[Plot] The Wonderland Complex

[Basil Benson]

Cheshire lead Alice towards uis quarters, noticing a distinct lack of Tweedles. He used the opportunity to walk slow, and brought her hand up to twirl her again, right into his arms. When she was held close, he whispered. "No matter what happens, you need to stay with me. Alright?"

[Alice]

Alice went along with the twirling, looking to the outside world as if she was being romanced. And maybe part of her believed it too. But she knew the part she was playing. She nodded her head softly. "And vice versa."

[Narrator]

Robin getting herself in just the right angle proved to be the trick. The group got the door open together, though it fought against Robin the entire way. The tension of it implied it wanted to shut itself again, but the tough guys had a hold of it.

"We'll need something to keep it propped open, it won't stay for long!"

[Robin Stanton]

The moment Robin feels the tension on her relax thanks to the tough guys holding it open and springs back out to humanoid shape and looks around for tables, chairs, any kind of furniture she might be able to drag over and wedge intot he doorframe.

[Narrator]

Robin notices a group of patients already working on unbolting a table from the floor with their fingers, but it's slow going on their part.

[Robin Stanton]

"I got it!" Robin shouts and runs towards the table, throwing herself on top of it and letting herself go splat, seeping into the table and start helping by trying to pull up the table-legs as well, working them like her feet were stuck in mud.

[Narrator]

Between Robin's possession of the table and the patients work, the group is capable of getting Robin-table shoved into the door frame. Cheering bursts out as the table is lodged into place to keep the automated door open.

10B Climbs atop to pump his fists into the air in celebration as they broke into the complex proper. But as he was on top of Robin-table, something struck sharp buried itself through the chest. His arms fell to his sides slowly, before he slid, face forward, onto the table surface.

[Robin Stanton]

The moment Robin feels the legs on top of her go slack she knows something is wrong. She bubbles back up from the table-top in the form of a big cushion to catch the injured 10B. She does try to make herself out of kevlar to try and provide cover at the same time but she's in bit of a rush.

[Narrator]

10B collapses into her, sputtering for his breath and spewing vital fluids. The implements bedded into his chest were surgical scalpels.

Further into the hall that just opened were a band of patients armed with various medical implements, bloodstains on the right sides of their heads that on a few migrated down to their medical garb. Some had nicked themselves just a bit too deeply in the removable of their own earlobes to get rid of the dampener tags.

It was likely the one who was closest that had bore metal projectiles through 10B, given the clearance she was given and the cold look in her eye. "You'll close that and go back to your side, if you know what's good for you."

[Robin Stanton]

"Whoa whoa whoa, hey, calm down, we're all on the same side here, yeah?" Robin shouts as she turns back to human, though her main attention is on the injured 10B, looking to see if she can safely remove the scalpel or if that would do more harm than good. "Use your words, not friggin' knives!"

[Narrator]

"You all have had the comfort of each other in gen pop while we've been caged like rabid animals alone. We are not on the same side.

Clear the path, we're out for The Court."

As for poor 10B, it did seem like keeping the scalpels in was the better option at the moment. He hadn't quite cried out in pain yet, but it was clear he was still in shock from being stabbed repeatedly with rather small objects. Thankfully, the mystery woman hadn't deigned to recall the items if she could... Not yet anyways.

[Robin Stanton]

"Listen, I feel you and it's bullshit what they did to you, but just because you were treated worse doesn't mean you get to take it out on these guys, yeah?" she says, slowly getting up and keeping her hands very deliberately where their assailant could see them. "You want to get at the people who did this to you? Fantastic. Let us help. All we did was keep this door from closing, that's like the opposite of being in your way, ya?"

[Narrator]

" These guys?" She replied, catching onto Robin's wording as she appraised the other woman.

"Where is your tag? Where is your gown?"

[Robin Stanton]

"I kinda sorta slipped in. I'm with the X-Men. We were investigating Mutants being hush-hush moved to parts unknown but it kind of turned into an impromptu breakout cause fuck whatever it is they're doing to you guys here."

