Finally ready to set off, Connie and Gaia (and Mister Wister Kitey Witey) followed after Lily on their rainbow unicorns, the enchanted dream creatures easily keeping pace with the lightning-wielding greenette’s motorcycle as it sped across the desert sands. However, it wasn’t long before those sands trailed off into grass covered plains, and it was at this point a cheerful voice sang out from overhead.

“Golly wolly!” Mr. Kite exclaimed. “I see some smokey wokey up ahead!”

Indeed, a pillar of steadily-darkening smoke was now rising up from a forest on the horizon, even as the sound of distant detonations began to ring out. These developments, coupled with the animal trio also pointing in that direction made it quite clear that the forest was where they would find Alexander. Of course, Lily, ever the chatterbox, wasn’t about to let the trip there pass in silence, and so began noting the strangeness of the normally rather reactionary Alicia’s recent take-charge attitude.

“I cannot say I know her very well,” Gaia admitted. “But perhaps she has simply become fed up with these vile fiends’ needlessly cruel buffoonery. I, for one, certainly have.”

“Y-Yeah…” Connie agreed, her shaky voice tinged with worry. “U-Umm… I-If A-Alexander is b-being h-held p-prisoner, then w-why are w-we h-heading t-towards what l-looks like a f-forest f-fire?” she inquired, her mask forming an uncertain frown. “O-Oh, g-gosh!” she gasped a moment later, the pitch black eyes of her mask going wide. “D-D-Do you t-think t-they’re t-trying to b-b-burn him a-alive?!”

“It’s certainly possible,” Gaia conceded. “Although I do not believe it is particularly likely,” she added, giving her frightened friend a reassuring smile. “Far more probable is that Alexander has escaped whatever form of confinement the Wonderlanders placed him in and is now expressing his displeasure at being held captive by them.”

“I-I hope s-so…” Connie replied, still sounding somewhat unsure. A moment later, she gave a yelp of surprise when Mr. Kite sang out once more.

“Alarmy warmy! I spy an army!” the whimsical kite announced. “Friend or foe, I just don’t know!”

“I see it, too,” Gaia noted, her emerald eyes narrowing as she focused on the sizable force heading their way. “Let us be on our guard, everyone,” she advised, conjuring Nature’s Blossom. Although the army was still quite distant, it was growing closer at a fairly rapid pace, and the verdant maiden wanted to ensure their small rescue party was fully prepared for the possibility of combat.

---

Meanwhile, back at the Mad Hatter’s fortified factory complex, MDP was overjoyed that “Penny” approved of her idea. “Okie dokie~!” the whimsical girl declared with a wink and a playful peace sign salute just before the Mechanical Monarch teleported away. Then she set to work befriending the hat drone. “Like, what’s your namey wamey, Mister Wister Hatty Watty thingy wingy~?” she inquired with a cheerful smile. “Magical Dream Princess’s namey wamey is Magical Dream Princess, and, like, she would just wuv to be friendy wendies with you~! (giggle!) Would you like to be friendy wendies with her~?! Oh~?! You would~?! Yaaay~!” she squealed in delight as the hat drone bobbed up and down while rapidly spinning in place. “Magical Dream Princess wuvs making friendy wendies~! (giggle!) So, like, what thingy wingies do you likey wikey~?! Magical Dream Princess also walso likey wikies glitter witter, and rainbow wainbows, and flower wowers and…”

(nearly a minute later)

“…and dancing wancing, and singing winging songy wongies, and playing waying gamey wamies, like that one over theresie~!” she concluded, her painfully limited attention having been claimed by the small army of chess bots, which were now being engaged by the other magical girls. “Like, Magical Dream Princess plays that gamey wamey lots and lots~!” she told her new friend. “But, like, this version wersion is super duper biggy wiggy~! (giggle!)” So enthralled was the Princess of Dreams by this fascinating sight that she completely forgot about asking her new friend if he knew where the Mad Hatter and the eggs might be found. But that was okay. She was having funsie wunsie, and that was all that really mattered. “Come on~! (giggle!)” she told the hat drone as she dragged it along behind her. “We’ve gotta give those grumpy wumpy kingy wingy thingie wingies huggy wuggies so they’ll, like, totally wotally be our friendy wendies, too~! (giggle!)”

Rushing over to the chess board like the ADHD-addled child on the world’s largest sugar rush that she was, MDP began gleefully hopping from square to square, jumping around each obstacle or bounding over it with the help of a hastily-conjured candy cane stripped spring or smily face trampoline. “Onesie, twosie, comin’ throughsie~! (giggle!)” she sang, tapping the weapons she couldn’t avoid with her whimsical wand and turning them to harmless rubber. Of course, her allies helped, too, but MDP was enjoying herself far too much to notice any of that. A white knight lunged at her with its spear, only for the playful princess to leap atop it, skip along its length, and bound off it with a cheerful wave. “Thanky wankies, horsey worsie~! (giggle!)” she told it, before refocusing on her objective, the white king. With a final bounce, she was hurtling towards the alabaster sovereign, her arms spread wide. “Kingy wiiiiiingy~” she called in an even more sing-song voice than usual. “It’s huggy wuggy time~! (giggle!)”

As it turned out, starting a siege by yourself, even with the help of a eldritch horror, does not ensure things are going to be easy. Chloe was fully aware that her seige wasn't going to do any meaningful damage, but typically the point of a distraction was to hold out as long as possible so that everyone else could do their thing. She had acted prematurely, and Penrose had not tried to match her pace. She still had a few tricks up her sleeve, like the mortech juggernauts and his avatar, but it it was still too early to deploy them. They kept fighting, but they had to back peddle into a forest to keep their numbers up. It was just a distraction, so retaining ground wasn't as important as retaining numbers.

"Get those mortek crawlers firing!" Normally siege equipment would be worthless, but the arcane flames from from the mortek crawlers' soul caskets could care less about cover from trees. The other magical girls she was with were nearby, though it wasn't exactly a time for idle chatter.

"My liege!" A mortisan soulmason pointed behind them. "I see evidence of combat! Smoke rises to the heavens, and steeds of Brionne ride further off!"

Chloe groaned. "Didn't Brionne fall with the old world?"

"Perhaps Sigmar saved some unicorns and gave them to Wonderlanders to use against our great army! Woe, these cowards!"

"It's wonderland, they likely- Wait, unicorns? How pink and glittery are they?"

"Very! And they appear to be lead by an accursed kite!" The end of his staff started to glow. "Shall I send out a Bone-tithe Shrieker as a deterrent?"

"...Let me see about making contact with them. They could be friendly."

Chloe raised her hand, and a swarm of souls surged forth. A giant crystal with four elongated faces manifested within the neon cloud. It was suitably chilling, the way it spun like a slow tornado and crept through the forest. It cast an errie green glow that shined through tree branches. The jaws suddenly dropped. Normally this was when a Bone-tithe Shrieker would belt out an endless scream from all of its mouths to unsettle enemies and invigorate the bone reapers. Instead the faces, while still creepy, softened their expressions and changed their color to pink.

"Hewoooooooooooow!" A sickeningly cute voice echoed throughout the forest. "If you weewy, weewy don't wike wunderwand, say your favorwit ting about huggy wuggies!"

Also, what was that rumbling? Was there a giant in these woods?

The Super Map didn’t really tell Miko much she couldn’t already guess, so she deposited the map.

‘The bots are everywhere. Mad Hatter is on the top floor,’ Miko told everyone, just relaying the information she had obtained.

‘And it looks like a couple strong ones just challenged us at chess!’ Ronin grinned as the enemy forces geared up ahead of them. Now, as Reinforcement/Wind specialists…

‘Hyah!’ Miko waved her hands, and a gust of wind blew to scatter the arrows of the Red Pawns.

‘Yeeea-!’ Ronin threw a disc of a reinforcement shield into the face of the white bishop(s?), intending on dissuading continued projectile attacks on their allies. Then, there was Rachel having leapt into the center and almost taking almost all of the enemies on at once…

‘Sis!’ Ronin shouted.
‘… Alright!’ Miko replied.

The two coated themselves in their Reinforcement magic, and leapt forward, their swords ready. As Ronin knew, these were the swords that had cut through a dragon in the past, and also peeled a giant metal machine into spontaneous destruction. With the Rooks focused on smashing Rachel, they likely wouldn’t notice the two twins flying in, propelled by Wind-magic, doing their best to fly in and stab into them in a counter-attack, before intending on leaping back to stand at the defense while their more offensive companions went on the attack.

Now, if they ended up defending Mac instead of Rachel, that was more than the twins knew about that second.

__________________




Mariette stared down blankly at the fainted Pea Princess. It was a bit troublesome for her, as the Pea Princess was unfortunately one of her most important commanders in the coming battle. She had to come up with some way of waking her up…

‘Mayra, can you wake her up?’ Mariette asked. Mayra’s hand idly rose from Mariette’s shadow, a fire on the end of her finger as she was just going to idly poke at the Pea Princess’s clothing to light it on fire. A portal opened, engulfed her hand and promptly stopped her.

‘Not like that. You might burn her to death,’ Mariette lectured her.

