Hello everyone! Here's the next chapter of Your Adventure in Neverland. I have one more chapter planned after this, although it isn't written yet. So there's this chapter, and probably just one more. I've had fun writing it so far, the characters (canon, my own, and the ones that belong to you guys) have been a blast to write.
Shout-outs:
ShortAtntionSpaz – I bet you'll have a lot of fun, this story has been really cool for me to write! (Except for the massive, gigantic spurt of writer's block I had regarding it for… months.) It's such an awesome realm to set stories in, it's very freeing. And the characters are fantastic! Hook and Peter Pan and Tinker Bell and everyone – it's grand fun. : )
PButtercup – Yay, I'm really glad that you like it! You know, I enjoy writing Lad. I'm glad that he's one of my original characters, not somebody I'm borrowing from somebody else. Gracie Jane pulls Lad out of the story, hugs him for a second and tells him a fairy tale, then puts him back in the story before he's missed. Here's some more cheddar cheese, LOL!
Sallie – That review was totally classic. Gracie smiles happily, remembering how she laughed like a maniac when she got that review. And don't worry, Sallie may not slap Hook, but – well, you'll see, muahaha!
Raven – Here's more! Sometimes my life is totally like that being tied up and not flying thing – I don't realize that there's an easy way to solve a problem until it's no longer an option. I'm glad that you found the story again, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!
AnimegirlH – Such is the beauty of cliffhangers – they are evil! In this chapter, the Italian comes out - my syntax might be all wrong, but there's some bilingual-ness ahead. It should be fun, and thank you so much for always reviewing!
Lyz – Thank you, Lyz! Here's the update; I had to edit a thing or two before I could put it up.
Crystalstorm21 – Thank you for reviewing! Here's the next chapter, fortunately with less of a wait then is usual for this story. Gracie blushes and hides behind the update.
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Disclaimer: I don't own Peter Pan or any of the characters, places, and etc. contained therein. Gracie, Madeline, these lost boys, and Lad all belong to me, as does the story and this particular story idea itself. I've stolen some lines from The Princess Bride, a movie that I love. Almost all of the orphans (just not Gracie and Madeline) belong to some wonderful girls who were kind enough to let me borrow their characters for this adventure. I'm not making any money from this, so please don't sue me!
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Sallie fights the pirates every step of the way. She's still struggling when they bring her to Hook. His presence is very powerful; she can sense him long before she looks up into his face. It's enough to freeze her in place as the pirates set her free.
"Congratulations," Hook says with a half-smile. "A beautiful performance. Men, clap for our leading lady!" he commands.
The bruised, black-eyed, stabbed, scratched, and bloody pirates remain silent, giving Sallie a look of contempt. The only sound is Smee's cheerful applause and cry of, "Good show, girl!"
"CLAP, YOU DOGS!" The Captain raises his hook threateningly.
Immediately the ship erupts into an ovation.
Well, now I'm in trouble, Sallie thinks, giving a weak smile. If I act like I've gone back on the plan I'll be thrown in the brig or worse, and if I don't…
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"Do you guys hear that?" Charlie asks, cocking her head up towards the sound of cheering. "What could be going on?"
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"Now Sallie," Hook says, offering her an arm and leading her to the quarterdeck, "I have a gift for you."
"A gift?" she asks cautiously.
"Yes. Fetch the brats!"
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"Hold still," Anna tells Switch. "I promise, it hurts a lot less that way." The boy tries not to fidget while she finishes tending the gash across his shoulders, but it's difficult for him.
With the exception of Madeline everyone has been hurt in some way or another. The nearest they can figure is that she's so small she escaped notice. Once the bleeding has primarily stopped, Peter leads them toward the Jolly Roger.
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Nora, Gracie, Charlie, and Raven are hauled blinking into the sunlight. It's a pretty pathetic sight – their clothes are still damp and they remain bound, surrounded by a press of pirates.
"I knew it would please you to watch them die," Hook tells Sallie in an almost social air. "Which of my men do you want to kill them? Each has his own specialty." The pirates smile crooked-toothed grins, and some hold up various implements of torture.
Maybe if I act like I'm going along with it, I can stall for time until Peter and the others get here, Sallie reasons.
"Thank you for the generous offer," Sallie says evenly, "but I'd rather the men did not."
"Shall I do it, then?" Hook asks, flattered that Sallie would like to see them dispensed with his own iron claw.
"I'd…rather they walk the plank," Sallie says.
"Ah, I see. Excellent choice. Who goes first?"
"You've been plotting with him all along," Raven accuses Sallie. "You're nothing but a pirate!"
"Betrayer!" Charlie's voice is low, but her eyes are afire.
"What's wrong with you, Alicia?" Nora asks, looking her square in the face. "He's Hook! The guy's bad news!"
