Martin's Castle

[Venom3001]

The door swung slowly open. Andreas jumped at what he saw: A six-foot tall, lanky-looking... thing in a rabbit mask with disturbing, obsidian-black, shining eyes. It wore black slacks cut off halfway down its shins and a black vest over a white button-down shirt. Black fingerless gloves with metal plating on the back protected its hands. On its feet were black laceless dress shoes from which knee-high black and white striped knee socks emerged. Around his neck it has a blood-red silk bow tie. The rabbit mask appeared to either be some sort of facial plating or a cover grafted or worn on its face, tied to the thing's scalp by strands of straw - possibly a hair-like growth. It stood casually with a hunting rifle over its shoulder.

"What the s**t, what the s**t is that?" Andreas asked, backing up.

"Don't mind the hare! Just don't touch it!" a deep voice called in an almost frantic tone from within. "Ah, and cover your faces!" There was a loud hissing and cloud of noxious fumes emerged from the doorway. When it cleared, the voice called out, "Okay, that's finished! Come on in!"

Matthias was rather short Duke, standing only 5'5", and so thin that he looked almost as though he was wasting away. His hair was gray, and though it reached only a couple inches long at its longest it was wildly wavy. His rather unintimidating height was offset by a fierce, even wild expression, set on a face with a strong jaw and sunken eyes. Speaking of which, Matthias' eyes were both heterochromatic and of different sizes; the left blue eye was noticeably larger than the narrow green right eye. Burn scars on his jaw prevented a goatee from growing in completely.

The MADman wore a white double-breasted long coat, buttoned along the length of his torso, with the top three buttons open, exposing a white button-down shirt and a purple tie. He had just raised his black-lensed goggles to be resting on his forehead, beneath the brim of his white top hat. He wore black slacks and high boots and a large black leather glove on his right hand/forearm, with a digital watch around the wrist.

On the outside of his coat's left arm was a mechanical creation, designed in a manner seemingly inspired by a spider, that appeared to have a number of small associated devices, including miniature scissors, scalpels, and tweezers that were partly exposed - with a glance at it and a flex of his fist, they all retracted to be within it. He had small devices of unknown purpose on his hands and feet.

Matthias nodded at them as he slid a large, smoking machine into a corner. He seemed to have more physical strength than his emaciated frame would imply - the machine he had just moved was heavier than he should be able to move with his own apparent muscle mass (though that may be somehow augmented, a supposition supported by the observable bulk beneath the clothing on his arms and legs).

The lab itself was a dark circular room, lit by what appeared to be glass tubes of insects hooked up to jars with bioluminescent fish. Wires ran to and from walls and machines (Andreas noted that at least three wires ran from one wall socket to another). Glass floors in an arc showed cells with animals in them. Four paths led to corridors with animals in a similarly below-floor-level imprisonment.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry felt a tingle before the door opened, so he was already on edge enough that the rabbit-creature didn't frighten him as badly as it apparently did Andreas. Though he was on guard, Henry advanced into the room and looked around in interest.

"So what goes on down here?" he asked, carefully avoiding touching anything.  

[Venom3001]

"SCIENCE!" Matthias declared quite loudly, Henry's TK briefly spazzing out at Matthias' outburst - this man was clearly a little unstable. "Right, March!?" The March Hare by the doorway, which also gave off a light indicator to Henry's TK, stood completely motionless. "The March Hare agrees!" Matthias informed them cheerily. "More specifically, this is where we keep our SCIENCE!"

He opened a cupboard near a wall and took out a small canister, with glass sides that appeared to be splattered with some sort of liquid. "For example, this contains five milliliters of infected blood. We've been testing the virus - and, er, potential cures for it, of course - on flatworms. Do you know how hard it is to measure the effects of it on flatworms? It's very hard. The first major sign of infection is increased aggression. Flatworms don't show the effects of increased aggression very noticeably, I'm sure you can imagine. Generally the first sign of the virus taking effect is-"

A glass jar on the central table exploded, a flatworm covered in black tentacles lifting itself out. Its brief freedom was punctuated by a loud crack from the doorway as the March Hare fired its hunting rifle at the flatworm, splattering half of it against a metal box behind it. In one smooth motion, the March Hare pulled the handle, opening the breech, tilted the rifle to the side to let the empty casing fall out into a small box on the floor, spun another round about its finger and into the breech, closed it, and fired again, reloaded once more, and retook its previous position.

"-Is the tentacles," Matthias finished. "Bah, another lost sample. Eh. Collect the blood, we'll need it," Matthias ordered, putting his left arm to the table. The device on his arm disengaged, extended legs from its bottom, walked to the table, and began harvesting the blood samples. "Fifth worm today," he added bitterly.  

[Dark Angel of Sol]

Orion awoke twenty minutes before the tap on the door by the MADHATTER. The cause was not really a nightmare but it was far from a sweet dream. In the dream, Orion was greeted by a strong looking young man. Though he couldn't hear a sound he instead watched him mutate from a healthy person to the same monster he had took control of in the wasteland. He tried to move and help him but couldn't. All of a sudden he was standing in what looked like the factory. Watching it fight smith and his men. All of a sudden, he hands darted out in front of him. Small threads shot from his finger tips and attached to the monster. He was controlling the monster. He watched it trip it self as he tried to control it. Quickly, Smith dashed in and slammed his hammer into it's eye. As Orion woke up in a cold sweat as he could hear the creature's scream of pain.

