[Third Person Pov]
Ember hesitated at the brightly lit entrance, her fiery hair swaying slightly as she scanned the whimsical yet eerie fairground. "Should we really be stepping inside careless like this?" she asked, her voice laced with clear hesitation.
"It's fine, it's fine," Danny replied casually, waving off her concern with a lazy flick of his hand as if it were nothing more than a minor inconvenience. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"
The moment the three of them crossed the threshold, the ground beneath their feet vanished without warning.
A giant rabbit hole yawned open.
Ember and Robin simultaneously slowly their heads toward Danny, both wearing the exact same deadpan, straight-faced expression that silently screamed, 'Why did you have to go and open your mouth?'
Danny simply shrugged his shoulders, still cradling the oversized bag of candy protectively in his arms. "I mean, honestly, this was so predictable. Why do you think I even said anything?"
"Ahhhhhh!!!" All three of them shouted as gravity finally claimed them, sending the group plummeting down the dark, twisting rabbit hole at breakneck speed.
"Why are the two of you shouting?! You can fly!" Robin yelled over the chaotic chorus of their screams, his cape whipping wildly around him.
"Because obviously we can't!" Ember shouted back, desperately trying to push herself upward only to keep tumbling helplessly through the void.
"Whoever is controlling this place is interfering with our powers!" Danny replied, clutching his bag of candy tightly to his chest to make sure it didn't suddenly fly out of his grasp.
"I can't see the bottom…" Robin said solemnly, his sharp eyes staring down into the endless black abyss beneath them.
As they continued their seemingly endless descent, nearly losing count, miscellaneous items began to materialize and float around them in the most surreal way. A creaky rocking chair drifted past, followed by a tall wardrobe, a fully set dining table laden with food, and even a delicate handheld mirror that spun lazily in the air.
"For how long are we going to keep falling?" Robin asked, somehow managing to cross his legs beneath him and fold his arms over his chest in mid-fall, looking far too composed for the situation.
"Who knows," Danny answered, now comfortably seated in the rocking chair as it swayed back and forth through the air. "But we've been falling for five minutes and I'm already bored."
Ember had draped her entire body across the floating table like she was the main course at a feast, one hand resting dramatically over her stomach and the other tucked behind her head. "Wake me when we get there," she muttered lazily.
"Should we sing a song to pass the time?" Danny suggested, slouched forward in the rocking chair as it tilted and was sent tumbled lazily through the air.
"I'd rather spend my time doing something more productive, like looking for a way out of here…" Robin replied. He reached out and opened a drawer in a passing nightstand, only for a flock of colorful birds to burst out and flutter upward past them.
"Isn't Alice in Wonderland some kind of musical?" Danny inferred with a shrug. "Maybe we have to sing in order to escape?"
Ember's eyes lit up at the mention of music. She immediately sat upright, swinging her signature guitar around to the front. "Music? I can do music… Let's see here, which one should I play?"
She struck a single light chord with her thumb.
*Bam!!*
The three of them suddenly slammed face-first onto a massive checkered white-and-black floor, their legs flailing over their heads from the impact. They lay there flat on the ground for a long moment, not even bothering to get up right away.
"I already hate this fucking place…" Ember grumbled, her voice coming out muffled against the tiles.
Eventually, the trio pushed themselves up, groaning. Danny shot Robin a strange look. "No offense, but how are you still alive?"
"Probably for the same reason you don't have all your powers," Robin said, rubbing his nose to soothe the faint ache. "Reality seems to be turned completely upside down in this place, so its only reasonable physics works differently here."
Ember stood and took in their new surroundings. They were in an enormous, wide corridor that made them feel incredibly small by comparison. The three of them fit perfectly inside one of the oversized black-and-white checkered squares that tiled the floor and even extended up the towering walls.
She glanced behind them and saw the corridor stretching on forever into pitch-black darkness with no visible end. When she looked forward, a small door appeared incredibly far away in the distance, while a modest table stood much closer to them than the door itself. The whole place radiated a disorienting, dreamlike wrongness.
"The answer to this riddle is plainly obvious," Danny declared confidently after double-checking that his precious bag of candy hadn't cracked or spilled during their rough landing.
"It is?" Ember questioned, blinking in surprise. She hadn't even realized they were dealing with a riddle in the first place.
"Yes," Danny continued, spinning dramatically on his heel and pointing toward the endless darkness behind them. "Since this is Alice in Wonderland, right? That means we have to stop thinking logically. Normally, moving forward means progression. BUT in Wonderland, progression is backwards!"
Robin and Ember stared at each other for a long moment, sharing a look of mutual skepticism. Eventually, Ember shrugged her shoulders. With no better ideas, they followed Danny as the trio began walking toward the opposite end of the corridor, into the shadowy unknown.
As they moved, the area behind them faded into inky darkness while the space ahead gradually rendered into view, revealing the exact same checkered scene they had just left. The disorienting loop only added to the maddening atmosphere of the place.
They soon arrived at the table, which now towered over them at waist height, while the tiny door in the distance had grown even smaller the closer they approached. It was far too small for any of them to squeeze through in their current size.
Seeing Danny's visibly despondent expression, Robin reached over and gave his back a firm, comforting pat. "I mean, to be fair, it was a solid attempt. Your reasoning made sense. I was honestly convinced it would work."
"Well, that's the problem, isn't it?" Danny replied with a deep sigh, running a hand through his white hair. "It's not supposed to make sense. That's the whole point of this crazy place."
Ember ignored both of them and stepped forward, twisting the doorknob with determination. To everyone's shock, the entire door suddenly came alive.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Careful what you're twisting there!" the doorknob yelped in a cheerful yet pained voice.
Ember jumped back immediately, holding her hands up defensively as if she'd been burned.
"Great. As if things couldn't get any weirder, now the furniture is coming to life," Danny muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.
Robin crouched down to eye level with the animated doorknob. "Alright, so how exactly do we pass through you?"
"Pass through me? Oh son, but you're far too big to pass through me," the Doorknob replied in a jolly tone. "If you want to get through, you're going to need to be put down a peg or two."
"And how exactly are we supposed to shrink down?" Ember asked, crossing her arms impatiently, her foot tapping against the checkered floor.
"Why, by taking a drink from the table, of course," the Doorknob answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. At that moment, a small glass bottle materialized on the table's surface with a soft pop.
"Right, of course…" Ember said dryly, staring at the mysterious bottle with deep suspicion. She glanced over at the others. "Are we just going to trust what it said?"
"We don't really have much of a choice," Robin replied pragmatically. He took a cautious sip first and passed the bottle to Danny.
Danny took his sip as well before handing it to Ember. Almost immediately, Robin began shrinking rapidly, dwindling down to pint-sized proportions—small enough to fit comfortably in the palm of someone's hand. Thanks to his training, he anticipated the shift and landed gracefully in a perfect crouch.
Danny shrank down right after him, surprised but pleased to see that his oversized bag of candy had shrunk along with him. Ember, caught off guard by the sudden change, let out a startled yelp as she began to fall. Danny quickly clamped the bag between his teeth and stretched his arms out wide in anticipation, but Ember still landed right next to him on her rump with a solid thud.
"Thanks for the catch, you dingus," Ember grumbled, shooting him a glare as she slapped his offered hand away. Danny gave her an apologetic look, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
They soon realized, however, that they had shrunk down way too much. The once-tiny door now loomed above them like an entrance built for literal giants, completely out of reach.
"Now how the hell are we supposed to open the door when we can't even fly up there?" Ember exclaimed, throwing her hands up in pure exasperation as she stared at the towering obstacle.
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