"Shut up," Sallie says. "And Gracie, you're the lucky one. The girl in the blue pajamas," she tells Hook. "I've wanted her dead for years." And if I can't manage to keep her from actually dying, it's less of a loss.
"If you'll step this way, Miss," Smee tells Gracie, cutting her loose from the others but leaving her hands bound in front of her. "Let's have no unpleasant scenes, now."
The crew rig up the plank as Gracie and the others look on with frightened eyes.
"She'll be drowned," Hook says conversationally. "That is if the sharks don't get her first."
"Sharks?" Gracie yelps. "Sallie, please think about this! I know we're not friends, but do you really want to kill me?"
"Before I do," Sallie says, furiously concocting a plan to stall for time, "there's something I want to tell you." There's a long pause while Sallie decides what to say. It's broken by her launching into a vivid description of every annoying thing that Gracie's ever said or done, and quite a few that she hasn't. She spends the better part of ten minutes in this manner. "And you lied to the others about me. You told Anna and Charlie that I steal things!"
"You do!" Charlie says. "You even stole the bracelet that you're wearing right now!"
Sallie gives a guilty look at her bracelet, then glares back at Charlie. "Shut up! So now, Gracie," Sallie says, scanning the skies and seeing no one, "you're going to die."
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Peter, the lost boys, and the rest of the orphans except Alicia are crouching in bushes with a view of the pirate ship. Peter takes the spyglass from his eye and hands it off to Kaela. She looks through it and leans forward into some ferns.
"It looks like they have Sallie," Peter says. "There are pirates all around her. They've got the others too."
"What's he gonna do to them?" Anna asks.
"Isn't is obvious? He's using them to get to me. But I don't think he'll hurt them, as long as I show up soon."
Slingshot agrees. "He wants his great battle."
"No," Anna says. "He wants Peter dead."
"Um, Peter?" Kaela says, still looking out the spyglass, "I think you might be wrong. About the not hurting them, I mean."
"Why?"
"Well, that looks like Gracie they've got on the plank."
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"Care for a blindfold, dear?" Smee asks, offering one to Gracie.
"No!"
"Off you go then," another pirate says, drawing his cutlass and extending it until Gracie is forced to move out over the water.
Oh my goodness, I'm getting high dive flashbacks, Gracie thinks, feeling the unsteady plank wobble beneath her feet. And I swore I'd never get out on a board again. So much for that. "Captain," she says, poorly disguising her desperation, "don't I get any last words?"
"No."
Gracie looks down at the water, teeming with sharks, and decides to take a shot by saying whatever might keep her alive. She takes a deep breath. "Bad form!"
The pirates gasp. Raven and Nora look at each other in shock, then look at Hook to see what he will do.
"You accuse me," he says slowly, "of bad form?"
Having second thoughts, Gracie decides it's best to hold her tongue. Too late for that now, though.
"You know she's right," Charlie says, staring gravely.
"Shut up!" Sallie says for the third time, hoping that if Charlie and the others stay quiet maybe Gracie will be the only one to die.
"Very well," Hook tells Gracie at length. "You may speak. Keep it short."
My last words. "Um… I do believe in fairies. If any of you survive," she says, looking at her tied-up friends, "tell Peter that I love him."
"I'll be glad to relay the message," Hook says, "just before I cut out his heart."
Ignoring him, Gracie continues. "And I love you guys too. Take care of Madeline. Uh…"
"Nothing more to say? Kill her," Hook says, even as Gracie starts her dying speech up again. A pirate jiggles the close end of the plank violently, and the girl falls with a shriek. Everyone listens for it -
SPLASH!
Charlie lowers her head and bites her lip to keep from screaming.
"No!" Sallie cries, finally giving up on Peter arriving and taking matters into her own hands. She plunges Hook's own knife into him. It's not really a good plunge; the blade has to get through a lot of crushed velvet before hitting skin. But unknowingly, Sallie has triggered Hook's great fear – the sight of his own blood. It's unusually dark, and Sallie is frightened when she sees the dripping blade.
"Kill the children," Hook orders, pressing the wound with his left hand. "Kill them all!"
"I don't think so!" Peter booms in his captain voice, high above the deck, at the same time that Lad does so to Hook's face.
"Peter!" Charlie and Raven say in relief.
"What?" Nora asks Lad in shock.
"I won't let them kill you!"
The lost boys and orphans rush in, weapons at the ready. They've taken the pirates by surprise, which gives them at least some advantage.
Anna cuts a path through several buccaneers and over to the tied girls by karate chopping, tornado kicking, and generally looking like something out of a ninja flick. "Where's Gracie?" she asks, helping Lad to cut through their ropes.
"Dead."
"No!"
