With the aid of Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian, Sora, Ruby, and their friends soon managed to get the hang of swimming. "Good job. Now, let's move on to self-defens-"
"Sebastian!" The lessons were interrupted however when Ariel pointed toward where they came from. Swimming around the corner at a threatening pace were what looked like sea creatures with long yellow tentacles hanging below transparent bulbous shapes, making it easy to see their rounded black heads that had curled antennae and yellow glowing eyes with jagged teeth in their grins. If that wasn't a sign enough they were Heartless, the emblem near the front of the dome covering their heads certainly was.
"Here, too?" Jaune said in disbelief as he reached behind him, only to sputter with surprise when Crocea Mors appeared in his hands in a flash of light. Realizing it when he did, he was surprised and looked at it along with the shield. "Whoa! When could I do this?" he asked. Pyrrha let out a noise of surprise when suddenly, her weapons, followed by Nora's and Ren's, appeared in their hands. "
Donald reached out nonchalantly as his staff materialized in his outstretched hand, followed by Goofy's shield appearing a little off the side of his shell. "I also used my magic to make it so we can call our weapons out, any time."
Ruby tried it as well and sure enough, Crescent Rose emerged in her hands. "Huh. Convenient." Weiss, Blake, and Yang followed suit, each impressed by this spell, which was very convenient indeed.
Ariel quickly swam toward a circular archway near the crevice they were all in for cover. Sebastian paddled his claws, frantically swimming past Sora as he cried out fearfully, "Class is over. Good luck!" and joined Flounder as they swam to hide inside a massive clam.
The travelers rushed to action as the Heartless raised their jagged harpoons, poised to strike. As they fought, they were surprised to see that their movements didn't seem hindered or slowed under the water. Well, all surprised except for Donald, of course. Yet another effect of his magic perhaps. "Seriously!? Even a world that's underwater!? Is there no place these Heartless can't invade?" Weiss asked with annoyance, skewering one of them through their head, destroying it.
When some of them were close together, Donald held his staff at them and shouted, "Blizzard!"
"Wait, Donald! Are you sure that's a goo-" Pyrrha's sentence never finished because not only did Donald's magic proceed, the water was fortunately not affected adversely by the sudden change in temperature in front of the duck. The spell didn't leave one big ice trail like Pyrrha expected, and struck the Heartless true, as it normally would.
With the relief that Donald's magic seemed to not follow the rules of physics as much as Pyrrha's semblance would have, as well as the confusion as to HOW it didn't, the rest of the group jumped to action cutting down the jellyfish heartless one after another. As Jaune cut down the last of the Heartless, he looked down at himself, swishing his tail and his sword. "Hey, this isn't so hard after all!" he commented, blocking one of the Nora certainly made it look so with how she spun her hammer through the ocean water like it was nothing. Then again, she was already the physically strongest person among the group so there was that too. Which one Heartless found out the hard way as it was squished up against the wall by her hammer. "Woo!" she cheered. Ruby followed her example, spinning Crescent Rose about and slicing another Heartless in half. Even the big and typically unwieldly weapons weren't hindered by the water in any way. "Wow, Donald's magic really is something." she commented, earning a puffed up chest of pride from the duck wizard. "Of course it is!"
"Look out, Donald!" Goofy yelled, suddenly rocketing through the water and intercepting an attack from a Heartless with his shield. "Focus!" Ren exclaimed, swimming gracefully as he rounded about and drove the blade of his weapons through the bulbous head of a Heartless that tried to get the drop on Donald. The tentacled duck let out a "WAK!" realizing that he let himself get caught off guard. "You okay, Donald?" Goofy asked, popping his head and flippers out of his shell. Donald let out a huff and said, "Of course I'm okay! I...I knew you'd do something to stop it." he said insistently. His response drew a chuckle from Goofy as Yang grabbed snagged the remaining Heartless by the tentacle, swung it around overhead, and threw it in Blake's direction, setting it up for Blake to expertly slice it in two.
With the Heartless dealt with, Ariel swam back out into view, eyes wide with fascination and awe. "Wow! Nice job!" she praised the group cheerfully. Ruby let out a cheerful giggle, rubbing the back of her neck as Crescent Rose and the rest of her friends' weapons vanished. "Aww, it was nothing." she said bashfully.
The Schnee heiress meanwhile chose to get things back on track when she noticed Sebastian and Flounder weren't with Ariel. "Where are your two little friends?" she asked.
"I think saw them hiding over in that there big clam." Goofy said, pointing a flipper toward the clam in question. Sora swam over and tapped it with his Keyblade. "Hey. Sebastian? Flounder? They're gone. You can come out now."
The clam opened up and the hidden friends of Ariel came out with relief and gratitude to everyone who helped fend off the threat. "Those creatures chased us here." Ariel reassured them along with Sora.
However, relief was the last thing on Sebastian's mind as he was suddenly fraught with worry and panic all over again. "Oh no! Those monsters might be heading for the palace, too!" he cried out.
Ariel's brow furrowed as she found herself agreeing with Sebastian. These dangerous creatures couldn't be allowed to swim free like this. "We'd better head back right away." she said, turning toward the exit of this aquatic cave.
