Ace quickly summoned his Genesis Keyblade and started cutting through the Heartless attacking his group. Unfortunately, these ones were harder than the previous ones he faced as they took more hit to defeat and they were also quick enough to block with their half-moon scimitar and also counter-attack. Lana had a pretty hard time shooting them down too.
"Where are they coming from?" Ace asked as he dodged a Heartless' attack before grabbing him by the cape and throwing him away.
"I don't know, but if it keeps going like this, we'll get overwhelmed in no time!" Lana said as she kept shooting with her laser pistols. The Heartless managed to block some of her shots with their half-moon scimitars which badly affected her kill count. "Let's get out of here!"
Seeing that retreat was their only option, the two friends ran away by a set of staircases that led on the roofs and jumped from one to another, the Heartless following behind. Lana sometimes took time to turn around and shot a laser at them in hopes of slowing their progress down a bit. Eventually, the duo made it inside a little-abandoned house and saw the Heartless were no longer following them.
"Phew! I think we lost them," Ace said with pushing a sigh and sitting back against a wall.
"Those Heartless were not the same we faced back in the island," Lana remarked with looking out by the window.
"Yeah, we should find a name for them." Ace rubbed his chin for a bit before snapping his fingers. "I got it! How about "Luna Bandits"? Because they have weapons shaped like moons and they dress like bandits."
Before Lana could voice her opinion, the red parrot suddenly flew in through the window. "By the way, my name is Iago," he said as if the whole thing with the Luna Bandits never happened.
"I'm Ace, and this is Lana," the boy casually said. "So tell me, Iago, where can we find this Aladdin and Jasmine?"
"They're at the palace of course," he replied. "Say, if you're heading there, think you could leave a good word about me?"
"Sure, why not," Lana said with a shrug. "Let's go, Ace."
The duo accompanied by Iago made its way through the city of Agrabah and toward the big palace that could be seen in the distance. Because of it, it was easy to know which way to go. They soon reached the main gates and entered the royal garden (which were surprisingly open to everyone) where there were beautiful trees and little ponds.
They spotted someone standing alone in a corner. A woman. She had bronze skin with a pretty curvy figure and was dressed in a light blue top with bicep straps, harem pants, and pointy shoes. She had long, dark hair tied into a waist-length ponytail and a golden necklace around her neck.
She turned toward the intruders. "Who are you?" she asked.
"I'm Ace, nice to meet you...?" Ace said, waiting for her name.
"I'm Princess Jasmine," the beautiful young woman introduced herself.
"You're Princess Jasmine?!" Ace asked in surprise before quickly bowing. "Your Majesty."
"I'm Lana," she also introduced herself with a little bow.
"We've met Heartless moments ago. Is there any problem here?" Ace asked with getting back up.
"I think we're all right for now," the princess replied.
"What about your friend, Aladdin? We heard about him before coming here. Is he alright?" Lana asked.
Jasmine suddenly looked down sadly. "I haven't heard about him since a few days. Ever since defeating Jafar, he got bored of life at the palace. He decided to return at the Cave of Wonders for the excitation and the thrills, but he never returned since. I hope nothing wrong happened to him..."
Ace and Lana exchanged looks before turning back to the princess. "Maybe we could go check for him? We're a pretty strong duo, y'know."
Princess Jasmine looked up at them, her face shining again. "You would do that? That's so generous of you!"
"Hehe, what do you want? We're heroes for that," Ace said with a cocky smile and rubbed his nose. "Let's go, Lana," he added with turning toward the exit while his friend just shook her head in annoyance.
And so, the two friends walked through the city and all the way to the exit. According to the map they bought at the market along with a few healing potions in case of need, the Cave of Wonders the princess talked about was located not too far from the city.
It didn't take very long for them to spot the cave in question whose entrance was in the form of a strange tiger face coming out from the ground with its jaw wide open as if inviting them to enter.
"Huh, you sure we should enter this? It looks like a trap," Lana remarked, unsure.
"Don't worry; if Aladdin entered this with no problems, it should be okay for us too," Ace said with optimism. "But, hum...care to enter first?"
Lana rolled her eyes and just walked in. "If I die in there, I'm gonna come back from the dead to kick your butt..."
The duo stepped inside the giant head and found themselves walking down a path of sand which led them into a world that looked straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. It was so huge that Ace and Lana took almost a full hour to reach the bottom which was filled with treasures like golden coins and rubies.
"Whoa! You've seen all this gold?!" Ace exclaimed in awe. "We are rich!"
"Calm down, KeyBoy," Lana deadpanned. "We didn't come here for gold but to find Aladdin. And besides, if it's like in those old adventure movies, there's gotta be a trap for this gold." She suddenly heard a noise and narrowed her ears. "Someone's here."
It was probably Aladdin, but the two friends still took out their weapons for good measure. They walked to the end of the room and saw two figures looking at a golden item into which was carved different colors of gems. They seemed to try and decide if they should take it out or not.
One of them was a female snake - a Naga to be precise. While her lower body was a long tail, her upper body was that of a human. She had turquoise scales and jade green eyes. Her attire consisted of a pink tube top around her chest, a pink veil over her mouth, and pink gloves with holes for the three fingers of her hands.
The other looked like a female raven with a human-shaped body. Her feathers were dark and smooth while her beak and talons were grey and her eyes were green. Her hair feathers were tied into a ponytail by a magenta band. Her dress consisted of a tight dark blue top on her chest and shoulders which left her tummy exposed, a purple scarf around her neck, a pair of dark blue trousers held in place by a purple sash which was strangely positioned to expose her right hip while covering her left one. Additionally, she had a silver piercing in her navel, a wooden bow in her wing, and a bag of arrows tied to her back.
"Who are these gals?" Lana quietly asked.
"No idea, but-" Ace got interrupted as he heard a little scream coming from behind. Turning around, he saw a familiar porg standing there. "Bobby! What are you doing here? I told you to wait for us in the Gummi Ship." The little space puffin just stared at Ace with his big black eyes. "Aww, I can't stay mad at you for long, can I?"
"Don't move!"
Ace widened his eyes and turned around to see the female raven pointing an arrow at him while the female snake seemed ready to attack. Lana stood up and pointed her dual guns at them, ready to shoot too.
"Hey, hey, calm down! We didn't come here for trouble!" Ace said, raising his hands in defense. "We just came here looking for our friend Aladdin."
"Aladdin? The handsome thief boy?" the female Naga asked.
"Yes, you've seen him?" Lana asked without lowering her pistols.
"We did, but you missed him by minutes; he returned to Agrabah for an emergency," the raven explained.
"Really?" Seeing as there were no hostilities between them, everyone lowered their weapon down. "Why did he came here? And how could he leave without us seeing him?" Ace asked.
"No idea," the Naga said. "By the way, my name's Charming Snake. And this is my friend Sairi D. Forest."
"I'm Ace. And this is Lana," he also introduced them with a smile and hand wave. "So what are you girls doing here?"
"We came here for the same thing as everyone; getting treasures," Sairi replied. "Our Gummi Ship has crashed upon arrival; we need muney to buy a new one."
"Really? Maybe we can help you with that."
"We'll talk about it later. For now, let's get back in town to go see Aladdin and Jasmine!" Lana said and firmly grabbed Ace's arm, dragging him toward the cave's exit.
Hey, guys! I know I haven't updated this story for an eternity, but I recently started playing Kingdom Hearts 3...AND I'M IN LOVE WITH IT!
This gave me the KH rush I needed to continue this story. So, Ace, Lana and Bobby met two new OCs of mine. We'll if they will join them on their quest.