‘Then I’m out of ideas!’ her shadow replied and chuckled as the hand of her protector retreated back into her shadow. Mariette sighed, and instead left behind two Lilliputs to poke the princess awake. She assured them it was a very important mission.

Now, Mariette then portalled up into the sky to get an overview of the situation. She knew there was an attack on the tower over there, but Mariette was far more concerned about what activity was happening in all other corners of Wonderland. She didn’t want to reveal herself as an attacking force until she had to, in case she could use herself against the queen, but until then she wanted to gather information by opening portals across the realm and looking.

Were enemy forces being gathered? Were they moving in to intercept her friends? Or, were they seemingly oblivious to the attacks upon their nation? Did she notice the explosions and the forest fires? … Those didn’t threaten her forest companions, did they? What was the status of the siege Chloe had apparently launched on her own, and what could Mariette do to help, if anything?

The strategy from before still held, the Green Helms were going to lure the enemies into ambushes by the sea and the forest, but her troops were indeed going to need a bit more time to get into position, they just had that meeting, after all.

And…

‘Now might be the best time. Before the fighting truly starts. Lilliput soldiers, how confident are you in your stealth?’ Mariette asked. She would then further explain about the engines of war Wonderland possessed, their tanks, and that it would be greatly beneficial if they could be sabotaged from within. Don’t, like, detonate them, as that would risk their lives, but if they could neutralize them from within, that would be excellent.

That, and she would like to put some Lilliput soldiers here and there inside Wonderland. Their princess said it, they were the best for spying. So if she put a couple on trying to infiltrate the castle and other important looking places, using portals to get them close, then perhaps a couple of them would be able to pick up important information. It did feel like she was placing them at severe risk of dying horribly… but they seemed determined to handle it, so if they wished to be useful, this was their moment.

Brittany laughed maniacally as she continued throwing vials, encouraged by Alex’ praise. “Haahahaa! aren’t you a charmer! What a splendid idea! Yes, let’s give it a big shot!” The two went off, continuing to spread mayhem along the countryside. They soon found themselves heading right in the way of a convoy of Wonderland vehicles including trucks, jeeps, and even a couple of tanks they had hidden away, all piloted by Wonderland soldiers: they wore goofy pea-shaped helmets, but otherwise resembled the same kind of soldiers that occupied Bolorton, and threatened Penrose. They seemed to be heading somewhere, not that Brittany cared as she pointed at them.
“Look, Wonderland soldiers! Let’s go for a hit and run!” The tiny shopkeep girl suggested as a devious toothy smile formed on her lips, turning more and more unhinged in the eyes. Alex found himself pleased by the idea as well; as the rock music continued to build up all around him, the explosive sounds of the vials beckoned him for a bigger show of pyrotechnics.
The bastards did take me away from Lily and lock me up. This would be a great moment not only to take revenge but sabotage the Queen, a thought appeared in his mind.

---

Lily beamed as Gaia recounted her own experiences with Alicia, and found herself nodding to the verdant girl’s vocal lack of patience when it came to matters of Wonderland, as grassy fields eventually gave way to trees, and a forest slowly started to fill up the landscape before them.

”I totally agree! They crossed a line, those jerks!”

She then turned momentarily pale in the face as Connie suggested Alexander being killed by fire. She looked like she was about to say something, only to be interrupted by Gaia giving a more rational explanation for the blaze that smoked ahead in the distance before them.

”But Alex doesn’t know any fire magic. How did he set a…Oh wait, I think he’s with Brittany,” Lily realized. ”Maybe she brought bombs, or maybe-”

The talkative girl was swiftly and surely silenced by a sight of movement before them. It seemed to be soldiers, though something about their silhouette was…off from what she remembers of Wonderland military forces. Urged by Gaia’s cautionary warning, Lily summoned Ramuh in staff form while steering her motorcycle with the remaining arm, holding it at her side as one of the larger shapes approached.

But instead of hostility, the many-faced, chilling entity…spoke like Magical Dream Princess, complete with the kind of cutesy language that the whimsical Mahou herself would use. However, the voice wasn’t quite the same, causing Lily to blink in confusion. There was something familiar about it, like she had heard it somewhere, but at that moment Lily failed to recall it. It mentioned not liking Wonderland, and Lily definitely didn’t like Wonderland. But whether it meant this pink crystal monster was opposed to the invaders or not, it was enough for her to give her answer:

”My favorite thing about hugs is sharing them with the people you love,”, she spoke, reminiscing about hugs she shared not only with Alex, but all of her dear friends she had made as part of her adventures in Penrose.

”Do you not like Wonderland too, Mister Crystal Face?” She asked in return.

---

Alicia flew into the fray like an archer from heaven itself, and with arrows of light provided cover fire for her fellow Mahou, disrupting the red pawns’ projectiles with her own, and detonating a red bishop’s explosive shot prematurely mid-air. A white knight piece attempted to take her by surprise with a lunge, only to be parried by a graceful slash of her lightsaber, forcing the automaton to back off to avoid the followup swing of her bow blades.

As a result of Alicia’s support, Ronin and Miko got the opening they needed to fly past the pawns’ arrow fire. The Rooks were caught by surprise, preoccupied as they were with Rachel, and a red one was sliced apart in a combination X-slash attack, leaving the robot scattered in four diagonal pieces. The twins successfully retreated despite a red knight attempting to swing into them, tanking the blow with the Reinforcement barrier that broke, but propelled them back to the backlines, ready to support as other chess pieces advanced.

As Mac invisibly slipped past the pawns that were approaching the illusion of Ashley, she realized that their attacks seemed confused as they swung far ahead of Ashley or aimed at her feet, aiming for an area somewhere between the spunky image and the unseen Mahou herself. Perhaps the robots didn’t operate purely on sight and other human senses, and also accounted for some method of magical detection that Mac’s incredible powers of stealth didn’t fully account for. The attacks were far off the mark, so she didn’t have to fear for harm. However, the strange behavior could be seen by a keen eye in the battle as an oddity.

Nonetheless, she pressed the advantage given by her trickery, and after the fake teleportation “Ashley” successfully evacuated Rachel, who in a practiced motion flipped after the throw and landed on a conjured barrier platform. The Inquisitor at first rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration, but seemed to swallow her pride as she stood up. “Well done,” she muttered under her breath, and proceeded to jump and destroy the white Rook that she had smashed earlier, crushing it with the downward impact of her hammer, the hefty size enlarged by a square barrier.
The black golem Akhenaten joined the fray, shielding Ashley from a red pawn’s arrow with a swipe of his arm, followed by running up to it and delivering a football tackle that smashed the robot apart. “Geez, these are incredible pieces of tech!” Nefer lamented as she shot at another pawn with her blaster, leaving it a pile of ash. “Can I keep one? Pretty Please?”

Meanwhile, Magical Dream Princess was chatting with her newest friend, Mister Hatty. The enchanted drone seemed happy as a clam as it listened to the ditzy magical girl prattle on about things it liked, forming a heart with its hands as it visibly swooned. When the girl took its comical gloved hand and held hands with it, two heart symbols popped out of the hat as if there were cartoon eyes there all along, dragged along by the giddy girl like a floating balloon. “I’m so happy,” she heard the hat mumble shyly, and realized that her magic had combined with that of Wonderland’s mana, and created a sentient new being.

AS MDP hopped along the chess boards, the pawns and chess knight confronting her hopped the same way, sticking to the same rules of movement as the real pieces did. When a pawn attempted attacking her, the sword turned into a wobbling rubberfoam sword one could see at a Legoland theme park, as did the spear that the white knight lunged at her. A tactical glomp was then deployed, and the white king was seemingly paralyzed, a red glow forming on the grill resembling a knight’s helmet that the automaton possessed. However, the red king was not quite as easily swayed by the pretty pink princess, and pointed an accusing finger at her: one of the white bishops successfully hit her with an enchanting projectile, forcing her to keep hopping on the chess board one space at a time like she did before, only now it wasn’t voluntary. This angered Mister Hatty, who slapped the white bishop, causing it to be knocked down like a bowling pin.


Justine and Caroline managed to hold their own against the two queen pieces despite the wounds that the former had sustained, her experience with battle proving her superiority as she skewered the white queen with her spear after a dodging twirl. However, the automaton was undeterred even when pierced, and slammed down on the spear, causing Justine to momentarily flip in mid-air. As the piece went for a follow up, Caroline slashed the robot in two from behind with her flaming sword. But Justine's face turned pale.

”Caroline!”

The remaining red queen, of course, took advantage of the distraction, and flew behind Caroline, mace raised up…And an explosion rang out.



The two sisters turned to see Penny, her opened chest blaster still glowing from the aftermath of launching the gauss cannon that shot the queen piece into pieces. The former vampire sighed in relief as Caroline dusted off the remains of the robot off of her dress.
”Got room for one more in this tea party?” Penny asked with a smug look.

”I suppose our gracious host forgot to invite you,” Justine quipped, as if she was in a cinematic universe for a comic book, causing Penny to groan but Caroline to giggle.

