Stealthily, the small band of agents crept through the forest, shielded only by the dark of night, and the tall trees. At Cybera's insistence, they wore Camouflage Bracers, a device worn on the wrist that allowed them to blend into their enviroment as to conceal their presense. Only someone elsewearing a Camouflage Bracer, and tuned to the correct frequency, could see another who was hidden in such a way.
"Must we wear these, Cybera?" Peter-F complained in a whisper. "It's making my arm itch!" Both Peters were hovering in the air, flying through the forest as the others walked the path. Kuro stalked in front, Ebony by his side.
"If you don't want to be seen, then keep it on!" she whispered back. "And keep it down! You never know when they'll zero in on the sound of your voice!"
"Awww..." Peter-D grinned. "There's no way they'll find us! These armbands of yours work like charms!"
Just at that moment, a laser blast came just a few centimeters from hitting his head. Peter-D ducked down and went very quiet. Cybera gave him a "You were saying?" look, then quickly lead them down a path where they could hide until the patrol passed by them.
When the men left the area, the girl turned her attention to the boys and glared at them.
"I'm in charge of this mission, so you have to do what I say! Especially if you want to stay alive! Understand?"
I little shaken from his encounter with the laser beam, Peter-D nodded his head. Tink-D came out from under his hat where she had been hiding and began to scold him. Cybera quickly shushed her as well.
"We need to set up camp," Tink-F told them, coming out from her hiding place under Peter-F's cape. "It will be sunrise, soon."
"She's right," Cybera said. From out of her backpack, the cybergirl produced a flat box and put it on the ground. Pressing a button on her armband caused the box to open and the tent to expand with just enough room for the group to squeeze in and bed down for the day. One-by-one, they entered the tent and settled down for a quick meal and some rest.
On the outside, the tent looked like a huge rock, having the same concealing circitry as the Camouflage Bracer. Inside, the tent was roomy enough for the boys and Cybera to get comfortable, with just a little room to spare.
"We should hit the mountains by tomorrow morning," Cybera said. She was consulting a holographic map projected by Solar the CompoJit. "There's an openning in the base about here," she pointed to a spot on the map as she spoke, "and if the map is correct, there should be a path leading through the mountain directly to the castle. With any luck, we should reach our goal by the next night. Then, it gets hard."
"'Hard'?" Tink-F repeated. "Sausepans and skillets! As if avoiding groups of men with magic energy guns and leading packs of huge dogs isn't 'hard' enough...!" Tink-D jingled her agreement.
"The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go home," Kuro said, laying down on his sleeping bag. He did not bother getting into it. Ebony walked over to him and laid down next to her "brother". Kuro absentmindedly stroked the panther's sleek, black fur.
"Homesick, Kuro?" Cybera asked.
"I can't help but wonder if those I've left behind are safe," he replied.
"Do you have any enemies in your Neverland?" Peter-F asked.
"The same kind you two have --pirates. But they aren't as organized as those you know. You see, they don't have their ship anymore; it's beached on a small island near the main island of Neverland. They live in it, but it can't sail. If they need to go anywhere, they use the smaller dingys. Their pirate flag, they have set up on a pole on the island, for they have claimed that small piece of land as their own. Why not let them have it? It has enough food and water to keep them alive."
"I don't suppose their captain has a hook for one of his hands?" Peter-D asked.
"Well...now that you mention it..." Kuro began, glancing over to his listeners before finishing his answer. "No. He doesn't. He has a trident, instead."
"A trident?" both Peters and Tinks asked in surprise.
"It's basically a three pronged fork with barbed points, like a fishhook, or an anchor," Cybera answered. Kuro nodded.
"Which he also uses to fish with," he smiled at them.
"Did you cut off his hand?" Peter-F asked.
"No. Ebony bit it off when he --Captain Jangles-- tried to attack one of the villiage children. She moves faster than I do, and when I saw the child in danger, I commanded Ebony to attack the pirate, buying me enough time to get the little girl to safety. By the time I carried her into the village, left her with her mother, and returned to Ebony and Jangles, the pirate was already retreating, his right hand in Ebony's mouth. She took it to the water's edge and threw it into the sea."
"Let me guess..." Peter-D smiled, "where it was eatten by a crocodile, who now follows Jangles around, waiting to get the rest of him. But the crocodile has a clock inside him that ticks, and that warns Jangles, and the pirate gets away."
"You got everything right but one thing," Kuro grinned. "It wasn't a crocodile. It was a shark."
"Even scarier," Cybera smiled back.
"What's even stranger," Kuro added, "the shark won't attack anyone else. I've seen it swim around a whole ocean-full of swimmers and head straight for Jangles or his island. Most of the time, it just swims around Jangles' Island, waiting for it's chance to finish off Jangles. We call it, 'Razorteeth'. 'Razor', for short."
"So much like our own Neverlands, and yet, so different, too," Peter-D observed.
"As are the Neverlands of you and Peter-F," Cybera pointed out.
"That's true," Peter-D agreed. "For instance, my Neverland has a huge rock that we call Skull Rock --mainly, because it looks like a giant skull. Hook likes to take prisoners there and leave them on a rock to drown when the tide rises."
"Marooners Rock," Peter-F commented. "For us, it's just a rock with a stake in the center. But it's used for the same purpose as your Skull Rock."
"What about Ice Caves?" Peter-D asked.
"We got those, too. The Ice King is a grumpy, old giant, whose subjects are Ice Elves and his son, Iceheart. Who happens to be an ice copy of me."
