Chapter 5

Whampire and Grey Matter, having heard a loud scream, went to investigate and found Big Chill cowering at seeing his enemy while a scared boy was tied up and looking worried for the frightened alien.

"What was I thinking? I never should have brought that device from my uncle with us!" The young Hatter sobbed while still tied up, his mind full of fear and guilt. "My friends are missing, our animal companions are lost, and I'm all alone because of my stupid mad ideas! I just wanted to celebrate a special unbirthday party for one of my best friends...not this."

Whampire could sense the guilt from the boy and decided that first things first was to get the crystal under control. "Grey Matter, can you fix that crystal? I'll try to calm Big Chill down," he said.

"Sure thing," the smaller alien said, quickly heading towards the crystal while the alien vampire went over to Big Chill.

"Big Chill, it's me, old friend," Whampire said soothingly to his friend.

The young Hatter started feeling something on top of him. He gently turned his head to see a small frog-like creature near his staff and his eyes widened.

"Stop! Don't touch it!" Hatter yelled, sounding afraid. "If you do, you'll end up having your worst fear shown in the light like what's happening to that moth guy!"

"Don't worry, kid," Grey Matter said. "Not my first malfunctioning machine I've dealt with, but it needs to be shut down."

With that, he began working on the staff, careful not to touch the crystal that was still giving off energy. "Should be a shut-off button in here somewhere," he said thoughtfully.

"There isn't...that staff doesn't connect to the crystal's power," Hatter explained, still looking down. "The staff is only an extender attached to it. The crystal is powered by me...through my emotions..."

Grey Matter was worried when he heard that, but then deduced how to shut down the crystal. "So, if I'm understanding, you need to calm down for the crystal to shut off?" He asked.

"...Yes," Hatter simply answered, his face still saddened. "I need to feel hopeful to stop this fear, but I am all out of hope. I don't even know if my friends are okay or not from my crazed portal jumping."

"I'm sure they're okay," Grey Matter said comfortingly. "They're probably somewhere in the mansion and our friends are making sure your friends are okay."

The comment made Hatter look over at the small creature with curiosity...and small hope that made his crystal staff flicker blue for one second.

"There's more of you? And you really think that they've found my missing friends?" Hatter asked curiously, still unsure of himself. "How can you be so sure? How do you know they're here and not lost somewhere between space and time?"

"Because this house is protected and prevents people from getting lost between space and time," the small alien said reassuringly. "Also, even if that did happen, we have powerful family members that would immediately step in to save them from that. So I'm certain your friends are here and you're going to see them again. You have to believe that for yourself now too."

The young Hatter looked at the small creature before nodding gently and facing forward to focus. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, gently let it out, and concentrated on what made him hopeful.

"That's it," Grey Matter said encouragingly as Whampire could see the creature terrifying Big Chill was staring to become transparent.

Just then, after smiling at the hope within his memories, his crystal staff glowed from yellow to blue where all fear manifested was gone.

"There you go," the small alien said, smiling. "You did it."

"Couldn't have found my hope without your help, little Dormouse," Hatter stated, looking at the small creature with a gentle smile. "So, thanks."

"No problem."

The young Hatter gasped when seeing Whampire for the first time and moved back a bit. He almost felt his fear rise again.

The Vladat held up his hands placatingly. "Easy now," he said gently. "Let's not have something nasty appearing again so soon."

"Ummm...You're not some alternate variant of a bat-themed vigilante protecting a dark city, are you?" Hatter asked, keeping calm yet his face said otherwise.

"No, but I can transform into a bat," Whampire said, looking curious. "Who are you, young one?"

Hatter blinked in thought, realizing that this vampire guy didn't know who his mentor was despite the whole obvious Hatter getup. "Uh... It's complicated."

"Can't be more complicated than you having a crystal that reacts to your emotions," Grey Matter pointed out as Big Chill came over, looking at the crystal and shuddering again, for which Hatter felt a bit guilty.

"Right...Again, sorry about that," Hatter apologized, sounding sincere. " I did try to warn you."

"You did," Big Chill conceded. "You okay?"

"I will be," Hatter assured, taking a calm deep breath. "Look, I didn't come here to harm anyone tonight. The same goes with my friends. All we want is to reunite to see if we're okay and go back home. If you truly care about family and children like me, then please help us with that."

The three aliens looked at each other before Grey Matter looked at Whampire. "Whampire?" He asked.

The Vladat nodded. "He's telling the truth," he said. "What do your friends look like, young man?"

Hatter opened his mouth to tell them but paused. After a few seconds, he closed it, lifted his right index finger in silently saying 'Hold on', grabbed his notepad from his inner jacket pocket, and took out a picture from it to reveal his recent group photo. The one having all three boys, their animal companions, and the Bat Mobile behind them.

"Would this help?" He asked.

"Yes, that does help," Big Chill said. "I've not seen these kids or animals, but maybe some of our other family members have."

"Most likely, if all of them landed here at the Mansion," Whampire said, taking the picture from Hatter to hold on to.

