"Cat!" Faith called. He stopped, and turned back. "It feels that we're going around in circles. And I need to rest for a moment."
"In a moment," he replied tersely. "And we are not going in circles." He sprang ahead, leaving Faith and Rabbit no choice but to follow.
"Cat's worried," Rabbit said, watching Cat bounding ahead of them.
"How can you tell?" Faith was panting so much that she was nearly unintelligible.
"He'd let you stop if he weren't," he said shortly, "and he's always looking around. Hatter's bound to be homicidal after what you did to his automatons."
"So he doesn't want to stay in one place for long," she panted. Rabbit nodded and sprung ahead. Faith herself put on an extra burst of speed, not caring to be separated.
But they had an advantage in having four legs, and she found the gap between them widening somewhat. She readied herself for another boost, but was interrupted by the arrival of an automaton from behind a mirror. She screamed and skidded to a stop. It immediately began attacking, and she barely dived out of the way of a volley of flames heading her way.
Cat and Rabbit stopped and turned. Cat's ears flattened against his head, and Rabbit began shaking. Cat had seen plans for something of the sort... and he didn't fancy Faith's chances against it.
At that moment, she was engaged in a very complicated dance of avoiding the weapons spewing from its arms. Just barely missed a mace and chain, dived down to avoid a pair of scissors... backed away from the swinging of a club, jumped over a chainsaw. All the while she was fumbling for something, anything that would help. It caught her in the stomach with the club at that moment, and she skidded twenty feet on the floor.
It fired a rocket at her, and she only just got a wall of ice up in time. It exploded against it, shattering it, but the rocket itself was dead as well. Faith jumped up and staggered around a corner, clutching her stomach. She turned and fired the icy beam at it, covering the 'eyes' with a layer of frost, and started digging around for the jacks. "Oh, c'mon, where..?" she groaned. Her hand landed on the demon dice, and though it was weak, she knew that it could keep the thing occupied for a while. She rolled it out. The lightning-happy demon appeared, and started attacking the automaton.
She heard the electrical shocks, and the grinding of machinery, and found the jacks. She turned, watching the fight. The demon was doing well, constantly shorting out whatever gear made the weapons work. But it soon tired, and she threw the jacks just as it retired to its dice. The jacks started zooming around, barraging the machine for a short amount of time, creating small holes and punctures in it, then returned to her hand. Faith grabbed the ice wand off the ground in front of her and fired, aiming for the holes and gears.
The superautomaton found her, and she ducked under it, getting behind it and into the open again. It turned, and (although a little slower) started attacking her with the scissors. She ducked, and felt the back of her sweater come open. She turned, and in addition to a few patches of fabric, saw quite a bit of hair along with it. Her fists clenched, and she took out the mallet. It didn't matter how weak it was. She just wanted to hit something.
She had the opportunity when it charged again. BAM! It bashed against the solid metal chest plate, making a deep dent. She hit it again, and this time, it created a hole. This gave her an idea. She grabbed one of the electrified croquet balls and shoved it in, ducking when the mace and chain headed her way. It stuck into itself instead, and she backed up, readying the ice wand.
Fire rushed towards her, and she fired the ice wand at the flames. The ice melted rapidly, and some of the water got into the hole where the croquet ball sat.
Faith heard the crackling, and saw the machine start to stiffen. Then it began malfunctioning, attacking everything it saw, including itself. The swinging club missed her narrowly, and pummelled one of the eyes. That had an even worse effect than the electricity and water combination, and it teetered wildly, overbalancing and falling, smashing the other eye. It collapsed, and after a few minutes of twitching and jerking, it lay still. Faith set the jackbomb on top of it, though. It exploded, taking the remnants of the machine with it, and she stumbled out to go meet Cat and Rabbit.
They had taken refuge on top of one of the mirrors, and hopped down only when they saw her alive. "Faith!" Rabbit said hoarsely. Cat jumped down and put a paw on her, as though to check to see that she was real.
