Author's Note: I have a headcanon that all the dorm leaders have their own private bathrooms. I don't think there has been anything in the official canon that confirms or refutes this, so this story operates under the assumption that they do.

Grim heaved a happy sigh as he dug into his breakfast. He'd been impatiently waiting to get food while Devon and everyone else had gotten cleaned up and ready for class. He was glad that the dorm leaders all had their own private bathrooms, but he still felt like these humans took too long to get themselves ready in the morning.

"Who knew workin' up a sweat could feel so amazin'! I'm cravin' way more meat than usual!" he exclaimed, purring happily as Devon petted the top of his head.

"So are you gonna tell me what the bright idea was behind makin' a deal with the octo-punk?" Leona asked, pulling Devon's attention away from Grim.

"I…hadn't planned on it," Devon replied. "Didn't really think you'd care."

"Oh, I care, princess," Leona said before narrowing his eyes at her, "because thanks to that deal, my room's gotten pretty cramped."

Devon rolled her eyes playfully, a little thrown by the new nickname but not willing to question it. "Pfft. Don't act like you don't enjoy havin' me around. I know you like me at least a little bit, Leona." Her expression grew more serious. "As for why I made the deal… Well it was because of the anemones." She nodded toward Grim. "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but it's become pretty personal for me."

Leona let out a short bark of laughter. "Hah! Please don't tell me you made a deal with him because you were tryin' to help those morons who made deals to get ahead in their exams. Well aren't you just the sweetest!" He laughed again and shook his head with a thoroughly amused look on his face. "It honestly blows me away how you can be so smart one moment and then so stupid the next."

Devon shrugged, smiling back at Leona. "It's a gift. And it earned me a rare backhanded compliment from you, so I'm gonna consider it a good thing for now."

"The rumor is that Azul's study guides are the real deal, though," Ruggie chimed in, changing the subject before Leona could object to Devon's comment and very much enjoying the mildly flustered look on his dorm leader's face. "I kinda get why so many people were clamorin' to get their hands on 'em."

"Wait, so you guys didn't end up makin' deals with Azul for the study guides?" Jack asked. "I figured Leona'd go for the easiest out he could get." His eyes widened when he realized what he'd said and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah… No offense, of course."

"Don't be an idiot. Who in their right mind would voluntarily make deals with that slippery bastard on a regular basis?" Leona challenged. "I admit, I have made deals with him before but there's always a steep price involved."

"Yeah, Azul's not the sorta guy you wanna make a habit of relying on," Ruggie agreed. "He's a real capable mage, though, and he can grant some pretty tall orders like it's nothin'."

"When it comes to negotiatin', the person who wants something is always the one at a disadvantage. That's just common sense," Leona added. "When those dim-witted herbivores signed those contracts without reading over every inch of 'em, they were practically askin' to be suckered somehow."

"Well now I'm even less optimistic about my chances here than I was before," Devon said uncertainly, "and I actually did read over every inch of my contract."

Jack nodded. "Was there, can confirm."

"Y'know what? Let's hear it. What were the terms of your deal, anyway?" Leona asked.

"He wants me to head to the Atlantica Memorial Museum and steal some commemorative photo of some prince or whatever. Don't ask me why because he didn't bother to tell me," Devon explained. "I've got until sunset three days from now starting today. If I make it happen, everyone with an anemone on their heads will be set free. If I don't, I lose Ramshackle and become one of Azul's lackeys. So, ya know…fun stuff."

Leona and Ruggie looked at Devon contemplatively for a moment, neither of them saying a word. Finally Ruggie spoke up a moment later, "Man…sucks to be you."

"Hey, don't you jinx us!" Grim chided. "We ain't even got started yet!"

"Isn't the Atlantica Museum underwater? How are you plannin' on gettin' there?" Ruggie asked.

"Azul gave Devon some potions that'll let us breathe underwater," Grim replied.

"Allegedly, at least," Jack added skeptically. "Who knows if they actually work."

"Huh. Well if Azul gave 'em to ya, they should work just fine. I don't think his pride would let him make a subpar potion, no matter how much he wanted to mess with someone," Ruggie told them.

Leona watched them for a moment before smirking. "Don't you think you oughta get the ball rollin' sooner instead of later? Time is money, after all."

"Good idea!" Grim exclaimed as he scarfed the rest of his food. "C'mon Dev, we've got a museum to infiltrate!"

"Yeah. Three days doesn't leave with much wiggle room," Jack agreed.

Devon nodded as she stood up. "I'll text Ace and Deuce and have 'em meet us at the Mirror Chamber."

Ruggie and Leona waited until the trio was out of earshot before speaking again.

"There they go," Ruggie said, smirking as he cast a sidelong look at Leona. "You're a real piece of work, Leona, sendin' 'em off like that."

