Chapter 39: Fin Twins
Before Mindy could even consider unsheathing her weapon, The Jolly Rancher was coated in a pulsing greenish-bluish light. Confused and too dazed to resume their raid, the angry mob froze and glanced around.
Mindy's brain didn't process what was happening until the ship was fully submerged into the ocean. It was almost as if a gigantic toddler placed their hand on it, and abruptly shoved it into the bubbly depths of a massive bath tub. Mindy gathered her nerve, and painstakingly made for the surface, but something had taken hold of her ankles and dragged her deeper.
She went into a full-blown panic as she took her sword and blindly slashed at whatever the thing was. This in turn, caused its grip on her to tighten. To make matters worse, the substance covered her from head-to-toe in a cocoon of some sort. Mindy squeezed her eyes shut with a muffled shriek as a blinding light enveloped her.
When the light dissipated, she felt herself lurch to the side and plop onto a sandy sea bed.
Cautiously, she opened her eyes and gasped…
A scaly lavender tail stared back at her.
Mindy looked at the rest of her body to find that tiny gills had sprouted on either side of her neck, and a clamshell bra adorned her upper chest. She was stunned speechless as The Amulet of Illusions floated back into her awaiting hands.
Somehow, it looked extremely proud of itself.
"Thanks Alistaire." She touched her throat in shock, "Woah…talking down here is going to take some getting used to."
Mindy took a…breath?
At least, it seemed like a breath since it sounded as if she were actually sucking in air instead of pure saltwater. She chose not to question it, and instead worked on getting to her feet or tail. She attempted to stand on her fin, but ended up flopping onto her stomach the second she lost her balance. With a sudden determination, Mindy rolled over and tried thrusting her tail upward which only resulted in severe trauma to her lower back.
She sighed in defeat, and scooted rather hilariously on her butt towards a forest of coral where the Jolly Rancher had crashed, "Guys? Are you alright?!"
Scarlett emerged from the wreckage, already getting the hang of her newly acquired ruby-red tail. She waded towards Mindy, flapping her fins in an awkward, stiff up-and-down motion.
"I'm better than alright! Check us out!" She exclaimed as she did a spin, and jostled her beach-wave curls, "Did I mention that Al is the coolest?! Who cares, I'm doing it now! Al is the coolest!"
"So the fact that we're at the bottom of the ocean with a sunken ship and got magicked into mer-people doesn't freak you out?"
"Are you kidding?! This is the best thing your magic has ever done!" Scarlett squealed with contagious child-like glee, "It sort of reminds me of when we used to play mermaids at the beach when we were kids. I was Adrianna the Mystique with a mysterious past as well as mysterious powers, and pretended to be a soothsayer. I look exactly the way I imagined I would."
"Yeah…yeah, I kind of remember that." Mindy replied as she struggled to figure out how to float, "We would have races and I busted my face on a rock trying to keep up with you."
Scarlett let out a prominent wheeze.
"Yuck it up sister, but at the time it hurt like hell."
"No I'm not laughing because of that." She clarified, "I'm laughing because of that receptionist at the front desk of the hospital I took you to."
"I'm not following."
"We nicknamed him Mr. Lewbert because of the enormous mole on his forehead." Scarlett elaborated.
"Uh huh." Mindy booped her on the nose, "And you couldn't stop laughing in the waiting room."
"You mean you couldn't stop laughing in the waiting room!"
"I was only laughing because you were laughing dummy, they were really about to kick us out for disturbing the peace."
"Well then you should've laughed quieter!"
The two erupted into a giggling fit as Dakota unsteadily floated over with Peter and Wendy trailing behind him. His pale chest was exposed and his tail was a dark-blue with some specs of turquoise thrown into the mix. Wendy's tail was the same shade of blue as her nightgown, and she donned a matching clamshell bra. Peter's was of course a leafy green, and he still had his iconic floppy feathered hat perched on his head. The Lost Boys followed them. For the most part, they looked the same except for their gills and tails which were the same hue as their respective animal onesies.
Mindy glanced around anxiously, "Wait where're Tinkerbell and Jiminy?"
"Right here!"
