"She discovered me." Dinah grumbled. "She kicked me off."

Alfred stood behind her. "Were you on long enough?"

"Enough to copy all New Gotham maps; the database and codes of police; the software to intercept the systems of computers and phone lines, criminal files, the files of all meta people and our files. I deleted it from Delphi, so I guess he would be now really pissed. But this should stop the Mad Hatter plans for a while and give us time to rescue Barbara and Helena."

"How are you going to help them?" He asked.

"You are going to help me on that."

* * *

Huntress was sleeping on the floor recovering from the brutal beating she had received on the previous day when she was abruptly awakened by a swift kick to her ribs. "Damn..." she grumbled feeling still her body broke.

"Okay, where is the damn blonde?" Mad Hatter shouted. "She was inside Delphi's system! She had the gall to delete all the files I needed!"

Huntress eyes transformed. "I don't know." She desperately wanted kill the little man. To hell with the superhero code, this moron deserved it. He tried to kick her again but she moved faster. She hit him on the back of his knees causing them to buckle, sending him crashing to the floor. With a well-aimed kick to the head she was able to stun him. She quickly wrapped her legs around his throat, choking him with the chains on her feet.

"Now you stupid sorry excuse for a man., I want you to tell me how to remove that damn chip from Oracle or I swear to God that I will break your neck." She grunted, squeezing harder to get her point across.

"I don't think..." he tried to say something but Huntress applied more pressure to his throat. "Okay, okay... you need the pistol. But Oracle is still trying to fix it."

"You're lying! You were able to destroy the chips in those men we grabbed a few days ago. You know how to do it. Stop screwing around."

"You wouldn't, he said barely whispering. Huntress squeezed harder.

"The chip is biological... It kills people slowly; has an internal auto- destruction system that only you could activate with the pistol."

"Huntress!!" Oracle shouted from the door "Release him!"

"Let me go or I'll break his neck!" the brunette yelled back.

The four henchmen moved to enter the cell. Barbara stopped them with her hand.

"Enter the damn code in the keypad and open these fucking chains or he is a dead man!" Huntress ordered.

"Huntress calm down." Oracle said "You..."

"Open the damn chains!"

"Kill Oracle!" Mad Hatter managed to shout.

"Shut up!" Huntress growled, pressing harder to make him grunt in pain.

One of the henchmen wrapped his arm around Oracle's neck. "Okay, you break his neck" he said "and I'll do the same with your friend and then we kill you."

"It's your choice Huntress." Mad Hatter laughed. "Go ahead and kill me."

Huntress was furious. He had managed to back her into a corner. There was no way in hell that she was going to let them hurt Barbara. She released him, growling in frustration, her lips pressed into a thin line. Mad hatter rubbed his bruised neck as he stood up and backed away from her. With a nod he ordered the man to released Barbara.

"Damn, she is really good. You trained her well," he said. Suddenly he turned and punched Helena in the face, slamming her against the wall. "She needs another lesson" he said to his henchmen and walked toward the door. Huntress rose quickly to her feet when she saw the men walking toward her.

Oracle looked Mad Hatter "What are they going to do? You know that she won't talk if..."

"I don't want her to talk. She needs to learn who is boss around here," he said walking out. "Follow me, we need finish to fix the pistol before she kills us or I end up killing her."

Huntress pushed one of the henchmen with her shoulder. And hit another one with her head. One of them held her by her back and threw her against the floor.

Barbara caught hold of Mad Hatter's sleeve as he moved pass her. "If she is hurt she won't be able to help you with the plan."

"She is your problem now Oracle. They are your protégé's so it is your responsibility to keep them under control. I don't want any problems with this mission just because of her. And I want you to fix that damn gun as soon as possible. Huntress is very smart and she could escape at any moment so I don't want to take any chances. I want that device installed in her damn head as soon as possible, get it?"

Oracle nodded.

"And I want her finding and bringing me back that kid. Oh and another thing. Don't ever touch me again. Understood?"

Oracle nodded again, biting her lower lip.

"I didn't hear you."

"Yes, yes," Oracle shouted. "I'll work on this! Count on it. I'll bring Dinah to you. Just tell them to leave her alone!"

"Don't fail to me again. I don't like the mistakes that are being made. Usually mistakes are very deadly to the people who make them." Mad Hatter smiled and looked back. Huntress was curled in a tight ball on the floor trying to avoid the blows of Mad Hatter's men.

This wasn't new; it was the second time in two days that she had been punished for her abstinence. It was a good idea try to force him to release her but his henchmen showing up screwed it all up. Huntress was now trying to think of other things to avoid the pain, maybe a way to escape. She felt a blow from one of the men's fist. She had to figure out how to tell Dinah that a high frequency sound would disable Oracle's device. Another blow cracked hard against her, this once to her back. She tried not to think about it, instead focusing only on how to get to her partner. She knew that if she tried to use the comm system Barbara easily trace the signal to Dinah.

