10
With a sigh, john sprinted to catch up with Sherlock who was already halfway down the stairs. By the time john caught up with him, Sherlock was flagging for a taxi. The duo got into the taxi and it sped off towards the HMS Belfast, following Sherlock's stern commands.
They arrived at the great warship to find the area in lockdown. "I see Lestrade beat us here then" john remarked as they got out of the taxi.
"Yup, causing an unnecessary fuss as usual" Sherlock replied as they navigated their way through the crowd of camera men, news presenters, journalists and concerned citizens. Sherlock began to run towards the bank of the river, but was stopped in his tracks by a beefy, hairless man in a reflective yellow vest.
"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't let you past this point" the man said in a loud, deep voice.
"Scotland yard" Sherlock said flourishing lestrade's ID.
"Oh I'm sorry, go ahead gentlemen" he said pointing towards the steps that lead on to the ship. Sherlock and john ran up the steps and onto the top deck of the Belfast.
The deck was deathly silent as if the ship was in a huge bubble, blocked from the outside world. Suddenly the horn of the ship went off at a deafening volume, popping the sound bubble and the strong Irish accent of Jim moriarty boomed out over the intercom. " this is your captain speaking, we thank you for choosing Moriarty river ways and hope you enjoy your trip" with a childish giggle the intercom shut off and the great ship lurched forward violently throwing Sherlock and John into the railing forcing them to hold on.
"John we're moving!" Sherlock yelled over the sound of rushing water and grinding engines.
"Really, I hadn't noticed" john yelled back sarcastically "of course it's moving, you idiot."
Sherlock looked down for a moment at the lapping waves of the river Thames, created by the sudden movement of the Belfast, before leaving his spot and racing up towards the captain's quarters to confront his arch nemesis.
Sherlock threw the door open, the ancient metal creaking under the pressure and walked slowly in to the seemingly empty bridge of the ship. "Where's moriarty?" john said quietly, afraid that talking too loud would awaken something evil.
A loud wolf whistle came from the corner of the room. Both Sherlock and john whipped their heads in the direction of the sound to find moriarty sitting in a large leather captain's seat, wearing a captain's hat and uniform. "Honey forget the crown, I look even more dashing in a captain's hat." Both Sherlock and john stood motionless for a moment before Sherlock began to take a step forward. "DON'T MOVE!" moriarty yelled, his anger getting the better of him " I have a ship, I've got you two trapped and there's no one to come and help you, I think I've finally won, don't you?" he said with a giggle. Sherlock looked over at John but the gaze was not returned as John was staring disbelievingly at moriarty. "Now if you don't mind, I really must go" Moriarty said and without another word he leapt out of the open window onto the deck below.
John began to say something along the lines of "stop him" but was too late as Sherlock had already gone through the window after his nemesis, leaving John behind and motionless for a moment.
When John finally emerged on the Ship's main deck after taking the more conventional stairs rather than jumping through the window, he found Sherlock and Moriarty stood absolutely still, staring silently at each other. "What the hell are you doing?" john asked angrily, scowling at Sherlock "arrest him!"
"No, no, John you don't understand, Sherlock can't move." Moriarty said, a smile growing on his face. "If he moves I will blow up that lovely little University along with all it's lovely little students." As he said this he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his mobile phone "one press of this button and BOOM! bye bye students!" As he said all this he began to move backwards towards a display case containing pieces of old naval equipment, when he reached it he pulled a fire axe off of the wall of the ship and plunged it down onto the glass top, shattering the glass and starting an ear shattering wail of an alarm bouncing over the ship. He grabbed the most prominent items in the case, two eighteenth century cutlasses. "A fight to the death, you win and the students live and I die, however if I win BOOM! The university goes up in smoke."
Sherlock stepped forward "you're on."
"Sherlock, NO!" John shouted, but to no prevail as both of them ignored him.
Moriarty threw his phone at John and his eyes widened as he reached out to catch the phone making sure not to thumb any of the buttons. " be careful with that" he said "we don't want any unnecessary… accidents" he continued thoughtfully, he then tossed one of the cutlasses at Sherlock, who plucked it out of the air as it sailed down towards his chest.
For a moment there was silence as both of them slowly moved around, not taking their eyes off of each other, and then Sherlock stepped forward suddenly jabbing his sword in towards Moriarty's stomach, but moriarty was too quick he stepped back and returned the jab making Sherlock jump to the side, the sword barely missing the open flesh of his neck. Moriarty quickly made another move hardly giving Sherlock time to breath but was met in mid-air by Sherlock's sword making a clanging sound that rung across the deck of the ship and making sparks fly from the clashing steel.
Moriarty ran off towards the top deck with Sherlock giving chase, his coat tails flapping behind him like a cape.
When Sherlock arrived on the deck of the ship, Moriarty was standing on the edge, brandishing his sword, causing it to glint in the sunlight. "How about it then Holmes?" he yelled "come on up here, first to fall loses." He paused for a moment before adding "and most probably dies." Sherlock clambered up onto the edge of the deck, swaying for a moment before gaining his balance.
"why are you doing this Moriarty?" Sherlock growled.
"FUN!" Moriarty yelled in reply before he wobbled towards him, laughing, with his sword in front. Sherlock blocked at the last minute as the blade came down towards his chest, swinging the blades together towards the side of the ship, nearly falling over the edge.
John clambered up the ladder up onto the deck, just as Sherlock swiped his leg, kicking Moriarty's from under him, sending him spiralling into the churning water of the river Thames. He ran over to Sherlock, extending his hand to help him back onto the deck and away from danger of the swaying ship's edge. "You did it!" John said, a smile stretching across his face.
"yes, I did, I would have thought that would be obvious, John." Sherlock replied without so much as a smile. "have you got the phone still?"
"yes of course." John said, taking the slim phone from his coat pocket.
"we need to get that to Bomb disposal so that they can trace the location of the bomb and get rid of it, we don't know what else Moriarty had planned so we need to get rid of it as soon as possible." Sherlock said as he walked off towards the wheel of the ship, moving it into moor at the bank of the river.
As the duo stepped onto the bank of the thames they were swarmed by police officers and paramedics. One of which was D.I Lestrade. "Lestrade give this to bomb disposal, and I suggest you don't press anything because it will trigger a rather large explosion." Sherlock said as he tossed the mobile phone at Lestrade. Without another word he walked off, leaving Lestrade standing amongst the crowd clutching the phone and speechless.
EPILOGUE
On the other side of the river, a heavy wind whipped up around a sopping wet Moriarty as a jet black helicopter descended down in front of him, masked by the darkness of the late evening. As the runners hit the dry Grass, the door slid open and he climbed inside, shutting the door behind him and belting himself into the passenger seat. "where to now sir?" the pilot asked turning to look at him.
"well Ms Ryder, I think a trip to the tower of London is so very long overdue." The Aircraft lifted up from the ground to the sound of Moriarty's laughter.