Batty Advice

Old Hat

Batman slammed his fists against the keyboard in frustration. Somehow, the Internet history of everyone who had asked him for advice was deleted. And he kept getting locked out of their computers when he tried to restore it. Someone was blocking him, and they were good.

He tried to call Nightwing again. He hated to admit it, but Dick was a lot better hacker than he was. He was practically married to a computer. He had been trying to contact him for days, to no avail. It was getting suspi-

The phone rang.

"What?" Batman growled into it.

"Batman! You need to get down to Gotham Square quickly! The Mad Hatter's returned!"

Batman jumped into the Batmobile and quickly rced to Gotham Square. It was strange, Jervis Tetch had been quiet for so long, everyone had thought he had given up the villain gig.

Tires squealed as Batman pulled into Gotham Square. There, the Mad Hatter was holding several people hostage.

"Good, Batman, you made it just in time for tea!"

Thugs appeared which Batman quickly beat down. He then turned his attention to the Mad Hatter. He fought with him a little, giving the police time to get the hostages away.

The Mad Hatter broke away. "You'll never stop me, I'm- I'm- I'm nothing."

He sat down, looking absolutely pitiful. "I'm boring, aren't I, Batman. Entirely old hat. I used to be the mind control guy, but then the Riddler figured it out and took that from me. I used to be the flying hat guy, then Penguin stole my technology and put it in his umbrella. I'm nothing anymore."

Batman carefully walked over, not sure if this was a trick or whether he was really depressed.

"Ya know, I heard from a little bird that you're great at giving advice. Maybe you could help me. What can I do to get out of this funk?"

Batman thought about it for a minute. Here was another one wanting his advice. "You need to try something new, break away from everyone else and do something completely different. It should make you proud that the Riddler and the Penguin decided to use your technology, that means it's good. Just come up with something new to do, and you should be okay."

"Blue's a nice color. There's so much of it around. Blue sky, blue paint, blue cop cars…"

Batman rolled his eyes and took the Mad Hatter, who was rambling about the shades of blue, to the police so he could be taken back to Arkham.

On the ride home, Batman thought back to what Mad Hatter had said. A 'little bird' had told him? Could that just be his way of saying just someone told him, or did it have a deeper meaning. He would have to do a little digging and find out.

Hot off the presses! A little advice from a Bat. And the plot thickens. Tada!

Happy Hoodie Hoo day,

Shadow