Bill (Guard)

Bill first appeared in Rocksteady Game's Batman: Arkham Asylum in August 2009.

Biography
Bill is a security guard at Arkham Asylum, one of the many present during the Joker's takeover of the asylum. Bill has been a security guard at Arkham Asylum for an undisclosed length of time. In one of his experiences, he survived a brutal attack by the serial killer and deranged Arkam inmate Victor Zsasz, who carved a tally mark on himself for every victim he'd killed. After Zsasz's personal therapist Sarah Cassidy left Arkham to get away from her murderous patient, she was replaced by Dr. Gretchen Westler. Zsasz had a fixation on Cassidy and an undying bloodlust. His obsession with killing led to unsatisfactory sessions with Dr. Westler. Bill was present for at least two of these sessions with other guards should Zsasz get violent, as the warden of Arkham Asylum, Quincy Sharp, had ordered that a doctor could not be left alone with Zsasz. Consumed by his bloodlust and already enraged when Bill tried to drag him to his feet and take him to his cell, Zsasz revealed he had a knife. He leaped on Bill before the astonished guard could react, stabbing and cutting at Bill with his knife. The other guards panicked and called for backup in subduing Zsasz, and Bill's condition remained unknown. Zsasz was thrown into an isolation cell for a week following the attack. Bill eventually recovered, although the extent of his injuries from this terrifying encounter remains unknown. At some undisclosed time, Bill returned to his regular post.

Arkham Asylum Incident
Bill was one of the many security guards present in Arkham Asylum, when the Joker was recaptured and bought back to the institution by Batman. Bill was posted at the lowermost level of the library in the Arkham Mansion in Arkham East, where most of the staff worked. Two other of Bill's colleagues were also posted here for guarding the doors leading to the multi-level Library. Unknown to Bill and his colleagues, the Joker escaped custody in the Intensive Treatment Center in Arkham North. The results were chaotic, as the Clown Prince of Crime and his accomplice, Harley Quinn unlocked the cell doors throughout the Intensive Treatment Center, unleashing the inmates to cause untold chaos. The Joker soon had wrestled control of Arkham North from the guards, sending most of the security personnel led by Louie Green to Arkham East using a fake radio call on the guard radios. The sole surviver in the Joker's wake of destruction, a security guard named Eddie Burlow, tried to contact Bill on the radio and warn him and his colleagues of the impending situation, only to have the radio go dead, due to the fact that the Joker had seized control of the radio channels. As the situation worsened, so many guards had been killed by the Joker's men that they started using the guard radios to keep in contact with each other and the Joker as well. Unknown to everyone, the Joker's real motive for allowing himself to be captured and sent back to Arkham Asylum was to steal the research for Penelope Young, an asylum doctor who was working on the top-secret Titan Project. Young was actually modifying the steroid drug Venom drained from the villain Bane to create a stronger formula, which she discovered turned people into monstrous beasts. The Joker thus ordered that the Medical Facility in Arkham West where Young worked be seized so that his thugs could capture her. The Joker's hordes of escaped inmates secured the Medical Facility and captured Young working in the X-Ray Room.

They held her prisoner, but Batman invaded the Medical Facility to rescue the Arkham staff, saving Young in the process. Armed with the knowledge that the Joker would no doubt go after her research, Young left the Medical Facility with security guard Aaron Cash to go to the heavily-guarded Arkham East and retrieve her research notes from her office in the mansion there. Young, protected by Cash, made her way across the island, where they were joined by Zach Franklin, another security guard. They entered the Arkham Mansion and set out for Young's office. However, the Joker was not about to let Young and her research slip through his fingers. He ordered an assault on Arkham East. Prisoners armed with rifles taken from the guard armory took Arkham East by storm, overwhelming the security guards. They then invaded the Arkham Mansion on Young's heels. The thugs came across Dr. Young, Cash, and Franklin in a mansion records office and finally caught up with them. Cash and Franklin were captured, but Young escaped to her office, where she finally reached her notes in the safe. Pursued mercilessly by the Joker's men, Young realized her office was the first place the Joker would search for her and thus took her notes and ran, the Joker's men hot on her heels. She reached the Arkham Mansion Library, where they pursued her. Entering the Library, Young was met by the two Arkham security guards guarding the door but they were easily overpowered and killed by the hordes of inmates on Dr. Young's heels. Young fled to the lowermost level and rushed into the room where Bill was at his post with an unidentified asylum orderly. She managed to hide her notes as the escaped inmates broke in after her. Cornered, Young no longer had any place to flee as the only exit was blocked by the inmates. Bill attempted to defend her against overwhelming odds, but he was fighting a losing battle and was battered into defeat. He attempted to fight back, but the inmates were too numerous and he was lacking in backup or a weapon. Bill was knocked unconscious in the struggle, and the inmates tied him up in a chair. They then left the senseless guard and the orderly tied to a large, mysterious, purple present giftwrapped by the Joker and took Dr. Young to the villain. The hostages were left in the Library, as the Joker seemed to have viewed them as insignificant and irrelevant. One inmate armed with knives was left downstairs to guard Bill and the orderly while the others scoured the upper levels for Young's notes. Four henchmen remained upstairs, and two remained outside searching for where Dr. Young might have hidden her notes.

