"Good call.", Dick nodded. "And if we all switch them on... it'll clearly be a sign that something's wrong as opposed to, say, accidently flipping it on and being a false alarm. All of us at the same time? How is that anything but trouble?".
Damien replied, "Indeed.", discreetly heading for his backpack by his feet with a loose arm, acting like a relaxed kid while the others did the same. "Are they looking?", whispering.
"On my signal.", Jane said as she discreetly kept an eye on Lily and the old woman, and when they ain't looking, Jane hissed urgently, "Now!", and they all switched the tracking tags in their backpack name tags at the same time, and resumed back in acting as regular kids not a moment later, praying that at least someone is in the Batcave for either training or checking up on the week's files of patrol scores on bad guys in the streets.
As it turned out, thankfully, someone was indeed on call, watching when the signals were raised; and it was probably the one person that Jervis wanted to truly meet with once again as Poppy was sitting in the cave on the computer and relaxing after letting out some stress in her gamma powered form on some poor training targets.
She was reading an e-book on the Batcomputer, not wanting to see the files until later tonight for patrol when evening comes, while she kept the link on to the traffic cameras, and to Barbara's unique hacking on her father's police cams and comm scanners, with a separate map for crime events during the day as it was usually the She-Hulks, since Batman and Catwoman are nocturnal, due to the criminals' way of thinking, with Killer Croc in the mix between day or night.
Poppy startled when a red alarm was heard and pulsed on the map furiously, and she widened her eyes as she recognized the sound, and her fingers flew on the keys, scanning deeper into the map, and saw not just her babies, but all the kids' names to the individual tracking tags, and her heart raced in horror.
She immediately group-texted the others up top with Code Red, knowing they will make excuses for the staff, with her dad or Bruce ordering the staff to head home, while clacking the keys immediately, using the link to the traffic cameras to correspond to the map and the tracking tags, seeing them moving as she realized that they're on the school bus, but it's either armed with explosives or hijacked by someone/somebodies.
She knew the kids were extremely told to never prank with the tracking tags as they couldn't be taken seriously, to be trusted for more training, to get opportunities to go out and be crime-fighters when old enough, if they pranked for attention. The only thing they will be taken seriously is if something is very wrong, and in case if their phones didn't work in the first place.
And she didn't even need to call to know as she looked at the monitor and the sensors were acting squirrelly in the exact area where the kids were. The obvious signs of a cell scrambler. Whoever was with the kids obviously was up to no good and she had a small list of suspects she knew were part of it. Poppy wasn't going to wait; she quickly stripped out of her clothes until she was in her costume and slid her fingerless gloves on before she felt the gamma coursing through her veins.
The Sensational or Spectacular She-Hulk, depending on the people's opinion of the day, didn't waste time, ignoring her special cycle as she ran full speed, with her special Batcom in her ear, using the cavern tunnel to the bridge of the bay.
She heard Bruce's voice in her comm, "The school bus ain't stopping at the next kid's dropoff, I think the bus driver is held up at gunpoint as the traffic cam can't tell much, but someone is definitely hijacking the bus as they don't want to stop.".
"Right; gonna cause some damage, but I got to do the leaps...", She-Hulk growled as she dug her bare feet into the cement of the quiet road she was on before using her energy and momentum to take off in a massive leap. It was quicker than a vehicle, but the downside was the places she would land would look like an IED had gone off. At least from the area near the manor, it wouldn't be too much trouble but once she would get into the city proper...
At least anonymously, the enlarged family pays money for new cement, sometimes trees and all. Poppy herself was determined to follow the school bus, no matter where the hijacker demands the bus driver to go.
It didn't take much time before the She-Hulk was getting fairly close to the bus. The onlooking pedestrians nearby, stunned at the sight of her. She had to admit, she actually kinda liked the attention at times as opposed to her mother. She somewhat regretted never getting into modeling; the dream of her on the cover of Vogue... both sides of her, was a thrilling thought but she put that aside. She thought of that plenty of times but now wasn't the time.
"Tell me I'm getting close...", She-Hulk said. "Not much further, another block or so...", Bruce informed over of the comms. "You thinking that it's-"
"Has to be Tetch. Just has to be.", She-Hulk growled. "Think he still remembers you?", Bruce wondered as she took a deep breath.
"Probably no doubt about it. He might not make the She-Hulk connection, but he probably for sure knows his whole little Wonderland fantasy came crashing down only hours after he abducted me.", She-Hulk said. "Probably the reason why he's on that bus right now... trying to get to me through Sean and Daphne at least.".