The Mad Hatter seemed to hear the exchange, as his voice once again blared out from the loudspeakers: “Nobody makes fun of me! Nobody! Forty-seven, activate the Triple P!”
Another man’s voice could be heard, slightly fainter: “Sir, do you mean the Pawn Promotion Protocol?” A smack could be heard, followed by an “ow”.

“Of course I mean the Pawn Promotion Protocol, you idiot! Why did you think I used the abbreviation to not reveal my trump card to those fools? Fine, I’ll do it myself!”
A crank could be heard turning, and the pawns began to glow: all at once, they transformed into white and red queens, the white ones wielding greatswords and the latter automated crossbows tipped with bolts resembling miniature lances. They took into the air, assaulting with blade and crossbow bolt in accord.

“Bwahaha! Feel the wrath of my genius!”

---

The Pea Princess did not wake even as a corner of her dress smoked from a tiny ember that failed to light into a proper flame. Mariette then summoned Lilliputs to deal with the problem. After opening a portal and pointing at the issue without a word, Mariette immediately received assistance from the Lilliput Princess by two mischievous Lilliputs, who introduced themselves as Tyltyl and Mytyl. They not only possessed a knack for magic, but seemed to have a lot of ideas on how to proceed after they poked the unconscious rebel vassal on the cheek: with some magic, they produced a pair of cymbals, an air horn, and even a detached kitchen sink with a faucet that somehow continued to drip water one obnoxious droplet at a time. Mariette didn’t stay behind to see how they would fare, but she had a feeling she might not want to find out: these two resembled fey more than Lilliputs, with capricious and even cruel penchants for pranks that could put dark fairies to shame.

Nonetheless, the dark magical girl moved on, focused on setting her plans into motion by delivering Lilliput spies and saboteurs to various places including the Queen’s castle itself, fearless as they worked their way around soldiers much bigger and threatening than them for the purpose of tactical espionage action. For example, a legendary Lilliput soldier wearing a bandanna and a bodysuit and equipped with nothing but a tranquilizer pistol and a pack of cigarettes codenamed Tiny Snek was set to infiltrate a cold island base with a castle made of ice where the loyalist Ice Princess lived. The base supposedly also hid a super weapon of some kind according to the Lilliput Princess that the agent was set to destroy; she saluted Mariette once the portal was opened, calling her “Big Boss”, before she began the infiltration mission through it, crawling under a bowl of rice she found nearby and used for camouflage as a soldier approached.

Next, Mariette proceeded with observing and confirming that her plans for rebellion against her delusional mother figure were set into motion from high up in the clouds. Various portals told different tales of Wonderland: from the battle at the Mad Hatter’s factory that continued to intensify, the preparations and movements of the various rebel forces and spies, and even some convoys of allied troops that had begun moving. Dwarves marched toward the mountains, ready to join their alpine brethren in building weapons and machines of war, with one trail of smoke followed by another as furnaces churned. The aquatic army of the Mermaid Princess gathered upon the shores of Wonderland, and in great waves flowed through the rivers and underground channels that snaked through the land, bringing forth a great host in the name of rebellion.

One particularly notable sight was a Green Helms regiment that mobilized using trucks, jeeps, and even some tanks. Mariette also saw a great fire that began to form in the forested regions of the land, signaled by cute little woodland critters escaping in terror, just like the ones that accompanied the Forest Princess. As far as she was aware, there were no loyalist troops stationed in that region, which meant she had no idea what could be terrorizing the countryside. That path of destruction would soon cross over with the convoy.

However, that was not the only scene of a serious situation that the so-called Sinner of Sloth had seen: there was also an enemy force of skeletal-looking soldiers and warmachines that were heading towards points of Wonderland interest, such as a city seemingly made of rubies, and one of the larger units having turned pink and separated to drift towards…Lily, Connie, and Gaia riding on unicorns led by a kite?! Mariette had to quickly make a decision on how to proceed at that very moment: she could only appear in person at one of the two locations in time before the situation at either location developed. But which was more important to her: her friends, or her schemes?

Thinking on it a little longer, Alexander realized that he could probably take those guys himself with just his own power"But I'm feeling pretty pyromaniacal right now" With the element of surprise still on their side (despite the rock music...somehow), Alexander grabbed a vial and after boosting his taking a few seconds to boost his speed, made a mad dash for the tank at the center of the convoy. Jumping on top of it, he ripped open the top hatch, tossed the vial in, and jumped off. The explosion of the vial set off the ammo inside, causing the whole thing to explode. The soldiers were briefly stunned by the suddenness of the attack, while Alexander started to giggle as a silly thought came to his mind "tanks are explosion piñatas!" After saying that out loud, his giggling changed to outright laughter.

This seemed to snap the soldiers out of their daze "We're under attack! Kill the invader"

"Good" Alexander replied "Setting trees and grass on fire was starting to get to old. Moving targets are just so much more...fun" As his pupils changed into a swirl, the rock music around him settled into something with lyrics. He blocked a shell from a tank with a barrier and cut down the first soldier that changed him. "Come on Brittny, there's plenty for both of us!"
---
The animals didn't seem to happy about this distraction. Dave flew off of Lily's head, grabbed her clothing with his talons, and began tugging her in the direction of the fire. He was too small to actually move her, but the intent was clear.

Mac didn’t really have the chance to wonder why the enemy's attacks landed the way they did. And even if she did, she wouldn’t have the time to worry about it. She was holding off (together?) the rooks, while doing her best to deal with them. While she was pretty good at taking a beating, it probably didn’t look like it. Ashley was a girl of modest build in an orange jumpsuit surrounded by a bunch of rooks, ones that had been beating the snot out of Rachel a moment earlier. This state of affairs wouldn’t last long though. Nefer, her golem, and Rachel came in clutch to wreck her opponents. It was also a small blessing that Nefer didn’t make any flirty comments this time.

”Okay, who’s next?” The pawns were, as they all graduated into queens. ”...Right, I’m going to take out their support. Don’t cover me.”

Mac wasn’t smiling, but Ashley was. She made a beeline straight for the red king. Many arrows and lances flew her way, but she had her trusty tractor beam out to catch them (it was really just a gravity well) before they hit her. Not that getting hit by arrow fire had been an issue for Mac thus far. The flying projectiles that missed their target were pulled into an orbit around Mac. Then when she neared the red king, Mac planned to have Ashley swing her tractorbeam and slam all the projectiles into the red king. With any luck the game might end, but nobody was playing by the rules, so who knew?



"A beauteous plan, my liege!" The mortisan soulmason. Clapped their hands together. "They made contact with us and appear to be friendly!"

"Yes, I can tell." She raised an eyebrow. "You seem rather excitable for an ossiarch."

"I think it was that ‘Annabelle’ soul you infused me with!"

Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I think I have this covered. Continue to fall back. I still have a few cards up my sleeve."

"But you have no sleeves!"

"Does tucked in my cleavage work better?"

"Very!"

Meanwhile, the pink Bone-tithe Shrieker’s mood soured.

"Of course we don’t like wonderland. We’re with you, Lily." Bone-tithe Shriekers weren't really made for reconnaissance. They were a spell designed for spreading fear and delight with sound, but Chloe’s mastery over soul magic allowed her to tap into that aspect of them to relay the sounds it heard back to her. "This is Chloe. I don’t know what you’re doing out here, but our siege isn’t going too smoothly. We’re falling back to regroup, but if you’re headed anywhere in particular, maybe we can offer a hand?"

Chloe was already mounting her Dread Abyssal to regroup with them.

As they approached the edge of the forest, a strange, multi-faced skeletal obelisk floated out of the trees, causing Connie to give voice to a startled, “Eeek!”

However, when the strange construct spoke a moment later, the voice that emanated from it was incongruous in the extreme. Indeed, its childish manner of speech was far more reminiscent of MDP than an undead monstrosity. As it soon became apparent, this was an ally, a part of Chloe’s diversionary forces, which didn’t seem to be fairing particularly well. Still, since she’d offered to help…

“We are attempting to locate Alexander,” Gaia explained. “We believe he may be the source of that pillar of smoke rising up from the forest,” she continued. “And any assistance you might be willing to provide in pursuit of that endeavor would be greatly appreciated.”

“Hello down there!” Mister Kite’s chipper voice called out. “I spy, with my little eye, a bunch of soldiers about to die!”

“Soldiers?” Gaia inquired.

“Yepperoo!” the cheerful kite confirmed.

“Where?” Gaia pressed.

“They’re getting sliced and diced and explodied real good, on a road beyond this wood!”

---

Back at the fortified factory, Magical Dream Princess’s “huggy wuggy” seemed to have worked out better than any sane person probably would have expected it to, with the white king having apparently been rendered inactive by the glomp, at least for the moment. “Awww~! You’re, like, totally wotally blushing wushing~! (giggle!)” MDP chirped as she observed the monarch’s reaction with a delighted smile. However, the red king didn’t appear to be particularly amused by this display of friendship and, with a gesture of command, instructed one of the bishops to blast the cheerfully childish girl with an enchanted energy bolt. Yet, either due to the Princess of Dreams’ whimsical nature, or that of Wonderland itself, the attack didn’t harm MDP, but rather forced her to start randomly hopping from space to space on the giant chessboard instead. “Golly wolly~!” she exclaimed, her eyes going wide. “Like, Magical Dream Princess’s body wody is moving woving on its ownsie wonsie~! (giggle!)” So captivated was the whimsical girl by this strange experience, that she failed to notice her new friend, Mister Hatty, give the bishop a massive slap, knocking it over into several nearby pieces and causing something of a chain reaction to occur.

