Let's Have a Tea Party

This is Summer Gleeson coming to you live from Gotham's Botanical Garden; where minutes ago, the main attraction of the garden opened up it's ancient flower pods after god knows how many years. After this happened, red spores were shot into the air before it started to dissipate the gas epidemic. We honestly don't know what caused this to happen, but…"

"Wait! What's that?!" A hand shot out into the view of the camera.

"What's what Joe?" Summer asked her cameraman.

Joe didn't give her a verbal response but she followed where he was roughly pointing towards to see… a woman stepping out of the tree looking rather exhausted and looked like she was falling over. She was just about to do so when the hero, Vanitas, caught her and helped her back up. The cameraman and reporter duo started running in hopes of catching the two to see what went on, but they somehow flew into the air on metallic poles.

"Damn." Summer muttered in disappointment on her face. "Well it seems that we somewhat know now who saved all of us in Gotham, but several questions have now come to mind. Who was that woman? Is she a metahuman? Why was Vanitas here while some stable people reported him being all across the city helping citizens out? And what did that woman do exactly? Well my guess is as good as yours people. This is Summer Gleeson, signing out."

This was what the batcomputer recorded hours ago by Alfred, when he was stable enough to move about once the synthesized antidote cured him of the Joker Venom. He had the news channel on to see what was happening in Gotham while Batman was taking care of Joker. While this was going on, the former British secret agent was also monitoring the systems on how much longer the larger antidote would be made before being sent out via batplane.

Alfred eventually got word that his charge was successful in apprehending the crazed clown. After that message came through, the antidote was just about finished when the news report came in that the Joker epidemic was over. He didn't know what was going on, but he immediately recorded the news coverage so his long time charge could look further into this. When Bruce got back from handing Joker back over to Arkham, he was filled in on the details while looking over the recorded news coverage.

"So were you able to figure out who that mysterious woman was sir?" Mr. Pennyworth asked as he brought Bruce a small meal. The 'playboy' was going to take a shower once he got back, but once getting word on the details he held it off until he figured out what happened.

"Yes." Bruce simply said as he typed several commands onto his keyboard to zoom into the freezed frame and magnified it. Once the picture was cleared up a bit, it showed a rough image of Pamela Isley. Or more accurate her 'darker sister' Poison Ivy given the skin tone and vine like tattoos.

"So it seems that Ms. Ivy was able to save the day through a very noble act." Alfred commented in realization. "Though it seems that it took a lot out of her."

"Indeed it has Alfred. Though I guess how Ivy got out of Arkham."

"With Vanitas obviously." The butler said once placing the food next to the dark haired billionaire. "With what you told me on his powers you know so far, I'm guessing he pulled her out of her isolation cell."

For the obvious answer, Bruce typed another set of commands to pull up security footage from Arkham that was set in front of Pamela's cell. There the two saw the feed of Vanitas phasing Ivy out of her cell and deactivating her collar before writing a note that he'll return the metahuman after this event was over. The hero kept his promise and brought her back later with said woman seeming pleased to be back in her cell.

One would think that the sight to be off of an Arkham inmate to be back in their cell, but from what Naruto told him was that Pam/Ivy wanted to properly leave the asylum with 'their' boyfriend. It was a good reason and he hoped that if people realize that Ivy was the hero that it could bring her into a good light than from the hidden event that went on when she abducted those industrialists. He'll probably need to stop on by Arkham and check on Pam/Ivy to learn what happened earlier and what 'they' did to save the city.

'That will probably be for another time.' Bruce thought as he was eating his meal. 'For now, I need to shower… badly. I'm probably caked in garbage and soot.'

-Few Days Later, Wayne Enterprises-

Inside of a dimly lighted laboratory, a man was writing through a series of notes on hand before tinkering on several devices. It didn't take much longer before the man felt satisfied enough with his work to possibly start the next phase of his work. Opening up the cage near him, he plucked out one lab rat at a time and strapped something onto their heads before putting each of them back into the cage. Once his little task was done, he saw each of the lab rats wear little metallic fez's as they scrambled about in their little home.

"Alrighty then." The man muttered as he pulled out an object from his desk. "Let's see if this works."

Opening up the cage once again, he had set down a miniature table before placing a little tea set onto the little piece of furniture. With his hand cleared from them, the rats behaved like they normally did and one of them knocked over some of the cups by accident. The man sighed out a little on the display before opening the cage once more to fix up the table set.

"Such table manners." The man spoke as his hand left the cage before it grabbed ahold of a red metallic band on the table. With it's cool outer texture in his hand, he placed it around his head to feel some of the little electrodes come in contact with his skin and hair. "Perhaps I can make you lot act a bit more civilized."

Once that was said, he focused his mind onto the lab rats the band around his head started to glow a little to show it was activating. It wasn't long until the metallic fez's lighted up to get the rats to freeze up on their current actions. From there, they soon walked over to the table set, started pouring tea into each other's little cups and drunk from them.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Bravo!" The man cried out as he felt truly delighted in how his hard work has been paid off. "Ah~ They all laughed when I said that I'd find a way to tap into another creature's mind." He pulled out the band off of his head as it snagged onto some of his hairs. "Ow. Ow. Need to possibly fix the band a little or clean up my hair more so the band won't pull anymore. But nonetheless, with this band and electrodes, I could possibly control anything."

For who might this man be exactly; he is Dr. Jervis Tetch, a neuroscientist working for Wayne Enterprises. Jervis is a lanky looking man in his early thirties with shaggy shoulder length brown hair with a small goatee surrounding his mouth. He was currently wearing a lab coat over his small attire of a white button up shirt with dark pants and shoes.

With what he was currently working on, Jervis had been hoping to improve the brain's potential and figuring out what the true capacities were. He had studied a lot on this work with various journals and studies done on the human mind from the analytical left and creative right, parts adapting to loss of function, the current capacity theories of people only truly using 10% of the brain, etc. He had to read them all to get a better idea on what to do exactly.

But as he was working on this latest project of his for the company, Jervis started to come up with revolutionary ideas on brain chemistry and free will. He theorized that all of a person's emotions and loyalties could be altered and even controlled with the right chemicals. Asides from that, Jervis had even looked into the three forms of brainwashing: persuasive, educational and suggestive to get a better understanding on a mind functions.

With persuasive, or operant conditioning as it's technically termed, it's just basic things of learning right from wrong and getting people's behaviors to change on certain rewards and punishments. Behaviors aren't different but expectations are like bribing someone for something that is against their morals. They know that things aren't right, but they are getting rewarded in the end and every time they possibly expect when breaking their moral code.

With the educational method, it's quite drastic with torture and isolation working to alter how the mind thinks and feels. Literally reprogramming the concepts of right and wrong in the human mind. Taking weeks or months for someone to be affected by this method, which is where cults and the like indoctrinate people over the course of years until they are asked to fully comply with different tasks out of their 'free will'.

With suggestive, or hypnotism as others actually know it as, deals with having one's mind be opened to become more focused and attentive while being less distractible. Making a person look back if they can't remember a certain event and be able to eventually remember every detail. Getting a person to possibly do certain acts that a conscious mind wouldn't really do by giving simple commands to people. It even gets people to sometimes lose their sense of will if the hypnosis is strong enough.

