Swimming Above The Sharks

Disclaimer: I'm only borrowing these two characters. Technically, they're Disney's property… which sucks. But because they're sub-canon characters, Disney wont notice if I steal them for a while…Mwa ha ha ha…!

Summary: Mallot and Grapple discover themselves stranded, accidentally marooned, and with a hell of a lot of gold. That and Mallot intelligently points out they're not cursed any more.

Notes: Watch the 'Let Them Eat Cake' deleted scene and you'll know who these guys are. Also, if that doesn't help, Grapple is the pirate who tells Will Turner to "Say goodbye!". Mallot informs Barbossa, "And it was you who sent Bootstrap to the depths!" They also grab Elizabeth on the Interceptor during the ending of the fight. Grapple restrains Will from attacking Barbossa when Elizabeth is made to walk the plank. Mallot also is the skeleton playing the fiddle beside Jacoby when Elizabeth first runs out of Barbossa's cabin and sees the cursed pirates. Grapple is the guy who catches her and swings on the rope, later getting his neck broken at the helm. And Mallot…he…umm…doesn't get much screen time. Poor Brye…

Also, I know 'Mallot' should be spelt 'Mallet', but if you look real closely, that's how it's been spelt in the movie credits.

Chapter One: Surprises

The boat came at them from nowhere, both pirates being taken completely by surprise as they were knocked backwards into the water, their bones flying everywhere, taking the scraps of clothes they wore with them. On deck, Elizabeth Swann, Joshamee Gibbs, and the assorted members of Jack Sparrow's crew from the Interceptor let out a cry of victory heard faintly by the two unfortunate pirates under water.

The ability of speech wasn't all that fantabulous, even cursed and in a skeletal state, when one was under more then six feet of water. Yet luckily, no limbs had been permanently lost, and the connection of their skeletons would take only time: time that they surely had.

A half a leg was dragged one way by an arm, practically smothered in a thick blue rag with eighteen buttons on both sides-also known as a vest. A leg limb, caught under the griffe of a ruined grapple, nudged a skull towards a spinal cord with one arm attached to it, the ribs rather intact.
Finally, the form of a human skeleton took form for one of them. Mallot straightened up, hopping awkwardly on one footless leg as he tried to attach his right arm to his shoulder. The, once he had succeeded, he went about looking for his foot. Grapple, the other pirate, stood up before realizing his arm had replaced a leg. After fixing themselves up, Grapple merely had to attach his head.

A sudden sense of foreboding shadowed the two and as Mallot slammed his tri-corn hat over his hastily re-tied bandana, Grapple put his head back on and started to crack his neck. Yet that is where the real trouble began for the two. Halfway through the crunch, they realized they were no longer skeletons.  They were choking, unable to breath, drowning. In their haste for air, they began trying to suck in breath underwater, spluttering water and making their situation worse.

Grapple reached down and snagged up his namesake weapon, not really needing to as the chains and rope held it to his belts, and made to swim in the direction of the surface. Mallot soon followed, but stopped. He turned around and made an underwater shoot to his mallet. Snagging it, he started to swim upward yet was held down by the heavy weapon. With a jerk of both his arms, the hammer swung slowly but the hideous nail sticking from it's face cut through his skin and blood poured from his arm. With a muted cry, he swam hard for the surface, his lungs hurting and arm stinging furiously with the salt water.

Grapple surfaced, and immediately gasped for air. His lungs were pained from waiting to breath for so long, yet he laughed none the less. The curse had been broken! He looked around, still grinning, trying to find where Mallot had surfaced. The pirate, he suddenly realized, had not come up for air.


Panic seizing his chest, he ducked back underneath the water, and although his eyes stung, he searched, swimming deeper for his companion. He spotted the pirate not to far from where they had left off, struggling to drag something up with him, a stream of bubbles floating in the water from his face as he could no longer hold his breath. Grapple swam and thrusting the handle of his weapon in his sash, reached Mallot in a time span for which he thought he was to late.


The pirate had gone unconscious, yet his grip upon the handle of his weapon was still tight enough no to let go. Grabbing the wrist of the suffocating freebooter, Grapple swam hard and fast for the surface. At last, he broke it and once again, gasping for air, shifted Mallot so his lolling head was above water. Trying not to sigh in relief, he instead nodded to himself a job well done and made for the rocky shores of Isle de Muerta, their only refuge until the Black Pearl was recovered.