(Bad end) 7 months later, in a supervillain HQ...

(Not seen by Nightingale/Rikki nor anyone else)

As usual, the Wonderland Warriors are setting up in a new hidden base. They tend to go through them like tissue paper. But so fearsome is their reputation that the League of Propriety is **** to truly back them into a corner, worrying that might make them even more dangerous. So, they are in the process of renovating another disgusting abandoned tenement. Strung-out squatters and homeless people suddenly find themselves having costumes themed around playing cards (for the males) and oysters and flowers (for the females) thrown at them as they're told to get to work. Some of them resist at first. Few keep up their recalcitrance when a mad-eyed young blonde woman has them pinned to the floor with telekinesis and is holding an executioner's sword above their necks. Most, however, are openly enthusiastic about their new lot in life when they start overhearing that the basement is being converted into a narcotics stash-house.

In the least horrid room, a very well-endowed woman is pacing back and forth, a finger to her mouth. She wears a white waistcoat bearing a white 'double x' symbol, and a purple leotard, with two rabbit ears topping her head. "Oh, I simply cannot decide. There is never enough time. We are going to be late, late for my next magnificent scheme, but we must have an income. Let's see... ****, prostitutes, weapons, ****... I shan't have the resources to keep them all running, but we abandon any of them, some upstarts or unfashionable hooligans are likely to take over that sector. Such indignity! Here I am, trying to wage a one-woman war, figuratively speaking, upon those accursed superheroes... and the other un-fettered inhabitants of the city spend their time trying to pick our pockets! So improper! So impertinent! Perhaps I shall have to pay a visit to my friend the senator again. It has been long enough since I submitted to his loathsome touch that it shan't put me out of sorts."

Hot-Cross Bunny sweeps some dust off of a table and coughs. "Damnation! And I am still bereft of some of the only halfway competent characters whom I could call upon. If I'm going to be out and about selling myself for the proverbial sixpence, I need someone who can get operations moving whilst I'm away instead of lounging about amusing themselves."

Suddenly the door swings open. Hot-Cross Bunny whirls around, reaches into her waistcoat, and pulls out a live rabbit with a hand grenade clutched between its fluffy paws, one of her gloved fingers holding the pin.

"NO INTERRUPTIONS! YOU FOOLS! YOU BUNGLERS! YOU CONTEMPTIBLE LAYABOUTS!" she shrieks at the top of her lungs in a histrionic tone. "You pawns had better be ****, or else...!"

A pair of eyes suddenly open in midair. They look weary and irate. A pair of lips appears and parts to speak. "Hello, Bunny. I over heard your monologue. My word... you really do like to hear yourself talk, don't you, boss?"

"Ah!" Hot-Cross Bunny suddenly beams with joy and takes her finger off the grenade pin, dropping it and the rabbit, which begins sniffing around her feet. "Cheshire Huntress! I was just thinking it would be nice if you were around." Her demeanor changes back to indignant rage in a moment. "It's been nearly a year! Where in Wonderland were you, you lazy trollop?"

"I was captured! The damn data terminal you assigned me to reach was trapped and caught me in an electrified cage! And you knew I'd succeeded, but you never lifted a finger to break me out, you arrogant, self-centered twat!" Cheshire spits indignantly.

"Yes, details, details." Like flipping a switch, Hot-Cross Bunny becomes calm and ingratiating again. "Let us let bygones be bygones, dear. We shall be needing you to keep our opiod and cocaine operations going. Really, the **** and prostitution rings go together like a married couple, we simply cannot have one without the other. Besides, I need someone sensible to keep an eye on matters sometimes. Queen of Hearts makes a very fine figurehead for the warriors, but a 'leader' she isn't."

She clasps her hands joyfully and kicks up one of her feet. "But for now, why don't you focus on settling back in. Do you know? We just picked up a bank manager's daughter a few days ago, and she's already accepted her role as our latest Alice. Now, she isn't a blonde like I know you like... her ethnicity doesn't come blonde, so we decided against dyeing... but she's hardly been used at all yet. Go on and enjoy, I'll have an assignment for you tomorrow."

There is an awkward, uncomfortable silence as Cheshire blinks several long times. "That... isn't going to be possible, Bunny. I'm leaving the Wonderland Warriors."

Hot-Cross Bunny puts her hands on her hips, sighs, and looks at the oversized pocketwatch dangling on her hip. "Time is wasting. Such a precious commodity. I have none to spend on this tiresome negotiating tactic. Yes, yes, I left you in a cell for however long. Go on, out with it, Cheshire. Tell me what you want to retain you. If you think I've suddenly run out of money, well, do not mistake my frugality for-"

"It isn't that!" Cheshire cringes and sighs. "It isn't because I'm upset at you and it isn't because you haven't paid me enough. It's just not... it won't be possible for me anymore! I simply cannot do it. Because of... I mean, it was a right struggle for me just to walk up all these bloody flights of stairs to get here, I felt like I was going to faint halfway through, and it was all I could do not to bump into anyone passing by me. I used to be the most silent thief in the city and now everywhere I go, I'm bumping into things and stumbling around..." a pained expression comes across her eyes and she squeezes them shut.

