Chain Wars: Battle for Alice

[Lordxana0]

Three figures cloaked in shadows stood around a young girl trapped in a glass case surrounded by roses inside of a cave. The girl was dressed in a pretty dress and looked as innocent as a new born bird. No one could tell by looking at her that she was a monster that could rip apart the very bounds of reality.

"Damn it, Cheshire should have contacted us by now, we might be the strongest fighters in Underland but if we don't know who will be attacking us then it doesn't really matter does it" one of them bellowed out obviously annoyed.

"Oh stop worrying and drink your tea you ninny" another voice playfully mocked.

"Watch who you call a ninny you hat wearing madman" the voice replied with venom.

"Both of you shut up, if you continue to argue then I will run my blade snicker-snak through you idiots" an older sounding voice lectured wearily.

Another figure came in. This shadow was bleeding and seemed to be holding himself together with his hand. "T...The queens" he fell to a knee and coughed spilling blood onto the floor.

"Dear God man what happened to you" the older sounding figure went over to him to try and help.

"The queens have united their armies, they are coming, all of their forces are coming for us" the bleeding figure gasped out. "Every single ally of the queens has gathered together to remove us, they figure they can war it out once we are gone"

"Well piss" the angry voice replied lowly. "That is going to be a problem"

"More then a problem, even we can't fight them all, we only have one real choice" the old voice said.

"Oh you mean the mad realm where things are suppose to make sense, Overworld?" the gleeful voice sang.

"Are you... never mind of course you people are crazy, you realize that if we do that we will have to release Alice and hope she ends up with someone who can control her?" The bleeding figure asked. "This is crazy, but if it is the only choice.." he stood and his body glowed with power.

The other two did as well and poured their power into the glass case. "Oh Manipulator of Chains we call upon your power to spirit us to safety, away from our homeland and into a place of sense and reason, take us oh Alice to Reality" they said together in a chant.

A bright portal opened and the glass around the case broke into a thousand pieces. The girls body disappeared into the portal. The being with the angry voice stepped in grumbling. The gleeful voiced shadow jumped in as if into water. The old voiced figure looked at the bleeding figure. "You can't make this trip whole, you will be ripped in to from the trip"

The bleeding figure smiled wide. "Then there will be twice the me to go around hm?" he stumbled in and there was a short scream of pain before he disappeared.

The old figure stood before the portal and looked behind him. "If you follow us and have ill intent then you will die, know that" he stepped through and disappeared.

Another figure walked in looking at a pocket watch. "Damn took those bastards longer then expected, now I am late" he looked back. "I really hate those two, with all of my being" he jumped through. "Time to get back on track"

The portal closed leaving an empty cave, and two soon to be very unhappy queens.

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Many years later
Boarding School for the Gifted, Manhattan, New York

Today is a day like any other. Those chosen by the spirits go about their days as if it where any other, going to their classes and living their lives as normal. Little did they know that soon the hour of destiny would be upon them. But their spirits knew, and have decided to truly reveal themselves to their hosts. The threat is coming, and it was time their hosts knew the whole story. War is coming, the Queens have arrived, and the Alice must be protected. Perhaps they feel they are going mad, but the spirits will do as they do.

(okay so here is what you do, you are in class right now, you choose what class, your spirit begins to talk to you and you talk back, once everyone posts once we get the story ball rolling)

[Guyshane]

Shane was doing his usual slacker thing. That is ignoring the teacher during math class. I wasn’t that Shane didn’t like the guy but his voice was just boring. Well at least this is an easy class I might actually be in trouble if I took a difficult one. I wonder when the test is? I suppose I could ask but really it would disrupt the guy and he’s on such a roll…

Foolish boy you should just take the time out and ask, and would it kill you to pay attention one of these times? Shane visibly cringed at the sound of the other voice in his head. This action attracted the attention of the teacher. “Mr. Shane is there a problem?”
“No Mr. Sidell, I was just wondering when the test was.”
“It is a week and a half from now.”
“Thanks.”

There are you happy now? Merely less disappointed in you than usual. Wonderful, than you can go back to whatever part of my subconscious you occupy when your not bothering me. No time for your nonsense, fool. I can sense Alice! That’s nice…Who is Alice ? My charge, the whole reason I’m here. So now I gotta protect some chick? What a drag. We can talk more during the search, now we must go posthaste! Calm down there skippy, this class goes for another ten minutes, after that I have some free time.

So the two waited until class was over. At which point Shane left and began casually moving through the school. Now mortal you will know my reasons for being here. How bout first you tell me what this “Alice” likes so we can actually find her? Good thought my boy. She will most likely found a friend who she bonded to, someone who understands being lonely. Right lets check the library first, people there are generally keeping to themselves, Now start talking. By the time Shane had reached the library the Knight had explained why he was there in the human world.

Two armies? That’s gonna be a lot of effort. We are not alone either my boy the others came with remember. In fact we already encountered at least one of them. Who? The magician. Shane stopped for a moment. The guy who set the leg of my pants on fire that one time? The same. Wonderful. Shane looked around the library and said “Time to get started” Shhh! Quiet in the library you fool! Shane sighed, it was going to be a long day

[Sicon112]

As the numbers on the small digital clock by the bedside changed to read 6:45 AM, there was not a sound to be heard. The room's single occupant didn't need something like an alarm. It would have been a waste of precious seconds to turn it off when he could just wake up on his own.

Sure enough, just as on every other morning, the grey-black eyes of one Lawrence Kewell snapped open to regard the ceiling. Even as he calmly moved aside the blanket and stood up, a voice rang in his ears, though should anyone else have been present they would not have heard it. "About time you woke up! Didn't I tell you to add an extra five minutes into your calculations? What are you going to do if something unexpected occurs?"

Turning with the efficiency and speed of practiced motion, Lawrence quickly began returning his bed to its smooth, flawless appearance, snorting derisively. That's what you are for, Rabbit. There was a note of disdain in his mental tone as he connected a name with the voice. I've explained this to you a thousand times. One cannot simply 'add' extra time into the calculations. That throws off everything you've previously worked for, and you find yourself standing around wasting time like a fool when you arrive early. Reaching off to one side without looking, he removed a hanger from a hook on the wall, and quickly removed the dress shirt upon it and changed into it, even as he made his way towards the door.

"And if you make even one mistake, you end up late!" With a roll of his eyes, Lawrence quickly grabbed a pair of pants from a hanger dangling from another seemingly randomly placed hook. Changing even as he walked closer to the door, an acquired skill from years of practice, but a very efficient one, he glanced sideways into a mirror as he passed, ensuring that his appearance was immaculate as always.

Another concept I have explained to you many times. I do not make mistakes. Hanging near the door to his room was a suit jacket matching the deep blue of his pants, and he scooped it up as he stepped towards a table sitting just to the side of the door. Bringing his hand down on the edge of the table, where a cell phone sat half on and half off, he launched the device into the air and caught it as he finished placing his arm through the sleeve of his jacket. Glancing at the now lit screen, he read the words on it, affirming that all was as it should be.

Schedule: Monday

6:45 AM

Wake up.

6:45:20 AM

Make bed, and move to get dressed while arguing with the rabbit. Subject is the same as always.

6:46:37 AM

Acquire phone. Check schedule for reference. Grab bag and depart room.

Glancing at the clock, the time listed there was indeed accurate. Some tenseness slipping away from him, he nodded contentedly and opened the door, snatching up the book bag beside him and moving in the direction of the restrooms and stairway down the hall. His phone beeped a warning at the same time he glanced down at it, and already knowing what the screen would show, he took a step to the side so that he stood against the wall of the corridor.

6:48:03 AM

The resident of room 205 exits his room. I must step to the right so that his opening door obscures me from view as he moves to the restrooms. If contact is made, he will go on at length about his latest conspiracy theories and attempt to borrow spare change for the express purpose of ordering a pizza.

Approximate time saved: Eighteen minutes, forty-two seconds.

At that instant, the door a few inches in front of him opened, but not before the sound of multiple locks being opened reached his ears. He was almost entirely certain that half of the locks covering the inside of the door were not even attached to something. There was a shuffling noise, and he could see the shadow of the room's inhabitant hesitantly poking his head outside and glancing around. He had noted the marked paranoiac tendencies upon first meeting the student, but he was still mystified as to why said tendencies did not seem to manifest as a distrust of him. The current working theory based on behavioral analysis data was that he considered Lawrence's standoffish and obvious anti-social tendencies to be a similar distrust, judging by the fact that he never felt the need to fully explain himself, as though he assumed Lawrence already grasped the basics. This was corroborated by his actions of understanding when Lawrence expressed a lack of knowledge on the topic, whatever it was that day, stating something to the effect that it was probably a good idea not to reveal his true colors in places where 'they' could be watching.

The contractor shook his head in mild exasperation as the door before him was slammed and he glimpsed the student darting into the restroom door. What a bothersome person.

"Hmph. Quite. He has no respect for the schedules of others."

And a complete lack of sense. Lawrence added. The times when he agreed with the rabbit were not entirely uncommon, but certainly not a normal event. Moving quickly, he headed down the stairs and exited the dormitory building, walking down the concrete sidewalk leading to the lunch hall. Ignoring the other students drifting in the same direction as himself, Lawrence kept his gaze focused on his phone. He found that if a person seemed preoccupied, there was less chance of a person interrupting them. His reputation only assisted in that end.

Lawrence approached the building and moved towards the side entrance.

6:59:13 AM

The line for breakfast extends far past the main entryway at this point. Entering through there and walking all the way back would be inefficient and a waste of time.

6:59:48 AM

The teacher in charge of opening the cafeteria is using a watch that is 12 seconds slow, according to my previous observations. The doors open early, and the line begins to move.

7:00:12 AM

Use the left side door to enter the building. The head of the track and field team is late for morning practice as always, and a collision is inevitable if actions are not taken.

Approximate time saved: One minute, seven seconds.

At that instant, even as Lawrence's hand touched the left door handle, the right side door swung open violently as a girl ran past him, shouting an apology, muffled by the piece of toast hanging from her mouth - those with early morning activities were let in early to breakfast in certain cases - not even seeming to notice who it was she had nearly hit. Lawrence didn't bother to respond, but calmly strode inside and joined the end of the line, which was now moving along at a steady pace. So far so good. No time wasted.

As he walked along, he quietly observed the unorganized crowd of people ahead of him that was considered a 'line' with annoyance. If they would just organize themselves, things would go much faster. However, humans seemed to be incapable of that sensible action. What a waste.

The one who shared his mind agreed heartily, and he noted how oddly well they were getting along today as he showed his student ID to the man at the door, before entering and grabbing a plate, moving only towards the least populated buffets. "We are not getting on 'oddly well". We just happen to be conversing on the one topic we can agree on. I still can't stand you."

That's a pity. For you. Now be silent, I'm trying to eat.

The sound of a door slamming rang out through his head as Lawrence cut off his connection to the reality bending clock tower harbored within his soul, ignoring the angry voice of his contracted spirit.

Lawrence continued with his meal in silence, observing the people around him dispassionately. No one attempted to approach him or his table, his reputation and serious look serving to scare away most of the other people in the large hall. He was thankful for this, for otherwise his breakfast would be interrupted by oh-so-many different annoyances, and his meticulous schedule would be blasted apart in an instant. The mere thought of such an event was upsetting, so he put it aside and began scanning the crowd of students. He did not search for anything in particular, merely took in each and every detail silently, filing it all away somewhere within his mind. Very little of it would ever be used, but that did not bother him. His purpose was simply to watch the world around him. He didn't need to do anything more.

Placing the last bite of his food into his mouth, Lawrence gathered his dishes together, and picking them up, along with his bag and phone - which gave a beep of warning as the allotted time for food ran out - he moved to the disposal rack.

7:31:05 AM

The time for breakfast is over. Dispose of the dishes and move, otherwise the rest of the schedule is in jeopardy. Timing is crucial.

Once he had passed off his plate and glass, Lawrence made a beeline through the crowd for the exit. As he left the dining hall and moved through the corridors to the outside, he glanced back at the screen in his hands.

7:34:20 AM

That girl from geometry is going to attempt to confess for the third time. She is moving to the dining hall to try and find me eating. Walk quickly and with purpose, and round the corner as she is about to reach it, catching her by surprise, and making time to escape before more time is wasted.

Approximate time saved: Seven minutes, thirty-five seconds.

Sure enough, as he rounded the corner walking as though in a hurry with all his attention on his phone, there was a squeak of surprise as he slipped past the shocked girl and out the door.

With that out of the way, he turned his gaze to the physics building, where his first class of the morning was held. He had twenty-five minutes. The rabbit, who had now pried his way back into Lawrence's thoughts once more, spoke. "Hmph, you left with time to spare for once! Quickly, let's get to the classroom before anything else can happen!"

