The battle continued to rage amidst the disintegrating reality, which Alicia did her best to ignore aside from how it might affect her immediate environment. The sheer amount of combatants meant that nothing targeted her, while of course being unaware of how the swiftly changing situation meant that Mikayla hadn't attacked her like she had planned. What she did not know would not hurt her.

To Alicia's slight surprise the Fairy Bolt landed, though it seemed she had forgotten exactly which area was to be targeted by the enchanted weapon. Hers was not the only weapon delivered, blows falling which would take out a normal magical girl. The Queen was not an ordinary magical girl, unfortunately. Alicia's gaze rose as the Queen shifted, healing herself like she was rewriting reality rather than using simple magic.

"Hmph, this is going to be tricky," she muttered to herself as Lily and Alex went to deal with the new Mariette situation. That left the rest of them to focus on the Queen she supposed, for better and worse. Sure, she'd just killed a Horror, but they would come up with something. Probably.

Okay, so clearly they needed to get her sword, or Quill, or whatever. Barriers wouldn't help as evidenced by how she had just shredded Alex's like paper, so they just needed to move fast and not get hit. Easy. Well, after thinking about it she knew one way to get some speed going while Lily was busy.

Shifting her bow into its sword form, she made her way over to the newly arrived Ani. "Can you launch me with of your rockets?" she asked. It might not be ideal, but hopefully it would work. That'd get her the speed to close the gap, and she could do the rest from there.

Gaia was just about to begin instructing the Cheshire Cat on the basics of Pennybot command, when the feline girl began doing her best impression of a stereotypical drill sergeant, causing the verdant maiden to raise an emerald eyebrow. “Um… Pardon my saying so, but I do not believe that particular approach is exactly the most conducive one to take…”

However, no sooner had she said this, then Asengav’s mirror portals started appearing in the sky of Penrose, followed by the very fabric of reality coming apart at the seams. At first, everyone simply stared in shocked horror as the world began to unravel, but then Connie returned, joined by an incongruously cheerful MDP.

“Like, hiiii everybodywody~! (giggle!)” The whimsical girl greeted as she skipped over to the ring of control stations. “There’s, like, a super duper important wortant battle wattle thingie wingie going onsie wonsie right nowie, and, like, Magical Dream Princess thinky winkies we should allsie wallsie go downsie wownsie theresie weresie and helpy welpy outy wouty~! (giggle!)”

When the Cheshire Cat offered to help with providing passage to the battle, MDP’s cheerful smile spread even wider, and stars seemed to twinkle in her gleaming eyes. “Like, thankie wankies, super cutesy wutsey catty watty person werson~! (giggle!)” she told the feline magical girl as she bounced over to give her a big hug. “That’ll, like, helpy welpy lots and lots~!”

Gaia looked from the bubbly Princess of Dreams to Connie, her verdant visage filled with concern. “Are you sure about this, little sister?” she asked her timid best friend.

“I-I am,” Connie confirmed. “M-Magical Dream P-Princess thinks I c-can help,” the masked maiden explained. “S-So I w-want to t-try!”

“Very well,” Gaia sighed, before rising to her feet and giving her friend a warm smile. “Then the Daughter of Mother Earth shall stand beside you.”

“T-Thanks Mia,” Connie said softly as she embraced her best friend.

“Like, Magical Dream Princess knows thingie wingies are kinda winda scary wary right nowie,” MDP conceded. “But, like, she also walso thinkie winkies if everybodywody does their very wery besty westiest together wether and dreamy weamies a happy wappy ending wending, thensie wensie it’ll totally wotally happen wappen~! (giggle!) So, like, everybodywody heresie weresie should totally wotally come alongy wongy~!” the whimsical girl declared with a wink as she skipped over to the cat flap and struck a cute pose. “And you should, like, totally wotally tell allsie wallsie of your friendy wendies on this super duper biggy wiggy shippy whippy to come alongy wongy, too~! (giggle!) ‘Cause, like, everythingy wingy is better wetter with friendy wendies~!”

Whether or not any of the others chose to go along with her (or call their friends to join them), MDP would bounce through the cat flap with a happy-go-lucky giggle, Connie and Gaia following close behind. What awaited them on the other side was a scene of complete chaos as their friends struggled to oppose the seemingly invincible Queen of Hearts. Attacks of ever-increasing potency were made, magical girls were thrown off the building, only to fly or portal themselves back to the rooftop, and a futuristic armored car skidded across its slick surface, out of which emerged Ronin and Miko.

“Golly wolly~!” MDP exclaimed, her sparkling, innocent eyes wide with wonderment, rather than fright. “There’s soooo much stuffy wuffy going onsie wonsie heresie weresie~! Oooohh~!” the playful Princess of Dreams squealed in delight as she caught sight of Storm Witch Stacy. “Like, Magical Dream Princess wuvs your outfit woutfit~! It’s, like, sooo super duper cutesy wutesy~! (giggle!)”

“OMG! Like, thanks so much!” Stacy replied, the enthusiastic compliment helping her quickly forget her recent sizable screw up. “Your outfit is super adorbs, too!” the storm witch told her bubbly admirer with a wink.