"Thank Alice," he whispered, as though to himself. She tried to smile at him, wanting to say something reassuring. Wanting to touch him and assure him that she was real.
"What in hell was that thing?" she asked instead. It seemed to be reassuring enough.
"We're not... entirely sure, actually," Rabbit admitted.
"Come, Faith. Now, more than ever, I am agreeing with Rabbit about matters of time."
"Wait, Cat," she begged. "My stomach is killing me."
He examined her closely, and nodded. "We'll rest a moment. But not here. Follow me." He trotted forwards, and turned left. Curiously she followed, as well as Rabbit. It was a long, narrow avenue, and Cat was studying a series of levers. "If pushed in the correct order, a 'safe room', so to speak, should drop down," he said contemplatively.
"What's a safe room in this place?" she asked wryly.
"I'm not entirely certain of that," he confessed. "I only remember something of the sort being there."
"No," she said wearily, shaking her head. "I'm beat - and I don't really care to take the chance of another nasty surprise. Just here is fine."
"We can't stay for long," Rabbit said anxiously. Cat nodded.
"What's going to happen once we make it out of here?" she asked abruptly, sensing another lecture. Cat sat down, for once betraying his tiredness.
"That's still in question," he said. "The making it out alive part, anyhow. That probably wasn't the only superautomaton Hatter cooked up."
She winced. "Then I hope that I don't meet up with all of them."
"But you must!" Rabbit burst out. "You're probably the only one in Wonderland that could beat them!"
"Nonsense," Cat said sharply. "There are a few. The Queen, for one. Hatter could, though I'm sure that he'd do anything to avoid it. As for those on our side... Gryphon, I should think."
Rabbit nodded reluctantly. "I must go," he said suddenly, pricking up an ear. "I hate leaving you in the middle of this hell, but Caterpillar calls."
"Don't take too long," Cat warned.
Rabbit bowed and dashed off.
"That was abrupt," Faith observed. Then she became aware that Cat was staring at her. "What?"
"There are those in the rebel forces that tell me that you and the General have... reached a peace of sorts. Then there are others that go so far as to say that you have betrayed us and established a romance."
"Cat, you should know better than anyone that there is no peace, much less even a... a friendship between us." She shook her head quickly. "Nothing of the sort."
Cat seemed doubtful. "Then what exactly is going on? You've had numerous chances to kill him, and he you."
"I know - that's the weird part. It feels like, whenever he starts talking to me, that there's no point in fighting. He hasn't even tried."
"But he tried to fight you on the bridge."
"And he just stopped in the middle. Said that it wasn't his fight."
Cat raised an eyebrow. "And there was nothing more than that?"
She thought for a bit. "Unless you count two run-ins with Maggot, no."
"Maggot?" Cat seemed interested all of a sudden.
"The Queen's new favourite... person, if you care to call him that." She sighed and stood without waiting for his reply. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to hear it. "I think we should continue now." Cat cocked his head.
"As you wish," and started trotting to the exit. Then Faith saw a reflection in a mirror just ahead of him; a reflection that constantly was changing from a leering Maggot to another superautomaton. Her mouth dropped open and she grabbed her knife and threw it hard, hoping against hope that the mirrors were just playing with her, just trying to confuse her...
The mirror shattered, and Cat turned, startled. Then he froze. "Faith!" he snapped. "Behind!"
She whirled around, and narrowly missed another giant pair of scissors. "CAT! Get out of here!" she yelled. He hesitated, not entirely willing to comply. Faith turned and started running, trying to find somewhere more open, where she hand an advantage. Cat darted alongside her, nudging her when he wanted her to turn.
They ran, but it was almost pointless; it kept up with their every move. Finally she turned, and Cat screeched. She turned, and there was another one. She followed Cat's initial reaction, and dived out of the way as two rockets shot at her. They collided as they were attempting to turn, and she and Cat were thrown several lengths by the explosion.
