Edward remained calm. "I'm wearing an explosive sensor. If you kill me, everything around here will explode, and you'll die here too."
Harvey kept his gun raised as he shifted to shield Ririko behind him.
"Ririko, are you all right?" he asked quietly.
Ririko sat on the low pedestal, watching the show unfold before her. "Of course I'm fine. Someone just failed at his maze and made a fool of himself," she said cheerfully.
Harvey told Riddler firmly, "Since I've solved the maze, I'm taking her with me. Let's leave it at that."
Harvey had never been Edward's target. After all, killing him wouldn't generate much public discussion.
The countdown ticked down to the final three seconds.
Edward lowered his gun and tilted his head slightly, declaring Batman's defeat in this battle of wits. "You can go."
Harvey said nothing more. He pulled Ririko up from the pedestal and stayed protectively beside her as they headed toward the tunnel they had come through.
In the final second of the countdown, a hole was suddenly smashed through the wall beside the platform from the outside.
Rubble and rebar scattered with an explosive crash, and a black figure stepped through the hole.
Batman stood before the wall he had smashed through, wearing a pair of heavy gravity gauntlets, their metal knuckles scuffed-
He had smashed through every wall along the way, cutting straight through all the stages without bothering with the riddles or the traps.
Riddler stood in the middle of the platform, staring at the demolished wall, at a loss for words over such a shameless way of clearing his maze.
"...Could you show a little respect for other people's rules?"
Before he had finished speaking, another deafening crash came from the opposite wall. Bricks shattered, dust billowed, and a towering