You would want to do that, wouldn't you? Lawrence's mental voice once more carried disdain. No wonder you are always late. Watch and learn. He flicked his phone out of his pocket once more, and even as the screen lit up he took a detour away from the physics building and towards the library.

7:38:18 AM

Do not go directly into the physics building. The student council president is looking for someone to assist in running errands that need to be completed before class time. Her assistant is lazy and has slipped away without completing his work. Entering directly through the building will cause a confrontation, and there won't be any time to return to the building before class begins. Detour through the library instead and return a book while there.

It wasn't an odd sight to see the president randomly drafting passing students, and it was a well known fact that it was all the fault of her assistant. Opening the doors to the silent building, Lawrence slipped among the bookshelves.

7:41:59 AM

The librarian's assistant is sorting in returned books in her usual pattern. The cart carrying the books is sticking halfway out around the corner of this shelf. Avoid it.

Sidestepping the wheeled rack full of books, which was indeed in his path, he quickly walked to the desk, drawing the book and a piece of paper from his bag and dropping them on the desk as he passed by.

7:42:20 AM

Leave the book at the main desk with a note before anyone can return to man the desk. The assistant librarian working in the morning is too shy to hold a proper conversation with, and attempting to speak with her about returning a book will only cause delay.

He heard the shuffling of someone approaching behind him, but Lawrence slipped off into the high shelves before he could be seen, making his way to the door over into the classroom wing of the building. And see? Fifteen minutes left. Just enough time to arrive right on schedule.

"Your method is far too risky. What if we were to be assaulted in this crowd by one of our enemies?" Sure enough, Lawrence was now weaving his way through groups of students that were, like him, moving purposefully towards their classrooms.

First of all, I don't recall making any enemies. I believe that one is firmly in the realm of "Your Fault". I mean, what were you thinking? Betraying your former employer and fleeing alongside her most bitter enemies because she was getting too psychotic? It's simple to predict that she would follow Alice and company here. If you had remained in the Underland, things would be going along swimmingly for both of us. The path Lawrence now trod required little attention, and so he let his mind drift away from his body, falling down deep into the world inside his soul.

The world of students and hallways surrounding him fell away before his eyes, and he stood clad not in his school uniform jacket, but in an intricate white and black suit with a long and incredibly fancy coat trailing behind him. Stepping through a doorway before his eyes, he reached into the pocked of his suit, from which a golden chain trailed, and pulled out an ornate golden pocket watch, flicking open the beautifully carved cover and glancing at the clock face, a part of which was transparent, revealing some of the machine's inner workings. Strangely, the revealed pieces did not seem to be those of a normal watch.

Watch.png (175.8 KiB) Viewed 11496 times

Frowning at the device in his palm, Lawrence reached up, and with a few quick motions of his hand, wound the device back up. It must have run low while he had been outside this world. Sure enough, with the first twist, the watch hands began to whirl around the clock face with surprising speed, before abruptly stopping at the exact correct time.It was at the moment that the clock completed adjusting itself that a haunting, quiet melody began to play, as the tumbler for the music box contained within the watch began to turn, for that was what the revealed pieces were.

Before the melody could get very far, however, Lawrence slammed the cover shut and stepped into the room before him, as immense gears turned and creaked far above his head. With a loud thunk that made the wooden floor shake, the hand on the partially visible clock face across the wide room moved slightly. However, Lawrence ignored that, as though it were a normal occurrence, which, to him, it was, and instead strode towards the white-clothed table in the center of the room, where a white rabbit wearing an almost identical outfit sat like a human, sipping his tea.

"Need I remind you that without me you wouldn't be capable of nearly as many things as you are now?"

Lawrence snorted once more, sitting down across from his contracted spirit, picking up the second cup of tea. "Hah! You make it sound as if you had some altruistic motive to your choice. You and I both know that you merely determined that I was the human in your vicinity least likely to be regularly late."

"Regardless of why I chose you, my presence still makes you one of the most powerful human beings in existence. You should be thankful."

"And it also gives me a splitting headache when you start throwing a fit. Your point?"

"I do not throw fits, imbecile!"

"Watch out. If you get any more upset, you'll spill your tea, Rabbit."

Lawrence received a withering glare in response. "Are you done acting like a child now, Lawrence? There are serious matters afoot."

"I am merely drawing attention to your failings. You should be thankful." The rabbit's eye twitched as the mocking echo of his previous statement did not go unnoticed.

"Hmph. I think we can both agree that this conversation is wasting time. We need to begin making preparations." He shifted nervously.

"What, you think your ex-employer is going to come after us? Shouldn't she still be looking for that 'Alice' person you spoke of?"

"That's the thing. I've been noticing things at this school are... off. Places where the world feels twisted, like this tower. Like the Underland."

Lawrence tensed. Now he was serious. "You suspect the others that you spoke of before arrived at this school, then?"

"...Perhaps. I'm not entirely sure, but I'm almost certain of at least one person. It's been years, but I don't forget things, especially powers that have been turned against me on more than one occasion."

Lawrence opened his mouth to respond to his strange companion, then paused and glanced up and beyond the rabbit towards the tiny section he could see of the massive, ever ticking clock face. 'I- We will finish this later."

Nodding, the rabbit and tower faded away before his eyes leaving behind the familiar sight of his physics classroom and the deep, melodious sound of the eldritch tower ringing in the new hour. While he had been speaking within his mind, he had been organizing his textbooks, and just as he opened the last one to the proper page the bell for class rang and the teacher stepped forward from behind his desk at the front of the room.

As role was taken, Lawrence made a show of turning off his phone and stowing it in his bag, glancing at the screen one more time as he did so. He already knew what was on there; after all he had written it last night and he never forgot a detail, but this was one of the few times he almost hoped he predicted wrong. Almost, because such a thing would be absolutely unbearable, but still...

8:01:36 AM

An annoyance appears.

[AMimsyBorogove]

The teacher's voice resounded several times through the rapidly filling classroom, each time calling upon a different name as the somewhat elderly gentleman presiding over the class began to take attendance. Without delay, students promptly responded, and the man continued on down the list. Until...

"Asterus Rysell? Is there an Asterus Rysell here?" The man asked for at least the third time, but was met only with silence, his voice receiving no reply. Just as he was about to give up on the particular student in question, however...

"Hi..."

... a loud, long creak and a quiet, echoing sing-song voice became audible, not from the door or any other expected place, but rather, from a large storage closet directly beside the blackboard, right behind the teacher's very desk. As this tall compartment, the shelves inside which should not have allowed for the accommodation of any sort of Human-sized object, swung open, a tall, distinctive boy appeared from within in violation of all logic. His azure eyes seemed to glow like twin moons from the darkness of the cabinet, and upon his ever-so-slightly pale face was playing a grin that ranked somewhere between disturbing and psychotic. The professor recoiled slightly, jumping back in surprise at the sound as the door fully opened, revealing the one who stood there. Clad in a preposterous outfit - a slightly oversized black leather longcoat, the tails of which were rather tattered from extensive wear, but the rest of which was largely without any sort of blemish or mark, a garment which was accompanied by a suit and tie, and a rather distinctive black fedora - the unexpected new arrival slowly emerged from behind the door. For a moment, all was silent save for a few cries of surprise and shock.

...

Then, with a loud crash, Asterus Rysell fell flat on his face, apparently been simply propped against the inside of the cabinet door for some undefined amount of time, a position which overturned him the moment the door opened and his support was lost. Yet, in the next instant, he was suddenly on his feet again, almost as though there was no transition between his falling and his standing. Already, he was stretching his arms behind his back, and giving a loud, echoing yawn. Giving a grin, he glanced around himself as though only just waking from sleep.

"Ah! That was a nice nap!~" He declared cheerfully to nobody in particular, his high pitched, almost laughing voice piercing the silence like a blade. "Good morning, teacher! Were you looking for me?" The baffled professor, not sure exactly how he should respond to this situation, only gave a slight, nervous nod. Asterus grinned cheerfully, in a manner that, while not quite as disturbing as his initial appearance from amidst the darkness, was nonetheless ever-so-slightly... unhinged.

"Ah! Alright, then! Well, as it so happens, I was looking for you, so I suppose this meeting is convenient for both of us!" The boy declared amicably, his words making it seem like he wasn't entirely aware of where exactly he was. Far more likely, he simply didn't care and was just screwing with people's heads like he always did. No, scratch that. He knew exactly where he was, and he knew exactly what he was doing, something which, incidentally, wasn't laughing like a lunatic. But only barely.

The professor began to stammer a question, not seeming to understand Asterus' meaning, and so he, (un)helpfully enough, reached back into the cupboard. For a moment, his hand was concealed behind one of the doors. This time was, evidently, all it took for him to draw forth a particularly large, long object that could not possibly have fit up his sleeve, or been wedged into the cabinet in a manner that would have prevented it from being seen before now. None of these details did absolutely anything to stop the carefree young man to whom reality seemed to be a particularly amusing joke.

The young lad smiled, the object he had just apparently summoned for no reason save his personal amusement flashing slightly in the light, its glistening gold-colored trim - which might or might not have actually have been made of real gold - and brightly decorated head catching the light as the boy casually twirled the ornate, old-fashioned cane by its middle, before abruptly tossing it into the air, catching it, and, taking hold of its very bottom, beginning to turn it. Slowly, he unscrewed the tip of the cane despite the fact that no sort of aperture or other divide had been visible a moment before, seeming to simply make up what he was doing as he went along and drag reality kicking and screaming into going along with his wild whims. With a quiet pop of depressurization, the base of the cane came loose, and, with a few more fanciful flourishes, Asterus was once more holding the ornamental implement by its head, and pointing the now opened tip at the teacher. Smiling calmly as he gazed down the cane, the lad idly noted that the teacher didn't seem to share his expression, looking rather frightened and confused by the sudden turn of events. The class, meanwhile, were already beginning to murmur and cry out with surprise, but the young magician hardly noticed.

He smiled. Then, with an audible pop, a rolled up sheet of paper flew forth from the base of the cane as though fired from a toy gun, and collided with the teacher's face. The professor caught the wayward scrap, and looked down at it. "It's my homework!" Asterus explained cheerfully, as though completely oblivious of the fact that he was currently apparently bending reality to his whims.

"W-why..?" The professor asked, looking down alternatively at the inexplicable cane and at the homework in his hands. Asterus merely grinned, and, drawing back the cane, set about winding the end back into place while he cheerfully explained, waving a white-gloved hand dismissively and yet somehow managing to both hold the cane in place and screw the end back on with only one hand, while at the same time driving a more metaphorical screw into the minds of every last individual present in the room.

"Why did I use a cane?" Asterus asked, grinning. The professor nodded numbly, and he continued. "Oh, well that's simple! You see, I wasn't quite sure about how well I did, so I figured that I'd just be prepared."

"E-er... For what?"

"Well," He said cheerfully, a light flashing in his eyes and a smile lighting up his face in a manner that suggested he was about to say something very insightful. "The way I see it, you can't give me the cane if I already have it, now can you?" He gave an altogether too chipper laugh as the teacher stammered a confused response, and, removing his hat and sweeping it across his chest in an entirely overdramatic fashion, he gave an old-fashioned bow.

"Thank you for your understanding, my good sir!" He said smilingly. Then, he rose to a standing position, gave a cheerful grin, and, turning over his hat, dropped his cane into it. The collective jaws of everyone in the room dropped as the hat, nowhere near deep enough to store the object, inexplicably consumed it without leaving so much as a trace. There was no sound as the cane fell out of sight, and did not emerge again. Asterus merely smiled at their stupefaction, and placed the hat snugly upon his head once more, then turned and cheerfully strolled into the mass of desks, seeming more to float and dance over the ground than actually walk as he hopped along, swiftly locating his own seat and plopping down into it. Idly, he noticed out of the corner of his startlingly blue eye that a certain familiar-looking student - one currently giving him a look of mild annoyance - was currently in the process of reciting something to himself under his breath while methodically unpacking several AA batteries and inserting them into a handheld electric fan. The hat-wearing boy sighed. It seemed that his buzzkilling acquaintance was at it again.

Seating himself just to the left of this boy, he grinned. "Life's no fun if there's nothing new and exciting in it, you know," He said offhandedly to the disinterested lad beside him, sounding ever-so-slightly disappointed in his jaded subject, who completely failed to react or respond, as usual. Reaching into his desk as he spoke, ostensibly for his books, his hand met what he was looking for. Then, with a slight scraping sound, he took hold of the object, and withdrew... a large, old fashioned umbrella, yet another object that was far too large to have been hidden either on his person or in the desk itself. And yet somehow, in happy-go-lucky violation of reality, he produced the object, raised it over his head, and then unfolded it. With a quiet sound of muffled fanfare from within the boy's hat, the out-of-place object spread over him, and a shower of rainbow-colored confetti, complete with matching streamers, erupted from inside its canopy. He smiled, twirling the umbrella over his head as the gaudy storm spread out around him, carried on the air current generated from a certain small fan. Large amounts of it became entangled in his hat, but he continued, apparently blissfully unaware of this fact. Spinning the umbrella, he lounged back in his seat.

