I'm on a roll with all the inspiration I've got going through my head right now. I've got an X-Men: Evolution fic planned out, this little nugget of great good vs. evil depravity, and another fic in the making that will be something else. I think I'll take turns writing a chapter for each one whenever I've got the time.
Once again, my thanks to Scorpiofreak and TheObsessor11294 for betareading and proofreading my story so far. They're two of the best when it comes to that. Now then, Chapter 2 of "Hysteria Unbound."
The Bliss before the Storm
March, Easter Sunday
The sun was just beginning to rise over the old city of Oxford. It was a little after five in the morning and a single figure could be seen observing the dawn from with the campus grounds of the University of Oxford. Two emerald-green eyes glinted in the half-dark as the sun rose slowly over the horizon.
"I never would have believed that I would see this place again," the early-riser murmured. The local birds began singing at this point, causing their audience of one to cock her head to one side, taking in the music of an early Oxford morning. The answer to what the girl was doing up at this hour was revealed by the Easter basket full of eggs that she was supporting in the crook of one arm.
"Oi, Alice," called out an Australian-accented voice farther back in the dark. "Dawn's here, and we don't have much time to finish."
"One moment please," the girl answered, her English accent almost as musical as the birds' songs. She stood for a few more seconds admiring the view before hurrying after her companion. Setting up all the Easter Egg hunts the world over tended to cause time to fly right by.
Two dark forms shot over the campus and the parks nestled in the city. One of them bounded and jumped over obstacles, laying out the eggs expertly. The other had a much different method: She would disintegrate into what looked like a cloud of butterflies and blue dust. The butterfly swarm would travel from hiding spot to hiding spot, turning back into a girl that placed her eggs with a little more deliberation in her style. By the time the sun was fully in the sky, only one egg remained to be hidden.
"Here, you can hide the last one." The runner stood to his full of height of over six feet, revealing a lean anthromorphic-rabbit body. He held out a beautifully-decorated egg to the other egg-hider.
"I couldn't. You're the Easter Bunny, it's your holiday after all," the girl declined gently.
"No you don't," the six-foot rabbit answered with a teasing tone to his voice. "Rule 50 of the Easter Bunny rule book says that if an Easter Bunny has an assistant with him, she gets to hide the last egg."
"Oh really," the "assistant" smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Is that the oldest rule in the book?"
"Newest one actually," the Easter Bunny replied. He grinned. "Nice try there, Alice. You remember when you caught me with that back in 1862?"
"How could I not recall that? The look in your eyes when you realized you were cornered won't soon be forgotten," Alice smiled as she took the egg. "The memory box from Tooth will always make sure of that." She walked over to a picnic table and carefully placed the egg just out of sight by one of its legs.
Bunny snorted then perked his ears up. "There are some ankle-biters a few blocks down. The little boogers are getting up earlier and earlier these days. Come on," he jerked his head towards a park they had just finished a few minutes earlier. "You need to see this."
Bunny originally was going to keep his speed down for Alice's sake, but when she shot by him as a cloud of butterflies, he took off after her. It did his pooka heart good to see her somewhat happy. It reminded him of the old times before the fire, before Bumby. He hurriedly shook off the memory of the man and just avoided running full on into a streetlamp.
Bunny remembered the second and final Easter that he had with Alice when she was just a normal human child, untouched by the world's darker side. Back then he had tried to dissuade her of helping him. She had trapped him through pure logic and childish determination, a combination unique to a youngster of her age. Now he was the one urging her to help him with his holiday. She was reluctant at first, as she was at trying new things, a leftover from her old, solitary life. He could see a spark of joy in her green eyes as she oversaw the eggs with him, a welcome change from the usual cynical glare.
It had been over a year since Alice had become a Guardian. The calm after the defeat of the Boogeyman and the Dollmaker had been more than welcome. First Pitch unleashed his Nightmares over three years ago, then two years later that fearmonger had broken the Dollmaker, Alice's mental representation of Dr. Angus Bumby, out of her head. Both incidents had been terrible in their own right. None of the original four would say it, but something told them it was just the beginning.
Bunny was glad that he was the Guardian of Hope, because that seemed to be flourishing. Children that had stopped believing after the Sieges, as they were called, were coming back, slowly but steadily. No one had heard from Pitch at all, and so far nothing bad had happened randomly. Not all of the things that threatened the children had a malevolent instigator. Sometimes it was other children, such as that brat that made his peers scared of the Guardians. Other times it was teenagers or a minor spirit out for a sick laugh.