She re-clasped the Amulet to her neck before opening her palms and catching the swimming cricket into her awaiting arms, "Wow, you haven't changed a bit gramps."
"It's like you haven't seen my movie at all!"
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding."
The jangling of bells drew their attention to the shipwreck.
"Come on Tink, I'm sure it's not that bad!" Dakota shouted back, "I know water isn't your thing, but we're all friends here and-"
He was cut off by Peter's boisterous laugh as the fairy revealed herself.
It took everything in Mindy not to join him.
Tink…was a pufferfish. A light-green pufferfish that somehow had her straw-yellow hair tied into its regular bun. Mindy sucked in a breath as her cheeks started to glow their usual cherry red. The Lost boys didn't even try to hold in their laughter, Scarlett and Dakota wheezed, and Wendy put a hand over her mouth and looked away but Mindy had caught the tiny smile that had appeared on her lips.
Eventually, she cleared her throat, "That-*wheeze*, that's not funny Alistaire."
"What are you talking about?!" Peter burst as he held his sides, "It's the funniest thing I've seen all day!"
"Okay con: The Jolly Rancher is destroyed." Mindy pointed out, "But pros: We're not on our way to The Projectionist's Domain, and judging from the convenience of our sudden transformations we are close to the Kingdom of Atlantica. Plus, I can easily fix the ship after-the-fact so let's get a move on."
She flopped ungracefully forwards, and just about crashed into Dakota's chest. He caught her swiftly, and drew her in closer without much of a second thought. They gazed up at each other in a mutually awkward, yet slightly comfortable silence.
Mindy's cheeks reddened at their sudden closeness, "Oop, sorry."
"You're okay, here let's help each other."
Catching onto what he was implying, Scarlett went on the other side of Mindy and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. Dakota did the same on his end, and together the three of them swam past the candy wreckage.
A shrill scream pierced through the ocean.
Mindy recognized it instantly, "We need to go!"
Before anyone could ask why, two figures zoomed past them. "SWIM!"
Someone grabbed ahold of Mindy's hand. This in turn caused a chain reaction where Mindy snatched Dakota's hand, he snatched Scarlett's, she snatched Peter's, he snatched Wendy's, she snatched Tink's, she snatched Slightly's, he snatched Nibb's, he snatched Cubby's, he snatched the twins's, and they snatched Toodles's.
When Mindy was able to get her vision to focus, she was astonished to see that the hand who'd grabbed her belonged to-
"Ariel?!"
"Hi Mindy!" The little mermaid flashed her a dazzling smile, "It's good to see you again!"
"Thanks, you have no idea how much I needed to hear that after the day I've had!"
Ariel's face fell at this, "Why? What happened?"
"Well it's a funny story act-"
"-Can we have this conversation later when we're not swimming for our lives?!" Scarlett demanded.
"I agree with her!" Wendy piped up.
"That reminds me, why are we swimming for our lives?" Peter questioned.
As one, Mediocrity at its Finest turned their heads…a great white shark was right behind them, gnashing its razor-sharp teeth with a snarl.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
They whizzed past shipwreck after shipwreck, until they reached a rusty anchor.
Mindy's complexion turned a stark white as they spun around the chain at supersonic speed. Right as they were about to reach the top, Flounder and Toodles hit their heads against it and floated dizzily to the bottom in the direction of the shark.
Simultaneously, Ariel and Mindy dove towards them.
The former was able to grab Flouder before he reached the sea floor, but the latter hadn't made it in time. Toodles yelped with fright as the shark readied himself to chomp down on the boy's trembling form. Mindy threw her palms out and blasted the vicious predator backwards. Panting, she floated protectively in front of the group.
She waited with bated breath to see if the shark would strike again.
It seemed to hesitate for a moment before lashing out.
Mindy didn't have enough strength to prepare another magical attack and instead darted through the hole in the anchor. The shark gave chase and got itself stuck inside. Scarlett yanked Mindy out of harm's way as the shark lurched forward, almost bringing the entire structure down.
Ariel waded to the bottom, and snagged her pale-red satchel before anything else could happen.
"You big bully!"