"W-what are you doing?" The professor's voice snapped him back to attention, and he glanced up innocently, still spinning his umbrella.

"Currently? Sitting in a physics class holding an umbrella," Asterus answered dutifully.

...

"Why are you holding an umbrella?" The man asked.

"Oh! 'Cause there's an air vent above me, and I don't want dust and cobwebs to get on my hat," The boy replied simply.

"But your hat is already covered in confetti from that umbrella," The professor pointed out. Asterus merely lowered the umbrella for a moment, obscuring his head from the view of everyone in the classroom. Then, he raised it.

"Whatever do you mean?" He asked cheerfully. "As you can plainly see, there's no such thing."

"L-look, just put the umbrella away, alright?" The man requested placatingly.

"Aww... Well, you're the boss. Whatever you say," He said at last, shrugging his shoulders as he idly folded up the umbrella. Then, he withdrew his hat from his head, grinned conspiratorially, and dropped the item casually into its seemingly infinite depths. Donning the fedora once again, he remained blissfully unaware of the stares of shock, disbelief, and confusion aimed at him from all sides, and simply drew forth his books in preparation for work. Like always, Asterus thought, it was looking like it'd be an amusing day. Even moreso than usual, in fact. Because today... he finally had an objective. At long last... he'd found what he was looking for...

...The most delicious bakery and tea shop he'd ever seen! Seriously, the little cakes they sold were delicious, and their tea was second to none! Everything there was so delicious, he'd even eaten the plates once or twice!

...

Oh, and he'd also discerned a chief suspect for the host of Alice. That was important too. Critically important. Earth-shatteringly important. Like cakes, but more... explodey. Not that he was complaining, though. Explosions were fun.

[agoraoptera]

Confetti drifted about and a stray strand landed on Calarine's table, resting beside a small ball of string. Her lips curled ever so slightly in displeasure; that Asterus Rysell had always been irritating, in her opinion, but this time he'd outdone himself. Dramatics, she felt, were best used in moderation. Calarine pulled the hood of her jacket closer to her face.

Meow. The soft sound came with a distinctly sardonic and mockingly innocent tone, and she narrowed her eyes to slits.

"Quiet." She hissed, the hairs on her arm fairly bristling.

What did I do now? Calarine could just imagine the Cat pouting, maybe padding back and forth, swishing its tail in an effort to get her attention. When she didn't reply, instead tucking her head in her arms and resting them on the table, the Cat sighed. Trust me, my dear, it is truly better the Hatter you know.

"What do you mean?" She wanted to ask, but through her arms, it was little more than a muffled mumble. The Cat however, seemed to get the gist of it.

I am not, it seemed to grin in her mind, given to the habit of explaining myself. Let the boy play. See him enjoy, watch him have his fun. Better now than later, when our two beloved monarchs come marching in at the head of their armies. Speaking of March, I wonder-

"Stop digressing." She snapped, adjusting such that she now lay with her head facing the poor, baffled teacher.

Less anger, my dear. Such rage is unbecoming of you, more fitting for the Hare, really and-

"Stop-"

-what I have to say is simply that several of these classmates of yours, and several other more whom you do not know, are like you. That is, they each contain a different colleague of mine, so to speak. Like Asterus Rysell, for example- what a silly name, not really quite fitting in this Overworld reputed to be oh-so-sane but forgive me, I digress-, Calarine knew that if it were at all possible, the Cat would have cleared its throat, Asterus Rysell is the host, if I may use such a parasitic word, for a dear friend of mine, the Mad Hatter.

"I don't care. They won't notice me, thanks to you." She shot vehemently back at the purring voice in her head.

Worry. The Cat commanded, atypically grave. Alice is here, finally, and she brings a storm. When water falls from the sky, cats ought to seek shelter. And we, well, we have none.

Calarine shrugged.

Oh, enough with your resentment. Quite frankly, it is rather off-putting. The Cat paused, then broke into a whimsical ditty.

There are those who live in pain,
And others dwell in doubt.
Many feed on the grain,
Myself, I prefer trout.

She had to admit, it was rather amusing. Uncontrollably, Calarine felt a wide smile forming on her lips.

There now, my dear. Much better. You look so much better.

And she grinned.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

He liked to think of it as "the drama class for people who hate drama." The drama queens and extroverts and semi-professional actors were mostly in the other section; in this one were the people who were taking the course in the hopes of an easy A, or to fill a requirement, or because they had to. Take Daniel, for example; he probably wouldn't have chosen this course if he hadn't gotten an order from Above.

"You seem to be having trouble adjusting," the school counselor had told him the year before, when he'd gotten into his first fight after less than a week there. No, I'm not, Daniel thought. I got into fights at my last school, I'm getting into fights here. Clearly I've adjusted perfectly. He said nothing.

"We think," the counselor continued, not explaining who joined him in this 'we', "that you need an outlet for your energies, Dan." Did I say you could call me Dan? Daniel thought irritably. He said nothing.

"Normally, sports teams are a great physical outlet, but sports can be so... violent, and we wouldn't want anyone to get hurt." You mean you don't want to be responsible for me hospitalizing one of your precious students. You can just say that. I get it, I'm too dangerous to have around. So kick me out already. Daniel said nothing.

"Instead, we're going to put you in a dramatic arts class. I'm sure you'll find that the creative energies and physical expression will help you deal with your frustrations in a more peaceful manner than you have been." You have GOT to be kidding me, Daniel thought, his stunned bemusement at this truly absurd 'punishment' so great that it almost, but not quite, drowned out the Hare's gleeful crowing in his mind. He nodded, mutely accepted the revised schedule that the idiot counselor proffered, and left the guidance office.

So here he was, listening to the teacher go on about improv this and listening to your inner voice that, and frankly Daniel had enough inner voices as it was, and-- speak of the devil, the Hare spoke up again. This time, he was a little glad for the distraction.

"Drink some tea, Daniel." Daniel's hand was halfway to the thermos dangling from his backpack, his body responding to the order before his mind could process it, before he thought to question it.

Why?

"I have something important to tell you, and I want you to brace yourself."

Like tea would help. I want my coffee back.

"Oh, do grow up, Daniel. This tea is as caffeinated as anything you drink."

Doesn't matter; it tastes awful. You goddamn English and your ----ing TEA.

The Hare sounded amused. "You think my taste for tea has something to do with being English? Never mind that the Underworld isn't actually a part of England or any other nationality, as well you know."

Yes, well, last time I checked, rabbits weren't particularly known for their tea-drinking habits, so I'll take what I can get.

"I am a hare. Not a rabbit. NOT a rabbit."

Daniel stood up, irritated. "Oh, SHUT UP!"

A slight girl, who, unbeknownst to the distracted boy, was in his direct line of sight and caught the full brunt of his glare, asked a tremulous "E- excuse me?"

Dammit, he'd said that out loud, hadn't he? Well, it wasn't the first time it had happened, and he'd be damned if he was going to back down just because he hadn't meant it. He quickly ran over in his head what the teacher had been saying to get some context on the fight he seemed to have just gotten himself into.

As he was doing that, Mrs. Greenwood gestured to the short girl to stand. "Excellent," she said, "Daniel and Lorelei. About time you two tried going out of your 'comfort zone'. Let's see what you can come up with."

Daniel's mind caught up with the situation, realizing that, this time, he had volunteered not for a fight, but for a game of Freeze. Well, it could be worse.

He didn't particularly want to be in a drama class, but that didn't mean he couldn't hold his own dramatically, especially with the help of his mad friend. Which was just as well, considering all he knew about Lorelei was enough to know that she was probably not going to drive this scene forward. "You heard me," he blustered, casting his mind about for a subject for this scene, "shut up!" Ah, I know. "You're constantly talking, and talking, and you're never even talking to me! It's always to the voices in your head, the voices which whisper to you of secrets, and intrigue, and beg you to help their cause. I've had enough of this madness, both for my sake and yours! I can't stand hearing you rant and rave about your invisible friend, and as for you-- you're simply mad. Schizophrenic or something."

"Is that what you think of me?" the Hare whispered. "I'd be wounded, but I'm too busy laughing my ears off."

Yes, you would be, Daniel shot back, waiting for his scene partner's reaction. She might not be great in front of an audience, but he'd given her plenty to work with here.

Lorelei's eyes widened and she paled dramatically. Her eyes darted between him and the door and she stood stiff as a rod. All right, Daniel thought, if she really wants to play this 'crazy'... "You need help," he told her, "and I'm determined to see you get it." He reached behind little Lorelei, bending down to stretch one arm behind the crook of her knees as the other went around her upper back, sweeping her off her feet and into his arms in one swift motion.

As she looked up at him from rather higher up than usual, her mute deer-in-headlights expression escalated to near-terror and what looked like a valiant attempt, though one meeting ultimately in failure, to say something, anything, he added, "I'm taking you to the hospital."

"Freeze!" called a voice, just as the Hare seemed to stir in response to some stimulus that Daniel hadn't consciously noticed.

"Wait-- hang on," the Hare tried to tell him, as he gently put Lorelei down, chuckling as he picked up the grinning boy who had volunteered to take her place and change the scene. "She's... someone..."

Someone? Daniel asked sardonically. I would never have guessed.

"No, the March Hare insisted, sounding more frustrated than usual, "this is important. I should be able to get a better handle on her, but something's... blocking it... fading..."

"Mommy, I don't WANT to go to bed," whined the teenage boy in Daniel's arms, unaware of the internal dialogue he was interrupting. "I wanna stay up forever and play games with you!"

"Well, it's time for sleep," Daniel murmured distractedly, still trying to figure out what his contracted spirit was trying to tell him. "You know you're sleepy, you just haven't realized it yet."

"But Mommy, I'm HUNGRY," continued the boy, apparently enjoying himself channeling his inner three-year-old. "And I want a cat. Can I have a kitty-cat?"

"Cat... cat... THAT'S IT!" Daniel almost jumped at the Hare's mental outburst.

What's it?

"Quick, no time to explain. You have to speak to that girl. Drop what you're doing, cut class, get out of here."

Daniel was more than happy to obey if it meant getting out of this class. He dropped his classmate unceremoniously, looping his arm through the strap of his backpack as he made a beeline for the door.

"With her, you idiot!"

Oh. Right. Daniel went back and scooped up Lorelei again, before turning around to go.

"Mr. Renoue, where do you think you're--"

"Bye Mrs. Greenwood, I just got a call about an emergency, sorry," he called over his shoulder, as he made his escape. The library should be a quiet place to talk around this time of day, he figured, wondering how to break the ice with the girl who was once again staring at him in confusion from the cradle of his arms, And maybe you, he thought at the Hare, can explain what exactly the three of us are doing here.

[IslaKariese]

As she sat in the Drama classroom listening to Mrs. Greenwood talk about breathing exercises and meditation, Lori just had to wonder what in the ever-living hell she was doing here.

She didn't want to be here. She didn't even need to be here. Drama didn't suit her in the least, and the only purpose it served was to make her parents, counselor, and therapist feel better. It did nothing for her to attend a lower level class when she was already smart enough to have graduated last year.

Despite all this, Lori wasn't angry about it. No, after years of stunts all too similar to this, she was simply apathetic to her parents' attempts to reform her into a normal person, a healthy member of society. They were going about it all wrong, in her opinion, but there was really no right way to go about it since she didn't particularly want to be fixed and didn't think anything needed fixing.

"You know," said a smooth, almost mist-like voice in her head, "You really should smile more often. It's rather... unbecoming."

Yes, and you care for appearances so much, Chess, thought Lori, though the faintest of smiles grew on her face the moment she heard its voice.

"Sure, I do!" said Chess almost indignantly. She could still hear the smile in its voice, though. "Appearances, disappearances, reappearances, the whole lot of it is a rather fascinating subject, wouldn't you agree?" As if to prove its point, she felt a sudden weight on her lap and the feel of fur rubbing against her cheek. There was no visible evidence of anything being there, not even a crease in her skirt, long and flowing as it was. This was all entirely in her head. But the Cat, being what it was, could do this sort of thing. Lori often appreciated the gesture.

"Not always?" it asked teasingly, reading her thoughts as always.

Lori raised a brow and smirked slightly. When you use it to distract me from class or make my training harder, it's not all that appreciated. But I know I can't stop you from doing it, so I never bother anymore.

"Indeed," said Chess, and she felt it purr against her chest and inside her head. "Cats are never owned or commanded to do anything they don't want to. And neither are you, Willow dear."

Lori rolled her eyes that time, as she always did when Chess called her that. Even when she was a little girl, it called her by her middle name rather than her first. The first and only time she asked why, its reply was that every decent Cat needs a good reliable tree to nap in. Something always told her that if her middle name didn't happen to be Willow, Chess would call her by a name that didn't resemble hers in the slightest.

