White Rabbit
Once White Rabbit had safely entered the personal plane of Underland, she changed into a sleek black bodysuit and took a moment to examine herself in the bathroom’s mirror, appreciating her true form. In her mind, she kept repeating to herself who she used to be.
“My name is Alicia.”
Dark marks filled her ebony skin where they shackled and experimented on her. Running her fingers through her short hair, she felt the soft texture of her growing dark curls, reminding her it was time to shave her head again. She moved her hand to her right cheek.
A heart-shaped birthmark graced her cheek, its pale hue standing out against her complexion. The experiments had left her with a distinctive trait - her eyes, one blue and one green, served as a constant reminder of her past. In the past, her eyes were a rich brown color, blending seamlessly with her unremarkable existence.
“Underland is within the vicinity!” the pilot said over the intercom.
White Rabbit knew it was time to buckle up. She quickly sat in her seat and secured the seat belt around her. She braced for impact. Without warning, the floor underneath her seat disappeared. White Rabbit was hurtling toward a crescent-shaped landmark beneath her. The wind blew on her face. In an instant, she felt a violent jolt that pulled her upright. A parachute slowed down her large fall toward her destination.
She landed on white, grainy sand. She quickly unbuckled herself from her seat before the ugly orange parachute landed on top of her. On her last return to base, she had a mishap and ended up tangled in the parachute, plunging into the ocean upon landing. After drifting for a day and a half, the sound of a rescue boat’s engine broke the silence as Red Queen arrived to find her. She still remembered how terrified she was. She shivered as she walked through the trees that covered the middle of the island.
The enigmatic island of Underland is notorious for its ability to stealthily alter its whereabouts, making it nearly impossible to trace. Unbeknownst to many, this island holds captive children who undergo rigorous training, emerging as highly skilled assassins with unique and formidable abilities.
They usually take the children from birth to ten to enhance their skills. White Rabbit was a unique case because Red Queen found her at age twelve in an alleyway in Compton, beaten within an inch of her life. According to the Red Queen, her parents threw her away.
White Rabbit doesn’t remember much of her childhood, just a dream of a dark-skinned woman yelling at her about to hit her. She assumed that was why she ended up in the alleyway. She walked through the jungle.
White Rabbit’s enhanced ears heard cries, fighting, and laughter from the Doormouses’ training sessions. Before an assassin gets their permanent codename, they are Doormouses. The Doormouses must go through a trial where they must survive in the jungle for a month and bring out their natural killer instinct. To weed out the weak from the strong. The researchers give the surviving Doormouses special abilities through experimentation.
She was thirteen when she did the trial, a little older than her class. She was the biggest target because they felt as though she didn’t belong. They all banded together to eliminate her, but that was their fatal error. White Rabbit was the only one alive from her class.
Eventually, after walking for a few more hours, she reached a mountain. She used her special ability and shifted her hands and feet into claws. As she scaled the mountain, she could hear the distant echoes of her own breath and the wind rustling through the trees. She shifted her muscles to that of a jaguar. The door to Underland was at the top of the mountain. The students had to find their own way in. White Rabbit lucked out on her powers cause she’s the first student whose power was shapeshifting.
Before, it was of utmost importance for Underland to take advantage of children’s abilities before they entered puberty, as it was believed to be a critical turning point in their development. They believed the enhancements wouldn’t be as effective after puberty. However, the White Rabbit served as undeniable evidence of how mistaken that assumption was.
Before she was brought here, there were only four known abilities that Underland agents could receive. Physical strength, telekinesis, poison-making, and animal manipulation. White Rabbit was the anomaly; her shapeshifting ability was unheard of.
Not only could she change her body but her physical strength and endurance. The mountain stood at six thousand meters. It took her ten seconds to get to the entrance. She looked at the eye scanner, and the doors of the elevator opened for her.
As White Rabbit descended into Underland, she found herself lost in thought, watching the many scientists, doctors, and engineers run around their respective floors. She leaned on the back of the elevator and crossed her arms. That pose gives her comfort, like she’s being hugged by someone who may have loved her.