Martha added over the comm, "Don't forget that being in solitude and all must have warped his sense of time to a point, he would definitely had read newspapers and caught up on some news here and there from tv about Penelope Wayne, getting to see how grown up and all she got to be, while laying low.".
Waylon replied over the comm, "Be careful. I know you are nearly indestructible with bullets and all, but this is all our older children of the brood. They aren't like you or me or the others.".
"Maybe...", She-Hulk said to herself. "Not planning on testing it today though.". She turned back on her comms for a moment, "Yeah, I got it, I'll make damn sure he doesn't try anything.". Another quick sprint before she hid around a corner to see the bus and managing to catch a glimpse of the kids on board.
The kids looked tense, scared, and timid, yet her babies and the others are slightly bolder, their eyes never leaving the front of their bus, and like a feeling of being seen, Daphne and Sean flicked their eyes to the side, flashing two letters in sign language, C and R, with their hands discreetly, saying that it's Code Red.
She-Hulk took a deep breath, proud of her babies, watched the bus roll into a small warehouse, smaller than Jervis' former warehouse, probably because he wanted to make sure he wouldn't miss out any obvious hiding spots if the kids dared to bush and rush Tetch and escape the bus, they would have nowhere to go.
"So, this is where you've been hiding, Tetch... would've thought you would've fled into the sewers or something. Maybe you suspected a certain gator to be tracking you down there?", Poppy whispered to herself as She-Hulk moved to get closer. As much as she just wanted to bust right through the front; it was probably a foolish idea because then Jervis probably would just start shooting hostages.
She shuffled around the warehouse, realizing that busting in through the front door was obvious since her mama did that, and it'd be repeated, but luckily, she knew better.
She glanced through one of the windows as she got up off of ground level to see Tetch, dressed as an old woman, waving a gun around as he was offloading his prisoners from the bus.
"Move it, move it!", Tetch growled; his voice still having that madness of the Hatter and the manic look to match it. Was he still looking for his Alice but now that 'she's' older, claiming her? She-Hulk didn't want to think too much about that. Here he was, and his reign of terror would come to an end if she could just find the right time to strike.
She-Hulk was quick yet careful to jump into the fire escape, grateful for those years of controlling her strength and her tendency to rattle things loudly, glad that this small warehouse only had the ground floor and one upper level, instead of two upper levels in the backside of his old warehouse, but turns out Tetch is smart to lock up the fire escape windows on the side, yet hoped he didn't think of the rooftop terrace windows as she made it to the roof, checking every terrace window before smirking when one wasn't quite locked up tight, and swiftly opened it as she slides in, grateful that she's far slimmer and essentially a bit more agile than her mama and her mom.
She kept an ear on the commotion down below, hearing Tetch shouting, and then a man's shout of pain along with the clang of his gun, realizing that he had bonked the bus driver out cold as kids and the bus aide cried out in fear and horror, "Ralph! Ralphie!".
"Shut up! Now get in here or I'll really hurt your lovely lady friend!", Tetch's voice raged and demanded, as She-Hulk heard him then muttering, counting and pausing a second like if he was searching every kid's face.
"What are you up to, Tetch...?", She-Hulk whispered as she continued to observe. So far, he wasn't killing or raping, but he was obviously searching for someone. A new Alice perhaps or was it related to her family?
She had indeed made it to the shadows' edge of the rafters, considering that it's still way before sunset, and her eyes narrowed as she saw the school kids pushed in and counted into a small room, with the school aide tied up, unharmed for now, yet to Poppy's horror, she's blonde, and it's like she's being saved for Tetch.
Times like this she kinda wished she had something like Batman's batarangs to throw. Maybe she could speedball a good-sized rock and nail him dead on in the head, but with him waving that gun, there was a decent chance he still might shoot someone even while falling unconscious... or getting killed as the blood was really boiling in her again like it did that time she first hulked out when facing Talia.
Then Tetch cackled triumphantly, locking up the door, and not leaving his eyes off her babies next to the others, "Looks like I hit the jackpot!", moving closer, and Damien, Jane, and Dick covered as best as they could, protecting the twins, glaring at Tetch, "You're not going to touch them, you piece of crap!".
For the three kids, part of them thought maybe they could take him. After all, they all had some close quarters training and knew how to defend themselves. Sure, he was a fully grown man, but he clearly was in rough shape. He certainly didn't spend his time in the joint working out or anything of that sort. And if Sean and Daphne join in, it was 5 on 1. Of course, he was the one with the gun which certainly made them more hesitant to simply jump him.