Alicia kept in motion, bolts of light flying from her bow as she pivots, aimed, then darted away and repeated the process. Despite the initial onslaught from the Hatter's pieces, the group had adapted well. They had a large variety of abilities and were all skilled fighters in their own right, so progress was made as chess pieces were smashed one after the other.

"Hello again," she called as the real Penny made her dynamic entrance, but there wasn't much time to focus on that as the melee continued. They would have the opportunity to chat and make sure the other elements of the plan were going well once they were clear of the Hatter's forces.

Of course that wasn't the only trick up the Hatter's sleeve as all the Pawns shifted, transforming into queens armed with greatswords and crossbows. All of a sudden it became a lot more hectic, the onslaught increasing immediately as the air was filled with projectiles and the chess pieces pressed the offensive.

That said, it was perhaps a bit less unusual than the Hatter hoped it might be. "Was anyone actually surprised by that?" Alicia asked aloud as she rolled away from a flurry of crossbow bolts, more a rhetorical question than a serious query. "I mean they are chess themed, and I do have some idea of how chess works even if I don't know strategies." Alicia had the feeling that even if some of them had been surprised, it would annoy the Hatter more if they didn't admit that. And him being more annoyed could be useful.

In the meantime the battle went on. Her blade clashed against a greatsword before she leapt away, firing an arrow at a queen that was taking aim at Magical Dream Princess. She then spun in place, a quick turn to let her fend off another attempted attack before launching another follow up at one of the King pieces. With the variety of foes left in the battle she did her best to support anyone who looked like they might be at risk of getting overwhelmed by the sheer variety of attacks and number of enemies.

Would the Hatter have any tricks left? Probably. But so long as they kept to their gameplan Alicia was confident that they would make it through in one piece.

‘If they had the ability to do that all the time, why waste time as lowly pawns for so long?’ Miko asked, frowning. She could imagine some reasons, like needing to build up energy, maybe there were too many of them at the start, etc…

‘To show basic understanding of chess rules, duh!’ Ronin replied with a grin as she went with the most logical reason, of course.

Regardless, the two of them now had to work overtime. As reinforcement girls, they were the protectors, and there were now a lot of queens flying around with crossbows and greatswords. They had to rely on the others to deal with the kings, for now they prioritized jumping up into the air on small reinforcement platforms, throwing up shields to protect the others from various projectiles and swords that would be targeting them, like in the strategy where they make a disk-shaped shield, throw it, and then it stops and becomes solid in mid-air while blocking a shot. Things like that.

While obviously always looking out for one another.

__________________




Mariette was a little bit concerned that leaving the waking of the Pea Princess to Tyltyl and Mytyl might actually be worse than leaving it to Mayra, but at the moment she didn’t have the time for specifics. She watched somewhat baffled as Tiny Snek went off on her mission, but if the little soldier could get results she wasn’t complaining. So, up she went, to oversee the scene…

With MDP being somewhere on the battlefield, the sight of Lily, Connie and Gaia on unicorns with a kite was perhaps not as surprising as it was startling. There was an explanation for almost all the madness going on around here. The army of skeletons… was concerning, but she did recall having seen Chloe with skeletons, they were perhaps her soldiers. In that case, Mariette should contact her so they may strike in unison. It was a little concerning to see them heading for Lily, Gaia and Connie… but they should be able to handle themselves, they’re magical girls.

What was more concerning was the trail of destruction that was leading over her Green Helms troops. There were not supposed to be any enemies in that area. The meeting with Chloe would have to wait. Mariette focused her powers, opened a portal to oversee what was happening, and-

Now, it’s not that she doesn’t understand why Brittany and Alex would be attacking Wonderland troops. From their point of view, they were the enemy. However, this was absolutely, unequivocally unacceptable.

Mariette grounded herself on the nearest plain she could find, and then went to work. She couldn’t just show up and ask them to stop, explaining why they had to stop would potentially undermine her plan. As such.

A portal opened behind Brittany. Mariette’s tentacles lashed out, intending to snatch the little witch’s legs, arms, mouth and waist, quickly pulling her through. Brittany, because she was the easier target, and Mariette had her doubts about her ability to capture Alexander with tentacles. However, she figured her next strategy was far more likely to work on Alexander.

‘Alexander, quickly! Come this way!’ Mariette shouted, leaving a portal open for him in his line of sight. ‘Lily needs you!’ With a silent apology to Lily for abusing her name, she could think of no faster way of getting Alexander’s attention. Besides, she was not entirely lying. The portal led to right beside Mariette, where she was ready to explain herself.

Should she have managed to capture Brittany, she’d immediately deposit her on the plain, close that particular portal she’d come from (a different one compared to the one she’s luring Alexander through), and then immediately free Brittany from the tentacles. There was no need to keep her restrained after she was no longer able to do damage to Mariette’s troops.

The Green Helms, though better trained and more competent than your average Wonderlandian military, were still caught by surprise as Alex and Brittany burst from the woods, and Alex lit up the convoy with a wondrous display of explosive fireworks. The soldiers quickly retaliated with shells and bullets at the identified threat, but they were no match for Alexander’s barriers and brutality as he let loose and brawled through the ranks, bloodlust rising as the “deck” was cut.

Brittany joined with Alex as she drew more flasks with the intent to immolate, and began singing along to the music Alex heard, as if he was in a musical:

“Painting the soldiers red!
We're painting the soldiers red!
We dare not stop,
Or waste a drop,
So let the blood be spread!
We're painting the soldiers reeeed!
We're painting the soldiers red!
Oh, painting the soldiers red!
And many a tear be shed,
Because we know,
They'll cease to grow,
In fact, they'll soon be dead,
NOOOOO...
And yet we go ahead,
Painting the soldiers red!”

Fortunately for the Green Helms, after only a few of them were charred to a crisp, Mariette intervened, ambushing Brittany with a mirror from which emerged snatching tendrils. Brittany wasn’t the most capable magical girl when it came to physical prowess, nor was she particularly attentive due to Wonderland’s enchantment due to the way it addled her mind. So, it came as no surprise to the dark magical girl, experienced in the art of ambush and Mahou-napping, to have successfully caught her with nary a peep. The girl’s eyes spun around in surprise as she mumbled and struggled weakly…only to be dropped on the empty plain Mariette stood, her bindings unraveled like a ball of yarn let loose. She rolled a single time down the grassy hill before she was left sitting with a stupefied expression, blinking several times. It seems the experience momentarily frizzled the enchantment on her.

“...Why must we paint them red?”

Next, Mariette had to face Alex. Though she was one of the most powerful Mahou, even she understood what a powerhouse someone like Alex was, and the difficulty in attempting to face him head on. But Mariette proved herself capable of guile: using an ingenious ploy, Mariette directly called out to Alex, a portal leading straight to her.
Hearing Lily’s name, Alex couldn’t help but stop in his slaughter: the enchantment momentarily weakened as memories of Lily, and of Mariette, someone who helped him save her, came back, pushing back against the encroaching madness like a ray of light. At that moment, he regained temporary clarity.

As Alex seemed to be getting a hold of himself, it would have been natural for Mariette to feel a pang of relief, having managed to solve the conundrum with her wits. And she accomplished it all without outing herself. But then…Awareness crept up like cold sweat. Mariette had realized the way her shout seemed to echo across the land…and realized that she had drawn someone else’s attention.
She turned to see the Queen of Hearts behind her. She had a wide smile on her lips as her eyes shone like twin stars.
“My dear Alice, I’m so glad I found you. Oh, you must have been ever so frightened to run away the way you did, and even call for your unbirthday gift.” She gave an amused hum.
“Yes, the surprise is ruined, what with the dumb Dodo letting him break free early, not that it matters now that extinction caught up to him,” she spoke with a dismissive scoff, the Storyslayer she held in her hand having disappeared.

“In any case, I suppose I should have known that you were so curious you opened your present early this year~” She walked slowly towards her, with open arms. Eventually Alex also saw her from beyond the portal.
“This Absolute Direction power is absolutely dreadful to control. You must be a natural talent considering well you navigate with it. But you need not worry any longer, for mother is here. Mother will never leave you again.” She blinked as she came closer and closer. “But I do wonder: who is this Lily you mentioned? A friend of yours?”

---

Lily was surprised at the sudden change in tone that the pink construct had in it's voice, and her mouth widened at the revelation that she spoke to Chloe this entire time.
”Oh, it’s you, Chloe?” She was about to follow up with a stupid question about Chloe having apparently turned to crystal when the annoyed magical girl mentioned a siege and forces of her own, causing her to blink and realize she was speaking through a weird walky-talky of sorts.
She turned her head at Gaia as she explained their mission, nodding along enthusiastically: she was glad the verdant protector of nature was with her, as her eloquence with words far exceeded hers.
”We could certainly use the help if you can spare any-”

The both of them were interrupted by the kite’s warning, and Lily gasped as Dave displayed distress, hooting away.
”No way…Could it really be Alex? I mean, I know he doesn’t like Wonderland…But he wouldn’t go that far! That's not the Alex I know and love!”
Then, without another word, Lily revved up her enchanted motorcycle, and like a bolt of thunder shot off with a raised front wheel, leaving her friends in pursuit of Alex.
”AAALEEEX!” They heard her scream, as she headed towards the fire beyond the forest, zig-zagging through the trees as she departed from the dirt path they have taken. However, due to the power of the unicorns they rode, Connie and Gaia could catch up to her in ten seconds flat.