As for Alice's pocket dimension, Wonderland was doing quite well. The remains of the Dollmaker's Workshop had vanished with his defeat, leaving the Dollhouse finally free of that disgusting haunt. In the Wonderland Graveyard, the Red Queen's hideout had collapsed completely leaving a gray indentation in the ground. When the wind finally finished blowing the dusty remains of the tyrannical monarch away, there was likely to be large cave/canyon where she had rested her enormous bulk. From Jack's description of her, Bunny was glad he had never had the misfortune of meeting her. Most of Wonderland's denizens were enough to deal with.
Alice didn't believe that the Red Queen was gone for good, but Bunny thought it was most likely that the psychotic witch was dead. What kind of creature could take an oversized shard of ice to the chest, which froze her main body, gave the surrounding parts a bad case of frostbite, and dissolved the red flesh into dust, and survive? Bunny had to give Jack credit for that, though he'd never admit to the sprite's face. Whacking one of the most infamous villains in literature was a real feather in his cap. That, if acknowledged, would blow up his head like a balloon. Though he was now a Guardian, Jack Frost would always be Jack Frost.
As for belief, both Jack and Alice's believers were slowly growing. The Burgess Bunch had a hand with that. They'd tell the tales of the two to anyone who would listen. In Burgess, kids ranging from under Sophie's age to Cupcake's were beginning to see the Spirit of Winter for the first time. It was strange for Jack to have a few kids walking along look up when he passed overhead. Being able to fly under your own power sure got you noticed when you were believed in. He usually made his appearances during the winter months. He didn't like disappointing the kids during late spring, summer, and early fall.
Alice had lately had the awkward experience of being asked for her autograph, a first for the former recluse. She was gradually getting used to the responsibilities of being a Guardian. Thankfully she had five friends to help her out, along with two humans that knew her real story and were understanding towards her. When she had confronted, gently, Jamie and Cupcake about the indirect invasion of her privacy, they had apologized profusely and promised to never mention the articles to anyone else.
The Internet both fascinated and horrified the ex-Victorian. The idea that information on almost everything and everyone could accessed by millions of people around the world was beyond even her imagination. She desperately hoped that no one else who saw her would discover those articles. She was happy that the sugarcoated stories were what people were familiar with, not the dark and horrendous truth.
A few minutes later, Alice and Bunny watched as packs of kids roamed the park, searching for the eggs. Bunny couldn't help but smile as excited cries rang throughout the grassy area. This part was always his favorite, when the children searching for his eggs found them and their faces lit up with joy. To see that hope in their faces and then to see that hope rewarded, that was the best part of the entire job.
"You know sheila," Bunny began, "this is what it's all about. That's one thing Frostbite was able to show us." He remembered when Jack had reminded them of what they were truly fighting for when Sophie had gotten into the Warren. "We were startin' to forget that when…." He turned to find that he was talking to a bush.
He looked around for a moment before he spotted her. She was carefully placing a spare egg in front of a small child that was lagging behind the others. He looked like he might be about to cry. He wasn't as quick as his peers and they were finding the eggs much faster than he could move.
He almost didn't see the egg. The tiny boy's face pinched and upset, his bottom lip beginning to tremble as he squinted against growing tears. Alice finished moving the googie and sat back as he looked up. His cry of joy as he saw the egg just rang of ecstasy. That egg was one of Bunny's best, the ones that he put an extra bit of workmanship into just for this sort of thing. The glitter and swirls of the egg entranced the boy as he picked it up. His wide eyes took it in as he carefully placed it in his basket.
As he turned to rejoin his friends, he looked towards the bushes and called out, "Thank you Mr. Easter Bunny!" He hurried after the other children with his prize, a smile wide on his face.
Alice smiled from her position on the grass as she watched him. "What were you saying just now, Mr. Bunnymund?" she asked as he walked up behind her. He could hear the smile in her voice.
"Just a rather obvious fact," he answered. "If I ever see that little blighter again, I'll be sure to tell him Alice Liddell was the one who gave him that egg."
"Now Bunny," Alice took on a semi-serious tone as she crossed her arms over her chest, giving the pooka a wry smile. "There's no need to do that. I merely did what you would have done. Nothing special."
"Actually, I think I would have missed that one," Bunny said. "Too busy jawin' to notice. Besides, he'll be able to see you if I tell him." He was lying about not noticing of course.
"I'm perfectly capable of finding my own believers, thank you very much." Alice looked over the park as the children continued their hunt for the illusive eggs. "To think, I nearly said 'no' to this," she said quietly.
