Alice quietly made her way through the mirrorverse searching for the covered mirrors that the strange woman had made her future Aunt place over the mirrors wherever they were going. She was quickly in Frostville and began going from mirror to mirror, though not appearing in them to see which ones were covered, and if there was anything else that was reflective in the room, which she would use in place of a mirror to bring Abbey and Samantha into the mirrorverse, to be together with her cousins and then bring her Aunt home... through a location that Fran and Darla were securing that would suit the needs of transforming Julie and would leave the estate out of danger.
+++++++
Julie, meanwhile, left her daughters to watch television as she took a much needed shower and thought over the conversation she had had with Madame Serenity before she and Trevor returned to Glendale...
...
"I'm afraid you may have to keep your daughters OUT of school until I get to the bottom of this," Serenity said calmly.
"What? Why?" Julie asked, as she had only spoke like she was excited to try and distract her daughters from their "Alice" fantasy and fight her own worries.
"I didn't tell you this earlier, because I feared that it might make you more nervous... but," Serenity said weakly, "the game has been used A LOT recently. I can't pinpoint where or what was done, but the game has been used and used frequently. Commonly in these cases its a male gathering a harem of females."
"You don't mean..."
"Your Frank could very well be someone else's Fran," Serenity spoke, "which I hope isn't the case and that I will get a chance to reunite you with your husband and find a way to change him and his partner back. But I'm telling you this now as a warning..."
"But, you said that the fact that he and Daryl were transformed was likely a chance occurrence," Julie pointed out.
"Yes, it likely was, but in these cases, the larger the harem becomes, the bolder and more deliberate the one creating it becomes," Serenity explained, "this combined with various loopholes within the game itself, you and your family were at risk in Glendale at the moment."
"What do you mean?" Julie asked nervously.
"If your husband still loves you, despite his new gender or whatever the "transform" on him made him become, he might try to bring you in with him," Serenity warned, "meaning if he has become a she within a harem of other females, you'll likely be added to that number of females to love, not your husband, but he one who likely transformed him. Outside of Glendale, the game is meaningless, and you might stand a chance of breaking whatever mental hold the "transform" has on him/her."
...
As Julie let the water bounce off her, she inwardly shuddered. She loved Frank with all her heart, and part of her wondered that if Frank had become something not human... or even something not male that she would be tempted to do whatever Frank wanted to be with him. But becoming one of many women was a turn off to her.
She only hoped that Abbey and Samantha were not watching something they weren't supposed to as she let the warm water relax her.
+++++++
"I'm bored," Samantha gave a depressed moan as she turned off the television, "Could we uncover the mirror and talk to Alice?"
"Mom said no," Abbey said weakly, "and was very firm about it... and that other lady was weird."
"Her cat talked," Samantha pointed.
"As I said, weird," Abbey said back.
"Like Alice isn't?" Samantha questioned.
"But Alice is cool!" Abbey said back, "think of all the places she could go... or we could go if she let us in... we could try going to Narnia or maybe Wonderland. You'll go in with me, if we get the chance, right?"
Samantha didn't answer right away.
"Right?" Abbey urged.
"Of course," Samantha sighed.
+++++++
Meanwhile, Trevor made his way along one of the various back alleys trying his best to find one of the various stray cats that lived in Glendale, and prayed to anyone that would listen that it wouldn't be Queen, again. That female was going to the be the death of him. He was scared she would catch him in a position where he couldn't get away, and he would lose what little of his humanity he had left.
As he rounded a corner, he came face to face with another cat, this one, though Trevor didn't know was a Maine Coon, and was much larger then Trevor was. The both of them ended up leaping up in the air from the surprise at one another.
"Who are you?" the Maine Coon asked.
"Trevor," Trevor answered simply.
"Ah, you have a human," the Maine Coon nodded, "mine calls me Whiskers."
"You're not going to make me mount you, are you?" Trevor asked nervously.
"What? What catnip have you found?" Whiskers replied, "and can I roll in it?"
"No, it's this female," Trevor answered, "My human tries to help people... and I... well I help her."
"Very compassionate of you," Whiskers told him, "humans need our help all the time. Without me, my human's bakery would be full of rats. But, what does this have to do with a female? You haven't seen the man with the scissors. You can still carry on our race."
"You don't think cats are superior to humans, do you?" Trevor questioned, finding himself engaged in small talk with the larger cat.
