Ariel led her eleven new friends through a series of darkening passages leading to their destination. Along the way, Flounder was becoming more and more anxious as his eyes flew back and forth along the area...and occasionally at Blake who continued to eye him in a most unsettling way. "Oh no. Now I know what Ariel was talking about back at her grotto." he said, slowing down his swimming as he recognized this path.

"Hey, uhh... Ariel? Is the place we're going to, safe?" Jaune asked, getting the feeling Flounder was getting some bad flashbacks going by his sudden shift in speed. "Yeah. There's almost never anything there." Ariel reassured the group nonchalantly. "'Almost' never?" Weiss said, narrowing her eyes skeptically. That wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement for this place.

Ariel shifted herself to swim straight up and as she did, she came up over a ledge and smiled cheerfully. "There it is." she said, pointing to their destination. Everyone as everyone popped up after her, they followed her pointed finger to see several sunken ships. This nautical graveyard gave everyone an unsettling feeling. Except for Ariel who swam up to the largest one near the middle of it all without a single bit of fear. "Let's go!"

She wasn't the only one who wasn't unsettled it seemed as Ruby dashed past everyone else, speeding up to keep pace with Ariel. "Ariel, wait up! I wanna see what sort of treasures are in these ships, too!" Ruby she cheered excitedly.

"They're both certainly quirky, aren't they." Pyrrha said, finding Ariel and Ruby's behavior adorable. Weiss however sighed with exasperation at the display, muttering, "More like hazardous..."

Ren looked at Pyrrha and raised an eyebrow in reaction to her choice of words. The fact she had red hair just like Ruby and Ariel...He paused his thoughts as he turned to Nora, looking to her orange colored. "Hmm...I'm noticing a theme here." he said aloud, catching Nora's attention. "What's up, Ren?" she asked, not fully paying attention as she was rubbing her hands together eagerly, clearly thinking of what sort of treasure could have been in that shipwreck.

"Guys, slow down. We gotta stick together." Sora said, worrying for his friends as he swam after them, followed by everyone else. It didn't take long for them to catch up as they came up to a large, jagged hole in the aft of the ship. Ruby and Nora wasted no time going in, followed by their concerned teammates, leaving Ariel, Sora, Donald, and Goofy as the last ones to swim inside.

As they all entered...Ariel noticed Flounder had lagged behind, looking even more jittery than when Blake was eyeing him. "Flounder, what's wrong?" Pyrrha asked, looking out through the porthole. "I-I uhh, nothing. I just-"

Ariel poked herself out of the port hole she went into, looking at her friend with a disapproving frown. "You're not getting cold fins now, are you?" Flounder blinked at the accusation, making it clear she wasn't to far off the mark. "Who me?! No way! It's just, it uhh...It looks damp in there." His attempt at an excuse made Weiss deadpan inside of the ship. "'Damp' he says. While we're in an ocean. He's worse at lying than Sora and Jaune." she commented, earning an indignant, "Hey!" from the two boys in question.

"Yeah. Yeah, and I think I may be coming down with something." Flounder said, piling on the excuses as he runs a hand along his head. "Yeah, I got this cough." He tried to emphasize it with a heavily unconvincing cough as Ariel smirked smugly at him. She knew full well that he was making it up. But she knew just what to do to get him to follow them in. "Alright. We're going inside. You can just stay here and...watch for Heartless, or sharks." she said with a glint of mischief in her eyes, before swimming back inside after everyone else.

Flounder's initial relief was palpable as he said, "Okay. Yeah, you guys go. I'll stay and-" It was only then that the words she said after registered in his head. And his tone immediately turned to one of panic. "What!? SHARKS!? Ariel!" Flounder cried out, changing his mind immediately, attempting to dive in after her...only to get stuck in the port hole. "Ariel-Ngh! I can't-Gh! I mean...Ariel, help!" Flounder cried out, failing to dislodge himself, drawing a giggle from the mermaid as she swam back to him. "Oh Flounder." she said playfully, grabbing him by the flippers to help pull him inside.

"Ariel?" Flounder whispered, sounding as worried as he looked with Ariel tugging to pull his rotund shape through as it barely squeezed in. "Do really think there might be sharks around here?"

Unknown to anyone, the shadow that was off in the distance of the ship loomed over the back of Flounders blind spot and a good portion of the ship's side. Large. Slow. Menacing. "Flounder, don't be such a guppy." Ariel teased as she continued to pull her scared friend's fins. "I'm not a guppy..." Flounder grumbled with offense at Ariel's tease as she finally managed to squeeze him through the porthole.

"You know you could have used either the giant hole at the side like we did, right?" Yang said with a raised eyebrow and amused grin. "Or the square shaped one at the roof." Ren pointing to the large hole right above their heads. "Oh. R-Right." Flounder said, feeling foolish as everyone began looking around the inside of the ship.

"Soooo what are we looking for in a broken up, sunken ship, exactly?" Nora asked curiously, wasting no time scrounging as she popped her head out from behind some chests.

