One month after the Party Animals attacks, Hamilton Hill has defeated Jim Gordon in the mayoral election and placed Gotham City under martial law, ostensibly to "protect" the citizens from Batman. Waylon, Harvey, Eddie and Ozzie gather in Crime Alley for a memorial to Matches Malone, another guy from the neighbourhood who they used to hang out with as kids. Waylon asks if anyone knew what Matches had been doing recently and who saw him last. Bruce, who none of them have seen since he attacked the Party Animals yacht, appears and says that he knows how Matches died.
A week previously Bruce had reached out to Matches, a forger, and asked him to make him fake documents so he could get on the work crews building Ark M. He met with Matches, who had given him the documents, and revealed that he had snuck onto the works crews himself and had spent the last week on the site. Matches had told Bruce that Ark M already had prisoners despite still being under construction, and had pictures and videos stored on his phone. Suddenly he had dropped dead in front of Bruce, bleeding from every orifice and his pores, killed by some kind of biological weapon.
Bruce's friends are shocked to hear this, and he tells them that he just wanted them to know the truth and promises he will get justice for Matches. He tries to leave but Waylon stops him and says they need to talk about Batman. Bruce says that he should have kept them out of it, but they point out he has used their skills and knowledge to help him in the past. He still insists on going it alone after what happened to Matches, but Waylon tells him that if he stays on his current path he will die.
The information on Matches' phone included a list of scientists who were consulting on the Ark M project. One of the names on the list, Victor Fries, is the head of a company called V-Core which is headquartered in Gotham, and whose office is drawing enough power for ten city blocks. Three days after Matches' memorial, Bruce tries to break into V-Core during a freak snowstorm. However, the snowstorm suddenly stops while he is gliding above the streets and the GCPD easily detect him with the advanced equipment Black Mask gave them. As Bruce is evading fire from police predator drones he gets a call from Alfred, who has been following up leads in London. He tells Bruce that Matches' death was called by a bacteria but no record of it exists in any medical database. Bruce ends the call as he finally reaches V-Core.
Bruce enters V-Core posing as a city engineer named Pennyworth. He reaches the CEO's office and finds one wall displays huge blocks of ice with prehistoric animals frozen inside. A man in a V-Core jumpsuit enters and introduces himself as the director. He seemingly accepts Bruce's cover story and tells him to feel free to check out the interesting specimens on display while he works, mentioning that Victor and Nora Fries were collectors of the strange. Bruce asks him if Victor and Nora still oversee things at V-Core and the man replies that in a sense they do. He pushes a button on the desk that raises a shutter, revealing the Fries' frozen in ice. The director reveals that he is their son; Victor Fries, Jr., and claims that it's what they would have wanted as they loved the ice.
Bruce asks what V-Core actually does, as there are almost no records about it; and Victor says that they cryogenically freeze the terminally ill until a cure is found. Bruce then asks if anyone has ever been successfully revived and Victor replies that he was, as his parents treated a childhood illness of his with cryotherapy. Victor turns to face his frozen parents and Bruce takes the opportunity to search the office, believing he is distracted. On the desk he spots a sample of frozen prehistoric bacteria. Meanwhile Victor tells Bruce that his parents told him that the treatment would be like a peaceful sleep, but in fact he felt everything and the pain was excruciating. As he talks his skin turns blue and his eyes turn red. Bruce spins around to see Victor looming over him. Victor grabs Bruce's face, Bruce's veins turning blue where Victor touches him.
