As he ran, Sora noticed something similar to the summon gem given to him by Genie and the one he received from Leon. That made him recall how he might want to use them a bit more. Who know's if they'd come in handy. "Sora, come on!" Yang said, noticing him fall behind. Quickly picking up the item, he ran with them again and followed where Pinocchio headed. They came to more of the broken up wood that looked like damaged ships and other sea voyaging vessels.
Weiss and Blake stopped when noticing something in front of them. "That IS water, isn't it?" Blake asked, the hesitation to touch it evident in her voice.
"I certainly hope so. Otherwise... I don't want to think about it." Weiss said with immense disgust at the thought of what it could possibly be.
"Come on guys, we gotta go." Ruby said, leaping into the large body of liquid followed by the others. The black and white pair of ladies looked to each other hesitantly before sighing and joining them. Neither seemed to be enjoying the fact they had to swim through the inside of a whale's mouth because someone wasn't able to move their gummi ship aside in time.
Fortunately, they didn't need to think about it as the group came up to one of the few boats that seemed intact. More still, it had a visible light source bright enough to help them see better inside of Monstro's mouth. Even more surprising was the voice was heard above. An aged male voice that the group didn't recognize, though they did recognize that of the puppet they were following answering it.
"What have you got there, Pinocchio?"
"With this, we can get out of here, father."
"Really? With this big block? You think so?"
As the group listened in to their conversation, Sora, being the first to climb the boat saw that the block in question was a gummi block. "It's true," Sora said as he, Donald, Goofy and Ruby peered over the edge of the boat. As they climbed onto the deck of the boat, Sora asked the little boy puppet, "So, how did you end up here, Pinocchio?"
He seemed a little hesitant to answer Sora, drawing a suspicious expression from some of the others, particularly Jiminy who was especially concerned. Before anyone could answer, the other person spoke up. A a rather jolly looking light skinned man with small rectangular glasses, a white shirt with a brown and yellow decorative design upon it, a black pair of pants held up by suspenders, and a pair of gold buckled brown shoes. The man seemed early into his senior years going by his white hair and mustache, hunched posture, and wrinkled face. "Oh my. So the whale swallowed all of you too? My goodness."
"Yeah, looks like it." Sora said in a casual tone...which immediately got an angry Weiss ranting at Sora. "'Looks like it'?! That's all you have to say to our situation, Sora!? We were just eaten by a monstrous whale!" she exclaimed in disbelief. "Well, its insides seem traversable at least. So long as we stay away from the stomach, we should be fine. Right?" Jaune interjected, looking around their rather gross area. Resulting in a sigh from Weiss. She was about to argue about how that wasn't how eating and digesting worked, but she was already overwhelmed by what was happening, so she spared herself the stress.
The older man let out a soft chuckle at how lively the youngsters were. "My name is Geppetto. I'm Pinocchio's father." he said, gesturing to the wooden puppet who was apparently his son. "Son?" Sora, Ruby, and all their friends said at once, mutual confusion in their voices. "Uhh, not to offend, but I don't really see the resemblance." Nora said, looking between the two. A comment which made Ren pull her back with a shake of his head, and Geppetto chuckle. "Don't worry. I can understand that it might be strange to hear an old man calling a puppet his son. I made Pinocchio myself. He's been the most precious thing to me ever since the night he first spoke to me." The paternal fondness and affection in his voice was plain to hear as he smiled at Pinocchio. "How did he do that anyway?" Blake asked, drawing an even more fond smile to Geppetto's face. "I made a wish upon a star...And it came true. I thought I was dreaming, but...sure enough, my dear boy came to life." he said, patting Pinocchio on the head. Looking between them, Ruby once again felt that strange familiarity as when they first met Pinocchio in Traverse Town. Even the lengthening of his nose when he lied about playing Hide and Seek seemed to remind her of...
That moment of recollection...was soon marred by a pang of sadness. She couldn't bear to continue. To think of...her.
"When we got separated, I traveled all over, looking for him. Thank goodness we're together again."
Geppetto's words made Ruby lose her train of though as she turned back to him explaining. Everybody focused on the older man so much that they didn't notice Pinocchio catching sight of something. His curiosity got the better of him as he stood at the edge of the ship. By an archway of flesh and bone leading deeper to Monstro's inner parts, somebody walked into it...
"So, you seem to know Pinocchio quite well. I hope he was a good boy in my absence." Geppetto said when carrying the large gummi block his son gave him. Donald shrugged to Goofy, indifferent about the incident from Traverse Town and didn't say anything on the matter.
"Weeeell, he wasn't exactly a bad boy." Yang said with a shrug.
"At least not intentionally." Blake added frankly.
Weiss turned to the two of them, crossing her arms with a disapproving frown. "Lying is definitely a bad thing though. And often done intentionally." she lectured, making Blake and Yang look at her with deadpan expressions. She was completely missing the point of what they were trying to do.