“Like, thankie wankies~!” MDP replied with a wink and peace sign salute of her own. “Oh~! And the Penny Wenny Botty Wotties are hersie, too~! (giggle!) Like, Magical Dream Princess is soooo super duper happy wappy to see you, Penny Wenny Botty Wotties~!” the giggling girl told the mass produced copies of her girlfriend. “‘Cause, like, Magical Dream Princess has a super duper special wecial funsie wunsie present wesent for you~! (giggle!)” Standing on her tiptoes, she held up her glowing whimsical wand and began rapidly spinning it in a circle, trails of pink glitter and prismatic sparkles streaming from its tip. “Like, it’s timey wimey to play magical wagical girl dressup wessup~! (giggle!)” the whimsical girl declared. There was a bright flash and, when it faded, each of the Pennybots was dressed in a unique cute and frilly magical girl outfit based on those found in all of MDP’s favorite magical girl shows. “Taaa daaa~!” MDP declared with a joyful smile when her spell was finished. “Magical Dream Princess hopey wopeies you likey wikey them, Penny Wenny Botty Wotties~! (giggle!)”

Meanwhile, Gaia was struggling to take stock of the chaos swirling around them in an effort to discern some meaningful way to contribute to her allies’ efforts. Yet, the nymph-like young woman ultimately found she had no viable means of opposing a being of the Queen of Hearts’ level of reality-breaking power. Yet, even if the Daughter of Mother Earth could contribute nothing of value, perhaps the Empress of Nightmares could…

“T-T-There s-she is…” Connie whispered as she fixed her mask’s ink-black gaze on the Wonderland sovereign. Closing the eyes of her mask, she swallowed and took a deep breath in an effort to push back the terror threatening to paralyze her. Then, opening her eyes once more, she slowly raised a trembling hand towards the malevolent monarch. “M-Magical D-Dream P-Princess s-said I s-should g-give t-the q-queen a n-n-nightmare,” the masked maiden told her friend in a soft and shaky voice. “A-And b-back in W-Wonderland, I c-could f-feel h-her f-fears, s-so i-it s-should p-probably w-work…”

“In that case, I shall provide a distraction,” Gaia announced, giving her friend a smile, before conjuring her verdant staff, twirling it above her head, and then pointing its blossoming tip at the Queen of Hearts. “Nature’s Fury!” the Daughter of Mother Earth shouted as she unleashed a massive barrage of mystical life energy.

“Like, Magical Dream Princess is gonna helpy welpy, too~! (giggle!)” MDP added, firing a sparkling beam of bright pink dream magic from her whimsical wand and sending a stream of cute objects shooting towards the Wonderland sovereign. “Like, let’s allsie wallsie helpy welpy~!” she called to the Pennybots and other gathered magicals.

“Yeah!” Stacy agreed, aiming her stormy staff and shooting an arc of lightning at their frighteningly powerful foe. “This’ll be like one of those crazy cool team attack dealies! And, hopefully, it’ll work way better than the last one!”

And in the midst of this deluge of mystic might, Connie mustered all her courage, gathered all her terrible power, focused on the Queen of Hearts’ deepest fears, and sent a twisting torrent of focused nightmare magic surging towards the malevolent monarch…

Ani had no idea what the queen was going on about. The words that she was spouting out would have taken too many tokens to process properly, something she was finding to happen more and more as she spent time in Penrose. In some ways, this was not the craziest thing to have happened. Even as far off objects were rendered into words and paper, it really just felt like more of what she expected.

Though something that the super sophisticated AI had not counted on, something that truly surprised her, was Alice coming to her for help. She couldn’t remember talking to this woman ever, or what made her think rocketing somewhere was safe or even plausible. But Ani immediately cast that idea out of her head when she remembered who was talking to her. This was Alicia Hayden. If she thought that a rocket was the best way to get somewhere, then there would be no more questions.

"Okay, I typically don’t do this for people under rank 3, but given the situation…" Because Alicia wasn’t missile shaped, she would not fit in her launcher. But the biggest rocket Ani had was part of her hammer. So she lowered the head of the hammer onto the rood and held the handle like a joystick. Because the hammer was made to be retardedly big, it was possible for Alicia and Ani to stand on it. She helped Alicia stand between herself and the hammer’s handle. This meant that Ani had to reach under Alicia’s arms. She assumed Alicia was going to shoot at something, but couldn’t be sure. All she wanted to know was if she could be rocketed somewhere, so that was what Ani was setting up. "There’s no seatbelt, so grab onto something if you think you might fly off!" There wasn’t a lot of room for Ani’s feet, and after thinking about it, the thrusters would likely blow out from under her feet. So she wrapped her legs around the haft of the hammer too, which also meant her legs were crossing over Alicia’s hips. She didn’t bother commenting on how awkward the arrangement was. This was probably business as usual for seasoned Alicia Hayden.

Fortunately, Ani didn’t need to pull a trigger to activate her hammer’s oversized thrusters. With a thought, the thing took off. While Alicia’s intent was never communicated, she needed to rescue the miko twins. Getting close to the miko twins should have put Alicia in close proximity to the queen as well.

---

"Come on everyone!" Chloe called to her skeletal minions.

But off the side of the building, where Lily and Marriete were falling (along with Dave in pursuit) a Gothizzar Harvester witnessed the group falling. Despite her earlier falling out with Lily, the bony minion seemed to understand they were an important part of securing victory. So he positioned his back where the duo might fall. The heap of bones and sinew that rested on its back wouldn’t make for the safest landing, but had a great deal more give than the concrete floor of the city.

---

Hitting the queen was becoming a lot riskier, especially with Alicia and Ani rushing into close range. Maybe Su would have done a double take if this was her first day in Penrose. She was pretty sure Alicia’s bow was more effective at range, but assumed there had to be a reason for her to want to get so close.

Rather than attack the queen, Su and Mika fired off their magic in a torrent. Water and wind swirling together behind Alicia and her taxi driver. The goal was to make a barrier that could protect them from friendly fire and, if they got close enough, assist Eli and Deni’s escape. Water and wind were flexible elements, and together they made a sort of amorphous blob that would turn into what it needed to when the time came.