[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/72bEcUi.png[/img][/center]

Lily tensed as Mariette agreed to the command the Queen of Hearts gave her, fear running through her body like a wave of cold. [i]How would she attack?[/i] Lily wondered. 
[i]She could use her tentacles. I remember seeing her summon them for various situations including combat.[/i] They were not a particularly lethal choice, though it would be painful if she were to crush her. The answer immediately arrived as she watched the dark magical girl raise her hand towards her, a magic circle of iridescent light forming before her.

Lily closed her eyes and winced, bracing for the impact…Only to blink as she heard a familiar voice.

[color=fff200]”Chloe!”[/color]

The Queen didn’t seem as surprised by the Mint broker’s arrival: she seemed to have predicted something like this happening. In fact, Mariette would notice that the queen’s purple eye subtly flashed.
“Hm…I see even the Mint has reached its greedy claws into my kingdom,” she commented.
“But you are bold for facing me yourself, broker.”

Chloe pointed out to Lily that Alex had been found: while initially a bit baffled by the obvious statement, the greenette was nonetheless grateful for the interruption, and further relieved when she pointed out the queen’s threatening gesture to ultimately be a bluff. The queen responded by turning up her nose at the smug girl as she proceeded to explain the risks of meddling with a Horror’s chosen.
“You think a mere Lesser Power is enough to hold me back? Think again, black swan. Consorts such as this are rare, yes…But I can find more. I always have, just as I have always found my darling Alice.”

Her touch turned gentle, and she gave a motherly caress to Mariette, reassuring her as she hesitated.

But then, as Mariette spoke, the queen’s eyes widened in surprise at her question. The seemingly insurmountable indignation in her voice by Chloe’s offense against her, surprisingly, gradually gave way to empathy: Mariette had successfully pulled at her heartstrings.
“Why, I would move mountains to bring you back, Alice. I would do anything to rescue you!”
Her hold on the Storyslayer slightly wavered, threatening to cut into Alex.

Then, Mariette confessed that she was friends with Lily, who was taken aback by the reveal, tears forming in her eyes. After all this time, after she thought she had irrevocably caused a rift between them that could never be bridged, she had lost hope that they could be friends. And now that hope was rekindled.


[color=fff200]”Mariette…So you really think…I’m your friend? I…I’m glad to hear that…”[/color]

She spoke softly, glad that Mariette did not want to hurt her, even if it meant risking her own well-being.

“...It is true, then. Are you friends with this Lily girl?” The queen also seemed moved by the tender words and honest feelings, and she lifted the Storyslayer away from Alex.
“...You were always so lonely, Alice. With no friends…To think you finally have some…”

She looked back at the others after Mariette revealed her true feelings, her hope of ending this conflict in peace seeming to cause actual hesitation in the usually unwavering monarch. 

“True friends who you treasure…How happy they make you...”

Her eyes moved back and forth between them all, and the grip on her Storyslayer loosened, as did her hold on Mariette’s shoulder, her fingers lifting, until only the palm of her hand touched.

“Alice…I…”

However, just as it seemed like Mariette would succeed in convincing the delusional woman to spare them, and possibly even end the Wonderland invasion itself…She heard distant screeching, as did the others. The queen’s eyes gained focus anew, and her purple eye flashed, followed by a swing of her black blade: she created a shockwave that sliced apart a falling skeleton that had been set aflame, along with other suicide-bombing bonelings nearby. Lily turned, and saw as Chloe’s undead army of blood-curdling constructs and scary skeletons marched forth from the forest to attack the Green Helms, who swiftly responded by forming a defensive line and engaging in battle with them.

At that moment, Connie felt a great surge of waking nightmares coming from the queen’s heart, as her magic resonated with the mana-effervescent Wonderland, the deep-buried terrors that stirred in the mad monarch’s mind having opened a channel. She had bottled her feelings, letting the grief fester as delusion, her continued obsession for the lost Alice a coping mechanism, refusing to face the truth. As the Empress of Nightmares, Connie felt a sense of destiny, as if her journey up to this point had been to embrace her role as a bringer of truth through dread, to bring a mirror to those who would not look upon themselves, to have them face their fear and confront their weakness.

The queen had lost all goodwill gained by Mariette’s words, as she was overcome by her trauma. “No! This was a trap! Alice, we’re leaving!” The queen screeched an order, and she snatched the white-haired girl’s wrist like a mother would an unruly child, her grip like an iron vice as she took a few running stops to drag Mariette away, slashing a couple of times at falling fire-wreathed skeletons.
“I’ll keep you safe this time Alice, I promise! Mother knows best!”

Once she reached some distance from Chloe's army, she summoned a portal which seemed to open up to what looked like a secluded stone-bricked chamber. There, [url=https://i.imgur.com/3yZwvrd.jpg]Caterpillar[/url] was waiting.
“Caterpillar! Grant justice to these enemies of the crown!” She ordered. “Your will be done, Your Grace,” the Minister of Wonderland answered, and stepped out, passing by the Queen, who forcibly dragged Mariette through the aperture. 

She opened another portal: Mariette saw the [url=https://i.imgur.com/6iUjHMB.png]Mad Hatter[/url], more specifically, his back on the other side, as he was sitting by a control console, frantically mashing buttons and turning dials.
“Hatter! Status report!” The queen ordered, and the minister’s hat jumped up his head as he was startled. 
“Intruders at the factory, your Grace! Requesting assistance!”

