The group ended up in a garden maze and there was singing heard behind a hedge with some red substance flying and landing on the grass.
"I hope that's paint..." Akito winced at first.
Vincent was the first to feel the red substance to see if it was paint and where to his relief it was. "Whew, it's just red paint." he told them.
"Phew..." the others were also relieved.
Misdreavus floated above the hedge while Alice hopped up and down to see what was going on on the other side. Akito flew up to see what was going on as well. Akito, Misdreavus, and Alice saw living playing cards painting white roses red.
"I wonder why they're painting those roses red." Akito said, floating down to the others.
"Painting roses red?" Estelle looked at her brother.
"That's what's happening." Misdreavus informed to indicate that was true.
"Let's find out why." Vincent said.
"Hopefully they have a good reason..." Alice rubbed her head.
There were three cards with the suit of clubs as they painted the roses, rather messily.
"Excuse us, sir, but why must you paint them red?" Estelle sang to the three of clubs.
"Huh?" the three of clubs asked, before realizing what she said. "Ohhhh! Well, the fact is, Miss, we've planted the white roses by mistake, and..."
"Oh, dear." Teddy said, holding his neck.
"Oh, dear, then let me help you." Alice offered as she picked up an extra brush from the bucket to help out the cards.
"Us too." The rest of the kids, Dinah, and the Pokemon said, each grabbing a paint brush.
Vincent painted, he really enjoyed it and got the most out of it than the others did.
"Almost got all of the roses painted red." Vincent said.
There was a fanfare then heard, which alerted everyone and the cards called out.
"THE QUEEN!"
"The Queen..." Alice smiled in excitement.
"We better bow then." Estelle said.
The cards removed the paint and fell flat to the ground.
"Bow?" Misdreavus asked.
"Just do what we do." Felicity told her Pokemon, following suit.
"Okay." Misdreavus said, following what they did.
There was an army coming which consisted of several colors of playing cards.
'Those must be her soldiers.' Akito thought to himself.
The soldiers formed a deck and they marched, when they finished, they became a heart shape after direct commands before becoming two lines across from each other. A trumpet was heard and the white rabbit had returned and wasn't being paranoid about being late for once and he passed the small group.
"Alice, look!" Dinah told her mistress.
"The white rabbit!" Alice gasped.
"Ohh, so this is what he was late for." Akito said.
The white rabbit panted from his running, but had to announce the queen right now. "H-H-Her imperial highness, h-her grace, her excellency, her royal majesty, the Queen of Hearts!"
The large woman was shown, giving a sweet smile as she waved a red heart fan to the crowd.
"And the King…" the white rabbit then added to the very tiny man who was the queen's husband.
"That's the King of Hearts?" Vulpix asked after seeing how short the King of Hearts looked.
The king removed his crown with a small smile. The queen looked pleasant at first, but she looked royally angry, no pun intended, she stormed through the card lines, passing the kids, cat, and Pokemon, and came to a bush that had a white rose that had dripping red paint which did not make her happy.
'Uh-Oh, we must have missed one.' Misdreavus thought to herself.
The queen let the paint drop onto her fingertips, she had an evil smile to her lowly followers. "Who's been painting my roses red?" she then grabbed onto the bush, pulling it out and waving it slightly in anger. "WHO'S BEEN PAINTING MY ROSES RED!?" she snarled before approaching the small group.
'Oh, my.' Larvitar thought to himself.
The cards quickly defended and seemed to blame each other.
"That's enough!" the Queen snapped. "Off with their heads!"
The three cards were then carried off by the guards to receive their horrible punishment.
"SILENCE!" the Queen demanded, making the cards fall from the force of her voice then.
"Your Majesty, please don't punish them." Estelle begged, hiding the rest of the paint brushes.
"And who do we have here?" the Queen of Hearts then turned to notice Estelle along with the others with them.
"Uh… W-W-Well, now, eh… let me see, my dear," the King came over. "They certainly aren't hearts… Do you suppose they're clubs?"
"Why, it's little boys and girls with little critters." the Queen smiled gently then.
Teddy smiled shyly and hid behind Estelle's leg.
