Arkham Asylum.
Having received advance notice, the guards and supervising doctor had already cleared the area and stood ready.
As the Batplane hovered over Arkham and its hatch opened, everyone went on high alert.
Batman leaped down with a short figure in his grip, his cape spreading behind him like a pair of real bat wings.
Miaomiao had only just released the Mad Hatter from her illusion, and he was still half asleep, muttering about a "tea party" and "Alice," his face fixed in a smile that mingled obsession with madness. Suddenly, he felt weightless. Before his brain could work out what was happening, his feet slammed hard against Arkham's reinforced concrete with a thud.
"Ow!"
A jolt of dull pain shot through his nerves. The Mad Hatter, Jervis Tetch, staggered and clutched his legs, his miserable howls of agony echoing through Arkham.
The watching guards could not quite keep their stern expressions from cracking. Ouch. That looked painful...
Given Batman's height, arm strength, and experience transporting criminals, they could swear that had been no accident!
The intense physical pain brought the Mad Hatter fully back to his senses.
He blinked in bewilderment. Through his half-waking haze, visions of the tea party, Alice, and a colorful wonderland still flickered before his eyes. But the cold, harsh smell of disinfectant mixed with rust, along with the very real pain in his legs, dragged him brutally back to reality.
"This is... Arkham?"
His vision slowly focused. He saw Batman standing before him, his black cape hanging like a curtain of night, concealing most of his figure and leaving only those ice-cold eyes visible. Around them lay Arkham Asylum's high-security courtyard, where guards stood ready behind riot shields. The roar of the Batplane gradually faded overhead.
Everything was terrifyingly real.
*No... this was