[Plot] The Wonderland Complex

[Robin Stanton]

"Brave words coming from someone so eager to break limbs not ten minutes ago." Robin's slightly tinny voice announces her presence. "These people are coming for you because they think you know the way out. And also because of the, you know, broken limbs."

[Hatter]

Hatter narrowed her eyes.

"I should've known you'd team up with the one responsible for this chaos, Cheshire," she said with venom.

[Basil Benson]

"She came crawling out of my vent, and she's from the outside.

You've a better escape plan Hatter? Because I'd love to hear it."

[Narrator]

Hatter wasn't given an opportunity to answer before the mass of fellow patients descended into the room. Deer-man charged at Cheshire, looking to gore him through the chest. Better to pin him down before he had the means to escape.

Stabby was back too, and looking to get a piece of Hatter, but she'd probably have to go through Alice to get it. unfortunately, she'd found plenty of items in the workout room to throw around in a magnetic temper tantrum. A series of three individual weight discs whipped through the air at the pair of them.

One of the super-fiends revealed themselves to be a firebender, and decided to take their focus on Knave, shooting a pillar of fire in their direction.

Others still were figuring their way into the hole in the door....

[Alice]

When it became clear that the ones pouring in were the "shoot first, ask second" type, Alice moved to the forefront to give herself more room - which she needed. In only a few seconds the barely 5' tall girl had quadrupled in size and her head was grazing the hallway's 20' high ceiling - God bless Joseph Shivers because the shorts and sports bra managed to hold it together. It was a three-pronged strategy; the larger she was, then more abuse she could take. The larger she was, the more she could help obstruct attacks directed at her... teammates? Friends? Ehh... And lastly, the larger she was, the more intimidating and commanding a presence she cast.

"Stand down, now. You want out? So do we." Concise and direct.

[Robin Stanton]

As the crowd bursts into the room, so does Robin from Basil's Zune, doing her best to not shred his shirt in the process, but it might end up losing a couple buttons. She arcs her pink protoplasm onto the ground and takes up the shape of a traffic cop with big stop-signs for hands she holds out towards either group to try and intercept some of the projectiles.

"What the big lady said! There's no point in bashing each others' heads in! We will get everybody out of here and then figure out who is to be held accountable for what happened here!"

[Basil Benson]

Between Robin's and Alice's quick work, Cheshire was spared a goring. Something occurred to Cheshire then, as he hid behind Alice.

"Do you have this?" He asked of Alice.

[Hatter]

Hatter eagerly hid behind Alice as she grew. She said nothing, knowing she'd only make things worse.

[Alice]

"Yeah, I got this." Alice whispered back. Though whether she actually did, or was putting on a brave front, was hard to tell. Going up against a 20' tall woman would probably make the group hesitate for a moment at least, until numbers bolstered their courage, but maybe she could get through to them before that happened.

[Basil Benson]

And with that, Cheshire disappeared.

[Narrator]

Stabby paused for a moment, as if considering the proposal. The weights on the bar slipped off to the floor, the bar spinning in circles next to her head, ready to unloose itself.

"Nah." She decided casually, dropping the rest of the weights and launching the weight bar towards Alice's huge leg in an attempt to hobble the girl.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin jumps forward, swinging one stop-sign arm through the air to try and slam the metal bar towards the ground.

"Seriously!? We're doing this now?"

[Alice]

Alice was pretty happy for the assist, because she couldn't exactly dodge without putting someone else in danger, so she likely would take the bar right in the knee without some intervention. But even if Robin only deflected a bit, it'd be enough. As the fight broke out she lurched forward on all fours and, to the horror of everyone in attendance, filled up the hallway again, comrades forced to contend with the space under her stomach and between her legs as she took up much of the hallway around them. She had hardly any room to move, but she hoped that the fear factor would be worth it, especially as she stretched her arm toward the Stabby one to try and grab her in a hand almost as big as herself.

"Wrong. Answer."

[Narrator]

Robin jumps forward, swinging one stop-sign arm through the air to try and slam the metal bar towards the ground.

"Seriously!? We're doing this now?"

Robin's swing on the bar worked, but made her a target for a new pair of combatants.

