Chapter 4
"Hello? Natasha?"
"Hey Sue, how are you?"
"Relieved, you were about to be officially deemed MIA around our community. Where'd you go?"
"Honestly had a small investigation that went nowhere, and after that...just took a few mental days for myself. I really needed to let go... you know?"
"Trust me, I get it. Feels rare when heroes like us get any time off for ourselves, or let ourselves take time off. Reed often demands I take some time off when I'm really hitting things hard."
"Same here. When I'm told to take a break, only recently did I really start listening."
"How often does Cap tell you to take it easy?"
A slight pause on Black Widow's end lingered due to confusion of whom the redhead listened to.
"...often," she almost said absently and quietly enough that another rhythmic sound in the background started becoming audible. Sue listened closely from her end, wondering why the background noise seemed to begin competing with Natasha's voice.
"I'm glad you listen...when they make the suggestion," Sue said, almost losing her train of thought.
"I'm happy to listen now..." Natasha sighed. Sue could easily identify the background noise as ticks, as if from a clock, subtle yet reverberating.
"Happy to listen...?" Sue didn't know why she repeated the words, or phrased them as a question. Several different thoughts ran through Sue's scientific mind, how relaxed Natasha sounded as she spoke, as if in the middle of a spa treatment; Sue remembered the last time she'd gotten one, and how that feeling crept up back to her in the middle of their conversation. She noticed how just about all of Natasha's words matched the rhythm of the continuous ticking. And she tried to use the whole processing power of her brain to decipher why the ticks made it hard to do anything but stay still and hold the phone up to listen, but the more she thought of them, the more she let effect permeate in her brain.
Caught in the conundrum of solving a mystery that easily, simultaneously-solved a relaxation problem she didn't know she needed rectifying, she waited for more clues and pieces of information that would explain why she was spiraling into a simple phone call with a friend, despite all the alarm bells going off in her otherwise rational mind.
"Very happy to listen, Sue, just like I am. You can find it very easy to just stay where you are and let the relaxation come over you, because it's time to listen. It's time to answer a few questions, and it's time to go deeper with every question you answer, starting with this - Is Reed in the lab with you today?"
***
Sue's calm, measured, smiling demeanor was a mask covering the utter bliss. She was still trying to understand it as the security door to the lab opened, displaced from her hand ever reaching it. In walked Black Widow in her standard S.H.I.E.L.D. attire, along with a man dressed almost as a Victorian stage performer. His smile was so different than hers, a satisfying sinister to Natasha's listless and possibly orgasmic. Sue wasn't sure, but it seemed like he was mouthing some kind of introduction; she swore she could read "Mad Hatter" from his lips. The mental alert bells that should've been there were barely heard, a majority of her feeling like she could trust this man, could trust anything he said, and would love the pocket watch being brandished right in her face.
Sue's expression grew blanker as she finally solved one mystery - the source of the ticking, but it still didn't solve the mystery of why an unassuming pocket watch carried so much power; the blonde scientist could only theorize that it was merely a prop or an object for him to focus a considerable power.
Part of her slowly grew to accept the words she read from his lips.
Groups like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four had a standing competition of who could sneak into whose base of operations; Natasha always seemed to win the competition, even through rudimentary means. Today was certainly no different, even when the Richards upped their security to make their base supposedly impenetrable.
The hat-wearing individual, Mad Hatter, was completely trustworthy, as evident by how good the women around him constantly felt.
Mad Hatter had an appointment with Reed Richards, but all of the Four had gotten to take note of it.
The last point made Sue's body mobile for the first time in long minutes, maybe hours, as she escorted them to Reed who was still working; Johnny and Ben were out for the day, which was a good thing as the meeting was supposed to be a private one.
Sue felt a little different as the doors opened to introduce the three figures to Reed, looking at something through a visor, not bothering to look up as he was probably sure it was just his wife. Sue felt a need to cry out at that moment, not just to get his attention, but to warn him. The warning felt out of place to the relaxed part of him as her lips moved of their own volition.
"Reed, may I introduce to you, The Mad Hatter."
Hatter didn't wait for a distance meeting, an intent gait crossed the room, with the pocket watch already opened and ticking again. All the alarms that should've gone off in Sue's head earlier were on full display as Reed turned, taking off his visor to suddenly be face-to-face with Hatter's pocket watch.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Richards," he spoke to the stunned leader. "I have a very important proposition for you. You might dare call it Fantastic," he chuckled darkly, looking down to check if his reputable arms would begun stretching to stop him, but his muscles were still, and his eyes raptly stared as the seconds passed, just like panicked thoughts passed him by completely.