Each of these were fascinating for Jervis and helped him get further into his research into what he has been able to do thus far. By manipulating neurons and brainwaves, thus changing the person's brain chemistry, one could manipulate a person's actions and thoughts. So in the end, he was able to fully create the band and electrodes to possibly excell his field of work. He could go far with these. He could….

*Knock Knock* *Knock Knock*

"Yes, who is it?!" Jervis called out as he snapped out of his exciting trance. The door opened up to reveal a blonde haired, blue eyed co-worker in the Wayne Enterprises division as a secretary named Alice Pleasance. Seeing her coming in made the neuroscientist fumble a little as he ended up hiding away his headband on habit. "A-Alice… *Cough* What a pleasant surprise."

Not noticing his smile towards her, she just fumbly waved him off with her eyes focused towards the doorway. "Yeah, yeah. Look busy Jervis. Bosses are here."

Hearing this, the scientist then scurried towards his work and covered up the lab rats as Alice called out 'Dr. Cates, Mr. Wayne.' Once he was done, he saw said individuals walk towards him and saw Alice mouth to him 'good luck'.

"Bruce, I hope you remember Dr. Jervis Tetch." Dr. Cates said as she introduced the brown haired neuroscientist. She's a redhead woman in her late thirties in a standard blue business suit attire with glasses and her hair tied back.

"Why of course." Bruce said with a small smile as he shook the neuroscientist's hand. "I've read your proposal on using microchips to enhance the brain's potential. It sounds really intriguing."

"T-Thank you Mr. Wayne." Jervis said with a small studder. Always shy and trying to open up was pretty noticeable to others, but a lot of people didn't mind. "Boosting the m-mind and helping out through certain causes could help out a lot of people if needed. Like amnesia patients to possibly remember who they originally were. I-It's only the tip of the iceberg I'm sure."

Smiling at this information, Bruce decided to ask the obvious thing on his mind. "I was wondering if you have a working prototype at the moment. I was hoping I could see it in action when possible."

When hearing this, Jervis fiddled around with his fingers for a few moments as his mind quickly went through if he wanted to show Mr. Wayne what he had so far or not. In the end, he lied. "I-I'm sorry sir, but the prototype isn't ready yet. Tried it out e-earlier and there are some kinks I need to work out before I could possibly present it to you."

"Tetch… I think we owe our employer and founder, Mr. Wayne, a little more than lame excuses." Dr. Cates said making the neuroscientist look a little downcast.

"Sorry…"

"It's alright Dr. Cates. He's a valued member of our research team." Mr. Wayne said to his employee's defense. "I'm sure we can spare him more time."

"As you say Bruce."

"Th-Thank you sir." Jervis quietly said as Dr. Cates and Mr. Wayne walked out of his lab. That was until his female boss poked her head back in with a slight glare.

"You got off easy this time Tetch, but heads could roll if you slip up again." Dr. Cates said before leaving to catch up with Mr. Wayne for other work.

Once the coast was clear, Jervis to release the deep breathe he unconsciously held as he rubbed his head in frustration. After a few more moments, he decided to get out to possibly clear his head from all this mess he was dealing with. He just wished things could be easier for him.

"Hey cheer up Jervis." Alice said to the neuroscientist as he walked past her desk. "She's always like that whenever the big boss shows up. Mr. Wayne knows what you mean to the company."

*Sigh* "Sometimes, Alice, I think you're the only one to understand me." He said to her with some relief, making her giggle a little that he found rather cute.

"Yeah well that's what my boyfriend keeps telling me whenever my day feels down in the muck."

'B-Boyfriend?' He thought as he widened his eyes a little and end up seeing the framed photo and a rose on her desk. When seeing such a thing, he tightened his fists while grinding his teeth a little.

"I guess I'm lucky to have two such amazing men in my life." Alice said as she got up from her desk. "Well I'll see you after lunch Jervis."

He waved her goodbye, even though it's for a short time. Once she walked around the corner, the neuroscientist harshly glared at the framed photo on her desk before slamming it face down. Jervis needed to unwind his head a little with the new fact that she only considers him a dear friend.

So Jervis took a break in his lab by opening up his copy of American McGee's Alice to read it's wonders, but his mind kept coming back to his sweet Alice. She was so beautiful and innocent that made his heart flutter whenever he was around her. He had hoped to pursue her for sometime now, but with his nervous and shy attitude he couldn't have the guts to ask her out. But it seems that he was too late that she was in a relationship for who knows how long.

It's just that she reminded him so much of his late sister, who also had the same given name. His sister was so full of life and he loved her dearly. They did a lot together as children and even reacted scenes from the Alice in Wonderland novels from Lewis Carol since those were their favorites. Alice portrayed Alice, obviously, while he would mostly portray the Mad Hatter as the two would sometimes have loads of tea parties whenever they had any free time.

To really get into their roles, they had studied hypnotism to possibly get more integrated with their favorite characters. It was such a joyous time for the two of them. That was until one day, during one of their playtimes in the front yard of their home. Alice ran onto the road to catch their pet cat named Bandersnatch and the two of them were ran over by a delivery truck. It was a tragic day for him and his family that things could never be the same ever since.

Of course as years passed, Jervis got more closed off and had a hard time making friends. Just focused on work and couldn't do anything else for obvious reasons. But when getting into Wayne Enterprises, he met the blonde secretary and he ended up falling in love with her.

"...But of course, intellectually, I know it's all wrong." He muttered to himself as he used his headband to make the mice bring him a cup of tea to help calm his nerves while reading his book. "She's got a boyfriend, after all. *Sigh* It's better to withdraw like a gentleman and forget her. Turn my heart onto other pursuits."

He kept on drinking his tea and focusing his eyes into the book, but his mind kept going back onto the blonde secretary. Her sweet smile coming into the forefront of his mind before it shifted to the framed photo on her desk. Jervis stopped his current actions as his eyes started to narrow before he threw his cup to the other side of the room, making it clutter on the floor.

"Never!" The neuroscientist yelled out as he slammed his fists onto the nearby table, startling the mice in the process. "Oh I'm sorry little ones, but look at these." He pulled out ordinary white cards from his lab pocket before presenting them to his lab rats. "I've already started working on circuitry cards powerful enough to control a human brain. I just needed to see if your little test run earlier was a success before I continued working on these ones. *Chuckles* It would be so easy to make her forget her boorish beau and love me. *Sigh* But that would reduce her to a soulless shell. No.. no.. no.. Not my sweet Alice. It's completely hopeless..."

His self debating was interrupted when he heard the sounds of crying coming from outside of the lab. Being curious as he may be, he decided to check out what's going on exactly. The sounds of crying got a little louder when he got closer to the breakroom to end up hearing someone else in there.

"Hey, it's going to be alright Alice."

'Isn't that Dr. Cates?' Jervis thought as he leaned against the wall so he wouldn't be noticed. 'And Alice is crying?! What happened to my sweet Alice?'

"I-I just wanted to talk about where our relationship was going during lunch and Billy got so defensive." The secretary cried out as she was balling her eyes out.

*Sigh* "Classic male fear of commitment."

"A-And the ne-next thing I knew; we were shouting, screaming, and saying we never wanted to see each other again." Alice said as she tried to keep herself together.

Unbeknownst to either of the female co-workers, Jervis' eyes and mouth widened enough to belong in the leagues of the cheshire cat. He quietly ran to his lab before slamming the door behind him. With what he had just heard had possibly lifted up his spirits inconsiderably, despite the current situation to his sweet Alice, but he couldn't contain his joy any longer.

