Twisted Wonderland

Beauteous Escape

   In a private room, the lights shut off. Vil looks up, closing the book he's been reading.

   "The power went out?" He scoffs. "What kind of cutting-edge facility has a power outage?"

   With a click, the choker around his neck clatters to the ground. Vil stares at in with confusion. Almost immediately when it fell off, Vil can feel a rush of energy as his magic is restored.

   "I've got my magic back."

   Before he could celebrate, an alarm blares through the room.

   "Now there's an alarm? Just what is happening out there? I'll try paging the staff." Vil presses a button on the wall but it just clicks uselessly. "No luck there. The intercom's not getting any power. And the door's locked."

   Vil's eyes light up. "Oh, wait. That's right. I've got these products here." Vil rifles through the briefcase. "Like this toner."

   Vil smirks as purple magic swirls around him. "I lose naught and fear naught. This shining crown was made for me. Fairest One of All."

   The magic flows into the bottle.

   "Anything that touches this toner will instantly dissolve into nothing. Now I'll just apply some to the lock..." The lock disintegrates and the door clicks open. "And voilà. It has dissolved. Just a little bit is all it takes."

   Vil steps outside into the dimly lit hall. Only the red emergency lights giving the bare minimum of light. Vil looks to the door at his left. The door is smashed and ripped to shreds.

   "The door at the end of the hall has been completely destroyed. What kind of subject was kept there, I wonder? This is all very odd. While it works in my favor, a subject has escaped. Yet there's no alarm and no staff scrambling to deal with it. For now, I'd best release the others from their rooms. I believe Jamil was in the one next to mine."

   Vil applies some of the tonic onto the doors hinges. Within moments, the door falls to the floor. "Jamil, are you all right?"

   Jamil rushes out. "Vil! What's going on? What was that alarm and all that shaking?"

   "We'll discuss after we get the others." Vil applies more of the tonic to the doors and soon, all the boys are free without the black chokers on their necks.

   Vil nods. "That's everyone."

   Leona nods to the trashed door. "Who was in the room at the end of the hall? I'm gettin' a whiff of some vaguely familiar magic..."

   Vil shakes his head. "I haven't the faintest idea. The door was already destroyed by the time I got out, and no one was in there."

   "Whoever they were, they blew a door made with anti-magic materials clean off. They must be quite the formidable mage." Azul says.

   Jamil hums to himself. "We shouldn't assume the other subjects would be able to think and reason like us.
We need to stay sharp."

   "I'm concerned about the escaped subject, but we do have more pressing matters." Riddle states.

   Azul nods. "Agreed. There's a distinct miasma hanging in the air."

   Leoan sniffs the air. "That's high-density blot, all right."

   "Do you think something's gone wrong at Tartarus?" Riddle asks. "There are supposedly over ten thousand Phantoms there."

   Azul brings a hand to his chin. "It's possible."

   "We don't want to inhale too much of this stuff." Vil advises. "Since we can use magic now, I suggest we change into our dorm uniforms. They have strong magical defenses."