A sad look began to make its way across Alice's face. "Bunny, do you think I should have stayed in the real world? I could have done so much good if I had remained here." She couldn't help but wonder about that from time to time. She had ignored the suffering of the other children at the orphanage to concentrate on her own, and then she had locked herself up in her Wonderland to stay there for more than a century. Was there any difference between ignoring pain and hiding from the world?
Bunny shook his head. "No, I think that you did what anyone else would have done in your place. The world treated you like rubbish, and you had the chance to get away from it all. I know I would have done the same thing if the bloody world had given me that hand." He placed his paw on her shoulder. "There are plenty of people that wish they could escape from the world. You needed to recover, and no one will ever begrudge you that."
Alice's lips formed a small smile. "Thank you Bunny."
They spent the next half hour watching as the eggs were hunted down by the searching children. When Alice invited the Easter Bunny to tea at the Red Kingdom, he accepted. He used one of his tunnels and a Wonderland marble to open up a portal, despite Alice's protests that she just needed to find a mirror. They disappeared down the hole and it closed behind them. Shortly afterwards, a figure in a white-lab coat came out of the bushes and walked over to the place where the tunnel had been. Two bespectacled eyes studied the area and the flower that grew up right in its center with great interest. As the figure left, she stepped on the flower and ground it under her heel.
ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA
May
"Alice, you have mastered every instrument in this room. Why not try the singing? It is positive that you have beautiful singing voice. I feel it in my belly."
Alice sighed to herself as she balanced a double-bass on its stand. She and North had started spending time in his music room every other time she came to visit. Ever since he had found her playing his grand piano, he had been dropping hints that he would like to start up his music again, this time with a partner. When she had protested that the only real instrument she knew was the piano, he offered to teach her the rest.
By now, she had mastered close to half of the instruments (North tended to exaggerate a bit sometimes) and she had to admit she was enjoying herself. She had used to loathe musical instruments of any kind, especially pianos. She had been more of a singer before the fire, but she hadn't really gotten back into the habit since then. She had still loved music and had therefore tolerated the stench of the Playwright Octopus's home (and the Octopus himself) to learn the piano.
North had proved to be a much better teacher and she had learned at a much faster rate under his tutelage then under the Octopus's. He had also started to drop hints about her natural singing voice. If she remembered correctly, she hadn't sung in front of an audience since her first foray into Wonderland, and the last time she had practiced had been with her mother the day before….
"Are you sure that you're not just peckish?" she asked hurriedly before any unpleasant memories could resurface. Sometimes the best evasive tactic was humor. And humor could work wonders with North St. Nicholas.
Sure enough, he laughed deep in his stomach. It was a deep, rolling laugh, the type that made you want to laugh along with. Alice found it both charming and annoying, as she liked the sound of his laugh, yet wasn't very inclined to laugh herself. She felt somewhat the same way about Jack's laugh. 'It's a mischievous laugh, the type easily associated with a troublemaker of his caliber,' she mused. 'Though, I wouldn't call his laugh charming. Infectious maybe. Attractive….'
North ceased laughing to reply, interrupting Alice's train of thought. "Nyet Alice. The feeling in my belly and the hungry feelings are very different. Hunger is sharp like knife. The belly feeling is-." He stopped short and crinkled his brow in thought. He usually did that whenever he was searching for the right English words. "Opposite of 'concrete.' Cannot remember exactly what word is," he finally said.
"Abstract," Alice supplied as she leaned the large string instrument against the wall and picked up a flute. She played her slender fingers over the holes, going over in her mind the deft movements that needed only breath to translate into harmony. "If something isn't concrete, Mr. North, or needs subjective language to describe, it's generally best to ignore it."
"Good piece of advice, Alice," North responded. "On other hand, how many times has the belly been right?" He smiled in triumph from his seat.
Alice quickly went over in her mind how many times he had based or predicted something off of the infamous belly. Jack's guardianship, her guardianship, how much she would love the music lessons once she got started. The list was rather long by now. "Very well, I concede that point," she admitted. "Though I would hardly call your lower abdomen omniscient."
North laughed again. "Oches nechno. Very funny. Any songs in particular you like? I know very good folk songs." Alice realized that she didn't know that many songs. Most of them were children's songs that she had been taught as a little girl and/or ones that she had sung to the orphans at Houndsditch. One song in particular suddenly came to her mind. A refreshed memory brought the words directly to her again, as new as the day she had learned and sang them.
"I've just the thing," she answered. "Would you play this tune please?" She showed him on the piano.
