Escape from Arkham-Gotham, Here I Come!

Link's hand was cold and strong, like an iron vise.

The instant he grabbed Harley, she turned without hesitation and followed him into the deeper darkness behind them.

Behind them came the prisoners' roars and the guards' gunfire.

Ahead lay an unknown underground passage reeking of rust and mildew.

"This way!"

Link's voice echoed through the narrow passage.

He never even looked back. It was as if he had a perfect map in his head and knew every turn and every fork.

Harley stayed close behind him, her heels tapping a rapid beat against the damp concrete.

She could hear footsteps drawing closer behind them, along with the frenzied barking of police dogs.

They'd been spotted!

"We're going to get trapped!" Harley shouted between breaths.

Link didn't answer. He stopped at a junction crowded with old pipes.

He glanced at an iron valve almost completely buried in dust, reached out, and wrenched it hard in an unlikely direction.

Rumble!

With a tremendous screech of metal, a heavy blast gate at least half a meter thick crashed down from the ceiling, sealing off the way they had come.

The pursuers' curses and pounding were cut off, leaving only dull, futile echoes.

Harley stopped and stared, dumbfounded, at the seamless gate.

Who was this man?

How did he know about a defense mechanism Arkham had abandoned decades ago?

Link acted as though he had done nothing worth mentioning and turned to keep running.

"Keep up. We don't have time."

They spent nearly another ten minutes winding through the maze of underground passages.

When a damp sea breeze carrying the tang of salt rushed toward them, they finally saw the exit.

It was a drainage outlet leading to a dock at the edge of Arkham Island.

Freedom was right in front of them.

But when they crawled out and saw the dock, Harley's heart sank.

A GCPD armored tactical vehicle stood in the middle of the dock, its glaring headlights lighting the whole area like day.

Seven or eight fully armed SWAT officers with assault rifles had formed a semicircular defensive line, guarding the only usable patrol speedboat behind them.

They were trapped.

"We're screwed..." Despair crept into Harley's voice.

Link, however, remained remarkably calm.

Crouched in the outlet's shadow, he swept his dark eyes across the scene.

Eight officers, spread in a fan and covering one another. No obvious gap in their fields of fire.

Charging in would be suicide.

He turned and whispered something in Harley's ear.

Harley froze for a moment, then her signature smile spread across her face—wild and excited.

The next second, she leaped from the shadows on the other side and shrieked loud enough to split the night as she ran away from the dock.

"Puddin'! I'm over here! Come get me!"

Every officer's attention snapped toward her, their guns swinging to point in her direction.

"Target spotted! It's Harley Quinn!"

"Don't move! Get on the ground!"

In that split second, Link slipped silently into the cold, black water beneath the dock like a fish.

The officers were so focused on Harley, who was jumping around and taunting them, that no one noticed the movement underwater.

Holding his breath, Link quickly swam beneath the dock.

He looked up through a gap between the planks and picked out an officer standing at the dock's edge.

Chaos Force, activate!

An invisible wave of suggestion flowed straight into the officer's mind.

No elaborate illusion. Just one thought:

Something's moving... under the water... something huge... slimy... with teeth...

The officer's wary expression went rigid.

His pupils contracted as he stared at the black water beneath his feet.

It was as though he could see a terrifying deep-sea beast rising slowly toward him, its enormous jaws opening wide.

"Aaah!"

His scream shattered the SWAT team's formation.

"In the water! There's a monster in the water!"

As if he had lost his mind, he raised his assault rifle and sprayed bullets into the water at his feet.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Bullets burst against the surface, throwing up sprays of water, while splinters flew everywhere.

"You've lost it! What the fuck are you doing? Stop!" the team leader roared, rushing to restrain him.

But orders could not suppress fear that reached into the soul.

The other officers were stunned by the sudden chaos. Rifles raised, they couldn't decide whether to keep aiming at Harley or watch for the "monster" underwater.

Their entire position fell into disarray.

Now!

Harley seized her chance and rolled behind a shipping container.

As every officer looked down at the water, Link hauled himself aboard the speedboat from the far side.

He slipped a piece of wire into the ignition and twisted his wrist.

Vroom!

The speedboat's engine roared to life!

"Shit! Someone's stealing the boat!" The team leader finally caught on.

But it was too late.

Laughing, Harley burst out from behind the container and dove onto the moving speedboat.

Link yanked the wheel. The boat carved a white arc across the water, then shot through the night toward the brilliantly lit city like an arrow from a bow.

Bullets traced lines through the water behind them, striking only the sea as the boat sped farther away.

Aboard the speedboat, Harley faced the rushing sea wind and laughed with the reckless abandon of someone who had survived by a hair.

Link kept a steady hand on the wheel and glanced back.

Arkham Island, where he had been imprisoned for countless days and nights, was shrinking fast. Its fires and flashing police lights looked like a grand fireworks display to see him off.

He turned forward again.

The outline of Gotham City, formed by countless skyscrapers and neon lights, looked like a steel beast crouched in the darkness, slowly opening its arms.

At last, Link's lips curved into a cold smile.

Gotham, here I come.