Truly brought his madness to life. She was eventually retrieved from the safe house by Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight’s forces and brought to their base on Founders’ Island. Ivy revealed that the founders of the land that became Gotham believed in an abundance of nature and planted countless, massive trees. As the Arkham Knight activated the Cloudburst, the chemical agents were released into the air, with the device amplifying their effects to the point that Gotham itself was covered in a perpetual cloud of the toxin and short-circuited the Batmobile’s energy supply. Crane then instructed his forces to capture and kill Stagg and seize as many energy cells, one of the few lawfully legitimate projects that Stagg produced, as possible in order to power the Cloudburst, due to Stagg’s earlier duplicity regarding the Cloudburst’s status, resulting in it not being maintained enough to actually work as he wanted. There was even a faction of people protesting against Ben Affleck being cast as Batman in a 2016 comic movie: Batman v Superman. With everything in place, Scarecrow finally initiated his plans on Halloween Night by causing a mass evacuation of the city under the threat of his new strain of fear toxin being explosively unleashed through a massive chemical weapon that was hidden somewhere in Gotham.

With his plans in order, Scarecrow and his men murdered several of the Ace Chemicals workers and a team of GCPD Officers that were dispatched to secure the facility, while keeping a handful as hostages to use as collateral, and situated himself within the central mixing chamber to prepare his toxin as the Arkham Knight’s forces rigged the factory to blow in order to unleash the toxin into the atmosphere. Batman was able to easily subdue all of the militia, rescued the hostage, activated the micro tower, and used it to pinpoint Crane’s location at the Ace Chemicals Factory. With the Arkham Knight’s immense militia, Scarecrow took complete control of the city and used his men, tanks, and helicopters to patrol the streets. As Scarecrow concentrated his plans on preparing the last of his chemicals to be dispersed into the mixing chamber and ordered shipments of the toxin to be transported out of the factory, the villain ordered the Arkham Knight to utilize his remote controlled tanks and helicopters to take over all regions of the city and keep them under lockdown to defend against outside interference. This “demonstration” caused a city-wide panic, as police and emergency services attempted to keep the populace safe and evacuated all citizens to the mainland.

Once the city’s six million citizens were evacuated, all of the villains’ gangs overtook the streets, overwhelming the GCPD, and caused immense chaos and destruction. Seizing control of the facilities within the Ace Chemicals Factory, Scarecrow called in for additional weapons, trucks, soldiers, and hazardous materials to make enough fear toxin to cover the entire east coast, which would eventually create a chain reaction that would cover the entire nation bit by bit, and ensure that the city was under his surveillance until he was ready to bring similar destruction to the rest of the world. Scarecrow ended with the chilling statement that he would turn his attention to bring similar destruction to the rest of the world once Gotham was reduced to nothing more than ruins and ashes, making it clear that his plans endangered far more than the city. Deranged and power-hungry criminals, such as Professor Pyg and the self-proclaimed Deacon Blackfire, took advantage of the rising chaos to further their own plans and desires. Scarecrow revealed in the chaos as all of the remaining criminals, except for the Arkham Knight’s Militia, began attacking and killing each other in blind fear.

Unfortunately, due to Joker’s interference, Scarecrow was able to gas Batman once again and escaped with the Cloudburst. With everything in place to cure the fear toxin, Batman learned that the Arkham Knight had the Cloudburst mounted onto his tank and was patrolling with a group of Cobra Tanks. Once there, Scarecrow interrogated Oracle, eventually threatened to test his latest fear toxin on her and gave a graphic description of its various symptoms, although he was forced away from her by the Arkham Knight, with the latter disgusted with his intention of interrogating her in that manner. After Batman escorted Ivy to the tree, rejuvenated its roots, and protected both Ivy and the tree from the Arkham Knight’s Militia, Scarecrow played his hand and ordered the Knight (who had unveiled his true identity to Oracle as he guarded her), after he told him that the Cloudburst was fully operational, to disperse his toxin within the device. Batman entered his car and located one, final tree system to eradicate the toxin, that was hidden beneath the foundations of Gotham, rejuvenated its roots, and destroyed all of the responding militia tanks and drones that arrived to destroy the plant. Posed up a storm as she arrived at the venue.