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:  I'm finding Mallot to be a comic relief. I believe this was brought on by the incident when I was watching 'Let Them Eat Cake' again with the other deleted scenes a long while back. I got a closer look at Brye Cooper's expression and then noticed something. "He has a beard?! Mallot has a beard?! Holy @%$#!!!" to which my cat looked at me ludicrously. There fore, Mallot's evil reign of minionism came to an abrupt halt.

Chapter Five: Hope and Determination

Mallot awoke slowly, blinking his storm-grey eyes. Instead of sunlight streaming through the holes in the cave top, sunlight was replacing it. However, there wasn't much, as the eternal fog that surrounded Isle de Muerta blocked out the light. He looked around himself, the faint hope that the previous night had been but a terrible dream. However, he wasn't rewarded. Crossing his arms stiffly over his chest, he cracked his back and got up, only to trundle slowly and clumsily through the water to different piles of plunder.

Grapple awoke when the necklace of pearls landed on his face. Sitting bolt upright, he reached for the small hatchet in his belt before spotting Mallot sorting through a large mound of gold, tossing things carelessly behind him. His brother let out a triumphant squeak and bounded over to him, practically throwing himself onto his stool. With the momentum of his lurch, he almost didn't make it, and balanced on the two back legs of the seat, before nudging himself forward and setting the stool down on all four feet.

In his arms, he held a worn out sack with holes and threads falling off.


"What is it?" Grapple asked, stifling a yawn unsuccessfully. Mallot untied the two ropes and discarded them onto the ground before he opened the bag up and waved the flap around.

"Breakfast!"

Peering inside the bag, he was most distressed to find at least a pound of stale bread and jarred jams. Plus, rotting peaches were thrown about in the sack, mushy, black, and everything was sticky inside the sack.

"Pleasant," Trevor muttered sarcastically, yet Mallot wasn't listening. He had withdrawn a loaf of bread, sniffed it, wrinkled his nose, smirked, and after all these actions, hit it over his knee. A loud clunking sounds like a wooden board being knocked on sounded out. The younger of the two brothers pulled a face as though somebody had just stabbed him in the ribs. He shook his head and let the pain ware off his kneecap.

"Lovely!" Drawing out a dirk from his sash with his unscathed arm, he drove it into the loaf, and after fighting for twenty minutes, managed to cut the bread in half. Another five minutes of fighting to get the lids off of the jam jars, spreading the jam over the bread, and salvaging one edible peach, he looked to his brother with a victorious smile on his face. Unfortunately, the victory was not shared, as Grapple had fallen back to sleep.

"Nice to know I'm appreciated," Mallot said, as though pondering over where a piece in a complex puzzle fit. "Oh well!" With that last comment, he made a valiant effort to actually eat the poor meal. He gave up on the bread incredibly quickly, and sporting a very sore jaw, made do with the peach.

Waking up with a snort, Grapple sat bolt upright and looked around suspiciously. Mallot, wiping his face with a sleeve, peered at him inquisitively.

"What's wrong?"

"Shut up!" Grapple spat, and Jonathan went silent. The two pirates listened for a moment, and Grapple leapt up. He cantered through the water, falling once and being trodden upon by Mallot who had followed suit, before reaching the threshold to the passage out of the cave.

Just visible, a rowboat sat, bumping up against the rockslide continuously. With a shout, Mallot skittered towards it, and stopped just in time to avoid throwing himself into the water. Two oars sat in the boat, and no leaking was apparent. Curiously, there was a strip of cloth, most likely from a yellow dress, clinging to a nail on a seat. Inspecting the boat, he was most unfortunately tackled into the water (after his attempts to stay out of it) by a soaking wet Grapple.



Trevor looked the boat over quickly, ignoring the panicked struggles and feeble underwater cries from his brother, who was facedown in the water and striving to get up with his horrible back. Finally, after two minutes, Mallot's movements began to slow down and Grapple heaved the man out of the water by the collars of his shirt and vest.

"Not fun, is it?" he growled smoothly, and Mallot shook his head hastily from side to side, gasping for breath.
"I-GAWK!" Jonathan went back down into the water; being lucky enough to have landed on his rear and only sporting damaged pride. Gingerly he got up and limped awkwardly back towards the passage.


"We're gettin' out of here!" Jonathan said cheerfully, turning back into the passage and treasure cave. Grapple followed after him, not sharing the cheer.