"W-We were hoping..." Felicity spoke up.
"Look up, speak nicely, and don't twiddle your fingers!" the Queen of Hearts suddenly told all of them. "Turn out your toes. Curtsy and bow. Open your mouth a little wider and always say, 'Yes, your majesty'!"
"Yes, your majesty!" The kids, Dinah, and the Pokemon copied.
The Queen then hummed approvingly and walked with them then. "Now, um, where do you come from and where are you going?"
"Well, like Felicity said, we're trying to find to find our way home, and-" Alice started to explain.
"Your way!?" the Queen snarled. "ALL WAYS ARE MY WAY!"
"Oh, my..." Teddy said, hiding behind Estelle.
"We know, we were just thinking-" Vincent spoke up.
"Curtsy and bow while you're thinking," the Queen told them, and they did as she said. "It saves time."
"Yes, Your Majesty." the others replied to her.
"Now, sil vous plait, we were going to ask-" Felicity spoke again.
"I'll ask the questions!" the Queen scolded, before she grew gentle again. "Do any of you play croquet?"
"Why, yes, your majesty." Alice replied.
"Yes, your majesty." Dinah added in.
"I'm sorry, your majesty, but the rest of us don't know how to play croquet." Larvitar said.
"Then let the game begin!" the Queen of Hearts announced.
"What is a 'croquet'?" Felicity was not familiar with that word.
"It's a game where you have to hit a ball through hoops AKA rings." Estelle said.
"Oh..." Felicity understood now. "Merci."
"No problem." Estelle smiled to her cousin.
"I play at the time at home, this should be simple enough." Alice grew confident.
"Well, I have read about the rules and how to play so maybe this will be easy." Akito smiled.
"In your places, in your places, by order of the king!" the King of Hearts announced to the others.
"Shuffle deck, guards, cut, guards, halt!" the Queen ordered.
Flamingos of different color flew into a bag and there were hedgehogs that curled up into ball shapes.
"For once, I don't think I'm surprised." Vincent said.
"Maybe this won't be so easy..." Alice murmured.
The white rabbit handed the bag of flamingos over to the Queen first.
"Yeah, but in this world, I don't think anything is impossible." Akito assured her.
The white rabbit placed a hedgehog on the ground in front of the Queen to hit as a ball. Alice was given a flamingo bag, she took out the birds, but they tried to fly out of her hands and it caused a ruckus.
The Queen had a hard time concentrating. "SILENCE!" she demanded.
One flamingo flew out of Alice's hand and the other stayed and looked rather loopy.
"Maybe some magic will help us." Estelle whispered.
"I have a feeling this will be more of a challenge than traditional croquet at home..." Dinah sighed.
The Queen then went to swing the hedgehog, she missed it when she swung the flamingo. Cards came together and made hoops for the hedgehog to roll through. The King then urged the hedgehog to roll anyway and allow the Queen to win points.
"Did the King of Hearts just cheat for the Queen?" Teddy asked.
"That's what it looks like!" Estelle folded her arms firmly.
Everyone cheered for the Queen who sucked up the glory.
"This woman is just full of ego." Vincent whispered.
This made Vulpix quietly snicker. The Queen then came to hit the hedgehog again, once again she missed, but the King rushed the rodent to make it look like she hit it. One card rushed to make it to the hedgehog, but he was too late, so he slid on the ground and cost the Queen a perfect score.
"OFF WITH HIS HEAD!" the Queen demanded.
"Off with his head, off with his head!" the King said as the unfortunate card was carried away. "By order of the king! You heard what she said!"
"Oh, my..." Estelle said.
"Okay, I think it's time for our own cheating," Akito whispered before shape-shifting into a hedgehog and goes over to where Alice's hedgehog was. "You can go and hide while I do this part.
"You sure?" The hedgehog whispered back.
Akito nodded and where the hedgehog then snuck away without anyone noticing. Felicity snatched the flamingo away and tied him up and then shape-shifted into a flamingo and then went next to Alice without anyone noticing. The other hedgehog decided to catch up on his nap. Alice took a deep breath, she wanted to protest the cheating, but she didn't care, though she was unaware of what happened to her own flamingo and the hedgehog.
