Queen's Gate: The Gate Protector

Queen's Gate: The Gate Protector is the final novel of the three novels detailing Alice's adventures.

Prologue: A Shooting Star Crossing Through The Sky
Glinda Baum, the Baum Foundation’s leader, the previous “good luck fairy” and Dorothy’s mother, was currently in the captain seat of the control bridge. Though the Dodgson Foundation was their business rival, she had borrowed one of their OOPArts, the fortress “Vinama”, and they were in stealth mode, monitoring the situation. Beside her, there were Scarecrow, the genius of the Baum Foundation, and Moonlight, one of Irukinuf’s 12 apostles. Piloting the Vinama was Hatter, the Dodgson Foundation’s strategist, and he switched on the jamming signal as they were trying to locate the Irukinuf’s Cult’s new headquarters.

After the mutiny in the cult, the “King of Tentacles” Swodar Nyarmain had been killed, and Queen Faye was now in his place. As far as they knew, the apostles known as Rama, Leonidas and Solon were supporting her. The Irukinuf’s cult’s target seemed to be controlling the Queen’s Gate somehow, and they had to prevent that no matter what.

Scarecrow activated a special sensor built to detect Irukinuf’s traces, and scanned the data feed from the S.I.D.O. (Satellite Indepented Discover Observation). Hatter noticed that March Hare, the homunculus that served as Alice’s support in the field, was playing a PC game, took the controller away from her and switched off the game. “I hadn’t saved yet!”, she complained.

Glinda intented to activate the “Chariot Swan Edition”, an invention from both the Baum and the Dodgson Foundation, but the “3 Queens System” was in place: they needed red, white and black keys, called “queens”, to activate it. Glinda had the “white queen” and Lewis the “black” one, and she wondered where the red one was, but Scarecrow assured her that it’d work fine with 2 of the 3 queens.

Lumberjack and Löwe were worrying about Alice and Dorothy. The two girls had travelled through the gate the Irukinuf cult had found, had reached Edalb with the help of the King of Tentacles Swodar Nyarmain, and had crossed the gate back to their world after letting Irukinuf take Lewis with him. Where were they now?

Chapter 1: The Original One’s Capabilities
Alice came to near a gate. “Where is this?” Dorothy was nowhere in sight, and she heard no reply when she called for her. “Kuranes!”, she called out. The “Kuranes” were the magical creatures that served as her hair ornaments and protected her from attacks. “Hey, Kuranes?” A voice told Alice that they wouldn’t work here. In front of her was an Egypt pharaoh, that introduced herself as Musanna, the Queen’s Gate creator. Queen’s Gate!, Alice gasped at her words.

Musanna continued, and said that she had the capabilities to become the “Original One”. “Capabilities to become the Original One?”. Musanna handed her a card with Dorothy on it, and another with her mother Lewis, as she explained that she had been considering them as candidates as well. Then, Musanna said she wanted to test her in the flesh, and to Alice’s surprise, assumed a battle stance. Alice drew her two guns.

Musanna didn’t even need to use her staff Mutouki, she beat Alice just with her punches, despite Alice’s acrobatic body; even after Alice activated her Boost form, it was as if she was moving in slow motion before her. After the battle, Alice questioned Musanna, who knew about what had happened back in Edalb, and about her mother, but she refused to answer directly. Instead, she handed her another card. “This is… Faye?” Musanna answered that yes, that person called Faye Wright, who had infiltrated her school “St. Labels” as the “Songstress Rin”, was a threat to the gates and the “Original One”, a person Alice was destined to fight. Back in Earth, in a pink striped tent in Greenland, there was a woman, the Queen Faye Wright, discussing the location of the “Gate Opener” Alice with Solon, another of the 12 apostles of the “God of Tentacles” Irukinuf. Faye wanted her revenge, after losing to her in their last encounter.

Chapter 2: The God of Tentacles Irukinuf’s Revival
Faye was meeting with Leonidas, king of Sparta and one of Irukinuf’s apostles, talking about another of the disciples, Viracocha. After they overthrew the King of Tentacles Swodar Nyarmain, with Solon, Leonidas and Zenobia from the Palmyrene Empire remaining loyal to her, and the others choosing to side with Rama.

