So, this chapter backtracks a bit, meaning it doesn't end exactly where the previous one left off. By the miniseries outline, I suppose one could call this the halfway point of the story, but I reckon with the stuff I'm adding to it, the halfway point is maybe two or three chapters still to come. Enjoy!
Chapter XIV: The Art of Rescue
The sun had already started edging past its zenith as the jutting height of the Happy Hearts Casino came into view. The towering structure resided far outside the city on the very outskirts of the Tulgey Wood, bordering the northeastern front of the lake. A verdant meadow surrounded the casino, almost offsetting the harsh, unnatural modernity of the bizarre building. Hatter felt his pulse race through his arteries when he saw the bright red lights flashing the enormous words HAPPY HEARTS CASINO. Somewhere, in that garish, uncanny place, Alice was likely digging herself into a hole the depth of which might prove too deep for even a Vampire Slayer to scale. The girl had absolutely no sense of what she was dealing with, and she had far too much brash courage to realize it until it was far too late.
As the two men galloped across the meadow, closing the distance between them and the stronghold of the Hearts, Hatter took a peek up at the sky, his heart sinking when he saw that half the day was gone already. Alice had left the camp hours ago, and there was no telling how much time she had spent inside the casino. The young man swallowed the uprising of anguish which threatened once more to cripple him into a useless heap. He hoped she had not been in the casino for long. The Queen of Hearts was a woman who possessed many things, but patience was not among them. And if there was anyone who was capable of getting under the mercurial monarch's skin, it would be Alice.
Dammit, Alice! Hatter silently swore as he dug his heels into Guinevere's sides. The poor mare's coat was lathered with sweat and on a subliminal level he knew he was running the risk of her pulling up lame or becoming overheated. But, such things were not at the forefront of his concerns. He could not spare a thought for the animal when a young woman's life was at stake.
Charlie's voice broke through the silence which had reigned throughout the majority of the journey. There had been little use for speaking when they had been forcing their horses to gallop nonstop at breakneck speeds. "So, what is the plan of infiltrating the enemy stronghold? Must I engage in battle with the dreaded queen's servants to reach the Lady Alice?" The knight's pale blue eyes positively glowed with anticipation at the thought.
Hatter frowned. "Erm...I think it's best if we avoid doing battle as much as possible, Charlie."
The old knight's mustache drooped, a perplexed expression forming on his face. "But...why on earth would we do that? I am a knight, Harbinger! I do not run from a battle!"
Hatter sighed despairingly, rolling his eyes. "It's generally not considered running from a battle if you try to avoid even starting one. And, we don't want to try to start a battle because we don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves. There're only two of us, Charlie," he reminded the older man. "We're here to save Alice, Charlie. We're no good to her if we get ourselves captured or killed, got it?" His dark brown eyes regarded the knight seriously, his hands tightening their grip on the reins.
Charlie pouted for a bit at the thwarted chance of being able to use a sword Hatter gathered had not really been utilized in, well, over a century. Eventually, the knight's shoulders sagged and he relented. "Very well, Harbinger. I will resist the urge to use my vast array of skills in hand-to-hand combat if you think it would better serve my lady."
I should have knocked him out cold and left him laying there in the forest, the young man silently chided himself. He was beginning to worry Charlie's manic desire to act out about 150 years worth of repressed training could compromise the rescue attempt. While he appreciated the knight's enthusiasm during what was, potentially, a suicide mission, he wished the man would act a little more prudently.
"Just let me do the talking, yeah?" Hatter suggested.
Charlie's eyes grew wide. "Talk? You plan on talking your way into the casino?" he asked incredulously.
In spite of the situation, Hatter could not help but chuckle sardonically. "Of course I do. Talking my way into places happens to be a particular specialty of mine." He had already fashioned a semi-plausible cover story for their presence, provided Charlie could be kept quiet and subdued long enough to go along with it.
After what seemed like an agonizingly long time, the two men finally approached the extravagantly constructed building known as the Happy Hearts Casino. The ground level was decidedly plain compared to the upper levels, with a single door opening into the bowels of the casino. It was the perfect place to attempt to break into the building, for it was the least guarded area. There were no guards manning the gated area of the stone wall encircling the casino nor was the gate even locked. With a population mostly hooked on stolen emotions and, therefore, not to be bothered with the doings of the monarchy, the Queen of Hearts had grown lax in some measures of security. Hatter had never been more grateful for such gross negligence.
