Alice In Gotham Pt 3

“Oh, it's such a lovely party tonight, Alice,” Hatter was overjoyed, gently dancing with Alice. Only twirling Danny gently, not to hurt him, treating him like a fragile flower. They had a small tea party, Hatter and his 2 Alice's. Now they were dancing the evening away, “Did you eat enough?”

“No, this body required more sustenance than the average human,” Danny’s soulless voice responded.

“Oh dear, then you must stop this dance and eat until your stomach is satisfied,” Hatter stopped the dance and March Hare returned with a fresh tray of small sandwiches, cut fruits, pastries, and other tea party foods. Alice began to eat slowly. Hatter was determined to keep his Alice alive and healthy for as long as possible, “Very good. When you finish your meal, go to bed. You need rest to recover. I still have two more people for you to invite. They will be guests of honor to celebrating you joining me.”

Alice nodded and continued to eat silently. Hatter had began sending out his goons distract the Bats from his base. Nothing specific other than drawing their attention. Hatter had a larger table to invite their next guests tomorrow night. He needed more than one decoy Alice, lest Batman steal his porcelain doll.

—

“Bad news,” Oracle spoke up as the plan was starting to move into action, “Girls are starting to be kidnapped for their blue eyes. Good news, we have a lead on Mad Hatter's hideout since it's his goons taking them instead of Scraps. Which means he wasn’t in the botanical gardens so that trap is likely still there.”

The sound of Red Hood cracking his neck and knuckles echoed in the wind and he geared up in one of his safe houses where he brought Scraps stuff. The fact that Scraps was no longer being spotted was more than worrying now that they knew what the kid's vitals looked like.

“Send me the coordinates,” Red Hood pulled on his helmet and left the safe house on his motorcycle. He had a set of buck teeth to punch out of a perverted redhead.

“Sending them now,” Oracle was heard aggressively typing on her keyboard, “How does the facial scan keep failing? I can't get anything on the kid. It's like they don't exist outside of 2 and half months ago. I still can't track their path home, they just disappear with their abilities.”

“That's the problem I've been having with Scraps. When we free ‘em from Hatter Imma set them up somewhere safe. Other kids said they have an accent and are weirdly nice. My guess it, they aren't from Gotham. We might be able to get ‘em home if they were stuck here for some reason,” Hood answered.

“Sounds like Mad Hatter erased that accent for now. Poor kid talks like a robot from the recordings we have,” Nightwing responded.

“Coordinates have been sent. Looks like a standard rescue mission for now,” Oracle spoke up again, “Robin, Spoiler, and Nightwing are clear for distraction. Orphan, Red Hood, and Red Robin will focus on rescue. Get Scraps and the other girls out of there.”

“We will,” Hood rode off into the night, following the location Oracle had sent him with less than legal driving.

“Tsk,” Robin responded, moving towards the coordinates. Unsatisfied in his role as distraction but following orders regardless.

“There's a disruption nearby. Mad Hatter's goons are going wild,” Oracle spoke up, “It only just started and there aren't many.”

“Signal and I will manage the disruption,” Batman quickly readjusted the plan, “Everyone else, stay with the original plan.”

Men in white rabbit hats were running around causing chaos as the members came closer. Nothing specific, or uniform. Some broke windows for the sake of breaking them. Others chased people, some stole, others shot their guns at random. They were being mind controlled but given no clear instructions. Some were putting masks over random civilians to increase their numbers. Others forcing bows onto women who began walking towards the same building. A hotel on the smaller side, all of the windows had been covered up. Following as planned: Spoiler and Nightwing made their entrance into the hotel known.

“Hello~ any rooms available tonight? I need a place to dream off to wonderland,” Nightwing burst in and sure enough, the entire hotel was filled with employees who all had tophats.

“That was terrible,” Spoiler commented as she quickly started taking hats off employees, freeing them and directing them to a space in the lobby to wait for police and medical.

“Yeah, not my best,” Nightwing responded as Robin moved past the lobby.