"And if I did," said Chess, replying to her thoughts again, "I would call you something that fit you. Not like the slithy toves that hardly bother to call themselves your parents..."

...And there went her good mood. No, they weren't the sort of parents that would win any awards. Not for the world's best parents, but not for the world's worst, either. They didn't abuse her, didn't hit her, didn't abandon her. Per se. They just... didn't seem to care. Not enough to help her when she was young and impressionable enough to be helped.

Now, though... well, they were just trying too hard now. And they didn't bother to ever figure out what was actually wrong, they just sent her off to a boarding school. Which was actually probably worse. She both hated and feared people, to the point of her being heavily phobic, and the forced interaction brought by going from private one-on-one home tutoring to living with strangers... well. But she never allowed herself to think on it much. She knew they loved her. They just didn't know how.

The near-growling quality of Chess' purr informed her of what it thought of her train of thought, but before she could reply, a rough voice sounded from behind her.

"Oh, SHUT UP!"

Lori turned as quick as lightning towards the boy who screamed, and he was a veritable giant, towering over her. He was much broader and had nearly two feet's advantage over her, and she cowered as she noticed his glare on her. "E-excuse me?" she whimpered, cursing herself all the while. Inexplicably, she felt Chess' grin return and grow as wide as it had ever gotten.

"Excellent!" said Mrs. Greenwood, startling her further. "Daniel and Lorelei. About time you two tried going out of your 'comfort zone'. Let's see what you can come up with."

What? What? She wasn't paying any attention to the class at all, and she sure as hell never volunteered for anything. The sudden chaos of the situation caused Chess to curl into himself with laughter, making his presence disappear from her lap as she was made to stand. She breathed deeply, forcing herself to calm as she turned back to her new 'partner.' She didn't know him, of course. She never bothered to know anybody. But he certainly had her attention as he continued to speak.

"You heard me," he said, stumbling the slightest bit over his words now that he had the class' attention. "Shut up! You're constantly talking, and talking, and you're never even talking to me! It's always to the voices in your head, the voices which whisper to you of secrets, and intrigue, and beg you to help their cause. I've had enough of this madness, both for my sake and yours! I can't stand hearing you rant and rave about your invisible friend, and as for you-- you're simply mad. Schizophrenic or something."

...She was pretty sure her heart stopped beating. That, or it was simply being drowned out by the sound of Chess' laughter growing even louder. She, however, found nothing funny about the accusations. Her eyes darted between the boy - Daniel - and the doors out of the room. She needed to get out. She needed air. She needed to think, find a way to shut him up--

"Relax," said Chess, still chuckling, and while her body refused to move at all, she was still able to toss the largest ball of pure annoyance that she could at him. It did no good, as the Cat simply laughed harder and Daniel kept talking.

"You need help," he told her, sounding almost kind. Lori wanted to scoff and claw the bastard to ribbons as he continued, "and I'm determined to see you get it."

The boy then proceeded to do what was possibly the best and worst thing to happen to her. He stepped forward, maneuvering himself beside her so quickly she could hardly react, and scooped her up in his arms.

In other words, he touched her.

She froze completely, in body and mind alike, even as her arms instinctively went around his neck. Chess, in response to her fear, went just as still and silent. She could look nowhere but straight into his eyes now, and she fought herself valiantly. Don't touch me, don't touch me, let go of me, don't touch me... But her jaw was frozen and she couldn't say a single word as he so very calmly looked back at her and said, "I'm taking you to the hospital."

But before he could take a single step, someone else shouted "Freeze!" and made the world come back into focus as Daniel... simply put her down. She stumbled away as he picked up another boy in much the same manner, and as she collapsed back into the nearest chair, her fear finally subsided somewhat to make way for confusion. What... what was...

"It was a drama exercise, Willow," said the Cat, no longer teasing or playful. It was subdued and made its voice as calming as possible. "None of the accusations he made were serious. You're safe." Lori sighed deeply, putting a hand to her chest to calm her racing heart. That was terrible. No one had bothered to make physical contact with her like that since... since...

"Don't strain yourself," said Chess lowly. "We both know it's been a while. In the meantime, I suppose I should let you know that we will be keeping in contact with that boy much more often."

Say what? Why?

"Reasons. Things are coming to a head, and life will not be the same for you and I. In fact, it won't just be the two of us any longer, but rather the two of me and the multitude of you and mine and yours."

Lori sighed. She hated when it fell into a vague riddle-like frame of mind - she hardly ever understood it then. But it wasn't quite over yet as the Cat quite suddenly and randomly started counting down. "Five, four, three, two..."

What are you on abou-- wha-! Lori nearly cursed as she was suddenly picked up again, and her panicked confusion returned twofold. It was Daniel again, and despite her hearing being muffled by the rush of blood through her ears, she could make out something about an emergency as he carried her out of the room.

"Don't worry, Willow dear, I've got your bag," she heard Chess say. It had a grin in its voice again, but rather strained thanks to her emotions and its protectiveness over her. It never liked her fear, and her relatively helpless condition at the moment put him on edge. Why it thought she cared one lick about her bag at the moment, Lori had no clue, but she wasn't in the right condition to think much, anyway.

However, as the contact prolonged itself, she found her panic wearing away bit by bit, though most of it, plus all of her confusion, remained. As she became aware of herself, she found their path familiar. The library? He's taking us to the library?

"No better place in a place like this, I suppose," said Chess. "Though, if the Hare had his way, he'd probably leave the school altogether and find a tea shop somewhere..."

The Hare...? She looked up at Daniel and witnessed the curious spectacle of his eyes appearing out of focus, concentrating on something else entirely. Like a conversation. You mean...? So this boy is partners with the March Hare?

"Indeed. Though, host is probably a better word. Most of the others could hardly consider themselves partners with anybody from Overland, but I suppose we will see for ourselves soon enough."

That meant they were on their way to meet others. Lori's eyes shimmered with comprehension and she finally gave a grin to match Chess'. Well, then, partner, I do believe we're set for a rather grand adventure. Wouldn't you agree, dear Cheshire Cat?

Chess' heavy purr was her only answer.

[Lordxana0]

"Deep breath in, deep breath out, the smoke isn't quite as thick as what we bought before is it?" on the roof of the school sat a thirty something man sitting next to a hookah filled with smoke. He put the nozzle to the side and looked up at the smoke cloud he created. It was blown away rather quickly by the wind. "Two forces, the strongest fighters in all of Underland, those who were known as the guardians of Alice, against five million years of Underland advancement, it will be interesting to see which is more impressive" He lifted his hand and a butterfly landed on his palm. "I suppose you don't know either do you?" He looked at it. "Oh well, all we can do is watch, watch and enjoy the show, and maybe, just maybe if we are lucky, we will see something that defies all logic, boy what an interesting event that would be" he took a deep drag from the hookah and let out small smoke rings. "No, I know not to interfere, I might be human, but I detached myself from my humanity a long time ago, I realize that we are still a neutral party in this war, to join either side without proper knowledge would see us both killed, that wouldn't be any good, but still... they are just kids you know, it is going to be hard on them" he took a breath in and all the smoke in the air seemed to come back into his body. "But then again, maybe it will be good for them... somehow" he blew the smoke from his nose and stretched. "Don't worry, my power is so completely hidden even Alice would have to be trying to look to find me, all of the bases are covered, I have multiple recordflys around, so we won't miss a single piece of the action, my friend"

[Scarab]

The first this she became aware of upon waking was that the inside of her mouth tasted like seaweed, only dirtier and without any seasonings. Also, somebody was singing inside of her head.

‘Eager eye and willing ear, pleased a simple tale to hear–‘

She opened her eyes.

Of course, she remembered going to bed last night, but she also remembered the sky falling in, and the air laughing, and libraries covered in roses that were slowly seeping from pure white to brilliant red. It had been this way for at least the last four weeks. It was surprising how quickly you could get used to the world changing on a regular basis.

And now she was here, numb with damp and cold, lying at the edge of a rockery in... Her pyjamas, apparently, and knowing exactly how tadpole flavoured water tasted. Her hair was wet. Oh no...

‘...Alice?’

‘Eager eye and willing ear, lovingly shall...’

‘Alice!’

‘In the underland they lie... Peekaboo, Eager eyes!’

The aforementioned eyes blinked their lashes. ‘Have you been in the pond while I was asleep again, Alice?’

Her heart laughed. Which was a strange way of putting it, but Akahana didn't consider herself creative enough to come up with a more erudite description. ‘No, no, not at all Miss Akahana, I have not been in the pond at all.’

Akahana winced. ‘Oh-kaaay. So...’

‘It was not I alone, it was us, and we have been in the lake.’ She sounded (and felt) very pleased with herself. 'Oh good grief, who's betting the night watchmen all saw us?

‘We... we’ve been through this, Alice,’ Akahana coughed on the sensation of wet dirt in her throat. ‘Not at night. You don’t... we can’t go wandering around at night, we’ll get in trouble!’

There was the sound of laughter bubbling up in Akahana’s voice, except Akahana didn’t laugh like that. Akahana rarely laughed at all. ‘We didn’t go very far. Not like last time when you made our face all mad like an angry cat.’ Akahana felt her face twist into a perfect imitation of the grimace.

There was grass beneath her, troughs of dirt all around, thick walls of glass. The school greenhouses, down near the lake. ‘We’re on the other side of the grounds from the girl’s dormitories!’

‘Yes, yes but in comparison to, say, the place far away with all the hot sands and scared lizards, we have not gone far at all. It is all relative, Miss, and it’s all very big out there... would you like to see the lizards?’

‘No.’

It’s strange, to feel your own body laughing at you. ‘One day you will answer yes, Eager eyes. Oh, you would love it there!’

Akahana had a feeling she would regret teaching her unruly tenant about relativity. ‘We... we have to go. Class will be starting, I can’t be late, it must be...’ Impossible to tell what time it was without a watch but it was bright enough for people to be up and that meant walking back to her dormitory in her pyjamas, where everyone could see her. It was either that, or let Alice take them back her way and... No. Just no. Akahana hated the way the world would seem to spin her out into a thin thread and knit her back together on the other side of an endless void. The world was confusing and frightening enough without Alice turning it inside out and back to front or downside up and front to back or whatever it was she did.

‘Oh, we are already late, Miss Akahana, and running and skipping will make no difference to that. Also the ladies with the dark, sad eyes and marker pens are boring and the boys with rulers and erasers are no fun at all. They actually think the universe works according to them! To them! Can you believe that? How silly to believe that there are rules to accommodate them. There are no rules!’

‘Then... then how does it work?’

‘However we want it to!’ Alice cheered. ‘One thing is all things. The rules are ours! Doesn't that sound exciting?’

There was really no point in debating nonsense. ‘Well even so, they might care if I enter class smelling like a fishpond! What on earth were you doing in the lake?’

‘Turns out frogs are slimy and taste strange, nothing much else to them, and there are no soft places here, no places to push through, see? This place is hard as a board with a spine!’ She shoved her –their – right hand into a water trough. The water seemed to bend around her fingers, and then it snapped back like ice. Alice grumbled. ‘Boring! This place is still stale. I like the lake better.’

Akahana began slowly levering herself into a sitting position, mindful of aches. The air was warm on her face but she shivered anyway. Pyjamas are not made for nightly swimming in mid April. She made careful effort to stand up. Alice didn’t mean to, but she... forgot sometimes, or she just wasn’t very careful and on occasion things like clothing or bones got torn or broken. Akahana could always tell when she had been out during night, because even if she didn’t always wake up in strange places afterwards, there would be the thin malaise over everything for hours, as if she hadn't slept at all. The vague sense of walking aroundstill dreaming, knowing it but unable to break the spell. People stared at her, during times like that, but she had gotten used to it. But no bones had been broken, and there was no pain except for the harshness in her throat. And the fact that you are slowly going crazy and there’s no point in telling anybody because... well just because. Reasons. There are reasons. It would not reflect well.

And she was afraid, a tiny voice deep down whispered. Because she was afraid of something more than the voice in her head which liked to take them swimming in the lakes.

‘Did... we have the dream again, Alice?’

Akahana shivered again but this time the body’s action didn’t come from her own brain. Alice had begun running their fingers through their damp hair before looking them around until she found the rose vines – barely budding, as Akahana had said – and tore one of them free, using it to delicately comb the dirt out of their hair. Like a small child trying to put a sticking plaster on an amputated limb, Akahana thought, ignoring the slight pain of occasional prickles. She didn’t entirely understand, but then Akahana didn’t understand why the familiar action didn’t do more damage. ‘We saw the world opening last night, Miss Hana,’ Alice said conversationally, in the same tone most people would announce a new book they had gotten. ‘It was like a seed about to split, or a curse about to fall or a storm about to break. It was beautiful, but...’

‘...But?’