Once he realized the Joker's real motives, Batman hurried to Arkham East, finding the security guards decimated and armed inmates guarding the entire outdoor area. After dealing with them, Batman entered the Arkham Mansion, encountering an army of convicts in the Main Hall searching for Dr. Young's notes and defeating them. The Dark Knight realized that he had to locate the notes before Joker did. Finding his way to the Library, Batman knocked out the two inmates outside, then entered the Library, discovering a large group of inmates inside tearing the Library apart and rifling through stacks of Arkham documents searching for Dr. Young's notes. He attacked the inmates, and the noise aroused the henchman guarding Bill and the orderly, causing him to rush upstairs to join the fight. Bill revived, all alone with the orderly and the mysterious purple package left behind by the Joker. As he began to take down the convicts upstairs, Batman looked up to see the Joker himself watching the battle from a security screen. He welcomed Batman to the Library: "Welcome to the Arkham Library. History is so important. A traumatic event here! A murder there! It's enough to drive anyone crazy!" The Joker watched Batman knock down the last thug before adding, "Congratulations! Now all you have to do is take a stroll downstairs and save the helpless hostages. Right?" After descending down the stairs to the lowermost level of the mansion Library, Batman saw an open doorway and beyond it, Bill and the orderly tied to the purple gift. A large label on the package read: 'Do not open until April 1st [April Fool's Day] Love, Joker.' As Batman approached the doorway, an electrified barrier suddenly fired up to bar entry into the room. Bill and the orderly kicked furiously and struggled against their bonds, to no avail. The Joker appeared on a television screen above Bill's head, laughing and taunting Batman. He introduced his latest game: "Oh! How frustrating. Thought it was going to be easy, didn't you? Has tonight taught you nothing? In two minutes the room will fill with Happy Gas (Joker Toxin). The audience will be in fits of ecstasy. And then die!!" With that, the Joker signed off and his next deadly game had begun. As Batman desperately searched for some way to save the hostages, there arose an amplified, unmistakable, sound of a timer ticking and counting down, leaving Batman to come to the conclusion that the purple gift package contained a canister of Joker Toxin set to be released in the room. As Batman began trying to find a way into the room, the Joker announced: "One minute and thirty to go. Gotta say I'm getting bored already. Maybe I should just press the button and......Only joking!" Batman crawled into the ventilation system, finding his way to the Library attic. Here, he discovered a large, fancy, chandelier suspended over the floor below. The Joker eventually reminded him, "Remember the hostages? They're entering their final sixty seconds of remembering to breathe. Tick tock, tick tock." Batman then threw a batarang at the rope holding the chandelier to the ceiling, slicing it apart and sending the chandelier crashing through the imitation glass floor of the second level and into the room with the hostages, causing Bill to shout, "Batman! Get us out of here!" Now, with the Joker still counting down, Batman dived through the gap and into the room, landing next to the smashed chandelier in the floor. As Batman opened the top of the present, ready to disarm a bomb, a ridiculously large punching glove on a spring shot out, sending 'Joker' playing cards flying in every direction out of the purple box as the sound of a timer stopped ticking; the bomb was a fake. As the box sprang open, it also instantly released Bill and the orderly from their bonds. The orderly turned to Batman as he rubbed his sore wrists, thanking him and asking about the inmates upstairs: "Thank You, Batman. Are they all gone?" Batman replied to both the orderly and Bill, who was rising from the chair he had been tied to. "Yes, You're safe. What happened?" The orderly replied, "It....It all happened so fast. Some patients broke in. Began tearing up the place. Like they were looking for something. Bill here fought back, but there were too many! They took Dr. Young. She rushed in here and they followed!" Bill apologized for not being able to provide all the details as he was unconscious the entire time: "I'm sorry. When I came to, we were all tied up. Doc Young was gone!" With that, Bill walked over to the orderly and knelt next to him, placing his hand on his shoulder and trying to console him in low tones. The Dark Knight left the Library shortly afterwards. Batman found several thugs trying to break into Dr. Young's office, but found her safe empty. He realized that Young must have saved her notes somehow. Batman calibrated his cowl's vision to track Dr. Young by her fingerprints leading across the mansion. He followed the prints out of her office and into West Wing Corridor, and from there into the Main Hall, and then back into the Library. Once there, Batman proceeded back to the lowermost level, where Bill and the orderly were still resting. Here, Batman found a displaced book on the shelf which contained Dr. Young's notes. He then destroyed them to prevent the Joker from getting his hands on them. The Joker watched this through one of the Library's security cameras, faking desperation. He then revealed he was going to use Victor Zsasz to torture the Titan Project information from Dr. Young. Bill then turned to Batman, revealing to him Zsasz's location: "I heard a voice on my radio. It sounded like they were being told to meet in the Warden's Office." Quickly, Batman set out to stop Zsasz and save Dr. Young, only to be gassed by the Scarecrow, which caused him to wander about the Arkham Mansion in a drugged state while Zsasz successfully tortured the information out of Dr. Young for the Joker. Batman hurried to the Warden's Office and defeated Zsasz, although Dr. Young was killed by an explosion in the warden's safe. Batman then left the Arkham Mansion for the Penitentiary to rescue the warden himself, who was being held hostage by Harley Quinn. Bill remained with the orderly in the mansion Library. Some time later, Poison Ivy's mutated plants overran Arkham Island and parts of the Arkham Mansion. Due to the plants, Bill and the orderly were trapped in the Library. While the orderly rested in his chair, Bill stood guard with his arms folded in the doorway of the lower level, waiting out the remainder of the Joker's takeover. Bill and the unidentified orderly both survived the attack on Arkham Asylum and returned to their normal duties after the Joker's defeat.