Orphan, Red Hood, and Red Robin snuck in through the rooms on the top floor. Girls were asleep in the beds, but it was an unnatural sleep. They quickly removed the clips from their hair, destroyed the clips, and moved on, checking room after room. Only 8 rooms with 1-3 girls in each and 3 floors. Almost 40 women and girls were hostages, excluding the staff which were also being freed.

Outside, Signal was using the shadows as tangible tendrils to pull the masks and hats off hostages. Something wasn't right, it was too easy. Mad Hatter wasn't known to team up with other rogues often, but it was still a possibility.

“You are interrupting,” a familiar monotone voice appeared behind Signal. He turned to find Scraps, standing behind him.

“We can't let Hatter kidnap people and force them to do his bidding. How about you let me free you,” Signal tried again to grab the wig only for the shadow to be grabbed, frozen in a layer of ice and, shattered with only one hand, “Okay, didn't know you could do that.”

“Scraps is outside and engaging with Signal,” Oracle announced to the others.

“The tea party is tomorrow, please wait until then,” Scraps’ aura flared and began gathering in their chest and hands. Eyes completely ice blue and glowing, “You will only get one warning.”

“Sorry, but we have to crash the party. You need a hospital like yesterday,” Signal turned his vitals scanner on to check. Scraps’ vitals hadn't gotten better, but they weren't lower so they still had time. But their temperature was dropping even lower.

It took only a second but Signal was a distraction as Batman approached from behind with a meta suppression collar. Before he could put it around Danny's neck, he received a swift kick to his arm sending the collar flying and Batman back onto the asphalt.

“Scraps is getting aggressive,” Signal blocked, but was still sent back when a punch was aimed his way, “Add enhanced strength to the list.”

“Why the hell does this kid have so many powers?” Nightwing responded.

“Ice manipulation, floating, invisibility, density shifting, and enhanced strength? We need to keep this kid on our side,” Red Robin commented as he hacked into all the security cameras of the hotel, “Eyes on Hatter, he's in the basement.”

“Dibs!” Red Hood began racing Orphan down to the basement, leaving Red Robin and the distraction team to deal with the hostages' release to the police. Most were still in their civilian clothes, it was a good sign, they had acted early into Hatter's plan.

Outside, Batman's cape was frozen to the street, the collar which had been discarded was picked up by Alice and examined. It was only for a second, but their normally blue eyes flashed green. The collar was snapped in half at the hinge and frozen into a block of ice before it was tossed aside. Vibrant blue eyes turned to Batman who had unclasped his cape to continue the fight. Spears of ice were fired his way, each one missed would either penetrate the ground or dissolve before hitting a civilian. One lucky shot struck Batman's side as a civilian prevented him from fully dodging.

“So, that meta collar just pissed off Scraps,” Signal announced, noticing the kid had just gotten way more aggressive than they were before. Still, not once did they hit another civilian. They had such control over their power to only target Signal and Batman. They somehow managed to keep surrounding destruction from their ice attacks to a minimum.

“They've clearly had experience fighting,” Batman didn't even need to bandage the wound. There was a layer of frost keeping him from bleeding out, “Not a single casualty has been caused by Scraps.”

“That's odd. Hatter has never cared about casualties unless it involved a particularly favorable hostage. This could mean the mind control isn't as complete as we thought. Tetch is known for killing his Alices’ yet he's kept Scraps much longer than usual, probably because of their meta abilities,” Oracle reviewed the information they had gathered, “Batman you were hit by a spear and that section of your suit reads its colder.”

“Hm. They covered the wound with frost at the moment of impact. Not as cold as other ice samples Red Robin has observed but enough to keep the pain and bleeding at bay. They don't want to hurt us, even if Hatter is forcing them to attack,” Batman responded, “Your theory seems accurate Oracle, Mad Hatter doesn't have full control over them.”

Signal was off catching the last of the mind controlled civilians outside while Batman continued to try and catch Scraps. He wasn't slowed down much with his injury thanks to the frost. It was when they had backed up, closer to the hotel that the fight became more challenging. Signal rejoined the fight to weaken Alice in order to get the wig off them. Scraps startled by a mist of blue escaping their lips before looking around, then down. It was faint in his mind controlled state but Danny felt it. Rage- protect- children in danger- protect- angry! It stirred a part of him as his core wanted to respond to the undead it felt nearby.

