The Flood that Brought Trouble:Part Four

     Spike, Yan, Kon, Keen, Lazir, Ursula, and Julian all looked over to see where Kimmy was pointing and could see movement in the water as a pair of bone horns broke the water tension. “Kon, push us away now!” Julian shouted.

      Kon started to prepare the spell but was not as fast as the unknown swimmer. The thing in the water started to come out of the water more to reveal the head of a mutant Acara. “Guys, what’s wrong?” the voice asked.

      Kon stopped preparing the spell as everyone gave the mutant Acara a strange look. Lazir ran up to the front of the boat and shouted, “Harmony?! What happened?!”

      Harmony swam over to the boat and had Lazir help her into it. She shook the water off of her and asked, “What do you mean?”

      “He means that you’re a mutant and last I checked, you were a blue Acara,” Julian explained.

      Harmony looked at her paws and noticed she had claws with dark blue flames around them. She felt her head and instead of feeling her normal, squishy horns felt bone horns, rough as they curled around her head. “This...is a development,” Harmony said in slight confusion and slight happiness.

      Kimmy looked over at Yan and said, “Maybe the water being contaminated has something to do with why Harmony is now a mutant.”

      “Kimmy, I think you’re right! But that means…” Kon trailed off before a majority of the crew crowded around the middle of the boat.

      “That means if we become submerged, we’ll transform into some random color,” Julian said as he grabbed as much of his green body as possible.

      “Ursula, why didn’t you transform?” Spike asked as he grabbed Kon.

      “I wasn’t technically touching the water but since I wasn’t touching the water, I wasn’t able to see through the murkiness. I’m more useful with you guys at this point.” With the exception of Keen on the mast, everyone was crowded as far away from the water as possible.

      “Wait, what about Team A? All of them went into the water and haven’t surfaced yet,” Kimmy pointed out.

      “Harmony, you’ve already transformed, you might as well get back in and check where everyone is,” Spike suggested.

      “No way! I’ve always wanted to look this cool.” Julian rolled his eyes at Harmony while she still was examining her new body.

      “Why don’t one of us who’s basic just jump in? Who cares if we change, it’ll be an improvement, to be honest,” Lazir suggested.

      “By all means, Lazir the YELLOW KACHEEK, jump in!” Kimmy suggested.

      “No, you!” Lazir and Kimmy started to bicker back and forth until the flutter of wings was heard by the boat. Everyone looked up and saw a giant Royal Elephante fly over to the boat.

      “Aren! Tell us you have some good news,” Spike cheered.

      “Arenesia, where’s your team?” Kon asked, skeptical as to why Arenesia was by herself.

      “Who’s the mutant Acara?” Aren asked, pointing to Harmony.

      “Aren, it’s me, Harmony! The water might be contaminated and be causing color changes!” Harmony shouted in joy.

      “So...did you want that color? Did you choose that?” Aren asked, becoming increasingly more curious about Harmony’s color change. Julian’s ear twitched and swished his green tail as he moved closer to Aren.

      “Aren, if you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, you shouldn’t do it. You have no idea what’s going to happen,” Julian said, trying to change Aren’s train of thought.

      “I mean, I did want to be a mutant one day. Maybe the color changes are based off of what you like the most,” Harmony suggested. Aren’s eyes lit up with excitement as she suddenly dive bombed into the water.

      “Aren, no!” Julian tried to grab Aren but Julian was almost half Aren’s size and it was increasingly clear that a Kyrii would not be able to stop an Elephante from doing a cannonball into the water. The water splashed and created big waves, big enough to cause the boat to almost tip over. Everyone grabbed the mast as it swayed with the boat.

      The boat became balanced after a few second and Julian and Kon went to the side of the ship to find Aren but the water was too murky to see past a couple of feet down. “Can someone who weighs as much as her even swim?” Spike asked as he stayed in the middle of the ship.

      “Someone should jump after her, make sure she’s ok,” Kimmy suggested.

