* * *

The Gun-Slinging Guitarist

* * *

"Now, bring me that horizon."

Gabriel rolled his eyes as Jack steered the Black Pearl out of the dock that it had been parked in. Willow was getting adjusted in her new room, while Jones and Bourne were playing a game of cards.

"Well anyway, the next member would have been difficult to find," Gabriel began. "But, I took steps."

Jack turned around and glanced at him. "Steps?"

"Yes," Gabriel said as he started to explain. "See I called him under an anonymous name, and told him to come to this one church at a specific time. And I told him to bring his guitar case." He stopped when he noticed Jack's snicker. "What?"

"Nothing."

Gabriel rolled his eyes again. "So, where did you commandeer this ship from anyway?" He asked.

"Ah, now that's a tale," Jack said as he raised a finger. "But one that's going to have to wait."

Gabriel tried to look disappointed but instead he just walked out of the room.

* * *

Gabriel walked down one of the ship's halls as Willow emerged from her room. She smiled when she saw him. "Hi," she greeted him as they moved down the hall, towards the kitchen, which was where Jones and Bourne were.

"Hello." They didn't say anything else after that, but they kept glancing at each other every now and then. Finally they reached the kitchen.

"Full house, aces over kings," Jones said with a triumphant smirk as he showed his hand. "I win." His smirk turned into a grin as Bourne reached into his coat pocket and handed him a twenty dollar bill.

"You didn't have any money on you, did you?" Bourne asked as he looked at Jones suspiciously. Jones looked back, and then nodded with a shrug. "Thought so," he muttered before looking over as Gabriel and Willow sat down.

"Is there room for two more?" Gabriel asked. Almost instantly Willow shook her head.

"No, no, no. I'm not good at this…or any other card games, for that matter."

Gabriel smiled at that before leaning foreword and whispering in her ear. "Well, you can just use your magic to cheat."

Willow let out a small smile at that.

* * *

A day passed as the Black Pearl traveled towards its target: Mexico. The group aboard the ship was getting pretty sick of the lack of land.

Then finally, they reached some.

* * *

"Now, how are we supposed to find this church?" Jones asked Gabriel as they got off the ship.

"Don't worry. I know where it is; I've been there before."

Jones nodded before the group got into the vehicle that Jack had lowered out of the boat, and they drove off.

They finally reached the church, which was abandoned.

"Nice little place," Jack said as he got out. "This reminds me of when Ana Maria and…" He trailed off when he noticed the glare Gabriel was giving him. "What?"

"DON'T bring THAT up, around me again," Gabriel hissed as he moved towards the church.

"Don't blame me just because women find me irresistible," Jack called out with a shrug. Willow looked at him, and then at Gabriel, before running after him.

"What was that about?" she asked as she caught up to him just as he entered the church.

"I used to be involved with this woman, Ana Maria, back in the 1700s." He paused, and looked at Willow's surprised expression. "Yes, I'm not fully human, but I'll explain that some other time. Well, anyway, Jack stole a boat of hers. One thing led to another, and she follows him out with a crew of pirates; something about a cursed ship and pirates that couldn't be killed. But that was the last time I saw her before I found out she and Jack had gotten married."

"Oh," Willow said after a moment. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Gabriel then looked towards the far end of the church. "Looks like our newest member beat us here."

He walked foreword, towards the man leaning against the back wall looking rather bored. He appeared to be in his late thirties, with dark shoulder length hair and dark eyes, eyes that held signs of a sad, dark past in them

"Am I speaking to the infamous 'El Mariachi'?" Gabriel asked as he walked up to the man, who looked at him for a moment before nodding.

"So what do you want?" Mariachi said with a demanding tone after a moment. The rest of the league had walked up at this point also.

"Well, Mr. Mariachi, the government has asked us to find you and recruit you for an assignment."

Mariachi raised an eyebrow. "Funny joke," he muttered as he turned and started to head for the back exit.

"No joke Mariachi," Gabriel stated as he walked foreword. "You're a legend, and your skills will be useful in this mission." He paused, as Mariachi turned back and looked at him. "Come on; don't tell me you have anything better to do."

Mariachi looked at him, and then at the guitar case he was carrying. Finally, his shoulders almost sagged. "Fine, I'm in." He then slightly glared at Gabriel, who was now smirking.

