy drones and avoiding anti-aircraft fire was no easy task, but it was definitely more satisfying than getting back in that stupid Batmobile for another endless Battle Mode challenge. {Rumor has it that the developers were working on building a Batwing combat level in the same vein of Star Fox 64, but didn't have time to complete it prior to the game's release.}

After depositing Oracle on the rooftop helipad at the GCPD, I received another chilling message: Scarecrow had used Commissioner Gordon's voice to activate the secret entrance to the quarantine cells at Panessa Studios and kidnapped Robin from where I had locked him up earlier. I guess that little voice that usually tells me stuff like, it's a bad idea to leave your crimefighting partner alone and vulnerable on a night like this, must have been drowned out by the insane Joker ramblings that permeated my psyche. Scarecrow threatened to kill my two greatest allies unless I agreed to surrender myself to him unconditionally and submit to whatever ordeal the villain had planned. I didn't see any other choice, so I traveled to the appointed place, removed my utility belt, and stepped into the back of the truck he had waiting. The journey there was riddled with fear toxin-induced nightmares, where the truck crashed in Crime Alley and I had to battle an infinite number of Jokers that wouldn't stop until I gave in and broke my one rule, snapping my arch enemy's neck in rage. But of course that was only a dream, and the real-life truck continued to its destination, which will be revealed in the "Read More" link...

Batman: Arkham Knight, Part 9 - A Spoiled Knight Unmasked

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 8 - Drones in the City of Fear

Have you ever had to sneeze really badly? Your nose quivers, your eyes squint, you take short breaths in anticipation of that moment of sweet sinus relief... and then it's gone. Your head reels from the pressure, but more than that, you're disappointed in yourself for not following through on the payoff after such a satisfying and agonizing build. That's how it felt when I heroically swooped in, grabbed the Arkham Knight from his dumb tank that I had just defeated, and prepared to punch him in that flashy LCD-screen face of his. But then wouldn't ya know it, the fear toxin takes hold again and the Arkham Knight's mask becomes Joker's face (just like it did for Mr. Freeze when I tried to punch him in Arkham City), which gave me the idea that maybe this isn't a guy we want to be punching. Victor Fries did help me in the end after all, for without his cure I likely would have died from Joker's infected blood not long after Joker did.

But by the time all this went through my mind, the Arkham Knight had gone. Vanished. Escaped using some trick of the night that only I could have known... Then all of a sudden a message from Poison Ivy, using the bat-facetime device. Her trees were in trouble! She needed a jolt of electricity from the Batmobile's power winch to give her enough energy to produce the spores to counter Scarecrow's fear toxin {or at least that's how it would have happened if I wrote it}. I drove over there as fast as possible and hooker her up with the best mobile energy source that the Wayne Enterprises Applied Sciences division was able to create. Finally with our combined efforts, the gas was starting to recede. It took everything that Ivy had left to complete the molecular transformation, and when she staggered out of the trunk of her gnarled tree, she wafted away like dry leaves off an autumn branch. She was gone, but her sacrifice saved the city she so often terrorized. Based on Pamela Isley's psych profile, I don't doubt she would have turned on me soon after the city was safe, but now we'll never know if she truly turned over a new leaf... #NatureAlwaysWins #BatmanAlwaysPuns

What's that, Alfred? A message coming through on the police SWAT radio channel? But all the SWAT teams left during the evacuation! Turns out it's coming from Commissioner Gordon's police radio, and that he has somehow tracked Scarecrow himself to an abandoned shopping center on the other side of town. It sounded like a trap to me, but what other choice did I have but to follw? When I arrived at the mall in the Batmobile, it turns out the militia had indeed captured Gordon, and as soon as I approached, they sent him down an elevator deep underground. A scan of the area showed a labyrinthine network of freshly excavated tunnels, so I had the bright idea to take the Batmobile down there. In order to do so, I had to attach the power winch to a stable point and gently lower the car down the wall, which is a little bit like rapelling (or abseiling?) down the side of a building in a tank.