---

Justine and Caroline fought against four of the newly promoted Queens, two red and two white, and used their aerial maneuverability to prevent them from engaging the forces down below. The former’s crimson spear spun to deflect lances shot by a red Queen before thrusting at a white Queen who parried with her great sword. Caroline on the other hand managed to rush in and cut through another white Queen’s block after a feint, dropping the pieces down, and followed up by transforming herself amorphous in response to crossbow shots, the lances passing through her like pins through gel.
However, it seems it wasn’t complete invulnerability, as the younger sister looked pained afterwards, gritting her teeth.
“No…Hurting…Big sis…” She hissed in a low voice.
”Focus, Caroline!” Justine called out, as she shot a shotgun spray of blood bullets at yet another red Queen taking aim and shooting at her, failing to hit the older sister thanks to the valiant efforts of the twins and their Reinforcement barriers keeping the team in the fight.
”My thanks, Ronin and Miko!”



”Alicia,” Penny politely responded to the ebon-haired girl’s greeting as she launched herself towards a red Rook harassing Ashley, a routine the two had as far as mid-battle greetings had turned into. The Paladin Seraph continued providing much-needed cover fire against the chess army, arrows of light destroying a red Bishop while also holding the rest off from flanking distracted allies. Penny on the other hand focused on offense: a laser blade cleaved a descending arm off the Rook before she caught the other one with her free arm, briefly wrestling with the super powered automaton before slamming it down and twisting the arm off it’s shoulder.
Spidery limbs then shot out from her back to strike at a white Queen, forcing the flier to back off.
”I was a bit surprised. Did they reach the far side of the chess board?” She asked mid-punch.
“I think one did,” Nefer answered as she blasted a red Knight into ash. “But I can’t really pay attention with such a cutie like you joining us~”
Akhenaten could only shake his head as he ripped a red Bishop into pieces. A white Knight attempted a down thrust, only to be blocked by a twin’s barrier. However, the twins felt the strain that came with protecting from such a relentless onslaught, and sweat formed on their brows from the exertion, their mana now at 80%.

The slap that Mister Hatty delivered to the offending Bishop who dared harm her beloved Princess caused another Bishop and a red Queen who had yet to ascend to fall down. Coupled with Rachel keeping the other melee units distracted and off of Ashley, Mac charged up a spell that attracted the projectiles shot her way as Ashley rushed ahead, their aim having improved by now to target Mac’s actual position. Despite the red king’s tactics, the illusionist gathered up the swirling ammunition, and with a mighty blast let the chess royal eat their own medicine, as all the lances and magic bombs coalesced to form a javelin that exploded and penetrated the automaton’s mighty armor, caving the midsection in. As a result, the crimson king’s court had come to an end, as it leaned back from the impact like a damaged doll and stopped moving.

As soon as the red monarch met it's end, the red pieces hesitated, and looked towards the white king.

“Fools! My Dual King Command System means that the remaining king will assume control!” The Mad Hatter taunted from the loudspeaker. “Now, assume the Omni Promotion Protocol!”

“Uhh…Sir, the command is not acknowledged,” a mook’s voice was once again heard from farther away.

“WHAT? How? No!”

The others then realized the reason for the immoral minister's distress: the White King, still red on the face plate, had conjured a white flag, and waved it up in the air. As it did, the white chess pieces dropped their weapons and stopped moving, their heads drooping down in defeat. The red pieces, however, began to run away, hopping and flying.

“It seems that the command unit is surrendering.”

“Impossible! These machines were designed with tactical genius and strategic prowess, not cowardice!”

“Well…that might not be the reason,” the Mook commented, as the White King approached MDP and took hold of her hand, heart eyes having formed on it similarly to Mister Hatty.

“NO! You piece of scrap! Traitor! You were supposed to only love Our Majesty, the Queen of Wonderland!”
A sound of a table being slammed with two fists could be heard afterwards.

“Bah. Pathetic,” Rachel commented as she ran past the strange sight, and kicked down the metallic front doors to the Mad Hatter’s headquarters.

“Remember our mission: destroy the eggs, and apprehend Hatter.”

Penny rolled her eyes, and walked towards MDP and the White King, wondering if she should even get jealous over this frankly ridiculous development, or simply laugh it off. She decided to go with the latter, having realized MDP had stolen the heart of yet another being of magic and metal.

Despite his former zeal Alexander found himself feeling groggy after hearing Lily's name. He was also developing a headache from the conversation going on in his head

'Everything must burn!!!'

'I mean, yeah...but I'm also kind of hungry, the food here is terrible. Also, I've been gone for awhile, I bet Lily-'

'Destroy them all! Slaughter, slaughter, slaughter!!!'

'Alright, alright! Geez, I'll get to that later. I've got other-'

'THE FIELDS MUST BE RED WITH FIRE AND BLOOD!!!'

'Gahhh! Stop yelling you...whatever you are. Hey wait, aren't I just thinking this? Who the hell are you anyway, how are you doing this!?'

As Alexander grappled with the strange voice in his head, he soon took notice of a familiar looking portal 'That...looks familiar. Oh, right! That's...what was her name again?' he wracked his fuzzy brain for the forgotten name 'Mariette...I think. Damn, why am I having such a hard time remembering her name?' As he absentmindedly gazed into the portal, he noticed a tall figure on the other side 'Huh? I thought...portal girl was shorter than that. Am I just completely off base here?'

And in an instant, the haze over his mind vanished "Hey wait a minute. That's the bitch who had me locked up!" Walking through the portal Alexander addressed the Queen "I've got a score-" but before he could finish what he was saying, strange tentacles came from behind him and held him in place, along with covering his mouth.

It worked!

The white king had surrendered, and the red one had gotten that warrior’s death he so desperately craved. Maybe it was due to her age, but Mac felt extremely poetic taking all of the queens’s arrows and shoving them into a single target. Harems weren’t all they cracked up to be, sukkah!

Normally Mac didn’t feel this amped up during combat, but she was feeling pretty relieved that they were past the chess match now. That, and she had been able to effortlessly switch to Ashley with no consequences. That, and she wasn’t being harassed by Magical Dream Princess. That, and she wasn’t Iron Mouse, so she didn’t have to worry about Nefer lusting after her. What was it about being a magical girl that turned so many people into thirsty thots? Did they used to be men or something?

It was too early to celebrate though.

”Good work everyone, let’s keep it up!” While the Ascendancy had become a lot more tame since the rave party, Mac did want to ensure Rachel didn’t do anything too erratic in the other room.



Chloe groaned. "Can that airhead have a single complete thought before getting distracted?"

The mortisan soulmason pondered this. "I am unsure. Though if memory serves, you were able to acquire some esoteric knowledge from an arcane somnium reigent."

Chloe was fully atop her Dread Abyssal now. "That’s a very strange way of saying Magical Dream Princess."

"Only because you are the only one I recognize as a princess!"

Chloe’s eyes went wide. "W-wow." She blushed and placed a hand on her chest. "If I need you guys to sacrifice yourselves, I’m ordering you to die last."

"Much appreciated!"

"In the meantime, continue to fall back. I’ll scout over there and see if there’s any reason we can’t join up with them."

"May Nagash bless your devotion!"

And with that, Chloe’s steed raced through the forest to join up with the others.

Meanwhile, the shrieker said "Awsistance inkumming, weeeeeeee!" Before reverting back to a normal blue bone-tithe shrieker and howling it's hideous scream across the battlefield. It immediately floated towards wonderland's incoming forces without slowing down. It had served its purpose, and would now continue to spread terror endlessly until it was finally dispelled.

And just like that, Lily was speeding off to where Alex was allegedly fighting the Wonderlanders.

“Let’s get after her,” Gaia instructed, even as their rainbow unicorns surged into motion.

Thanks to being empowered by MDP’s hyperactive magic, the colorful steeds were easily swift enough to keep pace with Lily’s supercharged mystic motorcycle, and soon enough, they had reached the battle site. However, Alex was nowhere to be found.

“O-Oh, g-gosh… W-Where could h-he have g-gone to?” Connie wondered, her mask forming a puzzled frown.

“I spy, with my little eye, Alexander in a field close by!” Mr. Kite sang out. “And we should probably get there before trouble starts,” he added with a considerably greater amount of urgency. “Because I also spy the Queen of Hearts!”

“T-T-The Q-Q-Queen of H-Hearts?!” Connie echoed, the eyes of her mask widening in horror.

“If that is indeed true, then we must proceed with extreme caution,” Gaia advised, her emerald lips forming a pensive frown.