Using the distraction Signal caught Scraps in his shadows, Batman attempted to cuff Scraps only to find the kid had slipped out of their grasp again and gotten behind him and struck hard enough to knock Batman unconscious. Though it would only be temporary.

“Enough,” Scraps encased Duke’s arms in frost and grabbed the same cuffs Batman was attempting to put on them before. With Duke handcuffed, the fight was over. Grabbing both vigilantes by their suits, Scraps dragged them both back into the hotel before sinking them into the basement where they were met with another battle. One Mad Hatter was losing, and becoming desperate. The last of his goons and about 5 other Alice hostages were in the fight. Hatter had a busted lip and his buck teeth were now one broken tooth and a gap, courtesy of Red Hood.

No one noticed their sudden appearance in a secluded area. Nightwing lead the freed hostages out towards the main floor. Red Hood and Robin were focused on disarming the goons. Spoiler and Red Robin focused on the hostages. Where was Orphan?

“Remain quiet and I won't have to tape your mouth shut,” Scraps whispered, too low for Duke’s active com to pick up.

Signal nodded, he needed to focus on picking the lock on the cuffs and freeing himself from the ice. He would only distract the others if he called out now. He observed instead. Scraps didn't behave like a mindless zombie anymore. Not to mention their aura was starting to flicker brighter than before. It had happened so suddenly outside. That blue mist caused their entire aura to flare bright enough to temporarily blind him. Signal’s eyes were still recovering, but he could tell it was flickering. Something was going on, and their behavior was changing. Scraps reached… into their chest?! -And pulled out a metal tool box with a green cross on it. It read first-aid underneath. They opened it and pulled out latex gloves after removing the ones they were wearing before. There were some odd silver bracelets with a green stripe on each wrist below the white gloves. Where they a part of the mind control tech? Did those need tk be removed? Scraps sterilized their hands, a needle, and Batman’s wound after removing the frost. It was slow to bleed, the frost had been helping it clot and prevented swelling.

“What are you doing?” Signal asked quietly, observing as Scraps thread the needle and began stitching Batman’s wound without any form of anesthetic.

“Batman requires first aid. I am providing it,” they answered, already half way done. Their stitches were neat, and the wound was hardly bleeding. Not to mention they worked almost as fast as Alfred! Batman wasn't responding to the feeling. The cold must have completely numbed the area or he was out colder than Signal thought he was.

“Why?” Signal began an interrogation as quietly as he could with the fighting on the other side. Still, they spoke loud enough that his com was picking it up.

“I know how. And I had supplies,” Scraps was answering questions. That wasn't something they'd ever done before. The control was slipping.

“Why do you know how?” Duke knew Scraps was too young to have ever studied medicine. They only looked 13 at the oldest, but they also looked malnourished. These stitches were done perfectly, something from lots of practice.

“I have to.”

“Scraps,” he was free from the hand cuffs and caught a glimpse of movement in the shadows, “Why do you have to know?”

“...” They stopped responding and simply packed away the first aid supplies after wiping the blood off their gloves on the apron and setting the bloodied gloves into a pocket. Now that he caught a glimpse inside, there were way too many glowing materials and tools in that first aid kit. Scraps shoved the kit back into their chest and stood.

“Noo!” Mad Hatter shouted, “You're ruining everything!”

“You're mind controlling innocent civilians for your own enjoyment. As if we would agree to allow that to continue,” Robin snarled as he captured Hatter and cuffed him.

“No, where is she? Where is she? Alice!” Hatter called, Scraps followed the shout quickly, leaving Signal and Batman behind. Hatter gave a nasty grin as his perfect Alice approached with red blood on her apron. That put everyone on edge except Hatter, “Alice, stop them! They'll destroy our tea party. We need them alive to celebrate.”

“Leave the civilians out of this,” Robin growled as he secured Hatter in favor of rejoining the fight.

Duke was the only one to notice the snowball appear in Danny’s hand. It had an eerie green light inside it. He was still stuck in ice but he could look a few seconds into the future. He was struck with a migraine as a bright light burst into view.