"Da, that sounds very nice." North sat down on the piano bench and cracked his fingers as Alice went over the song in her mind and cleared her throat. She nodded at him and he began to play. When she heard the note where she was to begin, she opened her mouth and began to sing.
'"Will you walk a little faster," said a whiting to a snail,
"There's a porpoise close behind us and he's treading on my tail.
See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance,
They are waiting on the shingle, will you come and join the dance?
See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance,
They are waiting on the shingle, will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?
"You can really have no notion how delightful it will be,
When they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea!"
But the snail replied "Too far, too far!" and gave a look askance,
Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance.
Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance.
Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance.
'"What matters it how far we go?" his scaly friend replied.
"There is another shore, you know, upon the other side.
The further off from England the nearer is to France,
Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance.
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?"'
As the words rose and fell out of her throat, Alice was drawn back into the time before the fire, when she was just an innocent little girl exploring a world that existed within the confines of her own mind. A world that spoke of the wonders of imagination and fancy, a wonderland where a Gryphon and a Mock-Turtle could teach a little girl a dance and two songs. A world that was so long ago.
As she finished, Alice was almost startled by the applause that broke out. She opened her eyes to see the elves gathered around. Ever since the first time she had played the piano, the funny, little creatures would gather around to listen, enraptured by her music. She enjoyed watching them, for they too reminded her of Wonderland's good, old days. That was probably the reason why they liked her; most of her creations had originally been like them.
She jumped in earnest as four more distinctive claps broke out along with the elves' and North's. She looked up to see the rest of the Guardians in the doorway, joining in the applause. She paused, unsure for a moment, then gave a little curtsey to her expected and unexpected audiences.
Sandy gave her four thumbs up; two with his hands and two with his dreamsand. Being unable to sing made him appreciate the art more than most.
"Alice, that was beautiful," Tooth said. She looked teary-eyed. Tooth had always thought to herself that if Alice had been able to live a normal life, she would have become a great singer or actress. Alice had the looks and the talent to have made a name for herself on the stage.
"Now that was singin'," Bunny complimented. "Nothing like that ratbag garbage that Miley Bieber spews out."
"Miley Cyrus, though you're right about her music," Jack corrected. "That was awesome Alice. I'd give my staff to see you and Idina Menzel have a sing-off." Alice gave him an odd look. "She's a very good singer."
"Ah," said Alice, who was slightly embarrassed by all the praise but was able to hide it. "I believe I should practice a tad more before I take up 'sing-offs,' but thank you very much. Though," she added," I would greatly appreciate a warning about who consists of my audience." She gave North a look.
"I could not resist," protested the older but more childish spirit. With a gleam in his eye, he continued. "Besides, preparation is good, but too much can ruin singing. I am not good singer, but I can help you smooth out bumps."
"Very well Mr. North," Alice acquiesced. "Until our next practice then." The elves made a path for her as she walked past, looking up at her with adoring eyes. Jack smirked at them and Alice, earning a quick glare from her.
"Isn't that the song that the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon taught you when you first went to Wonderland?" Bunny asked as he hopped alongside her down the hall towards her guest room. She usually relied upon the bathroom mirror as the portal between the real world and Wonderland. Jack had nicknamed that particular mirror the "Looking Glass."
"Yes, that's the one," Alice answered absentmindedly. The two hybrids had been giving her more trouble recently than they usually did. It had started when she had finally begun clearing the Looking-Glass Line of leftover Ruin and fixing it. The first thing she had done was to restore the engine itself to its former glory. The Mock-Turtle had been so deliriously happy to see it, he had sobbed straight for two hours.
He had given the HMS Gryphon to the real Gryphon afterwards. It was basically a peace-offering (that Alice had to broker) between the two after the Mock-Turtle had nearly scared the Gryphon out of half his feathers. After he had finished crying, the Mock-Turtle had jumped into the and began blowing the whistle like a madman, right when the Gryphon had decided to take a nap not twenty yards. Needless to say, the Gryphon had been far from happy with his old friend. Surprisingly, he had taken to the boat like a fish to water.
Now that I'm thinking of gifts, Alice thought to herself. "Toothiana, I've been meaning to thank you for my old memories. I remembered singing that song long before I cracked open the books. Those memories have brought so much back to me." And to think at one point she had believed Bumby's wretched lies about the "curse" of memory.
'Memory is a curse more often than a blessing.' That monster of a man and the Tooth Fairy couldn't have been more different. Had the Dollmaker been able to frighten the children out of believing in the Guardians, she likely would have been the first to fall at his twisted hands.
