Into the World of Twisted Wonderland

🐙The Merchant from the Depths🐙 Chapter 32

Back underwater, a light flashes, making everyone surprised at the light as it just appeared and disappeared. "What was that flash?" Jack asked the group, looking around to find out where it came from.

"Hm...?" Ace says as he looks at Deuce, seeing that something was missing. "Hey! Deuce, your sea anemone's gone!" Ace exclaims at Deuce.

Deuce only pats his head, finding that the squishy protrusion is indeed gone. "Whoa! You're right!" He exclaims.

"So's mine! Yours too, Ace!" Grim says as he touches his head and looks at Ace. "Sweet! Leona and Ruggie pulled through!" He happily exclaims. 

"Wait. Come again?" Jade asks the group, shocked at the disappearance of the anemones.

"What's goin' on here?" Floyd asks.

"We cut a deal with Leona and Ruggie to get them in on our plan," Angel proudly says to the twins, shocking them.

"Say what?" Floyd says in disbelief. "The guy's basically a sea lion, sleepin' his days away. He'd never lift a finger to help you guys."

"I was under the impression he had no interest in creating disputes with his fellow housewarden, Azul. How did you bend him to your will?" Jade asks.

"'Bending him to my will' is such a bad way to say we just simply asked for his help," Angel sighs.

"See, Angel here made this offer..." Grim starts while everyone but Angel only looks at him. "If Leona helped us take back Ramshackle Dorm, we'd leave his room tomorrow without a fuss, but if he didn't help, we'd keep rasin' a racket outside his room all night, every night." Grim put his paws on his hips in pride. "Then we gave him a...'live demo,' I'll call it, to show how annoying it'd be. We basically yowled out lungs out until daybreak, and now we're super sleep-deprived," Grim yawns while everyone just looks at Angel, trying to hold back a yawn herself.

"Whoa..." the twins say as they listened to the explanation. The boys could only stare at the girl in shock, amazed at the explanation and their respect in her growing.

"No wonder you were so hoarse this morning, Grim," Deuce comments.

"That sounds less like a deal and more like a threat to me," Floyd states.

Jack only growls at the twins. "You know what they say: one bad turn deserves another."

"My wind magic's back, too. It's time to turn the tables here!" Ace says with a smirk.

"I summon thee, cauldron!" Deuce yells and a cauldron appears in front of him, a smile on his face. "...Sweet, it worked!"

"Myaaaah! I can't even tell if I got my fire magic back or not in all this water! That ain't fair!" Grrim exclaims to the two.

"Somehow, I think we'll manage without your parlor tricks," Ace smirk at the twins.

The twins could only look at the group. "We'd best be getting back, Floyd," Jade tells Floyd. "If the anemones are gone from their heads..."

"Yeah, I got a real bad feelin' about this," Floyd says as the two start to turn around.

"Not so fast," Deuce speaks up, glaring at the twins. "Where do you think you're going now that we're finally in fighting shape?"

"Where's the fun in turning tail now? Stick around and play with us," Ace taunts the twins.

The taunt didn't escape Floyd as he only turns around and glare at the group. "You small-fry pipsqueaks...I'll have you cryin' before you know it," he threatens as he heads towards the group.

"Floyd, ignore them!" Jade calls out, trying to get Floyd's attention, but it fails since Floyd heads towards the group. "Ugh. Too late." He says as he joins Floyd ready to fight. Floyd swims head first into the group, summoning a water spell to attack them, but Ace beat him to it, summoning a strong wind to not only throw Floyd off, but to also push him and Jade away from the group, in which Jack used that to summon spells of his own, making the twins have no choice but to dodge them to the best of their ability, with the wind causing them to be pushed back. Jade decided to sent a spell towards the group, summoning it in time for the spell to be sent towards the group, but luckily Deuce was about to knock the spell back, sending the spell back to cancel each other out. Floyd decided to call the best effort and swim against the wind magic, braving through the spell and heading towards Ace, ready to attack, but Deuce caught this and summoned a cauldron, with Floyd barely dodging it and being caught up in the wind, pushing him back along with Jade. The boys only smirk at the twins, knowing that they won't be able to catch them with their magic back.

"Nnnngh, for cryin' out loud!" Floyd exclaims angrily at the group. "These guys are getting on my nerves!"

"We need to go Floyd," Jade tells him. "I don't think we have the luxury of toying with them any longer," Jade says as he swims away.

Floyd looks back to the group, clicking his tongue. "Tch....Fine. Let's move." Floyd joins his brother and the two swim away from the group.

The group could only smile at the twins' retreat. "Yessss! They're heading for the hills! Er, do they have hills underwater?" Grim asks before shaking his head. "Whatever."

"We'd better get back to school ourselves," Jack says. "Let's shove this photo in Azul's face and spoon-feed him the bitter taste of defeat!" Jack smiles and swims towards the mirror with the group following him, however Angel lagged behind. She clutched her head as a intense pain appeared, preventing her from moving. She saw a vision, a vision of ink taking over a person in a rapid rate, and she could only scream at how intense the pain is. The scream got the boys' attention, as they only looked at Angel with concern. "Hey, Angel, what's wrong?!" Jack asks her as she could only look at the group.

Ace and Deuce had a cold feeling and knew why she was experiencing pain. "We have to get to the school!" Deuce exclaims to Jack. Ace could only try to see if she could swim with the pain in her head. She could only grunt in pain, making Ace look at her and Jack.

"Jack, we might need you to do something, here bud," Ace says to Jack, getting his attention. "You think Angel could ride on your back until we get to the school? More than likely, something bad gonna happen when we meet Azul."

Jack could only look at Ace then Angel, and scratch his head. "Fine. She's going to hold us back if she can't swim, so might as well." He heads towards her, and Ace help situate her on Jack's back, making sure he was able to swim with her on her back. Jack only grunts in surprise. "She's not that heavy," he says, making the two groan.

"We can worry about that later, let's just go!" Deuce says and everyone only nods, heading to the Dark Mirror.

A/N: I know you guys are getting tired of the ANs but I have to tell you guys something: the next two chapters are LONG (3k each!) and I feel like the next chapter is full of action. Like I tried my best to write an action scene and I feel like it worked but I'll let you guys decide! Also, today is when I start my online class (oh yay 😒) so I'll try to get that done with so I can focus on the side stories and event stories. Do know that I wrote the finale and all I have to do now is go over the next few chapters, add pictures, and make sure everything is good before posting them (might add extra stuff once the book is done 🤷🏽‍♀️). Anyway! As always, thanks for reading and you guys STILL rock! 💖 7/5/23