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" Jervis yelled out as he let out several chuckles in his wake. "Now she's mine for the asking and I didn't have to do anything to separate them! I'll sweep her off of her feet, treat her to a night on the town and…. And…."

He stopped mid speech when his eyes landed upon the poster of Alice having a tea party with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse. "And nothing… Oh what could a beautiful girl like her see in me? How can I impress her?"

Jervis' eyes wandered through the lab until they landed upon his headband and the circuitry cards on his lab table. Soon various ideas started to come into his mind as a grin started to form. *Chuckles* "Oh how indeed…."

-Naruto's Office-

"...So asides from you and Shizune sightseeing some areas in China, how's the trip so far?" Naruto asked over the phone as he was going over several documents in his daily workload.

"It's doing quite well actually. We were able to secure a good amount of land for the wildlife preserve. Though I wish the negotiations would've gone better."

"Yeah I bet."

"So was there anything interesting that happened while we were gone?"

Thinking for a quick moment, he might as well tell her since it would be common knowledge once coming back. "Well the day after you left, Joker came back into Gotham and caused a gas epidemic."

"...Tell me you're joking."

"I'm not Selina. You'll even hear about it once you're back in time for your meeting with your parole officer." He said to her as he leaned back in his chair. "I still wonder why you went on this trip when it's too close for your monthly parole meeting."

"For the wildlife preservation in a remote area in China of course." She defensively said. "It needed to be taken care of as quickly as possibly and you know how much I care for that."

"I know honey."

"But asides from that, are you and Isis alright? Also how's Harley and Pam?"

"Isis and I were fine Selina. When the epidemic hit, I stayed with Isis in the loft with it being air tight so no gas could come through."

*Sigh* "That's good to hear."

"With Pam however…." Naruto took a brief moment to think things over, but it seemed to not go well with Selina on the silence.

"What's wrong with Pam Naruto?"

*Sigh* "She lost her job at Star Labs."

"What?!" The environmentalist yelled out making Naruto pull his phone away from his ear for a moment. "But how?! How could she lose her job from over there? Didn't they pay off her medical bills and whatnot?"

"They did Selina and the board was hoping for their star botanist to come back after being discharged from medical leave. But Pam found out through a letter they sent to inform of her that they had to let her go. They grew tired of waiting and had no choice, but to give her the 'pink slip'.

"...Damn. She must've been in one hell of a rough patch."

"Tell me about it. Ivy told me, when I went to check up on 'them' the other day, was that the letter came in the day before the gas incident and the document inside was dated a few days prior. Pam felt so miserable when reading it several times that she got reclusive and Ivy became dominant until Pam got better."

"So were you able to cheer her up at least?" Selina asked out in concern for her share friend.

"I did my best to try and cheer Pam up. But when she spoke out, it was very hard for her to deal with. Sure she was able to heal a bit, but the pain was still there."

"With losing a job that she worked at for a long time? Hell yeah I would feel the same way. Reason why I'm mostly self employed."

"Well it was unfair on how they fired Pam. So I went over there and tried to talk to most of the board members that were at the building at the time. It was mostly a majority vote that got Pam to no longer work there. It was a pain in the ass, but I was able to convince them to let Pam reapply for the company once she's out of Arkham."

"Well that's a bit of a silver lining right there."

"Yeah and it's the best thing that could be done for now. Pam knows and it lifted her spirits a little that she might get her job back."

"Regardless if she gets her job back or not, she'll be moving into your loft once she's out of the asylum." Selina commented as she remembered that information from a previous conversation with the changed botanist. "Especially since she hasn't paid her bills and rent for a couple of months now that she's practically homeless."

*Sigh* "I know. Reason why I had to hire a few movers to help me get all of her furniture and belongings moved into a storage unit ever since she got into that place. Not the way I envisioned us moving her stuff out of her apartment and into mine. But hey, nothing's perfect."

"And what about me having sex at your place once she's moved in?"

"...I think that would be best to put a pin on that until she's out of Arkham."

"Yeah I could see your point."

"Speaking of, have you told Shizune about us yet?"

"Unfortunately yeah, I had to."

Hearing this raised one of the publisher's eyebrows before the obvious question was voiced out. "Had to?"

There was nothing immediate on the response, but Naruto heard some shuffling on the other end. "W-Well, you remember the last time we did it in my bedroom?"

*Chuckles* "Oh how could I forget that." Naruto said with a cheeky grin and had a feeling Selina might be blushing on the other end. "With how we tried out those new poses and you finally wore that langerie~."

"Yeah…. Apparently Shizune caught sight of us doing it."

"What?!" He cried out as he ended up falling off of his chair and onto the floor.

"Naruto?! Are you alright?"

Getting back up, he picked up the phone and answered back. "Yeah I'm fine, was just surprised is all. But getting back onto topic, you said Shizune saw us. Was that right?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

"To sum it up honey, doors were unlocked and weren't closed all the way. Thought someone broke in and investigated till she heard us doing it. Ended up seeing us in the act and Shizune quietly left, but wanted answers once we got to our hotel room."

"That….must've been awkward."

"Oh it was Naruto." His girlfriend groaned out and imagined her rubbing her temple in the process. "Had to tell her how long it's been going on and why we got together. She thought that you were cheating on Pam, but I had to clear up that mess on my own. Ugh… Wish you could've been here to help."

"I'm sorry Selina."

"It's not your fault Naruto. Just wished that it could've been taken care of earlier to save me the problem. But moving onto a different subject, how's Harley?"

"She's doing fine, but with Joker now in Arkham…" He said to let it hang in the air for Selina to know what he's leading to.

"...Oh... Oh Shit… That's not good."

"Yeah I know. I'm hoping that she doesn't get him as her patient. If she does, then I pray to Kami that she'll make it out alive."

"Same here." She said to him before a tired yawn escaped her mouth. "Sorry honey, but it's roughly midnight over here and I need to go to sleep."

"Yeah, I'll let you go now Selina. Just get some rest and enjoy the rest of your time in China before you and Shizune get back."

"Th- *Yawn* Thanks. Well goodnight honey. Love you."

"Love you too." Naruto said as he ended the call before getting back onto his workload. It was during most of this time that his weariness was starting to get to him, with the thoughts of the Joker being at the Asylum and Harley's safety. He tried to keep his mind focused at the task at hand, but he just couldn't shake off this feeling with his psychologist friend.

"I should probably call her and see if she wants to go out tonight for dinner or see a movie at least." He said to himself as he picked up his phone and dialed her cell phone number. After several more 'rings', the intern answered.

"Hello, Dr. Harleen Quinzel speaking."

"Hey Harley, it's Naruto."

"Oh hey Naruto, what's up?"

"Nothing much." He briefly told her. "Hey, I was wondering if you want to do something tonight."

-Night, Alice's Apartment-

*Knock Knock* *Knock Knock*

"I'm coming!" Alice called out as she made her way towards her door. Once opening up the door, she was surprised to see the man before her. "Jervis? What are you doing here?"

It was odd to see her co-worker dressed up in such a way, with her being used to seeing the neuroscientist wear a white shirt and black pants and shoes underneath his lab coat. But this seemed very odd for him to wear. His current attire consisted of a white button up shirt with a black bow tie and a red vest to fit with his dark brown plaid suit jacket and pants. To finish off his attire, Jervis wore a black top hat and there seemed to be a pocket watch in his vest pocket indicated with the chain attached to one of the vest buttons.