At Bolorton, the queen had withstood everything a small army of magical girls far more powerful than their current trio could dish out, so it was understandable that engaging her in combat now seemed like little more than suicide. However, their main objective was to rescue Alex. There was no reason to fight the Wonderland Sovereign if they could help it, merely keep her distracted long enough for their rescue to succeed, and they were fortunate enough to have a friendly army nearby to facilitate just such a distraction…

“Chloe,” Gaia called out to their ally. “We’ve located Alex, but the Queen of Hearts is with him. Could you perhaps have your forces run interference while we rescue him?” the verdant maiden inquired.

---

Meanwhile, back at the Mad Hatter’s factory fortress, MDP was overjoyed to discover that she had succeeded in making even more new friends. Before the ditzy girl even realized what was happening, the entire white army had surrendered and its love-struck king had taken her hand.

“Awww~! You’re, like, super duper nicey wicey~! (giggle!)” the Princess of Dreams told the alabaster sovereign while giving it a curtsy. “Magical Dream Princess had lots and lots of funsie wunsie playing this gamey wamey with you~!” she added happily, before her painfully limited attention was drawn to the smashed-open castle gates. “Like, golly wolly!” she exclaimed, her eyes going wide in alarm as a realization struck her with the force of a cartoon mallet. “Magical Dream Princess totally wotally forgot that she was playing hidey widey seeky weeky with some eggy weggies! She, like, totally wotally needs to finish winish, ‘cause it’s, like, super duper important wortant, even weven if she doesn’t remember wember exactly wactly why right nowie! Like, do you and your army warmy wanna helpy welpy her, Mister Wister Kingy Wingy~?!” she inquired of the white king and her new friends. “Do you~?! Do you~?! Do you~?! You do~?!” she exclaimed when the king nodded its assent, the the playful princess jumping up and down in childish delight, a sparkly rainbow and several colorful fireworks forming between her spread arms. “Yaaaay~! Come onsie wonsie, everybodywody~!” she instructed, pulling the white king along with one hand and Mister Hatty with the other, the white pieces forming up behind them. “Like, we’ll findy windy those eggy weggies in no timey wimey at allsie wallsie~! (giggle!) And, like, we can even weven play another wother gamey wamey while we searchy wearchy for them~!” the whimsical girl added with a gleeful smile as she began bouncing around on an imaginary hopscotch court, her feet moving into an array of different patterns as she went. “Onesie, twosie, threesie, foursie~!” she sang cheerfully. “Skip right through that castle doorsie~! (giggle!)”

The arrival of reinforcements certainly helped tip the odds of battle in their favor, and sped up their victory at the same 6time. Still, Alicia did not expect to see one of the Kings actually surrender, so that was something she had in common with the Hatter at that moment. Still, seeing who was responsible for it put some of that confusion to rest. If someone was going to pull off the improbable who wasn't Sally, Magical dream Princess would be the likely culprit.

With the surrender of the white king the battle came to an abrupt end. Still, their mission was not yet over. Nodding along with Rachel's comment, Alicia did not linger behind as they made their way deeper into the factory. She had said speed was important after all, and she was not going to make herself out to be a liar when it came 6to this sort of thing.

"Right," Alicia agreed as they moved. "And keep an eye out. The Hatter probably has more tabletop game themed traps waiting for us in there too." That did seem to be his gimmick after all.

Ronin and Miko were fighting the Queens and supporting Caroline and Justine in mid-air, until the Red King was destroyed and the White King surrendered.

‘Yeah! There we go!’ Ronin called happily, and… It looked like Caroline was injured. Now, there was a part of her that was quite aware, this was the same girl that killed her. But, through an unknown series of events, that had turned out for the better. It hadn’t been her intention for it to turn out towards the better… but then they also had to keep brainwashing and state of mind in mind, because that was probably heavily involved as well. With that, Ronin skipped over to Caroline on mid-air formed platforms through reinforcements to put her hands on Caroline and heal whatever damage she just took.

‘…’ Miko, of course, saw this, and despite herself she felt a dreadful feeling go through her, and she wasn’t really able to say anything. If there was anyone else that had been injured by the battle, she’d skip to start healing them.

With the assumption that nobody there was about to pull anything unexpected…

‘Alright, onwards!’ Ronin called, pointing her sword at the next destination, and Miko would pull out the Super Map again, to see if the situation had changed from before the current battle and forewarn her against any attackers incoming. After that she’d put it away again, ready to inform people of what she’d seen.

__________________




Mariette successfully managed to kidnap Brittany. No problem. Then, she called for Alexander, and that seemed to be working okay. Then… then everything went to hell.

There she was, again. The Queen. Her “mother”. Mariette was suddenly reminded that, no matter what happened, they did not really have an answer for how to eliminate her. Mariette turned to look at the Queen, more than a little perturbed by her appearance. How was she getting around? And also, how much did she already know about what Mariette was doing?

Judging exclusively on her words, she had not figured it out yet. However, it brought up a horrifying realization; she has Absolute Direction. It doesn’t matter where Mariette goes, she’d be able to track her down, regardless. And also…

It sure was convenient to be able to tell when a person lies, the benefit of Light magic. You can rule out certain types of deception through it. Not all of them, but a lot of them. That said, Mariette was about to discover a drawback.

“Mother will never leave you again.” Not a lie.

Unsettling… was not even the first word to describe it, as Mariette did her absolute best not to let her feelings surface for the Queen to see. Mariette had to figure out the words to respond with-

And then Alexander walked into the scene.

‘…!’ Mariette’s visible eye widened, a portal opened at her feet and she spun with a swing of her hand. Her tentacles thrust down into her portal.

Before Alexander had finished his first sentence, the portal behind him changed purpose and tentacles attempted to slap around him. One most specifically tried to slap over his mouth to prevent him from speaking. Now, Mariette’s tentacles were just tentacles, so if Alexander really wanted to there was no way Mariette could hold him back. She could but pray he’d play along. If he looked towards her, her one visible eye had a pleading look to it.

The following can probably be interrupted by Alexander the same way Mariette just tried to interrupt him.

‘He was… to be a gift for me? Oh, you shouldn’t have…’ Not a lie. She really shouldn’t have. ‘Lily is… a friend of this one. I called her name because he was attacking our forces, and I knew that it would get his attention.’ Also not a lie. Mariette was going with the assumption someone among her foes could tell lies, because every twentieth or so Magical Girl could. Mariette hesitated with every word, trying to navigate this maze… how should she react? ‘Thank you. I must admit, I am surprised. Is there an occasion?’ she’d ask, turning to look towards the Queen, more than a bit worried.

__________________

A portal manifested horizontally a distance away, possibly in Gaia and Connie’s direction. All of a sudden, someone was ejected out of it and flew straight up into the air, thrown up by tentacles.

‘What the-’ the monster-girl asked as the portal beneath her vanished. She then fell straight down into the ground. ‘Gah!’ she cried out, all of a sudden spread out on the ground.

So, Mariette didn’t want to count on her opponents, specifically the Queen, wouldn’t be able to tell she was hiding an ally in her shadow. She also wasn’t entirely sure she could trust Mayra not to launch out of her shadow to try to strike the Queen at a horrifically inopportune moment. As such, right underneath the portal which her tentacles dived into, another portal had opened facing her shadow… and a couple other tentacles had grabbed the dragon-girl in it and threw her up and out through it.

‘Ow. What’s the big idea!? We almost had her!’ Mayra growled, rolling back onto her knees, having been positively excited about the Queen appearing. ‘Now what do I do…?’ Because of the state of emergency, Mariette hadn’t entirely been able to impart any instructions on her…

This could be in view for Gaia and Connie, or possibly Chloe in a bit.

When the tentacles wrapped all around Alexander, his gut instinct after having been in the slammer so long was to tear them to pieces...but then Mariette started talking, and she was making absolutely no sense. 'Wait...Mariette is this crazy lady's daughter!? Where was this information when we went to deal with the invasion in that other town...city? Hold on, is this Mariette? Ugh, my head hurts and I'm so confused' Alexander moaned in frustration and pain. Too distracted by the thoughts in his head 'Arh, where even am I right now? I hate this stupid place so much! I thought that was one of Mariette portals, it did look just like...'

And then Alexander's blood started to run cold 'Oh shit. This is some crazy alternate world...right? So, are there crazy versions of everyone from...' A thought clicked into place, along with a throb of pain that maid him wince'Penrose. I knew that place had way too much insanity to be normal! This place is an even more crazy Penrose from another dimension! Oh fuck, does that mean I'm going to have to fight Wonderland me? Fuuuuuuck that's going to be such a pain. Oh well, at least I know how I fight really well, so it least it's not as bad as-' And as his mind searched for a more annoying match up, something deeply chilling came to mind '...Lily...' His body became slack in the tentacles' grasp 'I...I don't think I could fight her.'