"Get out of here, Cat," she whispered urgently. "There's nothing you can do for me now. These aren't wasps that you can blind."
He vanished, and she stood, reassured that he was safe. Meanwhile, the machines advanced on her, readying their weapons, and she pulled out the jacks and the dice. They came closer, and she threw each one. The jacks began pummelling one, and the demon rose from the dice. It saw the machine and gave Faith an exasperated pout, then began attacking once again; for all that it was worth. "I need to find out if there are any more," she muttered.
The machines were entirely involved in fending off their attackers, and she chose that opportunity to steal away for a moment, until she found a good spot to fight them from, where she would be protected.
A reflection soon appeared in the mirror behind her, and she threw her knife at it. The mirror shattered, and one of the machined advanced past her. She grabbed her ice wand and started firing, but it countered with its flamethrower, which seriously hampered the effect. There were little holes and dings all over it; it must have been the one the jacks had attacked. She let them go again, throwing them a little harder, and they rocketed at the machine. It tried avoiding them, but they held to their course, truer even than the rockets. The jacks flew at the eyes, depriving it of the automated control. It now started out in every direction, bumping into walls, until it found a straight course - straight at her. She dodged to the side, but it was programmed to follow movement, and that it did.
Faith jumped in front of a mirror, and a rocket crashed into it behind her. She leapt out of the way, and jumped behind it. It turned, but she ran with it, always staying out of the way of its other eye. Then the other machine showed up, heading towards her rapidly.
The other detected movement, however, and set to it, clubbing and stabbing and cutting, firing its rockets and letting loose clouds of flame and steam. The other, though progressively more and more battered, ignored it, heading towards its goal: Faith. Kill Faith.
She fired the ice wand ahead of the treads that it had in place of feet, and it rolled onto it. Suddenly it was slipping and sliding, but she kept firing, until it was almost at her and she jumped out of the way and sat still, not wanting it to see her.
It didn't. It was too engrossed in its companion, which was trying futilely to rise. Each time, it made a concerted effort to get up. Each time, another weapon was used against it. Faith chose that opportunity to slip away.
"In a moment," he replied tersely. "And we are not going in circles." He sprang ahead, leaving Faith and Rabbit no choice but to follow.
"Cat's worried," Rabbit said, watching Cat bounding ahead of them.
"How can you tell?" Faith was panting so much that she was nearly unintelligible.
"He'd let you stop if he weren't," he said shortly, "and he's always looking around. Hatter's bound to be homicidal after what you did to his automatons."
"So he doesn't want to stay in one place for long," she panted. Rabbit nodded and sprung ahead. Faith herself put on an extra burst of speed, not caring to be separated.
But they had an advantage in having four legs, and she found the gap between them widening somewhat. She readied herself for another boost, but was interrupted by the arrival of an automaton from behind a mirror. She screamed and skidded to a stop. It immediately began attacking, and she barely dived out of the way of a volley of flames heading her way.
Cat and Rabbit stopped and turned. Cat's ears flattened against his head, and Rabbit began shaking. Cat had seen plans for something of the sort... and he didn't fancy Faith's chances against it.
At that moment, she was engaged in a very complicated dance of avoiding the weapons spewing from its arms. Just barely missed a mace and chain, dived down to avoid a pair of scissors... backed away from the swinging of a club, jumped over a chainsaw. All the while she was fumbling for something, anything that would help. It caught her in the stomach with the club at that moment, and she skidded twenty feet on the floor.
It fired a rocket at her, and she only just got a wall of ice up in time. It exploded against it, shattering it, but the rocket itself was dead as well. Faith jumped up and staggered around a corner, clutching her stomach. She turned and fired the icy beam at it, covering the 'eyes' with a layer of frost, and started digging around for the jacks. "Oh, c'mon, where..?" she groaned. Her hand landed on the demon dice, and though it was weak, she knew that it could keep the thing occupied for a while. She rolled it out. The lightning-happy demon appeared, and started attacking the automaton.
