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Continuing through the asylum, Manbat lead the three with his natural sense of echolocation and memorised knowledge of the asylum. He even helpfully drew out a route on the printed map they had. "Normally this is the best route out of here," he began, "but because of the lockdown we have to navigate through the ducts." "No problem fer us," replied Sam with a shrug, "how else ya think we got here?" "This airduct here will lead you to the maintenance corridor. Go through them and reach another airduct in this storage room. Once you get past that, you'll be in a small cave that'll lead you outside. After that, navigate around to the Medical Facility via this route, they should have your items there." "Why would they put my gun and clothes there?" "Best place to have them tested for any evidence of possible crimes you committed, such as blood." At this, James felt his eyes tighten slightly at what they could find out from his jeans, as Sam replied: "Forensic testing huh? Well we DID find some blood of a cat on his hands even, this guy got sloppy on it. Well thanks a bunch Mr. Manbat..but you sure you can trust us?" "I know I can. I've seen enough lunatics to know what they look like." "Really? What about this guy?" He gestured towards James who merely stood around waiting to get out of the place, feeling claustrophobic already and rather nervous at the accusations. The bat gazed at him intently, flapping slowly before him with a piercing stare. James did not dare to move. ".......he's not insane." "No?" "But that doesn't make him harmless. Keep an eye on him." "Uhhh I'm right in front of your fucking face," said FG snarkily as Manbat flew back down to the ground. "None of you belong here anyway. Although I wonder about your rabbit friend back there." "Who Max? Awww my li'l buddy ain't...well uhh...he's sure not evil, I can tell ya that." "Sure about that?" "Scout's honour." "When were you in the Scouts, Sam?" said Max with suspicion and a raised eyebrow. "I find the idea of you being in the scouts to be highly bull." "Max, do not mock the great traditional days of when children learnt from their elders the greater things in life, such as the appreciation and respect of nature and physical activities as laid down by the great Sir Robert Baden-Powell." "Oh yeah, I bet there was a hell of a lotta physical activity in the scouts for you, husky." Max said this with a giggle as he poked his friend's belly teasingly. "Heeeey, no touchin' me outside the office!"

James and Manbat looked at each other during this in confusion as the bat said: "We can't waste time any longer. Go along the path I've given you. After that, you're on your own. I have my own path to follow." "Dealing with supervillains, gotcha, we understand perfectly sir. We're not exactly unfamiliar with the pursuit and capture of various insanely overwraught megalomaniacal criminals who pose potential threat to the entire world. Speaking of which, are you by any chance accompanying us along some way of this journey?" "I'll have to leave this area to head outside anyway, so yes." "Fantastic, let's move out boys!" And with that, they finally walked forwards, opening the duct Manbat had indicated in a small alcove of a room off the main hall. Traversing through to reach a maintenance corridor across another large room, through a variety of desks and lockers, they made their way through the backdoor of a rather shoddy-looking storage room. Old files and cabinets stood like pillars of ancient bureaucracy, lining up to where another airduct was. "Man I never crawled so much in my life," said James. He was once again on his hands and knees between Sam and Max. They always kept guard on him, while Manbat was out front. "Could be worse," quipped Sam, "you could be in Guantanamo." "Ooh I love those!" replied Max with fervour, "where ya mix up the mangos, then the lime and the coconut-" "Max, that was the Mango-Go drink you invented last week!" "It was still awesome, I coulda called it the Belafonte but it didn't have the same kick to it for kids!" "I'm not sure if kids'll appreciate the full flavour of laxatives you put into it." "But that's why it's called the Mango-Goooo!" Eventually they reached the end of the airduct, and felt the cold night air embrace them among the warming sight of external rock walls. Emerging onto a cliff face, they saw with a wondrous gasp from their lips an enormous mansion. Incredibly gothic, illuminated by the moon. Sitting across the water, the skyline of the city of Chicago stood as a backdrop to this archaic abode.