He dismounted from Guinevere, who whickered almost gratefully at being shed of the weight of a full-grown man. Charlie likewise took to the ground, his armor creaking in tandem with the vertebrae of his spine as he stretched out muscles which were no doubt aching from the arduous journey from the Kingdom of the Knights. Hatter himself felt like his poor backside would never forgive him after sleeping all night on the ground propped up against nothing but a crude wooden fence followed by a normally long journey squeezed into just under two hours upon horseback. But if all that physical discomfort meant he would get to see Alice alive, it would be beyond worth it.
Please, let us not be too late.
Charlie left the horses untied so they could be free to return home in the event they were not able to escape the casino the same way they had come in...or, on a more pessimistic note, in the event they were unable to escape the casino at all.
"Remember, I'll do the talking," Hatter reiterated. He halted and turned around to face Charlie, eyeing his completely out-of-place plate armor with a doubtful expression. "You just stand there and...well, just stand there and smile and nod."
Hatter drew in a deep breath to calm his frayed nerves and slowly approached the door. He then plastered on a bright smile, smoothing his features to conceal the raging inferno of panic and worry. After a few moments, the door creaked open to reveal a tall, surly, dark-haired Suit with gray spades splattered all over his dark jacket and tie. The man's protruding brow furrowed at the sight of Hatter and the old knight in battered white plate armor hunched over behind him, likely sporting a maddened grin on his face.
"Hi," Hatter greeted cordially.
"Who the hell are you?" the Suit snapped.
"We're the new act," Hatter replied, the words rolling easily off his tongue. "Robinson and...Duckworth." He motioned behind him to Charlie while telling the Suit, "He's Robinson, I'm Duckworth." He set his hands upon his hips, forcing his body language to give off a casual, upbeat appearance. "We're guardians to the mesmeric portals of the cosmos."
"Huh?" The surly countenance was eased by an expression of sheer confusion.
"Stage hypnotists," Hatter clarified, nodding his head agreeably.
Behind him, Charlie murmured in excitement, "This is good fun!"
Oh bugger it all to hell, Charlie! Hatter wanted to shout. Instead he cleared his throat and capped the sudden surge of panic at the fleeting look of suspicion on the Suit's face. "He means the act," he told the Suit, reaching up to grasp his hat. He pulled it off of his head while saying, "It's good fun...when we do it." He then tossed his hat into the air, keeping his gaze squarely upon the Suit's dull gray-green eyes.
The Suit did not even look up at the spinning porkpie hat, nor did he blink an eye when it landed snugly upon Hatter's head. His inscrutable gaze stayed upon them for a moment while Hatter fought to keep his features calm and collected. The man then turned his head, asking someone hidden from view, "Do we have clearance for stage hypnotists?"
Well, guess it's time to drop the act. When the man turned his attention back to him, Hatter drew back his infamous Sledgehammer fist and slammed it into the man's face. Like a sack of potatoes, the man hit the floor before blood even began spouting from his completely shattered nose.
Charlie whistled appreciatively. "Well done, Harbinger...but, I...ehm...thought you wanted..." the knight's words were cut short by the appearance of a second Suit, no doubt the partner of the one Hatter had just knocked out cold. The man took one look at his fallen comrade and then reached for his gun, but Hatter was too quick for him. He latched onto the Suit's arm and yanked it away from the side holster. Another swing of his Sledgehammer and that Suit was soon slumped over top of his partner, completely unconscious and likely to have an agonizing migraine when he awoke (in addition to several fractured facial bones).
Hatter stepped over the bodies and quickly scanned the room. Luckily, the two he had put thoroughly out of commission for a lengthy time appeared to be the only two Suits posted there. Once he was satisfied the room was secure, he beckoned to Charlie to follow him towards the staircase at the back of the room. The two men ascended the spiraling stairs which almost appeared to go on forever until they finally came to another door. Hatter tentatively tried the doorknob, hoping he would not have to smash through the wood to get through the door. Such a thing would be extremely likely to attract the attention he was hoping to avoid. Again, luck appeared to be on his side for the time being. The doorknob turned easily and Hatter and Charlie found themselves staring at a square archway opening into a hallway with stone walls the color of gray slate.
Stepping cautiously out into the walkway, Hatter turned left and right, trying to get his bearings. He had only actually been inside the casino a few times before, and he had not exactly been given the opportunity to thoroughly explore it then. A few diamond girls dressed in their glossy white outfits with the glittering red diamond emblems walked past and he dutifully put his hand to his hat and nodded with a mumbled, "Ladies" as a greeting. He remained completely silent when two Suits brushed past him, his heart speeding up dangerously. The men barely spared him a glance, however, and continued on their way.