Alice hesitated, which was... not normal. ‘But it hurt, Miss Akahana. You more than me. There was a lot of screaming, like the muscles boiled alive in the stewing pot for a hungry walrus. So we came back. We went swimming instead!’

Akahana walked slowly around the side of the greenhouse. There was nobody around, but there would be soon. This was going to be tricky. ‘I heard that music again. Is it important?’

There was a moment of silence. Alice stopped trying to comb their hair with a thorny vine.

‘Did you know, Miss Akahana, that if everything is important then conversely nothing is? Isn’t that wonderful? It makes things as they are, and then we choose, , we choose the way thought ought to be and we make them so. I love doing that. And who cares about the rules? Rules are boring and stale and I wish you’d just forget about them and play with me properly, but it’s alright. I can’t expect you to understand. And still no roses!’ Alice was still holding the thorny vine delicately in her hands and held it up close to her face.

She was still shaking, only Akahana knew it wasn’t so much out of fear anymore. ‘It’s the wrong time of year, Alice. They’ll bloom soon.’

‘How soon?’ the voice was impatient and petulant. ‘I think we should make it happen now! We have the rules, why wait?’

‘Well because... because sometimes there has to be rules. Just sometimes. Anyway, they’re still buds... I did that once before, you know. Dying them. It didn’t work very well,’ Akahana said, turning the thorny stalk over and over in her fingers. She could feel Alice changing the pressure of their grip, tingling in her fingertips. She remembered the class they had as children, where they had made flowers bloom in colour by putting dyes in the water. There had been blues and greens and oranges and one student had even managed to make her flower blossom in three different colours. Akahana's, conversely, had come out a stale, ugly brown, nothing like the brilliant red brightness she now held in her—

Ow! Akahana dropped the now blossoming rose. Originally pure white, it was slowly turning red from the base upwards. Her palm hurt, and when Akahana looked, it was dotted with tiny pin prints of blood. ‘Alice!’

‘Oops.’

‘That hurt!’

‘Yes, yes it did.’ Alice sounded... odd. Calm. ‘That’s what the universe will look like...’

‘What?'

‘Oh... I see. Well, that’s not nice, now is it?’

‘..No really, Alice. What?’ Akahana frowned. Sometimes Alice simply refused to make sense. She sighed. ‘Come on, we have class.’ There were advantages to being one of the smartest students in school. It meant you got some leeway on things, provided your work was always done and you never talked back, and Akahana had perfected both of those things, even though Alice sometimes screamed or panicked or sang at her when she was trying to pay attention to advanced Algebra. Still, she didn’t want to be late.

Alice whined. ‘We have better things to do! Today is a very important day, Miss! Class is not.’

‘But there’s a test... we studied for it, remember, we’re taking it with the seniors!’

‘Class is boring and unimportant.’

‘It’s important to me! You just said we got to choose that.’

It came out louder than she meant it to and Akahana felt suddenly childish for her outburst. Not the proper grace and decorum for a Sato, Akahana. There was a long, still pause. The air trembled. Akahana’s palms stung and it dawned on her that, while she had felt relatively calm about waking up soaking wet behind a greenhouse, the thought of missing a class test sent a pain to her gut. It was entirely possible she had her priorities mixed up.

‘But but but—’

Akahana clenched her fists and forced herself to stay firm. ‘You promised, Alice.’

‘...Alright , but we will go there my way.’

‘What? Alice, no!’

‘We will skip!’

Akahana groaned, but... well, a concession is a concession. At least this didn’t mean feeling like her insides were being turned inside out and fed into a blender. They left the two toned red-white rose blooming out of season and lying on the grass. Nobody noticed the rest of the roses blooming, either.

[Sicon112]

8:01:36 AM

An annoyance appears

Lawrence inserted his deactivated phone into the bag beside him and let out a long sigh, leaning his elbow on his desk and massaging the bridge of his nose with his fingers even before the creak of hinges filled the room. He didn't even need to look up.

"Dammit."

"I heartily agree with that sentiment." Letting out another long-suffering sigh, Lawrence raised his head and glared at the black clad boy showing off in front of the classroom. "So, what was it today?"

Simple. he replaced the supports on the shelves within the cabinet with hinged substitutes so that they bent upward wen he got in and put pressure on them right. The cane was collapsible, and in a moment he should be dropping it into his hat and shortening it agai- Ah, there, you see?

A noise of irritation came from within the clocktower. "Hmph. You are just as much of a show off as he is, sometimes."

Lawrence casually reached down into his bag and pulled out a plastic package of batteries, casually tearing it open. His movements were not hurried in the least, but each and every one was purposeful and efficient. He didn't need to see his schedule listed on the screen of a phone to make it useful. After all, he never forgot anything, and even now, his mind was cataloging immense flows of information by the second. Everything he saw, heard, felt, smelled, or tasted would be etched in his mind for all eternity. Similarly, everything he planned was being flawlessly put into action, timed perfectly down to the second. There was no reason to hurry in that case. Muttering the second counts to himself silently, he responded to his annoying parasite of a partner. Hardly. A show-off makes inefficient use of their skills and talents for no other purpose than self-gratification. I utilize my abilities efficiently and always in the proper situation. Humiliating you is only a side benefit, which, when you think about it, just means I'm being even more efficient, now doesn't it?

"I'll say one thing for you. You're almost as good at twisting words as most Underlanders. But regardless, we both know you are just showing off. See, your real intentions are right he-" The moment Lawrence felt a nudging at his mind, the clocktower doors slammed shut in the Rabbit's face.

Shut up, you stupid rabbit. Stay in there like a good bunny and stop distracting me. Annoyances removed, Lawrence inserted the last battery as the mad-man known as Asterus arrived by his desk.

"Life's no fun if there's nothing new and exciting in it, you know." Lawrence mentally snorted as the fool dropped that cheesy line and sat in the next seat over, but didn't give him the pleasure of a response. Instead, he placed his fan on the table in front of him and aligned it perfectly. Just as his finger found the on switch and snapped it forward, the sound of an umbrella being loudly opened came from beside him, and a shower of colorful confetti fell from the rainbow colored fabric above and towards his space. His perfectly clean, orderly space. His eyebrow twitched. The fan blades spun.

Lawrence almost smiled as he watched Asterus get a face full of his own confetti out of the corner of his eye, but remained perfectly calm and unresponsive. However, something was nagging at the back of his mind. There was something off. He felt it again when the confetti vanished, and again when the umbrella followed it. "Lawrence, you there?" The serious tone, and the Rabbit's bypassing of the barriers around his tower, cued Lawrence into the severity of the situation in an instant.

Of course, he could lock the Rabbit away if he desired to, and he had a few times, back when they had first met, but that resulted in a power struggle that threw off his schedule and his awareness if he did it without the Rabbit's permission. However, some time ago, they had come to a silent agreement. They had never spoken a word of it to each other, but they knew what it entailed. If the Rabbit was annoying him, Lawrence would shut him up, and if Lawrence was annoying him, the Rabbit would cut off Lawrence, but wither way they would always leave a hole in the blockade, so that if it really was necessary to speak with each other, they could. However, until now, both of them had used that strictly for emergencies, and Lawrence had no reason to believe this was any different.

Yes. I noticed it. What's going on? Give me the quick version. Deciding his science class could wait, he left his body observing the room and dropped down into the tower. The moment he stepped through, the door slammed shut behind him with a loud crash, and he spun to find the rabbit holding a thick cane of polished black wood, trimmed with gold. He had a similar one that went with his own outfit, but in here he had no use for it and usually didn't manifest it. A glance at his partner's expression told him that this really was bad. The Rabbit's features were drawn tight by stress.

"We have a problem."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say its name is Asterus." Lawrence showed no outward signs of emotion - he hated doing that - but the Rabbit knew him well enough to tell he was worried as well.

"Correct. You felt it too when he started playing with that umbrella. That was an Underlander's power, but he uses it so casually."

"A powerful contract partner then, like you?"

"I know who. The Mad Hatter. I've fought him a few hundred times, I'm afraid. The behavior made me suspect before now, but..."

"...this proves it. I see." The White Rabbit began to pace to and fro across the wood floor as Lawrence watched dispassionately. "Then he is a very..."

Picking up the flow of the sentence effortlessly, the Rabbit finished. "...dangerous enemy. Yes, yes. We've got a problem though."

"You don't think he noticed us?"

"I'm reasonably sure he didn't. You are pretty low-key usually, and I've been doing what I can to keep us hidden as well."

Lawrence nodded. "Yes. The longer our schedule goes flawlessly, the better. Then you suggest..."

"...adding more precautions. From now on, if you wish to speak with me in his presence, come here directly. Establishing a link between this place and that..."

Lawrence ended the chain of thought. "...would only create traces of Underland environment around me. Right." There was a quiet silence as the two stared off into space, minds whirling. Finally, Lawrence nodded to himself. "Very well, I'm returning to class then. Remain here and keep everything in check. Our schedule shall continue uninterrupted today. We can make free time to deal with this later if I shift around a few plans."

"Done. Good. Return now, and be careful when you do! If he is paying attention, he may very well pick up on something, especially if he is as in tune with his contractor as that display of power implies!"

Lawrence snorted openly. "Right, right. You aren't my mother, and even if you were, I wouldn't listen to you, so let me handle things." He smiled sardonically. "I think by now I know what I'm doing." However, contrary to his words, Lawrence did not use the main connection between them to travel, and instead slipped away silently and carefully. No sense in risking his schedule, after all.

As the classroom formed around him, Lawrence listened carefully for any sign Asterus had picked up on something. No changes in breath rate, no shifting suddenly. Good. Throughout the rest of class, the spirit and contract remained in the self-imposed silence they had decided upon, and the moment the bell signaled the end of the lecture, Lawrence stood and left smoothly, not even waiting to look and see what ridiculous method of exit Asterus would choose to make.

[AMimsyBorogove]

The hat-wearing boy, despite his rather ridiculous entrance, was, for the most part, mellow during the class period. Lounging back in his chair, he remained largely idle, save for occasionally pulling random foodstuffs out of his hat - evidently, having napped in the cupboard had caused him to miss breakfast - and snacking on them ravenously. Candy bars, lolipops, and cookies were the first items he drew forth, but these were soon followed by slowly more and more ridiculous items such as an entire plate of chocolate-coated strawberries, and, eventually, a cup of Earl Grey Tea and an entire platter of small cakes and muffins. Topping this off by eating the platter itself in a single gulp - which, to his credit, he did with a perfectly straight face, and without showing any signs of discomfort - he seemed to have timed the last of his snacks with the end of the period perfectly, for as the tray disappeared into his mouth, the bell rang in the exact same instant. And, predictably, the boy was suddenly surrounded by a crowd of confused and awestruck students wondering how exactly he'd pulled off so many marvelous tricks. He smiled kindly and seemed to think about how to answer for a moment, reaching into his boot and pulling out another umbrella, then unfolding it and spinning it around contemplatively, releasing a small shower of paper airplanes as he did so, all of which swiftly flew into formation and landed perfectly in the trash can in the corner of the room. At last, he seemed to settle upon an answer.

"That's... a secret," Asterus declared smilingly, much to the disappointment of his audience. "After all, if I tell you how I did it, it's no longer magic, now is it? Just cheap tricks." He reached into his hat and withdrew a small teddy bear, which he handed to a random student as he himself stood, still twirling his umbrella as he inexplicably pulled his fully-extended cane out of his breast pocket. "Now, then. I'm rather short on food myself - I ate all my emergency snacks just now, and since I was napping in that cupboard, I'm afraid I didn't get time to pack an actual lunch for myself - so might I ask for donations toward my lunch?" With this query - a habit of his, one the other students had become used to by now - he began to dance and hop about between the desks and those students who were standing up, cheerfully accepting bites and spoonfuls of random items from their own lunches and adding them to an empty box he pulled from somewhere inside his coat. Spinning his umbrella cheerfully, he danced like a celebratory spirit all around the room, delivering cheerful comments and compliments to those who surrendered a few bites of their precious meals, and delivering random and bizarre items to those who did not, ranging from sudden poofs of smoke to, in one case, a live snapping turtle which had, apparently, been painted bright pink, and was none too happy about this.

At any rate, he soon had his lunchbox filled to the brim, and, contented with this, thanked his benefactors. Then, laughing and joking all the while, he strode up to the window, opened it, and, giving a casual wave and a smile, he raised his umbrella over his head, and then stepped back out into open air. "Cheerio!" He said, and with this, he was gone. The students, crying out in shock, rushed over to the window. But, by the time they reached it, despite the fact that there was no possible place in which he could have hidden, Asterus had vanished without so much as a trace...

[Lordxana0]

A black unmarked van parked outside of the school. In the back of the van sat six men each clutching a rifle made of copper with many twirling parts. Each of them had a symbol and a number on each cheek. Five of them had the symbol of a playing card club on one side and the number two on the other. The sixth man however had a heart symbol and a four.