The one-sided conversation between the men continued as Sue slowly gained more and more autonomy in her own head, body twitching as it regained the ability to move based off of her own brain. With most of her energy coming back to her, she let her limbs stay still as she instead focused on her own special abilities, charging up a force field that she unleashed to knock everyone off their feet.
Natasha, Mad Hatter, and a very confused Reed were knocked against the walls nearest to them. Mad Hatter in particular, unhappily scrambled to get the watch. Before he could, the Invisible Woman merely pointed to it, and it disappeared from the hypnotist's sight.
"How rude," he commented, getting off the ground to take a knee, half-looking down to see if he could find it, even though it was still open and lightly-ticking. "And how did you manage to evade my spell?"
An iridescent sight around her ears caught Hatter's attention, making him laugh impressively. "A force field for your ears, very clever."
"I aim to please," Sue stated in an offense pose, ready to use another force field wave to knock Hatter into another wall.
"As does she - bunny on the offensive," he uttered, and Sue barely had time to react before she saw Natasha's inanimate body enter a fighting mode that set her upon the Invisible Woman in a second.
"Natasha, you've got to fight it! Don't let him-" Sue tried to plead with her friend as she ducked and dodged as many blows as she could, taking a few to the solar plexus and head that disorientated her. Before another unrelenting assault could happen again, Sue defensively turned herself invisible, making Natasha whip her head around in every direction, still operating under the contingent trigger Mad Hatter instilled in-case the Richards wouldn't surrender peacefully.
Standing up on his feet, still unable to find his pocket watch, he stopped himself from bending down, suddenly satisfied in the fact that it was open and still ticking.
"You continue to amaze, Sue Richards, I am impressed. Perhaps as impressed as you were when you started hearing that watch. But I have to assume that knowing to eventually block out the sound of my watch shows that you knew of it's power just as you know of it now, looking for a way to stop me, stop your friend, and stop the watch. As it is, you really cannot do all three. And since all three are set upon one goal, you really cannot stop me."
Bringing the sound of his voice to the forefront, Mad Hatter let his cultured, fantastic voice align with the ticking to increase the allure sounding throughout the lab.
"It must be so lonely for you though, looking for solace like a white rabbit in a snow storm, endlessly searching for the hole that is your home, the hole that holds your salvation. The obstacles you think are obstacles, well, you are just thinking about this all wrong Sue. I think you really don't want to think that way. I think you really don't want to think. The longer you are invisible, the more your salvation remains invisible to you, and you are soooo lost, sooo without solace, sooo without the escape you need."
Sue found herself still in the room, trying not to make a sound as she knew Black Widow would locate her steps quickly and assault the woman that couldn't be seen successfully somehow, somehow hearing her through the ticking. Adrenaline pumping from the prior attack, she'd calmed down to try to think, forgetting that her aural force field had saved her mind before, and as the blood stopped pounding in her ears, the ticking and Mad Hatter's voice began to flow in. She kept a gasp to herself as she felt him reassert control, wishing her power extended to quieting the watch, wishing the escape she was looking for could be found...if she wasn't invisible...
"The trick for the smartest rabbit though Sue? You don't look for the hole, you let the hole come to you. Reach into your mind for the memory of it, remember how to find it, remember the ticking sound coming from the hole, so loud and clear, from deep inside the hole you want to sink it, telling you it's time to sleep. It's time to let go. It's time to sink, inside the hole, inside my words."
Sue considered herself smart, yet it didn't make sense as she was applying her smarts to finding an escape, which suddenly felt...wrong. There was an escape, the calmly rational side of her started speaking, an engaging conscience with a hypnotic voice.
Hatter for his part engaged in one of the greatest challenges in his villainous career - trying to entrance someone he couldn't see. He needed to trust that her defenses were down enough that his speech was getting through, that Natasha would defend him if Invisible Woman tried anything. He laughed at the fact that he would need to trust her need to give in as he seized it.
"Let go, Sue. Let your defenses, your will, your power lapse. Let it all go, and find your escape much closer than you think."
Standing still, Sue couldn't move, couldn't do anything but wrestle with the control that needed to, that just had to lapse. Like a twitch in her mind, the light she bent to camouflage herself faltered, and she heard a praise that soothed her even further.
"Very good, Sue. Very good," the voice praised as it appeared before her. She dimly wondered how he found her, or the watch that lapsed over and over again in his hand, the full force of the watch ending independent thought.
"Let go Sue. You are no longer the Invisible Woman. She is gone. All that's left is the little blonde bunny who found her home, deep inside my power..."
Her head tilted back as a gloved hand ran through cropped blonde strands, a dumb smile creeping onto her face.
"Don't you feel all better now, Sue?"
"......yes?"
"Yes, yes you do feel better."
"Yes...I...do...feel better..." she uttered, beatitude rushing through her, affirming the first suggestion she accepted totally without preamble.