Leonidas and Solon were sent to try to win over the best warriors on Rama’s side, king Harald, Finn McCool from the Fianna and Minamoto no Yorimitsu, but they rejected their offer. Still, Solon laughed, they still had Al-Kāhinat, Zenobia and Alp Arslan on the Queen’s side, not to mention Irukinuf. Then, Faye’s underlings went back to the Queen, and handed her the Nebula Disk, an OOPArt Solon had found. At the same time, the new King of Tentacles Rama had received a message handed to him by his underling Nahy Khanom Tom :it was Viracocha, letting him know that the “Nebula Disk” Solon had was now in Irukinuf’s hands. In Vinama’s bridge, they had found Irukinuf’s location: it was in Greenland, and Rama was there as well, so Glinda decided to deploy March Hare, Löwe and Lumberjack as reconnaissance. At Greenland, Minamoto no Yorimitsu, Hikita Bungorou, Sakata no Kintoki and Usui Sadamitsu where prepared for battle, while Harald aimed for Leonidas, the king of Sparta himself.

March Hare was driving the attack device “Black Rabbit”, and they spotted a red and pink tent… they were close to where Faye was.

Chapter 3: Alice’s Return
Out of nowhere, Alice and Dorothy appeared from a gate. “Alice-chan”, Dorothy was surprised, as they had become separated a while ago, “Awawa… Alice-chan!”, and Dorothy hugged Alice in a panic. But Alice noticed something was wrong, and warned Dorothy: they were near a red and pink tent, and someone had noticed the 2 people.

An old man in a robe approached them, and after introducing himself as Solon, one of Irukinuf’s 12 apostles, started attacking them with his tentacles! Alice drew her guns, activated her “Alice Mode” and went into Overboost to defeat him. When Alice revealed her identity, Solon was surprised at first, then mocked her vain efforts, as even with the help from the previous King of Tentacles, she couldn’t stop them. In that moment, a calm voice called out to Solon, a voice Alice recognized.

Vinama had reached Greenland, and in its control bridge, an image popped up in the submonitor that surprised Scarecrow: “Dorothy!”, and she hurried to tell Glinda.

Hikita and Leonidas were outside the tent in Greenland, as the two sides of Irukinuf’s apostles were battling. Faye welcomed Alice and Dorothy. When the girls asked her how she had gotten there, Faye laughed, and answered that she had used Swodar’s gate. Alice mentioned the Dodgson Foundation’s “red queen”, which made Faye angry: she was trying to make sure the Dodgson Foundation couldn’t gather the 3 queens… But then she laughed: it didn’t matter if they got the red queen, as long as she could obtain the “Original One” and the gate. Faye called Solon to her side, and then attacked him! Now that she had the Nebula Disk, he was useless to her. As Alice and Dorothy stood there unable to help him, Dorothy received a signal from Lumberjack, telling her that the Dodgson Foundation’s Vinama was near. Harald and Leonidas saw what Faye had just done to Solon: was she trying to become Ravana? They had to keep fighting to prevent that.

Leonidas made his decision to protect the Gate Opener, and confronted Faye about it. Though he was no match for her, he still managed to distract her long enough for Alice and Dorothy to escape and regroup.

Chapter 4: Black Tower Again
Hatter welcomed Alice back to her fortress, just as Alice was surprised to find the Baum Foundation staff there. They planned to launch an all-out attack with their attack devices “White Rabbit” and “Black Rabbit”, and Scarecrow handed Alice a case that contained a certain weapon. “Irukinuf Buster?”, read Alice. It was one of her mother’s hatchet-cannons. Alice asked if Hatter had actually opened their gun room, as they needed the “3 queens” to do that, but that was something Lewis had prepared for the occasion. As she observed the weapon, Alice hesitated to take it, since its .600 Nitro Express rounds could be too powerful for her to handle, but Scarecrow assured her that she would be fine. They also had a spare choker with the energy for her to enter Overboost state, but Hatter decided it’d be better used with March Hare’s submachine gun and its “Healing Bullets”. “So cool, as expected from Hatter.”

As they located Faye again on the sonar, they heard a man’s voice: it was Rama, one of the 12 apostles and now enemy of Faye, trying to get through to them. Rama told them to be careful, Faye could be trying to use the power of Arukinuf to become the mythical figure Ravana. Alice appreciated Rama’s timing, as they were about to leave to fight Faye. Scarecrow wished Alice and Dorothy good luck, and they departed. Alice, Dorothy and Lumberjack were aboard the attack device “White Rabbit” as they went down the “Hyperborea Hole”, with Löwe and March Hare in the “Black Rabbit” as support, going down an elevator as a secondary route of entry. When they reached their goal, March Hare and Lumberjack stayed behind fighting the enemies that came out, using their attacks “Flash Bomb” and “Lumber Axe”, while Alice and Dorothy took Löwe to help them track Faye; Scarecrow’s hi-tech gadgets couldn’t follow her any deeper. On the way, they met Hikita Bungorou, who agreed to help them.

