[Plot] The Wonderland Complex

[Robin Stanton]

"Yeah right!" Robin says as she jumps from the broken piece of equipment and looks around the room, trying to find their actual assailant.

"You hiding in a corner somewhere, too much of an egg to fight us yourself?"

[Hatter]

"Who says I'm hiding?! Sucker!" the voice titters. The machine threw another weight, swinging a broken "limb" around like a flail as it awkwardly rocked itself towards her.

[Robin Stanton]

This time Robin is at least somewhat prepared and briefly collapses into a pile of goop before springing back up. "Not sure I'm buying your theatrics." she says as she tries to step on the 'limb' to pin the remains to the floor. "Seems a little too easy, yeah?" she adds, her attention on scoping out the rest of the room.

[Hatter]

One of the exercise ropes wrapped around the handle of a kettlebell and somehow, with the help of the machine itself, swung it at Robin like a meteor hammer.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin notices the swinging kettlebell in time to let her body go from 'approximately flesh and blood' to springy clay again, so instead of having her head caved in it only splatters it across the ground and making her stagger around for a moment as she clenches her shoulders and pops a new head out of her neck. She's still kind of unsteady on her feet though, vision blurry. "Ow, fuck! That hurt! Dang telekinetics or what have you!"

Stumbling over to the debris of the weight machine she lets herself fall onto the pile of weight-plates that were once neatly racked up and she seeps into them. A moment later with a lot of metal on metal clattering the plates rise up into a kind of four-legged spider, Robin's pink protoplasm forming the connective tissue between heavy metal plates. "You wanna go? Let's go!" she shouts and starts stomping around the room, smashing anything in reach on her way to the door.

[Narrator]

she adds, her attention on scoping out the rest of the room.

In Robin's scoping, she did manage to clock one or two of the others, but they seemed to mostly be staying out of it. Apparently they were mostly aiding with moral support. Or perhaps they two were trying to determine something.

[Hatter]

"I'll teach you to throw your weight around!"

The kettlehammer came around again to try and knock Robin off of her feet but, as Robin now weighed significantly more than a kettlebell, there wasn't much chance of damage.

[Robin Stanton]

"Hah, not so tough now, are you?" Robin laughs, then spots the other two hanging around the fringes and stomps her way in their direction.

"Hey! You two! Call off your aggressive dumb-bell!"

[Narrator]

"Uuuhhh, not our friend, mate! Why do you think we're hiding over here?!" One of them called back while attending to 'Stabby'.

[Hatter]

"You win this round pinky!"

The machine went limp as a cloud of black mist exited it. It flew towards the door as if fleeing. But it entered the door instead, which slammed shut and produced a thunk as the emergency lock engaged.

"But can you handle the ceiling caving in!" the room tittered, ceiling beginning to shake.

[Narrator]

"Oh fuck!" One of them called out and made like Bert The Turtle, covering the trio of them in a shell like dome to keep the debris of a ceiling falling in on them from damaging them. Unfortunately for Robin, she was still too far away to be in that dome.

Fortunately for Robin, as the whole thing came down on the room the ceiling proved to be a false ceiling, and not load bearing in the slightest.And behind it was the sort of thing you normally find hidden in false ceilings: electrical, plumbing and air ventilation with vents feeding downward.... And upward too? Curious.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin hunkers down by drawing her weight-plate legs against themselves and let the ceiling crash down on top of her. When it proves to not be a crushing weight she quickly jumps out of her hiding place.

"You guys okay? I'm going after whoever that was." she shouts over to the group she briefly mistook for enemies. Then she looks up and slowly extends her arm up and up and up, very carefully balancing it as it wobbles. The ceiling's too high to just shoot her arm up and grab something, so she's forced to constantly adjust her footing to keep her arm from flopping down before finally having something in reach to grab on to to pull herself up towards one of the vent. "Try not killing anybody okaaaaay?" she shouts as she rises, giving Stabby a quick 'I'm watching you' gesture with two fingers before slipping into the vent.

[Hatter]

Meanwhile, Hatter ran down the hall to where the rest of The Court was holed up.

"Stupid brat. I'll pay you back, just you wait."

[Robin Stanton]

Robin meanwhile hurries through the air vent. She doesn't like doing it, but she wants to catch Hatter and nobody can see her in here anyway, so her amorphous mass sprouts many arms that rapidly pull her forward before merging back into her mass, only to be replaced by more grasping appendages that are already grasping for purchase and propel her further. So she rapidly scrambles her way through the narrow passage as a flailing mass of protoplasm and limbs.

[Narrator]

Hatter was making a bee line for the inner quarters of the Court, where their personal chambers were kept. Knave would be in their cell, and so far as she could remember, Cheshire and Alice should be in Cheshire's.

But they were a bit from each other so coming around knocking on both at once would be problematic.

[Hatter]

Hatter hated to rely on Alice and Cheshire, but Knave seriously gave her the creeps. So she hurried to Chesire's door and pounded on it.

"Put your clothes back on and get out here! We've got a problem!"

[Basil Benson]

Hatter hated to rely on Alice and Cheshire, but Knave seriously gave her the creeps. So she hurried to Chesire's door and pounded on it.

"Put your clothes back on and get out here! We've got a problem!"

After several pregnant moments. Cheshire would finally answer.

"I'd rather not." He called out back to Hatter. "What's the emergency? Knave get their torso stuck in the dinner tray conveyor belt again?"