"Okay men," the fourth said in a commanding tone. "Today we make history, today we soldiers of the Queendom destroy those who would destroy our queens plans, we have seven targets, The Mad Massacre Hatter, Invisible Death Cheshire, Eternal Rage March Hare, Vorpral Vengeance White Knight, the traitor Keeper of Time White Rabbit, and of course the Chained Alice"

"Wait you are saying the guy who can budget nine days in a week is here?" one of the men asked. "Well there goes my confidence"

"Quite down soldier, they might have been legends, but five million years have passed in Underland, and we have advanced past their power, now then the plan is simple, go room by room and massacre everyone, I will throw a spirit lock over the place so that no one with even a hint of Underland energy will be able to pass through, this school will be their graves, if they can't escape into another body this dimension will drive them sane and make them normal humans, so just to recap, kill everyone, try and capture Alice, there is no need to worry about anything else.

The six men stepped from the back of the van and the driver took off. The man with the two tossed a small metal ball high into the air and over the top of the school. It shot a beam of energy from the top of it and created a bright red dome that covered a large section outside of the school. "Okay men lets move"

Two private security guards saw the men and reached for their guns. But before they could even be pulled one of the men with a two on his face fired on them. The gun fired out small round balls like a musket, and when they hit the guards their bodies gave a lurch and hundreds of shards of glass burst out from their bodies. "Lets start a riot people, death to these Overworld freaks!"

The school alarm began to go off telling students to go to a classroom or other safe area. Of course on the bottom floor this didn't help people much. The men would thrown in small metalic orbs that would fill the room with a white hot fire killing everyone inside quickly. They moved in one group destroying a room and then searching it killing any who tried to run in the hallway as they did. "This could take awhile" the man with the four sighed after clearing the second room from the door.

(Okay then time for player posts, you will be happy to know that there is no turn order still, players will of course want to talk to one another and this isn't exactly a battle for some of them depending on how much your spirit has told you or trained you. The six men are dressed as follows

Club twos- dressed in jeans and white shirts with the symbol of a playing card club on the front of them
Heart four- dressed in slacks with a red shirt with a white heart on the front of it

They are equipped with shard launchers which contain ten shots and have three packs of ammo on each person and Flamers which are the metal orbs that let loose flames that can fill a classroom, if you are behind something non-flamable you can survive the initial burst

As for how you handle this it is up to you, hide, fight, run it is up to you, by the by the school has three floors to it, the library is on the second, the third floor has a few classrooms but a large part is taken up by an on campus cafe)

[Sicon112]

"You two, move down the corridor to the left and take the stairs at the end of the hallway down to the first floor, I'll clear the library in the meantime. Kill everyone on sight." Nodding, the two men dashed off, and the leader with the heart sign covering the front of his shirt stepped through the double doors, casually tossing a Flamer deeper into the room, engulfing everything in fire. Chuckling to himself, he wandered through the main open area, stepping around the tables and watching as the shelves on either side of him burned. That is, until there was a crash behind him.

Spinning with lighting speed, he brought his gun to bear, but the sight that awaited him hit something deep within him, freezing him instinctively for a moment. The man standing there in the library was almost unrecognizable as Lawrence Kewell. No, anyone who had even a passing knowledge of the young man wouldn't be able to recognize him as he stood there, silhouetted by the flames, panting for breath, though not from exhaustion. His hair was wild and unkempt, his blazer tattered and charred, and blood was slowly dripping from his left index finger, but his face, his face was truly disturbing. Wild, bloodshot eyes stared from under his charred bangs and muscles in his face twitched uncontrollably. His whole body shook as he gasped for breath, almost like he was hyperventilating. This was not Lawrence Kewell. This was a mad man.

"Hehe....heheheheheeh. AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!" Laughing madly, Lawrence's twitching eyes came to rest on the face of the leader, who stared at him in confusion. It was the laugh of a man lost in mind shattering rage, who found absolutely nothing funny about the situation, save his clear intent to maul the being before him. Twisting flames whirled behind him, and for a moment, as a bookshelf collapsed with a roar, it was almost as though an enormous rabbit was staring down at the battlefield from the rafters. The four of hearts finally realized who he was facing. "Ruined. It's all ruined. My schedule. Everything I planned." Lawrence's hand rose to his face, grasping at it almost blindly. He paused, and his maddened eyes focused on the target. "You... It was you, wasn't it? You look different from the others. You give them orders. I saw it." Then, in an oddly serene tone he made a blood chilling statement. "I'm going to kill you now. Yes. That's what I've got to do. All I've got to do." Screaming in madness, he roared at his enemy. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

The scream kicking in his survival instincts, the four of hearts leveled his shatter gun in a flash and pulled the trigger, but Lawrence had already leaped forward. His mind was gone, but that didn't make him any less dangerous. He was an observer. he saw everything and anything around him. Lawrence's leg shot out towards an overturned chair, kicking two of the legs and shattering them in an instant. Catching one, he glanced at the barrel at the exact moment of fire, and computing the trajectory, his makeshift weapon slashed forwards, catching the shot for him and redirecting it to one side as the piece of wood split in half. Hurling the fragment of chair leg at his enemy, he snatched the other leg as it fell past him, still running forward and leaped atop one of the large reading tables. The thrown fragment of wood exploded into fragments of glass and the heart rolled sideways, avoiding the worst of the laceration even as he fired a second shot. Cartwheeling to the next table over, Lawrence sent another chair flying with an aerial kick, turning his cartwheel into a backflip even as the projectile sent the four of hearts crashing through the end of one of the massive bookshelves, causing a torrent of flaming hard backed books and wood to come pouring down upon him.

In the next instant though, one side exploded into glass and Lawrence's target came dashing out, only for Lawrence to leap from the table beside him, brandishing his chair leg. The four parried a blow aside with his gun, and tried to counter, but Lawrence turned the redirected strike into a spin under the barrel and snapped the chunk of wood against the four's shoulder, an audible snap signifying the destruction of the Underlander's collar bone. Not even seeming to care that his weapon was broken, Lawrence dived towards his enemy, keeping up a hail of attacks with the stump, screaming at the top of his lungs. "Unacceptable unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, UNACCEPTABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, UNACCEPTABLE!"

Finally realizing his weapon was destroyed beyond repair, Lawrence followed up with a roundhouse kick to the mans jaw as he dropped to a knee, launching him backwards and into the wall behind him. There was the sound of relatively blunt metal piercing flesh as the four's body found an unfortunate resting place in the location where the wall had been shattered, leaving exposed and bent piping protruding at odd angles. Blood dripped from several impale wounds as the Underlander took his last breath.

Lawrence stood watching the scene, but the twitching of his eyes and his wild breathing slowed as it became apparent that the man had been killed. The energy of madness carrying him through the battle so far drained from him as he collapsed to his knees with a sigh. He made a sound of discontent and clutched his head, which had just begun to pound uncomfortably. There was an awkward silence as his mental capacities recovered from the all consuming rage that had just animated him.

"Well. Huh. That was... new."

"Tch. Shut up, you." He wasn't really in the position to talk clearly with his mind, so he just muttered his response under his breath. It at least helped to clear some of his thoughts up slightly.

"No, really, usually I get a chance to actually DO something when this happens."

"Well, it's your fault anyway. I was at least thinking rationally there for a second until you lost it too."

"...Oh. Oops."

Yes, oops, you damn Rabbit. Now what the hell do we do? His mind was now starting to recover, ever so slowly, and he stood, and stepped out into the open area where the heat from the fire wasn't so intense. That was when he felt it directly below him. A blood chilling aura crying out for death. "What...?" His usual stoicness had not yet returned, and a note of surprise slipped into his tone.

"Oh. Oh my. I do believe the Hatter just got angry." There was a moments hesitation. "Lawrence?"

Yes?

"I propose we do not go down there."

Echoing, psychotic laughter even more unhinged that Lawrence's echoed up through the floor. Seconded.

[AMimsyBorogove]

The sound of explosions and screams filled the first floor as two clubs moved methodically from room to room, carrying out their deadly work. One by one, entire classes were butchered with cold precision before the two moved quickly on to the next area. Soon, reaching the end of the first hallway, they turned the corner, and, checking it, prepared to move on. The lead club scanned the empty corridor ahead, searching for any possible targets, while his partner watched the hallway they'd just passed through. But, what neither of them were watching was the empty, featureless corner on the far edge of where the two passages joined. And, their failure to observe the flickering amidst the shadows was what sealed their fate. Two gleaming azure eyes snapped open, and a mirthless, psychotic sneer breaking out on their owner's pale face. Although he still held enough Humanity to regret the lives lost in the attack, Asterus had to admit, he'd been waiting a long time for a test subject for his abilities. These enemies... they were trying to kill him. They were trying to kill the others he'd used to know. They were trying to kill Alice. They were even killing everyone in the area, just because they could. That's right... These were the sorts of people he could just lose himself for a while on, right...? Unforgivable criminals like these deserved only the highest punishment, yes?

Conviction! Your sentence is death. And your executioner... Is me!

The first one to go was the rearguard. He didn't even have time to scream before his mouth was abruptly covered by the tattered tail of a black coat, silencing him utterly. At the same time, a powerful arm clamped down on his throat, dragging him off balance and keeping him from turning around to bring his weapons to bear. "Surpriiiiiiiseeeeeee~" The Hatter whispered in a sing-song tone, his eyes wide with madness, and his features contorted into a horrifying smirk. Drawing back his hand from the club's mouth, he at last allowed the man to scream, drinking in his terror before bracing his back hand. Then, with a nauseating squelch of flesh and a sudden spurt of blood, the end of a long, black cane, its golden ornaments drowning in scarlet claret, erupted from the center of the man's chest. His voice was cut short as his lungs were pierced through, and a tide of blood rose up in his throat, dribbling down from his mouth as he slowly went limp, his eyes wide with terror all the while. As the Hatter's black suit and white undershirt were bathed in crimson, he slowly turned to face the second club, his movements unhinged and slow, like some sort of possessed marionette, as he sneered in absolute madness at the remaining man. Unwillingly, the club took a step back, and immediately raised his weapon.

"Hatter?!" He cried in recognition. "You bastard! I'll-" His words were cut off by the loud, glassy discharge of his own weapon. Countless projectiles streaked across the space between the bloodstained boy and the terrified murderer... only to embed themselves with a fleshy thud in the body of the deceased club, which was abruptly hoisted up by the cane embedded in its torso, then flung into his comrade, knocking his arm aside and turning his weapon away. The Hatter smirked psychotically as the corpse erupted in a gushing shower of blood, spilling its vital fluids all over the passage floor as the shots tore it to pieces. And, at the same time, he reached into his coat, and withdrew... his umbrella. The seemingly ordinary metal spike on its head glinted maliciously in the light, revealing a serrated, wicked blade where it should have simply tapered to a tip. With a sudden lurching movement, the Hatter swept up his arm, slashing the bizarre blade of the umbrella at his remaining enemy, who stumbled backward beneath the weight of the body. His target gave a cry of pain as, with a horrible rending of flesh, his comrade's body was split in half, and his own arm was subsequently gored. His unusual gun fell to the ground, dropped as his fingers abruptly went limp when the muscles and tendons connected to them were impaled by the umbrella. Staggering backward, the man wrenched his hand free, and, his eyes wide in terror, watched as the Hatter advanced slowly, his head held low and his clothing stained with blood as he stepped irregularly forward, his eyes wide and bloodshot, his smirk wider than ever before as the blood of his slain enemy dribbled down his face. "G-get away from me! Monster!" The club screamed, and, reaching down to his belt, withdrew a small metal orb, and, activating it with trembling hands, hurled it at his target. In the next instant, a surge of white flames engulfed the hallway, and the black shape vanished into this vast inferno. For a moment, all was a roaring of fire and light, and the club clutched his wrist, slowly regaining his breath as he watched the fire burn the Hatter into ashes.

And then, his heart skipped a beat, for over the crackling of the flames... he heard a sound that made his blood run cold - laughter. "No," He gasped, his eyes wide with horror as he staggered backward. But words could not disperse the phantom with which he was now faced. Amidst the flames, a familiar black shape rose, its azure eyes gleaming from the center of the inferno as it slowly drew back its now opened umbrella, the flames inexplicably scattering along the surface of this object and completely failing to reach him. Reaching up to his head, the Hatter smirked psychotically, withdrew his hat from his pate... and then spread his arms wide amidst the fires. As the flames abruptly collapsed, suddenly sucked in towards the lunatic haberdasher's trademark accoutrement with tremendous force, then consumed by his endless hat... he began to laugh. His voice was shrill and mad, as, rearing back his head, the lunatic cackled, his echoing laughter ringing out up and down the hallway as his enemy stared in terror.

