Kingdom Hearts: Warriors of Light
Fish Tale -Chapter 17
It didn't take long for the warriors to finally locate their crashed ships in the forest of Wonderland. Donald was able to quickly repair them with magic so they could get as far away from Wonderland as possible. Ni-Ne more than anyone else wanted to escape for fear her friends would lose their minds all over again. But lucky for her, in no time at all the team was ready to go.
"Was I really that mean?" Kita kept asking Ni-Ne as she navigated the Gummi Ship through space.
"Yeah," Ni-Ne said. "It was like you fighting with Riku only ten times the intensity.
"Oh gee thanks," Riku said. "Now you've got her believing she is capable of inflicting more damage to me than she already does."
"Your welcome," Ni-Ne laughed. Kita looked back to Ni-Ne, Ti-Day and Riku talking. She kept glancing at the cut that was slit across Ni-Ne's tattoo on her arm. Even though she wasn't herself, she could remember seeing her key blade strike Ni-Ne so clearly. It gave her a looming fear of herself and how much danger could be hiding down inside her own heart that would cause her to do such a thing. Every time she looked at it, it gave her chills shooting down her spine.
"Kita, prepare to land, there's a world up ahead," Donald's voice called through the intercom. Kita looked out the window around Donald's ship to see a world that looked like it was made entirely out of water.
"Um, Donald," Kita asked sounding puzzled. "Where are we gonna land exactly? It's made of water!"
"Don't worry about it, just follow me!" Donald said turning his ship down towards the world. Kita followed still feeling anxious about the idea. They were coming in very close now and Kita was beginning to wonder if Donald had any idea what he was doing. But just as they were about to plunge into the water, the Gummi Ship started to glow brightly and seemed to vanish.
When Kita opened her eyes, she was under water. At first she grabbed her throat thinking she was drowning, but something felt so right just to breath. "Huh?" she said. She looked down to see endless ocean below and the fluke of a whale… "A WHALE!" Kita screamed realizing what she had become. "I'm a- a KILLER WHALE!"
"Cool it Kita," Ti-Day said grabbing her shoulders trying to calm her down. "We're all sea critters now."
Kita turned around to see that Ti-Day was now half man, half great white shark. She gasped in surprise. "How?"
"Donald of course," Ti-Day said. "Don't you remember him saying he'd take care of it? Even I heard him say that and I was talking to Ni-Ne at the time."
Kita turned to Donald who was now half duck, half octopus and swam towards him as fast as she could. Then she firmly placed her hands around his neck and started to shake him back and forth. "I liked my body the way it was! What have you done! And a whale of all things! Are you saying I'm fat!"
"AHH!" Donald choked. "Let go! Let go!"
"I don't think you look bad," Riku said swimming over to Kita. "You look good."
Kita turned her head and saw Riku who was now half man, jellyfish. He was shirtless now being underwater and Kita couldn't help but stare. He was pretty good looking under all that stupidity. Her cheeks started to turn red, so she changed her expression to an angry face to hide the fact that she was blushing at all. "And what are you suppose to be?"
"You don't even know?" Riku said sounding surprised. "I'm a Portuguese Man-of-War, only the coolest jellyfish of all time! We used to have them around our island back home, right Sora?"
Sora was swimming around and around and around without stopping. "Woohoo!" he shouted. "Look, I'm a dolphin!" Sora swam over to Kita and put his arm around her. "Don't we kinda go together?" he asked Riku who was still there in front of them. Kita's expression was clearly a 'no', but Riku laughed and agreed.
Ni-Ne and Ti-Day were circling each other flirtatiously. Ni-Ne was now a sea krait, a type of water snake. She kept wrapping herself around Ti-Day who was slowly turning into a lovesick baboon, or shark rather.
"Get a room!" Hercules shouted at them. He seemed to be having trouble swimming with the eel tail that had replaced his legs. "Why couldn't I have been a crab or something? Then at least I could walk on the bottom."
"Did someone say crab?" a voice said from the coral that was embedded in the sea floor below. A tiny red crab swam up into the group. "Hmm, who are you? I've never seen any of you before."
"That's because we come from another world," Goofy said swimming over to meet the crab. Goofy was much smaller than he normally was now that he was a sea turtle. "We're here to stop the heartless from coming to this world."
"You've come to stop the heartless!" another voice said. This time a mermaid appeared from the coral. She swam up into the group sounding very excited. "I'm so glad you're here! The heartless have been all over the place, and I can't seem to make them go away."
"Well that's why we came," Sora said smiling. He was more than excited to be a dolphin. "What's your name?"
"Oh I'm Ariel, and this is Sebastian," she said pointing out the red crab. "And Flounder's around here somewhere," Ariel said looking around through the coral.
"Ahh! Ariel, what is that thing!" Flounder said popping out from the coral at last. He was followed by a little pink cloud that was squeaking at him."
