Armstrong it seems, has spent the past two years not only going through a growth spurt but also perfecting his fighting techniques and views this as an exercise to make Tim worthy of battling him. He sees himself as the Joker to Tim's Batman. As he continues to goad, Stephanie begins to realize that the General may not be using strictly non-lethal force as she had initially bargained. Fearing that her plan may be backfiring (once again), Steph decides that she needs to get out of there so that she can protect Tim from the unstable General.

Meanwhile, Stephanie is not the only one dodging bullets. The rioting citizens of Gotham are under fire from Scarab. Still in an uproar over the arrest of everyone's favorite crooked cops, the Gotham police force has come down with a serious case of the "blue flu" - a term for a police pseudo-strike, leaving Tim to defend the citizens. Although Tim is puzzled by Scarab's use of non-lethal rubber bullets, he still wants to get the assassin as far away from the innocent bystanders as possible. Scarab manages to escape and Tim returns to the Batcave to try to get a lock on Spoiler.

Back in the cave however, Tim quickly finds another fire that needs putting out as the the Golden Dragons (along with the new Lynx) are feuding with the Hanoi Ten and their mercenary Jaeger. Not wanting to reveal Batman's absence to the warring factions, Tim takes off in the Batmobile and tries to stay in the vehicle as long as possible.

At first things seem to be working according to plan but Scarab on orders from Red Robin (of all people!) starts using live ammunition. Tim reveals himself by ejecting out of the Batmobile so that he can check on any wounded civilians while Spoiler arrives just in time to take on the double-crossing Scarab. Robin attempts to join Spoiler in stopping Scarab but his attention is diverted when Red Robin decides it's time for the two of them to finally go head to head.