"You're welcome, Alice." Tooth smiled sadly. "I'm just sorry that we weren't able to collect all your teeth." The swarm of mini-fairies that clustered over her shoulder chattered and chittered their own apologies. To them, a tooth lost was a tragedy. To lose more than half of a set of teeth, that was an unmatched horror and a shameful stain upon their reputation.
"I'm quite alright with the ones I've got," Alice replied a little stiffly. The fairy seemed to think that she wanted to have all of her childhood memories. The ones that replayed in her mind every time she used the box were happy ones before the fire with Mama, Papa, Lizzie, Nan Sharpe, and of course Bunny.
She wanted nothing to do with the bad, sorrowful ones. The fire and the resulting insanity were still too vivid for her taste. She didn't need those to come back as strong as the good ones. As far as she was concerned, she didn't care a bit where her missing baby teeth had wound up.
"When's the next meeting?" she asked suddenly, hoping to change the subject.
"A month from now," Jack yawned. At every meeting he made it apparent that he didn't want to be there. On the other hand, Alice would listen attentively and even take notes sometimes, something that the winter sprite couldn't and didn't want to understand. It seemed that she and Bunny were absolutely dedicated to everything boring and dull. When Alice had learned about the Sack of Kidnapping, she had volunteered to use it at their last meeting. Jack had only been saved from that because he had walked in the room as Alice was bringing it out.
'Frost, the next time you waste all our time like that again, I'll hunt you down and put you in this sack with the Cheshire Cat!'
Bunny thought it was a riot that Jack didn't want to be anywhere near that animal. No one was laughing at him now for finding that feline creepy. Tooth officially blamed Pitch for a nightmare where she and Cheshire had been married. That thought brought shivers to even Sandman.
"See you then if not sooner," Jack yelled as he rocketed down the hall and into the main room of the workshop, where he shot out of aperture where MiM usually looked in. Alice huffed disapprovingly and, after saying farewell to her fellow Guardians, left for Wonderland. Everyone else took their leave and North went back to supervising his workshop. It was quiet for a few moments in the hallways.
Then the Spirit of Insanity crept out of a closet, just avoiding getting smacked by a broom handle in the process. "Well," Lyssa said, "this is getting somewhere."
ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA-ROTG:AMA
Ever since Lyssa had visited Pitch for information on the Alice and the Guardians, she had been spying on them as best as she could. She had to be careful as she didn't want to be found out too soon. Thankfully, she was pretty good at hiding and being quiet when she wanted to be. She knew the locations of their hideouts by now, but that alone didn't do her much good. The only way to the Warren was through Bunnymund's tunnels, the Tooth Palace and Santoff Claussen had far too many eyes than Lyssa liked, Sandman and Jack's homes were isolated and the other Guardians didn't go there that much, and Wonderland was in an entirely different dimension.
She would have settled for just spying on them in the field, but then she learned about the Guardian's meetings. Yes, the North Pole was much farther away from civilization than Lyssa would have liked and there were dozens of yetis and hundreds of elves everywhere, but the chance to get more information on the Guardians was too tempting.
The reason she didn't care for isolated wildernesses was that there were no minds nearby. In order to mind-jump effectively, Lyssa needed to be able to jump from one mind to the next. Mind jumping was when Lyssa basically used nearby spirit, human, and animal minds like children used monkey-bars at a playground. She would turn into a little ball of yellow-green light and then propel herself from one mind to the next, usually giving the one she had just left a headache. For obvious reasons, she almost always used human minds. After jumping out of a single mind, Lyssa could go for about ten to a hundred miles before she used up her energy and crashed to the ground. The distance usually depended on how much momentum she built up before flying on her own.
She would have asked Pitch for help considering he could travel anywhere there was a shadow, but she didn't want to run the risk of the Guardians seeing her with him. It was well-known that they were friends, but she had never helped him with his schemes to take on the Guardians and she didn't want them coming after her until she was ready.
After a few experimental runs, she was able to reach the North Pole. From there, she was able to mind-jump using the elves and yetis. She would make sure that none of them were watching, than she would shift into the light-ball, zoom into an available mind, and then into another hiding place. She made sure that she wasn't in their minds for long. The yetis' tranquil minds, typical to large mammals, didn't agree with her at all, while the simple, inane innocence of the elves made her want to vomit. Besides, she couldn't really read the minds of the mentally healthy.