      “Yes, someone with a basic color, Kimmy the BLUE KOUGRA,” Lazir said, starting another argument. While both of them were arguing, the water started to ripple. A brown blob started to surface and Kon and Julian jumped away from the edge of the ship to see a Chocolate Elephante with royal girl clothing pop out of the water, making more waves and making the ship rock again, making everyone grab the mast again.

      Aren looked over her body the same way Harmony had looked over hers. Aren pulled back her hood and felt the whipped cream and cherry on top of her head as if a new head of hair. “This is awesome! I’ve always wanted to be Chocolate.”

      “Maybe this is based off of what kind of color you have always wanted,” Kimmy said as she inched closer to the water.

      “Arenesia, why are you here? Aren’t you part of the flight team?” Kon asked as he moved towards her.

      Aren started to squeeze the water out of her dress and shoes and completely ignored Kon, as if he wasn’t even there. Kon repeated himself, slightly louder. When Aren did not respond to Kon, Spike flew up to Aren and asked, “Aren, do you know where everyone else is? We’ve been out here, trying to get around and find any clues to why Neopia’s flooded.”

      Aren rolled her eyes and explained, “We all split up and I got pair with Bonzi.”

      “So where is she?” Kon asked, getting angrier by the second with Aren but since Kon was a baby Kiko, it was easier to dismiss him as a baby having a tantrum.

      “You won’t like if I say it so I might as well not,” Aren said as she started to fly away.

      Spike grabbed her hood and yelled, “You can’t just leave! You have to tell her where she is or Hannah’s gonna be super upset with you.”

      “And what is she gonna do? Remove my color?” Aren asked sarcastically.

      “Actually, yes. Hannah would probably even throw out your royal clothing and give you a potato sack to wear. I wouldn’t put it past her,” Kon said, trying to upset Aren.

      Aren groaned and said, “Fine. If you really want to know, Bonzi is probably with a bunch of pirates right now.”

      Everyone’s jaws dropped except Keen, who’s yellow Xweetok tail started to shake with joy at the idea of pirates. “You mean she’s been kidnapped by pirates?” Kimmy asked.

      “Probably, I don’t know. I didn’t want to land on the ship, it looked dirty,” Aren explained.

      “Are we gonna have to fight pirates?!” Ursula asked nervously.

      “I hope so! Oh man, I’ve never actually fought pirates!” Keen admitted as she got down from the top of the mast, running closer to Aren to make sure she could hear all the details she could about the pirates.

      “Wait, I thought you and Lily would confront pirates all the time,” Kon said as he looked over to Keen.

      “No, we would steal and run away but I have never held a weapon before! Lily would do any of the fighting whenever it came to that,” Keen explained.

      “Why didn’t you stay with her? Why didn’t you fight back?” Spike asked as he let go of Aren’s hood.

      “Because fighting is gross and I didn’t wanna try to fight back because looking for answers is so lame! Why can’t we let the leaders take care of this? We’re just kids,” Aren complained. Even Ursula was looking at Aren in a “are you kidding” type of way for her attitude towards the situation.

      “So you’re just fine that your sister could be walking the plank right now?” Ursula asked as she floated towards Aren.

      Aren lifted her finger up to try and disprove Ursula’s point but nothing came to mind. Aren sighed and thought about her actions. “I guess I really messed up, huh?” she asked.

      “Yes!” everyone shouted.

      “Do you at least know which way the ship is? Maybe we could rescue her,” Kon suggested.

      “We get to fight pirates?!” Keen yelled.

      “I guess so. I wish I had my battle-suit for this,” Julian quietly complained. No one really noticed as everyone else was mentally preparing for a fight.

      “This is great! It’ll be great for my training and I’ll actually be able to take down a pirate or two,” Kimmy cheered, punching the air as if she was already trying to take down a bunch of pirates.

      “Alright, so here’s the plan: Spike, Aren, and I will push the boat towards the pirates. Once we get there, I’ll magically attach our boat to their ship and then, we’ll fight. Everyone ready?” Kon asked.

      “Wait, how’re we gonna fight without any real weapon?” Lazir asked.

      “You’ll see.”

     To be continued…