Alice was teaching Hatter karate. He'd wanted to learn as he felt his fighting was getting sloppy with no bad guys or evil henchmen rabbits to practise on. He was quite good at it, not as good as her previous boyfriend Jack Heart but good enough for her to be impressed. She didn't show it of course, she was too busy dodging as his famous right hook slammed past her face and almost went into the looking glass beside them. Alice pulled him away from the magical gateway. She didn't want to go home yet, Hatter had already met her mum and their holiday was only just getting started. She felt so much freer with him; her change of attitude had been almost instant when he became her boyfriend. Alice was now more trusting, friendlier and scarily optimistic at times.
All of a sudden a woman rolled out of the gateway onto the marble palace floors before the looking glass. She promptly stopped screaming as she realised she was somewhere else. She got to her feet shakily and brushed her blonde hair out of her eyes as she examined the place. Turning to Alice she opened her mouth about to ask her a question when a young man came out of the gateway barrelling into her headfirst. They both lay sprawled on the ground.
"Ouch Connor!" the blonde complained.
"Sorry Abby." he gasped.
The woman called Abby dusted herself off and sprung to her feet for the second time, helping Connor stand. The man swayed.
"Connor are you okay?" Abby asked in concern.
His double vision combined with general dizziness certainly didn't feel okay.
"Erm..." he groaned.
"He'll be fine," Alice assured. "the looking glass does that to you, especially if you hold your breath. It's quite disorientating, I was knocked out by it the second time I went through."
"Who are you?" murmured Connor.
"I'm Alice, this is Hatter and you're in Wonderland."
"Like the story? No way!" Abby exclaimed. "Connor how can we be - ?"
But Connor was distracted by something else entirely. His eyes were fixed on this 'Hatter'. It was if he was staring into a mirror. The man had the same dark hair as him, the same pale face shape and skin, even the same eye colour. Abby looked just as astonished. It was as if the pair were twins yet she could tell they'd never even met before. Connor promptly collapsed.
"See what I mean." Alice pointed out. "Enough about us, who are you?"
After some considerable explanation of anomalies together Abby and Alice moved Connor to what Alice said was somewhere safe. Abby didn't know the woman but she seemed friendly enough and she had no choice but to trust her now. Hatter refused to touch the man before he knew who or what he was. Alice didn't blame him knowing how creepy this must be but Abby was not impressed.
Connor was currently resting on a table in a strangely lit room. It seemed to be a cross between a lab and a hospital. Alice said it was a testing room for the Hospital of Dreams. It was here they tested their cures. Abby who had no idea what this meant just nodded and smiled. The UV light filtered through the ceiling and the lab equipment was scattered about the tables and floor. In short, it was quite messy. The room had no visible walls except one, everything else was a window. Abby felt as if they'd been trapped in an animal enclosure. From the outside Hatter looked in on them. Abby stood by Connor's side whilst Alice interrogated her.
"So...are you guys together?"
"Oh no! God no." Abby laughed nervously. That was one question she hadn't been expecting. "We're just friends who share a flat."
"Who work together." Alice added, not at all convinced. "You obviously care about him."
"I am his friend, that is my job. When he's wakes up he's going to need a big hug."
Abby looked down on him, still slightly concerned despite Alice's assurance he'd be fine.
It's just like having a hangover, you feel ill, and you pass out. When you wake up you'll have a huge headache but you will recover. Alice had told her. All the same, it wasn't every day you travelled through the Looking Glass. Abby found herself beginning to believe Alice's tales of Wonderland. The mirror had been a portal of some kind but no average anomaly. Her thoughts however were brought to a standstill as Connor opened his eyes.
He sat up slowly and winced. Abby smiled, Alice had been right about the headache. Before he could ask any stupid questions she gave him a hug as promised. They stood like that for several minutes.
"Connor?" asked Abby reminded of the last time they'd hugged.
"Yes?"
"You can let go now."
"Sorry." Alice laughed. Connor glanced at her, then at the strange figure on the other side of the windows. "I was hoping this would've been a dream." he commented and nervously waved to himself.
Hatter smiled on the other side of the windows. Maybe this was a good thing; he'd been waiting for a sign that the man was not hostile. At least, that was his excuse for avoiding Connor completely up till now, that and the fact that it was just plain weird that he had a clone. Abby escorted him out of the testing room along with Alice.
"Hi." Hatter greeted.
"Hello!"
"Looks like we've got a lot to talk about."
"Yup."