Gabriel's smirk suddenly disappeared and he tensed, looking around the empty church. The others in the room noticed this also.

"What?" Jones asked.

Gabriel paused, and then gripping his sword he unsheathed it, and this was the first time that Jones had gotten a good glimpse of the weapon.

The handle was dark silver, with the pommel carved into the shape of a snarling wolf's head, with rubies making up the eyes, and the teeth bared as if it was going to attack. Where the guard should have been, the other end of the handle was shaped into a dragon's head, with rubies also has eyes. The blade, which was a katana style blade, emerged from the open mouth of the dragon end.

Jones let out a low whistle, and Gabriel took notice. "I see you've noticed my sword," he said after a moment. Jones nodded, and Gabriel smirked. "I made it myself."

Suddenly, the sounds of several guns cocking filled the air, and the group found themselves surrounded by about a dozen men aiming assault rifles at them.

"Well this keeps getting better and better," Jones bit out.

"Yes it does. Not for you though."

Everyone looked up at the newcomer who stood at the balcony above them. They instantly recognized him as the bald man who had been with the many attackers at the lab.

"I'm assuming you're Mashirra," Gabriel said, and Mashirra nodded in response.

"Yes, and you are the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. From what I and my partner have gathered, you're planning to stop us; of course, even if you survive this attack, you won't be able to stop us. Our plans success...it's inevitable."

For a moment, neither side did anything, except glance back and forth between each other and their opponents.

Then one of Mashirra's men cocked his rifle, and Mariachi made his move.

Throwing open his guitar case he reached inside and quickly yanked out a gun with two very large barrels on it. Before anyone could react, he leapt backwards, firing it at that man.

The hitman was practically blown in half, with the force of the explosion knocking the men closest to him to the floor.

Instantly several men opened fire, but Willow quickly held up a hand and said something in latin. As a result the bullets bounced off a blue shield of energy that formed a half circle around her and the group.

"I suppose it's too late to ask for parlay," Jack suddenly said.

Almost instantly a bullet came out of nowhere, knocking his hat off his head.

"Yes, definitely too late."

As Jack unsheathed his sword, Mariachi pulled out a handgun and fired at Mashirra.

He had expected Mashirra to hit the floor dead.

He hadn't expected Mashirra to suddenly burst apart, forming a huge cloud of bats, bats that suddenly flew out of one of the windows.

By this point the league members scattered, each either ducking for cover or attacking. Willow aimed her hand at one assassin before clenching it into a fist, and suddenly that man was shot backwards as if he had been hit by a truck.

One man attempted to fire at Jason, but his gun suddenly jammed. Seeing an opportunity, Jason struck, kicking the gun out of his hands and punching him, causing him to stumble backwards. Instantly the man growled and pulled out a knife with a serrated edge. Jason just stood there calm.

The assassin charged, slashing the weapon at Jason with incredible speed, but his opponent dodged the weapon. Grinding his teeth, the assassin suddenly dropped down, attempting to sweep Jason's legs out from under him, but Jason jumped up, the foot passing underneath him. He then swung a kick, which the assassin blocked before slashing him across the leg. He attempted a stab, but Jason grabbed his arm, twisting it and forcing him to drop the knife before smashing an open palm into his chest, causing the man to fall to the ground.

Meanwhile several men had also pulled out knives and were attacking Gabriel, who dodged the slashes before cutting the men down with his sword. Tossing the sword to one man he jumped up and attacked with a splits kick, hitting two men in the chest, before landing and sweeping, knocking the man who had his sword to the floor.

Jones, meanwhile, was shooting at several men when he was suddenly tackled from behind by another assassin. Sitting up the assassin hauled off and punched Jones in the face. He tried to do so again, but Jones caught his fist before backhanding him. Getting to his feet he uncoiled his whip before lashing out, wrapping it around his leg. He pulled, and the man fell to the floor, hitting his head on the floor with enough force to knock him out.

A man aimed his rifle at Willow's back as she was busy with another assassin, when suddenly his gun was sliced in half. Glancing over he saw Jack now pointing his sword at him. "Now that's not very nice," Jack scolded.

The assassin raised and eyebrow. "Nice costume. Did you spend about a buck fifty on that?"

