"You can't kill me! I'm just a director!"
Mad Hatter, Jervis Tetch, stumbled backward in terror before falling to the floor with a thud.
As those red-glowing eyes drew closer, he scrabbled his legs uselessly like a frog flipped onto its back.
Unfortunately, he had encountered Thomas, a copycat devoted to smearing Judgment Knight, a counterfeit through and through.
If Mad Hatter had openly admitted his crimes, he might instead have survived. After all, even Satan would have frowned at what he had done.
To satisfy his own twisted, perverse desires, he had sought young girls who could awaken fond memories of his first love to perform "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" with him. In just one month, Jervis had brutally murdered twelve people, including eight young girls.
Using casting auditions as a cover, he had successfully evaded the first-generation Oracle surveillance system Tim had designed, while the Gotham Police Department's inaction had only emboldened him.
Until tonight, when chance had brought him face-to-face with Thomas.
Thomas shattered Jervis's ribs with a punch, then, amid his feeble wails, planted a foot on his shoulder and ripped his entire head out, spine and all.
The spraying blood coated the bat armor in a savage layer of red.
With that done, he followed the faint cries for help farther inside.
Only upon seeing the couple tied to chairs did he realize he might have killed the wrong person. But that hardly mattered; he was merely using this guise to spread fear.
"Please, save me-"
Gianna had been calling for help a moment earlier, but when she saw Thomas enter the studio carrying Mad Hatter's head, overwhelming terror seemed to seize her throat, leaving her unable to make another sound.
Blood dripped from Mad Hatter's spine onto the floor. His crumpled, distorted face still