HAPPY HALLOWEEN GUYS! I managed to survive my finals - somehow - and I did the art I promised I would do ^^ I have it both on tumblr ( post/130481170336/) and DA ( art/Wonderland-564211041) and im using it for the cover image for this fic (yes i intentionally used the cover of the first game as a reference for drawing)
Just as a quick warning, this chapter mentions child abuse, so please proceed with caution!
Kell was running his usual rounds on the first in the morning when he heard a familiar meow. Looking at the doorway, he saw the same bloody cat that kept attacking him in Mekt's rooms. "Ugh, it's you," He growled, "What do you want?"
The damn thing simply blinked, still staring at him. Then he saw that the cat had some ivy vines tangled around its leg. "How the heck did that happen?" The cat ignored his question, opting instead to rub itself against a nearby chair to get the plant off. Not that it was having much success.
Wanting to get the cat out soon, Kell came over and began helping it. The cat batted at his hands at first, but when he was done, he found it rubbing against him, purring. "Uh okay…" The cat looked up and made a few meows. He then tried to take the cat outside, but when he was heading in, the cat followed him back in. "Seriously?"
The cat continued after him, even after he tried to toss it out. During his fifth attempt, he heard one of the nurses call him. "What?"
"Doctor Wilson needs you to take some of his files to the top floor." She handed over several files that were held together with a rubber band.
"Fine." As Kell headed to the stairs, he heard the nurse snicker. Looking down, he saw that the cat was still following him. "God dammit…"
"I think you can smuggle it in," the nurse said between her snickering.
Sighing in annoyance, he continued up the stairs. Cat still behind him. As soon as he was at the top floor, he shot the cat a look. "You really think acting all sweet is going to make me forget what you did to me several times?"
The cat simply meowed.
"Uhhhhggg…" Heading down to the office, he was about to open it up when he heard the cat let out a whiny meow. Looking over, he saw it pawing at the door to Mekt's room.
Hoping he might get it to leave by the window, Kell opened the door up. The cat stood there for a moment, then trotted in. He watched as the cat went over to Mekt, who was drawing with his rabbit at his side. It had been two week and a half since he had drawn the odd flower, and had kept producing different drawings since then. The only notable change Kell noticed was that it was less difficult to feed him…
The cat began playing with a few pieces of paper lying to the side. "Hey," he began while looking at the white haired male, "Keep an eye on that thing." He didn't get a response, unsurprisingly.
As soon as he went inside the office, he saw Dr. Wilson looking through several papers. "You seem busier than normal."
The doctor groaned. "A girl committed suicide last night… hung herself. I'm going through the papers to set up her funeral."
"Didn't think you were in charge of that stuff."
"Well, sometimes their only relatives put in false information when they leave people here… So the duty falls to me to see it through." The doctor signed something before putting it in a stack that was no where near as large as the one he took another paper from and started reading.
Kell walked out of the room, not making a single comment. He was nowhere near surprised to hear that statement from the doctor. People weren't exactly the most caring creatures in the world… whether or not they were sane.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
As soon as Mekt realized he was in water, he began swimming to the surface, gasping for air as soon as he made it. Making it to the shore, he saw a grumpy and wet Cheshire cat, shivering right next to an equally wet Shrinking Violet. "Guess that part wasn't planned?"
Brainy let out an angry meow, shaking himself a bit before resuming his human form. "It was the fastest way."
Mekt ran his fingers through his damp hair, and started exploring the area. Every plant seemed much bigger than him, making him note to watch out for insects. After a while, he saw something was tied to a fallen branch that was stuck in the mud. Looking at it, he saw it was a note and that it had Luornu's rabbit stamp on it. He took it off the branch and unfolded the note, being quick to avoid being stuck in the mud.
Hey, Mekt, sorry for forgetting you can't shrink ^^' I
The first sentence ended abruptly and everything else was written in three different handwriting styles.
What, no, we're not sorry; you're the slowpoke!
Sorry about Orange! Me and Purple will have a talk with her!
This is Purple – we're trying to lie low so that none of the Lord of Heart's goons find us. We'll be waiting for you and Brainy further in the woods. Peace out.