"Where are were goin' to go, eh? We don't have food, or water, and that little rowboat isn't goin' to stand up to a storm."

"We'll manage."

"We'll die! There's not much hope for us, Mallot."

"Better 'n bein' trapped 'ere, ain't it?" Mallot shot back, still smiling lopsidedly, although his eyes betrayed the desperation vacant from his voice. He gathered up the worn-out sack and dumped the contents out of it before he trounced around the piles of treasure, picking up coins, goblets, silks, and anything he could possibly cram into the pack. Once it was full and tied with one rope, he flashed a reassuring grin at his brother before dragging the bag (which was probably ruining anything inside of it due to the peach mush its innards were coated in) through a few puddles of water and back through the passageway, the other rope slung over his shoulder.


Grapple stood still and listened to the heavy thud the bag made as his brother threw it into the boat. Then, with a heavy sigh and reluctant advance, he walked slowly back to the boat, cracking his neck as he went. When he arrived, Mallot was already sitting in the boat, testing it for sturdiness and tying the extra cable into a noose. Eyeing the noose cautiously, he gave Jonathan a questioning glance.


"You'll see, brother of mine!"

"I was hopin' I wouldn't…"

"Es-Cop-Eh!" Mallot cheered, and grabbed up an oar as Grapple sat down and took up the other paddle, the chains around his shoulders and back that were attached to his grapple clinking against each other and the ropes they assisted.

Between each stroke they took, Mallot pondered aloud what he was going to do with the treasure. More or less, what /they/ were going to do with the treasure. So far, he had decided they would purchase a quick Sloop and gather up a reliable crew and be captain and quartermaster. Then, they'd sail back to Isle de Muerta.

"Then, we'll gather up all the treasure our ship can carry! Just before we get back to Tortuga, we'll kill off the crew an' take all the gold for ourselves! Or, maybe we'll pick 'em off one by one, yeah, one by one. We'd have a better chance of getting' through alive if they didn't know who was goin' to kill them and not get a chance to fight back…Then we'll sail right into Tortuga and retire!"

"Or we can simply never come back 'ere again," Grapple said thoughtfully, ignoring the sudden splash of water his brother sent at him with an oar. Suddenly, Grapple found both oars in his hand, and Mallot was sitting back, with a leg slung over his other knee, tri-corn hat resting over his eyes.


"You row. Punishment for not being ambitious enough!"

Rolling his eyes at his younger brother, Grapple refused to dignify the confidence of youth with an argument that would now doubt get him even more soaked then he already was.

Ten minutes later, they found themselves near the spot where they had surfaced after being thrown into the sea by Elizabeth and her bloody boat. Mallot sat up and took his hat off before absently smoothing down his bandana. Grapple looked behind him in time to see the pirate stand up.


"What are you-"

The sentence was never finished as Mallot dived into the water, earning a rather nice score should he had been being judged, due to his straight form. Grapple, now rather sopping wet from the splash and grumbling, looked down into the water with mild curiosity. The curiosity turned into fear as two minutes passed with not a sign of his sibling surfacing.

Down underwater, Mallot was tugging at his target-his prized weapon. His arm wound, which hadn't closed, was stinging again and yet he ignored it to the best of his abilities. The metal bars he had nailed onto the edges of his weapon were his main concern. They were what was warring him down. If he could simply get the right momentum and keep it…

He swung the weapon in frustration, a wide arc over his head and discovered the weapon carried him a foot and some upwards. With a devious grin on his face, he realized he could cheat the dragging weight and swung again, being dragged in the water another foot. He found himself needing to breath, and looked up.

Grapple was leaning over the side of the boat, straining to see through the dark waters, when a hammer's head swung up and latched onto the railing. Falling back, he watched as his brother dragged himself over the wall and collapsed onto the bottom of the boat, panting.

"Got it!" he huffed triumphantly, still clutching the handle of his namesake weapon.

"You stubborn fool," Grapple scolded, trying not to laugh and look vicious. However, his expression was more or less ruined by the grin creeping onto his lips.

"Naw. Determined!" came the breathy response and Trevor gave up, breaking out in laughter with his brother.

~*~

Softbrush: Hey Softy! Good to hear from you! Glad you like the story. Keep reviewing! ;P

Lady J. Riddle: Softy recommended it?! She did? *crams cookies in your mouth for listening to Softbrush* Thanks for stopping by and checking it out! I have about thirteen more chapters written, so the story isn't about to come to an abrupt halt and not be updated! Keep reading! :D