DISCLAIMER: If you're not familiar with the "Batman: Arkham" series of video games, go back now; I explain nothing.
*****
ARKHAM ASYLUM, 5:45 AM
The Batwing headed toward the mainland. Two-Face was committing a robbery in progress and Batman was heading out to stop him, having already tapped into the police channels to determine Dent's exact location. As he flew away from Arkham Island, his thoughts drifted back to the events that were still fresh in his mind. His hand was sore from the punch he administered that took out the Joker, his glove partially damaged. His fight with Poison Ivy left his chest feeling slightly crushed since he had inadvertently got caught in one of her tentacle traps. The rest of his body ached from the fight he had with Bane. This had been one of the busiest nights of his life. The only person he took no injury from at all was Harley Quinn, since he was able to dodge the elevator she tried to drop on him.
Batman's thoughts lingered on Harley. She was currently sitting all alone and crying in the Extreme Incarceration cell he placed her in at the Penitentiary, probably still lamenting away at the delusion that the Joker was going to break her out. Even in the extremely unlikely event that the Joker cared, he had a long road to recovery ahead of him; he wasn't going anywhere any time soon.
Batman felt his body temperature raise and his breath quicken. He couldn't get the thought of Harley sobbing into her hands behind bars out of his head. Without thinking, he turned the Batwing around and activated its comms system.
"Oracle, Harvey is robbing the Gotham Bank on Founder's Island. Send Nightwing to handle him; I still have some unfinished business to take care of."
Barbara replied,
"How did you even know he was here? I didn't find out until half an hour ago. You know what? Never mind. Is there anything I can do?"
"No. I'll be going into a communications black out shortly; I don't need any interruptions. I'll let you know if anything of interest happens."
He killed the link before Oracle could respond; Batman was many things, but a nice person wasn't one of them. He raised the Batwing to a higher altitude, placing himself above the clouds. The GCPD were still on the ground and he didn't want them, or anyone else, to know he was returning.
When he was in position, he placed the Batwing on autopilot and ejected himself from the aircraft. As he fell, he assumed a diving position and angled himself to approach the west end of the asylum and eventually opened his cape in order to glide to his destination: the Penitentiary. There were some cops hovering around the main entrance, so he landed softly on the upper scaffold where Zsasz had killed a few guards earlier in the night before he had arrived with the Joker in tow.
There were two policemen standing by the building's main entrance awaiting further orders. Batman peered over the concrete railing and stared at them. A couple of minutes passed by with them making small talk with each other before one of them offered a cigarette to the other. Out of habit more than anything else, they moved away from the entrance, headed down the flight of stairs, and placed themselves on the other side of the upturned ambulance. With their view of the door now blocked, Batman landed softly on the ground below and quietly slipped in.
He then quickly moved into the grating system set in the floor. There were three more cops in the lobby. He moved forward as far as he could. When the grating ended, he considered his options. With no smoke pellets to hide his presence (he wouldn't have used one anyway; he didn't want to alert anyone with suspicious activity), he decided to go with using a remote batarang to distract them. Lifting up on the grate access, he tossed the batarang and guided it to strike the floor behind the desk near the entrance. It caught their attention and one of the guards moved to check out the noise.
Batman felt himself getting impatient, though he didn't understand why. The heat and his pulse were getting worse; that noise should have attracted them all so he could make his move already! He put the thought aside for now and used his training to maintain his composure; he would figure out what was going on with himself later.
"Hey guys, check this out!" the policeman said. The other two
finally
made their way over to the desk and when he was sure none of them were looking, he exited the grate and continued on his path.
"Whoa! Is that what I think it is?" one cop asked.
Another replied, "Wow, we should keep it as a souvenir!"
The first cop responded, "Or sell it on ebay.
Who knows
how much money we could get off of this?"
The second cop said, "If it's cash you're after, sell it to Penguin; he'd pay top dollar for it!"
The third cop asked, "Where did it even come from?"
Batman counted the remote batarang as a loss; having used up the last of his explosive gel on the Joker, he had nothing to destroy it with. He made a mental note to start keeping homing beacons on his long range weapons.
Deftly making his way through the building, he entered the main cell block and moved along the left wall. He glanced down the first entryway, knowing who it lead him to. He then briefly thought about Poison Ivy, knowing that she would eventually be returned to her cell, having been found, somehow, by Gordon's men in the pit she and her plant monster had created earlier in the night. He gave her no further mind; the heat was intensifying. Instead, Batman made his way trough the entry and, with continued stealth (since there were two officers in Controlled Access), noiselessly slipped into Extreme Incarceration.
The first thing he noticed was how quiet it was. Harley had ceased crying, but as he moved to her cell, he noticed that she was still forlorn as she sat on her cot with her chin resting on her fists and her eyes staring blankly at the floor. It wasn't until he approached the bars that she acknowledged his existence.
"What do
you
want, B-man?" she asked in a defeated voice. "Come to rub it in? My Joker will free me; you'll see."
"Given his injuries, that could take a while."
Harley's demeanor changed rapidly. She shot over to the cell door and grabbed one of the horizontal bars. Her face was contorted in anger. "What did you do to him?" she asked in an accusing manner.
"What was necessary. Suffice it to say, he's not coming."
Using her arms, she pulled herself toward and pushed herself away from the bar she held while giving a growl. "You'll pay for what you've done!"
"I've already told you, Quinn: he doesn't love you. The Joker had you pegged for hired help since Day One. He wouldn't assist your escape regardless."
Harley closed her eyes, tilted her head down and to the right, and took a deep breath. "Says you, bat-breath." She began to sound defeated again. "I know him. My Puddin' would never abandon me."
This was going nowhere, though Batman had no idea where it was headed in the first place. Another oddity about his behavior, but again pushed to the side until later. He decided to change his tactics. "You used to roam these halls freely."