Feeling that she has probably gotten an eyeful on his new attire, he took off his hat and took a deep bow before her. "Good evening, Miss Pleasance. I'm here to help you forget your recent heartbreak. For Gotham can be a Wonderland Alice. So let me be your guide for tonight."

The blonde secretary gave the co-worker an odd look as this was rather sudden. Of course the obvious question came to mind on how he knew on what happened earlier today. But then again, she was practically crying out loud on the details of the breakup so everyone knew by the end of it. She was told by a few friends of hers earlier that evening to go out and clear her head from her worries. So after thinking things through for a few more moments, she decided to give Jervis her answer.

"I'll go get my coat."

-Gotham Park-

"It was nice of you to take me out tonight Naruto. I really needed someone to spend time with after a long day's work."

"Hey, it's no problem Harley." The publisher said as the two of them were walking through some areas of Gotham Park that were safe to travel through. Naruto would've driven his car towards their destination, but he felt that the two should go out on an evening stroll till they reached their destination. "So mind telling me about work as of late? I hope things have been decent at best."

"They somewhat are from the usual stuff I'm doing over there. Chatting with Pam and Ivy, trying to figure out more on Magpie before I have to give her to another doctor, waiting for my turn to deal with Harvey 'Two Face' and doing my other tasks till I'm done with my internship."

"I'm having a feeling that's not all that has been going on recently."

*Sigh* "Ever since the Joker came back into Arkham, things have been a bit complicated at best with some of our best staff members not really getting a good read out of him. Hell even Dr. Serrano hasn't really cracked his shell. But that's not the half of it."

"...Something's telling me that I'm not going to like this." Naruto said as Harley started to rub her arm without looking at her friend in the face.

"Yeah…. I'm actually assigned to take on Joker's case this time and earlier today was my first session with him." Hearing this made him feel dread and wished this wasn't really happening. Resulting him to stop in his tracks, making Harley look towards him in response. "Naruto?"

"Why didn't you tell me earlier that you were assigned to him?" The publisher said with concern in his voice.

"I was assigned to him after our phone call earlier. It was really sudden and I didn't know what to do." The intern defended getting her friend to look at her to see if she was lying, which there were no hints in her eyes.

Seeing a nearby bench, Naruto walked over to it and sat down before Harley followed suit. When both were comfortable, Naruto decided to ask the obvious question that came to mind.

"What happened in that session Harley?"

-Flashback-

"Dr. Quinzell…"

"Yes Dr. Serrano? Dr. LeLand?"

"Are you ready?" The hispanic woman asked the intern with a stern gaze. "You're qualified Harleen, but I don't think anyone is ever ready for… him."

The three female doctors were behind a one way mirror with a few security guards for good measure. Reason behind all of this was plain and simple: a Joker session. Harley was assigned by some of the Arkham staff to do a handful of sessions with the crazed clown till they say otherwise. It was rather frightening for her to take on such a big case, but she's gotten enough experience so far that she might be able to handle herself in there.

Of course the security guards would be there if anything seems amiss.

After taking several deep breaths, Harley composed herself and had started to plan things out on what to possibly do in this first session with the man. She was given an hour of preparation time by going over his files and it was a lengthy ready, but Harley got it down to the best of her ability. "I think I'm ready doctor."

"Just so you know, the Joker isn't someone that anyone here could properly categorize."

"I understand that ma'am." She simply said as one of the guards was ready to open the door for her."

"Well good luck in there." One of the officers said before opening the entryway to the session room. Once the door behind her was close, she made her way to the chair in front of her new patient with only a desk separating the two of them.

"Hello there Mr. Joker. My name is Dr. Harleen Quinzel and I've been assigned to be your doctor for the time being."

…..

'Not much of a talker today I guess.' Harley thought as the man was sitting rather still with a blank face. One could consider it rather, unnerving, but she had to push forward with her task at hand.

"Well I've read your file. The beatings from your father with the occasional change ups of him being happy from going to a circus or an ice show performance. The abandonment by your alcoholic mother which tends to get some sympathies from the occasional parole officer or two. The failed criminal career and even your little 'accident'." Harley said with a completely straight face towards the Joker's neutral one to see if there was any response to any of them. "Each and everyone of them being the building blocks to your psychotic and murderous mind. But we both know that is a complete load of bullshit."

…..

"From what I understand, it's all about control from you with being quite the performer. You do everything you can with your mayhem so that you can be the very eye of the storm. Because in that storm, everything is flipped upside down... except for you. Hiding behind your madness is control. So the way I see it, you're just a control freak with a sense of humor."

Once saying her piece, things started to change a little as the Joker's mouth started to slowly shift into one of his signature grins before releasing a few chuckles to fill up the quiet room. It wasn't long until….

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

It was like an odd joke to him with holding onto his sides, but in that brief moment both Harley and the guards noticed the crazed clown have a razor blade in his hand. The guards were heading straight to the door and tried to unlock it, but something else happened.

"That won't be necessary guards. I can handle this from here." The intern said getting the security guards to possibly stand down, but stay at the ready.

"Well aren't you an interesting one." The Joker finally spoke towards the blonde doctor in training. "Different from the usual privileged, blue-blooded eunuchs they send down here. *Chuckles* You've got spunk kiddo, but you had to where you came from." He stood up from his seat and started walking around the room, but not close to the blonde woman. "Your accent screams New York, but none of the whole Rockefeller variety."

'Seems he's going to pick me apart, piece by piece to fully figure myself out.' Harley thought as she remembered reading it in a part of the clown's file with doing this on some past doctors who tried to treat him.

"Let me guess…. Hmmm…. Local girl done good. National honor society, scholarships, blah blah blah." He said as he started to get a little closer to her. "But it seems that something is missing with you. Something that drives you. Something that you want, but can't have."

"Well, Mr. Joker, we can't always have what we want." Harley said as she gathered up her things and started to head towards the door. "So I think that tomorrow, let's start with what that is for you. And one other thing…" She turned around to face him dead on with his hands behind his back. "If you think on wanting to stab me or cut me with that razor of yours, you better hope you don't miss. Because if you do, then I'll kick your nuts so hard through your mouth and show you how we do it in canarsie."

-Flashback End-

"...And once I got out of that session room, with the guards locking it up for proper transfer, I just needed some fresh air." Harley said to Naruto, who was currently holding onto her hand in comfort with her squeezing hard in the process. "I was able to keep up a strong appearance in front of him, but once out of that room I couldn't hide how scared I was. I don't even know how I was able to last so long being in the same room with the man."

"But it's alright Harley." He said with a reassuring smile. "You were able to do a good job in there and I'm proud of you."

She only gave him a small smile in response. "Yeah… Dr. LeLand said the same thing when she came by to console me. It's going to be a while though if I can fully diagnose him. So yeah I'm going to need a lot of luck in that department to help understand his chaotic mind."

"Well enough about that now Harley." Naruto said to her as he stood up and she followed suit. "We got dinner plans and I hope I can take away your problems, even if it's for just one night."

"Yeah, lets."

The two friends went on their way, but if they would've stayed any longer they would've seen a carriage come through the park with Jervis and Alice riding in the back of it. It came to a stop, getting the two co-workers to exit out of the ride. The neuroscientist paid the caddie before the man went on his way to other businesses for the evening.