Hatter walked towards Charlie, who had started wandering down the hallway in the opposite direction, an awestruck expression on his face.
"Okay, we're in. But we don't have much time. We should split up and search intermediate floors," Hatter instructed, his voice sounding surprisingly calm in spite of the anxiety which was starting to seep into his system again. He turned around to start making his way towards the staircase further down the walkway.
"Why?" Charlie asked in confusion.
Hatter halted in his tracks, turning around and facing Charlie, exasperated. "Why?" he repeated through gritted teeth. "Because we don't know where she is."
Charlie waved his hand dismissively at the younger man, turning away and lightly pressing his fingers to his temples. His voice once more descended several octaves in pitch so that it sounded more like an ominous groan than anything remotely human. "I shall reach into the mist to lift the heavy veil that shrouds the oracle."
"Charlie!" Hatter hissed, frustration mounting. "We don't have time for that nonsense!" More importantly, if the knight was going to suddenly start demonstrating his total lack of sanity in broad daylight within the domain of the Queen of Hearts, they would most definitely draw the attention of the Suits.
The maddened old knight ignored him as he started spouting out strange, unintelligible words like a mantra, his body weaving back and forth as if it were a tree bending with the wind.
"Charlie, what are you doing?" Hatter whispered furiously. He frantically glanced around to see if any of the Suits had taken notice of them.
His lunatic of a companion then drew in a raspy gasp of air and whipped around as fast as lightning. His arm shot out, prominently displaying his outstretched index finger while he spouted off a slew of directions in one breath. "Down here! Take the second left at the stairs that lead up to the third floor, then after the double doors take the third walkway on the right over to the Fitness Center to Reception B and ask Sheila!"
Hatter blinked, utterly astounded and more than a little perplexed. "Sheila?" he asked.
The knight looked over at him, his brow drawing together in a frown. "Or is it Shakina? Well, no matter. Come along, Harbinger! The Lady Alice awaits our rescue!" Charlie then strode confidently down the hall, not even looking back to see if Hatter had heard and understood his directions.
Hatter could only stare after Charlie's distancing figure in total bafflement for a few seconds before he finally decided that crazy magical directions were better than no directions at all. He ran to catch up to the knight, who was already rounding the corner ahead. One of these days, he was going to have to figure out how that man remained so spry after living for over a century.
"My connection to the all-seeing oracle tells me the lady is trapped in the Room of Truth," Charlie informed Hatter.
"The Room of Truth?" Hatter repeated blankly. Something sounded very familiar about that name, but he was too intent on trying to keep up with Charlie while keeping an eye on the people around them for his brain to make the proper connections.
"Yes," Charlie confirmed. "That doesn't sound very bad, does it?"
"Um...I don't know," Hatter murmured absently. Finally, the words rearranged themselves in his mind and he almost froze in place, so overcome by dread and horror had he become at the revelation. Oh god, it's not the Room of Truth she's in...it's the bloody Truth Room!
Though he had never had the misfortune to ever be landed in the room himself, he had heard enough terrible stories about the Truth Room to know it was one of the absolute worst places to end up short of the executioner's block. It was the domain of the sadistic doctors known as the Tweedle Twins, two of the most twisted individuals to ever walk upon the face of Wonderland. They could give Mad March a run for his money in sheer, gratuitous cruelty. What made them so terrifying was their ability to reach into the mind of a person and wade through it until they found one's deepest, darkest fears. They would then torment said person by exploiting that fear until the poor soul was completely driven to drooling insanity. It was the queen's main method of forcing information out of some of the more stubborn individuals, such as those who did not appear to quake enough at the idea of physical torture. The simplicity of the method was almost as brilliant as it was brutal.
"That's actually very bad, Charlie. Very, very, very bad," Hatter moaned, quickening his pace.
The two men eventually came up to a large gray desk where a brass name plate sat on the top with the name Sheila printed in large red letters. Hatter could not summon the will to be pleasantly surprised by Charlie's accuracy, for it meant that he was probably also accurate about where Alice was.
The woman behind the desk was one of those over-painted diamond girls all dressed in white and glittering red. She was absently leafing through a magazine, pausing only to lift up a hand to cover a bored yawn. However dull the magazine appeared, it must have been stimulating enough to keep her from so much as briefly glancing up whenever Hatter announced his presence with a very impatiently inflected, "Excuse me?"
"How can I help you?" the diamond girl responded in a way which suggested she was clearly uninterested in doing anything of the sort.