And then, the flames blinked out, fading down to the very last spark into the hat that Asterus was already placing on his head once more. Slowly looking up, the blood soaked magician's face resolved itself into a smug grin. He took a step forward, and the club frantically began to step back. But he was too slow, far, far too slow. The Hatter leaped forward with all his might, suddenly crossing the distance between himself and the helpless club in a heartbeat. The man screamed as he found himself staring down the end of Asterus' cane. The boy, however, merely smiled smugly, a distinctly insane element etched into every inch of his face.

"Hey," He said, his voice unhinged and breathless from his previous laughter. "I've got an offer for you. Would you like to hear it?" He asked, his words filled to the brim with madness and mirth. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and they began to glow a chill shade of ice blue beneath the brim of his hat. The man merely stared in horror, frozen with fear.

"How would you like... To take part in my magic show?" The Hatter asked, and abruptly, his expression resolved itself into one of pure, bloodthirsty lunacy. "I've always wanted to try to saw a man in half. Let's see how many pieces I can cut you into before you die! Doesn't that sound FUN?!"

As another peal of psychotic laughter rang throughout the school, the club's dying screams were almost entirely drowned out as a giant, black box rose around him, filled on the inside with the glinting of countless crude, serrated blades. As the darkness closed in around him, the Hatter's stage magic abilities keeping him alive even as he was sliced apart in a million different ways, the last thing he ever felt was unimaginable, hellish agony. By the time the box had opened again, the only thing that remained of him was a formless heap of butchered, bloody meat.

.....

It had taken the black-clad - perhaps red-clad would be more appropriate now, however, considering the amount of blood that had spilled on him - boy several minutes to recover himself from the influence of his hat. Blinking back to reality, he took a moment to shake off the lethargy that had come over his thoughts. Ah, yes, this was a familiar feeling. He remembered coming to his senses in such a manner many times before during his training with the Hatter, all those years ago. He'd awaken with a start, only for his carefree partner to begin alternatively teasing, scolding, and congratulating him. He'd gotten used to it, naturally. Being so much like the Hatter in nature, it hadn't taken the two of them long to become fast friends. But now, upon his awakening, there was... nothing. No voice resounding from the depths of his mind... Well, save for his own, that is. But, at this point, he wasn't expecting such a voice. The distant screams from the tea table, the pitter-patter of rain upon the tablecloth... All of these sounds were as natural to him as the sound of his own breathing. And the eldritch voice that had spoken to him for so long... was completely silent, like usual. Or was it? Perhaps that voice had just become indistinguishable from his own. Then was it he who had changed, or had the Hatter become more like him? That was a question he'd asked himself once, but it was a foolish one, and one he quickly came to dismiss. The answer was quite simple, if one looked at it properly. Assuming that it had been one or the other who had changed was just laughable, since there was neither a distinct one nor a distinct other to begin with.

"That's right..." Asterus gasped, leaning against his cane and spitting some shed blood he'd accidentally inhaled during one of his laughing fits from his mouth. A faint smile broke out across his face once more, even as he leaned against the wall for support, momentarily left without coordination or balance by his mind's temporary destruction and reformation within the hat's madness. His eyes narrowed into a contented smirk. "There is no difference, no matter how you look at it..." He muttered to himself as he gazed upon his handiwork. The corridor was practically flooded with blood, and dismembered, formless bits of flesh and humanoid bodies lay strewn across the floor.

"I am myself," He said. "I am Asterus Xerxes Rysell..."

"I am the Mad Hatter!"

[Guyshane]

I cannot believe you are lolly-gagging at a time like this! Look lay off man I already checked this whole damn floor and every time we walked by someone, you said that they weren’t Alice. So now I’m taking a break to read this book. It was a good book that was about a company of monster hunters. I really like the characters in this. Foolish boy. you should try to focus more, that way you could actually be a hero instead of just reading about them. Nah too much work, besides its not like I’m a useful sort of person. Fool, you don’t even….GET DOWN BOY. That warning is possibly the only thing that saved Shane’s life. Incredible durability is useful but even it has its limits, a firebomb exploding right over where Shane had been sitting was one of them. Luckily the library table was thick enough protect him from the worst of the blast.

Thank you Knight. Thank me later we have a fight on our hands. Shane laid eyes on the man who had thrown the bomb as he systematically started annihilating the library. Knight…there were a lot of people in here Yes. We have to stop him. Suddenly loud repeated shouts of “Unacceptable” were heard throughout the library. At which point the Club ran towards the noise throwing bombs and shooting as he went. …NO… Shane and the Knight took off sprinting after the quarry. They caught up to him as he was sneaking up on a bloodied student from behind the flaming bookshelves.

Shane grabbed a heavy book as he walked by. It was on fire but Shane wouldn’t have felt it, even if the White Knight wasn’t protecting him. He strode up behind the club and smashed the Club upside the head with the book, sending it staggering into the nearest wall. The minion turned and fired his weapon but Shane simply used the book as a shield, discarding it when shards of glass split the book to pieces. Take him now, use the blade. No, Sir Knight. He deserves a much more painful death, once he has felt the suffering he has caused then he gets the blade. The club swung his weapon like a cub in a clumsy arc, which Shane blocked with his forearm. “You-You’re…” “Your doom” With that Shane began his real attack. He began by breaking his target’s jaw with a jab from his left hand, which was covered with the ghost image of a gauntlet. Form there it got worse, Shane brutally beat the club with no skill or grace all the while seeming to gain more power behind his blows, smashing limbs and breaking bones. In the end the Club was being held aloft with one hand while the colossus in white armor with a resplendent cape of silver pummeled him with the other hand. Then it threw bodily threw him against the wall. ”You have killed many innocents this day, we judge you to be unworthy of life. With that Shane and the Knight took his head from him.

Inside the armor Shane felt a sudden pain. A pound of flesh, tis the cost. I know, Knight…we need to rescue as many as we can. Then lets get to work my boy.

[Sicon112]

The sound of a boot on ashes and splinters amongst the roaring flames was such a subtle noise. No one normal would have detected it. However, Lawrence was an observer. Perhaps it came at the cost of directly interacting with the world around him, but that was a price the contractor was perfectly content with paying. After all, he didn't particularly like the uselessness of the rest of his own species. It could even be said he despised them, on his worse days. However, something such as this; a massacre out of nowhere, for no reason other than to find a few people - Lawrence had no doubts about the reason the men were here - he could not abide. He had felt the Hatter below him. He had never seen Asterus angry, but from what he had felt and heard far above, it was probably quite dangerous. He himself had cut off the invaders' metaphorically head, the one logical decision he had made when blinded by rage.

Ugh. What an unpleasant feeling. However, some had to still be alive. He could hear one sneaking up on him, after all.

"Will you be needing me?" The Rabbit's tone was serious. He too was still upset over his loss of control. He had thought himself above that.

Lawrence hesitated for a moment. If the one he had just fought was the leader, then he should be able to handle this one easily enough. And besides... No. The single word answer held far more meaning than it seemed to. However, the Rabbit understood.

"Very well. Call me if you need my assistance. Until then, I shall wait in the tower until you get things sorted out." The Rabbit understood. Lawrence did not wish to speak with him for now. True to his word, the presence of the spirit faded into the clock tower and locked itself within that eldritch place's depths. Lawrence felt himself calm further. Letting out a breath, he closed his eyes.

Pattern of tread indicates large, two-handed weapon with some significant weight. Judging by that and the clinking of what sounds to be ammunition cartridges, I assume he is wielding a weapon similar to the leader's. And... Lawrence's mind whirled back in time approximately five minutes, rendering the scene that his memory had saved flawlessly even through his berserk rage. He could hear the secondary detonations farther down inside the library clearly. Ah. And he is equipped with those firebombs. How many he has left, though... He heard the footfalls moving towards the end of the shelf row. Ah. he intends to assault me as I round the bend. He probably has a close range weapon of some type, perhaps a knife, concealed on his person. Lawrence's mind began to churn. Overhead strike comes in for the left. Intention is to stab the base of my neck. Redirect force, overbalance enemy. Lock and shatter kneecap, smash face into shelving unit as he falls. Disarm him as he falls backwards disoriented, then finish him with his own weapon. Counting quietly down to himself Lawrence approached the corner.

5, 4, 3- Another set of footsteps appeared. Shit. Revise plans. Redirect strike, manuever body into position to defend from secondary attac- The sound of a book colliding with someone's skull rang out, followed by the sounds of brutal violence. The feeling of the Underland washed over him. He could feel the Rabbit's mind within him suddenly awaken in a frenzy, but he calmed the spirit with a thought, and stepped around the corner, calmly watching as the white armored figure before him finished off his enemy. He watched calmly as the being within the armor spoke with the spirit Lawrence knew was present, but could not hear. He crossed his arms, then reached up on hand to cover his eye, letting his hair hang down and leave the second in shade.

The armored form turned and Lawrence came into its view.

"Greetings, senior. Or should I say 'Greetings, White Knight and your host'?"

[Guyshane]

"Greetings, senior. Or should I say 'Greetings, White Knight and your host'?"

What? Shane turned and saw the intended victim of the Club looking straight at him. Shane felt a chill go up his spine. Is he- Yes. Which one. Well he didn't come to help...Which doesn't necessarily mean he is who I think he is but he may be the one bound to a traitor of the Red. If he is my boy, be careful with that one's with those powers it would be problematic for us to do battle. Right, I hope the armor sticks around for a bit then.

"The Knight is gonna be riding backseat for a bit here." Shane stared at the kid. He looks familiar... "Have we met before? You seem like someone I've seen before I just can't quite place it."

[Sicon112]

"Perhaps we have, perhaps we haven't. Or rather, perhaps you haven't met me." Lawrence shrugged his shoulders slightly, remaining half within and half without the shadow of the shelves, the effect of that and the flickering firelight from behind them giving him a fantastic appearance, as if he was only partially present. "Regardless, I think your friend knows me, or a part of me better." Making another careless motion of his shoulders, he confirmed the suspicions he knew were present. After all, it wasn't like it was that hard to guess from his behaviour who he was allied with: no one. Actually revealing the nature of his powers would only serve to make the knight cautious to approach him. He could recall the Rabbit's memories of many of their encounters, after all, and if Lawrence were the knight, he certainly wouldn't be careless around someone like himself after things like that.

The one portion of his face that was not concealed by his hand, hair, or shadows, the right corner of his chin and mouth, moved slightly, an infinitesimal smirk. "Well, anyway, its not like I have any interest in someone like you." His tone carried a hint of condescension within it for a moment. "What I do care about is the numbers we are facing. I don't suppose you actually made yourself useful and were able to figure that out? I was... indisposed at the time." His mouth turned downward for a moment before his visage regained its impassivity, betraying nothing.

[Guyshane]

Oh great, he's tricksy. I hate tricksy they take so much damn effort to keep an eye on and the work you have to do- You fool I told you: Do not let your guard down. Relax skippy I've got eyes on him. Then focus. Now the student was talking again: "What I do care about is the numbers we are facing. I don't suppose you actually made yourself useful and were able to figure that out? I was... indisposed at the time."

Shane raised an eyebrow as his only response, not that the other could see it under the helm. The Knight decided to be more direct and spoke using Shane's mouth. "Yes we heard how...indisposed you were. 'Unacceptable' wasn't it? In any case you are mistaken in thinking you were the only one pre-occupied." Shane briefly wrested control of his speech back from the Knight.

"Dammit old man. I told you not to do that!"
"Well theres no reason we had to take his rudeness."
"Don't you start that with me skippy.
"Foolish boy don't show weakness to a possible enemy."
"Shut up!"

[Sicon112]

Lawrence raised an eyebrow at the bickering before him. Hmph. At least the Rabbit and I know when the proper time and place is. Really, that's the problem with so many things. No one knows the proper time, or they can't be bothered to find it. Useless.

Clearing his throat before the arguing duo to get their attention, Lawrence spoke once more. "Well, while I had hoped that perhaps your usual uselessness would fade away now that we are actually faced with a serious situation, it seems I overestimated you," Lawrence spoke scornfully. Above him, he heard wood cracking in the fire. "Very well, then, this conversation is no longer worth my time. If I wasn't so busy, I would give you a reminder as to why you do not waste my time..." His tone became dangerous, then dropped away to calm once more. "...but, I've got much better things to do. I suggest you go find something else to beat on, preferably something that is actually supposed to be destroyed."

With his parting remarks, Lawrence stepped backwards calmly, not so much as twitching as an enormous, burning ceiling beam fell from high above and broke apart atop the shelves on either side of them, snapping in half and falling inward where Lawrence had just been standing, and cutting off the Rabbit's contractor from the White Knight with a wall of burning wood. Turning to avoid the sudden illumination revealing his features, Lawrence spoke without looking back as he walked towards the end of the row. "Now, I have business to attend to, and if I do not hurry, I will be very late indeed."

[Guyshane]

They watched as the other disappeared from view Well if you were hoping to shake him with that 'Unacceptable' line, it didn't work. I suppose not, we need to find the others fast. Not yet. You cannot lazy off now, you've seen what the queens will do. Yea but we need to see if there is anyone left to save in here first. Then lets hurry, you can't control my power worth a damn.