"This is really a surprise Jervis." The blonde secretary said as she walked alongside her co-worker through the park. "You're just so... quiet at work."

"Heh… Still waters run deep my dear. It's been a little philosophy of mine that people should take what they want from life."

"Well that's good to know I guess."

"Well that just so happens to be ours." A person said from behind the co-workers, making them turn around to see two intimidating thugs. "Well Mr. Hat, give us what money you have."

Seeing these two thugs coming closer to their position, Jervis brought Alice behind him and had things at the ready. "On your way you currs or else I'll be forced to teach you a lesson."

"Jervis, you can't."

One of the thugs thought this was funny on the display, making him chuckle a little. "Well it's funeral, you nut boy."

The two thugs grabbed ahold of Jervis by each side of his coat before bringing him to them. Watching from the sidelines, Alice couldn't look on what might become towards her friend. So she brought her hands to cover her face from what could possibly be a gruesome sight. As the two thugs were about to beat the living hell out of the neuroscientist, the man quickly brought out two of his circuitry cards and placed them on the thugs' heads. The results were quite instant as the thugs stayed in place without moving a muscle.

'Now I need to make this look convincing.' The scientist thought before he focused his thoughts into the two thugs.

With their new commands, they started to beat up each other while crying out things like 'Stop Mr. Hat. Go easy on us.' or 'We're sorry.' for a few more moments. When things look satisfying enough, Jervis mentally commanded the thugs to run away and possibly jump into the Gotham River.

'Seems that takes care of those two.' The man thought before going over to check up on his sweet Alice. "It's quite alright my dear. You can open up your eyes."

She did so and looked to see the retreating thugs getting out of the park. "Are you alright Jervis?"

"I'm quite alright, but I'm sorry you had to possibly witness such a thing." Jervis briefly said to her with his arm wrapped around her shoulder for comfort. "They had to be taught a lesson.

-Beret Rouge Club-

After the little scuffle outside, the pair of co-workers eventually made it to the restaurant that Jervis had made a reservation earlier that day. It would've been difficult to do such a thing with how much a meal or so is like over there, but he has his ways. And by ways meaning using his circuitry cards on the staff then yes. The two soon went towards the reservationist desk to finally check in for the evening.

"Ah Monsieur Tetch, it is good to see you again." The host said with a circuitry card sticking out from the side of his head. "I'm guessing you want your usual table?"

"Of course my good sir." Jervis said as he silently commanded the staff to keep doing what they were doing to not arouse suspicion with others. The mind controlled host then ushered them to a table near the VIP section of the establishment. Once on his way, someone soon came out to greet the two.

"Monsieur Tetch." A man came towards their table to indicate that he was the head chief of the establishment with one of the same cards placed in his hat. "I am glad that you have come back to our fine restaurant. I have created an excellent dish for you and it seems that I'll be making another for your date for the evening. All on the house of course."

"That is very kind of you Antuan." Jervis said with a smile towards the man before he went on his way towards the kitchen to make their meal.

"Monsieur Tetch." A woman called out as she approached the couple with another card placed in her hat. "Would you mind if I took a picture for our celebrity wall?"

"Not at all." The neuroscientist said as he pulled Alice closer to him for the photo. With a quick *Snap* of the camera, the woman left to do her own thing.

"I didn't know you were such a big hit around town." The blonde secretary said in wonder as her co-worker just chuckled at this.

"Well this is a side of me that I only share with those closest to me."

Things were pretty pleasant for as their meals soon came out from the kitchen and they dug into their meals, with some violinists coming over to play several songs while they feasted.

-Storybook Land-

After their very pleasant meal, Jervis was able to hail a cabby that was passing by to take the two towards their next destination. It was a bit of time getting there, but there was no rush at all with their belly's working to digest their meals for example. When they did reach their destination, the two were greeted with a security guard with a card in his hat by the entrance of the establishment: Storybook Land.

The place was made a few decades ago with the intended purpose of a fantasy land/fairy tale theme park for many alike, but mostly focused towards children. It succeeded in that aspect that many have attended the grounds for years. Some things have been taken out for updates to help get with the times, but they still come back with that nostalgic feeling whenever anyone looks at the displays, rides, etc.

"Well don't forget to lock up when you leave Tetch."

"I won't and have a pleasant evening Andrew." Jervis said as he and Alice walked past the guard.

Even though Jervis had his destination in mind to wrap up the evening, he decided to take Alice through the various parts of the theme park. It was quite interesting on how things appear to be without so many people walking through the place. But after looking through all of the different sections of the place, the two made it towards Tech's prefered area of choice.

"You know… Alice in Wonderland has always been my favorite story since I was a child." The neuroscientist said with nostalgia being laced into his speech. "Do you remember the mock turtle song my dear Alice?"

"No. I don't think so Jervis."

"Really?" He asked with mild surprise at this. "But surely you must've at least remembered some of it. It's actually quite simple really: 'Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, join the dance?'" He briefly sang to her before grabbing her hand and going into a waltz with music playing in the air.

It was rather nice on how things were going, but Alice was getting slightly confused by all of this. Especially since throughout some of the night, he had been saying 'My Alice' and things of the sort. She wanted to at least clear up what's going on and decided to voice it.

"Jervis."

"Hmm."

"Why do you keep saying 'my Alice' with such familiarity?"

"I don't know what you mean Ms. Pleasance." He said to her as they spun around a bit more.

"What I'm saying is that I'm getting a little confused by what you are saying so far tonight." She said to him as they went around the Caterpillar's den. "I mean it's just that tone of voice you're using I somewhat recognize of you mistaking me for someone else."

After this was said, Jervis slowly came to a stop in their dance as he let go of his co-worker to let his hair cover his eyes.

"Oh… I'm sorry Alice. I-I should've have done that."

"Whatever do you mean?"

*Sigh* "If you must know…. I used to have a sister that was very much like you."

Getting the idea on what he meant, she placed her hand on his shoulder with a gentle squeeze to it. "I'm sorry Jervis. I didn't know on that."

The neuroscientist just waved her off without really looking at her. "No, no. It's quite alright. It's been years since I've talked about my sister's passing."

"Well… May I hear about her?" Alice asked peaking Jervis' attention. "It's just a suggestion really."

The scientist could only smile at this as he went back to the Caterpillar's mushroom seat with the secretary sitting not too far from him as he started to recount his times with his late sister.

-Batcave-

Things were rather earlier that evening while he was doing his nightly patrols. He figured that it was just a slow night or that Vanitas was taking care of things on some other parts of town. It was hard to be sure, but he couldn't fault for the other hero to do what he wanted to do to help the city.

He was going to call it a night when he his batmobile picked up on the police emergency signal. It was reporting that two people were going to commit suicide by one of Gotham's suspension bridges and it just so happened to be the one closest to him. Batman obviously responded and was able to use his car to propel him into the air to land in front of the possible suicidal men. It was quite odd with their blank stares on their beaten up faces as they kept mumbling 'Mr. Hat ordered us to jump.' while walking in a zombie like state.

He tried to get them to stop, but both of them seemed rather strong all of a sudden to push their way through and to fall off the highest part of the suspension bridge. Batman was lucky in grabbing ahold of the thugs and did the best he could to glide back onto the bridge. The impact was rather rough, but each of them were safe.