As a green energy projection bore down on her from her right, a very fast woman with fingers like knives came darting out of the pack to slash at Robin from her left. "Green light."

Alice was pretty happy for the assist, because she couldn't exactly dodge without putting someone else in danger, so she likely would take the bar right in the knee without some intervention. But even if Robin only deflected a bit, it'd be enough. As the fight broke out she lurched forward on all fours and, to the horror of everyone in attendance, filled up the hallway again, comrades forced to contend with the space under her stomach and between her legs as she took up much of the hallway around them. She had hardly any room to move, but she hoped that the fear factor would be worth it, especially as she stretched her arm toward the Stabby one to try and grab her in a hand almost as big as herself.

"Wrong. Answer."

Swearing under his breath as his target disappeared, Deer-Man redirected his efforts on helping Stabby take down Alice, charging her and aiming his horns to rake across the back of her heel. Stabby grabbed up the rest of the weights to fling them at Alice's face in hopes of distracting her from what was coming at her legs.

"We only need Bunny alive." Stabby reminded the others.

Meanwhile, Knave and the fire-bender were having it out as well, Knave twisting and contorting themselves in a fashion suggesting they didn't have any internals to have to worry about. There wasn't much to actually set on fire in the hall other than people, but their corner of the fray was starting to look like the interior of a fireplace.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin manages to bring her other arm around, the stop-sign curling around her forearm protectively but still taking a couple of deep gouges from the knife-hands. Her right arm goes loose as she tries to throw a punch between her own torso and the blocking arm to catch Knife-Hands in the stomach from an angle that no person with bones and regular joints could pull off.

"Bunny's not even here anymore! None of the people responsible are!" Robin tries to shout over the chaos. "I dunno what Hatter's problem is but I promise she's not gonna get away with what she did in the gym, okay?"

[Alice]

Swearing under his breath as his target disappeared, Deer-Man redirected his efforts on helping Stabby take down Alice, charging her and aiming his horns to rake across the back of her heel. Stabby grabbed up the rest of the weights to fling them at Alice's face in hopes of distracting her from what was coming at her legs.

"We only need Bunny alive." Stabby reminded the others.

Alice found herself taking the brunt of the attacks, the Deer man's horns being the first to draw blood, and catching weights catching her in the face before she had a chance to raise an arm to block the other two. That was going to be a real shiner later. With her face partially covered she couldn't see very well and swung her fist across the hallway and against the opposite wall, smashing through it. Woe be it to anyone who got between her hand and a hard surface as she reached out blindly toward her attackers.

[Narrator]

Robin manages to bring her other arm around, the stop-sign curling around her forearm protectively but still taking a couple of deep gouges from the knife-hands. Her right arm goes loose as she tries to throw a punch between her own torso and the blocking arm to catch Knife-Hands in the stomach from an angle that no person with bones and regular joints could pull off.

"Bunny's not even here anymore! None of the people responsible are!" Robin tries to shout over the chaos. "I dunno what Hatter's problem is but I promise she's not gonna get away with what she did in the gym, okay?"

"None of the court can be trusted! Especially not this outsider!" Stabby calls over the fray.

Knife-hands caught Robin-Hands and doubled back as the wind got knocked out of her, but saved gracefully as she threw herself into a spinning hook kick, looking to bear Robin in the head.

Alice found herself taking the brunt of the attacks, the Deer man's horns being the first to draw blood, and catching weights catching her in the face before she had a chance to raise an arm to block the other two. That was going to be a real shiner later. With her face partially covered she couldn't see very well and swung her fist across the hallway and against the opposite wall, smashing through it. Woe be it to anyone who got between her hand and a hard surface as she reached out blindly toward her attackers.

The person Alice 'caught against the wall' happened to be the energy-mutant flinging attacks at Robin, as they were smashed into the sidewall of the hallway and into an empty personal quarters for a court member who was not present currently.

Stabby however, wasn't going to give up, and smashing the cement wall meant exposed wire mesh which she then ripped free of the rocklike structure, twisting and manipulating it to get Alice's arm caught in the wall itself.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin bends her head out of the way at an unnatural angle, but that means she takes the kick straight in the shoulder/neck and is actually compressed down a good foot or two from the impact, wobbling backwards and struggling to get her physiology back under her full control.

