"Batter UP!"
The two near-victims of the Heartless watched from behind a market stall as the orange haired maiden that came to their rescue yelled out so cheerily, swinging her hammer. The coming blow knocked the spherical Heartless into the air, spinning it forward. In the next instant, another figure suddenly leapt from the rooftops, drawing a pair of green automatic pistols with downward facing blades reminiscent of a mantis's claws. A single well placed shot was all he needed to destroy the Heartless as he landed beside his much more lively companion.
The woman and Abu watched in awe of how easily this unusual pair dispatched those monsters. The orange haired girl gave a great big toothy grin while the black haired young man gave a much more subdued but very much relieved smile.
"Nora!" "Ren!"
Their smiles turned to looks of surprise as they perked up at the familiar voices. A voice they'd recognize anywhere. Sure enough, as they turned, they saw that it as the voices of their other two teammates. "Jaune!" Ren exclaimed in an uncommonly excited tone. Even he couldn't help the euphoria that came with seeing his teammates alive and well.
"And Pyrrha!" Nora added, thrice as excited as her partner and childhood friend. Excitement which grew even more as she saw the others trailing behind Jaune and Pyrrha. "And Ruby! And Weiss! And Blake! And Yang! And... erm...three other guys!" With of course the confusion setting in the instant Sora, Donald, and Goofy came into view. Her statement made the three in question blink with surprise at her choice of words. Especially with the irrepressible energy and jubilation she said them with.
"Oh, right, sorry. Let me introduce you guys," Ruby said, realizing that introductions were once again in order. "These are our other friends. The rest of Team JNPR; Jaune's team."
"Name's Nora Valkyrie! Nice to meet ya!"
"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Lie Ren."
Suffice it to say, Sora was surprised that two people of such opposite levels of energy and even personality seemed to be such close friends. Then again, he was traveling with Donald and Goofy, Ruby and Weiss, as well as Blake and Yang. So perhaps it wasn't THAT surprising. Regardless, he smiled back at the pair and placed his hands on his hips. "I'm Sora. These guys are Donald and Goofy." Both of whom greeted the pair with a passive nod and a warm wave respectively.
"Man, we have so much to tell you guys! You wouldn't believe what's happened lately! First Pyrrha and I-" Jaune began regaling them with the series of events leading up to now, barely able to contain his excitement and relief seeing his friends and teammates together again. A display which made Pyrrha smile both with shared relief and adoration toward her team leader.
"Hello?" Putting a lid on Jaune's tale, everyone turned to the woman poking her head out from behind the stall. "I wanted to say, thank you both for saving me from that monster." Her gratitude made Nora grin and sling her hammer over her shoulder "It's what huntsmen and huntresses do, miss uhhhh..." Nora said in an ever chipper fashion, only to trail off when she realized they didn't know the name of who they just rescued.
The woman smiled at her rescuers and chose to introduce herself. "My name is Jasmine. My father is the Sultan of Agrabah."
"Salty?" Goofy asked, scratching his head in confusion. "SULTAN, Goofy." Weiss and Donald corrected with him in perfectly irritated sync. "It's a type of royal leader." Weiss added shortly after. That addendum caused Ruby to gasp with realization. "Wait... then does that mean you're a Princess!?" she asked with a childlike shine in her silver eyes.
Jasmine nodded softly as Abu listened from their hiding place, uncertain of whether he could trust these strangers or not. "Yes...But my father has been deposed by Jafar, who now controls the city." The group all looked at each other, none of them recognizing the name. "Jafar?" Ruby and Goofy asked curiously. Their lack of knowledge of the wicked vizier surprised Jasmine. "You haven't heard of him? He's the royal vizier. He's gained evil powers and seized Agrabah. He's desperately looking for something-something he calls the 'Keyhole.'" Jasmine's explanation immediately caught everyone's attention. "Then that would mean..." Ruby trailed off, realizing what sort of evil power the princess was talking about. The presence of the Heartless in this world confirmed it. "He must have been the one who brought the Heartless here." Blake finished for her, her brow furrowing with disgust. "Alright! Then we just gotta find him and break his legs!" Nora exclaimed, twirling Magnhild around and and hoising it upon her shoulder. "I don't think it's going to be that easy, Nora." Ren said, placing a hand upon her shoulder. "That's what you said about the sloth idea, Ren. But that went totally according to plan." Nora countered smugly. Ren said nothing at first, but a smile once again touched his face as he shook his head. Nora may have been a bit of an airhead, but that was one of the things he liked best about her. That along with her irrepressible enthusiasm.
