Fellowship & Fairydust

JOHRI’S POV

No, no, no, and no! No matter how I try to program this thing, all I get are these stupid error messages! Gri’s beak, this was getting frustrating and making me want to smash something with my wrench. What am I talking about? I could never hurt my precious babies like that! 

There was a knock on my door. “Come in!” I called, trying to make a patch or workaround or something! Ugh, the only way this could be worse is if… I looked up at who had come through the door. “On second thought: go away.” 

“What? No ‘Hi, how are you?’ ‘Why did you come to see me?’ ‘You want to go get something to eat?’” Haman asked as he pushed some of my spare tools off my bed and made himself comfortable.

With a cry, I dove to rescue my babies, but several ended up crashing against the floor while one was spared by my hands. “What do you want, Haman?”

“Now that’s more like it.” Brushing back some of his red hair, the blue-eyed creep looked at me. “I just want to know what it is you’re working on. Day in and day out you keep yourself in here, working on who-knows-what.” 

While picking up some of my fallen babies, I narrowed my eyes. “You come in here, spill my tools all over the floor, and don’t even bring me another bottle of Synthetic Energy? No, I’m not telling you, duh!”

“Is it something for Braxton?” My slight pause gave him the answer. “Ah, so it is. Everyone knows that guy is hung up on finding the two dead people. He really needs to learn to give it up. They’re lost to space, if they didn’t burn up in the atmosphere.”

“So? If Yeller can’t find them but I can, do you know what that will do for my prospects?” I frowned while I went back to tightening a screw. 

“You seem to have the right attitude. I can see why Yeller chose you to be a part of his little program.” Haman smirked. “Come on. Ditch Braxton and his harem.”

With a sigh, I gave my answer. “I’d ask if you were jealous, but I’m too tired to validate you like that. Brax is doing what nobody else on this station has the guts to do: He’s taking charge to bring our crewmates home, dead or alive.” Turning to Haman, I began to push him towards the door. “Now, even I know that whatever happened to them wasn’t a fluke, and when I find out what happened and how to recreate it, I’m going to broadcast my discovery live to every holoscreen, hologram, and holoboard back home before pushing you through it if you don’t get out of my room five minutes ago. Now GET OUT!”  

Either it was the way I was standing tall despite my short size, or the fact that I was menacingly holding my wrench, but regardless the flirty nature disappeared from Haman’s face and he bolted for the door. When it closed, I sighed and sank to my knees. There go a few precious minutes from my life, thanks to that bozo. And I could’ve been using them to try and get this thing to work. Oh, all the stupid distractions that could’ve… 

Wait. That was it. Distractions. Maybe I was looking at this all wrong. I was trying to get this thing to zero in on their signals, but what I should’ve been doing was getting it to filter out other signals first. There might be radio waves or microwaves, but then there might be any sort of waves at all. There had to be something else… sonar! But the sound wouldn’t work in space, so what could I use instead? Photons! They travel at a long distance, and aren’t hindered by the vacuum that surrounds this station. Maybe, with the right coding, I could get my device to work on using the photons to find the two missing students. 

Pulling up my holo-screen, I got to work on my hopeful breakthrough.

 

***

 

MORTEM’S POV

Wonderland…

As I exited the portal with the little red pest, I took a minute to look at my surroundings. This world was unlike any of the others I had visited, as… wait a minute. “Why am I small?” I cried out to the heavens, as blades of grass and stalks of flowers were now the size of trees. How did this happen? I didn’t take any potion, or have any spells cast on me. So why the devil was I now only three inches tall?

Growling, Leroy got my attention as I realized the two of us weren’t alone. I heard some strange humming that seemed to come all around me, echoing through the trees. Then, out from the grass came a head. Just that. A bouncing head that vanished again and again, like it was trying to play a game with me. Finally, it paused on a bent blade of grass, and I was able to get a good look at it. It was some sort of purple and pink striped cat with a big grin on its face, but the head wasn’t attached to its body. Raising an eyebrow while wondering how that was possible, I watched as it picked up its head and placed it back on its body. “What are you?” I asked the freaky feline.

“What am I? Who am I? Why am I?” The cat asked me back. “It really doesn’t matter, because, in the end, all answers are me.” 

Rolling my eyes at the absurd creature, I growled, “If I don’t get some answers, I might test the theory of cats having nine lives.”
“Well, that depends on what questions you have.” The cat said while never ceasing its grin. “But remember, the Cheshire Cat doesn’t always give the answers.” 

Ah, so this thing was known as the Cheshire Cat. One answer, now for the biggest one. “Where might I find someone who bears a heart of light?”

“Heart of light, heart of darkness.” The feline mused while its face turned upside down on its head. “I have my heart, but the Queen of Hearts owns all the hearts.”

