It seemed that Geppetto and Pinocchio's plan worked, as Monstro suddenly began to shift uncomfortably while swimming through the void. The whale heaved his head up, huffing and sniffing and groaning until suddenly, he let out a great big sneeze, sending two much smaller objects in different directions. One being Geppetto and Pinocchio's boat, the other being the Gummi Ship. It wasn't exactly conventional, or even enjoyable if the screams of the ship's tenants were anything to go by as they tumbled through space. But at the very least, they were out of the whale's belly.

When the ship finally stopped spinning and everyone stopped screaming from the high speeds they were being propelled at, they all topped to the ground off the cockpit window and on top of each other. "Whoa...That...was-" "AWESOME!" Nora interrupted Jaune's weary musing...followed by the blonde flopping down onto Pyrrha's lap out of sheer dizziness. A gesture which made the red haired huntress gasp softly and her cheeks to turn the same color as her hair. Ren shook his along with Blake, righting themselves quickly. "Thank goodness it's over." Blake mused, eager to get rid of the image of being swallowed up by a giant aquatic mammal.

Ruby however was in a worse position bobbing and weaving about along with an equally dizzy Sora and Goofy. "Whoooaaoooaaaa..." the three of them groaned before Sora nad Goofy fell down atop an incensed Donald. "HEY! Watch where you're going!" Before Ruby could follow suit, Weiss grabbed her by the arm and steadied her. "New plan. From now on, we stay away from giant creatures we don't recognize as we fly." she said with a huff. "Yeah. I really don't wanna think about that thing's stomach acid getting in my hair." Yang said, making sure her hair was alright. Suffice it to say, nobody was looking forward to seeing that whale again. There were more than enough whale related detours for this trip.

Once everybody recovered, Goofy looked out the window of the cockpit. "I sure hope Geppetto and Pinocchio are okay." he said with a worried tone. "Yeah. Hopefully they landed safely somewhere." Donald said in a tone of concern that for once actually matched Goofy's. Ruby nodded in agreement as she too said, "Same here. Right Sora?"

When she only received silence from the Keyblade Master, everyone's eyes shifted in his direction with renewed worry. They'd expected him to be rather talkative, but instead Sora sat in his seat with his head hanging, looking more depressed than they'd ever seen him before. "Sora?" Ruby called out softly, yet he didn't even look at her. His mind was on far more...troubling things.

"Riku..."

That single word was barely above a whisper but everyone heard it loud and clear. Clearly Sora was still hung up about the behavior of his friend. The two of them must have been very close indeed if he was this upset about it. Yang was the first to try cheering him up, walking over to him and giving him a pat on the back. "Sooo hey, you can apparently stop time now. That's some powerful stuff, right? I'll bet you're as powerful as Donald, now."

Turning his head around, Donald interrupted with a scoff. "No way! Not in a million years!" His attitude earned a glare from Yang who stated with annoyance, "I'm trying to cheer him up here, you dumb duck."

Despite Yang's attempts and Donald's annoyance, Sora didn't say anything. He didn't even look up at the scene Yang and Donald were making...which even made them stop and look back at him with renewed concern. Awkward silence filled the ship again before Nora perked up at the appearance of some words by the dashboard appeared, spelling out 'PUSH ME'. "Oooh. What's this do?" she asked before getting up and pushing it. "Nora-"...before Ren could even consider finishing his attempt to stop her.

The little TV screen that emerged the last time they received a call popped up again and sparked to life. And once again, upon said screen was none other than Chip and Dale, both respectively taking turns speaking to the group.

"Hey guys. Been a while."
"Yeah. Hope you've been alright."
"Anyway, we thought we'd tell you. There's a tournament being held at the coliseum."
"I hear there's a great reward for the winners."

The mention of this tournament caused Jaune smile widely, turning to Sora with a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, another tournament! How about we head there? Sounds fun, right?" he said, hoping to rouse Sora's cheerful spirits. The announcement of Chip and Dale did rouse Sora from his downtrodden state somewhat. Granted, not by much, but curiosity did make its way into his stream of depression. And the mention of a reward...well, perhaps it couldn't hurt. So with a small sigh, he said, "Sure, I guess." activated the Warp G, warping them right back to the eclectic coliseum.