Mekt folded the paper up again and went back to Brainy. "Hey! Found something."
The boy grouchily looked at him, and saw the note. "Let me see." He took the note and read it, and sighed. "Great, that's the highest point of the Vale…" He folded the paper and stuffed it into his pocket. "Vi? You ready?"
"As I'll ever be," she groaned. She stood up and stretched.
The three of them started making their way through the tall grass. As they were walking, Mekt heard several rocks falling over what to him at the moment was a large cliff with large waterfall. As they came closer, he saw several large insects dressed in military uniforms on the top of the cliff, shoving the boulders over the edge.
"Stay close to the wall," Vi instructed as she began inching along the wall as close as possible.
Doing so was easier said than done – the water had made the rock slippery, and there were a few times where he almost fell off. As they came closer to the top, Mekt saw Brainy pull out his gun before climbing up the last ledge, still trying to stay hidden.
"There! One of the rebels!"
"After him!"
"Fuck," Vi hissed.
She and Mekt scrambled up to see Brainy shooting at what seemed to be ants, who were twice Mekt's size and began firing rifles at them. While Mekt managed to zap a few, Vi pulled out her dice and threw them, and the Kumiho appeared, which was also larger than the rest of them – maybe four times the ant's size. As soon as the ants saw it, they all stopped attacking and froze.
"SHIT, A FOX!"
"RUN!"
The ants began to scatter, but the fox quickly trampled some of them as it started pursuing them, leaving green bloody paw prints. It seized one ant by the head, lifted it off the ground, and began shaking it furiously, like a puppy with a rag doll.
"Good job girl!" Vi ran over to Brainy before picking him up and carrying him over to the tall grass, Mekt right behind them. "Keep up the good work!"
"Uh, is it okay to just run off and leave the fox?"
"Hongryeon? Yeah, she'll be fine. She'll tire herself out and come back soon."
"… How long have you had her?"
"Four years. I found her in an old warehouse some rebels used."
"Did Hongryeon… always have a violent streak?"
Brainy squirmed in Salu's hold, letting out another growl. "Put me down," He ordered angrily, reminding Mekt of an actual cat.
Vi was setting him down when Mekt heard something. That probably wasn't the fox. Heading in the direction he heard it from, Mekt searched the grass when he tripped over something, landing on his face. "Oww, dammit," He muttered as he stood back up. As he was looking up, he saw an ant staggering about.
"Oh, he's killin me… killin me from the inside out… forgive me, forgive me!"
Mekt was about to go closer when he was suddenly pulled back further in the grass. Vi's gloved hand covered his mouth as she and Brainy continued pulling him away. "Don't get near him," She hissed quietly.
He tried to ask why, but the only thing that came out was a muffled sound as they hauled him further. Finally, they released him. "What the hell was that about?"
"He… was infected."
Mekt raised an eyebrow. "Infected with what?"
Brainy groaned before he began to explain. "… The Red Lord… keeps the insect army under his command with the threat of infecting them with a type of fungus called cordyceps. It grows from the inside out, affecting their brain before they die from atrophy."
"So it's just the insects then, right?"
"… No. After the fungus sprouts from the insects, they release poisonous spores. We won't get infected, but we will be poisoned, and quite possibly die from it, given the only antidote takes 3 days to make and the poison can take just one."
"Oh. That's not good."
"Indeed, so please refrain from doing anything too dumb." Brainy began walking away, constantly looking around.
"You're on edge more than before," Mekt commented, "Anything else in the area I should know about?"
"… Let's just hurry," Brainy ordered. "I want to meet up with Luornu as soon as possible."
As they kept walking further in the blades of grass, Mekt heard something running towards them from behind. Looking back, he saw it was just the fox, tails wagging happily. As soon as she found them, Hongryeon began nuzzling her nose against Mekt, making a small purring sound.
