Wonderland Topside (Conclusion)

[Narrator]

The attempt to leave was uneventful. After the Robin on Hatter fight, no rioting patient had any inclination to stop the group from going about their business, and they had plenty of resources to make sure they weren't followed. The freight elevator too was nothing to write home about, rather standard loading and unloading material. The hatch opened up into the wide open countryside again, and examination of it would reveal it was designed to open in such a fashion, it couldn't be seen from above thanks to camouflage.

The Tweedle stepped out and narrowed his eyes at the dawning sun. It was just becoming morning, and he'd never seen daylight before. He turned his back to it and covered his face.

"Bloody hell... If this is outside, you lot can keep it...."

[Basil Benson]

Basil had carried Alice up to the surface on his back. Now that they were above ground, he looked for a rock or something she might be able to sit on to make it easier for Victor to look at her wounds.

[Chase Delacroix]

After the tough job of convincing Leo to stay and guard the way out for those still inside, Chase had ridden up with the first group. He stepped out, keeping an eye on Hatter as she trotted out ahead of him.

"What are we supposed to do with this one anyway?"

[Robin Stanton]

"One million years dungeon!" Robin jokes. "But seriously, that depends a lot on whether or not she promises to behave. We can do this the nice, get-help-at-Xaviers way or the not-so-nice drag-her-ass-to-Muir way. I'd rather not free her from one jail only to put her in another..."

[Hatter]

"Who says I like either option Pinky? Something tells me people trying to 'help' me is what put me in this mess," Hatter said sulkily as the tangle of debris sat down among some stones.

Wait, why would animated debris need to sit?

[Basil Benson]

"She attempted to murder me with a jump rope once during combat practice." Basil added casually on the topic of Hatter as he did his little nesting dance to find the perfect spot to set Alice. "Just thought it was noteworthy in decision making."

[Hatter]

"I swear, you try to strangle an obnoxious little cretin one time."

[Robin Stanton]

"Yeah, well, we're less exploitative than these fuckers and I sure as heck aren't gonna let you just wander off and attempted murder somebody else."

[Hatter]

Hatter didn't answer. One second later it was obvious why. The debris slowly fell over, the force that animated it having vacated the construct.

[Victor Freud]

Victor came up with the next batch of "inmates" and took a look at the scene in front of them.

"We should contact the school, we're going to need to make some pretty big arrangements. Meals, a place to stay counciling... Christ, we gotta figure out who most of these people are."

Of course, he knew who three of them were, at least. He approached his sister and knelt down in front of her, and began the task of washing and bandaging her leg without so much as another word. Grumpy.

[Will Stanton]

"I've called ASHLIE; the cavalry is on its way," Will nodded. "Probably an X-Corp situation considering the sheer numbers involved here; they'll have access to Interpol and UK databases, and maybe they can identify some of them for us."


"...You, uh, hanging in there, Sleight?"

[Victor Freud]

"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?" Victor said as he carefully dabbed at Alice's, or rather, Veronica's wounds, which caused her to twitch and wince from the stinging alcohol.

"I've found my kid sister in another country, kidnapped and brainwashed. A sister I didn't even know was missing because she's supposed to be doin' effing secret training stuff in Toronto, and my parents haven't said tickity-boo about it, so that's going to be an awkward phone call because how do I send her home to our parents when she doesn't even know who they are? And said sister has apparently been dating the guy who's girlfriend has been crying her gelatin-eyes our every night blaming herself for his disappearance. And then I also get to look forward to X-Corp grilling me over my association with their missing employee, our purple blobby friend here who I don't think even remembers what they look like. AND, the icing on the cake, I get to face the music for being the one who let the head honchos escape because I didn't stick to the plan.

"I'm peachy effin' keen." For all of his complaining, he was doing a thorough job of bandaging up his sister's leg - if he was enraged, he wasn't projecting it onto others. He didn't even sound upset at Will for asking the question, it just more served as an excuse for him to vent. If Will had any siblings, he might've better understood how an older brother would feel about protecting their little sister. Which he hadn't succeeded at.

[Alice]

"I'm not a kid, you're barely a year older than me." Alice / Veronica argued.