"So how'd you give that snake the slip?" Yang asked Jasmine, getting things back on track. "Jafar caught me trying to escape, but he helped me." Jasmine answered, her face softening with a loving smile. Sora's brow shifted with confusion. "Who helped you?" he asked, drawing the princess out of her thoughts. "We were hiding nearby, but he left a while ago to take care of something...Oh I hope Aladdin's alright."
"Aladdin," said a sinister, almost serpentine hiss of a voice from above them. Everyone turned to the source, seeing the royal vizier in question atop one of the buildings. "Where might I find this street rat?"
The entire group turned tense as they stared up at him. "Is that him?" Pyrrha whispered to Jasmine who nodded to her with Abu perched and glaring atop the princess's right shoulder. Smiling wickedly, the red clad man continued speaking. "Jasmine. Allow me to find you more suitable company, my dear princess. These little rats won't do, you see."
"How dare you!" Weiss huffed in a tone of offended incredulity. "I'm no rat! I am a lady of class, you long faced mendicant!" Blake looked at the Schnee heiress with a dry frown. Of course, she likely shouldn't have been surprised by such ridiculous prioritization on Weiss's behalf.
"Jasmine, run!" Sora whispered to Jasmine urgently. The Princess didn't need to be told twice as she took off running as fast as her legs could carry her Abu stayed behind as she left, hopping onto Ruby's shoulder, glaring at the vizier atop the shoulder of the surprised huntress. Brushing the brief surprise off, Ruby took her scythe out, followed by everybody else readying their own weapons. Jafar's attention however was more focused upon Sora as he summoned his own weapon. "Ah. The boy who holds the key."
"Wait, you know about the Keyblade?" Ruby asked with surprise. Her statement caused Nora to look at Sora and Ruby with immense confusion. "The whatblade?" she asked with vocal confusion joined by Ren's silent confusion. Blake's eyes narrowed as she whispered, "He must be in league with Maleficent."
Instead of answering either inquiry, Jafar walked off right as a group of Heartless emerged around the companions. The Bandits, Pot Spiders and some Red Nocturnes along with Yellow Opera's. "Somebody go keep Jasmine safe!" Ruby said quickly.
"I'm on it, sis!" Yang said, taking a high leap as she unloaded a double blast from Ember Silica. In the middle of her jump, she was intercepted by a Heartless that, to her surprise, was flying at her! "What the-" Her shocked exclamation was interrupted as she was suddenly kicked back down to the ground. "Yang!" Blake called out, switching Gambol Shroud to kusarigama mode and throwing the blade a nearby wall, swinging over to aid her partner.
Everyone turned in concern as she got up before noticing a new group of Heartless. They looked similar to the Soldiers with their size and shape but they had bat-like wings and leather looking helmets with a propeller on top and goggles over their eyes. "Another new one?!" Donald exclaimed, waving his staff angrily. How many more of these "It's like some kind of flying version of those Soldier ones." Jaune said, raising his shield cautiously.
"We can worry about what it is later!" Weiss exclaimed, brandishing her own weapon and jumping to action with the aid of her glyphs. Sora, Donald, and Goofy went to work on more grounded Heartless, but there were definitely a lot of them. Thankfully, the newly reunited Team JNPR was back together and ready to even the odds. "Ren!" Jaune called out. "Got it!" The ponytailed, stoic huntsman responded immediately, using the firearm mode of Storm Flower to pick off several of the Red Nocturnes. "Nora!" "Gotcha, leader-boy!" Nora replied instantly, switching her hammer to grenade launcher mode and firing upon the Pot Spiders. Just as one was about to grab ahold of Sora, the grenades detonated, shattering the pots into tiny pieces. "Pyrrha!" "I'm on it, Jaune!" Pyrrha responded to Jaune's call by using her Semblance to snag the scimitars of the Bandits, leaving them open to Sora, Donald, and Goofy's attacks. And with them out of the way, Ruby, Blake, and Weiss were easily able to dispatch of the Yellow Operas.
Yang, angry at being intercepted so rudely, hopped to her feet as Blake reached down to help her. "Blindside me, will ya?!" she yelled out, pounding her fists together before leaping at the Air Soldiers, as Jaune dubbed them. They managed to hover just out of range of her fists as she tried to punch them. Thankfully, she had another method of reaching them. "Too afraid to come down and fight, huh? Fine!" she said smugly, switching Ember Celica to shotgun mode before firing shell after shell at the Heartless, forcing them to try and dodge, only to eventually be caught by a well aimed shell one after the other, giving Yang the opening she needed to pummel them til they burst.