"Uh, good fox…" Mekt hesitantly petted her, which earned an extra-affectionate nuzzle. Just before she let out a painful yelp, shocking Mekt and the other two. He watched as Hongryeon looked back at one of her tails and suddenly lunged for it. A split second later, Mekt saw her holding the same plant he saw at the nursery back at the Skool, only its roots were moving… and it had some blood on the petals. Tossing the plant away, the fox began to nurse its tail, which seemed to have been bitten.
"Oh great, Blood Roses," Vi groaned.
"Blood Roses?"
Brainy groaned, "You remember the rose maze you got stuck in before? When you first came?" After Mekt nodded, he continued explaining. "Blood Roses are the Red Lord's favorite, and before they just were in the dungeons at his palace… but now he has distributed several of them across Wonderland, including the Vale."
"I saw one back at the Skool, but I'm pretty sure it ate a guard?"
"They don't have sympathy towards other minions of the Red Lord, who doesn't see it as a problem… actually, he see's them as another way to keep the rest under control."
"Alright, so what should I do if see one?"
"Go for the petals or see if you can uproot it. Hongryeon took care of that of that one thankfully."
The fox had finished attending the injured tail and resumed rubbing her face against the trio. Brainy made another annoyed growl at the motion, sounding cat like. "Vi, get her to go back to the dice,"
"I doubt she wants to," She said plainly as she gave the Kumiho a scratch under the chin.
Brainy groaned and continued on, still looking around in an alarming matter.
Soon they were making their way next to a stream, the fox playfully dipping her paws in the water before flicking them, splattering the smaller beings with a few drops. "Vi," Querl began again, sounding angrier. "Get. Her. Back. In. The. Dice."
"Alright, fine, grouch," Vi muttered before looking at Hongryeon. "Sorry girl, you gotta take a nap for a while." The fox whined. "Do this and I'll let you teeth my uncle's boat when we get back." There was a chirp from the fox at that, and then she turned back into the dice. "There," she told Querl as she showed him the dice, "Satisfied?"
"Yes, thank you," he said in a relieved tone. "Now she won't draw unwanted attention."
Mekt raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Looked like to me that the guards were afraid of her, so wouldn't they just run off?"
"It's not the guards I'm worried about," Querl confessed.
"Then who?"
Brainy didn't answer.
Just another mystery.
As long as he had known Brainy, the boy would disclose very little information about himself. Mekt knew nothing about his family, where he was born, where he grew up, or if he ever had a home. There was probably a good reason for the secrecy though.
Further down the stream, there was a sudden noise from the other side, a low groaning like sound, making the green boy jump. "Shit."
"What, what is it?"
"Just run! And don't let them find you!" Brainy suddenly vanished, leaving Mekt and Salu.
The same sound was closer the second time Mekt heard it, prompting both of them to hide among some nearby mushrooms. Mekt was expecting guards of some sort, but instead he saw two tall beings... with mouths stitched shut and glass eyes. They silently moved about, before taking off as quickly as they came.
"Oh no," Vi gasped.
"What? They with the Red Lord?"
"No, but their bad news… especially for Brainy."
Before Mekt could ask why, there was a loud yowl… from a cat. Brainy. Vi suddenly took of in the direction where the yowl came from, looking alarmed. Mekt followed after, and as soon as he made his way to another clear spot, he saw that one of the beings had caught Brainy in his cat form, forcing some kind of collar on, while the other one held a cage that the Cheshire Cat was shoved inside.
Vi was running towards them, knife out in her hands. "You bastards let him go!" As she stabbed the figure that was putting Brainy in the cage, sand began pouring out of it. Although it still turned around and swung a long bladed spear at her, getting her arm. "Ow!" She collapsed on her knees, and the two tall beings took off, but not before the one that had sand spilling out of it took the knife Salu dropped..
"Salu!" Mekt came over and looked at the injury. A large gash went down her arm in a diagonal line, bleeding. He quickly applied pressure to it before taking off the vest he was wearing and used it to serve as a makeshift bandage.
"Owwww…" She slowly sat up and looked at the injured arm. "Fuck. I'm going to need meta to heal it…"
"… What were those things? And why did they take Brainy?"
Shrinking Violet stood up while holding her arm. "Puppets… his mom's puppets."
Mekt blinked when he heard that. "His mom?"
