"...This was not exactly what I had in mind." Jaune said, clinging tightly to someone as he seemed to be...dangling below the magic carpet as it flew across the desert. The person he was clinging to was...none other than Pyrrha, who was holding onto one of the edges of the carpet. "Well your idea worked Jaune. That's what truly matters." she reassured him with a smile. "Eheh. Yeah...All it cost me was a bit of my dignity." Jaune said, feeling...some amount of reassurance.
"YOUR dignity?! How do you think I feel!?" Weiss exclaimed, being forced to squeeze in at the top with her team along with Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Not exactly an easy fit. "Stop pushing!" Donald protested. Team JNPR had been sorted out with Jaune and Pyrrha hanging onto one edge of the carpet, along with Ren and Nora holding onto another. With a bit of help from Pyrrha's semblance, they had things to hold onto that were technically on the carpet. One being Pyrrha's shield, and the other being Nora's hammer. "Weeeeee!" At least Nora and Ruby were having fun. Of course, the poor carpet seemed to be struggling to carry them all.
"You okay, Carpet?" Sora asked, unsure what else to call the living combination of fabric. In response, the tassel near him gave a trembling thumbs up showing that despite the reassurance, the mass of woven fabric was having trouble carrying all of them at once. But Carpet was determined to stay strong through the trip. Even at the expense of Jaune and Weiss's dignity.
Eventually, the sun set as they flew further into the desert, finding themselves before a collection of rocks jutting out of the sand. As Carpet descended, they all got off, giving the poor thing a much needed break as it fell 'face' first into the sand.
"Huh. Wonder why Carpet brought us here?" Goofy said, looking around the unremarkable looking area along with everyone else. Before Weiss or Donald could make any kind of complaints to this being a seeming waste of time, Goofy noticed something near the center of the rock pile. "Look! Someone's stuck in the sand!"
It appeared to be a young man, only a little older than them. He had slightly tanned skin and thick wavy locks of black hair with a tiny red phez on top of it and a purple vest with white baggy pants held up by a red sash. He struggled to get out of the pit of sinking sand that was reaching up to his belly at the moment.
"Oh no! He's sinking!" Ruby exclaimed as she and everyone else's eyes fell on the helpless young man. "Hold on! We'll get-" Before Sora could finish his statement and rush forward, Weiss grabbed his wrist and stopped him dead in his tracks.
"You little fool! That's quicksand! Rush in and you'll sink with him!" she berated Sora who looked at her with disbelief. "But we can't just do nothing!" he argued, looking back at the poor fellow. "Calm down. We'll get him out, Sora. We just need to be careful." Pyrrha gently assured him.
Unfortunately, they had little time to think of a plan. An instant after Pyrrha's attempt to calm Sora down, several Bandit Heartless appeared out of dark portals, raising their swords from the sand around all of them before emerging, themselves.
"Wak! We've got company!" Donald squawked in surprise, reacting quickly by blasting a nearby Bandit with a fire spell.
"Stay close! Don't let them pick us off!" Ruby said, switching Crescent Rose to sniper rifle mode and firing upon one that tried to rush her.
Ren reacted with lightning-fast reflexes, drawing Stormflower and firing upon any Bandits coming near him. When some did get too close, he struck them with the sickles sticking under the front of the barrels or jumped to kick off them and gain some distance. "We'll get you out! Just hold on!" he said to the sinking man, focusing on the fight.
Nora and Yang went to town, brute forcing their way through the Heartless with fist and hammer. While Weiss and Blake fought with more precision and grace, skewering and cutting down the Heartless as they popped up from the sand. Ruby covered Goofy, Jaune, and Pyrrha's three man shield wall by firing upon any Heartless they stopped dead in their tracks. All the while, Donald provided extra fire support with literal fire.
Unlike before however, no matter how many of them they didn't seem to be letting up. More and more Heartless just kept coming. For every one that fell, it felt almost as if three more took its place. Sora couldn't just leave the young man in the quicksand, so once he saw an opening, he rushed toward the man, reaching a hand out to help him. This time, Sora managed to stop his descent, giving him an opportunity to pull his other arm out of the quicksand.
But much to the group's dismay, yet another wave of Heartless began pouring in. "Gawrsh, not again!" Goofy yelled as he tried to hold off two at once. "They just keep coming!" Jaune exclaimed, struggling against a trio of Heartless, even with Pyrrha's help. Ruby was forced to leave ranged and go into melee, but even with her prodigious skills, it seemed they weren't making a dent in the numbers of Heartless. "Sora, look out!" Ruby yelled out, just in time to see a Bandit rush up behind the boy. Sora looked back, just barely managing to raise his Keyblade to stop a Bandit's vertical strike. How many of these things did Jafar have under his command?