Robin meanwhile hurries through the air vent. She doesn't like doing it, but she wants to catch Hatter and nobody can see her in here anyway, so her amorphous mass sprouts many arms that rapidly pull her forward before merging back into her mass, only to be replaced by more grasping appendages that are already grasping for purchase and propel her further. So she rapidly scrambles her way through the narrow passage as a flailing mass of protoplasm and limbs.

Following the voices would lead Robin to down facing vent. Through the slats, she could just make out what appeared to be Basil and some dark haired girl, who he was making a 'shush' finger at to make sure she stayed silent.

[Hatter]

"We've got intruders and a God dang riot in gen pop. Oh, and I'm pretty sure her highness has bailed on her little science experiment. In other words, if Bunny's gone we're screwed."

[Robin Stanton]

Robin slowly seeps out through the slats of the vent and swiftly reforms her torso enough to mimic Basil's shushing gesture and pointing at him, then at herself, hoping that the implied familiarity and similar gesture shows she's on their side. And if it doesn't work, well, things have already devolved into chaos anyway.

[Alice]

Basil may have been familiar with it, but Alice wasn't. So she let out a startled scream.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin quietly facepalms.

[Basil Benson]

Cheshire reached out, clasping his hand over Alice's mouth. "Alice... please. Hysterics aren't going to get us anywhere. " He responded to her outburst, not missing a beat.

" Go get Knave, we'll be out in a moment."

[Hatter]

Hatter raised a brow but didn't inquire further.

"Just make it quick," she said before hurrying along to find Knave.

[Alice]

Alice's face flushed, the girl not saying anything until she was certain Hatter had moved on.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't see them at first, and Hatter said they were rioting."

[Basil Benson]

The boy fixed his eyes on Robin, wheels clearly turning in his head about whether or not he knew this person.

"What do you suggest, False Monarch? Not sure we're fitting through that vent."

[Robin Stanton]

"False Whatnow? Nevermind." Robin says as she slides out of the vent entirely. "I dunno, technically I'm here to bust you out although this was more of a recon mission that has gone severely sideways. There's, like, two different groups of inmates? Patients? One's just confused, the other one is out for Court blood. Guessing that might include you guys? Fuck if I know how to get you out though, supposedly there's no regular exit?" she starts rambling, kind of sorting through her own thoughts at the same time. "Hatter seems like the type to need an asskicking rather than rescue, but they might be our best path to... shit what was it... Rabbit? Bunny? The one that makes the portals. Might be best if you just play along for now and I'll disguise myself. You got a jacket or a backpack or anything that wouldn't look weird if you brought it along?"

[Basil Benson]

Cheshire went to grab his only possession, what seemed to be music device with a built in speaker. It was roughly the size of a large smart phone.

"Can you get this small?"

[Robin Stanton]

"What even is that? Nevermind, no time. Yeah, I think so, it'll just be a tight fit." she says and puts her hand on the music player, slowly diminishing as she seeps into it, finally disappearing fully and the screen of the device taking on a pinkish hue. There's some indistinct movement and then Robin's face appears in miniature, on the screen, seemingly pressed against it from the inside, smooshing her features. Somehow she manages to get her hand pushed into frame to give a thumbs-up.

[Basil Benson]

Cheshire didn't have any pockets to put her into unfortunately, and so she ended up sliding down his top. He had the foresight to slide her facing outward so she could sort of see through the thin material they provided for clothing around here, so at least she didn't have to stare at his belly the whole time.

Cheshire reached out to take Alice by the hand. "Stay with me." He reiterated, probably for the 20th time now.

[Narrator]

When Hatter arrived, Knave's door was likewise locked to people coming in from the outsider.

[Hatter]

Hatter pounded on this door as well.

"Knave! Open up! We've got a situation!"

[Alice]

"Curiouser and curiouser..." Alice mused as she watched the strange pink guest came from the vents and into Cheshire's device. She didn't have anything similar to offer as a home, either she wasn't a good enough girl to earn such luxuries or they were back in her quarters. All the same, she took Cheshire's hand and steeled herself.

"And you with me." She answered.

[Narrator]

The tall, lanky, faceless entity opened the door and looked at Hatter for a moment, a mouth slowly splitting across the void. It spat out-

"What do you want?"

[Hatter]

"Rioting inmates, dead Tweedles, intruders, basically all hell's breaking loose and Queenie is MIA. We need to get to Bunny and figure out a way to stop these eartags from nuking our brains so we can blow this popsicle stand. I don't know about you, but I'm not dying to keep Queenie's secrets."

[Narrator]

Knave did come out of their Knave Cave to follow along with Hatter back to the others.

"Are we sure these ones even do that?" They asked. "I just always thought they were for demoralizing us."

[Hatter]

"If she trusted us to stay on the reservation without a deterrent, this place would have doors to the outside," she answered.

[Narrator]

"... Kinda racist...." Knave commented.

Meanwhile, Cheshire and Alice were moving to meet Hatter and Knave out in the hall, Robin shoved down Cheshire's top. For the last three or four minutes while the court members present collected themselves, a solid, rhythmic thud was booming down the hall way as those on the other side were attempting to force their way through.

As the four of them converged in the hallway, an awful screech of twisted metal echoed down it.

The solitaries broke through the door.

[Alice]

Alice visibly tensed.

"... We should in the opposite direction. And we're going to need to make some more roadblocks along the way."

[Basil Benson]

"That's the only door out from this corner." Cheshire observed aloud.

[Hatter]

Hatter drifted behind the others and put up her fists. A coward, it seemed, when she was herself.

"Then we fight."