Flounder gulped audibly, looking just as terrified as Sebastian, albeit in a more subdued manner. "But wh-what if we run into more on our way back?" The possibility was not one to take lightly if those creatures were going to hound them. Ariel was unsure if they'd be able to easily escape if that were the case. Taking a breath, she turned toward her new acquaintances, urging them, "I'm sorry, but we need your help. Please come to the palace with us. We can show you the way if you can keep us safe."
"Hey, no problem. We'd be happy to help out," Ruby said, boldly tapping her balled hand against her chest. A sentiment that her sister, friends, and Weiss agreed with. Their willingness to support her made Ariel smile with relief. "Okay. Then let's get going." she said, leading the way, followed by everybody else.
As they swam along, fortunately with no incident yet, Yang swam up beside Ariel and asked, "So where are we going, exactly?" The bright red haired mermaid smiled and answered, "We're going to Atlantica. The royal city of the merpeople and all the other undersea life around these parts. Hopefully my father's palace hasn't been invaded by any of those creatures, yet."
"Whoa! Your father lives at the palace of a royal city? Is he one of the royal guards there, or something?" Jaune asked in a fascinated tone. "Not...exactly." Ariel answered in an unexpectedly hesitant manner. Her reluctance drew confused looks that the group exchanged with one another. Flounder definitely understood as he placed a flipper on Ariel's arm sympathetically.
As they made their way out of the caves, Blake ever so unnervingly staring at Flounder all the while, the group almost immediately found themselves bombarded with a new batch of Heartless. "Watch out!" Pyrrha exclaimed, quickly pushing Ariel out of the way as a jagged, three pronged harpoon suddenly thrust down at her. The source was a Heartless with green, humanoid bodies but with a very deep sea nautical sort of motif. Webbed flipper-like feet, fins upon their elbows and their blimp-like heads, complete with propellers on the back of them even. And like many Heartless, their 'mouths' were opened up, revealing the telltale glowing yellow eyes. And upon their narrow torsos were the familiar heartless emblems. But the worst part was...there was A LOT of them coming at the group from nearly all sides.
"There's too many of them!" Goofy exclaimed. "Run!" Ruby exclaimed, switching Crescent Rose to firearm mode to cover the group with ranged attacks as they ran. Pyrrha, Ren, Blake, and Yang helped out...deciding not to question how Donald's magic was affecting their ammunition and deciding to just roll with it as they covered the escape of everyone else. But sure enough, there were just too many for even them to hold off themselves. "Where are these things coming from!?" Yang exclaimed in frustration. "Worry about that later! We need to cover Ariel and the others!" Blake exclaimed.
Ariel desperately looked around as they fled the Heartless, trying to guide the group the right way to Atlantica from where they were. With the rest of the group covering them, Ariel eventually rounded a corner where she and the others saw the radiant, coral adorned, aquatic city. "There it is!"
"Wow. It looks so pretty." Goofy said with wide eyes of awe as he continued swimming swiftly through the water.
"Admire the scenery later!" Donald said as he shot a fireball at one of the newly shown Heartless, somehow managing to stay around.
"Okay, ice is one thing but fire?" Weiss said as she remained close to Ariel and swiping one of the jellyfish like Heartless when it got to close.
"Think at this point you need to start a suspension of belief, Weiss. We've seen stranger things you should draw the line at." Blake said realistically as she covered their backs.
Even when they managed to take out one or two of the Heartless, they didn't seem to be going down in numbers. Together they arrived in a large round room surrounded by pillars making window-like structures all around. Somebody was sitting on what looked like a seat with a high pillar from what they could make out. That same person did something that looking like a stream of lightning heading towards them. It was a little off and went right behind them. When they saw what it hit, it was then they all realized it was the rest of the Heartless behind them. All were gone after being struck, nothing left of them besides the bubbles formed from their destroyed bodies.
"That was too close," said the man who disspoed of the monster. He seemed old, or at the very least aging, given his light grey eyebrows, long white hair connected with his thick white beard and mustache and a widow's peak hairline. His physique was broad and a little muscled. Gold gauntlets with studs were fit to his wrists and he was a merman, given his lower portion was a dark blue fish-like appendage with translucent fins. In his hands was a golden weapon looking like a spear with three prongs. "As long as I have my trident, I will not tolerate those creatures inside this palace."
"Daddy!?" Ariel exclaimed joyfully at their bearded rescuer. So at last they met her father. But going by the crown atop his head, it was clear that 'guard' was not the position he held within this castle, or even this world. Something that Jaune immediately noticed and found himself gulping at, realizing the potential blunder he made.
"Whoa...That's so cool!" Ruby squealed to herself, her eyes sparkling to the trident in his hand. It was a simple design, and yet seeing what it was capable of set off the weapon fanatic switch inside of her. Something which drew a roll of the eyes from Weiss, a bemused expression from Blake, and a smiling shake of the head from Yang.
