Batman manages to rescue the surviving workers and ultimately confronts Scarecrow; however, the villain distracts him with both his knowledge of Barbara Gordon's whereabouts, threatening her life, and the fact that he has produced enough fear toxin in Ace Chemicals to cover the entire Eastern seabord. Taking advantage of Batman's hesitation, Scarecrow locks him up in the control room and escapes, leaving the building to detonate. Batman manages to reduce the fear toxin cloud's radius with a neutralizing agent and to escape before the facility is destroyed, but is exposed to a concentrated dose of fear toxin in the process.