"That's Pom-Pom," Ti-Day laughed. "I was wondering where he got to. And don't worry, he's harmless."
"What are your names?" Ariel asked.
Ti-Day took a big breath ready to point everyone out. "Ok, I'm Ti-Day, this is Ni-Ne Nite, Kita, Riku, Sora, Hercules, Donald and Goofy." As he finished, he took a big breath.
"Nice to meat you all," Ariel said smiling. "Anyway, my father is King Triton and-," she began.
"Wah, back up," Kita said. "King Triton? That means… you're Princess Ariel!"
"Well yeah, but what's wrong with-," Ariel was cut off again.
"You're in danger!" Kita said. "My father, Ansem and his evil accomplices are hunting you down!"
"What?" Ariel asked starting to sound worried.
"Oh my gosh, that's right!" Hercules jumped in. "I remember. That notebook, The Princess's of Heart."
"Hurry, you've got to get back to your palace as fast as you can!" Donald said. "We'll help you, just hurry!" Ariel looked as though she didn't know what was going on, but she listened anyway. With everyone there to protect her, the heartless barely stood a chance. Before they could get far, a group of heartless did in fact take on the group.
"I got um," Riku said stopping. He tried swinging his sword around but he could only reach so far. The water prevented him from moving anywhere fast without proper fins. So he tired a new strategy. She stretched out his tentacles and grabbed all of the heartless at the same time. Then he squeezed his fists and concentrated hard on shocking them. ZAP! And all the heartless were done for in one shot.
"Nice one Riku," Sora shouted. "Come on!" They hurried on with Ariel telling them where to go. A swarm of heartless appeared out of nowhere up ahead. Everyone prepared to halt but Donald cast a spell and blew them out of the way in the blink of an eye.
"It's right here!" Ariel said, she jumped ahead and pulled open a shell that was supposedly the front door. Once everyone made it inside she swam in and let the shell fall closed behind her. Everyone sank to the floor breathing heavily.
"I would have thought being sea creatures would have made swimming easier, but that was tough work," Ni-Ne pointed out.
"I'm guessing you don't normally have fins where you come from," Ariel said laughing at all of them.
"Nope," Hercules said looking as though he was about to die. He had been having enough trouble just swimming slowly in one place let alone racing heartless.
"Tell me, what's this about me being in danger?" Ariel asked seriously.
"Well, it really is a long story," Kita said still huffing and puffing. "The heartless were created by my father Ansem, and now they are infecting all the worlds. I volunteered to help King Mickey stop the problem and I found a notebook that revealed some pretty secret plans of his. And your name was in it."
"How does he even know me? No one's ever been to this world besides you guys and the heartless." Ariel explained.
"Well, there's rumors about 'the villains' getting together too," Kita said.
"Yeah, a Maleficent and Clayton, who's done for…" Ni-Ne mentioned.
Kita continued. "I don't know as much about them, but I think they're the ones collecting the princesses. Is there anyone here you would consider bad?"
"Actually, there's a sea which named Ursula." Ariel thought.
"Stay away from her then," Ti-Day said. "She sounds pretty suspicious to me."
"Could we meet your father?" Sora said. "We should really tell him about this."
"Of course. Follow me," Ariel said swimming deeper into the palace. Ariel led the group to a large room of coral columns that circled around a throne. There in the throne was King Triton himself. "Hi Daddy!"
"Ariel, who are these… not so mer-people?" he questioned looking at the strange bunch.
"Daddy, they came to take care of the heartless problem," Ariel explained. "Don't worry, they're not bad."
"I see," King Triton said eyeing everyone suspiciously. "I've never seen you before. Where did you come from?"
"You're majesty, we've come from other worlds," Sora spoke up. "We were appointed by King Mickey to seal the worlds and prevent heartless from getting into them."
"Other worlds?" King Triton asked still looking suspicious. "Sounds like risky meddling to me."
"It's hardly meddling what we're doing," Kita said. "There's heartless everywhere and someone has to stop them."
"But I can destroy them," King Triton said holding up the gold triton in this hand. "I am King of Atlantica after all. I know how to protect my people."
"Ah, but can you stop them from coming back?" Ti-Day asked. King Triton held his chin in his hand as he thought about it. "The heartless are entering this world through a door that needs to be locked."
"I see," King Triton said coming to a realization that the heartless where a bigger problem than he had led himself to believe.
"There's too much to really explain right now, but there's one other thing you should know," Donald said. "Ariel is in danger."
"What! How do you know?" King Triton said now looking worried and shocked.
"We're not a hundred percent sure of what's going on, but the man behind all of this left some notes behind about the Princess's of Heart," Kita explained. "And Ariel was one of them."
"How can this be?" King Triton said thinking out loud.
"Can you think of no one?" Sora said.
"Ursula!" King Triton concluded aloud. "That sea witch is going to be sorry once I'm through with her." King Triton got up from the throne and started making his way towards the exit of the throne room.