Leona returned the smirk with one of his own. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"Are… Are we absolutely sure about these potions Azul gave us, you guys?" Deuce asked once everyone had gathered in the Mirror Chamber. He shook one of the tiny glass shells holding the potion, watching uncertainly as the bright green liquid sloshed around.

"Only one way to find out," Jack replied. "We'll just have to chug 'em and see for ourselves."

"Alright, on three," Ace said once everyone had uncorked their vial. "Ready….three!"

Everyone tossed the potion back at Ace's signal and were immediately overpowered by how utterly vile the potion tasted. Devon had to fight the urge to spit hers out, Deuce turned about three different shades of green, and even Grim seemed like he was having trouble keeping his down.

"Well… That was…," Deuce wheezed in between pants once he was sure he could trust himself to speak.

"It was the grossest thing I've ever tasted!" Grim shouted. "It was like someone mixed a dried frog with some rotten mushrooms!"

"How do you even know what that tastes like?" Jack asked, bewildered, before wincing. "Ugh, I feel like someone just punched me in the face."

"For real," Ace agreed. "Who decided that potions have to taste so bad, anyway? You'd think we'd have figured out some way to make 'em taste better by now."

"Personally, I'm more concerned about effective these are than how they taste," Deuce said. His eyes widened as he suddenly found himself struggling to breathe. "H-Hey…," he panted out, "did it just get…really hard to breathe…for anyone else?"

Next to him, Jack seemed to be having trouble catching his breath as well. "I think our lungs…are adapting to breathing underwater."

"Damn…that was quick," Devon wheezed.

"Aww man, this is bad…," Ace panted. "We need to get in the water, now!"

Jack turned to face the Dark Mirror and the face within stared impassively back at him. "Dark Mirror! Light our way to the Coral Sea!"

Even though the group knew the place they were headed to was underwater, all of them reacted with a mix of surprise and panic when the light from the Dark Mirror faded away. All of them held their breath on instinct and glanced up, only to see that they were miles beneath the surface of the ocean.

"Oh crud, we're totally gonna drown!" Grim shouted.

Deuce closed his eyes and gritted his teeth…only to realize that he was able to breathe just fine. "Wait," he said, opening his eyes to look at the rest of the group and seeing that none of them appeared to be in any danger, "I think we're all okay."

"Huh?" Grim paused for a moment and upon noticing that he was able to breathe as well, calmed down almost instantly. "Oh hey, I guess you're right."

"Looks like Azul's potion did the trick. We really are breathing underwater," Jack said.

"Dude!" Ace shouted suddenly, grabbing Devon's arm and pulling her toward him before gesturing out in front of him. "Get a load of this coral reef!"

It was much easier to appreciate how beautiful their surroundings were now that they'd calmed down. The bright colors of the coral and the schools of fish swimming along were absolutely gorgeous and there was what looked like a sunken ship off in the distance that added to the ambiance of the place. Devon couldn't help but wish she could hang out in a place like this more often and as she noticed her hair floating up around her face, she was also happy she'd opted to swap out her uniform skirt for pants today.

"You know if Cater were here, he'd be all, "Do it for the 'Cam!" and start snappin' pics left and right," Ace commented.

"And I wouldn't blame him," Devon agreed as a school of tiny fish swam past. "These little fish are so precious!"

"We're not here to sight-see, you guys," Jack reminded them. "Let's hurry up and find the museum."

"Right!" Grim said as he tried to walk forward, only to be met with quite a bit of water resistance. "Geez, I didn't think just walkin' would be so hard!"

After taking a moment to figure out how walking underwater was supposed to work and figuring out how to maneuver slightly faster than a slug, the group finally reached the Atlantica Memorial Museum. It was a large, imposing building that resembled more of a castle than any museum any of them had ever seen.

"So that's it, huh?" Deuce asked.

Ace nodded. "Yep. The Atlantica Memorial Museum."

"Okay, I know this place is supposed to be a big tourist draw," Devon said as she looked at what where possibly long elaborate hallways held up on massive pillars that twisted all around the main museum building, "but did they really need to make it so extra? Even the tallest buildings in New York City don't have all this goin' on."

"Check it out!" Grim said excitedly as he gestured toward the museum entrance where two honest to goodness mermen were patrolling. "Those guys really have fish tails instead of legs!"

"Wow…," Jack muttered, amazed. "I've read about merfolk before but it's still really hard to wrap my head around the fact that there are people actually living under the sea."

Before they could make their way to the entrance, two long dark shadows passed over them ominously, blocking out the sunlight as whatever was making them hovered above them.

"Eeeyyy~! There's our favorite Lil' Shrimpy!" called an all-too familiar voice from above them. "And you brought the rest of the squad too, huh?"

"Good morning, everyone," greeted another equally familiar (and dread) voice from above them. "How are you all enjoying the world under the sea?"

