Title: 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: Trevor. Hehe. If you don't know how to pronounce that…Treh-vhore. Jonathan is /not/ said as John-a-than, but Joan-uh-thin.

Chapter Two: Es-Cop-Eh! Er, escape…

Heaving and puffing, he realized he was experiencing difficulty without the assistance of the curse. Ah, but even though his lungs hurt, his eyes stung, and he was choking and spluttering up water, it was good to be free. He dragged himself onto the rough rocks somewhere near to the entrance of the cave to the island where all the loot had been stored. Ten years of pilfering, and now it would be worth spending. Perhaps, Grapple mused, he would go to Tortuga and retire at his early age. Mallot would probably not object to that idea, being even younger then he.

Which brought another subject up. Mallot was still unconscious. Dragging the limp body onto the rocks, he heaved and grumbled under his breath. Then, once he had completed his task, he rested for but a moment, for he realized the lack of gunfire from The Dauntless. Had the crew already vanquished Norrington and his men? Would there now be a small fleet the pirate belonged to?

And then he noticed the Pearl was gone. The Dauntless was slowly, ever so painfully, turning around. Eyes wide in fear, he wondered if Barbossa and his fellow crewmates had forgotten about him.

"Almost…got it…" Mallot whispered, his eyes flickering open as he gained conscious. Immediately, he turned onto his side and began choking and coughing up salt water. Breathing hard for a moment, he adjusted his tri-corn hat so it wouldn't be covering up his eyes, and rolled back onto his back.
"Where is it?" he asked quietly, the dreaded answer already known to him.

"I couldn't bring it up with me."

"Alright…I'll go back an' get it," he said, slowly starting to sit up. His curved back was suddenly filled with a searing pain and he cried out, convulsing backwards and falling back onto the stone.
Grapple turned his head, his neck cracking audibly and winced. When the curse was lifted, he had only managed to half-crack his neck after attaching it.
"We're not cursed any more. You can't bend yore back."

"I figured so much, Trevor."

The name, having grown so unfamiliar for so long, paused Grapple in his reply. It was his name… His real name, not the one he had dubbed himself when he had found the perfect weapon. Mallot also had a real name…what was it?

"Well, you weren't acting like it when you started yelling yore head off a moment back, Jonathan."

"We aren't cursed anymore…" Mallot said intellectually, waving an index finger around in the air as he laid his other hand behind his head to rest it from the hard rock surface where he lay. "Yet ten years of bein' conditioned to something really makes you forget stuff!"

"How could you forget something like…like that? Yore back, I mean."

"Just…just because!" Mallot said cheerfully, as though the pain hadn't dampened his lately un-cursed spirits.

Grapple snorted ridiculously, running his wrist under his nose and leaning his back against the jagged rock wall behind him carefully. He looked out towards the Dauntless, leaving the bay and going back into the precarious turf of the graveyard of ships. Casting a weary eye over Mallot, he sighed loudly and crossed his arms over his chest.

"They're leavin', aren't they? We're stuck…" Mallot acknowledged, his hat still titled over his eyes. Grapple answered with a quiet and short sigh before absently nodding his head, forgetting the other pirate couldn't see him.

"Well, you help me up and we'll find a way into the treasure cave. See if we can't find us a way to get off this little rock," Mallot said, replacing his hat and offering Grapple a hand. As the larger pirate got up and grabbed his hand, Mallot heaved himself and discovered his back still hurt a bit. Taking a moment to grab back his hand and breath for a minute, he turned around and looked wistfully at the water before turning around and gingerly picking his way down the rocky crop of land.

Following the other man, Trevor grumbled something about 'useless attachments' before nearly tripping over a particularly protruding and sharp stone. With a curse, he galloped past his comrade, nearly knocking the surefooted pirate over and into the water, to where he went around a small curve in the rock's face and stopped dead in his tracks.
Mallot nearly walked right into the pirate's back as he rounded the same curve, and looking around Grapple saw the same sight, which had stopped him. The looming cave that granted entrance to the treasure stash was a much shorter distance then they had thought. Carefully, Grapple picked his way across the small ledge that had been eroded by whether, rowboats from the Pearl scraping against it, and water lapping at the rocks. Soon, he passed into darkness with but the dim moonlight for guidance, and only heard the dull roar of one of the cave's many waterfalls off in the distance.

Behind him, Mallet crept up and once again found himself nearly walking into Grapple's back. With a stifled cry, he waved his arms around as he backed up, nearly loosing his balance. Ahead of him, Grapple turned his head to peer at the pirate with a single eye, the reflection caused by the moonlight outside truly startling.
"Watch yoreself."

"Shut up!" Mallot snapped, absently reaching for his weapon. But of course, the heavy hammer was no longer there.

"We got to find a way off o' this island. No fresh water or food isn't a very great survival combination."

"Es-Cop-Eh!" Mallot shouted, and the weird syllables echoed off of the cave walls, causing a few pebbles to fall harmless from the ceiling. Grapple raised an eyebrow, turned his head away, and started off further into the cave.
Mallot followed him, trotting slightly at first to catch up, and frantically calling, "I meant 'escape'! Escape! I was thinking of how to spell it! Grapple!"

"Es-Cop-Eh!" was the cruelly laughed reply.

"Escape! Escape!" Jonathan yelled out indignantly.

~*~