[Victor Freud]

"... how do you know that?" Victor asked, seeming to be genuinely perplexed. If she didn't know him, how did she know their age difference?

For her part, Veronica seemed just as confused, and didn't have an answer. But sibling squabbling seemed to be helping, in an odd way.

[Will Stanton]

"Hey, hey....we'll get through this, one at a time.

We've got healers and psychics back on campus who can help your sister -- Ronnie, right? -- get her feet back underneath her. You can funnel X-Corp through ASHLIE until you're ready to talk to them; if there's anything she's good at, it's stalling and delaying. And if you had stuck to the plan, we'd have had no idea how to get down into the facility; we can't portal to nowhere.

You rescued your sister, you rescued Basil, you rescued a bunch of experimental subjects -- you get a gold star in my book."

[Chase Delacroix]

"Umm... Guys?" Chase interrupted, "What exactly are Hatter's powers?"

[Basil Benson]

Basil was silent on the matter of Victor, refocusing his attention on Chase.

"Posessing objects.

I presume she's running." He replied a bit too casually this time.

[Chase Delacroix]

"That's going to haunt us later, isn't it?" he sighed.

[Samantha McManus]

"What right do we have to go after her? She didn't do any of this."

[Robin Stanton]

"She broke somebody's limbs, unprovoked, and would have done worse if I hadn't stopped her. She's also kind of sort of got a hostage? If you count a split personality who isn't as psychotic. Which I do." Robin frowns, angrily glancing around at all the potential hiding places. Namely every piece of clothing, equipment and incoming vehicles. Too much to check even if she wasn't tired already.

"I don't wanna arrest her, I want to help her."

[Basil Benson]

"I wouldn't beat myself up over it." Basil added. "This place was filled with unwanted. Some on them are harmless and seen as burdens, but others still were actual societal problems.

If we only lose one of those into the wild, we've done a good job."

The words sounded like they were meant to be comforting to Robin, but weren't exactly the pinnacle of 'Good vibes only'.

[Chase Delacroix]

"It can't help that this place erased everything that kept her tethered to the rest of humanity. I... can sympathize."

[Victor Freud]

"Hey, hey....we'll get through this, one at a time.

We've got healers and psychics back on campus who can help your sister -- Ronnie, right? -- get her feet back underneath her. You can funnel X-Corp through ASHLIE until you're ready to talk to them; if there's anything she's good at, it's stalling and delaying. And if you had stuck to the plan, we'd have had no idea how to get down into the facility; we can't portal to nowhere.

You rescued your sister, you rescued Basil, you rescued a bunch of experimental subjects -- you get a gold star in my book."

"If we did so well, why does it feel so bad?" Victor asked after a deep sigh. He knew that Will was trying to help, and that a lot of what they were saying was right, but it didn't feel that way to him. "We've got, what, a hundred people we have to suddenly find places for. People who've spent God knows how long cooped up, monitored, and bossed around. And whatever we arrange for them they're going to wind up cooped up, monitored, and bossed around again. How are we supposed to fix this when as far as they can tell we put them right back where they started? How are we supposed to get these people to trust us? To actually work with the system instead of resist it?"

"I wouldn't beat myself up over it." Basil added. "This place was filled with unwanted. Some on them are harmless and seen as burdens, but others still were actual societal problems.

If we only lose one of those into the wild, we've done a good job."

"One, stop projecting." Victor said with a raised finger. "And two, if she so much as hurts another innocent person, or herself, we've messed up big time."

[Basil Benson]

Basil showed no change in facial expression at Victor's admonishment, nor did he add anything further.

Instead, he walked twenty or so paces away from the rest of the group, and laid down in the grass to stare at the sky and let the others hash things out.

[Robin Stanton]

"I'm with Victor, we can't just shrug and go 'good enough' about any of this."

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase left the moral debate to the others and walked over to sit by Basil.

"I don't know what story this Queenie sold you but if you are projecting at all you should know you aren't any of those things. If you were, we wouldn't have worked so hard to find you."