"Those voices… Don't tell me…," Grim muttered before risking a glance up. "I knew it! It's those shady twins!"

"Got it in one!" Floyd replied as he and Jade swam down in front of the group, causing everyone's expressions to twist into varying degrees of shock as they got a good look at the pair.

Jade and Floyd's hair and eyes looked the same as they always did but their skin-scales?-were now a bluish-green color that nearly matched their hair and that faded into white closer to their stomachs. They now had fins on the backs of their forearms and in place of their ears, claws and webbed fingers, and darker green markings that extended from their faces and torsos almost to their hips. Their legs were gone as well and were replaced by long, powerful-looking tails.

"What's going on?! Why do you look like that?!" Jack demanded.

"Why're you freaking out so much, Sea Urchin? This is how we normally look," Floyd replied, rubbing the back of his head with an almost bored expression. He gave them a teasing smile as he swam closer. "We are merfolk, after all."

"Are you serious?!" Devon exclaimed, looking at their tails.

Jade chuckled at her confusion, moving his tail in front of him as if to let her get a better look. "We use special potions to give ourselves legs while we're at school. We can't exactly walk on these tail fins, after all."

"This cannot be real!" Ace exclaimed, still in disbelief. "Just how tall-I mean, how long are you guys?!"

"Are you two some sort of sea serpent?" Deuce asked.

"Nope. Moray eels, actually," Floyd replied with a smile.

"Who cares what you are! I wanna know why you're here!" Grim demanded.

Floyd laughed. "Aha ha! Uh, to get in your way, obviously."

"Yep, that checks out," Ace grumbled.

"We can't have you completing your task too easily now, can we?" Jade asked mockingly.

"So, what? You're gonna try to fight us or something?" Devon asked. "Is that the best idea you could come up with?"

"Why're ya askin', Shrimpy~? You wanna be first? Sounds good to me~!" Floyd retorted. He rushed toward her with frightening speed, his serrated teeth on full display as he moved effortlessly through the water. "I've been wantin' a chance to squeeze you since the day we met!"

Devon reflexively reached for her staff as Floyd charged her, seriously regretting not coming up with some sort of plan before they'd left; she should've known Azul wasn't going to make this easy for them. She pointed the top of the staff toward the twins, hoping she'd be able to communicate the one idea she was able to come up with to the Wisps clearly enough through the staff's magic. As she'd expected, Zephyr reacted quickly and used their wind magic to create a miniature twisted on the ocean floor, kicking up sand and small shells and rocks and moving them toward the two eel-mers, temporarily blinding them while stopping Floyd in his tracks.

"Nice thinkin', henchman!" Grim praised. "That oughta slow 'em down!"

"But what do we do now?" Jack asked. "We can barely move underwater and three of us," He nodded toward Ace, Deuce, and Grim, "signed away their most powerful magic."

A yellow light lit up the top of Devon's staff, causing Devon to frantically shake her head. "No way, Raio! We are not using lightning magic underwater!" She took a deep breath to steady herself before turning to her friends. "I think I have an idea. Follow my lead, boys."

"You're playin' dirty, Shrimpy~!" Floyd sing-songed as Zephyr's twister began to clear. "I hope you're ready for what's comin' to ya!"

Floyd and Jade readied themselves to charge at Devon again, only to be met by a few dozen of her smirking back at them, courtesy of Mirage. Not only that, but there were now dozen of copies of Grim, Ace, Deuce, and Jack as well, all of them milling about and making it impossible to determine which were the real ones.

"I'll take you on any day, you overgrown sardine. Just as soon as you find the real me," all the Devon clones replied simultaneously.

Oh my. Well this certainly unexpected," Jade commented, looking almost impressed. "This is the work of your Illusion Wisp, I take it? They created quite a display during Halloween Week, so a trick like this is probably child's play for them."

"If we can't tell who the real ones are, I guess I'll just have to squeeze all of 'em!" Floyd said excitedly as he prepared to rush them again. "Ready or not, here I come!"

"I'd like to see you try!" the Deuce clones shouted as they mirrored the original and raised their magical pens. "Come forth, ice!"

Several shards of ice flew out of the real Deuce's magical pen with Zephyr using wind magic to space them out so it wasn't immediately obvious which Deuce was the original. Floyd merely gave them his usual lazy smile, a faint glow emanating from his gold-colored eye as the ice missed both him and Jade.

"Did you really think that ice was gonna hit me?" Floyd taunted.

"Seriously, Deuce?!" Ace shouted. "Try actually hitting one of them next time!" He fired off an ice blast of his own and the shards began hurtling toward Jade…only to suddenly change direction and miss altogether.

"Heh. And where exactly are you aiming those blasts?" Jade asked with a mocking smirk on his face.

