10. We’re All Mad Here | Nightwing & Red Hood
“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
Dick woke slowly. His vision was blurred, and a pounding in his head made it a bitch to think. But he put the pieces together quickly enough anyway. Oh, right. Mad Hatter struck, he went out on his mission, something something, and now he was just waking up in this warehouse. He was upright but his arms and legs were chained to something. A table, he realized, feeling the cold metal against his back.
So he’d been kidnapped. His mouth was dry as he looked around for signs of the Mad Hatter. He couldn’t be too far away, since this was right up there with his standard nefarious plans. He twisted against the chains some more, but they were too tight, too heavy.
He heard a footstep, and then another. They moved slowly, heavily, completely unhurried. Arkham crazies and their suspense. There was just a single light above him, and the rest of the room was shrouded in darkness. So Dick didn’t see who emerged from the shadows until he was close.
A tall man with his face covered by an executioner’s hood stepped into the light. He was covered all in black except for the blood red heart on his chest, and he reached to Dick’s left. There was a squeak of wheels and he brought a cart into view: a rusted metal table that held plenty of peculiar looking instruments. For torture, what else?
MEANWHILE Red Hood knew that Nightwing had been taken because he saw it with his own eyes, before having to turn his attention to the henchman trying to shoot him with a microchip. He had to find him, right now. Every minute with these psychos was one they couldn’t afford.