DC Universe- 2100

A few of the guards begin to take up positions but Black Mask holds up his hand, stopping them.

Batman looks up at Black Mask. "We need to talk." He said.

"Of course, Batman," Black Mask says. "Take a seat." Black Mask snaps his fingers and one of his men offers Batman a chair.

Batman walked towards his desk. "I'll stand, thank you though." He said. "I want to know who this Emperor Penguin is."

Black Mask stares up at Batman. "I wish I could be of more help, Batman, but, well..." he snaps his fingers and his assistant brings him a manilla folder with a single sheet of paper in it. "This is all I have on him."

Batman opens the folder and reads the paper.

"No names or personal stomping grounds to speak of. He's careful. Almost as careful as me. But I did get a bit about his rise. Started by overthrowing the standard bosses. Then he and his men got the jump on the Paradox clown. Not sure if he's working with them or what, but now they've got some very impressive equipment that I wouldn't mind getting my hands on. And most of that gear probably helped him take down other freak shows in the way. There were a few more bosses left. I was going to arrange a meeting so we could talk shop about this bird...but someone killed them all. Someone with an M.O a lot like that Clue maniac. Which can only mean Emperor hired that lunatic out to whack the rest of the competition. Vega's lucky he was late. Saved his life. Now it's just me, Vega, and the bird."

"Vega is dead." Batman said closing the folder. "Unless you want to be next I'd dig in harder than you are now."

"Damn it," Black Mask says. "Clue?"

"No." Batman said. "A woman I think may have a connection to Mad Hatter. Had any run ins with the Hatter?"

"There was a little creep back in Blackgate. He was always causing...disturbances. Calling the lady guards 'Alice' and harassing them. So they moved him to Arkham. Muttering loon went on and on but no one ever understood what he was saying. I heard he escaped during the big breakout in Arkham a couple months back. Around the same time Clue got loose again."

"Did you catch his name while you were inside?" Batman asked.

"Who didn't? They had to yell at him more times than I care to count. Edwin Thatch."

Batman nodded. "I'll start with him then." He said turning to head out. "Good luck against Emperor Penguin."

"One thing, Batman," Black Mask says, standing at his desk. "Tell my niece I said hello." He glances over his shoulder where Bat-Girl had been standing in the window.

Bat-Girl leans against the door, meeting Batman out front. "Next move?"

"Edwin Thatch." Batman said. "That's the name of our Mad Hatter."

"How do you wanna play this, then?"

"We find him and make him pay for all the Alices he's made." Batman said.

"And maybe he'll lead us to Emperor Penguin...and Clue," Bat-Girl says.

"My thoughts as well." Batman said accessing the Batcomputer's database to search for Edwin Thatch.

"Says here that our new best friend was a leading expert in mind scanning technology used to analyze the dreams of his subjects. But apparently something happened during a session and he went bonkers. He started using the tech for mind control and...wow...that's a long list of Alice's."

"Let's get a location." Batman said. "And pay him a visit."

"Let's see...his equipment was confiscated and taken back to...oh wow. He was an Aerocorp employee. Get this. Even before his incident Brass had a restraining order issued against him. The day she fired him was the day of his little accident. He would have had to get his gear back, so...aha. Security and traffic cameras got a couple of guys wearing interesting choices of headgear loading up his stuff onto a truck. I've got the license plate and...okay. The last time it was seen, it was going into the old Arkham City zone."

"Then that's where we're going." Batman said calling in the Batwing.

"There was an old milliner's place around here, somewhere," Bat-Girl says, landing near the old Solomon-Wayne Courthouse.