Of course Dr. Lemuria is in the Royal Courtyard. She fancies herself as the Empress of Earth, after all; any time she isn't overseeing her factories or piloting a giant robot, she's in her personal vacation spot, being pampered by her mechanical mooks. It's not clear to you how you know that, it's simply information which came with your new role as a video game protagonist. "The less I question all this stuff, the less likely I am to screw it up," you think to yourself.
All you have to do is keep following these pipes. You spin down the storm drains like a fuzzy white pinball, banking on tight curves as if it were the most natural thing in the world. At some point the generously wide concrete pipes give way to narrow PVC tubing, yet you don't notice because you simply squeeze through them at nearly the size of a softball. Shooting out of the pipe gives you just enough momentum to ramp off the curve of the concrete and get some serious air!
You're flying right towards it now, a dome of glass panels ringed by that white metal which always shows up in utopian projects. Crashing through the top doesn't even leave a scratch on you! After taking a moment to smash the shield-bearing robots in your way, you build up a bit of speed and zip right into the ventilation ducts, shrinking to fit once more. There's quite a bit of noise from banging around in there, but hey, Doctor Lemuria probably already knows you're here by now.
You idly wonder how tight of a squeeze you can manage. Taking a right turn into the water pipes and shooting out into the garden watering system is the natural next step. You're nowhere near fitting though a shower head, but you'll settle for crashing through the water tanks just fine. Exalting in your speed, you don't quite notice when you're about to-
SHOOMP. You shoot into the entrance of a birdhouse and get lodged firmly in the hole. Looks like softball-size is about your limit.
"Hmm? Who's there? Interrupting my break had better be worth it." There she is- Doctor Lemuria. The lemur is lounging on a deck chair in her full lab coat and low heels like the absolute dork that she is. She stands up in a single smooth motion, reaching for something in her coat pockets. "You're that pesky rabbit who's been meddling with my plans, aren't you? I never did catch your name."
"Rrf- you bulldozed over my house." You struggle to turn around as you spin in place inside the narrow hole. This isn't the finest place to make a cool butt-kicking speech.
"I had to bulldoze plenty of houses, bunny. What makes yours special?"
Oh, she's scummy all right. "What makes it special is that you messed with me! Eat my sneakers, doc!" You launch out of the birdhouse with cannonball force! You can see yourself about to collide with the wicked doctor-
Yet you didn't see the device she was pulling out of her pocket until you had too much momentum to avoid it. Doctor Lemuria holds out a hollow sphere which opens on a hinge- a sphere just slightly larger than a softball. You're pulled in like a dust bunny into a vacuum! In a split second, you find yourself spinning fruitlessly against the frictionless walls of the doctor's new device.
The doctor wastes no time before gloating. "The new and improved Critter Cage! How do you like it, bunny? It has a fun new feature-"
You have no time for speeches. Immediately you begin to accelerate faster in an attempt to break through the ball like any other wall you've burst through. Not only does the wall not yield to your battering, the Critter Cage immediately adapts to your lack of tactics. As you speed up further than what you thought was your limit, your abstracted, spinning body begins to contract even tighter, now no larger than a croquet ball-
CLICK-CLICK.
-causing the Critter Cage to contract and shrink along with you.
"I suppose I won't have to explain the Critter Cage", says Doctor Lemuria, "since you already demonstrated its key feature for me. It's a specialized device for speedy animals such as yourself. Did you truly think you were the first, bunny?" You can't see her face from here, but you can certainly hear the smugness. It takes all you can muster to grit your teeth and speed up further, becoming golf ball sized! She has to be bluffing, there has to be a limit. Your newly golf ball sized prison begs to differ, however.
Oh no... you're starting to get tired, and being this compact is actually kind of painful. Why are you programmed to feel pain?
The foul doctor taps on your Critter Cage. "Want to know what happens when you try to slow down and expand in there? I could tell you, but again, it's about to happen very soon. Or, perhaps, you could beg for mercy and I'll let you out. What will it be, little bunny?"