"You want to keep feeling better, by being hypnotized."
"I want to keep feeling better, by being hypnotized," more conviction showed through her smile.
"I want to follow Mad Hatter's voice, and always obey."
"I want to follow Mad Hatter's voice, and always obey."
He closed the watch in her face, the closing sound interpreted as a shock trigger to take her deeper.
"How fun that was bunny-Natasha," Hatter turned towards Natasha.
"Yes Master of Fables, very fun," Natasha mindless responded, enough alertness still in her to see Reed Richards beginning to stir on the floor.
"Ah, looks like I'll need to address Mr. Richards again, and inform him of Sue's new work address, and contribution."
***
"That's genius," Ringmaster looked at the sketched schematics Reed Richards had been persuaded to draw up for an invention of Mad Hatter's, a small, electric module that could fit into the bunny ears each superheroine had, furthering the control and brainwashing management held over all of them. "I've been thinking about something like this for years, but that egghead solves it in an hour."
"In minutes, actually," Hatter corrected, admiring the new bunny already starting to giggle before a nearby Zatanna worked her magic on the next inductee. "But he's our egghead now, and completely happy with his wife's second job, a passion she's been too afraid to speak about that he fully accepts as what she really wants to do. Don't you , Sue?"
"Oh yes, Master of Fables, I want to be a helpless, happy bunny. I want to obey, not to think," Sue answered with the ditzy mind set upon her genius mind, towering over the smart woman she would only be if a Master summoned it.
"Then it's time to go invisible for me, until I tell you to reform."
Without a word, the Invisible Woman disappeared on-command.
"Magi of Mindlessness, are you sure you can affect her though you cannot see her?"
"Absolutely, Master of Fables, her unseen presence isn't immune to magic."
"Then proceed."
Waving her hands, the incantation began to create sparkles of light that swirled around a figure that had none yet.
"etirt sgnieb dluohs maerd***
fo a suordnow, yppah dnal
suoutlumut seirrow dna serac
gnippils ekil slufdnah fo dnas"
"s'ti on nuf ot ebe neesnu
ot poh dnuora htiw on noitcelfer.
morf won no, ylno ecnegilletni si elbisivni.
A yppah ynnub htiw on strams nopu noitceted."
"tel ruoy renni ynnub egreme
a ylevol aedi sa ruoy ylno thguoht
ydob, sevruc, dna a tsub ot eid rof
ylsselerac tneidebo ot ruoy yrev eroc
gnilggig dna suousnes, ruoy tsap lla rof thguan"
Only the pair of eyes who'd witnessed the transformation over and over again noticed the subtle shape of how the magic shaped an hourglass figure, how the bust got a little wider, how around the head swirled as if the brain was being flushed down the toilet.
"It is done, Master of Fables," Zatanna declared, giggling.
"Excellent. Reappear now, bunny-Sue."
On command, the former-superheroine appeared more statuesque than ever, running her hair through her head, posing provocatively, because nothing else in her reduced brain power seemed right.
"Oh my god, Master of Fables. This is like, so perfect. Old me was too brainy, carrying that everywhere. I, like, love new me, bunneyed and dumb. So sexy to be dumb..." she arched her back and posed like she was already on-stage, putting on a show.
"Mmmhmmm," Hatter moaned, finding it hard to keep his arousal in-check at his accomplishment.
"Everyone can see right through you, you know. Especially your Masters."
"Yes, Master of Fables," she said, letting parts of her disappear and reappeared as if they were scintillating clothing.
"Your clothes are invisible, because they don't exist."
Despite the blue panties and bra she wore, they both disappeared; Sue only wore rabbit ears, a cotton tail, and her smile intoxicated with thoughts that would've embarrassed the old Sue Richards.
"Your IQ is invisible, because it doesn't exist."
She stumbled in her sexy drawl as the lights seemed to go out on her eyes, holding on to Hatter for stability, drooling like an idiot all over herself.
"But then again, bunny-Sue does love ditzy thoughts."
She giggled back to her bimbo self, "Mmhmmmm, I love this new brain. Please let me keep it, Masters."
Hatter and Ringmaster looked at them both, impressed at how she was smart enough to recognize she had two.
"Of course, bunny-Sue," she leaned happily into the gloved touch to her cheek.
"You're where you belong now, perhaps an Invisible Woman everywhere else, except here."
***Trite beings should dream
of a wondrous, happy land
Tumultuous worries and cares
slipping like handfuls of sand
"It's no fun to be unseen,
to hop around with no reflection.
From now on, only intelligence is invisible,
A happy bunny with no smarts upon detection.
Let your inner-bunny emerge
A lovely idea as your only thought
Body, curves and a bust to die for,
Carelessly obedient to your very core,
Giggling and sensuous, your past all for naught.