"Gah! I only ran into these guys cause I was going after Hatter to punch her in the jaw! I want to help." Stumbling she leans against the wall with one hand, sinking slightly into it as she animates a wall panel enough to swipe it outwards as a kind of shield to give her some cover for a moment.

[Alice]

The person Alice 'caught against the wall' happened to be the energy-mutant flinging attacks at Robin, as they were smashed into the sidewall of the hallway and into an empty personal quarters for a court member who was not present currently.

Stabby however, wasn't going to give up, and smashing the cement wall meant exposed wire mesh which she then ripped free of the rocklike structure, twisting and manipulating it to get Alice's arm caught in the wall itself.

Alice's arm was well and truly ensnared thanks to Stabby's handiwork, but what they perhaps hadn't counted on was what would happen after that. Alice pulled her arm away from the wall, fighting to try and free herself, which resulted in even more wire mesh and rebar being exposed as it was violently pulled out of the wall, cement chunks of various sizes being sent flying around the hall and falling from the ceiling.

[Hatter]

Hatter seized the opportunity and possessed the wire mesh. She could have freed Alice, but instead supplemented her offensive maneuver by helping aim the ensnared debris. To her credit, she didn't seem to be trying to kill anyone this time.

"Keep back, losers!"

[Narrator]

Robin bends her head out of the way at an unnatural angle, but that means she takes the kick straight in the shoulder/neck and is actually compressed down a good foot or two from the impact, wobbling backwards and struggling to get her physiology back under her full control.

"Gah! I only ran into these guys cause I was going after Hatter to punch her in the jaw! I want to help." Stumbling she leans against the wall with one hand, sinking slightly into it as she animates a wall panel enough to swipe it outwards as a kind of shield to give her some cover for a moment.

Shielded from the blade swiping, the Knife-Hands instead managed to fruitlessly bury her blades into Robin's shield, getting herself stuck in the process. Robin could feel her assailant's foot against the madeshift shield, trying to pry herself free.

"How're we supposed to know you're not just some plant?!"

Alice's arm was well and truly ensnared thanks to Stabby's handiwork, but what they perhaps hadn't counted on was what would happen after that. Alice pulled her arm away from the wall, fighting to try and free herself, which resulted in even more wire mesh and rebar being exposed as it was violently pulled out of the wall, cement chunks of various sizes being sent flying around the hall and falling from the ceiling.

Hatter seized the opportunity and possessed the wire mesh. She could have freed Alice, but instead supplemented her offensive maneuver by helping aim the ensnared debris. To her credit, she didn't seem to be trying to kill anyone this time.

"Keep back, losers!"

The avalanche of building materials buried Stabby, and The Firebender, and Hatter's quick assist was pushing back The Energy blaster who was now just opening fire on any moving target.

But Knave too got pinned somewhere under the debris. It would be a minute before they were back into the action as they wormed there way around the rubble.

[Alice]

Alice "retreated" by dwindling back down to her normal size and falling back behind Hatter, needing a moment to sort herself out again. Her arm hurt, but she was able to wiggle her fingers, so things seemed alright for now.

[Hatter]

"Hahaha! Take this and this and this!" Hatter tittered unnervingly as she continued to fend off Blaster like a strange wire and cement octopus, though she was slower without the added momentum.

[Robin Stanton]

"For starters, you're not seeing me do that!" Robin points at the rampaging cement and rebar. "Hey, Knock-off Me! You're gonna bring the ceiling down on us if you keep this up!" she shouts and, leaving Knife-Hands to free her - well - knife-hands, Robin sprints over towards Hatter and leaps right into the tangle of rebar and cement, one hand shifting into a sledgehammer as she starts wailing on things that look structurally important.

[Hatter]

"Knock it off Pinkie! I know what I'm doing!" Hatter complained, swinging a chunk of cement at Robin.

[Robin Stanton]

"Not much better, cause last I saw you broke some girls limbs!" Robin says before getting hit by a block of cement. However, instead of going flying it seems like she is now stuck to said cement and forcing her way into it, trying to displace Hatter and usurp the concrete-and-rebar arm.