"Oh, Ariel!" Ariel's father however didn't seem to notice or care about Ruby's admiration as he was more focused on his daughter, who cringed at his tone. A scolding tone that she'd grown all to familiar with lately. "When will you listen, it's dangerous out there!" Ariel tried to speak, yet faltered, realizing that there was no way her father would listen to her. He NEVER did when he was like this. "Strange creatures lurk outside." Ruby snapped out of her little moment of weapon admiration at Triton's words. One would have assumed he was referring to the Heartless, but she realized that Ariel's father was looking at her, Sora, and Donald when he said that. Was he...referring to them? All three of them tensed when they feared he must have suspected they weren't from this world, despite Donald's magic altering their appearance to fit in better...Maybe she was overthinking it. He had to have been referring to the Heartless, since he specifically said 'creatures'.
Thankfully for them, Sebastian decided to bring forth a grand, or at least as grand as he could, introduction of the regal, yet stern old merman. Clearing his throat, he gestured his left claw dramatically upward and announced, "Behold! You swim before the ruler of the seas! His majesty, King Triton!"
"King!?" Ruby and Pyrrha said in sync as they turned along with their teammates, Sora, Donald, and Goofy, to look at Ariel. "Wait...So if he's both a King and your father...then does that mean you're a princess?!" Weiss asked with an astounded rapid blink. "Yes. I am. One of seven, actually. I...have six sisters." Ariel said with the same air of awkward hesitation she had when first asked about it her father.
"Six? Wow. You have almost as many sisters as I-" Jaune paused, now unable to help thinking of his own family. The awed look gave way to a sullen expression as he was reminded of the tragic fate of Remnant...and likely their sisters. Pyrrha noticed this, but before she try and comfort Jaune, Triton spoke up again, addressing his daughter now.
"And who are they?" he asked, demanding to know about the strangers his daughter brought into his palace. Ariel, now much more gleeful than before, gestured to her new friends as she introduced them. "They helped us fight off those creatures."
Turning his attention to them again, Triton seemed curious and while not as firmly behaving as he just showed with Ariel, there was an almost judgmental expression and tone from him. "They don't look familiar." It made sense since they weren't from Atlantica or even the world it was in, itself. The King likely knew who was and wasn't in the domain he ruled over. "We're from an ocean very far away." Sora said as respectfully as he could...despite what he said being a lie.
"Yup. We came to find the Keyhole." Goofy added with innocent cheer. The moment he did, everyone else blanched with shocked disapproval. Especially Donald and Weiss. "You dolt!" Weiss hissed in a hushed tone. Did he forget that he wasn't supposed to talk about such things with people from other worlds!?
"The what?" Triton replied, looking...unexpectedly shocked. Almost as if he knew what Goofy was talking about.
A more curious smile overcame Ariel when she turned to the sea turtle swimming by her. "What's that?" Goofy smiled right back, unaware of the blunder he made as he cheerfully answered her. "Well, it's a-"
"There's no such thing! Certainly not here!" Triton's sudden declaration caused everyone flinch and freeze where they were before turning to him. His harsh interjection caused Ariel to feel a great deal of frustrated disappointment toward her father. Especially since he was yelling at her new friends. Goofy didn't even get a chance to explain what he was talking about, and it only made her want to know even more. "But, Daddy..."
"Ariel, not another word!" Triton yelled, interrupting his daughter. Everyone in the throne room tensed at the bellowing voice of the aquatic monarch. "You are not to leave the palace! Is that clear!?" Ariel frowned at her father, fed up with him treating her like a child yet again. Refusing to deal with his constant, stifling, overprotective attitude, she turned around and swam out of the throne room. Everyone else looked to one another, then to the scowling king, and felt that perhaps it was best they all leave too.
With the throne room vacated, Triton relaxed and leaned his right cheek into his right hand. His face turned from a glower to a regretful expression. "Perhaps I'm being too strict..." he said softly as Sebastian began to swim around the throne idly as he listened to his king. "I'm just concerned for her safety. "Of course, your majesty." Sebastian said in agreement, attempting to lessen Triton's stress as the group of strangers continued swimming out of the room. "But I must admit, now I'm quite curious about this Keyhole." It wasn't the first time that he'd heard about it.
But Triton made it clear it wasn't a subject he was going to share as he stopped Sebastian in his tracks with his hand. "That need not concern you, Sebastian." he said in a tone that clearly stated it wasn't up for discussion. Especially when they had strangers, and one familiar threat in particular around. "Have you anything to report?" Triton asked, changing the subject. "Just as you suspected your majesty, they seem to be coming from Ursula's grotto."
"I knew it!" Triton bellowed with anger at Sebastian's report. He'd clearly suspected as much, but it did little to alleviate the anger he felt at the realization that the woman in question was responsible for these creatures attacking his kingdom and family. "That sea witch is up to no good again! It appears exile from the palace has taught her nothing!" Sebastian rose back, nodding in agreement with his king. "Yes, she poses serious danger." he said, only for Triton to furiously turn to him and say, "And I told you to keep Ariel AWAY from such danger, did I not!?"
Sebastian could only shrink back in fear, feeling he was REALLY in trouble now. "Please, your majesty! I..." The king was going to be in quite a bad mood for a while, it seemed.