Hatter paused as he decided how best to word his request, for he did not wish to actually give away that he was seeking out an oyster named Alice. Doing so might set off alarm bells. "We're...uh...looking for the Truth Room," he ventured hopefully.
Charlie nodded with approval, patting Hatter on the back.
The woman sighed, setting down her magazine and reaching for a pink sheet of paper. "It's occupied at the moment," she informed Hatter before picking her magazine back up.
Occupied...oh no. His stomach twisted forebodingly. "Um...well, could you still point us in the right direction? So we can...wait outside, maybe, yeah?" he implored her, attempting a charming smile which usually worked wonders with the female sex. Of course, it only really worked if said member of the female sex was actually willing to look up at him. Sheila seemed perfectly content to keep her eyes firmly glued to the magazine.
She did, however, point them left and say, "Go straight down the hallway and take the fourth set of double doors at your left. The door to the Truth Room is the single red door which will be on your right."
Hatter breathed a sigh of relief and with a hurried, "Thanks!" he and Charlie shot down the hallway as the receptionist had directed them.
Just as they had been told, there was a single unlabeled red door situated on the right side of the corridor they entered. Hatter had been bracing himself for the possibility of Suits standing guard at the door, but, much to his surprise and relief, there were none. A few casino workers were walking through the corridor from various directions, but none of them seemed even remotely interested in the red door. Every single one of them walked past it as if it did not exist.
Hatter and Charlie screeched to a halt in front of the door. The younger man reached out to grasp the doorknob, his heart clambering terribly with a contradiction of emotions. He was relieved beyond measure to have finally reached the place where Alice was being kept. But he was also filled with fear at the thought of what had become of her at the hands of the Tweedle Twins. There was no telling what state her mind would be in after suffering through their malicious games. He hoped they were not too late.
"What are you waiting for, Harbinger? The lady is beyond the door waiting for us!" Charlie urged him.
He turned the knob, surprised at how easily it rotated. The door creaked portentously as it slowly swung inward. At first, there was nothing but shifting black and white circles with no sound or sight of Alice or the Tweedles. The delicate hairs at the nape of Hatter's neck rose up, sending prickles of dark intuition down his spine. He took a hesitant step into the strange room, his entire body tensed and primed for any sign of movement.
"What strange manner of magic is this?" he heard Charlie inquire from behind him.
Before Hatter could answer, he made a step forward across what must have been some kind of invisible threshold. The scene abruptly changed before his eyes into what appeared to be the entranceway of someone's home. He instinctively froze, momentarily stunned by the rapid change of his surroundings. A large mirror stood against the wall from where he stood, displaying his dumbfounded reflection. A few small portraits also lined the wall, framed in dark mahogany. Hatter gasped when he drew closer to the portraits. They were portraits of Alice, albeit a slightly younger version of her. Her cheeks were rounder and her bright blue eyes seemed lighter, more carefree. But it was still unmistakably Alice, done in the most exquisite detail he had ever seen. One of the portraits featured Alice as well as a lovely older woman with the same bright blue eyes, but lighter brown hair. The woman must have been her mother.
The sight of Alice made his heart ache anew. He lightly brushed his fingers over the girl's grinning face before turning away to continue searching for her.
He began walking down the hallway, not really knowing where else he should go. The scene warped yet again, the walls and flooring changing into a different home setting. Varnished wood became thick beige carpet, the lighting grew dimmer, and the atmosphere grew heavier, almost more sinister. Again there were those extremely detailed portraits, only this time the girl featured in them was a child. Hatter then realized what was happening. The portraits from before showed Alice as a teenager, and now they were showing her as a child who had not yet reached adolescence; perhaps nine or ten years of age. He was delving deeper into Alice's memories, following the trail the Tweedles had already forged.
One thing he vaguely noticed was that some of the portraits had three people in them. The new person was a middle-aged gentleman with curly brown hair and a beard whom Hatter presumed was Alice's father. He idly wondered why he had not seen the man in the portraits of her from her teen years, but dismissed the question as completely irrelevant to the situation. He mentally chastised himself for getting distracted while exploring her memories. None of these things were real, anyway; they were mere projections of Alice's mind. What significance they bore to the Tweedles, he did not know. All he should be doing was trying to find Alice and rescue her from their clutches before they destroyed her mind completely.
He scanned the room, his gaze falling upon a set of wood paneled doors drawn together. He crossed the room and deftly slid the doors apart, his breath held at what he might find behind the doors.
The first and only thing he saw was Alice, for nothing else mattered to him at the moment. Instinctively, he stepped forward to go to her, but that plan was quickly abolished when he realized there was no floor, only a gaping, dark abyss. He immediately drew back from the black chasm staring back at him and braced his arms against the doorway.