It was then that the young man managed to pull himself out of the quicksand the rest of the way by himself. All thanks to Sora's risky, but sufficient aid. Realizing the desperation of the situation, the young man reached behind himself and procured what looked to be an ornate brass oil lamp of sorts. He took a deep breath, rubbed his hand along the surface of the lamp, and raised it up high, shouting out, "Genie! Get rid of these guys!"
From the spout of the lamp, blue smoke quickly wafted out and surrounded the young man and rose up above him, something coming out of it. A big blue shirtless, barrel-chested man with three fingers on his hands and a red sash around his waist but a smoky looking tail below it. The only other clothing he had were the golden bracelets and an earring on his right ear, which was pointed like his left one. A thin set of black hair went across his jawline with a strand of hair collected at the end of his jaw for a curled beard, similar to the strand of hair on top of his head. There was a big smile on his face as he said with elated enthusiasm, "Wish Number One, coming right up!" With a snap of his fingers, sparks of pink light flashed around the battlefield, striking the Heartless and making them burst in clouds of pink and blue smoke. And all that was left was the surprised and awed faces of Sora and his friends, followed by a collective sigh of relief.
With the danger passed, the group took the opportunity to catch their breath and introduce themselves to their new acquaintance who in turn introduced himself as Aladdin. After Sora explained why they were out here, Aladdin nodded with a smile, saying, "I see. Thanks, Sora." Sora nodded with a smile before asking, "Aladdin. What are you doing out here?" Aladdin gave a cheerful wave of his hand as he cheerily answered, pointing in the direction they came from, "Same old stuff. Hunting legendary treasure. Just paid a visit to the Cave of Wonders."
"What's that?" Jaune asked curiously. Aladdin turned to him with an equally enthusiastic grin on his face. "It's a place filled with treasure beyond your wildest dreams. At least that's what legends say. I went there myself and it's true. Just a handful of the treasure there could make you richer than the sultan." A statement which left everyone more than a little bit awed at the mere image of such treasure. Even Weiss who asked, brimming with awe and not a trace of sarcasm to be heard, "One handful?"
Nora in particular seemed quite excited at such a prospect, rubbing her hands together most eagerly. "Hohooo! Could you imagine being that rich?! I'd be able to get a whole mountain of the best pancakes and all the syrup to go with it and-" "-And plenty of much more useful things, I'd hope." Ren interjected, looking at Nora with an expression as blunt as his tone, despite the shadow of a smile teasing the edge of his lips.
"Um... okay?" Aladdin said, more than a little confused as to what Nora was talking about. Brushing that all aside, he reached to his side and showed the group the lamp from earlier. "It's also the place where I found that magic carpet. And this lamp. Legend has it that whoever holds the lamp, can summon the-"
"Please, kid! Leave the intros to a professional." The barrel chested, blue skinned genie interjected bombastically, making quite an enthusiastic display to the surprised audience of youths, ducks, and dogs. "The one and only, GENIE OF THE LAMP!" In a veritable blur of gestures, Genie continued his enthusiastic little intro. "Rrrub-a-dub-dub the lamp, and have your dearest wishes granted." He flew up beside Aladdin, gesturing to him as a shower of confetti suddenly trickled down above the young man out of nowhere. "Today's lucky winner is Aladdin! Congratulations." Genie continued, shaking the surprised yet amused Aladdin's hand.
Genies words had most definitely caught everyone's attention. "Any wish?" Donald asked curiously, only for Genie to hold a finger in front of him. "Patience, my fine feathered friend." he placated, as he continued his bombastic introduction. "Any THREE wishes!" Genie said as two doppelgangers of himself appeared at both his sides, holding up three fingers to emphasize his term. Both of which vanished one by one at his next line in a cloud of blue and pink smoke. "A-one wish, a-two wish, a-three wish! Then I make like a banana and split!" All finishing with him vanishing as well.
"Our lucky winner made his first wish!" Genie said, bringing attention back to Aladdin as he inched up beside Sora and Ruby, 'muttering', "And let me tell ya, what a doozy that wish was." before zooming away, moving back to back with a doppelganger of himself, shimmying cross armed side-to-side. with some bizarre clown-horn honks sounding from seemingly nowhere. "So he has two left!" which again, burst in a puff of smoke as Genie appeared again, holding the stream at the bottom of his waist, transforming the end of it into a microphone for him to speak into. "So, master! What will you have for wish numberrrrrr two!?" Genie asked, spinning around and gesturing to Aladdin who...suddenly had a spotlight on him.