Not wasting any time, Hot-Cross Bunny steps smartly over to her and puts her hand out at chest height. That draws a yelp from Cheshire Huntress, but her back is against the closed door, so she can't just move away. "Little sensitive, are they? They feel bigger." Bunny says as casually as if she is discussing the weather. Her hand gives Cheshire's invisible boob a squeeze before sliding lower. As Bunny's gloved hand moves down over the invisible woman's body, it clearly traces the contour of something very big and round right where her formerly trim, athletic midriff would have been seven months ago.

"Ah, I see." Hot-Cross Bunny nods. "Have a kitten on the way, do you? Thank goodness he or she has inherited your power, it would seem. Would be rather awkward trying to go around if everyone could see a... ahem. Well. I thought you'd sworn off men forever after the end of your relationship with Burning Tyger. He certainly was a cad, that one. But, found one that changed your mind and brought you back to the old team, did you?"

"No! It wasn't even a cape, it was the League's hired lackeys! That whore Beast-Beauty left me tied to a table, and..." Cheshire's eyes disappear again as she groans in frustration.

"Why, the sheer audacity of those so-called heroes! Does their hypocrisy know no bounds? Now," Hot-Cross bunny puts a hand upon her chest and leans on the table, "I cannot say that I am not partly responsible for seven of our sex workers ending up wearing the bustle wrong after I traded their bodies for money or favors. Seven so far, this year, that is to say. Including the last two Alices. But! I don't very well claim to be a role model to the children, now do I?"

"Oh slag off, you psychotic whore!" Cheshire growls at her. "Stop making this all about yourself!"

Bunny's demeanor changes rapidly again and she nods. "Of course dear, I am so sorry. Let's talk things over with a nice cup of tea, I shall send for March Harriet. I suppose I should deal with the man who got you up the duff then, shouldn't I? I'm afraid I don't think I can manage a **** right now, have to keep the heat low for the moment lest the kettle boil over. Unless you can wait a few months, the most I can offer you is a **** so you can teach him a lesson. What's his name?"

Even with just her eyes it is clear that Cheshire Huntress's expression is a mask of despair. "I... couldn't tell you. Beauty only used internet titles."

"Well, that's alright." Bunny says, still speaking in a soothing tone. "You'd remember his face, surely? We shall have a look through their personnel files."

There is a sharp intake of breath and Cheshire Huntress can be heard shifting stance awkwardly. "I could but... I don't think you could manage to pinch five of them at once, and without some kind of test there'd be no way to know... Even though one of them had red hair and another was black I won't very well be able to tell by resemblance to the father, will I?"

"Mmmhm." Bunny rings a service bell, her way of letting her minions know she desires tea. "I'm surprised you've let it come so far, if that's how it is."

"Augh!" Cheshire makes some kind of dramatic gesture, or at least, it sounds like she does. "Don't you think I tried? But it was near five months before I broke out of my cell. I talked to half a dozen illicit doctors but none of them were willing to try, they said it'd be impossible." She pauses. "Do give me those personnel files, Bunny dear. Looks like the only thing to do is start tracking them down one by one and see if any of them are willing to take responsibility and help me with child care at the very least. Can you imagine how much trouble it'll be if the brat is always invisible too? So you can see, I've **** but to light out on you, Bunny."

"My deepest sympathies, dear." Hot-Cross Bunny says. "I was quite worried myself that I would be 'late for an important date' after I had a run-in with some foolish beef-cake hero on that very same mission. There but for the grace of God go I." she is silent for a second, then glances down at her pocketwatch again. "Oh well! Sounds like you're no more use to us. Waddle your pregnant ass out into the street and give us an invisible wave farewell."

Cheshire's eyes pop open in shock. "But... wait! Don't I get a pension, or, back pay for when I was captured, at least? This is a, ah, like an on-the-job injury, innit? There's going to be so many expenses...."

Hot-Cross Bunny has already turned away from her. "Now, now. Doling out charity to knocked-up tramps is not how one runs a villain gang, dear. I have nothing for you. Of course, you could always go over my head and ask Queen of Hearts for your..." she giggles icily, "shall we say, 'severance pay'. But I wouldn't recommend it."

Cheshire Huntress's mouth hangs open as she stares in distraught silence. Slowly and awkwardly, she turns around and walks out the door. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a high-heel shoe with a pattern like striped cat fur on it materializes in midair and flies out to hit Hot-Cross Bunny in the chest. It catches her by surprise, and she flinches away, unable to dodge the second thrown shoe either. "You can keep these bloody things!" Cheshire Huntress shouts, her voice already starting to recede down the hallway.