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Raven has never actually learned how to use a spear, but she adapts pretty quickly. Whoever you don't stick with it, you bash them over the head. And use the strong wooden handle to parry attacks.
"Nice work," Wildcat says, running his sword through a pirate sneaking up behind her. "But watch that they don't jab you when you're not looking!"
"I'll work on that," Raven says.
"Good, 'cause if you get it wrong even once you don't get another chance," he laughs, moving on to another opponent.
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"Who killed her?"
"Him!" Nora points a finger at the slim, oily-looking pirate who offset the plank's balance.
"Mi chiamano Anna Johnson. Tu hai uccidito la mia amica. Prepararsi a morire." (A/N: that's Italian for, "My name is Anna Johnson. You killed my friend. Prepare to die." And if I'm off a little, hey, I took French!)
"I want a piece of this loser too," Charlie says, cracking her knuckles.
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Sallie's been dodging out of the way of the hook, narrowly escaping death. She pulls back the knife to stab him again, but when she strikes it clangs hard against steel. Pixie dust flies off the weapon and makes Sallie sneeze.
"You promised me!" Peter says, his sword up against the knife so that not counting the blades they're face to face. "He's mine!"
"But-"
"You promised! Now go!" He spins to face Hook.
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Switch successfully polishes off a couple of pirates, taking their weapons and flinging them to Charlie, Nora and Anna. If Anna was dangerous without weapons, she's a force of nature when there's a cutlass in her hand.
Clang!
Ksss!
"Ahh!"
Charlie gets in a good solid stab too. "Take that!"
"Killed by girls," the pirate mutters to himself, then topples overboard.
"Sexist pig," Charlie says without sympathy.
"Serves him right!" Anna shouts after the pirate. She lets out a string of Italian swearwords terrible enough to make a Mediterranean sailor squirm. Switch's head snaps up. "Parli tu Italiano?" (Translation: "You speak Italian?")
"Certo!" (Translation: "Certainly!") Anna calls to him with a grin.
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"Why-" Clash! "-are-" Clang! "-you-" Whoosh! "-fighting-" Krr! "-your-" Clang! "friends?" Nora asks Lad in between attacking pirates.
"I'm not a pirate anymore!" he says, ripping the bandana out of his hair. "Do you hear that, Captain?" He shouts across the deck. "I quit! I'm a lost boy now!"
"Can he do that?" Madeline asks Nora.
"Um, why not?"
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"Help!" Gracie screams. "Somebody? Anybody?"
No, she's not dead! No yet, anyway. But what about that splash? When Gracie fell off the plank, she managed to catch the end of it with her bound hands. (A/N: Which hurts a heck of a lot, and I don't have much upper body strength! Somebody save me now!) At that moment one of the sharks decided to jump for her and rip her limb from limb before any of its friends could. Fortunately Gracie's short (A/N: Ha! It's actually good for something!), so the shark couldn't reach her. The splash was the sound of the shark hitting the water when it fell.
"Seriously? I'm losing my grip!"
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The twins are back to back, continually circling and killing pirates as they go. It seems like a pretty good system to Kaela. "Kat, let's try it!"
Black and Blue link elbows, then pull off a complicated series of flips. It works beautifully, and several pirates end up with feet in their faces.
"Great work, bro," Blue says. "I'm glad we've been practicing!"
"You too, and me too!" Black says.
"You think we can do that?" Katrina asks Kaela.
"There's no harm in trying, right? Just skip the flippy part." They manage to get their backs together, which frees them up to focus on their swordwork and not freak out about whoever's ready to stab them while they aren't looking.
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"HELP!"
"Gracie?" Peter takes another swipe at Hook, then flies over to the sound of screaming. "Wow! How are you even holding on? That's amazing!"
SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! That's the sound of the sharks' jaws opening and closing directly beneath Gracie.
"Peter! Just rescue me before I fall to my death!"
He laughs. "Don't worry, I got ya."
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At the battle's end Peter deposits Gracie on the deck, where Anna cuts her hands loose. She, Charlie, Raven, Nora, and Lad (who can't fly due to lack of pixie dust) manage to highjack a lifeboat and row to shore, then scatter into the forest. The pirates are too… well, bleeding and/or dead to follow.
"It's always a pleasure, Captain," Peter says, floating above the ship and giving a bow.
"Get out Long Tom!" Hook bellows. "Now!"
"You haven't seen the last of us," Sallie chimes in. That's right, for once she and Peter actually agree on something. "Oh, and Captain? Thank you for the knife!" she says with a huge smile, waving the dark-stained weapon around in the air.
In a fit of laughter, they fly off to their cave, the sound of cannonfire echoing behind them.
Please review guys, reviews are like sleeping in on a Saturday! But no flames, flames are like sleeping in by accident on the first day of school!