The revelation that this elaborate scheme was specifically targeting Gordon came as a shock to both Bruce and Selena. While it was well-known that Gotham's criminal element despised the honest detective, most criminals had enough sense not to orchestrate something this elaborate and public just to get revenge on a single police officer.
The scale of this operation—hypnotizing hundreds of innocent civilians—suggested a level of obsession and madness that went far beyond typical criminal behavior. Both young vigilantes found themselves genuinely curious about what Gordon could have possibly done to drive someone to such extremes.
"Gordon!" the figure in the paper hat screamed, his voice echoing across the gathering of mesmerized citizens. "I know you're here! Come out! I want revenge for Alice!"
The name Alice carried such raw emotion in the man's voice that it was clear this was deeply personal. The Mad Hatter—as Bruce was beginning to think of him—was shouting with the kind of desperate fury that came from profound loss and grief twisted into something darker.
The hypnotized people around him showed no reaction to his outburst. They simply stood in their orderly formation, staring straight ahead with vacant expressions, as if the screaming madman in their midst was completely invisible.
After several tense minutes, a familiar figure emerged from the shadows of a nearby alley. Gordon stepped into view, his service pistol drawn and aimed directly at the Mad Hatter.
"I'm here, Tetch," Gordon called out, his voice steady despite the obvious tension in his posture. "Let these people go. Your anger is with me, not them."
Facing someone capable of mass hypnosis was genuinely unnerving for Gordon. In all his years as a police officer, he'd dealt with murderers, thieves, and violent criminals of every description. But this was something that seemed almost supernatural—hundreds of people controlled like puppets through means he didn't understand.
The Mad Hatter's response was a burst of maniacal laughter that sent chills through everyone present.
"Let them go?" Tetch giggled, his voice rising to an almost hysterical pitch. "No, no, no, no! You're a police officer, aren't you, Gordon? Well, I want you to watch how these people die! I want you to see them buried alongside Alice!"
Without warning, the Mad Hatter snapped his fingers. The sharp sound seemed to trigger some predetermined mechanism, because immediately afterward, two massive iron spheres came crashing down from above. The newlywed couple Bruce and Selena had first noticed were standing directly beneath the falling objects, completely unaware of their impending doom.
"Move!" Bruce shouted, reacting on pure instinct.
Both he and Selena launched themselves into action without a moment's hesitation. When they saw innocent people about to die, there was simply no question about whether to intervene. Two streaks of light flashed through the air as they hurled their energy-enhanced daggers at the falling spheres.
The blades struck their targets with tremendous force, temporarily halting the descent of the iron balls just long enough for Bruce and Selena to reach the endangered couple. They grabbed the man and woman and pulled them to safety just as the massive spheres crashed into the pavement where they'd been standing.
Even after nearly being crushed to death, the rescued couple showed no reaction whatsoever. Their faces remained completely expressionless, like mannequins rather than living human beings.
"We have to stop that maniac," Selena said grimly, "or everyone here is going to die."
Bruce nodded in agreement, and both young vigilantes turned toward the Mad Hatter, preparing to charge directly at him.
But as they closed the distance, a gray-green mist suddenly billowed up around them. The fog carried a strange, acrid scent that immediately made both of them feel lightheaded and disoriented.
Before they could react to this new threat, a curved blade came slicing through the mist, aimed directly at their heads.
"What the hell?" Bruce muttered, barely managing to raise his dagger in time to deflect the attack.
Through the swirling fog, a nightmarish figure emerged—a tall, gaunt man dressed in tattered clothing that gave him the appearance of a scarecrow. He wielded a long-handled scythe with obvious skill, and his entire presence radiated an aura of dread that seemed to seep into their bones.
"Scarecrow," Selena whispered, remembering Alfred's warnings about the rumors circulating through Gotham. "And that scythe..."
As the gray-green mist continued to envelop them, both Bruce and Selena felt their vision beginning to blur and shift. The world around them took on a surreal, nightmarish quality as whatever chemical they'd inhaled began to take effect.
Bruce found himself surrounded by thousands of bats—not the kind he'd learned to appreciate as symbols of justice, but vicious, diseased creatures with glowing red eyes and razor-sharp fangs. They swooped and dove at him, their screeches filling his ears with sounds of pure malevolence.
Selena's hallucination was even more terrifying. A towering figure in a black hooded robe stood before her, holding a massive scythe that gleamed with an otherworldly light. The Grim Reaper himself had come to claim her soul, and she could feel the cold touch of death reaching out for her.
"Get away from me!" Bruce shouted, slashing wildly at the phantom bats.
"Stay back!" Selena screamed, her daggers cutting through empty air as she tried to fend off the specter of death.