Pyrrha fortunately had the patience to explain things in a calm and gentle manner to Weiss. "Children often fib, Weiss. It's not uncommon. They simply don't understand things as much as grown ups do."
Geppetto simply gave a chuckle at his son's friends' interactions before turning to the black cat peering out from behind a box with a meowing. He stroked its back and smiled at the gold fish in the fishbowl beside it, who seemed to smile back. "Well. We've all had quite a journey. Right Figaro?"
The cat meowed again, Ruby and Pyrrha giving small "Awww's" at how adorable the little feline was, purring and arching his back in the wake of the strokes.
"Right Cleo?" Geppetto added, speaking to the fish, who nodded and blew a bubbly kiss to him. Blake was wide eyed the moment she saw the fish, and a moment later...started drooling. Before Yang drew her out of her reverie by grabbing the feline faunus by the back of her tailcoat with a shake of her head. Blake's response; a hushed, disappointed whine.
"Right Pinocchio?" Geppetto continued again. Curiously, there was no response from the boy. "Pinocchio?" Everyone looked where they last saw the him only to see he was heading down one of the archways leading toward the depths of Monstro. "Oh dear. There he goes again." Geppetto said with a surprisingly unworried shake of his head.
"Pinocchio!?" Ruby called out, only for him to keep going deeper into the whale. Geppetto let out a sigh, shaking his head. "I warned him not to go wandering off there. He can be a naughty boy." Despite that mild bit of frustration, Geppetto couldn't help but smile. "Even so, he's very precious to me. Pinocchio is my light." His words made Sora pause for a moment. "Your...light..." Those very words made him think back to his exchange with Cloud at Olympus Coliseum.
"I'm searching too." "For your light?...Don't lose sight of it."
He found himself thinking about Cloud and Geppetto's words. And...who it was he wanted to find most of all. But his thoughts of her were interrupted when Ruby exclaimed, "Come on, everyone! Let's go bring him back!" And just as Weiss called out, "Wha-Hey! Ruby!" her team leader was already jumping clear off the boat and in the direction that the puppet boy went. With a sigh, Weiss followed suit, with Blake and Yang following behind. "Don't worry. We'll bring him back." Yang assured Geppetto as she ran after her sister. "Hey, wait for us!" Nora exclaimed, rushing forward, followed by Ren, Pyrrha, and Jaune.
What they found as they stepped through was...even more unpleasant than Monstro's mouth. "Ewww..." "Ugh..." "This is disgusting..." Such assorted comments came out of everyone as they stepped into the inner workings of Monstro. Oddly technicolored and strange looking, unlike what one might expect a whale's innards to actually look like. And while it was certainly squishy and gross, it accommodated their footsteps surprisingly well. "Pinocchio?! Where'd you go?!" Ruby called out, amazingly not concerned about the internal workings of Monstro. She was more concerned about finding Pinocchio. "Ruby, wait up!" Sora exclaimed, running after her, followed by Donald and Goofy. Everyone else brushed aside their concerns and ran after the two, with Weiss of course...doing so reluctantly.
"I need a bath after this." Weiss said while looking around for anything that was the least filthy for her to step it.
"We all will." Pyrrha said, less cheery than normal as she nearly jumped from one part of Monstro's innards. It was a bulbous shape and opened like petals of a flower before releasing a green gas that made her cough and quickly walk away.
"I just hope all the noxious fumes in here don't mess up my hair." Yang said, running her fingers through some of her lowest reaching locks.
They didn't get too far thankfully as the first area they were in was relatively small and across them was Pinocchio, leaning to another archway that no doubt went into the further organs of the whale. "What are you doing? Come on, let's go back." Sora said urgently to the boy.
"You know, Geppetto's awfully worried about you." Goofy said to him as friendly advice.
Ruby nodded, sounding the most concerned. "Yeah. You shouldn't make your family anxious, Pinocchio. Besides, you're inside a whale. You don't want to end up in his stomach or something like that."
Sora sounded more serious than any other point than what the others had seen at this point, not counting when he was ready to fight Heartless or other enemies when giving his final word. "Pinocchio, stop fooling around! This is no time for games!"
Feeling guilty, Pinocchio hung his head and walked to them. Everyone relaxed once they saw him do so and turned to leave back to where Geppetto waited for them. Right as they were reaching the archway out and Pinocchio was halfway across the room, somebody spoke up. "But, Sora, I thought you liked games."
The voice was immediately familiar and made Sora turn in surprise. Standing beside Pinocchio was Riku, smirking coyly at him with hands to his waist. "Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?"
"Riku! Wh-What are you doing here?" Sora asked as everyone turned to him, just as astonished.
"Somebody else you guys know?" Nora whispered to Jaune..