Jack's eyes narrowed. "NEVER insult a pirate's sense of style," he threatened. The assassin scoffed before throwing his gun down. Unsheathing his knife he lashed out, the blade going into Jack's chest.

The assassin smirked as Jack stumbled backwards, and continued to smirk...

...but he instantly stopped when Jack stumbled into the view of the moonlight.

Then, he changed, and the assassin's eyes widened in horror as he found himself staring down a living skeleton, wearing a torn version of Jack's outfit.

Jack reached down, pulling the knife from his chest, and studying the blade as he tossed it away. But he didn't even notice that he had changed as he moved away from the moonlight. Then, he changed back.

He noticed the look the assassin was giving him, and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

The assassin just stood there, not moving, before pulling out a gun and aiming. A second later, he fell to the floor dead.

Jack looked at the now smoking pistol he held in his hand. A yell filled his ears and he looked up just as an assassin knocked him to the ground with a kick. Jack rolled out of the way as the assassin stomped his foot down before stabbing him in the leg with his sword, causing him to scream as he fell.

"Sorry," Jack exclaimed before walking away from the wounded man.

Meanwhile Willow knocked another man back before screaming as pain flared up in her arm. She clutched the limb, which was now bleeding from the bullet, before looking up and seeing the man who shot her. Smirking, he pulled out a knife and flung it at her.

Suddenly Willow was knocked to the ground. Recovering she looked and saw the knife sticking out of Gabriel's back. He growled in his throat, before reaching up and yanking the knife out. Turning around he flung the weapon back at its owner, who fell dead with the knife sticking out of his chest.

Finally, Jones knocked the last assassin out before turning and surveying the damage. Everyone seemed to be in good condition, a few bruises here and there. The worst was Willow, who was holding her bleeding arm as Gabriel helped her over to the rest of the group.

"Alright, lets get out of here before any more of those people show up," Bourne said, and everyone nodded.

"So, where are we going?" Mariachi asked.

"Hungary. One more member to recruit," Jones answered.

"Well, capture is more the word," Gabriel added on.

* * *

"Ow."

"Sorry."

Willow smiled at Gabriel, as she sat on his bed. After getting back on the Pearl, Willow and Gabriel had headed off to his room so he could look at where she was shot. Her jacket was laid on one of the chairs in the room, and Gabriel was tending to her wounded arm.

"Okay, this is going to hurt," he whispered to her. She nodded in response. She liked the sound of his voice, which surprised her. It so soothing, and comforting.

Like Oz's voice had been.

Willow tensed, and then bit her lip not to scream out as Gabriel yanked. He held up the pair of tweezers that held the bloody bullet. "Okay, painful part's over," he stated as he set the set of tweezers down on a table. Then, he stood up and walked to the bathroom, returning a moment later with a wet towel. Sitting next to her he slowly cleaned off the blood. "Sorry if I hurt you," he whispered.

The Wicca shrugged it off. "It's okay; I guess I owed you one anyway for taking that knife for me." Gabriel smiled at her at that, with a small smirk. "Speaking of which, how come you're not in pain or cursing or…whatever else men do when they're hurt."

Gabriel chuckled at that. "Well, I'm…half-demon. My mother was a mortal and my father was a demon warrior." Willow opened her mouth to speak but Gabriel placed a finger on her lips. "Don't start." Willow nodded and let him start to bandage her up. Every once in a while his fingers brushed against her bare skin, and she let out a small sigh.

Gabriel noticed this, but didn't show that he did. Finally, he finished. "Done." Willow looked at her arm, before looking at him and smiling sweetly.

"Thanks," she whispered. Then, with a groan, she fell back on the bed. "Ugh, I'm exhausted. Do you mind if I crash here in your room tonight?" She asked.

Gabriel shook his head. "Not at all," he answered. Willow smiled and then sat up, staring at him. "What?"

"It's just…" Willow paused, tilting her head to the side as she stared at him. "There's something about you that reminds me of this guy I used to go out with, a werewolf."

Gabriel perked up at this. "You used to date a werewolf?" When Willow nodded Gabriel smirked. "Good, you can help us capture our final league member."

"He's a werewolf?" Willow asked.

"Well…not entirely."