It was rather odd though after the landing, the two thugs came out of their odd state and started flipping out on how they got to the bridge. He quickly questioned them with them stating that they were originally in the park hustling some man in a top hat with his girl and the next thing they knew, they were on the bridge. The Dark Knight had let them go with a warning and as the two left, he saw odd circuitry cards lying on the pavement.

So that's what he is doing now, looking over the cards with a '10/6' insignia placed on the other side of the piece of equipment.

"You know sir;" Alfred said from behind the Batman with a book in his hands, "when you showed me those cards, I recalled an image from my childhood."

"What do you mean Alfred?"

The response he was given from his old friend was placing a book in front of him with the title 'Alice in Wonderland' before opening up to a certain chapter of the story. "It seems those near suicides must've run in with a self styled 'Mad Hatter'."

"Wait a minute." Bruce said as he brought one of the cards closer to the image of Alice attending the Mad Hatter's tea party. "I saw that same scene earlier today in one of my employee's labs. A scientist who makes circuitry similar to this."

"So what are you going to do Master Bruce?" The butler asked as his young ward adopted a thinking pose for a few moments.

"Well…..

-Alice's Apartment Building-

"Thank you for a wonderful time Jervis. I needed someone to spend time with to get out of my worries." Alice said as Jervis escorted her back home. "You're one hell of a great friend."

"Until tomorrow my dear Alice and thank you for listening to my sad tale."

"It's no problem at all." Was all she said before her co-worker brought her knuckles towards his lips and kissed them briefly in a gentleman like fashion.

"Still though. Tomorrow and everyday afterwards." He said as she walked up the stairs towards her apartment complex. As she went, Jervis waved her goodbye while dancing in an odd way. What she didn't know was that the co-worker was going back to all of the places they went to earlier to get back his circuitry cards so nothing would seem out of the ordinary.

"Heh, what a sweet guy." Alice muttered to herself as she went inside. Once closing the door she ended up hearing someone behind her. Turning around, she came face to face with….

"Billy? W-What are you doing here?"

Said man was a head taller than her with combed dark hair dressed in a black suit. From what she could see from her ex-boyfriend was some tear stains on his face with a rose in his hand. He came up to her and said a simple sentence to her.

"Hey Alice…. Can we talk?"

-Morning, Wayne Enterprises-

Jervis couldn't have felt happier in his entire life as he walked through the doors of his work place. He was so happy, in fact, that he wore the same suit he had on last night to work today. Sure he'll be needing to wear a lab coat over it, but he didn't care at all. The neuroscientist came through those doors with the biggest grin he could muster with a bouquet of roses he had gotten earlier that morning.

"Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, join the dance?" He sang softly as he walked through the several cubicles of the building, while also saying positive things to various employees along the way. It was rather odd for what everyone was seeing, but they eventually went back to their own things for the day.

'Will you, won't you, will you, won't you…." He said as he got closer to see Alice at her desk, seemingly a lot happier from last night. "Good morning Ms. Pleasance."

"Oh Jervis, good morning." The secretary said in a very cheerful tone. "I've still got to thank you so much from last night."

"It's no problem at all."

"Well listen since I have the best of news to tell you." She said which peaked his curiosity, but ushered her to continue. "Billy was there after you dropped me off and he apologized to our big fight yesterday. I forgave him and *Giggles* And then he gave me this!"

From what Jervis saw in her hand, or more importantly her finger, horrified and infuriated him greatly: an engagement ring.

"I'm getting married Jervis. Isn't that wonderful?" Alice said in joy, not knowing what was going through her co-worker's mind. Of course she eventually noticed the neuroscientist's hand starting to bleed due to the thorns puncturing his skin. Especially with a drop of blood came in contact with the framed photo of the now engaged couple. "Jervis, you're bleeding!"

"Oh… I-It's nothing really. Forget it Alice." The man said as he walked past her and went into his lab. "Congratulations on your engagement."

She felt really worried for her friend as she called out his name several times, but they fell onto death's ears while several things were running through the man's head. Once closing the door to his lab, things were starting to boil greatly inside of him. Next thing he knew, he tossed his bouquet of roses to the side and slammed his hands onto the nearby table.

"That fucking son of a bitch!" Jervis yelled out in a harsh whisper. "He swooped in without me knowing and took her from me!" From there, he paced around the lab with several thoughts coming to mind as he ended up saying them outloud. "I can fix this! I can still win her heart!"

His thought process was interrupted as the door to his lab opened up violently with Dr. Cates walking through the door.

"Tetch! I don't know what you did, but Bruce Wayne wants to see you now!" The redhead yelled out, not knowing what was going on with Jervis at the moment. "I swear to god that it's your head if you got this department in any trouble-"

"Shut the fuck up Dr. Cates!" The neuroscientist growled out as he rushed at her and placed one of his cards in her hair to get her in his complete control. "Now if you would be so kind as to follow me since we've got work to do."

Nothing went on for a while now as Alice was in her self indulgent bliss as she kept herself busy in her work. So much in fact that she didn't notice someone was approaching her until it was too late. With a tap on her shoulder, the blonde secretary jumped in her seat with a slight 'eep' before turning around to see who did the act.

"Oh... *Phew* It's just you Mr. Wayne."

"Sorry on doing that to you Alice." The 'playboy' said in an apologetic tone.

"Nah, it's quite alright sir." She said in a forgiving tone before putting all of her attention towards her boss. "So what can I do for you?"

"Well I was wondering if you've seen Dr. Cates or Jervis Tetch?"

"Yeah I have, but they left together like half an hour ago I think."

"Together?"

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

"Oh sorry sir. Got to take this." She said before answering the phone. "Hello? Alice Pleasance speaking."

…..

"Oh hi sweetie." Alice said before turning to Bruce in a cheerful tone. "My fiance, we got engaged last night."

"Congratulations." Bruce said in a happy tone to see his employee like this. He'd heard of what happened yesterday through the grapevine, but it seemed that Alice and Billy patched things up in a great way. As Alice was speaking on the phone, he couldn't help but notice the little bloodstain on the framed photo and wondered what that was about. Bruce was going to ask about it when he heard his employee in a worried tone.

"Billy? What's wrong?"

…..

"You sound so…."

…..

"But…. But why?!" She cried out before the line went dead. "Billy!"

"Alice. What's wrong?" The dark haired man asked while seeing the blonde secretary starting to shed tears in front of him.

"S-Sorry Mr. Wayne, but I-I think I'll need a minute alone." She said before bringing her hands to her face as she balled her eyes out.

Bruce didn't know what was going on, but he had the sinking feeling that something was completely wrong here. But for now, he came up to his employee and gave her a reassuring hug, which she didn't refuse to take. She needed a shoulder to cry on right now with what has just happened to her.

-Night, Alice's Apartment Building-

Alice was coming back home from a long day's work. It wasn't all that busy at all mind you, but with what went on earlier that day seemed to make every minute and hour seem an eternity for her. Feeling like she was at the top of the world, only for it to come tumbling down to land her in the gutter. Mr. Wayne was so kind to let her go home early with what just came up, but she refused the offer since she wanted to work a full honest day despite what happened.

So throughout the entire day, Alice had been trying to focus on her workload. But all that she kept thinking about was Billy and what made him change his mind on their engagement. The blonde even thought about it once she got off and went to her usual ice cream place to eat a little to sooth her problems. After that, she slowly walked back to her apartment complex with her reddened eyes and tear stains on her face.