"Hatter!" he heard Alice cry. Her voice, filled with giddy relief, joy, and shock, was one of the most beautiful things he had heard in his life. He looked up, drinking in the sight of her, alive and relatively unharmed. A few tears were slipping down her stark white face. She was standing behind a desk which hovered in midair, poised over it with a pen in her hand. He had no idea what she was standing upon, but apparently it was the only remaining solid bit of floor left in the room. He remembered how she had cowered against the ladder back at his shop when faced with the extreme heights of the city. True to form, the Tweedles had slithered into her mind and found the girl's greatest fear, and they were tormenting her with it.
"Who is that?" Hatter directed his attention up above Alice to follow the voice. The face of an enormous, pudgy bald man with paper white skin glared furiously at Hatter. In the adjacent window was a veritable copy of that man, obviously his twin. They were the Tweedles.
"Go away!" the other one bellowed angrily. "This is a private session!"
He paid the two no mind, extending one arm out and leaning forward to beckon to Alice. His eyes darted up to the chandelier providing the illumination in the room and then back to Alice, who was staring at him with an expression of hope mingled with dread on her face. There was only one way they could get her out of this, and Hatter knew she was not going to like it one bit. She was going to have to leap across the room.
"Jump!" he shouted. Much to his amazement, Alice nodded and climbed atop the desk.
The Tweedles wailed out protests in raucous voices. "Get rid of him!" one ordered, ostensibly to Alice, who was patently ignoring him.
With a deep breath, Alice leapt up to latch onto the chandelier and swung herself like a gymnast, sending her sailing the rest of the way across the room into Hatter's waiting arms. For the brief instant he held the girl in his arms, Hatter felt the jabbing, painful knots in his gut disappear. He had never felt such an overwhelming feeling of relief in his life; it almost made him feel like weeping himself. It did not faze him one bit when the Tweedles starting shouting for reinforcements. Now that he had Alice safely in his arms, he almost felt like he could take on an army of Suits.
He lowered Alice to the floor, her entire body shaking with adrenaline. Now that he could have a closer look, he hastily looked her up and down for any sign of injury, and was content to find nothing save the wound she had acquired the day before from the jabberwock pit. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice hoarse all of a sudden with the weight of so many overwhelming feelings.
"Oh my god! I can't believe you're here!" she exclaimed. "How did you find me?"
"I don't know. Charlie's sort of running the show," Hatter answered honestly. He grabbed her hand and started leading her back through the room and down the hallway where Charlie was busy running his hands against the walls while humming to himself as if it were all some casual little exploratory venture rather than a dangerous rescue mission.
"Charlie!" Alice shouted.
The knight beamed when he saw her. "My lady! It is wonderful to see you well!" he responded, offering a courtly bow. "Believe it or not, we are in your head!" He grinned in excitement.
"Yeah, I know. Not the best place to be," the girl said dryly. "But they said they're the only ones who can open the doors..." She stopped speaking when Charlie opened a door which led to the hallway outside the Truth Room.
Alice's jaw dropped. "What the hell?" she sputtered, her face darkening with ire.
Hatter shrugged. "Guess they lied to you," he remarked wryly.
They pelted down the walkway as they retraced the path they had taken to reach the Truth Room. Their frantic, hurried exit startled Sheila into actually standing up and gawking at them, but Hatter did not think it wise to take the time to thank the unwitting receptionist. He only hoped she would not suffer any consequences for inadvertently helping them steal an oyster captive away from the Queen of Hearts.
The desperate gambit in rescuing Alice from the Tweedles had succeeded, but it had also succeeded in alerting the entire casino guard of their presence. When Hatter, Charlie, and Alice reached the main hallway where the two men had originally entered the place, they found a legion of Suits effectively blocking off their intended exit. They had spilled into the walkway and were headed straight towards the three of them.
"Um, okay, Plan B," Hatter mumbled breathlessly. There really had not been a Plan B, but the man was astute enough to figure out if the bottom exit was blocked off, the only way to go would be up. He felt Alice hesitate beside him as he started to turn about. For a second he feared she was actually planning on taking on the entire group of Suits. But, as soon as the shiny ceramic ears of Mad March appeared, he felt her tense up beside him, her grip becoming almost painfully tight. He sensed a strange frisson of fear run through her, but now was not the time to question her about it.
"Shit," she cursed.