"The Keyhole. This might be a good place to find it, so let's search everywhere in this area." Sora said as he looked through each nook and cranny of every shelf.

"We're really going to search every inch of this... 'ship graveyard' until we happen to find something that's been an ordeal and a half to find in the first place?" Weiss said with mild annoyance, shoving a barrel aside as she went to elsewhere in the wreck.

Sora was about to protest but his Keyblade emerged in his hand, not of his own will. The sensation of it seemingly moving on its own came over him, like the time in Agrabah. As everyone else searched around, he chose to follow where the Keyblade was leading him. Blake noticed him out of the corner of his eye and looked at him curiously. Her ears twitched under her bow as before she could follow him, she felt almost as if a shadow cast over her from the light of the porthole. She couldn't see anything when she looked out, but she suddenly felt like they weren't alone here.

"Come on, Blake." Yang called out to the catfish, as she punnily dubbed her. The irritation toward that nickname was enough to get Blake to focus more on Yang than the warning bells going off in her head.

And as the group searched the ship, Flounder lagged behind, nervously. Though he didn't want to be eaten by a shark, that didn't make this place any less unsettling. "Uhhh, you okay Flounder?" Goofy asked, looking back at the anxious little fish. "O-Oh yeah, I'm fine. This is great. I mean, I really...love this." Goofy gave the little fish a light pat on the head with his flipper, reassuring him with a gentle, "Aww, don't worry Flounder. There's nothin' wrong with bein' scared. Right Donald?" The ducktopus beside him perked up and turned to look at Goofy with an indignant expression. "Ah, phooey! Nothing scares me!" he protested with a huff.

Flounder wasn't exactly reassured of course, as he simply kept swimming with the court wizard and captain. "Y-Yeah, I can see why. Excitement...Adventure...Danger lurking around every cor-AAAAAHHHHH!" "WAAAAAAAAAAAK!" Suddenly, Flounder and Donald let out a synchronized quack and scream of fear at the sight of the skeleton of a drowned sailor. Everybody snapped to attention as suddenly the two of them trying to get away from the bony cadaver resulted in them bumping into a weak wooden beam, tearing it down along with the ceiling above them.

The rest of the group shot up in shock at the synchronized screams, halting their search. They turned just in time to see a blur of yellow and blue zoom right toward-"ARIEL!" The poor, terrified Flounder dove right into her arms, making her fall onto her rear as she caught the poor, shivering fish. "Aww, are you okay?" she asked, genuinely concerned, though also amused at his reaction. "Yeah sure. No problem. I'm okay." he replied unconvincingly, his voice little more than a whisper.

Goofy chuckled before muttering quietly to himself. "Reminds me of when Donald and I met Aerith."

When looking to the ceiling, Sora felt his Keyblade move upward to the hole that was now created. He swam up to it and the others were curious where he was going. "Sora. Is something the matter?" Pyrrha asked in concern.

"No, nothing's wrong. But I get the feeling we're supposed to be here, after all." Sora answered as he came to another level on the ship. Blake was right behind them but stopped as her ears twitched again. She turned to another porthole where she was certain she saw a large figure of some kind swim by it. A little concerned, she swam to the porthole and looked out it. There wasn't any sign of something out of the ordinary but she had a very bad feeling, all the same.

At one end of the place the others were now at, Sora saw a big chest. His Keyblade seemed to be pointing to it. Thinking it was something important, he went towards it.

"You guys?" Blake said as she joined back up with everyone else. "I think there's something outside the ship." Everyone other than Sora turned to her, Jaune asking, "Really? What?"

Before she could answer, Blake's face went pale with horror as she looked out the window of the captain's quarters, the very thing that had been looming over the shipwreck. It was making a beeline straight for Sora! She darted past everyone else, making them look at her in confusion. That shift of focus however caused them to see what they saw and go equally pale with fear.

"Sora, watch out!" Blake cried out. His head was down so his general direction couldn't notice but the shadow now covering him made him realize the atmosphere around him changed. He looked up before feeling his body go cold. Outside the window in front of him was a massive shark, leering at him with a massive row of serrated teeth in his angry looking frown. He didn't have time to react as it opened its mouth and broke through the glass, chomping at him! But just in the nick of time, Blake grabbed his arm and pulled him back just as he almost got bitten. Everyone summoned their weapons as the shark tried biting at them more. Much to everyone's relief, it didn't seem to fit through the rest of the damaged window and swam off.

Flounder on the other hand...The instant the shark showed itself, terror overtook him as he screamed out, "SHARK! WE'RE GONNA DIE!" "Flounder, calm down!" Pyrrha urged, struggling to get the poor fish to stop screaming. Though Ariel knew getting a panicked Flounder stop doing so was nothing short of impossible.