Flounder glared at the shark before giving it a raspberry. The beast lunged towards him, and the fish's eyes grew to the size of watermelons with a strangled screech. Ariel giggled at his behavior.
"Flounder, you really are a guppy!"
"I am not!"
The mermaid princess then whirled around to face the group. She startled Mindy by tackling her in an embrace with a delighted shriek, "Mindy! Wow, look at you! You're so beautiful! Your hair is so much longer and-and wow! All I can say is wow!"
Ariel released her and looked at the girl with an expectant smile.
"So I was right..." Mindy flipped over her amulet to see that yet another riddle appeared: What is it that makes songs but you will never hear it sing? She then gripped the pendant tighter to her chest, "We did know each other in my past life."
Ariel's smile faded, "You…don't remember me."
"I'm so sorry." Jiminy shrugged from atop his client's shoulder, "When she left The Dremesphere all those years ago, somehow she lost all her memories about all of us. We're trying to get her to remember so that she can defeat The Projectionist once and for all."
"I was sort of hoping you'd be able to help me." Mindy chimed in.
"Of course!"
"Awesome…so, we were friends, right?" When the princess nodded in confirmation, she took that as a sign to continue, "Were we close friends?"
"Yes!" Ariel did a twirl as her luscious dark-red hair swirled around her shoulders, "We'd do everything together! Look for human stuff, make seashell necklaces, and you'd tell me stories about the world above and all the places you've seen! You promised that one day you'd turn me human and take me with you. We'd also sing duets at mer-concerts, and you had a fantastic voice! I'd imagine you still do, you loved to sing."
"Hate to burst your bubble (no pun intended) but I don't sing as much as I used to." Mindy confessed, "I have the singing voice of a donkey going through labor."
"But what about the time you and I sung at The Rat Trap?" When the little mermaid tilted her head, Dakota turned towards her and elaborated, "We tapped danced across the tables together, it was a whole thing."
"That…that was nothing, really." Mindy's cheeks flushed as she rubbed her opposite elbow, "If it wasn't for you, I would've gotten rotten tomatoes thrown at me. You were the one who stole the show in the end."
"Don't be so modest." Ariel chided, "There's a beautiful voice still inside of you, waiting to be set free. All you need to do is exercise your instrument a bit."
"Wait…the riddle." Mindy's brow furrowed as she recited it from memory, "What is it that makes songs, but you will never hear it sing…is the answer my voice?"
She winced as she prepared herself for the incoming explosion…but it never came.
"Damn, I guess not." Mindy sighed, "Ariel? Was there something that we shared that no one else knew about? A secret? An inside joke? Anything like that? A pattern I've noticed when I unlock a new power is that they make themselves known though deeply repressed or significant childhood memories I have involving other characters."
"We did have an old rhyme that we used to do whenever we saw each other!" she slapped her tail against hers before Mindy could protest, "Fin Twins, Fin Twins, one two three-" the ritual then transitioned into traditional patty cake, "-Fin Twins, Fin Twins, you and me." next, they slapped their hands up-and-down a total of four times before bumping elbows twice, "In rain, in snow, in sleet, and shine, we are Fin Twins till the end of time!"
Ariel finished the routine with an underwater backflip, which Mindy couldn't emulate.
"That was absolutely adorable." she giggled, "Was there anything else? Even the slightest thing could get us one step closer to cracking this riddle."
"Hmmm…" Ariel cupped her chin in thought, "Well, I remember we buried a time capsule about oh…I wanna say eleven or twelve years ago?"
Mindy brightened up at this, "A time capsule?! That's-that's amazing! What's in it?"
"I'm afraid I can't remember. But I do remember that if there was one thing that you cherished more than your friends, it was your secrets between your friends."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You loved inside jokes, and this time capsule was one big inside joke. You wanted to keep it specifically between us, so we set up a scavenger hunt so that no one could make it to the treasure except for us."
"That definitely sounds like something the old you would do." Peter spoke up, "You always did love your games."
"So where's the first clue?"
"Now that is something I remember." Ariel smirked before beckoning the group forward, "It isn't that far from here, come on follow me!"
