Gwen's fear wasn't the sort of thing that could be faked. It was every bit as real as the rest of her, which was, of course, just enough. She believed every moment of this, as the A.L.I.C.E. interface wasn't currently active. "I'm not sure, Miss Storm. I'm Captain Stacy's daughter, of the New York Police. Please, you have to help the other girls." She might not have remembered anything but that she knew. In fact, she knew it more than she'd ever known anything else. Maybe someone would think it heroic, her father, or Peter, but she just knew she had help those girls.
If only the Invisible Girl wouldn't look at her so strangely. "Gwen. Stacy." She said, eyes narrowing seriously. "You know Peter Parker." Sue's voice was knowing, too knowing for someone she'd never met. Gwen was trying to keep calm but it was hard in the face of that. Then with a resigned sigh, she nodded, and Gwen felt a wave of relief. "Let's go help those girls." The young blonde lady with the green sweater (who just happened to be wearing a bow in her hair instead of hairband) smiled and nodded.
----
Sue knew that something was seriously wrong here. Spider-Man was practically part of the family. He somehow brought out both the best and worst in her brother. He was one of the few people she trusted to babysit her children, though sometimes it ended up the other way around. And she knew about Gwen Stacy, who had been killed by the Green Goblin. She even remembered a thing or two about clones of the poor girl. That was probably what was happening here, but it made no sense for the Lizard to be involved. No matter what was going on, she had to get to the bottom of this. It might have been a trap but she had a force field. Even if she triggered it, no one could do much to her.
"I was at a tea party," Gwen said as they ran down the street. There was some strange undertone to her voice. "And they burst in. I tried to run and he chased me down." A tea party? Even with her out of style clothing, that wasn't very much in vogue. Still, there was a tea house right around the corner, so it checked out at least. With but a thought and a grab of ttrhe girl's hand, the two turned invisible and Sue slipped on through the front door.
There was the strangest sight. The table was mostly empty of people, not even the girls in question, but at the end was a strange man with an oversized hat, carrying on and running around it was the lizard, for some reason carrying a full ladder and shouting, over and over again, "At your service, gov'ner!" Obviously something was going on here but it was nothing that she couldn't handle. She had the element of surprise.
------
Seeing the Lizard again triggered something in Gwen's mind. She was horrified. She had to scream! And scream she did.
The strange, oddly handsome man looked right at where they were, still invisible "Oh, we have company. It's time to go down the rabbit hole!"
A number of things happened all at once. Within Gwen's head, the A.L.I.C.E. technology activated, and suddenly, Alice was herself again and she remembered the plan. The Invisible Girl's hand was still on hers, but she knew in a moment a force field bubble would come around her. It was time to act! "Drink me." She whispered, not hardly a shout at all, and the most peculiar thing happened. She shrunk down so small, out of Sue's hand. The Invisible Woman panicked and put a force field bubble around her, but that was all to plan.
"Bubbles!" Jervis just laughed and sticking his finger up in the air. "Such room in bubbles. Room for so many things." He began to recite: "I look for soap bubbles, that lie upon the wheat, and bake them into mutton pies, and sell them in the street."
Sue was about to overturn the table with another forcefield, when she heard a tiny noise behind her. Eat me, it sounded like. Suddenly, the Stacy girl was behind her again, within her forcefield, and something was upon her head, something stran....
Cat ears. Simple cat ears, a headband just like the one Gwen herself used to love to wear before she became Alice, and Cat ears. Sue appeared, her eyes rolled about, and then she faded away. She started to lift herself up with her force field, and let it turn her about this way and that, and slowly, ever so slowly, did the toothy smile become visible again. Jervis nodded to Alice, who beamed with excitement.
"Oh," her voice was a prim tease, full of inflection. "But I don't want to go among mad people."
The voice was sultry and playful as it emanated from those floating lips. "Oh you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
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