Sora panted from the shock of the deadly serrated teeth that had just been inches away from him. Thankfully, Blake managed to get him out of the way just in time. "Th-Thanks Blake!" he gasped out as the feline faunus released his arm. "I swear, this is getting too ironic for my taste. First I'm eaten by Monstro, now I'm up against a shark." she said, clutching Gambol Shroud. "This time, you're actually correct, Blake." Weiss said, the nervousness evident in her voice. They had fought plenty of Heartless and Grimm thus far, but being face to face with a natural apex predator was still unsettling.

"Jeez...I'd always been worried about encountering a shark going to the beach with my sisters as a kid, but I didn't think that I'd actually see one this up close and personal." Jaune murmured nervously. Pyrrha quickly put a finger on his mouth to silence him, realizing that once again things about other words were being said! Thankfully he didn't say it loud enough for Ariel to hear.

Ariel instead gave a soft, "Shhh." to everyone else as she and Sora inched toward the chest. With a light tap of the Keyblade, Sora opened up the chest. Inside was...a bright, shimmering, crystaline object with a three pronged point. "Hm...It's shape reminds me of something." Sora said to himself as Ariel swam up beside him. "Yeah...It looks kind of like the tip of my father's trident." she observed, reaching forward and picking it up. "G-Great, now let's get back to the grotto, p-please." Flounder urged, his eyes darting up, down, left, right, everywhere.

"Oh! That was it!" Sora exclaimed with realization. "Ariel! I saw something shaped just like this in your grotto!" Ariel seemed to realize it it as soon as Sora did and beamed, looking to the three pronged crystal in her hands. "Oh, you're right! Maybe it'll fit in there?"

"I say it's worth a try. We've searched every other part of this ship and haven't found anything as mysterious as this." Ren advised. Yang nodded before adding her own point. "And we don't have time to inspect all the others. Ariel's dad is gonna realize she's not in the palace, sooner or later."

Unanimously agreeing, everybody swam out the ship. Before they could get very far, Blake's ears twitched again, detecting fast moving momentum at their sides. "On our right!" she exclaimed, prompting Yang to pull Ruby out of the way of the jaws of death just as they snapped down where she previously was. Right away the group broke formation and moved apart from each other as the shark from earlier rushed at the nearest member of the team.

"Nevermind Ariel's father! I'm more worried the shark that's trying to EAT US!" Weiss exclaimed as she gracefully maneuvered around the shark as it tried to snap at her.

"Take this!" Donald shouted, aiming his staff at the shark. Bolts of lightning fell down upon it and seemed to make it twinge and shudder and writhe in pain. The stunning effect didn't last too long though as it shook it off and swam back to them with the same ferocious speed. Donald let out another panicked "WAAAACK!" as he tried to swim away. Were it not for Goofy dashing in to intercept the bite with shield and shell, Donald might have been dinner.

Noticing a clear pattern in its attacks, Jaune saw an opportunity. "Nora! Blow him up when he tries to bite!" he exclaimed. Seeing what her leader had in mind, Nora smirked with a confident, "Got it! Hey Ren, distract him for me!" Ren realized the plan and nodded

Switching her Magnhild to its grenade launcher mode, she took aim at the shark as it chased Ren. A cheeky grin creased her face as she carefully lined up her shot. Eye fixed on the shark as Ren stopped in place, letting the shark approach as its razor toothed mouth opened. Nora saw her chance as she aimed where the shark was going, and taunted it in a low, gravelly, rather silly voice. "Smile, you son of a-!"

The final word of her sentence was unheard as she pulled the trigger, launching the grenade into the trajectory of the shark's mouth, prompting Ren to dive straight down as the predator suddenly got a grenade in the gob. The explosion from her weapon in its gun form and the whirring of its ammunition causing noise to go over it. Right as it was halfway towards them, the sharks mouth caught Nora's shot and blew up with a burst. Everyone looked for any sign of the shark but saw it fall down from the underwater dust cloud and hurdle its unconscious body towards the sea floor.

"Woo! Awesome Nora!" Jaune cheerfully praised the powerhouse of Team JNPR. followed by a similar, equally jovial cheer from Ruby, Sora, Ariel, and everyone else. A series of praise that made Nora put her hands on her hips ever so proudly.

Smiling as she secured their new three pronged treasure, Ariel began to lead the way, only to see Flounder swimming down toward the dazed and disoriented shark with a frown on his face. "You big bully!" he said angrily to the shark before blowing raspberries at the defeated predator. Which turned out to be a mistake as the shark managed to recover, just enough to glare at flounder, and snap its deadly jaws at the taunting fish, shutting him up immediately. Taking that opportunity, the startled Flounder swam with all his might to catch up with everyone else as they followed Ariel back to her grotto.

As they swam along, Ariel couldn't help giggling at her best friend's behavior. Especially his attempt to act brave. "Flounder, you really are a guppy." she teased, earning an indignant, "I am not!" which prompted a shared laugh from everyone else in the group. Hopefully this would be the last harrowing experience here and the Keyhole would be revealed.