But it was a good thing I brought the car, because who should show up to spring the trap but the Arkham Knight, again in a gigantic obnoxious vehicle, against which I had no chance of survival. I tried my best to drive like crazy in order to lure him through obstacles, into traps, and within range of the explosives that had been set for the excavation, which did do some damage to his excavator. But in the end he cornered me and confirmed that he was the one who told Scarecrow about Barbara's identity. It was pretty clear now that the Arkham Knight was not a career criminal, but rather someone with knowledge of my darkest secrets. But before I had time to puzzle about something similar Scarecrow had said about my darkest secrets in the airship, the Knight's excavator surged forward and I just barely had time to eject myself free before my trademark ride was crushed to pieces. At first I was sad, but only until I realized that this joyous turn of events meant no more drone combats or obstacle racing challenges!

However, it also meant that the Arkham Knight had easily bested me in a battle of resources, which made him assume that he could best me in a battle of wits as well. He allowed me to get close to rescuing Commissioner Gordon before cornering me once again (this time with a simple handgun) and making a classic supervillain mistake: revealing their grand plans and goals right when they think they've won. In the Arkham Knight's case, this included his secret identity. Now in deference to the sheer magnitude of this plot point (and the opportunity to tell you whether my initial guess was correct), I'm hiding the rest of this post behind a Read More link. So if you don't care about being #SpoilerFree, please click the link and continue...

Batman: Arkham Knight, Part 8 - Drones in the City of Fear

It's a good thing I was on top of that rooftop defending Ivy's plant against militia forces when Scarecrow detonated the Cloudburst device, dispersing his fear toxin throughout every corner of Gotham City. Police officers, militia soldiers, super-villain henchmen, random thugs: none were spared from the grip of abject terror that did in fact make last night's demonstration at the diner look like child's play. Another reason why it was lucky that I wasn't on the streets during the blast was because the toxin cloud short-circuited the Batmobile, and it would not have been fun to be stuck inside a non-operational car while surrounded by people bent on tearing each other apart.

Finding a way to fix my ride was top priority, because I was sure to need the Batmobile's firepower to destroy the Cloudburst, wherever it was, since while that thing was operational, the gas cloud was too strong for Ivy's plants to disperse. However it became even more urgent since I received word that the Arkham Knight was sending a squadron of drones to take out Ivy's plant, which wouldn't be able to withstand concentrated heavy artillery fire for long. But the fact that the tanks could operate inside the gas cloud meant that the same could be true for the Batmobile. And I figured that my best chance of finding out how to make that happen was from the inventor of the Cloudburst, Simon Stagg.

Stagg was still on board his airship, but he had apparently regained consciousness, freed himself from his quarantine cell, and hidden somewhere out of reach of the armed militia soldiers who were searching for him. It was a simple matter of clearing the room and using his fingerprint reconstruction that I had on file to track Stagg to a Han Solo-esque compartment in the floor. He informed me that the Arkham Knight's tanks were using something called "Nimbus Cells" to operate within the Cloudburst's radius, and he was kind enough to gift me one from his personal supply. The only problem was that I had to physically insert the cell into the Batmobile, which would mean exposing myself to more of Scarecrow's toxin.

Normally I wouldn't be troubled by this proposition: back at the Asylum, I took three doses of Scarecrow's gas, plus two direct injections, all in a single night. But this time I was contaminated with Joker's blood, which meant his twisted persona was just waiting for a chance to take control of my entire psyche. It was slow and careful going to get the Batmobile in working condition again while also fending off crazed Scarecrow thugs, but the satisfying roar of the engine once I completed the task was more than enough of a reward for my steady hand. Now it was time to head back to Divinity Churchyard where the Arkham Knight was mounting his drone attack.

The group of at least 40 drones I encountered was easily the largest and most varied group I had seen so far. Of course you had mostly "Rattlers," the standard tank with a single cannon, but these were now supplemented by "Twin Rattlers," which had a  second cannon pointing in the same direction. I also saw plenty of heavily-armored "Diamondbacks," which not only required two shots from my 60mm cannon destroy, but they also had the ability to fire three cannon blasts at once, spread out in a 45-degree angle. But the most dangerous type of tank was referred to as the "Mama" (departing from the snake theme), which boasted a mounted homing missile launcher. There were also flying mortar-launching "Dragons," and at one point they airlifted in a long range missile launcher, which could launch homing missiles and ground cannons simultaneously. Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me.

