"You... you really would have given it to me," Joker whispered, his voice failing as he slumped against a crate. "Even after everything I've done."
Finally, the Steel Mill. The air here was hot, smelling of sulfur and rot. Talia al Ghul was there, caught in the middle of a deadly game. And then, there was the Joker.
His ribs ached from a run-in with Two-Face’s thugs, but pain was a luxury he couldn't afford. Protocol 10 was a countdown clock ticking in the back of Hugo Strange’s twisted mind, and the Joker was dying, dragging Batman down into the grave with him. Batman Arkham City Game of the Year EditionBatm...
When the dust settled, the cure was in Batman's hand. He drank half, the color returning to his face, the fire in his veins cooling to a dull ache.
He plummeted into the dark, snapping his cape open at the last second to catch an updraft. He soared over the collapsed streets of Park Row, passing the neon ruins of the Ace Chemicals building. Below him, the city was a war zone. Political prisoners huddled around trash-can fires while TYGER guards patrolled the rooftops with high-tech snipers, their red lasers cutting through the blizzard. The air here was hot, smelling of sulfur and rot
The night stretched on, a gauntlet of villains and broken promises. He navigated the sunken ruins of Wonder City, a steampunk utopia buried beneath the filth of the modern slum. He fought Ra’s al Ghul in a realm of sand and spirits, proving his worth not as a successor, but as a guardian. Every victory felt hollow as the clock neared zero.
He moved toward the GCPD building, now a frozen fortress held by Mr. Freeze. The ice was beautiful and lethal, creeping up the brickwork like crystalline ivy. Inside, the temperature dropped to levels that would freeze a normal man’s lungs. "Victor!" Batman shouted into the hollow, echoing halls. His ribs ached from a run-in with Two-Face’s
Batman looked at the shimmering blue vial locked behind reinforced glass. He had hours left. Maybe less. His vision blurred for a second—a symptom of the Joker’s poisoned blood. He saw a flash of a laughing face in the shadows, but it was just a hallucination. "I’ll find her," Batman promised.