"Let's just say everyone in the Dox family minus Brainy is… fairly screwed in the head. Do they execute whomever they please to, no. But there's a reason why Brainy is estranged from his mom." She began walking to the river, following the trail of sand that was left behind. "We need to go after him."
Mekt didn't argue.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
The puppet must have had a lot of sand stored in it, given how far the trail was. As they continued following it, Mekt supported Vi as she walked so she wouldn't have to use so much energy, given her injury.
As they were passing a rotting log, Mekt spotted huge platters of blood next to it, where several insects were feasting on the flesh of what seemed to be a guard, leaving a glowing heart alone, which Mekt helped Shrinking Violet to reach so she could heal up. "What happened to them?"
"From the looks of it, I'd say it was Brainy's mom…" Her voice was bitter as she mentioned the apparent mother.
"… These folks of Brainy's… they're that bad, huh?"
"Yeah. They are."
"… He never told me about them. I tried asking several times before when I was smaller, but he never gave me anything."
Vi gave a small nod. "Sounds like him. He hesitated telling me as well. But after several months of hiding out with gramps and me… I guess he finally warmed up enough to give me the basics. And trust me, if it was me in his situation, I'd leave his mom's place as well."
Mekt let that sink in. The situation was that bad after all. "I hope he's okay."
As they continued on, Mekt saw several more dead guards lying about. One of them, and ant, had some kind of mushroom sprouting out from his body. "Careful," Salu instructed. "It's the fungus Brainy warned you about before. I don't think it released any spore yet… but let's not test our luck."
Despite her warning, Mekt crept a little closer to inspect. The longest stalks were from his head, before going down the rest of his body, curving up to the sky. All of them were red. They were clearly different from other kinds of mushroom and fungus he had seen in Wonderland.
"HEY!" Salu pulled him from the body, and kept dragging him away. "Geez, what am I, a baby sitter?"
"I was just looking-OW!" She grasped his ear as she continued hauling him in the direction the sand was leading them.
Until the trail stopped.
The puppet that Salu stabbed earlier had collapsed, barely crawling, as the sand coming out of them was now just a trickle.
"Looks like it lost too much stuffing," Vi commented as she swiftly took it's weapon that was dropped on the ground.
"What now?"
"Well thankfully, these things usually just stick to a straight path for destination and starting point, so we should be good if we continue on the same way. He is," she answered while pointing her newly acquired spear at the still struggling puppet.
Mekt looked down at the puppet, feeling the slightest pity for them before asking, "What should we do with it?"
Salu looked down at him. "I dunno… He can't really harm us now… let's just leave him. He can't die. Not the same way we do… plus he's just following orders."
"… Alright. If you say so."
Leaving the puppet behind, they continued on.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
After what felt like hours, Mekt and Salu found a large house that had the same three-dot symbol Brainy had on the doors and windows. "This is it," Salu determined.
Both of them went straight for the doors and tried to open them, but they were locked. "Shit…"
As they both started to pry the doors open with the spear Salu had, he felt the wooden planks underneath his feet dip and give way. Both he and Salu plummeted downward, both screaming. He braced himself for another rough landing like before.
He did land on his back again... but this time it was in something soft…
"Wh-what the hell?" He pushed himself up and saw that they both had landed in something white, in what seemed like an extravagant dining room. Mekt prodded at what he was stuck in, and realized what it was. Frosting. Vanilla frosting. He then looked at himself… and saw that he was covered in the stuff. "Dammit," he growled before standing up, finding himself sinking down in the sugary, sweet smelling substance. After five minutes of struggling to get out and to the edge, Mekt found himself sinking down to his waist. Officially pissing him off as he began to dig his way out.
As he raised his left hand up, he saw that he was holding chocolate cake along with the icing. As if on queue, his stomach growled. When was the last time he ate something? He tried to remember. They forced something down his throat down at the asylum because he didn't feel like eating… when was the last time he was actually hungry? Unable to remember, Mekt raised the sweet substance closer to his face, opening his mouth to eat.