The only advantage I had over the drone army (aside from my dashing good looks) was that the advanced computer systems on the Batmobile allowed me to move and fire at the same time, whereas the Arkham Knight's drone forces were limited to doing one or the other at any given point. Also, my heads-up display was able to show me the trajectory of incoming cannon blasts, which showed up red if I was in the line of fire or blue if I was in the clear. I still have nightmares about those intersecting red and blue lines endlessly flitting across my field of vision. It also helped to have Poison Ivy on my side, who would periodically cause savage vines to burst through the ground to destroy a tank or three. Without her help, I don't think even the Batmobile would have stood a chance against such odds.

But believe it or not, even after such an epic battle, I wasn't in the clear yet. Upon receiving news of my victory, the Arkham Knight dispatched a group of his newest, biggest "Cobra" tanks to patrol the area and eradicate me once and for all. These things were so well-armored that the only strategy I could employ was to follow them around like a facebook stalker long enough for my targeting computer to acquire a lock onto the main exhaust port in the back, after which one well-placed shot would destroy them. And to make matters worse, the Arkham Knight himself decided to join the fray in his very large, very fast very NON-drone tank. While its unique 360-degree constantly-spinning sensor tower made it a bitch to avoid, its presence on the battlefield was actually a blessing in disguise, because attached to the front of the tank was the Cloudburst!

It took me a while to eliminate all the patrolling Cobras, and even longer to scan the Arkham Knight's tank to identify a weakness without being detected, and even knowing the vehicle's schematics, it was still a harrowing ordeal. The main gun was fed by four distinct power supplies, all of which I had to disable before I could start taking shots at the Cloudburst. But even after completing stage 1 of my plan, the tank had enough secondary firepower that the only way to stay alive was to take a shot in tank mode, quickly transform into car mode, and then run like hell to escape the surprisingly fast pursuit. But after a seemingly endless battle, I finally disabled both the tank and the cloudburst, then heroically rescued the Arkham Knight before the resulting explosion. I can't tell you how much I was relishing some alone time with my newest enemy...

Part 9: A Spoiled Knight Unmasked

Batman: Arkham Knight, Part 7 - The Root of the Problem

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 6: Ivy and Harley

As hard as it was to suffer through fear toxin-induced hallucinations of the horrific death of Jason Todd, the real-life situation back at the quarantine cells was even more dire. Robin had brought the first two Joker patients back to their cells as we defeated them, while I scouted out our next adversaries. But before we could return the unconscious Johnny Charisma to custody, we were waylaid by Harley Quinn. Robin did a nice job of distracting the Joker's former sidekick while I swooped in for the takedown assist. But when we returned with the incapacitated villains, we were met with a disturbing sight: the other two patients who were contaminated with Joker's TITAN-infected blood, Christina Bell and Albert King, had been shot dead! And the perpetrator of this heinous act was none other than the fourth Joker patient, mild mannered Henry Adams!

Allow me to clarify the implications of what we just witnessed. I had drawn two conclusions from my work with the infected Joker patients. Since three of the four patients with Joker's blood in them started developing Joker-like attributes - green hair, white skin, homicidal tendencies, and a flare for the dramatic - I deduced that Joker's blood somehow made him who he was, and thus that anyone with Joker's blood in them would eventually BECOME just like Joker. The second conclusion was admittedly more of an assumption than a deduction, and it involved the fourth Joker patient, Henry Adams. I assumed that his lack of symptoms meant that he was somehow immune to the transformation brought along by Joker's blood, and thus that we could use something in him to pinpoint a cure. Seeing what had happened to Henry, seemingly before our eyes, disproved the second conclusion, while putting a big fat QED next to the first.

Henry explained to me that Joker's blood had indeed been affecting him from the start, but that he was able to hide the mental and physical signs from Robin and me - which is why neither of us suspected that it was Henry who sabotaged our computer systems and allowed Harley to enter the facility. He assumed - perhaps rightly so - that his ability to manipulate the Joker disease inside him meant that he was more highly evolved than the other three patients, and he considered their elimination to be "purifying the gene pool." But as Henry executed the unconscious Johnny Charisma right in front of me, something fascinating and terrifying happened. It seems that the little bit of Joker inside me was just as outraged at this senseless loss of life as the Batman part of me, and for a moment, I let the murderous rage take hold. My fists clenched, my teeth gnashed together... and my eyes turned a sickening Joker-green. This change wasn't lost on Henry, who at that moment realized that I was the fifth and by far most highly-evolved Joker patient. Then in true service of evolution, he turned the gun on himself and fired.