Once opening up the front door to the building, she was greeted with the hallway entirely covered in a variety of flowers. She was utterly speechless with what was in front of her. As Alice navigated her way through to the door to her apartment, she didn't notice someone was approaching her from behind. Once opening the door though, she heard it.

"Alice! You're finally back!"

She screamed in fright as she turned around to see Jervis staring right at her with seemingly odd joy present in his eyes.

"I had to come back once I've heard that cad of a fiance abandoned you again."

"H-How did you know?" Alice said in bewilderment. "I didn't tell anyone at all." 'Asides from Mr. Wayne.'

She felt uneasy right now and needed to get away from Jervis immediately. So she quickly opened up her apartment door and went inside, but he got inside before she got the chance to close the door.

"It doesn't matter my sweet Alice." He said with an all too sweet tone to his voice. "What matters now is that we have each other and nothing will tear us apart."

The secretary started to back away from her crazed co-worker when she ended up bumping into something solid. For a quick moment, Alice thought that it was her couch or even her floor lamp, but it was entirely something else. Turning around, she saw a dark figure there and she screamed until she realized who it was: The Batman.

"What have you done with Marsha Cates and this woman's fiance Tetch?" The Dark Knight questioned as the neuroscientist backed away slightly from the new arrival.

"Hmm I would play along with your little game, but I think we should play another." Jervis said as he started to play with his hat a little before the sounds of pounding started to come from the apartment's door. Soon a giant sledgehammer came busting through, causing Alice to shriek out in fright. With the door demolished, two figures stepped on through wearing bodysuits of a walrus bodysuit in a tux and a carpenter.

"I have anticipated this moment sooner or later." The neuroscientist taunted as the two people walked towards Alice and the hero of Gotham. "So I decided to enlist for some help. Let me introduce you to a few friends of mine: the Walrus and the Carpenter."

Without any warning, the carpenter ran towards the Dark Knight with his weapon aimed towards his head. The attack was soon evaded as the hero rolled out of the way before grabbing the coffee table and slammed it against the dressed up man. Soon the walrus came rushing in for the offense, but Batman yanked off the window curtains and threw them onto the man before jumping onto him. The struggle was intense with the dressed up man frantically moving around and ending up slamming Batman against the wall a few times.

As the fight went on, Jervis sneaked up from behind and grabbed Alice's arm. She screeched in fright before asking the obvious question. "Why are you doing this Jervis?!"

"For us my sweet Alice." He said to her as he placed his mind control card in her headband. "Trust me my dear. I didn't want it to go this way." With the card in place, he focused his thoughts on her to put the blonde secretary to sleep. With it successful, Jervis carried her like a bride and rushed out of the apartment as the hero of Gotham was being kept busy by his two mind controlled lackeys.

Batman was struggling against the Walrus as he seemed stronger than he appeared to be. The Bat was soon thrown to the side of the room with the Walrus coming ever much closer to him with the intent to skewer him with his mighty tusks. When coming down with them, they were blocked by another piece of furniture lying around, but they were torn into bits. The disguised 'playboy' was going to get back into the offensive if it wasn't for the Carpenter to slam him from behind and onto the ground.

With the hero disoriented for a brief moment, it gave the Walrus all the time he needed to grab the man in a bear hug in the attempt to skewer him once more. But the Bat saw this and grabbed the costumed head to stop the advancement. It was rough, but with all his might, he threw the Walrus over his head, whom impacted with the Carpenter to end up knocking each other out on the floor.

With both of them incapacitated, Batman went down and removed their masks to reveal… ordinary people? But that seemed rather odd, even for him. Of course, once looking closer, he saw the same circuitry cards from before placed on their heads. Batman removed both of them of course just in case if they woke up anytime soon. With that out of the way, he soon checked the costumes to see where they originally belonged to and found his answer. He looked at the tags by the collars, which had the custom writing depicting that the suits were property of Gotham's Storybook Land.

-Storybook Land-

Batman didn't know how Jervis Tetch was able to arrive at the park before him, but it didn't matter once he walked past the opened gates. With the logical conclusion where his former employee is located, he would obviously reside at the Wonderland section of the theme park. Though of course which part exactly was the question. As he got closer to the nearest attraction, being the Royal Card Maze, the speakers sprang to life.

"Twinkle Twinkle little Bat.~ I ever wonder where your at.~" Jervis said over the speakers. "Hope you can find me soon Dark Knight."

He navigated through some of the attractions when he ended up at the giant chess board area of Wonderland. When he did, he saw an odd sight to behold of a variety of mind controlled people dressed up in Wonderland themed outfits. From the Dodo, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, and the Gekko.

"Now this is a game more to my liking." Jervis said from up high with Alice by his side. From what the Batman has seen, his employee was now in an Alice in Wonderland costume as the main character from Lewis Carol's story. What was more odd about her was that she was unmoving and seemed like a soulless shell.

'What have you done Jervis?' Bruce growled in thought before his ex-employee spoke again.

"Are you, the famous Batman, so intent in destroying my happiness that you'll harm these poor mind-warped innocence to get to me?!" The Mad Hatter yelled out. *Chuckles* "Well let's find out, shall we."

Without a warning, Batman's senses seemed to be on the alert as he ducked and moved out of the way as a bladed weapon came sailing through the air and sliced through several statue heads. Looking for the person responsible, the disguised business owner saw who it was.

"Off with his head!" Dr. Cates, now dressed up as the Red Queen of Hearts, yelled out as she sliced through several Pawn statues with her sharp axe.

With her mind controlled advancement, the others followed suit as they lunged at the Bat. He didn't want to harm any of them at all, but he might come down to no choice if it comes down to it. When he was able to shrug off the grasps of the Gekko off of him, he was sent flying into a display mushroom by the March Hare's kick.

"Oh~ I might've forgotten to tell you one itsy bit of information Batman, but the control over them has increased their strength." The Hatter said as he laughed at the display before him. "So I guess you found that out the hard way then."

"Then maybe some backup would suffice." A voice called out from above before two scarfs grabbed ahold of two of the mind controlled people. The Bat and the Hatter looked towards the source to find Vanitas standing on a floating spear with his arms stretched out.

"How did you find us?" Batman asked as he dodged a blow from the Gekko.

"You were practically speeding over here while I was patrolling Bats." Vanitas said as he struggled to keep his hold on the costumed people. "Lucky for you, I followed."

-Insert Alice Madness Returns: Puppet Master Extended-

"Red Queen!" Jervis yelled out as he mentally commanded his former boss to slice the bindings with her axe. She complied as the action caused the black and white hero to end up falling off of his placement and onto the ground below.

"Well that wasn't very nice." The hero said as he dodged one of the blows of the Red Queen's axe.

"Off with his head!"

"No I would like to keep my head thank you!" Vanitas yelled out as he rolled out of the way from the woman's swings.

"Don't hurt them Vanitas! Their mind controlled into doing this!" The Bat yelled out as he dodged several blows from the mind controlled people.

"Well tell them that!" Vanitas yelled out as he ended up dodging another axe strike before kicking the woman away from the weapon.

As this went on, the Mad Hatter saw the new addition to his game and gritted his teeth at him. With the new hero in the mix might hamper his plans, but luckily he came prepared for just the occasion. So he focused his mind to the forested area of the theme park as a good dozen or so people started walking towards the giant chessboard.