The Queen of Hearts seemed elated by the fact Mariette responded to her. “Oh, but of course, sweetie~,” she spoke as she placed a gentle hand on Mariette’s shoulder. “After all, you need a consort if you are to continue the bloodline after succeeding me as the queen~” she spoke with joy. She was about to answer Mariette’s question when she was interrupted: she blinked as Alexander yelled out, and turned to look at him as he stepped through the portal.
Of course, before he had the chance to properly challenge her, Mariette swiftly silenced him, her tendrils having wrapped around his entire body like a carpet. The red royal’s smile widened at the sight of her daughter’s quick reaction and magical prowess. “Yes! Such skill with arcane appendages! It seems you already know how to discipline your future consort. Excellent.”

She nodded patiently as Mariette finished her explanation of luring Alex using the name. “Marvelous. To think that you have already taken responsibility to protect our realm, and with guile and deceit…Simply wonderful.” She extended her free arm towards Alex, and red ribbons slithered from her sleeve; they spun around Alex and carried him towards the two of them until he was dropped before her feet. “I’m still getting used to these wonderful gifts that you have given to me, Alice. But once I have mastered them, we will be like two peas in a pod~”

She then looked towards the Green Helm convoy: the troops were repairing the vehicles that were still salvageable and carrying the injured to the trucks, intending to leave and continue carrying out their mission. “Speaking of…Why are the Green Helms this far from the Fields of Produce? Perhaps-”

”Hey! Let go of Alex right now!”



Lily arrived on the scene with a dramatic brake of her bike, having driven right past Mayra as her attention was squarely on the newly arrived queen. She jumped off, and summoned her magical bow Ramuh, pulling back the bowstring made of electricity and aiming right at the Wonderland monarch with a lightning arrow.

”Or you will regret it, Queen Meanie!”

The Queen summoned the Storyslayer in her hand.

“Oh? Are you perhaps this Lily girl my dear Alice spoke of?”

Lily blinked, but then re-drew her bow.

”Th-That’s right! I’m Lily Lightning! What of it?”

She glanced towards Mariette, looking like she was about to say more. But, knowing how serious the situation was, she focused on the immediate issue.

”What do you want with Alex anyway?”

The queen gave off a noblewoman’s laugh.

“Oh, I have chosen him to be king consort for Alice,” she spoke, the hold on her shoulder having turned slightly more obsessive. “He is quite rebellious, yes, but he will be soon molded into the perfect vessel for my grandchildren.”

Lily turned red in the face, disgust and anger flashing across her eyes. She summoned more arrows.

”No! That is not happening! Release him, now!”

“You dare defy me, foolish girl? I should have you off with your head…”

But then, a manic smile spread across her lips, as she glanced down at Alex, and then at Mariette right next to her. She slowly lowered the blade of the Storyslayer…Until it was threateningly close to Alex’ neck.

Lily froze, having seen back in Bolorton that the queen was not only willing but fully capable of lightening shoulders with a head-rolling display. She held the bow for a moment longer, her hands trembling, until she dismissed it with a look of indignation at the queen.

The queen spoke.
“I have come up with a better idea. Alice, as you see, this girl has committed treason against Wonderland.”

She looked towards her self-proclaimed daughter, and the smile widened, perhaps slightly bit more than was possible in Mariette’s eye.

“By your right and responsibility as Crown Princess of Wonderland…Punish her.”

Lily gasped, and she looked at Mariette with a look of shock.

“You may kill her if you wish, sweetie. As long as she suffers~”

Lily’s hands balled up.
”You…monster…” Lily spoke before she realized it, having come out as a sincere display of her refusal to yield to the mad monarch. Still, she knew she couldn’t openly oppose the queen now that she had taken Alex hostage. She glanced at Mariette, and nodded: she knew that Mariette was probably in an even worse situation, as the queen made her prove her loyalty. She decided to trust in Mariette, no matter what happens.

The Queen waited patiently at Mariette’s response, still keeping one hand on Mariette’s shoulder and the other gripping the Storyslayer close to Alex’ nape, seemingly unaware of Connie, Gaia, and Chloe as they approached the scene of the conflict.

---

The White King nodded, seemingly more than pleased by the prospect of getting to play the Magical Dream Princess’ game as she led both him and Mister Hatty by the hand, following after Rachel, Ashley and Alicia. Penny couldn’t help but give a little laugh at the line of chess pieces that hopped after them, following the pastel magical girl’s rhythm with their own.


After the chess match had been played against the Mad Hatter’s malicious machines, Justine and Caroline descended down towards the group as they reconvened.
”Caroline…You were too reckless in that battle,” Justine scolded her younger sibling, who whimpered from the wounds she had sustained, including a large gash on her arm.
“I’m sorry, Big Sis…” She mumbled.
However, the sour mood between the two of them was sweetened by the kindness that Ronin showed, having intoned a spell of restoration that mended her injuries. Caroline blinked, and stared at Ronin with wide, emotionless eyes…And then she took her hand. She gave it a slightly awkward shake, like a person who knows how to express gratitude, but not the exact mechanics for it.
“Thank you…Ronin,” she spoke, and the samurai magical girl would see the vampire girl’s cheeks form a little blush.
As the girl continued to hold the hand a bit too long than was probably comfortable for Ronin, Justine intervened after she gratefully received Miko’s healing in turn, thanking her properly as she did so, and gently placed a hand over Caroline’s.
”You can let go a bit sooner than that, Caroline. She understands that you’re grateful.”
Caroline released her hands, and averted her eyes despite continuing to stare into space, a sign of her developing embarrassment.

“Sorry…”

”It’s fine, Caroline. Now then, shall we continue?”

Miko once again pulled out the Super Map to determine the situation, which hasn’t changed too much: the Mad Hatter and some minions of his were still on the top floor, though he was now more erratic in his movements. More robots were being created in the factory buildings in the vicinity, and some even began to march outside as space started running out. However, the White King assigned some chess pieces to hold them back, ensuring they could continue unassailed into the central factory building.

”I’m glad you’re having fun in all this,” Penny mentioned as MDP left, and waited for Nefer and Akhenaten to catch up as the vampire girls and the twins went past her.
”How are you two holding up?” She asked them, but the secret Sinner scoffed back.
“Hey now, I’m not a wrinkly hag just yet! Don’t think I’m falling behind because of lack of exercise or something! Magical girls don’t have that!” She puffed up her cheeks.
“I simply let you cuties run ahead of me so I can enjoy the view~”
Akhenaten shook his head, and walked past her into the factory.
“Hey, I was just joking, okay? It’s really because I want to keep my machine safe in the backlines! Hey, Akhen!”
She yelled as she ran after the black golem. Penny gave one last look at the remaining white chess pieces, gave them a Metal enhancement spell, and ventured inside.

The central factory was a confusing tangle of corridors, stairways, and halls, with machinery of indiscernible purpose lining the walls and corners. However, it didn’t take long before Mac had followed Rachel to what was the biggest hall of them all, and where they saw their objective: the Conjuration Eggs.

Unlike the Egg that was deployed at Bolorton, these ones seemed to be slightly smaller, with more intricate and detailed sleeping faces adorning their sides, alongside magic circles and other arcane symbols. There were a total of four eggs, each of them sitting in a cup-shaped mechanical podium fitted with wires and blinking lights. The podiums were arranged in a square, with each egg in one corner of it: north-west, north-east, south-west, and south-east.

Four transparent walls of magical energy surrounded the eggs in that square, reaching from the floor up to a lid-like platform that hovered over the square. The platform housed a giant bird nest, and four slides had been built to extend from the bottom of the platform to the four podiums.

It was quite apparent what sort of creature was capable of laying such bizarre eggs when one looked at the horrible monstrosity sleeping on the bird nest: a mish-mash of a black-feathered chicken and a green reptile with some cybernetic enhancements, with leathery dragon wings, gator-like scaled tail, a long beak riddled with fangs, and most noticeably, a face half-covered with a metallic plate, complete with a robotic eye with a closed eyelid.

Rachel adjusted her glasses with a look of disdain as the rest caught up. “So, this abhorrent abomination has birthed these benighted Eggs Benedict?” She asked with an uncharacteristically low voice.

“It seems so, yes,” Nefer spoke with a whisper. “Based on my research on magical creatures of Wonderland, I believe this to be a heavily mutated and modified variant of a cockatrice.”

”A cockatrice? But wait, aren’t those creatures capable of-”

“That’s right!” The Mad Hatter’s voice blared through the loudspeakers. “This is Chicken Ultra Crushing Mega, my greatest creation! And now, you shall perish beholding its majestic beauty!”

A button could be heard to be pressed, followed by a robotic hand with Michael Moose glove-like fingers descending from the ceiling and gently patting the monster. It then woke, opening its eyes to look at the invaders.

Caroline met the cockatrice’s gaze with her trademark unblinking eyes as she was floating in the air with her bat wings…And was petrified on the spot, turning into a stone statue. The statue then began to fall down, at risk of hitting the floor with a shattering impact.

”Caroline! NO!”

While Mac had hoped that they would come face to face with the Mad Hatter himself, it seemed that he was not the next threat. It was as unfortunate as it was expected. She would have thought he’d risk his own life before letting one of the queen’s precious eggs come to harm. Let alone the creature birthing them. But pointing out flaws in the motives of a mad man was how fools wasted their time. He was brainwashed by the queen and likely behaved in a way that she agreed with. It was possible she valued him more than the eggs or creature. If he had made them, then he would indeed be the more valuable asset.

