Skool Daze

If I had to envision my ideal school, I’d say my imagination wouldn’t have been able to conjure an institute of such proportions. Well, now it does.
I landed with a thud upon the floor, covered in an opulent, thick carpet that. As I stood up shakily, it seemed that the carpet filled every corner of the enormous Common Room, all of what seemed to be the Room’s hundred acres. Looking around and upwards, crimson spotted pillars extended skywards into a ridiculously high marble ceiling that appeared to be…embroidered with elaborate patterns of silver reminiscent of twisting, spiky vines. Walking over to one of the imposing pillars, I noticed that the crimson patterns seemed disruptive and odd. Much too freshly painted. Peering closely, I made out deep gouges in the expensive metal. I reached out and touched the paint, which came off stickily in my fingers.
Blood.
“Heeheeheehee erhurhurhurhurhur!” Somewhere along the extensive wall, double rosewood doors opened out into the room and a gaggle of…really odd…children scampered out, some on two legs and others on all fours. All equally demented. Staring curiously, I realized that the children had somehow been transmogrified into grotesque cyborg-like creatures. Some had cogs embedded in elbows, other had double-ended screws through the skull, while some already had entire limbs replaced by machines, pistons and steel arms pumping in eerie mechanical motion apart from the twitchy movements of the organic ones.
“Psst! In here!” Wrenching my gaze from the mutilated kids, I saw the Gnome Elder beckoning from behind the doors. Turning back to look at the scuttling crowd one more time, I backed into the comparatively small Auditorium and clicked the doors locked. “What the hell happened here?” I questioned the Gnome Elder. “Arr… this recording will explain things better than I.” Fiddling with a crystalline projector, he twisted a dial sharply. The millions of tiny crystals giving light to the room abruptly flashed once, and I found myself in the Reading Room once again. “Err…” I glanced around, feeling slightly dumbfounded. Suddenly, the main door burst open, and an army of Skool Children marched in, each pointing some slicing or firing weapon straight at us.
“Ahem. Holo-recording—completely realistic to the sight, but they’re not gonna hurt you,” the Gnome Elder rumbled, joining me by my side before I began throwing knives in a panic. Trying not to appear foolish, I hissed, “I knew that!” Turning my back on him, I watched as a Ten of Diamonds marched in and barked some commands, sending the Children charging up the stairs and swinging up floors using grapple hooks, then emerging mere minutes later harrying groups of sobbing, pleading children. Walking forward to one of the mute Children Soldiers (yes, I don’t really have a better name for them), I realized that though they seemed identical to the children they were herding, two glassy, blank crystals stared out of where eyeballs should have been. Also, some seemed to have had minor, refined alterations, unlike the deranged kids I had encountered: Swiss army knives for fingers, or grapple hook launchers on the shoulders.
“Halt! I will not let you continue to abuse my poor Oysters! Stop in the name of the Princess of Wonderland!” All heads turned to look at a burly sword-wielding bespectacled man sprinting towards the exiting Children Troops. “It is amusing, Mr. Walrus, that so many are willing to believe that myth. Now stop.” The methodical, cold whisper that cut across the babble of trapped "Oysters" chilled my blood and magically stopped the desperate man in his tracks. Fearing what I would see, I twisted my neck and body, slowly, hesitantly, as if I had forgotten the proper muscle movements.
Finally I managed to summon the courage to look, and in strode Tarrant Hightopp in his cruel triumph. Pushing up his signature top hat, the Hatter simply stared past his troops into the horrified teacher’s eyes with his own mismatched, emerald green ones. Then he began to giggle. And the teacher began giggling right along with him. As they continued chortling, the teacher started to drool from the mouth, and his eyeballs seemed to bulge out. Even after Tarrant stopped and smiled serenely, the teacher’s jowls turned red from the effort, and he collapsed, rolling about on the ground, cackling madly, with all the children pausing in their futile struggles to watch this astonishing display. He had been driven mad by a single stare.
Plucking non-existent lint from his coat shoulder, Hightopp sighed as if in pity, then murmured to the Ten Diamond, “Take them away and leave behind the failures. Also…” as he turned to leave, he glanced at the helpless teacher and snickered. “Bring along the fat one too. A new pet would be nice. As I always say, one mad man deserves another.” As suddenly as it began, the recording dimmed and bright light illuminated the room once again. I couldn’t believe my eyes…or my ears, for that matter. How deep a pit had Wonderland fallen, to turn the one who was once my closest friend when I wandered, young and confused and lost, in this dizzying world, and who provided comforting advice and harmless fun through his lively tea parties, into this demented, ruthless version? “This was…one of the better days. There was once where a group of brave Oysters rebelled, when there were much fewer Glass Eyes. The Hatter appeared upon the scene immediately, pulled a rapier out of his hat, and…” the Gnome Elder choked and blinked rapidly, trying to stave off tears. “Their innocent blood will stain the Skool forever. And, of course, you saw what he did to that poor trader. Oh yes, the Mad Hatter has gone mad indeed…” “How can I bring the Tarrant I knew back?” “eh, nothing for the moment. But we need to concentrate on you getting small.”
Suddenly the rosewood doors shuddered as a loud crack sounded from right behind it. “Darn, this can’t be good. Here, take this,” he muttered, passing a long glass rod standing nearby to me. “Splinter Staff. Click this and it will fire a glass shard at your enemies…or you could just swing it about to beat them up. Meet me at the library.” “Eh? Hey, wait up!” The doors crashed open as the Elder vanished, and two Four Diamonds charged in. Firing the remaining cards at one of them, I tossed the now-empty Dealer to a side and launched two shards into the other’s head and chest. Hearing a clicking sound from its side, I noticed a number marked “98”
What? 100 uses only?