The snowball was tossed in the air, it drew everyone's attention. An innocent snowball tossed up carelessly. The snow sparkling in the basement lights as it reached the center of the room.

“GET DOWN!” is shouted just as a green light bursts through the snow and shards of ice scattered across the entire room. The shards shattered on impact, only leaving a small scratch, the problem was the frost growing from each hit. It left a 5in area on the body or surface stiff and immobile. The frost covering the hostages quickly melted as the explosion came to an end. They were completely unharmed. Hatter, oddly, wasn't untouched like the hostages. Hatter’s legs were frozen and stuck to the gound, he'd been hit with the most frost out of everyone.

“Was that a fucking ice grenade?!” Red Hood was both amazed at that and also hated that he was on the other end of it.

Ice was coating the floor in patches. The inconsistent surface would make fighting more difficult. Duke and Batman were covered in snow instead of frost. The automatic heaters regulating their temperature noticed the cold and turned on. Duke was having no luck escaping the ice, even in his shadows.

“Signal, report,” Red Robin ordered as he noticed Signal and Batman had been captured.

“Scraps got fed up in the fight and took Batman in a single blow. Then provided him with first aid. Something drew their attention in the fight. A blue mist came out of their mouth and it caused their aura to flare. It started glitching after that. I think the mind control device is starting to fail. They'll answer some questions but not all of them. Scraps is becoming more independent. You might be able to talk them down at some point,” Signal reported, still focusing on getting out of the ice. The repeated flashes from looking at Scraps was giving him an unbearable migraine. He couldn't help much like this, so he's guarding B instead.

“I hope that wig is malfunctioning. This has been one of the most annoying cases with Hatter because of Scraps’ powers,” Red Robin sighed, “I'm going to try remotely hacking into the device. You guys keep Scraps from disrupting me and try and get either a collar or cuff on them to try and grab the wig anyway.”

“If we can even get fucking close,” Red Hood growled through his modulator, something about the pit felt weird. It was making him angry, but when kids were being taken hostages any one of the Bats would be angry. What was weird was the pit was also yelling at him to keep Scraps close, they were needing protection. They were a baby- Why a baby? They're at least like 13? Why do they feel baby?

It happened again. As Red Hood approached while the others continued to deal with the hostages. Alice hadn't really moved after the snowball grenade. A blue mist escaped their lips and they turned to see Red Hood, who's eyes were green but not hostile. Scraps tilted their head, it was less subtle than it was before.

“Undead?” That caught everyone's attention, Scraps had just called out Red Hood's undead status.

“How do you know that?” Red Hood growled again, noticing the green in his vision.

“Littlewing,” Nightwing jumped between them, “Deep breaths, you're looking kinda green. We don't know anything about Scraps, we don't know specifically what that means for them.”

“I know that,” Hood snapped, backing up from Scraps a bit and taking some breaths to calm down.

“Hey now, how about we get that wig off of you, Scraps? Blonde is not really for you,” Nightwing reached out but didn't step closer.

“Alice what are you doing, fight the-mph!” Orphan had gagged Hatter and gave a thumbs up to Red Hood and Nightwing.

“Understood,” Scraps took an offensive pose. Their eyes kept glancing towards the escrima sticks on Nightwing’s back. Their scarred left hand trembled slightly. It was then that Red Hood, Orphan, and Robin felt a sensation of awake?- Where?- scared!

“Empath?” Orphan called out, missing the wig as Scraps turned intangible.

“Feels like it,” Red Hood responded.

“I don't feel whatever you guys are feeling,” Nightwing dodged a punch and tried grabbing Scraps only for them to dodge again, “The density shifting is a real pain-Agh!”

Scraps knocked back Nightwing and Red Hood into creates nearby. A sheet of ice suddenly appearing on Hood's back kept them from being seriously hurt. It disappeared just as quickly. Robin was next to go after Scraps. They exchange blows, dodging each other mostly. It was then that Robin decided using his sword may be the best choice when Scraps started using small arrows of ice against him and other Bats within range. The ice only left small cuts in their armor but it continued to spread frost on contact. Watching as Robin deflected arrows with his sword, Scraps took a different stance. A sword of ice appearing in their right hand, and a smaller shield in their left.