The instant they landed, Nora immediately took to checking the place out with an expression of awe. "Whooaaa. Now this is cool! And I thought Agrabah was bizarre! Well, not to say it in a bad way, but holy moly! This place kinda reminds me of those pictures of ancient ruins from the textbooks professor Oobleck used to assign us, except way more awesome looking!" That and of course, unleashing a lightning fast word-salad that left Sora, Donald, and Goofy speechless, and the rest of the hunters sighing, except for Ren who simply stared at her. Donald inched closer to Ren, whispering, "Is she always like this?" To which Ren simply said, "Sometimes." And though it was subtle, the very edge of his lips seemed to curl ever so slightly upwards as his dear partner continued to ramble on.

However, they did have something to attend to. "Nora." Hearing the voice of her childhood friend, Nora stopped in her tracks and said, "Yes Ren?" in a much softer tone, followed by Red walking up to her and patting her on the shoulder. "Ready to see what this tournament is about?" His question made her light up immediately with a grin even bigger than Ruby's or Yang's. "Am I ever!? Let's go!" And with that, Nora grabbed Ren by the hand and rushed into the Coliseum. "H-Hey! Wait for us!" Sora called out, running in after them with everyone following behind.

Jaune and Pyrrha stood behind everyone else, both smiling fondly at the sight of their teammates and friends. "You know Pyrrha...There was a moment I was afraid we wouldn't find them. Now look at us. Even after everything that happened, we're all together again."Smiling to her team leader, Pyrrha felt as relieved as him then turned to the rest of their group heading into the Vestibule. "You're right, Jaune. Seeing JNPR and RWBY together, again...it warms my heart. And we've made some new friends along the way." she said, turning to look Jaune in the eyes. A gesture Jaune returned with a chipper smile. Even if their world was gone, at least they all had each other. And Jaune was certain they'd find a way to set things right.

"Hey, come on slow pokes." Goofy said from outside the doors to the coliseum and waved to the two that had yet to join them. "Coming!" Pyrrha called back with a wave of her own. She and Jaune looked at each other again with a shared nod before running after everyone else. The tournament awaited!

Within the Vestibule, Phil was dusting off the trophy Sora and his friends all won the last time they competed. Hearing their approach, he turned around with a pleasantly surprised grin. "Hey there, Junior Heroes. Got some more friends, I see." he observed, looking at Ren and Nora. "Yeah. There's supposed to be a new tournament, right? We want to compete in it with Ren and Nora on our team." Ruby asked him, looking almost as excited as Nora.

"You got it, roses," Phil said jokingly before moving to the front. "The rules of the Pegasus Cup are the same as the last one. This time with a bunch of different opponents. They're a little tougher looking than the last though, so watch out. And if you want your new friends to join up? Then decide the order this time. You might need to adjust since you got two more people in."

"Oh, right. What order should we go with?" Sora said, not realizing it until Phil pointed it out. As the group went about deciding the turn order, Blake thought back to the Grimm attacks they went through in Traverse Town and Agrabah. As she did, a very troubling thought crossed her mind. What if it wasn't just their friends who survived? Were their enemies also around? The Grimm weren't something that recurred throughout all the worlds like the Heartless as far as she knew. They'd have run into more of them after all this time if that were the case. Could this mean that...he survived Remnant's fall into darkness?

"Blake? You okay?" Yang's voice snapped Blake out of her thoughts. "Y-Yeah. I'm fine." Of course, Yang knew better than anyone that Blake wasn't very good at lying. Among the entire team, and probably everyone at Beacon apart from Sun, she was probably the one who knew the feline faunus best. But now seemed to not be the best time to press the issue as Phil announced, grabbing Yang by the hand and pulling her toward Team JDGS. "Alrighty then!" We'll pick up the order from where left off before! So looks like yer up first, sunshine." With the team and their first tag partner prepared, Phil addressed the group. "This one'll be tougher than the last cup ya competed in, so stay on yer toes, ya hear?"

"You got it, Phil." Jaune said confidently, earning a smirk from the Satyr who pat Jaune on the forearm. "That's what I like to hear, kid. Ya might just make it after all." Phil's words were a pleasant surprise to Jaune. He hadn't heard much in the way of encouragement from him in the time he and Pyrrha had been in the Coliseum. And he wasn't the only one smiling. Pyrrha placed a hand upon his shoulder and smiled proudly. Even Phil seemed to see the progress Jaune had been making. "Alright, you kids get out there and have fun!" Phil encouraged. And out they went. "OOOOH YEAH! We're gonna kick some butt!" with of course, a jovial, excited, irrepressible shout of enthusiasm by Nora.

The Pegasus Cup had begun!