"Oh, no you don't. Now's not the time to pick a fight, Alice." Hatter yanked her back, surprised at how easily she gave way. "Come on! The elevator!" he shouted to his two companions. They ran for the shiny chrome doors, which had, most auspiciously, just opened to allow a few diamond girls off. The girls shrieked in dismay as they were rudely pushed aside by the fleeing trio, just barely making it inside the doors before they slammed shut with a resounding DING!
Hatter immediately jabbed his thumb against the button for the roof, hitting it a few times just for good measure and praying no one else would try to get on the elevator.
"Up?" Alice gasped, her fingernails digging into Hatter's hand. "Why are we going up?" Panic filled her voice.
"Do we have a choice?" Hatter snapped, his tone coming off more annoyed than he intended. He then realized what "up" meant to Alice. It meant more heights, and the poor girl had probably dealt with more heights than she could handle today. "I'm sorry, but it's the only other way out."
"Alice of Legend," Charlie intoned, his voice deep and filled with veneration. "Your presence in this world is no accident. You were brought to Wonderland for a reason!"
The girl responded with an ironic snort and a roll of her tired blue eyes. "Apparently that's the consensus."
Hatter's brow furrowed at that remark.
"My Lady! I shall stand at your side!" the old knight declared reverently. "Shoulder to shoulder! Knee to..."
"Charlie!" Hatter cut in. "Now's not the best time!"
Alice fidgeted at his side, no doubt fretting over the fact that there would be yet more heights to contend with. "I can't believe you guys came after me," she murmured, shaking her head. Hatter noticed a tear slip down her cheek. "You could have been killed."
He felt his heart roll over at that remark of concern. But then an important issue fought its way to the forefront of his concerns, having been pushed aside in favor of Alice's safety. The Stone of Wonderland. He had to know if it was still safe. He recalled the image of seeing her poised over the desk, pen in hand. A shot of fear went through him.
"Alice, did you give up the ring?" he inquired sharply.
The girl shook her head and said very quietly, "No, I fed them a false location. I never did intend to hand it over, Hatter."
At first he was relieved to hear the ring was still safely out of the queen's grasp. Then the significance of her words struck home and his jaw dropped. "You were going to bluff the Queen of Hearts?" Each word was punctuated by a pause as he tried to wrap his head around the sheer audacity of such an act.
The girl did not answer, but shuffled her feet guiltily.
"Bloody hell! Alice, did you stop to consider what would happen to you when she found out? Did you try to cut a deal with a bluff? Did you honestly think she was just going to send you and your boyfriend home without getting her hands on the ring first?" he spouted, his words lashing out all the pain and fear he had suffered when he had discovered her absence that morning.
That was another thing which suddenly came to Hatter's attention: Alice's boyfriend Jack Chase. There had been no sign of the man. Alice had been alone in the Truth Room.
"Try ex-boyfriend," the girl spat bitterly. "The son of a bitch is the son of the Queen Bitch."
That statement took a few seconds to decipher. When he figured out what she meant, his eyes widened and his jaw went slack. His brain felt like it had almost flipped over at that revelation. "The prince?" he said obtusely. The girl nodded, but his wish to remain in close contact with common sense completely decried the notion.
"Jack Heart?" he asked, completely incredulous.
Alice glanced away from him then, a sense of shame overcoming her.
"Jack Heart is your boyfriend?" he asked, still not able to make himself accept it. The idea was so implausible, so completely out of tune with reality that there was no possible way it could be true. There had to be some kind of trick behind this. But then something clicked into place. Alice had gotten the ring from her boyfriend, and Hatter had wondered how it was possible for an oyster to get hold of the ring much less know of its existence. Perhaps the answer was that it had been no oyster that had stolen the ring from the queen and given it to Alice. Perhaps it really had been someone who had almost unlimited access to the enchanted piece of jewelry.
God, it makes a sick sort of sense...
"He's not my boyfriend anymore, I assure you. The lying asshole," Alice grumbled, betraying the deep hurt she felt over her former lover's deception. Hatter felt his heart flare defensively for her. What kind of a man would lie so completely to her, make her into a veritable target, and then cast her away to deal with his mother's notorious lack of mercy? A man who needed a personal meeting with the Sledgehammer, that was who, Hatter decided.
Before anything else could be said on the matter, however, the elevator finally reached the rooftop and the doors slid apart. Unfortunately, it seemed the rooftop escape would not be without its own trouble. Four Suits had been standing guard on the roof, and had turned at the sound of the elevator doors opening. The gray spade emblem along with the large letter A stood out upon their lapels. They were all Aces, which meant they were more formidable than the average Suit.