A kick to her ribs brought tears to her eyes. Damn it was hard to think when she had four mastodons using her as a punching bag. Oracle was at the cell door talking with that damn man; she wished she could get her hands free to kill him. Her mind screamed in pain but she remained silent, refusing to give them the satisfaction of hearing her cry out.

"Enough!" Mad Hatter shouted to his men "We have work to do." He turned his back on Oracle and walked toward the elevator with his men trailing behind.

Huntress sighed with relief when the beating stopped. The problem now was that she couldn't feel her body. The pain yes, her body no. Her face felt warm but she wasn't sure she still had a face. She could felt a thread of blood running down her forehead... or maybe it was two and one was running into her right eye temporarily blinding her. She could barely turn onto her side.

Oracle was upset. Dinah arriving early at Clock Tower and the pistol that Helena had broken was something that she hadn't planned on and time was ticking against her. She looked down at the crumpled heap on the floor. Oracle slowly shook her head. Mad Hatter was right, she needed work faster before he killed her or she killed him. She took a first aid kit that was hanging outside the cell and wheeled in.

Huntress felt Oracle's hand on her arm. She tried to pull away but her body refused to respond. She growled when Oracle touched her side.

"That was a stupid thing to do," Oracle chided her as she opened the kit. She used a gauze pad soaked in alcohol on the bruise under her ribcage. Huntress did not look good. She had bruises over all her body and her right eye was almost completely swollen shut. "I'll try to fix that damn pistol tonight to stop you from committing suicide. You never did learn when to keep your mouth shut and be quiet."

Huntress tried to answer but she felt the darkness falling over her.

* * *

"We need use a truth serum." Polly said to Oracle.

"What? Sodium Pentothal? That won't work." Oracle moved her head. "It's just a mild sedative that makes people more talkative, but not necessarily more honest."

"We need to try! We need find that blond girl!"

"No, we to need fix the pistol. The drug would depress your central nervous system, slow your heart rate and lower your blood pressure. All of those effects are the functions of any sedative. Sodium Pentothal is commonly used as an anesthetic during surgery. The patient is unconscious within 30 to 60 seconds after the drug has been administered to their veins. The duration of the anesthesia is very short; it only causes a few minutes of sedation.."

"I said we are going to use it!" Polly shouted "Today!"

"Oaky, but that won't work." Oracle sigued.



* * *

Dinah examined the videotape of Clock Tower. She freeze in horror as she watched the grainy images of Helena being beaten by Oracle. Alfred was shocked too.

"Miss Barbara is realy out of control." Alfred said "What are you planning? Do you really think that you can negotiate with Oracle in this state?" "I was trying to buy time but Helena doesn't have it." Dinah said worried. "Oracle doesn't seem to care if that goon kills Helena. And if they keep up what they're doing to her, they will kill her. But may be I could do an exchange, Helena for the software."

"You know she never would do that: it's more likely she would agree to the trade as a way to lure you into an ambush."

"Son of bitch." Dinah mumbled when she saw another images of Huntress inside the cell. "We need get her out of there. Helena is still trapped, Alfred. I think..I fear that Barbara will fix that gun before I can help Helena. There's no way that I'm going to be able to get back inside without some assistance." "Maybe then you should try to lure her out of the Clock Tower." "That's kind of what I was thinking.."

Dinah typed on the computer and searched for information. "This is complicated." she said to Alfred who was behind her "I know all the passwords for Delphi but still, hacking it is..aha. I found it! Jervis Tetch was merely an eccentric scientist who experimented with mind-control on small animals. He had a great passion for the Lewis Carroll novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and identified himself with the tea party guest the Mad Hatter, as he bears a striking resemblance to the character. Another interest was in another Alice, the pretty young secretary who worked for him. Being an extremely shy man with a reputation for being an oddball, Tetch assumed the persona of the Mad Hatter to feel more self-confident." She paused. "How pathetic is that?"

"Indeed," Alfred murmured.

She shook her head and continued on. "He pressed his affections on Alice who only rejected him. This rejection significantly wounded Tetch, and in an insane quest to ease his perceived mental wounds, he worked even harder on his mind-control devices until they were powerful enough to control the human mind. He then enslaved Alice's mind with one and forced her to follow his every whim. Jervis' plans were spoiled a little later by Batman, however, and this caused his mind to snap. Since then, he had exhibited a maddening hatred for the Dark Knight, any of his followers."

"I think I remember him, he had several strange encounters with Master Bruce. An odd duck he."

"He is a criminal genius. His scientific mind rises far above the trapped limitations of physical strength and prowess in that he has a tremendous grasp of how other minds work. Mad Hatter developed devices that allow him to literally control the minds of men and women alike, along with anything else that possesses a brain. These control-chips induce Tetch's victims into a trance-like state," Dinah went on. She chuckled. "Barbara almost seems like she's in awe of him. At least judging from these notes on him."

"Oracle is under his spell." Alfred pointed out.

Dinah checked all the files that she had stolen from Barbara. She sighed with relief; this would delay the plans of Mad Hatter. But for how long? That truly was the question.