"NO! NO EATING YOUR WAY THROUGH!" Jumping at the outburst, Mekt looked at Salu, who wasn't faring much better than him, as she was using the filched weapon to make a path. "We don't know what's in it! Let alone if it will make us change size! I don't want to deal with random size change at the moment. Plus then she'll know we're here!"
"So we have to deal with this shit? And do you know how long it has been since I've had an actual meal?!"
"Hey, I'm no happier about this than you," She said firmly as she managed to go forth a few inches. "Fuck I'm starving…" Suddenly, she fell forward, landing on her face. Salu swiftly stood up, spitting out whatever got caught in her mouth. "Ah! Gross! I hate vanilla!" She then took a few steps back. "What the hell was that?" She reached down to grab whatever made her trip. As she stood back up, Mekt saw what it was.
A skull.
"… I think I can hold off," he said as he dropped the cake he was holding, hunger no longer important.
"Great," she answered.
As the both finally made it to the edge, Mekt saw that they were on a large cake, surrounded by several other desserts and pastries. Jumping down, he found that the cake came clothes with ease, which was good news for him and Shrinking Violet. As they made their way down the table, they heard 'psst', coming from the other side of the room.
"Brainy?!"
"Shh!"
Mekt shut up on command, running in the direction where the voice came from. Reaching the edge of the table, he saw Brainy, still as the Cheshire cat, was placed in a cage that stood right before them. "Brainy," Vi whispered as she came closer, "Are you hurt?"
"Physically no," Brainy answered. "But you two better hurry and find a way out."
"Sorry, but we're getting you out first," Salu answered as she began searching for the door. When she found it, she tried to break the lock, but after several attempts with her spear, it stayed put. "How do you open this damn thing?"
He groaned. "Mother… the Duchess has the key." There was a hint of distain as he said 'mother' just before switching to Duchess.
"Guess we got to look for her."
Brainy sighed. "Good luck. She's not prone to showing herself. Ever since she flat out insulted Red Lord, he has been looking for her and wants her dead. Not accepting her as a prisoner, just flat out wants her dead."
Mekt hummed at the statement. The Red Lord usually just had people brought over first before execution… but if he wanted you dead without seeing you, you really had to piss him off… then again, he was in the same position at the moment… "Any idea where we could find her?"
Brainy flicked his tail in thought. "… She probably is upstairs, which is locked… but…" His eyes shifted to the side, "We might be able to lure her down… It might not work, but it will cut chasing her around out of the equation."
"Just say the word," Mekt replied.
"She has a particular bell she keeps in the cupboard," Brainy informed as he stood on his hind legs and pointed his front paw to the right, at a cupboard where the other puppet was hanging from, completely still. "If you ring it, she should come down here."
"Why?"
"… Let's say that bell was to warn her of either a particular someone who works with the Red Lord, or if I ever was in the area… she went into full detail when I was brought there."
"I'll get it," Vi volunteered before pulling her dice out and handing it to Mekt. "Here, just in case." She then began running to the side and jumped down, leaving the two boys be.
"… Brainy…" Mekt looked at the green cat, who's ears twitched. "… Did your mo… the Duchess," he corrected, feeling that the relationship was too awful for her to be called a mom, "Ever… hit you? Is that why you stay away?"
Brainy stayed quiet for a moment. "Hit? No… but she never had any good emotional attachments to anyone… ever. I ran away after a particular dispute… when she wanted to have me… undergo a treatment."
"For what"
"… My emotions. She said they would cloud my decisions in life, make me do irrational things." Brainy hung his head as he told Mekt. "I was scared… she told me it was just my emotions… but I didn't want to do it… so I ran. I found someone who said they could give me an ability to hide from her… and that's how I'm able to turn into a cat. It worked… until a few months ago, when she sent a letter, saying that she found out about me from a rebel she caught breaking in."
"… Sorry."
"Why are you apologizing? You're not responsible for how she was."
"No, I'm sorry that you got a sucky person as your mom… not that she deserves to be called that."
After a moment of silence, Mekt found Brainy rubbing against his hand, purring. Feeling himself smile at the rare sign of affection, he gave Brainy a small scratch behind the ear.
