Flamelord

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

The effort to convince the Hatter to give up was admirable, but ended as one might expect. Alicia was more surprised to see that Magical Dream Princess' effort had not worked either, considering how effective she had been thus far. It was a good thing that the others were ready. Her arrow knocked off the Hatter's aim, Miko protected the hostage, and one more blow took the Hatter out.

"I suppose he was panicking about what the Queen would do to him if he didn't use every possible measure to stop us," Alicia observed as Rachel commented on how bad the Hatters plan had been. With that three of the eggs were destroyed, the last secured by Penny for examination or whatever she might like to do with it. Where some might be concerned, Alicia was sure she wouldn't misuse it.

Of course it seemed their mission was not quite over, and she frowned at the news. "I guess we should," she conceded with a sigh, though it wasn't a very enthusiastic response. She knew it was the right thing to do, but some part of her figured that Mariette could manage it on her own. She'd probably gotten out of worse situations after all. Still, Penny and Nefer had already run off to go investigate the Hatter's set up in the factory, followed by Justine carrying the frozen Caroline.

With that it was time for them to get on their way. before they did, however, a new arrival appeared. Or re-appeared, rather, as she explained. It took Alicia a moment to recognize her, before her eyes widened a little at the jogged memory. Yet just as quickly she brushed it off with a small shrug. "It's fine," she assured Mac. "Sometimes things slip your mind in the heat of the moment, that's all. But I won't complain about the help with a lot of our heavy hitters leaving."

She then looked to the others. "Are we all ready? That Princess won't save herself."

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

While Alicia was a bit disappointed that her attack had no9t resulted in the manticores turning on their master, but she supposed that allowing Magical Dream Princess to once again work her incomprehensible magic. Was this how she had won over the rest of them? Alicia wasn't sure, but she really hoped not.

Of course the Hare wasn't done yet, at least not until he tried to kick a stone golem and broke his legs in the process. Even she had to wince a little at that. "Ouch," she muttered.

Unfortunately the eggs were gone, but they had a path, and Penny's hacking skill made sure that they didn't immediately jump into another trap going after them. or having more traps dropped on top of them. "That's good. One step closer" Alicia noted. Of course they'd have to split up to go after the four eggs, but there were enough of them here that it probably wouldn't end up being a big problem.

But before they could do that the Hatter made his return, Alicia turning to face him as the others did so. "A hostage? Really?" Sure, it would probably deter some people here. But Alicia had the feeling that not everyone would be stopped by that, even if they couldn't stop him before pulling the trigger.

Before she could act Magical Dream Princess interceded, and an eyebrow rose at the appearance of the massive baton. Nonetheless Alicia kept her bow ready, aiming for the Hatter's elbow in case the blunt force trauma didn't work. Maybe she'd be able to throw off his aim at the last second. Just because she didn't know this hostage didn't mean she would let them get killed for no reason if she could help it.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

Having taken the lead in trying to deal with the eggs, Alicia stopped as it became clear that they were just empowering the magical barrier rather than destroying it. Sadly this was not enough to stop the barrier from becoming some sort of rubbery substance, and she wasn't sure if that was because of something that Magical Dream Princess did or the barrier becoming stronger through absorbing energy. It was hard to tell whether things were intentional or not when Princess was involved.

Alicia lowered her bow as the others moved in, just before a hole opened in the ceiling to allow another foe to descend upon them from above. After making a rhyme, he summoned six minions to fight them. The manticores attacked as he drew a whip, seemingly directing them.

As Magical Dream Princess did her thing, Alicia looked to the others who weren't busy with the barrier or hacking. "What do you say we see how well he fights without his whip?" If that was how he was controlling the manticores, then maybe it would help if they removed the whip from play.

Stringing her bow once more, Alicia fired a trio of arrows. They arced through the air, their flight paths shifting as they followed the March hare and sought to strike the whip from his hand.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

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.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

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.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

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.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

True to her own words Alicia kept moving, and luckily it seemed that the tea cup drones would not be a significant obstacle to their progress. That was probably to be expected, unless it turned out that the tea they were dropping was magical in addition to being scalding hot. But nothing had happened yet, so it was probably fair to assume that that would not suddenly change.

She nodded to Penny as the girl stated her intention to avoid killing anyone if she could avoid it. The mention of the events at Veronica's castle still stung all this time later, though Alicia had done her best to try and be better since that day. At least there would be no surprises about mind control here, since they already knew that this entire realm was trying to mind control people. That was why they had put so much effort into preparing for their current attack.

"Fair enough. We'll have to see how it looks when we get there, if the eggs are all stashed in one spot or split up," she agreed with a nod. It was likely correct that Mad Hatter would be defending at least one of these eggs personally. For now she kept her focus on actually getting further inside and locating the eggs that were their main goal.

