The nurses led Ororo over to a padded operating table and helped her onto it. The bald woman showed no signs of resistance as she was laid out onto the surprisingly comfortable surface. She looked up at the nurses like a lost puppy in need of guidance, to which they smiled back down to reassure. Ororo returned the smiles, pleasantly surprised by how friendly everyone was here. Of course, they would be so happy and friendly, a small voice told her. They were all pictures of female perfection and wanted to help her achieve it also, and Ororo couldn't wait for whatever was to come next. One of the busty nurses, a fiery redhead, then bent over to purr in Ororo's ear, telling the former royal that she would soon get the help she needed, just as Cari had stated before. A blissful haze settle over Ororo's mind and her smile widened in response. Her new attitude to her surroundings a far cry from her experience in the van, which now seemed like a distant memory. She was just so happy now.
The sound of double doors opening, and twin echo of footsteps interrupted her revelry. Ororo strained her head to look up, but was met by the still alien feel of long, perfect nails on her hairless scalp. The nurse cooed softly, "Just lie back and relax, darling. Let Muffy handle everything for you."
"Thank you, Muffy," Ororo whispered, looking over at the mouth-watering woman.
The voluptuous redhead flashed a wide, beaming smile and pressed a button on the control panel next to the chair. Instantly, Ororo's operating table rose slightly, to give her a better view of the room and the two men approaching her. The first she recognized instantly as Mr. Trask. He wore standard surgical scrubs, as did the man next to him.
"Welcome, Ororo, to the Stepford Clinic," Trask said, "I hope that you've been treated well."
"Oh, yes, Mr. Trask," Ororo said, smiling. She looked over to Muffy, almost for confirmation, but the nurse only had eyes for the two men,"Cari did just as she was told. Bringing me here immediately. She gave me a treat."
"Do troublemakers deserve treats?" Henry McCoy asked. There was an edge to his voice, as he glared at her from behind his glasses.
Trask shot him a troubled look. What was the man doing? Just a short time ago, the simple intrusion by FiFi and discovery of her bald head caused a lightning storm above the Doll House, the damage of which could have been severe if not for Kitten's swift efforts to calm the weather witch down. And now McCoy was flat-out taunting the powerful woman in her fragile state, and Trask could not see the logic. It endangered not only Trask and McCoy himself, but also the entire facility! He knew that Henry McCoy's Stepfordization had unlocked an inner chauvinist in the highly intelligent man,and Victor would freely concede the man could be considered somewhat of an arrogant jerk, but he was no fool. What was McCoy doing, poking the proverbial bear?
"What are you doing, Henry?" Trask asked, trying to feign a sense of calm for the benefit of Ororo.
"I just want to know why Ororo here deserves to be a true Stepford woman?" McCoy asked, walking over to Ororo and started to forcefully strap her down to the table, "She comes into our happy town completely uninvited, wreaks havoc almost everywhere she goes, injuring & terrorizing our good citizens," he listed with deliberate emphasis, his eyes on Trask as if to ignore the now visibly distressed weather witch he was restraining, "And now, we're going to reward her with the blissfully happy existence of a Stepford woman? I want to know what this excuse for a woman has done to deserve such a privilege, Victor."
Ororo looked quickly to Trask, then over to Muffy, her big, questioning eyes begging for reassurance. Her anxiety levels were rising rapidly, no thanks to the oddly familiar man talking down to her, and his name, 'Henry McCoy', strike a further nerve in her frazzled brain. Beneath the drugs and subliminal messages she had been fed at various times since the previous night, the remnants of the proud mutant Storm was fighting for recognition and managed to force a question to the surface of Ororo's mind.
"Don't I know you?" Ororo questioned. There was a flash of a big, hairy blue beast-like creature inside her mind. And then it was gone, replaced by a new image of the human-looking Henry McCoy glaring down at her in a laboratory setting with a busty, sexy Indian woman next to him. Both images sent shivers of fear down her spine.
"Why would I ever associate with anyone like you?" McCoy asked again,allowing what he said to sink into the poor, bound former heroine. Despite the drugs in her system that were trying to calm her, tears were welling in Ororo's eyes. The brilliant geneticist turned bully finally added, "You still haven't answered my question. Why do you deserve to be a true happy, and oh so fuckable, Stepford woman?"