"Oh, boy. I hope they didn't land somewhere dangerous, like the labs or some of our family members' rooms," Grey Matter said. "You know how Rath gets if there's an intruder in his room."

"Well, knowing my friends, they're most likely having a similar situation that I'm going through," Hatter guessed. "Scarecrow has a way of messing with his opponents' emotions, besides making them feel fear like his mentor. And Techno-Tune has his personal beats to use as weapons. But, depending on whom they dealt with, it's most likely they got captured and taken somewhere in one room for wherever you guys keep your intruders to get answers."

"Kid, do you take us for our enemies, the Forever Knights?" Big Chill asked incredulously.

"We might be protective, but grief, kid. We're not monsters," Grey Matter said.

"Knowing our family, your friends are safe. Now that I think about it, I was hearing laughter earlier while walking around. So I'm willing to guess that whoever your friends ran into, they were given a tickle torture like how you were," Whampire said, smiling. "Like Grey Matter said, we're not monsters. We don't hurt kids or those that just happened to stumble into our home, but are not looking for trouble or to cause trouble."

"I never said you were monsters who'd do that," Hatter remarked. "And if you heard laughter, then you most likely heard Techno-Tune. Scarecrow's not ticklish at all. His mentor made him go through several tests from being immune to any toxins and lose any sensitive in his body."

"Really?" Whampire said. "Then whoever found Scarecrow must have given him that special formula Frankenstrike has."

"The one that makes someone ticklish?" Big Chill asked.

"That can get even the least ticklish person to have at least one spot they can't stand," Grey Matter said with a nod.

"Providing that I did hear two distinct pitches of laughter that were not members of our family, I think that theory might be true," the Vladat said.

"Either way, I'd like to see if my friends are all right. Along with finding our animal partners and a way back home," Hatter replied. "Any clues as to where they'll be so you could take me to them?"

"Let's head through the house and ask around," Big Chill said.

"All right...can someone please untie the rest of me, first?" Hatter requested, showing he's still a bit tied up around his legs and wrists. "I might be better use of walking on my own than a sacked Hatter."

Chuckling, the three aliens cut him loose and then started hunting for the young man's missing friends.

"So, what exactly is this place? Some kind of giant household for Wonderland-like creatures and outsiders in need of a home?" The young Hatter asked, looking around the place while still moving.

"Something like that," Grey Matter said. "The Grant Mansion is a refuge to many aliens like us and humans that are looking to get out of bad situations."

"...Bad situations, huh?" Hatter asked, getting lost in thought on that. "Yeah, I think I get the idea."

The group saw Four Arms coming towards them. "Hey. Four Arms. Got a question for ya," Big Chill said.

"What's up, guys?" He asked, before seeing the human with them. "Who's the kid?"

"This is Hatter. He ended up coming here by mistake with his friends," Whampire said, showing the Tetramand a picture. "Have you ran into any of them?"

Four Arms looked at it and nodded.

"I recognize the scarecrow kid. He's in one of the guest rooms sleeping," he said.

Hatter silently studied Four Arms without any shock nor fear before responding. "I take it that Scarecrow exhausted himself from fighting you and proved no match for your thick muscled skin?"

"Close," Four Arms said. "Actually, I found a ticklish spot on him, despite the kid saying he wasn't ticklish."

"No way...are you serious?" Hatter responded in disbelief, unable to hide his amused smile. "You really found a ticklish spot on Scarecrow? That's beyond madness."

"Surprised him, too," Four Arms said, chuckling. "Now, let's go see if we can find your other friends."

Nodding, Hatter followed the other aliens to continue searching. But he decided he should consider later asking his best friend Scarecrow on what his weak point is.

As they walked down another hallway, they met up with a robot and a shape-shifting alien. "Hey, Echo. Hey, Upgrade," Grey Matter said.

"What's up, guys?" Ultimate Echo Echo said, before seeing Hatter. "Hey, you guys found a kid, too."

"Too?" Big Chill asked curiously.

"Echo and I just put a kid in one of the guest rooms. Kid's got a fire to him, but seems harmless," Upgrade said. "Mentioned he was looking for a friend with the same name as Echo here."

"That's definitely Techno-Tune," Hatter replied. "And he was talking about his chameleon friend Echo. At least, now I know all my friends are accounted for. But still no sign of the missing animals."

"Then we'll find them, too," Whampire said. "If you three arrived here, chances are they did, too."

"I hope so," Hatter said, keeping calm yet still slightly worried on the inside. "While I know my friends are capable of handling themselves and safe, I barely know what has happened to our animal partners. I can't imagine going home without Spade. She's family as much as the others."

"Our sister has dogs herself too, as do some of the other family members here and they feel the same way you do about your animal friends," Four Arms said.

"Hmm. Maybe we can ask Wildmutt and his brother to help us find the missing animal friends," Upgrade said. "They're both good trackers."

"Not a bad idea," Ultimate Echo Echo agreed. "Let's go ask them."

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