Into the World of Twisted Wonderland

🐙The Merchant from the Depths🐙 Chapter 28

Back in front of the museum, Ace continued to talk to the guard. "...And I just loved that story my Grandma read me about a human prince and a mermaid princess."

"They made a movie out of that, you know. I saw it with my girlfriend when I was younger! That was just about thirty years ago. No matter how many times I see it, that scene of the princess hugging her father gets me every time," the guard excitedly says.

"I know, right?!" Ace exclaims. "That's, like, THE scene!"

"I'm surprised a kid your age has even watched it."

"Oh, my brother's a huge movie buff. That flick's top-tier. Soundtrack's legendary, too. Oh yeah, speaking of which- is it true that all merfolk are good singers?"

"Oh, far from it. That's old urban legend. One of my own classmates is so tone-deaf, their singing is like nails on a rockboard."

"Ace is still goin' strong!" Grim says dumbfoundedly as the group watches Ace converse with the guard.

"I'm impressed he can carry on a conversation with a complete stranger for long," Deuce says.

"I couldn't do it..." Angel sighs.

"We got what we came for. We need to go, pronto," Jack speaks, reminding the four about the plan. The group only swim back to their hiding spot in front of the museum, in which Ace notices the group, figuring out that they got the photo.

"Ah, look at the time. I think I'd better get going," he says to the merman.

"Aw, are you sure?" The merman asks. "Seeing as you're such a big merfolk fan and all, I wouldn't mind giving you a little sneak peek at the museum while it's closed."

"Nah. That'd be cheating and cheaters never prosper. I'll be sure to check the museum hours before I mosey down here again. Later, man!" Ace says as he swims away from the merman, rejoining the group.

"Feel free to come back anytime!" The merman happily yells to Ace as he swims away. "It's not every day you meet a nice young fellow like that," he happily says as he continues his guard duty, happy at the conversation he had.

Once Ace rejoined the group he sighed. "So, how'd it go on your end?" He asked the group.

"Photo acquired!" Grim says with a smirk. "Myeh heh heh. Couldn't have been easier."

"Great. Let's head back to campus, then," Ace says.

"Right. I can't wait to shove this picture right in Azul's smug face," Deuce says with a smile.

Jack ear's twitch and he turns around, seeing two familiar long shadows. "Wait," he tells the group and the group could only look at his direction.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Angel says as that feeling turned out to be true, seeing that Floyd and Jade appeared in front of the group.

"Theeeere you are, Little Jellyfishy," Floyd smiles at the group.

"Greetings, everyone. I see you've already forgotten your previous lesson and decided to try your luck in the deep again," Jade says with a smile.

"It's the moray brothers!" Jack glares at them.

Jade look at Angel's hand, seeing that she was holding a piece of paper. "You appear to have gotten ahold of the photo," Jade states.

"Nice, niiiice! That's real smooth," Floyd smiles at her. "But we wouldn't want you bringing it back so soon. Why don't we play a game of tag until sunset?"

"Typical. I knew we wouldn't make it home without a fight," Ace states, putting his hand on his hips as he stare at the twins. "Lemme guess: your plan is to stall us in the water until sunset, then beat us up and snatch the goods. Then you'd get the photo AND you wouldn't have to take these anemones off."

"Heh heh heh..." Jade chuckles and smirks at the group. "Using minimal labor to achieve maximum profit is just good business sense."

"Wh-You guys really are crooked to the core!" Jack angrily exclaims.

"Well, Angel? What's your call?" Ace asks.

"Knowing you, there's no way you came this far without accounting for them," Deuce says.

"Hold onto the photo and play keep-away for a while," Angel tells the three and give Jack the photo. "Just focus on keeping the photo safe for now!"

"Okay. Simple enough," Deuce smirks. "I don't know how long I'll last without my magic, but..."

"We've come this far. We don't have any other choice!" Jack exclaims and the boys only nod, heading towards the twins. The twins look amused by the action, knowing that it was useless for them to attack them as they only swim around the three, making swipes to get the photo. The swipes only fail since Ace and Deuce shot spells at them, making them stop to avoid being hit and using the distraction to give the photo to Ace. Once the twins recollected themselves, they went after Jack, still believing that he got the photo, sending an ice spell his way, only for it to nick Jack and make him unclench his fist, seeing that the photo wasn't even in his possession. The twins look around, hoping to find the photo, when Ace whistles, getting their attention as he waves the photo with a smirk. The twins only go after Ace, and Ace attempted to swim away from the twins, only to run into Deuce where they made a quick exchange without the twins noticing, and the twins keep chasing after Ace. Once they caught up to Ace, they grabbed him, hoping to finally get the photo, only for Ace to show his hands with a smile, making the twins a bit peeved at the action, seeing that their target wasn't there.

"Ugh...This is gettin' a bit annoying..." Floyd says as he looks around, trying to figure out who has the photo.

"Hm...It is quite troublesome," Jade says as he looks around the three, figuring out who has the photo.

Floyd's eye caught the action of a familiar white-haired girl, swimming away from the action, trying not to get caught up in the action and he smirks and head towards her, making the boys shocked. While Angel was trying to get away from the action, she felt something grab her leg and she yelps, seeing the Floyd was holding her from behind, holding her wrists as she struggles to get away from him. "Aw Little Jellyfishy wants to leave the party? We can't have that. How about we make you back into a jellyfishy instead?" He says as he unpin her hair, making it fall out of it's bind, blinding Floyd as he didn't expect the hair to explode in his face.

"Angel, duck!" Jack yells out and she could only comply as soon as she ducked, a spell hit Floyd, making him let go of Angel and stagger back, leaving Angel time to swim away from him and join the group, the guys making sure she was alright after dealing with Floyd.

Jade joins Floyd, making sure he's fine and Floyd only shake its off, watching the five. "Now I'm getting' angry. I'm gonna squeeze you all when I getcha!" He says angrily and the five could only disperse, still trying to get the photo away from the twins. The plan is going well. I just need to buy just a little more time!