[Narrator]

"The fook's an X-Man?" A random male voice called out from the Solitary group. The whole group seemed equally perplexed.

The woman who seemed to be in charge chuckled.

"We're not informed enough to be impressed.

This is your last warning to stand down, or we're going to mow through you to get to them. Nothing personal."

[Robin Stanton]

"You stabbed a guy while we were literally keeping the way open so calm down while we get him out of the doorway, alright? Eesh. Once he's taken care of I'll be right behind you lot, alright?" she says as she goes about helping 10B off of the table and ontot he ground, out of the path of the angry mob.

"And who's never heard of the X-Men. Seriously." she mutters to herself.

[Narrator]

Once he knew it was safe to get closer 3B came to help Robin with 10B and clear the path for the Solitaries.

The rest of the Gen Pop assembly parted, wanting no part in whatever these people were up to.

That's when a ripped, giant deer revealed himself to be the voice. "C'Mon X-Man. You stick with me if you don't want her t'gut you too."

[Robin Stanton]

"Hey, hold on a sec. Your voice sounds familiar. Why does your voice sound familiar?" Robin asks, looking up from 10B and leaning back a couple inches at the sudden sight of a muscle-deer. She's used to weird but that doesn't mean that she can't be caught by surprise by strange sights.

[Narrator]

"I'm th'bloke who thinks you might be overselling yourself." He chuckled.

"Where are the Tweedles?" The stabby one asked, looking around and expecting to see corpses, but failing to identify any dead orderlies.

[Robin Stanton]

"Dunno." she shrugs but then turns her attention back to Deer-Man, apparently not willing to let him wave-off her question that easily.

"Was that you in my head earlier? Telepathying me?"

[Narrator]

Stabby went to address 3B, and the two defacto leaders started quietly bickering with each other.

"Nah... the woman? That'd be Queenie. She's in all our heads. Oir she was."

[Robin Stanton]

"Makes sense. Woulda been a weird combo too, telepathy and deer-physique." she jokes to ease the tension.

"Okay, so, you lot seem to be a bit more... critical of this whole situation. What in the hell is going on here? The Court, Queenie, this all reeks of fanciful bullshit to dress up something messed up. At the very least I saw Queenie straight up mind-control that whole group back there."

[Narrator]

"Well yea, lockin' people up like caged rats does tend t'make 'em a bit pissy, so's there's that then.

But t'answer yoir question, if things seem strange here, we may not have th'answers yoir lookin' foir, cuz t'us, this is normal... ya ken? Oir at least, it was, til about a little bit ago, which I ken is abouts when you showed up. Tweedles all over then, back n' forth, runnin' all up our halls makin' an awful soirta ruckus.
Then at some point, the doors just.... opened, n' we were free t'roam, which has never happened befoire."

[Robin Stanton]

"Yeah I don't think that was me. Something else must be going on, perhaps somebody higher up in the chain decided to try and put an end to this. Let's go then, let's find the people responsible."

[Narrator]

As Robin came to the resolution it was time to 'find those responsible' the two defacto leaders finished quibbling, 'Stabby' having taken possession of the key-card from 3B.

Holding it high in victory, The Solitaires followed behind her, passing through out into the hallway Robin had been found in.

Robin's new deer friend was walking in tandem with her, keeping an eye out at their surroundings. Robin would notice that he was one of a handful in the group that didn't have his earlobe cut off, nor an ear tag. The thing that they all seemed to have in common was a physical mutation.

They weren't running into anything unusual as of yet, just endless, white hallways over and over again. Eventually, they did come across the body of one of the orderlies, which the patients seemed to refer to as Tweedles. His throat was torn out and he had bled to death slumped against the floor. The tear looked like it was the teeth of an animal of some kind.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin's usually fairly chipper demeanour darkens at that sight.

"Somebody else wasn't happy to be locked up... We should hurry before anybody else gets killed."

[Narrator]

"What's the matter, outsider? You scared?" Stabby asked, plucking the card from the orderly, hoping it would give them access to deeper rooms. But the fact that the orderly still had it was... highly unusual.