The queen did not hesitate, and opened a third portal to a non-descript office. “HARE! GO!” She ordered, and the masked minister similarly jumped in surprise before running through the portals. “By your will, your Grace!”

The queen, after all her shouting, took a moment to calm herself down. She blinked, and then summoned her red ribbons again.
“Almost forgot,” the queen mumbled, and started dragging Alex by his feet, bound as he still was by Mariette’s tentacles: he was slowly gliding over grass, reaching the portal.

[color=fff200]”Alex! No!”[/color] Lily yelled, and ran forward, only to be stopped by the Queen's minion as she brandished her staff threateningly.

“You won’t escape judgement,” she spoke coldly.

Lily grit her teeth, fear having also struck her as she saw Alex be limply dragged closer and closer, his feet nearly at the portal.

[color=fff200]”Wake up! You gotta fight it! Alex! ALEX!”[/color]


[hr]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Rl7cktP.png[/img]
[Sub].:⋮It Was The Best Butter⋮:.[/Sub][/center]

Penny sighed as the Mad Hatter revealed the last obstacle before they could reach their goal, averting her eyes from the ponderous poultry. She did not doubt that someone would catch Caroline before they ended up as gravel, and instead scanned the area for any terminals closeby. Sure enough, Ronin had performed the heroic deed after Ashley slowed the statue’s descent, to which she gave an affirmative nod.

[color=9e0039]”Not an omelet I would eat for breakfast,”[/color] she replied as she spotted what she sought in a corner. She dashed to the computer station and punched straight down and through the interface of buttons underneath, causing large crackles of electricity that would have been dangerous to those not of Lightning or Metal affinity. She took hold of the wires and circuitry, and used her magic to meld her hand into the network, pulling the clump up and letting the electricity flow from her body through the cables: while the Mad Hatter and updated his firewall after her previous bout of hacking, the physical access point let her easily invade Mad Hatter’s computer system.

Mac, in the guise of Ashley, successfully grappled Chicken Ultra Crushing Mega, dodging the snapping of its fanged beak despite looking elsewhere thanks to her supreme footwork and sense of balance. Then, while holding it still long enough with pure brawn, she spirited the monstrosity away to the Overcity.

The cockatrice responded by kicking Mac away, its talons painful as they were sharp enough to wound her right in the stomach, though she had enough defensive power to avoid outright breaking ribs from the impact, unlike with the Tin Man’s attack. The shades on its head, curiously enough, did seem to stop the petrifying ability of its gaze based on her use of Third Eye, though it did not last as the bird-like beast threw them off its head with a big caw, forcing Mac to avoid eye contact. It came charging in, flapping its leathery wings in intimidation.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/K2ssvzh.png[/img][/center]

[color=bc8dbf]”Thank you, Deni! Yet again you would save my sister, who once had consumed your slimy form,”[/color] she commented as she dragged the statue away from the center of the room and back towards the corridor they came from.
[color=bc8dbf]”I suppose your magic isn’t enough to restore her?”[/color] She asked as she noted the diminutive samurai girl swipe her hand over her rocky sister. Just as Ronin suspected, petrification was not something that Reinforcement could reverse, as it was not damaged. However, the barriers did stay, the statue now having a polished sheen to it.

Miko, meanwhile, followed right behind Rachel as she lifted her hammer up in reaction to the arrow of light that her fellow comrade Alicia unleashed on the closest magic wall, followed by MDP and her chessmates performing the same with a beam projectile of her own: while the former failed to penetrate the barrier, only causing cracks in it’s glowing surface, the other shots infused the barrier with energy, until it transformed into a wall of transparent, bouncy rubber.

“Bah! Let me do it!” Rachel shouted, and started to run, only to suddenly stop as she heard the familiar voice of the Queen of Hearts and her cronies on the loudspeaker:
“Hatter! Status report!”
“Intruders at the factory, your Grace! Requesting assistance!”

As a result, Miko ran embarrassingly right into her posterior, causing Rachel to blush and throw her head back, looking miffed. “Hey! Watch where you’re going!” Nefer, however giggled at the comical sight, and Akhenaten ran past Rachel, seemingly done with comedy skits at the moment.

However, before he got close enough to smash the rubbery wall, more voices could be heard on the loudspeaker.

“HARE! GO!”
“By your will, your Grace!”

Rachel groaned. “Oh, by the love of-”

A circular hole opened from the ceiling, from which a fireman pole shot down. From there, [url=https://i.imgur.com/W8bAeDe.jpg]March Hare[/url] came sliding down with style and grace, making a single spin before reaching the floor.

“It wasn't very civil of you to enter without being invited!” He taunted the intruders.
“To me, (I see what I eat) is the same thing as (I eat what I see!)”

With a flourish of his hand, he cast a summoning spell. But instead of bringing forth wendigos as the others might have assumed, instead six manticores had appeared: with bodies of lions with spiny manes, spiky tails with scorpion-like stingers, and large bat-like wings, their eerily human-like faces stared with mouths wide open, showing three rows of sharp teeth.

"I see you! So you shall be the lovely crumpets to eat at this tea party!” He spoke bombastically as he drew what looked like a red coiled whip. With a snap of it, the manticores attacked with complete obedience like lions in a circus, flying or running as they lunged.

[color=9e0039]”Taking over this tea party, seating arrangements soon to change,”[/color] Penny commented as she summoned her extra limbs to defend herself while continuing the hacking.