“No fucking way,” Red Hood would recognize that fighting stance of his favorite Justice League Member anywhere.

“Finally, someone who can go against my blade,” Robin smirked and their swords wasted no time colliding.

“Are we seriously fighting a meta Amazonian right now?!” Nightwing groaned, pushing broken wood of the crates off him and Red Hood, “Great, we're fighting someone with no convenient weakness.”

“Okay well we're not doing Batman's contingency plan for Wonder Woman, that would kill Scraps,” Oracle spoke up through coms, “We do have the possibility that she has a weakness to electricity if her reaction to Nightwing's weapons are anything to go off of.”

“I don't want to electrocute a kid,” Nightwing groaned as he got up with a wince. His ribs were bruised but not unbearable. Red Hood was in similar shape.

“Robin might be able to tire them out- Oracle did you switch to she/her for Scraps?” Red Hood watched as the sword fight continued and the last of the hostages were just about free.

They were sword fighting while Alice not only dodged Orphan’s grabs at them but also stray bullets being shot around the room. The fact that Alice was mostly unharmed aside from some tears in the dress’s frilly skirt only displayed what a good battle sense they had.

“I was thinking more she/they. Only women live on Themyscira and can learn the fighting style. Men are strictly forbidden. But it's weird, Wonder Woman said there are no children on Themyscira. So someone had to have trained Scraps outside of Themyscira or brought them in. It looks like she's been learning the fighting style for a long time If they're keeping up with Robin.”

“Red Robin, how's hacking going?” Nightwing moved to help keep stray ice shots and bullets off Red Robin. Spoiler needed to focus more on civilians.

“I've managed to sabotage all of the other wigs in this building except for 10 of them. They're signals are jammed so close together and something is keeping me from shutting them down the same way. I'm trying what I can, but I don't know which one of these is controlling Scraps,” Red Robin answered, angrily typing away at his wrist computer, “Oracle can you use my position to isolate the chip controlling Scraps?”

“Working on it now,” Oracle could be heard typing away in their coms as the fight between Robin and Scraps continued. So far, it seems Scraps was able to back Robin closer to an isolated spot. His beloved sword was half coated in frost along with a part of his torso. Spoiler only had 2 hostages left to free, both with guns. She threw 2 batarang to disarm them before grabbing the rabbit helmets off them.

It was only a second, the batarang flew towards the wall after disarming the hostage. It hit, at an -oh so convenient- ricochet. To hit Danny. A blonde chunk of hair was on the ground as the battle suddenly halted between him and Robin. It grazed his cheek and the blade was stopped by the diadem under the wig; it had only cut a third through the band. Just a little interference… A white gloved hand touched the cut to see green blood. It was corrosive and slowly eating at the cloth glove. He reached up and pulled the batarang out of the diadem with little effort and examined it. Danny could sense a familiar energy from it.

Robin had frozen. A stray batarang had just landed in the head of the hostage they had been trying to save. They were dead- or not? There was no more than a small smear of… blood? It was green, and glowed a little, and so did the cut on their skin. It was their blood. Scraps was not human… That didn't matter, Robin still needed to free Scraps and get them somewhere safe. Mad Hatter needed to be locked up in Arkham, though Robin always thought that was too light a punishment for him.

Robin was able to get closer while Scraps was focused on the batarang. Examining it with calculating eyes. The wig now had an uneven cut, but it revealed that the wig wasn't the problem. Getting close enough to grab them, Robin did so. Scraps’ eyes were flickering, bright blue, to dim blue, and an occasional flash of what had to be green. Lazarus pits… No, their blood was also green, do not draw conclusions without all the evidence. Robin could get a sample at least. He snuck a vial from his utility belt and touched it to the cut, getting a small gush of blood and seeing the metal band which had been cut partially. Scraps hadn't moved, frozen into a deep stare… Taking advantage, Robin used a solvent to melt the wig glue and remove it. Revealing the band to everyone along with fluffy and matted black hair. Then the band sparked from the cut.

