"Perhaps if we just follow the original plan, Reed Richards will have some ideas for transforming her." Jervis watched the proceedings with mild bemusement. He'd never had a Bill before, which made everything quite interesting indeed. Killer Croc was a bit too fearsome for him to go near except for in the most extreme situations and he was all wrong, too big and bulky and bilious. All wrong. And yes, he'd had allies but none of them had quite been like this White Rabbit. Sometimes she could be so very delightful. It was a conspiracy, the two of them, and of all things he did love a conspiracy. He almost clapped his hands in delight at the thought of it. But then, of course, he saw her reaction. The White Rabbit was supposed to be meek and squirrely, rabbity, perhaps? She was buxom and pleasant on the eye, and occasionally she twitched her nose juts so, but sometimes? Sometimes she scared him a bit. This was one of those times.
Her eyes narrowed, and oh, how terrible! She broke character once again! "Jervis, I like this. I like all of it. A Bill. A Cheshire Cat. You, of course. A proper gang to break down the ridiculous hypocrisies of the world and give me all that I ever wanted. But I like Alice most of all. She's real. I've never seen a girl so eager to be my maid. She doesn't want to be Alice. She is Alice. And SHE," the umbrella was back in hand and pointed at the fading in and out Cheshire. "Is only pretending to be a cat. It offends sensibilities, and I think the only proper recourse is to have her take it out on her husband. To watch his eyes as he knows she's betrayed him and to see that HE is the one to take her the rest of the way." It was cruel, unnecessarily cruel, not full of wonderland at all. She had the cards, though, and soon enough she'd have one more. It was the promise of it he couldn't resist. She took his usual pleasantries farther than before. He wasn't a strong man and while he thought he would be satisfied with an Alice, she kept offering him more and more, both wider and deeper, a tipsy topsy tumble into a teacup that spun and spun, falling further and further, down her rabbit hole, her beautiful, whispering rabbit hole, that drew him in, that drew him down, that called to him even now. His eyes betrayed him. His tongue quivered and his teeth chattered.
And then, with a hoot and a clap, he was lost to his own madness. "Cheshire Cat! Call your husband. I've a hat for him. A hat, a hat." He dove into his supply and rummaged around, before pulling out a bowler of all things. "Call him here. Call hi..." He gulped as the umbrella pushed past him. How she could function so well with Alice paying her such sweet attention was beyond him, but there was little time to think about that now. She pressed the umbrella into the hat, andwhen she came out with it, the control chip was at the end, pulled right out of the hat.
"Yes," the Rabbit laughed, "Call him here. he's too absent minded to think twice of it, but once he arrives, I'll deal with him with this myself."
-------
Reed Richards, too, was bemused. His wife's message was so odd. Come to a warehouse downtown. She said something about it being their anniversary and it being a surprise. He was certain their anniversary was sometime in fall, or was it winter? It was hard to keep track of such things with so much going on. She knew that and she forgave him of it. Wonderful Susan. If she thought it was now, though, it probably was. He'd have to invent a better calendar system to remind him. He'd do it just after his next jaunt to the negative zone to receive the anti-mattered he needed for the tri-cosmic scanner he had drawn the plans up for before. They'd take Johnny and Ben and make an adventure of it. That'd certainly be more fulfilling than whatever Susan had planned for him here.
He entered the door, unlocked as she said it would be, and announced himself. "Are you here, Susan? I can't imagine what you have in mind, though. There's quite a bit going on and..."
He heard a tinkle of a bell. The strangest thing. The light was low, ambient, and there were some signs, to the careful eye, of electronic workings going on here, rather complicated ones. Had she prepared a lab for him in secret. Even so, what was that bell, and why did it seem to be getting closer? Then, suddenly before him, was just a toothy smile. "How are you getting on?" It was Susan's voice but a low husky whisper.
"What? Susan. Why just your smile? I found here, just as you instructed, but I'm not sure yet what this surprise is."
She appeared then, in total, in her strange costume. It was startling. "I growl when I'm pleased," she started, but then tilted her head, rubbing herself once more, purring once more, before reciting her rhyme from before, once more.
"Susan, whatever.." It's all he was able to say. At the end of the rhyme, the White Rabbit's invisibility was removed by her Cheshire Cat, and she was there, behind him. She pressed the umbrella tip with the chip into his back. It latched on, and then she pressed it harder. It was sparking now, sending shocks through his body.
Her voice was harsh and cruel. "You think you're so smart! Big superhero. You're just like everyone else, but not anymore. You're going to be nothing!" She ranted and raved. "Nothing just like the rest of them. Just like father and mother. You don't understand and now you don't have to. You're not a Reed. You're not a Richards. You're not fantastic. Fantastic!" She spat, which bunnies were apt to do, even if JErvis would complain later. "No, wonderful. You're a number. You're a five. You're just a five and you'll be a five forever. Mr. Five, but you're not even a mister!" She pressed harder and harder, her breathing increasing. Even as she did, his body started to shift and flatten. Even as she did, the chip pressed in to his odd skin, slipping under it and latching in deep. "You're just a five. My five. To paint the flowers. To run experiments. To do what I say or else...?"
His voice was brutish and dim. His voice was scared. "Or else, she'll cut off me head!"
And then she was there, behind him, in his card shape, pressing her breasts against his now flat back and rubbing his chest soothingly. "She will She'll cut off your head unless you do exactly what I can say. I'm her White Rabbit, aren't I? Only I can protect you. And all you have to do is every little thing I want."
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