"Get your hand off my person or I will remove it for you." The clipped French tone drifted to Jervis Tetch's ears from a dark alley. He frowned when he heard a masculine laugh echo behind the woman's command. He greatly detested men who had no respect for a woman's personal space, but he was a villain and it would be dreadfully out of character for him to come to any woman's aid. With this thought in mind, he continued his late night stroll with no desire to interfere.
"I'll warn you one more time, remove your hand." The words were easier to understand as he approached the alley. He focused on the ground in front of him as he passed by. The next words however, stopped him in his tracks.
"C'mon Alice, don't be shy!" The Mad Hatter's mind slipped back to a time before his criminal career. He recalled a sweet girl, fresh at the age of seventeen whose name was Alice. His first kiss, his first love, his first loss. He could still smell the bitter scent of flames licking away at her family's quaint cottage. He unconsciously gripped the pale blue ribbon in his pocket that she had always worn in her hair. As he became aware of the present situation once more, he decided that a look into the alley could not cost him much.
He stepped to the edge of the building and cast a glance through the dark passage. His breath caught and his eyes widened. A woman stood pressed against the brick building, a man was directly in front of her with a harsh grip on her slim wrist. But that's not what captured his attention. No, it was the outfit she wore and the personality that accompanied it. Black mary-jane type shoes shielded her feet and led way to thigh high, sheer, black stockings tipped with lacey garters. An impossibly short dress covered the vital parts from the top of her thigh to reveal several inches of dangerous cleavage. The sleeves of her dress were capped, lending the outfit an almost indecently innocent feel. Blonde hair was tightly bound behind her head, but then cascaded over her body to end at the base of her skirt. The look on her face seemed to exemplify the outfit as a whole.
Her painted red lips were curled in a disappointed pout, her slim brows pulled together to complete the frown. She then smiled at her attacker and lifted her free hand to stroke his chest. Her expression briefly blanked before she approached him in a manner that was definitely inappropriate. The Mad Hatter began to feel like a voyeur.
"The last thing I am," She paused her sentence delicately as the man relaxed his grip on her arm, "is shy." With expert precision, the woman slid a carefully sheathed blade from her bosom and forced it into the gut of her attacker. "In fact," She commented off hand as she pushed the man away. He slumped to the ground, landing in a pile of garbage, "I'm often referred to as entirely too bold." She sliced him cleanly across the neck before wiping her blade on his shirt. The blade was then returned to it's sheath in between her breasts.
Unknowingly, the Mad Hatter had leaned slightly too far into the alley to watch the actions easier. His hat now fell from it's precarious position on his head and toppled to the ground. The sound of the black hat's landing snared the attention of the woman. She whirled around to face the entrance of the alley and suddenly the moonlight showed her to him in a new fashion. Where he had formerly thought the woman as being risque with her outfit, he now realized it had been done with purposeful intention.
She was dressed as a dark Alice from Wonderland. Normally, Alice's outfit was a light blue dress with a white apron, white stockings and black mary-janes. The murderer's outfit however, was a delightful twist to the classic. She kept the traditional blue of the dress, but replaced the apron of white with a short, sheer jacket in black. Delicate lace patterns weaved through the jacket, lending it a feel similar to that of a negligee. A pale blue ribbon wrapped around the jacket at her slim waist, giving her already curvy figure an even more dramatic hour glass shape. A blade at the tip of his throat brought him back to reality. He cursed himself for becoming so absorbed in her fascinating wardrobe.
"Aren't you a find." She whispered. Her dark blue eyes admired his blue suit with a critic's eye. "And here I thought I was the only one with a taste for Alice In Wonderland." She laughed lightly before poking him harder with the sharp blade.
"I apologize, I have been remiss in my etiquette." He stepped away from her blade and gave her a light bow as he picked up his top hat. "The Mad Hatter at your service, my lady." She curtsied back and placed her blade back in it's sheath.
"Alice, pleasure to meet you." She offered him a hand and he took it gently before pressing a soft kiss to her pale skin.
"I never imagined I would meet my Alice in an alley way in Gotham of all places." He let an amused smirk lighten his face as he twiddled with his black bow tie.
"I never imagined my Mad Hatter would be so unkind as to not offer a lady help when she is surely in trouble." Her joking tone was enunciated as she cast a sarcastic glance back at the discarded body.
"I am hardly the hero, my dear." She laughed as she pushed a strand of blonde hair back over her shoulder.
"Nor do I expect you to be one," Approaching foot steps drew her attention away from their conversation. She apparently recognized the people nearing so she spoke again, this time in fare well. "It's time for me to say au revoir, Monsieur. It has been a pleasure speaking to you and I imagine I'll be seeing you around town." She turned away from him then to join her companions. As she skipped off with her own March Hare and White Rabbit, he wondered briefly what Twilight zone he had wandered into.
He realized that standing at the entrance to an alley way that harbored a dead body was a bad decision. Casting one last glance at the lovely woman and her two compatriots, Jervis Tetch began to walk in the opposite direction. Though they had not exchanged any forms of communication, he had a strange feeling that he would see her again. His thoughts drifted away once more, to his very own Alice. The girl who liked to spend her time perched on tree branches talking to the enamored teenaged boy, who had fallen head over heels for a girl, who had not lived to see her eighteenth birthday.
"Won't Jonathan find this meeting interesting." He commented off hand as he left the area. He looked back over his shoulder and watched the three women disappear into the distance. He felt a small smile tip his lips upward before he quickly smothered it. It would not do well for his reputation to be seen smiling like a sap, especially now as he heard the flap of an all too familiar cape. He turned his head to look back at the alleyway and saw Batman stepping out of the entrance. His customary mad grin split his face before he tipped his hat to the hero.
"Mad Hatter." His voice was all accusation, so he didn't bother trying to correct him. He would gladly take the blame this time. Perhaps it would endear him to his Alice's heart.