After Arkham Asylum Incident
He continued to work at the Asylum until it was closed. Bill and most of the Arkham Asylum staff joined the medical team in Arkham City.

Sessions with Victor Zsasz
The following is the dialogue for audio recordings of Zsasz's therapy sessions for which Bill was present for:

Tape One
(Patient Interview #1, November 22th)
 * Dr. Gretchen Whistler: "Patient's name is Victor Zsasz. For the record, the patient has transferred from Dr. Cassidy, who is on leave after the incident last week. Hello, Victor. Please, take a seat. Guard, you can leave us."
 * Bill: "Sorry, Doctor. Warden's orders. I can't leave you alone with him."
 * Dr. Gretchen Whistler: "I understand. Hello, Victor. How are you feeling today?"
 * Victor Zsasz: "......"
 * Dr. Gretchen Whistler: "Victor, I can't help you if you don't speak."
 * Victor Zsasz: "Depressed! Does that help you? Can you get into my mind, Doctor?"
 * Dr. Gretchen Whistler: Why depressed?"
 * Victor Zsasz: "I'm just thinking about the one that got away [Dr. Cassidy]. The one I chose. I needed the mark...I want the mark!"

Tape Two
(Patient Interview #4, December 12th)
 * Dr. Gretchen Whistler: "Victor has been more subdued recently. Response to medication has been poor."
 * Victor Zsasz: "Cutting...."
 * Dr. Gretchen Whistler: "Hello Victor, is there anything you'd like to talk about today?"
 * Victor Zsasz: "Cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting....."
 * Dr. Gretchen Whistler: "Victor!"
 * Victor Zsasz: "Cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting......"
 * Dr. Gretchen Whistler: "This is going nowhere. Guards, get him out of here!"
 * Bill: "You heard the doctor. Get up!"
 * Victor Zsasz: "Cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting......"
 * Bill: "Didn't you hear me?"
 * Security Guard #2: "He's got a knife!" (There is the sound of furniture overturning and a crash)
 * Bill: "Arrgghhh!!"
 * Security Guard #2: Get a tranq in him! Get a tranq in him! Oh, God! He's on Bill!" (audible noises of a struggle in the background)
 * Security Guard #3: "He's cutting him! He's cutting him! Get him off! Get him off! We need help here!"

Notes/Trivia

 * The player can choose whether to save Bill and the orderly in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Since the Joker is faking a timer, and the mysterious present is a fake bomb, the player can choose not to save Bill and the orderly during the Joker's desired time limit, and the villain will simply laugh when the time runs out and call it a 'big joke'.
 * If the player chooses not to proceed downstairs and see the hostages, but instead crawls into the ventilation shaft to begin saving them, the Joker comments that Batman is trying to "skip to the last page" and starts the countdown anyway.
 * If the player tries to leave the Library during either the countdown or exactly after the fight with the inmates on the second level, the Joker remarks, "Oh, leaving the party so soon? What about the other guests? They'll just die if you don't turn up and save the day."
 * Like many of the other guards Bill appears in the Joker combat maps.