"3B said the Court should be this way." Stabby added, moving ahead to lead the group.

[Robin Stanton]

"Not for myself, but people are being a little too quick to stab somebody in the chest for my liking." she says with a pointed stare at the back of Stabby's head as she follows along, ready to intervene should she decide to go too far on some orderly.

[Narrator]

They didn't run into any more orderlies, though they didn't seem to bother looking into side rooms. Stabby was on a mission, and her small posse was more than happy to follow where-ever she lead them.

Eventually, where she lead them was down an empty hallway, and up to a room with wide double doors, but no windows. She scanned the card and smiled as the friendly ding let them group in. They all filed in, one by one, into what appeared to be a gymnasium packed to the brim with all sorts of physical training equipment.

"This has got to be it. They wouldn't let anyone but those brown-nosing twerps have access to shite like this." She stating, moving into the gym first.

[Hatter]

Silently, a long exercise rope slithered around Stabby's feet before snapping shut like a lasso. It violently yanked the woman into a complicated weight machine with several smaller ropes tied to it like tentacles that lashed her to it.

"Watch who you're calling a twerp buddy!" said the cartoonish voice of Hatter's psychotic alter ego, seemingly out of thin air.

[Robin Stanton]

"Okay, buddy, who the heck are you?" Robin demands, glancing around at any potentially aggressive exercise equipment. And also scoping out her options to commandeer one herself.

[Narrator]

Taken off guard, Stabby was drug very quickly to her demise.

The three others in the group fanned out, looking not to clump up and make an easy target. Robin's search showed many different excerise items she could meld with: Other training machines of various complexities such as a row machine,a treadmill, a stationary bike, a pommel horse, balance bars, dumbbells, bo staffs used for basic weapons training, kettleballs, resistance bands and for some reason a thigh trainer.

[Hatter]

"What? Not gonna even try to help her? At least I think she's still alive," the voice said, stretching its captive enough to break bones.

When there was a moan, the voice said with a titter, "See? Just mostly dead."

[Robin Stanton]

"I'm not going to give you an excuse to hurt her more by blindly leaping at shadows. I don't even know who you are but you sound like you enjoy hurting people." she says, lifting her arms with her palms facing forward while animating one of the floor tiles under her foot to send it towards the trapped Stabby and find a release point for the various ropes and pulleys and weights. Even if she can just create a bit of momentary slack it'd give her at least a little time to sprint over herself.

[Narrator]

With the poured concrete floor which permeated the entire facility, the tile Robin could get up was a piece of the rubberized flooring used to soften to blow of hitting into the cement floor during training. It wasn't exactly a sharp instrument, but anything in one of these sorts of contraptions would throw the whole works off, and the flooring piece got caught between a pulley and a wire, loosening a wire wrapped aroudn Stabby's neck, giving her an opening to catch her breath again and attempt to get free herself.

[Robin Stanton]

And in that moment Robin launches herself forward, contracting her whole body down against the ground to fling herself at the exercise machine as an amorphous blob of bubblegum to try and gum up any pulleys and ropes so Stabby can free herself without being torn apart.

[Hatter]

The contraption launched a weight at the oncoming goop but didn't manage to knock Robin off course, becoming entangled in the substance.

"Hey! That's disgusting you little brat!"

It strained against the gum, only to become even more stuck. Stabby had plenty of time to drag herself to safety.

[Robin Stanton]

Rubbery gum or not, getting hit with several pounds of metal isn't pleasant but at least her plan worked! She contracts to try and break the exercise machine before she gets pulled into the various pulleys and whatnots herself.

"Yeah well..." she grunts. "So's hurting people."

[Hatter]

"Ahh! You're killing me! Stop! Please!" the voice screamed in suspiciously over-the-top fashion as something snapped, the assembly going slack.

[Narrator]

'Stabby' managed to free herself and slink off into the shadows of the room while she tried to recoup, leaving Robin and Hatter to duke it out.