She heard the electrical shocks, and the grinding of machinery, and found the jacks. She turned, watching the fight. The demon was doing well, constantly shorting out whatever gear made the weapons work. But it soon tired, and she threw the jacks just as it retired to its dice. The jacks started zooming around, barraging the machine for a short amount of time, creating small holes and punctures in it, then returned to her hand. Faith grabbed the ice wand off the ground in front of her and fired, aiming for the holes and gears.
The superautomaton found her, and she ducked under it, getting behind it and into the open again. It turned, and (although a little slower) started attacking her with the scissors. She ducked, and felt the back of her sweater come open. She turned, and in addition to a few patches of fabric, saw quite a bit of hair along with it. Her fists clenched, and she took out the mallet. It didn't matter how weak it was. She just wanted to hit something.
She had the opportunity when it charged again. BAM! It bashed against the solid metal chest plate, making a deep dent. She hit it again, and this time, it created a hole. This gave her an idea. She grabbed one of the electrified croquet balls and shoved it in, ducking when the mace and chain headed her way. It stuck into itself instead, and she backed up, readying the ice wand.
Fire rushed towards her, and she fired the ice wand at the flames. The ice melted rapidly, and some of the water got into the hole where the croquet ball sat.
Faith heard the crackling, and saw the machine start to stiffen. Then it began malfunctioning, attacking everything it saw, including itself. The swinging club missed her narrowly, and pummelled one of the eyes. That had an even worse effect than the electricity and water combination, and it teetered wildly, overbalancing and falling, smashing the other eye. It collapsed, and after a few minutes of twitching and jerking, it lay still. Faith set the jackbomb on top of it, though. It exploded, taking the remnants of the machine with it, and she stumbled out to go meet Cat and Rabbit.
They had taken refuge on top of one of the mirrors, and hopped down only when they saw her alive. "Faith!" Rabbit said hoarsely. Cat jumped down and put a paw on her, as though to check to see that she was real.
"Thank Alice," he whispered, as though to himself. She tried to smile at him, wanting to say something reassuring. Wanting to touch him and assure him that she was real.
"What in hell was that thing?" she asked instead. It seemed to be reassuring enough.
"We're not... entirely sure, actually," Rabbit admitted.
"Come, Faith. Now, more than ever, I am agreeing with Rabbit about matters of time."
"Wait, Cat," she begged. "My stomach is killing me."
He examined her closely, and nodded. "We'll rest a moment. But not here. Follow me." He trotted forwards, and turned left. Curiously she followed, as well as Rabbit. It was a long, narrow avenue, and Cat was studying a series of levers. "If pushed in the correct order, a 'safe room', so to speak, should drop down," he said contemplatively.
"What's a safe room in this place?" she asked wryly.
"I'm not entirely certain of that," he confessed. "I only remember something of the sort being there."
"No," she said wearily, shaking her head. "I'm beat - and I don't really care to take the chance of another nasty surprise. Just here is fine."
"We can't stay for long," Rabbit said anxiously. Cat nodded.
"What's going to happen once we make it out of here?" she asked abruptly, sensing another lecture. Cat sat down, for once betraying his tiredness.
"That's still in question," he said. "The making it out alive part, anyhow. That probably wasn't the only superautomaton Hatter cooked up."
She winced. "Then I hope that I don't meet up with all of them."
"But you must!" Rabbit burst out. "You're probably the only one in Wonderland that could beat them!"
"Nonsense," Cat said sharply. "There are a few. The Queen, for one. Hatter could, though I'm sure that he'd do anything to avoid it. As for those on our side... Gryphon, I should think."
Rabbit nodded reluctantly. "I must go," he said suddenly, pricking up an ear. "I hate leaving you in the middle of this hell, but Caterpillar calls."
"Don't take too long," Cat warned.
Rabbit bowed and dashed off.
"That was abrupt," Faith observed. Then she became aware that Cat was staring at her. "What?"