"How dare you?!", Tetch raged, sneering at them, "You clearly are not far from the tree of Penelope Wayne, all of you!", cornering them fast into the wall, as the tied up Lily shouted, even if she's confused why Tetch was obsessed with the Wayne family, between barely remembering that it was Batman and the Incredible She-Hulk that brought Tetch down the first time, "Hey, leave them alone! Take me, Hatter!".
She is afraid of being raped by him like how he did her fellow blondes, but she is even more afraid for the kids, as they are precious as future graduates and of course, the legacy of their family.
"Shut up, Alice!", Tetch snarled, kicking a boot into the tied-up Lily's side, causing her to bite her lip from screaming in pain.
"Now!", Damien called out as this might be their best chance to jump him since he was distracted. All of them knew they needed to pin and disarm him, make sure the gun was away and then he'd be much easier to deal with. Both Jane and Dick got him in the legs, but Tetch was quick with a move and kicked Jane hard in her shoulder, causing her to lose grip before the free leg swung to knock Dick off.
He then swung around and struck Sean in the face with his gun and threw Daphne to the floor when she tried to jump on his back. Thankfully for the moment, Damien backed off for a moment when Jane got hit before leaping back in and kicking the gun right out of Tetch's hand.
"Why, you little bastard!", Tetch cursed as he grabbed Damien by the neck with his other hand that didn't have the gun before he threw him up against a wall while the rest of the kids were disoriented. Damien could feel the air being prevented from reaching his lungs as the man's grip tightened around his neck. His hands trying to knock at the older man's grip to let go before everything almost went dark.
Then at that moment, he took one more swipe... and Tetch's grip loosened as he yelped in pain before almost by instinct, he then bit into the arm before the madman screamed. Tetch looked and his eyes widened when he saw Damien's teeth looking much sharper than normal and almost feline like claws where his fingernails should be.
"RAHHHH!", the twins shouted as they recovered and tried to jump him again. Tetch quickly reached into his pocket before pulling out a large butcher's knife and swinging around with it... slashing Sean right in the neck before lunging it forward into Daphne's chest.
Everything went silent for a few moments as he breathed before holding up the knife again... only to realize there was no blood... and in fact, the entire blade was missing from the handle. And both Sean and Daphne were both without even so much as a scratch as their eyes began to glow.
Sean growled, revealing his crocodilian teeth mixed with his human teeth as his skin became hard scaled, green crocodile skin, "Don't touch-", his eyes glowing green as his tail appeared, as Daphne snarled, "Our brothers and sister again!", her skin becoming hard emerald Hulk skin with mottled crocodile scales, revealing her mix of Hulk teeth and human teeth, her eyes glowing gold.
Tetch swung his handle as he shouted, "What the fuck are you, freaks?!", before a slamming crash sounded behind him, with a rumbling snarl, "Did he say what I think he said?", as the 'F' word was a sensitive topic ever since Kel hated the word.
For a brief moment, fear gripped Tetch as he realized what had just found him. He slowly turned around before he saw the She-Hulk; though he could tell that it wasn't exactly the one that stopped him the last time, the face looked somewhat different, younger, really.
Despite his madness, his intellect came through as he quickly put two and two together, considering the children. "You...", Tetch whispered as he knew, somehow, he was starting into the eyes of Penelope Wayne.
The Sensational/Spectacular She-Hulk sneered, "No long time no see...Mad Hatter...You are going back to prison, perhaps Arkham Asylum this time...".
Tetch knew Arkham Asylum is for insane criminals, and he knew if he went back to prison, either there, or back in his old cell, he's going to be killed, because he broke the unspoken code not once, but twice, and of course, there's also his new crime of raping women. Well, he ain't going back if he can help it!
"I should've killed you when I had the chance!", Tetch shouted as he dashed over to where his gun had ended up. "I knew getting the wrong Alice was a mistake that day!".
"Wrong Alice?", She-Hulk huffed. "You kidnapped how many girls again? Seems like you were never getting the right Alice.", she said as she took a few steps following him as he scrambled. She had little to be afraid of in terms of him trying to harm her. She had taken larger caliber rounds to the face compared to that gun he had.
Dick and Jane went to check on Lily, intending to free her, as she stared in shock at the transformed trio, and Jane apologized, "Sorry for this, Lily.", before using a trick from her dad that he learned from his father, to harmlessly knock Lily out without causing a bruise, as the transformed trio was still poised on their feet, still filled up of adrenaline, watching Tetch and She-Hulk, knowing even if he's insanely mad, he's not to be underestimated.