The Scarecrow watched their terrified reactions with obvious satisfaction, his harsh laughter mixing with the sounds of their panic.
"Yes! Face your deepest fears!" he cried out gleefully. "Let terror consume you completely!"
But as the Scarecrow raised his scythe for what he expected to be a killing blow against the helpless vigilantes, something unexpected happened.
Clang!
His blade was blocked. Despite being lost in their worst nightmares, both Bruce and Selena had managed to raise their weapons in time to deflect his attack.
The months of training with Marcus had taught them something crucial: fear was just another enemy to be faced and overcome. They might be seeing their worst nightmares made manifest, but they refused to let those fears paralyze them.
Instead of running away or cowering in terror, both young vigilantes began attacking the hallucinations that tormented them. Bruce lashed out at the swarm of bats with calculated strikes, while Selena charged directly at the figure of Death itself.
Their enhanced senses, sharpened by countless hours of training, allowed them to detect the Scarecrow's actual position even through the haze of fear gas. When he attacked, they could feel the displacement of air and react accordingly.
"Impossible!" the Scarecrow snarled, watching in disbelief as his victims fought back against their own terror. "No one faces their deepest fears head-on! No one!"
But that was exactly what Marcus had taught them to do. Fear was just another obstacle to overcome, another challenge to master. They might be afraid, but they would never allow fear to control their actions.
The Scarecrow's combat abilities were nothing special—he relied entirely on his fear gas to incapacitate opponents before moving in for easy kills. Against enemies who could fight through their terror, he was just an ordinary man with a farming tool.
Within moments, Bruce and Selena's coordinated attacks had shattered the Scarecrow's scythe, leaving him holding nothing but a broken wooden handle.
"I can't stop these two!" the Scarecrow called out desperately to his partner. "Do something! The gas is wearing off!"
At his partner's urgent warning, the Mad Hatter's expression grew even more unhinged.
"You want to stop me?" he shrieked at the approaching vigilantes. "All I want is to be with Alice! What right do you have to interfere with love? And you, Gordon—you sent her to heaven!"
The accusation left Gordon speechless, but not because he felt guilty. He remembered exactly how Alice Tetch had died, and it had nothing to do with police action.
Jervis Tetch—the Mad Hatter—had been obsessively pursuing his own sister with romantic intentions. The twisted nature of his affections had terrified Alice, who had tried desperately to escape his advances. During one particularly violent struggle, she had fallen from a second-story window and been impaled on a wrought-iron fence below.
Gordon had been investigating reports of domestic disturbance, but he had never laid a hand on Alice. Her death was entirely the result of her brother's sick obsession and her attempts to get away from him.
"Tetch, I never harmed Alice," Gordon said firmly. "You know exactly how she died. She was running from you because your behavior frightened her. Her death was a tragic accident that happened because she was trying to escape your harassment."
"Lies!" the Mad Hatter screamed. "Alice loved me! She was just confused! You turned her against me!"
"I don't care who you want to be with," Gordon continued, "as long as it doesn't break the law and both people consent. But Alice never consented to your advances, and now you're threatening innocent people to get revenge for something that was your own fault."
"Innocent people?" The Mad Hatter's laugh was completely unhinged now. "I don't care about anyone except Alice! Now that she's dead, I want everyone who hurt her to join her in the grave!"
He snapped his fingers again, and immediately, dozens of hypnotized civilians who had been positioned on various rooftops around the area took a single step forward. They were now standing at the very edges of the buildings, one more command away from plunging to their deaths.
"No! Stop!" Gordon shouted, realizing what was about to happen.
But before the Mad Hatter could give the final command, the roar of a powerful engine filled the alley. Alfred had been monitoring the situation through the vehicle's surveillance systems, and he'd decided that direct intervention was necessary.
"Time to test the new equipment," Alfred murmured to himself as he activated one of the vehicle's specialized systems.
A cannon barrel emerged from the top of the armored car and fired a single shot into the air above the alley. Instead of an explosive shell, the projectile released a massive net made of ultra-strong synthetic fibers. Metal grappling hooks shot out from the edges of the net, embedding themselves in the walls of the surrounding buildings and creating an enormous safety barrier.
Just as the net snapped into position, the Mad Hatter's final finger snap echoed through the area. The hypnotized people on the rooftops obediently stepped off the edges, plummeting toward what should have been certain death.
Instead, they fell safely into Alfred's emergency net, which held their weight easily and prevented any serious injuries.
"Excellent," Alfred said with satisfaction, watching the surveillance feed as the innocent civilians bounced harmlessly in his impromptu safety net. "The Master's contingency planning proves useful once again."
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