A high-pitched bell went off, making Mekt look over at the cupboard, seeing Shrinking Violet hopping down. "DONE!"
As she was making her way across the floor, there was a low rumbling sound, and Mekt saw the door at the other side of the room opened up. A woman with three dots on her forehead, green skin, and blond hair came in, eyes immediately landing on Vi. "Hmm. False alarm." She held up her hand, holding a gun that was similar to Brainy's, and shot at Vi. Thankfully, she managed to take cover and climb up to the tabletop, hiding behind a stack of meringue cookies.
The Duchess vanished, then reappeared on the table, about Mekt's size now. Her eyes looked at him coldly before shifting them to look at Brainy. "Who is this?"
"You should have a good idea yourself," Brainy hissed.
She sighed. "Why are you with him then? He's just another hassle that will drag you down. I knew I should have made you undergo that treatment when you were born. You're just as dysfunctional as those mad children."
"Don't," Mekt snarled, barely believing that she flat out told Brainy that, "Say. That. To him. You don't know what he's like."
She merely cocked her head to the side. "You're a danger here. You're state of mind is unstable. Out of place. I'll have to take care of you before I take care of my son's condition. Who knows, perhaps the cook can make a decent meal out of you."
Oh, that explains the skull in the cake.
"I doubt that I'm edible," Mekt retorted.
"Well, not as a full meal, but perhaps a decent appetizer… or half decent." The gun she was holding changed in size as she held it up and fired. Mekt managed to avoid it, and shot a bolt of lightning at one of the marshmallow desserts next to her, hitting the base. The spot where he hit began to melt, and collapsed towards her. It bought him enough time to run and hide, but she moved out of the way before it fell on her.
She fired several more shots, nearly getting Mekt each time. As she was preparing for another shot, something was thrown at her – a hard piece of candy, about the size of a fist. It hit her on the head, making her stagger around. Mekt looked in the direction it was thrown in and saw Vi plucking candies off of another cake and were launching them with all her strength at the Duchess. She then looked at Mekt and signaled him to throw something.
"What can I throw?" He then remembered. The dice. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the dice and threw it at the Duchess. With a puff of smoke, the Kumiho appeared and lunged for her. The Duchess used her gun as a shield, barely stopping Hongryeon's jaws from biting her. But she was pinned down by the larger creature, buying Mekt time to run over to where Vi was.
"You okay?"
"Just a little bruised up from that surprise attack," Vi answered. "Did you see whether or not she had the key for the cage?"
"No… but she might have it in a pocket or something."
Their conversation stopped when they heard the kumiho yelp in pain. Mekt saw that the Duchess had managed to free herself and had shot the Hongryeon in the leg. Leaving the fox, she started heading in their direction.
Mekt looked at Vi, "You go check on Hongryeon, I'll distract her."
"Got it."
Mekt charged out of where he was hiding and threw some of his cards at the Duchess, getting her face with them. "Ah!" She cupped her hand around where she had been slashed, and glared at Mekt. "You…"
Good, she's focusing on me.
She raised her gun again and fired, missing Mekt as he dodged behind a stack of cupcakes. Following the brief explosion from the bullet, he saw that two more skulls had fallen out. He seized both of them and threw them at her, only to have her shoot at him again.
He managed to aim lightning at her, striking her square in the chest. The Duchess staggered around for a moment before falling down, gasping in what Mekt assumed was pain. If she wasn't so much of a terrible person, let alone an abusive mother, he might have felt guilty. He came over to her, pulling out the Vorpal Blade. As he was getting ready for the final blow while kneeling down, he felt a sharp pain in his side. Looking down, he saw that the Duchess had a key in her hand… and was using it to impale his side.
He fell on his knees, gasping in pain, quickly applying pressure to where he was injured. The key stayed in place, and he was hoping at the least it was the key to the cage. He watched as some of the blood landed onto the wood beneath him. It was a lot.
She then stood up, clearly angry, and seized him by his hair, holding him up before speaking. "If you think you can save whatever is left of that disjointed mind of yours, you are sorely mistaken."
"You don't know that," He spat at her. "I think it's in recoverable condition."
