"Hhh."
Figures. Third rusted gate I've had to lift since I arrived. The redundancy of this damned labrynth is already starting to get on my nerves, but it's worth it to know that I'm already a third of the way to the center and I'm already starting to hear voices. Tried to see if the cowl could use the sound frequency to pinpoint the location of them, but I guess I haven't reached that part of the manual in the sonar specifications. The irony is hardly lost, given that you'd think Batman wouldn't need to know how to use the sonar. Giving the gate some muscle, I finally lift the heaping ton of metal off of the ground as high as I can, drop to the ground, and roll, just in time to narrowly avoid being crushed. The gate slams down harder than I'd like, causing me to instinctively vault to the shadows and press against the wall.
Stand still. Focus. Concentrate.
No footsteps and no voices there to acknowledge my prescence. Either I'm farther back in the beginning of the maze than I realized, or they've given me the less preferable alternative: the place is heavy with surviellence, and they already know I'm here. So I'm already screwed on stealth. I'd say I should look on the bright side, but screw that. Doing what I do for this long, and having experienced so many close calls, I've found that it's always best to assume the worst case scenerio is true. Only then can you set yourself up to be pleasantly surprised.
Okay. So I'm down on stealth. Guess I won't need the approach of the slow and silent variety.
"Oracle? Still with me?"
Recognized. How may I be of assistance?
Never gonna get used to that. I swear to God.
"I need a digital mapping grid of the corridor. And, uh, the surrounding area in general."
A visual instruction surprises me on the screen of the cowl lenses. Telling me how to get a firm reading. Apparently I need two miniaturized beacons, which I quickly find in the back of the belt. Producing them, I go to place them on the opposite side of the walls. They briefly give off a faint white glow, before turning over green. At first, I don't even really think I did it right, but the real surprise comes whenever I turn back to the corridor. Everything infront of me is overlayed with a giant grid, shrinking in size and showing me exactly where I am - and more importantly, where I'm headed.
Apart of me is too stunned to move. Why the hell did I used to be low-tech again?
Giving a smirk, I tap the side of my cowl and re-activate the LED lights embedded into the frames of the lenses. The resulting comibination of both lenses illuminates my path and gives me enough to go on in order to advance without trepidation. If my hunch is right, they know I'm here and they're planning an attack. Least this way, I can see them coming a mile away and still keep going without having to worry about staying in the shadows. Reading my hand on the pouch of the belt that'll give me a range of projectiles, I make my way through Wonderland. I'd take the opportunity to radio my back-up, as it were, but I don't know how far she is in the maze herself.
Still, though. I bet she's having a worse time trying to navigate than I am.
Damn it, Hood. Just had to split us up, didn't you?!
Facing similar quite troubles to her counterpart, Selina Kyle gingerly climbs through the splintering wooden panels that bolt up the next corridor, finding that her only aide is the nightvision goggles resting across her face as she blindly guides herself through an unusually difficult patch of darkness. What little she can actually see does little to dissuade her discomfort in being here. The decor mainly consists of smiling faces, once created to amuse children, but now giving off a much more sinister vibe. And she's already seen far too many rabbits, only reminding her of the way they found this place - and by default, reminding her of the reason she's here. To rescue her friend Maven, who Selina swears to herself is still alive, despite having no evidence to support it. She can't help it. Maven was the closest thing she had ever been given to a sister, so Selina knows that if she's wrong, there won't be much to stop her from wanting to claw out the hearts of the people responsible for this. And taking another life isn't a road she wants to go down any time soon.
Spotting a distant panel that controls the lighting of the room, Catwoman lets out a small sigh of relief, racing towards it in order to bring an to end her aimless trek. But by the time that her fingers jam down on the panel, she realizes that she hasn't only activated the lights - an unsettlingly inapproapriate song starts to play over the intercom.
"No, dammit, no..."
A... very merry unbirthday to me
To me! To who?
To me! Oh you!
A very merry unbirthday to you
Who me? Yes you! Oh me!
Let's all congratulate us with another cup of tea
A very merry unbirth---
Immediately turning the lights back off, which also brings an end to the loud and unintentionally compromising tune, Selina places a hand on her whip and looks around, scanning the room for any potential halls or doors that could be opened enough to allow certain undesirables to hear that. But she sees nothing but cartoonish plastic renderings of the Mad Hatter and the March Hare staring back at her, sharing a spot of tea amongst the ruins of the broken down ride that was once built here.
Catching her breath, Catwoman slowly removes her hand from the whip and looks for a place to go to next. In the far distance, she can hear the same voices that Batman had kept hearing, though similarly, she doesn't know how far they are or where they're coming from. Using them to guide her, she comes across the next hall and stops, noticing that it's brightly lit up with interchanging red and white floodlights.
This is insanity. Who the hell would honestly surround themselves with this garish crap?