This change wasn't lost on Robin either, who all of a sudden realized who the fifth cell was meant for. Harley was inconsolable having lost four more versions of her beloved Mistah J., and after Robin easily locked her in a cell, he tried to convince me to submit to the same fate. His reasoning was sound: even if I successfully stopped Scarecrow, I would still eventually become a version of the Joker too powerful for anyone to stop. I considered his proposal briefly; Tim Drake was a well-trained and capable crime fighter who might very well have what it takes to stop a villainous plot of this magnitude on his own. But then I remembered what happened to Jason Todd, or as the Joker put it in the video he took of Jason's death, "what happens when you drag your friends into this little game of ours," and I realized that I could not put my friend and partner at risk again. This was my battle and I had to see it through to the end. So I pretended to acquiesce, but at the last minute pulled the old switcheroo and threw Robin into the cell.

Seeing as Tim was safely locked away, I figured this would be a good time to tell him what happened to Barbara. I knew it wouldn't make his imprisonment any easier to handle, but at least he wasn't in a position to act out of emotion and put himself in danger. But relating the night's events to Robin brought to mind a message I saw scrawled across the wall of the Clock Tower when I was investigating Oracle's capture by the Arkham Knight: "This is what happens when you drag your friends into this little game of ours." That's right, it was the same phrase used by Joker when he shot Jason Todd. The only people who could have heard Joker utter that phrase were the members of my team who watched the video... and Jason Todd himself, moments before his death. IF he was in fact killed in that old abandoned wing of Arkham Asylum where the Joker had held him captive. Wasn't the fact that he died as a result of that gunshot wound more of an assumption than a deduction?

This was my first major clue as to the identity of the Arkham Knight, but I didn't have time to follow up on it just now, as I still had to help Poison Ivy revive her tree, so that she could produce enough of her anti-fear toxin spore to save the city. While using the sonar attachment on the Batmobile to locate the roots, Pamela Isley informed me that the tree for which I was searching was sacred to the ancient Miagani people, who called her Aiyana, meaning "eternal bloom." {So I guess Miagani is supposed to be a Native American name, which actually makes more sense than Italian, given the pre-immigration history of real life New York.} Once I gained access to the excavation tunnels for the planned Gotham Subway extension and revealed the roots with a sonar blast, Ivy proved that the tree's name was accurate.

Using her ability to genetically modify plants on a molecular level, Poison Ivy caused the ancient tree to explode out of the ground and grow several stories tall. It was so powerful that one of the branches was able to wrap itself completely around the Batmobile and bring it up to the surface, eliminating the need for a return journey. But all this seismic activity also drew the attention of the Arkham Knight, who deployed a militia company on a nearby rooftop to attack the tree with RPG's and heavy machine gun fire before Ivy was able to strengthen her protective bark enough to protect it. I grappled up to the roof and dealt with the enemy force while Ivy's tree hardened. But before I had any time to savor this small victory, Scarecrow detonated the Cloudburst...

Batman: Arkham Knight, Part 6 - Ivy and Harley

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 5: Gunrunners and Airships

Only now, after Scarecrow made his daring escape with the Cloudburst device and I was left staring at a gaping hole in the airship's fuselage, did the villains release the location of their hostage, Barbara Gordon. They probably just wanted to prevent me from following their helicopter, but I had no choice: I had to save Oracle. It turns out she was locked in his penthouse in Chinatown, the same place from which I rescued Poison Ivy. I watched helplessly as gas flooded the room and abject terror took over the heart of my ally. Apparently the fearsome visage I cultivate to strike fear into the hearts of my enemies was too much for Barbara to handle, drawing her to the gun that Scarecrow had left on the table in the room with her. When her shots at me took no effect due to the bullet proof glass, she turned the gun to her temple. As she pulled the trigger, my Joker hallucination drifted between us and mimicked the suicidal act on himself. When he passed, only Oracle's lifeless body was left in the room.

