//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Decontamination // Story: Batmare: Arkham Asylum // by TheDarkMare16 //------------------------------// I turned away from the accursed message and saw that Whistler is treating Mike, who is still in trauma after his experience with Zsasz. I don’t blame him. Several guards are watching and aiming guns at the unconscious sociopath while others are kneeling to dead guards and doctors killed by the murderer. I called Oracle on my communicator to give her an update. “Batmare, you’re picking this up?” Oracle asked. I responded. “Oracle, I’m here,” I replied. “The map of Arkham Island just vanished off the network,” Oracle said, stating more updates of what that psychotic clown has done. “She’s in control of the security system, she isolated it from the grid,” I added. “That’s not all she’s done. Police feeds are stating that she planted bombs around Manehattan, said she’ll detonate them if anypony steps foot on Arkham Island. It’s being suppressed at the moment, but the story will break anytime now,” she replied. “She’s lying, it’s just a diversion to keep ponies away,” I retorted. “How do you know that?” she asked, dumbfounded of the statement. “I know her,” I replied darkly. I turned off my communicator and began looking for a way out. Bon-Bon trapped us in the Pacification Chamber, but I’ve spotted a ventilation duct system with a grate guarding it on the left corner on the top of the room. I knelt down and pulled the grate. Two bolts released the firm hold of the grate’s connection with the wall, and then I lifted the grate and put it aside and crawled in the shaft. “Bon-Bon thinks she had me trapped up in here. She never was very bright,” I commented to myself. I crawled in the shaft, with my knowledge of every pathway of the ventilations all over Arkham. Later, I’d received an update from Oracle. “Batmare, I’m patching you to the guard’s radio feed,” Oracle stated. Static filled my communicator as it continues to calibrate for clarity. “Steve, more Blackgate prisoners, by the boiler!” a guard warned at a guard named Steve. “Who’s that behind them? Oh, my Celestia, it’s Mane-iac, she’s free! How’d she get out?” the guard shouted, sounding terrified. As soon as I was able to hear more, more static noise filled my communicator and the feed went down, probably destroyed as the putrid lowlifes killed those oblivious security guards. “Sorry, feed’s down. Coms have been going down like crazy, it’s not good, I’ll keep trying,” Oracle apologized and logged off. Right before I reached the end of the ventilation shaft, a small item is placed before me. It is a light green question mark in the form of a trophy. It is being lit by a fluorescent light bulb in the form of the mark. No doubt an item I need to collect after I defeat Mane-iac, knew there is definitely more around the island. I picked up item and a small tune rang. Need more later on. The exit is blocked by a grate. I used my left hind leg and pushed the grate until the bolts became loose and I kicked the grate. The shaft led me back to the Decontamination door, with Burlow currently working on the broken panel to gain access. Before I dropped down, Eddie finally unlocked the door and ran to the entrance of the chamber. I followed him and he touched a Plexiglas window with more guards and Blackgate inmates on the other side. I expected the worse but not this. Before that, I saw two more of those chattering blabbermouths and destroyed them with my Batarangs. As Eddie cried to the guards, who are defending against the rioting inmates, green gas spewed from the ducts inside the chamber and the gas begins to choke on them. The worst thing about this sickly, poisonous gas is that during the suffocation, the inmates and guards begins to laugh in a disturbing manner. The guards and inmates laughed insanely until they dropped dead. Laughing to death and suffocating to death with those yellow-stained, twisted, disturbing, and frightening smiles cemented on their stiff faces. I know what that stuff is. The intercom chimed in: “Warning: Decontamination room, toxins detected. Warning: Decontamination room: area sealed. The glass window is suddenly shut by an iron barricade window, shutting the guards and inmates, muffling their struggled gasps and sickening laughter until it stops. “Oh, Celestia, what is that stuff?” Eddie asked frantically. “Mane-iac Gas, listen, the room is full of toxin; anypony caught in there is dead!” I replied back. “Aren’t you going in there and help them?” Eddie asked. He’s right; there are probably survivors in the gas room, most likely above. I grappled up a shaft above me and crawled into the ventilation leading above the Decontamination room. I pushed the grate and landed above the room. “This isn’t a simple escape attempt, Mane-iac’s been planning this,” I said to myself. Above me, steel girders made several pathways to electrical wires and booths above. Ladders connected