*SMASH!*
Uncharacteristically, Selina jumps, startled by a loud noise that comes from the other side of the wall nearest to her. Like a sledgehammer striking itself against solid steel. The noise repeats, prompting her to stand away from the wall, unsure of what to do next. Her first instinct is to run, but she narrows her eyes, knowing that Maven could very well be on the other side of that wall. And one way or another, her friend is leaving this place alive, even if Selina isn't going to be there to join her.
Removing the whip from her belt, she waits for the noise to repeat a third time. And it does, prompting her to crack the whip into the air, ready for whatever is behind there to burst through. Needless to say, she isn't disappointed - because to her amazement, the entire wall begins to neatly splinter into a vague outline that stands six and a half feet tall, not unlike a human being. Seconds later and the entire wall explodes, causing Catwoman to drop the whip and be knocked back by the force required to burst through.
What was that?!
Scrambling to her feet, she doesn't waste a second in diving back towards the whip, extending her arm and stretching her hand out, reaching for it.
Only to find her hand be stomped down upon by a large boot.
"AGGH!"
A sickening crunch later, and Catwoman's body is rattled with immense pain. Trying desperately to free her hand before it breaks completely, she briefly looks up to see who's attacked her. But all that stares back at her is a large, toothy grin on a face hidden behind a domino mask and a siege of briht purple laced throughout his bizarre uniform.
In some sense, she was looking at a living, breathing inhabitant of Wonderland.
"Eh?"
"What in the..."
My eyes widen, hearing a pained scream a little too similar to Catwoman's echoing throughout the building. I can't tell where it's coming from exactly, but it's far enough away for me to be more than a little worried. My casual walk down the corridor turns into a fevered sprint, listening for any further noises to tip me off as to where she'd be. My paranoia only continuing to grow as I realize that there
aren't any other screams to go off off. Jesus, what if she's been captured? And that's not even assuming the worst. Dammit, I knew bringing her along was a bad idea. This is why I don't like working with a partner. Having Barbara along whenever she was doing the Batgirl thing taught me that more often than not, they're a liability. Sometimes it's better to do this alone.
I'll be sure to tell that to Catwoman's corpse if I don't manage to find her in time. Shaking that ghoulish mental image out of my head, I run down the next corridor and come to a sudden stop, realizing that I hear something behind me. Another gate, but this one isn't rusted. It's in fairly new condition, and being remote controlled so that it can intentionally be used to trap me in. I turn to the next entrance and it does the same, limiting my options. Terrific.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little Bat..."
I immediately spin around, batarang at the ready. Only to find that the voice isn't coming from inside the room, but rather over an intercom above me. I sneer up at the ceiling, realizing that there's a security cam that's been re-activated for use.
"How I wonder what you're at. Up above the world you fly, like a teatray in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little Bat. How I wonder what you're at."
Someone's watching me.
Not just watching. Taunting me.
"I'm not one for nursery rhymes."
"Oh, but it isn't just for nursery! Oh no, it isn't just for nursery... it can be used for a variety of occasions! It can also act as a welcoming committee, so welcome, little Bat! Welcome to Wonderland!"
Grabbing at the nearest gate, I try to pry it upwards like I did with the others. No such luck.
Guess I've got no choice but to humor the crazed lunatic that I'm speaking to.
"I won't be staying. But I'll go ahead and assume you're the one responsible for the kidnappings."
"Kidnapping?! How deplorable! There's been no kidnapping at play here, just the normal sort of play! The fun sort of play! Play, play, play, that's all they do! My guests, you see, my guests. All they want to do is play."
My fists clench together. If this guy was right here infront of me, I'd be ready to beat his skull into the pavement.
"Your guests are innocent children! You stole them from their homes!"
"My, my, and they call me Mad! My, my, my. You have misjudged me, little Bat! Oh yes, misjudged me. Misjudged all of Wonderland! The children come here of their own free will, and we do have such fun together..."
I slam my fist hard into the wall, not liking that particular implication. If he's hurt any one of those children, if he's even touched them, then I swear that I'm gonna rip him apart with my bare hands. Just to watch him suffer as slowly as possible. Hell, I may do it regardless.
"When I get out of here, I'm coming for you, you sick bastard! You hear me?!"
"Yes, yes, I hear you, little Bat. And in the grand tradition of Wonderland ethics, I take such a challenge, such a fascinating challenge..."
To my surprise, the gate opposite of me opens up. But not without a surprise. Someone steps forth from out of the darkness, wielding two large butcher knives and carrying himself with an impossibly thin frame only barely hidden underneath a patchwork costume. It's hard enough to look at him at first, but it becomes even worse whenever I take a closer look.
Even I have to take a step back, overcome by the sheer horror of what I'm seeing.
The patchwork isn't a costume. It's skin.
He's wearing a suit made of patched-together human skin.
"And I accept."