Justine screaming Caroline’s name reminded Mac that there was other shit that needed doing.

It was getting a little tedious. Every step forward was met with some conflict that, while ultimately not that dangerous on its own, wasted precious time. They couldn’t keep playing the Hatter’s game, and it was about time Mac started thinking outside the box. In fact, Mac was so good at this type of thinking that she could think her way to different planes of existence.

Mac ran forward. Ashley activated her tractor beam to slow Caroline’s descent. She looked to the giant chicken’s feet to get a sense for where it was.

”I’ll be back with chicken strips and a friend. You guys beat the eggs into batter!”

And with that, Mac dove into the chicken and wrapped her arms around it. Ashley followed suit. Then they vanished from sight.

…

…

…

To cook a cockatrice right, you really needed to be in the overcity.

Mac didn’t care exactly where she was. She tumbled between the overgrown chicken’s legs and stood up. Ashley vanished. Her invisibility spell deactivated. She brandished her claws. The times she had revealed herself to the outside world were few and far between. It was such a foreign sensation, not being cloaked by magic. Mac was strong enough magically that she could keep up such enchantments, but it always meant that she had to hold back during her fights. Gravity magic was expensive for what it was, and even using it as seldom as she had ate into her reserves. There was no reason to restrain herself out here, especially since she had no backup.

She turned to face the giant chicken, but not before magically affixing a pair of shades to its face. It shouldn’t matter if the bird could see through the shades or not. Ultimately, Mac could not meet its gaze. Though she briefly examined the bird with her third eye to confirm her suspicion before relying on her gimmick.

”Alright feather face. Show me what you’re made of!”

With any luck, the other would be able to carry on without her.



Chloe was prepared to be part of another nothingburger of a post before she stumbled upon the fricking queen of all things.

Oh yea, and everyone else was there too.

"...What?”

Chloe knew more than anyone else about the surge of power one felt holding a life in their hands. Even if it turned to ash in the end, she recalled how good it felt to help Penny when Alicia could only watch dumbfounded. She was kind of a bitch back then, huh? To be fair, it felt empowering to grant Violet her freedom too. Magical Dream Princess probably enjoyed teaching Chloe how to be cute so that she could get a proper girlfriend. As fun as it was to reflect on her past, this really wasn’t the time for it.

Though there was something kind of off about this situation. From what Chloe had been told about the situation, the queen was some sort of powergaming, god modding person that just kind of knew everything. If that was really the case… Was Chloe missing something here? In such a delicate situation, it did not seem wise to try and attack the queen while she was distracted. Such a thing was more or less impossible if the rumors were to be believed. Chloe didn’t believe them, but she also didn’t believe that she needed to attack the queen from behind in order to defeat her.

Chloe galloped from around the queen and her steed stood by Lily’s side. "Hey Lily, I found Alex!” She pointed. "He’s over there.” She smiled and giggled. "I’m pretty sure he’s safe. I mean imagine killing the princess’s gigolo to send a message. Magical boys don’t exactly grow on trees, let alone ones that are fit to breed with royalty. I mean, I wouldn’t pick him myself, but you know. If that’s the kind of thing Alice wants, it would be downright shameful to threaten to kill him.” She shrugged her shoulders. "Anyway, I think the real problem here is that Alice isn’t capable of thinking for herself.” She looked at everyone, intentionally avoiding Connie and Mia’s gaze to preserve any concealment they might be enjoying. She really didn’t believe in the queen’s power. "I mean horrors really, really like their servants. They don’t relinquish them easily. Make one wrong move and you’ll be given a not-so-swift punishment. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you the specifics?” She eyed the queen.

Chloe didn’t just blow her cover to drop “truth bombs” and open herself up as a target. Her troops would be attacking the area any moment now, and the resulting confusion should be, well, entertaining. Falling flaming skeletons were always entertaining.

Alicia wasted no time in following after the group as they made their way through the factory, smashing any robots that got in their way. Honestly she thought there would have been more obstacles than this, but perhaps the Hatter had staked everything on that chess game they had ignored.

At last they arrived at their destination, and Alicia was taken aback by what she saw. She knew they were called Eggs, but she had assumed until that moment that it was just a description, like Faberge Eggs. Not that they were literal eggs laid by a living being. "Well played," she muttered under her breath.

The cockatrice seemed like it could be a tricky opponent as Caroline was frozen like stone, though her fall was arrested via tractor beam before Alicia needed to do anything. With her not having the ability to cure that, she focused on the rest of the situation instead. She also wasn't expecting 'Ashley' to teleport the cockatrice to the Overcity. Such a thing would normally not end well for the person doing that, but it was the Overcity and every girl in this group was tough, she'd probably be fine.

Of course this meant that they had to make the most of this opportunity while they could. "Come on, don't give them a chance to recover," she called to the group before stringing an arrow and firing it at the far egg in the left corner. Time to see just how sturdy those magical walls were.

‘Cockatrice! Don’t look it in the eyes, Ronin!’ Miko called out, suddenly drawing her sword and holding the flat of it over Ronin’s eyes.

‘Whoa, whoa! Okay, okay!’ Ronin called, getting the point and also being shocked to suddenly have her sister’s sword right in front of her eyes. Then, however, one of their party got petrified. Caroline.

Ronin leapt before thinking it through. Now, Caroline's descent was already slowed by a tractor beam, but then Ronin caught Caroline before at all impacting the floor. Ronin immediately checked if there was anything she could do with healing magic to try to cure the infliction, and barring that, she’d apply her barriers on Caroline to make sure she stayed whole for the duration of this battle at least.

Miko grunted, kept her gaze low, swung her sword and dashed to join the front line! … BEHIND Rachel and Penny and whoever else might be leaping into the fray! If there was no front line, Miko was not jumping in alone!

__________________




Mariette did her best to subdue her fear as the Queen put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. She felt like a fool. No matter how good a strategy she had for subduing the kingdom, it all meant nothing if they could not defeat this woman. And, who did they have who could? The only one Mariette could really think of was Penny. Perhaps everyone fighting her at the same time, but that did not take into account that she’d be an active player before her army was routed. That, and… what did she just say?

While the process of how to “continue a bloodline” had been part of the mass of information that Asengav had imparted into her, it also was something she lacked the ability to do. It wasn’t part of a Magical Girl’s reportar, and absolutely not something Asengav needed her for. Mariette was unsure if the Queen was aware of this. Not to mention, it was so far removed from anything she’d ever thought of, it was a bit mind-boggling. The very concept was… uncomfortable.

Then the Queen was about to ask why the Green Helms were here. The various explanations Mariette had mentally prepared just in case were brewing into her mind… when Lily appeared. Perhaps, if they fought together, they could at least get away… except the conversation continued without her, and the Queen then threatened Alexander’s life. Which brought Lily to a stop. Then… Mariette was asked to punish her.

A plan immediately formed in Mariette’s mind. Shoot a single, sharp blast of light through Lily, avoiding any vital organs, leave her in pain but not dead, and then hopefully the Queen deigns to leave and then, Gaia and Connie could arrive afterwards and they’d take care of her. There was just one problem. Mariette had no idea how to avoid said vital organs.

She knew of the lungs and the heart and the brain. Those sounded like a bad idea to hit. The stomach then? That felt really dangerous, too. Honestly, she could just go for the arms and legs, but would the Queen be satisfied with that?

‘... Very well,’ Mariette replied, not wanting to come across as insubordinate by inaction. She held up her hand towards Lily, and a bright light started gathering in it. She was hit by a different, unexpected emotion. She just really didn’t want to shoot Lily. But, as a portal from her eyepatched eye to right above them could tell, other people were approaching. Mariette pretended to waver as Chloe appeared, and let her speak in full.

Mariette pondered if she was supposed to consider the statement about “Alice isn’t capable thinking for herself” followed by the statement about Horrors. Did she think this was a deal between Asengav and the Queen? Or, perhaps the Queen’s patron, as it sounded like she was implying that the Queen, herself, was a servant of a Horror. That would make sense, Mariette pondered. It also would make sense for Chloe not to trust Mariette, then, if Chloe suspected something like that. Given the circumstances, Mariette could hardly blame her. But seeing Chloe be so sure of herself, it made Mariette want to be sure of herself, too. Chloe reminded her, of how she should be acting.

‘Mother, if I may,’ Mariette turned to the Queen, a new plan forming in her head. ‘Lily is the girlfriend of the one you’ve captured. If you grab him without her knowledge, of course she is going to leap to his rescue if he’s taken without explanation. How would you react if someone were to abduct me?’ Sincerely praying that the Queen saw value in Mariette’s life right now, and that the thought of her being kidnapped would trouble her.

‘Besides… Lily is my friend, too. So are many in Penrose. Mother… Would it perhaps be possible for us not to battle, punish or abduct them? You… you saw me when I distributed presents to them. You know I value them. I don’t want you to fight them. May I request that you reconsider, whatever it is you’re planning…?’

If there was any time to ask this, it was before everything went down. She had to rely on that her status as Alice allowed her to ask the questions nobody else could, even if it meant possibly stepping on her toes. Mariette stood, tense, as she looked at the Queen after saying her part.