"What...the hell is that?" asked James before Manbat replied: "Arkham Mansion...well, that's what it's meant to be called but everyone calls it Daley's Folly." "Daley huh?" said Sam with intrigue. "As in Richard M. Daley, the longest-serving mayor of Chicago, renowned for the resurgence of tourism to the city, the modernization of the Chicago Transit Authority and rapid development of the city sides?" "Yes." "The same Daley who demolished the Meigs Field airport, hired private trucks to do city work with shady connections, and leased the city Skyway as well as the parking meter system to privatised funds that caused taxpayers' pay for parking meters to double, even quadruple?" "Indeed." "Geez Sam," blurted out the rabbity thing with a sense of awe, "How come ya know so much about this guy?" "Wikipedia." "Boy, they got info on everyone don't they? Ya think there'll ever be a Wikipedia about us, Sam?" "All in good time li'l buddy. That reminds me, I should donate a li'l to 'em when we get back-" "So where is this medical place you mentioned before?" James was looking around as much as he could over the island setting he saw, seeing only a mansion, a guard outpost, two guard towers and a large vine-covered palace to the far left as Manbat pointed out the way. "Go down the tunnel on the left through the door, and keep walking straight to another door across a courtyard. Through that door you'll find another area where the Visitor Center, Penitentiary and the Medical Facility is. It should be obvious which one is which. The doors outside aren't in lockdown because of some certain inmates managing to hack them open." "Righto, thanks. We just get our clothes and get the hell out of here, right?" "Well certainly away from here," said Sam, "and we can stick YOU somewhere else." Sam put a hefty paw on the raptor's shoulder, yet not in an entirely dominant manner. "So uh...any ideas on how to get down?" "Well...hmmm..." James flapped his arms slightly, and soon had an idea which sort of faltered. "Hey...maybe we can put these straitjackets together, like...tie them like a rope?" Admittedly Max had slashed at the jacket sleeves so they were wearing rather torn articles of them, but it was the only idea he could think of. Sam however noted it. "I think they're a li'l too short and torn for scaling down...but you DO got an idea there."

With that idea alone, he pulled his straitjacket off, revealing a somewhat pudgy brown belly that jiggled a little bit as he shrugged somewhat. James did the same, showing his own leaner brown-scaled form. Max had abandoned his long ago in favour of fuzzy nakedness. "This is where my scouting comes in handy," said the dog. He managed to tie the jackets into a single long rope, with a thick knot in the middle. "James, you grab this end, I'll grab the other, we'll scale down that way." "But what about Max?" "He can climb on me. I don't wantcha getting away after all." "So...considering I'm a much better climber than you with my claws, what makes you think I'll not let go of the rope if I go first?" "Well firstly, I'm going first. Secondly, I'll do this." Sam tied the jacket rope around the raptor's waist, before doing the same to himself. "It ain't handcuffs but it'll do." "Alright, fine, just for this cliff. Might as well be like a safety thing right? Not that far down anyway." "Hope ya don't mind the cold." The two carefully began to navigate down the cliff face, moving generally side by side with each other to not stray too far from the rope's length. Max rided on Sam's back, with a firm grip on his furry belly. "Hey Sam, I just thought of something!" "Ungh...w-whassat li'l buddy?" "If you broke yer back when climbing this, and I got on top of ya, would that be...Brokeback Mountin'?" ".....Max." "Yeah?" "Don't be such a fag." James giggled to himself slightly, even if he didn't understand the joke, smirking at the two who looked curiously. "What?" "S-s-sorry, you two are like a couple sometimes." "Well we ARE best buddies." "I mean...a couple...couple." The two only looked at James with a curious somewhat accusatory glare, leaving the raptor confused and sweating a bit. Was it surprise? Insult? He instead stammered out: "W-well hey guys I don't mind at all if you are or not, I'm just sayin-AAGH!" Distracted by his backpedalling, James lost his footing and fell from the cliff, dangling in the air for a moment before Sam was put off-guard by the raptor falling. He nearly lost his own footing himself, gripping the cliff face as hard as he could. The wind shearing against his furry back did not make things any better. "UGH, I'm gettin' too old for this buddy!" "That's what she said!" "Come on Max, we're in peril here! James, grab the cliff and climb back up a bit dammit!" The raptor did his best to grab on the cliff again and climb back up towards him, sighing with relief as he clung on harder before saying: "Uhhh...leeeet's not talk anymore until we're on the ground, okay?"

