Summary: When Bruce Wayne is captured by a mystery woman, he can only wonder why The Riddler would leave him a note once he returns, and why all the evil doers in Gothom seemed to have joined together
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, if I did I wouldn't be sitting here writing this
Chapter Four: Ought to Give a Riddle
Silently swearing at himself for getting captured for the fourth time this week, Bruce began opening his eyes to take in his surroundings. "Ah ha! I told you! I told you Riddler! I knew he would wake up! Alice! Alice? Don't you see Alice? He's waking up!" Bruce was not tied up, or at least not very well. There was no need to tie him up seeing as Hatter had put one of his mind control hats on him while he was out, and there was no way he was getting out of it quite yet. Bruce caught sight of Nigma while Hatter had gone to talk to Alice. Nigma did not look worried, or the least bit strained despite the massive amounts of chains wrapped around him and his chair. The reason for the large amounts of restraints was Nigma lacked one if Hatter's mind control devices. Knowing Nigma, Bruce guessed he used his rank and supposed "superior intellect" to get Hatter to back off.
Speaking of Hatter, Bruce heard him in the other room trying to find his beloved Alive. To Bruce this meant Hatter was more tempermental than usual and would soon need to find someone to play the role of Alice, both of which were bad news for Bruce.
Nigma had begun moving his hands ever so slightly, which had caught Bruce's attention, but since Hatter was a tad bit preoccupied he didn't noticed when Nigma threw some small object in an attempt to removed Hatter's invention off of Bruce's cowl. Unfortunately Nigma couldn't throw as well as he could think of riddles, and missed. The hard clunking noise hit the metal slab that was the floor and the two men heard hatter gasp in the other room.
"Oh no, no, no, no, no! Boys! What are you up to in there?" Hatter came stomping in, bringing four mind controlled cronies. He looked around, unable to tell where the noise came from. He opened his mouth, his eyes burning with a small fire and right as he was about to star shouting at the two he quickly decided against and snapped his mouth shut. Hatter walked closer to Bruce, bringing two of his men with him while leaving the other two to watch Nigma.
Hatter gazed at Bruce, "Do you notice something missing, Batman? Or what about you over there, Mr. Smarty Pants? Huh? Do you?" He was frantic and desperate, no villain was ever fun to be around, even more so when acting like this. "My tea! We should be having a tea party to welcome you two! Without tea you can't have a tea party, just like you can't have any party without Alice. Oh dear! We need Alice too! Alice and tea, Alice and tea, Alice and tea." In his little moment he had begun pacing and when he calmed himself down he grabbed Bruce's shoulders, "Would you please, oh please, get my tea?"
Before he could respond Hatter was teaching to take the hat off so he could get a proper answer from Bruce, but before he could do so Bruce growled, "Let Riddler go, and I'll find your tea." Nigma frowned, he clearly did not want to go around searching for some lunatics tea. Hatter backed away to look at Nigma, and stuttered, "But he's been naughty, very naughty in deed. Without him, what reason do you have to come back with my tea? My tea!" Bruce glared him down through his cowl, "I either leave with Riddler, get your tea, and come back to get some answers, or I get some answers now ,and leave you knocked out on the floor while I exit with Riddler." Hatter frowned, "But the tea, Batman! You must get the tea!" Hatter moved his hands towards his men, who let Bruce and Nigma out, before backing out of the room afraid for their lives.
Bruce grabbed Nigma's waist again, and pulled them on top of a nearby rooftop. Nigma straightened himself out, clearly not used to the constant use of the batclaw, "You sure are touchy feely tonight Batman." In the darkness, you could see an ever so faint smile on Bruce's face, but he quickly went back to his usual demeanor. "What do you know about his tea?" Nigma scoffed making it clear he did not wish to help Hatter, "Strange has his tea, he gives it to him in small portions to keep him under his thumb." Bruce still needed more information, "Where would this tea be hidden?" Nigma was outraged, "Are you serious? You want to waste my precious time finding some blundering idiot's tea?" Bruce took a step forward, "Strange's methods are tortuous, and no matter how evil Hatter is, he does not deserve this, nor is it helping his condition. If we help him, he'll give me answers." This seemed to have been the straw that broke the camel's back, "He'll give you answers? Whatever questions you have you can direct towards me! I know everything that is going on in this shit hole! Why would anyone tell that monkey anything?"
Being the hero that he was, and with Nigma's help or not, Bruce couldn't just leave Hatter, otherwise he could lash out. Bruce contacted Barbara, "Oracle, I need a container, a large one, of tea dropped at my location." Despite the confusion in Barbara's voice when she said okay, the container showed up a couple of minutes later. Bruce pushed it in through a window and shouted, "Don't gind Alice until I come back."
Turning his attention towards Nigma again, without saying anything he began to speak, "Besides what I've already told you, Strange captured a friend of yours. It's a stupid plan. He expects you to be the hero and save him, which you will do, yet this is all his plan is. He has no plan B, no added hostages, nothing! He feels safe surrounded by all of us, by his own kind. Like we'll protect him! And because i told him off he sent Hush to get rid of me. The dim-witted fool! Hush is strong physically, but can easily be defeated by someone with my mental capability, and now I'm here with you."
Bruce continued to listen to Nigma's story despite the fact that he was extremely worried about the person who'd be captured. "Who is it?" Seeing Nigma's confusion he rephrased his question, "Who is it? Who did Strange capture?" Nigma frowned, looking like a scared little child momentarily, "I'm afraid I do not know the answer to that." Bruce did not feel compelled to lash out against him, instead he began to push his anger aside, this is what Strange wanted and he'd be damned if he was going to let him have this.
"Do you know where?" Nigma shrugged, he bit his lip trying to think of a suitable answer to give. He turned on his heels, and pointed to one of the average sized building, and the only one with tinted windows, "If I was to guess, that would be my guess."
Bruce didn't like working off of guesswork, but it it was to be anyones, Nigma's was probably the best. Bruce stalked towards the edge of the building to scope out who was where, and plan a route inside. All the doors were heavily guarded, guns and all. With Nigma by his side he wouldn't be able to silently take anyone out. He continued to look around, avoiding the occasional sniper. Finally he noticed a furnace, on big enough for him and Nigma to slip in too, and then sneak into the vent system.
Bruce went to reach for Nigma and got to the furnace, when the shot went off. from the looks of it, it was just a flesh wound, but Bruce didn't want to judge the wound before he assessed it. Bruce picked his injured partner up as gently as possible, and swung towards the edge of the furnace before any further damage was done. Bruce had been in tense situations like this before, and remained silent as he began to dress the wound.
With a couple groans of agony here and there, which was to be expected, Bruce had done the best job he could with fixing the wound. "Is it going to heal?" With a look of concern on his face, Bruce assumed he had never been shot, or for that matter shot at, "Yes Edward, it will be sore for quite some time, and I suggest using your left arm from now on, but it will heal." Edward gave a faint smile and muttered, "I feel I ought to give a riddle, but now is not the time. Can we hurry here? I'd like to go home soon." And with that Bruce grabbed Edward's side, and the smaller man cringed, Bruce stuttered, "Sorry," which Edward just shrugged it off, and clung to Bruce for dear life as they flung into the furnace.
A/N: Towards the end, when Bruce started calling Nigma, Edward, I, as the writer, began fangirling a little. I hope you enjoy reading this! I'd love reading some reviews! Oh, and do you like my new formatting? I do. lol. And before I forget if you start to notice me not writing, which might happen, contact me on tumblr, captain-a-fucking-merica, and tell me to get myself together.