"Oh, we're not superior in EVERY way," Whiskers commented, "my human has this strange clicking device at his home. I've played with it, but nothing comes up the way it does when he does it."
"Score one for the opposable thumb," Trevor thought, and then spoke, "Say, I'm sorry to bother you on your rounds, but I need to ask you a very important question."
"Go ahead," Whiskers told him, "my human won't be going home until after the sun sets."
"Have you seen any new dogs lately?" Trevor asked, "and I mean really new. Like they defy everything you know about dogs."
"Can't say that I have," Whiskers answered, "I batted one that looked like a sausage on legs around once, does that count?"
Trevor shook his head and carried on his way, "Thanks anyway."
"Now problem," Whiskers called after him, "hope you and your mate get back together."
"AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHH!"
+++++++++
After what seemed like forever, Alice finally found her cousins, sitting on opposite beds of a Motel 6 in Frostville. Blankets covered the mirrors, but she noticed the reflective surface on the television screen that they weren't watching.
"Hello!" Alice called as she made herself visible on the screen.
"ALICE!" Abbey and Samantha practically cheered as they rushed toward the screen.
Alice raised a paw to get them to quiet down, as much of the plan required Julie not noticing what was happening, at least until after Abbey and Samantha were in the mirror.
"You got our message!" Abbey smiled.
Alice nodded.
"You're on television!" Samantha spoke.
"The screen is reflective, for now," Alice answered, "Why did you come away out here?"
"Some weird woman made mommy come out here," Abbey answered, "she's taking a shower right now."
"The woman?"
"No, mommy," Samantha corrected.
"Your father and I came to your home and you were not there," Alice spoke carefully.
"Is he with you?" Samantha asked.
"No, but he wants to talk to your, mom, badly," Alice said, "but because of certain rules that I can not explain, he can not do so until she returns to Glendale."
"What about the weird lady?" Abbey asked.
"MY father will deal with her, not to worry," Alice answered, "but in the meantime, we must get your mom to return to Glendale."
"I don't think mommy will listen to us," Samantha said weakly.
"This part is the easy part," Alice explained, "all you need to do is come in."
"In where?" Samantha asked, "You're on television, not the mirror."
"The principle is the same," Alice answered, "Let me bring you in... make you like me... and we will lead your mom to your dad, and you will be a family again."
"We'll see daddy again?" Samantha asked.
Alice nodded and held out her paws, letting them emerge from the temporarily reflective surface of the screen. Abbey and Samantha only looked at them as they emerged. Alice's mirror form was a blond flesh and blood wolf-girl. But, in the real world, he paws were practically transparent and looked like they were made of glass.
"Come along," Alice urged, "It will not hurt."
"If only see all the cool places you can go," Abbey said with a smile and took one of Alice's paws.
"To look out for Abbey," Samantha said, protective of her sister, and not yet knowing that she was talking to her cousin, and took Alice's other paw.
"Welcome to the REAL hall of mirrors, cousins," Alice said with a smile, and ever so gently began to pull them into the television's reflective surface.
To an outside observer, it looked as though Abbey and Samantha Butler were pulled into something liquid, their bodies shrinking or twisting to fit inside, but there was no outside observer as Julie was still in the shower and didn't know what was going on.
Inside the mirrorverse, Alice tumbled backward away from the reflective surface of the television, and feared she had failed, until two seemingly furry objects landed on Alice. Alice looked up and found herself looking into the blue eyes of a blond wolf-girl, looking two years younger then Alice, and wearing a blue and white dress. She looked over to see the other looking identical to the other in a dress that was the reverse of Alice's, blue where Alice's was white, and white where Alice's was blue.
Abbey and Samantha were now like her. Glass wolves, in the real world anyway. It appeared that entering the mirror did not leave for a gradual transformation but the instant assumption of their new form.
"Alice?" Samantha, the first that Alice saw, asked, "what happened?"
"We're puppies!" Abbey said, sounding excited.
"You became like me," Alice answered simply, "this our world. A world which we can never be trapped in, as there will be something reflective that we can emerge from. And we can go anywhere in three steps. But right now, we must focus on leading your mom back to Glendale to talk with your father, without the weird woman's interference."
"You mean, Auntie, don't you?" Samantha asked, "lead Auntie to Glendale to talk with father?"
"Of course," Alice smiled, knowing that her Aunt was now about to gain a daughter of her own... or at least would gain one that called her mother.
And then Alice began to lay out the plan to lead Julie back to Glendale for her rendezvous with Fran and Darla.