"There are those in the rebel forces that tell me that you and the General have... reached a peace of sorts. Then there are others that go so far as to say that you have betrayed us and established a romance."
"Cat, you should know better than anyone that there is no peace, much less even a... a friendship between us." She shook her head quickly. "Nothing of the sort."
Cat seemed doubtful. "Then what exactly is going on? You've had numerous chances to kill him, and he you."
"I know - that's the weird part. It feels like, whenever he starts talking to me, that there's no point in fighting. He hasn't even tried."
"But he tried to fight you on the bridge."
"And he just stopped in the middle. Said that it wasn't his fight."
Cat raised an eyebrow. "And there was nothing more than that?"
She thought for a bit. "Unless you count two run-ins with Maggot, no."
"Maggot?" Cat seemed interested all of a sudden.
"The Queen's new favourite... person, if you care to call him that." She sighed and stood without waiting for his reply. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to hear it. "I think we should continue now." Cat cocked his head.
"As you wish," and started trotting to the exit. Then Faith saw a reflection in a mirror just ahead of him; a reflection that constantly was changing from a leering Maggot to another superautomaton. Her mouth dropped open and she grabbed her knife and threw it hard, hoping against hope that the mirrors were just playing with her, just trying to confuse her...
The mirror shattered, and Cat turned, startled. Then he froze. "Faith!" he snapped. "Behind!"
She whirled around, and narrowly missed another giant pair of scissors. "CAT! Get out of here!" she yelled. He hesitated, not entirely willing to comply. Faith turned and started running, trying to find somewhere more open, where she hand an advantage. Cat darted alongside her, nudging her when he wanted her to turn.
They ran, but it was almost pointless; it kept up with their every move. Finally she turned, and Cat screeched. She turned, and there was another one. She followed Cat's initial reaction, and dived out of the way as two rockets shot at her. They collided as they were attempting to turn, and she and Cat were thrown several lengths by the explosion.
"Get out of here, Cat," she whispered urgently. "There's nothing you can do for me now. These aren't wasps that you can blind."
He vanished, and she stood, reassured that he was safe. Meanwhile, the machines advanced on her, readying their weapons, and she pulled out the jacks and the dice. They came closer, and she threw each one. The jacks began pummelling one, and the demon rose from the dice. It saw the machine and gave Faith an exasperated pout, then began attacking once again; for all that it was worth. "I need to find out if there are any more," she muttered.
The machines were entirely involved in fending off their attackers, and she chose that opportunity to steal away for a moment, until she found a good spot to fight them from, where she would be protected.
A reflection soon appeared in the mirror behind her, and she threw her knife at it. The mirror shattered, and one of the machined advanced past her. She grabbed her ice wand and started firing, but it countered with its flamethrower, which seriously hampered the effect. There were little holes and dings all over it; it must have been the one the jacks had attacked. She let them go again, throwing them a little harder, and they rocketed at the machine. It tried avoiding them, but they held to their course, truer even than the rockets. The jacks flew at the eyes, depriving it of the automated control. It now started out in every direction, bumping into walls, until it found a straight course - straight at her. She dodged to the side, but it was programmed to follow movement, and that it did.
Faith jumped in front of a mirror, and a rocket crashed into it behind her. She leapt out of the way, and jumped behind it. It turned, but she ran with it, always staying out of the way of its other eye. Then the other machine showed up, heading towards her rapidly.
The other detected movement, however, and set to it, clubbing and stabbing and cutting, firing its rockets and letting loose clouds of flame and steam. The other, though progressively more and more battered, ignored it, heading towards its goal: Faith. Kill Faith.
She fired the ice wand ahead of the treads that it had in place of feet, and it rolled onto it. Suddenly it was slipping and sliding, but she kept firing, until it was almost at her and she jumped out of the way and sat still, not wanting it to see her.
It didn't. It was too engrossed in its companion, which was trying futilely to rise. Each time, it made a concerted effort to get up. Each time, another weapon was used against it. Faith chose that opportunity to slip away.