“This Queen of Hearts has it?” 

“Not yet, but soon. If the trial goes her way, which it always does.” 

“How do I find her?” 

“Well, some go this way. Some go that way. Some even go yonder. But as for me, myself, I prefer the shortcut.” Pulling on a blade of grass, the plants parted to reveal a path that led into a hedge maze of red and white roses. I was going to give one final retort to the cat, but when I looked back up the creepy feline was gone. Shaking my head at the absurdity I had seen here and not even five minutes have passed, I passed through with Leroy to these gardens. 

Passing by one of the rose bushes, I noticed that some of the roses were dripping something red. Was that blood? Flowers that bleed? That’s just messed up… wait a minute. That’s not blood. It’s red paint. Did someone paint these roses red? What was the logic behind that? Unless… there was no logic here. 

I started to make a turn, but the red koala monster grabbed the bottom of my jacket. “What? What is it?” I asked the little guy as he pointed in an opposite direction. 

“Come this way.” He said, though I still heard his jargon of whatever stupid language he was speaking. Shaking my head, I tried to go back the way I wanted to go. 

“Yeow!” I cried out as the monster sunk his claws into me. “Why you!” Snarling I tried to hit Leroy with my Keyblade, but the thing ducked down and curled up into a ball to roll in the direction he wanted to go. I swear that there was a god somewhere who had a grudge against me. He only uncurled when he stopped just short of exiting the maze. 

As I looked, I saw something that made this even more unbelievable for me. There were cards the size of people, with heads and limbs, and all of them were standing at attention. They came in red and black variety, with their weapons having different designs. The lances the red ones carried were designed after the heart, while the black ones had axes designed like spades. Both colors had floppy shoes and noses that either looked like right side up or upside-down hearts. Also, there were lots and lots of them. Enough to make up an army. 

My thoughts were interrupted as a fanfare was announced, and from another exit in this huge maze came a white rabbit wearing spectacles and a red waistcoat carrying a huge gold pocket watch. Running up some sort of pedestal, the bunny gasped for breath before announcing, “H-her Imperial Highness. H-her grace, her excellency, her royal majesty, the Queen of Hearts!” 

As the Rabbit spoke, I noticed someone coming down the Hedge Garden. She was a large woman dressed very regally. Her gown was red and black with a white lining. The left side of her dress had a short black sleeve with a red cuff, a red abdomen, and the rest was black, while the right side was similar, but with the colors reversed. She even had a second dress with a similar split design, the colors alternating between black and yellow. The right side was similar, but with inverted colors, and the yellow appeared to be more gold. The Queen of Hearts also had a round nose, gold earrings, and a small golden crown atop her head. Her black hair was tied at the back with a red ribbon with a few loose bangs at the front. She also carried a small wand with a big red heart on it. A loud cheer went up from the card soldiers as she made her way up a stand and took a seat. 

“Look.” Leroy pointed again as I took notice of a smaller pedestal in front of the one the Queen of Hearts was sitting in. In that stand, surrounded by black cards, was a girl who looked to be around eight to nine years old. She was in a blue dress with a white apron, and a black bow in her blonde hair. I recognized her from the files on the Princesses of Heart. It was Alice. 

“Court is now in session.” The White Rabbit declared as several animals in a box looked ready to take notes. They must be the jury. Everyone was hushed as the Queen spoke. 

“Today, we shall finally end this trial that was started years ago.” The Queen of Hearts spoke. “You remember the sentence?” 

“But there must be a verdict first.” Alice protested.

“Sentence first! Verdict afterward.”

“But that isn’t the way!”

“All ways are my ways!” 

The attitude of this obese monarch was getting on my nerves, and I was tempted to move in and attack her. However, I didn’t have to do anything as I heard some familiar voices cry out, “Hold it right there!” I watched as that idiot punk and his accomplice ran forward, with the old duck behind them. However, they were also joined by faces I hadn’t met before, but had seen from the files. One of them was the final princess, Kairi. The data proved to be accurate as she was with the ones my files called Sora and Riku, as well as Donald Duck and Goofy of Disney Town. 

“And who are you?” The Queen of Hearts asked before she took notice of the others. “You! You dare to show your faces in my court again?” 

Looking at his friend, Riku asked, “Something you want to tell us?”

“We kinda meddled with things here,” Goofy admitted with a voice of shame. I found myself wanting to know more, but that was no in the cards, so to speak. 

“Excellent.” The Queen of Hearts said as the guards surrounded the group. “Now all the guilty party is here.”

“But we weren’t here back then!” Clair protested.

Her words fell on deaf ears as the queen bellowed, “Silence! All parties associated with the accused are guilty! Now your sentences will be carried out. Off with their heads!” 

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