They nodded in agreement as they scaled down as carefully as they could, Sam moreso than James due to being less agile. Eventually they reached solid earth and with relief, Sam undid the straitjacket rope from him and his prisoner, saying: "Not like you can escape from here so no point with this." "I just want my jeans back and to get off this stupid island." "Hey, where did the bat guy go?" Max noticed that their vigilante of the night had disappeared to elsewhere, leaving the three on their own. "Well, ain't that a shame," said Sam. "I was rather intrigued by his possibility of becoming a complex long-standing acquaintance of ours with a richly-veiled backstory concerning the motives of justice and revenge." "He seemed a cool dude," said James with a sigh. "Hey, let's go to this medical place he talked about, sooner we get our clothes back the better." "Alright, but I hope we get better pants. I'm missing my hat." "Yer a sick puppy, Sam," replied Max. The Freelance Police walked on towards the tunnel past the guard outpost, where one guard was stationed behind an electrified field. Sneaking past him to save any hassle while traversing through the doors of a short rock tunnel, they soon reached another grand courtyard with another large building right beside them on the left. Two guard outposts stood to their right with one guard tower, and directly ahead was another door. "We better be careful," murmured Sam, "guards can easily spot us if we go direct." "Want me to do something about that?" James asked cautiously. "Maaaybe not, you are a killer after all." "Look, lemme prove it to you, I'll deal with the guards here but I won't kill them, just knock 'em out, okay? Come on, you have to trust me, you heard what Manbat said, I'm not insane!" "But he didn't say you were harmless, kid. Besides, it's too risky, they're all in communication with each other probably." "...maybe one of us should distract them while the other two run to the door?" "Hmm...that could work." "Alright, I'll be the bait." "Ah ah ah! Not givin' ya any chance to go off, Max'll be the bait." "Wha-...you trust HIM over me?! You think I'm a killer, and that your fuckbuddy's not some kind of mentalist?!" "Enough of that sass! I may not know anythin' about you, but I know all about my li'l buddy. Watch and learn." He turned towards Max and said: "Lissen good li'l buddy o' mine. These guys are our fellow officers of the law, and all you gotta do is distract 'em and dodge 'em." "Awww can't I hurt 'em even a li'l?" "Not today Max, but when we get back home, if ya don't hurt any of 'em, I'll take ya to a Hello Kitty convention." The rabbit gasped with an insanely gleeful expression. "C-...can I bring the flamethrower?" With a warm nod from the dog, Max hugged with a muted squeal of delight and said: "You can count on me pal!" before bounding off towards the guard outposts. Soon enough the guards were all looking towards him. "Hey, what are ya doing over there!?!? "I'm gonna burn kittens when I get home, so don't none of ya run into my fists!" With that appropriately crazy sentence they got out of their posts to try and detain him, armed with their pistols as Sam and James ran across the courtyard to the other side, heading into the door. Max followed soon after, bouncing insanely over and through the outposts, leaving the guards thoroughly confused as they called for backup. "We have an escaped inmate, some kinda rabbity thing! He went over the West side of the island towards the Visitor Center, all guards in the area be alert!"

Arriving on the west side of Northerly Island, they saw the three buildings Manbat had pointed out, with a central courtyard showing guards to be posted, as well as another watch tower. They were facing the sea, a small wooden port and shack beside it for boats to land, with the Medical Facility way over to their left past courtyard and tower. It was easy to tell the way it blatantly showed a large red sign that shouted MEDICAL. "Well, we just gotta get past these guys now." Sam looked at Max who seemed eager enough to do it again, looking over to see the way they could skirt around. A pathway down their left towards a stairway to their destination. "Alright pal, bonus round, all ya gotta do is-" He was soon interrupted however by a tremendously vicious roar that seemed to shake the entire island, the guards starting to panic at the sound as one cried: "Wha-what the fuck was THAT?!?!" James started to share their sentiments. And it was soon answered by something leaping out of the water. It appeared to be the size of a tiger, or at least that was the best estimate as it charged in a vicious orange blur towards the guards, slaughtering them relentlessly, swinging huge claws out in violent explosions of blood. Sam instinctively reached for where his hat would be on his head. "HOLY abdication of the commonwealth aboriginals of indigenous Australasia! We gotta help them!" He ran off towards the massacre as the guards tried to fend off the beast with guns, but they were useless in close quarters. The raptor and the rabbit followed Sam as James shouted: "Hey wait up you fuckin' crazy dog!" Sam however would be too late to save any of the guards, though one managed to hide behind a vehicle shaking with fear. The beast, now appearing to be a huge muscular domestic cat about a full head taller than Sam, came closer to the car with leering evil green eyes. "Hmmmmm....kitty wants to play..." The creature spoke with a guttural voice as Sam bravely shouted: "STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM! FREELANCE POLICE!" This did not help the situation as the beast roared with a threatening rage and lumbered towards Sam with a surprising speed. James however managed to blindside the cat with a pouncing slash to the head, and latched onto him. The beast threw the raptor off of him and faced him in battle, with James shouting: "GET INSIDE! I'll take this guy!" The monstrous feline snarled with wicked fangs, licking its bloodied sandpaper tongue as it chuckled gravely. "Hu...hu...hu...yer a brave li'l lizard arentcha?" "Whatever freak, I got claws like you, makes it a li'l more fair dontcha think?" "Fine by me, I needed something crunchy."