"Are you certain? Especially…" she paused. "When you're confused about your own identity?"
Mekt felt his heart stop at that implication. "… What?"
"… I know what you are," the Duchess hissed, gripping his hair some more. "And so does the Red Lord's council. And I'm certain that the majority of people in your world will show pity towards an oddity such as yourself. Whether or not your mind is in one piece. The good news is that they will probably correct you."
That was all she said before Salu and Hongryeon ambushed her from behind, the former stabbed her in the back with the spear she had. The Duchess released Mekt as she collapsed, to which Hongryeon used her large jaws to maul her throat. There were a few seconds of her choking on blood before she finally stopped breathing. The red heart that emerged from her went to the fox, who still had her jaws clamped on the corpse's throat. Mekt watched as the wound on her leg faded. Guess his wound won't be healing soon…
"Mekt," Salu started, seeing his injury, "How bad-"
"It's not too deep," he told her so that she wouldn't worry so much. "At least it's the key…" He stood up and began walking towards where Brainy was still trapped in the cage, kneeling down. Carefully pulling the key out and applying more pressure to the wound, he stuck the key into the lock, and much to his relief, it worked. The door clicked open, prompting Brainy to jump out.
"Someone get this off me!" He tried to gnaw off the collar he was wearing, which Salu quickly removed. As soon as the collar was off, Brainy turned back to his human form, and looked back at Mekt. "Let me see the wound! NOW!"
Mekt hesitantly adjusted himself for Brainy to see where he had been stabbed. Now that the key was out, the bleeding had increased, the dark red blotches staining his shirt . The shorter boy vanished, and Mekt saw him reappearing at the cupboard, searching it for something before reappearing next to Mekt again as Salu and Kumiho was supporting him. "Here," he said as he unscrewed the lid off a jar and tipped it into his hand, making several round pieces of what seemed like some of the pills he took back at the asylum.
"Wh-what?"
"They'll help with healing you up… although you will find yourself going back to your world."
"How am I supposed to get back then?"
"You'll switch in and out. It will be at random, although if they have a counterpart to this, you should see if that helps with traveling back and forth."
Hesitantly, Mekt took the pills and swallowed them. Then everything went black…
And then he blinked. Once. Twice. And then he saw he was back in his room… the one in the asylum. Running his hand over where the key had impaled him, he felt that it was healed up.
It worked… but how long will I be stuck here?
Forcing himself up since he wasn't restrained at the moment, he heard a familiar meow. Looking down, he saw that it was the same cat as usual. They jumped up to the bed and began rubbing their head against his hand, much like Brainy did before.
"Hey there," He greeted before giving them a few scratches in the head, prompting it to climb onto him as it increased the nuzzling, eyes wide at the action. "You like being pet, huh? First time anyone petted you?" The cat let out a long series of meows as a reply before their attention focused on the window, to where they jumped over to and began batting at something.
Curious, Mekt got up and looked out past the bars that were placed in front of the window. It was cloudy outside… but there was a mildly warm breeze coming in…
As he was distracted with looking outside, he was interrupted by the sound of the door unlocking. Turning so that he could see, he then heard two voices outside – a gruff male voice and a more feminine one.
"Why am I stuck with you again?"
"Cuz the doctor has more than enough paperwork to make anyone crazy. Now take this stuff in while I grab a few things."
The male voice groaned, and the door was then pushed open and a well-built man with dark hair that was a mess walked in… then Mekt saw that he had the same eyes as the figure from before.
"… Who are you?"
Just a few quick end of chapter notes:
I couldn't decide who would be the mock turtle, so i decide to alter the section where the duchess was encountered... plus now i can do more Mekt and real world interactions. In the original story, the cheshire cat belonged to the duchess, so i figured to make B5's mom the duchess... but in the comics, she's no where near the ideal mom standards... I'M SO SORRY HE HAS A CRAPPY MOM, FORGIVE ME MY GREEN ANGRY SLICE OF PIE.
The name Hongryeon was borrowed from a korean myth called "Janghwa Hongryeon jeon", and translates to "red lotus"