She had learned quite a bit from Pitch about the Alice, the Guardians, and their fears. One thing she had learned from all the psychiatrists and psychology lectures she had listened to, that wouldn't be enough. In order to cure (or cause) mental disease, you had to know much more about a person than just their fear, though that was an excellent start.
She had learned things that were "obvious and not terribly useful" as Alice would have put it. The Tooth Fairy had a sweet tooth for chocolate that she worked hard to keep in check. Jack Frost enjoyed classical rock and ice-cold egg nog. The Easter Bunny loved raw carrots but hated them cooked. Sandman always tried to send Alice good dreams when she slept at Santoff Claussen. North preferred cookies with nuts over those that didn't. Good for a trivia game, but not for what she had in mind.
Then she had come across two interesting tidbits: Bunnymund had his own personal way into Wonderland, and the Tooth Fairy had given Alice some of her childhood memories back, the good ones. Lyssa remembered what Bumby had said about memory being a curse more than a blessing, and she agreed with him. The memories that were filled with hate, fear, and sorrow, those were the ones that were strongest, and they were the ones that could drive one mad.
Pitch had told her about when he had infiltrated Alice's dreams, finding a near-perfect replica of Wonderland within. He had described the luridly monstrous things there that would have frightened Disney away from Alice for good. Lyssa was scandalized to learn about the card-zombies that worked for Alice as gardeners.
Honestly, the girl seemed bent on bringing order to Wonderland. That desire for order and regulation was one of the things that Lyssa had liked least about the Victorian era. The Victorian culture had been so convinced that an orderly, well-regulated life was the ultimate lifestyle, that it was the supreme expression of human society. Lyssa had enjoyed watching as that bubble had been popped first by the Titanic disaster, and then by the First World War.
Ideas applying the information that she had recently gathered swirled throughout her mind in a way that made sense only to her twisted psyche. One of the pros of being insane was it allowed for connections and inspiration that no stable brain would ever conceive.
Several thoughts flitted through her mind until one suddenly stopped still and stayed there in the forefront. Lyssa stared straight ahead for one moment before her face broke into a grin and she let out one high-pitched laugh.
The hurried footsteps of a large creature suddenly sounded and Lyssa looked up to see the yeti in charge of security, Phil, come charging into the hallway. He looked down to one end of the corridor and then looked directly at Lyssa.
Phil stood there for one moment, squinting like he was trying to see something very small, then turned and walked away, grumbling in his strange language. Lyssa smiled at his retreating back.
One of Lyssa's powers was the ability to cause hallucinations suited to the things that would drive someone crazy if they were unstable. That instability allowed the illusions to be seen, though Lyssa had discovered a way that that power could be used on a stable person. Instead of making them see something that wasn't there, she simply made them not see something that was there. It wasn't perfect; she could be seen out of the peripheral vision but she was fine with that. Whoever saw her like that would turn to find nothing at all. She rather enjoyed that reaction. It unsettled them, and with all the times she had come to the Pole, she was certain that the yetis thought something was up. They just didn't know what.
Lyssa walked to a window and opened it, letting the breeze wash over her. The wind, so chaotic in its movements and effects. She also enjoyed that. Concentrating, she turned into the light-ball and went flying out the window and down into the yeti village. Jumping through a few of them before they could notice her, she shot off into the distance towards an area where some caribou lived. The large herds made for some quick travel over long distances.
Lyssa flew as quickly as she could. 'Now I've got something to work with. I've got leads to follow, ideas to test, and one Guardian to bring down. I've haven't had this much fun since watching that German dictator's power corrupt him further!'
The Immortal Madness was on the move, and the Guardians were about to learn just how truly monstrous she was.
Oooh, what evil, vile plan does Lyssa have cooking up in her sick noggin? Believe me, when you learn just what she has planned, the answer will send you screaming for the nearest parental figure. Mwahahaha.
My apologies to any fans of "X-Men: Light with Darkness." I've just got so much stuff going through my head for the universe that Scorpiofreak has created in her own Wonderland. After I publish the first chapter for another fic I've got in the makings, I promise to work on the next chapter. You are some of my most supportive readers, if I haven't said that before.
As a quick little teaser, my next fic will have Alice in a city entirely different from London. What city is it? Hint: It's a place that Alice would do very well in.
What do you think of "Hysteria Unbound" so far? If you liked the chapter or want to shout out your own ideas for it, please leave me a review or PM me. Just to let you know, reviews are a great source of inspiration and support for writers and are greatly appreciated. Anyway, hope you all have a good one and I look forward to my next installment. Happy reading and writing!