"Oh dear," Charlie remarked.
With no other choice, the trio rushed at them. Hatter and Alice split ways to come at the men from opposite sides. Hatter must have been deemed the most dangerous opponent, since two Suits broke off to face him. They were at too close of range for their guns to be effective, so the men resorted to swinging their fists and legs. He ducked the first one's attack, but the other one's fist came barreling into his jaw. Pain burst through his skull, but he shook it off well enough to evade a second blow to his temple by rolling underneath the Ace's arm. He cocked his fist and drove it into one of the Ace's knees. The kneecap crunched underneath his Sledgehammer, and the Ace let loose a bloodcurdling howl of agony and toppled over. With that man thus incapacitated, he rose to deal with the remaining Ace.
This one proved to be more stubborn than his partner. Every swing Hatter threw at him, the man seemed able to evade and follow up with a kick or jab of his own. The Ace backed him up to the walled ledge, his hand lashing out to grab Hatter by the throat. The teashop owner was forced to bend over the wall backwards as the Ace squeezed his fingers, cutting off the precious oxygen traveling down Hatter's trachea.
"Hatter!" he heard Alice cry out from a distance.
With a groan, he whipped his fist out and slugged the Ace in the ribs. Sharp cracks followed the hit and the Ace released him, doubling over in pain. Hatter took the opportunity to then drive the Ace's head up against the wall. He caught a glance of Alice, staring at him with wonder and admiration. She was standing back, obviously seeing he could handle himself well enough without her help. He then wiped the blood seeping from a cut on his inner lip. With a ridiculous desire to show off to the young lady in the blue dress, he picked up his hat from where it had fallen in front of the wall and held it before the thoroughly disoriented Ace's face. He then flicked his wrist, sending the hat twirling in the air as he slammed his fist into the man's face, sending him to the ground, unconscious. He then caught the spinning hat with his other hand and secured it back on his head.
Turning to Alice, he proffered a dramatic bow. "My lady," he said, adopting Charlie's lingo.
Alice merely smirked, but it did not diminish the wonder gleaming in her eyes. "Showoff," she quipped in an affectionate tone.
The two Aces that had squared off against Alice and Charlie both lay in unconscious heaps on the rooftop. It seemed Alice had also taken pity on the Ace with the shattered kneecap because he was also lying in oblivion on the ground instead of moaning in pain. Hatter was sorry he had missed the show of Alice's fighting prowess, but he was at least glad they were temporarily free of pursuit. Now all they had to do was figure out how to get off the rooftop. He scanned the area for anything useful and found several pink contraptions lining the edge of the rooftop. Hatter grimaced, already knowing what Alice's reaction would be.
"Now what?" Alice asked, glancing up at the sky and around the rest of their surroundings.
"We get on one of those," he replied, motioning towards the pink contraptions. "Come on."
They ran over to the contraptions. Upon closer inspection, they found that the things were actually shaped like flamingoes.
Charlie clapped his hands with excitement over the vehicles, obviously delighted by the engineering. "Articulated birds of the Empyrean! What genius!" he gushed. Unlike Alice, who was eyeing them with blatant distrust, the knight wasted no time in hopping on one of them.
Hatter swung his leg over the side of one and began searching the device for a way to start it. Alice stayed a healthy distance back from it.
"Wait a minute...do these things fly?" she asked pointedly.
"Um, yeah," Hatter replied quickly. "Look, we don't have time to think about it, Alice. We need to go."
"No, I am not getting on that thing," Alice asserted resolutely. She took a few steps back.
"Alice, you don't have a choice!" Hatter pleaded. He held out his hand, his eyes begging her to trust him and heed his pleas.
The stubborn girl shook her head. He could hear her breathing pick up its pace. "No, you don't understand...I can't," she whined.
He knew the Tweedles had tortured her enough with this deep-seated phobia of hers, but time was of the essence here. Her fear of heights would have to be put aside for the sake of survival.
"It's perfectly safe!" he insisted with more conviction than he truly felt.
At this moment, Charlie, who had been poking around his own contraption, must have found the button or lever which turned the contraption on. In an instant, the motorized flamingo roared to life and zipped off the rooftop into the air with surprising speed. Hatter choked back his shock as he watched Charlie fly off into the distance and looked over to Alice. Her expression was twisted with horror.
"Safe-ish," he corrected himself sheepishly.
"Look, I have a thing about flying," she explained hotly.
Several loud cracks split the air and they both turned. Suits were coming onto the rooftop, and many had their firearms out and aimed for the duo at the edge of the roof. One of the bullets flew dangerously close to Alice, who must have sensed the danger somehow and bent back just in time. The girl clenched her fists and glanced back and forth between the steadily approaching army.