With her lion genes, Löwe followed Faye’s scent, or more exactly, the songstress Rin’s scent that she still remembered from a while back; even if Faye was now an adult, she had the same scent she used to. “Dorothy, no, friend, protect”, said Löwe in her strange speech, and they reached Faye’s chamber. But after defeating Harald and the others that had come after her, Faye had been expecting them: “Fools”, she said, and with her tentacles, she beat them all down. “Before you die, sensei will take you to heaven”. As a smile appeared on Faye’s face, a fire lit up in Faye’s tentacle arm, and she tried to burn through Alice’s suit. “Kyaaaaaahh!!”, Alice shouted. Though her Diver Suit protected her, it was still painful. Alice complained about Faye’s tentacles sexually harassing her, and Faye covered her mouth with one of her tentacles. But then, Hikita and Löwe attacked Faye, and rescued Alice from her grips. “Alice, protect, definitely!”, said Löwe, making a guts pose. Alice thanked her, and changed her suit’s configuration, the nanomachines in it transforming her Diver Suit into her usual battle suit. After setting up Alice mode, Alice joined Hikita’s tentacle style thrust in a double attack against Faye. When Faye unleashed an attack with her tentacles, Löwe protected Alice with her body. “Thanks, Löwe… Löwe!?”, Löwe had fainted. Faye smiled and sprouted new tentacles, and told them those tentacles were Leonidas’ and Solon’s. Even with two people fighting her, it wouldn’t enough, so Alice went into Overboost.

Still, Hikita and Alice were too injured, and Alice’s Overboost spent the remaining energy from her Hyperborea Crystal… Then, they heard a voice: it was March Hare, that shoot her submachine guns loaded with Healing Bullets on her. With renovated strength, Alice holstered her two guns, and grabbed the special weapon she had brought. “Boost On!” Alice aimed it carefully at Fay, and shot. Zupagooooonnn!! The .600 inch rounds of the Irukinuf Buster, her mother’s weapon, made a thunderous noise, and impacted on Faye, knocking her down violently: “A…a…aaha…” But as March Hare entered the Black Rabbit’s cockpit, Hikita and Löwe noticed something wrong. “!? What’s that!?” Arukinuf was still moving.

Before them, Arukinuf absorbed the bodies of the apostles and changed Faye’s body into an abomination with multiple arms and heads.

As Rama told them, that was Ravana. Faye was even stronger in that form… but Alice drew on the last bit on her choker’s energy. “Boost On! Overboost!”, and a final shot of the .600 Nitro Express rounds, put an end to Faye and Arukinuf, already on the verge of death.

Before Arukinuf’s remains, Rama regretted it had come to this, maybe Faye and him shouldn’t have used Arukinuf after the disaster that was the F.A.I. (Fusion Arukinuf Irukinuf)… Back in the Vinama, as the rest were celebrating, Alice crossed a gate that appeared before her, and found Musanna, who had summoned her to talk about the “Queen’s Gate” and the role of the “Original One”. With a snap of her fingers, Musanna produced another card, showing the gate. Like Lewis had done before her, the Original One’s job was to protect the gate from threats like Arukinuf. Alice wasn’t sure if she could do it, and went back to her world.

While Alice was away, Dorothy and Scarecrow were talking about Alice, as Dorothy felt she might have to part ways as she hadn’t been much help to her friend. Alice came back suddenly, surprising them, and Dorothy got angry for a moment, then kissed her.After that, they all laughed and celebrated.

Epilogue: There Are No Special Days Without Routine
Alice was on her limousine, heading towards her school St. Labels as usual. She was still thinking about whether or not she could accept being the Original One. When she met Dorothy at the school, she was with Scarecrow, Lumberjack and Löwe.

After a boring day at her school, with a new teacher replacing Faye, Alice put on her Pilot Suit and headed towards new adventures with her friends. She had made her decision; she’d protect the gates with everybody’s help.

“I’ll find you no matter what, Mom!” Will she become a true Original One, and find her mother Lewis? They won’t know that unless they fight.

-End-