The gang and Carmelita and Mona were all gathered at the table discussing matters for the next jobs.
Mona Lita Fox was the first to speak.
"I was thinking that I should get Ven's blueprints for all of his contraptions here, the more we know about those things, the better chance we have of avoiding and deactivating them."
"We'll need all the info we can get," said Bentley.
"Also," Mona continued, "from what I've observed, Penelope has been stalking the streets dressed as Jack the Ripper, in order to scare off patrons before the park opens. From what I've heard, she's working with a punk rock musician rat named Roxxie, short for Roxanne, though she hates being called that."
"I see she's still considering other people to be a 'means to an end'," said Bentley, "despite the fact that they might betray her first."
"Maybe," Mona said, "but also, Roxxie is rude, crude, most vile and utterly chaotic, in fact, she's been dubbed 'The Queen of Chaos', so who knows what plans Penelope might have and why she chose to work with Roxxie."
"But," Bentley mentioned, "we still have more Cheshire Cat cameras to worry about inside the park. We'll need someone to take care of that."
"And it'd be great to get information on Penelope's whereabouts," said Mona, "as I haven't seen her since before Thaddeus and I were trapped. And from what I know, Roxxie likes to hang out at the local pub outside the park."
"Since Penelope has gone missing in this time period, but we'll worry more about that a little later," Bentley continued, "Sly will have to find where she's been hiding, take her disguise if he can find it laying around, while Mona disguises herself as Roxxie and you both get info from the guards. And maybe Thaddeus can infiltrate the funhouse and see if there's a way to deactivate more cameras."
"It'd be an honor," Thaddeus said in a noble way.
As they headed out towards their next job, Bentley couldn't help but wonder about Penelope.
" I wonder what Penelope is doing," Bentley sighed to himself.
—"Thinking about Penelope, huh?"
Sly suddenly appeared beside Bentley.
"You scared me, Sly," the turtle said, "Anyways, I came out here to try and figure out how we're going to get rid of these Cheshire Cat Cameras. Like those voodoo totems, they're a major threat to the operation. I remember you taking a picture of that funhouse. Maybe the way to deactivate the cameras is in there. Tell you what Sly, we'll need you to find a way to open the door to the funhouse while I prepare Thaddeus for the mission. I have a hunch that we'll be needing him for this."
"Well, alright," said Sly, "I'll head over to the funhouse now. Just be careful getting Thaddeus here. You never know when a guard might show up."
Sly headed over to the Walrus & Carpenter Funhouse and Ninja Spire Jumped on the funhouse's fence, onto the gate and Rail-Walked on the rope leading to the funhouse. Once Sly got on top of the funhouse, he flipped the switch behind the sign, which opened the door.
Sly looked toward the gate and saw Thaddeus running toward the funhouse entrance.
"Are you sure you're up for this?"
"Of course, dear boy," said Thaddeus, "I've been training for years to truly test my mettle," and with that, he entered the funhouse.
From within the fun house, Thaddeus heard a woman scream.
"Hmm? I recognize that scream. It looks like I have a certain lady to rescue. Again. I won't be needing anyone to help me here. I can tell where I need to go."
Thaddeus traversed through a series of rooms that were reminiscent of the Hall of Mirrors. In each room, Thaddeus saw certain differences in the reflections. However, the placement of the false mirror is random, with the exception of the entrance to the previous room. The first one was easy; the false mirror had a red hue. Once Thaddeus hit the mirror, it vanished in a puff of smoke, letting Thaddeus move on to the next room. He knew that of he hit the wrong mirror, there was sure to be a booby trap. The path closed behind him once he entered the next room. The second mirror had Thaddeus' cane held in the wrong hand. Thaddeus then hit it. The third mirror had Thaddeus moving in the opposite direction of the real thing. Obviously, hitting the false mirror was a good thing. The fourth false mirror had Thaddeus' reflection breakdance when Thaddeus wasn't looking at it. The next four rooms is where things got twisted. The differences were harder to spot and were much more disturbing as they went on.
The fifth false mirror had Thaddeus' reflection looking straight ahead occasionally, even if Thaddeus was turned away from the mirror, and it never blinked even once. The sixth mirror involved Thaddeus' cane looking different, resembling more of a sickle than a cane. The seventh room reversed things a bit, making the false mirror the normal one and the rest of them different, each with Thaddeus' reflections looking lifeless and twitching constantly. The eighth room did something similar, except that there were swarms of wasps reflected in each mirror but the false one.
Thaddeus ran into the ninth room, completely unsure of what happened in the previous rooms.
"What the bloody heck was that?!" He exclaimed, "good lord, it was like an asylum in there! By jove, I think I need to hurry up now."
Thaddeus' other reflections escaped from their mirrors and ran around Thaddeus. This disturbed Thaddeus, who at this point wanted an explanation for how all of this was happening. Thaddeus then heard cackling and blinked, making his reflections disappear. Taking their place was a transparent version of Ven St. Claire, who seemingly tried to sting Thaddeus, but just passed through him. The false mirror disappeared on its own and Thaddeus entered another room, one much different than the others.
"Blimey! I don't think I'll ever sleep after that!"
Thaddeus started walking forward while looking both ways.
"Hmmm..." he whispered to himself, "what's that? Is that a... lady? Queen? Hmpf. I'd better introduce myself. "
He walked up to the Queen.
"Hello, m'lady!"
"What?!" What appeared to be the Queen of Hearts turned around and spoke in a robotic voice, "it's that blasted raccoon!"
—"HELP!"
It was the voice of a familiar female fox, who was restrained against the queen's left arm.
"Thaddeus, is that you?!"
—"Mona! I should have known that bloody wasp would do this! Leave her alone! M'lady!"
Upon closer inspection, he saw that the queen was mechanical.
"Wait, what? Is that queen a mech?!"
"Blasted raccoon," shouted the queen, "you will pay! Guards! In position!"
The queen then transformed her right hand into a saw and turned towards Mona.
"Thaddeus," Mona cried out in distress, "HELP!"
"Don't worry, Mona! I'll find a way to save you!" Thaddeus looked around the room and saw a hook on the mech queen's back. He laughed and said, "always putting them where it's visible!"
Thaddeus only had one minute to free Mona Lita Fox, so he ran to the back of the room and climbed the pole, until he reached a wooden walkway through the ceiling that led to a room filled with hooks, and red card knights. He used the Spinning Dove Technique to take out the Red Card Guards before they were able to slam their swords down on him. Once that was done, he made his way to a small room that connected to the Queen room and walked through the wooden walkway to the left which led directly above the Queen of Hearts. He dropped down and latched to the Queen and quickly used the Spinning Dove Technique, damaging the mech, releasing the key while also snapping open Mona's restraints.
"Mona! Are you okay?!"
"Thaddeus," said Mona, "I didn't expect you to help me. That was very kind of you."
"I'm sorry, Mona," Thaddeus said, "but we'll have to get out of here! This place is just too creepy for this gentleman."
"I took some blueprints when that wasp wasn't looking," Mona explained, "let's take them back to the safehouse."
"Sounds like a plan, luv," said Thaddeus, "tally-ho!"
And with that, they both ran out of the funhouse.