"The ruler of our Ice Caves is a Queen," Peter-D replied. "Her name is Crystal, and she's very nice. We're good friends. Unlike your Ice King, Queen Crystal has no one but her son, Icestar. Just as Iceheart is a copy of you, Icestar is a copy of me."
"Even more 'Eternal Youths'!" Cybera laughed.
"And I've got one more double!" Peter-F grinned. "His name is Retep, and he lives in a place called Dnalreven. He's an Egyptian me."
"Well, let's get to sleep, everyone," Cybera said. "We've got to go through an ice mountain tonight, and we need to be as rested as we can possibly get." With that, the cybergirl settled down into her sleeping bag and went to sleep. The boys, the fairies, and Ebony also fell asleep, waiting for the night, when they would continue their quest.
"Look out!" Cybera cried. The cybergirl fired at the patrol of men they ran into as they trekked through the ice caves. At her warning, the team scattered, and the battle began. While Cybera engaged one man in a laser fight, the boys squared off against the others.
"Just come along quietly, kid," one man said to Peter-D, "and you won't get hurt!"
"Oh, I won't get hurt!" the red-haired boy answered with a grin. He unsheathed his dagger and swung so that it cut the barrel of the man's laser rifle. So disarmed, the man dropped what was left of his weapon and drew his knife. Instantly, they "crossed swords", and began fighting.
Meanwhile, a simular scene was playing out between another one of the men and Peter-F. The brown-haired child floated in the air as he engaged his enemy in a duel of his own.
"Stay still, brat!" the man snarled as Peter-F blocked a swing aimed for his head.
"Make me!" the boy laughed.
Kuro snarled at his opponent, his own knife in his hand. But this man had four large dogs --German Shepherds-- in his control. Dogs that Kuro could use against his foe. The ebony-haired boy's snarl of animal rage turned into one of triumph as he locked eyes with the dogs.
The first effect was that the animals stopped snarling at Kuro, standing as still as statues.
"Well?" the man said to the dogs. "What are ya waitn' for? Take him down!"
The dogs just stood in place, locked into place by Kuro's gaze. Then, as a group, the dogs turned toward their former master and growled.
"What are you doin'?" the man shouted in alarm. "Attack him, not me!"
"They are no longer yours to command," Kuro said evenly, even a bit coldly. "They are my friends, now." With a gesture, he had one dog disarm the man. When the soldier was helpless, he had the dogs surround him, keeping him from running off.
Meanwhile, Cybera, Peter-D, and Peter-F hand managed to knock their opponents unconscious. The three men laid on the icy floor of the cave, alive, but unmoving.
"Too bad we had to knock these guys out," Cybera commented. "We could have used some info on the layout of the security on that castle."
"Not all of them," they heard Kuro behind them. They three turned around to see the boy and his panther facing the last of their assailiants. The man was surrounded by his four dogs, which kept him from escaping.
"Great work, Kuro!" Cybera smiled. She and the boys approuched the jungle boy and his prisoner. She turned and addressed the man.
"We need some information," she said. "About the security around and in that castle. Cooporate, and we'll let you go. Refuse, and I'll let Kuro have you. And you don't want to know what he'll do to you." She turned to Kuro and gave him a smile and a wink. The boy caught her meaning, and winked back. The snarling smile still on his face, Kuro came to stand with Cybera. Peter-D and Peter-F, their Tinkerbells fluttering to their shoulders, also moved into view, their daggers drawn and ready.
Taking in the cumulative threats to his continued existance into concideration, the man did the only thing he could do, under the circumstances.
He talked.
"The outer wall is lined with watchtowers every forty feet, as well as at the corners, and the guards in them are armed with the state-of-the-art laser rifles. The grounds are patroled by no less than six groups of seven guard dogs and six groups of seven guys. They've got the laser rifles two, as well as laser sidearms. There are motion sensors around both the outer wall and the castle, and they are hooked up to lasers. The inside of the castle also has patrols, motion sensors, and lasers. The floors in the inner chamber where the AI computer is are criss-crossed with a laser beam grid, and if you get that far, you'll have the one other before you get to the AI to deal with."
"'One other'?" Cybera asked. "Who?"
"I don't know," the man said. Kuro growled and stepped closer to the prisoner. "I don't know!" he inisted, panicking now. "Nobody knows who it is! Noone's ever seen them. We don't even know if its a male or a female. All we know is that the person is protectin' the computer as a last line of defence."
"And that's all you can tell us?" Cybera questioned.
"That's all! I swear it!"
"That better be all," she replied. She placed a ring from a pouch on her belt on her finger and tapped the man on the shoulder. He stiffened, then closed his eyes and feel to the floor.
"What happened to him?" Tink-F asked. She fluttered over to examine the fallen man.
"Don't worry," Cybera said. "He'll be okay. The ring just contains a sedative, to make him sleep. We can't very well allow these men to follow us."
"True," Kuro admited. "And to make sure..." Once again, the black-haired boy make eye contact with the dogs, giving them silent commands. The dogs nodded, as if acknowledging the boy's orders, and each positioned themselves so that they could keep the men at bay when they woke up.
"On to the castle, then," Cybera smiled. "By this time tomorrow, we'll be inside the castle, taking on whatever it can throw at us." The little group of rescuers continued on toward their objective.
Next: Chapter 3: Vira. Our heros are finally inside the castle and are ready to face the AI's "bodyguard", whoever it may be. But is Cybera ready for their mysterious foe?