That seemed to have snapped Scraps out of their daze as they grabbed Robin’s arm and covered him in a net of ice that kept him from moving again before jumping back.

“RR, I don't think you'll like this,” Oracle spoke up, “Three of the chips are flickering in and out of function but it looks like all ten of them are on Scraps.”

“Fuck,” Red Robin cursed as he was having the same result on his screen, “It must all be in that band around their head. Nightwing-”

“Yeah, I know,” Nightwing took a breath before splitting off from Red Robin.

Spoiler had tried approaching Scraps in the meantime. The ice sword had disappeared along with the shield. It was a short fight, one where Scraps was clearly distracted, and still, it ended with Spoiler frozen in an ice net, much like Robin. Red Robin would have jumped into the fight next, but found he'd been frozen to the beam he was perched on. Red Hood found his boots had been frozen to the ground. It was up to Nightwing and Orphan.

Scraps jumped away as Nightwing got close again, it was obvious they were avoiding fighting them. Red Hood, Robin, and Orphan felt it again can't stop- don't fight- help- hurts- hurts- please…

“Tsk!” Scraps flinched as the diadem sparked.

“Four chips are offline,” Oracle reported, “A fifth started flickering.”

“Come on , Scraps. Lets get that off you,” Nightwing slowly approached, “You don't want to fight, right?”

“... … no…” their voice was just above a whisper. Their real voice, with that slight midwestern accent. Another spark made them flinch.

“Right,” Nightwing gave a soft smile as he reached out a hand.

Scraps eyes still flickering between blue and green. They moved quickly, past Nightwings hand and grabbed one of the escrima sticks. Jumping back again, Scraps stood on a defensive stance, trembling left hand holding onto the taser end. Red Hood couldn't focus as all he felt from Scraps was scared-hurt-stop-resistresistresist!

“Nightwing,” Red Hood spoke up, the feelings from Scraps were starting to become overwhelming. Stop me- please- gonna hurt- hurting- please… “They want you to do it…”

“It's gonna kill them…”

“... Sh… ort… cir-cuit… please…” Scraps was flickering, internally fighting between avoiding the pain and being intangible and being solid to take the shock, “...I’ll… be… … o…kay… …”

With a shaky breath Nightwing leapt forward and activated the stick before Scraps could shift away. It was the worst scream that had erupted from them. A wave of pain!- painpain! - dying- hit every one of the bats. The windows cracked and the lights flickered out, a few bursting sending sparks and hot glass over them.

It went on, mostly because Scraps refused to let go. It was a full minute before the lock on the band shorted out and it slipped off. Hitting the ground as Scraps fell. Orphan was quick to catch them, they were unconscious now.

“That was terrible,” Nightwing sighed. He had just zapped the kid they were trying to save. The kid who already had dangerously low vitals.

“The frost is weaker now,” Robin had finally broken himself free from the cold prison.

“My head is killing me,” Signal, free from the ice and snow, managed to get Batman to wake up.

“Batman, Mad Hatter has been apprehended and the hostages have all been freed. Scraps still needs medical attention,” Nightwing was the quickest to recover, but that scream was still haunting him. His focus now was making sure Scraps didn't die.

“What was that?” Red Robin rubbed the sides of his head as he was freed from the beam. Ice all around the room was defrosting. Slippery surfaces were disappearing, not even puddles of water left behind.

“Empath,” Orphan answered, running her fingers through Scraps's hair, “Felt their pain.”

“Let's just get the kid some medical attention,” Red Hood stood closer to Scraps. He couldn't feel anything apart from the quiet humming of hurts- in pain- free- comfort… as Orphan continued to gently pet Scraps. They seemed comfortable with the touch, for now.

“I'll grab a spare outfit for them,” Spoiler left, she had a less bubbly mood than usual.

“Hm,” Batman grunted, as the team started to split up again. His head was still throbbing, he likely had a concussion. Signal and Red Robin left to fill in with the police, but not before grabbing the diadem for examination later.

For now, the fight was over and all that was left was the clean up here and at the Botanical Gardens.

~~~

Master List

Part 2

Part 4