"Yeah, well I have a thing about bullets!" Hatter retorted. "Look, I wouldn't ask you to do this if I didn't think it'd be all right. Just trust me, yeah?" He once more held out his hand.
"Fuck...all right," the girl relented. She got on the contraption behind Hatter and wrapped her arms around his waist while burying her face into his shoulder.
Hatter hit the button and then they were careening off into the air at an incredible speed. Once they were airborne, Alice's arms tightened around him, inadvertently using a bit too much of her vast reservoir of strength.
"Alice," he choked out as her grip started inhibiting his ability to draw breath. "I...need...air."
"Oh, sorry!" Her hold loosened, but only enough so that he could breathe. She still held on with uncomfortable force.
Silence reigned for a few moments before the matter of the identity of Alice's boyfriendcame back to his attention. The idea that she had been dating the Prince of Hearts irked him to the core. A prince. She had been the lover of a bloody prince! It did not seem to matter at the moment how angry she was with this man or how much she asserted things were over; what mattered was that she had had a taste of royalty. In Hatter's experience, once someone had a taste of royalty and power, they were not likely to seek out anything below that. Against his better judgment, he allowed his dismay and jealousy take hold.
"So, what, was it his lofty airs and graces that hooked you in?" he asked acerbically.
"Huh?" was Alice's muffled reply, for her face was still buried in his leather clad back.
"Jack," he flatly stated.
He felt her face slide up from its position against his back. "What? He doesn't have airs and graces..." she said defensively.
"Well, what was it then?" he asked, suddenly desperate to know what particular qualities this snake of a man had possessed (or, at least, faked) to attract Alice into a relationship.
Alice huffed in amazement. "Hatter, I would be more than happy to discuss my deplorable taste in men with you, but, for the moment, can we focus on not falling out of the sky and dying?"
That sounded reasonable enough, and he contritely nodded his head and focused his attention ahead of him.
What the hell just came over me? That was bloody stupid.
Charlie must have somehow figured out how to adjust the speed of the contraption, for they eventually caught up to the wildly singing knight. The old man was definitely having a far more pleasant time than Hatter, and most definitely more so than Alice.
"We are angels!" the knight sang when he caught sight of them. "The wind and clouds at our command! Oh, heavenly joy!"
"Oh, fuck you," he heard Alice mumble sullenly against his back. Hatter could not help but chuckle a little at her resentment towards the old knight, who was clearly having a grand old time thousands of feet in the air upon a flying motorized flamingo.
Whatever spirits had been raised by Charlie's effervescent mood were sent hurdling back down again when the trio heard a mixture of rumbling noises and gunfire from behind. They all glanced behind them to see two Aces upon their own flamingo contraptions, aiming firearms at them and firing without hesitation.
"Shit!" Hatter swore violently, turning back to the contraption and searching for a button which controlled speed.
Bullets whizzed past them, and Hatter was horribly aware that Alice was pressed against his back, which effectively protected him from the small, deadly projectiles, but did nothing for her. His heart began to pound painfully at the thought of her getting hit, and he frantically quickened his search for something which could put more distance between them and their pursuers.
He and Alice both flinched when they heard the sound of one of the bullets striking metal. One of the Aces had hit Charlie's bird. Smoke poured out of the contraption. "I'm going down!" Charlie shouted in a voice which, oddly enough, did not sound terrified in the least. His bird started steeply diving for the lake waters below.
"No!" Alice cried out.
"Charlie!" Hatter yelled in horror.
The knight and his contraption soon disappeared with a giant splash into the lake. Hatter felt his heart drop like a stone. There was no way Charlie could swim out of there; not with all that heavy armor weighing him down. Guilt, horror, and grief assailed him. It was his fault the mad old knight had come to the casino in the first place.
Oh, why didn't I just knock him out cold?
The shots continued, and Hatter tried to erratically maneuver the bird around as best he could in an effort to evade the bullets. For the most part, it seemed to work, but one bullet was all it would take to completely ruin the escape. Soon enough, one of the Aces scored another lucky shot and their own contraption started violently shaking as the engine gave out.
Alice screamed as the nose dive commenced.
"Hold on!" Hatter yelled just before the two crashed in a spray of pearly foam and sunk beneath the murky waters.
This chapter was originally much much longer, but I split it in half. Anyway, I hoped you all liked it and I want to also take the time to thank all those who have added me to their alert lists and/or their favorites list!