It was perhaps the hardest thing I had to watch in my crime fighting career - in person at least; I can think of a certain videotape sent to me by Joker regarding another former member of my team that was decidedly more disturbing. However, seeing Barbara in that isolation chamber gave me an idea stemming back to seeing Poison Ivy in that same chamber earlier in the night: Ivy was immune to Scarecrow's toxin! If I could enlist her help to somehow use that immunity to save the city, we might be able to foil Scarecrow's plan before he even got the Cloudburst online. Of course getting Ivy's cooperation was not a sure thing by any means. Poison Ivy is definitely "mono Green" to take a phrase from the popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering, and looking at the color wheel, my two colors (Blue and Black, obvi) are in direct opposition to Green. But Gotham City's only hope depended on us putting aside our differences.

It was surprisingly easy for me to appeal to Pamela's sensibilities, rather than making empty threats: I just brought up the simple fact that if Crane was able to release his toxin, the results would not be good for plant life throughout the city. Not only would all the humans be too overcome with fear to take care of them, but the massive chemical cloud would likely block out sunlight and even rainfall. After that little talk, Ivy readily revealed that she had developed a spore to counteract the fear toxin, but that she couldn't produce enough for the whole city on her own. On her request, I took her to the Botanical Gardens so she could cast Speak with Plants on some of the old growth trees there to enlist their help (since she's apparently a Druid from Dungeons & Dragons now...). The trees were in bad shape after decades of pollution and construction, but luckily Lucius Fox had developed a sonar attachment for the Batmobile, which would allow me to locate the roots so that Ivy could revive them.

I gave Ivy the Bat Phone that was previously in Commissioner Gordon's possession, and she majestically sealed herself inside the trunk of her tree. Meanwhile, I took the Batmobile into the secure parking area below Wayne Tower to pick up Lucius's newest invention, but no sooner did I arrive on what I thought was my home turf, than I was attacked by a squadron of drone tanks. I don't know if the Arkham Knight tracked me here or if he somehow knew that this was a base of operations of mine - which wouldn't surprise me, considering he knew that Barbara would be in the clock tower. I pondered this and other mysteries (or rather, had Alfred look into them) as I methodically eliminated the drone threat, picked up my new upgrade, then locked the building down.

But before I had a chance to find the "root" of the problem, I got a call from the secret quarantine cells in the movie studios (where I had Robin working on a cure for the Joker infection). However, the call wasn't from my trusty sidekick, but from Harley Quinn, who had somehow infiltrated the facility! What is it with villains knowing all my secrets tonight!? Harley had a large armed force surrounding the entrance, including a huge brute wielding a Team Fortress-style minigun, but I was able to use a recorded sample of Harley's voice to trick her henchmen into various traps. Using the same method to gain access to the inside of the facility, Robin and I were able to finish off the rest of Harley's goons, but not before she allowed the three infected Joker patients to escape and set up shop in various sound stages throughout the movie studio.

With Tim and I working together, and also receiving technical support from Henry Adams, the one patient who was immune to Joker's blood, we took out the other three Jokers rather easily. Christina Bell surrounded herself with armed henchmen in the haunted house set, Albert King readied himself for an all-out brawl on the western set, and Johnny Charisma made me sit through an agonizing musical performance, which was enough to hold his attention while Robin snuck around the room disarming the various explosive devices he had set up. But the real challenge was that working with Robin brought up some pretty traumatizing fear toxin-induced hallucinations involving Tim Drake's predecessor. For those of you not familiar with this case file, Jason Todd, who became the second Robin after Dick Grayson changed to the Nightwing persona, was captured by Joker and brutally tortured in an abandoned wing of Arkham Asylum. Now that Joker was inside my head, he had no qualms about forcing me to relive the experience - how he broke Jason's mind, turned my friend against me using methods that would make even Ramsay Bolton blush, then put him out of his misery just as he was about to reveal my deepest secret...

This is getting too emotional for me... I have to take a moment to regain my composure before continuing with my story. As long as we're on Spoiler Alert mode: here's Woody Harrelson reacting to Season 5 of Game of Thrones to watch while you wait.

Part 7: The Root of the Problem

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

Batman: Arkham Knight, Part 4 - Chasing Oracle

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 3: Enter Fear Toxin

After Commissioner Gordon stormed out in anger, I was able to use Oracle's supercomputer to hack into the CCTV cameras surrounding the clock tower to identify her kidnappers. Scrolling through the footage showed the Arkham Knight carrying her out and placing her in his personal transport vehicle. I was also able to scan the custom tires on the vehicle so that I could follow their tracks through Gotham using the Batmobile's sonar function. To make a long story short - I was sidetracked along the way by a subterranean bomb planted by Arkham Knight's forces and I also had to destroy a radio tower that was blocking Alfred from opening the bridge leading to Miagami Island {which I'm assuming is meant to be an Italian name, given the history of actual New York, but it just sounds Japanese to me} - the tire trail ended in a brutal car crash.

