Nick turned to see two men standing in the doorway, both pointing guns at him and his companions.
"I said put that potion back!" snapped the man who had spoken in his deep, baritone voice. The second man meanwhile glared at Mark.
"Did you allow theshe intudersh into our lab, Mock Turtle?" he lisped. Mark broke down into tears.
"A thousand apologies, Master Fish" he sobbed.
"Punishment for you later, Mock Turtle" said the first man. He turned back to Nick. "But first, a few questions need to be asked. What are you doing here, young man?"
"Our business here is of no concern to you villains" said the Cat. "Who are you by the way, followers of the queen of hearts no doubt?"
"Anything to do with that potion is our concern" said the man. "But to answer your question, my name is Professor Frog. This here is my partner, Professor Fish!"
He gestured to the man standing next to him. Looking at the two men, Nick felt that their names were very approriate for them. Frog had large, pale eyes and a mouth that seemed to practically stretch from one end of his face to the other, as well as very long fingers like a tree-frog's. Fish had very large, puffy lips, mottle, almost scaly looking skin, and a short, mohican haircut that looked an awful lot like a fin. Both men were sweating a lot, giving their skin an unpleasant, slimy texture.
"Enough about ush" lisped Fish. He pointed at the potion in Nick's hand. "What are you doing with our potion?"
"Why is it so important to you?" demanded Nick. "You've got lots of potions in this lab."
"Not potions like that one!" said Frog. "That potion is the only one of its kind in existence. It was made by the Wonderland resistance, only they have the recipe for it. That potion is going to make me and my partner a lot of money."
"For what purpose?" said the Cat. "To continue your old mistress' work, no doubt?" Frog licked his lips with a long tongue.
"I suppose it won't hurt to tell you, you won't live to tell anyone else" he croaked. "Fish and I have been operating this underground lab since before the queen of hearts' downfall. We were the ones who created the elixir that drained the oyster's emotions and we were the ones who supplied them to the Hatter. When the queen fell, we realised that our life's work lay in carrying on her work, and rebuilding the casino. For two years now we've been selling our potions to Wonderland's criminal underworld. You'd be amazed how much potions bring in on the black market."
"But it ishn't enough" lisped Fish. "We are sho closhe to getting the right amount of money we need to rebuild the casino, and the quickesht way for us to get it ish to sell that potion. Shomething like that will fetch a big prishe."
"Fascinating" said the Cat. "Unfortunately your get rich quick scheme is going to have to go through something of a hiatus." He floated over to Nick. "You may be aware that the Hatter you supplied the elixir to was an oyster. Well he has now returned to his world, but remembers nothing of before he came to Wonderland. Back then he had a wife, and together they have a son." He pointed at Nick. "I have watched this boy and his mother go through nine long years of misery, and now we are here to end that. Like it or not Professors, we are taking this potion back to the oyster's world, and we shall use it to restore Hatter's memory."
Frog threw back his head and roared with laughter, it echoed around the lab, making a sound that reminded Nick a lot of a real frog croaking.
"You won't even get out of this room alive" said Frog. "Never mind to the oyster's world." He cocked his gun. Nick bolted for the window just as the gun was fired.
Instantly, all hell broke loose. Seeing their target trying to escape with their potion, Frog and Fish let off a spray of bullets. They ricocheted off the bullet proof glass, Nick stepped back from them but even so, one bullet managed to put a small cut just below his eye. Ignoring the pain, he ducked behind a nearby shelf. Frog and Fish roared with laughter.
"You can't hide behind there!" sneered Frog. There came the sound of footsteps as he and Fish made their way over to where Nick was. The Cat's head appeared in mid air before him.
"What do I do now?" asked Nick in a panicked voice.
"You are in a potions lab, Nicholas" said the Cat. "Use the potions to your advantage." Behind him, Mark came toddling up.
"What kind of potions do we have here, Mark?" asked Nick frantically. Mark looked around at the shelves around him. Finally he picked up a small phial filled with a cloudy, crimson liquid.
"Throw this at the ground in front of them" he said. "It'll hold them off a little longer."
Nick took the phial and peeked around the shelf he was hiding behind. He saw Frog and Fish aiming their guns at him.
"You've got a cute face, kid" said Frog. "Too bad Fish and I have gotta pump bullets into it."
Nick threw the phial down at their feet. Instantly it smashed and released a wall of thick, crimson fog, completely obliterating the two men from sight. Nick turned back to Mark.
"Anything else?"
"I'm working on it" said Mark as he scanned the shelves for more useful potions. Nick joined the search, picking various bottle and jars off the shelves and examining their contents to see if they would be useful. There was Chicken Pox ointment, toadstool flax, beauty brew, and countless others.
Nick took another bottle off the shelf. Before he had time to read the label on it however, he was grabbed violently by the arm. The next thing he saw was the barrel of Frog's gun pointing at his face.
"This has gone far enough, kid" he snarled. "Sorry to disrupt your plans for a long life." Nick closed his eyes and waited for the bullet to hit him.
Instead he heard Frog screaming with horror. Nick opened his eyes to see that part of the man's sleeve was on fire, he was hopping around and frantically beating at it in the hopes of putting it out. The broken glass on the floor told Nick that Mark had thrown the potion. Fish glared at Mark.
"How dare you attack your mashters, Mock Turtle!" He aimed his gun at the hunchback. Now it was Nick's turn to save Mark's life.
"Oi, trout-face!" he shouted. Fish turned in Nick's direction to recieve a faceful of potion from the bottle Nick had picked off the shelf. It went straight into his mouth. He fell to the floor, gagging and spluttering. As he did so, blue smoke began to spill out of his mouth, ears and nose, enveloping him. Then a bright light shone from the smoke and Nick was forced to cover his eyes with the spray bottle. Finally the light and the smoke disappeared. In their place lay Fish, a man no longer, but a real fish, gasping and flapping about on the floor. The Cat pounced on him and bit down on his head. Soon, Fish was disappearing down his throat, he belched contentedly.
"Good work, Nicholas. I've always been rather fond of pilchard."
Wasting no time, Nick grabbed Mark by the hand and hurried out past Frog, the Cat floating behind. They ran back along the corridor and then back up the spiral staircase to the trapdoor. Nick breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the gryphon still waiting for them. He hurried over to it and mounted, Mark and the Cat got on behind him.
"Take us back to the door, fast as you can!" cried Nick. The gryphon shrieked and launched itself into the air, flying off towards the sunrise.