"Daddy, I'll come too," Ariel said following him.
"No Ariel. It's too dangerous," he said putting his fin down. King Triton pointed to Kita and Ni-Ne. "You two girls stay here with her and the rest of you guys come with me."
Kita had a look of down right disgusted on her face as she watched King Triton and all the guys swim away. "What does he think I am? A wuss! I'm braver and stronger then half of them and he picks me to leave behind!"
"Aw, he's just like that I guess," Ariel explained. "He's so protective of my sisters and I. I guess he just did it without thinking."
Ni-Ne turned her head towards Ariel. "Forgive her," she whispered. "Kita likes to be in the center of action at all times. She's a tough cookie." Ni-Ne smiled. Pom-Pom resorted to warming the throne for King Triton while he was gone.
"Since we're here, can you two tell me about the other worlds out there," Ariel asked sounding a little shy for once. She had a secret passion to explore someplace outside her world. For her to discover that other worlds did exist made her happy and more curious than ever before.
"Oh, where to begin," Kita said rolling her eyes. "We just came from this Wonderland place and it was complete insanity! We all lost our minds and started attacking each other! It was horrible! And then there was that jungle world where Tarzan the ape-man lived… The bugs were awful! Not to mention I was stuck with Riku the entire time. Oh man listening to him was driving me crazy. And-,"
Ni-Ne was eyeing Kita. "Kita and Ti-Day came to my world, Halloween Town, to bring me along for this adventure we've been having. I'm sorta an orphan so I've lived in Halloween Town my whole life with Jack, the Pumpkin King."
"That sounds like fun!" Ariel said. "I love Halloween. And to think you get to live it everyday!"
"Yep, every year we have a big Halloween parade. Me and dad work on it all year together just to make it better than the last." Ni-Ne sighed and hung her head. "I guess this year he's going to be doing most of it on his own. I really miss him."
"Aww, I'm sorry about that," Ariel said. "I'd probably miss my daddy too even though most of the time I'm just getting in trouble with him." Ariel laughed. "What about you Kita?"
Kita hung her head in silence. For a moment or two she said nothing and then she explained. "I don't really have a home right now."
"How's that? Everyone's got a home," Ariel said. "I mean I get that maybe people are going through rough times right now with all this darkness stuff, but your home is where your heart is."
"Yeah," Kita said quietly. "That's just the thing. I don't have that. My life sorta got shredded apart somehow and everything's been a mess. My father… he's…"
A swarm of heartless suddenly appeared in the throne room without warning. "AHH!" Ariel screamed in shock. Ni-Ne and Kita snapped out of their gloomy moods in a split second and proceeded to prepare their key blades for battle. Kita was just now realizing how hard it was to move quickly when you had only just learned how to swim with a tail. She found herself spinning around and getting dizzy purposelessly. And without the ability to use magic, she was finding it hard to protect Ariel. Ni-Ne on the other hand was casting spells left and right while Ariel had resorted to slapping heartless with her tail.
"THUNDER!" Ni-Ne shouted. All the heartless were hit at once and disappeared, but only for new ones to arrive.
"Err, this is why we should have gone!" Kita complained still struggling. "You heartless are starting to make me mad!"
"Kita, try that keychain Jane gave you," Ni-Ne said. "It's supposed to make your key blade stronger."
Kita thought she'd give it a try because anything was better than swinging the blade through empty water. She attached the silver passionflower to her blade and it began to glow. Though still silver, it transformed into a key blade that had a wild passionflower for an end and long vine twisting patterns that made the length. But by far the best thing was that the key blade was now two feet longer. "HA!" Kita said getting excited. This time she swung it and was able to reach the heartless who had been floating in front of her poking fun.
Eventually all the heartless were defeated. "Bravo," a cold voice said from behind them.
Ariel gasped. "Ursula! How?"
A huge, fat octopus woman was now sharing the throne room with Kita, Ni-Ne and Ariel. "Ha ha, my dear sweet child, I've been told it is time to collect," Ursula laughed. "You're coming with me!"
"Ah, NO!" Ariel said as Ursula grabbed her arm.
Kita swam up to Ursula and swung her key blade down on her arm as hard as she could. "Back off!" Ni-Ne followed Kita's lead and took to attacking Ursula's other arm.
"Err, you little pests! You're in my way!" Ursula yelled. She held out her hand and suddenly Ni-Ne and Kita found little fireballs flying into their faces. They were knocked backwards hard. But before they could get up, Ursula struck again and again. Enough fireballs to the head and soon neither of the girls could keep swimming. They were both knocked unconscious as well as Pom-Pom who while trying his best to avoid them had been hit by some stray fireballs.
"Ni-Ne! Kita!" Ariel yelled as she was dragged away helplessly. Ni-Ne, Kita and Pom-Pom were left to lay limply on the ground as Ariel was kidnapped.