"Someone should stay behind to survey the situation above the surface." Mindy turned to face Peter, Wendy, Tink, and the boys, "Pan Gang, stay close to the ship and make sure that the mob doesn't find a way to follow us to Atlantica."
Peter waved it off, "Psssh, they won't be able to follow us all the way down here."
"Um…that's not entirely true." Mindy's voice raised an octave as she tapped her fingertips together, "You see, the Atlantis crew's entire city is underwater. They'll be here any minute, I can feel it. The only reason they aren't here right now, is most likely because they're bantering with our other friends about their next move. You guys have to see to it that they don't find out about our mission here, or try to interfere."
"Fair enough." Peter gave her a salute, "You can count on us!"
Mindy smiled in gratitude, "We'll reconvene here later tonight. Fin Twin, lead the way."
"Right!"
Ariel took off with Flounder close behind her. She parqueted through the cool waters with ease, making straight for the kelp forest in the distance.
"Ariel!"
The mermaid in question froze and glanced over her shoulder in confusion.
Mindy, Scarlett, and Dakota panted as they struggled to catch up to her.
"Maybe…maybe you could give us some swimming lessons f-first?" Dakota wheezed.
"Oops." Ariel's cheeks flushed, "Of course…sorry about that."
"Scuttle!" Ariel called out once they reached the surface.
"WOAH! MERMAID OFF THE PORT BOW!" the seagull shouted back from his miniature island in the middle of the sea. He scrambled to pull out a spyglass but held it up to his eye backwards, "ARIEL! HOW'RE YOU DOIN KID?!" he lowered it to see that her and the tiny group accompanying her were closer than they appeared, "Woah, what a swim!"
"Scuttle, you remember Mindy right?" Ariel yanked the girl in question close to her chest which caused her to grin with a timid wave.
The seagull scratched his head, "Can't say that I do."
"She's the rightful heir of this world?" Dakota pried.
"She created the darn place?" Scarlett added.
"I'm the anomaly?"
"Ohhhhhh…now I remember!" Scarlett burst as recognition shone in his eyes, "You're the seagall who fed me fries that one time!"
"Really?" Mindy raised a brow in disbelief, "That's the impact I left on you?"
"A bird never forgets a human who willingly feeds them food." Scuttle raised an index finger to the sky as he took a step forward, "That is a well-known-RAWK!" he was cut off as he slipped on air and flopped unceremoniously on his face with a squawk, "-Fact!"
"Regardless, we need your help." Ariel resumed, "Mindy lost her memories, and to guide her in the right direction we need to find our old time capsule we buried. Do you still have the first clue?"
"Dunno...let me see what we got here." Scuttle said as he started to rummage through an old trunk he had on his island, "Nope, nuh uh, not that, uh….I know it's in here somewhere…oh! Found it!" he withdrew a tattered yellow piece of parchment and handed it to the Dremespherean princess, "Here ya go kid!"
Mindy took it with a salute, "Much obliged."
She skimmed over it with a flicker of desperation apparent in her eyes:
#1
If you wish to find your second clue, heed the words I say to you. It's a sacred place beneath the sea, which no one knows except for you and me. A treasure trove of wonders untold, and human stuff from up on the shore. Your clue is in something ancient, old, a thing that's filled with secrets and lore.
"Treasure trove of wonders untold…" Mindy murmured.
She waded away from the rock as Scuttle began explaining to a naïve Ariel what a dinglehopper was. Scarlett and Dakota followed her, reading the riddle silently over her shoulder.
The former broke the silence, "What're ya thinking hon?"
"I'm thinking that when I code something, I should stop using riddles from now on." Mindy replied, "I'd rather have something straight-forward and to the point if I'm being honest."
"Well, you are a writer." Dakota pointed out, "Aren't riddles essentially the same as poems?"
"There's a difference between a writer and a poet…I can't stand poetry, it's contrived and cliché."
"Okay let's think about this…treasure trove of wonders untold." Scarlett said out loud. "Why does that sound so familiar?"
The trio stood (floated) there for a bit in silent contemplation…
Bored, Dakota began humming a few bars of "Part of Your World". Then, the metaphorical lightbulb illuminated over Mindy's head and she allowed herself a tiny smirk. "Look at this trove, treasures untold…"