With a roar it swung at James, who easily dodged and slashed at the side of its face making it yowl in pain. Sam and Max hastily took the remaining officer to safety in the Medical Facility. The guard in the watch tower had his sniper rifle aimed for the huge cat and was trying to focus. "STAND STILL!" "Pfft, where's the fun in that, come on, chase me kitty!" Another huge swing came for the raptor to dodge, but he was blindsided by a second backhand swing at his face, knocking him aside. "ARGH!" "Stupid boy, you really think you can fight me?" "Ungh...yer not the first cat I'll kill this week." James said this in a dark tone as he felt his claws tense up in a growing battle lust. "RRRAAAAWWWWRRR!" The beast roared at the sky before attempting to charge, but was stopped by a bullet straight in the back of its neck. Screeching furiously at the sudden blistering pain he felt from the shot, he looked around at who could be shooting. Another shot came, this time to his arm. Feeling frustrated by the unseen attacker, he decided to run back into the water, a huge splash signifying all that was left of his presence other than the horrifically mutilated bodies. Brutal distended piles of blood and organs were strewn across the courtyard. James knew the guard had managed to save him from being part of the bloody mosaic, but nevertheless ran as fast as he could to the Medical Facility to avoid being shot at in turn as an inmate. Reaching the doors, he slammed them shut behind him and tried to calm down, the adrenaline pulsing through his body. Soon his nerves slowed down, as he saw the detectives and the shaken police officer talking with each other. "You alright?" "Y-y-y-yeah but...who are you?" "Sam and Max, Freelance Police of New York." "Wh-wh-why are you wearing the inmates' pants?" "Clerical error, nothing for you to worry about. You just calm down an' try not to puke on yourself." "O-o-okay...oh god...I lost my team in like...e-eight seconds, it was horrible, he was just slashing left and right-" "Actually it was more like seven seconds," said Max informatively with Sam glaring. "I don't care, they're all dead! Why did we even get sent to this fucking island!?!?" "What's the deal with this place anyway?" asked Sam, curious now of the island's set-up. "I...I dunno...I heard things about Daley...they say he's gone a li'l...mad since that film came out." "Mad? How mad? Like 'stabby stabby' mad, or 'I hear children talking from my liver' mad or 'I was dying of a brain tumour and they still let me build a parliament building to look like a peeled open soda can' mad?" "...wh-what?" "Never mind, yer not Scottish by any chance are ya?" "Uhhh n-no, I'm part-Dutch." "Righto, what's yer name kid?" "V-v-voorhees....Robert Voorhees." "Damn, that's a real name?" "Y-y-yeah, I know watcher thinkin' and I'd really appreciate you not saying it." "So...you never played hockey?" asked Max curiously with the tiniest of snerks.

The guard's head shook with contained fury as Sam butted in. "Well-uhhhh Robert, you just sit tight and uhhh try to relax, while we go sort things out with this place. James, how's the situation outside?" "He got chased off," said James, "went back in the water...I didn't think cats could swim though." "Whatever it was, we gotta be on our toes. He can't come in here, right?" "I-i-i dunno!" stammered the guard. "He...we got reports of that thing and a few other "supercriminals" or some shit, they're trying to take over this place, and...I didn't know that thing was real, I thought they were hazing me!" "Well, how about we find ya a doctor and sort out that post-traumatic stress disorder before it becomes too post-traumatic huh?" "O-okay." And with that, the three accompanied the shaken guard sombrely to a nearby doctor, further into the medical halls. The smell of disinfectant was somewhat refreshing after the sweat and musk of prisoners from the Intensive Treatment facility. Navigating the halls, they came upon a huge room with various cells, gurneys, and a small office near an elevator to the left. Walkways circled a rectangle above their heads, with fans gently whirring on the ceiling. There also laid a lower section where more cells were contained. "Hellooooo?" Sam called out to the place curiously for any signs of life. "I got a cop here needin' some psychiatric evaluation concerning a recently traumatising eveeeeeent!" Walking forwards, the group eventually met a doctor. Bald-headed with black glasses, he met with them in a rather nervous manner. "Uhm, h-hello, what's the matter?" "Guy here saw his whole unit get slaughtered, just wanna make sure he's okay." "Oh, damn, well, okay, I don't really deal with the mind though." "But...this is an asylum." "I deal with physical injuries, sorry. But I'll look after him for you and wait for one of my colleagues...if the elevator starts working again." "What's up with it?" "Something jammed it, I don't know what but it won't move at all, was working fine half an hour ago." "Well, maybe we can fix it somehow. But, you know where they put the inmates' possessions and worldly goods?" "Yeah, it's down in the lower levels near the morgue, why?" "We need to recover some is all. Guess we better fix that lift eh boys?" With a shrug, Max and James decided to do just that as they went to the elevator doors to examine the stuck lift. "We just gotta open the doors first is all. Don't suppose there's a way to do that from this side?" "Not that I know of," said the doctor, "I don't know how to fix machines, just people. Who are you anyway?" "Freelance Police. We'd show you our badges, but they got lost along the way." "Well, if you mean no harm...you don't LOOK crazy anyway. There's a vent I saw up there that might lead to the elevator." Looking above the office roof was, sure enough, another airduct. The three smiled at this, since an airduct always meant another way to get further, as Sam pondered aloud.