"And I thought Nora was hyperactive." Jaune whispered to Pyrrha who couldn't help nodding with an equally wide-eyed expression. Not even Ruby's enthusiasm managed to get so close to matching Nora's, let alone surpassing it.
Aladdin hummed in thought before smiling as it clicked in his mind. "How about making me a fabulously wealthy prince?"
"Oooh! Money! Fame! Royalty! Why didn't I think of that?" Genie said before flying up into the air before appearing again at the side and bowing. then went on with all the same energy he had shown since his introduction. "Okay, you asked for it. A hundred servants and a hundred camels loaded with gold!" He pretended to dial onto a phone. "Just say the word and I'll deliver it in thirty minutes or less, or your meals free." he said before wrapping an arm around Aladdin's shoulder and smiling. "Hey, I'll even through in a cappuccino!"
The warmth Aladdin felt wasn't from the desert. It was from the genie's positivity, spreading to him and making him smile with a laugh as he said, "No thanks."
"Okay." Genie said with a shrug as he looked ready to use his magic until Aladdin spoke up.
"I think I'll put that on hold until we reach Agrabah."
"Uh, why a Prince?" Sora asked curiously.
"You see, there's this girl named Jasmine. And... well... she's smart. And fun. And.."
"Pretty?" Yang asked with a sly grin and narrow eyes.
"Beautiful!" Aladdin exclaimed, making Yang roll her eyes but still smile as he went on. "She's got these eyes that just... and her hair... and her smile?" The swooning and twitter pated behavior made most of the group grin. Ruby couldn't help but sigh dreamily at the way Aladdin was talking about Jasmine. She figured they were close, but the fact they were this close...the hopeless romantic in her came out immediately. Of course, she wasn't the only one who was dreamily sighing. "That's so romantic." Both Ruby and Pyrrha said in perfect sync. Even Weiss found his reaction adorable. "But she's a princess. And I'm..." Aladdin paused as he remembered the laws of Agrabah and how...out of his league this girl was. "Aw. She could never fall for a guy like me."
"Aladdin, that's not true! Right guys?" Sora said, turning to the others. Donald, Jaune, Ren, and Goofy seemed reluctant to answer, or just unsure about it. But everyone else, even Weiss surprisingly, gave a nod of agreement. "Exactly Aladdin. You should give yourself more credit. You seem like a real gentleman." Weiss stepped forward, giving her own two cents on the matter, saying, "Much more of a gentleman than most of the supposed princes I'd wager she gets day in and day out."
"Exactly," Yang said before standing beside him, an arm on his shoulder as a playful grin touched her face with an equally playful tone sinking into her voice as well. "Besides, you're actually a pretty handsome fellah from where I'm standing." she said, eying his exposed abs up and down, leaving Aladdin wide-eyed and stunned from the unexpected flirtation.
Blake glared and pulled Yang back with a most unamused look on her face. "Yang, could you please not? We're trying to encourage him to show Jasmine how he feels. Not steal him away from her." she lectured with a frown. "Hey, hey, don't get mad, Blake. I was just playing around, that's all." Yang said with a nervous chuckle and a wave of her hands. Which, of course, resulted in Blake crossing her arms and raising a scrutinizing eyebrow.
Suddenly Jaune's eyes widened as he noticed one outstanding detail in what Aladdin said. "Wait a second. Did you say..." "Princess?" "Jasmine?" Donald and Goofy finished for him. It was then that Sora remembered the number one reason they came out here to find Aladdin in the first place! "Oh, that's right! She's in trouble, Aladdin!" Sora exclaimed. Aladdin's face shifted immediately from flustered to horrified at the thought of Jasmine being in danger. "What!? Well come on! Let's get going!" he urged, quickly jumping on top of the Magic Carpet.
Though everyone, especially Jaune, felt a bit worried as they looked toward the animated rug. "Can we all even fit on the carpet with Aladdin joining with all of us?" Jaune questioned. They had a tough time already, but now... "Not to worry, kid. I can cover extra transportation for you, your friends, and your own lady friend as well. Free of charge." Genie reassured with a wink directed at Jaune and Pyrrha who turned almost as red as her hair at the implication of 'lady friend'. "Really?! That's great, Genie! Thanks!" Jaune thanked enthusiastically as the implication, expectedly, went right over his head. But there was no time for such things. They had to make haste back to Agrabah!