So when they arrived at the cave, located in New Jersey, they discovered the text written on the cave walls disappeared. And that was their only lead in finding the king and the Mayor. After all that, Max thought it would be a good idea to inform the Queen on her husband's disappearance.
They haven't transformed in long time so swimming was kind of a new thing for them. When they transformed, Daniel was looking pale, as if he was losing his soul. They didn't put in too much interest into it, for they thought it was just the rays of light from the water. Of course, they were banned from the castle due to the event that happened in the city. They were accompanied by two guards before talking to the Queen. In a quick twist, the guards cuffed the two of them and escorted them to an underwater prison chamber. It seemed that they were held captive because they were now imposters to the kingdom. The queen swam in, her presence commanding the waters, apprehended them and threatened them saying that if they don't release the king, they will be killed. Max, with a worried expression on his face told the Queen that the King have been missing and that the only reason they came, was to report the king's disappearance. She didn't listen to them and ordered the guards to kill them immediately, but one of the guards warned her that Max and Daniel were their only lead in finding the king.
Nothing in that moment mattered to her for she said that she will raid the city until she recovers the King and nobody will be left alive if the she didn't succeed. She left the prison chamber, ordering the guards to execute Max and Daniel before sundown. They didn't look worried because they could just teleport out of the kingdom once the coast was clear. They were out of the kingdom without the guards noticing and went back to the city.
Since they were now banned from the kingdom, they had to find a way to protect the city from the Queen's raid. It wasn't going to be easy but they were ready. A conch shell was blown indicating that war between the Mermaidian kingdom and the city of New York had begun. NYPD officers had their gun ready, but Max warned them not to kill. They may be weird creatures but they are still living beings. Daniel on the other hand was getting paler by the minute but his brother was too busy to realize. The paler he got the weaker he became but that didn't stop him from fighting. The Mermaidians initiated battle from the sea since they couldn't be mobile on solid ground. Civilians at the beach side were getting harpooned while trying to flee but Max got everyone to safe ground with his speed while Daniel did range damage with his fireballs. He cleared the shore and went into battle. He summoned his animals; Blue Lightning struck them directly, while his cheetah cleared the beach of incoming projectiles. Daniel did the same thing by spawning in his Firefly to scan the city for threats. It was getting dark, which was a perfect time for the Queen to strike. She had the element of surprise, abducting some people of New York without their knowledge.
Daniel spotted the random disappearance of a civilian and alerted Max immediately. Max, knowing this, went invisible and secretly followed her back to her kingdom, carrying a group of unconscious bodies to the kingdom's oxygen chamber. Using her command over water, she enveloped them in a bubble of breathable air, preventing the ocean from claiming them. Max's animals de-spawned, leaving the beach unprotected. The Queen knew he was following him, she just wanted to make sure he follows her back to the castle. To make sure he couldn't teleport in and out of the chamber this time, he ordered a guard to seize his watch when he de-transforms in the oxygen chamber.
Daniel got too weak to the point that he went unconscious on the spot, which means the city of New York was now at the Queen's mercy. Back at the kingdom, Max indeed fell for the trap and de-transformed in the chamber but unknowing to the Queen, his wristwatch could talk and immediately alerted Max about the guard. Max, knowing this information, without delay, took out the guard sneaking behind him, teleported to the Queen, grabbed her and then teleported 50 meters up in the air. He teleported back to the kingdom's chamber, leaving the Queen to plunge back into the water, de-transformed, held the unconscious people and teleported safely back to solid ground. Peace returned to the city, the attacks over for now, but Daniel had gone missing, leaving a question that hung in the air.