"I don't see you doin' any better over there, Ace!" Deuce yelled back.

"No way!" Ace exclaimed incredulously. "That was a clean shot! There's no way I could've missed!"

"You two're hopeless," Jack grumbled. "Step aside. I'll handle this!" He fired off a blast of wind magic only for it to miss its mark as well. "What the-?! My spell swerved off-course just before it hit them!" His eyes widened in realization. "I see what's goin' on here…"

"Nice to see that at least one of ya is payin' attention! Good goin', Sea Urchin!" Floyd praised, condescension evident in his tone.

"I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that a land predator has such a keen eye," Jade agreed.

"I'm guessin' you all wanna know why none of your spells are workin' right, huh? Well I'm a nice guy so I'll let you in on a little secret," Floyd said. "I've got this real nifty Unique Magic called Bind The Heart, y'see? And it redirects your magic to ensure it never hits its mark! Pretty cool, right~?"

"If by "cool", you mean a complete and total cheat move!" Grim shouted.

Jade sighed and sent an exasperated look toward his twin. "Floyd. We've talked about this. You really shouldn't divulge the ins and outs of your Unique Mage to others."

"What does it matter?" Floyd huffed, crossing his arms and looking back at Jade. "It's not like knowing how it works is gonna help 'em any."

"Fair enough, I suppose," Jade conceded. "I'm glad to see your magic is working properly for you today, though I do wish you could be a bit more consistent with it. It won't work at all if you're in a bad mood, which tends to complicate things for us."

"Maybe, but we don't need any fancy plans to put a stop to that Wisp's little trick," Floyd replied. He whipped his tail out with frightening speed and barreled it right into the army of clones, causing the ones he hit to disappear on contact.

'Mierda,' Devon thought as she watched helplessly. Thankfully none of the originals had been hit, but one more swipe of either of the twins' tails would be enough to dispel the rest of the illusion clones and send all of them flying.

Floyd's face twisted into a sadistic smile, thoroughly enjoying the looks of dawning horror on all of their faces. "Better hurry away from here, kiddos! If I catch you, I'm gonna wring you out like a dirty dishrag~!" His gaze landed on Devon, causing her to freeze, unsure if he knew he was looking at the real one or not. "Wanna be first, Lil' Shrimpy?"

"This is just a game to them!" Jack said. "We'll be hung out to dry if we don't get outta here!"

"You're right," Devon agreed. "Stickin' around won't do us any good." She looked over at Ace, Deuce, and Grim. "Let's retreat for now, guys. We need a new plan."

"Ya don't have to tell us twice!" Ace replied as Mirage released the illusion and the rest of the clones disappeared with a 'poof'.

"Aha ha! Come back as many times as you want. It won't make a difference!" Floyd called after them as they swam away. "There's no way you can hope to outswim merfolk with those sorry legs of yours!"

"We'll be eagerly awaiting your next visit," Jade added.

"Mmmgh… Ugh, I hate this!" Grim shouted before turning back to face the twins. "I won't forget this, you hear me?!"

Once they were safely back in the Mirror Chamber and Azul's potion had worn off, the group took a moment to catch their breath.

"Is everyone okay?" Deuce asked in between pants.

"I think so…," Ace replied.

"I wasn't expect those two to be actual mermen," Jack said.

"Yeah. Swerve," Devon agreed.

"I ain't never seen anything swim that fast before," Grim commented. "If we'd stuck around any longer, it might have turned into a feeding frenzy."

"Well duh," Ace replied. "Merfolk are literally in their element underwater."

"But we gotta find some way to get that picture Azul wants," Grim said. "And we need to do it quick or they're gonna take Ramshackle for good…"

"We need to rework our plan here," Deuce reasoned.

"Rework nothin'; we didn't have a plan to begin with besides 'Go to museum, get picture, leave'," Devon pointed out.

"True," Ace agreed. "We should've figured Azul would have some curveballs to throw at us. I think Deuce and I should head back to the dorm and talk to Cater. He likes to think of himself as the eyes and ears of the campus, so maybe he's got some input to offer us."

"Good call." Jack nodded and nudged Devon with his shoulder. "And it'd probably be smart for us to head back to Savanaclaw and see if Ruggie and the others have any useful information to share."

"Right," Devon agreed before clapping her hands together. "Team break!"

Ending Notes: I have a feeling that once Devon calms down and has a chance to think over what just happened, her first thought is gonna be, "Did those two have six-packs?!" From then on, it'll just be head empty, only eel abs.

I'm thinking this next chapter might be a good time to check back in at Ramshackle. Regina seemed pretty upset when the Leech twins-and Octavinelle, by extension- booted Devon and Grim out and they aren't exactly a forgiving Wisp.

Thank you all so much for reading! As always, feedback and constructive criticism are welcome. Geekinthepink, out!