Hunters in Wonderland [plot: invite only]

David puts his wing up against Manticore and holds it. "Nothing can hurt us? You are good with such riddles you know that right?" He said with a smirk.

Malina takes the opportunity of the false Manticore being stuck to fire two rounds at the back of Cheshire's knees, firing off an ice round and an explosive round. "The joints, hit the joints of the tail!" She called out as she fired the bullets.

Garrus had quite enough at this point and clenched both of his hammers in his hands. "How dare you use a hero’s weapons?" He muttered under his breath before dashing forward toward Cheshire in his heavy armor. He changed his left Juggernaut into a spear before attempting to stab Cheshire in the side. He readied his other hammer to defend against a counter-attack.

Hunter does a backflip over the tail and strikes down, aiming for the joint closest to the mad masked man with a blade hot enough to pass through steel like butter.

Hunter succeeds in slicing right through the tail, the lopped off end disappearing in an instant. Cheshire raised the wings of Icrus to block goth Garrus's hammer and Malina's shots. With a chuckle he disappears again, this time appearing about ten meters away. All of his other weapons have disappeared and Cheshire stands alone the way he had first appeared in his true form, He chuckled loudly, a swirling wind surrounding him.

"I'm getting bored simply using your pitiful weaponry," Cheshire announces. "It's about time I was more... imaginative..."

The wind suddenly picked up and in seconds Cheshire is surrounded by a tornado. The spiraling twister roared and swirled picking up dirt and rocks. Suddenly the tornado turns red and in a second it disperses revealing Cheshire in yet another new form.

"Well? What was that you said to me sir knight?" Cheshire spoke in a cute girlish voice, "Hiw dare I use a hero's weapon?"

David stared at Cheshire. "Well that's not good." He popped another box into his arm. His hand spun and soon was a mace with pegs on it. Each peg glowed yellow. He slammed it into the ground next to him leaving a explosive hole. He then swigged it above his head. "Here kitty kitty. He said as he slammed it down a few feet away from Cheshire's feet.

"Oh come the fu...." Malina says to herself after reloading her weapons. "I have had enough of this god damn word play!" She says before dashing forward and switching her right weapon and its melee form. As she closes in on Cheshire she continues past him and spins on her foot, swinging her right weapon toward his..her whatever it was's back and pointing her left weapon toward its head and pulling the trigger.

Garrus almost felt intimidated for a moment by Cheshire’s new weapon but he managed to quickly remind himself that Cheshire was a demon and all demons must be slain like the others. With no regard for the danger he is throwing himself into he dashed forward once again. "A demon like yourself should never think itself above me!". Garrus changed his hammers into spears and jabbed both of them forward one at Cheshires throat and another at his stomach. He managed to keep enough space between them to be ready for a counter-attack.

Cheshire evades all of the strike coming at her by, darting far away with blinding speed, leaving behind a bunch of rose petals in the middle of the air where she was a moment ago. She points her scythe at the ground and shoots and the kick causes her to rocket up twenty feet in the air. The scythe now pointed at Malina. At the pull of a trigger Cheshire shoots at David three times consecutively.

David put his wings up to protect against the sniper rounds. "Oi, just figure out the damn riddle that's how we win!" David shouted to the group.

The air behind Cheshire suddenly is filled by a flurry of blue feathers, and in the air was cleared by a wave of fire from Hunter's buster sword coming towards her, while his ten inch knife followed, aiming for her back.

Cheshire rotates her body and twists out of the way of the two strikes. Shooting upwards, Cheshire is thrown downwards by the kick of her gun scythe and soars downwards back to the ground landing behind David. Swinging the massive scythe around until the blade hovered inches away from David's neck.

"This is fun," Cheshire giggled. "Let's keep playing until it gets boring okay?"

David looked to Cheshire. "So this is just a game to you then uh? Lets play a game of tag then eh?" David flew right up to Cheshire and poked him....her....whatever on the shoulder and kept flying.

As David flew up into the air he could hear some loud growling coming from nearby. Cheshire shot her gaze towards the left side of the forest and glared. "Don't even think about it." The growling stopped in an instant upon Cheshire's warning. "You've got a good preview of me when I play around. Do you really wanna test out what it's like to fight me when I'm serious?"

Suddenly a giant mouth with jagged teeth, each tooth as large as a full grown man, could be visibly seen within the shadows of the forest, opening wide and roaring right at Cheshire and the group. Cheshire stood her ground and didn't even flinch. The roaring stops and the mouth retreats back into the forest. The group could hear many trees breaking and falling as whatever being is within retreats. Some grumbling and rumbling is heard before whatever creature within could be heard running away, its footsteps heavy and thundering and so constant and repetitive it sounded as if thousands of taiko drums were being beaten constantly at once. The monstrous and rapid footsteps gradually faded away until the group can hear no more of it.

Cheshire sighed. In an instant she disappears, reappearing again sitting on the tree she had first appeared to the group sitting on. Cheshire had returned to his original form and looked down at the group.

"How sad. I was hoping to play around a little longer before the little doggy started baring its fangs," Cheshire said, his voice switching from girlish to deep and back again with every word. "I don't suppose you all would still like to play for a little longer? Oh that reminds me, have you figured out my last riddle?"

David looked at Cheshire for a bit before answering. "Nothing can hurt us....literally. And I suppose a good spar would be fine some time. Not right now of course."