Orion brewed a pot of coffee and had drank half of it by the time MADHATTER tapped on his door. With a lot on his mind, he got dressed in some of the clothes in the closet. His clothes were ripped and damaged from his time in the wasteland He chose black pants of a denim and cotton mix that looked like khakis, a navy blue long sleeve shirt, a white leather jacket, and black boots. He scarfed down a bagel before he gathered his laptop bag and put the revolver in his back pocket. Like hell if I'm going around unarmed. Orion left his room to join the rest.

As he walked down he noticed the hatter was using his strange dialect. I'm going to need to figure out what he's rambling about. No one wants to upset him so either he's important or powerful or both. As they approached the lab, He noticed Henry was tense and left his right arm free to draw his gun just in case. As the rabbit looking thing stepped out, Orion would have drew it if not for the fact that neither Henry nor hatter jumped. When the fumes came from the door way, orion covered his face until he could get his gas mask from his laptop bag and put it in front of his face. When the gas died down he was greeted by this new MADman, Mattias A Driscoll and his friend March Hare. God damn. Was the story Alice in Wonderland or Orion in Wonderland. Lets see, I fell down the rabbit hole or in this case, the tower. Had tea with the MADHATTER. I think the next part is to meet the caterpillar. His reply however was kind and polite, “Hello there, I'm Orion Sol. Though my area of study is science, sadly it is in computer science.”  

[Venom3001]

"Don't be so glum, chum!" Matthias replied at Orion's introduction. "Computer SCIENCE! Is still SCIENCE! I use it myself sometimes, between sessions of injecting flatworms with a deadly virus!" He glanced at the MADHATTER and added, "And trying to find a cure. With SCIENCE!" He glanced at the March Hare - while everyone was looking away, it had turned its head and was staring at Matthias. "Oh, you shush, March, you're never excited over anything."

The fact that Matthias was responding to something that wasn't speaking and that only moved when nobody else was looking was exactly as unnerving as would be expected.  

[NativeForeigner]

Gregory and jumped quite violently as the March Hare was revealed. "Wha-wha-wha-..." he began to repeat before falling into an incomprehensible babble while staring wide-eyed at the Hare.
He was shocked out of it at Matthias' first shout of science and turned his attention towards Matthias before his mumbling returned, "Flat...worms...te-tentacles...sci-sci-sci..."

"Here, boy!" the MADHATTER exclaimed, "Have some tea! It'll calm you down."
The MADHATTER practically forced his current cup of tea to Gregory before producing another for himself.

Gregory stared blankly into the cup, watching his reflection in the dark liquid. His breathing quickened just before he gulped down the entire cup. Almost immediately, he began to calm down, quite visibly. He became less twitchy, his eyes relaxed, and a small smile ran across his face.

"Now!" the MADHATTER announced, "What we came for, Matthias is in need of a substantial sample, preferably one from a fairly powerful Empyrean who's well along with their infection. That way we can work on curing them and get one step closer to curing our people as well. Now, any ideas on where to find one?"  

[Jokerman-EXE]

"Santa," Henry snapped off without hesitation. "Dude was gone infected, know what I mean? Dude was done like dinner." He nodded. "We saw him in the Snow place. White door. We fought him and maybe he died, but I think he might have survived. It's worth checkin' out, you know?"  

[Venom3001]

"I, er, sent Santa flying earlier," Andreas suggested. "He can't have survived the fall, but the cold might have preserved his infected material," he continued, reluctant to help men who were clearly out of their minds, but figuring that at least that way they wouldn't have to kill something new.  

[NativeForeigner]

"That's good! Good, we only need the infected material, anyway. Good! So it's settled! Santa it is!" the MADHATTER announced enthusiastically, "Is there anything you'd like to add before we send them off?" he asked Matthias, "Anything any of you would like to know or do before you leave?" he asked the four.  

[Venom3001]

"Use these to take the samples," Matthias informed them. He handed them small reinforced glass tubes, labeled "100 mL SCIENCE! Container" on the side, and a bag of tools. "Don't get infected. And watch out for the-" He glanced to the side. "Ah, I need to to deal with this," he informed them as he moved to a machine against the wall. "Happy hunting!" he added cheerily.  

[NativeForeigner]

"Try to bring the body back if you can." the MADHATTER added, ushering the group away from the lab, "We don't have a lot of intact specimens around. Now go find Max! He'll get you to the manor. Actually, questions or concerns?"  

[Jokerman-EXE]

"Yeah," Henry said, half-raising a hand. "Where the Hell is Max?"  

[NativeForeigner]

"He's out front." the MADHATTER answered, "Getting ready for a trip back to the manor."  

[Jokerman-EXE]

"Cool, let's go," Henry said and walked to the door.  

[NativeForeigner]

Henry and the others left the castle and emerged out front to see Max with multiple lenses pulled over his monocle scanning his surroundings. Maria was a short distance away enjoying some flowers.

After a moment, Max spotted a spot and pulled out something that looked like a box cutter. He held it at head level and exposed the blade and cut through the air downwards to the ground and put the blade away. He began to spread the incision he had made apart until it was wide enough to walk through. The space beyond the incision looked the exact same as the space beyond the doors in the manor.

"Come now, let's go." Max insisted, "Maria will be joining us, we have some matters to attend to."