them for safe passage. Below me is a deathtrap; the disgusting, poisonous toxin blanketed the entire chamber in a sea of death and green. The bodies of the inmates and guards are the only residents inside this chamber. I could peer through and spotted the yellow smiles plastered on their faces. Luckily, Eddie is right. There are survivors, two of them. One a Pegasus and a Unicorn; they must’ve climbed to avoid their untimely demise to the toxin but I spotted the Unicorn hanging for dear life on the railing in front of me. “Over here, please!” the guard pleaded, clinging for life. I grabbed the back of his collar and placed him to safety beside me. “You’re going to be fine, stay here,” I said. I ran to the other girder and another guard, a mare, an Earth pony, appears to helping the Pegasus who is above me, hanging on the railing over the deadly drop. Before I ran to help him, the ladder leading above the pathway exploded, booby trapped by the Mane-iac. The ladder fell to the bottom and the two guards panicked. I blocked any debris from the explosion. The mare continues to encourage her terrified ally of my arrival. “Batmare’s here, just hang on a little longer, Steve!” the mare shouted. “I can’t, I’m going to fall!” Steve shouted alarmingly. I grappled to the railing and saved Steve from the drop. “I’m going after the animal that did this,” I said after placing Steve to safety. “Batmare, the extraction system! Steve was trying to get to the control panel at the end of the room!” the mare shouted. Before I continue on, I spotted a surviving Blackgate inmate clinging on at the platform at the end of the room. A griffon, angry that Mane-iac and her crew left him to die. I hate these lowlifes but no matter what, I save lives from any danger, even the ones who don’t deserve it. That’s the promise I made to my parents and myself. I glided to the platform and landed in front of the thug. The griffon grunted angrily. “I can’t believe she left me here, that-“ He looked up at me. “Great, all I need, Batmare,” he spat. He loathes me but he doesn’t want to die. I picked him up from his collar and on the platform to safety. Before he could react after looking up at me, I slammed my hoof on his head, knocking him out. I looked over to the side of the room and spotted the control panel that can purify the room and rid the sickly blanket. I used my batarang and threw it to the control panel, switching it on. The room is suddenly cleared of the gas as the extraction system sucked up the gas and clearing the room, leaving only the deceased bodies. I landed to the ground to progress. The intercom chimed: “Attention: air purity is now at normal level. Decontamination room access is now permitted." As soon as the intercom finished, I heard that disgusting and menacing laughter of the Mane-iac. She continued to cackle over the little progress I’ve did, and it’s not by a long shot. “Whoo hoo! Way to go Batmare, you rock, Mane-iac doesn’t stand a chance!” the mare cheered. As the door leading out of the Decontamination room opened, I spotted more of those irksome bigmouths chattering like they had a severe case of the shivers. I destroyed and galloped towards the Transfer Loop. The Transfer Loop is a maze-like segment of the Intensive Treatment building, leading to either the lobby or the holding cells. Several pathways leading to different areas in the facility laid out a disorienting pathway unless you memorized the entire maze of this inmate transfer. As I thought, I spotted more deceased faculty members lying on the ground. Some faculty has buckets on their heads with crudely painted smiles on the buckets, another horrible joke. Alongside, sickly green painted decorated the hallways with ‘ha ha!’ written everywhere and smiles on portraits of Warden Sharp. What is vaguely strange is that on the floor, green arrows are drawn on it, most likely to be a way to the Mane-iac. I know there is a trap at the end of the maze but I need to stop this madness before it gets out of hoof. The intercom chimed in but it’s not the familiar mare voice but an insane one: “What are you waiting for, Bats? I’m so close, you could almost taste me.” I galloped down the hallway filled with dead corpses towards the clown. While I am running down the loop, I spotted two Blackgate inmates, a griffon and changeling, charged at me, trying to surprise me. I countered the griffon by lifting him up and throwing him over my shoulder and roundhouse kicked the changeling to the ground. I landed on the griffon to perform a Ground Takedown and I grabbed the changeling’s legs and twisted them, breaking them and listening to the agonizing scream of the vile lowlife. Not even a challenge. I continue to run down the hallway to the end to the door with the Mane-iac’s face painted over it with more arrows following the pathway to my destination. I walked up to the painted door and the door opened automatically as I am about to encounter the Mane-iac once again.