Anyone familiar with the underwhelming prequel to Arkham Asylum will recall that I once had the need to investigate crimes all over the city, so I developed technology that allowed me to create a holographic reconstruction of the event of a crime by scanning evidence at the scene. Using this feature, I discovered not only that the driver wasn't wearing his seatbelt, but that Barbara had caused the crash by hitting the driver with pepper spray, then jumping clear before impact. The Arkham Knight survived the crash unscathed and recaptured his prey almost immediately, but not before Oracle managed to crawl away and hide an encryption chip in the rubble. With a little work, the frequencies contained therein would surely allow me to track Arkham Knight's broadcast location. Even when under pressure, members of my organization never cease to amaze me.

I drove over to Wayne Tower to drop the chip with Lucius Fox, but since he's not half as good a cryptography expert as Barbara, it would take him some time to decode the signal. This delay was just as well, since just then I received an urgent message from one of my campiest adversaries, the Riddler. In this message, which was actually projected onto the side of a nearby skyscraper, Nigma revealed that he had captured my sometime ally Catwoman and was going to kill her if I didn't head to the abandoned Pinkney Orphanage and play one of his silly games. I decided I had better comply, since it wouldn't be fair to leave Selena to die, but as I was grappling over there, the strangest thing happened. I was charging up a grapnel boost as usual, but when I hit the side of the building to which I was attached, I was attacked by a grotesque creature, the size of a man, but with the leathery skin and wings of a bat. {I don't know if the timeline of this game is before or after or totally separate from Kirk Langstrom's escapade from the Animated Series, but for us fans, it's pretty clear that we're dealing with Man-Bat!} I filed this information away and continued to the orphanage.

It seems that Nigma took it personally when I chose not to complete his side mission back at the GCPD, so he made things a little more personal. Upon arriving at the orphanage, I found Catwoman tied to a chair. It was pretty easy to avoid the (what I assumed was) electrified floor and free her from her bonds, but that's when the real fun started. Streaming into the room was a veritable army of anthropomorphic robots - think those little bouncing guys from the Streets of Rage series. With the two of us working together, it didn't take long for Catwoman and I to clear the room, especially since we didn't have to worry about using only non-lethal tactics. After the sparks flew (in more ways than one), Catwoman explained that she met with the Riddler of her own accord (he offered her a job of the cat burgling variety), but he subsequently tricked her and fitted her with an explosive collar that would only be disarmed if I solved 10 increasingly taxing challenges.

I felt bad for the kitty, but she would have to wait for now, since at that moment Lucius informed me that he had tracked the Arkham Knight's forces to the tunnel network underneath the city. On the way there I got a call from Robin, who I had stationed at the secret quarantine cells at the movie studio (where I took Jim Gordon in last episode's flashback) to try and synthesize a cure for the Joker infection in my blood. Now it's important to note that, despite their romantic relationship, I neglected to tell Tim that Barbara had been kidnapped. I needed his attention focused on finding a cure, and if he heard what happened, he was liable to do something rash. I know it wasn't the morally correct thing to do, but in the world of costumed heroes and villains, you don't always have the luxury of taking the ethical high ground. Speaking of the Joker, I should also mention that the fear toxin-induced hallucinations of my former arch nemesis were still following me around, and needless to say, the fragmented part of Joker's psyche was thrilled to keep Robin in the dark.

Infiltrating the Arkham Knight's hideout led to our second face-to-face confrontation, only this time there was no glass between us and he managed to get the drop on me. While I was pinned under his boot and gun, the Knight spouted off some more insider info about my suit - namely that he knew both that it was titanium tri-weave fiber and exactly where it was vulnerable to point blank gunfire (spoiler alert, it's on the sides, just underneath the ribs). He put a bullet there, hoping to weaken me for the barrage of thugs he proceeded to send my way, but luckily I had stored a dose of Bullet Repellant Bat Injection in my utility belt for just such an occasion. I was of course able to stem the tide of incoming assailants, thanks in no small part to a timely assist from the Batmobile, but the Arkham Knight once again escaped, leaving the discovery of his secret identity for another time.