"Now how to reach it...doc, you got a ladder somewhere?" "Nope, sorry." "Damn...alright, we need to gather up some stuff, there's a ton of medical paraphernalia we can utilise to extricate that ventilation opening and escalate ourselves towards it." James looked disdainfully at the canine and said: "...you could just say 'let's grab all this crap lying around here and break open that vent' you know." "Some of us actually want to expand upon our vocabulary, kid. Also, that was crazy going up against that thing, you coulda been killed!" "You mention this NOW and not when I ran in panting?!" "I was concerned about our post-traumatic officer friend more than you." "Well, whatever, glad he's okay. No problem handling that thing though, so NOW do you trust me?" "Well...I dunno." "Oh come ON, I just took on a fucking huge-ass cat...THING, just so you could get away!" "Don't clear ya of being a murderer James. Maybe if ya did something incredibly good-hearted for the sake of an entire city of people, I might believe ya." "Whatever, let's break that fucking vent open." Feeling rather miffed at not having any more leeway with Sam's disposition on him, they gathered a variety of long and intricate medical equipment from around the room. Gurneys, drip stands, stethoscopes, all of which were tied up with a ridiculous amount of bandages and duct tape. When they felt it was worthy enough in standing on its own against the wall, Max's bouncy light body clambered up the Frankenstein-style structure of mismatched hygienic items, to undo the screws and throw the vent cover to the side with a deafening clang. "Hey Sam, should I just get to work on the lift?" "Since neither of us can climb this ill-built tower of medical equipment-" "Pffft I could," muttered James, "because I don't sit at a desk half the day eating-" "Quiet brat. Max, just see what's wrong with the elevator." "Okey dokey lokie!"

Max scurrowed into the vent like a rabbit in a hole, and after a couple of minutes, came back gazing down on his allies. "Hey Sam! I found this stuck in the gears! Can I keep it?" He held in his hand a pair of wind-up chattering teeth, inactive but with a strange gel on the teeth. Suddenly it went off, eagerly chewing the gel with rapid-fire gums. Sam's nose quivered in a panic as he smelt something dangerously familiar of the gel. "MAX, THROW IT OUT!" The rabbit obediently threw it ahead before it exploded in mid air against the wall, shaking the whole place and causing Max to roll back into the vents. The medical equipment rattled and fell over like the shaky ladder it tried to be. "Max! MAX! Max li'l buddy, ya alright?!" Sam's somewhat panicked voice yelled out to the vent before a familiar crazy face popped out. "Don't worry Sam, I face a lot worse than that every morning!" "Max, please don't compare me in the shower to a nitroglycerin explosion that almost burnt your face off." "Why not, it's funny! And yer flabby. Like a flabby dolphin." "Anyways, is the lift working now?" "Press the button and see!" James headed over to push the button and miraculously, the gears managed to start working again, now unobstructed by the surprisingly well-placed explosive teeth. The doors soon opened welcomely. "Nice work Max! Now let's grab our stuff!" "Ya think we got time? Ain't my gun enough?" "I want my gun back. And my badge. And my hat." The three were about to step in until the doctor said: "You fixed it! Thanks a lot Freelance Police, now we can get this facility working again!" "You better keep an eye out fer more cops who need help," said Sam as the three walk in and press down. "This place is gonna get dangerous." And with that, the lift doors closed and they went downwards slowly. After a few minutes passed in transit, lights gently fading past them in small metal lines, James asked something that just occurred to him. "Max, how come you didn't shoot that huge cat bastard?" "I was gonna, but ya kinda just jumped in and I thought why waste the bullets?" "Oh..alright then." "So what didya think about my line when the doors closed?" said Sam curiously to the two. "The whole 'this place is gonna get dangerous', I thought that was pretty cool." "It was quite smooth yeah," said James, with Max adding: "Yeah it was pretty cool...if ya had been Darkwing Duck, which yer not." "But don't we have the same hats li'l buddy?" "...you sicken me." Trying to restrain his laughter as the duo somehow became more amusing to him now, James waited for the lift to stop before they walked out into an access corridor. He now learnt how not to try and understand all they said, but instead just go with the flow. If only he learnt this lesson better for the future.