Arkham City.
Staring at the walls towering over twenty meters high, Brad tugged at his hair in amazement, walked over, and ran one hand along their outer surface.
"We don't have buildings this tall back home. Who's this wall supposed to keep out? Giants?"
Batman also looked up at the word "Arkham" welded to the top of the wall, a hint of surprise appearing in his eyes.
"No. Gotham City's government did once propose abandoning Arkham Asylum while carrying its design philosophy forward: buying up all of Gotham City's slums and building a prison city specifically for those insane criminals."
But that proposal obviously would never have passed. Wayne Enterprises had enough financial clout to sway a mayor's opinion, unless he wanted his approval ratings to plummet during the next election.
For the first time, the differences between the two worlds had revealed such an enormous gulf. Here, at Gotham City's geographical center, beyond the Gotham City Vanguard Bridge, an entire section of City Island had been enclosed by towering walls. The asylum and Blackgate Penitentiary had both been demolished, leaving only a city within a city exclusively for madmen.
"My reason for opposing this proposal was simple. Wherever there are people, dark things will happen. Lock a group of dark people inside a city, and there will still be those darker than the rest. They'll inflict their cruelty on those who are relatively less depraved. Gathering all the persecutors together will only create new victims."
Brad neither agreed nor disagreed. He patted the wall, feeling the faint vibrations that came back.
"The thickness is pretty impressive too. Do we smash our way through, or climb over?"
"No."
Batman rejected Brad's suggestion for such a conspicuous entrance, turned, and walked away.
"We'll use a few Batman methods."
Ten minutes later,