Part 5: Gunrunners and Airships

Batman: Arkham Knight, Part 3- Enter Fear Toxin

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 2: Ace Chemicals

There was no route into the Ace Chemicals facility other than to take the Batmobile back over, blow a hole in a high wall, then use a crane to maneuver a conveniently ramp-shaped piece of metal into place in order to launch myself inside. The inner workings of that facility were cavernous enough to allow me to drive unhampered, which may become important later. At the end of the line, Scarecrow had a cadre of armed thugs systematically loading canisters of chemicals into the central mixing chamber. While taking them all out, I noticed that the Arkham Knight had trained some of his militia members to be medics, with the ability to revive one of their fallen comrades a limited amount of times during each encounter. I guess it was only a matter of time before someone used my zero-body-count policy against me.

Once I cleared the room and confronted Scarecrow, he responded to my threat by threatening to kill Barbara Gordon! My first thought was: How did he know she was working for me? My first action was to get her on Bat-Facetime to warn her, but it appears I was too late, as her feed cut out mid-conversation. It could have just been crappy AT&T service, but at this point I had to assume the worst. And it turns out the worst was that Scarecrow had used the time I had spent conversating to make a quick getaway and lock me in the mixing chamber, with his bomb counting down to explosion. Rather than look for a way out, I went to the computer terminal and immediately started to prepare a neutralizing, hoping that I could synthesize enough to reduce the blast radius while still getting out in time, but resigning myself to a heroic sacrifice for the sake of saving Gotham.

I don't know if you've ever tried it, but moving highly volatile canisters across a room that's about to explode is slow and monotonous work. But it was worth it to hear the computer announce a 25% reduction in the blast radius for each of the first two canisters I was able to prepare. But upon inserting the third canister, I didn't hear the expected 75% reduction in blast radius, but rather a 1,000% INCREASE! I wheeled around to examine the computer, which I was sure had to be malfunctioning, only to find myself face-to-face with a pistol held by... the Joker!

It was at this point that I knew I was affected by Crane's fear toxin, since the Joker was dead: I saw him die and watched his body become a pile of ashes at the GCPD morgue. But his appearance in my hallucination triggered an involuntary memory into my recall tube: It was that time I invited Commissioner Gordon to my remote quarantine facility not too long ago. I showed him my four "patients" - performer Johnny Charisma, professional boxer Albert King, corporate executive Christina Bell, and harmless retiree Henry Adams. All four received transfusions of Joker's TITAN-infected blood back during the Arkham City affair, and the disease had been altering them, making them look and act more and more like the Joker. Actually, it only affected three of the four patients, Henry Adams was somehow immune to the toxin, which means I would have to use his blood to find a cure.

Important point: I told Commissioner Gordon that five people were infected with Joker's blood, yet I only had four in my custody. It seems perfectly obvious that the the fifth victim is yours truly - I mean, I was the victim of Joker's first blood transfusion towards the beginning of Arkham City, and who knows whether that cure manufactured by Mr. Freeze was 100% effective in ridding it all from my system. Joker's appearance in my fear toxin-addled hallucinations just proved that conclusion. Thankfully the memory/hallucination festivities didn't take much time in the real world and there was still plenty of time to use the Batmobile's power winch to tear down a wall and then use the Batmobile's awesome speed to escape from Ace Chemicals before it went up in flames.

I knew I had a duty to let Commissioner Gordon aid in the the search for his daughter, so I picked him up from the GCPD and sped over to the Clock Tower to look for clues. After clearing away Arkham Knight's drone tanks in the streets surrounding the building and the armed guards he had stationed to guard it, I entered the secret apartment, only to be met with another hallucination: the night Joker singlehandedly transformed Batgirl into Oracle by shooting Barbara Gordon in the spine. I was only shaken out of it by her father's arrival into the room. I knew that I had to use Oracle's super computer to gather enough evidence to track her whereabouts, but I also knew that activating the computer in front of Gordon would reveal her secret identity as my sidekick. But in desperate times like these, sometimes a paradigm shift is necessary. Needless to say, Jim was pissed when he found out Barbara worked for me, throwing down the Bat Phone I had given him in disgust, and leaving to embark on a search himself.

Part 4: Chasing Oracle

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