[Hatter]

The possessed construction material flailed and convulsed as Hatter's will fought back. Robin got the sense of two personalities pushing against her. One was the woman that had knocked on Basil's door, whose will wasn't particularly strong. The other, far stronger will flashed through as a cartoon rabbit with crazy eyes and a maniacal grin. It was the one speaking.

"Hey! No fair! Get out of me you little bitch!

[Robin Stanton]

"Not till you stop hurting people!"

Trying to control something against a competing will is a new and strange sensation to Robin, especially since she's, to some extent, physically present inside the material while Hatter's power seems to be more of a straight up possession of will. As a result they seem to not cancel each other out so much as they're making the construct flail and cramp with conflicting movements. Here and there concrete cracks around it's rebar support and bits of pink ooze out of the cracks before withdrawing back inside.

"And maybe then we can see about getting you some help. I see you in there and I promise I'll do what I can to help you too, but right now the crazy nutjob takes bit of priority, yeah?" she grunts through grit teeth and grinding cement.

[Hatter]

"Rude! I'm not some demon to exorcize you nitwit! Besides, she's nothing without me. Just a pathetic nobody."

[Robin Stanton]

"Oh bugger off, you big bully of a mental break. You don't gotta be somebody to matter."

[Narrator]

While the two battled it out, Knave slowly reassembled themselves. Rivulets of purple goop met, intertwined, and pooled together into a gelatinous mass of lavender slowly, moving in Energy's direction to ensure this particular mutant was out of commission for the time being. While Energy tried to walk off the blows from the cement octopus, Knave intertwined themselves around Energy's ankles to pull them to the floor and 'shake the shit out of them', hoping to leave them too muddled to keep firing.

[Hatter]

"Shut up you naive snot-nosed brat!"

Hatter punctuated the statement with a burst of willpower that rushed over Robin like a wave.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin clings to the concrete like gum to hair, but it's hard to physically fight against a mental flex and she's squirted out of the cracks and gaps of the cement into a puddle on the floor, groaning as she spreads out across the floor like a deflated balloon.

And then Robin's feint reveals itself as such when something in the floor groans as well and a pipe tears itself from underneath the floor, ramming straight up, aiming to pierce Hatter's construct and pin it to the ceiling

[Hatter]

Hatter shrieked in fury as the urban octopus she inhabited was pinned to the ceiling. It flailed violently, as if in complete disregard for the fragile state of things.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin sloughs off the pipe and lets herself fall to the floor on her back to recover for a moment. Hopefully neither side would feel like getting too close to the flailing cementopus to take advantage of her catching her breath.

[Narrator]

As Hatter flailed against the ceiling in a tizzy, the blows to the structural integrity were obvious. This place may have been designed to hold mutants, but much of the 'holding' was psychological. Once the lynch pin of the operation had been pulled, this place was nothing more than a large, empty basement full of captives and blink dogs. And now the foundation was crumbling under the multiple arms of one of the more volatile captives.

And soon, what was above began to pour in on those below. At first, the standard building materials one would expect. Cement shards and pieces of metal. But following that, gallons upon gallons of filthy water started spewing out from above into the hallway below.

[Alice]

"Alright that's enough! Stand down, the both of you!" Alice's voice was far louder and more commanding than one would expect from a girl who only stood about 5' tall.

[Hatter]

Hatter stopped flailing and drifted down into a smaller piece of debris, which stood up like a dog.

"Fine. I won't kill you all. For now."

[Narrator]

The hall wasn't exactly flooding, but it was quickly becoming an uncomfortable place to be once those assembled realized what exactly was coming out of the ceiling.

Sewage. Someone had damaged facilities above them, and now it was spewing sewage.

Having knocked the energy-mutant unconscious with their tantrum, Knave quickly started balling their lavender mass upon themselves, seemingly in fear of being touched by the sewage water.

[Robin Stanton]

"Oh eww! Ew ew ew!" Robin shouts as she tries to scramble to her feet, though there's little she can do to avoid the deluge of sewage, having been directly beneath the breach.

She makes a couple exaggerated retching noises and grimaces. "Disgusting... Can we please stop fighting now and get out of here?" she half jokes, half pleads as she finds a piece of concrete to stand on.