"I won't let you ruin my game Vanitas!" The crazed man yelled out, getting said hero's attention. "So how about you play with my white rabbits!"

Wondering what the man was talking about, he looked around to see a large amount of people wearing White Rabbit masks. What seemed odd though were said people's attire to reveal them to be in ordinary clothing of the thuggish variety. It seemed that the man with the top hat must've gotten them off of the streets and onto this place somehow. So he willed his escrima sticks into his hands and dashed towards the closet White Rabbit drone and started his assault on him.

There was so much that he could do on damage against the drones. He would've done more, but these were considered innocent in all of this and weren't really doing any crimes. So Vanitas needed to just incapacitate them. It was lucky during his assaults on these men that they didn't have any weapons on them at all so he'll make quick work with them.

Vanitas dodged and rolled out of the way before slapping his sticks against various parts of their bodies before grabbing their heads to slam them into each other to not only knock them out, but to also break the masks in the process on several. He even had to sweep some off of their feet before slamming his weapons onto the masks to keep up on the process. Of course a horde started coming after him, causing the disguised publisher to pull out smoke bombs from his utility belt and threw them onto the ground to create a large amount of coverage for not only him, but also for the Bat.

In their confusion, Batman needed to get out of his hold from the Gekko, whom grabbed him moments ago. So he reached down and pulled off the large mask off of the man's head. In response, a mind control card fell onto the ground with the the man releasing his hold. Once that was done, the Bat looked onto the man and recognized him from Alice's framed photo and said woman's fiance: Billy.

"Oh god, my head." The now revealed Billy moaned out before seeing the hero of Gotham in front of him. "Batman? What's going on?"

"There's the nave." The Queen said through the smoke. "Off with his head!"

"Oh my god! Will you shut her up?!" Vanitas yelled out as he took care of the various white rabbit drones.

Ignoring the other hero for the brief moment, Batman turned his attention towards Billy. "They are only programed to attack me, but not you..."

"Yeah I got ya Bats." Billy said as he carefully walked around one of the mind controlled people and pulled off the head piece to deactivate the mind control. Said man ended up doing the same process on the other victims to end the unknown misery that fell upon them.

From up high, Tetch gritted his teeth once again as Alice's fiance was ruining things once again for him. So he grabbed Alice's hand and ran off of the platform with her as he spoke towards her. "Come now my dear, it's time to get away from this mess."

As Tetch was running towards the maze, he had picked up the fallen Queen's axe before entering the card themed area. It wasn't long for Batman to follow after the Hatter as he entered it's confusing hallways in hopes of finding the mad man with the captive secretary. Unknown to him, the Hatter and the mind controlled Alice were actually on the other side of one of the walls beside the hero.

After navigating through the maze for a few minutes, the card walls started to move on their own to box in the Batman.

"You're mighty in Gotham Batman! But here, in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter reigns supreme!" Jervis yelled out over the speakers before he bellowed out a madly laugh of his own.

Knowing he wasn't going to go far from his placement, he climbed up the card themed walls and started jumping across various ones till he got accustomed to a leap like run. Batman almost fell a few times in this run with the walls changing way too quickly, but he started to grow accustomed to this new happening. He continued with his search until he saw Jervis hunched over a set of controls of the changing maze.

Seeing the Bat's shadow from above, Jervis quickly grabbed the Queen's axe before he was tackled by the hero. The two soon crashed through the metal walls and into an opened area where Alice was sitting at a dining table. Batman would've reached out towards his employee, but Jervis yelled out from behind with the intent to kill the Dark Knight. Said hero was able to grab his former employee and tossed him over head, whom landed onto the dining table causing all of the dinnerware to fall off and break upon impact on the ground.

Once getting back up, Tetch growled out with his eyes glaring holes into the Bat. "I'll cut that cowl off your neck before you take her! I've waited my entire life for her!"

"Then all you've waited for is a puppet Jervis. A soulless little doll."

In response, Jervis looked towards his sweet Alice's unmoving form on her placement in her big chair. "But it didn't have to be this way! You and that bastard Billy made me this way!"

Soon the Mad Hatter ran towards the Batman while swinging his axe around in hopes of lopping the hero's head right off. But with how fast the man was going, he wasn't able to quickly change directions as the Bat moved out of the way to cause Tetch to run into one of the card walls. The Bat soon went inside to find his former employee, but it seemed the man ran off somewhere inside of the maze.

While he was searching for the neuroscientist, he didn't realize the walls of metallic cards falling over until it was too late. One of the cards fell ontop of him and caused him to topple over to get trapped between the fallen walls. Batman tried to get out, but Tetch came running in with his axe raised up high to cleave the man's head wide opened.

That would've been the case if a razor sharp card didn't sail right through the air and cut the rope holding the hanging Jabberwock statue. Seeing the enlarging shadow from below, Jervis looked up to see the falling Jabberwocky. He screamed in response as he was slammed down onto the ground with him being entrapped by its mighty claws. Batman struggled to get out of his placement, but he felt a hand grab ahold of his arm and pulled him out quite easily.

"Your welcome by the way." Vanitas said as he helped Batman get onto his feet. "Would've liked it if you helped me take care of those drones, but whatever."

Ignoring the other hero for a moment, the Bat went towards the top hat and slammed his foot down onto the piece of clothing. There was a crunching noise that soon followed before he kicked the hat to the side to reveal the broken pieces of the mind control headband on the ground. Vanitas wondered if that was what was controlling all of those people and was going to ask about it, but his eyes caught onto Billy walking closer to the seated Alice.

Said man reached out and took off the headband placed on Alice's head before the woman shook out of her stupor and looked towards the man with loving eyes. The couple embraced each other and kissed each other's lips while saying sweet nothings to each other in the process. The disguised publisher couldn't help, but look at it with a smile and the same reaction went on with the Bat.

"Would not, could not." A voice from behind said getting Vanitas and Batman to see Jervis looking at the sight before him. "Would not, could not, oh could not join the dance..."

"The Mocking Turtle's song." Vanitas mumbled in recognition to what that phrase was from as he peered to the side to see the statue of said fictional character weeping rivers of tears. He was going to say something else, but felt something coming from the distance and looked towards the source…. Only to find nothing.

'Must've been my imagination.' He thought as he saw Batman call the GCPD on what has just occurred.

If Vanitas kept looking at the previous spot, he would've seen a dark portal form from the darkness as a figure stepped out. Something seemed rather mysterious about this person as he gazed onto the scene inside of the card like maze. With what little light there was in the park, one would've seen more details of the individual, but all one could've seen was what the person was wearing.

Said attire was a full length black coat with a hood covering up the person's head entirely with a waist-high slit riding up the back to be similar to a duster. There was a large silver zipper that fastened at the top and zips down to seal the coat. It has silver drawstrings for the hood decorated with a large silver bead hanging from the end and a silver chain ornament adorned with four large cylindrical silver beads that fastens to a loop on either side of the collarbone region. Everything else that could've been visible was covered up by leather gloves and black boots and pants.

The figure did nothing at all as he stood on top of a tree branch before several cards slipped out of his sleeve and into his hand. He started to play a little card trick with them before tossing the cards into the air. Said objects soon enlarged themselves and encircled the mysterious figure in a slow pace.

"Let the games begin." Was all the man said in a whisper ss the cards soon dispersed themselves to show the man was gone.