Happy to see Yang was good to go, Blake used Gambol Shroud to ascend the buildings, swinging the kusarigama blade into a higher wall and using it to propel her high enough to strike the airborne Heartless while Yang turned back to aid the rest of the group with the non-airborne Heartless. One after another, the Bandits were sliced, diced, bludgeoned, shot, blasted, and incinerated until the eleven companions cleared the streets. For now at least.
With their enemies out of the way, the team of eleven was left with one pressing concern. "Come on, everyone! We have to find Jasmine!" Sora exclaimed, leading the way back into the streets. Before Sora could take more than two steps, Abu jumped off Ruby's shoulder, squeaking and chittering frantically. "Guys, wait!" Ruby called out, stopping everyone else as they were about to follow Sora. "What is it, little fellah?" she asked, leaning down to look at the monkey.
Abu pointed down a rather run down street, scampering down it as fast as he could as he gestured for his saviors with a wave. "I think he wants us to follow him." Ren deduced. "Follow a monkey?" Weiss asked incredulously. "We don't have time for that! Jasmine is in danger, as is anyone "
"What if he knows a way to help Jasmine? He was with her before we found her, after all." Blake pointed out. "And before we did, actually." Nora added, raising her index finger.
"This isn't the time for us to be messing around with monkeys!" Donald argued, agreeing with Weiss. But before anyone could argue further, Sora walked to Abu's side, eagerly saying, "Lead the way." Abu smiled and led Sora further down the street. The others looked at each other with a mutual shrug and followed after him. "It's better than staying and doing nothing." Jaune said as he and Ruby led the way, with Goofy behind the huntresses and huntsmen.
Donald and Wiess groaned in mutual irritation before following, unable to believe they were following a monkey now. Why couldn't they go some place normal for once?
In a matter of minutes, Abu led them into a debilitated home, higher than most of the other buildings. Not exactly the most impressive place in the eyes of a certain ice queen. "And the point of us coming into this hovel was what?" Weiss asked irritably as she looked displeased with her surroundings. Of course the only one more displeased was Abu who let out a frown accompanied grumble at her statement.
A faint rustling noise caught Blake's attention as her feline ears under her bow twitched "Look at that!" she called out, pointing to the source of the noise. Everyone was surprised at what it was: a carpet, moving all on its own and stretching as if desperate to pull itself free from the large piece of broken furniture pinning it down.
"Whoa!" Jaune exclaimed, only just noticing it when the carpet reached out toward him, startling him enough to make him fall on his rear. "Oh wow! Is that carpet alive?!" Nora said with a big, awed smile. "How is this possible?" Pyrrha wondered. This was one of the most bizarre things she'd seen thus far in the worlds they'd went to...so perhaps it was a good thing she and Jaune weren't at Wonderland.
"Maybe it's magic? Kinda like what Donald does?" Goofy theorized, earning a frown from his duck companion. "I can't do something like THAT with my magic, you palooka!" he berated. Not to toot his own horn, but even if he was good, he wasn't THAT good.
"Nevermind any of that. we gotta help it. It's stuck." Ruby said, rushing over to the furniture and trying to lift it off the desperate carpet. As she groaned and growled trying to push it off, Yang couldn't help giggling at her sister's attempt to make it budge. Not wanting to leave her to fend for herself, Yang walked over to help with Jaune and Sora also lending a hand. When it was free, the carpet suddenly lifted off the ground and began floating in front of them. It then gave a big, slow bow, wordlessly thanking them for their much needed assistance before going completely horizontal and floating above the ground. The tassels at the corners of its 'body' formed almost like hands as it floated barely above the ground and gestured for them to...climb on top of it?
"Um... what?" Donald squawked in confusion before seeing Abu hop on it and mirroring the carpet's gesture. Ruby let out an excited gasp when she realized what it meant. "I think it wants us to ride it!" she cheered, hopping onto the carpet, which bounced her like a trampoline. Abu on the other hand, was less enthusiastic, and ended up clinging to Ruby. Suffice it to say, it seemed that he had a bit of a poor first impression of the Magic Carpet from...whenever they met. As Ruby giggled from the carpet bouncing her, Goofy scratched his head as he looked at their new friend. "But uhhh, how do ya suppose he's gonna carry all of us?" he asked. "For once, I agree with Goofy. It's not like we can all ride on it together." Donald said, disrupting Ruby's fun with their logic. "Aww..." In the midst of her moping, Jaune looked at the Magic Carpet, wondering how they'd all be able to go with it. And then it hit him!
"Hey! I've got an idea!"