[Will Stanton]

"If we did so well, why does it feel so bad?" Victor asked after a deep sigh. He knew that Will was trying to help, and that a lot of what they were saying was right, but it didn't feel that way to him. "We've got, what, a hundred people we have to suddenly find places for. People who've spent God knows how long cooped up, monitored, and bossed around. And whatever we arrange for them they're going to wind up cooped up, monitored, and bossed around again. How are we supposed to fix this when as far as they can tell we put them right back where they started? How are we supposed to get these people to trust us? To actually work with the system instead of resist it?"

"That's why XCorp exists, to help feed and shelter these people until they can get back on their feet. We're taking them out of a situation where they were being abused, and helping them get back in control of their own lives. We're not sending anyone to Muir or any of the other detention facilities," he said, placing a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder. "We need to identify these people, keep them safe, and get them back to whatever lives they had before hand, as quickly and safely as possible for everyone involved. We're not like the people who did this to them.

And the way we fix this? With kindness. Kindness and courtesy and decency, and understanding that these people have been through a lot and that they have frustrations they'll want to take out; not at us, but at the world which has done this to them. Is that enough? No, of course it isn't. But it's the first step, and that has to come before all the others.

And we don't let 'only one' escape. These aren't numbers; they're people, and 'only one' is a sister or a daughter or a friend to a lot of other people. We get these people safe, and then we go out and find the ones who still need our help."

[Basil Benson]

Chase left the moral debate to the others and walked over to sit by Basil.

"I don't know what story this Queenie sold you but if you are projecting at all you should know you aren't any of those things. If you were, we wouldn't have worked so hard to find you."

"Yes, I am certain you believe that Ronin." He replied, forcing up a half-hearted smile.

[Chase Delacroix]

"What reason do you have not to?"

[Basil Benson]

"However many days worth of the latest memory I can recall on replay."

[Chase Delacroix]

"Is this memory before or after a telepath got in your head?"

[Basil Benson]

"Before."

[Victor Freud]

"That's why XCorp exists, to help feed and shelter these people until they can get back on their feet. We're taking them out of a situation where they were being abused, and helping them get back in control of their own lives. We're not sending anyone to Muir or any of the other detention facilities," he said, placing a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder. "We need to identify these people, keep them safe, and get them back to whatever lives they had before hand, as quickly and safely as possible for everyone involved. We're not like the people who did this to them.

And the way we fix this? With kindness. Kindness and courtesy and decency, and understanding that these people have been through a lot and that they have frustrations they'll want to take out; not at us, but at the world which has done this to them. Is that enough? No, of course it isn't. But it's the first step, and that has to come before all the others.

And we don't let 'only one' escape. These aren't numbers; they're people, and 'only one' is a sister or a daughter or a friend to a lot of other people. We get these people safe, and then we go out and find the ones who still need our help."

Victor managed to crack a little smile.

"Wow... you're better at this than you give yourself credit."

Of course that smile turned into a bit of a scowl when his kid sister reached over and mussed up his hair, though it was more the sheepish kind than the angry kind.

"Is that really how you treat a stranger?"

[Alice]

"I dunno..." The girl said as she rested her cheek on her chin, watching him. "This grumpy look feels familiar." Though her gaze turned to Cheshire and Ronin, as she knew them, watching the two of them talk. He had wanted to get out of here so badly, she had half expected him to run around half-naked or something. Then again, she had wanted to get out just as badly, and she was sitting on a stump.

[Narrator]

Knave was stirring and taking up a shape that gave them more freedom of movement. Curving around Alice's neckline as they did so, they solidified into the shape of a highly articulated doll, roughly a foot and a half in length. Currently, it bore no face and therefore, they said nothing. But they were staying with Alice for the moment, too small to do anything of consequence in this state, clinging to her top and sitting themselves down in her lap to rest and wait for whatever happened next.

They had not yet seemed to respond at all to Victor's promptings, but did seem fond of staying with Alice.

[Will Stanton]

"Wow... you're better at this than you give yourself credit.""

"I left my self-doubt in my other pants," Will deadpanned. "You want to see me run around like a chicken with it's head cut off, and I can arrange a private viewing."

[Chase Delacroix]

"Before."

"Self-esteem was never one of your strengths. Or mine really, unless kung-fu is involved."