Past the drones they entered the inner complex of the large factory. There they found the chess game that the Hatter had been intending that they play, though repurposed for the sake of combat. Chess wasn't really Alicia's game of choice, but even she knew enough to tell that each piece had a particular role and attack pattern, and that the King was probably the most important enemy on the battlefield. "I guess we get to play after all," Alicia grumbled as the Hatter cried at them over the intercom.

With such a myriad of opponents a frantic melee seemed like it was developing, with a combination of ranged and melee attacks, as well as supporting spells from the back rows.Settling in with determination, Alicia moved to continue with all the vigor she had previously expressed. Arrows snapped like straight bolts, whether single or paired, striking at the back row to try and disrupt any spells being cast. Her wings aided her mobility, giving her just an extra push to allow her to leap clear of the danger. And if a piece got too close she had a blazing sword of light to fend them off with in addition to the blades of her bow.

They couldn't afford to fight their own isolated battles, and so Alicia would do what she could to take the pressure off the others and give them a shot at defeating the higher value pieces. "Come on," she grunted. "let's show him that we're not just big talk."

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

It seemed that the encouraging words she spoke to Penny were what the group really needed in that moment, as Alicia found her outspoken rejection of the Mad Hatter's game prompted pretty much everyone else to go along with it as well. Aside from Lily, who prepared to leave in order to find Alex. That was the other reason they were here after all so it was good that they were getting to it.

Of course she did notice that something was a bit off with Penny, though there wasn't the time to really focus on it in the heat of the moment. Perhaps some small part of her had expected her friend to be able to handle breaching that wall without Rachel needing to get involved in the first place.

Readying her bow for the battle to come, Alicia joined the others in heading for the entrance that had been knocked into the wall. "Keep moving," she advised everyone. "We can't afford to get bogged down." They were on hostile ground in a very literal sense, and she didn't want to risk anything going wrong with their anti-Wonderland devices while they were in the middle of their plan.

She quickly set to work as the tea drones approached from above, joining in fending off the attackers as she fired spreads of arrows from her bow. This was the sort of environment that her Barrage power was made for, unleashing several arrows at once to either take down the drones entirely or make them release their heated tea contents in a manner safe for the fighters below. But true to her own warning she did not let this stop her entirely, keeping in motion where possible as bright wings added to her ability to dodge.

"Don't forget about the eggs," she added as she ran along towards the facility that waited ahead of them. "They're the reason we're here. We destroy them and the Queen may end up killing off the Mad Hatter for us." Considering the theme of this place, it was not an impossible outcome if things worked out in their favor. For now though, it was time to focus and do what they did best save the day.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

With everyone as prepared as they could be, the assembly of magical girls were transported to Wonderland for the battle that was to come. Despite the strange environment Alicia was unfazed, having been mentally prepared for 'weird stuff' thanks to the overall theme of the people they were engaging with. She barely even noticed the enchantments, thanks to their prepared preventative gear as well as her ShineSpark and Light Specialization.

"Alright, we're now on the clock. Let's get moving," she said to the others as they got their bearings. They needed to take advantage of the time that they had before Wonderland could organize a response. Of course they would have to deal with the immediate problems, that being the massive wall as well as the facility beyond it. The information that they had gotten from Chloe at the last meeting really undersold how big this place was.

And it seemed they had already been noticed as a drone approached and the Mad Hatter made his appearance. Of course she didn't know anything about him either way, but she wasn't exactly inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. "The longer we're here the more time Wonderland's enchantments have to work," she pointed out as Justine and Lily argued with the Hatter.

Despite her own skepticism it looked like some others had their own opinion on the situation. "Someone needs to take the Scrambler to go rescue Alex," Alicia reminded Nefer as the other girl took the game hat or whatever in preparation to put it on. "And we don't have the time to be entertaining this."

Instead she looked over to Penny, giving her friend a small nod. "I think it's time we get a bit...explosive. I'm not worried about being found, are you?"

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

Alicia's attention shifted from the ongoing work on the earrings to the arrival of Mariette at the meeting as it happened. She did not give it too much focus for long though, since it seemed the portal-user was as determined to begin the mission as Lily was. So Alicia gave a small mental shrug and moved on as well. It seemed that they had all the information that they needed and there would not be any more girls arriving as part of their offensive, and it was best to not waste any more time.

"Make sure you all get your anti-mind control earrings, but other than that I'm ready to go too," she added. The last thing they needed was someone getting corrupted by Wonderland because they got too swept up in the heat of the moment and forgot about that part.

With that said she summoned her bow, donned her own earrings, and prepared for the fighting to come with a deep breath. This was going to be difficult, but they would succeed. What other choice was there?