"Bingo, bingo, bingo," Cheshire chimed clapping his hands. "To be more specific though, nothing will hurt you next because I won't allow it. That big guy hiding in this forest would have been far too much for your group to handle. Of course it took a bit of a show of power to scare that thing away, but in the end you all still have your lives and are relatively unharmed. Didn't take much either. I barely had to get serious at all."

"Wait, wait, wait," Emerald said in disbelief. "So you were only attacking us, to protect us from whatever that thing was that just ran off?" he asked. That does explain why s/he didn't complete any of his/her attacks on those three. I still don't like her. I just want to know which way we should go.

"That is correct. It was fun wasn't it?" Cheshire answered Emerald. "Especially in comparison to what would have happened if I had let that thing attack you itself. I wonder what you would taste like though."

David simply crossed his arms and smiled. "A dog scared of a cat, that's a first anyway not to be rude, but we solved your riddle can you tell us which path we need to take to reach the hatter?"

Cheshire smiles down at David. "The road less taken and the road everyone takes. Each to its own journey and to its own chances. When given a choice between the two what you desire is to take them both... and that will make all the difference."

Cheshire disappears completely. As he does so, the trees suddenly move, shifting through the ground like chess pieces across a board. The trees moved apart and the road moved together until they met in the middle, merging into a single clear and straight path heading straight forward. The tree Cheshire was sitting on shrunk and thinned to a mere post and both signs now pointed at the new road that had formed. At some point the letters on the signs have changed and they both read "The Mad Tea Party".

Malina feels her back, finding no tear in her clothes, no cut on her skin, no nothing. She sighs angrily and holsters her weapons. before looking ahead to the path now opened up to them. "Let's just get this bull shit over with." She says as she begins walks down the path with Manticore wrapping itself around her waist as she did so.

The group travels down the newly made path before them for several minutes. Everything until now had been silent and peaceful. Suddenly the group can hear carnival music. The rhythmic tune seemed almost unnerving but the group went on. Soon they entered a large clearing and its as if they entered yet another new world. Beneath their feet the ground is made of gumballs and gummy candy. The surrounding trees were striped and polkadotted with every color of the rainbow with apple pies and peach cobbler growing from the branches. At the center of the clearing the group can see a long table adorned with a variety of cakes and goodies, some laid out on floating trays. Dozens of tea pots hovered in the air while some were hopping and dancing on the table. Several chairs were gathered around the table, some floating upside down in the air and the rest were relatively empty. At the head of the table the group could see the seat of honor, made of shiny varnished wood and cushioned with fluffy furry red pillows. The strange thing was though, it was floating upside down in the air. The man sitting on it was chuckling and laughing as if it tickled to defy gravity.

Spoiler:

It suddenly felt as if the entire world was spinning like a roller coaster, mostly because it did, and when the sudden rotation stopped, the master of ceremonies was sitting on the chair which had now flipped upright and placed firmly on the ground.

"Welcome," he says to the group, "To the tea party. My name is Break. Break Hatta."

David looked around almost getting motion sickness. He began to turn a bit green. "Nice to meet you Mister Hatta." David just sat down for a little in the back of the group.

'Oh good. We get to deal with this guy now.' Malina thought to herself as she ceased to feel like she was spinning like a top. "Let's just get this over with and move on, yeah?" She says mostly to herself but loud enough so the rest of the group could hear. "Alright Break, what kind of stupid non combat question do we have to answer this time? Or do we finally get to kill something?"

"Malina, no one is killing anything yet. We still need to know how to leave Wonderland." Hunter stood at the entrance of the clearing, ignoring the floating sweets. "Hello Hatta. Do you know where March is?"

"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat, how I wonder where you're at!" Hatta sang, swaying his head left and right to the tune, "Up above the world so high, like a tree tray in the sky! Twinkle, Twinkle, little bat! How I wonder where you're at!"

"I see you're doing well as ever Hatta," Alice remarked walking up to the table all of a sudden. She doesn't show any fear or hesitation but instead casually takes a seat on one of the grounded chairs. "May I have some earl grey please?"

"Certainly my dear Alice," Hatta said picking up a nearby pot. Alice sat over twenty seats away from Hatta at the head of the table but the smiling host made no move to get up. Instead he tilted the tea pot upwards, the spout pointing at the sky. The light brown drink rose out of the spout in a straight pour and disappears after reaching two feet into the air. At the same time a cup in front of Alice is gradually filling up with tea, steam starting to rise from the cup.

Alice took the cup into her hands and gingerly sipped it before setting it down. "Oh, may I have two lumps?"

Hatta reached into his back pocket and pulled out a massive mallet big enough to smash a watermelon. Shaking his fist he drops two sugar cubes on the table like dice and as they rolled he slammed the mallet down twice in succession. Tossing it over his shoulder the mallet disappears and the sugar cubes down. Meanwhile Alice is stirring her tea cup with a small spoon and began to drink it again. "Thank you Hatta."

"All guest at my tea party are welcomed," Hatta chuckled. "There is no better time then tea time! That's why I have it all the time!"

Laeleps tried to be cautions about Hatta. Despite Alice's trust for him, Laeleps was not convinced. What if this is some other kind of trick. Just go and sit down you coward. I see you're up. Shut it! I'll have my revenge on that idiot knight. Now go sit down maybe he has some information on Eliza. As much as Laeleps hated listening to his other half he didn't see any other option and took a seat near Alice.