"He's one of Sora's best friends. One of the people he's been searching for." Jaune elaborated as Riku slyly replied to Sora, "Just playing with Pinocchio." His flippant response made Sora frown. "You know what I mean. What about Kairi? Did you find her?" he asked, concern lacing his voice. Though once again, Riku simply responded with a flippant shrug, saying "Maybe. Catch us, and maybe I'll tell you what I know." Sora's irritation grew with how little Riku seemed to be taking this seriously. It was like he didn't care at all. Why was he acting like this? He knew Riku had a habit of teasing him, but this was the worst possible time for that! "Come on!" But Sora's desire to know was met with Riku grabbing Pinocchio by the arm and pulling him further into the bowels of Monstro. "Pinocchio!" Ruby called out, running after them.
Before she could get much further than a few feet however, she was suddenly intercepted by something. It looked to be some kind of colorful, round headed, long tailed ghostly entity with long spindly claws, an eye hanging out from its crookedly grinning face like a broken toy. But the telltale symbol on its chest allowed them to identify it immediately. But not before the creature reared back its hands and struck Ruby in the chest, nearly knocking her off her feet as she stumbled backwards. "Heartless!" Sora yelled out, brandishing his weapon along with everyone else. "How did this happen!? Did the whale even eat Heartless?!" Weiss exclaimed, getting more frustratingly mind-boggled by the second. This whole thing made absolutely zero sense! "Worry about that later! For now, I think it's time to whale on these Heartless!" And with that poorly timed pun, Yang rushed forth to aid her sister...giving most everyone the chance to groan ever so briefly at it before joining the fray themselves.
One by one the ghostly Heartless were taken down. With so many of them together it was easy. Right as they thought they had a moment to catch their breath, more of those exact same Heartless emerged but with Yellow Opera's, one zapping Donald as he squawked in pain. "You alright?" Goofy asked in concern.
The tiny feathered friend of theirs was livid as he shot a fire spell at the one who attacked him and shouted, "Just get them!"
Smashed, cut, sliced or shot at, everyone from Remnant was attacking any of their enemies nearby and avoiding their strikes. Hovering above was a Yellow Opera who had its sights set on Nora. With a tremble and bouncing motion in the air, a bolt of lightning went right over her. Though she winced, it wasn't out of pain or even discomfort. It was more like surprise... turning to an unsettling grin. Something Sora took notice of and felt like he should almost worry about.
Faster than Sora could perceive, Nora was moving faster. Each swing of her Magnhild was stronger as evidenced by the small tremor she left on any form of solid surfaces once the Heartless before it was smashed into black smoke with only the heart it captured left before floating away. Goofy and Donald watched in awe but also mild tension as the Heartless were taken care of but by just one person. After taking care of the last one, Nora panted heavily with the same grin but blinked when realizing there were no more . "Awww. I wanted to smash them some more." she said at first looking and sounding disappointed. Her sullen behavior was gone and went right back to being bubbly when shrugging and grinning widely. "Oh well. Maybe next time."
"What was that?" Sora asked, hoping everyone else could explain.
Weiss answered when looking at him and gesturing to Nora. "You know how I have my glyphs and Yang has her ability to absorb damage then send it right back? Nora can produce and channel electrical energy into her muscles, making her physically more capable."
"So then, when that lightning Heartless struck her, all it did was make her stronger?" Sora asked. "Yup. She's solved more than a few battles just by hitting things with her hammer, so you can see why has such a blunt approach to things." Jaune explained. Hitting things with the hammer certainly served them well in the Vytal tournament. Though that reminded Sora. "So uh, what's your Semblance Ren?" he asked the stoic member of team JNPR.
Ren looked at Sora and explained in his usual stoic tone, "Tranquility." Seeing Sora's confused head tilt at her teammate's answer, Pyrrha explained it to him. "Remember in Agrabah when that Death Stalker attacked Aladdin? Ren's Semblance allows him to mask negative emotions. His own and another's if he chooses. Grimm are drawn to negative emotions, such as fear, anger, hatred, loneliness, and sadness. Thus, Ren's Semblance masks that person's presence from Grimm."
Sora paused for a moment digesting the information. Now that he thought about it, Aladdin did have a strange air about him when he stood in front of the monstrous scorpion. "Wait, so...when that thing suddenly stopped in front of Aladdin, that was Ren's Semblance making him invisible to it?" he asked, piecing it together. "Pretty much." Ren answered with a nod. As fascinated as Sora was by their unique abilities...he did seem a little bit overwhelmed. "All these different semblances of yours are kinda making my head spin." he said, shaking his head.
But there was no time for deliberating such things. "Pinocchio!?" Ruby called out, snapping Sora out of his thoughts. He then remembered, this really wasn't the time to be thinking about this stuff. "Oh, right! Why am I thinking about that now!? We've gotta find Riku and Pinocchio! Come on!" Everyone immediately snapped to action, continuing the search for the two in question.
Though they had no idea of what was spurring Sora's friend to act like this...or what his intentions were.