"You got this, I know you do." Dinah smiled encouragingly.
"Yeah, you can do it." Larvitar smiled.
Alice took a deep breath, she grabbed the new flamingo in her hands, not seeming to notice anything different, and was now ready to swing against the new hedgehog. The Queen of Hearts used her flamingo as a seat to see of how well Alice would do while having a smug look on her face. The other flamingo popped his head out and giggled, trying to get onto the field.
"Oh, no you don't!" Vincent tackled the goofy flamingo.
Larvitar and Teddy tied up the flamingo even more and where they made sure that he didn't get free or onto the field.
Vincent smirked to the two Pokemon. "Great job, guys."
"You're welcome, Uncle Vincent." the Pokemon replied.
Alice was able to hit Akito with Felicity. Akito rolled onto the field, but the cards scooched themselves upward to avoid the hedgehog to roll through them and let Alice win points of her own. Even more cheating. Estelle began to use her magic and where Akito was able to go through hoops from the cards that tried to avoid him, but thanks to Estelle's magic, without anyone noticing the magic, Alice was able to get tons of points.
"Off with their heads!" the Queen threatened.
"Your turn, your majesty." Estelle said.
"Right..." the Queen told her.
"At least that didn't end embarrassingly..." Alice muttered.
The Queen walked off and she seemed to suddenly have a striped tail behind her large skirt.
Familiar singing came as the Cheshire Cat then appeared. "I say, how are you all getting on?" he asked the kids, cat, and Pokemon.
"We're doing just fine." Teddy smiled.
"So great to hear that." Cheshire Cat said while his ears got bigger, showing he was making a pun.
"Not at all!" Alice disagreed however.
"Beg your pardon?" the Cheshire Cat then asked the girl.
"I said 'not at all'!" Alice repeated firmly.
The Queen of Hearts turned to her and her flamingo looked angry as well, the cat disappeared. "Whom are you speaking to!?"
"Oh, we're so sorry, your majesty, we were just talking to the Cheshire Cat." Estelle said.
"Cat?" the Queen looked around, unable to find the sneaky and clever Cheshire Cat. "Where?"
"There!" the kids pointed, but the cat kept himself hidden from the queen's eyes.
"He's not making this any easier for us." Teddy whispered.
The Queen bent down and the Cheshire Cat briefly appeared on the queen's behind again.
"There he is again!" Alice pointed.
"I'm warning you, children..." the Queen smiled evilly at first, then grew into the monster she was again. "If I lose my temper, YOU LOSE YOUR HEADS! UNDERSTAND!?" she then went to take her turn at the game.
"You know, we could make her angry," the Cheshire Cat offered with a mischievous smirk. "Shall we give it a try?"
"No, please, I beg of you." Larvitar said.
The Cheshire Cat clung to the flamingo's neck as the Queen lowered it slightly. The cat then placed the flamingo's beak underneath the Queen's skirt. The others protested him to stop, but he wasn't going to. The Queen swung her flamingo and ended up falling flat on the ground with her bloomers showing.
"Oh, no!" Alice cried out.
"Oh, crud!" Akito, Estelle, Vincent, and Felicity cried out.
"Oh, my fur and whiskers!" the white rabbit gasped.
"Oh, dear!" the King cried, though still sounded gentle, very much compared to his wife. "Save the Queen!"
The cards gathered around the Queen with the King, shivering and trying to settle her down.
"Someone's heads will roll for this!" the Queen yelled before she slammed all of them down on the ground. "YOURS!" she pointed to the visiting group. "OFF WITH THEIR-"
"Wait, my queen, maybe we could hold a trial." The king said.
"Trial?" the Queen demanded.
"Well... Just a little trial... Hmm?" the King suggested with a pleasant smile.
The kids, cat, and Pokemon were a little relieved that the King was very fair and gentle compared to the Queen.
"Hmm... Very well then..." the Queen agreed, patting her King on his head. "Let the trial begin!"
"Thank goodness." Estelle sighed out of relief.