[agoraoptera]

The siren wailed and Calarine screamed. The piercing shriek rended the air, whining in regulated pitches of high and low, making her twitch uncomfortably with every rise and fall.

"This is all your fault." She snarled, even as she glanced down the corridor, eerily empty despite the abominable caterwauling.

Don't be petulant. You were quite pleased with me a while ago.

"But this-!"

The ground trembled and they hissed together, hair and fur stiffly upright. Calarine bit her lip nervously, fearfully, even as a pained yell echoed down the corridor. This was bad, Calarine thought anxiously, they were almost already at the stairwell down and-

My dear, you do enjoy stating the obvious. Don't be in such a hurry to run down, though. Despite the earlier shock, the Cat seemed to have regained its composure. Whoever is running down this path must be in agony, am I right? As is proper, you ought to help him or her by, ah, putting him or her out of his misery.

"What do you mean?" Calarine asked, even as she backed against the wall, hiding beside the rows of stoic lockers, hoping that whoever it was would run right past her and down the stairs.

Your bag, my dear, take out your stationary.

In her panic, she immediately obeyed, though as she retrieved her pencil case, confusion began to slow her actions. Before she could ask again, the Cat interrupted, padding leisurely back and forth in front of her, tail swishing idly.

Scissors. Take out your scissors. You love cutting your patterns, don't you? The Cat smirked and grinned widely, its eyes shimmering with glee. Here comes a better medium than construction paper.

At the sight of the Cat's obvious pleasure, though she still didn't entirely comprehend what it meant in the heat of the moment, a chuckle began to grow in her throat. Struggling to control herself, closing her eyes and attempting to keep the smile from forming, Calarine sank to the ground with the pair of scissors in hand, giving in and giggling. There really wasn't anything to laugh at but nothing was funny and that meant everything was hilarious.

Now, now, don't sit. You wouldn't want to be Little Miss Muffet being chased by a giant spider, would you?

Barely keeping a cap on her mirth, she nodded and got up again, abruptly aware that the source of the yell- a man- was now nearly right beside her hiding spot.

And ta-da! Step out!

Fear chased away by laughter, Calarine stepped away from the lockers just as he ran past her and she reached out for him with both arms, essentially encapsulating the man in an unexpected hug.

"H-Hi!" She giggled into his ear. "This little kitty went to school. I think this kitty," The scissors stabbed bluntly into his left shoulder as her right arm began digging it in. "Will be crying wee wee wee all the way home."

"No, no, don't hurt me-" The man's face, a grimace of agony and terror, struck Calarine as having something indefinably wrong. Then it hit her.

"No, no, don't worry!" Calarine spun him around so that he was facing her. In his shocked state, the poor fool didn't even try to run away from her. "I'm not going to hurt you!" Her manic grin, if it could have, would have widened even further. His faltering gaze met her own dreamy eyes and she pulled out the scissors, eliciting a spurt of thick blood and another howl. "See, there's something wrong here." She leaned in conspiratorially, the smile never leaving her face. "I'm not sure. Maybe it's the explosion. But I think it's your mouth!"

"Wha-"

"You need to smile more!" She flourished her hands as if it were self-evident and common-sensical. "Here, let me help you with that.. Just.. relax.."

Brandishing the scissors, she snipped it a few times experimentally and the man, finally aware of his danger, began to back off.

"Does it scare you?" Calarine asked, grinning, somehow, with concern. It was almost as if she genuinely didn't want to terrify the man and that in itself made him fear even more. "Here, if seeing it scares you, then you won't need to see."

With an instinctive wave of her hand, a sort of dark cloud the colour of the Cat's pelt fell over his eyes and he began screaming once more, tripping in his blind anxiety.

"Don't be afraid! You're in good paws now. I cut things into shape all the time." She knelt down beside his scrambling form and pushed him back down with what was intended to be a soothing touch.

"Now.." The scissor-blade separated. "Keep.." One blade went into his mouth. "Still.." The other blade caressed his cheek ever so slightly and he froze.

Snip.

When Calarine had cheerfully brought a big smile to the man's face, he had stopped screaming. Or choking on his own blood or struggling or breathing, for that matter. She wiped the sticky blood on her shirt then, after a moment's consideration, drew three bloody whiskers on each side of her own wide grin.

She shook her head, rubbing her eyes. What.. had happened? There had been smiling and laughing and-

The siren shrieked and Calarine jerked. Was that.. was that a dead body?

Just stand away from it, my dear. It's nothing to concern yourself with. The Cat told her. Just stand around somewhere. They won't see us.

"Who's 'they'-" Calarine paused. The body was bloody and torn and it's face was grinning like some psychotic maniac, the sides of its lips had been cut, what manner of psychopath would do such a thing?

Calarine felt sick, but the Cat curled up against her stomach, purring sweetly, and all was better.

[AMimsyBorogove]

An abrupt creak resounded through the hallway where the screams of yet another Club had only just finished dying out as, with a sudden motion, a locker a few feet behind the bloodstained, scissor-wielding girl opened wide, and a black-clad shape, its tattered longcoat bathed in even more blood than Calarine, stepped forth, leaning heavily on an equally crimson-soaked cane of black wood. The boy himself seemed fine, but he was staggering slightly as though disoriented, like a sleepwalker or a drunkard. Still, this didn't stop him from giving his customary friendly grin, although the smirk seemed a little more tired than usual. Shutting the locker behind him, he turned and grinned, holding up a bloodstained black umbrella and beginning to shake it off, then opening it and starting to casually spin it above his head, sending an occasional trickle of scarlet claret dripping down around it.

"Good meowning to you, my whiskered friend!" Asterus said cheerfully. It wasn't hard to discern the identity of the purring specter he distantly sensed beyond his own lingering insanity. "...Or at least, that's what I'd like to say, under more favorable circumstances. But, unfortunately, the situation we're in seems to be a little... fuzzy." He sighed, lapsing into a more serious tone - if one could call a continued stream of bad puns "serious." The fact that he simply leaned heavily on his cane instead of doffing his cap and giving his customary bow said more than words could about his current state of fatigue. It had been a while since he'd let the madness take him, and it had become rather troublesome to reclaim his consciousness afterward.

"At any rate, it seems I wasn't needed here after all. You seem to have caught this little rat yourself. Well, that's good. I wasn't really in the mood for a game of cat and mouse, anyway. Purr-fect." Delivering three more awful jokes within a completely straight face, Asterus smiled casually, reaching up with his umbrella, in one smooth motion he displaced his hat, balancing the umbrella perfectly upon the top of his head while he caught the accessory and reached into it, withdrawing a small piece of candy and popping it into his mouth. "Ah. Right. I almost forgot! You might not know who I am. Asterus Rysell, Lunatic Haberdasher, Amateur Stage Magician, and one-time part-owner of an incredibly lucrative bagel production business, at your service!" Giving a deep bow now that he seemed to have recovered his composure somewhat, he grinned, replacing his hat and taking back his umbrella from its perch, beginning to twirl it offhandedly once again. "Do forgive my oversight," He apologized smilingly. "I believe I'm in rather sore need of a catnap."

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

Once he was out of the drama class, Daniel allowed himself to slow to a leisurely pace, taking as much time as he needed to get to the library. After all, there was no rush. He was happy to miss as much class as it took.

Lorelei was light enough and quiet enough in his arms that he glanced down every now and then to make sure she was even still there; she certainly wasn't one for conversations, that was for sure. The silence was broken by the school's lockdown alarm going off, blaring through giant speakers spaced throughout the hallway. He thought Lori couldn't get any stiffer in than she already was, but he felt her tense in his arms at the sudden noise. It looked like she was mumbling a question, but he couldn't make it out over the sound of the alarms.

"You should have drunk that tea when I suggested." Daniel resisted the urge to clap his hands over his ears. The Hare was right; he needed some sort of caffeine to be able to deal with this properly, though he'd be damned if he'd admit that to his obnoxious spirit partner. Distracted by the wistful thought of coffee, his eyes saw but his mind wouldn't have processed fast enough if the Hare hadn't commanded him to "DUCK!", his body flinging itself down, Lorelei still cushioned safely in his grip, before he had even understood what was going on.

A second later, an orb of fire blasted the spot where he had just been standing, continuing on to explode the door to the lab he had been passing by, killing everyone inside. Daniel looked up to see a man wearing a shirt with a giant playing-card club on it, approaching down the hall from the right. He turned to look the other way, and there was another man, similarly clad, coming from the left. Caught in the middle...

He looked down at Lorelei. She looked so small, so breakable; she reminded him of Elise, making him want instinctively to protect her, conveniently forgetting that Elise was about to become a 15-year-old Krav Maga instructor. These men had just tried to kill both of them. He glanced around frantically; he had to put her... somewhere safe...

The lab! The incinerated lab had a lab bench lying sideways on the floor, right across the hall. He dashed over there and deposited Lorelei gently on the ground, covered from any attacks the men could make by the lab bench. "Just... stay there, okay?" he muttered, before going back into the hall. The men were a lot closer now. This suited him just fine.

"So it's Clubs you like, is it?" Daniel commented aloud. The man on his right, who was closer, raised his weapon at the boy, but Daniel was faster, launching himself at the man in a powerful jump. He grabbed the evil-looking weapon, whatever it was, wrestling it from the Club's grasp. With two hands, he twisted it into a circle, the metal responding to his touch like butter, and tossed it over his shoulder. Whatever it was that the weapon was intended to do, he doubted it would be particularly useful to his enemies in its new shape. It bounced off the man on the left, who rubbed the spot where it hit him, then fell to the ground.

The Club-men were fairly tall, but at about 6'10", Daniel towered over them. He picked up the man he had just disarmed-- less gently or easily than he had Lorelei, but still without too much effort-- and ran at the second man, who could be the first's twin. Go ahead, he thought coldly at the man who was still standing, take out that weapon of yours. I'm sure you've got a couple more shots in it. Might even do you some good. ...Yeah, didn't think so. By the time the gaping Club recovered from the shock of how Daniel had dealt with his clone well enough to reach for his gun, Daniel was right where he wanted to be, and was bashing him on the head with the flailing body of his ally.

"Oh, this is good. This is quite good. You're clubbing a Club with a Club... oh, even if the irony weren't so delicious-- and it is-- the pun is just too good to miss," the Hare commended him.

This time, spirit and contractor enjoyed the joke equally well. Each of Daniel's blows were punctuated by a yell from the man in his arms, sometimes accompanied by one from the man receiving the blows, as well. Over this, the sixteen-year-old began to laugh at his own joke. "Haha! Ahahaha! AhahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[IslaKariese]

"Just... stay there, okay?" were the last words she heard before Daniel rushed off.

Lori stood in stunned silence for a moment. Did... did he just...?

"Why, yes. Yes, he did."

Lori blinked. Well, screw that, she replied, pissed now that her shock had worn off. This is a fight, isn't it? I should be out there, showing them exactly who the Invisible Death chose as his partner.

She felt Chess' grin widen impossibly, and her own smile echoed it perfectly. "I was soooo hoping you'd say that."

With that said, she hooked onto the smallest thread of power she could and reached around her waist. Grasping onto thin air, she pulled and made a gleaming silver rapier and its sheath materialize onto her waist. She drew her weapon and disappeared completely at the same time. She'd practiced this often enough that she only needed a bare minimum of Chess' power to pull it off, leaving her with only a persistent body-ache instead of the outright pain it would've been otherwise.

Leaving the demolished lab room, she came across a scene that she quite honestly didn't expect. Daniel was beating one man over the head using the body of a second, and laughing like an escaped asylum inmate. Getting a closer look at the poor victims, she noticed the card symbols on their clothing, and eventually identified them as Club soldiers.

It didn't take long for either of them to catch the visual pun, but when they did, Chess' laughter filled her ears like helium in a balloon. It was incredibly infectious, and her own laughter filled the hallways, molding with Daniel's in a heart-pumping, skin-crawling cadence.

Daniel lifted his head, still chuckling but aware of the voice that wasn't there before. His confused face made her think vaguely of a puppy. A very large, viscous, adorable puppy.

"My, my..." she said as her chuckled died down. "I'd heard tales of the Hare's truly dynamic sense of humor. Seeing it for myself for the first time is rather... purr-fect." She laughed again as all three men started looking around, but she fell silent as one of them - the man who was getting 'clubbed,' so to speak - was trying to take advantage of Daniel's distraction and pulling a metal ball out of his pocket. That wouldn't do at all. So, without too much fanfare, she stepped up behind the Club and slid her rapier neatly through his shoulder.

Lori reappeared, grin never dimming but eyes rather cold with a glint of manic energy, and she just as neatly slid her weapon out of the man as he fell to the floor in agony. "Oops," she said, looking down at the Club. "My hand slipped. My bad."